Secretary of State Kissinger said in Brussels after a meeting with the Atlantic alliance council, that the key obstacle to an agreement at the Nixon-Brezhnev talks on nuclear offensive arms was the difficulty of agreeing upon how to balance missile totals and warhead totals. With the Soviet Union holding a substantial advantage in the number of missiles and the United States a 3-to-1 advantage in warheads, Mr. Nixon and Mr. Brezhnev committed their countries to trying to negotiate a new interim accord that would extend until 1985. The aim is to complete it before the present interim accord expires in 1977.
Two Soviet astronauts orbited the earth, preparing for a rendezvous with a Salyut orbital station to demonstrate techniques they will use for a space linkup with American astronauts next year. Tass, the Soviet news agency, announced that Soyuz 14, a two-man spacecraft, had been launched at 2:51 PM Eastern Daylight Time yesterday and by this evening had completed more than 13 orbits.
Soviet authorities have granted an exit visa to Dean C. Hoxsey, 48, a former U.S. marine and Californian who defected in 1957 to live in Russia. He has until July 15 to leave. But U.S. officials told Hoxsey in Moscow that he could not return to the United States because he lost his U.S. citizenship when he took Soviet citizenship shortly after arriving as a delegate to a Communist world youth conference. Hoxsey said he would wire his mother, Mrs. Ellen Hugo, 75, asking that she file a petition with the U.S. Immigration Service seeking his return as the child of a U.S. citizen.
The UK’s Northern Ireland Office published a white paper, The Northern Ireland Constitution, proposing elections to a body which would attempt to develop a political settlement for the country. The British government issued a white paper on Northern Ireland in which it ordered new elections for members of a “constitutional convention” that would have at least six months to draft proposals for a new political structure in the province. The proposals would have to be approved by Parliament in London.
Britain warned that the sea could become an arena of world conflict if the third U.N. sea law conference in Caracas fails to draft an internationally acceptable code to govern the oceans. David Ennals, minister of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs, said the possible issues of conflict include infringement of traditional freedom of navigation and fishing, the boom in offshore oil production and the exploitation of deep sea mineral deposits.
After 25 years, the United States and Czechoslovakia reached agreement in Prague on American claims for compensation for U.S. property nationalized after 1948, sums owed by Czechoslovakia for U.S. civilian surplus goods bought after World War II, and Czechoslovakia’s claim for reimbursement for a steel mill it paid for in 1946 but which was never delivered. The agreement will allow Czechoslovakia to regain possession of 18 tons of gold seized by the Nazis and held after the war by the United States.
The member countries of the Arab League agreed today to give Lebanon and the Palestine Liberation Organization financial help to strengthen their defense against Israeli air and ground attacks on Lebanese territory, informed sources said. The size and nature of the assistance were not spelled out and were believed left up to individual countries. Premier Takieddin Solh of Lebanon said Lebanon had made no specific requests. The defense council of the 20‐member Arab League also agreed to step up diplomatic action to persuade the United States to restrain Israel from striking again at Lebanon and the Palestinian camps there, the sources said. The council, which consists of the foreign and defense ministers of the members of the league, met in Cairo last night and today at the request of Kuwait, its present chairman.
Mahmoud Riad, the Secretary General of the League, told reporters after the final session that the council’s decisions involved “political financial and military assistance,” but that they would not be announced. The council met behind closed doors. Mr. Riad said that the council reaffirmed the solidarity of the Arab countries with Lebanon and their commitment to the defense of Lebanese territory as well as their support for what the Palestinians claim as national rights. Asked whether there had been any discussion of a renewal of the oil embargo, Mr. Riad said that the council’s decisions were secret whereas an embargo, by definition, would have to be announced.
The army tightened its grip on key installations in Addis Ababa and warned the populace to remain calm, despite its agreement with Emperor Haile Selassie to try to solve a military crisis by constitutional methods. In a showdown with the 81-year-old monarch, a committee of military reformers obtained his assent to direct intervention in civilian affairs, including virtual veto authority over the cabinet. Long-term objectives of the military remained obscure except that of ending the power of a feudal clique of landholding nobles and aristocrats and their allies in the church.
Meeting in Gangtok, the 32-member State Council of the Himalayan Kingdom of Sikkim adopted the nation’s first constitution to provide for the nation to become a state of India, subject to approval in a referendum. Sikkim was in effect annexed to India when the chogyal (king) of the Himalayan mountain state signed his powers away to an administrative officer appointed by the New Delhi government. The document, accepted by Palden Thondup Namgyal, 51, became the kingdom’s first written constitution. It reduces the once-powerful chogyal to a figurehead and gives the Sikkimese the right to vote in Indian elections. India already had control of Sikkim’s foreign affairs, defense, communications and currency. Sikkim’s chogyal, King Palden Thondup Namgyal, at one time an absolute monarch, signed the legislation relieving him of all but ceremonial powers. The King appointed Kazi Lhendup Dorji as Prime Minister of a five-member cabinet on July 23. Sikkim would be admitted as the 21st state of India on May 16, 1975.
