April 6, 1976 - News was breaking, during this broadcast, of a possible settlement in the long running Teamsters Strike. President Ford campaigned in Wisconsin, ahead of Tuesday's Primary election. Democratic hopeful Morris Udall quietly campaigned in Wisconsin. UAW President Leonard Woodcock was quoted as saying if a Democrat wanted to be in the White House this election, he needs to consider that it's not less government, but better run government that''s the key. Whether anyone took his advice or not wasn't clear. Right Wing death squads were responsible for the systematic rounding up and murder of 15 people ages 20-25 during the latest reign of terror as part of the Military crackdown in Argentina. Terrorist bombs went off in Northern Ireland and Northern Portugal. Women stage the largest protest in Rome's history as several thousand march in opposition to the Vatican's position on contraception. And France tested another nuclear device in the South Pacific this day.

All that, via NBC News On The Hour for April 6, 1976.

News of the war took backseat on this day when word of a devastating nightclub fire that took almost 500 lives reached the wires. The Cocoanut Grove, one of the more popular night spots in Boston, was crowded over capacity with estimates at around 1300 the night before, mostly post-Thanksgiving and Football game celebrants, caught fire when a carelessly dropped match ignited flammable decorations that filled the club. Within seconds the club erupted in an inferno of flames. Panic spread, with patrons attempting to get out through blocked exits. The resulting mayhem and death toll lead to enforced and tightened fire regulations and a revamping of safety codes for public places. The disaster had a chilling effect throughout the country as nightclubs were a haven from the endless stress of war.

But the war still dragged on. Reports of fighting in the South Pacific with weather being a major factor in aiding the Japanese in sending reinforcements to New Guinea. In North Africa, fighting was continuing with allied advances slowly taking shape. The same on the Russian front, where Germans were being pushed back and Russian armies were advancing.

All this, reported on the NBC News Of The World for the morning of November 29, 1942.

As news of the war offered glimmers of hope that the tide was turning, there was still the herculean job of reporting it. Since the war was going on so many fronts, gathering up reports was a job that took remarkable skill and very often sheer luck.

Listening to this newscast from November 14, 1942 we take for granted now that access to news anywhere in the world at any time is as simple as the click of a button. But in 1942 it was all done live, via heavy censorship and at the whim of atmospheric conditions (as most overseas reports were done via Shortwave, not via telephone and certainly well before the advent of satellite). That anything got reported at all was something of a miracle and testimony to the sheer audacity of what was cutting edge technology at the time.

So in this particular newscast we have reports from North Africa, Moscow, "somewhere" in the South Pacific and London, and also the goings on in Washington all in the space of fifteen minutes. And a bulletin on the rescue of World War 1 flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker whose bomber was downed in the Pacific after a navigation mishap.

The stuff of eerie fascination at the time.