This Day In 1970's History: Wednesday January 18, 1978
- The next director of the F.B.I. is expected to be William Webster, a federal appellate judge in St. Louis, according to an official of the Carter administration. Judge Webster is a 53-year-old Republican who was appointed to the bench in 1971 by President Nixon and was at one time considered by President Ford as a candidate for the Supreme Court. [New York Times]
- The huge roof of an empty coliseum in Hartford's Civic Center collapsed under a heavy blanket of ice and snow. No one was hurt in the collapse, which dumped 1,400 tons of twisted steel tresses and gypsum concrete over the 10,000 empty seats below. [New York Times]
- Stock prices sped ahead in their best showing in 1978. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 7.28 points, closing at 786.30. [New York Times]
- The plea-bargaining power of prosecutors was enhanced by the Supreme Court, which ruled that they may threaten a defendant with a second, more serious, indictment if he refuses to plead guilty to a lesser charge and demands a trial. The 5 to 4 decision held that a man charged with forging an $88 check had not been deprived of his constitutional rights when the prosecutor carried out a threat and the forger was sentenced to life imprisonment instead of a five-year term previously offered to him. [New York Times]
- Efforts to bolster the Pentagon's policy role within the administration are being made by Defense Secretary Harold Brown by reorganizing his top civilian command. Department sources said that Mr. Brown had asked Henry Owen, director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, to take the new post of Under Secretary for Policy. The appointment would cement Mr. Brown's control over the military and, sources said, it would allow a single individual to deal with overall policy and strategic issues. [New York Times]
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