June 29, 1976 – CBS Radio News + Spectrum – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
June 29, 1976 – With days away from America celebrating the Bicentennial, there was other news capturing the worlds attention. A hostage situation taking place at Uganda’s Entebee airport had reached a stalemate. Hostages were being given food and water. Who the hijackers were was a mystery for the most part, other than identifying themselves in a broadcast the previous day that they staged the hijacking to declare to the world that the “French State” was a historic enemy of the Arab nations. At first the hijackers were identified as Palestinians. The Air France plane was hijacked as it took off from Athens, a stop en route to Tel-Aviv from Paris.
President Ford was back in Washington and ready to concentrate on politics. The major question; how to corral the 92 delegates still needed to secure the nomination. The latest poll shows Mr. Ford with 1,038 delegates with 1,130 required for nomination.
The Supreme Court ruled that Federal judges could not require school officials to alter desegregation plans annually to keep up with population shifts, even if integration had not been totally achieved. The ruling came on an appeal from a judges requirement of the annual re-assignment of some pupils in Pasadena, California.
And Defense lawyers in Luanda were planning on appealing to Angolan President Augustinho Neto to commute death sentences to four White Mercenaries. One had been given a sixteen year prison sentence but the others were facing firing squads. The State Department said the sentences were not merited by the evidence produced in the case and contacts were being set up with the Red Cross to negotiate some settlement. The U.S. and Angola did not have diplomatic relations.
And that’s a little of what went on, this June 29, 1976 – including a Spectrum Editorial by none other than Phyllis Schlafly. All from CBS Radio News.
