– News for January 20, 1972 – NBC Nightly News -Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
President Nixon delivered his State Of The Union message this January 20th, 1972. It was an election year and hopefuls from both sides of the aisle listened intensely as the President listed the accomplishments, the upbeat assessments and the hopeful futures:
President Nixon: “Nineteen hundred seventy-two is now before us. It holds precious time in which to accomplish good for the nation. We must not waste it. I know the political pressures in this session of the Congress will be great. There are more candidates for the Presidency in this chamber today than there probably have been at any one time in the whole history of the Republic. And there is an honest difference of opinion, not only between the parties, but within each party, on some foreign policy issues and on some domestic policy issues.
However, there are great national problems that are so vital that they transcend partisanship. So let us have our debates. Let us have our honest differences. But let us join in keeping the national interest first. Let us join in making sure that legislation the nation needs does not become hostage to the political interests of any party or any person.
There is ample precedent, in this election year, for me to present you with a huge list of new proposals, knowing full well that there would not be any possibility of your passing them if you worked night and day. I shall not do that.
I have presented to the leaders of the Congress today a message of 15,000 words discussing in some detail where the nation stands and setting forth specific legislative items on which I have asked the Congress to act. Much of this is legislation which I proposed in 1969, in 1970, and also in the first session of this 92nd Congress and on which I feel it is essential that action be completed this year.”
And there was other news, including a report that another airline hijacking took place with another with another hijacker packing a parachute and another bailout, this time over Colorado.
Unlike the infamous D.B. Cooper hi-jacking, with Cooper parachuting over Washington state with a purported $200,000. in cash, never to be found, this hijacker, a young man saying he had a bomb obtained two parachutes and a $50,000 ransom, bailed out over Colorado and was then captured near his parachute, silent, mud‐splattered and injured.
The twin‐engine Hughes Airwest DC‐9 was taken over on the runway at Las Vegas, Nev., as the pilot was ready to take off for Reno. The 67 passengers and two stewardesses were released in exchange for the parachutes and the ransom money. The capture came about six hours after the take‐over.
According to Colorado state patrolmen and sheriff’s deputies, the mustachioed young man, dressed in cowboy boots and Western clothes, was found only half a mile from the parachute at 5:20 P.M., just before sundown.
The $50,000 was recovered near the parachute, the authorities said.
And along with President Nixon that’s a small chunk of what happened this January 20, 1972 as reported by NBC News.
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