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March 1974

The following events occurred in March 1974:

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March 1974
March 29, 1974: Mariner 10 becomes first Earth spacecraft to reach the planet Mercury (composite photo made from Mariner 10 data)
March 1974
March 3, 1974: All 346 people aboard Turkish Airlines Flight 981 are killed when DC-10 crashes into forest near Paris

March 1, 1974 (Friday)

March 1974 
March 1974 
March 1974 
March 1974 
March 1, 1974: Grand jury indicts former presidential aides Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Colson

March 2, 1974 (Saturday)

  • A U.S. Army soldier, Spec. 5 William A. Thompson Jr, stole a 50-ton M60 tank from the Turner Barracks in West Berlin and drove it through the Checkpoint Charlie border crossing and into Communist East Berlin, then caused chaos over the next 70 minutes, swiveling the turret and its 105mm cannon toward East German and Soviet troops. Thompson drove to the Drewitz checkpoint on the East Berlin side, where the Russians permitted his commanding officer, Captain Thomas Grace, and two other people to cross the border to persuade Thompson to surrender. Another soldier then drove the M60 tank back to West Germany and Thompson was led back across the border in handcuffs.
  • In England, Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. defeated Manchester City F.C., 2 to 1, to win the Football League Cup, after John Richards scored the winning goal in the 85th minute before a crowd of 97,886 spectators at Wembley Stadium in London. Wolverhampton would finish 12th in the League's First Division and Manchester City in 14th place, while eventual champion Leeds United F.C. had been knocked out on October 8 in its first game of the Football League tournament.
  • The National Socialist Liberation Front, a U.S. neo-Nazi paramilitary organization, was founded by Joseph Tommasi and 42 other former members of the white supremacist National Socialist White People's Party.
  • Died: Salvador Puig Antich, 25, Catalan anarchist who had been convicted of killing a Spanish police officer, was executed in Madrid by being strangled with the garrote in a prison in Barcelona. A fellow convict, Heinz Chez, was put to death in the same manner. Puig and Chez were the last convicts to be legally executed by the garrote method.

March 3, 1974 (Sunday)

March 1974 
CGI rendering of the crash of Turkish Airlines Flight 981
  • At 12:41 in the afternoon local time, Turkish Airlines Flight 981 crashed in the woods near the Paris suburb of Ermenonville in France, killing all 346 people aboard. The DC-10 departed from Orly Airport in Paris at 12:30 on its flight to London, and experienced an explosive decompression at an altitude of almost 23,000 feet (7,000 m), blowing off the rear cargo door and sending six passengers to their deaths in a field near Saint-Pathus. The cables controlling the aircraft's elevators and rudder were severed. The aircraft crashed into the forest 77 seconds after the explosion, at a speed of 487 miles per hour (784 km/h).
  • The first episode of the science show Nova was broadcast on television as a production of WGBH-TV in Boston.
  • Voting for President was held in Guatemala as well as for the 60-seat Congreso de la República. None of the three candidates for president— Kjell Laugerud, Efraín Ríos Montt or Ernesto Paíz Novales— received 50% of the vote, although Laugerud had 44% and was ultimately selected by 38 of the members of the Congreso, with 2 for Rios Montt and 15 abstaining.
  • Two hijackers, armed with guns and hand grenades, took control of a British Airways flight 90 minutes after the VC-10 departed from Beirut en route to London. Officials at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam allowed the airplane to land, and the hijackers unexpectedly ordered the 92 passengers and 10 crew to leave down emergency slides. After the aircraft was clear, the two men, who claimed they were from the "Palestinian Liberation Army", set fire to the jet, slid down the slide and were arrested by local police. The VC-10 was completely destroyed. The hijackers said later that before that they had boarded, other accomplices had hidden firearms and explosives on the aircraft and instructed the two men where to sit.
  • Born:
  • Died:
    • Frank Wilcox, 66, American character actor on film and TV
    • Alla Levashova, 55, Soviet fashion designer
    • Barbara Ruick, 41, American TV actress and singer, died of a ruptured cerebral aneurysm.
    • Jim Conway, 58, British trade unionist, was killed in the crash of Flight 981.
    • John Cooper, 33, British athlete and silver medalist in the 1964 Olympics in the 400m hurdles competition, was killed in the crash of Flight 981.

