President Reagan has ordered a study to investigate if the United States should develop a new mobile multiple-warhead missile that is about the size of the 78,000-pound Minuteman, Administration officials said today. The new weapon could be developed as a complement to others in the land-based missile arsenal, officials said. Or, they added, it could be developed in place of a 37,000-pound version of the missile dubbed Midgetman that is envisioned by the Air Force. “We’re keeping our options open — it is not an either/or type of question,” said one Administration official. The request for the study is contained in a classified directive, signed by Mr. Reagan, that also makes a provisional call for dismantling two Poseidon submarines to adhere to the limits of the unratified second treaty on limiting strategic arms. According to Mr. Reagan’s tentative decision, the Poseidon submarines, which are toward the the end of their useful life, would be cut up in accordance with procedures under that treaty. Officials said they expected Mr. Reagan to issue a formal order for the dismantling soon after hearing the views of allies. Defense Department officials were among those who urged Mr. Reagan to stop abiding by the treaty.
A predawn bomb blast damaged a British Airways office and other stores on London’s busiest shopping street today, spraying glass into the street and igniting a fire. One passer-by was treated for shock. American Airlines and American Express have counters in the Oxford Street office, but a Scotland Yard spokesman, Philip Powell, said British Airways appeared to be the target. “If it had gone off after 9 AM, for instance, there would have been an awful lot of people about and injuries to people would have been quite horrendous because there were large pieces of glass littering the streets,” he said.
An explosion probably caused by a car bomb rocked central Madrid today, killing at least six Civil Guards and injuring other paramilitary soldiers and pedestrians, the police said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but the police said it looked like the work of the Basque separatist organization E.T.A. The explosion occurred at 7:25 AM on Juan Bravo Street in the fashionable Salamanaca neighborhood close to the Italian Embassy.
Cabinet Ministers from countries of the European Community agreed today to step up their exchange of information on terrorism with the United States and other nonmember nations. A statement issued by the ministers from eight of the 12 Common Market nations said the agreement reflected recognition that nations must work together to effectively fight terrorism. The United States officials, Attorney General Edwin Meese 3d, William Webster, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Robert Oakley, director of the State Department’s counterterrorism office, also met with some of the ministers, including Home Secretary Douglas Hurd of Britain. Mr. Hurd told a news conference that the American officials “suggested in a very courteous and understanding way that it would be valuable if there was a procedure which doesn’t now exist for contacts between the Common Market and the United States Administration.”
A senior Justice Department official has recommended that former U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim be barred from entering the United States because of his actions as a Wehrmacht officer in World War II, Reagan Administration officials said today. Federal law enforcement officials said the recommendation was made by Neal Sher, director of the department’s Office of Special Investigations. Attorney General Edwin Meese 3d would have to approve the recommendation before it could take effect, they said. A copy of the report has also been sent to the State Department, the officials said. Details of the report could not be immediately determined. Mr. Sher would not comment on the department’s investigation of Mr. Waldheim, who served in the German army in the Balkans at a time of brutal campaigns against Yugoslav partisans and of deportations of Greek Jews to death camps. Mr. Waldheim could be barred from entry into the United States under a 1978 amendment to the immigration law that excludes aliens who took part in Nazi war crimes. A candidate for the Austrian presidency, Mr. Waldheim, who was the United Nations chief from 1972 to 1982, has vigorously denied any involvement in atrocities during the war.
The Polish leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, and Jozef Cardinal Glemp held five hours of talks today in their first meeting in 10 months. The official Polish press agency said General Jaruzelski and Poland’s Roman Catholic Primate agreed that Western governments should lift remaining economic sanctions against Poland because they were “damaging to the nation.” The United States and some Western governments have maintained sanctions against Poland since the labor union Solidarity was suppressed and outlawed under martial law in 1981. General Jaruzelski and Cardinal Glemp said full diplomatic relations between the Polish Government and the Vatican would “serve the nation,” the press agency said, and they pledged to continue work on an agreement that would grant the church legal status in Poland.
