Top News Stories from 1974

World Events

• OPEC ends the oil embargo begun in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War (Mar. 18).
• Nixon and Brezhnev meet in Moscow to discuss arms limitation agreements. Background: nuclear disarmament
• Leftist revolution ends almost 50 years of dictatorial rule in Portugal (launched Apr. 25).
• India successfully tests an atomic device, becoming the world's sixth nuclear power (May 18).
• Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is deposed. A collective military dictatorship assumes power (Sept. 12).

U.S. Events

• Patricia Hearst, 19-year-old daughter of publisher Randolph Hearst, kidnapped by Symbionese Liberation Army (Feb. 5).
• House Judiciary Committee adopts three articles of impeachment charging President Nixon with obstruction of justice, failure to uphold laws, and refusal to produce material subpoenaed by the committee (July 30).
• Richard M. Nixon announces he will resign the next day, the first President to do so (Aug. 8).
• Vice President Gerald R. Ford of Michigan is sworn in as 38th President of the US (Aug. 9).
• Ford grants "full, free, and absolute pardon" to ex-President Nixon (Sept. 8).

Economics

Sports

Super Bowl

World Series

NBA Championship

Stanley Cup

Wimbledon

Kentucky Derby Champion

NCAA Basketball Championship

NCAA Football Champions

World Cup

Entertainment

Events

• Patti Smith releases what is considered to be the first punk rock single, "Hey Joe."
• People magazine debuts, with Mia Farrow gracing the cover.
• Premier Russian dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defects and joins the American Ballet Theatre.

Movies

• Chinatown, The Godfather Part II, Day for Night, Blazing Saddles, The Towering Inferno

Music

• Patti Smith, "Hey Joe"

Books

• Robert Creeley, Sitting Here
• Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
• Gail Godwin, The Odd Woman
• Stephen King, Carrie
• Toni Morrison, Sula
• Grace Paley, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
• Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
• Gary Snyder, Turtle Island

Science

• For safety reasons, the National Academy of Sciences calls for a temporary ban on some types of genetic engineering research.
• A new elementary particle psi (now called J) is discovered by Burton Richter of Stanford University.

Death

• Bud Abbott
• Dizzy Dean
• Duke Ellington
• Charles Lindbergh
• Ed Sullivan

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