As news days in history go – this December 22nd was busy – not hair-raising, although at the time . . .
From the White House. President Carter will not undergo surgery to correct his Hemorrhoid problem at least for the time being, the White House announced today. Dr. William M. Lukash examined the president this morning and determined that Carter is continuing to improve.” said White House spokesman Dale Leibach adding: “Surgery is not contemplated at this time.’ Leibach said Carter “had a good night’s sleep and planned to fly to Georgia later today as scheduled to spend the Christmas holidays with his family. Press secretary Jody Powell said Thursday night that surgery was possible but not likely. He said if surgery were necessary it would take place right away “because Carter’s schedule after Jan. 1 is so crowded.
And the opponents of the Shah of Iran are a varied assortment of radical Islamic zealots,’ disgruntled workers, leftists and rightists and those confused by the monarch’s crash program to transform Iran into a world industrial power. They are united only in their desire to force Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi from power and remove what many consider a dictatorship propped up by the 430,000-man, army and foreign’ governments dependent on Iran’s oil. But, a Western diplomat said, “What it really comes down to is a personal and bitter feud between two men Khomaini and the shah.” Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomaini, spiritual leader of Iran’s 32 million Shiite Moslems, is the mastermind behind the campaign, against his lifelong enemy, The Shah. He directs the struggle from self-imposed exile in a Paris suburb and seeks to establish an Islamic republic in his homeland.
And finally – Robin Oswald, the 17-year-old St. Louis girl accused of hijacking a Trans World Airlines DC-9 jet to the Williamson County Airport and threatening the lives of 87 persons on board, was in custody early today in a juvenile detention center at Belleville. No one was injured in the ordeal. Miss Oswald meekly surrendered to FBI agents about 10 tense hours after the hijacked jet touched down at Marion Thursday morning. Many of her passenger-hostages had escaped unharmed, while the plane was surrounded by police and FBI sharpshooters.
The Marion federal prison inmate whose freedom she had demanded Garrett Brock Trapnell – was the man Miss Oswald’s mother loved and died for. Trapnell was back in the maximum security prison today, convicted by a federal court jury in Benton Thursday on charges of trying to escape from the prison last May. Miss Oswald’s mother, Barbara, was shot to death in the helicopter she hijacked during that escape attempt.
And that’s just a little of what happened this December 22, 1978 as reported by The CBS World News Roundup.
