April 5, 1941 – News of the war in Europe was making the headlines – with both good news and ominous news in equal measure. In a dispatch from Cairo which reached London an hour before broadcast time, came reports that British troops were well on the advance, occupying the Egyptian town of Adwa, one hundred miles south of Asmara. Also news that British bombers had staged several raids over industrial plants in occupied France as well as oil storage tanks in Rotterdam and plants in The Ruhr, inflicting heavy damage as well as attacking German warships. In all, one RAF bomber was reported missing.
For their part, German raiders made their target the West coast of Britain. Three German bombers were lost and damage inflicted was reported as “light”. A report on an event from several weeks earlier surfaced regarding the loss of the famed British night club Café de Paris, which scored two direct hits during a raid, killing many of the staff and customers, who were crowded on the dance floor at the time.
Successful tests were being made on the new Spitfire fighter plane, which was slated to go into mass production almost immediately.
From Washington came news that the American Medical Association and the District of Columbia Medical Association were guilty of violating the Sherman anti-trust laws, in that both Medical Associations were considered trusts in restraint of trade. They were prosecuted by two vigorous and experienced trust-busting lawyers from the DOJ. The general charge was, the medical associations conspired to restrain and interfere with the work of a cooperative society known as Group Health, organized among federal employees. Group Health Inc. was a society of Government employees paying $2.00 a month to get medical service free for that charge. The AMA and DCMA objected to the formation of Group Health, calling it “socialized medicine” The trial concluded after eight weeks.
And a bulletin came in after the newscast reporting from Belgrade that an invasion of Yugoslavia by German and Italian forces was underway.
And that’s a small slice of what went on, this April 5th in 1941 as reported by NBC’s News Of The World.
