Also Within This Year in History:
1974
1974 was a year of firsts. Richard Nixon, enmeshed in the Watergate scandal, became the first American president to resign from office. Hank Aaron became the first baseball player to top Babe Ruth’s career home run record. Scientists in Ethiopia found the first skeleton of a 3-million-year-old human ancestor that walked upright, while archaeologists in China unearthed an army of more than 8,000 lifesize terracotta warriors. In America, disco fever raged, and Archie Bunker broke TV sitcom ground with his blunt and bigoted take on hot-button social issues.
On January 2, 1974, President Richard M. Nixon signs the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act, setting a new national maximum speed limit. Prior to 1974, individual states set speed limits…
South Vietnamese troops report that 55 soldiers have been killed in two clashes with communist forces. Claiming that the war had “restarted,” South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu asserted, “We…
On January 19, 1974, the University of Notre Dame men’s basketball team defeats the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) 71‑70, in South Bend, Indiana, snapping UCLA’s record‑setting 88‑game…
Rae Carruth, the pro football player convicted of hiring someone to kill his pregnant girlfriend, was born on January 20, 1974, in Sacramento, California. On the night of November 15,…
On this day in 1974, the last remnants of Cyclone Wanda cause severe flooding in Queensland, Australia, that results in the deaths of 16 people and leaves thousands homeless. The…
The fighting continues in South Vietnam despite the cease‑fire that was initiated on January 28, 1973, under the provisions of the Paris Peace Accords. This latest fighting was part of…
On this day in 1974, the pioneering movie producer Samuel Goldwyn dies in his sleep at the age of 91, at his home in Los Angeles. Born Schmuel Gelbfisz in…
On February 1, 1974, University of Washington student Lynda Ann Healy disappears from her apartment and is killed by Ted Bundy. The murder marked Bundy’s entry into the ranks of…
On February 2, 1974, a sweet, soft ballad by a 31‑year‑old Barbra Streisand knocks Beatle Ringo Starr down a notch on the Billboard Hot 100. Streisand’s “The Way We Were”…
Patricia Hearst, the 19‑year‑old granddaughter of publishing billionaire William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped from her Berkeley, California, apartment. Stephen Weed, Hearst’s fiance, was beaten unconscious by the two abductors. Soon, a ransom…
On February 4, 1974, Patty Hearst, the 19‑year‑old granddaughter of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped from her apartment in Berkeley, California, by three armed strangers. Her fiancé, Steven…
In one of Hollywood’s zaniest movie premiere stunts, Mel Brooks’ 1974 western spoof Blazing Saddles screens at the Pickwick Drive‑In Theater in Burbank, California. Guests attend not in cars—but on…
Reg Murphy, an editor of The Atlanta Constitution, is kidnapped after being lured from his home near the city. William A.H. Williams told the newspaperman that he had 300,000 gallons…
On February 26, 1974, Nike receives a U.S. patent for its waffle trainer running shoes. Nike co‑founder Bill Bowerman invented the now‑iconic soles in a waffle iron over breakfast. Before…
A DC‑10 jet crashes into a forest outside of Paris, France, killing all 346 people on board, on March 3, 1974. The poor design of the plane, as well as…
On March 4, 1974, actress Mia Farrow from The Great Gatsby graces the cover of the inaugural issue of People, a weekly celebrity and human interest magazine spotlighting the personal…
Journalist Helen Thomas is named United Press International’s White House Bureau Chief on March 6, 1974. At a press conference that day, President Nixon personally congratulates her on becoming the…
On March 1, 1974, in addition to handing up criminal indictments against seven former high‑ranking officials in the Nixon administration, a grand jury in the District of Columbia named the…
On March 29, 1974, prominent Soviet author, historian and political dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is reunited with his family after being exiled from his home country. Publication of The Gulag Archipelago, his…
The unmanned U.S. space probe Mariner 10, launched by NASA in November 1973, becomes the first spacecraft to visit the planet Mercury, sending back close‑up images of a celestial body…
