1974
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1 January 1974 Pakistan nationalizes 15 domestic banks, shipping companies, and oil distribution firms.
2 January 1974 The Soviet news agency Tass calls Gulag Archipelago an “unfounded slander against the Soviet people.”
The French government announces a 25% reduction in natural gas to some parts of the country.
3 January 1974 Le Monde reports that France has taken in 1,000 Chilean refugees, leading all nations.
A federal judge dismisses all charges against twelve Weathermen. They were charged with conspiring to incite riots in Chicago in October 1969.
4 January 1974 Israeli forces allow food and non-military supplies into the surrounded Egyptian Third Army.
US President Richard Nixon rejects subpoenas by the Senate Watergate Committee for tapes and documents.
Stimmen for two voices and instrumental ensemble by Hans Werner Henze (47) to words of various authors is performed for the first time, in London the composer conducting.
5 January 1974 B for Sonata for piano by Betsy Jolas (47) is performed for the first time, in Alice Tully Hall, New York.
7 January 1974 Quatuor III, 9 etudes for strings by Betsy Jolas (47) is performed for the first time, in Washington.
8 January 1974 Great Britain creates a Department of Energy.
Sweden institutes rationing of gasoline and heating oil.
9 January 1974 Cambodian government troops begin a counteroffensive west and north of the capital Phnom Penh.
OPEC announces a delay in oil price increases until 1 April.
West Germany cancels a Sunday driving ban but retains speed limits on primary and secondary roads.
The British House of Commons extends the state of emergency for a third month.
10 January 1974 The French government announces increases of as much as 30% in gasoline and fuel oil.
11 January 1974 Two choral works by Frederick Delius (†39) are performed for the first time, in St. John’s, Smith Square, London: Durch den Wald to words of von Schreck, and Sonnenscheinlied to words of Bjørnsen, over 85 years after they were composed. See 10 June 1992.
12 January 1974 Gasoline rationing begins in the Netherlands.
The US-backed military dictatorship in Chile imposes censorship on all publications.
14 January 1974 Pravda calls Alyeksandr Solzhenitsyn a traitor and a “profoundly immoral man.”
15 January 1974 The USSR jams West German radio broadcasts when they begin reading excerpts from Gulag Archipelago.
A committee of six technical experts concludes that the 18-minute gap on one of President Nixon’s tapes resulted from erasures and re-recordings and could not have been an accident as the White House claims.
Senator Barry Goldwater blames President Nixon’s Watergate situation on “liberal Democrats.” He does not think Nixon will ever resign. “…I don’t believe the liberal Democrats have what it takes, either in evidence or guts, to push through an impeachment in the House and a subsequent trial in the Senate.”
The US Federal Energy Office issues final guidelines for fuel allocation. Businesses are favored over individual oil users.
Abzählreime, a song cycle for voice and piano by Sofia Gubaidulina (42) to words of Satunovsky, is performed for the first time, in Frankfurt-am-Main.
17 January 1974 Egypt and Israel agree to disengage their forces along the Suez Canal.
18 January 1974 Klavierstück 5 1/2 and Klavierstück 6 1/2 by Karlheinz Stockhausen (45) are performed for the first time, in Cologne, 20 years after they were composed.
Serenata op.42 for baritone, cello, and nine instruments by Alberto Ginastera (57) to words of Neruda is performed for the first time, in Alice Tully Hall, New York conducted by the composer.
19 January 1974 Fighting breaks out between Chinese and Saigon government forces on the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea.
France allows the franc to float, in actuality, a devaluation.
About 70 leftist guerrillas attack an army garrison at Azul, 270 km south of Buenos Aires. After holding the base and battling troops for seven hours, the guerrillas withdraw with a hostage.
20 January 1974 Chinese reinforcements arrive and defeat Saigon government troops on the Paracel Islands.
Amnesty International charges widespread torture by the US-backed military dictatorship in Chile.
21 January 1974 Great Britain ends its arms embargo to the Middle East.
22 January 1974 Protestants disrupt the Northern Ireland Assembly in an attempt to destroy the power sharing agreement.
US Vice President Gerald Ford says the White House has information which “will exonerate the President,” and “totally undercut” the story given by John Dean.
23 January 1974 Khmer Rouge rebels greatly increase their shelling of Phnom Penh causing more civilian casualties.
Major US oil companies begin reporting enormous increases in profits in the last quarter of 1973.
The New York Times reports widespread arrests and torture by the military government in Valparaiso, Chile.
24 January 1974 Egil Krogh is sentenced to two to six years in prison for his actions in the break-in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. All but six months of the sentence is suspended.
25 January 1974 Israeli forces begin to pull back across the Suez Canal as part of the disengagement agreement.
Mustafa Bülent Ecevit replaces Mehmet Naim Talu as Prime Minister of Turkey.
26 January 1974 19 bombs explode in Buenos Aires and Rosario, targeting leftists.
The Senate Watergate committee suspends its hearings indefinitely.
27 January 1974 No Progress Without Struggle, a cycle for solo voice and chamber ensemble by Frederic Rzewski (35) to words of Douglass, is performed for the first time, in Alice Tully Hall, New York.
28 January 1974 Israeli forces lift the siege of Suez city. The UN hands it over to Egypt.
Herbert Porter, former official of President Nixon’s campaign committee, pleads guilty to making false statements to the FBI. He will be sentenced to 30 days in jail.
30 January 1974 President Lon Nol of Cambodia institutes a six-month state of emergency in the face of rebel attacks on the capital.
The French government bans four separatist groups, two Breton, one Corsican, and one Basque.
31 January 1974 Arab terrorists and members of the Japanese Red Army attempt to blow up refineries of Royal Dutch Shell on Singapore. When they fail, they commandeer a ferry and take five hostages.
The Judiciary Committee of the US House of Representatives unanimously requests full constitutional authority to begin an inquiry into the possible impeachment of the president.
NBC reports that the CIA destroyed tape recordings related to the Watergate affair.
4 February 1974 Phase two of the Israeli withdrawal from the east bank of the Suez Canal is completed.
The Dutch government ends gasoline rationing. A ban on pleasure driving on alternate Sundays goes into effect.
A bomb destroys a bus in Yorkshire carrying British servicemen and their families. Eleven people are killed, 14 injured. Police suspect the IRA.
String Quartet no.3 op.40 for soprano and string quartet by Alberto Ginastera (57) to words of Alberti, García Lorca, and Ramón Jiménez is performed for the first time, in Caruth Auditorium, Dallas.
5 February 1974 United Nations troops take up positions between Egyptian and Israeli forces on the east bank of the Suez Canal.
Rodney D. Bagley receives a US patent for an “Extrusion Method for Forming Thin-Walled Honeycomb Structures” which makes the catalytic converter possible.
19-year-old heiress Patricia Hearst is kidnapped from her Berkeley, California apartment by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army.
6 February 1974 The United States House of Representatives formally authorizes an investigation into the conduct of the President and grants its Judiciary Committee subpoena power.
7 February 1974 Arab terrorists enter the Japanese embassy in Kuwait and take ten members of the staff, including the ambassador, hostage. They demand that their comrades in Singapore be allowed to fly to Kuwait on a Japanese plane.
Grenada, under Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Eric Gairy, is proclaimed independent of Great Britain.
8 February 1974 The astronauts of Skylab 4, Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, and William Pogue, return to Earth after setting a space endurance record of 2,017 hours, 16 minutes and 30 seconds.
Four Arab and Japanese terrorists are allowed to leave Singapore aboard a Japanese plane for Kuwait. Their comrades in Kuwait release their Japanese hostages and board the plane which then flies to Aden.
Linea for two pianos, vibraphone, and marimbaphone by Luciano Berio (48) is performed for the first time, in Grenoble.
String Quartet no.2 by Richard Wernick (40) is performed for the first time, at the University of Pennsylvania.
Of Wind and Earth for chorus and piano by Leslie Bassett (51) to words of Shelley, Conan Bryant, and St. Francis, is performed for the first time, in Columbus, Ohio.
9 February 1974 The British National Union of Miners goes on strike.
The Symphony no.1 by Alfred Schnittke (39) is performed for the first time, in Gorky. This marks the first time a work by a Soviet avant-garde composer is heard in a significant venue.
10 February 1974 British coal miners begin a nationwide strike over wages, at the beginning of a national election campaign.
11 February 1974 Khmer Rouge rebels shell a residential and market district of Phnom Penh, killing 200 people and leaving 9,000 homeless.
12 February 1974 Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn is arrested by Soviet police in his Moscow apartment.
A bomb explodes in the National Defense College in Latimer, Buckinghamshire. Ten people are injured.
13 February 1974 Soviet authorities put Alyeksandr Solzhenitsyn on a plane and fly him to West Germany. It is the first forced deportation of a dissident since Trotsky.
A meeting of foreign ministers and finance ministers from 13 oil consuming nations ends in Washington. All except France agree on a 17-point plan to deal with the energy crisis.
14 February 1974 Several articles appear in China commenting on Ottorino Respighi’s (†37) Pines of Rome, played by the Philadelphia Orchestra in Peking last September. It is criticized as a “bourgeois work,” “weird and bizarre,” and indicative of the “nasty, rotten life and decadent sentiments.” Beethoven (†146) and Schubert (†145) are also attacked.
15 February 1974 Alexander Solzhenitsyn arrives in Switzerland, having been stripped of his Soviet citizenship and deported.
Belgium ends the ban on Sunday pleasure driving and reduces electricity restrictions.
19 February 1974 The US Federal Energy Office allows an emergency allocation of 317,940,000 liters of gasoline to 20 states.
Failing in its attempts to secure White House tapes, the Senate Watergate committee votes to end its public hearings.
20 February 1974 All Sons of Adam for alto, flute, clarinet, celesta, guitar, marimba, viola, and cello by Peter Maxwell Davies (39) is performed for the first time, in Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, directed by the composer.
21 February 1974 Israel completes its withdrawal from the east bank of the Suez Canal.
A new constitution goes into effect in Yugoslavia, giving more power to the federal government, Communist Party, and workers councils.
22 February 1974 Pakistan recognizes Bangladesh.
Deputy chief of the Portuguese General Staff General António de Spínola publishes Portugal and the Future, a book which suggests a political rather than military solution to the colonial question.
The United States National Academy of Sciences reports that ecological damage caused by chemical defoliants used by American forces in Vietnam will last at least 100 years.
