THE NORTH STAR housing association, which now has more than 4,000 homes across the Tees Valley, County Durham and North Yorkshire, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, having been formed in 1974. Was 1974 a vintage year? Well, you decide – it was certainly a year packed with historic events…
January
1: Due to mining and railway strikes, Edward Heath’s government announces the three day week: commercial users of electricity were only allowed three consecutive days of consumption and TV had to stop broadcasting at 10.30pm
15: In the US, Happy Days, featuring the Fonz – Henry Winkler – made its debut on ABC
20: The first English professional football match is played on a Sunday: Millwall beat Fulham 1-0 in the Second Division
22: Nike is granted a trademark for its iconic logo, the swoosh
30: Actress Olivia Colman (below) is born in Norwich
February
1: British detectives capture Ronald Biggs who was on the run following the 1963 great train robbery in Rio de Janeiro – but he can’t be extradited because his Brazilian girlfriend was pregnant
4: US heiress, Patty Hearst (above), is kidnapped by left wing terrorists of the Symbionese Liberation Army, for whom she later carries out an armed bank robbery
13: Robbie Williams is born
28: Edward Heath, the Conservative Prime Minister, was clinging to power after a general election ended in Britain’s first hung parliament since 1929
March
4: Heath was unable to form a coalition with Jeremy Thorpe’s Liberal Party, so Labour’s Harold Wilson is asked to form a government. Within days, he is able to bring the miners’ strike to an end and put a finish to the three day week.
9: Newcastle fans invaded the St James’ Park pitch with their team losing 3-1 to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup quarter final. When the pitch was cleared, Newcastle went on to win 4-3 but the result was declared void. The match was replayed twice before Newcastle emerged victorious, and went on to the cup final, where they lost 3-0 to Liverpool.
20: An attempt to kidnap Princess Anne in The Mall is foiled
29: The motorway speed limit, temporarily reduced to 50mph in December 1973 because of the oil crisis, is restored to 70mph
30: Red Rum (below) wins the Grand National for a second consecutive year
April
6: Abba (above) win the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Brighton, with Waterloo
17: Victoria Adams, better known as Posh Spice or Beckham, is born in Hertfordshire
May
1: Alf Ramsey, who won the World Cup for England in 1966, is sacked after England fail to qualify for the 1974 World Cup, the first time they had missed out on the tournament
June
7: Adventurer Edward “Bear” Grylls is born in County Down
8: Jon Pertwee makes his last appearance as Doctor Who, regenerating into Tom Baker
26: A packet of Juicy Fruit chewing gum is scanned and bought at 8.01am in a supermarket in Ohio, the first product to be purchased by a barcode
July
6: Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert win the Wimbledon singles titles
7: West Germany win the World Cup, beating the Netherlands 2-1
August
3: At the Gateshead Games at the new stadium, local runner Brendan Foster (above) breaks the world 3,000 metre record. He will become the 1974 BBC Sports Personality of the Year
8: With the Watergate scandal closing in around him, Richard Nixon becomes the only US President to resign. Vice President Gerald Ford is sworn in
September
6: Tim Henman is born in Oxford
8: Ford grants Nixon a "full, free and absolute pardon"
20: The British Parliament is dissolved, making it the shortest in UK history
23: Ceefax becomes the world’s first television text service on the BBC
October
5: The IRA bombs two pubs in Guildford, Surrey, killing five people and injuring 54
10: Labour’s Harold Wilson triumphs in the year’s second general election, winning a 42 seat majority. Defeated Heath remains as Conservative leader, although early in 1975, he is replaced by Margaret Thatcher
30: In “The Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa in Zaire (below), Muhammad Ali regains the world heavyweight boxing title, defeated George Foreman. The fight is watched by 26m viewers – nearly half the British population – on BBC1, the year’s biggest TV audience
November
