1974

Years: 1971 1972 1973 - 1974 - 1975 1976 1977

Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s - 1970s - 1980s 1990s 2000s

Events of 1974

January

• January 4 – Citing executive privilege, U.S. President Richard Nixon refuses to surrender 500 tapes and documents which have been subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
• January 6 – In response to the energy crisis, Daylight Saving Time commences nearly 4 months early in the United States.
• January 27 – Brisbane Qld Australia is flooded.
• January 30 – G. Gordon Liddy is found guilty of Watergate charges.
• January 30 – In his State of the Union Address, U.S. President Richard Nixon declares, "One year of Watergate is enough."

February

• February 1 – Fire breaks out in the Joelman Bank Building in São Paulo, Brazil; 177 die, 293 are injured, 11 die later of their injuries.
• February 1 – Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, was declared as a Federal Territory.
• February 3 – In the second Bathurst Gaol riot, prisoners destroy much of the facility with petrol bombs.
• February 4 – The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patricia Hearst, the 19-year-old granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst.
• February 8 – After a record 84 days in orbit, the crew of Skylab 4 returns to Earth.
• February 12 – U.S. District Court Judge George Boldt rules that Native American tribes in Washington State are entitled to half of the legal salmon and steelhead catches, based on treaties signed by the tribes and the U.S. government.
• February 13 – Nobel Prize winning writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is expelled from the Soviet Union (he returns May 27, 1994).
• February 17 – A soccer stampede occurs in Cairo, killing 49.
• February 22 – The Second Islamic Summit Conference by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is held in Lahore, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, from 29 Moharram to 1st Safar, 1394 H, (22-24 February, 1974).
• February 23 – The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
• February 28 – The United Kingdom general election results in an almost dead-heat. Harold Wilson becomes Prime Minister again, despite his Labour Party having received fewer votes than the Conservative Party.
• February 28 – Ethiopian prime minister Tsehafi Taezaz Aklilu Habte-Wold, who had held the position since 1961, is dismissed by Emperor Haile Selassie and replaced with Endelkachew Makonnen.

March

• March 1 – Watergate scandal: Seven former White House officials are indicted for their role in the Watergate break-in and charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.
• March 1 – Pierre Messmer finishes his first term as Prime Minister of France.
• March 3 – A Turkish Airlines DC-10 travelling from Paris to London crashes in a wood near Paris, killing all 346 aboard.
• March 8 – Charles de Gaulle Airport opens in Paris, France.
• March 10 – A Japanese World War II soldier, Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, surrenders in the Philippines.
• March 18 – Ten miners die in a methane gas explosion at Golborne Colliery near Wigan, Lancashire.
• March 18 – Oil embargo crisis: Most OPEC nations end a 5-month oil embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan.
• March 20 – Ian Ball fails in his attempt to kidnap Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips in The Mall, outside Buckingham Palace.
• March 29 – Mariner 10 approaches Mercury.

April

• April 1 – The Local Government Act 1972 comes into effect in England and Wales, creating 6 new metropolitan counties and comprehensively redrawing the administrative map.
• April 2 – French President Georges Pompidou dies; Senate President Alain Poher becomes Acting President for the second time.
• April 3 – The Super Outbreak, the largest series of tornadoes in history, hits 13 U.S. states and one Canadian province. By the time the last of 149 tornadoes hit early the following morning, 315 die and over 5,000 are injured.
• April 6 – ABBA wins the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton, England.
• April 10 – In Israel, Golda Meir resigns as Prime Minister.
• April 15 – In San Francisco, members of the Symbionese Liberation Army rob a branch of the Hibernia National Bank, joined by Patricia Hearst, their erstwhile captive.
• April 25 – Carnation Revolution: A coup in Portugal restores democracy.
• April 27 – The Lewis' store in Manchesters Piccadilly Gardens is evacuated after an IRA bomb threat; nobody is hurt.

