November 4, 1981 – CBS World News Roundup – Newsbreak – 9:00 Network News – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
November 4, 1981 – As news days went, this one was pretty quiet. News of Shuttle Columbia, put on hold and then scrubbed some 31 seconds before launch. Seems there was a problem with the computers that orchestrate the complex series of actions decided to stop and shut down the launch. A few hours passed before the countdown clock was started again and then promptly stopped again when oil pressure in two of the auxiliary power units showed high. And then NASA decided to call it quits. The holdup was expected to keep the shuttle from being launched at least for 48 hours while inspections were taking place.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union launched another un-manned space probe toward Venus, the second launch in six days. The Tass News Agency said both probes were expected to reach the vicinity of Venus sometime in March of 1982.
With some ballots remaining to be counted, the Governor’s race in New Jersey turned into a cliff hanger overnight with the closest election New Jersey had in over a century. As of news time Republican Thomas Kean was enjoying an extremely narrow lead over Democratic challenger James Florio but it wasn’t conclusive. All night long while the votes were being counted the leads flip-flopped; first Kean was ahead and then Florio and then Kean and then Florio but none were by much, only a few thousand votes. Finally around dawn, Republican Kean went before cameras to say he had the lead and if the lead stayed for the next few hours, he would consider it a win. A few minutes later Florio went before cameras to say if he had the lead and it stayed for the next few hours, he would be the winner. It was starting to look like a winner would emerge only when all votes were counted, and most likely re-counted. Virginia elected their first Democratic Governor since 1965.
And the situation in Poland was going through a period of frustration as Solidarity leader Lech Walesa was having trouble getting the labor movement’s leadership behind a ban on strikes. Walesa was hoping to discuss Poland’s economic and labor problems with Prime Minister Jaruzelski and Archibishop Jozef Glemp, the Roman Catholic primate of Poland.
And along with updates on the Shuttle, that’s a very small slice of what happened, this November 4th 1981 as presented by The CBS World News Roundup – Newsbreak and the 9:00 am network news.
