A particularly grim day in 1940. Starting with news reports that France had appointed delegates to receive the German surrender terms. From the relocated French government in Bordeaux, Marshall Petain appealed to the French people, and the remaining French troops, to give up the War, that France had been defeated.

And while the appeals were going out and the envoys were readying to receive terms, the German Army were quickly advancing on all fronts, taking the important French Port city of Brest and the rumored capture of numerous French warships. What was left of the French Army had been separated into four areas and cut off from communication with each other. The German Army was also poised to take Paris.

All this had an uneasy affect on London, as it was reported that emergency cabinet meetings had taken place and plans for the defense of Britain were underway. Among those plans was the initial evacuation of some 20,000 children to Canada and the Dominions for the duration. The first ships were scheduled to convoy out in 2 weeks and offices handing the evacuation requests were flooded with applicants. It was widely believed that, now with the fall of France, Britain was facing Germany's Final Objective. German Bomber raids overnight hit the industrial cities of Billingham and Hull. The fires from Billingham could be seen for 30 miles. Reports from Berlin claimed they were reprisal bombings for British raids on German cities.

News from Washington initially came in the form of a bulletin that stated FDR made a surprising motion to form a Coalition Cabinet and the unprecedented move of appointing two high-ranking Republicans, Col. Frank Knox and Henry L. Stimson to the posts of Secretary of The Navy and Secretary of War, respectively. Knox was vice-Presidential Candidate for the Republicans in 1936 and Stimson was Secretary of State in the Hoover Administration and Secretary of War in the Taft Administration. The dismay came from the Republicans who felt it created damage to their 1940 Platform and it was purely a political move on FDR's part.

Another nail-biting day in history, this June 20, 1940, as reported on the NBC News Of The World.

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.