May

• May 4 – The Expo '74 World's Fair opens in Spokane, Washington.
• May 7 – West German Chancellor Willy Brandt resigns.
• May 9 – The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard M. Nixon.
• May 12 – Fire damages the carousel in Port Dalhousie, Ontario, Canada, injuring 20 animals.
• May 15 – West German Foreign Minister Walter Scheel is elected President of Germany for a term beginning July 1.
• May 15 – Ma'alot massacre: In an Arab rebels attack and hostage taking at an Israeli school, a total of 31 people are killed, including 22 schoolchidren.
• May 16 – Helmut Schmidt is elected West German Chancellor.
• May 17 – Los Angeles, California police raid Symbionese Liberation Army headquarters, killing 6 members, including Camilla Hall.
• May 17 – Thirty-three people die and over 300 are wounded in the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings in the Republic of Ireland. Members of the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force are behind the blast, allegedly in collusion with members of the British intelligence service.
• May 18 – Nuclear test: Under Project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon, becoming the 6th nation to do so.
• May 18 – The Warsaw radio mast is completed, the tallest structure ever built (it collapses on August 8, 1991).
• May 19 – In the second round of the presidential elections in France, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing wins over François Mitterrand, but by a close margin.
• May 28 – The Italian fascist organization Ordine Nuovo bombs demonstrators in Brescia, killing 6 people.
• May 30 – NASA's ATS-6 satellite is launched.

June

• June 1 – Flixborough disaster: A chemical plant explosion in Flixborough, UK, kills 28 people.
• June 6 – A new Instrument of Government is promulgated, making Sweden a parliamentary monarchy.
• June 15 – Red Lion Square disorders: Members of the fascist National Front clash with leftist counter-protesters in London's West End; one student is killed.
• June 17 – A bomb explodes at the Houses of Parliament in London, damaging Westminster Hall. The Provisional Irish Republican Army claims responsibility for planting the bomb.
• June 26 – The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time, to sell a package of Wrigley's chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
• June 29 – Isabel Peron becomes interim president of Argentina, when Juan Peron falls seriously ill.
• June 30 – Alberta Williams King, mother of the late Martin Luther King, Jr., is killed during a church service in Atlanta, Georgia.

July

• July 1 – Juan Peron, President of Argentina, dies and is succeeded by his wife, Vice President Isabel Peron (the first female head of state in South America).
• July 15 – Christine Chubbuck, U.S. television presenter for WXLT-TV, draws a revolver and shoots herself in the head during a live broadcast. She dies in a hospital 14 hours later.
• July 15 – A military coup overthrows President Makarios in Cyprus.
• July 17 – A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb explodes in the White Tower at the Tower of London, killing 1 person and injuring 41. Another bomb explodes outside a government building in South London.
• July 20 – Turkish invasion of Cyprus: Forces from Turkey invade Cyprus after the coup d'etat by EOKA B.
• July 22 – Ethiopian Prime Minister Endelkachew Makonnen is replaced with Mikael Imru.
• July 23 – The Greek military junta government collapses.
• July 24 – Constantine Karamanlis is sworn in as interim Prime Minister of Greece.
• July 24 – Watergate scandal – United States v. Nixon: The United States Supreme Court unanimously rules that President Richard Nixon can not withhold subpoenaed White House tapes, and orders him to surrender them to the Watergate special prosecutor.
• July 27–30 – Watergate Scandal: The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee adopts 3 articles of impeachment, charging President Richard M. Nixon with obstruction of justice, failure to uphold laws, and refusal to produce material subpoenaed by the committee.

August

• August 4 – A bomb explodes in an Italicus Expressen train between Italy and West Germany. Italian neo-fascist terrorists take responsibility.
• August 5 – Watergate scandal: The "smoking gun" tape of June 23, 1972, is revealed, in which U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman discuss using the Central Intelligence Agency to block a Federal Bureau of Investigation inquiry into Watergate. Nixon's support in Congress collapses.
• August 7 – Three Republican congressional leaders (Barry Goldwater, Hugh Scott and John Rhodes) visit President Richard Nixon in the White House. They inform him that he lacks the votes to escape impeachment in the United States House of Representatives and conviction in the Senate.
• August 7 – French acrobat Philippe Petit walks across a high wire slung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York.
• August 8 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces his resignation (effective August 9).
• August 9 – Richard M. Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office, an action taken to avoid being removed by impeachment in response to his role in the Watergate scandal. Vice President Gerald R. Ford becomes the 38th President, taking the oath of office in the East Room of the White House.
• August 14 – Turkey invades for the second time in Cyprus, occupying 37% of the island's territory.
• August 28 – Geir Hallgrímsson becomes Prime Minister of Iceland.
• August 30 – An express train bound for Germany from Belgrade derails in Zagreb, Yugoslavia (now Croatia), killing more than 150 passengers.
• August 30 – A powerful bomb explodes at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters in Marunouchi, Tokyo, Japan; 8 are killed, 378 injured. Eight left-wing activists are arrested May 19, 1975 by Japanese authorities.

