The crash of Czechoslovak Airlines Flight 001 killed 76 of the 79 people on board. The Ilyushin Il-18B turboprop airplane was arriving at Bratislava at the end of a 45-minute flight from Prague and was coming in too quickly when one of the pilots set a thrust reversal on two engines, causing both engines on the right wing of the airplane to fail. An uncontrollable turn to the right resulted and the aircraft plunged into Lake Zlaté Piesky at 9:37 in the morning. Only three people survived after being pulled from the plane before it sank.
Authorities evacuated 20 more persons today and extended by several miles the zone in Italy regarded as dangerously polluted by a cloud of chemicals from a Swiss-owned plant. Since the cloud of poisonous trichlorophenol gas escaper from the Icmesa chemical plant near Seveso 18 days ago, one cow and hundreds of rabbits, cats, birds and chickens have died. Plants have withered and about 30 persons have been treated in hospitals. Soldiers have placed barbed wire around the zone of heaviest pollution which now covers more than 72 acres, including a heavily traveled road from Milan, just 12 miles away, to the vacation lakes near Como.
The Spanish Communist Party emerged from nearly 40 years of clandestine activity to hold its first public Central Committee meeting since the Spanish civil war. But because Spanish authorities refused to allow the meeting to be held in Spain, the 125-member body met in Rome. Party leader Santiago Carrillo told delegates, many of whom live and work in Spain, that they were taking a conscious risk by meeting in public.
The “tourist-sodden summer months,” in the words of a newspaper letter writer, have befallen drought-parched London. The city is experiencing the biggest tourist boom in its history. Even the Americans, who for two years have shunned foreign travel, are trickling back. Heathrow Airport is jammed and clammy, and its check‐in computers have been breaking down. The fence around Buckingham Palace was packed three and four deep yesterday, both for the changing of the guard and the Queen’s garden party. At noon in Trafalgar Square, tourists clearly outnumbered the pigeons. The boom seems to have been brought by an explosion of the wanderlust that accumulated during the worldwide recession of the last two years and by Britain’s own special attraction, the devalued pound.
After a bitter all-night debate, the House of Commons voted to allow Scotland’s pubs to open on Sundays. They have been closed on Sundays since 1853. “The English should have kept their nose out of our affairs on this matter,” said Winifred Ewing, a Scottish nationalist after approval of the Scotland (Licensing) Bill. The bill now goes to the House of Lords, where approval is considered certain. Many of those voting forgot party loyalties in their efforts to get the pubs open. They reflected the hurt national pride in being forbidden to drink in pubs on Sunday, as Englishmen or Welshmen can. Actually, drinks are served in Scotland in hotels to bona fide travelers, a rule that is frequently bent on Sunday evenings.
A 22-year-old man was executed by guillotine today in Marseilles for the kidnapping and murder of an 8-year-old girl. Christian Ranucci went to the guillotine at dawn, condemned for the murder of Maria Dolores Rambla in 1974. He was the first person executed in France since Valery Giscard d’Estaing, an opponent of capital punishment, became President two years ago. The last person to go to the guillotine in France was a Tunisian, All Benyanes, also a child murderer, who was executed in 1973. During the Presidential election campaign, Mr. Giscard d’Estaing expressed opposition to the death penalty, and in February this year he reprieved a 17‐year‐old boy sentenced to death for robbing, torturing and killing a 69‐year‐old woman.
Soviet chess grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi, who stayed in Amsterdam instead of taking a plane home, has been offered a haven in Augusta, Georgia, by an official of a chess tournament he won two years ago. William H. Dodgen, technical director of the 1974 World Chess Championship quarter finals, said he sent the invitation in care of the U.S. Embassy in Amsterdam. Meanwhile, the Dutch government was considering whether to grant political asylum to Korchnoi, who was staying at a secret hideout while awaiting the decision.
