News in 1974

Interpol intelligence on Arab terrorist threat to Heathrow led to biggest ever security operation - Home Secretary Robert Carr stated that troops guarding Heathrow were given order to shoot to kill if necessary.

A fishing trawler owned by British United Trawlers (BUT) went missing in the Arctic. No mayday signal was received, despite the trawler´s advanced on-board technology. It is believed the Gaul sank on 8 February, killing the 36-man crew. The Gaul was nicknamed "the Unsinkable".

The general election on 28 February produced no party with an overall majority. The Conservative Prime Minister, Edward Heath, stayed in office while he tried to negotiate with the Liberal Party, led by Jeremy Thorpe, to support his government. Following Heath´s resignation, Harold Wilson formed a minority Labour Government.

Escape attempt foiled
Patricia Cairns, a prison officer at Holloway, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to conspiring to effect the escape of Myra Hindley. Cairns was imprisoned for six years.

Giscard d'Estaing won a narrow margin to defeat Francois Mitterrand, the Communist-backed socialist. More than 87% of voters went to the polls and, at 48, Mr Giscard was France's 20th president and the youngest of the 20th century. He served as finance minister under the late President George Pompidou for nine out of 12 years. An ardent pro-European, he was welcomed by the EEC in the hope that he would steer France away from doctrinaire foreign policy and an anti-American stance and push forward European integration.

Following a seven-day general strike, organised by the loyalist Ulster Workers' Council which was opposed to the Sunningdale Agreement*, Northern Ireland's first power-sharing assembly collapsed, leaving the Province facing direct rule from Westminster. Industrial production ceased - there were power cuts, rubbish was not collected and undertakers would not bury the dead. The new executive took power formally on 1 January 1974 but soon ran into trouble when anti-power sharing unionists disrupted proceedings. Labour returned to power in Westminster (February 1974) and unionists opposed to the deal won 11 of the 12 seats in Northern Ireland.

* The Sunningdale Agreement set up a power-sharing executive for Northern Ireland which was expected to evolve into a Council of Ireland. This would involve the Republic with limited jurisdiction over issues of joint concern between the North and South.

An IRA bomb exploded at the Houses of Parliament, causing extensive damage and injuring 11 people. The explosion fractured a gas main and a fierce fire spread quickly through Westminster Hall.

A bomb exploded in the Mortar Room in the White Tower, which was packed with tourists, killing one woman and injuring eight children. No organisation claimed responsibility but the IRA was widely suspected to have carried out the attack.

More than 10,000 Greek-Cypriots protested in London in support of an independent Cyprus and the restoration of Archbishop Makarios as its elected president. Turkish troops landed in Northern Cyprus in the early morning of 20 July after a Greek-sponsored coup in the capital the previous week. Protesters in London collected outside the All Saints Greek Orthodox church in Camden Town and confronted other Greek-Cypriots in favour of union with Greece.

Richard Nixon, who was facing an impeachment trial over the Watergate affair, resigned as president of the United States - the only president to do so. He had more than two years of his second term left to run and was succeeded by vice-president Gerald Ford.

Four soldiers and a civilian were killed and 65 injured when bombs went off in two pubs on a Saturday night in Guildford. Many of the victims were soldiers back from duty in Northern Ireland. Most casualties resulted from the initial bomb in the Horse and Groom pub, which went off without warning. Guildford was popular with soldiers who were part of the 6000 military personnel in the area.

In the second general election of 1974, Harold Wilson's Labour government won a second term. Wilson converted the first minority government since 1929 into a working majority but by only ­three seats. Wilson said that the new Parliament was "viable" and could "endure". Conservative leader Ted Heath called on Labour to abandon their divisive socialist policies.

Judith Ward, 25, received a life term for each of the 12 people who died when a bomb exploded in February on an army coach on the M62 motorway. The sentences were to run concurrently with three other sentences of up to 20 years for causing explosions. It was said that Ward, from Stockport, had joined the army -- from which she later deserted - on the IRA´s instructions.

Police searched for Lord Lucan after his children´s nanny was found battered to death in the Belgravia house where Lady Lucan lived.

Ronald Milhench was jailed for three years for forging Prime Minister Wilson´s signature to help pull off a property deal.

Bombs devastated two central Birmingham pubs, killing 19 people and injuring over 180. The explosions coincided with the return to Ireland of the body of James McDade, the IRA man killed in Coventry the previous week when the bomb he was planting blew up prematurely.