December 1974: Difference between revisions

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The following events occurred in December 1974:

• All 92 people aboard TWA Flight 514 were killed when the Boeing 727 flew into the west side of Mount Weather, Virginia, while flying to Washington, D.C., in bad weather.^[1][2][3][4]
• On the same day, in New York's Harriman State Park, Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231, another Boeing 727, crashed, killing three crew members.^[5]
• Near Abilene, Texas, six employees of Gulf Refining Company died when they were overcome by methane fumes in a trench while attempting to repair a pipeline leak.^[6][7]
• A crisis over the funeral arrangements of former UN Secretary General U Thant began in Rangoon (now Yangon).^{[8][9][10][11]}
• Bombings in various parts of Puerto Rico damaged an ITT Corporation office, a Burger King restaurant, a Woolworth department store, vehicles belonging to the United States Army Reserve, and water pipes at two refineries in Peñuelas. There were no serious injuries. Authorities believed the bombings were related to an ongoing strike against the Puerto Rico Aqueducts and Sewers Authority.^[12]
• Died:
  • Anita Brenner (born Hanna Brenner), 69, transnational Jewish scholar and author specializing in Mexican history and culture, died in a traffic collision.^[13]
  • Roscoe Cartwright, 55, United States Army brigadier general, was killed with his wife Gloria in the crash of TWA Flight 514.^[1]
  • Sucheta Kripalani, 66, Indian freedom fighter and politician, died of a heart attack.^[14][15]
  • G. Gould Lincoln, 94, American political reporter, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom^[16]
  • Teng Daiyuan, 70, Chinese military leader and Chinese Communist Party politician^[17]
  • Lajos Zilahy, 83, Hungarian novelist and playwright^[18]

• In Ethiopia, Eritrean nationalists bombed the Addis Ababa city hall and the Webi Shebeli Hotel. The ruling Derg revolutionary council used the bombings as a pretext for hardened repression against former members of the regime of Emperor Haile Selassie.^[19][20]
• The Soviet Union launched the Soyuz 16 spacecraft, carrying cosmonauts Anatoly Filipchenko and Nikolai Rukavishnikov, into orbit. The crew tested systems for the Apollo–Soyuz flight scheduled for July 1975.^[21][22] The spacecraft would return safely to Earth on December 8.^[22][23]
• Died:
  • Hana Benešová (born Anna Vlčková), 89, widow of former president of Czechoslovakia Edvard Beneš, died of pneumonia. On December 7, several thousand people would attend Benešová's funeral, although the Czechoslovak press gave no advance notice of the service.^[24]
  • Lucio Cabañas, 35, Mexican schoolteacher and union and guerrilla leader, killed himself to avoid capture and likely execution by the Mexican military.^[25][26]
  • Paul Coze (born Paul Jean Coze-Dabija), 71, French-American artist and writer^[27]
  • Paul B. Dague, 76, former member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania^[28][29]
  • Sidney Jourard, 48, Canadian psychologist, professor and writer, was crushed to death when his car fell on him while he was working on it.^[30]
  • Sylvi Kekkonen, 74, First Lady of Finland and wife of President Uhro Kekkonen, died of a heart attack.^[31]
  • Stephen Gill Spottswood, 77, American civil rights leader, NAACP chair and retired bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, died of cancer.^[32][33]
  • British commercial diver David Keane, 17, drowned when his umbilical cable was cut through while he was conducting a bell dive in the Celtic Sea.^[34][35]

• The Pioneer 11 interplanetary probe flew past the planet Jupiter, coming within 27,000 miles (43,000 km) of the planet's atmosphere, and took the closest photographs up to that time of the Great Red Spot.^[36]
• Died:
  • Fernando Gerassi, 75, Turkish-born American artist^[37]
  • Helen Appleton Read, 87, American critic and art historian^[38]
  • Cy Twombly, 77, American Major League Baseball pitcher and athletic director of Washington and Lee University, father of American artist Cy Twombly^[39]
  • Vincent Stanislaus Waters, 70, American Roman Catholic prelate, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh, died of a heart attack.^[40]

• Martinair Flight 138 crashed in Sri Lanka, killing all 191 people aboard.^[41]
• French existentialist author Jean-Paul Sartre visited the prison cell of West German terrorist Andreas Baader, of the Baader-Meinhof gang, in Stuttgart for an interview.^[42][43]
• A fire aboard a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus train in South Carolina killed 4 circus employees.^[44]
• Born: Anke Huber, German professional tennis player; in Bruchsal, West Germany^[45]
• Died:
  • Lee Kinsolving, 36, American actor, died of a respiratory illness.^[46]
  • Henry Francke Jr., 17, a linebacker on the Riverhead High School football team on Long Island, died eight weeks after breaking his neck during an intrasquad scrimmage.^[47]

