1974 Events: A Look Back at a Historic Year

Discover the key events of 1974, from the Watergate scandal to the Rumble in the Jungle, and explore how they shaped history in this insightful article.

1974 Events: A Look Back at a Historic Year

January

January 5: In Caracas, Venezuela , corrupt politician Carlos Andrés Pérez is sworn in as president before Congress.
January 6: In the United Kingdom, the three-day work week is implemented due to energy shortages caused by the mining strike.
January 6: The first sports program, DeporTV, is launched in Mexico .
January 8: The aqueduct is inaugurated in Victoria de Las Tunas .
January 8: In Geneva, Switzerland, the meeting of OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) members, who have been carrying out an oil embargo since October 1973 (which they will only lift on March 18) against the United States, Europe and Japan, which caused the 1973 oil crisis, decide to stabilize oil prices, provided that industrialized countries contain inflation and the profits of big business.
January 10 – In an artificially created shaft in Area U10as of the NevadaTest Site (about 100 km northwest of Las Vegas ) , at 7:38 a.m. local time, the United States simultaneously detonates its Pinedrops–Sloat-1, Pinedrops–Bayou-2, and Pinedrops–Tawny-3 atomic bombs , located at depths of 343, 342, and 0 meters, all weighing less than 5 kilotons each. They are bombs No. 812 to 814 of the 1,132 detonated by the United States between 1945 and 1992.
January 11: David, Elizabeth, Emma, Grant, Jason and Nicolette Rosenkowitz are born in Cape Town, South Africa, the first recorded appearance of sextuplets in the world, with all six babies surviving.
January 13: Super Bowl VIII is celebrated in the city of Houston ( state of Texas ).
January 14: In Havana, the Council of Ministers enacts the Law on Maternity for Working Women.
January 15: General Ernesto Geisel becomes dictator in Brazil .
January 17: In Colombia , M-19 (April 19 Movement) guerrillas take over the Quinta de Bolívar museum – at the foot of Montserrate hill and about 2 km northeast of Bogotá’s central park – and steal the Liberator’s sword.
January 17 – In the Norwegiansector of the North Sea , two commercial divers, Pier Skipness and Robert John Smyth, die from rapid decompression and drowning after their diving bell abruptly surfaces from a depth of 98 metres.
January 20: The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft makes its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
January 24 : Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union), arrives at the Havana airport at the head of a high-level delegation.
January 26: In Turkey , Bülent Ecevit forms the new government.
January 28: The Cuban and Soviet basketball teams face off in Havana , in the presence of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro and Leonid Brezhnev.
January 31: In Havana City, Leonid Brezhnev and Commander in Chief Fidel Castro inaugurate the Vladimir Ilich Lenin Vocational School, which from 1985 will be named the Vladimir Ilich Lenin Pre-University Institute of Exact Sciences .

