Peace on Earth? Not this Christmas
November 2, 1974
The Atlanta Braves trade Hank Aaron to Milwaukee Brewers for OF Dave May.
78 die when the Time Go-Go Club in Seoul, South Korea burns down. Six of the victims jumped to their deaths from the seventh floor after a club official barred the doors after the fire started.
November 5, 1974
Ella Grasso elected Governor of Connecticut. She becomes the first female Governor in the United States who is elected who is not a close relative of a previous Governor of her state.
Walter E. Washington, becomes the first elected mayor of Washington DC.
November 6, 1974
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Mike Marshall becomes the first relief pitcher to win Cy Young Award.
November 12, 1974
South Africa is suspended from UN General Assembly over racial policies.
November 13, 1974
PLO leader Yasser Arafat gives a landmark address to the United Nations General Assembly, during which he warns of “ominous new forces which are seeking to consume the Middle East in a storm of ancient hatreds and fanaticism.”
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Steve Garvey wins NL MVP
November 16, 1974
The Arecibo radio telescope sends an interstellar radio message towards the M13 Great Globular Cluster. The message will reach its destination around the year 27,000.
November 20, 1974
British Police and Military authorities announce that they have broken up a plot by the PIRA to detonate two bombs in pubs in Birmingham, England. Over forty suspected PIRA collaborators are rounded-up and interned in connection with this plot,
Margaret Thatcher: “This is why we must be ever vigilant against these criminals. We can never let-up, not for one minute until they are utterly destroyed.”
In a major speech before the Supreme Soviet, Soviet Communist Party Deputy General Secretary Mikhail Suslov announces, “that our commitment to détente cannot overshadow the world march toward Socialist victory. One need only look at the situation in France to understand how the reactionaries will attempt to stall the liberation of the world’s masses. Let no one be in doubt of our dedication to the Socialist liberation of all human kind.” Suslov is given a standing ovation. Leonid Brezhnev, the nominal head of State and Party General Secretary is not seen at the important Party and State meeting.
The United States Justice Department files an anti-trust suit aimed at breaking-up A.T.&T.’s national telephone service monopoly.
November 21, 1974
The lame-duck 93rd Congress passes the Freedom of Information Act. President Gavin signs it into law on November 23.
November 22, 1974
The United Nations General Assembly grants the Palestine Liberation Organization observer status.
In the California gubernatorial election campaign a three judge panel of the California Court of Appeals which supervised a state-wide recount of the November 5th balloting rules by a 2-1 vote that an additional 17 votes for Goldwater from Orange County be counted, and that sixty-five questionable votes for Brown identified in Los Angeles and San Francisco Counties be discarded. This ruling awards the election to Representative Barry Goldwater on the strength of an eighty-vote margin.
Jerry Brown’s campaign immediately appeals this finding to the California Supreme Court, which extends a stay on the three-judge panel’s findings until it can review the facts.
November 24, 1974
A skeleton from the hominid species Australopithecus Afarensis is discovered and named Lucy.
November 25, 1974
The PIRA carried out three bomb attacks in the centre of London. In each case a small bomb with a timer was placed inside a post office pillar-box. The first bomb exploded at 5.50pm in King's Cross and injured two people. The second bomb exploded at 6.00pm in a pillar-box in Piccadilly Circus injuring 16 people. The final bomb exploded at 6.50pm outside Victoria Station and two people were injured.
In a statement the PIRA paraphrases Margaret Thatcher saying, “We will never let-up, not until our homeland is free. The question is, will you let Bloody Maggie Thatcher and her stubbornness destroy your land?”
November 26, 1974
Japan's Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka announces he will resign in the face of financial scandals. Charged with having received a bribe from Lockheed Aircraft, he is publicly disgraced, his Liberal-Democratic Party has barely survived the July 7 elections, it is feared that the party will break up if either of the two leading candidates is chosen to succeed the 56-year-old Tanaka, and the Diet names 67-year-old Takeo Miki prime minister December 9.
November 27, 1974
The PIRA carried out two bomb attacks near an Army museum in Tite Street, Chelsea, London. Initially a small bomb exploded in a post office pillar-box at 8.30pm. Approximately 20 minutes later a second, larger bomb, exploded behind a hedge just a short distance away from the first explosion. Twenty people were injured in the second explosion including an explosives officer, six policemen and two ambulance men. [The tactic of the 'come-on' bomb was one which the PIRA used on many occasions in Northern Ireland.]
