A
crisis over the funeral arrangements of former UN Secretary General
U Thant began in Rangoon (now
Yangon), after thousands of people were outraged at the lack of respect shown by the military government when U Thant's body arrived at
Mingaladon Airport without being received by an honor guard or government representatives. The anger was further compounded by the decision to bury U Thant, without a state funeral, at
Kyandaw Cemetery, and led to protests by thousands of students.[4][5][6][7][8]
Jacqueline Hansen broke the world record for endurance as she won the Western Hemisphere Marathon in
Culver City, California, in 2 hours, 43 minutes and 54 seconds. Hansen's time was two-and-a-half minutes faster than the previous record of 2:46:24, set by
Chantal Langlacé on October 27.[9]
U.S. Army Brigadier General
Roscoe "Rock" Cartwright, 55, U.S. military officer and only the second African-American to rise to the rank of a general in the
United States Army, was killed with his wife Gloria in the crash of TWA Flight 514.[1]
Anita Brenner (born Hanna Brenner), 69, transnational Jewish scholar and author specializing in Mexican history and culture, died in a traffic collision.[15]
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.[18][19]
Lucio Cabañas, 35, Mexican schoolteacher and union and guerrilla leader, killed himself to avoid capture and likely execution by the Mexican military.[25][26]
Sidney Jourard, 48, Canadian psychologist, professor and writer, was crushed to death when his car fell on him while he was working on it.[27]
Sylvi Kekkonen, 74, First Lady of Finland and wife of President Uhro Kekkonen, died of a heart attack.[28]
Hana Benešová (born Anna Vlčková), 89, widow of former
president of CzechoslovakiaEdvard 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.[29]
Paul Coze (born Paul Jean Coze-Dabija), 71, French-American artist and writer[30]
The
Pioneer 11 interplanetary probe flew past the planet
Jupiter, coming within 42,828 kilometres (26,612 mi) of the planet's atmosphere,[35] and took the closest photographs up to that time of the
Great Red Spot.[36][37]
Martinair Flight 138 crashed in
Sri Lanka, killing all 191 people aboard. Carrying Muslim pilgrims who were making the
hajj to
Mecca, the Douglas DC-8 was approaching
Colombo on an intermediate stop on its flight to
Jeddah in
Saudi Arabia, and was cleared to descend to an altitude of 2,000 feet (610 m) after reporting its position incorrectly. The aircraft then impacted at Anjimalai Mountain, one of the peaks of the
Saptha Kanya range, at 4,355 feet (1,327 m).[45][46]
On the same day at
Irkutsk in the Soviet Union, all 13 people aboard an Aeroflot An-2R airplane died in a midair collision. The plane was departing on a scheduled flight to
Kazachinskoye, after being cleared for takeoff into the path of an Antonov An-12 flight cleared for landing on the same runway. The two airplanes collided at 890 feet (270 m). The crew of the An-12 were able to make an emergency landing with no fatalities.[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.[55][56]
The
steady decline of prices on the New York Stock Exchange reached its lowest point, closing at 577.60 points, its lowest level since October 26, 1962.[67][68] The nadir came after prices dropped more than 45% over two years since the NYSE's high point of 1,003.16 on November 4, 1972.[69]
The
Randolph–Sheppard Act, a United States law titled "Vending facilities for blind in Federal buildings", took effect. With a stated goal of "providing blind persons with remunerative employment, enlarging the economic opportunities of the blind, and stimulating the blind to greater efforts in striving to make themselves self-supporting", the new law required that blind persons should be given priority in licenses to operate vending facilities on federal property. Vending facilities were defined as automatic vending machines, cafeterias, snack bars, cart services, shelters, and counters.[72]
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.[76][77]
The
Soyuz 16 spaceflight returned to Earth after a successful test by Soviet cosmonauts of the docking ring and other mechanisms needed to safely connect with a U.S. spacecraft for the 1975
Apollo–Soyuz mission.[21][79][80]
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.[92]
The Helios-A space probe, built in
West Germany, was launched from Cape Canaveral in the U.S. in order to orbit the Sun and gather data.[100][101] The Helios-A and Helios-B were part of a joint operation of the
German Aerospace Center (which provided 70% of the funding) and
NASA, which provided the launch.
