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.
Jan
02
Feb
01
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 serial killers as he had recently attacked his first victim, Sharon Clarke, in her Seattle home. By the time he was finally captured on February 15, 1978, Bundy had become America’s most famous serial killer.
Serial Murderer Theodore “Ted” Bundy walks forward and waves to TV camera as his indictment for the January murders of Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman is read at the Leon County Jail. (Credit: Bettmann/Getty Images)
Bettmann/Getty Images
Feb
02
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” overtakes the jaunty “You’re Sixteen” as the No. 1 song—Streisand’s first. It would spend 24 weeks total on the Hot 100 chart, three in the top slot.
Feb
04
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 fiancee, Steven Weed, was beaten and tied up along with a neighbor who tried to help. Witnesses reported seeing a struggling Hearst being carried away blindfolded, and she was put in the trunk of a car. Neighbors who came out into the street were forced to take cover after the kidnappers fired their guns to cover their escape.
SAN FRANCISCO - SEPTEMBER 19: Heiress Patty Hearst poses for a San Mateo Sheriff mugshot after her arrest for bank robbery on September 19, 1975 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Getty Images
Feb
07
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 horseback.
Feb
20
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 of heating oil to donate to the poor. The 33-year-old Williams abducted Murphy, who was well known for his anti-Vietnam War stance, at gunpoint.
Feb
26
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.
ITHACA, NY – CIRCA 1974: A general view of a Nike Waffle trainer running shoe on a rock circa 1974 at a gorge in Ithaca, NY. (Photo by Amy Abramson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Mar
03
Mar
04
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 lives of notable and intriguing people. People remains one of America’s best-selling weeklies.
Mar
06
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 first woman to serve in the distinguished role. The moment marks the beginning of a boundary-breaking career, in which Thomas becomes a fixture in the White House briefing room.
Mar
29
Mar
29
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 detailed history of the Soviet Union's vast system of prisons and labor camps, helped raise global awareness of the communist nation's rampant political repression. Its publication led Soviet authorities to arrest him for treason, strip him of his citizenship and physically expel him from the U.S.S.R. in February 1974.
Soviet dissident Alexandre Soljenitsyn greets his sons Ignat Soljenitsyn,18 months and Yermolai Soljenitsyn, (3 years) as they arrive in Zurich. 29 March 1974. (Photo by James Andanson/Sygma via Getty Images)
James Andanson
Mar
30
Mar
30
Apr
04
Apr
05
On April 5, 1974, Stephen King, a Maine high school teacher who had been writing on evenings and weekends, sees his first full-length novel, Carrie, published. The release by Doubleday & Co. becomes a bestseller and inspires a movie of the same name. For King, Carrie kicks off a phenomenal writing career, one in which he would come to be known worldwide as the Master of Horror.
Apr
08
On April 8, 1974, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 715th career home run, breaking Babe Ruth’s legendary record of 714 homers. A crowd of 53,775 people, the largest in the history of Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, was with Aaron that night to cheer when he hit a 4th inning pitch off the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Al Downing. However, as Aaron was an African American who had received death threats and racist hate mail during his pursuit of one of baseball’s most distinguished records, the achievement was bittersweet.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, - APRIL 8, 1974: Hank Aaron hits his 715th home run, breaking Babe Ruth's long-standing record of 714 lifetime home runs. Even now, as Hank Aaron goes on establishing an even higher total, there is probably a Little Leaguer out there somewhere who will, in the future, rewrite the record book again. (Photo by Sporting News via Getty Images via Getty Images)
Sporting News via Getty Images
Apr
25
On April 25, 1974, the NFL adopts a new overtime rule for regular-season games to prevent tie games. The rule change comes as part of sweeping effort to improve the action and tempo of games. The league also moves goal posts from the front to the back of the end zone and limits contact defensive players can make with receivers.
Apr
29
On April 29, 1974, President Richard Nixon announces to the public that he will release transcripts of 46 taped White House conversations in response to a Watergate trial subpoena issued in July 1973. The House Judiciary committee accepted 1,200 pages of transcripts the next day, but insisted that the tapes themselves be turned over as well.
