India, Pakistan and Bangladesh reached a major breakthrough and signed an agreement to repatriate 195 Pakistani prisoners of war. The war crimes trial planned for the prisoners is to be dropped by Bangladesh. The pact opened the way for normal diplomatic and economic relations between the three nations and the easing of tensions and hostilities that followed the Bangladesh war in 1971.
A bomb blast rocked a troopship about to sail from Lisbon for Portuguese Guinea, the Interior Ministry said. The Niassa was within half an hour of sailing with 1,000 soldiers assembled on deck to hear a speech when the time bomb exploded in a hold, ripping a yard-wide hole in the ship’s hull. Two soldiers were reported slightly wounded. The Revolutionary Brigades, a militant leftist group, claimed responsibility for the attack.
A political controversy over real estate deals involving associates of Prime Minister Wilson was enlivened with the reported destruction of a crucial letter. The letter, which was written on Mr. Wilson’s personal House of Commons stationery bearing what he has said was a forgery of his signature, prodded a property dealer to complete a real estate transaction with Mrs. Marcia Williams, Mr. Wilson’s secretary for 18 years, and members of her family.
British Prime Minister Harold Wilson was accused by a lawmaker of his own Labor Party of having badly handled a land speculation controversy embarrassing to the government. William Hamilton claimed in a radio interview that many of his fellow Laborites in Parliament wanted Wilson to fire his political secretary, Marcia Williams. Her brother, Anthony Field, made a large profit on a land deal in the north of England. Wilson has defended Field’s transaction in the House of Commons.
Pavel Litvinov, exiled grandson of Josef Stalin’s foreign minister, said detente has only converted the cold war into a “cold peace” because Russia remains a country where “any free voice is persecuted.” Litvinov, 34, talked at a press conference in New York, where he arrived with his family Monday.
The Syrian command said today that it had beaten back Israeli forces with ground‐to‐ground missiles in intensified fighting on the Golan Heights. The battle on the 29th day of fighting was reported in the northern sector of the 1973 cease‐fire line near Mount Hermon. “Our guns and antitank system scored direct hits on an enemy tank formation that was rushing toward the front‐line edge of the northern sector and inflicted heavy losses,” a Syrian military communiqué said. The northern sector is the 300‐square‐mile salient on the El Quneitra‐Damascus Road that Israel captured in the October war. On the snow‐capped mountain where Israel maintains a vital observation post, ground fighting raged throughout the day.
Syrian gunners shelled Israeli forces in the Golan Heights again, a Tel Aviv military spokesman said. He said intermittent fire was directed at the northern and southern sectors of the Israeli front lines.
Libyan Prime Minister Abdel Salam Jalloud called for “immediate and revolutionary steps for industrialization in Libya,” the Libyan news agency reported. Jalloud called on Western oil-consuming countries to open technological fields to Arabs. He spoke in Tripoli in his first public speech since last week’s decree by the Revolutionary Command Council apparently gave him a larger role in foreign affairs.
Cambodian antiaircraft batteries fired shots to warn a commercial DC-3 plane away from restricted airspace above the presidential palace in Phnom Penh. The palace was attacked by a defecting pilot last November. Meanwhile, government troops remained pinned down by rebel artillery fire at Kompong Luong where they established a beachhead in efforts to recapture Oudong, former royal capital.
The Saigon Government in South Vietnam said today that 90 civilians were kidnapped by the Việt Cộng yesterday and last night at the Michelin rubber plantation and in five Mekong delta villages. The vast French‐owned plantation, 40 miles northwest of Saigon, has long been a Việt Cộng base area. The manager said recently that only 20 percent of the rubber trees were being tapped and those in areas authorized by the Việt Cộng. The reported large‐scale kidnapping from a village on the edge of the plantation in daylight yesterday appeared to mark a change of Việt Cộng policy in the area where there has been little fighting and clear accommodation between the two sides since the ceasefire.
Kidnappings in the Mekong delta have been increasing for some months but the abduction of about 30 people from five villages was unusually high, according to police sources. Work at the Michelin plantation was stopped today in protest against, the kidnapping, involving 44 women and 17 children, company sources said. The women and children — a tenth of the work force of tree tappers — were led away by Việt Cộng troops yesterday morning, and have not been seen since, the police said: The sources said the company was sending word to the Communists in the plantation to let them know that the factory had been closed. An official said: “We’re fed up. They have got to leave us in peace and send these people back immediately.”
The South Korean Government said today that a total of 261 people had surrendered to investigating authorities for having been involved in an outlawed student organization. A Government spokesman said that 194 of them had been released and 67 were still under investigation. The organization, called the National League of Democratic Youths and Students, was outlawed last Wednesday by a decree issued by President Park Chung Hee, who called it a subversive body controlled by “anti-state elements.” The decree, which provides maximum penalty of death for anyone involved in the league or for any student staging anti-Government demonstrations, set last midnight as a deadline for persons connected with the organization to turn themselves in to avoid punishment. The brief announcement today did not say how many of the 261 were students, nor did it give any names or other details. There was no way to verify the Government announcement independently.
