Setting

[Gellert Grindelwald]

Amortentia Dolorosa is based in Wizarding Britain, in 1974. Voldemort's rise to power is well underway, fuelled by the vacancy left by the fall of Grindelwald, in 1945, and the recent outbreaks of violence related to the tensions in Ireland. Many a wizard believes that the only way to stop the senseless barbarity of the Muggle world is to assume power over it, and that the way to assume power is to demonstrate it. The Dark Lord, himself, has been heard to say that national pride is irrelevant -- that it is only Wizarding blood that matters.

Unfortunately, for the Irish and the French, The Dark Lord's views on the matter are not universal. Unfortunately for the Muggles and the Mudbloods, his views are widespread.

Even in the Muggle world, times are not simple. The preceding four years have borne terrorism and scandal the likes of which had not been seen before the Second World War. Watergate and the conflict in Vietnam have shaken the United States and, to some extent, have shaken the world's perception of that young nation. All eyes are on Britain as Northern Ireland lashes out -- half at the English and half at their Republican neighbours. Canada struggles with the Front de Libération du Québec, and their attempts to overthrow the "Anglo-imperialist" government for a French-speaking Marxist state. Turkey beseiges itself, to stop violent revolt in eleven provinces. The elected government of Chile is overthrown in a military coup, and the resulting rule holds sway until nearly the 1990s, but this is almost offset by the rise of Isabel Peron, in Argentina, the following year.

It is a time of trouble and global upset, and as is always true, in such times, a leader has risen to offer his people a way out. The road will be paved in blood and fear, but the Dark Lord is sure, and he seems unlikely to fail. There are more uncertain places to lay one's faith, after all, than in a man whose immortality is nearly certain.

Table of Contents

• Wizarding Politics of the 1970s
• Events of 1970
• Events of 1971
• Events of 1972
• Events of 1973
• Events of 1974

Events listed in this thread have been pulled from the Wikipedia entries on the corresponding years. Events listed in green, in this thread, were primarily drawn from the timeline on the Harry Potter Lexicon. Some dates are logical speculation on the part of the Admins, where dates were not provided, but could be inferred.

[Gellert Grindelwald]

Death Eaters
By capturing the attention of the patriarchs of several Pureblood lines, and a few more who are not wholly Pureblood, but strongly believe in the innate superiority of Wizards, the Dark Lord has secured a self-perpetuating league of followers. Many bear the Mark, but many more follow where he leads, with no trace to betray their allegiances. At the moment, the Dark Lord's primary concern is filling his inner court with researchers and intellectuals, and the Ministry with Wizards loyal to his ideals. They have, to date, kept the Statute of Magical Secrecy fairly well, as all of their victims have died.

The Ministry of Magic
The Ministry views the Death Eaters as a threat, but not a serious one. They are more concerned with the state of Magical Beings along the Irish border and in the North, as the Troubles have spread from being a purely Muggle affair to striking into preserves and Wizarding villages. Explosions in London, proper, have threatened several mainstays of Wizarding society, and to some extent, the Ministry itself. In a nutshell, they are distracted.

English Pureblood Perspectives

[Arcturus Black]

1970

• January
  
  • January 20 – The Greater London Council announces its plans for the Thames Barrier at Woolwich to prevent flooding (the barrier opens in 1981). Wizards living near the banks find that, while their homes survive the construction, the noise of the flood gates is far too much to live beside. Most move out by 1982.
• February
  
  • February 18 – A jury finds the Chicago Seven defendants not guilty of conspiring to incite a riot, in charges stemming from the violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Five of the defendants are found guilty on the lesser charge of crossing state lines to incite a riot.
• March
  
  • March 1 – Rhodesia severs its last tie with the United Kingdom, declaring itself a racially segregated republic.
  • March 5 – The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty goes into effect, after ratification by 43 nations.
  • March 6 – A bomb being constructed by members of the Weathermen and meant to be planted at a military dance in New Jersey, explodes, killing 3 members of the organization.
  • March 31 – Japan Airlines Flight 351, carrying 131 passengers and 7 crew from Tokyo to Fukuoka, is hijacked by Japanese Red Army members. All passengers are eventually freed.
• April
  