May
02
On May 2, 1974, the Maryland Court of Appeals orders the disbarment of former U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew, seven months after his no-contest plea to a tax-evasion charge in the United States District Court in Baltimore. In a strongly worded, 13-page opinion, Maryland’s highest court writes that disbarment is an automatic consequence for a lawyer convicted on a charge with “moral turpitude,” unless the lawyer makes “compelling exculpatory explanation.”
May
09
May
17
In Los Angeles, California, police surround a home where the leaders of the terrorist group known as the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) are hiding out. The SLA had kidnapped Patricia Hearst, of the wealthy Hearst family publishing empire, months earlier, earning headlines across the country. Police found the house when a local mother reported that her kids had seen a bunch of people playing with an arsenal of automatic weapons in the living room of the home.
May
18
In the Rajasthan Desert in the municipality of Pokhran, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon, a fission bomb similar in explosive power to the U.S. atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The test fell on the traditional anniversary of the Buddha’s enlightenment, and Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi received the message “Buddha has smiled” from the exuberant test-site scientists after the detonation. The test, which made India the world’s sixth nuclear power, broke the nuclear monopoly of the five members of the U.N. Security Council—the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, China and France.
May
31
Jun
01
On June 1, 1974, the stop-choking technique invented by Cincinnati surgeon Henry J. Heimlich is published in the medical journal Emergency Medicine. The Heimlich maneuver, which involves thrusting inward and upward on the abdomen of choking victims, becomes the go-to method for saving lives.
Jun
12
On June 12, 1974, Little League Baseball, Inc. announces its decision to "defer to the changing social climate" and allow girls to play ball. The change comes after the organization lost a series of lawsuits in the state of New Jersey, and faced growing legal challenges in other states.
Jun
15
On June 15, 1974, Simon & Schuster releases All the President’s Men, the first definitive book about the Watergate scandal, authored by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporters from The Washington Post who broke the explosive story. Two months later, President Richard Nixon resigns from office in disgrace.
Jun
26
On the morning of June 26, 1974, at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio, a pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum becomes the first grocery item scanned with a Universal Product Code, or UPC. The result of years of scientific experimentation and industry cooperation, the UPC barcode would go on to be used well beyond the grocery checkout counter, becoming a ubiquitous feature of modern commerce, with billions of barcodes scanned daily.
Jun
29
Jun
29
With Argentine President Juan Perón on his deathbed, Isabel Martinez de Perón, his wife and vice president, is sworn in as the leader of the South American country. President Isabel Perón, a former dancer and Perón's third wife, became the Western Hemisphere’s first female head of government.
Jul
27
On July 27, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee recommends that America’s 37th president, Richard M. Nixon, be impeached and removed from office. The impeachment proceedings resulted from a series of political scandals involving the Nixon administration that came to be collectively known as Watergate.
The House Judiciary Committee begins its debate on the possible impeachment of President Nixon in Washington on July 24th, 1974. (Photo by UPI/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
Getty Images
Jul
30
Under coercion from the U.S. Supreme Court, President Richard M. Nixon releases subpoenaed White House recordings—suspected to prove his guilt in the Watergate scandal—to special prosecutor Leon Jaworski. The same day, the House Judiciary Committee voted a third article of impeachment against the president: contempt of Congress in hindering the impeachment process. The previous two impeachment articles voted against Nixon by the committee were obstruction of justice and abuse of presidential powers.
Aug
07
High above the early-morning traffic in Lower Manhattan, a French street performer steps off the roof of the south tower of the World Trade Center on August 7, 1974. Clad in black and carrying a long pole for balance, Philippe Petit begins the most famous high-wire walk in history, calmly traversing the space between the Twin Towers at a height of 1,350 feet.
Philippe Petit crossing the Twin Towers on a tightrope.
AP Photo/Alan Welner
Aug
08
In an evening televised address on August 8, 1974, President Richard M. Nixon announces his intention to become the first president in American history to resign. With impeachment proceedings underway against him for his involvement in the Watergate affair, Nixon was finally bowing to pressure from the public and Congress to leave the White House.
Getty Images / Wally McNamee / Contributor
Aug
09
In accordance with his statement of resignation the previous evening, Richard M. Nixon officially ends his term as the 37th president of the United States at noon on August 9, 1974. Before departing with his family in a helicopter from the White House lawn, he smiled farewell and enigmatically raised his arms in a victory or peace salute. The helicopter door was then closed, and the Nixon family began their journey home to San Clemente, California. Richard Nixon was the first U.S. president to resign from office.