The September 23rd League, Mexican terrorists suspected of kidnaping U.S. Vice Consul John Patterson, also planned to kidnap the U.S. consul in Juarez but did not carry out the plan, the attorney general of Chihuahua state said. Antonio Quezada Fornelli said police learned of the consul plot from a suspect in the shooting of a police officer in Juarez. Patterson has been missing since March 22.
Two former presidents and 100 other Brazilians banned from all political activity for a decade following the 1964 military coup regain some of their political rights today. The government will allow them to vote, but, under a 1973 Supreme Court ruling, they cannot run for office. The two former presidents are Joao Goulart and Janio Quadros.
The world food shortage will soon dwarf the energy crisis unless Americans eat less and step up their aid to desperately poor countries, according to a report by the Overseas Development Council, a private research organization. The Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, chairman of the council and president of Notre Dame University, said in releasing the report in Washington that the United States was “about the only nation dragging our feet at the moment.”
Australia’s Prime Minister Gough Whitlam announced that “Advance Australia Fair” would replace “God Save the Queen” as the national anthem, based on a survey of 60,000 people (0.05% of Australians at the time) The choice quickly became unpopular because of the lyrics, although Whitlam said that the tune would be used and that the words would go unsung. The melody would remain and the lyrics would be modified effective April 19, 1984.
The first 1973–1974 Whitbread Round the World Race, which had started on September 8, 1973 as 17 yachts departed the English port of Portsmouth, was won by Ramón Carlin and his 11-man crew from Mexico on the Sayula II. The yacht arrived in Portsmouth 152 days after it had departed.
The explosion of the Greek oil tanker Elias killed 13 people at Fort Mifflin port in Philadelphia. A U.S. Coast Guard investigation would note that as of 1977, “Nine members of the crew and four visitors (relatives of the master) perished or are missing,” with eight bodies recovered and five others never found, but could not find a cause for the disaster.
The White House told the House Judiciary Committee that it needs more time to decide how to respond to its request for tape recordings of 42 presidential conversations relating to Watergate.
The Democratic majority on the House Judiciary Committee has informally agreed to support limited participation by the President’s counsel, James St. Clair, in the impeachment inquiry. Mr. St. Clair would be allowed to be an observer in sessions in which evidence on President Nixon’s conduct in office is presented to the committee. If formally adopted by the committee, the proposal could prevent widening of the partisan rift that has been developing as Democrats and Republicans debated the President’s right of representation.
The Senate, breaking an 11-day filibuster, voted 64 to 30 — one more than the required two-thirds — to close debate on a major campaign reform bill that would use public funds to finance presidential and congressional elections starting in 1976. The vote appeared to insure the eventual passage of a public campaign financing bill.
Judge Lee Gagliardi of District Court in New York made two rulings that apparently damaged the defense of John Mitchell and Maurice Stans in their criminal conspiracy trial. During the day, Robert Finch, former Secretary of Health, Welfare and Education, and W. Clement Stone, Chicago millionaire, testified, among others, for the defense, but it was the judge’s rulings that were more important.
Nine former Grumman Aerospace Corporation employees and seven officers of companies that performed work for Grumman have pleaded guilty to an elaborate kickback scheme in the awarding of millions of dollars’ worth of Navy subcontracts, United States Attorney William Boyd announced in Brooklyn. He said that an inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation into the Grumman case had found indications of possible similar payoff arrangements elsewhere in the nation’s defense industry.
Witnesses told a congressional subcommittee that major oil companies had been breaking antitrust laws for years with the knowledge and sometimes the approval of the Justice and the Interior Departments. Representative John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat who is chairman of a House subcommittee investigating federal oil and gas leasing policy, and three witnesses complained that the major oil companies are either dictating the terms of survival to smaller companies or forcing them out of business.
A White House spokesman said President Nixon opposed a Senate plan that would require states to enact no-fault auto insurance. “Even though the merits of no-fault have been generally established, the overriding issue concerns the proper federal role,” said presidential assistant William E. Timmons. In a letter to Senator Roman L. Hruska (R-Nebraska), Timmons argued that Mr. Nixon believed the states were “in a better position to know the specific needs of their people.” Thirteen states already have adopted no-fault plans but none would meet fully the standards proposed in federal legislation.