Five Portraits for violin and piano by Ulysses Kay (57) is performed for the first time, at the Library of Congress, Washington.
23 February 1974 Arabia felix for flute, bassoon, piano, electric guitar, vibraphone, and violin by Charles Wuorinen (35) is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Recital Hall, New York.
25 February 1974 String Quartet I/II by Mauricio Kagel (42) is performed for the first time, in the Funkhaus, Hamburg.
Herbert Kalmbach, personal lawyer to US President Nixon and an important Republican fundraiser, pleads guilty to charges he raised $3,900,000 for a secret campaign committee, and he obtained a $100,000 campaign contribution from an ambassador in return for a better assignment. He will be sentenced to 6-18 months in prison and a $10,000 fine.
26 February 1974 A mutiny breaks out by military elements demanding better pay and living conditions, in Asmara, Ethiopia.
27 February 1974 Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia appoints Endalkachew Makonnen Prime Minister after the entire cabinet resigns in the wake of the military mutiny in Asmara.
The Swedish Riksdag approves a new constitution to go into effect next 1 January. Most of whatever power the King has is removed and the Riksdag is made unicameral.
Lt. William Calley, convicted war criminal, is released from house arrest on $1,000 bond.
About 800 conservative policemen seize the government of Córdoba, Argentina, removing a left-wing government.
28 February 1974 The Chinese Communist Party newspaper Jenmin Jih Pao attacks the opera Three Trips to Tao Feng, calling it a “poisonous weed” and saying it is “negating” the cultural revolution.
National elections in Great Britain result in a hung Parliament. Labour wins 301 seats to Conservatives 297.
The United States and Egypt resume full diplomatic relations, broken in 1967.
The US Democratic Party settles its civil suit against the Committee to Reelect the President, John Mitchell, Maurice Stans, G. Gordon Liddy, E. Howard Hunt, and Hugh Sloan. The defendants must pay $775,000 and drop all countersuits.
1 March 1974 Indictments are handed down by a federal grand jury in Washington investigating the Watergate affair. Former Attorney General John Mitchell, former presidential assistants HR Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, Charles Colson, and Gordon Strachan, and former campaign officials Robert Mardian and Kenneth Parkinson are all indicted for their parts in the Watergate cover-up.
2 March 1974 Italy’s coalition government falls with the withdrawal of a smaller party.
Ignoring international pleas for clemency, Catalan anarchist Salvador Puig Antich is garroted in Barcelona on orders of Generalissimo Francisco Franco.
3 March 1974 Two Arab terrorists hijack a BOAC jet shortly after take off from Beirut. They land in Amsterdam where passengers and crew are allowed off. The terrorists then set the airplane alight and are subsequently arrested.
The Carnegie Endowment reports that as many as 100,000 people may have died due to recent drought in the Sahel.
In Time of Pestilence: Six Short Madrigals on Verses of Thomas Nashe for chorus by Ned Rorem (50) is performed for the first time, in All Faiths Chapel, Kansas State University, Manhattan.
Several works for chamber orchestra by Charles Ives (†19) are performed for the first time, at Yale University, during the centennial year of his birth: Charlie Rutlage from Set no.5, Mists and Evening from Set no.6, Swimmers and The Pond from Set no.7 (realized by Sinclair and Singleton), March no.2 with Son of a Gambolier, Country Band March, and Overture and March 1776. Also premiered are Ives’ Fugue in Four Keys on The Shining Shore for flute, cornet, and strings, and An Old Song Deranged for chamber ensemble.
4 March 1974 Egypt and Israel complete their disengagement of forces on the Sinai front.
James Harold Wilson replaces Edward Richard George Heath as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Heath was unable to gain small party support for a minority government. Wilson will lead a minority Labour government.
La cubana, oder Ein Leben für die Kunst, a vaudeville by Hans Werner Henze (47) to words of Enzensberger after Barnet, is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of National Educational Television originating in New York. See 28 May 1975.
5 March 1974 A military conspiracy to overthrow the Portuguese government is organized into the Movimento das Forças Armadas.
Roscatha for orchestra by Arnold Bax (†20) is performed for the first time, in St. John’s, Smith Square, London, 64 years after it was composed.
The Seagull, an opera by Thomas Pasatieri (28) to words of Elmslie after Chekhov, is performed for the first time, in Houston.
An audience at the University of California at Berkeley hears what may be the oldest extant song, accompanied by a reproduction of a Sumerian lyre c.2000 B.C.
7 March 1974 The first general strike in the history of Ethiopia takes place to press demands for a higher minimum wage, pensions, social security, and the right to strike.
A federal grand jury indicts six men in connection with the break-in at the office of Lewis Fielding, psychiatrist to Daniel Ellsberg. They are John Ehrlichman, Charles Colson, G. Gordon Liddy, Bernard Barker, Eugenio Martinez, and Felipe DeDiego.
Streakers are first reported on college campuses in the United States. The fad will become popular in several countries around the world.
Compass for tenor, bass, cello, double bass, four-track tape, and visual projections by Roger Reynolds (39) to words of Borges is staged for the first time, in the Vanguard Theatre, Los Angeles. See 16 March 1973.
8 March 1974 The Saigon government and the Viet Cong complete the exchange of 37,000 prisoners, military and civilian.
The new British government imposes a freeze on residential rents.
Charles de Gaulle Airport opens near Paris.
Flaschenpost vom Paradies, oder Der englische Ausflug, a television opera by Ernst Krenek (73) to his own words, is screened for the first time, over Austrian television. 29 October 1973.
String Trio by Walter Piston (80) is performed for the first time, at Harvard University.
9 March 1974 A Viet Cong rocket lands in a school playground in Cai Lay, South Vietnam. 32 children are killed, about the same number are injured.
The Turkish government announces that it will lift the US-backed ban on poppy production.
Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot, a stage work for soprano, flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, and cello by Peter Maxwell Davies (39) to words of Stow, is performed for the first time, in Adelaide conducted by the composer.
Jonah and the Whale, an oratorio for solo voices, speaker, chorus, and instruments by Dominick Argento (46) to medieval and other texts, is performed for the first time, in Plymouth Congregational Church, Minneapolis.
10 March 1974 National elections in Belgium see gains for the Christian Peoples and the Socialists at the expense of strictly nationalist parties.
11 March 1974 The general strike in Ethiopia ends after the government agrees to take action on the strikers’ demands.
The new British government ends the state of emergency, although limits on electricity continue. Coal miners go back to work and the five-day work week resumes.
12 March 1974 Fighting begins between Iraqi government troops and Kurds demanding greater autonomy.
Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez replaces Rafael Caldera Rodríguez as President of Venezuela.
14 March 1974 East Germany and West Germany sign an agreement in Bonn establishing embassies in each capital city.
General António de Spínola and General Francisco Costa Gomes are sacked by the Portuguese government for advocating a different track in regards to the colonies and a military coup d’etat.
The government of Quebec proclaims French as the official language of the province.
Four choruses from The Song of Solomon by Gustav Holst (†39) is performed for the first time, in St. John’s, Smith Square, London.
Parts of The W. of Babylon, an opera by Charles Wuorinen (35) to words of Bruce, are performed for the first time, in Borden Auditorium, Manhattan School of Music. See 20 January 1989.
15 March 1974 Italian Prime Minister Mariano Rumor is sworn in again at the head of a new center-left government.
A long planned coup by elements of the Portuguese military begins prematurely as about 200 men march from Caldas da Rainha to Lisbon 80 km to the south. They are stopped by loyal troops and are arrested.
Ernesto Geisel replaces Emilio Garatuzú Medici as President of the military government of Brazil.
The US-backed military dictatorship of Chile announces that former Interior and Defense Minister José Toha Gonzalez hanged himself in prison. Independent observers seriously doubt whether Toha, dying of stomach cancer, was strong enough to hang himself.
16 March 1974 Major fighting begins between North Vietnamese and Saigon government troops in the Central Highlands.
Military police invade the Athens apartment of Georgios Mavros, leader of the Center Union Party, and arrest him for criticizing the dictatorship.
Portuguese authorities arrest 33 army officers after an abortive coup attempt in Caldas da Rainha.
18 March 1974 Khmer Rouge forces capture Oudong, the former royal capital of Cambodia, 39 km northwest of Phnom Penh.
Police battle with food rioters in Bihar, India. Five people are killed.
Seven of the nine Arab oil producing states end their embargo of oil shipments to the United States. Libya and Syria retain the ban. All retain the ban against the Netherlands and Denmark.
Federal Judge John Sirica rules that evidence compiled by a secret Watergate grand jury should be released to the House of Representatives for their consideration of impeachment.
19 March 1974 String Quartet no.7 by George Perle (58) is performed for the first time, in Buffalo.
21 March 1974 Cambodian troops begin a week of heavy attacks in an attempt to recapture the royal capital of Oudong.
The United States and Sweden appoint ambassadors to each other, thus ending a 15-month break.
22 March 1974 The seven nations with Baltic coastlines agree in Helsinki to reduce the pollution going into the sea.
The London newsletter Latin America quotes the CIA as estimating 11,000 people have been killed in Chile since the coup last September. The US State Department thinks it may be as high as 20,000.
24 March 1974 Over a week of heavy fighting begins in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam.
25 March 1974 Saudi Arabia resumes oil shipments to the United States.
Calmo for mezzo-soprano and 22 players by Luciano Berio (48) to words of various authors is performed for the first time, in Milan conducted by the composer. See 16 October 1990.
26 March 1974 The Percussive Arts Society inducts Harry Partch (72) into the Percussion Hall of Fame.
27 March 1974 The British government ends all aid and weapons sales to the US-backed military dictatorship of Chile. They cite their “desire to see democracy and human rights fully respected.”
Two works for violin and piano by Alfred Schnittke (39) are performed for the first time, in Moscow: Gratulations Rondo and Suite in Old Style.
28 March 1974 President of the State Council Nicolae Ceausescu assumes the title of President of Romania.
29 March 1974 Cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, appeal to Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev by letter to allow them to travel abroad for two years. The request is granted 30 minutes after it is received. See 15 March 1978.
Israel and Syria begin negotiations through the United States to disengage their forces on the Golan front.
Manea Manescu replaces Ion Gheorghe Maurer as Prime Minister of Romania.
