1974

1950–1980	UK [television]	Watch With Mother, a series for young children featuring favourite characters such as Andy Pandy, the Flowerpot Men, Rag, Tag, and Bobtail, and the Woodentops, is shown on British television.
October 1969 - December 1974	UK [television]	Monty Python's Flying Circus, an anarchic comedy sketch show starring John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, and Terry Gilliam, is shown on British television.
1970–1979	USA [statistics and demography]	There are over 4 million immigrants to the USA in the period 1970–79, coming mainly from Asia and the Americas.
1970–1979	USA [statistics and demography]	The number of one-parent families in the USA increases 79%, representing one in five of all families.
1971–1978	USA, North America, Asia, Europe, South America, Africa [statistics and demography]	Immigration patterns in the USA: 38% from North America (Mexico, Caribbean); 35% from Asia; 19% from Europe; 6% from South America; and 2% from Africa.
14 May 1973 - 8 February 1974	USA [space exploration]	The USA launches the Skylab space station. It contains a workshop for carrying out experiments in weightlessness. It is visited by three three-person crews and astronauts make observations of the Sun, manufacture superconductors, and conduct other scientific and medical experiments. The third mission lasts a record 84 days and gathers data about long space flights.
1974	UK [statistics and demography]	Social and educational composition of the British Cabinet in a Labour government: aristocrats 1; middle class 16; working class 4; attendance at public school 7 (none at Eton); attendance at University 16 (including 11 at Oxford or Cambridge).
1974	Japan, France, Australia, Denmark, Germany, UK [women's rights]	Women's pay as a percentage of men's pay is 53.9% in Japan; 86.7% in France; 80.1% in Australia; 77% in Denmark; 69.9% in Germany; and 60.7% in the UK.
1974	USA [anthropology]	US anthropologists Donald Johanson and Maurice Taieb discover the 3.2 million-years-old remains of ‘Lucy’, an adult female hominid classified as Australopithecus afarensis, at Hadar in Ethiopia. About 40% of her skeleton is found and it indicates that she was bipedal.
1974	England [astronomy]	English physicist Stephen Hawking suggests that ‘black holes aren't black’ – they ‘evaporate’ by emitting subatomic particles.
1974	USA [cinema and film]	The film Godfather Part II is released in the USA. It is directed by Francis Ford Coppola and stars Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. The film will win a number of Academy Awards, including best picture, best directing, best adapted screenplay, and best musical score.
1974	France [cinema and film]	The film Emmanuelle, directed by Just Jaeckin, is released in France, at the Triomphe cinema on the Champs-Elysées in Paris. A very successful soft-porn film, it stars Sylvia Kristel, Marika Green, and Daniel Sarky. It will run for a record-breaking 11 years.
1974	USA [civil rights]	The US Equal Opportunity Act forbids discrimination on the grounds of marital status or sex.
1974	USA [computing]	The US firm Hewlett Packard introduces the first programmable pocket calculator.
1974	USA [computing]	US technician David Ahl develops the first microcomputer; it includes a central processing unit, television screen, and keyboard. It arouses little interest.
1974	USA [computing]	The first word processors are introduced by the Xerox corporation.
1974	world [ecology]	Mexican chemist Mario Molina and US chemist F Sherwood Rowland warn that the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used in refrigerators and as aerosol propellants may be damaging the atmosphere's ozone layer that filters out much of the Sun's ultraviolet radiation, and that they could persist in the stratosphere for decades.
1974	USA [energy]	The energy crisis induced by the oil embargo in the Middle East means that Daylight Savings Time is observed all year round in the USA to save fuel.
1974	UK [everyday life]	For the first time, New Year's Day is a public holiday in England and Wales.
1974	USA [painting]	The US artist R B Kitaj paints Arcades (after Walter Benjamin).
1974	France [philosophy]	French philosopher Louis Althusser publishes Eléments d'autocritique/Essays in Self-Criticism.
1974	Italy [plays]	The play Non si page! Non si page!/Can't Pay, Won't Pay, by the Italian writer and actor Dario Fo, is first performed, in Italy. Fo soon gains an international reputation.
1974	UK [plays]	The play Travesties, by the English writer Tom Stoppard, is first performed, at the Aldwych Theatre in London, England.
1974	Sweden [popular music]	The Swedish pop group Abba wins the Eurovision Song Contest with ‘Waterloo’ and shoots to international stardom.
11 January 1974	South Africa [everyday life]	Sue Rosenkowitz becomes the first woman to give birth to surviving sextuplets, three boys and three girls, in Cape Town, South Africa.
15 January 1974 - 12 July 1984	USA [television]	The situation comedy Happy Days, about family life in the 1950s, premiers on US television and runs for 11 seasons.
31 January 1974	USA [births and deaths]	Samuel Goldwyn, US pioneer Hollywood film-maker and producer, one of the founders of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), dies in Los Angeles, California (91).
7 February 1974	Grenada [decolonization]	The Caribbean island of Grenada becomes independent within the Commonwealth.
22 February 1974	Pakistan, Bangladesh [diplomacy]	Pakistan recognizes Bangladesh as an independent nation at the start of the Islamic summit conference in Lahore, Pakistan.
27 February 1974	Sweden [political parties]	A new constitution is introduced in Sweden, which strips the monarchy of all its remaining powers.
March 1974	China [archaeology]	A ‘terracotta army’ consisting of over 6,000 life-size model soldiers is discovered in the Qin dynasty tomb near Xian in central China; they guard the tomb of China's first emperor, Shi Huangdi.