Irish Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald’s government has introduced a bill calling for a referendum on removing the constitutional ban against divorce in predominantly Roman Catholic Ireland. The bill proposes an amendment allowing the government to introduce legislation that would permit divorce-but only after a court was satisfied a marriage had failed for five years. FitzGerald said he hopes the bill will pass in time to hold the referendum before the July recess.
Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou shuffled his Cabinet today, bringing in a former general to toughen law-and-order measures in Athens. After widespread criticism over the April 8 shooting in broad daylight of a steel executive, the 68-year-old Socialist leader appointed Antonis Drosoyannis as Public Order Minister. Mr. Papandreou also separated the Public Order and the Interior Ministries, acknowledging that joining them last July had not worked. “The ministers who are leaving did not fail, but from time to time there is a need for change and giving a chance to new people,” Mr. Papandreaou told reporters. In other changes, Mr. Papandreou dropped the defense portfolio he had held himself and appointed Vice President Yannis Haralambopoulos to the job.
Key movie figures have canceled plans to go to the Cannes Film Festival while many Hollywoodians are reassessing their plans as a result of the terrorist acts in Europe. Those who have canceled trips include Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Hershey. Miss Hershey cited her responsibility to her young son.
Almost half a century after a King of England abdicated his throne to make “the woman I love,” his wife, the socialite divorcee from Baltimore who became the Duchess of Windsor died in seclusion today at her home on the outskirts of Paris. She was 89 years old. The romance between the King, Edward VIII, and the former Wallis Warfield Simpson captured the imagination of the world and threatened to shake the monarchy of one of the greatest empires in world history. The body of the widow of the former King Edward VIII will be returned to England with restrained ceremony and honor and buried next to her husband’s grave in a cemetery near Windsor Castle.
President Reagan participates in a meeting with Republican Members of Congress to discuss Saudi arms sales.
Afghan rebel commanders said today that Soviet and Afghan warplanes were killing and maiming hundreds of their men in nonstop raids on rebel positions in southeastern Afghanistan. A senior commander called it the heaviest aerial bombardment in the seven-year Moslem insurgency against the Afghan Government and said it was the first use of large-scale night raids in that area. The commander, Rahim Wardak, said about 10,000 soldiers were advancing behind the air cover, with tank and artillery support, against makeshift rebel positions in Paktia Province near the Pakistani border. Insurgent leaders acknowledged Wednesday that Soviet commandos had captured and destroyed the main rebel base at Zhawar. “This is the worst fighting we’ve ever seen,” said the rebel leader, who is a top commander of the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan. “The air attacks are terrible.”
A leader of the Communist Khmer Rouge, accused of murdering millions of people during the four years it ruled Cambodia, said his group made “some mistakes” but can now be trusted to abide by democratic rules. Khieu Samphan, at a press conference in Bangkok, Thailand, appealed to Vietnam, which ousted his government in 1978, to withdraw and allow a coalition formed by the Khmer Rouge and two non-Communist groups to join the Hanoi-installed regime in an interim government. The proposal has already been rejected by Vietnam.
[Ed: “OOPS, we committed genocide. Our bad. Pinky promise we won’t do it again…” eye roll]
President Reagan places a call to President Corazon C. Aquino of the Philippines. President Reagan conferred today with Congressional leaders and aides as he prepared for the longest journey of his Presidency, a 22,000-mile, 13-day trip to the Far East. The trip, which begins Friday when Mr. Reagan flies to Los Angeles for an overnight stay, will include meetings with Southeast Asian foreign ministers in Bali, Indonesia, and with the leaders of the seven major industrial democracies in Tokyo. Mr. Reagan took time from his preparations today to call President Corazon C. Aquino of the Philippines. The White House said Mr. Reagan offered Mrs. Aquino United States military and economic assistance “in meeting the challenges that lie before her Government,” the White House said. It was Mr. Reagan’s first direct contact with Mrs. Aquino since she took power Feb. 26 after Ferdinand E. Marcos fled the Philippines.
North Korea said a ship sunk by South Korean naval vessels was a peaceful fishing boat that the South Koreans had tried to capture. South Korean defense officials said the unidentified boat was sunk after it opened fire. The incident, in which North Korea said a fisherman was killed, took place near the demilitarized zone separating north and south. Naval battles between the two occurred as recently as last fall. The latest negotiation attempt was suspended by the north early this year to protest joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises.