A pair of massive earthquakes killed over 240,000 people in and around the northeastern Chinese city of Tangshan in Heibei province. At five seconds before 3:43 in the morning local time (19:42:55 on July 27 UTC), a 7.6 magnitude quake struck with an epicenter 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) below the western side of Tangshan. Fifteen hours later, at 6:45 in the evening (10:45:36 on July 28 UTC), a 7.0 magnitude aftershock followed. The official death toll would later be tallied, in a report by Heibei province officials leaked to the Western press, as 655,237 deaths and 779,000 injuries. A powerful earthquake shook Peking before dawn, cracking walls, smashing windows and sending thousands of people rushing into the streets. A Chinese government spokesman said the quake centered 90 miles southeast of Peking near Tientsin. The earth tremors lasting about two minutes were felt throughout Hopeh province. In Golden, Colorado, the United States Geological Survey gave nearly the same place as the epicenter of the quake but measured its intensity at 8.2 on the Richter scale, making it the world’s most powerful shock in 12 years. A second powerful earthquake struck northeast China 16 hours after the first. The Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee said they had “caused great losses to people’s lives and property,” according to a broadcast monitored in Hong Kong. The message to people in the stricken area added that Tangshan, an industrial city of 1 million about 100 miles southeast of Peking, suffered “extremely serious damage and losses.” A group of French survivors from the stricken area said that Tangshan had been “ruined totally, 100 percent.” The official count stated 242,469 deaths, while historians accepted at least 300,000 died, making it the deadliest earthquake in recorded history (excluding the famine deaths from the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake) and one of the worst disasters in China by death toll.
Japanese prosecutors indicted the president of All Nippon Airways and one of his aides on charges of illegally receiving $536.000 from Lockheed Aircraft Corp. Tokuji Wakasa, 61, and Toshio Fujiwara, 48, were indicted by the Tokyo district prosecutor’s office on two counts each of violating Japan’s foreign currency control law. Wakasa had been under arrest since July 8: Fijiwara, a day earlier.
The first full day of prison life for former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka began, as it does for all prisoners in Japan, with a 20‐cent breakfast at 7 AM. Mr. Tanaka was arrested yesterday on charges of having accepted $1.67 million in secret payments from the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in Japan’s biggest post-World War II payoff scandal. The former Prime Minister spent the night in a stuffy solitary cell behind bars in the Tokyo House of Detention at Kosuge in the southern part of the capital. The large prison population includes 14 executives and employees of the Marubent Corporation and All Nippon Airways who have also been arrested in the Lockheed scandal.
President Ford and the Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser said in a statement today that the military buildup by Warsaw Pact countries was “a matter of concern not only in Europe but throughout the world.” They said the Warsaw Pact’s Communist members had gone “beyond levels apparently justified for defensive purposes.” The statement was issued on the second day of Mr. Fraser’s official three‐day visit, his first trip to the United States since becoming Prime Minister late last year. Mr. Fraser met for more than a hour with Mr. Ford yesterday.
New regulations banning the use of the French language in the cockpits of commercial airliners during flight operations were implemented by the Canadian Federal Transport Department. A policy statement said that French could be used for social conversation between the pilot and crew, but technical operations had to be conducted in English. The new regulations contradicted an earlier statement allowing French in flight operations. A spokesman for the Canadian Airline Pilots’ Assn. said he was satisfied with the new regulations.
Citizens were beaten by Toronto police officers in six of 16 incidents investigated, an Ontario Royal Commission report said. Justice Donald Morand of the Ontario Supreme Court said in the report that he found falsified records and evidence to support some charges of police brutality accompanied by a growing loss of public confidence. Morand suggested establishing an impartial system to handle citizen complaints against police and expansion of police community service units.
The British government broke diplomatic relations with the Uganda government of Idi Amin. Foreign Secretary Anthony Crosland told the House of Commons he hoped the move would only be temporary. The culmination of four years of growing tension was Uganda’s failure to explain the disappearance and presumed death of Dora Bloch, a British passport holder who was among the hostages left behind after Israel’s July 4 raid on Entebbe Airport. It was Britain’s first break with a Commonwealth land.
