Betty Ford, the First Lady of the United States, underwent a mastectomy at Bethesda Naval Hospital to remove her right breast after the discovery of a cancerous lump. The choice of Mrs. Ford to fully disclose her diagnosis of breast cancer would be described later as “an important decision which would have tremendous social impact”. As one historian noted, “After she went public to alert as many women as possible of the benefits of early detection, millions of women schedule appointments at breast cancer clinics across the country.” Another historian, Lisa Liebman, would say later, “Her courage and candor not only removed the stigma from the topic but also saved countless lives.” Mrs. Ford herself would say later, “I got a lot of credit for having gone public with my mastectomy, but if I hadn’t been the wife of the President of the United States, the press would not have come racing after my story, so in a way it was fate.”. Doctors at Bethesda Naval hospital described her condition as “satisfactory” this evening in their first formal medical bulletin. President Ford, who had appeared grim and pale at midday when he saw his wife soon after the operation, emerged from the hospital smiling after a second visit in the evening.
Representatives of the United States and four other major oil-importing countries — Japan, Britain, France and West Germany — assembled in Washington for the first session of a two-day meeting to hasten coordination of their methods of dealing with the crisis caused by the rise of oil prices. Because of rain, the meeting place was switched from Camp David to the State Department. Details of the meeting, which has no formal agenda, were withheld from the public to allow the participants a wide degree of flexibility in their discussions, American officials said.
The Portuguese left appeared to have scored a major victory over President Antonio de Spinola and his conservative supporters by forcing them to cancel a mass demonstration in Lisbon. Another confrontation between the essentially conservative President and strong leftist elements in the armed forces and the civil population was averted, but President Spinola’s hold on his office was considered more tenuous than ever.
Irish police said that two gunmen who invaded a private flying club at Dundalk on the east coast, commandeered a private plane and loaded four bombs aboard, forcing a flying instructor to fly them toward Northern Ireland. They were later forced into an emergency landing south of the border and fled, although the reason for the landing was not immediately clear. Police reported finding three bombs aboard the plane and speculated that the fourth had been dropped accidentally earlier.
Armed members of the Eoka‐B underground movement — fighting for union of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus with Greece — stopped newspaper delivery trucks today and destroyed thousands of copies of three Greek Cypriot journals. The action was viewed as a tactic to intimidate and attempt to prevent the staging of a rally tomorrow to support the former Cyprus President, Archbishop Makarios. The newspapers urged attendance at the rally.
Roman Catholic bishops attending the Vatican’s fourth World Synod of Bishops called for a new approach to winning converts that would stress local traditions, culture and social structures, especially in China and Africa. The proposals were contained in working papers introduced during the second day of the synod. One of the papers expressed the hope that Catholicism will soon return to China and another proposed that the evangelization of modern Africa be left to Africans.
An Israeli patrol clashed with group of Arab guerrillas in the Golan Heights today, the Israeli military command said. An Israeli officer and an Arab gunman were killed. The command said the Arabs had crossed into Israel from Lebanon. It said that “two or three” terrorists escaped after the skirmish. The clash was reported near Har Dov, a hill overlooking southern Lebanon. Earlier today, Israeli troops captured two Arab guerrillas who had crossed into southern Israel from Jordan.
Israeli gunners shelled the south Lebanese village of Aitaech Chaab today, killing two tobacco farmers, military sources said.
President Anwar el‐Sadat declared tonight that the Governments of Egypt and Syria, whose troops man the Golan and Sinai fronts with Israel, are equally determined in their rejection of any Middle East settlement that does not restore the national rights of the Palestinians. “We are ready to use all possible means to reach a political settlement, but it is imperative that the Israelis withdraw from every inch of occupied Arabi territory,” the President said. He spoke at a joint session of the National Assembly and the Arab Socialist Union, Egypt’s only political party. The session had been called to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the death of Gamal Abdel Nasser, leader of the 1952 Egyptian revolution and Mr. Sadat’s predecessor. Mr. Sadat praised the late President as one of the great figures in world history and pledged that his own four‐year‐old administration would continue to respect the social gains made during the 18 years of the Nasser era.