Heavy rains ending today produce severe floods in both the north and south of Brazil. As many as 5,000 people may be dead.
American space probe Mariner 10 reaches to 703 km from the planet Mercury.
Voices and Cello, a vocalise for two female voices and cello by Morton Feldman (48) is performed for the first time, in La Rouche-Courbon.
30 March 1974 Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III) for two amplified pianos and two percussionists by George Crumb (44) is performed for the first time, at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. See 12 June 1980.
31 March 1974 British Airways is formed by the merger of British Overseas Airways Corporation and British European Airways Corporation.
Sonata for violin and piano by Karel Husa (52) is performed for the first time, in Alice Tully Hall, New York.
Two ballades for flutes and piano by Ross Lee Finney (67) are performed for the first time, in Dumbarton Oaks, Washington.
2 April 1974 President Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou of France dies at his private apartment in Paris.
3 April 1974 Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou is replaced by Alain Emile Louis Marie Poher as acting President of France.
The Congressional Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation reports that President Nixon owes $476,431 in delinquent taxes from his first term. Four hours later, the White House announces he will pay the back taxes.
4 April 1974 Brazilian Federal Deputy Francisco Pinto is indicted for saying bad things about Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Show-Tellies for video by Kenneth Gaburo (47) is performed for the first time, in La Jolla, California.
5 April 1974 A coalition government of communists and non-communists is established in Laos.
Dwight Chapin, former appointment secretary to President Nixon, is found guilty of lying to the Watergate grand jury. He will be sentenced to 10-30 months in prison.
7 April 1974 Drought and famine conditions in the Sahel and Ethiopia are reported to be at the level of a natural disaster.
In memoriam Malcolm X for soprano and orchestra by TJ Anderson (45) to words of Hayden is performed for the first time, in Lincoln Center, New York.
9 April 1974 The Australian government replaces God Save the Queen with Advance Australia Fair as the national anthem.
The Scratch Orchestra is renamed the Red Flame Proletarian Propaganda Team. Its orientation, and that of Cornelius Cardew (37), have taken on a Marxist inspiration.
11 April 1974 Arab terrorists from Lebanon enter an apartment building in Qiryat Shemona, Israel and begin shooting. 18 people are killed, including eight children, 16 are injured. All three terrorists are killed.
In the first subpoena ever served by a US House committee on a president, the House Judiciary Committee orders President Nixon to hand over all tapes and documents relevant to their investigation.
Former United Mine Workers President Tony Boyle is convicted on three counts of murder in a Media, Pennsylvania court. He ordered the murders of union rival Joseph Yablonski, his wife and daughter in 1969.
12 April 1974 North Vietnamese forces capture the Saigon government stronghold of Tong Le Chan 88 km northwest of Saigon after a siege of 13 months.
In retaliation for yesterday’s attack, Israeli forces enter southern Lebanon and raid six villages harboring terrorists.
14 April 1974 Israeli and Syrian forces battle for control of Mt. Hermon.
15 April 1974 Kidnapped heiress Patricia Hearst takes part in a bank robbery by the Symbionese Liberation Army in San Francisco.
16 April 1974 The Saigon government breaks off political talks with the Viet Cong near Paris because of Viet Cong truce violations.
The US Secretary of the Army reduces the sentence of convicted murderer Lt. William Calley from 20 years to 10 years.
17 April 1974 The US-backed military dictatorship of Chile begins purge trials in Santiago against 57 air force members and ten civilians.
18 April 1974 A federal district court in Washington orders a subpoena on the White House for tapes and other materials relating to 64 different Oval Office conversations, at the request of the Watergate special prosecutor.
20 April 1974 Lamia for soprano and orchestra by Jacob Druckman (45) to words of Ovid, Wagner, and elsewhere is performed for the first time, in Albany, New York.
Two works by Ned Rorem (50) are performed for the first time, in Sioux City, Iowa: Laudemus tempus actum for chorus, and Little Prayers for soprano, baritone, chorus, and orchestra to words of Goodman.
21 April 1974 String Quartet no.4 by Ben Johnston (48) is performed for the first time, at Carnegie Recital Hall, New York.
Variations on Jerusalem the Golden for organ by Charles Ives (†19) is performed for the first time, during the centennial year of his birth, at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis approximately 86 years after it was composed.
24 April 1974 Khmer Rouge forces capture the government base at Koh Krabei, 13 km southeast of Phnom Penh.
President Franz Jonas of Austria dies of cancer. Chancellor Bruno Kreisky of Austria becomes acting President.
Whites-only elections in South Africa leaves the parties virtually unchanged. The National Party continues to rule.
25 April 1974 Portuguese army officers, led by two anti-colonialist generals, seize control of the government. President Américo de Deus Rodriquez Tomás is arrested at the presidential palace in Belém. Prime Minister Marcello Caetano surrenders at Republican National Guard headquarters.
Leo Tindemans of the Flemish Christian Peoples Party replaces Edmond Leburton as Prime Minister of Belgium at the head of a minority coalition after a three-month government crisis.
Gunter Guillaume, an assistant to Chancellor Willy Brandt, is arrested in Bonn on charges of espionage for East Germany.
Cantico del sole for chorus by William Walton (72) to words of St. Francis, is performed for the first time, at University College, Cork.
26 April 1974 High members of the former Portuguese government, including President Tomás and Prime Minister Caetano, are flown from Lisbon to Madeira. Eventually, they will be exiled in Brazil.
Three Motets on Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins for chorus and organ by Ned Rorem (50) are performed for the first time, in Trinity Church, New York.
27 April 1974 Khmer Rouge forces capture Sala Lek Prem, a provincial capital, 42 km northwest of Phnom Penh.
About 100 political prisoners are released from Portuguese prisons and replaced by members of the now dissolved political police.
28 April 1974 With Portuguese airports and borders now open, political exiles begin returning. Socialist Party leader Mario Soares arrives today.
Former US Attorney General John Mitchell and former Commerce Secretary Maurice Stans are found not guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury.
29 April 1974 Saigon government troops begin an incursion into Cambodia against North Vietnamese forces.
Decrees by the new Portuguese government effectively dismantle the old fascist regime. They remove all high office holders, the governors of the African colonies and three military leaders. They also dissolve the National Assembly and the Council of State.
In a nationwide address, US President Nixon says he will make available to the House Judiciary Committee and the public 1,200 pages of edited transcripts of the White House conversations they have been demanding.
30 April 1974 Saigon government troops begin a second incursion into Cambodia against North Vietnamese forces.
Alvaro Cunhal, exiled leader of the Portuguese Communist Party, arrives back in the country.
In a sworn affidavit in federal court in Washington, former presidential advisor John Ehrlichman states that President Nixon twice approved of the break-in at Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, after the fact.
Three Songs op.45 by Samuel Barber (64), Now I Have Fed and Eaten Up the Rose to words of Keller (tr. Joyce), A Green Lowland of Pianos to words of Harasymowicz (tr. Milosz) and O Boundless, Boundless Evening to words of Heym (tr. Middleton) for voice and piano are performed for the first time, in Alice Tully Hall, New York.
1 May 1974 King Hussein of Jordan allows a separate PLO delegation at the Geneva peace meetings to represent Palestinian Arabs.
The House Judiciary Committee votes to inform President Nixon that he is not in compliance with their subpoena.
Wage and price controls run out in the United States. The oil industry will remain under regulation.
The Lion and Androcles, a children’s opera by John C. Eaton (39) to words of Walter and Anderson after Silvius, is performed for the first time, in Indianapolis.
The Image of Man for chorus and orchestra by Michael Colgrass (42) is performed for the first time, in Spokane, Washington.
2 May 1974 The new Portuguese government declares an amnesty for young men who refused to fight in colonial wars.
A bomb explodes in a pub in Belfast frequented by Catholics. Five people are killed.
The Flow of (U) for soprano, alto, and baritone by Kenneth Gaburo (47) is performed for the first time, at the University of California at San Diego.
3 May 1974 The new Portuguese government releases 1,200 political prisoners in Angola.
The first photographic evidence for the existence of “charmed quarks” is discovered by scientists at Brookhaven National Accelerator Laboratory on Long Island.
Memory for three voices and percussion by Isang Yun (56) is performed for the first time, in Rome.
Fiddler at the Wedding, a cycle for mezzo-soprano, alto flute, mandolin, guitar, and percussion by Peter Maxwell Davies (39) to words of Brown is performed for the first time, in Salle Pleyel, Paris.
4 May 1974 Herbstmusik no.40 for four players by Karlheinz Stockhausen (45) is performed for the first time, in Bremen.
6 May 1974 The Song of Tailitnama for voice, six cellos, and percussion by Peter Sculthorpe (45), to an aboriginal text, is performed for the first time, at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne.
Willy Brandt resigns as Chancellor of West Germany after the discovery that a close aide was spying for East Germany.
7 May 1974 Republican leaders in the Senate and House characterize the conversations found in the transcripts released by the President as “immoral” and “devastating.” They speak openly of resignation.
Donald Martino (42) wins the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Notturno. In addition, the Pulitzer committee bestows a special citation on Roger Sessions (77) for his life's work as a distinguished American composer. See 15 May 1973.
8 May 1974 The two-year-old Canadian minority government loses a confidence vote in Parliament. New elections are scheduled for July.
Divertissement for ten winds by Werner Egk (72) is performed for the first time, in Schwetzingen.
Imago mundi for orchestra by George Rochberg (55) is performed for the first time, in the Lyric Theatre, Baltimore.
9 May 1974 The Judiciary Committee of the US House of Representatives formally begins hearings into the possible impeachable conduct of President Richard Nixon.
10 May 1974 The Viet Cong break off all contacts with the Saigon government.
G. Gordon Liddy is found guilty of contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions of a House committee. He is given a suspended sentence of six months and one-year probation.
12 May 1974 Negotiations begin between FRELIMO and Portugal for the independence of Mozambique.
13 May 1974 The Italian electorate votes not to repeal the three-year-old law allowing for divorce, 59%-41%.
15 May 1974 Arab terrorists attack a high school in Maalot, Israel. 21 children and four adults are killed. The three terrorists are killed by security forces.
A general strike begins in Northern Ireland, organized by the Protestant Ulster Workers’ Council. They oppose the Sunningdale agreement which provides greater cooperation between Great Britain, Northern Ireland, and Ireland.