In the
Mexico City area, thousands of parents stormed schools and removed their children due to rumors that people disguised as inoculation teams were giving children sterilization shots. The following day, authorities suspended all
vaccination drives and posted police outside schools.[102]
U.S. Representative
Wilbur Mills resigned as Chairman of the powerful
House Ways and Means Committee (which controls the speed of passage of legislation to a vote) after being cited for public intoxication for a second time while with his mistress, Fanne Foxe.[103][104]
A temporary
ceasefire was agreed to between the white-minority government of the southern African nation of
Rhodesia and guerrillas of the ZANU and ZAPU, after being brokered by
South Africa and
Zambia.[109] The peace, which lasted eight months, allowed the all-black
Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and the
Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) guerrillas to regroup after the all-white
Rhodesian Light Infantry had succeeded in disrupting the nationalists. ZANLA and ZIPRA would eventually triumph in bringing majority rule by the black majority, and the transformation of Rhodesia into the Republic of Zimbabwe.
Reed Hadley (stage name for Reed Herring), 63, American film, television and radio actor known for the Red Ryder radio series and the TV series Racket Squad, died of a heart attack.[113]
The island of
Malta, formerly a British dominion in the Mediterranean Sea, became a republic as a
new constitution was adopted. Sir
Anthony Mamo, who had been the British Governor General of Malta since 1971, became the first
President and continued as
head of state, while Prime Minister
Dom Mintoff continued in his role as the head of government.[124]
The 11,151-ton freighter Sacramento Venture sank 1,100 miles (1,800 km) east of Japan. A Japanese tugboat rescued all 35 crewmembers.[125]
A partial solar eclipse was visible from the United States but was obscured by clouds in the most heavily populated areas.[126]
Seven people, including a probationary firefighter, were killed in an arson fire at London's
Worsley Hotel.[127]
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.[133]
Walter Lippmann, 85, American journalist, political commentator and newspaper columnist, winner of two
Pulitzer Prizes and the
Presidential Medal of Freedom, died of a
heart ailment.[136] 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."[137]
Alexander Burns WallaceCBEFRSEFRCSE, 68, British plastic surgeon and medical journal editor known for his 1951 creation of the "
Rule of Nines" in measuring the percentage of skin surface area caused by burns.[138]
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.[144]
General
Phaedon Gizikis,
President of Greece since being appointed by the ruling military junta on November 25, 1973, announced his resignation, pending the election of a provisional president by the new Hellenic Parliament.[149]
Eighteen people died in a fire at a nursing home in
Nottingham, England.[150]
The United States Senate unanimously (93 to 0) ratified the
Geneva Protocol, officially the "Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare", almost 50 years after it had first been signed.[159] U.S. President Ford signed the ratification on January 22, 1975.[160] The agreement had been signed in Switzerland on June 17, 1925, and became effective on February 28, 1928.[161]
The
Safe Drinking Water Act was signed into law, setting standards for drinking water quality for all public water systems in the United States.[162]
ANZUK, a military unit created in 1971 by agreement of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, was disbanded after slightly more than two years.[163]
United Nations Security Council Resolution 366, terminating South Africa's mandate over
Namibia (at the time, South-West Africa), was approved by a unanimous vote.[170][171] South Africa ignored the resolution and continued its control over the former German colony.
General
Augusto Pinochet, the de facto head of state of the Republic of Chile as chairman of the ruling
Chilean military junta since the coup d'etat of September 11, 1973, was formally appointed as
President of the Republic and commander of the
Chilean Army by the junta's Decree-Law Number 806.[172][173] Pinochet had previously been designated the nation's "Supreme Chief" ("Jefe Supremo de la Nación") on June 17 by Decree Law No. 527.[174] His appointment would be ratified by the public in a
constitutional referendum on the seventh anniversary of the coup, approved on September 11, 1980, and he would continue in office as leader of an oppressive regime until 1990.
Ray Sorensen, 52, American Olympic
gymnast and 1948 NCAA champion in all-around competition, was killed in a motorcycle accident.[179][180]
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.[34][181]
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.[183][184]
The
Symphonie-Acommunications satellite, conceived and built by a co-operation between the space agencies of France and West Germany, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida in the United States at 9:39 in the evening (0239 UTC on 19 December 1974).[188][better source needed]
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.[195][196]
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.[199][200] 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.[201][202]
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.[203]
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.[204]
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[207]
In France, the
Veil law, legalizing
abortion up to the tenth week of pregnancy, was approved by a vote of 277 in favor and 192 against.[212][213] The new law took effect on January 17, 1975.
A truck overturned 8 miles (13 km) from
Sterkstroom, South Africa, killing 33 workers and injuring 26.[214]
Avalanches in
Icelandkilled 12 people in two separate incidents at the fishing village of
Neskaupstaður. 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.[215][216][217]
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).[248]
Three girls from
Fort Worth, Texas – Mary Rachel Trlica, Lisa Renee Wilson and Julie Ann Moseley – disappeared during a shopping trip to the
Seminary South Shopping Center. They have never been found and no suspects in the disappearance have been identified.[249]
The city of
Darwin in
Australia was struck by
Cyclone Tracy at 10:00 pm local time. Over the next eight hours, the storm would destroy more than 70% of commercial buildings and 80% of houses, leaving 25,000 of the city's 47,000 residents homeless.[256][257]
John Stonehouse, a member of the British House of Commons who had disappeared on November 20 in the United States, was arrested in Australia at
Melbourne and charged with 21 individual crimes, including fraud, theft, and forgery, conspiracy to defraud, causing a false police investigation and "
wasting police time", a crime in
England and Wales. Despite being imprisoned in Australia and later extradited to the UK, he would continue to serve as an MP until resigning in 1976.[258]
At the Vatican,
Pope Paul VI inaugurated the 1975
Jubilee, designating the upcoming year as a Holy Year, in Christmas Eve ceremonies transmitted live to 45 nations.[259][260] The ceremony of the Pope opening the
Holy Door to
St. Peter's Basilica "was marred slightly when pieces of masonry from the door fell in front of the Pope," adding that "Several small pieces struck him on the right shoulder and arm, but he pulled back and the mishap did not appear to upset him."[259]
A second recount of votes in the November 5
Senate election for Senator for the U.S. state of New Hampshire showed that Republican
Louis C. Wyman had defeated Democrat
John A. Durkin by only 2 votes out of 223,363 that had been cast.[261] Wyman had initially been declared the winner, but a recount led to Durkin having won by 10 votes. The third count, by the New Hampshire State Ballot Law Commission, found the result to be 110,926 for Wyman and 110,924 for Durkin. Neither candidate was sworn in, and the seat would not be filled until a special election on September 16, 1975.
In
Sofia, the capital of
Bulgaria, student Branimir Donchev shot and killed eight people on the fifth floor of a
dormitory at
Sofia University. Motivated by anger following a rejection by a female student, and further inspired after watching the film The Godfather, Donchev traveled to Dormitory #1 with his father's
.380Walther PP pistol a but was unable to find her. With several magazines of ammunition, he fired 36 shots at various people before being subdued.[265][266][267][268]
In the early morning of December 25, 25-year-old model Sandra Zahler was beaten to death in her apartment in
Kew Gardens, Queens, New York City, adjacent to the site of the 1964
murder of Kitty Genovese. According to
Robert D. McFadden of The New York Times, "[A]t least one neighbor heard her dying screams and did nothing". The murder was not reported until Zahler's body was discovered over 34 hours later.[270]
Born:
Nagma (stage name for Nandita Morarji), Indian film actress known for the 1990 blockbuster Baaghi; in
Bombay (now Mumbai)[271]
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.[288]
A collision between two trains outside the main railroad station in
Lisbon killed 9 people and injured 65. On the same day, a collision between a train and a bus at a railroad crossing on the outskirts of
Rio de Janeiro killed 18 people and injured 18 others.[289]
In
Managua, Nicaragua, an
FSLN commando unit, headed by
Edén Pastora, burst into the house of José María Castillo, former president of the
Banco Central, and took his guests hostage (including two relatives of the dictator
Somoza).[290][291] Three days later, thanks to the intermediation of
Miguel Obando y Bravo, the
Archbishop of Managua, the hostages were released, in exchange for $1 million and the freedom of 14 political prisoners. Castillo and three guards were the only victims of the action.[291][292]
Amy Vanderbilt, 66, American authority on
etiquette, newspaper columnist, and author of the bestseller Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette, was killed after falling from a second-floor window of her townhouse in
Manhattan in
New York City.[295][296]
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 afternoon at 5:11 local time (12:11 UTC) and was concentrated in the village of
Pattan in the Jammu and Kashmir region.[300][301][302][303]
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.[304]
All 24 people aboard a chartered tourist plane in Guatemala were killed when the
Lockheed Lodestar 18 crashed during takeoff from
Flores on its scheduled flight to
Guatemala City. The 21 passengers were all American tourists who had spent the day viewing the
Maya civilization ruins at
Tikal.[305][306] Most of the victims were from the New York City area and had chartered the trip after seeing it advertised in a teacher's magazine.[307]
In a 106 to 89 loss to the
Atlanta Hawks,
Elmore Smith of the
Los Angeles Lakers had an unusual performance in a game where he made only one of 11
free throw attempts. He missed three consecutive shots from the free throw line (under the now defunct "
three to make two" rule in the NBA at the time), all three of which failed to hit anything but the floor.[308]
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[312]
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.[317]
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.[318]
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)[328] and the House of Representatives (201 to 189 on December 11).[329][330] 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.[331][332][333] The Act effectively eliminated aid and military funding for South Vietnam, which would fall to the North Vietnamese invasion four months later.