Ranking Kurdish rebel officers said today that Iran and the Soviet Union, despite official neutrality, were deeply involved on opposite sides in the war between the Iraqi Government and the Kurdish guerrillas. The Kurds said that the Russians had provided the Iraqi forces with 8,000 military advisers, including pilots who are said to have flown an undetermined number of bombing missions against Kurdish towns. The Kurds added that the Iranians were supplying them with rifles, artillery pieces and ammunition, but not with tanks or planes. From the Kurdish‐controlled area of Iraq it cannot be determined who is flying the Sovietmade planes seen diving on Kurdish positions daily. But dozens of Iranian trucks were seen crossing into this country laden with cans of gasoline and boxes whose contents could not be determined.
India has appealed to the Soviet Union for food aid. Reliable sources said today that India had requested from 2 million to 4 million tons of food to assist the nation, now in the grip of severe wheat and rice shortages. India’s plea for Soviet help comes in the aftermath of a severe drought in several key northern states that threatens to leave millions hungry in the net few months. A reliable newspaper poll made public today, shows that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s popularity has plunged, largely because of the nation’s economic crisis. “The last three months are unique in the degree of unpopularity which the central government may be said to have acquired,” said E.P.W. da Costa, director of the Indian Institute of Public Opinion. “There never was a time when the Prime Minister came under such adverse scrutiny.”
The Soviet news agency Tass charged this week that China had turned Tibet “into a huge military base,” menacing her neighbors, especially India, with a network of missile bases and long‐range artillery. The Peking leadership, Tass said, has unleased a “runaway military hysteria” and had expanded the regular army to three million men, supplemented by six to seven million in the People’s Volunteer Corps. In recent weeks, Soviet polemics against China have been on the rise while Moscow’s chief border negotiator with Peking, Deputy Foreign Minister Leonid F. Ilyichev, has been withdrawn for mediation efforts in the Cyprus dispute.
China and Japan make a breakthrough toward less chilly relations today when airliners take off from Peking and Tokyo to inaugurate air service between the two Asian nations. The flights launching scheduled airline operations come on the second anniversary of the two countries’ recognition of each other and clear the way for a speedup in negotiations involving fisheries, navigation and a peace treaty.
The Panamanian freighter Sun Shang sank in a typhoon 400 miles (640 km) east of Hong Kong, killing 31 of its 34 crewmembers. On the east coast of Taiwan, at least 13 people in one village died in a landslide caused by the typhoon.
Canadian National Railways’ Supercontinental passenger train collided head on with a freight train near McMurphy Station in British Columbia, killing two crewmen and injuring two others. The passenger train was carrying 325 passengers, from Montreal and Toronto none of whom was seriously injured. Some were treated at a hospital in Clearwater, British Columbia, and later released. A spokesman said a malfunctioning switch may have put the trains on a collision course.
Hurricane Gertrude boiled to life in the Atlantic with 75 m.p.h. winds and a hurricane watch was immediately posted for the Windward Islands from Tobago northward to Martinique, including the island of Barbados. The Miami Hurricane center said the storm posed a serious threat to the islands and preliminary steps should be taken for their protection.
Possibilities for restoring ties between the United States and Cuba were discussed by Senators Jacob Javits and Claiborne Pell in Havana with Cuba’s Foreign Minister Raul Roa and President Osvaldo Torrado. The Senators, members of the Foreign Relations Committee, flew to Havana at their own initiative to see what could be done about ending the 13-year-old rift between Havana and Washington. They have been told that Premier Fidel Castro will receive them tomorrow.
A hostage held by guerrillas in the Venezuelan consulate in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, escaped, but the leftists continued to hold seven other persons captive, including the Venezuelan consul and a United States diplomat. The guerrillas, who kidnapped the diplomat and seized the consulate Friday, are demanding $1 million ransom and the release of 37 Dominican political prisoners in return for the hostages, who include Barbara Hutchison, director of the United States Information Service in the Dominican Republic.
