Generalissimo Francisco Franco suffered a sudden setback in his heart illness and the succession to power of Prince Juan Carlos de Borbon appeared to be underway. High officials made it clear that it was time for the 82-year-old Chief of State to step down in the interests of his government. The feeling here was widespread that, even if he recovered, the long rule of General Franco had come to an end. High Government sources had made it clear earlier that it was time for the general to go and that in the interest of the regime it was better he do so of his own volition. Earlier reports from the Pardo Palace pictured the general as recovering quickly and resuming his normal activities. He was scheduled to preside over the usual Friday Cabinet meeting tomorrow but this has now been canceled. Even before his relapse today, the Chief of State was facing a formidable array of Spanish forces that for different reasons would like to see him end a rule that has now lasted 36 years.
The State Department plans to break precedent and seek congressional approval of the nearly complete agreement with Spain for renewal of U.S. authority to use military bases on Spanish soil. Robert McCloskey, assistant secretary of state, confirmed the decision to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but said the form of the congressional approval to be requested was not decided yet. Previous agreements, dating back to 1953, have been “executive agreements” not subject to congressional approval.
The Soviet Union has enlarged a canal linking the Baltic and White Seas, thereby significantly increasing the flexibility of its two fleets in northern Europe, North Atlantic Treaty Organization sources disclosed today. Ships of the Northern Fleet. the Soviet Union’s largest, can now use the canal to reinforce the Baltic Fleet without surveillance from North Atlantic installations on Norway’s North Cape or from ships and aircraft operating in the Spitsbergen-North Cape gap in the Barents Sea, according to the sources, interviewed by telephone. Surface ships and submarines will be able to move from the Northern Fleet’s operational base near Murmansk to the Baltic Fleet’s repair facility in the Leningrad area without making the long trip around Scandinavia.
An estimated 15,000 leftists marched peacefully through Lisbon’s streets, waving red banners and calling for the downfall of the center-left Portuguese government. Planned as a massive show of force, the demonstration was smaller than others mustered by the Communist Party during the past two months. No violence was reported although some moderate politicians had said the march could be the prelude to a coup.
The leader of the kidnappers holding Dutch industrialist Tiede Herrema at gunpoint in the upstairs bedroom of a house in Monasterevin, Ireland, offered to swap his hostage for the freedom of his woman accomplice, police sources said. Eddie Gallagher, 27, a renegade leader of the Irish Republican Army, reportedly asked for no concessions for himself. His accomplice, believed to be 19-year-old Marian Coyle from Londonderry, fiercely resisted Gallagher’s plan for her safety, the sources said.
British cancer specialist Gordon Fairley was killed by a terrorist bomb that had been intended by the Irish Republican Army to assassinate Hugh Fraser of the British House of Commons. A bomb exploded under a car parked outside the London home of a member of Parliament who is serving as host to Caroline Kennedy, the 17-year-old daughter of President. Kennedy. The blast killed Gordon Hamilton Fairley, a leading British cancer specialist, as he was walking past the car. The incident occurred moments before Hugh Fraser, a Conservative, was to drive Miss Kennedy to an art course at Sotheby’s. The exact motive was not known. Dr. Fairley happened to be walking his two dogs past Fraser’s Jaguar XJ6 automobile when the time bomb exploded at 8:40 am.
Austrian police hunted in vain for the killers of Turkish Ambassador Danis Tunaligil and fears grew that the three men wanted in the slaying had escaped abroad. As the search spread from Vienna to the provinces, police alerted Interpol and kept a close watch on all border crossing points. There was still no firm clue to the motives or nationality of the men who shot the envoy in his office Wednesday.
Women take the day off in Iceland to commemorate “International Women’s Year”, shutting the country down for a day.
The United Nations Security Council, voting 13-0, extended the mandate of the international peace-keeping force in the Sinai buffer zone by a year. Two members, China and Iraq, did not participate although their representatives were present. The decision implied acquiescence by the Soviet Union, which voted to extend the mandate, and by China in the military disengagement accord that Egypt and Israel concluded on Sept. 4. Yakov A. Malik, the Soviet representative, had some reservations afterward. He said his Government favored resumption of the Geneva peace conference with the participation of all interested parties. including the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Premier Rashid Karami today accused the National Liberal party, headed by Interior Minister Camille Chamoun, a Christion, of being involved in the prolonged factional violence in Beirut. “We must not ignore the tribe,” Mr. Karami told members of Parliament after a series of hostile questions about the deteriorating security situation. “I wish that the tribe whose leader is the Minister of Interior had followed his own orders instead of setting up barricades and engaging in kidnapping and sniping. Mr. Karami, a Muslim, then quoted an Arabic proverb: “It turned out that the guard was, the same man as the thief.” Mr. Chamoun was not pressent in Parliament during the Premier’s criticism. Later, the chief of the internal security forces, which are under Mr. Chamoun’s control, announced that a 24‐hour curfew would be imposed in certain neighborhoods. The rift between Mr. Karami and Mr. Chamoun, a former President of Lebanon, added to an already ominous mood that has settled over Beirut in the last few days. A night of widespread violence and continued sniping today left at least 11 people dead and 14 wounded, according to the police.