November 29-30, 1974
British authorities thwart a PIRA bomb plot in the Belgravia section of London. Six people are killed by police during arrests, some of whom may be innocent bystanders.
December 1, 1974
A Boeing 727 carrying TWA Flight 514 crashes 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Dulles International Airport during bad weather, killing all 92 people on board.
MLB rules that cowhide, rather than just horsehide, can be used to make baseballs.
December 4, 1974
A Dutch DC-8 charter crashes in Sri Lanka killing 191 Muslim pilgrims. Rumors circulate in Islamic countries that non-Muslim forces deliberately shot down the aircraft.
December 5, 1974
“Monty Python's Flying Circus" last shown on BBC.
Despite a co-habitation accord between them, relations between Socialist President Francois Mitterand and Gaullist Prime Minister Olivier Guichard remain tense. News reports indicate that Guichard is facing calls to resign from within his own UDR Party.
December 6 – 8, 1974
Soyuz 16 orbits the Earth.
The California Supreme Court rules that the questionable sixty-five votes cast for Brown in Los Angeles and San Francisco Counties during the California gubernatorial election were improperly disqualified by the three judge panel, but makes no ruling as to the seventeen extra votes for Goldwater from Orange County. On the strength of this finding the California Supreme Court awards the gubernatorial election to Jerry Brown.
The Goldwater campaign immediately gets a stay from the U.S. Federal District Court in Sacramento, and challenges the California Supreme Court ruling under the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution. Specifically, Goldwater’s attorneys argue that the Court has left in place a count of illegal votes.
December 9, 1974
The Paris summit, reuniting the European communities' heads of state and government, commences. A deep ideological split between President Mitterand and Prime Minister Heath characterizes it. A plan to create a European parliament is put on hold because of disagreements between Britain, France and West Germany.
December 10, 1974
The Feakle incident. Senior representatives of the PIRA held secret talks with a group of eight Protestant clergymen from Northern Ireland at Smyth's Village Hotel in Feakle, County Clare, Republic of Ireland. Ruairi O’Bradaigh, Daithi O’Conaill, Maire Drumm and three others represented the PIRA. Among the group of clergymen were: Dr Arthur Butler, Dr Jack Weir, Revd Ralph Baxter and Revd William Arlow. In the ensuing hour of their meeting they were interrupted by armed men and all eleven people were killed. The British authorities claimed it was the work of the PIRA, while the PIRA blamed British authorities. Irish authorities, in whose territory the killings took place, publicly blame Ulster loyalist paramilitaries, but private correspondence within the Irish government indicates that Irish police suspect that the British SAS were behind it; calling the incident “an assassination.”
A secret CIA report on the incident states "British government collusion with the assassins in this incident, whether by direct design or unintended coincidence, cannot be ruled out. We find the theory of PIRA complicity in this incident to be less than wholly convincing."
December 11, 1974
A debate on the reintroduction of capital punishment for acts of terrorism was held in the House of Commons, London. The specific motion came in the form of an amendment which was proposed by a Conservative MP. Margaret Thatcher speaks in favour of the amendment while Barbara Castle calls it “the utmost horror”. Following a five-hour debate the amendment was passed by a free vote of 320 to 318.
While the debate was taking place the PIRA carried out a bomb attack on the Long Bar of the Naval and Military Club in Piccadilly, London. At 6.30pm PIRA members threw a small bomb through the window of the bar; no one was injured. As two PIRA members were leaving the scene they were followed by a taxicab and they fired two shots at the driver; the driver was not injured. Almost at the same time a second group of PIRA members carried out a gun attack on the Cavalry Club; again there were no injuries.
December 13, 1974
Malta is declared a Republic.
December 14, 1974
The PIRA carried out a gun attack on a joint British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) foot patrol near Forkhill, County Armagh. An RUC officer died at the scene and a soldier died on 30 December 1974 from injuries received.
Three PIRA gunmen are shot dead while attempting a gun attack on the Churchill Hotel in Portman Square, London. Three bystanders were slightly injured by flying glass, while a fourth was wounded. There is a dispute as whether he was shot by the PIRA or the police.
December 17, 1974
The World Intellectual Property Organization becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations.