The
Mongolian People's Republic passed its
Nationality Act, declaring that any person, with at least one parent who was a Mongolian citizen, was automatically a citizen of Mongolia regardless of where that person was born or lived. The law would be amended in 1995 to provide that the automatic citizenship would be revoked for any person who became the citizen of another nation.[335]
The
Privacy Act of 1974 was signed into law by U.S. President Ford, prohibiting the disclosure of information without the written consent of the subject individual, providing individuals a means to obtain their records and correct mistakes, and to find out whether the records have been disclosed.[346]
Dutch footballer
Johan Cruyff, a player for
FC Barcelona at the time, was awarded the
Ballon d'Or as best soccer football player in Europe, becoming the first player to obtain the award three times.[citation needed]
^Selth, Andrew (1989). Death of a Hero: The U Thant Disturbances in Burma, December 1974.
Griffith University, Brisbane: Centre for the Study of Australia-Asian Relations.
^"Attentati terroristici ad Addis Abeba. - Forse sono nazionalisti dell'Eritrea" [Terrorist attacks in Addis Ababa. - Perhaps they are Eritrean nationalists]. La Stampa (in Italian). 4 December 1974.
^Aasang, Nathan (2003).
"Spottswood, Stephen Gill". African-American Religious Leaders: A to Z of African Americans. Facts on File Library of American History. New York, NY:
Facts On File, Inc. p. 206.
ISBN0-8160-4878-9. Retrieved 10 April 2024 – via Google Books.
^Avina, Alexander (2014). "A Poor People's Revolution". Specters of Revolution: Peasant Guerrillas in the Cold War Mexican Countryside.
New York, NY:
Oxford University Press. pp. 158–60.
^Broccoli, Umberto (18 September 2015).
"Aggiungi un posto a tavola" [Add a seat at the table]. Cinquantamila.it (in Italian). Archived from
the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
^Monjardín, Alejandro.
"Confirman muerte de "El Bravo"" [Death of 'El Bravo' Is Confirmed]. Noroeste (in Spanish). Archived from
the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
^"Dave Crowley Dead at 64; A British Boxing Champion". The New York Times. AP. 13 December 1974. Page 48, column 3. Retrieved 4 April 2024. Dave Crowley, one of Britain's most popular international boxers in the nineteen-thirties, died Tuesday night at the age of 64.
^In her
original 1986 entry on Maufe for the Dictionary of National Biography, Margaret Richardson gave his date of birth as 12 December 1883 and mentions that "Maufe died 12 December 1974, his ninety-first birthday, in the farmhouse he had restored in the late 1920s at Shepherd's Hill, Buxted, Sussex." In her
revised 2004 entry, she corrected the date to 12 December 1882 and re-wrote the death passage as "Maufe died on 12 December 1974, his ninety-second birthday, in Uckfield Hospital."
^Middleton, Drew (16 December 1974).
"Haig Takes Over as Head of NATO". The New York Times. Page 1, columns 5-7; page 69, column 1. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
^"Εκλογή Προέδρου της Δημοκρατίας" [Election of the President of the Republic] (in Greek). Lambrakis Press Organization S.A. Archived from
the original on 13 December 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
^"Andre Jolivet, 69, Prolific Composer". The New York Times. Reuters. 21 December 1974. Page 30, column 5. Retrieved 5 April 2024. This source gives Jolivet's day of death as December 19.
^"From 1963 to 1974". André Jolivet, compositeur (1905 / 1974). Les amis d'André Jolivet. 9 March 2016. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
^"Robert B. Harvey". The New York Times. 23 December 1974. Page 30, column 4. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
^"Gen. John C. Persons of 31st Division Dies". The New York Times. 24 December 1974. Page 22, column 4. Retrieved 5 April 2024. BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Dec. 23 (UPI)—Lieut. Gen. John C. Persons, commander of the 31st Infantry Division during World War II, died yesterday of a stroke.
^"Ahmed Ismail, Egyptian Leader In October War, Is Dead at 57". The New York Times. UPI. 26 December 1974. Page 40, columns 4-5. Retrieved 6 April 2024. CAIRO, Dec. 25 (UPI)—Field Marshal Ahmed Ismail, Egypt's Minister of War and Commander in Chief of the armed forces in the October, 1973, war, died today in London at the age of 57, the Government announced.
^Fouad Saleh al-Sayed (2015). The greatest contemporary events (1900–2014) (in Arabic). Al Manhal. p. 537.
ISBN9796500148564.
^Shepard, Richard F. (28 December 1974).