The Viking 1 lander began the first experiment to find signs of life on another planet as its robot arm scooped up a sample of the fine-grained soil on Mars and poured it into its “automated biological laboratories” built into the spacecraft. Only one of the three samples reached the organic chemical analyzer. Viking project officials announced that the mechanical scoop had delivered soil samples to all three on‐board biology experiments and to an inorganic chemical analyzer, but that it had apparently failed in two attempts to drop a sample in an instrument for detecting any organic material on Mars. James S. Martin Jr., the project manager, said that flight engineers had been unable thus far to determine what went wrong. He said that all indications were that the sampling arm had worked as planned but that radio signals never confirmed that the soil had actually reached the heart of the instrument. It may be several days before the nature of the problem is discovered, Mr. Martin said, and more than a week before another attempt could be made to load the instrument with Martian soil.
General Bernard W. Rogers, a former Rhodes scholar who now heads the Army Forces Command at Ft. McPherson, Georgia, has been nominated by President Ford to be Army chief of staff. If confirmed by the Senate, he will succeed General Frederick C. Weyand, who will retire October 1. Rogers, 55, is a Vietnam veteran and former Army deputy chief of staff for personnel. Weyand, who will be 60 in September, took over as the Army’s highest ranking officer after the death of General Creighton Abrams in September, 1974.
Clarke Reed, the influential chairman of the Mississippi delegation to the Republican National Convention, gave his “personal” endorsement of President Ford’s, candidacy. He said this was the direct result of Ronald Reagan’s designation of a liberal, Senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania, as his prospective running mate. Mr. Reed said Mr. Ford has assured him personally that he would choose someone personally and philosophically compatible with himself and the party’s mainstream.
When Senator Walter F. Mondale arrived in Plains, Georgia late last Saturday night, he was greeted at the old depot by Jimmy Carter, who told the crowd of tourists and townspeople that “I’ve never had the slightest doubt that I made the right choice.” That was only nine days after he had announced Mr. Mondale as his choice for running mate. Mr. Mondale responded almost effusively to this verbal token of Mr. Carter’s confidence, listing what he felt the people of the country wanted most deeply and ending with “what they want is Jimmy Carter as President of the United States!” The crowd agreed, long and loud, and Mr. Carter came back, to reassure them: “I’m very proud of him, and he shares all of my commitments to you.” Although Mr. Mondale has said that it is likely there may be some areas of dispute between the two men he has seemed quietly intent on letting everyone know that he agrees with Mr. Carter on this, and on almost everything else.
A Federal Bureau of Investigation agent has testified that while assigned to Manhattan he took part in 50 to 90 burglaries of the Socialist Workers Party headquarters between 1958 and 1965. George Baxtrum’s deposition of last June was made public in Washington. He said he had been told each burglary was authorized by F.B.I. headquarters and that he had received commendation for what he found.
The Ford Administration, adopting a position close to that of environmentalists, has announced iti supports a broad jurisdictional interpretation of the Water Pollution Control Act of 1972. Four spokesmen for the Administration, including Russell E. Train, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, disclosed the newly articulated policy in testimony at a hearing last night of the Senate Public Works Committee. The Administration and environmental groups, led by the Natural Resources Defense Council, support Government protection by a permit program of “all waters” of the United States, including wetlands, marshes, swamps and non-navigable streams and tributaries. The Army Corps of Engineers would administer the program, designed to control draining, dredging and filling of these areas.
In a move that could cause significant slowdowns in air travel, the air traffic controllers’ union, which is involved in a salary dispute, called on members yesterday to handle aircraft “by the book.” Specifically, the 14,000 controllers were asked to adhere rigidly to regulations that require planes to stay three to six miles behind other craft ahead of them along the nation’s airways and as they funnel into airport traffic pattern. The message to controllers was issued from Washington by John F. Leyden, head of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. He said it was in response to action of the Civil Service Commission in again delaying a study of pay reclassification and in disclosing its intention to downgrade some controllers. “We ask [controllers] to stop extending themselves in providing services above and beyond what the rules require,” Mr. Leyden said. “We anticipate this will result in delays in the movement of air traffic in this country. None of these steps will adversely affect air safety.”
