1974 in the United States

← 1973 1972 1971 1974 in the United States → 1975 1976 1977
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
See also:	History of the United States (1964–1980) Timeline of United States history (1970–1989) List of years in the United States

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Events from the year 1974 in the United States.

Incumbents[]

Federal Government[]

• President: Richard Nixon (R-California) (until August 9), Gerald Ford (R-Michigan) (starting August 9)
• Vice President:
  • until August 9: Gerald Ford (R-Michigan)
  • August 9–December 19: vacant
  • starting December 19: Nelson Rockefeller (R-New York)
• Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger (Minnesota)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Carl Albert (D-Oklahoma)
• Senate Majority Leader: Mike Mansfield (D-Montana)
• Congress: 93rd

Events[]

January[]

• January 4
  • Citing executive privilege, President Richard Nixon refuses to surrender 500 tapes and documents which have been subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
  • Joni Lenz is attacked in her bedroom by serial killer Ted Bundy in Washington; she survives.
• January 6 – In response to the energy crisis, Daylight Saving Time commences nearly four months early in the United States.
• January 13 – The Miami Dolphins repeat as National Football League champions, routing the Minnesota Vikings 24-7 in Super Bowl VIII.
• January 15 – Happy Days, a sitcom about life in the 1950s, debuts on ABC.
• January 19 – In college (men's) basketball, Notre Dame defeats UCLA 71–70, ending the Bruins' record 88-game winning streak.
• January 30 – In his State of the Union Address, President Nixon declares, "One year of Watergate is enough."

February[]

• February 4 – Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is kidnapped from her Berkeley, California apartment by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army.^[1]
• February 8 – After a record 84 days in orbit, the crew of Skylab 4 returns to Earth.
• February 12 – U.S. District Court Judge Geoerge Boldt rules that Native American tribes in Washington state are entitled to half of the legal salmon and steelhead catches, based on treaties signed by the tribes and the U.S. government.
• February 22 – Samuel Byck attempts to hijack an airplane with the intent to crash it into the White House and assassinate President Nixon. He commits suicide when police storm the plane.

March[]

• March 1 – Watergate scandal: Seven former White House officials are indicted for their role in the Watergate break-in and charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.
• March 18 – Oil embargo crisis: Most OPEC nations end a 5-month oil embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan.
• March 29 – Mariner 10 approaches Mercury.
• March 30 – North Carolina State defeats UCLA in the semifinals of the 1974 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament, ending the Bruins' record run of seven consecutive national championships.

April[]

• April 2 – The 46th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Burt Reynolds, Diana Ross, John Huston and David Niven, is held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. George Roy Hill's The Sting wins seven awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Hill. The film is tied with William Friedkin's The Exorcist in receiving ten nominations.
• April 3 – The 1974 Super Outbreak, the second-largest series of tornadoes in history, hits 13 U.S. states and one Canadian province. By the time the last of 148 tornadoes hit early the following morning, 315 people had died and over 5,000 were injured.
• April 5 – Stephen King's first novel, Carrie, is published.
• April 8 – Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves breaks Babe Ruth's home run record, by hitting his 715th career home run off Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Al Downing at Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium.
• April 15
  • In San Francisco, members of the Symbionese Liberation Army rob a branch of the Hibernia Bank, joined by Patricia Hearst.
  • Lynyrd Skynyrd releases their second album, Second Helping.
• April 20 – Voters in Louisiana approve a new state constitution, replacing a 225,000-word document which had first been adopted in 1921.
• April 22 – Hi-Fi Murders: Five people are brutally tortured by a group of men during a robbery at home audio store in Ogden, Utah, resulting in three deaths.

May[]

• May 4 – The Expo '74 World's Fair opens in Spokane, Washington.
• May 9 – The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opens formal hearings in the impeachment process against Richard Nixon.
• May 12 – The Boston Celtics win their 12th National Basketball Association championship, defeating the Milwaukee Bucks 102-87 in the decisive game of the World Championship Series.
• May 17 – Los Angeles police raid Symbionese Liberation Army headquarters, killing six members, including Camilla Hall.
• May 19 – The Philadelphia Flyers defeat the Boston Bruins, thereby becoming the first expansion team to win the Stanley Cup.
• May 30 – NASA's ATS-6 satellite is launched.

June[]

• June 4 – The Cleveland Indians stage an ill-advised Ten Cent Beer Night for a game against the Texas Rangers at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Cleveland forfeits after alcohol-fueled mayhem and violence spreads from the stands onto the field.
• June 26 – The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time, to sell a package of Wrigley's chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
• June 30 – Alberta Williams King, mother of the late Martin Luther King, Jr., is killed during a church service in Atlanta, Georgia.