"Jack Benny, 80, Dies of Cancer on Coast". The New York Times. Page 1, columns 2-4; page 47, columns 1-5. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
^Grasso, John (2011).
"Air ball". Historical Dictionary of Basketball. Historical Dictionaries of Sports. Vol. 2. Lanham, Toronto, Plymouth, UK: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. p. 27.
ISBN978-0-8108-7506-7. Retrieved 8 April 2024 – via Google Books.
A
crisis over the funeral arrangements of former UN Secretary General
U Thant began in Rangoon (now
Yangon), after thousands of people were outraged at the lack of respect shown by the military government when U Thant's body arrived at
Mingaladon Airport without being received by an honor guard or government representatives. The anger was further compounded by the decision to bury U Thant, without a state funeral, at
Kyandaw Cemetery, and led to protests by thousands of students.[4][5][6][7][8]
Jacqueline Hansen broke the world record for endurance as she won the Western Hemisphere Marathon in
Culver City, California, in 2 hours, 43 minutes and 54 seconds. Hansen's time was two-and-a-half minutes faster than the previous record of 2:46:24, set by
Chantal Langlacé on October 27.[9]
U.S. Army Brigadier General
Roscoe "Rock" Cartwright, 55, U.S. military officer and only the second African-American to rise to the rank of a general in the
United States Army, was killed with his wife Gloria in the crash of TWA Flight 514.[1]
Anita Brenner (born Hanna Brenner), 69, transnational Jewish scholar and author specializing in Mexican history and culture, died in a traffic collision.[15]
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.[18][19]
Lucio Cabañas, 35, Mexican schoolteacher and union and guerrilla leader, killed himself to avoid capture and likely execution by the Mexican military.[25][26]
Sidney Jourard, 48, Canadian psychologist, professor and writer, was crushed to death when his car fell on him while he was working on it.[27]
Sylvi Kekkonen, 74, First Lady of Finland and wife of President Uhro Kekkonen, died of a heart attack.[28]
Hana Benešová (born Anna Vlčková), 89, widow of former
president of CzechoslovakiaEdvard 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.[29]
Paul Coze (born Paul Jean Coze-Dabija), 71, French-American artist and writer[30]
The
Pioneer 11 interplanetary probe flew past the planet
Jupiter, coming within 42,828 kilometres (26,612 mi) of the planet's atmosphere,[35] and took the closest photographs up to that time of the
Great Red Spot.[36][37]
Martinair Flight 138 crashed in
Sri Lanka, killing all 191 people aboard. Carrying Muslim pilgrims who were making the
hajj to
Mecca, the Douglas DC-8 was approaching
Colombo on an intermediate stop on its flight to
Jeddah in
Saudi Arabia, and was cleared to descend to an altitude of 2,000 feet (610 m) after reporting its position incorrectly. The aircraft then impacted at Anjimalai Mountain, one of the peaks of the
Saptha Kanya range, at 4,355 feet (1,327 m).[45][46]
On the same day at
Irkutsk in the Soviet Union, all 13 people aboard an Aeroflot An-2R airplane died in a midair collision. The plane was departing on a scheduled flight to
Kazachinskoye, after being cleared for takeoff into the path of an Antonov An-12 flight cleared for landing on the same runway. The two airplanes collided at 890 feet (270 m). The crew of the An-12 were able to make an emergency landing with no fatalities.[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.[55][56]
The
steady decline of prices on the New York Stock Exchange reached its lowest point, closing at 577.60 points, its lowest level since October 26, 1962.[67][68] The nadir came after prices dropped more than 45% over two years since the NYSE's high point of 1,003.16 on November 4, 1972.[69]
The
Randolph–Sheppard Act, a United States law titled "Vending facilities for blind in Federal buildings", took effect. With a stated goal of "providing blind persons with remunerative employment, enlarging the economic opportunities of the blind, and stimulating the blind to greater efforts in striving to make themselves self-supporting", the new law required that blind persons should be given priority in licenses to operate vending facilities on federal property. Vending facilities were defined as automatic vending machines, cafeterias, snack bars, cart services, shelters, and counters.[72]
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.[76][77]
The
Soyuz 16 spaceflight returned to Earth after a successful test by Soviet cosmonauts of the docking ring and other mechanisms needed to safely connect with a U.S. spacecraft for the 1975
Apollo–Soyuz mission.[21][79][80]
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.[92]
The Helios-A space probe, built in
West Germany, was launched from Cape Canaveral in the U.S. in order to orbit the Sun and gather data.[100][101] The Helios-A and Helios-B were part of a joint operation of the
German Aerospace Center (which provided 70% of the funding) and
NASA, which provided the launch.