• The collapse of a snow-laden roof killed 25 people at an airport terminal in Tehran. Authorities clubbed news photographers who would not stop taking pictures of the scene.^[48][49]
• The Birmingham Americans won the first and only World Bowl, the championship game of the World Football League, defeating the Florida Blazers by a score of 22–21.^[50]
• Died:
  • Pietro Germi, 60, Italian actor and neo-realist comedy director (Divorce Italian Style), died of hepatitis.^[51][52]
  • Millicent Hearst (born Millicent Willson), 92, widow of William Randolph Hearst^[53]
  • Zaharia Stancu, 72, Romanian author and philosopher^[54]
  • Henry Wadsworth, 71, American stage and film actor^[55]
  • Richard Whitney, 86, American financier, former President of the New York Stock Exchange and convicted embezzler^[56]
  • Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, CBE, 87, American Olympic champion tennis player^[57][58]

• Died: Nikolai Kuznetsov, 70, Soviet admiral^[59]

• In Arcore, the self-styled prince Luigi D'Angerio, leaving Silvio Berlusconi's villa, escaped a kidnapping. The probable organizer of the abduction was the Mafioso Vittorio Mangano, Berlusconi's groom, arrested for fraud twenty days later. The episode, never fully explained, would raise many suspicions in the following decades about the presumed links between the Milanese businessman and organized crime.^[60]
• Born: Nicole Appleton, Canadian-born British singer and member of All Saints; in Hamilton, Ontario^[61]

• Voters in Greece overwhelmingly approved the end of the monarchy and endorsed maintaining the government as a presidential republic, with almost 70 percent in favor.^[62][63]
• The paramilitary Irish National Liberation Army and its political wing, the left-wing Irish Republican Socialist Party, with a stated goal of removing Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and uniting with the Republic of Ireland to create a socialist republic, were founded at the Spa Hotel in London by Seamus Costello.^[64]
• The Italian musical Aggiungi un posto a tavola (Add a seat at the table) premiered in Rome.^[65]
• Died:
  • Ali Mansur, 88, former Prime Minister of Iran 1940-1941 and 1950^[66]
  • Robert Duffy, 71, American college football coach and lawyer^[67]
  • Hugues Panassié, 62, French jazz critic, record producer and impresario, died of a heart attack.^[68]

• Takeo Miki formed a government as the new Prime Minister of Japan, after Kakuei Tanaka had announced his resignation on November 26.^[69][70]
• The national government of Mexico published its declaration that the identification of the alcoholic beverage of tequila was limited to the blue agave liquor distilled within the Mexican state of Jalisco, and that the term "tequila" (named for the town of Tequila, Jalisco) was the intellectual property of Mexico. The statement was published in the Official Journal of the Federation (Mexico).^[71][72]
• The Ayacucho Declaration was signed in the Peruvian city of Ayacucho by representatives of the South American nations of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, along with Panama. The eight nations made a statement agreeing to place limits on the acquisition of armaments for military purposes other than defense.^[73]
• Leaders of the member nations of the European Communities opened a summit in Paris, and approved plans for the creation of the European Council and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The Paris Summit also approved the direct election of members of the European Parliament by citizens.^[74]
• The romantic comedy Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, starring Ellen Burstyn in the title role as Alice Hyatt, premiered in Los Angeles before going into release to U.S. theaters on January 29, 1975. It would later be adapted to a TV situation comedy, Alice, with one of the film's cast members, Vic Tayback, reprising his role as Mel Sharples, owner of the diner where Alice worked.^[75]
• Born: Pippa Bacca (stage name for Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo), Italian performance artist; in Milan (murdered 2008)^{[76][77][better source needed]}
• Died:
  • Walter Guyton Cady, 99, American physicist and electrical engineer, died the day before his 100th birthday.^[78]
  • Dame Kathleen Courtney, DBE, 96, English suffragist, former United Nations Association chair^[79]
  • John Gordon, 84, Scottish newspaper editor (Sunday Express)^[80]