  • April 8 – A huge gas explosion at a subway construction site in Osaka, Japan kills 79 and injures over 400.
• May
  
  • May 4 – Kent State shootings: Four students at Kent State University in Ohio are killed and 9 wounded by Ohio State National Guardsmen, at a protest against the incursion into Cambodia.
  • May 6 – Arms Crisis in the Republic of Ireland: Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney are dismissed as members of the Irish Government, for accusations of their involvement in a plot to import arms for use by the Provisional IRA in Northern Ireland.
• June
• July
  
  • July 3 - the French Army detonated a 914 kiloton thermonuclear device in the Mururoa Atoll on July 3, 1970. It was the fourth nuclear test and largest.
• August
  
  • August 26–30 – The Isle of Wight Festival 1970 takes place on East Afton Farm off the coast of England. Some 600,000 people attend the largest rock festival of all time. Artists include Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Doors, Chicago, Richie Havens, John Sebastian, Joan Baez, Ten Years After, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Jethro Tull.
• September
  
  • September 1 - The Marauders start at Hogwarts
• October
  
  • October 5 – The Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnaps James Cross in Montreal and demands release of all its imprisoned members. The next day the Canadian government announces it will not meet the demand, beginning Quebec's October Crisis.
  • October 10 – October Crisis: In Montreal, Quebec, a national crisis hits Canada when Quebec Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte becomes the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.
  • October 16 – October Crisis: The Canadian government declares a state of emergency and outlaws the Quebec Liberation Front.
  • October 17 – October Crisis: Pierre Laporte is found murdered in south Montreal.
  • October 30 – In Vietnam, the worst monsoon to hit the area in 6 years causes large floods, kills 293, leaves 200,000 homeless and virtually halts the Vietnam War.
• November
  
  • November 13 – 1970 Bhola cyclone: A 120-mph (193 km/h) tropical cyclone hits the densely populated Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an estimated 500,000 people (considered the 20th century's worst cyclone disaster).
  • November 17 – Vietnam War: Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai massacre.
  • November 26 – Pope Paul VI begins an Asian tour.
  • November 27 – Bolivian artist Benjamin Mendoza tries to assassinate Pope Paul VI during his visit in Manila.
  • November 29 - Bill Weasley is born
• December
  
  • December 7 – The U.N. General Assembly supports the isolation of South Africa for its apartheid policies.
• Undated
  
  • Remus Lupin is accepted to begin his first year at Hogwarts. It is arranged that he will go to the Shrieking Shack every month when he transforms into a werewolf. The Shrieking Shack then becomes known as the most haunted building in Britain.
  • The Whomping Willow is planted at Hogwarts, to conceal the on-grounds entrance to the Shrieking Shack.
  • Remus Lupin's friends discover he is a werewolf, explaining his monthly disappearances.

[Arcturus Black]

1971

• January
  
  • January 2 – Ibrox disaster: A stairway crush at the Rangers vs. Celtic football match in Glasgow, Scotland kills 66.
  • January 8 – Tupamaros kidnap Geoffrey Jackson, British ambassador to Uruguay, in Montevideo, keeping him captive until September.
  • January 25 – In Los Angeles, Charles Manson and three female "Family" members are found guilty of the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders.
• February
  
  • February 15 – Decimalisation Day: – The United Kingdom and Ireland both switch to decimal currency
  • February 20 – Fifty tornadoes rage in Mississippi, killing 74.
• March
  
  • March 1 – A bomb explodes in the men's room at the U.S. Capitol; the Weather Underground Organization claims responsibility.
  • March 7 – The British postal workers' strike, led by UPW General Secretary Tom Jackson, ends after 47 days.
  • March 29 – U.S. Army Lieutenant William Calley is found guilty of 22 murders in the My Lai massacre and sentenced to life in prison (later pardoned).
  • March 29 – A Los Angeles, California jury recommends the death penalty for Charles Manson and 3 female followers.
• April
  
  • April 5 – Mount Etna erupts in Sicily.
  • April 19 – Followers of Charles Manson, the Manson Family, are sentenced to the gas chamber.
  • April 20 – Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education: The Supreme Court of the United States rules unanimously that busing of students may be ordered to achieve racial desegregation.
  • April 24 – Five hundred thousand people in Washington, DC and 125,000 in San Francisco march in protest against the Vietnam War.
  • April 26 – The government of Turkey declares a state of siege in 11 provinces, Ankara included, due to violent demonstrations.
• May
  
