December 1974 in History

Events in History

Event of Interest

Dec 4 Jean-Paul Sartre visits Red Army Faction leader Andreas Baader in prison

Dec 5 1st World Football League Bowl, Birmingham Americans beat Florida
Dec 5 Airport terminal roof in Tehran collapses killing 17
Dec 5 Oliver Tilden Triangle in the Bronx named
Dec 8 Greek monarchy rejected by referendum
Dec 8 Irish Republican Socialist Party forms
Dec 8 Soyuz 16 returns to Earth
Dec 9 Dow Jones index hits 570.01
Dec 9 Jack Brisco beats Giant Baba in Tokyo, to become NWA wrestling champ
Dec 9 Johnson Grigsby freed after 66 years in jail in Indiana
Dec 10 European Economic Community calls for a European Parliament
Dec 10 Helios 1 launched by US and Germany; later makes closest flyby of the Sun

Nobel Prize

Dec 10 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Irishman Seán MacBride for his human rights work and Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Satō for signing Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

‘My Name is Jimmy Carter and I’m Running for President’

Dec 12 50‐year‐old Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter announces his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President [1]

Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter with youngsters helped by the Carter Center

Dec 13 Malta becomes a republic
Dec 14 Islander Glenn Resch's 1st shut-out opponent-Kings 3-0
Dec 16 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Dec 16 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh, Semipalitinsk USSR
Dec 18 San Francisco Visitors Center at City Hall opens

Event of Interest

Dec 19 Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice President of the United States

Dec 20 Ethiopia becomes socialist one-party state
Dec 22 2nd cease-fire between IRA & British; lasts until approx April 1975
Dec 22 Iraq announces plans to increase its oil production capacity

Event of Interest

Dec 22 Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb home of former UK Prime Minister, Edward Heath, just before announcing Christmas ceasefire

Dec 22 Referenda in Comoros-3 islands for independence, 1 stays French

Event of Interest

Dec 24 Former US astronaut John Glenn join the Senate for Ohio

Dec 25 Cyclone Tracy virtually destroys Darwin, Australia
Dec 25 Marshall Fields drives a vehicle through the gates of the White House, resulting in a four-hour standoff.
Dec 27 FSLN seizes government hostages at a private Managua party
Dec 27 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
Dec 28 6.3 earthquake strikes Pakistan: 5200 killed
Dec 28 Senegalese marxist group Reenu-Rew founds the political movement And-Jëf at a clandestine congress.
Dec 29 Murray Schisgal's "All Over Town" premieres in NYC
Dec 31 Gold legal in US, Franklin Mint strikes Panama's Gold 100 balboa coin
Dec 31 Popular Electronics displays Altair 8800 computer

Birthdays in History

Dec 1 Salva Dut, Sudanese American activist (Water for South Sudan) and former 'Lost Boy of Sudan', born in Southwestern Sudan
Dec 2 Duncan Pugh, Australian bobsledder (Olympics, 2010), and school teacher, born in England (d. 2023)
Dec 7 Kang Full, South Korean webcomic artist, born in Seoul, South Korea
Dec 13 Sara Cox, English TV and radio presenter (The Radio 1 Breakfast Show), born in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England

Deaths in History

Dec 1 Lajos Zilahy, Hungarian/American author (Angry Angel), dies at 83
Dec 1 Stephen Gill Spottswood, American African Methodist Episcopal Zion bishop, and civil rights leader (NAACP Chairman, 1961-74), dies at 77
Dec 2 Max Weber, Swiss Federal Councilor, dies at 77
Dec 6 Nikolay Kuznetsov, Russian naval commander (Admiral of the Fleet during World War II), dies at 70
Dec 13 John G. Bennett, British scientist and author, dies at 77
Dec 13 Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu, Turkish writer and translator, dies at 85

Walter Lippmann (1889-1974)

Dec 14 American journalist and political writer (Public Opinion), dies at 85

Dec 16 Kostas Varnalis, Greek poet, dies at 90
Dec 21 James Henry Govier, British artist (b. 1910)
Dec 22 Lorraine Gauguin, entertainer, dies at 50
Dec 27 Amy Vanderbilt, American authority on etiquette ("Complete Book of Etiquette"; "Complete Cook Book"), dies of multiple fractures of the skull at 66
Dec 28 Paul Dixon, Ohio talk show host (Paul Dixon Show), dies at 56