March 4, 1974 (Monday)

March 1974 
Six miles, six traffic lanes
  • Brazil opened what was, at almost six miles in length— 13.29 kilometres (8.26 mi) — and wide enough at 27 metres (89 ft) for six lanes of traffic, the "biggest bridge in the world." The new Rio–Niterói Bridge (officially, the President Costa e Silva Bridge) after more than five years of construction at the loss of 33 lives.
  • Israel completed the first phase of its withdrawal from the Sinai peninsula, pulling back eight miles to the Great Bitter Lake and giving Egypt control of both sides of the Suez Canal for the first time since the Six-Day War in June 1967. After Israel turned the territory over to the United Nations Emergency Force 24 hours ahead of schedule, Egyptian troops moved in at 6:00 in the morning local time.
  • The post of U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union was filled for the first time in more than a year as career diplomat Walter J. Stoessel presented his credentials to Soviet head of state Nikolai V. Podgorny in Moscow.
  • Born:
  • Died:
    • Adolph Gottlieb, 70, American abstract expressionist painter
    • Wongsonegoro (Raden Mas Soenardi), 78, Indonesian politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Indonesia 1953-1954, and previously as Minister of Justice and Governor of Central Java

March 5, 1974 (Tuesday)

March 6, 1974 (Wednesday)

  • France's Prime Minister Pierre Messmer announced his government's decision to implement the Tout-nucléaire ("Total Nuclear") plan for all electricity in France to be generated by nuclear reactors by the year 2000. The plan, announced by Messmer in a televised speech, required no approval from parliament or debate, and construction began on the first three plants later in the year. By 1990, 56 reactors had been activated by 1990.
  • The British coal strike came to an end as an agreement between the new government of Prime Minister Wilson and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was approved by the NUM's executive board, 25 to 2. The new one-year agreement with the National Coal Board included weekly wage increases for all miners, and increased measures for mine safety.
  • The government of North Vietnam returned the bodies of 12 U.S. servicemen who had died while held prisoner of war in Hanoi. The exchange took place at the Gia Lam airport in Hanoi, where two U.S. Air Force C-130 transports were allowed to land. Among the persons whose remains were returned was Lance Sijan, who had ejected from his disabled F-4 Phantom II on November 9, 1967, was severely injured, and died in the Hoa Lo Prison on January 22, 1968. U.S. Army First Lieutenant Sijan would be awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously on March 4, 1976.
  • Mary Brooks, director of the United States Mint, unveiled the design of the bicentennial quarter and two other temporary redesigns for the Kennedy half dollar and the Eisenhower dollar, to be issued during 1976, the celebration year for the 200th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. The winning design for the 1976 quarter was submitted by Jack L. Ahr while the 50 cent and one dollar coins were designed by Seth Huntington and Dennis R. Williams, respectively.
  • Michael Ondoga, Uganda, became the latest casualty of the African nation's President Idi Amin when he was kidnapped by three men while dropping off his son and daughter at the Nakasera Primary School in Kampala. Ondoga's body was found two days later, floating in the Nile River.
  • Born:
  • Died: Ernest Becker, 49, American anthropologist and writer, died of colon cancer nine weeks after the release of his Pulitzer prize winning book The Denial of Death

March 7, 1974 (Thursday)

March 8, 1974 (Friday)

  • A Pathet Lao Airlines Antonov An-24, carrying 15 Algerian journalists who were covering the southeast Asian tour by Algeria's Presdient Houari Boumedienne, along with the plane's 3-man crew, crashed during its approach to a scheduled landing in Hanoi, killing everyone aboard. A cause for the accident was not determined. The Algerian government delegation arrived safely in North Vietnam on a separate aircraft.
  • The U.S. television sitcom The Brady Bunch ended its five-season run after the broadcast of its 117th and final original episode before entering re-runs. Since the ABC network hadn't yet announced its 1974-75 schedule, the season closer was a regular episode. ABC canceled the show on April 24.
  • Died: Martha Wentworth, 84, American actress

March 9, 1974 (Saturday)