  • May 3 – Anti-war militants attempt to disrupt government business in Washington, D.C.; police and military units arrest as many as 12,000, most of whom are later released.
  • May 5 – The US dollar floods the European currency markets and threatens especially the Deutsche Mark; the central banks of Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland stop the currency trading.
  • May 12 – An earthquake in Turkey destroys most of the city of Burdur.
  • May 15 – Efraim Elrom, Israeli ambassador to Turkey, is kidnapped; he is found killed in Istanbul May 25.
  • May 16 – A coup attempt is exposed and foiled in Egypt.
  • May 22 – An earthquake lasting 20 seconds destroys most of Bingöl, Turkey – more than 1,000 are killed, 10,000 made homeless.
  • May 23 – An air crash at Rijeka Airport, Yugoslavia kills 78 people, mostly British tourists.
• June
  
  • June 10 – The U.S. ends its trade embargo of China.
• July
  
  • July 3 – Jim Morrison, leader of The Doors is found dead in his bathtub in Paris, France.
  • July 5 – Right to vote: The 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution, formally certified by President Richard Nixon, lowers the voting age from 21 to 18.
  • July 29 – The United Kingdom opts out of the Space Race, with the cancellation of its Black Arrow launch vehicle.
• August
  
  • August 9 – Internment in Northern Ireland: British security forces arrest hundreds of nationalists and detain them without trial in Long Kesh prison; 20 people die in the riots that follow.
  • August 12 – Three thousand people from Belfast and Derry flee to Ireland because of the violence.
  • August 14 – British troops are stationed on the Ireland border to stop arms smuggling.
  • August 15 – The number of British troops in Northern Ireland is raised to 12,500.
  • August 18 – British troops are engaged in a firefight in Derry, Northern Ireland.
• September
  
  • September 9 – September 13 – Attica Prison riots: – A revolt breaks out at the maximum-security prison in Attica, New York. In the end, state police and the United States National Guard storm the facility; 42 are killed, 10 of them hostages.
  • September 24 – Britain expels 90 KGB and GRU officials; 15 are not allowed to return.
• October
  
  • October 1 – Walt Disney World opens in Florida.
  • October 21 – U.S. President Richard Nixon nominates Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. and William H. Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court.
  • October 21 – A gas explosion in Clarkston, Glasgow kills 20 people.
  • October 28 – The British House of Commons votes 356-244 in favour of joining the European Economic Community.
  • October 28 – The United Kingdom becomes the 6th nation to launch a satellite into orbit, the Prospero X-3, using a Black Arrow carrier rocket.
  • October 30 – Rev. Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party is founded in Northern Ireland.
  • October 31 – A bomb explodes at the top of the Post Office Tower in London.
• November
  
  • November 15 – Intel releases the world's first microprocessor, the Intel 4004.
• December
  
  • December 11 – The Libertarian Party (United States) is established.
  • December 29 – The United Kingdom gives up its military bases in Malta.

[Gellert Grindelwald]

1972

• January
  
  • January 4 – Rose Heilbron becomes the first woman judge at the Old Bailey in London.
  • January 9 – The RMS Queen Elizabeth is destroyed by fire in Hong Kong harbor
  • January 11 – East Pakistan wins independence as Bangladesh.
  • January 28 – Richard Chanfray claims he is the Count of St Germain on French television.
  • January 30 – Bloody Sunday: The British Army kills 13 unarmed nationalist civil rights marchers in Derry, Northern Ireland.
• February
  
  • February 1 – The first scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) is introduced (price $395).
  • February 2 – Anti-British riots take place throughout Ireland. The British Embassy in Dublin is burned to the ground, as are several British-owned businesses.
  • February 9 – The British government declares a state of emergency over a miners' strike.
  • February 15 – Phonorecords are granted U.S. federal copyright protection for the first time.
  • February 21–28 – U.S. President Richard M. Nixon makes an unprecedented 8-day visit to the People's Republic of China and meets with Mao Zedong.
  • February 22 – Aldershot bombing: An Official IRA bomb kills 7 in Aldershot, England.
• March
  