February

February 1: In Cuba, Luis Echaide becomes national boxing champion in the 60 kilogram division, by defeating champion Orlando Palacios. ^[1]
February 1: In São Paulo( Brazil ) the Joelma building catches fire, causing 177 deaths and 293 injuries. Another 11 people later die as a result of their injuries.
February 1: In Malaysia, the capital, Kuala Lumpur, is declared a “federal territory.”
February 2: In China , a farmer discovers on his land some pieces of what appears to be a statue made of red baked clay. This will be the most important archaeological discovery of the 20th century in China: the Terracotta Warriors .
February 3: In Costa Rica , Daniel Oduber is elected president.
February 4: Leonardo Mckenzie Grant becomes three-time national champion in the foil event . On October 6, 1976, he will become one of the Barbadian martyrs .
February 4 – In the city of Berkeley( state of California ) ―near San Francisco― , a group of young left-wing bourgeois members of a “Symbiote Liberation Army” kidnap Patricia Hearst (daughter of William Randolph Hearst, American press magnate) outside her apartment, who later joins her captors.
February 5 : Raúl Castroleaves for the Soviet Union . He will also visit the Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia .
February 6: In the Caribbean Sea, the island of Grenada becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
February 7: In Spain, Camilo José Cela withdraws his candidacy for the presidency of the Ateneo de Madrid .
February 8: After a record 84 days in orbit, the crew of the Skylab 4 space station returns to Earth.
February 11: In Washington DC , Western countries hold an energy conference where they decide to create the International Energy Agency.
February 13: In the Soviet Union , writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn is expelled from the country.
February 14: In Yucatan (Mexico) ―under the presidency of Luis Echeverría Álvarez (b. 1922)―, the police torture and murder the student leader Efraín El Charras Calderón Lara (26).
February 14: The CNRM (National Rally Commission) is founded in Mexico.
February 17: In Egypt, the last Israeli soldiers leave the Suez Canal .
February 20: The delegation of the Party and Government of the GDR arrives in Cuba, headed by Erich Honecker , First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany .
February 21: The last Israeli soldiers leave the Suez Canal .
February 21: In Japan, the daily comic Sazae-san(by cartoonist Machiko Hasegawa) is published for the last time in the Asahi Shimbun magazine after 28 uninterrupted years.
February 22: In Pakistan , the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto recognizes the independence of Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan).
February 22: Teleamazonas begins broadcasting, being the first Ecuadorian channel to start using color images.
February 24: In Lajore (Pakistan) , 36 Islamic countries decide to provide aid to developing countries.
February 27 : The 12th Central American and Caribbean Gamesare inaugurated in the Dominican Republic . Cuba will obtain 306 gold medals and win 15 of the 21 disciplines contested.
February 27: In Venezuela, Margarita Islandis declared a national park . ^[2]
February 28: In the province of Córdoba (Argentina) , police chief Antonio Navarro deposes the democratic Peronist governor Obregón Cano and vice-governor Atilio López.
February 28: The first round of elections is held in the United Kingdom .

March

March 1 : Seven of US President Richard Nixon’s closest collaborators are accused of participating in the ” Watergate ” scandal.
March 3: A Turkish Airlines DC-10 flying from Paris to London crashes in a forest near Paris . All 346 people on board are killed.
March 3: In Guatemala, Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García is elected new president.
March 4: In Punta del Este (Uruguay) , Marcelo Fernández (Minister of Foreign Trade of the Republic of Cuba) presides over the Cuban delegation to the conference between Latin American countries and the European Economic Community .
March 4: In London(United Kingdom), Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath resigns and is succeeded by Labour’s Harold Wilson , who had previously been Prime Minister between 1964 and 1970.
March 4: The first issue of Peoplemagazine is published in the United States , with actress Mia Farrow on the cover.
March 7: In Havana, Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro receives the draft Family Code .
March 8: In Puerto Padre ( Las Tunas province ) the public library is inaugurated.
March 8: Charles de Gaulle Airport is inaugurated in Paris, France .
March 8: In London (United Kingdom), the British band Queenreleases their album Queen II with the single “Seven Seas of Rhye”.
March 8: The final episode of the American television series The Brady Bunchairs .
March 10: In the Philippines , H IROO Onoda, a Japanese soldier in hiding since World War II (1939-1945) , appears and surrenders .
March 10: In Guatemala City, several men dressed in civilian clothes enter the offices of the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared (for the Mayan genocide (1981-1982) ), and murder its director, Edmundo Guerra Theilheimer.
March 11: In Venezuela , corrupt politician Carlos Andrés Pérez takes office as president-elect.
March 13: The XII Central American and Caribbean Games conclude in the Dominican Republic . Cuba obtains a total of 306 medals and the title of champion in several sports.
March 15: In Brazil , Ernesto Geisel takes office as president-elect.
March 18: The five-month oil embargo (since October 1973) by most OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) nations against the United States, Europe, and Japan, which had caused the 1973 oil crisis, ends.
March 18: Ten miners die from a methane gasexplosion at Golborne Colliery in Lancashire, United Kingdom .
March 18: In Los Angeles, California, after 23 consecutive years on television, actress Lucille Ballbroadcasts the finale of the comedy series Here’s Lucy .
March 19: The first meeting of foreign ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement is held in Algeria .
March 22 : Pham Van Dong, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam , arrives in Havana at the head of a high-level delegation.
March 26: In the Indian district of Chamoli ( state of Uttara-Khand ), a group of women farmers use their bodies to surround trees in order to prevent loggers from cutting them down, giving rise to the Chipko movement.
March 29: In the People’s Republic of China, the government announces to the press the discovery of the Terracotta Army two months ago in the city of Xi’an
March 29: The American unmanned space probe Mariner 10makes the first flyby of the planet Mercury .
March 29 – The VolkswagenGolf, a modern front-wheel drive hatchback, is launched in West Germany and will replace the iconic Volkswagen Beetle, which held the world record for the most-produced car.
March 31– British airlines BOAC and BEA merge to form British Airways .

