News stories from Sunday September 19, 1982
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Rail service was halted in most parts of the country as thousands of locomotive engineers went on strike after contract negotiations broke off. The Reagan administration considered asking Congress for emergency legislation to end the walkout, which disrupted service in all regions except the Northeast Corridor and other Northeast and Middle West areas served by Conrail crews. Many rail systems were crippled by the strike by engineers while other lines struggled to prepare for tomorrow morning's commuter runs. [New York Times]
- An abnormally cold winter in the northern part of the country from New England to the Great Plains is predicted by a number of leading meteorologists. The forecasters say the coming winter could be the most frigid of the century. [New York Times]
- Exposure to radioactive fallout is the focus of a dispute between the United States and four Air Force veterans. They are challenging the government's explanation of why it endangered more than 236 islanders, 28 American servicemen and Japanese fishermen in testing the largest American nuclear device over the Marshall Islands in 1954. [New York Times]
- Ingrid Bergman won an Emmy posthumously for her performance as Prime Minister Golda Meir of Israel in Operation Prime Time's "A Woman Named Golda." Other honored television performers included Michael Learned, Carol Kane, Daniel J. Travanti, Mickey Rooney and Alan Alda. [New York Times]
- New York City's population shifted as dramatically in the 1970's as in any decade in history, according to analyses by specialists of detailed reports on the 1980 census. Over all, the population continued to shrink, there were more elderly people and young adults and markedly fewer children and teenagers. The city attracted many immigrants from Asia and Latin America, and traditional minority groups are now close to being, or have become, a new majority. [New York Times]
- The Buffalo Courier-Express closed after 148 years of publication, adding Buffalo to the growing list of major cities with only one daily newspaper. The troubled morning paper vainly competed with The Evening News for the last five years. [New York Times]
- China granted oil drilling rights off its coast to an American concern for the first time. Under a contract signed in Peking, the Atlantic Richfield Company, along with the Santa Fe International Corporation, may drill in a 3,500-square-mile block in the South China Sea. [New York Times]
- Superior, alert conventional forces, not superior nuclear forces, were the decisive military elements that enabled President John F. Kennedy to resolve the 1962 Cuban missile crisis peacefully, according to six key officials of his administration. [New York Times]
- A suggestion that the Shah be slain by the C.I.A. was made early in the hostage crisis by a high Iranian official, according to a new book by Hamilton Jordan, the chief of staff in the Carter administration. He wrote that Foreign Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh suggested that if the Shah was assassinated, the hostage crisis could be resolved "overnight." Mr. Ghotbzadeh was executed last week by a firing squad in Teheran. [New York Times]
- Sending peacekeeping forces to Beirut to prevent new killings and strengthen the Lebanese government was discussed by President Reagan and his top aides, the White House said. A senior official said the administration was leaning in favor of a redeployment to Beirut of about 2,000 of the 7,000-member United Nations peacekeeping force now in southern Lebanon. [New York Times]
- Lebanese forces entered the camp in west Beirut where Lebanese Christian militiamen murdered scores of Palestinian men, women and children. As troops and civil defense volunteers moved to establish order and to remove the mounds of corpses, new information emerged about the extent of the massacre of civilians and the role played by Israeli forces. Senior Israeli officials said they never thought that Lebanese Christian militiamen would massacre scores of Palestinian men, women and children in the refugee camp. [New York Times]
- A compromise resolution passed unanimously in the Security Council. The resolution calls for adding 40 United Nations officers to the force of 10 unarmed observers who have tried to keep order in Beirut since the Israeli invasion in June. [New York Times]