September 1974

[September 1], 1974 (Sunday)

• Voting was held in Nicaragua for president and for the 70 seats of the Cámara de Diputados and the 30 seats of the Senado. President Anastasio Somoza Debayle won almost 92 percent of the vote and Edmundo Paguaga Irías received a little more than 8%. Under the national constitution, Somoza's Partido Liberal Nacionalista received 60% of the seats in both houses.
• A U.S. Air Force SR-71 reconnaissance airplane set a new speed record for a transatlantic crossing, flying from New York City to London in less than two hours. Flown by USAF Majors James V. Sullivan and Noel F. Widdifield, the SR-71 had crossed North America in subsonic flight from California, refueled twice in mid-air until reaching New York City's airspace, before beginning its attaining an average speed of as it crossed the ocean. The crew covered the flight in 1 hour 55 minutes 42 seconds and landed at the Farnborough International Airshow in England. The crossing took less than half as long as the previous record, set by a Royal Navy Phantom, of 4 hours, 35 minutes.
• Later that day at the Farnborough airshow, the prototype of the U.S. Army S-67 Blackhawk attack helicopter crashed, fatally injuring its two test pilots, Stewart Craig and Kurt Cannon. The crash ended any further plans to produce the S-67.
• A medical board cleared Generalissimo Francisco Franco, who had delegated his powers as Head of the Spanish State to Prince Juan Carlos de Borbón on July 19, to resume his regular duties, which Franco did the next day.
• Three separate missing persons cases began on the same day in the United States. In Akron, Ohio, 17-year-old Linda Pagano disappeared after arguing with her stepfather and leaving his apartment. Pagano's remains were discovered in Strongsville, Ohio, five months later in February, but would remain unidentified until 2018. Her murder remains unsolved.
• Martha Morrison, aged 17, disappeared from Portland, Oregon. Morrison's remains, and those of Carol Platt Valenzuela, were discovered on October 12 near Vancouver, Washington. One woman was immediately identified as Valenzuela; the other was identified as Morrison by DNA profiling in 2015. Warren Forrest would be convicted of Morrison's murder on February 1, 2023.
• Richard Cowden, his wife Belinda June Cowden, and their children, 5-year-old David James Phillips and 5-month-old Melissa Dawn Cowden, disappeared from their campground in Applegate Valley near Copper, Jackson County, Oregon. Their bodies would be discovered eight months later, in April 1975. The case remains unsolved.
• The 1974 Asian Games began in Tehran, Iran, and would continue through September 16.
• At the hurling championship of Ireland, held before 62,071 spectators at Croke Park in Dublin, Kilkenny defeated Limerick, 3-19 to 1-13.
• Boxer Charles "Big Boy" Cutajar of Malta sustained a cut vein in his head during a fight with Italian boxer Francesco Piccanelli, who won by knockout. Cutajar died from a hemorrhage the following day.
• Born:
• *Burn Gorman, American-born English actor known for the BBC science fiction show Torchwood and the HBO series Game of Thrones; in Los Angeles
• *Filip Nikolic, Serbian-born French singer and leader of the band 2Be3; in Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, Île-de-France, France
• Died:
• *John F. Shelley, 68, American politician, U.S. Representative for California for 33 years and Mayor of San Francisco from 1964 to 1968, died of lung cancer.
• *Harold L. Yochum, 71, American theologian and church leader, former president of Capital University, died of a heart attack.

  [September 2], 1974 (Monday)

• The Australian plant genus Alexgeorgea was discovered by American botanist Sherwin Carlquist, beginning with the flower species Alexgeorgea subterranea.
• The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, providing for minimum standards for pension plans in private industry, was signed into law.
• A tornado touched down in New York City for the first time since storm records were kept, striking the Bronx.
• In Kruševac, Socialist Republic of Serbia, Yugoslavia, 18-year-old Milica Kostić jumped from a 12th-floor window to escape being raped by a group of 5 young men, telling police afterwards that it was the only way to save her honor. She would die of her injuries two days later.
• Two yachts which had belonged to former British Prime Minister Edward Heath, both named Morning Cloud, were lost within 24 hours in stormy weather on the English Channel. Morning Cloud I tore loose from her moorings and was driven onto rocks off Gorey Castle, Jersey. A large wave struck Morning Cloud III off the Sussex coast. The yacht capsized and sank, and two members of the 7-man crew, one of whom was Heath's godson, drowned.
• Cale Yarborough won the 1974 Southern 500, a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina.
• Sylvester Williams, a fullback on the Florida A&M football team, collapsed and died on the practice field at the age of 20.
• Born: Shirley-Anne Somerville, Scottish Government minister since 2018, Scottish National Party member; in Kirkcaldy, Fife
• Died:
• *Joseph A. Beirne, 63, American labor union leader, president of the Communications Workers of America, died of cancer.
• *Wallace A. Ross, 52, American advertising executive, founder of the Clio Awards
• *Moses Soyer, 74, Russian-born American realist painter
• *David Barksdale, 27, African-American gang leader who founded the Black Disciples, died of kidney failure.

