Not a very good day if you were a member of the working Press overseas. Officials in both Kabul and Tehran issued walking papers for American journalists with instructions to be out of the country on "the next plane".
It seems both countries were going through some bad reviews in Western media and felt it was best for all concerned if they just left and didn't bother to say goodbye. Reporters were busily filing last dispatches on this day.
And there was a lot to talk about. Fierce fighting had erupted in Afghanistan, causing the Soviets to call up reserves to shore up heavy casualties. In Iran, rioting in Tabriz and opposition to the Ayatollah Khomeni was spreading and that didn't look good for the image either. And on top of everything else, it was Day 75 of the Hostage Drama with reports of Embassy workers handcuffed most days and kept in dark rooms.
News on the failing health of Yugoslavia's Tito had everyone in Belgrade (and the West, for that matter) nervous over a possible power-grab on the part of the Soviets. Anticipation of an invasion 1968 Czechoslovakia-style had people scrambling for self-defense weaponry.
In India, newly re-elected Prime Minister Indira Gandhi back-tracked on her earlier support of the Afghan invasion, saying she made a hasty assessment of the situation, but she knows better now.
Two terrorist bombs went off in a hotel in London - the first killed the bomber and wounded a hotel guest and the second went off with no reports of injuries. Also in London, Prime Minister Thatcher recommended moving the present site of the 1980 Olympic Games from Moscow to somewhere else. Promises of no firm plan were to be made until the Carter deadline of February for Soviet withdrawal had been reached.
And on Capitol Hill - Congress was meeting to take up that little matter of the Oil Profits Tax, owing to the $225 Billion windfall they had recently gotten. In typical nose-thumbing fashion, Shell Oil decided to raise the price of it's gasoline another $.05 a gallon - the second time in two weeks. Fears Americans would be paying upwards of $2.00 a gallon were starting to become realized.
On the Election '80 front -rumors the Carter Campaign was in trouble were filtering out of Iowa, with the caucuses only days away. Jimmy denied the rumors. California Governor Brown decided to suspend his campaign for a while and Ted Kennedy was busy stumping.
The Cancer treating drug Interferon had been discovered and was being touted as a possible cure, even though the drug itself was cost-prohibitive at the moment.
And there were renewed calls for the Legalization of Marijuana - something that bubbles to the surface every few years.
And that's the way it was for Thursday, January 17th, 1980 as reported on The CBS World News Roundup, the 8:00 and 9:00 am news and The World Tonight.
No turn left unstoned.