King Hassan II of Morocco told Spanish Saharans “we will meet soon,” but diplomatic efforts mounted to delay the march of 350,000 Moroccan men, women and children into the phosphate-rich colony that Morocco claims. The Moroccan national news agency reported that a 20,000-strong vanguard of “peace marchers” began pulling in at Tarfaya, 10 miles north of the border with the colony and the final assembly point for next week’s march. In New York the Security Council voted unanimously to instruct Secretary General Kurt Waldheim to intervene and urged restraint and moderation on all sides.
Newsmen who left Peking with Secretary of State Kissinger were told that Chinese leaders now believed that American influence in world affairs had diminished in the last few years. However, they welcome the planned visit of President Ford because they feel it will enhance Chinese prestige, reporters traveling on Mr. Kissinger’s plane were told. The Secretary arrived with his party in Tokyo today and briefed Japanese leaders on his five‐day visit to Peking. Mr. Kissinger met with Foreign Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and later dined with him. He will breakfast with Premier Takeo Miki today.
In accordance with the decree of May 27 making the Quechua language one of the official languages of Peru (second to Spanish), the official Quechua alphabet (Alfabeto Basico General de Quechua) was created, with 31 letters. Although c, j, x and z are not used alone, variations such as ch, chh, ch’, kh and qh are included.
Two armed men burst into the British consulate in Asmara in the Ethiopian province of Eritrea, locked up an aide and kidnaped Basil Burwood-Taylor, 58, an honorary consul. It was the third major kidnapping in three months in the beleaguered city, which is at the center of a civil war between Eritrean rebels and government troops. Government officials said it was presumed the kidnappers belonged to the Eritrean Liberation Front.
The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola called up all men between the ages of 18 and 35 to combat what it called a foreign invasion “in the pay of international imperialism.” Earlier, the pro-Communist Lisbon evening newspaper Diario de Lisbon said a force of between 800 and 1,000 armed men — including mercenaries and regular South African army units — had advanced 150 miles into Angola.
There is fighting between Cuban & South African troops in Angola.
The 1975 Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Eugenio Montale, a 79-year-old Italian poet, for his vision of human values through “an outlook on life with no illusions.” In Milan, the poet said the award had made his life, “which was always unhappy, less unhappy.”
When President Ford’s armored limousine was hit broadside by a car last week, it was struck from the rear by a Secret Service auto, according to a police report in Hartford, Connecticut. Police Chief Hugo Masini said that the rear-end collision was so slight “it was not regarded as an accident.” The President’s car was hit on the passenger side as it was going through an unguarded intersection in Hartford and the Secret Service car directly behind it in a motorcade bumped into the limousine. Masini said also that the internal report on why the intersection was unguarded was yet to be completed.
A tax cut on 1976 income that would add $2.6 billion to reductions in 1975 taxes that took effect last spring was approved by the House Ways and Means Committee. However, under the package passed by the committee, like President Ford’s plan, nearly all families with children and a worker making $5,000 a year or less would be worse off than they are now.
Rejecting pleas from the Ford Administration, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence agreed today to hold public hearings on certain operations of the National Security Agency. The move came in the face of the strongest arm‐twisting yet used by the Ford Administration in its dealings with Congress on the intelligence issue. President Ford spoke to Senator Erank Church. the chairman of the committee, and later the group received pleas from Edward H. Levi, the Attorney General; James R. Schlesinger Jr., the Secretary of Defense, and senior White House aides. Nevertheless, Mr. Church announced today that the committee had agreed in a closed meeting to hold public hearings next week on some aspects of the security agency’s operations. “We hope these public sessions will bring to light certain questionable practices that raise constitutional as well as statutory legal questions,” said Mr. Church, the Idaho Democrat.
In a major break with the Administration, Senate Republican leader Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania refused to back President Ford’s proposed food stamp program. Instead, he joined in sponsoring a bill by Senator George S. McGovern (D-South Dakota) and Senator Robert Dole (R-Kansas), calling it “a positive step toward reform.” Scott said it had been estimated that the Administration proposal would remove from eligibility between 3.5 million and 6 million persons, establish eligibility below the poverty line and require an assets limitation test. He said the McGovern-Dole proposal would set a flat, maximum allowable net income for a family of four at $7,776 compared to the Administration’s $5,050.
Lawyers have filed suit in federal court in Jackson, Mississippi, against six Mississippi municipalities on behalf of black residents. The suit aims to impound more than $4 million in federal revenue-sharing funds until the towns equalize public services in black and white neighborhoods.
Legislation that would authorize $240 million to put unemployed persons to work improving roadbeds and facilities of financially ailing railroads was passed by the House. The Administration opposes the bill. Rep. Harley O. Staggers (D-West Virginia), chairman of the commerce committee, had pleaded for “an overwhelming vote, so the President would get the message” but the margin of 261 to 129 was barely over the two-thirds mark that would be required to override a veto. The bill goes to the Senate, which has passed a similar bill.