Walter Scheel replaces Gustav Heinemann as President of West Germany.
Antônio Sebastião Bibeiro de Spínola replaces Américo de Deus Rodriquez Tomás as President of Portugal. He names a 15-man cabinet from across the political spectrum.
Zeitlieder, two songs for mezzo-soprano and string quartet by Ernst Krenek (73) to words of Pandula, is performed for the first time, in Augsburg.
Three works by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (35) are performed for the first time: Sonata in Three Movements for violin and piano, Einsame Nacht, a cycle for baritone and piano, and Im Nebel for alto and piano.
16 May 1974 Israeli warplanes carry out retaliatory raids on terrorist safe havens in southern Lebanon.
Helmut Schmidt replaces Willy Brandt as Chancellor of West Germany.
Amidst widespread protest strikes, 60,000 people march on the Folketing in Copenhagen. They demand the resignation of the government for raising sales taxes.
Adelino da Palma Carlos replaces Marcelo das Neves Alves Caetano as Prime Minister of Portugal.
Former US Attorney General Richard Kleindienst pleads guilty to failing to give full and accurate answers to a Senate investigating committee. He will be sentenced to a $100 fine and one month in prison, both suspended.
President Carlos Andrés Pérez of Venezuela announces that he will nationalize the oil industry.
Leonard Bernstein’s (55) ballet Dybbuk to a choreography by Robbins is performed for the first time, in New York the composer conducting.
17 May 1974 Four car bombs explode in Ireland (three in Dublin, one in Monaghan) killing 28 people and injuring around 200.
Police engage in a shoot out with members of the Symbionese Liberation Army in Los Angeles. Six SLA members die in the gun battle and ensuing fire in their hideout.
18 May 1974 Voting in parliamentary elections in Australia result in a balance of power almost the same as the last parliament. The ruling Labor Party of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam retains the government, but still does not win a majority in the Senate.
India becomes the sixth nation to explode a nuclear device. The test takes place in Rajasthan.
The Portuguese military ends all offensive operations in Angola.
Five Easy Pieces for violin, piano, and Jew’s harp by TJ Anderson (45) is performed for the first time, in Winchester, Massachusetts.
19 May 1974 Center-right candidate Valéry Giscard d’Estaing squeaks by Socialist François Mitterand to win the presidential runoff in France, 50.81%-49.19%.
20 May 1974 As part of the general strike, Protestants set up about 100 barricades throughout Belfast, cutting off the city and the Protestant districts.
Former Portuguese President Américo Tomás and Prime Minister Marcello Caetano are flown from Madeira to Brazil where they are given political asylum.
Federal Judge John Sirica orders President Nixon to comply with subpoenas from special prosecutor Leon Jaworski.
Mass for Solo Voice by Virgil Thomson (77) accompanied by orchestra is performed for the first time, at York Arts Center, York, England. See 3 October 1960.
21 May 1974 Former deputy director of the Committee to Re-elect the President Jeb Magruder is sentenced to from ten months to four years imprisonment for his role in the Watergate break-in and cover-up.
Erikhthon for piano and orchestra by Iannis Xenakis (51) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
22 May 1974 US President Nixon refuses to comply with two subpoenas from the House Judiciary Committee nor with any future subpoena dealing with Watergate.
24 May 1974 03:10 Edward Kennedy (Duke) Ellington dies in New York of pneumonia, a complication of lung cancer, aged 75 years and 25 days.
27 May 1974 Valéry Giscard d’Estaing becomes President of France, succeeding acting President Alain Emile Louis Marie Poher.
A funeral is held for Duke Ellington in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York. Upwards of 12,000 people attend, either in the church or outside. His earthly remains are buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.
28 May 1974 The Petroleum Association of Japan, twelve oil companies, and 17 oil company executives are indicted in Tokyo on charges of conspiracy to fix prices and control production.
Jacques René Chirac replaces Pierre Messmer as Prime Minister of France.
After two weeks of a general strike by Protestants, the new power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland collapses. Having achieved their goal, Protestants suspend the strike.
Seven people are killed, 94 injured by a bomb explosion at an anti-fascist rally in Brescia, Italy.
30 May 1974 Israel and Syria agree to disengage their forces on the Golan Heights, after a month of shuttle diplomacy by American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
The Judiciary Committee of the US House of Representatives informs President Nixon that his refusal to comply with their subpoenas might constitute grounds for impeachment. They issue another subpoena.
1 June 1974 An article entitled “Pop Goes the Café Coronary” by Jay Heimlich is published in Emergency Medicine magazine, describing his newly developed method of saving choking victims.
Music in Twelve Parts for instrumental ensemble by Philip Glass (37) is performed completely for the first time, in Town Hall, New York. The work is very successful, his first concert in a traditional concert hall.
2 June 1974 Andrei Sakharov begins a hunger strike for amnesty for political prisoners.
72 Chileans, including a former cabinet minister, are allowed to leave the Mexican embassy in Santiago and fly to Mexico.
3 June 1974 Yitzhak Rabin replaces Golda Meir as Prime Minister of Israel.
Charles Colson, a close aide to President Nixon, pleads guilty to one count of obstruction of justice for his role in tampering with the trial of Daniel Ellsberg. He will be sentenced to one-to-three years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
4 June 1974 Cambodian troops storm a high school in Phnom Penh where students are holding the Education Minister and his assistant hostage. The hostages and two students are killed. Eight people are wounded, around 100 arrested.
5 June 1974 As representatives of Israel and Syria sign specific disengagement agreements in Geneva, United Nations troops take up positions between their forces on the Golan Heights.
Exploratory talks begin in Lusaka between representatives of the new Portuguese government and the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO).
6 June 1974 The Los Angeles Times reports that indictments handed down by the Watergate grand jury in February named President Nixon as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Watergate cover-up.
8 June 1974 An American Requiem for five wind groups by Henry Brant (60) is performed for the first time, in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The composition is in response to the Watergate scandal.
9 June 1974 French Reform Minister Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber is sacked by Prime Minister Jacques Chirac after criticizing the resumption of French nuclear tests in the South Pacific.
The new government of Portugal establishes diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, broken in 1917.
10 June 1974 The three-month old government of Italian Prime Minister Mariano Rumor resigns over what to do about the economic crisis.
The Soviet embassy in Washington announces that Gennadi Rozhdestvensky and Sviatoslav Richter will be allowed out of the country for concert tours.
11 June 1974 Meetings of the Joint Military Commission between the Viet Cong and the Saigon government resume.
The Voice of Ariadne, an opera by Thea Musgrave (46) to words of Elguera after James, is performed for the first time, in Aldeburgh, Suffolk the composer conducting. The work is dedicated to Benjamin Britten (60) in honor of his sixtieth birthday.
12 June 1974 The National Ballet of Washington disbands.
13 June 1974 The Radio City Music Hall Ballet Company disbands.
Arab terrorists attack a kibbutz in northern Israel and kill three women. One of the attackers is killed by members of the kibbutz. The other three kill themselves with explosives.
The IRA bombing campaign resumes in Northern Ireland as four bombs explode in Belfast department stores.
14 June 1974 Presidents Sadat and Nixon sign an agreement in Cairo whereby the US will provide nuclear technology to Egypt for peaceful uses.
Ravelle for clarinet, violin, electric guitar, piano, and bass by Karlheinz Stockhausen (45) is performed for the first time, in Freiburg 23 years after it was composed.
15 June 1974 Ballet dancers Valery and Galina Panov arrive in Tel Aviv, having been allowed to leave the Soviet Union.
The US Supreme Court reveals the fact that a federal grand jury found that Richard Nixon was a member of the conspiracy to obstruct justice in the Watergate case.
Trois rencontres for string trio and orchestra by Betsy Jolas (47) is performed for the first time, in Strasbourg.
Witold Lutoslawski (61) receives an honorary doctorate from Northwestern University in Chicago.
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, two reporters for the Washington Post publish All the President’s Men, an expose of deceit and corruption within the Nixon administration during the Watergate cover-up.
16 June 1974 Presidents Assad and Nixon jointly announce in Damascus the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
17 June 1974 France explodes a nuclear device at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. China explodes a nuclear device in Sinkiang (Xinjiang) Province.
An IRA bomb explodes in the Houses of Parliament in London. Eleven people are injured.
Missa brevis for solo voices and chorus by Ned Rorem (50) is performed for the first time, in Cleveland.
18 June 1974 Israeli jets carry out three days of attacks on terrorist safe havens in southern Lebanon in retaliation for the attack on northern Israel on 13 June.
Gaston Thorn replaces Pierre Werner as Prime Minister of Luxembourg.
Eindrücke for orchestra by Luciano Berio (48) is performed for the first time, in Zürich.
19 June 1974 How now for eight instruments by Betsy Jolas (47) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
20 June 1974 Cendrées for chorus and orchestra by Iannis Xenakis (52) is performed for the first time, in Lisbon.
21 June 1974 A US federal judge rules that the Boston Public Schools are unconstitutionally segregated and orders the implementation of a state desegregation plan.
The House Judiciary Committee concludes its closed hearings on impeachment.
22 June 1974 North Vietnam and the Viet Cong withdraw from the Joint Military Commission and the Joint Military Team.
The new government of Portugal institutes severe press restrictions.
Darius Milhaud dies in Geneva, aged 81 years, nine months, and 18 days.
Ultimos ritos for vocal soloists, five speakers, chorus, brass, orchestra, and tape by John Tavener (30) is performed for the first time, in the Great Church of St. Bavo, Haarlem.
24 June 1974 Arab terrorists kill a woman and her two children in an apartment house in Nahariya, Israel. Israeli troops kill the terrorists. One Israeli soldier is killed.
Eight Arab terrorists are convicted in Khartoum of murdering three foreign diplomats at the Saudi Arabian embassy in March 1973. They are sentenced to life imprisonment.
The House Judiciary Committee issues four new subpoenas for 49 White House tapes.
25 June 1974 The eight Arab terrorists convicted of murder yesterday are freed by the government of Sudan. They are given to the PLO and flown to Cairo.
The French National Assembly lowers the voting age from 21 to 18.
American chemist Stephanie Kwolek receives a US patent for Kevlar®. It has been marketed by DuPont since 1971.
26 June 1974 The West German Bundesbank orders the liquidation of one of the largest banks in the country, Bankhaus ID Herstatt of Cologne, after heavy losses in foreign exchange trading.
