April 24, 19981 – CBS World News Roundup + News On The Hour – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
Another busy day for news, this April 24th in 1981.
President Reagan, recovering from wounds he received twenty-five days earlier from the assassination attempt, was eager to get back to work. He held his first informal cabinet meeting and was planning on an address to the nation in the coming days. Aides close to the President said he was trying to benefit from the big bump in his popularity numbers, capitalizing on the “John Wayne” image that emerged since the assassination attempt.
In other news – Tensions were high in Northern Ireland as the hunger strike of Bobby Sands entered its 55th day. Rioting had subsided, due mostly to terrible weather, but a demonstration was being planned on the weekend by the IRA and fears of more rioting were mounting.
In Lebanon tensions were uneasily easing as the 20th ceasefire entered its first week, with an eerie peace falling over Beirut.
The upcoming elections in the Philippines were to be held without the participation of the opposition parties, claiming the Marcos regime refused to promise safeguards to guarantee clean and orderly elections. Instead, the Opposition urged Philippine people to boycott the elections.
A year after some 100,000 Cuban refugees landed in Florida, some are still in U.S. prisons, mostly former Cuban prisoners, some 1700 who were freed by Castro to come to the U.S. Protests were lodged with the U.S. government that many of the prisoners didn’t constitute a menace to society. The DOJ was still trying to figure out what to do.
A Mayoral candidate for Miami was gunned down and killed the previous night. The third killing of a Latin businessman in as many days.
A stalemate was reached in the fiscal crisis over Boston Public schools with a Federal Court order to keep the schools open being readied and an appeal being countered before the day was over.
A Senate Sub-committee continued hearings on a controversial Abortion bill that declares life begins at the moment of conception. Six women were ejected from the hearing and arrested the day before for disrupting proceedings, claiming only witnesses in favor of the bill were being allowed to testify.
That, and a lot more went on, as reported via the CBS World News Roundup and Hourly Newscasts from April 24, 1981.