Gerald R. Ford, Head and Shoulder Portrait speaking to Press shortly after becoming U.S. President upon Richard Nixon's Resignation, Washington, D.C., USA, photographer Thomas J. O'Halloran, Warren K. Leffler, August 9, 1974. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Universal History Archive/Univer
Aug
21
The Equal Educational Opportunities Act is enacted on August 21, 1974. The new law addressed civil rights issues in education, barring states from discriminating against students based on gender, race, color or nationality and requiring public schools to provide for students who do not speak English.
Sep
08
In a controversial executive action, President Gerald Ford pardons his disgraced predecessor Richard M. Nixon for any crimes he may have committed or participated in while in office. Ford later defended this action before the House Judiciary Committee, explaining that he wanted to end the national divisions created by the Watergate scandal.
Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
Sep
12
In Boston, Massachusetts, opposition to court-ordered school “busing” turns violent on the opening day of classes. School buses carrying African American children were pelted with eggs, bricks and bottles, and police in combat gear fought to control angry white protesters besieging the schools.
Sep
14
Sep
18
Oct
05
American Dave Kunst completes the first round-the-world journey on foot, taking four years and 21 pairs of shoes to complete the 14,500-mile journey across the land masses of four continents. He left his hometown of Waseca, Minnesota, on June 20, 1970. Near the end of his journey in 1974 he explained the reasons for his epic trek: “I was tired of Waseca, tired of my job, tired of a lot of little people who don’t want to think, and tired of my wife.” During the long journey, he took on sponsors and helped raise money for UNICEF.
Oct
09
Oct
17
Oct
18
In the early morning hours of October 18, 1974, an ex-girlfriend of soul singer Al Green bursts in on him in while he is taking a bath in his Memphis, Tennessee, home and pours a pot of scalding-hot grits on his back. She then retreats to a bedroom and shoots herself dead with Green's own gun.
Oct
30
On October 30, 1974, 32-year-old Muhammad Ali becomes the heavyweight champion of the world for the second time when he knocks out 25-year-old champ George Foreman in the eighth round of the “Rumble in the Jungle,” a match in Kinshasa, Zaire. Seven years before, Ali had lost his title when the government accused him of draft-dodging and the boxing commission took away his license. His victory in Zaire made him only the second dethroned champ in history to regain his belt.
AFP/Getty Images
Nov
08
Salt Lake City, Utah, resident Carol DaRonch narrowly escapes being abducted by serial killer Ted Bundy. DaRonch had been shopping at a mall when a man claiming to be a police detective told her that there was an attempted theft of her car and she needed to file a police report. Despite her misgivings, DaRonch accompanied the man to his Volkswagen and got into the car. Once inside, he placed a handcuff on her and attempted to hit her with a crowbar, but DaRonch fought back and jumped out of the car to safety.
Nov
13
On November 13, 1974, 28-year-old Karen Silkwood is killed in a car accident near Crescent, Oklahoma, north of Oklahoma City. Silkwood worked as a technician at a plutonium plant operated by the Kerr-McGee Corporation, and had been critical of the plant’s health and safety procedures.
Nov
13
On the tragic evening of November 13, 1974, a young man shoots and kills his entire family with a 35-caliber Marlin rifle as his parents, two brothers and two sisters apparently sleep. The gruesome murder of the DeFeo family shakes up the sleepy Long Island town of Amityville—and leads to decades of horror storytelling.
Nov
16
On November 16, 1974, eight years before E.T. did the “Phone Home” thing on film, researchers send humanity’s first real-life, deliberate radio message into outer space to extraterrestrials. The message goes out from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, where the Arecibo radio telescope was getting a major upgrade and conducting a ceremony to mark the upgrades.
Nov
24
Nov
30
Dec
10
Dec
15
On December 15, 1974, Oakland's Jim "Catfish" Hunter is ruled a free agent by arbitrator Peter Seitz—the first free agent in modern baseball history—after A's owner Charles O. Finley fails to live up to terms of the star pitcher's contract. "The contract is quite clear as to what Finley is obligated to do, and it is also clear he has done none of it," Marvin Miller, head of the powerful Major League Baseball Players Association, tells reporters.
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