8: Lord Lucan disappears the day after his nanny, Sandra Rivett, is murdered in the family home in Belgravia in London. His blood-stained car is found two days later in East Sussex, but Lucan has never been found – he was declared legally dead in 1999
20: John Stonehouse, the Labour MP for Walsall North, leaves a pile of clothes on Miama beach and disappears
21: Two pubs in New Street, Birmingham, are bombed by the IRA, killing 21 and injuring 182 – the deadliest terrorist acts in the UK in the 20th Century
25: The first double heart transplant is performed by Dr Christiaan Barnard in Cape Town, South Africa
December
24: John Stonehouse is arrested in Melbourne, Australia, and is charged with 21 offences, including fraud, theft and forgery
31: Johan Cruyff becomes the first footballer to win the Ballon d’Or for the third time
The best selling singles of 1974
1. Tiger Feet – Mud
2. Seasons in the Sun – Terry Jacks
3. Billy Don’t Be a Hero – Paper Lace
4. When Will I See you Again – The Three Degrees
5. Rock Your Baby – George McCrae
6. Gonna Make You a Star – David Essex
7. She – Charles Aznavour
8. Kung Fu Fighting – Carl Douglas
9. Everything I Own – Ken Boothe
10. Sugar Baby Love – Rubettes
11. Devil Gate Drive – Suzi Quatro
12. Love Me For a Reason – The Osmonds
13. Jealous Mind – Alvin Stardust
14. The Air That I Breathe – The Hollies
15. Annie’s Song – John Denver
16. Waterloo – Abba
17. The Wombling Song – The Wombles
18. You Make Me Feel Brand New – The Stylistics
19. The Most Beautiful Girl – Charlie Rich
20. Y Viva Espana – Sylvia
THE Endeavour Housing Association was formally registered under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965 on August 16, 1974.
There were, though, much bigger stories for The Northern Echo to report on 50 years ago.
The morning of the registration, the Echo told how Court Line, Britain’s biggest holiday company, had gone bust, leaving 40,000 holidaymakers stranded abroad and 150,000 people not knowing whether their holiday would go ahead. They included Hazel Johnson, 21, of Stockton and her fiancé Kevin Feeney who were due to fly to Austria for their honeymoon.
“We’ll try to go to the Lakes instead, if we can get in,” said Hazel.
The Echo’s front page also reported how an assassin had missed his target, the South Korean president Park Chung-Hee, but had shot and killed the president’s wife, Yuk Young-soo, in Seoul.
Locally, the Stockton-based Fiesta nightclub chain revealed its plans to take over the ABC cinema – the famous Globe – in the town, while in Darlington, there was a strike at the Cummins engine plant over union recognition.
1974 is remembered as the year of a sugar shortage – there was a genuine shortage, but when it became known, panic-buying worsened the situation. However, on August 16, 1974, the Echo reported that the Amos Hinton chain of supermarkets was restocking its shelves with the sweet stuff, although customers were being asked to buy £1.50 worth of other goods before they were allowed to buy 2lbs of sugar.
Durham County Council was advertising for a clerk/typist to work at its headquarters on between £672 and £1,464 a year, depending on qualifications and experience. In Melsonby, a four bedroomed “chalet-style detached house with a Tyrolean finish” in St James Close was on the market for £20,000 – call East Layton 252 for further details said the advert.
August 16, 1974, was a Friday, so the Echo’s sports pages were looking forward to the kick-off of the football season the following day, with Middlesbrough, under Jack Charlton, joining Newcastle in the First Division. However, the matches were overshadowed by football’s discipline problems, as shown the week before when Liverpool’s Kevin Keegan and Leeds United’s Billy Bremner had been sent off for brawling at Wembley in the Charity Shield.
Dissent against referees’ decisions was described as “the curse of the modern game”, but the newly elected president of the referees’ association, Pat Partridge of Cockfield, told the Echo: “People say players become frustrated and express their anger with dissent to referees, yet one can draw a parallel to ordinary life. If a car driver is stopped by a policeman, he does not immediately kick up and rebel against authority.”
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