The following events occurred in December 1974:

December 1, 1974 (Sunday)

• In Yangon, the U Thant funeral crisis occurred.
• 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.^[1]

The TWA Flight 514 accident aircraft

• TWA Flight 514, a Boeing 727, crashed 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Dulles International Airport during bad weather, killing all 92 people on board.^[2] The same day, in New York's Harriman State Park, another plane of the same class crashed, causing the deaths of the three crew members.^[3]
• About 2 miles (3.2 km) from 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.^[4][5]
• Died:
  • Roscoe Cartwright, 55, United States Army brigadier general, was killed with his wife Gloria in the crash of TWA Flight 514.^[2]
  • Sucheta Kripalani, 66, Indian freedom fighter and politician, died of a heart attack.^[6][7]
  • G. Gould Lincoln, 94, American political reporter, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom^[8]

December 2, 1974 (Monday)

• In Addis Ababa, the City Hall and the Webi Shebeli Hotel were bombed, carried out (according to the international press) by Eritrean nationalists. The Derg (revolutionary council) used the bombings as a pretext for hardened repression against the notables of the negus' regime.^[9]
• British commercial diver David Keane drowned at the age of 17 after his umbilical was cut through while conducting a bell dive in the Celtic Sea.^[10][11]
• Died:
  • Lucio Cabañas, 35, Mexican schoolteacher and union and guerilla leader, died in combat, killed himself to avoid capture or was executed by the Mexican military.^[12]
  • Sylvi Kekkonen, 74, First Lady of Finland

December 3, 1974 (Tuesday)

• The Pioneer 11 probe entered the shadow of Jupiter (27,000 miles (43,000 km) from the planet's atmosphere) and captured famous images of the Great Red Spot.

December 4, 1974 (Wednesday)

• Jean-Paul Sartre visited Andreas Baader in the Stuttgart jail.
• In Sri Lanka, the crash of Martinair Flight 138.

December 5, 1974 (Thursday)

• In Argelato (Bologna), the brigadier of carabinieri Andrea Lombardini, on a routine patrol, was murdered with gunfire by five terrorists, who were preparing a robbery on a security officer. The killers, quickly arrested, were members of Lavoro Illegale ("Illegal work"), a terrorist organization come out of Potere Operaio, under the inspiration of Toni Negri, and later merged into the Red brigades. One of them, Bruno Valli, hanged himself in jail four days later. The month in Italy also saw a series of demonstrative attacks by the Red Brigades against industrial managers.^[13]
• Died: Pietro Germi, 60, actor and director, author of many masterpieces of neo-realism and Italian comedy.

December 6, 1974 (Friday)

• Died: Nikolaj Gerasimovič Kuznecov, 70, Soviet admiral

December 7, 1974 (Saturday)

• 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.^[14]

December 8, 1974 (Sunday)

• In Greece, a referendum (Greek republic referendum, 1974) confirmed the end of the monarchy and the republican form of the state, with 69.4% of votes.
• The Sistina Theatre in Rome debuted Aggiungi un posto a tavola (Add a seat at the table), a musical comedy by Garinei and Giovannini with music by Armando Trovajoli. The piece, a modern version of the Noah story, with Johnny Dorelli in the leading role of a witty country priest, was extremely successful, staying on stage for a whole season, and became a classic of the Italian light theater.^[15]

December 9, 1974 (Monday)

• The Paris summit, reuniting the European Communities' heads of state and government, commenced. It stated the institution of the European Council and of the ERDF (European regional development fund) and the direct election of the European Parliament by citizens.
• In Japan, Takeo Miki became First Minister.
• Born: in Milan, Pippa Bacca, performer, killed in 2008 during a pacifist tour.

December 10, 1974 (Tuesday)

• The United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3275 declared 1975 International Women's Year.

December 11, 1974 (Wednesday)

• Born: Rey Mysterio, American professional wrestler, in Chula Vista

December 12, 1974 (Thursday)

• 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.