A Venezuelan Air Force Phantom jet crashed into an apartment building and explodedin Caracas today, killing at least 10 people, the police said. The plane went out of control during an aerobatic demonstration at La Carlota airfield in the City Center. It smashed into the four‐story building and started a blaze that more than 100 firemen fought. The police said the bodies of the two airmen aboard the plane, a major and a captain, had not been ‐recovered. The charred bodies of eight people who lived in the building were removed by firemen. The police said many people were injured, but no precise figure was available.
Final results of the September 1 Nicaraguan presidential election released by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal gave Liberal Party candidate General Anastasio Somoza, as expected, an overwhelming victory over his Conservative rival, Edmundo Paguaga. Somoza received 733,662 votes to 66,320 for Paguaga. The Liberal Party retains 60% of the congressional seats and the Conservatives 40%.
A Venezuelan Air Force Phantom jet with two people on board went out of control at an airshow near Caracas and crashed into an apartment building, killing eight residents.
The U.N. credentials committee has recommended that the General Assembly reject the credentials of the South African delegation. Black African diplomats said the South African delegation should be expelled because it does not represent the majority of the country’s people.
President Ford announced three decisions to help implement a “coherent and comprehensive program” to deal with inflation and recession. He said he would offer the program within 10 days. In a speech closing the national conference on inflation, the President announced the formation of the Economic Policy Board to coordinate and consolidate the government’s economic efforts; the creation of a White House Labor-Management Committee, and the appointment of a Princeton University economist to head the government’s Council on Wage and Price Stability.
The President named William E. Simon, the Secretary of the Treasury, as chairman of the Economic Policy Board and said that Mr. Simon would be his principal spokesman on economic policy. Mr. Ford named L. William Seidman, who was executive director of the inflation conference, to be executive director of the policy board. Mr. Seidman, a longtime friend of the President, will also be his assistant for coordination and implementation of economic affairs. Albert Rees of Princeton University was named director of the Council on Wage and Price Stability, which was formed by act of Congress in August to monitor wage, and price actions throughout the economy.
Mr. Ford, hollow‐eyed and somber following this morning’s operation for cancer on his wife, Betty, did not disclose today any substantive new measures for dealing with inflation and recession.
The inflation conference, which appeared ready in its first session Friday to fall apart under pressures of partisanship and special-interest pleading, ended with moderately successful attempts to define some areas of general, though not unanimous, agreement. Chief among these was a consensus that cutting the federal budget would not do very much quickly to reduce the rate of inflation. This was a conclusion that President Ford almost certainly had neither expected nor wanted.
According to Senate testimony disclosed today, Alexander Haig, while an assistant to Henry Kissinger, asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to place under surveillance some of the government officials who became targets of a controversial wiretap program. General Haig, who told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in July that he “never viewed myself as anything but an extension of Dr. Kissinger,” testified that, in passing the names of officials to the FBI he had been told to ask “generally that they be surveilled.”
A second suspect was arrested and held for an extradition hearing Monday in Orlando, Florida, on a charge of kidnapping the daughter of a Cincinnati broadcasting executive. The suspect was identified as Clifford J. Kroger, 38. Details of his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of Allison C. Mechem, 4, daughter of Charles S. Mechem Jr., were not disclosed. Another suspect, Frank Wiechman, 26, a parolee from Big Pine Key, Florida, is scheduled for arraignment Monday in Cincinnati.
The dismembered body of a New York City police officer, who reportedly was undergoing trial on departmental charges was found wrapped in a blanket and propped against the wall of a Chinese laundry on the upper West Side. Louis C. Cottell, chief of detectives, said the victim, Patrick J. Kelly, an 18-year veteran of the police force, had last reported for duty Thursday morning. Cottell could not say what charges Kelly was facing but said he doubted that the murder was related to the fact that Kelly was a member of the police force. Kelly, 46 years old, had been off duty since testifying at the trial last Thursday. Officer Kelly was to have returned to duty last night after a period on restricted duty because of an illness, authorities said. District Attorney Richard Kuh declined to discuss the trial.
