1974 History, Trivia and Fun Facts

• Politics: President Richard M. Nixon resigned after the Watergate Scandal.
• The Top Song was The Way We Were by Barbra Streisand
• The Big Movies included Blazing Saddles, The Towering Inferno and The Trial of Billy Jack
• Price of a postage stamp in 1974: 10 cents
  AMC Gremlin automobile: $2,408.00
• The World Population was ~ 3,928,000,000
• Connect Four was introduced in 1974.
• G.I. Joe with the Kung-Fu grip was released.
• It wasn’t until Andy 'Fearless'Brown retired in 1974 that every goalie in the NHL wore the recommended facemask.
• And... John Dyson's novel The Prime Minister's Boat is Missing was realeased on August 28. On September 5, ex-Prime Minister Edward Heath's yacht, Morning Cloud III, was lost.

Christine Chubbuck , a newscaster, committed suicide during a live broadcast. Her last words were "In keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in 'blood and guts', and in living color, you are going to see another first - attempted suicide."

The Cleveland Indians hosted Ten Cent Beer Night which resulted in a forfeit against the Texas Rangers due to rowdy, drunk, fans.

There was a Sesame Street Muppet named Don Music, a composer who would bang his head against his piano trying to complete the lyrics to children's songs. He was pulled from the show after children started imitating him by banging their heads against things.

Clinical psychologist Dennis Upper published a 'zero content' paper because he failed to find a method to solve a writer's block problem.

The last allowed visit to the Fort Knox gold vault, by members of the US Congress and some journalists, who saw a presentation and were allowed to take a handful of photographs, was on September 23, 1974.

After Philippe Petit's famous high-wire performance between the Twin Towers - "the artistic crime of the century" - he was charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct. These charges were dropped on the condition that Philippe put on a free high-wire performance for children in Central Park.

A US soldier, Robert K. Preston, stole a helicopter from Fort Meade in Maryland and flew to the White House in Washington D.C. As he hovered above the south grounds, the Secret Service shot and injured him, forcing him to land. He received a one-year prison sentence and $2,400 in fines

Jane Goodall observed a social rift in a community of chimpanzees turn into a violent 4 year civil war for territory involving kidnapping, rape & murder, changing her perception of chimpanzees, it is known as the "Gombe Chimpanzee War".

The main villains of Psycho (1960), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991) were all loosely based on the same person: Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein. Rock Star Death: Mama Cass (obesity related heart attack)

Patty Hearst, heiress to the Hearst Newspaper group, was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, later joining the group in a bank heist.

Until 1974, banks could refuse to issue a credit card to a woman unless she was married and her husband co-signed for the card. A divorced woman was considered too much of a risk because she "couldn't keep a marriage under control."

While David Niven was at the Oscars podium, live on national television, a streaker (Robert Opal) ran by. David quippped "Isn't it fascinating to think that the only laugh that man will ever get is for stripping and showing his shortcomings?"

On April 1, 1974, the local residents of Sitka, Alaska woke to their nearby dormant volcano, Mount Edgecumbe, billowing out black smoke. When a Coast Guard pilot came closer to investigate, he found 70 tires burning and the words "APRIL FOOL" spray painted into the snow. Oliver Bikar had lit nearlu 100 tires on fire. #aprilfools

Mikhail Baryshnikhov defected the the USA, leaving the Soviet Unon's Bolshoi Ballet behind him.

During an interview in 1974, Pete Maravich said, "I don't want to play 10 years (in the NBA) and then die of a heart attack when I'm 40." He died of a heart attack in 1988, at age 40, after his 10 year career in the NBA.

Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier, was stranded on a island for 30 years after World War II ended. His commander came to the island to personally dismiss him in 1974.

Connect Four, G.I. Joe with KUNG FU GRIP, Magna Doodle

21 year-old Michael Kittredge opened his Yankee Candle factory.

Liposuction invented by Giorgio Fischer in Rome, Italy.

After several decades of deciding how to do it, in June, the first U.P.C. scanner was installed at a Marsh's supermarket in Troy, Ohio. The first product to have a bar code included was a packet of Wrigley's Gum.

People began publication