April

In April, according to an estimate by the United States Census Bureau, the world’s populationreaches 4 billion people.
April 2: The Signal Iduna Park stadium is inaugurated in Dortmund , Germany .
April 2: In Paris (France), President Georges Pompidoudies of cancer at the age of 63. He is immediately succeeded by Alain Poher . Two months later (in May 1974), Valéry Giscard d’Estaing wins the presidential race.
April 3–4: In the United States, a massive tornado hits the central parts of the country, killing an estimated 319 people. It was the largest event of its kind until the 2011 Super Outbreak.
April 5: In the United States, horror novelist Stephen Kingpublishes Carrie , his first novel.
April 6: In Brighton ( England ), the Swedish pop group ABBA wins the Eurovision Song Contest with their song “Waterloo” .
April 8: Baseball player Hank Aaron hits his 715th home run, surpassing Babe Ruth ‘s record .
April 10: Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir resigns .
April 11 – In Israel, three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, whose children had been killed by Israeli civilians, attack several homes of innocent civilians (Kiryat Shmona massacre). When Israeli army soldiers move in to attack them, they commit suicide by bombing themselves. 18 men, women and children are killed.
April 15– In San Francisco, California , members of the bourgeois left-wing group Symbionese Liberation Army rob a branch of the Hibernia National Bank; their kidnapping victim Patricia Hearst is photographed wielding an M1 carbine , disguised as the guerrilla fighter “Tania.”
April 21: In Colombia , Alfonso López Michelsen is elected new president.
April 24: Guillaume Affair. The discovery of an East German communist spy, Günter Guillaume, within the West German government leads to the resignation of Chancellor Willy Brandt.
April 25– The Carnation Revolution (Revolução dos Cravos) , a left-wing military coup in Portugal, takes place in Portugal that restores democracy, ending 41 years of “Estado Novo” dictatorship in the country. Corrupt Portuguese Prime Minister Marcelo Caetano flees to Brazil, where he is granted political asylum by Brazilian President Ernesto Geisel .
April 30 : The First Workers’ Sports Gamesare inaugurated in Havana .

May

May 1: In Plaza de Mayo (Buenos Aires), President Juan Domingo Perón harshly rebukes militants of the Peronist Youth ―who continued to carry out attacks like those they carried out during the series of dictatorships and tyrannies between 1955 and 1973, and who in September 1973 killed the union leader José Ignacio Rucci, a friend of Perón.
May 4: In Nepal , a group of Japanese mountaineers climb Mount Manaslu ; they are the first women to climb one of the “eight-thousanders” (mountains over 8,000 meters).
May 4: The Expo ’74 World’s Fair opens in Spokane, Washington , in the far northwest of the United States.
May 5: Giscard d’Estaing wins the first round of the French presidential election.
May 6– In West Germany, Chancellor Willy Brandt resigns and is replaced by Helmut Schmidt.
May 8 : Daniel Oduberassumes the presidency in Costa Rica .
May 16: In Germany , Helmut Schmidt is elected new chancellor.
May 16: In the Dominican Republic, Joaquín Balaguer is elected president for the fourth time.
May 17: In Dublin and Monaghan (Republic of Ireland) – as part of the Troubles – the UVF ( Ulster Volunteer Force ) detonates four car bombs. The attacks kill 33 civilians and injure almost 300, the highest number of victims in a single day.
May 17 – In Los Angeles, California, a two-hour shootout between the Police Department and members of the Symbionese Liberation Army leaves six SLA members dead, including its leader, Donald DeFreeze.
May 18: At the Pojran industrial estate in Rajasthan , the Indian government detonates its first atomic bomb, the Smiling Buddha project, and becomes the sixth nation with nuclear power.
May 18: A radio antenna is inaugurated in Konstantynów ( Poland), which is said to be the tallest man-made structure. It will fall on August 8 , 1991 .
May 18 – In Australia, Gough Whitlam’s Labor government is re-elected with a reduced majority, defeating the Liberal/Country Coalition led by Billy Snedden. Whitlam consequently becomes the first Labor prime minister to be re-elected in his own right. Meanwhile, the Democratic Labor Party loses all five of its Senate seats, effectively eliminating them as a political force.
May 18 – In the United States, two religious fanatics, Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles, found Heaven’s Gate, an American New Age millennial religious group.
May 19: Valéry Giscard d’Estaing wins the second round of the French presidential election.
May 28: In Río Grande , on the island of Tierra del Fuego (Argentina), Ángela Loij (74 years old), the last pure-blooded member of the Selk’nam people, dies .
May 30: In the United States, NASA launches the ATS-6 satellite.

June

June 2: Club Atlético Newell’s Old Boys of Rosario is crowned European champion for the first time in its history .
June 12: In Buenos Aires ( Argentina ), President Juan Domingo Perón gives his last speech from the balconies of the Casa Rosada and resigns from office.
June 13: Germany 1974 , the 10th edition of the World Cup, opens in West Germany .
June 16: In the Soviet Union , Leonid Brezhnev wins elections to the Supreme Soviet .
June 17: A bomb explodes in Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the Houses of Parliament. Police attribute it to the Irish Provisional Republican Army.
June 19: In Manila ( Philippines ), Amparo Muñoz (Miss Spain 1973) is proclaimed Miss Universe
June 22: In Chicago ( United States ), the Willis Tower opens to the public .
June 25: In orbit around the Earth, the Soviet Union inaugurates Salyut 3, the first successful orbital station in human history.
June 26: At Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ojai ,a barcode is scanned for the first time to sell a pack of Wrigley’s gum.
June 29: In Buenos Aires, Isabel Perónis sworn in as the first female president of Argentina, replacing her ailing husband Juan Perón , who will die two days later.
June 30: In the American city of Atlanta , Georgia , Alberta Williams King (the mother of the assassinated black leader Martin Luther King [1929-1968]) is assassinated during a religious service.

July

July 1: Cuba and Nigeria establish diplomatic relations.
July 1 – Former President of Argentina Juan Domingo Perón dies in Buenos Aires, Argentina . He is succeeded by his wife, Vice President Isabelita Martínez de Perón . She becomes the first female head of state in the Americas.
July 1: In Guatemala, Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García assumes the presidency.
July 7: The World Cup ends in Munich , Germany, and West Germany is crowned champion of the 1974 World Cup for the second time after beating the Netherlands 2-1 .
July 8: In Orlando, Florida, two weeks after the opening of Disneyland , an 18-year-old employee is crushed to death while working on the United States Sings attraction. She was the first fatality in a Disney park.
July 15– In Cyprus , Nikos Sampson leads a coup against President Makarios III , establishing a dictatorship.
July 15: In Sarasota, Florida, television presenter Christine Chubbuck shoots herself in the head with a revolver while presenting her show. She dies in a hospital fourteen hours later.
July 16: In the United States, Elmer Wayne Henley is sentenced to life in prison for helping Dean Corll murder 28 children in the state of Texas between 1970 and 1973.
July 20: In Cyprus , Operation Attila is carried out by the government of Turkey , which occupies 38% of the island , establishing the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus , which will never be internationally recognized.
July 20: Turkish troops invade Cyprus in response to the coup d’état launched five days earlier by Greek National Guard officers.
July 23: In Cyprus, Nikos Sampson resigns due to international pressure and the Turkish invasion. The Greek military junta is replaced by a civilian government, the Metapolitefsi.
July 24: In Greece the Dictatorship of the Colonels is overthrown.
July 31: In Buenos Aires , the right-wing terrorist group Triple A (Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance) assassinates the Peronist intellectual and politician Rodolfo Ortega Peña, 37 years old.

