April 25, 1974: "Carnation Revolution" overthrows right-wing dictatorship of Portugal after 41 yearsApril 3, 1974: Tornadoes kill 319 people in U.S. and Canada, and 36 in Xenia, Ohio (pictured)
The Communist nation of North Korea officially abolished the levying of income taxes, with national leader Kim Il-sung calling taxes "remnants of an antiquated society", raising revenue instead through user fees and deductions from profits on all of the nation's state-owned enterprises.[1]
Died: Hal Boyle, 63, U.S. journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner
The day after Newsweek magazine's April 8 issue revealed that Georges Pompidou, President of France since 1969, was ill with cancer and might soon be resigning,[2] the President's office abruptly canceled that day's scheduled meeting with the President of Rwanda, Juvénal Habyarimana,[3] followed by a cancellation of all engagements for the rest of the week because of illness.[4] Pompidou stayed home at his private apartment on Quai de Bethune on the Île Saint-LouisinParis, and was found dead at 9:00 in the evening. The Agence France-Presse news agency sent a bulletin at 9:58 announcing "M. Pompidou c'est mort."[5] Pompidou, who was later found to have complications from Waldenström macroglobulinemia, a form of leukemia, was 62. Before becoming president, he had served as prime minister from 1962 to 1968. The President of the French Senate, Alain Poher, became the Acting President of France until an election could be held to determine a new President. Poher had previously served as acting president after the death of President Charles de Gaulle, until Pompidou's election as president.
The Agranat Commission, chaired by the President of the Supreme Court of Israel, issued its report assessing blame for Israel's failures in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, with recommendations for dismissal of General David Elazar (Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces); Major General Eli Zeira, director of the military intelligence for the agency Agaf HaModi'in), Brigadier-General Aryeh Shalev (head of research at the Agaf HaModi'in), and Major General Shmuel Gonen, leader of the Southern Front defense against Egypt. Following the report, the government of Prime Minister Golda Meir would fall.
A system of 148 confirmed tornadoeskilled 319 people and injured 5,484 others in 13 of the U.S. states (Alabama, Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, Illinois, Michigan, Virginia and West Virginia) and the Canadian province of Ontario.[8][9] Hardest hit was the city of Xenia, Ohio, where 36 residents were killed after the tornado struck at 4:40 p.m. local time. Other areas struck were Brandenburg, Kentucky (31 dead) and Guin, Alabama (28 dead). The area in and around Tanner, Alabama, was struck by two tornadoes 30 minutes apart, killing 44 people.
The White House Press Office announced that the Internal Revenue Service had determined that U.S. President Richard Nixon owed $432,787.13 in back taxes and an additional $43,644 in penalties and interest, an amount almost half of Nixon's stated net worth. The ruling by the IRS disallowed deductions including a declaration one for $576,000 for the claimed worth of Nixon's vice-presidential papers.[11]
Two months after being kidnapped, Patty Hearst announced in an audiotape that she had joined her captors at the Symbionese Liberation Army and that she had adopted the name "Tania" for the SLA.[12]
The crash of a Wenela Air Services flight in southern Africa killed 78 of the 84 people on board. The Douglas DC-4 went down shortly after takeoff from FrancistowninBotswana after departing toward BlantyreinMalawi.[14] Most of the dead were Malawian gold miners who were returning home.[15]
InCincinnati, baseball player Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 714th home run on the first swing of his bat to open the 1974 Major League Baseball season and tied the career record set by Babe Ruth, in a 7 to 6 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.[16] While the Braves wanted to keep him out of the opening three-game series against the Reds so that the record could be tied and broken at home in Atlanta, Commissioner of BaseballBowie Kuhn had ruled that Aaron was required to play at least two of the three Cincinnati games.
Women in Jordan were granted the right to vote in elections for the first time. However, the suspension of parliamentary democracy prevented the right of suffrage from being exercised except in local elections.
A major development in x-ray astronomy was achieved with discovery of "the first indication of strong coronal emission from stars"[18] when astronomer Richard Catura detected x-ray luminosity from the star Capella (Alpha Aurigae), almost 43 light years from Earth, that was more than 10,000 times as much as the x-ray luminosity of the Sun. The detection was made by accident, in that the intended mission of a rocket-borne launch of instruments was simply to calibrate the directional accuracy of the stellar sensors.[18]
Carrie, the debut novel by high school teacher Stephen King, was published by Doubleday, launching his career as the "King of Horror".[19][20]
Died:
Jennifer Vyvyan, 49, British opera soprano, died of a bronchial illness.