The Treasury Department is considering issuing a new smaller $1 coin primarily for use in vending machines. In size and weight, the new coin would be between the 25-cent and 50‐cent coins. It probably would be thinner than either of those. The current Eisenhower dollar is “too big and bulky: it just doesn’t circulate,” says James Parker, a mint spokesman. “I think a new coin would be good for the whole country as well as our industry,” said G. Richard Schreiber of the National Automatic Merchandising Association.
[Ed: This will emerge as the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which will be no more popular than the Eisenhower coin was.]
The House of Representatives passed today a bill, strongly backed for several years by the United Mine Workers union, that would transfer the enforcement of Federal coal mine safety standards to the Labor Department from the Interior Department, which has long been criticized for lax enforcement. The measure, adopted 309 to 86, would transfer the Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration, or MESA, from the Interior Department and place it under a new assistant secretary for mines, giving the agency equal status with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which polices hazards in non-mining work places. An attempt to strike the proposed MESA transfer from the bill was defeated yesterday by a vote of 263 to 199.
William and Emily Harris lost a fight today for a mistrial on possible jury tampering, even though the prosecution and defense agreed that one of the jurors might have smuggled a 1974 newspaper on Patricia Hearst’s kidnapping into the heavily guarded jury room 10 days ago. Superior Court Judge Mark Brandler denied the mistrial motion as well as a defense demand that he disqualify himself from the case. He then spent the remainder of the day hammering out jury instructions with the lawyers. Thus summations were delayed until tomorrow. Such instructions are usually considered crucial to a case, but they are particularly so in this trial where the defense concedes the facts, but maintains the charges against the defendants are in excess of the deeds they committed on May 16, 1974.
American doctors are stealing more than $300 million a year from Medicare by padding bills, falsifying claims and participating in kickback schemes, Senator Frank E. Moss, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Long Term Care, charged today. The practices continue almost unchecked for a number of reasons, he said, including the reluctance of judges to send convicted physicians to prison. “There comes a certain point when physicians, like other lawbreakers, must be put in jail.” Senator Moss said at Senate Finance Committee hearing. “To do otherwise, as we have been, is to make a mockery of the laws we have enacted and to ridicule the great majority, of honest physicians who observe them,” the Utah Democrat said in his testimony.
More than a third of the nation’s 150,000 soft‐coal miners stayed off their jobs today, the ninth day of a wildcat strike that has spread over three states. Guy Farmer, general counsel for the Bituminous Coal Operators Association, said that more than 60,000 miners were idle as additional mines closed in Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia, where the walkout began. In Washington, a spokesman for the president of the United Mine Workers, Arnold Miller, agreed with the estimate. “It’s not quite half, but it’s getting there,” he said. The strikers have defied new Federal court injunction and Mr. Miller’s instructions to return to work. The pickets who have spread the strike complain that Federal courts are too quick to jump into local labor disputes and say that all pending fines and injunctions against the Union should be reconsidered. They also complain that the coal companies tend to go to court rather than settle disputes at the local level.
The General Motors Company reported the second highest quarterly earnings in American business history— $909 million, or $3.16 a share, for the three months that ended June 30. It was exceeded only by the $939.7 million profit reported by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in its March-May quarter this year. The report indicated strongly that the auto industry continues to lead the nation’s sustained economic recovery.
Yves Saint Laurent presented in Paris a fall couture collection that is likely to change the course of fashion around the world. The look is vaguely peasant, but akin in feeling to the Edwardian collection shown by Christian Dior in 1947 that came to be known as the New Look. There is similarity in the big, puffy sleeves, bouffant skirts and petticoats. The Saint Laurent collection is wildly colorful, combining many brilliant colors in the same dress. The fabrics are crisp taffetas and satin.
Eldon Joersz and Geo Morgan set a world airspeed record of 3,530 kph.