5 March 1974	UK [political parties]	Harold Wilson forms a minority Labour government in Britain, with James Callaghan as foreign secretary, Denis Healey as chancellor of the Exchequer, Roy Jenkins as home secretary, and Michael Foot as employment secretary.
11 March 1974	UK [industrial relations]	The state of emergency ends in Britain when the miners accept a pay deal giving them rises of £6 to £15 a week.
April 1974	USA [computing]	Intel introduces the 8-bit 8080 microprocessor; it has 5,000 transistors.
1 April 1974	UK [family planning]	Free contraception is made universally available on the National Health Service in Britain.
25 April - 26 April 1974	Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Portuguese Guinea [political events]	General Antônio Ribeiro de Spínola leads a successful coup in Portugal. On 26 April, the junta vows to dismantle the authoritarian state and end the wars in Angola, Mozambique, and Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau).
18 May 1974	India [political events]	An atomic bomb test makes India the world's sixth nuclear power.
19 May 1974	Northern Ireland [work and unemployment]	A Protestant general strike begins in Northern Ireland against the power-sharing executive created by the Sunningdale Agreement of 9 December 1973.
28 May 1974	Northern Ireland [political events]	The Northern Ireland Executive collapses when all the Unionist members resign. On 29 May, Britain reimposes direct rule and the general strike ends.
31 May 1974	Syria, Israel, USA [diplomacy]	The US secretary of state Henry Kissinger secures an agreement between Syria and Israel to disengage forces on the Golan Heights.
June - October 1974	Belgium, France, Italy [cycling]	The Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx becomes the first rider to win the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia, and the world professional road race in the same season.
4 June 1974	USA [baseball]	The US baseball player Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves breaks Babe Ruth's record of 714 home runs in all major league competition.
26 June 1974	USA [technology]	The first product barcode (on a pack of Wrigley's chewing gum) is scanned at the checkout of the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
15 July 1974	Cyprus [political events]	The Cypriot National Guard, with Greek support, overthrows President Makarios of Cyprus and installs Nicos Sampson, a former National Organization of Cypriot Combatants (EOKA) terrorist, in his place.
20 July - 22 July 1974	Cyprus, Turkey [political events]	Turkey invades Cyprus, claiming right of intervention under the 1960 treaty which sets Turkey as a guarantor, along with Greece and Britain, of the Cypriot constitution. A ceasefire follows on 22 July.
23 July - 24 July 1974	Greece [political events]	The Greek military government resigns. On 24 July, the former prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis returns from exile in France to form a civilian administration.
29 July - 7 October 1974	USA [Christianity]	Eleven women are ordained Episcopal ministers in the US. The ordinations are invalidated by the Episcopal House of Bishops on August 15, though the body endorses the principle of ordaining women on October 17.
5 August 1974	USA [law and government]	The US president Richard Nixon admits complicity in the Watergate cover-up (concerning the attempted bugging of the opposition Democratic Party's campaign headquarters).
9 August 1974	USA [law and government]	The US president Richard Nixon resigns to avoid impeachment because of his involvement in the Watergate affair, and Gerald Ford becomes the 38th president of the USA.
12 August - 14 August 1974	Turkey [political events]	Turkey issues a 24-hour ultimatum demanding the creation of autonomous Turkish cantons in Cyprus. On 14 August, Turkish forces resume their offensive having turned down appeals by Greek foreign minister George Manos and Cypriot president Nicos Sampson to consult their governments.
14 August 1974	Greece, Turkey [political events]	Greece withdraws its armed forces from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in protest at its failure to oppose the Turkish ‘menace to world peace’ following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
16 August 1974	Cyprus [political events]	A second ceasefire following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus leaves 40% of the island under Turkish control.
26 August 1974	USA [births and deaths]	Charles Lindbergh, US aviator, the first person to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic, dies in Maui, Hawaii (72).
10 September 1974	Portuguese Guinea, Portugal [decolonization]	Portuguese Guinea gains its independence from Portugal under the name Guinea-Bissau.
11 September 1974 - 21 March 1983	USA [television]	Little House on the Prairie, a popular television drama based on the classic series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, starts on US television. It chronicles the Ingalls family's struggles in the American West in the 1870s.
12 September 1974	Ethiopia [political events]	A military coup in Ethiopia deposes Emperor Haile Selassie.
13 September - 17 September 1974	Netherlands [terrorism]	Japanese ‘Red Army’ terrorists in the Netherlands take French diplomats hostage in The Hague. On 17 September, France and the Netherlands pay a ransom for their release.
23 September 1974	UK [television]	The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) launches CEEFAX, a television information system, in Britain.
1 October 1974	UK [food and drink]	The first McDonalds hamburger restaurant in the UK opens.
3 October 1974	USA [baseball]	Frank Robinson is named manager of the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first black American to take charge of a major league baseball team.
5 October 1974	world [everyday life]	David Kunst successfully completes the first verified around-the-world walk: it has taken him 4 years, 3 months, and 15 days.
5 November 1974	USA [elections]	Democrat Ella Grasso becomes governor of the state of Connecticut, and the first woman governor of a US state who is not the wife or widow of a former governor.
21 November 1974	USA [legislation]	The US Congress passes the Freedom of Information Act over President Gerald Ford's veto. It prohibits the government from denying access to documents without good cause and requires federal agencies to supply documents without delay.
29 November 1974	UK [terrorism]	The Prevention of Terrorism Act is passed in Britain following a spate of Irish Republican Army (IRA) outrages. Police are given power to hold terrorist suspects for five days without charge and suspects can be banned from the British mainland or deported to Northern Ireland.