July[]

• July 11–17 – Baltimore police strike.
• July 14 – In Issaquah, Washington, serial killer Ted Bundy abducts Janice Ott and Denise Naslund in broad daylight at Lake Sammamish State Park.
• July 15 – Christine Chubbuck, television presenter for WXLT-TV Sarasota, Florida, draws a revolver and shoots herself in the head during a live broadcast. She dies in a hospital 14 hours later, the first person to commit suicide on live television.
• July 24 – Watergate scandal – United States v. Nixon: The Supreme Court rules 8-0 with one abstention that President Richard Nixon cannot withhold subpoenaed White House tapes, and orders him to surrender them to the Watergate special prosecutor.
• July 27–30 – Watergate scandal: The House of Representatives 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.

August[]

August 9: Richard Nixon resigns as President of the United States

August 9: Gerald Ford is sworn in as the 38th U.S. President

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Nixon Oval Office meeting with H.R. Haldeman "Smoking Gun" Conversation June 23, 1972 Full Transcript

• August 5 – Watergate scandal: The "smoking gun" tape of June 23, 1972, is revealed, in which President Richard Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman discuss using the Central Intelligence Agency to block a Federal Bureau of Investigation inquiry into Watergate. Nixon's support in Congress collapses.
• August 7
  • Three Republican congressional leaders (Barry Goldwater, Hugh Scott and John Rhodes) visit President Nixon in the White House. They inform him that he lacks the votes to escape impeachment in the House of Representatives and conviction in the Senate. Goldwater urges Nixon to resign.
  • French acrobat Philippe Petit walks across a high wire slung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York.
• August 8 – Watergate scandal: President Nixon announces his resignation (effective August 9).^[2]
• August 9 – Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office, an action taken to avoid being removed by impeachment and conviction in response to his role in the Watergate scandal. Vice President Gerald R. Ford becomes the 38th President upon Nixon's resignation, taking the oath of office in the East Room of the White House.
• August 30 – Public Law 93-400 is enacted, establishing the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (see Federal Acquisition Regulation).

September[]

• September 1 – Daredevil Bob Gill fails a world-record attempt to jump Appalachia Lake in West Virginia.
• September 8
  • Watergate scandal: U.S. President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office.^[2]
  • Stuntman Evel Knievel fails in his attempt to rocket across the Snake River Canyon in Idaho.
• September 16 – In Newport, Rhode Island, America's Cup defender "Courageous", skippered by Ted Hood, wins over Australian challenger "Southern Cross".

October[]

October 17: President Ford testifies before the House Judiciary Subcommittee regarding his pardon of Nixon

• October 2 – U.S. release of film The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, directed by Joseph Sargent and starring Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam and Jerry Stiller.
• October 8 – Franklin National Bank collapses due to fraud and mismanagement (the largest bank failure at that time in the history of the United States).
• October 15 – U.S. President Gerald Ford signs a federal campaign reform bill, which sets new regulations in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
• October 17
  • President Gerald Ford voluntarily appears before Congress to give sworn testimony—the only time a sitting president has done so—about the pardon of Richard Nixon.^[3]
  • The Oakland Athletics win their third consecutive Major League Baseball championship, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games in the World Series.
• October 30 – "The Rumble in the Jungle" takes place in Kinshasa, Zaire, where Muhammad Ali knocks out George Foreman in 8 rounds to regain the Heavyweight title, which had been stripped from him 7 years earlier.

November[]

• November 5 – Democrats make significant gains in the U.S. Congressional midterm elections, as the Republican Party suffers losses over the Watergate scandal.
• November 8 – In Salt Lake City, Utah, Carol DaRonch narrowly escapes abduction by serial killer Ted Bundy. She goes on to testify against him at his trial.
• November 13 – Ronald DeFeo Jr. murders his family in Amityville, New York.
• November 20 – The United States Department of Justice files its final antitrust suit against AT&T. This suit later leads to the breakup of AT&T and the Bell System.

December[]

• December 4 – The Pioneer 11 probe passes Jupiter and captures famous images of the Great Red Spot.

December 19: Nelson Rockefeller becomes the 41st U.S. Vice President

• December 10 – United States Senate confirms Nelson Rockefeller as Vice President.
• December 19 – United States House of Representatives confirms Rockefeller as Vice President of the United States. He is sworn that evening.
• December 21 – The New York Times reveals illegal domestic spying by the CIA.^[4]
• December 23 – Former British government minister John Stonehouse, who faked his drowning in Florida, is arrested in Melbourne, Australia.
• December 31 – Restrictions on holding private gold within the United States, implemented by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, are removed.

Undated[]

• The 1960s Milgram experiment is extensively described by Harvard University psychologist Stanley Milgram in his book Obedience to Authority; An Experimental View.
• Volkswagen's Golf automobile (known in the US as the Rabbit) first enters production, as the replacement for well-loved but antiquated Beetle. VW goes on to sell more than 22 million Golfs, and the model, now in its 5th generation, is still in full-scale production as of 2008.

