1970's

2/16/16

Year: 1974

• The US government Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, established by Congress in 1972, began providing new benefits for the aged, blind and disabled.
• President Nixon signed legislation requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 mph.
• President Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee. 
• An Advisory Panel on White House Tapes determined that an 18-m gap in Watergate tape was due to erasure and of no consequence.
• "Happy Days" began an 11 year run on ABC.

• NY Yankees Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford were elected to Hall of Fame.
• China occupied the Paracel Islands following the Battle of Hoang Sea, a bloody skirmish with Vietnam.
• "$6 Million Man" starring Lee Majors premiered on ABC TV.
• Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was kidnapped in Berkeley, Calif., by the Symbionese Liberation Army. Her boyfriend Steven Weed was beaten. 
• Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles" opened in movie theaters.
• The island nation of Grenada won independence from Britain.
• The three-man crew of "Skylab" space station returned to Earth after spending 84 days in space. 

• US female Figure Skating championship was won by Dorothy Hamill.
• The SLA sent a letter a tape with the voices of Patty Hearst and "general field marshal Cinque" to KPFA. They demanded free food to the poor of the Bay Area, prison reform and social justice. Symbionese Liberation Army asked the Hearst family for $230 million in food for the poor.
• Henry Kulbaski, White House Secret Service agent, ordered service agents to shoot down a stolen helicopter that was flying around the White House. Robert K. Preston, a US Army private, suffered superficial pellet wounds and was taken into custody.
• Randolph Hearst announced a $2 million food program called People in Need.
• Samuel Joseph Byck, an unemployed former tire salesman, attempted to hijack a plane flying out of Baltimore-Washington International Airport. He intended to crash into the White House in hopes of killing US President Richard M. Nixon. Byck killed pilot Fred Jones and a aviation officer George Neal Ramsburg before he was shot and wounded by gunfire through the door of a Delta DC-9 airplane. Byck then shot himself in the head.
• "People" magazine began sales with Mia Farrow on the front cover.

• The United States and Egypt re-established diplomatic relations after a seven-year break. 
• A grand jury in Washington, DC, concluded that President Nixon was indeed involved in the Watergate cover-up.  Seven people, including former Nixon White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman, former Attorney General John Mitchell and former assistant Attorney General Robert Mardian, were indicted on charges of conspiring to obstruct justice in connection with the Watergate break-in. They were convicted the following January, although Mardian's conviction was later reversed. In 2005 Vanity Fair Magazine revealed that W. Mark Felt, former FBI official, was the Watergate whistleblower Deep Throat, who helped bring down President Nixon.
• A Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashed shortly after takeoff from Orly Airport in Paris and 346 people were killed. It was the worst air disaster to date.
• Duke Univ. and the North Carolina Department of Archives and History announced the discovery of the Civil War ship USS Monitor.

• Officer Hiroo Onoda, the last Japanese soldier operating in the Philippines, surrendered, 29 years after World War II ended. The Japanese intelligence officer and WWII holdout, came out of hiding in fatigues patched many times over, on Lubang island in the Philippines on his 52nd birthday.

• Arab oil ministers, with the exception of Libya, announced the end the oil embargo on the US.
• The Viet Cong proposed a new truce with the United States and South Vietnam, which includes general elections. 
• A tape from the SLA announced Patty Hearst's decision to "stay and fight" with the SLA.
• The Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation of the Congress reported that $476,531 in back taxes and interest was owed by President Richard Nixon. Responding to charges of fraud, Nixon requested the committee investigation of his taxes and, upon its report, agreed to pay. The report made no conclusion regarding fraud.
• A series of 148 deadly tornadoes struck wide parts of the South and Midwest before jumping across the border into Canada; some 330 people were killed in 13 states: Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Total property damage was estimated at $600 million.
• Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves tied Babe Ruth's home-run record by hitting his 714th round-tripper in Cincinnati. 
• In England an armed payroll robbery took place at the London Electricity Board (LEB). George Davis was arrested for the robbery and his wife, Rose Davis, campaigned for his release. In 1976 the conviction was overturned as unsafe. In September 1977 George was again arrested for a bank robbery and Rose promptly divorced him. 
• The World Trade Center (WTC), the tallest building in the world at 110 stories, opened in NYC.

• Golda Meir announced her resignation as prime minister of Israel. Yitzhak Rabin replaced Golda Meir.
• SLA members including Patty Hearst robbed the Sunset Branch of the Hibernia Bank in SF of more than $10,000. While fleeing they wounded 2 people passing by.

• The US Federal Hourly Minimum Wage was set at $2.00 an hour.
• The House Judiciary Committee opened hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Nixon.
• In Northern Ireland three cars exploded amidst crowds of Dublin shoppers and commuters walking toward a train station. A fourth detonated about an hour later outside a pub in the border town of Monaghan. In 2007 an investigation into the bombings was finally completed by lawyer Patrick MacEntee. The government had tasked MacEntee in 2005 with finding out why Ireland's national police force, the Garda Siochana, closed down its investigation in 1974 and failed to follow up important leads.
• Yitzhak Rabin formed a new Israeli government.
• In June, President Nixon returned from a 9-day visit to the Middle-East, where he met with leaders of Egypt, Syria, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. 
• At the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, Sharon Buchanon became the 1st cashier to scan a Universal Product Code (UPC) code. The 59 black and white bar code was used on a 67 cent 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum. The scanner was a Spectra-Physics Model A. Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver had patented the 1st bar code scanner in 1952. In 1977 an international version was created. 
• In June, President Nixon arrived in Moscow for his 3rd summit. During the summit the US and Russia approved a partial  atomic test ban treaty.
• Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defected in Toronto, Canada.