Died: Bobby Buntrock, 21, American child actor known for portraying Harold Baxter on the TV sitcom Hazel starting in 1961 as a 9-year-old, was killed in an auto accident in Keystone, South Dakota.[24]
Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 715th career home run in a 7 to 4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers, breaking the record held by Babe Ruth since Ruth's retirement in 1935.[25] Earlier in the game, Aaron had broken another mark set by another Hall of Fame player, Willie Mays's National League record of 2,062 runs scored in a career. Aaron would retire in 1976 with a career record of 755 home runs.
The U.S. Senate voted, 55 to 21, to make the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November— election day in the United States— as a paid federal holiday in even-numbered years, starting in 1976. The measure came as a bipartisan amendment offered by Republican Barry Goldwater and Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey, both of whom had lost presidential elections in 1964 and 1968, respectively.[26] Despite passing the Senate, however, the bill did not make it to a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Israel's Prime Minister, Golda Meir, announced her resignation as Premier and as leader of the Israeli Labor Party, nine days after the release of the Agranat Commission report. Meir's decision came after a meeting of the 51 members of her Alignment party coalition, when she told reporters "I've had enough." Her colleague, Yitzhak Aharon, then told the group "The prime minister has announced her resignation."[28] Rather than schedule new elections, the Israeli Labor Party announced on April 21 that they would try to form a new government of ministers.[29]
Australia's Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, announced that he had asked the Governor-General to dissolve the Australian House of Representatives and to schedule new elections at the same time as an already-scheduled Senate election. Whitlam's request for a "double dissolution" came hours after the Australian Senate refused to approve a $170 million spending bill to prevent the government from shutting down. After the announcement of double dissolution, the Senate approved further government funding.[30]
Akbar Etemad, known for founding Iran's nuclear energy and weapons program, was appointed as the first president of the new Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and given an additional post as Deputy Prime Minister.[31]
Born:Eric Greitens, U.S. politician who served as Governor Missouri for 16 months in 2017 and 2018 before resigning in disgrace; in St. Louis
The bipartisan Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives voted, 33 to 3, to subpoena U.S. President Nixon to submit the actual tape recordings of 42 specific conversations in the Oval Office, after the repeated refusal by the White House to comply with previous requests.[34]
A jury in Pennsylvania convicted former United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) president W. A. "Tony" Boyle of the 1969 murder of his union rival, Joseph "Jock" Yablonski and Yablonski's wife and daughter.[35]
Police in The Hague arrested Jacobus P. Phillipps, a Netherlands native who had served as an officer for the Nazi German SS during World War II, after Phillips had spent more than 29 years hiding in his parents home. Since 1945, Phillips had stayed inside the home and had been given a death sentence after being convicted of war crimes in absentia in 1950. Phillipps was taken to Scheveninger Prison and then transferred to Assen, where his conviction had taken place.[36]
Westar 1, the first commercial geostationary satellite, was launched from Cape Canaveral in the United States by NASA on behalf of the Western Union communications company.[40]
Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie announced that his 20-year-old grandson, Zera Yacob Amha Selassie, would be the heir to the throne.[41] The Emperor made the nomination after Crown Prince Amha Selassie became ill. Haile Selassie would be overthrown five months later, on September 12, 1974.
