December 1974

[December 1], 1974 (Sunday)

• A Boeing 727 carrying TWA Flight 514 crashes 25 miles northwest of Dulles International Airport during bad weather, killing all 92 people on board. The same day, in Havershaw, another plane of the same class crashes, causing the death of the three crew members.
• In Yangon, U Thant funeral crisis occurs.

  [December 2], 1974 (Monday)

• In Addis Ababa, the City Hall and to the Webi Shebeli Hotel are bombed, carried out by Eritrean nationalists. The Derg use the bombings as a pretext for hardened repression against the notables of the negus’ regime.

  [December 3], 1974 (Tuesday)

• The Pioneer 11 probe enters in the shadow of Jupiter and captures famous images of the Great Red Spot.

  [December 4], 1974 (Wednesday)

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

  [December 5], 1974 (Thursday)

• In Argelato, the brigadier of carabineri Andrea Lombardini, in a routine patrol, is murdered with gunfire by five terrorists, who were preparing a robbery on a security officer. The killers, quickly arrested, are members of Lavoro Illegale, 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, four days later hang himself in jail. The month sees also, in Italy, a series of demonstrative attacks by the Red Brigades against industrial managers.
• Dead: Pietro Germi, 60, actor and director, author of many masterpieces of neo-realism and Italian comedy.

  [December 6], 1974 (Friday)

• Dead: Nikolaj Gerasimovič Kuznecov, 70, Soviet Admiral

  [December 7], 1974 (Saturday)

• In Arcore, the self-styled prince Luigi D’Angerio, leaving the Silvio Berlusconi’s villa, escapes luckily a kidnapping; probable organizer of the abduction is the Mafioso Vittorio Mangano, Berlusconi’s groom, arrested for fraud twenty days later. The episode, never fully explained, will arise, in the following decades, many suspects about the presumed links between the Milanese businessman and the organized crime.

  [December 8], 1974 (Sunday)

• In Greece, a referendum confirms the end of the monarchy and the republican form of the state, with the 69.4% of votes.
• At the Sistina Theatre in Rome, debuts “Aggiungi un posto a tavola”, a musical comedy by Garinei and Giovannini, music by Armando Trovajoli. The piece, a pleasant modern version of the Noah’s history, with Johnny Dorelli in the leading role of a witty country priest, gets an unheard-of success, staying on stage for a whole season, and becomes a classic of the Italian light theater.

  [December 9], 1974 (Monday)

• The Paris summit, reuniting the European Communities' heads of state and government, commences. It states the institution of the European Council and of the ERDF and the direct election of the European Parliament by citizens.
• In Japan, Takeo Miki becomes 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 declares 1975 International Women’s year.

  [December 11], 1974 (Wednesday)

• Born: in Chula Vista, Ray Mysterio, American Wrestler.

  [December 12], 1974 (Thursday)

• The battle of Phuoc Long begins
• The Supreme court of Cassation transfers all the running enquiries about the Piazza Fontana bombing to the Catanzaro’s seat. The decision avoids the incrimination of the 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 becomes a republic.
• The American congress, unanimously, votes the Jackson-Vanik emendament, linking the execution of the commercial treaties with Soviet Union to a more liberal politic by Moscow about the Jewish emigration.
• In London, the Worsley Hotel is destroyed by an arson

  [December 14], 1974 (Saturday)

• The enquiry of the Padua procure about the “Compass Rose”, an extreme-right secret society planning a military coup, causes the arrest of the general Ugo Ricci, charged of conspiracy against the state. Two weeks later,, the Supreme Court of Cassation transfers the enquiry to Rome, with a decision much discussed and seen as a cover-up.
• The Italian ministry of Cultural Heritage and Environment is instituted by decree; its first holder is Giovanni Spadolini
• .Dead:Walter Lippmann, 85, American journalist.

  [December 15], 1974 (Sunday)

• In Nicaragua, constitution of the UDEL, representing the moderate and non-violent wing of the opposition to the Somoza's regime.
• Dead: Anatole Litvak, 72, American director by Ukrainian origin.

  [December 16], 1974 (Monday)

• The army of Mali invades the French Upper Volta territory. The border conflict between the two countries will last till 1985.

  [December 17], 1974 (Tuesday)

• The World Intellectual Property Organization becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations.
• The United Nations Security Council Resolution 366 terminates the South Africa's mandate over Namibia.
• Born: in Los Angeles, Giovanni Ribisi and his twin sister Marissa, American actors.

  [December 18], 1974 (Wednesday)

• Bomb attack by Provisional Ira in Bristol

  [December 19], 1974 (Thursday)

• Oxford Street bombing
• Born: Ricky Ponting, former Australian international cricketer in Launceston, Tasmania.

  [December 20], 1974 (Friday)

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

  [December 21], 1974 (Saturday)

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

  [December 22], 1974 (Sunday)

• Referendum about the independence from France in the islands of Comore and Mayotte ).
• In Maturin, Venezuela, crash of the Avensa Flight 358
• Dead: Fosco Giachetti, 72, Italian actor, star of the fascist cinema.

  [December 23], 1974 (Monday)

• Gerald Ford, in a conversation-interview with James Alsop, declares to held for very probable, in the 1975, a new war in Middle East and a world crisis, following the economic breakdown of a “European country, allied to the United States”

  [December 24], 1974 (Tuesday)

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

  [December 25], 1974 (Wednesday)

• In Vatican, Pope Paul VI inaugurates the 1975 Jubilee. In the course of the rite of the Holy Door's opening, some falling rubble verge on the pontiff.
• Dead: Giacomo Devoto, 77, Italian linguist, author of a celebrate dictionary of Italian language.

  [December 26], 1974 (Thursday)

• Launch of the Soviet Space station Saljut 4
• Dead: Jack Benny, 80, American actor.

  [December 27], 1974 (Friday)

• In Managua, a FSLN commando, headed by Eden Pastora, bursts into the house of Josè Maria Castillo, president of the Banco Central and takes hostage his guests. Three days later, thanks to the Managua archbishop's intermediation, the hostages are released, in exchange of a million dollars and the freedom for some political prisoners. Castillo is the only victim of the action.
• In Llevin, a firedamp explosion kills 42 miners.
• The Constitutional Court abolishes the articles of the penal code forbidding the strike for political reasons. The law, enacted by the Fascist regime, was by then almost no more applied, though formally in force.

  [December 28], 1974 (Saturday)

• Dead: Giuseppe Dozza, 73, Italian Communist politician, popular mayor of Bologna.

  [December 29], 1974 (Sunday)

• Hunza earthquake in Pakistan.
• Dead: Alessandro Cervellati, 82, Italian writer and painter, historian of circus and music-hall.

  [December 30], 1974 (Monday)

• Agrarian reform in Honduras.
• Olean High School shooting

  [December 31], 1974 (Tuesday)

• Restrictions on holding private gold within the United States, implemented by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, are removed