Firemen battled a fire that engulfed a city block near the downtown part of Grand Junction, Colorado, as winds gusting up to 50 m.p.h. hampered their efforts. There were no immediate reports of injuries as nearby residents were evacuated. Officials said they did not know where the blaze originated but flames had destroyed a grain elevator and feed store and spread to the press room of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. The newspaper’s new $1 million press and large supplies of paper and ink were reported ablaze and had sustained $2 million in damage. Firemen also found it difficult to battle the flames because of a continuing series of explosions at the grain elevator.
The House Ways and Means Committee finished its basic work on a petroleum tax reform bill after voting to keep a depletion allowance of 22% for most natural gas. However, for most oil, the allowance would be cut 15% on January 1, 1975, to 8% a year later and then to zero on January 1, 1977. But the special tax write-off for oil would be kept at a reduced level of 15% until January 1, 1979, for at least one-third of U.S. petroleum production. The bill also would impose a new windfall profits tax on the industry but there would be a feature that would let oilmen escape paying this new tax if they plow such profits back into exploration and development. A final vote on the measure was delayed until after the Easter recess, which ends April 22.
A Federal Judge dismissed President Nixon as a defendant today in a lawsuit filed by James R. Hoffa, former president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Julge John H. Pratt of the United States District Court herd said he was dropping the President as a defendant in the civil suit without prejudice to Mr. Hoffa’s argument that Mr. Nixon had placed, excessive and improper conditions on Mr. Hata when his prison sentence was commuted. The judge also said the court was reserving the right to bring the President back into the lawsuit, which now has Attorney General William B. Saxbe as its sole defendant. Leonard B. Boudin, Mr. Hoffa’s attorney, said after the judge’s ruling that he may now have to seek a subpoena for Mr. Nixon’s direct testimony to obtain the evidence necessary for his case.
Attorney General William B Saxbe said today that he expected to “get results” in solving the Patricia Hearst kidnapping “now that the lid is off.” Mr. Saxbe said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been “inhibited” in the two months since Miss Hearst was taken from her apartment in Berkeley, California. The FBI, the Attorney General said, has been doing everything it could to cooperate with the Hearst family in its attempts to negotiate with the kidnappers for her release. But with the release last week of a tape recording of Miss Hearst’s voice, saying that she had chosen to stay and fight alongside her kidnappers rather than return to her former life, the situation changed, Mr. Saxbe said. The Hearst family no longer thinks “she’s going to be returned day by day,” he said, and that “will give the FBI more freedom to operate.” He also said he assumed that the family was giving the FBI more freedom, “now that they don’t think she’s being held captive, or some people don’t, anyway.”
The striking Kansas City, Missouri, Federation of Teachers was fined $50,000 and its president, Norman Hudson, sentenced to 10 days in jail for a 23-day strike that has shut down classes for 62,000 students. Judge Alvin Randall imposed the sentences after finding the union and Hudson in contempt of his orders to end the strike under state law prohibiting walkouts by public employees. But in a move to encourage a settlement, Randall said only $10,000 of the fine must be paid at once and suspended Hudson’s sentence for 10 days.
Four operators of independent intercity bus companies urged a Senate antitrust and monopoly subcommittee to shelve any plans it might have to force General Motors to sell its truck and coach division. “If theirs is a monopolistic venture, we find it to be singularly benign,” said William S. Billings of the Eastshore Lines of San Francisco. Speaking on behalf of the other independents, Billings said small business would be harmed if there was to be fragmentation of the bus-making industry.
New Padres owner Ray Kroc, watching his team losing their 4th straight, 9–2, in their home opener, takes to the public address system in the 8th inning: “Ladies and gentlemen, I suffer with you… I’ve never seen such stupid baseball playing in my life.” While he is speaking a streaker runs across the field. San Diego scores 3 but loses to Houston 9-5. Hearing of the incident, Commissioner Kuhn will make Kroc apologize to the fans.
At Anaheim, Texas unloads 9 runs in the 2nd inning as they coast to a 10-2 win over the Angels. Jeff Burroughs grand slam is the big blow in the frame. The Rangers score 7 runs off starter Nolan Ryan.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 846.84 (+6.88, +0.82%).
Born:
Alexander Pichushkin, Russian serial killer (known as The Chessboard Killer and The Bitsa Park Maniac; at least 49 homicides between 1992 and his arrest in 2006), in Mytishchi, Moscow Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union.
Jenna Jameson (stage name for Jenna Marie Massoli), American adult film actress and model who bills herself as “The Queen of Porn”, and conservative Twitter commentator, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Drew Bannister, Canadian NHL defenseman (Tampa Bay Lightning, Edmonton Oilers, , Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, New York Rangers), in Belleville, Ontario, Canada.
Daniel Guerard, Canadian NHL right wing (Ottawa Senators), in LaSalle, Quebec, Canada.
Ben Bordelon, NFL tackle (San Diego Chargers), in Mathews, Louisiana.
Died:
Emelie Hooke, 61, Australian opera soprano.
History Diaries 