Junta leader General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte takes sole power as President of Chile.
28 June 1974 Eight Arab terrorists flown to Cairo three days ago are arrested by Egyptian authorities.
Ethiopian troops loyal to Emperor Haile Selassie occupy the capital Addis Ababa and begin arresting important people.
The French National Assembly votes to allow minors with a prescription, to buy contraceptive pills.
Marcian Edward Hoff, Jr., Stanley Mazor, and Federico Faggin receive a US patent for a “memory system for a multi-chip digital computer”, the microprocessor.
29 June 1974 Soviet dancer Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov leaves the Kirov Ballet in Toronto and asks Canada for asylum. It will be granted.
30 June 1974 A-Ronne, a “radiophonic documentary” for eight actors by Luciano Berio (48) to words of Edoardo Sanguineti, is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of KRO originating in Hilversum, Netherlands.
1 July 1974 President Juan Perón of Argentina dies of a heart attack in Buenos Aires and is succeeded by his wife/vice-president, María Estela “Isabel” Martínez Cartas de Perón.
2 July 1974 The three American television networks are cut off when reporters, broadcasting from Moscow, begin discussing dissidents.
Soviet pianist Valery Pavlovich Afanassiev is granted political asylum by Belgium.
3 July 1974 Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and US President Richard Nixon sign a number of limited agreements on nuclear weapons, in a ceremony in Moscow. The two countries agree to limit all underground nuclear tests to 150 kilotons.
6 July 1974 The Italian government institutes a state of economic emergency and institutes high tax and price increases.
7 July 1974 West Germany defeats the Netherlands 2-1 in Munich to win the tenth FIFA World Cup™.
8 July 1974 Rudolf Kirchschläger replaces Bruno Kreisky as President of Austria.
Israeli seamen land at the Lebanese ports of Tyre (Sour), Saida and Ras a-Shak and destroy 30 vessels in retaliation for the Arab terrorist attack on Nahariya.
The US Supreme Court hears oral arguments in The United States v. Richard M. Nixon.
Voters in Canada return the Liberal Party of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to majority status. The Liberals increase their seat total by 32.
9 July 1974 Cambodian government troops recapture the old royal capital of Oudong, 30 km north of Phnom Penh.
Portuguese Prime Minister Adelino da Palma Carlos and four cabinet ministers resign after his plan for additional powers fails in cabinet.
The House Judiciary Committee releases transcripts of White House tapes at variance with those provided by the President in April.
Per la dolce memoria di quel giorno, a ballet by Luciano Berio (48) after Petrarca, to choreography by Béjart, is performed for the first time, in Florence.
10 July 1974 Arab oil producing nations agree to lift their embargo of oil shipped to the Netherlands after nine months.
The Italian Constitutional Court rules that a government ban on cable television is illegal.
11 July 1974 The House Judiciary Committee releases 4,133 pages of evidence they have amassed about the Watergate break-in and cover-up.
12 July 1974 Former domestic advisor to the President John Ehrlichman and three others are found guilty of conspiracy in the break-in of the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. He will be sentenced to 20 months to five years in prison.
13 July 1974 The special Watergate Committee of the US Senate issues its final report. It chronicles activities of the Nixon administration and his campaign committee which include illegal political information gathering, directing the IRS against its enemies, sabotage of opposition candidates, pressuring government agencies to work for the reelection of the President, illegal corporate campaign contributions, and selling ambassadorships.
14 July 1974 Reports from Bihar state in India say 10,000 to 30,000 people have died in a smallpox epidemic.
15 July 1974 Greek officers in the Cypriot army overthrow the government of Archbishop Makarios. The President flees to Malta. Nikos Sampson replaces Archbishop Makarios as President of Cyprus.
16 July 1974 The House Judiciary Committee releases a ninth volume of evidence. This one lays out White House attempts to use the Internal Revenue Service against its political foes.
President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing appoints a new Secretary of State for the Status of Women.
Folios for guitar by Toru Takemitsu (43) is performed for the first time, in Tokyo Metropolitan Festival Hall.
18 July 1974 Heavy fighting erupts around Da Nang, South Vietnam.
Vasco dos Santos Gonçalves replaces Adelino da Palma Carlos as Prime Minister of Portugal.
The House Judiciary Committee releases four more volumes of evidence about the undercover activities of the Nixon administration.
Etudes for flute by Isang Yun (56) is performed for the first time, in Kyoto.
19 July 1974 Hospitalized with phlebitis and internal bleeding, Generalissimo Francisco Franco of Spain delegates his authority to Prince Juan Carlos de Borbon.
20 July 1974 Death sentences imposed on Korean dissident poet Kim Chi Ha and four others are commuted to life in prison by the South Korean Defense minister.
Turkish forces invade Cyprus in response to the Greek coup. By the end of the day they are in control of a 15-km corridor from Kyrenia to Nicosia. The Greek armed forces are put on full mobilization.
22 July 1974 A UN-brokered cease-fire goes into effect on Cyprus. Fighting continues.
Prime Minister Endalkachew Makonnen is sacked by Emperor Haile Selassie five months after taking office. He is replaced by Michael Imru.
Spätlese, six songs for baritone and piano by Ernst Krenek (73) to his own words, is performed for the first time, in Munich the composer at the keyboard.
23 July 1974 Two different Palestinian groups battle each other in Beirut. 20 people are killed, 17 injured.
Because of their bungling of the Cyprus situation, the military regime in Greece announces it will turn the government back to civilian leadership. They resign and invite former Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis back from exile in Paris to take charge.
Glafkos Clerides replaces Nikos Sampson as President of Cyprus.
24 July 1974 Konstantinos Karamanlis returns to Athens from France and replaces Adamantios Androutsopoulos as Prime Minister of Greece. He heads the first civilian cabinet since 1967. All political prisoners are freed. Mikis Theodorakis (48) returns to Athens after four years of exile.
The House Judiciary Committee begins televised hearings on the impeachment of President Nixon.
In the case of United States of America v. Richard M. Nixon, the US Supreme Court unanimously orders President Nixon to turn over all relevant documents to Watergate prosecutors.
25 July 1974 Intermèdes symphonique for two pianos by Gabriel Fauré (†49) is performed for the first time, in Béziers, 105 years after it was composed.
26 July 1974 The new Greek government bans the military police from detaining and interrogating citizens.
27 July 1974 President António de Spinola announces that Portugal will quickly transfer power and independence to its African colonies.
The US House Judiciary Committee votes 27-11 to impeach President Nixon on the charge of obstruction of justice.
Signor Deluso, a comic opera by Thomas Pasatieri (28) to his own words after Molière, is performed for the first time, in Wolf Trap, Virginia.
28 July 1974 The French National Assembly approves a bill to split up the state owned broadcasting service, ORTF, into four separate competing units.
Psalm 124 for flute, bass clarinet, glockenspiel, marimba, guitar, violin, and cello by Peter Maxwell Davies (39) is performed for the first time, in Dartington, Devon directed by the composer.
29 July 1974 Communist troops capture seven Saigon government outposts around Thuong Duc, south of Da Nang. They shell Thuong Duc itself, causing heavy casualties.
Two days of fighting begin between militiamen of the Phalangist Party and Palestinian guerrillas outside Beirut.
The US House Judiciary Committee votes a second article of impeachment against President Nixon, charging he failed to carry out his oath to see that the nation’s laws are faithfully executed.
Four bishops of the Episcopal Church ordain eleven women to the priesthood in Philadelphia. All are breaking church law.
30 July 1974 Greece and Turkey, under the auspices of Great Britain, agree to a cease-fire on Cyprus.
The House Judiciary Committee votes a third article of impeachment against President Nixon charging he defied their subpoenas.
The Quebec National Assembly votes to make French the official language of the province.
President Nixon’s attorneys turn over tapes of 20 Oval Office conversations to a federal judge.
31 July 1974 Dark Angels, a cycle for mezzo-soprano and guitar by Peter Maxwell Davies (39) to words of Brown, is performed for the first time, in Dartington, Devon.
1 August 1974 The 1952 constitution of Greece is restored by the new government.
2 August 1974 A hand grenade intended for Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto goes of in the hand of the assailant, killing him. The incident, in Quetta, leaves Bhutto unhurt.
3 August 1974 The Penitentes, an opera by Thomas Pasatieri (28) to words of Bailey, is performed for the first time, in Aspen, Colorado.
4 August 1974 Khmer Rouge forces capture five government outposts within ten km of Phnom Penh.
Turkish troops force UN peacekeepers from the Dome Hotel in Kyrenia, Cyprus where 650 Greek Cypriots have gone for protection. The Turks then arrest all the men and force out the women and children. They do the same at Bellapais, where 1,500 are seeking refuge.
John Cage (61) reads the fourth lecture of his Empty Words at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado accompanied by projections of drawings by Henry David Thoreau. After about 20 minutes, audience members begin throwing objects and coming on stage to disrupt the proceedings with various sounds of their own choosing. Cage is protected from the crowd by a group including Allen Ginsberg. A debate between Cage and the audience then ensues.
5 August 1974 President Nixon admits he halted the FBI investigation into the Watergate break-in as little as six days after the incident, but says that he was fully justified in doing so. He releases transcripts of three Oval Office conversations which he “omitted” before.
6 August 1974 After the revelation of yesterday, only two members of the US House of Representatives publicly state that they will vote against impeachment. Ten members of the House Judiciary Committee who voted against impeachment now say they will vote for it.
8 August 1974 President Nixon announces that he will resign effective tomorrow, the first US president to do so.
Voyage for voice and orchestra by Elliott Carter (65) to words of Crane is performed for the first time, in Aspen, Colorado. See 16 March 1947.
9 August 1974 Fighting on Cyprus comes to a halt as negotiators from all sides meet in Geneva.
Gerald Rudolph Ford replaces Richard Milhous Nixon as President of the United States.
13 August 1974 The White House announces that the current ambassador to Greece, Henry Tasca, will be replaced. With the restoration of democracy, Tasca has been strongly criticized for his support of the fascist military dictatorship.
14 August 1974 Negotiations in Geneva between Greece, Turkey, Great Britain, and the Greek and Turkish Cypriots collapse. Within hours, Turkish forces in Cyprus renew their offensive. They cross the Green Line in Nicosia and also drive towards Famagusta. Three UN soldiers are killed, 20 injured in the fighting. Greece withdraws its troops from NATO, citing continued Turkish advances on Cyprus.
