News stories from Monday October 16, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A new Pope was elected by the 111 cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church: Karol Wojtyla, 58, archbishop of Krakow, Poland. White smoke billowing from a metal flue above the roof of the Sistine Chapel signaled the election to an expectant crowd in St. Peter's Square. The new Pope is the first non-Italian elected to the office in 455 years. He immediately took the name John Paul II. Pope John Paul I died Sept. 28 after a reign of only 34 days.
The election of the first Polish Pope thrilled the people of this nation, both the Roman Catholics who predominate and the minority Communists. In downtown Warsaw, a group sang the hymn, "God Protects Poland," and drank champagne. In a village to the south, 200 people sang in the street and the church bells rang, until the priests decided to wait for official word on the Polish Pope's election.
[Chicago Tribune] - The U.S. Supreme Court has let stand a lower-court decision that several Skokie, Ill., ordinances which would have prevented a Nazi march in the suburb are unconstitutional. The court also declined to review an Illinois Supreme Court decision that a group of Jewish survivors of the Nazi holocaust could not constitutionally obtain an injunction against a Nazi march in Skokie. The lower federal court had held that the ordinances violated the Nazis' First Amendment right to free speech. [Chicago Tribune]
- A crowd of about 3,500 "angry and unruly" residents marched on New Bedford (Mass.) city hall to protest property tax increases. Mayor John Markey closed the building "for safety reasons" and then stood in a second-floor balcony and told the crowd he'd be glad to cut taxes if they'd settle for cutbacks in municipal services. [Chicago Tribune]
- Punk rock star Sid Vicious, 21, charged with murder in the stabbing death of his 20-year-old girlfriend, was freed late today on $50,000 bail. A grand jury is considering evidence in the death of Nancy Spungen. He was scheduled to appear in state Supreme Court Tuesday for a preliminary hearing. Vicious performed with the now-defunct Sex Pistols. [Chicago Tribune]
- Interior Department employees will receive only half their pay when checks are issued Tuesday. "I would like to express our sincere regret for the financial hardships and inconvenience," Larry Meieretto, deputy assistant secretary for policy, budget and administration, said in a memo to departmental workers. The half pay is the result of President Carter's failure so far to sign the department appropriations bill, delivered to him Oct. 10. [Chicago Tribune]
- Stocks plunged in moderate trading amid expectations of further upward pressure on interest rates. Losers had a better than 6 to 1 margin over gaining stocks. Blue chips took a drubbing as the Dow Jones industrial average sank 21.92 to close at 875.17.
Private housing starts could be off 10 percent by the end of the year, because of rising interest rates, said Jay Janis, undersecretary of Housing and Urban Development. If a credit crunch develops, housing starts could decline 15 to 20 percent next year.
The dollar plunged to a rate of 183.30 yen on the Tokyo foreign exchange market Tuesday morning after its general overnight weakness abroad. The rate was the lowest in Tokyo since the battered U.S. currency hit 181.80 yen Aug. 15, the lowest since the end of World War II.
[Chicago Tribune] - Song-and-dance man Dan Dailey, star of "Mother Wore Tights," "My Blue Heaven" and other movie musicals died today at 62. His death was attributed to anemia, a complication of an infection that resulted from a broken hip suffered a year ago. [Chicago Tribune]
- Rhodesian troops hunted black guerrillas who staged the worst bombardment of Umtali in six years. On the western front, soldiers crossed into Botswana and had a brief "contact" with Botswana troops. A military communique said troops following the tracks of guerrillas who had entered Rhodesia from Zambia and left across the Botswana border mounted a "self-defense operation" into Botswana early today. [Chicago Tribune]
- Economist Herbert Simon was awarded the 1978 Nobel Prize for Economic Science, the fourth American to win a Nobel Prize this year. Simon, 62, a professor of computer sciences and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh since 1965, is a native of Milwaukee who obtained his bachelor and doctorate degrees at the University of Chicago. He taught at the University of Illinois and the Illinois Institute of Technology and lectured at Northwestern University. [Chicago Tribune]
- A team of five Western foreign ministers, headed by U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, opened talks in Pretoria today with South African leaders, seeking a peaceful transition to independence for Namibia [South-West Africa]. Vance and the foreign ministers of West Germany, Canada and Britain and the deputy foreign minister of France hope to persuade South African Prime Minister Pieter Botha to accept a United Nations proposal for an April, 1979, election supervised by 7,500 United Nations troops. [Chicago Tribune]
- Boatloads of protesters harassed the crippled Japanese nuclear powered ship Mutsu as It limped into Sasebo (Japan) Harbor for repairs. The atom-powered vessel, built in 1972, is the target of radical and anti-nuclear groups in Japan. The Mutsu entered the harbor on its non-nuclear auxiliary power. [Chicago Tribune]
- Syrian troops and Christian militiamen fought sniper and artillery duels before dawn in the worst fighting since a cease-fire took hold nine days ago. Seven Arab nations met for the second day near Beirut in an effort to draw up a peace plan. The latest clash sparked a fire at an oil storage facility in the East Beirut industrial suburb of Dora. [Chicago Tribune]
- Man's four-legged and feathered friends have won a Universal Declaration of their rights from UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, meeting in Chicago. The Animal Rights charter, adopted today, calls "animal experimentation involving physical or psychological suffering" incompatible with the rights of animals, says it's beastly to drop live lobsters into boiling water or force-feed geese to fatten their livers for foie gras, and states that if an animal is to be killed, death must be instantaneous and without distress.
The British government has called off a planned hunt for seals off northern Scotland after a sustained campaign by conservationists. Scottish Secretary Bruce Millan said that the team of Norwegian seal hunters was being withdrawn because of public concern over the hunt. The hunters had been hired to kill 5,000 adult seals and pups in a move to preserve fish stocks around the Orkney Islands.
[Chicago Tribune] - A team of Canadian scientists reported to the College of Surgeons annual meeting that a simple test using white blood cells can detect the earliest stages of cancers of colon, lung, stomach, and pancreas. Another blood test described by Ohio State University investigators may predict recurrences of cancer before they can be detected through other means. [Chicago Tribune]
|
Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 875.17 (-21.92, -2.44%)
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* |
| October 13, 1978 | 897.09 | 104.66 | 21.93 |
| October 12, 1978 | 896.74 | 104.88 | 30.17 |
| October 11, 1978 | 901.42 | 105.39 | 21.74 |
| October 10, 1978 | 891.63 | 104.46 | 25.47 |
| October 9, 1978 | 893.19 | 104.59 | 19.72 |
| October 6, 1978 | 880.02 | 103.52 | 27.39 |
| October 5, 1978 | 876.47 | 103.27 | 27.81 |
| October 4, 1978 | 873.96 | 103.06 | 25.10 |
| October 3, 1978 | 867.90 | 102.60 | 22.54 |
| October 2, 1978 | 871.36 | 102.96 | 18.52 |