August

August 2: In the Basque Country (Kingdom of Spain), the Zaragoza Amusement Park is inaugurated .
August 4: A bomb explodes on a train between Italy and West Germany, killing 12 and injuring 48. An Italian neo-fascist terrorist group claims responsibility.
August 7: In Havana, a collaboration agreement on medical teaching for a period of 7 years is signed with the Democratic Republic of South Yemen, upon opening a Faculty of Medicine in Aden .
August 7: In Colombia, Alfonso Míchelsen assumes the presidency.
August 7: In New York City, acrobat Philippe Petit walks between the Twin Towers(opened the previous year) on a steel cable.
August 8: In Washington, corrupt President Richard Nixon announces his resignation, effective at noon on August 9.
August 9: The governments of Cuba and Senegal establish diplomatic relations.
August 9: In Washington (United States), Gerald Fordis sworn in as president following the resignation of corrupt President Richard Nixon over the Watergate scandal.
August 14 – At the NevadaTest Site (102 km northwest of Las Vegas ), at 6:00 a.m. local time, the United States detonates its 8 kiloton Puye atomic bomb 430 meters underground. This was the 825th of the 1,132 bombs detonated by the United States between 1945 and 1992.
August 14: Türkiye invades Cyprus for the second time, occupying 37% of the island’s territory.
August 14: As a result of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Greece withdraws its forces from the NATO military command structure.
August 17 : The 1st World Amateur Baseball Championshipopens in Havana , where Cuba is crowned champion with five gold medals, one silver and two bronze.
August 20: In Panama, President Omar Torrijos announces the full restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba.
August 30: At 7:00 a.m. local time, the United States detonates its 826th atomic bomb, Portmanteau, a 160-kiloton bomb, 655 m underground, at the Nevada Test Site .

September

September 1 : The 7th Asian Gamesbegin in Tehran, Iran , and will end on September 16.
September 1: In Nicaragua, the people re-elect the tyrant Anastasio Somoza as president .
September 8– TWA Flight 841 crashes into the Ionian Sea 18 minutes after takeoff from Athens, after a bomb explodes in the cargo hold, killing 88 people.
September 8: In Washington, one month after taking office as president, Gerald Fordpardons former President Richard Nixon , preventing him from being tried and sentenced to prison for his crimes.
September 10: In the city of Manzanillo , Radio Granma begins broadcasting the program Radar 1590 , which later became an informative magazine, where the Uruguayan journalist Jorge Ibarra Zabaleta worked, who later took his peculiar way of doing radio to Radio Rebelde , giving rise to the magazine Haciendo radio . ^[3]
September 10: In Portugal, the military junta grants independence to its African colony Guinea Bissau.
September 11: In Miami, the American CIA creates the Cuban terrorist organization Omega 7 , which will perpetrate terrorist attacks against the Cuban people.
September 12– In Ethiopia, the Derg overthrows Emperor Haile Selassie , ending the monarchy of the ” Solomonic dynasty ” (in power since 1270). The Ethiopian Revolution leads to the Ethiopian Civil War.
September 12: The Amílcar CabralAfrican Youth is founded in Guinea-Bissau (Africa) .
September 13: In The Hague (Netherlands), members of the Japanese Red Army take over the French embassy.
September 14-24 :Hurricane Fifi devastates Mexico and Central America .
September 16: The 7th Asian Games , which began on September 1, end in Tehran , Iran .
September 23: In London (United Kingdom), the BBC launches Ceefax (one of the first public service information systems).
September 25: The University of Havana grants Blas Roca the title of Doctor Honoris Causa in Legal Sciences .
September 28: At the Saturnino Lora Provincial Teaching Hospital in the city of Santiago de Cuba , Cuban surgeons perform the first kidney transplant.
September 30: The governments of Cuba and the Bahamas establish diplomatic relations.
September 30: In the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires(Argentina), Chilean agents ―under orders from dictator Augusto Pinochet ― assassinate Chilean democratic general Carlos Prats and his wife, Sofía Cuthbert, in an attack.

October

October 3 : A violent earthquakeof 7.6 degrees occurs in Lima (capital of Peru ).
October 10: The second round of elections is held in the United Kingdom .
October 11 : Harold Wilson’s UK Labour government wins the second general election of the year, forming a three-seat majority. Wilson, who has led the party for a total of 11 years, has won four of the five general elections he has contested.
October 13: In Spain , the Suresnes Congress elects Felipe González as general secretary of the PSOE .
October 14 : The 25th Meeting of the General Council of the World Federation of Trade Unionsbegins in Havana .
October 23: In Cuba, the commission charged with drafting the preliminary draft of the Constitution of the Republic is established .
October 23: In the province of Guantánamo(Cuba), Antonio Núñez Jiménez carries out an expedition on foot along the coast of Baracoa .
October 26: In Manhattan (New York City), members of the FALN (Armed Forces of National Liberation) of Puerto Rico ―a colony of the United States― detonate 5 bombs, and another larger bomb explodes in the financial district (Wall Street), demanding the independence of their country.
October 26 : The Concordeplane lands for the first time at El Dorado Airport ( Bogotá ) .
October 28 : At 404 meters underground, in Area U12n.09 of the NevadaTest Site (about 100 km northwest of the city of Las Vegas ), at 7:00 (local time) the United States detonates its 831st atomic bomb : Hybla Fair, of less than 20 kilotons.
October 30: The governments of Cuba and the Bahamas establish diplomatic relations.
October 30: In the United States, Muhammed Aliregains the world heavyweight title against George Foreman.

