News stories from Saturday July 19, 1975
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The American and Soviet astronauts today ended their two-day link-up in space at 11 AM., Eastern daylight time. The Apollo and Soyuz spaceships then flew in formation for a little more than three hours in two revolutions of the earth to conduct two joint experiments involving the sun and earth. When the joint flight had been completed Apollo pulled away from Soyuz for good, dropping into a lower orbit about 136 miles above the earth. The Soviet astronauts are scheduled to return to earth Monday, near Karaganda in Kazakhstan, at 6:51 A.M., Eastern daylight time. The Apollo astronauts will stay in orbit until Thursday. They will land in the Pacific Ocean, west of Hawaii. [New York Times]
- President Ford announced that he would veto congressional legislation to extend price controls on domestic oil and roll back current oil prices. The President, in effect, has challenged Congress to accept his plan for the phased decontrol of domestic oil or to confront the nation with the threat of an abrupt end to price controls on oil on Aug. 31. [New York Times]
- The Defense Department, raising a potentially volatile policy issue, is challenging the Navy's plans to build a fleet of 12 nuclear-powered "super-carriers" at a cost of tens of billions of dollars. In an "issue paper" now circulating within the Pentagon, the Defense Department is suggesting that the Navy plan on a future "mix" of aircraft carriers, consisting of six of the super carriers and six to nine smaller, less expensive carriers. [New York Times]
- The biggest public demonstration against the Communist party since the start of the Portuguese revolution 15 months ago culminated in a rally by the Socialist party in the heart of Lisbon. As the Socialists gathered under their leader, Mario Soares, after Friday night's successful rally in Oporto, Portugal's second largest city, the governing High Council of the Revolution was debating the ouster of Premier Vasco Goncalves, the Communists' most important military ally. Within the Revolutionary Council, the anti-Goncalves forces seemed to hold a majority. [New York Times]
- The European security conference in Geneva was putting the finishing touches on a charter of more than 100 pages, calling for improved East-West-relations, that will be presented for adoption at a summit-level meeting in Helsinki on July 30. Official acknowledgment that the charter, which took 22 months to negotiate, would be ready in time was made when agreement was reached on an issue that had long pitted the Cypriote government of Archbishop Makarios against the government of Turkey. In Washington, the White House announced that President Ford would be in Helsinki from July 30 to Aug. 1. [New York Times]
- George Fernandes, one of India's top labor leaders, has made a call for the mobilization of an underground resistance movement to overthrow "the fascist dictatorship" of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Mr. Fernandes, who is also chairman of India's Socialist party and a former member of Parliament, urged the people to form "action units" for the organization of general strikes, placard-posting and the nonviolent obstruction of transportation and communications. [New York Times]