Quentin Dupieux, French film director best known for Wrong Cops, and as a musician who performs under the stage name "Mr. Oizo"; in Paris[43]
Da Brat (stage name for Shawntae Harris), American rap artist and the first female rapper to sell over one million copies of an album; in Chicago
Died:
Howard Pease, 79, American paperback writer known for his series of Tod Moran mysteries published from 1926 to 1961
Jefferson Caffery, 87, American diplomat who served at different times as the U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador, Colombia, Cuba, Brazil, France and Egypt.[44]
Acoup d'etat led by Lieutenant Colonel Seyni Kountché overthrew the government of the West African nation of Niger and its first president, Hamani Diori. As the second President of Niger, Kountché would rule for 13 years until his death in 1987.[45]
Ivor Bell, the leader of the Provisional Irish Republican Army terrorist group in Northern Ireland, walked out of Maze PrisoninBelfast, only seven weeks after he had been captured.[48] Bell took a release order from, and posed as, another prisoner, Jimmy Walsh,[49] who was being given a four-day furlough for a scheduled wedding. Bell was recaptured 13 days later.[50]
Kidnap victim turned bank robber, Patty Hearst, aka Tania
Kidnapping victim Patricia Hearst, who had recently announced that she was joining the Symbionese Liberation Army that had been her captors for two months, turned to crime and aided in a bank robbery. Hearst, who had adopted the SLA alias "Tania", was photographed holding an automatic weapon while inside a branch of the Hibernia Bank at 1450 Noriega Street in San Francisco.[51]
Aissa Diori, First Lady of Niger since 1960 as the wife of President Hamani Diori, was shot and killed during the coup d'etat that ended the Diori government.[45]
Johnston Murray, 71, the first Native American to be elected a Governor of U.S. state as the son of a mother from the Chickasaw Nation and a father who was a Chickasaw citizen, having governed Oklahoma from 1951 to 1955[54]
The public court-martial of 63 Chilean Air Force officers and enlisted men began in the chapel of the Air Force War College in Santiago on accusations of sedition or treason. Prosecutors asked that six of the defendants be sentenced to death for espionage.[56]
A group of rebels in the Egyptian military, including 16 cadets, attacked the Technical Military Academy in Cairo, killing 11 people and wounding 27 others as part of an alleged plot, financed by Libya, to overthrow President Anwar Sadat. Although the Egyptian government initially described reports about the incident as false, 75 members of the military would be arrested over the next 10 days, including the alleged leader, Dr. Saleh Abdullah Sariya of the Islamic Liberation Organization.[57][58]
Three days after leading a coup d'detat, Seyni Kountché named a 12-man council to run the West African nation and proclaimed himself the Chief of State as Chairman of the Council.[59]
In response to the Zebra murders that had claimed 14 lives in California since October 20, San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto and the San Francisco City Police instituted "Operation Zebra", stopping African-American men throughout the city for interrogations and the recording of identifying information.[64][65] Over the next six days, 567 black men were stopped and 181 interrogated without yielding any information helpful to finding the Zebra murderers.[66] U.S. District Judge Alfonso Zirpoli ruled that stopping suspects without probable cause was unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge John J. Sirica ordered President Nixon to release 64 specific tape recordings that had been subpoenaed by the Watergate special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, and to do so by May 2. The White House declined to comment on whether it would comply with the order.[67]
All eight Israeli Defense Force members on a Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter were killed when it collided with another CH-53 over an airport in Rosh Pinna, a town located near the Golan Heights and the border with Syria. The other helicopter was able to land safely.
Vinnie Taylor (stage name for Christopher H. Donald), 25, guitarist for the group Sha Na Na, was found in a motel at Charlottesville, Virginia, dead of an accidental heroin overdose, two days after a concert at the University of Virginia. [73]
Major Stephen Price, 80, British Royal Air Force officer and flying ace in World War I.
French archaeologist Françoise Claustre was taken hostage by rebels led by future Chadian president Hissène Habré in the north African nation of Chad, at the town of Bardaï, beginning an ordeal that would last almost three years. Captured with her was Dr. Christophe Staewen of West Germany (who would be released on June 11 following payment of a ransom), and Frenchman Marc Combe, who would escape his captors. Françoise's husband Pierre would be captured by the same rebels 16 months later while trying to negotiate his wife's release. The two would finally be released on February 1, 1977.[74]
The U.S. state of Louisiana adopted its 11th state constitution since attaining statehood, upon a 58 percent approval by voters in a referendum. The new document, at 35,000 words, was more than one-eighth the size of the previous 250,000-word size document.[75]
Taisir al-Arouri, a Palestinian professor of mathematics at Birzeit University on the West Bank, was arrested by Israeli police. He would be detained, without any charges brought against him, for the night on 21 April 1974 and released on January 18, 1978, after Amnesty International's bringing of his case to worldwide attention.[77]
Professional soccer football competition in Austria was reorganized with the founding of Österreichische Fussball-Bundesliga, composed of the top 10 clubs in the former Bundesliga in the First Division, and a 10-team second division. Each team played each of the nine others four times for a 36-match season, with the two with the worst record to be relegated to the second division and the top two of the second division being promoted.