  • March 13 – The United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China elevate diplomatic exchanges to the ambassadorial level after 22 years.
  • March 22 – The 92nd U.S. Congress votes to send the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the states for ratification.
  • March 24 – The British government announces the prorogation of the Parliament of Northern Ireland and the introduction of 'Direct Rule' of Northern Ireland, after the Unionist government refuses to cede security powers.
• April
  
  • April 10 – The U.S. and the Soviet Union join some 70 nations in signing the Biological Weapons Convention, an agreement to ban biological warfare.
• May
  
  • The Burundian Genocide against the Hutu begins; more than 500,000 Hutus die
  • May 26 – The Watergate first break-in, the "Ameritas dinner", fails.
  • May 30 – The Angry Brigade goes on trial in the United Kingdom.
• June
  
  • June 14–23 – Hurricane Agnes kills 117 on the U.S. East Coast.
  • June 15–18 – The first U.S. Libertarian Party National Convention is held in Denver, Colorado.
  • June 17 – Watergate scandal: Five White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee.
  • June 17 – The United States returns Okinawa, occupied and governed since the WW-II Battle of Okinawa, back to Japan.
  • June 18 – Staines air disaster: 118 die when a Trident 1 jet airliner crashes 2 minutes after take off from London Heathrow Airport.
  • June 23 – Watergate Scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about using the C.I.A. to obstruct the F.B.I.'s investigation into the Watergate break-ins.
  • June 26 – Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney co-found Atari.
• July
  
  • July 21 – Bloody Friday: 22 bombs planted by the Provisional IRA explode in Belfast, Northern Ireland; 9 people are killed and 130 seriously injured.
  • July 25 – U.S. health officials admit that African-Americans were used as guinea pigs in the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.
  • July 31 – Operation Motorman: British troops move into the no-go areas of Belfast and Derry, Northern Ireland, ending Free Derry.
• August
  
  • August 4 – A huge solar flare (one of the largest ever recorded) knocks out cable lines in U.S. It begins with the appearance of sunspots on August 2; an August 4 flare kicks off high levels of activity until August 10.
  • August 10 – A brilliant, daytime meteor skips off the Earth's atmosphere due to an Apollo asteroid streaking over the western US into Canada.[1]
• September
  
  • September 1 – Bobby Fischer defeats Boris Spassky in a chess match at Reykjavík, Iceland, becoming the first American chess champion (see Match of the Century).
  • September 5–6 – Munich Massacre: Eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich are murdered after 8 members of the Arab terrorist group Black September invade the Olympic Village; 5 guerillas and 1 policeman are also killed in a failed hostage rescue.
  • September 19 – A parcel bomb sent to the Israeli Embassy in London kills 1 diplomat.
• October
  
  • October 1 – The first publication reporting the production of a recombinant DNA molecule, marks the birth of modern molecular biology methodology.
  • October 29 – The Black September group hijacks a Lufthansa Boeing 727 over Turkey, demanding the release of 3 comrades still held for the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games.
• November
  
  • November 19 – Seán Mac Stíofáin, a leader of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, is arrested in Dublin after giving an interview to RTÉ.
  • November 29 – Atari kicks off the first generation of video games with the release of their seminal arcade version of Pong, the first game to achieve commercial success.
• December
  
  • December 7 – Apollo 17 (Gene Cernan, Ronald Evans, Harrison Schmitt), the last manned Moon mission to date, is launched.
  • December 7 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army kidnaps Jean McConville in Belfast.
  • December 7 – Imelda Marcos is stabbed and seriously wounded by an assailant; her bodyguards shoot him.
  • December 8 – International Human Rights Day is proclaimed by the United Nations.
  • December 12 - Charlie Weasley is born

[Gellert Grindelwald]

1973

• January
  
  • January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
  • January 22 – Roe v. Wade: The U.S. Supreme Court overturns state bans on abortion.
  • January 27 – U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War ends with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords.
• February
  
  • February 16 – The Court of Appeal of England and Wales rules that the Sunday Times can publish articles on Thalidomide and Distillers Company, despite ongoing legal actions by parents (the decision is overturned in July by the House of Lords).
  • February 28 – The Republic of Ireland general election is held.
  • February 28 – The landmark postmodern novel Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon is published.
• March
  