Als Jakob erwachte for orchestra and twelve ocarinas by Krzysztof Penderecki (40) is performed for the first time, in Monte Carlo for the 25th anniversary of the accession of Prince Ranier III.
15 August 1974 Mun Se Kwan fires pistol shots at South Korean President Park Chung Hee as he speaks in Seoul. The President is not injured but Mrs. Park and a 17-year-old girl are killed. President Park finishes his speech and then goes to the hospital to see his wife before she dies. The assailant is wounded by security guards and is captured.
Turkish forces capture Famagusta.
Prime Minister Karamanlis of Greece announces that his country will not send military forces to Cyprus.
Diplomatic relations are established between China and Brazil.
16 August 1974 Turkey declares a unilateral cease-fire on Cyprus. They control about 40% of the island from Famagusta to Lefka.
Leftist leader Andreas Papandreou returns to Athens from exile.
An orchestral suite from Leonard Bernstein’s (55) ballet Dybbuk is performed for the first time, in Auckland, New Zealand under the baton of the composer. See 16 May 1974.
17 August 1974 Magnificat for bass, boys choir, and orchestra by Krzysztof Penderecki (40) is performed for the first time, in Salzburg Cathedral.
Four works for orchestra by Charles Ives (†20), realized by Singleton, are performed for the first time, in West Redding, Connecticut: March: The Circus Band, Skit for Danbury Fair, Take-Off no.7: Mike Donlin-Johnny Evers, and Take-Off no.8: Willy Keeler at Bat. It is the centennial year of his birth.
18 August 1974 Fighting ends on Cyprus as Turkish forces move to consolidate their hold on a third of the island.
19 August 1974 Ambassador from the United States to Cyprus Rodger Davies is killed when shots are fired into the embassy during a demonstration by Greek Cypriots. An embassy secretary is also killed.
20 August 1974 US President Gerald Ford nominates Nelson Rockefeller to be Vice President.
21 August 1974 Von vorn herien for chamber orchestra by Ernst Krenek (73) is performed for the first time, in Salzburg.
24 August 1974 Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed replaces Varahagiri Venkata Giri as President of India.
Concierto de Aranjuez, transcribed for harp and orchestra by Joaquín Rodrigo (72), is performed for the first time, in Teatro Victoria Eugenia, San Sebastián.
25 August 1974 The Armed Forces Committee announces the nationalization of Jubilee Palace, the home of Emperor Haile Selassie in Addis Ababa, and all of the other real estate holdings of the Emperor.
26 August 1974 Cambodian government forces capture three of the Angkor Wat temples and a nearby town.
An agreement is signed in Algiers between the government of Portugal and the African Party for the Indepenence of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands. Guinea-Bissau will become independent on 10 September, all Portuguese troops will be removed by 31 October and a referendum will be held in Cape Verde to decide its future.
27 August 1974 Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is placed under virtual house arrest by the military.
28 August 1974 Geir Hallgrimsson replaces Olafur Johannesson as Prime Minister of Iceland.
A bomb planted by extreme leftists explodes in the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries building in Tokyo. Eight people are killed, 330 injured.
31 August 1974 Prime Minister Norman Kirk of New Zealand dies of a heart seizure in Wellington.
1 September 1974 Hugh Watt becomes acting Prime Minister of New Zealand.
2 September 1974 Generalissimo Francisco Franco resumes his powers delegated to Prince Juan Carlos de Borbon on 19 July.
3 September 1974 Morning. Harry Partch dies of a heart attack at his home in San Diego, aged 73 years, two months, and ten days. He is alone at the time. The body is discovered in the afternoon by Phil Keeney, a young friend of the composer. His mortal remains will be cremated and spread over the waters of the Pacific Ocean.
4 September 1974 The United States establishes diplomatic relations with East Germany.
6 September 1974 Wallace Rowling replaces Hugh Watt as Prime Minister of New Zealand.
Three Orchestral Songs op.9 by Paul Hindemith (†10) to words of Lotz and Lasker-Schüller are performed for the first time, in Frankfurt, 57 years after they were composed.
7 September 1974 The Indian Parliament votes to make Sikkim an “associate state”, an action which is virtually annexation.
Representatives of Portugal and the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique sign agreements in Lusaka. A joint Portuguese-FRELIMO government will rule Mozambique until next 25 June when full independence will be granted. Three days of violence begin in Lourenco Marques as whites attempt to sabotage the treaty.
8 September 1974 President Gerald Ford grants a full pardon to Richard Nixon for “any crimes he committed or may have committed” during his tenure as president.
The New York Times and the Washington Post report that the CIA, with the approval of President Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, spent millions of dollars to undermine the constitutionally elected government of President Salvador Allende Gossens of Chile.
9 September 1974 An anti-busing crowd in City Hall Plaza, Boston shouts down and attacks Senator Edward Kennedy. As he is hustled into the federal building named after his brother, the pressing crowd shatters the glass at the entrance.
10 September 1974 The Republic of Guinea-Bissau, under President Luis da Almeida Cabral and Prime Minister Francisco Mendès, is proclaimed independent of Portugal in a ceremony in Lisbon.
Orlando Letelier, Chilean ambassador to the US under President Allende, is released from prison by the military dictatorship and flown to exile in Venezuela.
12 September 1974 Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is overthrown by his military. Asfa Wossen is named head of state. Aman Mikael Andom is the head of the Provisional Military Council.
79 public schools in Boston accomplish the first day of court-ordered desegregation peacefully. One does not. A mob of angry whites hurl rocks and bottles at buses approaching South Boston High School. Police move in to disperse them, sometimes forcefully. Battles continue all day. Only 216 of 1,900 students appear for classes at South Boston High and its annex. Almost none of the white students ordered bused to a predominantly Black high school in Roxbury report for classes. This scenario is repeated for two more days.
13 September 1974 Three members of the Japanese Red Army take eleven hostages at the French embassy in The Hague. They demand $1,000,000 and the release of one of their comrades in a French prison. France flies the prisoner to Amsterdam airport.
14 September 1974 American astronomer Charles T. Kowal discovers Leda, the thirteenth moon of Jupiter to be observed from Earth, from three nights of photographs (11-13 September) taken at Mount Palomar Observatory, California.
15 September 1974 France conducts its last atmospheric nuclear weapons test, at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific.
An unofficial display of art works in Moscow is destroyed by authorities using bulldozers, dump trucks, and water canons.
A transitional government for Mozambique, made up of both FRELIMO and Portuguese elements, takes power.
16 September 1974 Japanese Red Army terrorists release two of their hostages at the French embassy in The Hague.
US President Ford offers clemency to 28,000 men who refused to fight in Vietnam. They must perform two years of alternative service.
Charges against two leaders of the American Indian Movement are dismissed by a federal judge. The indictment comes from the occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973. The judge severely criticizes the government’s handling of the case.
17 September 1974 Japanese Red Army terrorists release their hostages in return for a flight for them and their released colleague from Amsterdam to Damascus.
The Republic of Bangladesh, Grenada, and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau are admitted to the United Nations.
18 September 1974 After landing in Damascus, four Japanese Red Army terrorists surrender to the PLO. Syria promises them safe conduct to any country of their choice.
Nach Bergamo--Zur Heimat for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, viola, and cello by Peter Maxwell Davies (40) is performed for the first time, in Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.
19 September 1974 Hurricane Fifi hits Honduras killing over 8,000 people and leaving 100,000 homeless.
Police are called in to Hyde Park High School in Boston to break up battles between White and Black students. Shots are fired at the front door of Jamaica Plain High School. Police battle a crowd of 500 whites attempting to enter South Boston High.
20 September 1974 Joaquim Chissano of FRELIMO is sworn in as Prime Minister of the transitional government of Mozambique.
The New York Times reports that the CIA directly funded anti-Allende strikes in Chile in 1972 and 1973.
21 September 1974 Antikhthon, a ballet by Iannis Xenakis (52), is performed for the first time, in Bonn.
25 September 1974 Sun Music for Film, a film about the creation of Peter Sculthorpe’s (45) The Song of Talitnama, is aired by the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
The conviction of Lt. William Calley for war crimes is overturned by a United States district judge in Columbus, Georgia. This means that no one stands convicted of the murder of hundreds of civilians at My Lai in 1968 and the subsequent army cover-up.
27 September 1974 Rites of Passage, a theatre piece by Peter Sculthorpe (45) to his own words after several sources, is performed for the first time, in the Sydney Opera House.
28 September 1974 Score (40 Drawings by Thoreau) and 23 Parts for any instruments by John Cage (62) is performed for the first time, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
30 September 1974 Francisco da Costa Gomes replaces Antônio Sebastião Ribeiro de Spínola as President of Portugal. Costa Gomes favors immediate decolonization.
Carlos Prats Gonazalez, commander of the Chilean army under President Allende, and his wife are killed by a bomb in Buenos Aires.
Between 1,000 and 2,000 people have died in an outbreak of meningitis in São Paulo.
1 October 1974 The first McDonald’s fast food restaurant in Great Britain opens in Woolwich, London.
Prelude for a Great Occasion for brass and percussion by William Schuman (64) is performed for the first time, in Washington for the opening of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden of the Smithsonian.
2 October 1974 The Australian government announces that due to high unemployment, immigration is temporarily suspended.
3 October 1974 The Mexican government institutes price controls over a wide range of products.
4 October 1974 Communist forces capture Chuong Nghia in the Central Highlands, South Vietnam, opening a supply corridor.
Anne Sexton kills herself by sitting in a running car in her garage in Weston , Massachusetts. She is 45 years old.
35 patrons of a bar in a poor white district of Boston fight off police who attempt to arrest one of them for throwing a brick through their windshield.
Parable XIII op.126 for clarinet by Vincent Persichetti (59) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
5 October 1974 Boston Police in riot gear, their badge numbers covered with black tape, attack the bar which was the scene of last night’s incident. They cause numerous incidents and destroy the contents of the bar.
6 October 1974 A bomb explodes in a bar in Guildford, south of London. Five people are killed, 65 injured.
7 October 1974 A new constitution for East Germany goes into effect. It drops any reference to German reunification.
A Haitian immigrant driving through a White district in Boston is dragged from his car and beaten with blunt instruments. He is saved by police.