Thai Army riot troops moved into Bangkok’s Chinese section tonight after gunfights between the police and rioting youths left 14 persons dead. Bangkok’s police chief had sent for 2,400 army reinforcements and declared a state of emergency as casualties mounted from the street battles. Militant university students, who held an anti‐American rally earlier today in another part of Bangkok, apparently had no role in the fighting. The police said the rioters were not students and were armed with hand guns, homemade plastic bombs and at least one M‐16 automatic rifle. The police said most of the deaths occurred in fighting that broke out after dusk, in addition to those killed when the police fired on a mob before dawn. Dozens were wounded, including eight policemen. The authorities said at least 62 persons had been arrested.
Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping met in Peking with U.S. Senator Henry M. Jackson (D-Washington) and his wife and members of his party, the New China News Agency reported. The agency said Teng had a frank conversation with Jackson, who is chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs.
Posters criticizing Pu Chan-ya, a senior official in Hunan province, appeared in Peking, apparently in defiance of a reported ban on wall posters on provincial issues. The ban was understood to order provincial poster-writers to stay in their own districts. The posters criticizing Pu — the only new ones to go up — called him a follower of Lin Piao, currently China’s No. 1 public enemy.
A leader of the Argentine military acted quickly to stifle rumors that the armed forces would never accept the presidency of the politically inexperienced Mrs. Peron, who is legally empowered to complete the three years and three months of her husband’s four-year term as President. The Commander in Chief of the Argentine army vowed at the bier of General Juan Peron that the armed forces would be loyal to his widow. The funeral service for General Peron was held in the Chamber of Deputies in Buenos Aires. The United States delegation was led by Secretary of Commerce Frederick Dent.
Swahili became the official language of Kenya as President Jomo Kenyatta signed legislation providing that all government business, including parliamentary debate, would be conducted in the Bantu language.
The USNS Hughes Glomar Explorer, ostensibly a deep-sea drillship, arrived at the Pacific Ocean northwest of Hawaii to begin an attempt to recover the wreckage of the Soviet submarine K-129, which sank on March 8, 1968. The top-secret recovery mission, Project Azorian, was financed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and was able to reach the sub in waters 16,500 feet (5,000 m) deep and recover a portion of the vessel. The project’s existence was revealed seven months later.
In the “heartland of America” — such places as Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, Creston, Iowa and Fairborn, Ohio, were treated to Fourth of July speeches by their congressional representatives who had returned home to politick, picnic, parade and talk about anything except impeachment. The Congressmen who have the backing of conservative groups such as the National Association of Businessmen, Americans for Constitutional Action and the American Security Council, unlike liberals and moderates in both parties who have made their position clear, are still considering, with their constituency in mind, whether they should come out for or against impeachment. In an election year, the answer is to evade the subject.
The Justice Department has concluded that there was no conspiracy in the killing of Mrs. Martin Luther King Sr. In a telephone interview today, William O’Connor, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, said, “The evidence did not support any concept of conspiracy.” A preliminary FBI investigation of the case has been halted. Marcus Wayne Chenault, 23, of Dayton, Ohio, has been charged with killing the 69‐year‐old mother of the late civil rights leader, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. A church deacon was also killed and another woman wounded last Sunday at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Mr. O’Connor, who directed the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday to look into the possibility of a conspiracy, said the evidence indicated that “Chenault was acting alone and not in concert with others.”
The rate of traffic deaths in the first five months of 1974 was the lowest since records have been kept, the National Safety Council said. Deaths totaled 16,270 compared with 21,360 for the same period in 1973, a 24% drop. Projecting the figure to an annual rate, it was 3.4 traffic deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled-a record low. A spokesman for the council said the death rate had been largely influenced by “energy-related factors” and, “We hope some of these factors, such as the 55-mph speed limit, will be continued.”
The Federal Trade Commission announced that it would undertake a nationwide investigation of the development and management of residential condominiums to determine whether companies that build, sell or operate condominiums “have been or are engaging in unfair or deceptive practices.” The agency has been conducting an exploratory investigation of condominium abuses in Florida. Its announcement indicates that it believes a more general investigation involving other states is necessary.
Dr. Robert J. Marshall was reelected president of the Lutheran Church in America, fending off a challenge from Dr. Wallace E. Fischer, the first self-declared candidate for president in the church’s history. Dr. Marshall was elected on the second ballot of the convention in Baltimore of the 3.1-million-member church, the largest Lutheran body in North America. Dr. Fischer, who announced his candidacy in an open letter to congregations across the nation last spring, had criticized what he termed “management style” administration.