Communist Filipino guerrillas ambushed a military convoy today, killing six soldiers and a Manila newspaper reporter and wounding five people, according to a news photographer traveling with the convoy. One of the wounded was a Reuters photographer who died later today of his wounds. The Reuters photographer, Willie Vicoy, 45 years old, died of internal bleeding caused by shrapnel wounds in the hospital at Tuguegarao in Cagyan Province, a hospital spokesman, Dr. Melo Ramirez, said. Mr. Vicoy was shot in the back, according to Albert Garcia, a photographer for the Manila Bulletin, who was also wounded in the clash. The convoy had been ambushed near Tuguegarao in the northern Philippines, shortly after an operation against rebels.
Nicaraguan rebel leader Adolfo Chamorro was arrested when he arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica, from Miami, and ordered to return to the United States. Chamorro is a leader of the Revolutionary Democratic Alliance, one of several U.S.-backed groups of rebels known as contras. Chamorro was expelled from Costa Rica last year for inflammatory statements against Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government and barred from returning. His group operates in southern Nicaragua from makeshift bases along the Costa Rican border. A spokesman said Chamorro entered the country to “settle immigration problems.”
Salvadoran security forces are continuing an investigation into a kidnapping ring involving at least two senior army officers and several rightist political activists here who are accused of abducting affluent businessmen for million-dollar ransoms. Those under investigation are leading members of a powerful clique of ultra-rightist businessmen, officers and political figures who once held a virtual monopoly on political and economic power in El Salvador. Some are suspected of having led death squads that in the past killed thousands of people suspected of being leftists. One of those arrested is Rodolfo Isidro Lopez Sibrian, who was accused of killing two American agrarian advisers and the head of the Salvadoran land reform institute here five years ago but was not convicted. Mr. Lopez Sibrian’s brother-in-law was also detained, but immediately committed suicide under suspicious circumstances. His father-in-law is also under arrest.
About 2,500 professors at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala City walked off their jobs in a dispute over wages and other issues. The faculty of the largest university in Central America seeks a $16-a-month pay raise for each hour spent in the classroom, the creation of a teaching degree and academic reforms.
Frustrated by the refusal of President Augusto Pinochet to open talks about a transition to democracy, Chile’s largest opposition political front has begun expressing a willingness to seek a common strategy with some Marxist-Leninist groups. Three leaders of the Democratic Alliance, a grouping of seven political parties ranging from center right to center left, said in interviews this week that General Pinochet had left them no choice but to look for new ways to exert pressure on him and the military that backs him. This issue, whether democratic opponents of the Government should act “with the Communists or without the Communists,” as many Chileans describe it, has long been viewed with concern by the Reagan Administration and by the Chilean military. American officials have regularly urged the non-Marxist parties to avoid ties with the Marxist left, whether or not it advocates violence.
Argentine President Raul Alfonsin ordered the acceleration of hundreds of trials of military officers on human rights charges pending since 1983. At least 600 human rights cases have become backlogged in the Supreme Military Tribunal since Alfonsin took office as the head of an elected civilian government. The only trial to date was that of nine former military junta members, including three former presidents. A federal appeals court removed that case from the tribunal and found five of the nine guilty of widespread human rights violations. They were given sentences ranging from 4 ½ years to life in prison.
Peace talks aimed at ending Sudan’s three-year civil conflict have begun between the rebel Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement and Sudan’s Umma party, which won the most seats in the constituent assembly in this month’s elections. Umma leader Sadek Mahdi, expected to head the new government, said a top priority is to end the rebellion in the south peacefully.
The Nigerian songwriter and singer Fela Anikulapo Kuti, an outspoken critic of military rule and corruption, was released from prison today, the military government announced. The armed forces’ ruling council also said it had retired the judge who sentenced Fela, as he is known to his wide following in Africa, Europe and North America, to five years in prison on an accusation of trafficking in foreign currency. There had been many calls for Fela’s release since he was imprisoned in November 1984. Amnesty International, the human rights group, had declared him a prisoner of conscience. Upon his release from prison, Fela was greeted by 2,000 cheering fans, the Nigerian radio reported.