  [September 3], 1974 (Tuesday)

• One man died, and another was injured, in the explosion of a 5,000-gallon gasoline storage tank in Wareham, Massachusetts.
• Philippe Prost, a member of the French national junior basketball team, died of a heart attack at the age of 18 during a game in Roanne, France.
• Born: Jen Royle, American sports reporter and chef
• Died:
• *John Thomas Baldwin, 63, American botanist
• *Aurora Bertrana, 74, Catalan cellist and writer
• *Marie Ames Byrd, 85, widow of Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd and namesake of Marie Byrd Land, the largest unclaimed territory on Earth.
• *Harry Partch, 73, American composer, died of a heart attack.

  [September 4], 1974 (Wednesday)

• U.S. President Gerald Ford named George H. W. Bush, the chair of the Republican National Committee, to be the new Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China, succeeding David K. E. Bruce. A White House official was quoted as saying, "George Bush was a strong and viable candidate to be Ford's Vice President until the last minute. He is somebody the President holds in high regard."
• The United States and the Communist nation of East Germany announced jointly that they had agreed to establish full diplomatic relations. Former U.S. Senator John Sherman Cooper of Kentucky was nominated as U.S. Ambassador to East Germany, while Rolf Sieber, rector of the Berlin School of Economics and Law, was designated as the East German ambassador to the U.S., with embassies to be opened in December.
• India's lower house of Parliament, the Lok Sabha, voted 310 to 7 to make the kingdom of Sikkim one of the states of India, subject to approval by the Sikkimese government. The upper house, the Rajya Sabha, followed suit on September 7 in a 168 to 8 vote.
• Born:
• *Naved Ashraf, Pakistani cricketer; in Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan
• *Carmit Bachar, American singer ; in Los Angeles, California
• *Nona Gaye, American singer and fashion model; in Washington, D.C.
• *Lincoln Roberts, West Indian cricketer; in Accord, Tobago
• Died:
• *U.S. Army General Creighton Abrams, 59, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, died of complications from the removal of a cancerous lung. In 1980, the M1 Abrams battle tank would be named in his honor.
• *Marcel Achard, 75, French playwright and scriptwriter, died of diabetes.
• *Hubbell Robinson, 68, American broadcasting executive for CBS, died of lung cancer.

  [September 5], 1974 (Thursday)

• Three men were arrested at Westminster Abbey shortly after midnight for an alleged attempt to steal the Stone of Scone, the ancient artifact used in the coronations of monarchs of Scotland.
• A two-day Bicentennial reconvening of the First Continental Congress began in Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The current governors of the 13 original American colonies had been invited to serve as delegates at the reenactment; all of them were present except Francis Sargent of Massachusetts, who was campaigning for renomination. U.S. President Ford spoke at a banquet on the evening of the second day. Unlike the original 1774 Congress, the reconvening included female and African-American delegates.
• In Kanawha County, West Virginia, hundreds of coal miners stayed off the job to join protesters demanding the removal of school textbooks which they regarded as containing inappropriate content.
• One of the falcon statuettes made for the 1941 film The Maltese Falcon, valued at $200, was stolen from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where it was on loan from Warner Bros.
• A gas explosion in Oxnard, California, killed a Southern California Gas Company foreman who was evacuating residents and injured five other people.
• Died: Jimmy Swinnerton, 98, American cartoonist and landscape painter, died of complications from a broken leg.

  [September 6], 1974 (Friday)

• A caucus of New Zealand Labour Party members of Parliament voted, 44 to 6, to choose Finance Minister Bill Rowling rather than Deputy Prime Minister Hugh Watt to be the new NZLP chairman and Prime Minister of New Zealand. The choice filled the vacancy left by the death of Norman Kirk on August 31. Health Minister Bob Tizard was chosen as Deputy Prime Minister.
• In a continuation of protests in South Korea following the August 15 assassination attempt on President Park Chung Hee by a Japanese-born North Korean sympathizer, a crowd attacked the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, breaking windows, removing the flag of Japan from the roof and setting a car on fire. Police responded with tear gas. During further protests on September 9, 15 demonstrators cut off their little fingers, saying they wished to present them to the Embassy.
• Born:
• *Tim Henman, English professional tennis player; in Oxford
• *Nina Persson, Swedish singer for The Cardigans; in Örebro
• *Justin Whalin, American TV actor known for portraying Jimmy Olsen in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman; in San Francisco
• Died:
• *Olga Baclanova, 81, Russian-born film and stage actress nicknamed "The Russian Tigress", known for the 1932 film Freaks, died of lung cancer.
• *LaVere Redfield, 76, eccentric American multi-millionaire convicted of tax evasion
• *Patricia Cutts, 48, English film and television actress, committed suicide by barbiturate poisoning, shortly after accepting the role of Blanche Hunt on the long-running British programme Coronation Street.
• *Otto Kruger, 89, American film and TV actor, died of a stroke.
• *Michael Benthall CBE, 55, English theater director for the Royal Victoria Theatre
• *Frank W. Buxton, 96, American journalist, former editor of the Boston Herald and winner of the 1924 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing