Nixon resigns, Owens wins 4 golds. The News Journal pages of history, week of Aug. 7

"Pages of history" features excerpts from The News Journal archives including The Morning News, the Evening Journal and the Journal-Every Evening.

Aug. 8, 1990, The News Journal

Crisis in the Gulf: Bush sends ground troops, warplanes to Saudi Arabia

President Bush Tuesday dispatched American warplanes and ground troops to Saudi Arabia where sources said a multinational military force was being created to defend the vulnerable oil kingdom from attack by Iraq.

Capitol Hill sources said Egypt and Morocco were joining the effort, part of an accelerating international response to Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait.

While using an oil embargo in an effort to reverse the Kuwaiti invasion, allied forces hoped the unusual multinational defense of Saudi Arabia would deter Saddam’s million-man Iraqi army from storming the Saudi oil fields as well….

Departing air crews stocked up on sweets and canned goods early Tuesday as Dover Air Force Base mobilized for an airlift of U.S. troops and weapons to Saudi Arabia.

Capt. Walter N. Thorp, base chief of public affairs, declined to release details of Dover’s security status or operations. But a variety of sources confirmed that Dover already dispatched a series of huge C-5 jet transports and some cargo, in a flurry that picked up noticeably Tuesday morning….

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Aug. 9, 1974, The Morning News

Nixon resigns

President Nixon resigned last night, saying he did so to heal the wounds of Watergate and to give America a “full-time president” in Gerald R. Ford.

Nixon urged Americans to rally behind Ford, who will assume the powers of the presidency at noon today, the effective hour of Nixon’s resignation.

Nixon said he would have preferred to fight the virtually certain impeachment that awaited him in Congress, “no matter the personal agony that would have been involved.”

But he said the interests of the nation demanded that he step down, to end the diversions of the scandal that preoccupied the White House and the impeachment process that kept Congress from other duties….

It was the first time in the 185-year chain of presidents that a chief executive had resigned his office….

A presidential statement Monday and three transcripts of presidential conversations that Nixon chose to make public precipitated his resignation. In that statement, Nixon admitted, as the transcripts showed, that he ordered on June 23 a halt to the investigation of the burglary at the Democratic headquarters in the Watergate complex 6 days earlier by persons in the employ of agents of Nixon’s re-election campaign. He also admitted that he had kept the evidence from both his lawyers and the House Judiciary Committee, which had recommended the House impeach him on three general charges….

Aug. 10, 1936, Journal-Every Evening

U.S. emerges with highest honors in Olympic track history; Owens wins fourth gold

BERLIN – America’s Olympians, with another men’s track and field title safely stowed away, moved hopefully along widely scattered athletic fronts today, while the Japanese marathon victor, Kitei Son, was acclaimed for the greatest distance running finish the games ever have witnessed….

Jesse Owens, including his part in the sprint relay, became the first American to collect four gold medals since 1900….

With the approval of Larry Snyder, his coach at Ohio State, Owens announced he would turn professional after completing a post-Olympic tour provided sufficient financial inducements are forthcoming….

Owens’ Olympic peak in which he cracked the Olympic 200 meters and broad jump marks, equaled the 100 meters record and paced the record-breaking 400 meter relay team, is the best all-around exhibition he has given since the 1935 Big Ten championship when he broke three world marks and equaled a fourth….

CATCH UP ON HISTORY:News Journal archives, week of May 8

Aug. 13, 1898, The Morning News

Peace! War with Spain ended

The protocol preliminary to a treaty of peace between the United States and Spain was signed at the White House at 4.23 o’clock yesterday afternoon….

The peace commissioners will meet in Paris Oct. 1.

…President McKinley signed a proclamation declaring the existence of an armistice, and orders were transmitted…to raise the blockade in Cuban and Puerto Rican waters. Orders were also included liberating the port of Manila from blockade.

The full text of the protocol was not made public, but a statement was made of its chief provisions, as follows:

Spain will relinquish all claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba.

Puerto Rico and other Spanish islands in the West Indies and an island in the Ladrones, to be selected by the United States, shall be ceded to the latter.

The United States will occupy and hold the city, bay and harbor of Manila, pending the conclusion of a treaty of peace which shall determine the control, disposition and government of the Philippines….

At 4.40 o’clock yesterday afternoon the following dispatch was received at the office of “The Morning News” and it was at once posted on the bulletin board: "WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 – Protocol signed. War ended at 4.23."

At once an eager and jubilant crowd collected in front of the office and the good news spread rapidly. In a few minutes the Wilmington City Hall bell began to clang out the good tidings, and it was struck vigorously for 25 minutes….

Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: News Journal archives Nixon resigns, Owens' 4 golds, war with Spain