The Reagan Administration said today that South Africa’s pledge to allow freedom of movement for blacks throughout the country marked “a major milestone on the road away from apartheid.” It also said that the South African announcements “promise perhaps the most conspicuous discarding of discriminatory laws in recent South African history.” In its first reaction to the move announced in South Africa on Wednesday, the State Department tempered its praise of the Pretoria Government’s decision by saying that South Africa’s credibility depended on “quick implementation” of the program. It was clear from private and public comments by United States officials that the Administration was putting great store in the measures announced by President P. W. Botha. But as in the past, officials were also concerned that Mr. Botha move quickly and boldly to convince black leaders in South Africa that he was sincerely moving toward an end to the system of segregation known as apartheid.
Robert C. Byrd, the Senate Democratic leader, today joined four other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee in petitioning Attorney General Edwin Meese 3d to consider the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate the lobbying efforts of Michael K. Deaver. Mr. Deaver, the former deputy White House chief of staff who is an intimate of President Reagan and his wife, Nancy, left the Government last May to form a lobbying firm that represents Canada, Singapore, South Korea, Mexico and Saudi Arabia, as well as foreign and domestic companies, including a military contractor. He has publicized his clients, government contacts and large fees in a manner that has led to Congressional criticism and several investigations. Senator Joseph R. Biden of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, who initiated the letter to Mr. Meese, said in an interview, “There’s enough evidence out there so that, on the face of it, it seems like there are some real problems.”
America’s oldest voters outnumber the youngest age group, and the number of people eligible to vote this fall has climbed to a record 178 million, new Census Bureau figures show. The new estimates show that people aged 65 and over now slightly outnumber those aged 18 to 24, although each group makes up just over 16% of all potential voters. Until now, those 18 to 24 years old have outnumbered the elderly in every election year since being given the right to vote in the 1972 elections. But the actual turnout of younger voters has been less than that of the older age groups. The nation’s overall growth in voters has occurred with the aging of the post-World War II baby boom generation.
Reported crime jumped 4 percent in 1985, with even bigger increases in the South and West, after declining the three previous years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said today. But experts agreed that the overall increases in all categories of crime and all regions of the country were not statistically significant and that it was too early to predict a trend. The bureau, releasing its Uniform Crime Report, said the biggest leap, 8 percent, showed up in the South. Crime rose 5 percent in the West, 2 percent in the Northeast and stayed the same in the Middle West, the report said.
The Senate today defeated an effort to allow revival of the $4.6 billion revenue-sharing program for local governments. The vote on the program, which is to expire at the end of this fiscal year, was 54 to 41. The Senate also defeated two other proposals today that would have led to greater domestic spending than was included in the 1987 plan of the Senate Budget Committee.
Representatives of striking flight attendants and TWA held a nine-hour bargaining session in New York, the longest since the walkout began, and the union offered a total of $76.5 million in concessions to end the dispute, a union negotiator said. TWA had no comment and no new session was announced, said Cynthia deFigueiredo, a member of the team representing the Independent Federation of Flight Attendants. The airline continues to demand a 22% wage reduction and rule changes to save the airline $88 million.
U.S. Senator Dave Durenberger (R-Minnesota) has asked the State Department that Hmong refugees not be settled in Minnesota unless they have family ties among the 10,000 already settled there, according to a published report. A letter written to the department by Durenberger last month was obtained by the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, which quoted it as saying that Hmong refugees “have proved economically difficult to assimilate.” The Hmong, originally tribesmen from Laos, aided U.S. forces during the Vietnam War and fled when Communists took over the country.
Five people were fatally stabbed, shot or run over after spending the afternoon drinking in Lexington, Kentucky. Two women friends who allegedly robbed them were charged with one of the murders. The victims-two women and three men-were found within a few miles of one another on Lexington’s east side. The men were found either in or near a burning car that belonged to one of them, police said. Lieutenant John Bizzack said there were no other suspects, and police believe the pair had killed all five people.
