News stories from Saturday April 24, 1971
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- 200,000 people staged an antiwar demonstration in Washington, DC, which protest organizers called the largest rally in Washington history; no incidents were reported. So many people attended that the march was forced to start an hour early. Senator Vance Hartke and Vietnam veteran John Kerry spoke to the crowd. Kerry said that demonstrations will continue in order to make politicians understand that the war must end or they will be voted out of office. Senator Hartke said that the United States should get out of Vietnam now, as the only way to renew our commitment to mankind. John Denver sang an antiwar song. [CBS]
- Antiwar protesters also demonstrated in San Francisco. Vietnam veterans led a march of college students and radicals, who were later joined by trade unionists; some estimated the crowd at 250,000. [CBS]
- The U.S. command in Saigon reported that two Navy fighters spotted a MiG jet fighter over Laos and chased it into North Vietnam. [CBS]
- Defense Secretary Melvin Laird announced that he will resign in 1973. [CBS]
- Soyuz 10 cosmonauts docked with the unmanned Soviet satellite, and later separated. [CBS]
- The funeral for Haitian President Francois Duvalier was held in Port-au-Prince. Duvalier's successor, his son Jean-Claude, has the support of the army and the people, but daughter Marie-Denise may be the real voice of authority. Some are already expressing dissatisfaction with Jean-Claude. [CBS]
- The Census Bureau reported that the new center of the U.S. population is in Mascoutah, Illinois. [CBS]
- Census forms in Britain are due tomorrow, but some are upset by several questions which are being asked on the forms. Liberal party leader Jeremy Thorpe wants to know who will have access to the information. Blacks, Indians and the Irish Republican Army fear the census. There is a $50 fine for not returning census forms. [CBS]
- Daylight savings time begins tonight. [CBS]
- 2,500 people attended a memorial service at the National Cathedral in Washington for soldiers who have been killed in Vietnam. The service was planned by the Concerned Officers group; 300 soldiers attended in uniform. [CBS]