News stories from Sunday June 30, 1974
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev conferred for more than four hours in Yalta, but both sides indicated afterward that little progress had been made on the critical issue of the limitation of offensive nuclear weapons. They will take a respite from their bargaining sessions tomorrow and will resume their meetings Tuesday and Wednesday in Moscow. American officials were hopeful that significant progress could still be made in the remaining two days. [New York Times]
- Mikhail Baryshnikov, a leading Soviet ballet dancer, fled from the touring Bolshoi company in Toronto as members of the troupe were walking toward a chartered bus to return to their hotel after a reception following their last performance in Toronto. His friends said that he wished "to proceed with his career in the West." [New York Times]
- Physicians attending Juan Peron said in Buenos Aires that the condition of the Argentine President, who is said to be suffering from infectious bronchitis with heart complications, had undergone a "favorable change," but that he remained under "constant medical treatment." [New York Times]
- A young black man, shouting "I'm tired of all this. I'm taking over," went on a shooting spree in an Atlanta church and shot to death Mrs. Martin Luther King Sr., the 69-year-old mother of the slain civil rights leader. He also killed a church deacon and wounded a member of the congregation. Mrs. King was playing the organ in Ebenezer Baptist Church, where her husband is pastor, when the gunman sprang from the "amen corner" next to the organ. He was identified as Marcus Wayne Chenault, 21 years old, of Dayton, Ohio. [New York Times]
- Interviews with workers, employers, bankers and economists across the country reflect the crosscurrents sweeping the American economy at mid-1974. A spurt in the gross national product was not expected anyway, but now economic forecasters have generally lowered their sights from a slow-growth year to a no-growth year. [New York Times]
- The four Justices whom President Nixon appointed to the Supreme Court have formed a bloc that is increasing in both unity and capacity to produce a working majority for their views of the law and the Constitution. This was indicated in a study by the New York Times of 144 decisions in the October-to-June term. [New York Times]
- As Congress neared agreement on a program to set national pension standards for millions of workers, critics contended that a business-labor lobbying coalition had diluted many meaningful changes from what had been hailed as a major social reform. Ralph Nader said the agreement was "a terrible disappointment." [New York Times]
- Twenty-four panic-stricken young patrons and employees of a singles bar in Port Chester, New York, were killed when they were trapped in suffocating smoke from a flash fire. More than 100 young men and women in their late teens or early 20's were dancing to soul-rock music in Gulliver's on the New York-Connecticut border when the fire broke out. In addition to the dead, 19 other patrons and 13 firemen were injured.
The possibility that the fire in Gulliver's started in an adjoining part of the building was being investigated by Port Chester officials. The Westchester County District Attorney, Carl Vergari, said every piece of debris would be examined to find evidence relating to the origin of the fire. About 200 persons reportedly were in Gulliver's when the fire started. Port Chester's Mayor, Joseph Dzaluk, said the village lost a court fight four years ago to have occupancy limits posted in public places.
[New York Times]