The French-British Concorde and its Russian counterpart, the TU-144, will produce noise that carries farther and has an impact on more people than even the loudest conventional jets now in use, a Transportation Department report concludes. The report says the noise probably will not sound much louder than the noisiest conventional jets but that frequencies produced by the SST engines probably will cover a greater distance. The report, dated December 11, 1973, was turned over to the Environmental Defense Fund as the result of a court suit and EDF made it available to the public. “Substantial adverse public reaction is expected,” the report warns, if either plane is allowed to make scheduled flights to the United States.
Heavy fog on San Francisco’s Bayshore Freeway resulted in a chain-reaction accident that closed southbound lanes for 90 minutes in early morning hours. The highway patrol said two cars became involved in a collision, and before they could be moved a third car crashed into them and all three burst into flames. Firemen doused that blaze, but shortly afterward five more automobiles were involved in rear-end crashes and three of those vehicles also caught fire. Six persons were hospitalized with burns, but only one, Stephen Reese, 24, of San Francisco, was reported in serious condition.
Politicians who have been observing Malcolm Wilson since he became Governor of New York six months ago believe that he has demonstrated a talent for dispensing patronage more to the liking of Republican party leaders than his predecessor, Nelson Rockefeller. Party officials no longer find comparative strangers presenting IOUs for jobs that were promised them outside the patronage channel in some brief enthusiastic chat with Mr. Rockefeller.
First known geothermal resource area lands in Oregon to be put up for public bidding have been acquired by Republic Geothermal Inc., of Whittier. The federal Bureau of Land Management said Republic’s bid of $10.26 an acre was the highest of four submitted on the 1,350 acres in the Vale area. The bureau also said the U.S. Forest Service has agreed on a priority list for the next six known geothermal resource areas in the Pacific Northwest to be put up for bidding.
Noise from railroad trains, an annoyance to an estimated 500,000 Americans, would be reduced under standards proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA said its proposed standards would cost the railroads $80 million to $100 million — most of it for installing mufflers on locomotives. That, claimed the agency, would cut only 0.3% or 0.4% from the gross revenues of the railroads. Under the proposal mufflers would have to be installed on 27,000 locomotives within four years after final adoption of the regulations.
Military personnel and civilians cleaned up globs of oil drifting onto beaches at the southern tip of the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Sticky balls of oil were first carried ashore in the vicinity of Diamond Head crater but the Coast Guard said the flow seemed to have exhausted itself and “was not as serious as was first anticipated.” A spokesman said the origin of the oil was not known. “It could have come from anywhere,” he said.
Rain and high winds packing the force of a tornado swept through Bridgton, Maine, injuring at least 18 persons. Town manager Ervin Linscott said three of the injured were vacationing in camp grounds where toppling trees also smashed several trailers. “It’s lucky more people weren’t hurt,” said Linscott. “There are usually anywhere from 500 to 800 people” in the camping areas, he added. A police spokesman said the afternoon storm lasted about 20 minutes. “There are trees down all over town,” he said.
Astronomers who claimed a year ago to have discovered a mysterious “black hole” in space say they may have found a second one. In astronomical theory, a black hole is the final stage of a dying star several times bigger than the sun. As the star collapses into itself, becoming smaller and smaller, its mass compacts and its gravity becomes so strong that surrounding matter is pulled into it. Since the gravity is so strong that not even light can escape, the star appears to be a black area in a field of stars. Using data from an X‐ray astronomy satellite called Uhuru, scientists of the Center for Astrophysics here say they have detected radiation from the star Cygnus X‐1 with characteristics similar to the suspected black hole they reported last year.
American soul singer Barry White (29) weds R&B singer Glodean James (28) at a private ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada; They separate in 1988, but never divorce.
Dodger Mike Marshall makes his 14th straight appearance and picks up a 3–2 win over the Cincinnati Reds. Over the past 30 days, the LA reliever is 9–0 with 3 saves and a 1.82 ERA in 20 appearances.
Toby Harrah’s 3rd inning homer is the only hit for the Texas Rangers, as Bert Blyleven and the Minnesota Twins win, 3–1.
Born:
La’Roi Glover, NFL defensive tackle and nose tackle (Pro Bowl, 2000-2005; Oakland Raiders, New Orleans Saints, Dallas Cowboys, St. Louis Rams), in San Diego, California.
Steve Bush, NFL tight end (Cincinnati Bengals, Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers), in Paradise Valley, Arizona.
Jammi German, NFL wide receiver (Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns), in Fort Myers, Florida.
Adrian Griffin, NBA shooting guard and small forward (Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, Chicago Bulls, Seattle SuperSonics), in Wichita, Kansas.
Jeff Harris, MLB pitcher (Seattle Mariners), in Alameda, California.
Kevin Hanchard, Canadian TV actor (“Hudson & Rex”, “Orphan Black”) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Died:
Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, 77, Palestinian and Muslim leader who was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in Mandatory Palestine from 1921 to 1937.
Georgette Heyer, 71, English novelist known for her Regency romances, of lung cancer.
Del Webb, 75, American real estate mogul who created Sun City, Arizona and was co-owner of the New York Yankees, following surgery for lung cancer.
History Diaries 