8 October 1974 Fights break out between black and white students at Boston English High. Blacks begin throwing rocks at cars with Whites inside. 1,500 blacks move up Tremont Street breaking windows. Police move in to disperse them and battles ensue.
9 October 1974 Israeli troops prevent about 5,000 Israelis from creating an illegal settlement in the West Bank.
The Greek government ends martial law, except in areas adjacent to Turkey.
Violence increases in Roxbury, a black district of Boston. Police battle groups of blacks. White motorists are beaten.
10 October 1974 Italian police arrest eight people in connection with a coup plot in 1970.
National elections in Great Britain, the second in six months, result in a majority for the Labour Party. They have been ruling as a minority government since March.
The first concert by Mikis Theodorakis (49) in Greece in seven years takes place.
Heralds II for three trumpets by Ulysses Kay (57) is performed for the first time, in New York.
11 October 1974 Space Play for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello, and double bass by Thea Musgrave (46) is performed for the first time, in Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.
14 October 1974 The UN General Assembly invites the Palestine Liberation Organization to participate in an upcoming debate on the Middle East.
15 October 1974 Three days of rioting by IRA members erupts at Maze Prison in Northern Ireland. Extensive fires are set by prisoners.
Ethiopian warplanes begin an offensive against Eritrean rebels.
A black student stabs a white student at Hyde Park High School in Boston precipitating a general racial melee. Police are called in to quiet the situation. Massachusetts Governor Francis Sargent calls out the National Guard but President Ford refuses his call for federal troops.
Lumen in Christo for chorus and orchestra by Howard Hanson (77) is performed for the first time, at Nazareth College of Rochester, New York.
16 October 1974 Women prisoners riot in prisons in Londonderry and Belfast. Barricades go up and Catholics clash with police throughout Northern Ireland in sympathy.
Noomena for large orchestra by Iannis Xenakis (52) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
18 October 1974 Vortrag über Hu no.38 1/2, introductory lecture to Inori by Karlheinz Stockhausen (46) is performed for the first time, in Donaueschingen the composer conducting.
Lord God, Thy Sea is Mighty for chorus and organ by Charles Ives (†20) is performed for the first time, in Hunter College Playhouse, New York two days before the centennial of his birth.
20 October 1974 Anti-government protesters throwing stones attack the National Assembly building in Saigon.
Inori no.38 for one or two soloists and orchestra by Karlheinz Stockhausen (46) is performed for the first time, in Donaueschingen. Also premiered is Points on the curve to find... for piano and 22 instruments by Luciano Berio (48).
Brass Quintet by Elliott Carter (65) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC originating in London. See 15 November 1974.
Tristan for piano, orchestra, and tape by Hans Werner Henze (48) is performed for the first time, in London.
Johnny Poe for male chorus and orchestra by Charles Ives (†20) to words of Low is performed for the first time, in Gusman Philharmonic Hall, Miami on the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The work was composed in 1925.
Matthew Arnold from Set no.4 for small orchestra by Charles Ives (†20), realized by Kirkpatrick, is performed for the first time, in Woolsey Hall at Yale University on the 100th anniversary of the birth of the composer.
To Be Sung Upon the Water, barcaroles and nocturnes for high voice, clarinet, bass clarinet, and piano by Dominick Argento (46) to words of Wordsworth, is performed for the first time, at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
21 October 1974 Race riots break out in Lourenco Marques, Mozambique. 49 people are killed and 150 injured.
Several works by Charles Ives (†20) are performed for the first time, in Sprague Hall, Yale University, one day after the centennial of his birth: Sneak Thief for unison chorus, trumpet, and piano four-hands to words of the composer, The Boys in Blue for male chorus, the Ragtime Dances nos.2 and 4, A Song of Mory’s for chorus to words of Merrill, the incomplete March no.3 in F and C, March no.4 in F and C; and Prelude on Eventide for baritone/trombone, two violins/echo organ, and organ. Also premiered today are four of Ives’ works for organ: Canzonetta in F, Fugue in c minor, Fugue in E flat and Interludes for Hymns, in Center Church on the Green, New Haven, Connecticut.
22 October 1974 The Brazilian Health Ministry reports that over 2,000 people have died from the current epidemic of meningitis.
23 October 1974 Georgios Papadopoulos and four other leaders of the conservative military dictatorship which ruled Greece for seven years are arrested and exiled to the island of Kea.
24 October 1974 While on a concert tour, David Oistrakh dies in Amsterdam at the age of 65.
25 October 1974 Yekaterina Alekseyevna Furtseva, Minister of Culture for the USSR, dies in Moscow at the age of 63.
String Quartet no.15 by Dmitri Shostakovich (68) is performed for the first time, privately at the Leningrad Composers’ Club. See 15 November 1974.
A three-day meeting of 20 Arab heads of state ends in Rabat, Morocco. They approve a resolution naming the Palestine Liberation Organization as the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.” They call for an Arab state on “any Palestinian land liberated from Israeli occupation.”
31 October 1974 Over 90 people are injured in battles between police and anti-government protesters in Saigon.
Vito Miceli, head of the Italian military secret service, is arrested in Rome on charges of plotting a coup.
1 November 1974 Kraftwerk releases its album Autobahn.
3 November 1974 Chaconne for Winds op.34 by Alexander Goehr (40) is performed for the first time, at the University of Leeds, conducted by Pierre Boulez (49).
5 November 1974 Six days of rioting begins in Luanda, begun by members of the MPLA. An estimated 100 people are killed, 200 injured.
The opposition Democratic Party trounces the Republican Party of President Gerald Ford in Congressional elections in the United States. They gain three seats in the Senate and 49 in the House of Representatives. Many see this as a reaction to the Watergate debacle.
6 November 1974 In response to widespread political assassinations and terrorism, the government of Argentina places the country under a state of siege. Human rights are suspended.
8 November 1974 Lt. William Calley, convicted of killing 22 unarmed civilians at My Lai in 1968, is paroled after serving one-third of his ten-year prison sentence.
10 November 1974 Gunter von Drenkman, President of West Berlin’s high court, is shot to death by members of the Red Army Faction.
Six Grand Pianos Bash Plus Friends for trumpet, trombone, three piccolos, six grand pianos, and percussion by Henry Brant (61) is performed for the first time, in New York.
12 November 1974 The UN General Assembly votes 91-22-19 to suspend South Africa from its sessions.
Makrokosmos (Volume II) for amplified piano by George Crumb (45) is performed for the first time, in Alice Tully Hall, New York. See 12 June 1980.
13 November 1974 The film Tabuh Tabuhan: Peter Sculthorpe in Bali, about Sculthorpe’s (45) use of Balinese musical materials, is aired by the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
General George Brown, Chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s top military leader, apologizes for remarks he recently made claiming that Jews have undo influence over financial and media institutions.
Karen Silkwood, a technician at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Nuclear Facility in Crescent, Oklahoma, dies in an automobile accident. She is on her way to meet union officials and a New York Times reporter with proof that the company has failed to protect workers from radiation. Union officials charge that the accident was caused when Ms. Silkwood’s car was struck from behind by another car.
14 November 1974 Pyotr Nikolayevich Demichev replaces Yekaterina Alekseyevna Furtseva as Minister of Culture of the USSR.
Hervorgedunkelt, a cycle for mezzo-soprano and seven players by Wolfgang Rihm (22) to words of Celan, is performed for the first time, in Karlsruhe.
15 November 1974 String Quartet no.15 by Dmitri Shostakovich (68) is performed publicly for the first time, in Glinka Concert Hall, Leningrad. See 25 October 1974.
Three works for piano by Gabriel Fauré (†50) are performed for the first time, 105 years after they were composed, over the airwaves of Paris Radio: Gavotte in c# minor, Fugue in e minor op.84/6, and a Prelude in e minor.
Lyric Pieces op.35 for winds and double bass by Alexander Goehr (40) is performed for the first time, in London.
Brass Quintet by Elliott Carter (65) is performed in concert for the first time, in Coolidge Auditorium, Washington. See 20 October 1974.
A Bayou Legend, an opera by William Grant Still (79) to words of his wife, Verna Arvey, is performed for the first time, in Municipal Auditorium, Jackson, Mississippi 33 years after it was composed.
16 November 1974 Thousands of Arabs riot for four days in three West Bank towns, throwing rocks at Israeli troops. One person is killed, dozens injured.
Ballet Suite no.1 by Dmitri Shostakovich (68) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC, at least 20 years after it was composed.
17 November 1974 Mahmut Sadi Irmak replaces Mustafa Bülent Ecevit as Prime Minister of Turkey, thus ending a two-month government crisis. He will serve until elections are held.
Mengistu Haile Mariam replaces Aman Mikael Andom as Chairman of the Military Council of Ethiopia.
In the first free Greek elections since the 1967 coup, the conservative New Democracy Party of Konstaninos Karamanlis is victorious. Mikis Theodorakis (49) is defeated in his run for Parliament.
President Erskine Childers of Ireland dies in Dublin one day after suffering a heart attack. He is replaced by a three-man Presidential Commission.
Garden Rain for brass ensemble by Toru Takemitsu (44) is performed for the first time, in Nissei Theatre, Tokyo.
John Tavener (30) marries Victoria Maragopoulou, a Greek dancer, daughter of a doctor, in the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in London.
Metamorphosis/Dance op.36 for orchestra by Alexander Goehr (42) is performed for the first time, in Royal Festival Hall, London.
18 November 1974 Two lawyers who defended political prisoners are found shot to death in Santa Fe Province, Argentina after they were arrested.
Do Not Go Gentle op.132 for organ pedals alone by Vincent Persichetti (59) is performed for the first time, in Boston.
19 November 1974 Three Arab terrorists enter an apartment building in Beit Shean, Israel and kill four people before they are shot to death by Israeli security forces.
Hundreds of thousands of French workers participate in a one-day general strike to protest the austerity measures of President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.
20 November 1974 Des canyons aux étoiles... for piano, 23 winds, seven percussionists, and 13 strings by Olivier Messiaen (65), composed for the bicentennial of the United States and inspired by Brice Canyon, Utah, is performed for the first time, in Alice Tully Hall, New York.
21 November 1974 After his party wins a sizeable majority of parliamentary seats in elections 17 November, Konstantinos Karamanlis forms the first constitutional government in Greece since 1967.