In the
Mexico City area, thousands of parents stormed schools and removed their children due to rumors that people disguised as inoculation teams were giving children sterilization shots. The following day, authorities suspended all
vaccination drives and posted police outside schools.[102]
U.S. Representative
Wilbur Mills resigned as Chairman of the powerful
House Ways and Means Committee (which controls the speed of passage of legislation to a vote) after being cited for public intoxication for a second time while with his mistress, Fanne Foxe.[103][104]
A temporary
ceasefire was agreed to between the white-minority government of the southern African nation of
Rhodesia and guerrillas of the ZANU and ZAPU, after being brokered by
South Africa and
Zambia.[109] The peace, which lasted eight months, allowed the all-black
Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and the
Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) guerrillas to regroup after the all-white
Rhodesian Light Infantry had succeeded in disrupting the nationalists. ZANLA and ZIPRA would eventually triumph in bringing majority rule by the black majority, and the transformation of Rhodesia into the Republic of Zimbabwe.
Reed Hadley (stage name for Reed Herring), 63, American film, television and radio actor known for the Red Ryder radio series and the TV series Racket Squad, died of a heart attack.[113]
The island of
Malta, formerly a British dominion in the Mediterranean Sea, became a republic as a
new constitution was adopted. Sir
Anthony Mamo, who had been the British Governor General of Malta since 1971, became the first
President and continued as
head of state, while Prime Minister
Dom Mintoff continued in his role as the head of government.[124]
The 11,151-ton freighter Sacramento Venture sank 1,100 miles (1,800 km) east of Japan. A Japanese tugboat rescued all 35 crewmembers.[125]
A partial solar eclipse was visible from the United States but was obscured by clouds in the most heavily populated areas.[126]
Seven people, including a probationary firefighter, were killed in an arson fire at London's
Worsley Hotel.[127]
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.[133]
Walter Lippmann, 85, American journalist, political commentator and newspaper columnist, winner of two
Pulitzer Prizes and the
Presidential Medal of Freedom, died of a
heart ailment.[136] 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."[137]
Alexander Burns WallaceCBEFRSEFRCSE, 68, British plastic surgeon and medical journal editor known for his 1951 creation of the "
Rule of Nines" in measuring the percentage of skin surface area caused by burns.[138]
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.[144]
General
Phaedon Gizikis,
President of Greece since being appointed by the ruling military junta on November 25, 1973, announced his resignation, pending the election of a provisional president by the new Hellenic Parliament.[149]
Eighteen people died in a fire at a nursing home in
Nottingham, England.[150]
The United States Senate unanimously (93 to 0) ratified the
Geneva Protocol, officially the "Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare", almost 50 years after it had first been signed.[159] U.S. President Ford signed the ratification on January 22, 1975.[160] The agreement had been signed in Switzerland on June 17, 1925, and became effective on February 28, 1928.[161]
The
Safe Drinking Water Act was signed into law, setting standards for drinking water quality for all public water systems in the United States.[162]
ANZUK, a military unit created in 1971 by agreement of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, was disbanded after slightly more than two years.[163]
United Nations Security Council Resolution 366, terminating South Africa's mandate over
Namibia (at the time, South-West Africa), was approved by a unanimous vote.[170][171] South Africa ignored the resolution and continued its control over the former German colony.
General
Augusto Pinochet, the de facto head of state of the Republic of Chile as chairman of the ruling
Chilean military junta since the coup d'etat of September 11, 1973, was formally appointed as
President of the Republic and commander of the
Chilean Army by the junta's Decree-Law Number 806.[172][173] Pinochet had previously been designated the nation's "Supreme Chief" ("Jefe Supremo de la Nación") on June 17 by Decree Law No. 527.[174] His appointment would be ratified by the public in a
constitutional referendum on the seventh anniversary of the coup, approved on September 11, 1980, and he would continue in office as leader of an oppressive regime until 1990.
Ray Sorensen, 52, American Olympic
gymnast and 1948 NCAA champion in all-around competition, was killed in a motorcycle accident.[179][180]
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.[34][181]
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.[183][184]
The
Symphonie-Acommunications satellite, conceived and built by a co-operation between the space agencies of France and West Germany, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida in the United States at 9:39 in the evening (0239 UTC on 19 December 1974).[188][better source needed]
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.[195][196]
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.[199][200] 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.[201][202]
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.[203]
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.[204]
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[207]
In France, the
Veil law, legalizing
abortion up to the tenth week of pregnancy, was approved by a vote of 277 in favor and 192 against.[212][213] The new law took effect on January 17, 1975.
