March 1974

[March 1], 1974 (Friday)

• Seven former high-ranking aides to U.S. President Richard M. Nixon were indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington. The grand jury declined to name any persons believed to be connected, but not indicted, issuing the list as a secret report for a federal judge's consideration, but in June, President Nixon himself would be identified as one of the persons who had been named by the grand jury on March 1 as an unindicted co-conspirator. The former White House staffers charged with conspiracy to violate election laws were U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell; White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman; domestic affairs advisor John Ehrlichman; White House counsel Charles Colson; and aides Gordon C. Strachan, Robert Mardian and Kenneth Parkinson. Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Colson would serve prison sentences ranging from seven to 19 months.
• Endalkachew Makonnen took office as the new Prime Minister of Ethiopia, two days after he and 18 other cabinet members had resigned and gone into hiding. Endalkachew called a press conference and promised reforms, stating also that he had the support of the Ethiopian Army.
• Queen Elizabeth II interrupted her trip to Australia and flew back to London in order to meet with Prime Minister Edward Heath, whose Conservative Party had lost its majority in the February 28 elections. Heath told the Queen that he was confident that he could assemble a coalition to form a minority government.
• Born:
• *Hiroyasu Shimizu, Japanese speed skater, 1998 Olympic gold medalist and winner of five world championships in the 500 metre race; in Obihiro, Hokkaido island
• *Julie Andrieu, French food critic and host of multiple cooking shows on television; in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris
• *Rogelio González Pizaña, Mexican drug lord with the alias "El Kelin", co-founder of Los Zetas paramilitary and criminal organization; in Mexico
• Died:
• *Larry Doyle, 87, American Major League Baseball second baseman who was selected as the Most Valuable Player in the National League in 1912;
• *Bobby Timmons, 38, American jazz pianist and composer, died of cirrhosis of the liver.

  [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)

• 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, 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.
• 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:
• *Kelly Lytle Hernández, American historian and MacArthur Fellowship grantee; in San Diego
• *David Faustino, American TV actor best known as Bud Bundy on Married... with Children; in Los Angeles
• 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)

• Following a hung parliament in the United Kingdom general election, and his inability to form a coalition with the Liberal Party, Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath resigned. Labour's Harold Wilson, who had previously led the country from 1964 to 1970, was asked by the Queen to form a new government.
• Brazil opened what was, at almost six miles in length— — and wide enough at for six lanes of traffic, the "biggest bridge in the world." The new Rio–Niterói 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:
• *Kim Jung-eun, South Korean actress and producer, in Seoul
• *Ariel Ortega, Argentine footballer with 88 caps for the Argentina national team; in Libertador General San Martín, Jujuy Province
• *Priya Kumar, Indian novelist known also for her self-help books; in Chandigarh
• Died:
• *Adolph Gottlieb, 70, American abstract expressionist painter
• *Wongsonegoro, 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)

• Portugal's Prime Minister Marcello Caetano addressed the National Assembly in Lisbon and said that Portugal would continue the colonial status of Portuguese Guinea, Angola and Mozambique despite the toll taken by guerrilla warfare in all three colonies. Caetano said that there were no plans to allow the natives to vote on self-determination because elections "would be inappropriate for the African mentality."
• Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie pledge that he would bring a more democratic form of government to the absolute monarchy, as he made an unprecedented national address on radio and television. The pledged reform came too late to preserve the monarchy, as Selassie would be overthrown in a coup d'état on September 12.
• The Seagull, a three-act opera by Thomas Pasatieri, with libretto by Kenward Elmslie, premiered at the Houston Grand Opera. Based on an 1896 play of the same name by Anton Chekhov, the opera has been performed on multiple occasions since then.
• Born:
• *Eva Mendes, American film actress and model; in Miami
• *Jens Jeremies, German footballer with 55 appearances for the Germany National Team; in Görlitz, East Germany
• *Matt Lucas, British comedian and TV actor; in Paddington, London
• *Hiten Tejwani, Indian model and actor
• Died:
• *Sol Hurok, 85, Russian-born American impresario known for his influence on American culture by bringing major presentations to the stage in his "S. Hurok Presents" program
• *Billy De Wolfe, 67, American film and stage comedian and actor
• *Judd Holdren, 58, American actor in science fiction films, known as the title characters in Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere and Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe, committed suicide by shooting himself.
• *Wally Kinnear, 93, Scottish rower and 1912 Olympic gold medalist in single scull rowing