• Alberta King, mother of Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated in Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia by Marcus Chenault, a twenty-one year old from Ohio who claimed that "all Christians are my enemies."
• The SF Chronicle received the last verified letter from the Zodiac killer with a complaint about the columnist Count Marco.
• President Richard Nixon's aides G. Gordon Liddy, John Ehrlichman and two others were convicted of conspiracy and perjury in connection with the Watergate scandal. They were convicted of conspiring to violate the civil rights of Daniel Ellsberg's former psychiatrist.
• The US Budget Control Act was signed into law. It stripped away from the president the power to withhold appropriated spending, and placed it in the hands of Congress. The Congressional budget Office was formed.
• The House Judiciary Committee recommended that President Richard Nixon should stand trial in the Senate for any of the five impeachment charges against him. 
• Turkey invaded Cyprus.
• The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Nixon had to turn over subpoenaed White House tape recordings to the Watergate special prosecutor. 
• The House Judiciary Committee voted 27-11 to recommend President Nixon's impeachment on a charge that he had personally engaged in a "course of conduct" designed to obstruct justice in the Watergate case.
• The Episcopal Church ordained female priests in Philadelphia.
• The prime ministers of Greece and Turkey and the British Foreign Secretary signed a peace agreement to settle the Cyprus crisis.
• President Richard Nixon admitted that he ordered a cover-up of the Watergate break-in for political as well as national security reasons. One of the secret recordings, known as the "smoking gun" tape, was released. It revealed that Nixon authorized hush money to Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt, and also revealed that Nixon ordered the CIA to tell the FBI to stop investigating certain topics because of "the Bay of Pigs thing."
• French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.

• President Nixon announced he would resign his office 12PM Aug 9, following damaging revelations in the Watergate scandal. President Nixon's resignation took effect. Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the 38th US President. After being sworn in, Ford spoke in the White House‘s East Room and said, "My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over." It was a line that Ford initially objected to saying, feeling it was a little hard on Nixon. Ford chose Nelson Rockefeller as his Vice-President.
• Moses Malone became the first basketball player to go straight from high school to the pros when he joined the Utah Stars.
• President Gerald Ford pardoned former President Richard M. Nixon for any crimes arising from the Watergate scandal he may have committed while in office.
• Evel Knievel attempted to jump the Snake River Canyon in Idaho on his rocket-powered motorcycle. He failed and parachuted down.

• In Boston, Massachusetts, a group called Restore Our Alienated Rights (R.O.A.R.) held a rally at City Hall Plaza a few days before the start of school. When Senator Ted Kennedy took the stage to speak in favor of busing, the crowd reacted in anger. Protests and violence continued for three years. The start of court-ordered busing to achieve racial integration in Boston's public schools was marred by violence in South Boston. 
• The "Rockford Files," starring James Garner, was first broadcast on NBC-TV.
• President Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War deserters and draft-evaders. Limited amnesty was offered to Vietnam-era draft resisters who would now swear allegiance to the United States and perform two years of public service.
• Gail A. Cobb, a member of the Metropolitan Police Force of Washington, D.C., became the first female police officer to be killed in the line of duty. Cobb was murdered by a robbery suspect in an underground garage in downtown Washington.

• Scientists warned that continued use of aerosol sprays will cause ozone depletion, which will lead to an increased risk of skin cancer and global weather changes.
• Czech-born German businessman Oskar Schindler, credited with saving about 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust, died in Frankfurt, West Germany; at his request, he was buried in Jerusalem.
• In October, the National Guard was mobilized to restore order in Boston school busing.
• Muhammad Ali and George Foreman held their "Rumble In the Jungle" boxing match in Kinshasa, Zaire. Ali knocked out George Foreman in the eighth round of a 15-round bout to regain his world heavyweight title, that was taken from him for refusing military service.
• Yuko Shimizu, Sanrio designer and creator of Hello Kitty, set November 1 as Hello Kitty’s birthday and her parents as George and Mary White of London.
• Ella T. Grasso was elected governor of Connecticut, the first woman to win a gubernatorial office without succeeding her husband. 
• Charges were dropped against eight Ohio National Guardsmen for their role in the deaths of four anti-war protestors at Kent State University. 
• Karen Silkwood, a technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium plant near Crescent, Oklahoma, was killed in a car crash while on her way to meet a reporter. 

• In November, Irish Republican Army was outlawed in Britain following deaths of 21. IRA bombs in British pubs killed 28 and wounded over 200 in the last 2 months.
• Jordanian women gained the right to vote.
• Pioneer II made its closest approach to Jupiter.
• The US Safe Drinking Water Act was passed.