1974

Events

• January 15 - Dennis Rader commits his first confirmed murders, killing all four members of the Otero family in Wichita, Kansas.
• January 27 - The Doodler emerges for the first time, killing 49-year old Gerald Cavanaugh.
• February 6 - Watergate scandal: The U.S House of Representatives formally begins the impeachment process against President Richard Nixon, when the House granted the Judiciary Committee authority to investigate whether sufficient grounds existed to impeach Nixon of high crimes and misdemeanors under Article II, Section 4, of the United States Constitution.
• February 27 - William Calley is released from house arrest.
• March 12 - Ted Bundy commits his first confirmed murder.
• April 22 - Hi-Fi murders: Six men lead by Dale Pierre and William Andrews rob the Hi-Fi store in Ogden, Utah, and torture five hostages by forcing them to drink Drano and raping one before shooting them, killing three.
• April 25 - The Estado Novo dictatorship of Portugal is overthrown during the Carnation Revolution.
• April 25 - End of the Angolan War of Independence.
• May 18 - The Heaven's Gate cult is founded by Marshall Applewhite.
• June 8 - Yasser Arafat introduces the Ten Point Program.
• June 14 - DINA is established as the secret police of Chile.
• July 1 - Isabel Perón assumes the presidency of Argentina after the death of her husband, President Juan Peron.
• July 16 - Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. is sentenced to life imprisonment for assisting Dean Corll in murdering 28 Texas boys from 1970 to 1973.
• July 24 - End of the Regime of the Colonels in Greece.
• August 9 - Richard Nixon resigns from the presidency of the United States in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal.
• September 8 - Former President Richard Nixon is pardoned by President Gerald Ford .
• September 10 - End of the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence.
• September 12 - The Derg first comes to power in Ethiopia, overthrowing Emperor Haile Selassie I. Beginning of the Ethiopian Civil War.
• September 30 - Carlos Prats, who was a member of Salvador Allende's government, is assassinated along with his wife Sofía Cuthbert in a car bomb attack perpetrated by the DINA in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• November 13 - The DeFeo family murders
• November 21 - The Irish Republican Army bombs two pubs in Birmingham, England, killing 21 people.
• December 1 - Anastasio Somoza Deybale is elected President of Nicaragua for the second time.
• December 8 - The Irish National Liberation Army is founded.
• December 25 - Sofia shooting
• December 30 - Olean High School shooting
• Unknown - The National Alliance is founded by William Luther Pierce.

Births

Villain births

• January 31 - Ian Huntley
• February 11 - Maria Sosa & Alex Jones
• March 25 - Ana Julia Quezada Cruz
• April 9 - Alexander Pichushkin
• April 21 - Faust
• May 2 - Christy Sheats
• May 27 - Marjorie Taylor Greene
• July 1 - Tariq Nasheed
• August 13 - Orlando Anderson
• August 21 - Amy Fisher
• October 5 - Laurie Tackett
• October 22 - Aslan Avgazarovich Byutukayev
• November 3 - John William King
• November 14 - Jason Spencer
• December 25 - Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano
• Unknown - Liu Zhigang
• Unknown - Jerry Stone
• Unknown - Lyndon McLeod

Victim births

• February 22 - Ann Harrison
• April 8 - Chris Kyle
• May 9 - Jennifer Harbison
• May 16 - Eliza Thomas
• June 17 - David Chain
• June 22 - Jo Cox
• June 23 - Aundria Bowman
• November 14 - Adam Walsh
• December 9 - Pippa Bacca and Rafael Ramos

Deaths

Villain deaths

• January 26 - Johanna Langefeld
• February 28 - Joseph Adams Milteer
• May 12 - Tony Costa
• July 1 - Juan Perón
• August 8 - Baldur von Schirach
• August 26 - Junio Valerio Borghese
• September 2 - David Barksdale

Victim deaths

• January 15 - Joseph, Julie, Josephine, and Joseph Otero, Jr.
• January 27 - Gerald Cavanaugh
• April 22 - Michelle Ansley, Stanley Walker, Carol Naisbitt
• September 30 - Carlos Prats and Sofía Cuthbert
• October 31 - Timothy O' Bryan
• December 14 - Charles Dean and Neal Sharman