  • In South Vietnam, a mortar shell fired by the Viet Cong, killed 23 young students, ranging from 8 to 12 years old, at an elementary school playground at Cai Lay. The Viet Cong had apparently been aiming at a nearby military compound and had missed. Another nine children died of their injuries after being hospitalized.
  • The Soviet Union's Mars 7 lander was released behind schedule during the Mars 7 flyby when it initially failed to separate from the probe. Because of a retrorocket failure, the probe skipped off of the atmosphere of Mars and flew past rather than landing, and came no closer than 810 miles (1,300 km) from the surface before hurtling back into space.
  • In a quarter-final match in England's FA Cup competition, visiting Nottingham Forest led against host Newcastle United, 3 to 1, when the game had to be halted as hundreds of football hooligans invaded the pitch Newcastle. After play resumed, Newcastle United won, 4 to 3, but the result was declared void.
  • Born:
  • Died:

March 10, 1974 (Sunday)

  • Elections were held in Belgium for all 212 seats in the Chamber of Representatives. The new Belgian Socialist Party of Prime Minister Edmond Leburton won the plurality of seats, with 59, after gaining 34 since the 1971 vote, while the Christian People's Party of former Prime Minister Leo Tindemans finished with 50. The two parties tied with 27 seats each of the 106-seat Belgian Senate.
  • Voting was held in El Salvador for the 56 seats of the national assembly, as well as for mayors of the Central American nation's 261 municipalities.
  • In Israel, members of the Knesset approved a motion of confidence in the new coalition cabinet that had been formed by Prime Minister Golda Meir, with a margin of 62 to 46 in favor, and nine abstentions.
  • Britain's 280,000 coal mine workers began their return to work after ratification of a new pay package, starting with the night shift at 11:00.

March 11, 1974 (Monday)

March 1974 
Japanese Army 2nd Lt. Onoda surrendering to Philippine President Marcos
  • Imperial Japanese Army second lieutenant Hiroo Onoda formally surrendered after having continued to carry out his orders in World War II to fight in the Philippines for 29 years. Onoda was informed by his former commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, that the War had been over since 1945, and presented his battle sword to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos.
  • Iraq's government gave 15-day ultimatum to Mustafa Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq, to accept an offer of an autonomous Kurdish region or to face a renewal of the hostilities arising since the end of the First Iraqi–Kurdish War in 1970. The declaration that was issued provided that the Kurdish people would have an autonomous legislature and executive, with control over their judiciary system and their budgeting. In that the offer of autonomy fell short of what had been promised in 1970 to end the war, Barzani would let the deadline expire on March 26 and a second war would begin in April.
  • The United Kingdom formally ended the state of emergency that had been proclaimed in November in response to the energy crisis.
  • Born:

March 12, 1974 (Tuesday)

March 13, 1974 (Wednesday)

  • All 36 people on Sierra Pacific Airlines Flight 802 chartered aircraft were killed in the crash of the Convair 440 airplane. Of the passengers, 31 were employees of Wolper Productions, working on the documentary Primal Man. At 8:24 p.m., the Convair 440 crashed into a foothill in the White Mountains at 6,100 feet (1,900 m), four minutes after takeoff from Bishop, California and were on their way back to Burbank.
  • At a meeting of representatives of the Arab nations OPEC, the nine OAPEC members agreed to lift the embargo against the U.S. for two months and restore full production, which had been reduced in October after U.S. support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War.
  • Prime Minister Liam Cosgrave of the Republic of Ireland announced that the Irish Republic recognized that Northern Ireland was part of the UK and not a part of the Republic of Ireland. Cosgrave told the parliament, "The factual position of Northern Ireland is that it is within the United Kingdom and my government accepts this as a fact." The declaration was made in an effort to stop the ongoing violence in Ireland as a whole.
  • The Union of Arab Banks was founded as a cooperative network for banks in Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan and Jordan.
  • Meeting in Athens, scientists from 13 nations on the Mediterranean Sea warned that the vast body of water between Europe and Africa would "become a dead sea" by 2004 if measures were not taken to reduce water pollution.
  • Born: Vampeta (Marcos André Batista dos Santos), Brazilian footballer with 39 caps for the Brazil national team; in Nazaré das Farinhas

March 14, 1974 (Thursday)

March 15, 1974 (Friday)

