Update: As of yesterday, there have been no new donations. This translates as terrible and there is a very real chance both Newstalgia and the Archive from which all these posts come will disappear. Thousands of hours of historic audio, photos and historic papers will cease to exist. That sounds dire, because it is. I need your help. I can't do it alone. I can no longer afford to. Right now, we stand at a little less than half our bare-bones minimum goal of $5,000.00 in order to keep Newstalgia and the Archives afloat. If you can help, make a donation for any amount you are comfortable with. Every dollar and every penny is crucial in chipping away at this emergency. Please donate what you can. It is desperately needed right now. You can make a difference.

A curious mix of optimism and pessimism for this week, ending on April 26th in 1964.

On the optimistic side - President Johnson announced to the world that the U.S. would make substantial reductions in Nuclear Weapons and Uranium enrichment production. Simultaneously, it was announced by Nikita Khruschev via Radio Moscow, that the Soviet Union would do the same thing. The news was greeted with a sense of relief and UN General Secretary U Thant offered an evaluation on what was deemed a hopeful sign towards an easing of Cold War tensions.

On the Pessimistic side - tensions were brewing between the U.S. and Cuba as Cuban Premier Fidel Castro vowed to down any U.S. Reconnaissance planes flying over Cuban territory as it had been doing since 1962.

On the optimistic side - Sec. of State Dean Rusk returned from a fact-finding mission to Saigon and offered an upbeat assessment of the situation in Vietnam, saying the South Vietnamese Army could handle themselves nicely.

On the Pessimistic side - Defense Secretary Robert McNamara conceded it will "take time" for any progress to be made in Vietnam and that the South Vietnamese Army is running a defensive strategy rather than an offensive one. Oh well.

Meanwhile - the four year long negotiations between the Railroads and the Unions was finally at the settlement stage. And just in the nick of time, as the settlement averted a threatened strike.

President Johnson went on a brief tour of the Appalachia region, hitting the towns and cities worst hit by poverty and unemployment, touting his War on Poverty legislation. He was greeted with waves of enthusiasm.

Not so enthusiastic were reports from Capitol Hill saying the 1964 Civil Rights Bill was at a standstill, making the future unclear for passage of the Legislation.

And the much publicized "Stall-ins", threatened for Opening day of the New York Worlds Fair on April 22nd, didn't materialize. But that didn't stop some 300 Civil Rights demonstrators from being arrested from the Fair opening anyway.

All this in one week, ending on April 26th 1964, as reported on the ABC Radio Voices In The Headlines program.

For this week, ending on May 11th in 1975, news was about the last Americans and press evacuated from Cambodia. The stories now coming out about the atrocities and the takeover by the Khmer Rouge. In South Vietnam, the Tsunami of refugees was still on, with stories of over-flowing boats and chaos and confusion.

So confusing, that the story came out of the last two Marines, killed in Vietnam were still somewhere in a Saigon hospital morgue, waiting to be picked up. Reports also came in that Laos was facing a Communist takeover, based on the elections recently held.

And that was the picture from Southeast Asia.

Meanwhile, it was reported Senator George McGovern was visiting Cuba and talk of the OAS preparing to drop sanctions against the Castro government, sometime during the Summer.

Egypt was moving to finally clear the Suez Canal of wrecked ships leftover from the 1967 War.

And on this week it was 30 years since VE day, and many comparisons were being drawn between the end of that conflict and the one just recently ended in Vietnam.

All in a week, ending May 11, 1975 as reported on The World This Week from CBS Radio.

How this day in 1987 was going to end up was anybody's guess, but in the morning, when this newscast went on the air, everything was up for grabs.

First off - President Reagan was getting ready to give his first press conference since November of '86. And since that one was such a nightmare, he was going into serious overtime rehearsing his appearance before the Fourth Estate, making sure no gaffes would come back to haunt him.

And for good reason; the Iran-Contra scandal was burned into everyone's consciousness and it showed no signs of letting up. Even vice-President Bush was fending off inquiries over a $1,000 contribution made by financier/pop-maven Adnan Khashoggi, who claimed the elder Bush was twisting arms like pretzels in search of cash for the Contras.

However, that didn't stop Congress from approving yet another $40 million outlay for the Contras, seeing as Reagan was holding the Veto card over everyone's head if they dared say no.

And to make sure things were going smoothly, the CIA was found to be supplying the Contras with maps and blueprints of all the dams, power systems and ports in helped put together in Nicaragua, just to be safe.

In other news, newly disgraced former White House aide Michael Deaver was trying desperately to stay out of jail, even though all signs were pointing to it. Seems his influence peddling was getting the best of him no matter what he was trying. The House passed the 65 mph speed limit with 55 mph advocates painting dire pictures of highway littered with bodies as the result.

And Bristol-Myers was optimistic that it may have developed an AIDS vaccine and wanted Capitol Hill permission to start testing it on humans.

And that's what March 19th sounded like in 1987, as presented by The CBS World News Roundup.

With the ceasefire in Bosnia slated to end within days and the deadline for handing in weapons quickly approaching, NATO forces were weighing the next turn of events and options for the region, this particular day in 1994.

