June 8, 1981 – CBS World News Roundup – Sports Time – The World Tonight – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
June 8, 1981 – Busy day in the Middle East with reports coming in of an Israeli raid on a nuclear reactor under construction in Iraq. Israeli intelligence indicated the reactor would be fully operational in a month and Israel decided the time was “now or never”, since an attack later would create a cloud of Radiation over Baghdad sufficient enough to take out most of the city. That was no comfort to the Iraqis who immediately complained loudly, as well as most of the Arab world that Israel was provoking a retaliation – this on top of the ongoing crisis in Lebanon where Syria accused Israel of deploying SAM Missiles in Beirut. Israel responded saying the accusations were “sheer nonsense” and even NATO observers said there was no visual evidence of movement of any Israeli missiles. U.S. Special Envoy Philip Habib was back on his way to the Middle East to continue negotiations for some kind of peace settlement. He was stopping over in Paris on this day for “Private talks” before heading to Lebanon. Exactly what the prospects were was unknown.
Meanwhile, the presence of the U.S. nuclear powered aircraft carrier Midway was causing massive protests in and around Tokyo, as well as in Yokosuka, where the Midway was anchored. Protestors said it was in direct violation of Japan’s banning any and all nuclear weapons in Japanese waters and on Japanese land and went on to say the Carrier Midway was carrying a nuclear warhead a thousand times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
And the first Test Tube Twins were born in Melbourne Australia. A boy and a girl, Steven and Amanda were the first twins to be fertilized outside the body of the mother. Doctors reported Steven may be suffering from a heart ailment. The babies became the fifth and sixth test tube babies born in Australia, two others were born in Great Britain.
And that’s a small slice of what happened, this 8th day of June in 1981 as reported by The World News Roundup and The World Tonight.
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