1974

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February 4, 1974 — Patty Hearst kidnapped by the SLA

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Patricia Hearst was 19 years old when she was kidnapped from her apartment by the Symbionese Liberation Army. Heir to the Hearst family’s millions, she was originally kidnapped for the ransom money, but soon became a victim of Stockholm Syndrome. On April 3, she announced that she had joined the SLA, adopting the name Tania.

Two weeks later, she participated in a bank robbery alongside other members of the Army, and a warrant for her arrest was issued. She was arrested in September, tried and sentenced to 35 years imprisonment. Later, Hearst was pardoned of all crimes, and became an occasional actress.

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February 7, 1974 — “Blazing Saddles” premieres

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One of the greatest comedies of all time, Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles” was a scathing satire of the Western genre that ranged from critique of racism to metafiction to one of the most memorable fart jokes in cinematic history and back again, and somehow it all works. All credit is due to Brooks’ winning cast, notably Gene Wilder, Cleavon Little, Madeline Kahn, Slim Pickens and Harvey Korman.

The film took considerable effort to make – it took the support of an unlikely team of John Wayne and Richard Pryor to get it past the studio heads, and even after it opened, its vulgarity and blatant disrespect for both the Western genre and Hollywood itself made it a flashpoint in the culture wars.

What nothing could do, however, was make it less funny.

Blazing saddles movie poster.jpg
By Source, Fair use, Link

As mentioned in:

Politically Correct — SR-71

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March 14, 1974 — Russell Hoban begins writing “Riddley Walker”

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Russell Hoban was always somewhat peripatetic in his writing interests. While he tended to return to the same themes, he was far less loyal to genres. “Riddley Walker” is one of his best known novels, and as the only major work of science fiction he wrote, is representatively unrepresentative of his oeuvre.

It concern a young man in a world (ours, about two millennia after a nuclear war) who stumbles on a plan to build a super-weapon. The novel took Hoban more than five and half years to write, and won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best science fiction novel in 1982, as well as an Australian Science Fiction Achievement Award in 1983. (It was also nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1982, but lost to Gene Wolfe’s “The Claw of the Conciliator”.)

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April 15, 1974 — Patty Hearst participates in an SLA bank robbery

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Patricia Hearst was 19 years old in 1974, when she was kidnapped from her apartment by the Symbionese Liberation Army. Heir to the Hearst family’s millions, she was originally kidnapped for the ransom money, but soon became a victim of Stockholm Syndrome. On April 3, she announced that she had joined the SLA, adopting the name Tania.

Two weeks later, on April 15, she participated in a bank robbery alongside other members of the Army, and a warrant for her arrest was issued. She was arrested in September, tried and sentenced to 35 years imprisonment, although her sentence was commuted to time served (in this case, 22 months). Later on, Hearst was pardoned of all crimes, and became an occasional actress.

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July 7, 1974 — Malcolm Greenridge, a.k.a. E.D.I. Mean, is born

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A member of hip hop ensemble Outlawz, E.D.I. Mean (his name is intended to sound like that of Idi Amin – although why anyone thought that was a good idea is a matter of considerable speculation) is best known for his work with Tupac. Mean met Tupac through his third grade classmate, Katari “Kastro” Cox, a cousin of Tupac.

His first recording was a guest appearance on Tupac’s 1993 single, “Holler If Ya Hear Me”. Mean would frequently record with Tupac between 1995 and Tupac’s death in 1996. E.D.I. Mean remains an active recording artist, although his recent work has largely consisted of guest appearances on other artist’s recordings.

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July 27, 1974 — Nixon impeached by Congress

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It is the single greatest scandal to have ever touched the office of the President of the United States: Richard Nixon was impeached by Congress. Which is to say, he was charged with criminal offences related to his office. More specifically, the charges related to his role in the Watergate scandal and its attendant (and failed) cover-up.

In little more than a fortnight, Nixon would resign the Presidency in shame, and his hand-picked successor would immediately give him the quid pro quo of a pardon that also covered Nixon for “crimes yet to be discovered.” This allowed Nixon to avoid actually facing the charges against him, and made him one of the few people to have been pardoned for crimes he was never convicted of, or even tried for; and also did untold damage to the institution of the Presidency, which would never again be as respected as it had been before 1973.

A televised public meeting
By Creator: Trikosko, Marion S., photographer; Related Name: O’Halloran, Thomas J. , photographer – Library of Congress > Prints & Photographs Reading Room > Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
Catalog: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2019630913/
Image download: https://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/ppmsca/55500/55538v.jpg, Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

All My Heroes Are Dead — Dar Williams

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July 29, 1974 — Mama Cass dies

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Ellen Naomi Cohen, better known to the world as Mama Cass, was only 32 years old when she died. Mama Cass was a member of the Mamas and the Papas, best known for their 1965 hit, “California Dreamin'”. Stardom had been good to the band, most of them living among the other musicians and artists of Los Angeles, but bad for Cass in many ways.

She had an addictive personality, and being able to afford basically any drug she wanted had led her to behave like a kid in a candy store. Cass was also known for her appetite, being considered somewhat fat (even by the more generous standards of the Sixties for most of her career). At the time of her death, she was fasting four days a week – the coroner speculated that this may have stressed her heart, leading to her fatal heart attack. No food was found in her windpipe – the story that she choked on a ham sandwich is simply an urban myth.

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August 9, 1974 — Nixon resigns the Presidency in disgrace

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After the long, slow death of a thousand cuts that was the Watergate scandal, Nixon’s decision to resign from the Presidency – even in disgrace – must have come as something of a relief to him. Starting with the Watergate break-in, on June 17, 1972, which led to the revelation of the Nixon administration’s dirty tricks squad – and getting worse and worse as the attempted cover-up ballooned and failed.

Nixon fought, though. He fought as hard as could, as long as he could – for more than two years. But in the end, his only remaining choice was to leave on his own terms before he was forced out. The pardon that his hand-picked successor gave him – which was for all crimes including those yet to be discovered – was no doubt also a consideration.

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November 21, 1974 — The Birmingham Pub bombing takes place

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On November 21, 1974, two pubs in central Birmingham, the Mulberry Bush and the Tavern in the Town were bombed just before 8:30pm in the evening. Ten people were killed at the Mulberry Bush and another eleven at the Tavern in the Town. Another 162 people were injured, and a third device at another location failed to detonate.

Within days, six men were arrested on suspicion of the bombings, which were widely blamed on the IRA. The men – Hugh Callaghan, Patrick Joseph Hill, Gerard Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, William Power and John Walker – were charged with the bombings, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. All the convictions were later over-turned, amid charges being laid against police officers and prison guards for their conduct regarding the men. The Birmingham Six were innocent.

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December 24, 1974 — Cyclone Tracy hits Darwin

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It’s sometimes referred to as ‘The Night That Santa Never Came‘. What came instead were howlling winds of more than 200km an hour, tearing Darwin to pieces and having a similar effect on nearby towns in the Northern Territory.

In the end, the death toll would reach 71, of whom 22 were caught at sea by the storm. It destroyed 80% of all buildings in Darwin and left tens of thousands of people homeless, most of whom were evacuated to other cities.

Cyclone Tracy remains the greatest natural disaster in Australian history. Darwin today bears little resemblance to pre-Tracy Darwin, and although its population has long since surpassed the 49,000 residents at the time of the cyclone, the majority of them are new immigrants to the city or born since 1974.