News stories from Thursday February 17, 1972
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Nixon is en route to Peking via Hawaii, Guam and Shanghai. In Washington, Nixon said goodbye to cabinet members and bipartisan members of Congress on the White House lawn before departing via helicopter to Andrews Air Force Base. [CBS]
- The State Department reported that Russia has agreed to resume talks regarding the repayment of World War II debt to the United States. [CBS]
- On the NBC program "Today", Defense Secretary Melvin Laird announced plans for an advanced submarine missile system, regardless of the outcome of arms limitation talks with Russia. Later, however, he said that the U.S. will abide by any limitations imposed by the talks. [CBS]
- Howard Hughes left the Bahamas, proceeding to Managua, Nicaragua, to continue his seclusion; he may invest some money there. "60 Minutes" producer Don Hewitt, who was staying in the same hotel as Hughes in Nassau, discovered Hughes' furniture being moved when he tried to approach him to talk about Clifford Irving. Hughes' suite is being guarded as though he were still there.
A spokesman for the government said that several of Hughes' men were ordered out of the Bahamas due to their lack of proper immigration status. A Hughes Tool Company spokesman said that Hughes thought the deportation of his aides from the Bahamas was ridiculous, and now he will refuse to invest there. Hughes' visit to Nicaragua will be brief, and a news conference in the U.S. is planned.
[CBS] - Thousands of Virginians drove from Richmond to Washington, DC to protest a federal court order requiring busing of their children; 120 county leaders chartered buses for the trip and 3,000 more protesters followed in cars with their headlights on. Lobbying groups visited congressmen, and protest leader Eugene Rilee urged an anti-busing constitutional amendment in the office of Rep. Charles Wiggins. Few congressmen made any commitments to the protesters. [CBS]
- President Nixon's Advisory Business Council was told by a panel of economists that the rate of inflation will remain higher than the President wants. [CBS]
- Senator George McGovern withdrew a controversial radio campaign commercial in order to revise it to identify the voice as that of the late Senator Robert Kennedy. Critics said that the voice was easily mistaken for Senator Edward Kennedy's. [CBS]
- U.S. jets ended a 29-hour bombing campaign over North Vietnam and reported that North Vietnamese missile sites were destroyed. North Vietnam claims that seven U.S. jets were downed, with many pilots being killed or captured. [CBS]
- The U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk has been sent to join others in Vietnam. The Kitty Hawk is sailing back to Vietnam one month ahead of schedule to join the Constellation, Coral Sea, and Hancock in the biggest build-up of air power in Vietnam since 1968.
Before the Kitty Hawk left San Diego, seven crewmen sought sanctuary at churches because they oppose the Vietnam war. One sailor said that many aboard the ship feel the same way but fear the consequences of desertion. After the ship sailed, the seven men turned themselves over to Naval authorities and were flown back to the Kitty Hawk. They may face three to five years in prison for their actions.
[CBS] - Two U.S. combat deaths in Vietnam were reported for the past week; the number of South Vietnamese dead was 360. [CBS]
- The British coal miners strike has caused a crippling power crisis, which has now spread to Northern Ireland; candle sales have skyrocketed. Coal miners have been on strike for six weeks, but miners say that their wages have been rendered "useless" by inflation anyway, and they are determined to continue to strike until a decent wage is provided. [CBS]
- The House of Commons only narrowly ratified British membership in the European Common Market, a move viewed as a shaky vote of confidence in the government of Prime Minister Edward Heath and the Conservative party. [CBS]
- Sixteen-year-old Sharon Anderson was in an airline office in Northern Ireland when a bomb that had been planted there went off; she suffered from shock after the explosion. Then on her way home she passed a booby-trapped car, which exploded and wounded her seriously. [CBS]
- The Vatican announced a new procedure for adults converting to Catholicism; a period of instruction will be required. [CBS]
- Hospitals in northwest England have been warned by police to be on the alert for a child killer. In a Blackpool hospital, several kids in a children's ward were stabbed. [CBS]
- In August of 1970 an explosion ripped through the Army Math Research Center at the University of Wisconsin, killing one graduate student. Today, Toronto police announced the capture of Carlton Lewis Armstrong, one of four suspects in the case. He is being held pending an extradition hearing. [CBS]
- Jury selection was completed for the trial of Reverend Philip Berrigan and six co-defendants in Harrisburg, Pa.; 12 regular and six alternate jurors were chosen. Among the charges against the defendants is conspiracy to kidnap presidential aide Henry Kissinger. [CBS]
- At the federal prison in Lewisburg, Pa., publisher Ralph Ginzburg surrendered himself for a three-year prison term for sending obscene literature through the mail; the case began in 1962. "Eros" magazine, devoted to love and sex, made its debut that year. Ginzburg, the publisher of Eros, said that it was an artistic, award-winning magazine, unlike the pornography that is available in bookstores today. The courts ruled that Eros wasn't obscene, but found that advertisements for it were. [CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 922.03 (-0.91, -0.10%)
Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish. | |||||||||||||||
| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| February 16, 1972 | 922.94 | 105.62 | 20.67 |
| February 15, 1972 | 914.51 | 105.03 | 17.77 |
| February 14, 1972 | 910.49 | 104.59 | 15.84 |
| February 11, 1972 | 917.59 | 105.08 | 17.85 |
| February 10, 1972 | 921.28 | 105.59 | 23.46 |
| February 9, 1972 | 918.72 | 105.55 | 19.85 |
| February 8, 1972 | 907.13 | 104.74 | 17.39 |
| February 7, 1972 | 903.97 | 104.54 | 16.93 |
| February 4, 1972 | 906.68 | 104.86 | 17.89 |
| February 3, 1972 | 903.15 | 104.64 | 19.88 |