Four bishops may be tried by an ecclesiastical court of the Episcopal Church because they ordained 11 women deacons as priests. Whether they will be tried depends on a panel of three bishops named by the Rev. John Maury Allin, presiding bishop of the church, to investigate formal charges brought by other bishops. The women have not been exercising priestly functions.
The Republican National Committee has $3.2 million in cash available for this year’s congressional elections, double the $1.6 million held by the Democrats. With both parties striving to broaden their financial bases, GOP committees throughout the nation have raised about $9.5 million and spent $7.9 million this year, with almost half coming from donations of less than $100 each. In the same period Democrats raised $7.1 million and spent $6.5 million.
Associate Justice William H. Rehnquist has urged advocates of the right of privacy to fight expanded government regulation of citizens’ lives rather than seek preservation of secrecy that may hamper criminal law enforcement. In two lectures delivered at the University of Kansas law school this week, the Supreme Court Justice questioned efforts to limit the circulation of criminal records as an invasion of personal privacy. Mr. Rehnquist suggested that the Secret Service would be justified in photographic surveillance of audiences at political rallies in an effort to detect a potential assassin, even though some sacrifice of privacy for others in the crowd would be involved.
“What I have in mind,” Justice Rehnquist said, “is that the fight for retention or expansion of privacy may be waged in the legislative halls not in terms of measures which would increase privacy but detract from effective law enforcement, but head‐on against the expansion of substantive government regulation of our lives. “A logical corollary of such an effort would be a countermovement dedicated to repeal of regulatory laws currently on the books,” he observed, noting that “some responsible opinion” favors decriminalizing prostitution, procuring and the use of marijuana. Without endorsing such proposals, Mr. Rehnquist said he believed “a very compelling argument can be made, that it is preferable to repeal a law which makes a particular act criminally punishable, rather than keeping the law on the books but making it very difficult to enforce against those who transgress it.”
The Justice had little sympathy for those who would restrict the circulation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of arrest records to local law enforcement agencies on the ground of privacy. An arrest, he said, “is not a private event.”
Governor Byrne of New Jersey said that he would begin consultations with the state’s Attorney General and public defender in connection with the public defender’s request to reopen the case of Rubin (Hurricane) Carter, a former boxer, and John Artis, who were convicted in 1967 of a triple murder in Paterson and are now serving life terms.
A $1 million suit has been filed by a former Kellogg, Idaho, couple against the owners of the Bunker Hill smelter, charging it had caused lead poisoning in their three children. The suit by Mr. and Mrs. Alfred P. Thomas Jr., now of Anacortes, Washington, named the Gulf Resources and Chemical Corp. and the Bunker Hill Co.
God has been asked to strike dead three school board members for supporting controversial textbooks in Charleston, West Virginia, area schools. The Rev. Charles Quigley said it was not a matter “of hate or love” but he was asking “Christian people to pray that God will kill the giants that have mocked and made fun of dumb fundamentalists “One board member commented, “I’m still alive.”
Dog food advertisements that imply dogs have a special need for milk protein and that GainesBurgers is a good source of it will be halted under a consent order signed by General Foods Corp. Because dogs “do not have a special need for milk protein, no quantum of milk protein satisfies the alleged need,” the Federal Trade Commission had charged.
“Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing” single by Aretha Franklin peaks at #47.
“I’m A Ramblin’ Man” by Waylon Jennings peaks at #75 on the pop chart, and #1 on the country chart.
John Lennon appears as guest DJ on WNEW-FM (NYC).
The Grand Final, the championship game of the Victorian Football League, was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground before a crowd of 113,839 people. The Richmond Tigers defeated the North Melbourne Kangaroos, 18.20 to 13.9 (128 to 87, based on six-point goals and one-point kicks).