Oleksiy Zhuravko, Ukrainian member of parliament from 2006 to 2012, who later became a Russian citizen and politician and joined in Russia's 2022 war against Ukraine; in Zhovti Vody, Ukrainian SSR (killed in missile attack, 2022)[78]
Craig Joiner, Scottish rugby union player with 25 caps for the Scotland national team; in Glasgow
All 107 passengers and crew on Pan Am Flight 812 were killed in a crash in Indonesia when the Boeing 707 crashed into the side of a mountain while approaching Denpasar as a stop on a flight from Hong KongtoSydneyinAustralia.[79][80] The remains of all the non-Asian victims were cremated, while those of Westerners, including 28 Americans, were buried in a mass grave.[81]
A group of five employees at "The Hi-Fi Shop", a home audio store in Ogden, Utah, were taken hostage by six robbers and tortured. One man and two women were brutally murdered.[82] Three active duty airmen of the U.S. Air Force would be arrested,[83] while three others would never be identified. Two of the arrested would be convicted of murder and executed, while the third would be convicted of robbery and spend 13 years in prison. The story would become the basis of a best-selling book, Victim: The Other Side of Murder, by Gary Kinder, published in 1982 and later adapted to a television film, Aftermath: A Test of Love.[84]
Following the resignation of Golda Meir as Prime Minister of Israel and as leader of the ruling Israeli Labor Party, the Labor Party's 552-member central committee chose between Labor Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Information Minister Shimon Peres.[86] Rabin won the election, 298 to 254, and would take office as Prime Minister on June 3.
A landslide killed more than 450 people in the valley of the Mantaro RiverinPeru, including at least 43 near Huancayo[96][97] After burying the village of Mayunmarca, the landslide dammed the river and formed a lake that would reach a depth of 107 metres (351 ft) and a length of 31 kilometres (19 mi) after submerging the towns of Pururo and La Esmeralda, as well as numerous large farms.[97]
The value of the Canadian dollar reached its highest point ever on exchange markets, becoming worth slightly more than $1.04 in United States dollars (US$ 1.0443); the U.S. dollar was worth slightly less than 96 cents (C$ 0.95758).[98][99] The value of the Canadian dollar would reach its low point on January 21, 2002, worth US$ 0.6179[100] but would briefly surpass the U.S. dollar again on September 28, 2007.[101]
National Football League owners voted to make nine changes to NFL rules, including sudden-death overtime for regular season games tied at the end of regulation, moving the goal posts, returning missed field goals to the line of scrimmage, after the new World Football League (WFL) had announced that it would have similar rules. One WFL owner told reporters, "It looks like they went right down the line and copied our book."[102]
Died:Pamela Courson, 27, former companion of singer Jim Morrison and heir to his fortune, was found dead of a heroin overdose, less than three years after his death.
InAddis Ababa, Ethiopia's Army arrested more than 200 high-ranking government ministers and military officers on charges of corruption. The former government ministers had resigned on the day after an attempted coup d'etat on February 25 but had been blocked from leaving the capital.[104]
The day after the overthrow of Portugal's Premier Marcelo Caetano, the seven-member Junta de Salvação Nacional, chaired by General Spinola, announced that it would govern Portugal until further notice, but that it would restore democracy and bring an end to Portugal's colonial rule of Mozambique, Angola and other colonies.[105] The first act of the Junta was to announce amnesty for all political prisoners (except for those with prior criminal records) jailed during the Estado Novo regime; 172 were released on the same day, including Hermínio da Palma Inácio and 76 others imprisoned at the Fortress of Caxias outside of Lisbon.[106]
All 109 passengers and crew on an Aeroflot flight were killed in the Soviet Union, shortly after the Ilyushin Il-18 turboprop took off from LeningradtoZaporozhye.[107] According to a Western source, "The crash could be clearly seen from the airport and pandemonium broke out in the terminal with relatives and friends of the passengers screaming and crying." In accordance with practice at the time, the Soviet news media made no mention of the crash.[108]
The shelling of an Israeli fortress in the Golan Heights by Syrian artillery led to the deaths of 14 IDF soldiers in the Bashan salient, former Syrian property conquered by the Israeli Army in the 1973 war. Eight IDF soldiers were killed when a shell hit their fortress, while six more died in the crash of a helicopter that was on its way to rescue the survivors. Israel retaliated with airstrikes of Syrian army camps. The battle marked the last major fighting in the "War of Attrition that lasted for three months before a disengagement agreement signed between the two nations on May 31.[109]
Mário Soares, the exiled leader of Portugal's banned Socialist Party, returned to Lisbon by train after years of living in from Paris, and was greeted by 4,000 people. He would become Prime Minister of Portugal in 1976, serving twice (1976-1978 and 1983-1985) and President from 1986 to 1996.[112]
In a nationally-televised speech, U.S. President Nixon announced that, instead of releasing tape recordings, requested by the House Judiciary Committee, of key conversations, he had instead arranged to have them transcribed by his staff. The edited 1,200 pages of transcripts were known for using the phrase "expletive deleted" in place of profanities made during the conversations by the President and his staff. In lieu of presenting the tapes, Nixon said that the leaders of the Judiciary panel would be invited to come to the White House to listen to recordings.[116]
Argentine terrorists released U.S. oil executive Victor Samuelson following five months of captivity, after Esso Argentina, a subsidiary of the Exxon Corporation, had paid a record ransom of $14,200,000 on March 11 to guerrillas of the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP).[117] Samuelson, who had been kidnapped on December 6 from a dining room at the company's refinery where he had been the manager, dropped Samuelson off at the home of the family's pediatrician, Dr. Federico Pfister, in the town of Acasusso, outside of Buenos Aires.
In West Germany, nine construction workers were killed and 11 seriously injured in the collapse of a new overpass, being constructed over an autobahn between Kempten and UlminBavaria.[118]
The last of the Phase III wage and price controls implemented by U.S. president Nixon came to an end with the expiration of the statutory authority, after failing to stop the increase of inflation.[119]
Luis Acevedo Andrade, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Chile and former mayor of the Chilean town of Coelemu, was arrested by Coelemu police and then transferred to the custody of the police in the larger city of Concepción. Acevedo would never be seen in public again, becoming one of the "desaparecidos" during the rule of dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Moorehead in 1969 as Endora
Died:
Agnes Moorehead, 73, American stage, film and TV actress best known as "Endora" on the popular TV series Bewitched, died of uterine cancer.[120]
Pál Szécsi, 30, Hungarian popular music singer, committed suicide.[121]
^"Pompidou has cancer: U.S. magazine". The Age (Melbourne). April 2, 1974. p. 6.
^"Pompidou Health Cancels Meeting". Los Angeles Times. April 2, 1974. p. I-2.
^"Pompidou sick, engagements off". Vancouver Sun. April 2, 1974. p. 14.
^"President Pompidou of France, Ill for Months, Dies at 62". Los Angeles Times. April 3, 1974. p. I-1.
^"Glenda Jackson, Lemmon Win Oscars; 'Sting' Is Best Picture— John Houseman, Tatum O'Neal Voted Awards for Supporting Roles". Los Angeles Times. April 3, 1974. p. I-1.
^"NIXON WILL PAY $432,787 IN BACK TAXES— Decision Follows Findings of IRS and Congressional Staff; Bill Is Half His Stated Worth". Los Angeles Times. April 4, 1974. p. I-1.
^"Mrs. Meir Resigns, Calls Move Final— Dayan's Future Unclear". Los Angeles Times. April 11, 1974. p. I-1.
^"Israel's Labor Party Will Shun Elections, Try to Form Regime". Los Angeles Times. April 22, 1974. p. I-1.
^"New General Election Ordered in Australia— Whitlam Dissolves Parliament to Test His Social Reform, Independent Foreign Policy". Los Angeles Times. April 11, 1974. p. I-23.
^Alvandi, Roham (2014). Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah: The United States and Iran in the Cold War. Oxford University Press. p. 132.
^"Haile Selassie Chooses Grandson as Successor". Los Angeles Times. April 15, 1974. p. I-24.
^"Player Stops By to Win Masters— $35,000; Near-Perfect 9-Iron Shot on 17th Clinches 2nd Victory in Event". Los Angeles Times. April 15, 1974. p. III-1.
^ Norman L. R. Franks and Frank W. Bailey, Over the Front: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the United States and French Air Services, 1914-1918 (Grub Street, 1992) p.138
^"Chile Begins Mass Military Trial for 63". Los Angeles Times. April 18, 1974. p. I-1-9.
^"Libya Role in Cairo Academy Attack Hinted". Los Angeles Times. April 22, 1974. p. I-15.
^"75 Reported Arrested in Egypt Plot". Los Angeles Times. April 27, 1974. p. I-13.
^"The World". Los Angeles Times. April 18, 1974. p. I-2.
^"Bud Abbott, Straight Man of Famed Comedy Team, Dies". Los Angeles Times. April 25, 1974. p. I-3.
^"President Franz Jonas of Austria Dies at 74". Los Angeles Times. April 24, 1974. p. I-13.
^"Broadcast of a Popular Song Signaled Start of Lisbon Coup". Los Angeles Times. April 30, 1974. p. I-1.
^"Rebels Seize Portugal Radio Station". Los Angeles Times. April 25, 1974. p. I-2.
^"Portugal's Regime Overthrown; Rebels Vow Democratic Reforms— Deposed Premier and Top Officials Forced Into Exile; Government Placed in Hands of War Hero Gen. Spinola". Los Angeles Times. April 26, 1974. p. I-.