Major League Baseball:
In addition to pitching a seven-hitter, Phil Niekro batted in the Braves’ last four runs with a homer and single to clinch a 7–2 victory over the Dodgers. The Braves broke a 2–2 tie in the fifth inning when Jerry Royster tripled and Jim Wynn hit a sacrifice fly. Niekro whacked his homer with two men on base in the sixth and added the final run with his single in the eighth.
After being held hitless for 5 ⅔ innings, the Orioles rallied to defeat the Yankees, 4–3. Doyle Alexander, who started for the Yanks, had a perfect game going until Mark Belanger was safe on an error in the sixth. Then, with two out, Al Bumbry tripled to drive in the Orioles’ first run. The Orioles completed their comeback with three runs in the seventh. Singles by Bobby Grich, Lee May and Ken Singleton accounted for the first tally and another run crossed the plate on a wild pitch and single by Belanger. After a pass to Doug DeCinces loaded the bases, Andres Mora grounded into a forceout as Singleton scored the deciding run.
Larvell Blanks, who had previously hit one of the Indians’ three homers in the game, as well as a double, singled a run across the plate in the eighth inning to beat the Red Sox, 7–6. The Red Sox knocked out Jackie Brown in the second while taking a 6–2 lead, but the Indians got shutout relief work over the rest of the route from Jim Kern and Dave LaRoche. Winding up the game with a flourish, LaRoche struck out all four batters that he faced. Buddy Bell and Rico Carty also homered for the Indians, Carty’s blow coming after a double by Blanks to tie the score at 6–6 in the seventh. Ray Fosse singled in the eighth and was forced by Rick Manning, who then stole second. After an intentional pass to John Lowenstein, Blanks hit his game-winning single.
A squeeze bunt by Dave Nelson with the bases loaded and one out in the 15th inning scored an unearned run and gave the Royals a 3–2 victory over the Angels. Tom Poquette reached second on a throwing error by Jerry Remy to open the stanza. After an intentional pass to George Brett, John Mayberry moved the runners along with an infield out. The Angels then passed Amos Otis intentionally before Nelson bunted to score Poquette.
The Reds were shut out for only the third time in 100 games this season when they collected only five hits and lost to the Giants, 7–0. John D’Acquisto pitched the first 6 ⅓ innings for the Giants before leaving the game with a blistered thumb and Gary Lavelle completed the whitewashing. Ken Reitz led the Giants at bat, driving in two runs with a single and one with a sacrifice fly.
The standout candidate for the Cy Young Award, Randy Jones gained his 18th victory of the season as the Padres edged the Astros in 10 innings, 2–1. Jones and Joaquin Andujar dueled through nine scoreless stanzas before the Padres broke the deadlock in the 10th. Johnny Grubb singled and gave way to pinch-runner Willie Davis, who stopped at third on a double by Mike Ivie. With two out, Doug Rader singled to drive in both runners. Jones’ bid for a shutout was spoiled in the home half of the 10th when the Astros scored their run on doubles by Leon Roberts and Cliff Johnson.
A sacrifice fly by Pedro Garcia in the ninth inning brought the Tigers a 1–0 victory over the Brewers in a pitching duel between Dave Roberts and Jerry Augustine. Tim Johnson led off the inning with a single and moved around to third on a sacrifice by Aurelio Rodriguez and single by Bill Freehan before crossing the plate on Garcia’s fly. The run ended Augustine’s string of 20 consecutive innings of scoreless pitching.
Led by the batting of Lyman Bostock, who collected three hits in the first game and two more in the second game, the Twins defeated the Rangers in both ends of a twi-night doubleheader, 8–5 and 8–0. The Twins rapped seven singles while scoring five runs in the fourth inning of the opener and added three runs for their winning margin on RBI singles by Rod Carew, Butch Wynegar and Bostock in the sixth. Steve Luebber, who pitched first the 6 ⅓ innings, and Tom Burgmeier, who finished, combined to post the shutout in the nightcap. The victory was the first in the majors for Luebber since August 18, 1971. Dan Ford hit a homer and single in the Twins’ attack and drove in three runs.
