November 1974


The following events occurred in November 1974:

[November 1], 1974 (Friday)

[November 2], 1974 (Saturday)

[November 3], 1974 (Sunday)

  • An early-morning fire at the Daewang Corner building in the Dongdaemun District of Seoul killed 88 people and injured 35. Firefighters reported that 65 of the victims had been inside the Time Go-Go Club on the building's sixth floor; 13 others had been trapped in their hotel rooms on the seventh floor, and six of them had jumped to their deaths. According to witnesses who were able to escape immediately, employees of the club closed the only exit door to prevent other customers from leaving without paying.
  • The popular German TV detective series Derrick, starring Horst Tappert as Detective Chief Inspector Stephan Derrick and Fritz Wepper as his assistant, Detective Sergeant Harry Klein, premiered on West Germany's ZDF network for the first of 281 episodes over 25 seasons.
  • A yes or no election was held in the North African nation of Tunisia for official approval of the re-election of President Habib Bourguiba and the approval of the list of candidates for the 112-member Majlis, as selected by the nation's sole legal political party, the Parti socialiste destourien. The government reported that almost 97% of registered voters turned out for the election and none of them voted against Borguiba or the PSD candidates.
  • The U.S. Navy nuclear ballistic missile submarine collided with an unidentified Soviet Navy Victor-class nuclear-powered attack submarine, during a dive just after departing from the Fleet Ballistic Missile Refit Site One on Scotland's Holy Loch. No confrontation took place, and no casualties were sustained on the U.S. sub, which was under inspection and repair for a week afterward. Any damage to the Soviet submarine was not revealed by the Soviets.
  • Died:
  • *Frances Bemis, 76, American public relations specialist and fashion director, was murdered in a vacant lot in St. Augustine, Florida, near the location of the January 23 murder of Athalia Ponsell Lindsley. As of 2007, both Lindsley's and Bemis's murders remained unsolved.
  • *Ahindra Choudhury, 78, Indian stage actor who had a 53-year career

[November 4], 1974 (Monday)

[November 5], 1974 (Tuesday)

[November 6], 1974 (Wednesday)

  • At least 80 people died in a collision between two passenger trains west of Cotonou, Dahomey.
  • The Soviet Union's lunar probe Luna 23 landed on the Moon in the Mare Crisium for the purpose of gathering and returning lunar soil to the Earth. The probe's drill was damaged when Luna 23 tipped over after landing on "unfavorable" terrain.
  • Argentina's President Isabel Perón unexpectedly issued an emergency decree of a "state of siege" in the South American nation in an effort to deal with political violence that had claimed 136 lives during her first 129 days in office. The decree banned all public meetings and allowed any suspected terrorists to be arrested without a court order and held indefinitely without being brought to trial.
  • Thirty-three inmates at the Long Kesh Prison in Northern Ireland, most of them convicted terrorists of the IRA, attempted to escape through an underground tunnel which they had dug. IRA member Hugh Coney was shot and killed by a guard after emerging outside the walls, and 29 others were captured only a few yards past the prison. The other three were captured within 24 hours.
  • U.S. Treasury Secretary William E. Simon conceded in a press conference that the United States economy was in a recession as stock prices continued to fall.
  • The Parliament of Singapore unanimously re-elected Benjamin Sheares to a second term as president, a largely ceremonial job, with 59 of the 65 members present and all 59 voting in his favor.

[November 7], 1974 (Thursday)

[November 8], 1974 (Friday)

[November 9], 1974 (Saturday)

  • The fiery collision in Tokyo Bay of the Taiwanese freighter Pacific Ares and the Japanese oil tanker killed 33 sailors, all but one of them on the freighter. The Pacific Ares had departed from Kawasaki with cargo for Los Angeles and was out to sea when it encountered the incoming Yuyo Maru. Rescue boats saved 34 survivors, and 19 bodies were found, but 14 other sailors listed as missing were not recovered.
  • Two days after putting down a revolt in Bolivia, President Hugo Banzer suspended the activities of all political parties, labor unions, employer organizations and professional associations and canceled plans for democratic elections until at least 1980. Banzer dismissed his civilian cabinet and formed a new "national reconstruction government", commenting that "Here and now, a new history will begin for Bolivia." The move came after the military leadership of Bolivia, led by Air Force General Oscar Adriazola, informed President Banzer in a memo that the generals were "categorically and definitely not in agreement with holding elections or returning to the parliamentary system while the critical period the country is going through internally is not yet over."
  • In the British Virgin Islands, a fisherman discovered the body of 23-year-old American marine biologist David Drew, who had apparently fallen and hit his head, in a rocky crevice on Cockroach Island. Drew was buried at sea the following day.
  • A bomb exploded on the second floor of the Organization of American States headquarters in Washington, D.C. No one was injured. A previously unknown group called "Cuba Movement C-4" claimed responsibility for the bombing, stating its opposition to the Cuban regime of Fidel Castro.
  • Nine people, ranging in age from 2 to 44 years old, were killed in the crash of a single car when their vehicle broke through a guardrail on Interstate 20 near Longview, Texas, and fell, landing upside down. All of the persons killed were residents of Midwest City, Oklahoma, who were traveling to a family reunion when the driver fell asleep and the car went out of control.
  • In Seattle, Washington, the U.S. Navy launched, the lead ship of the Pegasus-class hydrofoils designated "PHM" for "Patrol Hydrofoil, Missile".
  • Born: Alessandro Del Piero, Italian football player; in Conegliano
  • Died:
  • *Richard McCoy Jr., 31, an American who had been convicted for the 1972 hijacking of United Airlines Flight 855, and had escaped from the federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania on August 10, was killed in a shootout with FBI agents who had located him at a house he had been renting in Virginia Beach, Virginia. FBI agents also arrested Melvin Dale Walker, who had escaped from prison with McCoy.
  • *Holger Meins, 33, West German anarchist and terrorist convicted of work with the Red Army Faction, died in prison after a two-month hunger strike.
  • *Paul Tabori, 65, Hungarian-born author and screenwriter
  • *Egon Wellesz, CBE, FBA, 89, British composer, teacher and musicologist