December 19, 1974
The Altair 8800, the first personal computer, goes on sale. The poor economy guarantees that sales are limited.
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) carried out a bomb attack on Selfridge's department store in Oxford Street, London. A time bomb had been placed in a car which was then parked outside the store. Three telephone warnings were given and the area was evacuated. [The explosion was later estimated to have caused £1.5 million pounds worth of damage.]
December 20, 1974
Ethiopia becomes a one-party Socialist Republic.
A bomb left by the IRA on a platform of the railway station in Aldershot, England, detonates as explosives officers try to defuse it.
December 21, 1974
A PIRA bomb explodes at Harrod’s, killing twelve and wounding upwards of twenty-eight shoppers. Controversy erupts as to whether or not there was a phone warning in advance, and whether the store ignored it.
Another unexploded bomb was discovered and defused at the King's Arms public house in Warminster, Wiltshire.
The U.S. Federal District Court in Sacramento upholds the California Supreme Court decision, although it does trim Brown’s fifty-vote margin by twenty “questionable” votes that the judge rules are invalid.
The Goldwater campaign immediately secures another stay on the court ruling while it appeals the judgment to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
December 22, 1974
The New York Times runs a front-page story December 22 under the banner headline, "Huge CIA Operation Reported in U.S. Against Anti-War Forces, Other Dissidents in Nixon Years" Written by Seymour M. Hersh, the article about the Central Intelligence Agency's Operation Chaos concludes that the laws are "fuzzy" with regard to the agency's powers with regard to domestic surveillance of Americans.
Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli vote to become the independent nation of Comoros. Mayotte remains under French administration.
The PIRA carried out a bomb attack on the personal home of British Prime Minister Edward Heath, in Wilton Street, Belgravia, London. A small bomb with a short fuse was thrown onto the first-floor balcony of Heath's flat. The bomb caused extensive damage but Heath was not present and there were no injuries.
December 23, 1974
British Opposition leader Denis Healey tours Northern Ireland in an effort to start reconciliation talks: Feces are thrown at him by Unionist protestors.
December 24–25, 1974
Darwin, Australia is almost completely destroyed by Cyclone Tracy.
On December 25, 1974, Marshall Fields crashed his Chevrolet Impala into the Northwest Gate of the White House complex. Dressed in Arab clothing, Fields claimed that he was the Messiah and that he was laden with explosives. He drove up to the North Portico and positioned himself only several feet from the front door. During the subsequent stand-off he was shot and killed by the Secret Service. The explosives he claimed to be in possession of were discovered to be flares. President Gavin and his family were not home at the time.
December 26, 1974
The Soviet Union launches Salyut 4.
December 29, 1974
PIRA prisoners at Portlaoise Prison in the Republic of Ireland held a number of prison officers hostage and caused considerable damage in protests for better conditions. Troops were used to regain control and the prison officers were freed unharmed.
British film actor Roger Moore is kidnapped from his home in Denham, near Pinewood Studios. Moore’s latest James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun had just been released ten days earlier. The PIRA later claimed responsibility and demanded the release of forty internees in release for the safe return of “James Bond.” As one PIRA statement put it: “Not even James Bond is safe from us. Give us our land and go home, and will send Commander Bond right along safe and sound to save the world another day.”
December 30, 1974
After four years of legal wrangling the Beatles are legally dissolved.
The Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rules that the California election recount was conducted with all propriety, and chastises the California Supreme Court in overruling the judgment of the three judge panel (court of first instance).
“This Court recognizes that there were some irregularities in the casting of ballots in this election, which the court of first instance was asked to address, and which it did. In our review of the facts we find that we cannot in good faith arbitrarily cast aside the informed deliberations of that court, whose learned members operated under the electoral laws of the State of California in formulating its final holding on the matter.
"The predominant standard for any case of electoral dispute must be to make, as best possible, is as close an interpretation of the wishes of the electorate as is possible, for an election is in the end a statement of the electorate's will. The Courts should not interpose themselves between the people and their expressed wishes as demonstrated at the ballot box. In a democracy, the people and not the courts have the final say over who shall govern them.
