The Soviet spacecraft Soyuz-19 took off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Central Asia, carrying two Soviet cosmonauts for a historic meeting with American astronauts. Millions watched as the USSR provided a live telecast of one of its space launches for the first time. The Soviet ship was to link up with the US Apollo in the space above West Germany on July 17. The cosmonauts were Alexey Leonov and Valeri Kubasov. An accompanying story reported three US astronauts — Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand and Donald Slayton — taking off on an Apollo spacecraft from Cape Canaveral seven and a half hours after the Soyuz launch.
Emergency Lessons
In a response to a cable from renowned US paediatrician Benjamin Spock, PM Indira Gandhi said “democratic liberty” in India would have been jeopardised if the government had “allowed the country to drift”. She said Jayaprakash Narayan has carried on a campaign against the government and “against me personally but we did not do anything to curb his movements or his free speech”. According to the PM, JP had aligned himself with the RSS, the organisation that instigated Mahatma Gandhi’s murder and was “fanatically” Hindu, preaching discrimination against Muslim and Christian minorities.
Pak Polls
PM Z.A. Bhutto said the general elections in Pakistan would be held in two years. In a statement, he said, “the Pakistan People’s Party must be conducted along healthy and democratic lines”.
Price Decontrol
The government announced partial decontrol of the price of aluminium under a new integrated policy for the aluminium industry.
