In Addis Ababa, the City Hall and the Webi Shebeli Hotel were bombed, carried out (according to the international press) by Eritrean nationalists. The Derg (revolutionary council) used the bombings as a pretext for hardened repression against the notables of the negus' regime.[9]
British
commercial diver David Keane drowned at the age of 17 after his umbilical was cut through while conducting a bell dive in the Celtic Sea.[10][11]
Died:
Lucio Cabañas, 35, Mexican schoolteacher and union and guerilla leader, died in combat, killed himself to avoid capture or was executed by the Mexican military.[12]
The Pioneer 11 probe entered the shadow of Jupiter (27,000 miles (43,000 km) from the planet's atmosphere) and captured famous images of the Great Red Spot.
In Argelato (Bologna), the brigadier of carabinieri Andrea Lombardini, on a routine patrol, was murdered with gunfire by five terrorists, who were preparing a robbery on a security officer. The killers, quickly arrested, were members of Lavoro Illegale ("Illegal work"), a terrorist organization come out of Potere Operaio, under the inspiration of Toni Negri, and later merged into the Red brigades. One of them, Bruno Valli, hanged himself in jail four days later. The month in Italy also saw a series of demonstrative attacks by the Red Brigades against industrial managers.[14]
Died: Pietro Germi, 60, actor and director, author of many masterpieces of neo-realism and Italian comedy.
In Arcore, the self-styled prince Luigi D'Angerio, leaving Silvio Berlusconi's villa, escaped a kidnapping. The probable organizer of the abduction was the Mafioso Vittorio Mangano, Berlusconi's groom, arrested for fraud twenty days later. The episode, never fully explained, would raise many suspicions in the following decades about the presumed links between the Milanese businessman and organized crime.[15]
, 1974) confirmed the end of the monarchy and the republican form of the state, with 69.4% of votes.
The Sistina Theatre in Rome debuted Aggiungi un posto a tavola (Add a seat at the table), a musical comedy by Garinei and Giovannini with music by Armando Trovajoli. The piece, a modern version of the Noah story, with Johnny Dorelli in the leading role of a witty country priest, was extremely successful, staying on stage for a whole season, and became a classic of the Italian light theater.[17]
The Paris summit, reuniting the European Communities' heads of state and government, commenced. It stated the institution of the European Council and of the ERDF (European regional development fund) and the direct election of the European Parliament by citizens.
The United States Congress unanimously approved the Jackson–Vanik amendment, linking the execution of the commercial treaties with the Soviet Union to a more liberal politic by Moscow about Jewish emigration.
The enquiry of the Padua procure about the "Compass Rose", an extreme-right secret society planning a military coup, led to the arrest of General Ugo Ricci, charged with conspiracy against the state. Two weeks later (on December 30), the Supreme Court of Cassation transferred the enquiry to Rome, a decision widely seen as a cover-up.
The Italian ministry of Cultural Heritage and Environment (now the
Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism) was instituted by decree; its first holder was Giovanni Spadolini
In Nicaragua, the constitution of the UDEL (Union Democratica de Liberacion, Democratic liberation Union), representing the moderate and non-violent wing of the opposition to the Somoza regime.
British commercial diver Jeremy L. Howard-Phillips was sucked into a 20 cm (7.9 in) pipeline valve opening and killed while working from a jet barge at Scapa Flow in the North Sea.[11][21]
Karl Brushaber of Ann Arbor, Michigan, fell to his death from the top of Tuckerman Ravine while descending Mount Washington. Brushaber's climbing partner had turned back due to bad weather, but Brushaber pressed on toward the summit; whether or not he reached it is unknown.[26]
U.S. President Gerald Ford, in a conversation/interview with James Alsop, declared as very probable in 1975 a new war in the Middle East and a world crisis, following the economic breakdown of a "European country, allied to the United States" (the United Kingdom or Italy).[27]
Disappearance of the Fort Worth missing trio (Mary Rachel Trlica, Lisa Renee Wilson and Julie Ann Moseley).
In Managua, Nicaragua, an FSLN commando unit, headed by Eden Pastora, burst into the house of Josè Maria Castillo, president of the Banco Central, and took his guests hostage (including two relatives of the dictator Somoza). Three days later, thanks to the Managua archbishop's intermediation, the hostages were released, in exchange for a million dollars and the freedom of some political prisoners. Castillo was the only victim of the action.[32]
An explosion and a fire in a coal mine near Liévin, France, killed 41 and injured a further six in the worst mining disaster in France since World War II.[33]
The Constitutional Court of Italy abolished the articles of the penal code forbidding strikes for political reasons. The law, enacted by the Fascist regime, was by then mostly no longer applied, though formally in force.
The 6.2 magnitude 1974 Pattan earthquake in northern Pakistan occurred around 12:11 UTC. An official estimate of the number killed was 5,300 with approximately 17,000 injured, and around 4,400 homes were destroyed. The earthquake was especially concentrated in the village of Pattan, Jammu and Kashmir.[34]
Government of Honduras introduced, through Decree Law No. 170-74, a new Agrarian Reform.[40]
1974 Olean High School shooting: 17-year-old Anthony F. Barbaro, an honor student and member of the school's rifle team, indiscriminately shot at people on the street from windows at the third floor of the school building. Four people, including an unborn child, were killed and another 11 people were injured during the shooting.
. 2 December 1974. Page 36, column 1. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
^"Attentati terroristici ad Addis Abeba. - Forse sono nazionalisti dell'Eritrea" [Terrorist attacks in Addis Ababa. - Perhaps they are Eritrean nationalists]. La Stampa (in Italian). 4 December 1974.
^"Lirio Abbate per l'Espresso" [Liro Abbate for l'Espresso]. Cinquantamila.it (in Italian). 22 December 2009. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 27 March 2024.