By all intents and purposes the real fireworks on this particular July 4th were going on between Abortion Rights protesters and Anti-Abortion protesters as the result of a SCOTUS ruling upholding States rights to limit a woman's access to an abortion if they so chose. Flags were burned, cars were overturned, teargas canisters littered the streets in most cities from L.A. to Washington D.C. And so it continues.
Meanwhile in Paris, Mikhail Gorbachev touched down with a basket full of agreements between the Soviets and the French aimed at stimulating Glasnost economy. The French were wary but Gorbachev was bent on making deals. Poland swore in their new Parliament, the first time they did so since the late 1940's. China was still in the midst of cracking down, post-Tiananmen Square with blacked out TV programs from the West and Jammed radio signals from the BBC and Voice of America.
And since it was a holiday in the U.S. there was little to report about except the raging brush fires in Southern California which raced through and charred most of Turnbull Canyon in eastern L.A. County along with some expensive real estate. And it wasn't really officially fire season yet.
And all via the CBS World News Roundup for July 4, 1989.