A preliminary hearing on murder charges against Mormon documents dealer Mark W. Hofmann in Salt Lake City was postponed for 10 days midway through the proceedings because Hofmann broke his right kneecap in a fall at his home. Hofmann is accused of killing Steven Christensen, 31, and Kathleen Sheets, 50, in an alleged scheme to cover up the forgery of historical documents he sold to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other collectors.
A jury in Tucson ended five days of deliberations without a verdict in an alien smuggling case against 11 religious leaders and recessed for the day. The sanctuary movement, backed by up to 300 U.S. churches, contends the government unfairly denied refugee status to Central Americans fleeing civil strife. Immigration officials argue the aliens are job seekers, not refugees.
All 2,400 employees of the Boston Police Department will undergo random drug testing starting in June, Police Commissioner Francis Roache announced today. The commissioner said he did not think the department had any more drug users than other police departments or the general population. But he said he decided to act after many officers urged him to do so in the last year. Unions representing the police employees immediately vowed to challenge the action in court as a violation of the constitutional right against improper searches. Mr. Roache agreed to wait until June 21 to begin the testing in hopes of getting a court opinion on the legality of the procedure. Employees who test positive under the plan would be subject to a full range of sanctions, including dismissal.
Elizabeth Bouvia, a quadriplegic, won another legal battle today when a state judge ordered physicians at a county hospital to make no further reduction in her morphine dosage. Lawyers for Mrs. Bouvia went to court here as the physicians at High Desert Hospital in nearby Lancaster moved to wean her from the drug. The hospital said it did not believe that Mrs. Bouvia, 28 years old, should be treated with morphine. High Desert Hospital acted last week after an appeals court unanimously agreed with her and ordered physicians to stop force-feeding her. Today, Judge Jack Newman of Superior Court ordered that Mrs. Bouvia’s dosage of morphine be restored pending a hearing May 14.
A Federal district judge interrupted the testimony of an admitted Soviet spy today and sent jurors in the espionage trial home while he conferred with lawyers about undisclosed developments. The judge, David Kenyon, dismissed jurors in the trial of Richard W. Miller, a former agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, until Friday, saying he would meet with the witness, Svetlana Ogorodnikov, and her attorneys. Mrs. Ogorodnikov was testifying for the defense, which was trying to show that her relationship with Mr. Miller, the only F.B.I. agent ever tried on espionage charges, was not unique.
Stonecutters today began etching into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial the names of 108 servicemen killed or missing in action in the Vietnam War that were omitted when the monument was dedicated in 1982. By Memorial Day, when the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, a private group, has scheduled a re-dedication for families and friends of the servicemen, the list on the black granite slabs is to include all 58,130 casualties of the war, officials said. At a news conference today John Wheeler, fund chairman, said the number of visitors, more than three million a year, showed that “people who didn’t realize they were deeply touched by the war now realize that they were — this isn’t just a Vietnam memorial, it is America’s memorial.”
Mark Thatcher, son of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain, will be allowed to stay in his Dallas condominium under tight security despite the building owner’s efforts to evict him, officials said Thursday.
A gain in Alzheimer’s disease has been made, scientists at Albert Einstein College reported. They said they had found a protein in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients that does not exist in normal brains. About 2 million Americans suffer from the disease, for which there is no cure or effective treatment.
The issue of divesting stock in companies that do business with South Africa is particularly troubling for the nation’s 116 private black colleges. The schools’ economic bases are more fragile than those of most predominantly white institutions. As a result, the consequences of any divestment are weighed carefully. At Spelman College, a private predominantly black women’s school in Atlanta, the trustees are expected to vote tomorrow on a total divestment, even though many students have expressed misgivings that the school will suffer financially.
The number of new AIDS cases in New York City jumped sharply in the last two months, city health officials said yesterday. The rise ended a six-month period in which newly reported cases had remained constant. “It appears that we are having a steady increase in cases with occasional plateaus,” said Dr. Stephen Schultz, deputy director for epidemiology at the City Health Department. In the last half of 1985, the number of new cases of acquired immune deficiency syndrome in the city fluctuated around 190 a month, leading officials to speculate that the incidence was leveling off. But in the last two months, Dr. Schultz said yesterday, “we’ve had an extraordinarily large number of cases. The leveling off may have been just a statistical variation.”