The police walked off the job in Oklahoma City, home of 370,000 residents today, with hundreds dramatically throwing down their badges in City Hall. Governor David Boren immediately assigned the state police to the city and notified the National Guard. Leaders of the Fraternal Order of Police, representing officers in wage negotiations with the city, said the officer action was not a strike, which is illegal for public employes under state law. They said the officers had resigned by turning in their badges. After watching policemen by the hundreds toss their badges on a table in the office of City Manager Howard McMahan, Mayor Patience Latting urged city residents to remain calm. She promised that streets would be patrolled and emergency calls would be answered.
House Speaker Carl Albert, in an unusually strong statement, urged Congress to approve legislation to avert a default by New York City, Representative Albert, an Oklahoma Democrat, said at a news conference that such a default would be “a catastrophe that would affect the entire country.” He urged legislation to contain stringent measures to “keep the lid tight” on the city’s fiscal behavior. City and state experts agree that unless federal aid is forthcoming, the city will default in early December.
Meanwhile, Senator James Buckley, the Conservative-Republican of New York, urged President Ford to order the Justice Department to create “a citizens committee” to investigate whether the city had violated federal law by overstating available funds to cover borrowing.
Patricia Hearst’s lawyers won a court order today over prosecutors’ objections that permits a psychiatrist hired by the defense to examine and treat her while she is in the San Mateo County Jail. Miss Hearst is being held without bail awaiting trial on the indictment that charges her with the armed robbery of the bank here on April 15, 1974, soon after she switched from kidnap victim to convert of the self‐styled Symbionese Liberation Army. Yesterday, a hearing was scheduled that would have examined Miss Hearst’s psychiatric state, but this was delayed until November 4 because all reports by psychiatrists appointed by Federal District Judge Oliver J. Carter were not yet available.
Each week, Florida’s prisons are gaining 93 new inmates who are younger, tougher and serving longer terms than previous inmates. In a desperate search for space, the new prisoners are being locked into converted warehouses and placed behind cyclone fences in Army tents.
Two major oil companies announced they are lowering their gasoline prices by 1 cent a gallon. Texaco and Gulf said the reduction would affect all grades of gasoline and would be effective nationwide. Shell recently announced a similar drop in prices. A spokesman for Texaco said it was the first general reduction in gasoline prices in more than a year. Spokesmen for Gulf stated that the cut was made “in response to competitive pressures in the marketplace.”
Vehicle mileage figures for June through September were higher than for the same months in previous years, the Department of Transportation reported. The 6.85 billion vehicle-miles driven in August were the highest recorded for any single month in history, department officials added. But the officials said gasoline tax revenues were below expected levels because drivers traveled farther on less fuel by using smaller, more economical cars and driving slower.
About a million Zenith color television sets were declared out of compliance with federal radiation standards by the Food and Drug Administration. However, an agency spokesman said that the government believed the program was a “marginal one” at this time. The problem involves the capacitor, an electronic component that stores electricity to keep the flow of power constant. If it should fail over a period of minutes, or hours, radiation higher than the law allows could escape, an FDA spokesman said. The problem is not regarded as serious because the Zenith sets cease to work when the problem develops, he added. A Zenith spokesman said the company was cooperating with the agency and supplying it information that Zenith “believes demonstrates that the failure of the capacitor does not result in a safety problem.” The sets involved were manufactured between the spring of 1974 and the spring of 1975.
Coyotes account for the loss of more than 8% of all lambs born and are the leading cause of lamb deaths in the Western states, a special Department of Agriculture report says. The report to Congress is related to a controversy over the ban of the use of poisons to control predators,” adopted largely because of pressure from conservation groups. Sheep producers argue that they literally are being eaten out of the business. Compared to the 735,000 lambs killed by coyotes, losses last year from other causes totaled about 2 million in 15 states. The balance of the lamb loss came from weather and disease or from foxes, mountain lions, wolves, bears, eagles and stray dogs.
English rock star Elton John receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
New York Islander goalie Glenn Resch blanks his 5th shut-out opponent, the Philadelphia Flyers, 3–0.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 855.16 (+5.59, +0.66%)
Born:
Keith Van Horn, NBA small forward and power forward (New Jersey Nets, Philadelphia 76ers, New York Knicks, Milwaukee Bucks, Dallas Mavericks), in Fullerton, California.
Kazuo Matsui, Japanese MLB second baseman and shortstop (New York Mets, Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros), in Higashi-Osaka, Japan.
Todd Belitz, MLB pitcher (Oakland A’s, Colorado Rockies), in Des Moines, Iowa.
Todd Sears, MLB first baseman and pinch hitter (Minnesota Twins, San Diego Padres), in Des Moines, Iowa.
Jessicka [Jessica Fodera], American goth-rock, alt-pop singer-songwriter and artist, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Odalys Garcia, Cuban-born TV actress (“Lente Loco”), in Havana, Cuba.
Died:
Barboura Morris, 43, American actor (“Wasp Woman”, “Machine-Gun Kelly”), from a stroke while battling cancer.
Charles Brokaw, 77, American actor (“Outer Gate”, “I Cover the War”).
History Diaries 