” The first principle is that you must not fool yourself--and you are the easiest person to fool.”
- Richard Feynman, 6/14/1974
It’s time to journey back to June of ’74, and revisit “Band on the Run”, “Chinatown” and “Ten Cent Beer Night”, and leaf through the spinner racks to find Jack Kirby’s latest creation and team-ups galore (JLA/JSA, Superman/Batgirl, and the Flashes of Earth-One and -Two!)
News of the Month:
1st - Arab oil ministers decide to end most restrictions on exports of oil to the United States
1st - The U.S. medical magazine Emergency Medicine publishes "Pop Goes the Cafe Coronary", an informal article by thoracic surgeon Henry Heimlich, describing the effective use of abdominal thrusts to dislodge an object blocking an airway to save a person choking on food, which becomes known as “the Heimlich maneuver”
10th – President Nixon begins a five-nation tour of Austria and the Middle East
15th - "All the President's Men" by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward detailing their Watergate investigation is published
16th - Björn Borg of Sweden wins first career Grand Slam title at French Open
20th - The reliability of the White House transcripts of the Watergate Tapes is called into question as the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee reveals that editing by the White House had removed remarks that might suggest President Nixon had attempted to cover up the scandal
22nd - The Sears Tower in Chicago, at the time the tallest building in the world at 1,353 feet,, opens its observation deck for the first time
25th - President Richard Nixon departs from Washington on his last foreign trip as president, and his second overseas tour of the month, flying to Brussels for a meeting with NATO national leaders, followed by a summit in Moscow with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev
26th - The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley's chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, the first use of barcode technology in retailing
26th - Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton divorce after just over 10 years of marriage
29th - Soviet ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defects while the Bolshoi Ballet tour is in Toronto, Canada, and requests political asylum in Canada
Newsreel of the Month: Nixon leaves for the Middle East (June 10, 1974)
Magazine Cover of the Month: Cheryl Tiegs, Harper’s Bazaar (June 1974)
Music of the Month: Macca had another huge hit in the States with the title track from his latest album with Wings
US Top Singles:
1. Your Make Me Feel Brand New - Stylistics
2. Billy Don't Be A Hero - Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods
3. Sundown - Gordon Lightfoot
4. Band On The Run - Paul McCartney & Wings
5. The Streak - Ray Stevens
UK Top Singles:
1. Hey Rock And Roll - Showaddywaddy
2. There's A Ghost In My House - R. Dean Taylor
3. The Streak - Ray Stevens
4. This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Us Both - Sparks
5. Sugar Baby Love - Rubettes
Further Down the Charts:
Joni Mitchell had her biggest career hit with “Help Me”, peaking at #7
Stevie Wonder made it up to #16 with the funky “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing”
Movie of the Month: “Chinatown” starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston (premiered June 20, 1974)
TV Clip of the Month: George Carlin riffs on flowers, elevators and God on the Tonight Show (June 3, 1974)
Sports Moment of the Month: The ill-conceived "Ten Cent Beer Night" promotion at Cleveland Stadium, for a game between the Cleveland Indians and the visiting Texas Rangers, degenerates into a riot by drunken fans, resulting in the game being forfeited by the home team (June 4, 1974)
Top 10 DC Comics of the Month (as selected by Osgood Peabody, listed in order of their publication):
Justice League of America #113: The JLA and JSA team up to capture “The Creature in the Velvet Cage”! (Cover by Nick Cardy)
Kamandi #21: Kamandi encounters a new form of life in Earth A.D. in “The Fish”! (Cover by Jack Kirby & D. Bruce Berry)
Superman #279: The Man of Steel and the Dominoed Daredoll reunite in “Menace of the Energy Blackmailers!”, plus meet “The Magic Master of Krypton”! (Cover by Nick Cardy)
Weird Western Tales #24: Jonah Hex finds himself in a perilous duel while handicapped in “The Point Pyrrhus Aftermath”! (Cover by Luis Dominguez)
House of Secrets #123: A pair of macabre treats, highlighted by Michael Fleisher & Alex Toth’s farcical “A Connecticut Ice Cream Man in King Arthur’s Court”! (Cover by Frank Robbins)
Omac #1: Jack Kirby’s latest creation – a “One Man Army” – makes his debut! (Cover by Jack Kirby & Mike Royer)
Shazam #14: Another giant collection of Marvel Family treats, including “The Evil Return of the Monster Society” and “The Word Wrecker”! (Cover by Bob Oksner)
Adventure Comics #435: A journalist becomes intrigued by the grisly deaths of criminals in the city, and vows to track down the source behind it in “The Man Who Stalked the Spectre” plus the long-awaited return of Aquaman in “As the Undersea City Sleeps”! (Cover by Jim Aparo)
The Flash #229: Barry Allen and Jay Garrick reunite to tackle a strangely elusive foe in “The Rag Doll Runs Wild”! (Cover by Nick Cardy)
Superboy #204: The LSH is baffled by “The Legionnaire Nobody Remembered”! (Cover by Nick Cardy)
You can find all DC comics published this month right here courtesy of Mike Voiles’ Time Machine!
You can also find a lot of other publishers’ output this month courtesy of Mike’s site right here.
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statistics: Posted by Osgood Peabody — 7:23 AM - Today — Replies 10 — Views 130