1974 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: Richard Nixon , Gerald Ford
• Vice President:
• * until August 9: Gerald Ford
• * August 9–December 19: vacant
• * starting December 19: Nelson Rockefeller
• Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Carl Albert
• Senate Majority Leader: Mike Mansfield
• Congress: 93rd

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

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.
• January 6 - In response to the energy crisis, Daylight Saving Time commences nearly 4 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 19 - In college basketball, Notre Dame defeats UCLA 71–70, ending the Bruins' record 88-game winning streak.
• January 30
• *G. Gordon Liddy is found guilty of Watergate charges.
• *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.
• 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 stormed 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 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 die and over 5,000 are 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, their erstwhile captive.; Lynyrd Skynyrd releases their much critically acclaimed 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: 5 people are brutally tortured by a group of men during a robbery at home audio store in Ogden, Utah, resulting in 3 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 6 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 3 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 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 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.
• 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.

  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.
• *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 2 - US 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.
• 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.
• *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.
• 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 - Former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice President of the United States.
• December 21 - The New York Times reveals illegal domestic spying by the CIA.
• 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 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
• Space Race
• Détente
• Watergate scandal
• Capital punishment suspended by Furman v. Georgia
• 1973 oil crisis
• 1970s energy crisis
• DOCUMERICA photography project

  Births">:Category:1974 births">Births

• January 1 - Jonah Peretti, entrepreneur and publisher
• January 6 - Paul Grant, basketball player and coach
• February 8 - Seth Green, actor, comedian, voice actor, television producer and screenwriter
• February 11 - Alex Jones, radio show host and conspiracy theorist
• 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 27 - Carte Goodwin, U.S. Senator from West Virginia in 2010
• March 1 - Stephen Davis, American football player and coach
• March 14 - Grace Park, actress
• 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
• 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, singer-songwriter and guitarist
• June 21 - Maggie Siff, actress
• August 7 - Michael Shannon, actor
• September 22 - Jerome Adams, Surgeon General
• November 2 - Prodigy, born Albert Johnson, rapper
• November 11 - Leonardo DiCaprio, actor
• November 14 - Adam Walsh, murder victim and son of John Walsh
• November 18 - Chloë Sevigny, actress, director, model and fashion designer
• December 17 - Sarah Paulson, actress

  Deaths

• February 22 - Samuel Byck, attempted to hijack an airplane to assassinate President Richard Nixon
• May 24 - Duke Ellington, jazz pianist and bandleader
• June 26 - Ernest Gruening, U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1959 to 1969
• July 9 - Earl Warren, 14th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
• July 29 - Cass Elliot, vocalist
• August 26 - Charles Lindbergh, aviator
• September 21
• * Walter Brennan, film actor; 3-time Best Supporting Academy Award-winning actor
• * Jacqueline Susann, novelist and actress
• October 13 - Ed Sullivan, entertainment writer and television host
• December 18 - Harry Hooper, baseball player
• December 21 - Richard Long, television actor
• December 26
• * Jack Benny, comic performer
• * Frank Hussey, Olympic sprinter
• December 27 - Bob Custer, film actor
• December 29 - Robert Ellis, film actor