• United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3275 was approved by the UNGA, designating 1975 as International Women's Year.
• The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) ended its nationwide walkout of bituminous coal miners after 28 days. The strike had started on November 12 and was concluded after a three-year agreement with unionized coal companies on wages, health and safety, and work rules.^[81]
• Died:
  • Manuel Komroff, 84, American author and editor^[82]
  • Paul Richards (born Paul Richard Levitt), 50, American actor known for the TV series Breaking Point, died of cancer.^[83]

• Born: Rey Mysterio (ring name for Óscar Gutiérrez Rubio), American professional wrestler; in Chula Vista, California

• The Supreme Court of Cassation transferred all the running enquiries about the Piazza Fontana bombing to the Catanzaro's seat. The decision avoided the incrimination of Admiral Eugenio Henke, former director of the SID, by the Milan Procure, for the false leads fulfilled by the secret services.^{[52][better source needed]}

• North Vietnam launched the Spring Offensive, fighting against the South Vietnamese Army in the Battle of Phước Long. Within less than five months, South Vietnam would be conquered by the Communist North Vietnamese.^[84]
• The island of Malta, formerly a British dominion in the Mediterranean Sea, became a republic.
• The Jackson–Vanik amendment was approved by the U.S. Congress, linking U.S. signing of trade agreements with the Soviet Union to the Soviets' easing of restrictions against allowing Soviet Jews to emigrate abroad.
• Seven people were killed in an arson fire at London's Worsley Hotel.
• Died:
  • Robert Bennett, 55, American Olympic hammer thrower^[85]
  • Betty Van Patter, 45, a white bookkeeper for the Black Panther Party, disappeared on this date. Her body would be found in San Francisco Bay in January 1975 with a fractured skull.^[86][87]

• Private Teruo Nakamura, a Taiwanese-born member of the Imperial Japanese Army, became the last combatant from World War II to surrender, more than 29 years after the end of the War. Nakamura had been stationed on Morotai, at the time an island in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), when U.S., Australian and Netherlands forces recaptured the island in the Battle of Morotai. Initially part of a group of soldiers determined not to surrender, Nakamura evaded capture until a pilot accidentally spotted his hut, prompting a search by the Indonesian Army and his arrest.^[88]
• Died:
  • Walter Lippmann, 85, American journalist, political commentator and newspaper columnist, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.^[89] U.S. President Ford issued a statement declaring that, "With the death of Walter Lippmann, we have lost a great American. As a newsman, political analyst, and author, Walter Lippmann played a major role for more than half a century in the development of public dialog and in shaping a new standard of journalism. Mr. Lippmann's contributions to the good society which he envisioned for his country will long be remembered."^[90]
  • Paul John Knowles, 28, American serial killer who was tied to the deaths of 18 people, and claimed to have murdered 35 victims, was shot to death during an altercation while being transported by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) to the scene of one of his crimes. Knowles, though handcuffed, grabbed the weapon of the driver, Henry County Sheriff Earl Lee, firing one shot through the holster, before GBI Agent Ronnie Angel shot Knowles three times.^[91]
  • Harry Hooper, 87, American baseball player and inductee to the Baseball Hall of Fame^[92]
  • American backpacker Charles Dean, 24, and Australian backpacker Neil Sharman, 23, were executed by Pathet Lao guerrillas in Laos. Dean was the brother of future U.S. politician Howard Dean.^[93]
  • Joanne Stefani Germanotta, 19, the subject of many of the works of singer Lady Gaga (stage name for Stefani Joanne Germanotta) and namesake for Gaga's popular album Joanne, died of complications from lupus.^[94]

• Born: P. J. Byrne, American actor; in Maplewood, New Jersey^[95]
• Died: Anatole Litvak, 72, American director of Ukrainian origin

• In central Africa, the army of the Republic of Mali invaded the Republic of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) in a border conflict that would last until 1985.

• The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) became a specialized agency of the United Nations.
• United Nations Security Council Resolution 366, terminating South Africa's mandate over Namibia (at the time, South-West Africa), was approved. South Africa ignored the resolution and continued its control over the former German colony.
• The Chilean Military Junta appointed, formally and de facto, as President of the Republic, General Augusto Pinochet, its Chief and Head of the Army, through a Decree-Law Number 806. He would be ratified as President by a constitutional referendum in 1980.
• Born:
  • Sarah Paulson, American actress; in Tampa, Florida
  • Giovanni Ribisi and his twin sister Marissa, American actors; in Los Angeles
• Died: British commercial diver Jeremy L. Howard-Phillips, 30, was sucked into a 20 cm (7.9 in) pipeline valve opening and killed while working from a jet barge at Scapa Flow in the North Sea.^[35][96]