In his last start of the year, California’s Nolan Ryan pitches his 3rd career no–hitter, victimizing the Minnesota Twins 4–0. In the process, the Angels hurler strikes out 15 batters for the 6th time this season. Ryan also walks 8 to run his season total to 202 bases on balls, joining Bob Feller in 1938 as the only pitcher to walk more than 200 in a season. Ryan will top 200 in 1977.
The New York Yankees sweep a pair from the Cleveland Indians, winning 9–3 and 9–7. Ron Bloomberg hits a pair of 2–run homers off Gaylord Perry in the opener, then adds another 2–run homer in game 2. John Ellis connects for a grand slam for the Tribe. The sweep leaves the Yankees a half game behind the Orioles, winners today.
The Baltimore Orioles pummeled the Milwaukee Brewers, 7–1. Mike Cuellar won his 22nd of the year and his seventh consecutive victory. Baltimore is clinging to a razor-thin half-game lead in the American League East.
In other American League games, the Boston Red Sox thumped the Detroit Tigers, 7–2, the Oakland A’s edged the Chicago White Sox, 6–5, and the Texas Rangers routed the Kansas City Royals, 11–0.
The Houston Astros’ Don Wilson 2–hits the Atlanta Braves in the opener of a doubleheader, 5–0. It would be Wilson’s last Major League game, followed barely 3 months later by his death. The Braves won the nightcap, 6–2.
On January 5, 1975, Wilson died at the house he shared with his wife, daughter, and son in Houston’s Fondren Southwest community. Wilson’s wife, Bernice, found him in the passenger seat of his Ford Thunderbird, parked inside the garage, with the engine running. The garage was attached to the house, and the carbon monoxide gas fatally asphyxiated his son, Donald “Alex” Alexander (aged 5), who was sleeping in the master bedroom above the garage. Wilson’s daughter Denise (aged 9), was found unconscious in another bedroom and hospitalized. Bernice was treated for carbon monoxide gas inhalation and for a jaw injury that she could not remember incurring. On February 5, 1975, Dr. Joseph Jachimczyk, the Harris County medical examiner, ruled the deaths of Don and Alex Wilson accidental. Dr. Jachimczyk’s autopsy report showed that Wilson had a blood alcohol content of 0.167%. One theory is that Wilson drove into his garage, activated the automatic door closer, and then passed out.
The St. Louis Cardinals started today hoping they could get the game in, and ended sorry that they did. An 8–3 loss to the Chicago Cubs dropped them one game behind the Pittsburgh Pirates with four games to play in the National League East race. The Cards had an early 3–0 lead but a three-run sixth and a four-run seventh turned the game around in favor of the Cubs.
The Pittsburgh Pirates move a game ahead of the second-place St. Louis Cardinals by beating the New York Mets, 7–3. Richie Zisk and Richie Hebner sock home runs. Jim Rooker scattered ten Mets hits to earn his 15th win. Tug McGraw got the start for the Mets and took the loss.
In other National League games, the Cincinnati Reds pounded the San Francisco Giants, 13–6, the Montreal Expos downed the Philadelphia Phillies, 3–1, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 5–2.
Born:
John Light, English actor (“Around the World in Eighty Days”), in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom.
Geoff Zanelli, American composer of film scores; in Westminster, California.
Alison Parrott, Canadian murder victim; in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (killed 1986, aged 11).
Mariya Kiselyova, Russian synchronised swimmer (3 Olympic Golds), born in Kuybyshev (today Samara), Russian SFSR, Soviet Union.
Reggie Brown, NFL linebacker (Detroit Lions), in Austin, Texas.
Died:
Raymond Largay, 88, American actor (“April in Paris”, “Variety Girl”).
Arnold Fanck, 85, German film director.
Len Johnson, 71, black British middleweight boxer and former British champion, labour movement activist and prominent member of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
History Diaries 