A truck overturned 8 miles (13 km) from
Sterkstroom, South Africa, killing 33 workers and injuring 26.[214]
Avalanches in
Icelandkilled 12 people in two separate incidents at the fishing village of
Neskaupstaður. 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.[215][216][217]
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).[248]
Three girls from
Fort Worth, Texas – Mary Rachel Trlica, Lisa Renee Wilson and Julie Ann Moseley – disappeared during a shopping trip to the
Seminary South Shopping Center. They have never been found and no suspects in the disappearance have been identified.[249]
The city of
Darwin in
Australia was struck by
Cyclone Tracy at 10:00 pm local time. Over the next eight hours, the storm would destroy more than 70% of commercial buildings and 80% of houses, leaving 25,000 of the city's 47,000 residents homeless.[256][257]
John Stonehouse, a member of the British House of Commons who had disappeared on November 20 in the United States, was arrested in Australia at
Melbourne and charged with 21 individual crimes, including fraud, theft, and forgery, conspiracy to defraud, causing a false police investigation and "
wasting police time", a crime in
England and Wales. Despite being imprisoned in Australia and later extradited to the UK, he would continue to serve as an MP until resigning in 1976.[258]
At the Vatican,
Pope Paul VI inaugurated the 1975
Jubilee, designating the upcoming year as a Holy Year, in Christmas Eve ceremonies transmitted live to 45 nations.[259][260] The ceremony of the Pope opening the
Holy Door to
St. Peter's Basilica "was marred slightly when pieces of masonry from the door fell in front of the Pope," adding that "Several small pieces struck him on the right shoulder and arm, but he pulled back and the mishap did not appear to upset him."[259]
A second recount of votes in the November 5
Senate election for Senator for the U.S. state of New Hampshire showed that Republican
Louis C. Wyman had defeated Democrat
John A. Durkin by only 2 votes out of 223,363 that had been cast.[261] Wyman had initially been declared the winner, but a recount led to Durkin having won by 10 votes. The third count, by the New Hampshire State Ballot Law Commission, found the result to be 110,926 for Wyman and 110,924 for Durkin. Neither candidate was sworn in, and the seat would not be filled until a special election on September 16, 1975.
In
Sofia, the capital of
Bulgaria, student Branimir Donchev shot and killed eight people on the fifth floor of a
dormitory at
Sofia University. Motivated by anger following a rejection by a female student, and further inspired after watching the film The Godfather, Donchev traveled to Dormitory #1 with his father's
.380Walther PP pistol a but was unable to find her. With several magazines of ammunition, he fired 36 shots at various people before being subdued.[265][266][267][268]
In the early morning of December 25, 25-year-old model Sandra Zahler was beaten to death in her apartment in
Kew Gardens, Queens, New York City, adjacent to the site of the 1964
murder of Kitty Genovese. According to
Robert D. McFadden of The New York Times, "[A]t least one neighbor heard her dying screams and did nothing". The murder was not reported until Zahler's body was discovered over 34 hours later.[270]
Born:
Nagma (stage name for Nandita Morarji), Indian film actress known for the 1990 blockbuster Baaghi; in
Bombay (now Mumbai)[271]
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.[288]
A collision between two trains outside the main railroad station in
Lisbon killed 9 people and injured 65. On the same day, a collision between a train and a bus at a railroad crossing on the outskirts of
Rio de Janeiro killed 18 people and injured 18 others.[289]
In
Managua, Nicaragua, an
FSLN commando unit, headed by
Edén Pastora, burst into the house of José María Castillo, former president of the
Banco Central, and took his guests hostage (including two relatives of the dictator
Somoza).[290][291] Three days later, thanks to the intermediation of
Miguel Obando y Bravo, the
Archbishop of Managua, the hostages were released, in exchange for $1 million and the freedom of 14 political prisoners. Castillo and three guards were the only victims of the action.[291][292]
Amy Vanderbilt, 66, American authority on
etiquette, newspaper columnist, and author of the bestseller Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette, was killed after falling from a second-floor window of her townhouse in
Manhattan in
New York City.[295][296]
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 afternoon at 5:11 local time (12:11 UTC) and was concentrated in the village of
Pattan in the Jammu and Kashmir region.[300][301][302][303]
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.[304]
All 24 people aboard a chartered tourist plane in Guatemala were killed when the
Lockheed Lodestar 18 crashed during takeoff from
Flores on its scheduled flight to
Guatemala City. The 21 passengers were all American tourists who had spent the day viewing the
Maya civilization ruins at
Tikal.[305][306] Most of the victims were from the New York City area and had chartered the trip after seeing it advertised in a teacher's magazine.[307]
In a 106 to 89 loss to the
Atlanta Hawks,
Elmore Smith of the
Los Angeles Lakers had an unusual performance in a game where he made only one of 11
free throw attempts. He missed three consecutive shots from the free throw line (under the now defunct "
three to make two" rule in the NBA at the time), all three of which failed to hit anything but the floor.[308]
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[312]
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.[317]
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.[318]
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)[328] and the House of Representatives (201 to 189 on December 11).[329][330] 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.[331][332][333] The Act effectively eliminated aid and military funding for South Vietnam, which would fall to the North Vietnamese invasion four months later.
