June 1974

[June 1], 1974 (Saturday)

• The U.S. medical magazine Emergency Medicine published "Pop Goes the Cafe Coronary", an informal article by thoracic surgeon Henry Heimlich, describing the effective use of abdominal thrusts to dislodge an object blocking an airway to save a person choking on food. On June 11, Arthur Snider, science columnist for the Chicago Daily News wrote about Dr. Heimlich's findings, opening with the sentence, "A leading surgeon invites the public to try a method he has developed for forcing out food stuck in the windpipe of persons choking to death," in a story reprinted nationwide, and on June 19, 1974, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that retired restaurant owner Isaac Piha, who had read the Snider article in the Seattle paper, used the procedure to rescue a choking victim, Irene Bogachus, in Bellevue, Washington, a story reprinted in other newspapers.
• A chemical plant explosion in England killed 28 people and seriously injured 36 others. The blast from the ignition of liquid cyclohexane occurred at 4:53 in the afternoon at the Nypro chemical fertilizer factory, near the village of Flixborough, North Lincolnshire, after chemical engineers discovered a leak in one of the plant's six reactors and bypassed it rather than shutting down operations.
• The government of Peru outlawed the Acción Popular political party that had been founded by former president Fernando Belaunde Terry and ordered the deportation of the party's leader, Javier Alva Orlandini.
• The live album June 1, 1974 was recorded at the Rainbow Theatre, London. The main performers were Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Brian Eno and Nico.
• One of the most popular Indian films of the year, the Tamil language drama Thangappathakkam, was released in theaters.
• Born: Alanis Morissette, Canadian alternative rock singer, and 1996 Grammy Award Album of the Year winner for Jagged Little Pill; in Ottawa.

  [June 2], 1974 (Sunday)

• The coronation of Jigme Singye Wangchuck as King of Bhutan took place in an elaborate Buddhist ceremony at Thimphu, the capital of the Himalayan kingdom. Jigme Singye had succeeded to the throne on July 24, 1972, upon the death of his father, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck. Royal astrologers had determined that the coronation itself should take place at exactly 9:10 in the morning local time.
• At least 34 of the 277 people on the Philippine inter-island ship Aloha were killed when the vessel caught fire and sank in the Sulu Sea.
• Algeria became the first of the Arab OPEC nations to split with the rest of the Arab world, and ended its partial embargo on the export of oil to the Netherlands, almost eight months after curtailing oil production in October.
• Luna 22, an exploratory probe launched form the Soviet Union on May 29, entered orbit around the Moon and would return photographs and data until September 2, 1975.
• The African National Council rejected proposals agreed upon by Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Ian Smith for a settlement in Rhodesia.
• Voters in the West African nation of Mali overwhelmingly approved a new constitution to allow direct election of the president and a unicameral national assembly.
• Born: Gata Kamsky, Soviet-born American chess grandmaster and five-time U.S. chess champion; in Novokuznetsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union

  [June 3], 1974 (Monday)

• Yitzhak Rabin became the fifth Prime Minister of Israel after the Knesset, by a margin of 61 to 51, voted confidence in the ministers selected for his coalition government. Born in Jerusalem on March 1, 1922, Rabin was the first premier to have been born in what would become Israel, the other three having been born in Eastern Europe before immigrating to Palestine.
• After a 40-day minesweeping operation, the U.S. Navy command office at Ismailia declared that the Suez Canal had been cleared of all active mines.
• Peruvian Army Brigadier General Gonzalo Briceño Zevallos arrived at the Golan Heights as the first commander of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, to oversee the long UNDOF zone around the Purple Line separating Israeli and Syrian forces.
• The American military presence in the southeast Asian kingdom of Laos ended after 15 years, as the last three U.S. military personnel arrived in Thailand on the final Air America flight.
• The Himalayan high mountain Shivling was climbed for the first time, scaled by a team of mountaineers of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, led by Hukam Singh.
• Third-seeded Björn Borg won the men's singles and first-seeded Chris Evert won the women's singles of the Italian Open tennis tournament.
• Born:
• *Ahmed Khan, Indian film choreographer; in Pune, Maharastra state
• *Gianluca Gauzzi Broccoletti, Italian law enforcement officer and Director of Security Services and Civil Protection of the Vatican City state since 2019; in Gubbio, Perugia.
• Died:
• *Octavio Muciño, 24, Mexican footballer and centre-forward for the Mexican national team, died three days after being fatally shot by Jaime Muldoon Barreto, who fled the scene and would never stand trial for the crime.
• *Michael Gaughan, 24, Provisional Irish Republican Army member and bank robber who had been on a hunger strike since March at Parkhurst prison.