Bombs explode in two pubs in Birmingham killing 21 people and injuring 182. The IRA denies responsibility.
The United States Senate votes 65-27 to override President Ford’s veto of the Freedom of Information Act. Because of a similar override vote in the House of Representatives yesterday, the bill becomes law.
Symphony no.8 by Peter Mennin (51) is performed for the first time, in New York.
22 November 1974 A British Airways flight from London to Brunei is commandeered on the ground at Dubai by Arab terrorists. A flight attendant is shot and brought to Dubai hospital. They force the plane to fly to Tunis with 47 hostages where they demand the release of 13 of their comrades held by Egypt. Four hostages are allowed to leave.
The United Nations General Assembly grants observer status to the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Quattro for two trumpets and two trombones by Sofia Gubaidulina (43) is performed for the first time, in Moscow.
Gitimalya for marimba and orchestra by Toru Takemitsu (44) is performed for the first time, in Rotterdam.
Enivrez-vous, “concerts spontanés et dansés” by Pierre Henry (46) and Carolyn Carlson is performed for the first time, tonight and tomorrow night at Sigma 9 de Bordeaux.
23 November 1974 Egypt and the Netherlands release seven convicted Arab terrorists and fly them to Tunis. Hijackers of the British Airways plane release 13 hostages. However, they kill a West German hostage in public view.
The military government of Ethiopia executes 60 former high officials including two prime ministers and a grandson of Emperor Haile Selassie.
Aldo Moro replaces Mariano Rumor as Prime Minister of Italy.
Dança dos mosquitos for orchestra by Heitor Villa-Lobos (†15) is performed for the first time, in the Teatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro, 52 years after it was composed.
24 November 1974 After two days of meetings in Vladivostok, Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and US President Gerald Ford reach preliminary agreement to limit the number of nuclear weapons and delivery systems, including multiple warheads (MIRV).
American anthropologists Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discover the remains of AL 288-1, a female Australopithecus afarensis, near Hadar, Ethiopia, whom they call Lucy. Over the next three weeks, their team, which includes French geologist Maurice Taieb and French paleontologist Yves Coppens, unearth almost half of a complete skeleton estimated to be 3,200,000 years old. The skeleton shows aspects of both human and ape characteristics.
Despite denials by the IRA, six men from Northern Ireland are charged with the Birmingham pub bombings of 21 November.
25 November 1974 Arab terrorists release most of their remaining hostages in Tunis. They threaten to blow up the plane and three crewmen unless they are given asylum. Tunisia agrees to their demands and they surrender.
Former UN Secretary General U Thant dies of cancer in New York at the age of 65.
Barcarolle monégasque op.149/4 for piano by Charles Koechlin (†23) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of Radio France-Musique, 39 years after it was composed.
26 November 1974 Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka of Japan resigns amidst widespread accusations that he has accumulated a vast fortune during his public service.
In agreements signed today in Algiers, Portugal promises the independence of São Tomé e Príncipe next 12 July.
Having left his wife in May, Cornelius Cardew (38) moves in with Sheila Muir Kasabova, a picture researcher in the publishing industry, in London.
Former Chilean Senator Renan Fuentealba is exiled to Peru after he called for a restoration of human rights in the country.
27 November 1974 Two bombs explode in London injuring six people.
JS Bach: Prelude and Fugue in C sharp Major for flute, clarinet, harpsichord, marimba, viola, and cello by Peter Maxwell Davies (40) is performed for the first time, in Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.
28 November 1974 Tafari Benti replaces Mengistu Haile Mariam as Chairman of the Military Council of Ethiopia.
29 November 1974 Ulrike Meinhof is sentenced by a West Berlin court to eight years in prison for helping Andreas Baader escape from jail in 1970. An accomplice is given two years.
The National Assembly of France votes to grant the right to abortion in the first ten weeks of pregnancy.
The British Parliament passes the Prevention of Terrorism Act to deal with recent bombings. It outlaws various organizations, including the Irish Republican Army, excludes anyone suspected by the government of supporting terrorism from the country, and allows for arrest without warrant and detention for up to five days without charge anyone suspected by a law officer of supporting terrorism.
Two bombs explode in Catholic pubs in Newry and Crossmaglen. 58 people are injured.
The UN Security Council votes to extend the Disengagement Observer Force on the Golan Heights.
Little Concerto for percussion and strings by Karl Amadeus Hartmann (†10) is performed publicly for the first time, in Brunswick.
Concerto on Old English Rounds for viola, female chorus, and orchestra by William Schuman (64) is performed for the first time, in Boston.
30 November 1974 Normal trade relations are resumed between India and Pakistan.
1 December 1974 Anton Bruckner’s (†78) Mass “Kronstorfer” is performed for the first time, at St. Florian, 90 years after it was composed.
Anastasio Somoza Debayle once again takes power in Nicaragua.
2 December 1974 The EEC resumes its association with Greece, broken after the military coup of 1967.
The US space probe Pioneer 11 approaches to within 42,800 km of Jupiter, exploring the planet’s south polar region.
4 December 1974 An investigating team from the OAS files a 175-page report citing “extremely serious violations of human rights” by the US-backed military dictatorship in Chile. The team, which visited Chile for twelve days in July, accuses the military of widespread torture of political prisoners.
After police are removed from South Boston High School, racial battles ensue for a week.
5 December 1974 The bodies of six leftists are found in Buenos Aires, killed by conservative death squads.
6 December 1974 Major fighting breaks out in the Mekong Delta over the winter rice crop.
The bodies of six more leftists are found in Buenos Aires, killed by conservative death squads.
Piano Concerto no.2 for amplified piano and orchestra by Charles Wuorinen (36) is performed for the first time, in New York.
7 December 1974 Archbishop Makarios returns to Cyprus to a tumultuous welcome.
Voix premières, a “cantate radiophonique” by Betsy Jolas (48), is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of RTF.
8 December 1974 Greek voters abolish the monarchy in favor of a republic by more than 2-1.
9 December 1974 Takeo Miki replaces Kakuei Tanaka as Prime Minister of Japan.
The Greek Parliament meets for the first time since the 1967 coup.
Suite for violin with American gamelan by Lou Harrison (57) is performed for the first time, at Lone Mountain College, San Francisco.
10 December 1974 Rockets are fired into three PLO offices in Beirut causing extensive damage and injuring five people.
At the Nobel ceremony in Stockholm, Alyeksandr Solzhenitsyn receives his 1970 award.
Pianississimo for piano by Donald Martino (43) is performed for the first time, at the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston.
11 December 1974 Arab terrorists throw hand grenades into a movie theatre in Tel Aviv. Two Israelis and one terrorist are killed, 54 people are injured.
The British House of Commons soundly defeats a bill to introduce the death penalty for acts of terrorism.
After a white student is stabbed by a black student in South Boston High, white students flee the building, spreading the rumor that the white student is dead. About 2,000 enraged whites fill the streets and surround police surrounding the school. Police repeatedly charge the crowd who flee and reform. Finally, decoy buses are brought to the front of the school while authorities spirit 135 trapped black students out a side door. 25 people are hospitalized, three arrested. South Boston High is closed for the rest of the semester.
13 December 1974 Duo for cello and piano by Walter Piston (80) is performed for the first time, at the Library of Congress, Washington.
14 December 1974 Communist forces capture Duc Phong, 110 km northeast of Saigon.
Konstantinos Georgiou Karamanlis replaces Phaedon Dimitriou Ghizikis as President of Greece.
Le Monde publishes a letter from hundreds of the world’s leading scientists, artists, and other intellectuals, including 19 Nobel laureates, announcing that they will no longer take part in programs of UNESCO until it reverses its recent decisions against Israel. They claim UNESCO has been compromised and politicized.
17 December 1974 Three bombs explode outside of telephone exchanges in London. One person is killed.
18 December 1974 Michail Dimitriou Stasinopoulos replaces Konstantinos Georgiou Karamanlis as President of Greece.
Two bombs explode in Bristol, inuring 17 people.
The Portuguese government announces that it will grant independence to Cape Verde next July.
Glad and Very op.129 for chorus and piano by Vincent Persichetti (59), to words of Cummings, is performed for the first time, in Huntingdon, New York.
19 December 1974 Cearbhall O’Dálaigh becomes President of Ireland, replacing Erskine Childers who died 17 November.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the last independent companies in Algieria have been nationalized.
Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice-President of the United States, filling the vacancy left by Gerald Ford’s accession to the presidency.
20 December 1974 A bomb planted in the center of Jerusalem by Arab terrorists injures 13 people.
The French National Assembly approves a major liberalization of abortion in the country. Some deputies file suit, saying it is unconstitutional.
The military council ruling Ethiopia announces that the country will become a socialist one-party state, including nationalization of industry and collectivization of agriculture.
Adagio for piano by Silvestre Revueltas (†34) is performed for the first time, at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música, Mexcio City 56 years after it was composed.
21 December 1974 Portugal grants autonomy to São Tomé and Príncipe.
The New York Times reports that the Central Intelligence Agency kept files on at least 10,000 American citizens and conducted a “massive illegal domestic intelligence operation during the Nixon administration against the antiwar movement and other dissident groups.”
Cello Suite no.3 by Benjamin Britten (61) is performed for the first time, at Snape Maltings.
22 December 1974 Communist forces capture Bu Doc, 110 km north of Saigon.
An Arab terrorist throws a hand grenade at a group of Christian pilgrims at al Ayzariyah east of Jerusalem. A 16-year-old girl loses her leg.
Leftists, fascists, and police battle in the streets of Rome. Three policemen are injured by gunfire.
95% of the voters participating in a referendum in the Comoro Islands vote for independence from France.
23 December 1974 Suite on Verses of Michelangelo op.145, a cycle for bass and piano by Dmitri Shostakovich (68) to words translated by Efros, is performed for the first time, in Glinka Concert Hall, Leningrad. It is a great success with the public.
25 December 1974 Communist forces capture Tanh Linh, 110 km northeast of Saigon.
28 December 1974 President Muhammadullah of Bangladesh declares a state of emergency and suspends the constitution in the face of increasing political violence.
An earthquake in Pakistan kills over 5,000 people.
31 December 1974 The Times of London reports that Libya has ended its embargo on oil sales to the United States, without official announcement.
©2004-2012 Paul Scharfenberger
23 November 2012
Last Updated (Friday, 23 November 2012 07:29)