Spring returned in all its glory to the eastern half of the nation with sunny skies and balmy temperatures, chasing away a freak spring storm that brought up to two feet of snow and three days of record cold. Warm air pushed out to sea a frigid air mass that broke record lows from Wisconsin to Florida and damaged millions of dollars worth of fruit crops. Temperatures climbed into the 60s and 70s from the Midwest to the East Coast.
A disputed fossil is authentic, British scientists said. The fossil, Archaeopteryx, is an impression in a stone slab of a creature with the teeth and skeletal traits of a reptile, but also bird-like features, including feathers. The scientists, responding to suggestions of a hoax, said tests had confirmed that the fossil was no fake.
The film “Crocodile Dundee” starring Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski premieres in Australia (would go on to be the highest grossing film of the year in the U.S.).
Major League Baseball:
Rick Sutcliffe, the Chicago pitcher, hit a three-run homer and Jerry Mumphrey hit one with the bases empty as the Cubs defeated the Montreal Expos, 7–5. Sutcliffe (1–3) capped a four-run sixth inning that broke open a 3–2 game with his home run. Mumphrey had a pair of singles as well as his first homer. It was the third straight victory for the Cubs, who had dropped seven of their first nine games. With one out in the sixth, Mumphrey singled and went to third on a double by Jody Davis. Mumphrey scored on a suicide squeeze by Bobby Dernier, who was safe at first when Bryn Smith (1–2) bobbled the ball. Sutcliffe followed with his homer. The Cubs took a 2–0 lead in the first inning on a double by Manny Trillo and run-scoring singles by Keith Moreland and Mumphrey. Mumphrey, who was pronounced fit after suffering injuries running into the left-field wall last Sunday, made the score 3–0 with his homer in the third. But the Expos came back with a two runs in the fourth on a walk and a homer by Dann Bilardello. The Expos added two runs in the seventh and knocked Sutcliffe out on a single by Jason Thompson and a homer by Hubie Brooks, his second of the season. Jay Baller finished for Chicago, earning his first save.
The Cincinnati Reds shut out the Houston Astros, 3–0. Mario Soto allowed three hits and Nick Esasky blasted a home run to lead Cincinnati. Soto (2–1) yielded two singles to Craig Reynolds and a leadoff single in the ninth to Phil Garner en route to his 68th career complete game. He walked three and struck out five. The loss for Houston was only its second in its last nine games. Cincinnati took a 1–0 lead in the third. Eric Davis ripped a one-out double off Mike Madden (1–1) and stole third. With two out, Bill Doran, the second baseman, threw low to first on Dave Parker’s ground ball that allowed Davis to score an unearned run. Esasky opened the fourth with his third homer of the season to give the Reds a 2–0 lead and keep Cincinnati’s home-run streak alive. The Reds have hit at least one home run in each of their 12 games this season. Cincinnati made it 3–0 in the eighth. Dave Concepcion singled with one out and stole second. Buddy Bell walked before Ron Oester lined a single to right, scoring Concepcion.
Mike Marshall and Greg Brock hit solo homers and Mariano Duncan delivered a two-out, two-run double to lead Los Angeles to a 6–3 victory against the Atlanta Braves. In committing no errors in a game for the first time this season, the last-place Dodgers put together their first two-game winning streak of the year as well. Orel Hershiser left after five innings with a stiff back, but evened his record at 2–2. The Los Angeles right-hander allowed six hits, four walks and two runs. Tom Niedenfuer, the third Los Angeles pitcher, earned the first Dodger save of the season despite allowing a run-scoring single to Ted Simmons in the eighth. Rick Mahler (1–4) also lasted just five innings in dropping his fourth straight decision.
Once, he was a strikeout pitcher, perhaps the most dominant of his day. But Ron Guidry is nearly 36 years old, and his left arm is no longer the overpowering weapon it was in the late 1970’s. So he has found other ways to win. A year ago, Guidry began to rely less on his fastball and more on his ability to finesse hitters. Last night, he overcame a slow start, worked himself out of a few jams and pitched the Yankees’ first complete game of the season in a 2–1 victory over the Cleveland Indians at Yankee Stadium. The victory gave the Yankees an 11–4 record, their best season start in 28 years. Third baseman Dale Berra of the Yankees was forced to leave the game when he suffered blurred vision after a collision with Brook Jacoby of the Indians.
Alvin Davis and Ken Phelps hit home runs, the only two hits allowed by Oakland’s Jose Rijo in 8 ⅓ innings, leading Seattle past the A’s, 3–1. Rijo struck out 14 and came within two of the major-league record for strikeouts in two consecutive games, with a total of 30. Rijo, a 20-year-old right-hander, fanned 16 in eight-plus innings last Saturday night when he beat the Mariners in Seattle. Nolan Ryan, with the 1974 California Angels, and Dwight Gooden of the 1984 New York Mets totaled 32 strikeouts over two games.
Mike Schmidt smashed two home runs and knocked in four runs to support the five-hit pitching of Shane Rawley to lead Philadelphia to a 4–2 win over the Pirates. Rawley (2–1) notched his second complete game. He struck out five and walked four. Schmidt had a two-run homer and a bases-empty shot, giving him four on the season, and a sacrifice fly. The Phillies took a 2–0 lead in the first. With two outs, Rick Rhoden (2–1) walked Von Hayes, and Schmidt followed with a home run to left on a 3–2 pitch. Pittsburgh made it 2–1 in the bottom half of the first. With two outs, Johnny Ray walked and advanced to second on Mike Brown’s single up the middle. Sid Bream’s infield single loaded the bases. The Pirates scored when the Phillies’ catcher, Darren Daulton, dropped the third strike with Tony Pena at bat and then threw wildly to first. Philadelphia added a run in the sixth on Schmidt’s sacrifice fly. The Pirates closed to 3–2 in the sixth on Pena’s leadoff homer. Schmidt’s homer in the ninth made it 4–2.
The New York Mets did it with flourishes tonight in the opening round of the battle for first place. They rallied with two runs in the ninth inning and another in the 10th to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5–4, and extended their winning streak to six games. It was a classic struggle that took three and a half hours to decide, and then it was decided with farfetched touches. The Mets were two outs from losing the game in the ninth, but Howard Johnson hit a long two-run home run off Todd Worrell to keep them alive. Then, after two walks in the 10th, George Foster lined a two-out single to left field that shot the Mets in front and sent the Cardinals to their fourth straight loss.
Montreal Expos 5, Chicago Cubs 7
Cincinnati Reds 3, Houston Astros 0
Atlanta Braves 3, Los Angeles Dodgers 6
Cleveland Indians 1, New York Yankees 2
Seattle Mariners 3, Oakland Athletics 1
Philadelphia Phillies 4, Pittsburgh Pirates 2
New York Mets 5, St. Louis Cardinals 4
The stock market broke a two-day slump yesterday by chalking up a slight rise, but trading activity was reduced by concern over the recent poor performance by the bond market, and by the Passover holiday. Eliot Fried, senior executive vice president of Shearson Lehman Brothers, however, believes the stock and bond markets may soon part company, with equities investors becoming more concerned about corporate profits than interest rates. The Dow Jones industrial average, after a big loss on Tuesday and a small decline on Wednesday, gained 2.11 points yesterday, to 1,831.72. The New York Stock Exchange composite index gained 0.12, to 139.46, and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index climbed 0.27, to 242.02.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1831.72 (+2.11)
Born:
Aaron Cunningham, MLB outfielder (Oakland A’s, San Diego Padres, Cleveland Indians), in Anchorage, Alaska.
Aaron Gagnon, Canadian NHL centre (Dallas Stars, Winnipeg Jets), in Quesnel, British Columbia, Canada.
Died:
Wallis Simpson, 89, American divorcee whom British King Edward VIII abdicated his throne to marry.
History Diaries 