November

November 1: The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is established.
November 1 – In Germany, electronic band Kraftwerkreleases their studio album Autobahn .
November 3: In the United States, Billy Joelreleases his song “The Entertainer”, which is part of his album Streetlife Serenade .
November 4 : The Madrid- Barcelona air bridge is established with the takeoff of the Boeing 727.
November 13: The first Congress of Internal Medicine is held in Havana, which will outline the lines of work to reduce infant mortality in Cuba.
November 13 – In the American town of Amityville(on Long Island , New York State), Ronald DeFeo Jr. murders all six members of his family. He will get 25 years in prison for each murder. This event will inspire the story of The Amityville Horror .
November 13: In the Woolwich district (southeast London), the American company McDonald’s opens its first restaurant.
November 15: Spain puts Intasat, the country’s first artificial satellite, into orbit.
November 16: In Arecibo ( Puerto Rico ), the remodeling of the Arecibo radio telescope is celebrated by sending a radio message toward the star Messier 13, in the Hercules cluster, which is 22,180 light years away (meaning the message will arrive in the year 23154 approximately).
November 18: The International Energy Agency is founded.
November 18: Funerals are held for the six members of the DeFeo family, who were murdered in the early hours of November 13 by the eldest son, Ronald DeFeo.
November 21 : Miguel Cuevas, one of the best amateur baseball hitters in Cuba, retires from active sport .
November 21 – In Birmingham, England ,the Birmingham Six blow up two pubs , killing 21 people. The group will be sentenced to life imprisonment, but their convictions will be overturned after a long campaign.
November 22: In New York, the United Nations General Assembly– against US orders – grants “observer” status to the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization).
November 24: In the Afar Depression of the Great Rift Valley ( Ethiopia ), American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson (1943-) discovers the fossil remains of Lucy, a 20-year-old, one-meter-tall adult woman of the Australopithecus afarensis species , 2 million years old.
November 25 : The Second Congress of the Federation of Cuban Womenbegins at the Lázaro Peña Theater of the CTC in Havana .
November 26 – In Europe, four days after winning the 24th Miss World pageant, model Helen Morgan resigns. South African Anneline Kriel is then crowned Miss World 1974 (the second South African to hold the title after Penny Coelen in 1958).
November 28: During the Second Congress of the FMC , by resolution of the National Committee of that organization, the Ana Betancourt Order is established to be awarded to women who have distinguished themselves in political, economic, and cultural activities.

December

December 1– TWA Flight 514 (a Boeing 727) crashes 40 km (25 mi) northwest of Dulles International Airport (USA) due to bad weather. All 92 people on board are killed.
December 1: In Managua (Nicaragua) , the tyrant Anastasio Somoza assumes the presidency of that country for the second time.
December 11: The first People’s Power Assembly of that city is held in Jovellanos (Matanzas) .
December 12 : The Museum of the Revolutionis created in the former Presidential Palace in Havana .
December 18: At the UN General Assembly (in New York), Cuba is elected to lead the Special Committee on Decolonization.
December 19: In Dublin Castle ( Ireland ) Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh becomes the 5th president of that country.
December 19: In the United States, billionaire Nelson Rockefelleris elected vice president.
December 23: In Melbourne ( Australia ), the police arrest the British politician John Stonehouse (Minister of Post and Communications between 1968 and 1969), who had faked his drowning a month earlier on the beaches of Miami (United States).
December 24–25 :In Australia , the city of Darwin is destroyed by Hurricane Tracy.