September

• September 8 – Watergate Scandal: U.S. President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office.
• September 8 – TWA Flight 841 crashes into the Ionian Sea 18 minutes after take off from Athens, after a bomb explodes in the cargo hold, and kills 88 people.
• 12 September – Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is deposed by the Derg. The imperial throne is offered to his son, Crown Prince Asfa Wossen, on the condition that the Crown Prince returns to Ethiopia.
• September 13 – Japanese Red Army members seize the French Embassy in The Hague, Netherlands. They secure the release of member Yatuka Fumiya, $300,000 and a flight to Aden.

October

• October 5 – The Guildford pub bombings at The Horse and Groom and The Seven Stars kill 5 people, and lead to the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of the Guildford Four the next year.
• October 8 – Franklin National Bank collapses due to fraud and mismanagement (the largest bank failure at that time in the history of the United States).
• October 10 – The second United Kingdom general election of the year results in a narrow victory for Labour, still led by Harold Wilson.
• October 15 – U.S. President Gerald Ford signs a federal campaign reform bill, which sets new regulations in the wake of the Watergate scandal.

November

• November 5 – Democrats make significant gains in the U.S. Congressional midterm elections, as the Republican Party suffers losses over the Watergate scandal.
• November 7 – A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb explodes at the Kings Arms, Woolwich.
• November 8 – Richard Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan disappears in England.
• November 10 – Movement 2 June members try to kidnap Günter von Drenkmann, the president of West Germany's Superior Court of Justice, at his home, but he is fatally shot during the attempt.
• November 16 – The Arecibo radio telescope sends an interstellar radio message towards the M13 Great Globular Cluster. The message will reach its destination around the year 27,000.
• November 17 – In Dublin, Ireland, President Erskine H. Childers dies suddenly of a heart attack in the middle of a public speech.
• November 19 – In Baitadi, Makahali, Nepal, 140 are killed when the Makahali River bridge collapses.
• November 20 – The United States Department of Justice files its final anti-trust suit against AT&T. This suit later leads to the break up of AT&T and the Bell System.
• November 21 – In Birmingham, England, 2 pubs are bombed, killing 21 people (the Birmingham Six are later sentenced to life in prison for this).
• November 22 – The United Nations General Assembly grants the Palestine Liberation Organization observer status.
• November 24 – A skeleton from the hominid species Australopithecus afarensis is discovered and named Lucy.
• November 27 – The Prevention of Terrorism Act is passed in the United Kingdom.

December

• December 1 – A Boeing 727 carrying TWA Flight 514 crashes 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Dulles International Airport during bad weather, killing all 92 people on board.
• December 4 – The Pioneer 11 probe passes Jupiter and captures famous images of the Great red spot.
• December 8 – Greek voters reject a proposal to restore the Greek monarchy.
• December 9 – The Paris summit, reuniting the European communities' heads of state and government, commences.
• December 19 – Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh becomes the 5th President of Ireland, in a state inauguration in Dublin Castle.
• December 19 – Former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice President of the United States.
• December 23 – Former British minister John Stonehouse, who faked his drowning in Florida, is arrested in Melbourne, Australia.
• December 24–25 – Darwin, Australia is almost completely destroyed by Cyclone Tracy.
• December 31 – Restrictions on holding private gold within the United States, implemented by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, are removed.

Deaths

• June 11 - Julius Evola, Italian philosopher (b. 1898)
• August 8 - Baldur von Schirach, leader of the Hitler Youth (b. 1907)