Richie Hebner, who has been bothered by a bad back and has played only occasionally, returned to the Pirates’ lineup and capped a three-hit night by smashing a homer in the 13th inning to beat the Mets, 1–0. Doc Medich and Tom Seaver, who were the starters, battled each other through 10 scoreless stanzas. Dave Giusti pitched the last three innings for the Pirates, allowed only one hit and was the winner on Hebner’s homer off Ken Sanders, who was on the Mets’ mound in relief of Seaver.
White Sox pitchers Blue Moon Odom (5 Innings) and Francisco Barrios (4 innings) combine on a no-hitter as the White Sox top the A’s 2–1. Odom walks 9 in 5 innings and is lifted after throwing a ball in the 6th, and Barrios adds another 2 passes. For Odom (2-0), this is his last Major League victory.
Wrecking the Phillies’ strategy, Manny Trillo smashed a three-run homer in the 11th inning to carry the Cubs to a 5–2 victory. Bill Madlock led off the frame with a single. After Jerry Morales bounced out, moving Madlock to second, the Phillies passed Pete LaCock intentionally to get at Trillo, who upset the applecart by connecting for his homer off Ron Reed.
Woodie Fryman and Dale Murray combined to pitch Expos to a 3–0 victory over the Cardinals in the rain-delayed opener of a scheduled twi-night doubleheader. The second game was postponed. Eric Rasmussen was the Cardinals’ hard-luck loser. With one out in the seventh, Barry Foote singled for the Expos. Rain then stopped play for the second time. When action resumed, Bill Greif took the mound for the Cards and the Expos proceeded to break the scoreless tie with a run on a double by Jose Morales, sending Foote to third, and a sacrifice fly by Ellis Valentine. The Expos iced the decision with RBI singles by Larry Parrish and Tim Foli in the ninth.
The second game between the Cardinals and Expos is postponed due to rain. It will be made up on September 8.
Los Angeles Dodgers 2, Atlanta Braves 7
New York Yankees 3, Baltimore Orioles 4
Cleveland Indians 7, Boston Red Sox 6
Kansas City Royals 3, California Angels 2
San Francisco Giants 7, Cincinnati Reds 0
San Diego Padres 2, Houston Astros 1
Detroit Tigers 1, Milwaukee Brewers 0
Texas Rangers 5, Minnesota Twins 8
Texas Rangers 0, Minnesota Twins 8
Pittsburgh Pirates 1, New York Mets 0
Chicago White Sox 2, Oakland Athletics 1
Chicago Cubs 5, Philadelphia Phillies 2
Montreal Expos 3, St. Louis Cardinals 0
Bearish economic news drove the stock market lower yesterday in slightly heavier trading. At the opening the Commerce Department reported that its ‘June index of leading economic indicators rose only 0.3 percent, the smallest rise since an 0.1 percent increase in November 1975. The news triggered early selling, which continued throughout most of the session, because it created uncertainty about the economy in the third quarter. The Dow Jones industrial average at the close was down 2.80 points at 981.33, its highest level of the day. At 1:30 PM the key barometer was off 6.96, its low for the session. There was little news to account for the late mild recovery.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 981.33 (-2.80, -0.28%)
Born:
Huma Abedin, American political staffer to Hillary Clinton, in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Jacoby Shaddix, American rock musician in the group Papa Roach; in Mariposa, California.
Jerry Wisne, NFL tackle (Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers), in Rochester, Minnesota.
Anthony Poindexter, NFL defensive back (NFL champions, Super Bowl 35-Ravens, 2000; Baltimore Ravens), in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Died:
Christian Ranucci, 22, convicted child murderer, was executed on the guillotine at a prison in Marseille.
Lucie Mannheim, 77, German singer and actress (“39 Steps”).
Maggie Gripenberg, 95, Finnish choreographer.
History Diaries 