• Michail Stasinopoulos of the New Democracy Party was elected President of Greece by vote of the Hellenic Parliament, receiving 206 votes from party members, sufficient for the 151 required for a majority.
• The Provisional IRA exploded two time bombs in the English city of Bristol. The first was placed in a sports bag outside a photography studio on Park Street, and a telephone warning followed, bringing police to the scene to clear the area. The second, more powerful bomb had been placed in a trash can 90 feet (27 m) away from the first bomb, with the object of injuring police and other responders lured to the scene. No warning was given for the second blast, and 20 people were injured.^[97]
• Born:
  • Tom Parker Bowles, British food critic and writer, son of Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom; in Westminster, London^[98]
  • Mutassim Gaddafi, son of Muammar Gaddafi and National Security Advisor; in Tripoli (executed 2011)^[99]

• The United Kingdom's 1971 "rent freeze", a prohibition against the raising the price of property rentals, was ended by the government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The decision came after the London Stock Exchange's FT 30 stock market index had fallen 73% during the year.^[100][101]
• Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (who used the Anglicized name "Carroll O'Daley" earlier in his career), formerly the Chief Justice of Ireland from 1961 to 1973, was sworn into office as the fifth President of Ireland.^[102] He would resign on October 22, 1976, after coming under severe criticism for his delay in implementing the Emergency Powers Bill.
• Former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller was sworn in as the 41st Vice President of the United States shortly after the U.S. House of Representatives voted, 287 to 128, to approve his nomination to fill the position that had been vacant since U.S. President Gerald Ford had taken office on August 9. The House action followed the 90 to 7 vote by the U.S. Senate on December 10.
• President Ford signed the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act into law, after the legislation was enacted due to concerns over whether former President Richard Nixon intended to destroy records in his possession.^[103]
• The only nuclear power plant in the U.S. state of Arkansas, designated Arkansas Nuclear One, began operations as the first of two reactors began producing energy. Both reactors are located near the town of Russellville.^[104]
• Born:
  • Ricky Ponting, Australian international cricketer, four-time winner of the Allan Border Medal and two-time World Cup winning captain, with 168 Test Cricket matches; in Launceston, Tasmania^[105]
  • Jasmila Žbanić, Bosnian film director and European Film Award winner in 2021 for Quo Vadis, Aida?; in Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia
  • Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, Scottish-born Ghanaian skier and the first athlete for the African nation of Ghana to compete (2010) in the Winter Olympics; in Glasgow^[106]
• Died:
  • Gunnar Andersson, 51, Swedish aviator, died in a helicopter crash.
  • Catrano Catrani, 64, Italian-born Argentine film director and producer, known for the popular 1958 movie Alto Paraná

• In France, the Veil law, legalizing abortion, was approved by a vote of 277 in favor and 192 against.^[107] The new law took effect on January 17, 1975.
• Avalanches in Iceland killed 12 people in two separate incidents at the fishing village of Neskaupstathur. At 1:30 in the afternoon, the first avalanche, covering a width of 400 metres (1,300 ft), killed five people, and at 1:50 a second avalanche 140 metres (460 ft) wide struck a garage, a concrete factory and a home, killing seven more, including two children.^[108][109]

• An investigative report by Seymour M. Hersh of The New York Times revealed that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had been conducting espionage within the United States against U.S. citizens.^[110]
• Born: Karrie Webb, Australian professional golfer; in Ayr, Queensland^[111]
• Died: Richard Long, 47, American actor, died of a heart ailment.^[112]

• Voters on almost all of the Comoros islands approved independence from France, voting 95% in favor. The exception was the island of Mayotte, where 63% of the voters elected to remain an overseas department of France.^[113]
• All 75 people aboard Avensa Flight 358 were killed when the aircraft crashed in Venezuela.
• Died: Fosco Giachetti, 74, Italian actor and film star during Italy's Fascist era.