The
Mongolian People's Republic passed its
Nationality Act, declaring that any person, with at least one parent who was a Mongolian citizen, was automatically a citizen of Mongolia regardless of where that person was born or lived. The law would be amended in 1995 to provide that the automatic citizenship would be revoked for any person who became the citizen of another nation.[335]
The
Privacy Act of 1974 was signed into law by U.S. President Ford, prohibiting the disclosure of information without the written consent of the subject individual, providing individuals a means to obtain their records and correct mistakes, and to find out whether the records have been disclosed.[346]
Dutch footballer
Johan Cruyff, a player for
FC Barcelona at the time, was awarded the
Ballon d'Or as best soccer football player in Europe, becoming the first player to obtain the award three times.[citation needed]
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^"Attentati terroristici ad Addis Abeba. - Forse sono nazionalisti dell'Eritrea" [Terrorist attacks in Addis Ababa. - Perhaps they are Eritrean nationalists]. La Stampa (in Italian). 4 December 1974.
^Aasang, Nathan (2003).
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Oxford University Press. pp. 158–60.
^Broccoli, Umberto (18 September 2015).
"Aggiungi un posto a tavola" [Add a seat at the table]. Cinquantamila.it (in Italian). Archived from
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"Confirman muerte de "El Bravo"" [Death of 'El Bravo' Is Confirmed]. Noroeste (in Spanish). Archived from
the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
^"Dave Crowley Dead at 64; A British Boxing Champion". The New York Times. AP. 13 December 1974. Page 48, column 3. Retrieved 4 April 2024. Dave Crowley, one of Britain's most popular international boxers in the nineteen-thirties, died Tuesday night at the age of 64.
^In her
original 1986 entry on Maufe for the Dictionary of National Biography, Margaret Richardson gave his date of birth as 12 December 1883 and mentions that "Maufe died 12 December 1974, his ninety-first birthday, in the farmhouse he had restored in the late 1920s at Shepherd's Hill, Buxted, Sussex." In her
revised 2004 entry, she corrected the date to 12 December 1882 and re-wrote the death passage as "Maufe died on 12 December 1974, his ninety-second birthday, in Uckfield Hospital."
^Middleton, Drew (16 December 1974).
"Haig Takes Over as Head of NATO". The New York Times. Page 1, columns 5-7; page 69, column 1. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
^"Εκλογή Προέδρου της Δημοκρατίας" [Election of the President of the Republic] (in Greek). Lambrakis Press Organization S.A. Archived from
the original on 13 December 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
^"Andre Jolivet, 69, Prolific Composer". The New York Times. Reuters. 21 December 1974. Page 30, column 5. Retrieved 5 April 2024. This source gives Jolivet's day of death as December 19.
^"From 1963 to 1974". André Jolivet, compositeur (1905 / 1974). Les amis d'André Jolivet. 9 March 2016. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
^"Robert B. Harvey". The New York Times. 23 December 1974. Page 30, column 4. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
^"Gen. John C. Persons of 31st Division Dies". The New York Times. 24 December 1974. Page 22, column 4. Retrieved 5 April 2024. BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Dec. 23 (UPI)—Lieut. Gen. John C. Persons, commander of the 31st Infantry Division during World War II, died yesterday of a stroke.
^"Ahmed Ismail, Egyptian Leader In October War, Is Dead at 57". The New York Times. UPI. 26 December 1974. Page 40, columns 4-5. Retrieved 6 April 2024. CAIRO, Dec. 25 (UPI)—Field Marshal Ahmed Ismail, Egypt's Minister of War and Commander in Chief of the armed forces in the October, 1973, war, died today in London at the age of 57, the Government announced.
^Fouad Saleh al-Sayed (2015). The greatest contemporary events (1900–2014) (in Arabic). Al Manhal. p. 537.
ISBN9796500148564.
^Shepard, Richard F. (28 December 1974).
"Jack Benny, 80, Dies of Cancer on Coast". The New York Times. Page 1, columns 2-4; page 47, columns 1-5. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
^Grasso, John (2011).
"Air ball". Historical Dictionary of Basketball. Historical Dictionaries of Sports. Vol. 2. Lanham, Toronto, Plymouth, UK: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. p. 27.
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