  [June 4], 1974 (Tuesday)

• The infamous "Ten Cent Beer Night" promotion at the Cleveland Stadium, for a game between the Cleveland Indians and the visiting Texas Rangers degenerated into a riot by drunken fans. With the price of 12-ounce cups of low-alcohol Stroh's beer reduced from 65 cents to 10 cents, servings of as many as six cups at time, and no limit to the number of purchases that could be made, the game attracted 25,134 paying customers, twice as many as expected. In the ninth inning, with the score tied, 5 to 5, an inebriated teenager ran onto the field and attempted to steal the cap off of one of the Rangers outfielders, Jeff Burroughs, who stumbled. The rest of the Rangers team, thinking Burroughs had been attacked, rushed to the outfield, and an estimated 200 fans came out of the stands to confront the visiting team. The Indians team grabbed bats to defend the besieged Rangers, and the umpiring crew ordered the game to be forfeited to Texas, which was credited with a 9 to 0 win under MLB rules at the time. Cleveland police arrested nine fans.
• Construction began of the first Space Shuttle, OV-101, later given the name Enterprise, with Rockwell International building the test vehicle to specifications and finishing construction by September 17, 1976.
• The Changabang mountain was climbed for the first time. The peak, located in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, was scaled by a team led by Indian Army Lieutenant Colonel Balwant Sandhu and by British mountaineer Chris Bonington.
• Keo Sangkim, the Minister of Education for the Khmer Republic, and former Education Minister Thach Chea, were killed in a school building at Phnom Penh after being taken hostage by students.
• Born: Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni, Indian celebrity chef; in Uthamapalayam, Tamil Nadu state
• Died:
• *Mamerto Urriolagoitía, 78, President of Bolivia from 1949 to 1951
• *Pon Sivakumaran, 23, Sri Lankan rebel and the first Tamil independence martyr, attempted to rob a branch of the People's Bank in Kopay, then swallowed a cyanide capsule after being caught by police.

  [June 5], 1974 (Wednesday)

• Mario Soares, at the time Portugal's Foreign Minister, met with Mozambican guerrilla leader Samora Machel, president of FRELIMO as the two were hosted by Zambia's President Kenneth Kaunda at Lusaka. At the time, Mozambique was under colonial rule as Portuguese East Africa, and the war between Portugal and the FRELIMO guerrillas had continued for more than a decade.
• Bolivian Army Generals Gary Prado Salmón and Raúl López Leyton attempted a coup d'etat against the military dictatorship of President Hugo Banzer Suárez, but failed. General Prado led a column of tanks into La Paz and surrounded the presidential palace after smashing its wrought-iron gates, but General Banzer's foot soldiers encircled the rebels and forced a surrender. Banzer was at a celebration in Bolivia's second capital, Sucre when the palace was attacked. General Lopez failed to take over the La Paz International Airport. In 1978, Prado would later be appointed by the new President, General David Padilla, as Minister of Planning and Coordination.
• Born:
• *Sonia I. Seneviratne, Swiss climate scientist; in Lausanne
• *Chad Allen, American TV actor and teen idol, later a psychologist; in Cerritos, California
• *Bhaskarabhatla Ravi Kumar, Indian songwriter for Telugu cinema with lyrics for almost 400 songs in 125 films; in Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh state
• *Martine Moïse, First Lady of Haiti as wife of President Jovenel Moïse from 2017 until his assassination in 2021; in Port-au-Prince

  [June 6], 1974 (Thursday)

• Italy confirmed its diplomatic recognition to the Knights of Malta as a "foreign state", despite the Order's lack of territory beyond the Palazzo Malta and the Villa del Priorato di Malta, both surrounded by the city of Rome, and the Order's embassies to Italy and to the Holy See. The Corte suprema di cassazione, the nation's supreme court, ruled that "the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Malta constitutes a sovereign international subject, in all terms equal, even if without territory, to a foreign state with which Italy has normal diplomatic relations," based upon treaties made between the Order and the Kingdom of Italy in 1884, 1915, and 1938, and with the Italian Republic in 1956.
• As part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Syria, the last 382 Syrian prisoners of war were returned from Israel to Damascus on a jumbo jet chartered by the International Red Cross while the remaining 56 Israeli POWs arrived at Tel Aviv after being released by Syria.
• Eight people were killed in the collapse of a Gibson's Discount Store in Forrest City, Arkansas, and 75 others injured when a tornado leveled the building.
• France's new Prime Minister, Jacques Chirac, won his first test of strength when the French Assembly voted confidence in his government of ministers by a margin of 297 to 181.
• Born:
• *Guillaume Musso, French novelist known for the thriller Et Apres, adapted to the film of the same name; in Antibes, Alpes-Maritimes département
• *Uncle Kracker, American rock and country singer; in Mount Clemens, Michigan