But that was one element in the makeup of the day. The rest of it was a little like this:

Alan Greenspan got it wrong again as economic news took a surprising upturn with release of the first flat inflation reading since 1989. The Trade deficit was another matter, but it was looking like the economy was finally stabilizing.

In other news - the Clinton Administration pledged to spend more on Housing, Mental Health and Tax programs aimed at aiding the homeless in the U.S. since figures showed the number was hovering around 7 million, considerably more than was announced by either the Reagan or Bush Administrations previously. Surprise? The Clinton Administration also proposed a $130.00 entry fee for political Asylum seekers looking to emigrate to the U.S.

In Winter Olympics news - Skier Tommy Moe won a silver medal this day, icing on the cake for his 24th birthday. The Harding/Kerrigan kerfuffle had a media frenzy over their first practice session which yielded no fireworks and a collective yawn.

Shannon Faulkner, whose on-going legal battle to get into the all-male Citadel Military Academy, wound up back in court this day saying it wasn't enough she was enrolled in classes, she also meant the physical part too.

The ACLU got involved in the recent curfew controversy in Dade County Florida, saying it violated civil rights and was something of a pain in the ass for parents too, making sure the 11:00 pm curfew for kids was enforced. The NAACP and B'nai B'rith got together in New York to discuss recent racial tensions between the Black and Jewish communities. And the Whitewater Investigation was continuing with allegations documents were shredded pertaining to the case.

And the Kremlin was voting today and whether or not to grant amnesty to individuals involved in the coup attempts in Russia in 1991 and 1993.

A busy and wildly fluctuating day, this February 17th in 1994 as reported on the CBS World News Roundup.

The big news of this day in 1981 was the discovery of an alleged Libyan plot to assassinate President Reagan and key members of Reagan's White House team, including Caspar Weinberger and Philip Habib.

Libyan strongman Khadafy of course denied it, but the White House was adamant and precautions were put in place just in case the threats materialized.

In other news, a plane carrying 12 skydivers crashed in Pearl Harbor, killing all but one on board. As the newscasts progressed, rescue efforts were well underway.

Meanwhile, Casper Weinberger was applauding efforts of the Turkish government to suppress dissidents in that part of the world. Although the rest of the European community was not happy with Turkey's heavy handed handling of the situation, Weinberger saw it as a blow to Communism in that region.

And so it went, this December 6th in 1981 as reported by CBS Radio News on the Hour for 3,4 and 5:00 am (PST).

News on this day in 1962 was seemingly all about conflict. As reported by NBC News On The Hour from November 23, 1962, stories concerning an aborted coup attempt in Argentina with the plotters arrested. Tensions between Yemen and Saudi Arabia were threatening to boil over at any moment. And an uneasy ceasefire had been in place since the 20th between India and China.

At home - the Congress Of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.) was staging a series of sit-ins at two cafeterias and a movie theater in Greensboro. Arrests were made including that of a Chinese exchange student.

And 173 people had died so far on the nation's highways since the beginning of the Thanksgiving holiday.

And that's what November 23rd acted and sounded like in 1962.

August 4, 1978 - Unemployment was up to 6.2% - an increase from 5.7% in June. And in direct contrast to today's drop of over 500 points, the Stock Market was going nutty with a dramatic rise of over 23 points during the week (in 1978 dollars, that was a big deal). President Carter was on the road selling his proposal to reform the Civil Service System. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance was on the road to the Middle East again, trying to keep the on-again/off-again peace talks going. Texas was getting deluged and there was flooding all over the state. In the UK, former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe was arrested on attempted murder charges. Something about Male models. Things were heating up big-time between Vietnam and Cambodia with skirmishes and fire fights heading into all-out war. And to top it all off, Southern California builders were going into hysterics over a shortage of cement.

On some days they just scratched for news. But this was what was going on this particular August 4th, via the CBS World News Roundup with Dallas Townsend.

As days in history go, June 29, 2000 was probably less memorable but no less frantic. It started off with news that the Wild fires in Southern Washington State, having consumed some 180,000 acres were heading towards the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, but hopeful spokespeople painted optimistic pictures saying everything would be okay, just as long as the wind didn't whip up . . .again. And the Happiest Place On Earth was scene of a hostage situation, as a distraught husband and father took his 4 year old and a Concession worker at gunpoint demanding to see the ex while at Disney World in Orlando. Disgraced Atlanta Braves Pitcher John Rocker, who managed to piss off an entire city and several races in the process, returned to baseball briefly. His return was greeted with such reverse warmth and abhorrence that he was accompanied by a phalanx of armed police and escorted from the ballpark in an armored car when the show was over. The Elian Gonzalez case got something of a recap when Janet Reno gave a presser to air her views on the fiasco. When asked if she learned anything from the ordeal she said, no because nothing like that was ever going to happen again. President Clinton nominated Norman Mineta to Secretary of Commerce, the first Asian American to land the gig. British Scientists tossed a wet blanket on the Aspirin for Heart Health theory, saying dousing yourself with the tiny pharmaceutical would probably do more harm than good in the long run. Oh well.

And if you were a former American Cancer Society exec named Daniel Wiant you'd be sweating bullets on this day as the Feds just handed you a Fraud indictment for the $7million you embezzled from the Charity.

Eleven years ago this day, as it sound on the CBS World News Roundup Late Edition for June 29, 2000.