No known date

The world’s populationreaches 4 billion people.
Psychologist Stanley Milgram(of Yale University ) publishes his book Obedience to authority; an experimental view , where he describes his experiment. ^[4]
In Germany , the Volkswagencompany launches its Golf model, which replaces the Volkswagen Beetle.
In March, a period of famine begins in Bangladeshthat will last until December, causing between 1 and 1.5 million deaths.
The Rubik’s Cubepuzzle is invented by Hungarian architecture professor Ernő Rubik .
In the United States, the fantasy tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, is launched on the market.
The carbonated beverage company Pepsibecomes the first American company to sell products in the Soviet Union .
The British comedy show Flying Circusby the Monty Python theatre group is broadcast for the first time in the United States .

Movie premieres

February 7: Blazing Saddles , by Mel Brooks .
March 5: We Are All Called Ali , by Rainer Werner Fassbinder .
April 7: The Conversation , by Francis Ford Coppola .
May 23: A $500,000 Haul , by Michael Cimino .
June 20: Chinatown , by Roman Polański .
June: Ankur, by Shyam Benegal .
July 9: Dark Star , by John Carpenter .
August 12: Harry and Tonto , by Paul Mazursky .
September 20: A Woman Under the Influence , by John Cassavetes .
October 1: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre , by Tobe Hooper .
November 15: The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser , by Werner Herzog .
November 15: Earthquake , by Mark Robson .
November 24: Murder on the Orient Express , by Sidney Lumet .
December 9: Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore , by Martin Scorsese .
December 10 :The Towering Inferno , by John Guillermin .
December 12: The Godfather Part II , by Francis Ford Coppola .
December 15: Young Frankenstein or Young Frankenstein , by Mel Brooks .
December 18: The Man with the Golden Gun , by Guy Hamilton .

All dates refer to official release dates in their countries of origin, unless otherwise indicated.

Oscar Awards

Best film: The Godfather Part II .
Best Director: Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather Part II .
Best Actor: Art Carney for Harry and Tonto .
Best Actress: Ellen Burstyn for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore .
Best Supporting Actor: Robert De Niro for The Godfather Part II .
Best Supporting Actress: Ingrid Bergman for Murder on the Orient Express .
Best Original Screenplay: Robert Towne for Chinatown .

Golden Globe Awards

Best Motion Picture – Drama: The Exorcist .
Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical: American Graffiti .
Best Director: William Friedkin , for The Exorcist .
Best Actor – Drama: Al Pacino , for Serpico .
Best Actor – Comedy or Musical: George Segal , A Touch of Class .
Best Actress – Drama: Marsha Mason, Permission to Love Until Midnight .
Best Actress – Comedy or Musical: Glenda Jackson , A Touch of Class .
Best Screenplay: William Peter Blatty , The Exorcist .
Best Series – Drama: The Waltons .
Best Series – Comedy or Musical: All in the Family .

Music

News

February 18: Kiss releases their debut album.
The Ramonesare formed , considered by many to be the first punk band .
Blondieis formed .
Cheap Trickis formed .
British band Herman’s Hermits disbands
One of the pioneering post-punk bands, Nightmares in Wax, is formed. The singer of this band would be Pete Burns, who years later would form Dead or Alive.
The band Talking Headsis formed .
British heavy metal band Ravenis formed .

Publications

ABBA: Waterloo .
AC/DC: High Voltage .
Aerosmith: Get Your Wings .
America: Holiday
Beach Boys: release the successful double compilation album Endless Summer .
Billy Joel: Street Life Serenade .
Brian Eno: Here Come The Warm Jets .
Bob Dylan: Planet Waves .
Bob Dylan: Before the Flood .
Cher: Dark Lady , Greatest Hits .
David Bowie: Diamond Dogs .
Deep Purple: Burn .
Deep Purple: Strombringer .
Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends .
Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway .
Gigliola Cinquetti: At Heaven’s Gate .
Jethro Tull: War Child .
John Lennon: Walls and Bridges .
Jose Jose: Live
José Luis Perales: The proclamation .
Judas Priest: Rocka Rolla .
King Crimson: Starless and Bible Black .
King Crimson: Red .
Kiss: Hotter Than Hell .
Kiss: Kiss .
Kraftwerk: Autobahn .
Modules: Words only, At sunset (single 6th).
Modules: Modules4 (LP 4th).
Queen: Queen II .
Queen: Sheer Heart Attack .
Ringo Starr: Goodnight Vienna
Rush: Rush .
Scorpions: Fly to the Rainbow .
Sui Generis: Small anecdotes about Institutions .
Supertramp: Crime of the Century .
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