  • Fifteen passengers on Sterling Airways Flight 901 burned to death and 37 others were injured when the SE-10 Caravelle jet caught fire while taxiing for departure from Tehran in Iran on a return trip to Copenhagen in Denmark. The airplane, chartered by the Tjæreborg travel agency, had stopped for refueling after a 12-day tour of Asia for 92 customers, mostly from Denmark and Sweden. After it departed from the gate, the jet sustained the collapse of the landing gear on the right side. The fuel line of the right wing was ruptured and ignited.
  • Ernesto Geisel was inaugurated to a five-year term as the 29th President of Brazil, succeeding Emílio Garrastazu Médici, who had selected Geisel for certain approval by the National Congress.
  • The 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph) speed limit that had been imposed on West Germany's autobahn traffic in October because of the energy crisis, expired on its own terms after the parliament rejected a proposal to set a limit of 140 kilometres per hour (87 mph).
  • Born: Percy Montgomery, South African rugby union player with 102 caps for the Springboks, the national team; in Walvis Bay, South West Africa (now Walvisbaai, Namibia)

March 16, 1974 (Saturday)

March 1974 
President Nixon performing at the Grand Ole Opry

March 17, 1974 (Sunday)

March 18, 1974 (Monday)

  • The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), made up of Middle Eastern members of OPEC, formally ended the oil embargo declared by its members on October 17, 1973.
  • The U.S. State Department announced that the U.S. and Britain would assist Egypt in clearing mines from the Suez Canal in order to reopen the waterway between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
  • The new World Football League (WFL) conducted a draft of NFL and Canadian League players whose contracts had expired or were set to expire at the end of the 1974 and 1975 seasons, with each of the 12 WFL teams making selections. Of the 12 first round picks, six—Larry Csonka, Tim Rossovich, Virgil Robinson, Mike Taylor, Pete Beathard, and Ted Kwalick— would play for WFL teams.
  • Born: Anne Tønnessen, Norwegian women's footballer with 68 caps for the Norway women's national team that won the 2000 Summer Olympics competition; in Sokndal.

March 19, 1974 (Tuesday)

March 20, 1974 (Wednesday)

  • In London, an attempt was made to kidnap Princess Anne, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, Ian Ball, later found by a court to be insane, drove his Ford Escort into the path of an automobile bringing Anne and her husband Mark Phillips back to Buckingham Palace after a charity event. Ball began firing a pistol and shot Anne's bodyguard Jim Beaton; chauffeur Alex Callender; and tabloid reporter Brian McConnell and police constable Michael Hills. A passing pedestrian, former boxer Ron Russell, punched Ball and led Anne to safety. The story would later be dramatized in a 2006 Granada Television film, To Kidnap a Princess.
  • A resolution in the Soviet Union for the destruction of designated "unpromising villages" (neperspektivnyye derevni), and the relocation of their residents from rural locations to urban buildings, was approved by the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union and the Party's Central Committee. Under the terms of the resolution, 143,000 settlements in the U.S.S.R. were identified as being on land that could not be farmed, and 114,000 of those were to be liquidated. The 170,000 families in the "unpromising" locations were to be relocated to comfortable settlements on collective farms with apartment buildings for residents.
  • Ugandan dictator Idi Amin ended the hijacking of an East African Airways airliner by talking to a gunman and his wife, and persuading them to surrender, while passengers watched. The Fokker Friendship plane had been carrying 33 other people in Kenya on a flight from Nairobi to Mombasa when the Ethiopian couple forced the pilot to fly to Kampala. A Dutch businessman aboard told reporters, "The president strode up to the cockpit of the plane and began talking with the Ethiopian at pistol point about an hour after we landed at Entebbe Airport. The gunman then threw his pistol from the plane onto the tarmac and he and his wife surrendered to the president," and added "Amin treated the hijackers like kings and seemed to be enjoying it."
  • Born: Carsten Ramelow, German footballer with 46 caps for the Germany national team; in West Berlin, West Germany
  • Died: Chet Huntley, 62, American journalist and anchor of NBC's Huntley–Brinkley Report from 1956 to 1970, died of lung cancer.

