News stories from Friday July 21, 1972
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Terrorists set off 20 bombs in a 90-minute period in Belfast, Northern Ireland; 11 people were killed and dozens more were injured. In the center of the city a parked car exploded, setting off a series of additional blasts. [CBS]
- In Spain, a local shuttle train was mistakenly switched onto the main line in the path of an express train en route from Madrid to Cadiz; 76 people were killed and 103 injured. [CBS]
- The government announced that the nation's economy grew 8.9% from April through June, and that the cost of living slowed to an annual growth rate of 2.1%. The gross national product reached its highest rate of expansion in six years. Average real earnings made a record gain, and inflation slowed. Economic advisers Dr. Herbert Stein is pleased with the figures. However, consumer prices continued to rise, though at a slower rate of 0.2%. [CBS]
- Treasury Undersecretary Edwin Cohen noted that rich people pay huge amounts of income tax, and he urged Congress' Joint Economic Committee not to produce election year rhetoric by only focusing on the few rich people who don't pay. Cohen said that tax reform should be studied carefully. [CBS]
- The Cost of Living Council ruled that professional athletes are exempt from wage controls due to their short-lived period of earning a living. [CBS]
- Rep. Gerald Ford announced that the administration has given up hope for Congress' passage of welfare reform, government reorganization and other bills, but he thinks that the revenue-sharing plan may be passed.
President Nixon is considering how to turn the budget deficit into political asset. A strategy planning session was attended by Nixon campaign chairman Clark MacGregor, the cabinet, and Republican leaders of Congress. They blame the Democrat-controlled Congress for running the federal budget deeper into debt, risking inflation and higher taxes. Senator Robert Griffin says that Democrats add more deficits to an already-burdened budget.
The President asked Senator Robert Dole to continue as chairman of the Republican party.
[CBS] - A Gallup Poll shows President Nixon with 46%, Senator McGovern with 32%, and Governor Wallace with 18% support. Without Wallace's candidacy, Nixon leads McGovern 56%-37%. McGovern claims that he beat the polls in the primaries. [CBS]
- Backed by U.S. air and sea power, South Vietnamese troops battled Communist forces for control of Quang Tri city and Highway 1. A South Vietnamese task force recaptured Bong Son in the coastal highlands. [CBS]
- Actress Jane Fonda's trip to Hanoi was denounced by Rep. Fletcher Thompson as treasonous; he has asked the Justice Department to investigate. Fonda visited a Communist anti-aircraft gun position on July 14. At one point, she took a seat in the gunner's position of a Soviet-made cannon. She was invited to North Vietnam by the "Committee for Solidarity with the American People". Antiwar remarks attributed to Fonda have been quoted by Radio Hanoi and the Vietnamese news agency. [CBS]
- The Defense Department acknowledged that it tried unsuccessfully to get the upper hand in Vietnam by burning forests. Defoliation missions were supposed to strip away the Viet Cong's jungle camouflage, but it was too thick. The Pentagon experimented with fire in 1965, '66 and '67 to burn away trees, but the jungle was too wet. Was it trying to set a fire storm, as in World War II in Dresden and Hamburg? "Science" magazine reporter Deborah Shapley says that the term "fire storm" was used at the time in a military paper. The Defense Department agrees that it tried to burn the jungle, but says that it did not try to start fire storms. The U.S. Forest Service director of forest fire research said that the U.S. was attempting to produce crown fires (fires in the tops of trees) not tornado-like fire storms. Senator Gaylord Nelson will offer an amendment to the Military Authorization Act, prohibiting the use of funds for fire storms due to their detrimental effect on the environment. [CBS]
- Nuclear-powered heart pacemakers were implanted in two patients at the Veteran's Hospital in Buffalo, New York. [CBS]
- Last summer Apollo 15 astronauts left on the moon a tiny sculpture made by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck. NASA was angry to learn from an advertisement in "Art in America" magazine that the artist and a New York City art gallery are offering 950 copies at $750 each, as NASA resents attempts to cash in on the space program. [CBS]
- The newest weapons against crime are Social Security numbers. William Holgate of Cincinnati borrowed an electric engraving set from his local fire department in order to participate in a growing national program called "Operation Identification", which is trying to lessen the chances of homes being burglarized. Holgate engraved his Social Security number onto all of his valuables; the number is programmed into the police computer. Should any etched goods be stolen, they could be identified minutes after they are recovered by the police. Police Chief Carl Goodin stated that stickers on home windows, denoting that the homeowner's property has been identified with a Social Security number, are deterrents to thieves. An ex-fence confirmed that the numbers will make stolen goods difficult to dispose of. [CBS]
- Something has put Indians back on the warpath. In a concession to protests by Indians, the Washington Redskins football team has changed the lyrics of its fight song, deleting references such as "scalp 'em". Winnebago Indian Max Funmaker was arrested out West for possessing two eagles. His defense was that eagle feathers are a fundamental part of the Winnebago religion. Then the American Indian Center filed a damage suit against the Cleveland Indians because the team uses a caricature of an Indian as its symbol. The Atlanta Braves were also charged because an Indian dances when the team makes a home run. And someone wants the name of the Stanford University Indians to be changed to "Thunder Chickens". [CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 920.45 (+10.00, +1.10%)
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* |
| July 20, 1972 | 910.45 | 105.81 | 15.05 |
| July 19, 1972 | 916.69 | 106.14 | 17.88 |
| July 18, 1972 | 911.72 | 105.83 | 16.82 |
| July 17, 1972 | 914.96 | 105.88 | 13.17 |
| July 14, 1972 | 922.26 | 106.80 | 13.91 |
| July 13, 1972 | 916.99 | 106.28 | 14.74 |
| July 12, 1972 | 923.69 | 106.89 | 16.15 |
| July 11, 1972 | 925.87 | 107.32 | 12.83 |
| July 10, 1972 | 932.27 | 108.11 | 11.70 |
| July 7, 1972 | 938.06 | 108.69 | 12.90 |