• U.S. President Gerald Ford, in a conversation/interview with James Alsop, declared that a new war in the Middle East and a world crisis were likely to occur in 1975, following the economic breakdown of a "European country, allied to the United States" (the United Kingdom or Italy).^[114]
• Died:
  • Elizabeth Julia Reid, 59, Australian journalist and Roman Catholic lay leader in the Grail movement, died of cancer.^[115]
  • Karl Brushaber fell to his death while descending Mount Washington.^[116]

• The city of Darwin in Australia was almost completely destroyed by Cyclone Tracy.
• Born: Ryan Seacrest, American television host, producer and radio personality; in Atlanta^[117]

• At the Vatican, Pope Paul VI inaugurated the 1975 Jubilee. During the rite of opening the Holy Door, some falling rubble nearly hit the pontiff.^{[52][better source needed]}
• Born: Ed Husain, British author and activist; in London^[118]
• Died: Giacomo Devoto, 77, Italian linguist, author of a celebrated dictionary of the Italian language

• The Soviet space station Salyut 4 was launched into orbit.^[119]
• Born: Joshua John Miller, American screenwriter and actor; in Los Angeles
• Died:
  • Jack Benny, 80, American actor and comedian, died of pancreatic cancer.
  • William Henry Draper Jr., 80, American diplomat, banker and army officer, died of a heart attack.^[120]

• An explosion and a fire in a coal mine near Liévin killed 41 miners in the worst mine disaster in France since World War II.^[121]
• In Managua, Nicaragua, an FSLN commando unit, headed by Eden Pastora, burst into the house of Josè Maria Castillo, president of the Banco Central, and took his guests hostage (including two relatives of the dictator Somoza). Three days later, thanks to the Managua archbishop's intermediation, the hostages were released, in exchange for a million dollars and the freedom of some political prisoners. Castillo was the only victim of the action.^[122]
• The Constitutional Court of Italy abolished the articles of the penal code forbidding strikes for political reasons. The law, enacted by the Fascist regime, was by then mostly no longer applied, but remained in the statues.
• Born: Masi Oka, Japanese actor, producer, and digital effects artist, in Shibuya, Tokyo

• A 6.2 magnitude earthquake in northern Pakistan killed 5,300 people, and injured 17,000, as well as destroying 4,400 homes. The quake struck in the late morning around 12:11 UTC and was concentrated in the village of Pattan in the Jammu and Kashmir region.^[123]
• Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, leader of Bangladesh proclaimed a state of emergency and directed the Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini, the nation's paramilitary "National Defense Force" to arrest suspected terrorists and leaders of opposition political parties.^[124]
• Died:
  • Stephen Hayes, 71, Irish republican who served as the Irish Republican Army's chief of staff from 1939 to 1941, known for preparing Plan Kathleen, a plan for Nazi Germany to invade Northern Ireland in 1940^[125]
  • Hiralal Shastri, 75, Indian politician and the first Chief Minister of the state of Rajasthan, from 1949 to 1951^[126]
  • Edwin Eugene Aldrin Sr., 78, United States Army aviator and officer, father of astronaut Buzz Aldrin^[127]
  • Giuseppe Dozza, 73, Italian Communist politician who was Mayor of Bologna from 1956 to 1966 ^[128]

• All 33 people aboard a TAROM airlines flight within Romania were killed when the Antonov An-24 tuboprop crashed into the side of a mountain. The airplane was making its approach to Sibiu for an unscheduled stop, after departing Oradea on a flight to Bucharest. It made at an altitude of 5,600 feet (1,700 m) while making its approach to Sibiu and crashed into a peak in the Lotru Mountains.^[129]
• The contractual partnership of The Beatles was formally dissolved, more than four years after John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr had performed together for the last time.^[130]
• Born: Mekhi Phifer, American TV and film actor known for the TV show ER and the film 8 Mile; in Harlem, New York City^[131]
• Died:
  • Ivane Beritashvili, 89, Georgian Soviet physiologist and pioneer in biobehavioral science^[132]
  • Sophie Podolski, 21, Belgian poet and graphic artist, died by suicide.^[133][134]

• The Foreign Assistance Act of 1974 was signed into law after narrowly passing in both the U.S. Senate (46 to 45 on December 4) and the House of Representatives (201 to 189 on December 11). The law directed that the U.S. government should "substantially reduce or terminate security assistance to any government which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights" and included the Hughes–Ryan Amendment requiring the President to report all covert operations of the CIA to Congress. The Act effectively eliminated aid and military funding for South Vietnam, which would fall to the North Vietnamese invasion four months later.
• A high school student shot and killed three people and an unborn child and injured 11 others in Olean, New York, after firing at bystanders from a third-floor window at Olean High School.^[135] Anthony F. Barbaro, 17, an honor student and member of the high school's rifle team, indiscriminately shot at people on the street from windows on the third floor of the school building.
• The Government of Honduras introduced, through Decree Law No. 170-74, a new agrarian reform.^[136]

• Restrictions on holding private gold within the United States, implemented by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, were removed.
• Died: George Carey, 82, Canadian ice hockey right winger^[137]