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News stories from Monday January 1, 1973
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A plane loaded with relief supplies for the earthquake victims of Managua, Nicaragua, crashed after takeoff from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Pittsburgh Pirates superstar Roberto Clemente was on the plane; all aboard were killed. Thousands of people lined a beach looking for wreckage.
Clemente, a 38-year-old Puerto Rican, was in charge of relief efforts to Nicaragua and he was idolized in Puerto Rico. The island's governor has declared three days of mourning for Clemente. The mourning in Puerto Rico is matched in Pittsburgh. Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn said that Clemente had a touch of royalty about him. Pirates' announcer Bob Prince said that Clemente was a very compassionate man. [CBS]
- Private peace talks resume in Paris next Monday between North Vietnam and the United States; tomorrow in Paris, low level technical talks will resume. In Washington, Henry Kissinger and President Nixon will meet to plan their next move.
President Thieu of South Vietnam was informed that the U.S. intends to press for a peace settlement by the end of this month if possible. A South Vietnamese delegation will arrive in Washington soon to make their pitch for U.S. support. They want the settlement to recognize the sovereignty of South Vietnam. The effect of the U.S. bombing on North Vietnam's negotiating position is unknown. [CBS]
- Because of the new year holiday, cease-fires are in effect throughout South Vietnam. Unofficial reports say that no bombing is going on over North Vietnam, a policy which may continue as the peace talks near resumption. [CBS]
- Folk singer Joan Baez, Columbia University law professor Telford Taylor and two other members of an antiwar delegation returned from Hanoi after being there during heavy U.S. bombing. The group's purpose was to visit American POWs and deliver letters and Christmas cards to them. They carried 600 letters from the POWs back to the United States.
Taylor stated that the Hanoi bombing is different from World War II bombing. In World War II incendiary bombs were used, but not in Hanoi. Some areas of the town are totally destroyed while others remain intact. Even so, the bombing in Hanoi has been heavier than the London bombing in World War II. Yale divinity school Rev. Michael Allen described how the Bach Mai Hospital was destroyed by bombs. Joan Baez said that "terrorism" must be the reason for the U.S. bombing. Vietnam Veterans Against the War member Barry Romo insisted that the North Vietnamese attacks in South Vietnam are not comparable to the U.S.' B-52 strikes against civilian areas. [CBS]
- Social Security benefits are now raised, as are Social Security taxes which pay for the increased benefits. Higher Social Security taxes make it difficult for poor families. Some legislators want Social Security to be overhauled, and they want the same type of hardship deductions and exemptions that income tax provides. Senator Walter Mondale says that the average worker pays 5.8% of his income for Social Security, plus the 5.8% the employer contributes. The employer contribution is really the employee's money, so the employee actually pays 11.6% into the Social Security fund. Mondale then stated that a rich person pays far less into Social Security, as a percentage of his pay, than a poor person does. [CBS]
- The federal government raised the poverty threshold to an income level of $1,800 a year for a single person living on a farm, and $4,200 for a non-farm family of four. [CBS]
- Four days after the plane crash near Miami, Eastern Airlines is still not certain of the number of passengers that were aboard. Eastern believes that 176 people were on board, making 77 survivors and 99 dead. But 103 bodies from the plane have been reported in local morgues. Stewardess Beverly Raposa rallied crash victims while they waited to be rescued in the Florida Everglades. Raposa said that everybody sang Christmas songs to keep up morale. [CBS]
- In Fort Lauderdale, 5,000 New Year's revelers battled police for three hours, resulting in 44 arrests and 70 injuries. The disturbance began after an officer shot and wounded a youth who struck him during an arrest attempt. [CBS]
- In Pasadena, California, a 33-year-old man was stabbed to death by a gang of youths along the route of the Rose Bowl parade. In New York City, a dispute over a parking space left one person dead and two wounded. [CBS]
- President Nixon gave coach George Allen of the Washington Redskins an executive tour of the White House. Nixon said he hopes Washington wins the Super Bowl. The Redskins face the Miami Dolphins. [CBS]
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