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Apart from Nomads forming what else happened in 1974?
Births: Nomad’s very own Paul Tyler (200m backstroke Group A Short
Course Scottish Masters record holder and all round good guy). Robbie Williams
(the only former Take That band member still making a living from singing). Kate
Moss (super model famous for promoting “Heroin Chic”). Ian Huntley
(evil murderous, paedophile). Leonardo DiCaprio (Actor and heart throb of the
ladies). Alanis Morissette (singer pilloried for wrong use of the word
“ironic”).
Sport:
The British Empire and Commonwealth Games was held in Christchurch New Zealand
(the last time it was called that). Canada and Australia dominated the swimming
with the world record for the 800m being broken by Aussie Steve Holland in 8min
5.88sec. The Men’s 100m freestyle was won in 52.7 sec and the
Women’s 100m backstroke world record was beaten by Canadian Wendy Cooke in
1min 4.8sec.
Celtic won the League and the Scottish Cup. South of the border, Derby County
won the League and Liverpool won the FA Cup. West Germany won the World Cup
beating The Netherlands 2:1
Carl Huntington & Nugget the dog won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. This
is an annual dog-sled race in Alaska, U.S., that commemorates a 1925 relay to
transport anti-diphtheria serum from Anchorage, Alaska, to Nome, Alaska, to
combat an outbreak of the disease. The vaccine went by train from Anchorage to
Nenana, Alaska, and then a series of dog mushers took it overland a total of 674
miles in 127-1/2 hours.
The trail for the race does not follow the route the vaccine took in 1925 but,
instead, a trail through largely unpopulated tundra that was chosen to test the
mettle of the sled dogs and their drivers. It is named for the ghost town of
Iditarod, Alaska, it passes through, which was an Athabascan Indian village
before gold was discovered nearby in 1908; a town was built there which became
the center of the Iditarod Mining District in 1910, but it did not outlast the
local gold-rush.
Eddy Merckx dominated the world of cycling winning the Giro d'Italia, Tour de
France and the World Cycling Championship.
Films, Past-times and music: The Towering Inferno – what more can you say?
But the first draft for Star Wars was written. Dungeons and Dragons was first
released.
Remember the Phantom Flan Flinger, Spit the Dog, Sally James, Chris Tarrant?
Well that was Tiswas and it started an 8 year run in this year. Hungarian
professor of architecture Erno Rubik, responsible for countless cases of
rheumatoid arthritis now (!) invented the Rubik Cube. It was originally called
the "Büvös Kocka", the Hungarian name for Magic Cube. Mud
had the Christmas number 1 with “It’ll be lonely this
Christmas”. Others topping the charts that year include Abba (Waterloo),
John Denver (Annie’s song), David Essex (gonna make you a star), Barry
White (You’re my first, my last, my everything).
In the news: The Watergate Scandal was in full swing. It started with a burglary
in June 1972 and ended with the resignation of US President Richard Nixon in
August 1974. The break-in at the offices of the Democratic National Committee in
1972 was traced back to a Nixon-support group. A string of revelations over the
next two years led all the way to the top. Richard Nixon resigned to avoid
impeachment – something Bill “the cigar” Clinton didn’t
learn from!! Lord Lucan disappeared and was never found. A bomb exploded in
Birmingham killing 21 people and resulting in the conviction of the
“Birmingham Six”. Ian Ball’s attempt to kidnap Princess Anne
remains the closest attempt anyone has made on abducting a member of the Royal
Family. He was prosecuted for the attempted murder of Princess Anne’s
detective, and various offences under the Offences Against the Person Act. Ball
was sentenced to life imprisonment and placed in a mental hospital. Mary
Connors, 21, aimed to be shot from a cannon in Bristol, further than anyone else
had yet achieved in England by clearing the River Avon and landing in a safety
net. Before the attempt Ms Connors said she was confident of success. She had
not taken out personal insurance for the attempts, Ms Connors added, but she had
taken "a few swimming lessons". In the event they came in handy as Ms
Connors, a secretary, again fell short and end up in the water. Events took a
farcical turn when two men in a rescue boat also fell in the water as they
attempted to pull her out. The three then had to be rescued by another boat
which was standing by with a frogman aboard. The world record is held by
American David Smith who was shot 180 feet (54.97 metres) (Nomads Health
Warning: more than 30 human cannon balls have been killed).
Deaths: J.R.R. Tolkein (author responsible for the Lord of the Rings nonsense),
the original Coco the Clown (Nikolai Poliakov).
Nick Andrews
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