March 21, 1974 (Thursday)

March 22, 1974 (Friday)

  • John Patterson, an American diplomat who was the U.S. vice consul to Hermosillo in Mexico, was kidnapped by an American visitor, Bobby Joe Keesee, who demanded a ransom of $250,000 in U.S. currency and no disclosure of the kidnapping to the news media. A ransom brought by Patterson's wife was not collected, and Patterson's badly-decomposed body would be found in the desert 345 miles (555 km) north of Hermosillo, on July 8, with a broken skull.
  • The foreign ministers of all seven nations bordering the Baltic Sea— the Soviet Union, West Germany, East Germany, Poland, Sweden, Denmark and Finland— signed a treaty banning the dumping of solid waste into the body of water common to all of them, and to strictly control pollution from DDT and mercury.
  • Born:
March 1974 
Revson in 1973

March 23, 1974 (Saturday)

  • Brigadier General Charles Arube of the Ugandan Army began a rebellion at the Malire Barracks in Kampala, in an attempt to overthrow the government of dictator Idi Amin. Arube, and Lieutenant Colonel Elly Aseni, sought as well to rid the Ugandan armed forces of foreign mercenary officers. Although Arube's rebels were able to kill the 30 guards inside the presidential palace and to trap General Amin, the group hesitated at entering the command post to arrest Amin. General Arube entered the palace alone and was shot to death by General Amin.
  • Eight people were killed and six critically injured in a fire that began after a man threw a gasoline can and lighted fuse into a crowded bar in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Ernest James Burton Jr. walked to a police station and turned himself in, 23 minutes after starting the fire. Burton had attacked the Caboose Bar after being ejected earlier in the day.
  • "The Wall of Sound", the largest concert sound system up to that time, made its debut at the Grateful Dead's concert at the Cow Palace, near San Francisco. Designed by the band's sound engineer, Owsley Stanley, the Wall of Sound was composed of 604 total speakers with a combined 26,400 watts of power.
  • The North Carolina State Wolfpack scored an upset over the heavily favored UCLA Bruins college basketball team in the semifinal of the NCAA tournament, and earned a trip to the national final. Prior to the loss, UCLA had won 38 tournament games in a row and seven consecutive national championships. After trailing by 11 points in the second half, N.C. State tied the score 65 to 65 in regular time, sending the game into overtime, then tied it again 67–67 to go into a second extra period. Trailing 74–67, N.C. State scored 13 points in the next three and a half minutes to win, 80 to 77, ending the Bruins' reign as champions.
  • Born: Jaume Collet-Serra, Spanish-born American film director and producer known for Non-Stop; in Sant Iscle de Vallalta, Province of Barcelona
  • Died: Edward Molyneux, 82, British fashion designer

March 24, 1974 (Sunday)

March 1974 
Flag of Tanna
  • The island of Tanna, southernmost of the New Hebrides islands, seceded from the rest of the jointly-administered Anglo-French Condominium" and was proclaimed by secessionists as the Republic of Tanna. The movement would be suppressed three months later by British and French troops. Tanna is now part of the Tafea province of Vanuatu.
  • The last of 120,000 Bangladesh prisoners of war who had been imprisoned in Pakistan were repatriated as a flight brought 206 Bengalis from Karachi in Pakistan to Dhaka in Pakistan.
  • All 32 people aboard a passenger bus in Pakistan were killed when the bus fell 1,500 feet (460 m) into a ravine while traveling downhill through the Malakand Pass toward Peshawar.
  • Born: Alyson Hannigan, American film and TV actress known for How I Met Your Mother and Buffy the Vampire Slayer; in Washington D.C.
  • Died: Hristo Iliev-Patrata, 37, Bulgarian footballer with 24 caps for the Bulgaria national team, was killed in a car accident.

March 25, 1974 (Monday)

March 26, 1974 (Tuesday)

March 27, 1974 (Wednesday)

March 28, 1974 (Thursday)

March 29, 1974 (Friday)

  • At 20:47 UTC, the Mariner 10 space probe, launched from the U.S. on November 9, made the closest approach to the planet Mercury up to that time by an Earth spacecraft, coming within 437 miles (703 km) of the surface.
March 1974 
Part of the Terracotta Army in 2011

March 30, 1974 (Saturday)

March 31, 1974 (Sunday)

References

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