Ongoing[]

• Cold War (1947–1991)
• Space Race (1957–1975)
• Détente (c. 1969–1979)
• Watergate scandal (1972–1974)
• Capital punishment suspended by Furman v. Georgia (1972–1976)
• 1973 oil crisis (1973–1974)
• 1970s energy crisis (1973–1980)
• DOCUMERICA photography project (1972–1977)

Births[]

• January 1 – Jonah Peretti, entrepreneur and publisher
• January 6 – Paul Grant, basketball player and coach
• January 11 – Max von Essen, actor and vocalist
• January 13 – Kaili Vernoff, actress
• January 17
  • Derrick Mason, American football player
  • Keith Robinson, actor and R&B singer
• January 18 – Maulik Pancholy, actor
• January 20 – Rae Carruth, American football player
• January 21
  • Maxwell Atoms, animator, screenwriter, storyboard artist, and voice actor
  • Remy Auberjonois, actor
• February 3 – Ayanna Pressley, politician
• February 8 – Seth Green, actor, comedian, voice actor, television producer and screenwriter
• February 11 – Alex Jones, radio show host and conspiracy theorist
• February 12 – Ari Shaffir, comedian and actor
• February 15
  • Miranda July, author, director, actor, musician and spoken-word artist
  • Gina Lynn, porn actress
• February 17
  • Jerry O'Connell, actor
  • Bryan White, singer-songwriter and guitarist
• February 18
  • Carrie Ann Baade, painter and academic
  • Jamey Carroll, baseball player
• February 19 – Lezley Zen, pornographic actress
• February 24
  • Chad Hugo, keyboard player, songwriter, and producer
  • Mike Lowell, baseball player and sportscaster
  • Bonnie Somerville, actress
• February 27 – Carte Goodwin, U.S. Senator from West Virginia in 2010
• March 1 – Stephen Davis, American football player and coach
• March 8 – Danny Corkill, child actor
• March 14 – Grace Park, actress
• March 23 – Randall Park, actor, comedian and writer
• March 24
  • Alyson Hannigan, actress
  • Peyton Manning, American football quarterback
• April 25 – Grant Achatz, chef
• May 7 – Breckin Meyer, actor, drummer, producer and writer
• May 8 – Korey Stringer, American football player (died 2001)
• May 9 – Dylan Lauren, businesswoman, founder of Dylan's Candy Bar
• May 21 – Havoc, born Kejuan Muchita, rapper
• June 5 – Russ Ortiz, baseball player
• June 6 – Uncle Kracker (Matthew Shafer), singer-songwriter and guitarist
• June 21 – Maggie Siff, actress
• July 4 – Mick Wingert, voice actor and voice-over coach
• August 7 – Michael Shannon, actor
• September 1 – Jhonen Vasquez, comic book writer and cartoonist
• September 10
  • Kerry Harvick, singer
  • Ryan Phillippe, actor
  • Ben Wallace, basketball player
• September 19 – Jimmy Fallon, comedian, actor, television host, singer, writer, and producer
• September 22
  • Jerome Adams, Surgeon General
  • Wayne Grayson, voice actor and director
• September 26 – Gary Hall Jr., swimmer
• November 2 – Prodigy, born Albert Johnson, rapper (died 2017)
• November 11 – Leonardo DiCaprio, actor
• November 14 – Adam Walsh, murder victim and son of John Walsh (died 1981)
• November 18 – Chloë Sevigny, actress, director, model and fashion designer
• November 28 – James C. Mathis III, voice, film and television actor^[5]
• December 17 – Sarah Paulson, actress

Deaths[]

This section needs expansion. You can help by . (November 2011)

• February 22 – Samuel Byck, attempted to hijack an airplane to assassinate President Richard Nixon (born 1930)
• March 28 – Dorothy Fields, librettist (born 1904)
• May 24 – Duke Ellington, jazz pianist and bandleader (born 1899)
• June 26 – Ernest Gruening, U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1959 to 1969 (born 1887)
• July 9 – Earl Warren, 14th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (born 1891)
• July 29 – Cass Elliot, vocalist (born 1941)
• August 26 – Charles Lindbergh, aviator (born 1902)
• September 11 – Lois Lenski, author and illustrator (born 1893)^[6]
• September 21
  • Walter Brennan, film actor; 3-time Best Supporting Academy Award-winning actor (1936, 1938 and 1940) (born 1894)
  • Jacqueline Susann, novelist and actress (born 1918)
• October 13 – Ed Sullivan, entertainment writer and television host (born 1901)
• December 18 – Harry Hooper, baseball player (Boston Red Sox) (born 1887)
• December 21 – Richard Long, television actor (born 1927)
• December 26
  • Jack Benny, comic performer (born 1894)
  • Frank Hussey, Olympic sprinter (born 1905)
• December 27 – Bob Custer, film actor (born 1898)
• December 29 – Robert Ellis, film actor (born 1892)

See also[]

• List of American films of 1974
• Timeline of United States history (1970–1989)
• 1974 in Michigan

References[]

External links[]

• Media related to 1974 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons