News stories from Thursday October 20, 1977
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The B-1 bomber was rejected narrowly in the House of Representatives. A move to reinstate $1.4 billion for the program lost by a vote of 204 to 194 after last-minute appeals by the House Speaker and a powerful committee chairman. The House thus upheld President Carter's decision to end the B-1 program. Ten minutes earlier, the House Democratic leaders, mistakenly sensing defeat, tried again to postpone a vote on the bill until next week to gain additional votes. [New York Times]
- The Concorde met the noise limit by a wide margin in its first takeoff from Kennedy International Airport, according to the Port Authority. Federal officials said that the supersonic airliner proved slightly quieter than some subsonic jets when it returned to land three hours later. The controversial British-French jet made an immediate left turn over Jamaica Bay after it took off, as do subsonic jets, to minimize the legal noise allowed in nearby communities. [New York Times]
- A Federal Reserve-White House conflict appeared to have been revived as the Carter administration warned the board, without naming it, against raising interest rates and thus harming the economy. The warning came shortly before the Fed released banking statistics strongly indicating that additional rate rises were imminent. The confrontation cast doubt over the chances of Arthur Burns for reappointment as chairman of the board when his term ends next year. [New York Times]
- Stock prices recovered a bit as Wall Street forecast that weekly money supply figures would dip after rising $4.9 billion in the previous week. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 2.60 points to 814.80. [New York Times]
- Economy trans-Pacific fares were proposed by Pan American World Airways. The airline said it had submitted a plan to the Civil Aeronautics Board to cut the fares in half by Jan. 15, reducing the price of scheduled, reserved-seat flights to Tokyo to as little as $259 from the West Coast and to $349 from New York. The plan parallels the budget fares now offered between New York and London. [New York Times]
- Talks over Tongsun Park were broken off in Seoul. After four days of intensive negotiations, South Korea and the United States failed to reach an accord to permit American interrogation of Mr. Park, the central figure in an alleged influence-buying scandal in Congress. [New York Times]
- Transcendental meditation was barred from the curriculums of New Jersey public schools by Judge Curtis Meanor of Federal District Court in Newark. He ruled on the ground that the instruction was religious and thus violated the constitutional separation of church and state. The decision against the twice-daily practice of deep restful thought could have an impact on public funding for such instruction around the country. [New York Times]
- Hostages were freed unharmed by a bank robbery suspect who had hijacked a Frontier Airlines jet from Nebraska to Atlanta and then fatally shot himself aboard the craft there. The hijacker, 29-year-old Thomas Michael Hannan, killed himself with a single shot as his lawyer tried to persuade him to surrender, according to an F.B.I. official. The authorities said that the objective of the hijacking was a bid to gain freedom for a second suspect in the bank holdup, whom they said was the hijacker's homosexual partner. [New York Times]
- A major hunt for terrorists was begun by West German authorities to find 16 persons, 10 of them young women, believed to be implicated in a series of terrorist crimes. Detailed descriptions of those sought were given in posters, on television and in the press, and police set up many roadblocks and checked vehicles. The search was prompted by the murder of an industrial leader after West German commandos rescued the hostages on a hijacked Lufthansa jet. [New York Times]
- South Africa stiffened in resistance to worldwide censure of its crackdown on black protest groups and their supporters. Prime Minister John Vorster said that any move by Washington to review its relations with South Africa over its silencing and arresting of opponents of apartheid was "totally irrelevant" to him. He told an election rally that he was more concerned for the security of South Africa than for its international position. [New York Times]
- Thailand's government was deposed in a bloodless coup by the military junta that installed the civilian regime a year ago. The junta asserted on television that the government was acting too slowly in re-establishing democracy and pledged to aim for general elections next year. [New York Times]
- Gen. Omar Torrijos, during a televised question-and-answer program, said the new Panama Canal treaties obliged the United States to assist Panama in the event of an attack. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 814.80 (+2.60, +0.32%)
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 19, 1977 | 812.20 | 92.38 | 22.03 |
| October 18, 1977 | 820.51 | 93.46 | 20.13 |
| October 17, 1977 | 820.34 | 93.47 | 17.34 |
| October 14, 1977 | 821.64 | 93.56 | 20.41 |
| October 13, 1977 | 818.17 | 93.46 | 23.87 |
| October 12, 1977 | 823.98 | 94.04 | 22.44 |
| October 11, 1977 | 832.38 | 94.93 | 18.11 |
| October 10, 1977 | 840.26 | 95.75 | 10.58 |
| October 7, 1977 | 840.35 | 95.97 | 16.25 |
| October 6, 1977 | 842.08 | 96.05 | 18.49 |