"In this case, the closeness of the race gave rise to a valid disputation of the result, which was then addressed by finders of fact who operated in accordance to the electoral laws as legislated by the California State Legislature, and signed into law by the State Executive. The Court of first instance supervised a state-wide recount and ruled in each case where some dispute occurred in accordance with the electoral laws of the State of California. There was no departure from that procedure or the legal standard underling it by the three qualified jurists from the bench of the State Court of Appeals who composed this panel and reviewed the issues at hand to render a determination based upon their findings of the law and the facts. Further in our review have uncovered no fact or failure of law which on its face would represent a reversible error on their part.
"The California Supreme Court has now interposed its jurisdiction to nullify their findings and reach a differing conclusion, arguing that the reasoning of the court of first instance was flawed in determining which ballots were and were not qualified to be counted. Yet, on examining the facts in the case as reviewed by the court of first instance, we can find no fundamental flaw in their conclusion, or in the method by which it was reached. The consideration of the "flawed" votes was addressed in an adequate and proper manner in the deliberations of this panel, which has provided ample support for their reasoning. Rather we find in the action of the California Supreme Court reflects an unstated lack of confidence in the impartiality and capacity of the state judges to make the critical decisions necessary in a vote recount, especially in a case where the outcome hangs on a few votes. This, and no new finding of fact or law, seems to underpin the California Supreme Court's holding. Instead of addressing a valid point of law, the Court appears to be imposing a preference of its own choosing on these proceedings according to an arbitrary standard it has set for itself, which has no basis in the prevailing law. Why else count the disputed votes from San Francisco and Los Angeles Counties, yet not the ones from Orange County, which the court of first instance found no valid grounds to dispute? Is this not a case of selective re-assessment of the facts to suit a predetermined conclusion? The endorsement of that position by the majority of this Court, in these circumstances, can only lend credence to the most cynical appraisal of the work of judges throughout the land. It is confidence in the men and women who administer the judicial system that is the true backbone of the rule of law, and which has been undermined by this finding. We see no valid reason to second-guess the work of the original panel in this case.
"Finally we must look at the merits of the petitioner's case. The Petitioner (Goldwater) argues that the California Supreme Court unfairly violated his right to equal protection under the Constitution by imposing its conclusion on the recount conducted by the court of first instance. The respondent (Brown) argues that the court of first instance erred in its conclusions, and that the California Supreme Court rectified this wrong by setting aside their finding and imposing one of its own.
"This court finds that there is a third issue at stake here, one which neither petitioner nor respondent have adequately addressed, but one which the respondent in particular should have some familiarity with. Unless the situation is dire, the courts should not become involved in electoral disputes to the extent that their actions would decide the outcome of an election, as would be the case here. Were this court to find otherwise we would forever taint the efficacy of the electoral process and provide a precedent whereby litigation might become the normal tool for reversing an electoral result which one side didn't like.
"If this court were to second guess the work of the court of first instance we would find ourselves making the decision as to who should serve as the next Governor of California. Absent some fundamental flaw in legal reasoning, or a direct finding of fact which would in itself adversely change the outcome at the ballot box, Courts should never assume this role. We see nothing in the work of the court of first instance which this court finds intolerable or beyond the legal powers of that panel, and our review of their work concludes that there is nothing in it which even approaches the standard outlined above. That court endeavored to interpret as best possible the intent of the voter, and provided adequate reasoning in its application of that standard.
"Accordingly we set aside the finding of the California Supreme Court and find for the petitioner, re-instating the original finding of the court of first instance and the results it arrived at through a carefully conducted re-count of the ballots cast."
This ruling re-affirms Barry Goldwater Jr. as the Governor-elect of the state of California.
Jerry Brown announces that he will appeal this decision to the United States Supreme Court.
Brown: “I’m deeply disappointed by this ruling; clearly the Court has stepped away from the right move, which is to reject the recount, and in so doing has rewarded dishonest politics. I will not give-up the fight; I will persevere to the end and I am confident that the people of California are with me. My fight is for their right to the clean, honest government of their choice."
Goldwater: “Today the Ninth Circuit, with whose past rulings I have had many disagreements, has proved that its judges do understand the Constitution and the rights of the people. Now, I won't let-up on the liberal judges who work in this building, not one bit, but I will thank the court for understanding its proper Constitutional role."
December 31, 1974
US casualties in Syria reach 77 dead.
The British band Fleetwood Mack dissolves.
NY Yankees sign Jim "Catfish" Hunter to 5 yrs for record $3.75 million. In a time of recession (depression) this amount being paid to a baseball player causes controversy over the overpayment of athletes in professional sports.