DIARY OF THE YEAR
Thursday, September 16: The London Group of Ten meeting was deadlocked over America's refusal to devalue the dollar, while, in the US, President Nixon announced a continuing wage and price restraint after the current freeze ends in November. 4,000 British troops withdrew from Ulster.
Friday, September 17: The NPA threatened to close Fleet Street if NGA chapel meetings continued to disrupt production.
While Mr Heath was calling for a European summit in Zurich, an armada of inshore fishing boats sailed up the Thames to present an anti-EEC petition. A soldier guarding a bomb-disposal expert was shot dead in Belfast. Maltese PM Dom Mintoff arrived for talks at Chequers, and Brezhnev and Brandt took a dip in the Black Sea.
Saturday, September 18: The NGA 'broke their contract' and were locked out of Fleet Street. In Dublin the Republican Unity party was founded in opposition to Fianna Fail and NI internees began to be moved from the prison ship 'Maidstone,' to a camp near Long Kesh. The Oval's first pop festival made £15,000 for Bangla Desh and British golfers lost the Ryder Cup.
Sunday, September 10: No papers appeered, but staff on the Sun almost succeeded in producing an illegal Monday edition. In Gibraltar Sir Alec DouglasHome talked of reconciliation with Madrid, Mrs Gandhi put a time limit on the stay of Pakistani refugees in India and a terrorist bomb killed a four-year-old Arab girl in a Jerusalem street. A £16 million haul of heroin was discovered in a car disembarking from the ' QE2,' Monday, September 20: Little progress was made in ten hours of talks between Vic Feather and the printing unions while members of the latter attempted a ' pirate ' Evening News. A soldier at a Londonderry observation post was hit in the back by a soft-nosed bullet, twenty-seven people were injured in a Belfast pub explosion and on Panorama Reggie Maudling once again rejected a third force. In Rhodesia hopes of a settlement rose after Lord Goodman had met Ian Smith.
Tuesday, September 21: The Fleet Street peace talks lasted well into the night, but no agreement was reached. After a Cabinet meeting Stormont tentatively proposed increasing the size of parliament and introducing proportional representation while a group of opposition MPs visited ,nternees at Long Kesh. The US launched the heaviest attack on North Vietnam for almost a year, two prisoners killed a nurse and warder in a jail near Paris and the cancellation of the October celebrations led to speculation on Mao Tse Tung's state of health.
Wednesday, September 22: The emergency debate on Northern Ireland began in the specially re-assembled Parliament. Mr Wilson for the Opposition and Mr Maudling for the Government maintained the bipartisan approach. Talks continued in the newspaper dispute but no newspapers were produced. Rupert Murdoch said the situation was "hopeful." Higher postal charges and a cut-back in services were announced by Bill Rylands.
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