December 13, 1974 (Friday)

• Malta became a republic.
• The United States Congress unanimously approved the Jackson–Vanik amendment, linking the execution of the commercial treaties with the Soviet Union to a more liberal politic by Moscow about Jewish emigration.
• In London, the Worsley Hotel was destroyed by arson (seven victims).
• North Vietnam launched the Spring Offensive with the Battle of Phước Long, which led to the collapse of South Vietnam.^[16]
• Died: Robert Bennett, 55, American Olympic hammer thrower^[17]

December 14, 1974 (Saturday)

• The enquiry of the Padua procure about the "Compass Rose", an extreme-right secret society planning a military coup, led to the arrest of General Ugo Ricci, charged with conspiracy against the state. Two weeks later (on December 30), the Supreme Court of Cassation transferred the enquiry to Rome, a decision widely seen as a cover-up.
• The Italian ministry of Cultural Heritage and Environment (now the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism) was instituted by decree; its first holder was Giovanni Spadolini.
• Died: Walter Lippmann, 85, American journalist

December 15, 1974 (Sunday)

• In Nicaragua, the constitution of the UDEL (Union Democratica de Liberacion, Democratic liberation Union), representing the moderate and non-violent wing of the opposition to the Somoza regime.
• Died: Anatole Litvak, 72, American director of Ukrainian origin

December 16, 1974 (Monday)

• The army of Mali invaded the Republic of Upper Volta. The border conflict between the two countries would last until 1985.

December 17, 1974 (Tuesday)

• The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) became a specialized agency of the United Nations.
• The United Nations Security Council Resolution 366 terminated South Africa's mandate over Namibia.
• British commercial diver Jeremy L. Howard-Phillips 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.^[11][18]
• 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: in Los Angeles, Giovanni Ribisi and his twin sister Marissa, American actors.

December 18, 1974 (Wednesday)

• 1974 Bristol bombing: The Provisional IRA bombed Bristol, England, injuring 20 people.
• Born: Mutassim Gaddafi, Libyan Army commander, son of Muammar Gaddafi, in Tripoli (d. 2011)^[19]

December 19, 1974 (Thursday)

• Oxford Street bombing.
• Born: Ricky Ponting, former Australian international cricketer (and two-time World Cup winning captain) in Launceston, Tasmania.
• Died: Gunnar Andersson, 51, Swedish aviator (helicopter crash)

December 20, 1974 (Friday)

• In France, the Veil law, legalizing abortion, with the favorable vote of UDF and leftist parties and the blackball of UDR.

December 21, 1974 (Saturday)

• The New York Times revealed illegal domestic spying by the CIA.

December 22, 1974 (Sunday)

• Referendum on independence from France in the islands of Comore (95% yes) and Mayotte (63% no).
• In Maturin, Venezuela, crash of Avensa Flight 358 (73 victims).
• Died: Fosco Giachetti, 72, Italian actor, star of the fascist cinema

December 23, 1974 (Monday)

• Karl Brushaber of Ann Arbor, Michigan, fell to his death from the top of Tuckerman Ravine while descending Mount Washington. Brushaber's climbing partner had turned back due to bad weather, but Brushaber pressed on toward the summit; whether or not he reached it is unknown.^[20]
• U.S. President Gerald Ford, in a conversation/interview with James Alsop, declared as very probable in 1975 a new war in the Middle East and a world crisis, following the economic breakdown of a "European country, allied to the United States" (the United Kingdom or Italy).^[21]
• Disappearance of the Fort Worth missing trio (Mary Rachel Trlica, Lisa Renee Wilson and Julie Ann Moseley).

December 24, 1974 (Tuesday)

• Darwin, Australia, was almost completely destroyed by Cyclone Tracy.
• A first fashion retailer, Zara Store, opened in A Coruña, Spain.

December 25, 1974 (Wednesday)

• 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.
• Born: Ed Husain, British author and activist, in London^[22]
• Died: Giacomo Devoto, 77, Italian linguist, author of a celebrated dictionary of the Italian language

December 26, 1974 (Thursday)

• Launch of the Soviet space station Salyut 4.^[23]
• Died: Jack Benny, 80, American actor, died of pancreatic cancer.

December 27, 1974 (Friday)

• In Managua, 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.^[24]
• In Llevin (France), a firedamp explosion killed 42 miners.
• 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, though formally in force.

December 28, 1974 (Saturday)

• Died:
  • Edwin Eugene Aldrin Sr., 78, United States Army aviator and officer, father of astronaut Buzz Aldrin^[25]
  • Giuseppe Dozza, 73, Italian Communist politician, popular mayor of Bologna

December 29, 1974 (Sunday)

• The Hunza earthquake in Pakistan.
• Died:
  • Alessandro Cervellati, 82, Italian writer and painter, historian of circus and music-hall
  • Sophie Podolski, 21, Belgian poet and graphic artist, died by suicide.^[26][27]

December 30, 1974 (Monday)

• Agrarian reform in Honduras.
• 1974 Olean High School shooting.

December 31, 1974 (Tuesday)

• 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^[28]

References