[November 10], 1974 (Sunday)

  • Soviet Head of State Nikolai V. Podgorny said in a speech that any artwork in the Soviet Union that "departed even slightly from the principles of socialist realism" would be considered unacceptable by the Soviet Ministry of Culture. Podgorny's remarks came at a ceremony marking the 150th anniversary of Moscow's Maly Theater.
  • Haile Selassie, who had been the Emperor of Ethiopia until being deposed from office on September 12 and placed under arrest, was transported by the Republic of Ethiopia's revolutionary council to the National Palace, where he had once maintained offices. Since his arrest, he had been detained in the Ethiopian Army's 4th Division barracks at the quarters reserved for the Division's commanding general. Selassie had lived at the Jubilee Palace in Addis Ababa until his overthrow.
  • A bomb which exploded at 2:45 a.m. caused $5,000 in damage to a United Nations Association bookstore in Los Angeles. There were no injuries.
  • Died:
  • *George Counts, 84, American educator and education theorist
  • *Günter von Drenkmann, 64, German lawyer, president of the "Kammergericht", was murdered on his 64th birthday by a group of men who appeared at his home in Charlottenburg. Judge von Drenkmann was shot four times when he answered his doorbell. Authorities were unable to rule out a link with Holger Meins' death the previous day.
  • *Robert Simpson, 82, American hurdler, track and field coach and United States Army officer

[November 11], 1974 (Monday)

[November 12], 1974 (Tuesday)

[November 13], 1974 (Wednesday)

[November 14], 1974 (Thursday)

[November 15], 1974 (Friday)

[November 16], 1974 (Saturday)

[November 17], 1974 (Sunday)

[November 18], 1974 (Monday)

[November 19], 1974 (Tuesday)

[November 20], 1974 (Wednesday)

[November 21], 1974 (Thursday)

  • In Birmingham, England, two pubs on New Street were bombed, killing 21 people and injuring 182 others, many of them seriously, in an attack widely believed at the time to be linked to the Provisional Irish Republican Army. At 8:17 in the evening, a time bomb exploded at the Mulberry Bush pub, killing 10 people, two of whom had been walking past the establishment. Ten minutes later, at 8:27, another bomb detonated at the Tavern in the Town and killed 11 others. The bombings were the deadliest terrorist acts in Britain in the 20th century.
  • The bombings were wrongly blamed on the "Birmingham Six", six men from Northern Ireland who were longtime residents of the city, who were coerced by police abuse into signing confessions to a crime that they had not committed. The six men— Hugh Callaghan, Paddy Joe Hill, Gerry Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, Billy Power and Johnny Walker— would be sentenced to life imprisonment on August 15, 1975, until their convictions were overturned by an appellate court on March 14, 1991. Later, a witness would identify Mick Murray as the organizer of the bombings.
  • The U.S. Freedom of Information Act was amended after both Houses of Congress voted to override U.S. President Ford's October 17 veto.
  • Japan's Ministry of Transport issued its "Ministerial Ordinance for Partial Revision of Safety Standards for Road Transport Vehicles" to require all motor vehicles manufactured in Japan to include a speed chime that would begin ringing if the vehicle exceeded. Under pressure from other car-producing nations, the requirement would be removed in 1986.
  • Died:
  • *Sir William Andrewes, 75, Royal Navy admiral, Korean War commander of United Nations blockade and escort force
  • *John B. Gambling, 77, English-born American radio broadcasting pioneer known for Rambling with Gambling
  • *Frank Martin, 84, Swiss composer
  • *Arthur J. Scanlan, 93, Irish-born American Roman Catholic priest, founding pastor of St. Helena's Church in the Bronx

[November 22], 1974 (Friday)

[November 23], 1974 (Saturday)

[November 24], 1974 (Sunday)

[November 25], 1974 (Monday)

[November 26], 1974 (Tuesday)

[November 27], 1974 (Wednesday)

[November 28], 1974 (Thursday)

[November 29], 1974 (Friday)

[November 30], 1974 (Saturday)