  • March 8 – In the 'Border Poll', voters in Northern Ireland vote to remain part of the United Kingdom. Irish nationalists are encouraged to boycott the referendum.
  • March 17 – Queen Elizabeth II opens the modern London Bridge.
  • March 20 – A British government White Paper on Northern Ireland proposes the re-establishment of an Assembly elected by proportional representation, with a possible All-Ireland council.
  • March 21 – The Lofthouse Colliery disaster occurs in Great Britain.
  • March 29 – The last United States soldier leaves Vietnam.
• April
  
  • April 4 – The World Trade Center officially opens in New York City with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
  • April 11 – The British House of Commons voted against restoring capital punishment by a margin of 142 votes.
  • April 28 – Six Irishmen, including Joe Cahill, are arrested by the Irish Naval Service off County Waterford, on board a coaster carrying 5 tons of weapons destined for the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
• May
  
  • May 1 – An estimated 1,600,000 workers in the United Kingdom stop work in support of a Trade Union Congress "day of national protest and stoppage" against the Government's anti-inflation policy.
  • May 14 – The British House of Commons votes to abolish capital punishment in Northern Ireland.
  • May 22 – Lord Lambton resigns from the British government over a 'call girl' scandal.
  • May 24 – Earl Jellicoe, Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords in Britain, resign over a separate prostitution scandal
• June
  
  • June 23 – A house fire in Kingston upon Hull, England, which kills a 6-year-old boy is passed off as an accident; it later emerges as the first of 26 fire deaths caused over the next 7 years by arsonist Peter Dinsdale.
  • June 28 – Elections are held for the Northern Ireland Assembly, which will lead to power-sharing between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland for the first time.
  • June 30 – A very long total solar eclipse occurs. During the entire 2nd millennium, only 7 total solar eclipses exceeded 7 minutes of totality.
• July
  
  • July 20 – France resumes nuclear bomb tests in Mururoa Atoll, over the protests of Australia and New Zealand.
  • July 30 – An 11-year legal action for the victims of Thalidomide ends.
  • July 31 – Militant protesters led by Ian Paisley disrupt the first sitting of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
• August
  
  • August 15 – The U.S. bombing of Cambodia ends, officially halting 12 years of combat activity in Southeast Asia.
• September
  
  • September 11 – Chile's democratically-elected government is overthrown in a military coup after serious instability. President Salvador Allende commits suicide during the coup in the presidential palace, and General Augusto Pinochet heads a U.S.-backed military junta that governs Chile for the next 16 years.
• October
  
  • October 17 – The Arab Oil Embargo against several countries which support Israel triggers the 1973 energy crisis.
  • October 20 – The Sydney Opera House is opened by Elizabeth II after 14 years of construction work.
  • October 31 – Mountjoy Prison helicopter escape: Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escape from Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, Republic of Ireland after a hijacked helicopter lands in the exercise yard.
• November
  
  • November 7 – The Congress of the United States overrides President Richard M. Nixon's veto of the War Powers Resolution, which limits presidential power to wage war without congressional approval.
  • November 11 – Egypt and Israel sign a United States-sponsored cease-fire accord.
  • November 14 – In the United Kingdom, Princess Anne marries a commoner, Captain Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey (they divorce in 1992).
  • November 17 – Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook."
• December
  
  • December 15 – Gay rights: The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its DSM-II.
  • December 31 – In the United Kingdom, due to coal shortages caused by industrial action, the Three-Day Week electricity consumption reduction measure comes into force.
• Undated
  
  • Nymphadora Tonks is born
  • Janus Thickey pretends to be killed by a Lethifold
  • Charis Black Crouch dies at age 54
  • Harvey Ridgebit, founder of the largest dragon sanctuary in Romania, dies

[Gellert Grindelwald]

1974

• January
  
  • January 30 – In his State of the Union Address, U.S. President Richard Nixon declares, "One year of Watergate is enough."
• February
  
  • February 3 – In the second Bathurst Gaol riot, prisoners destroy much of the facility with petrol bombs.
  • February 4 – The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patricia Hearst, the 19-year-old granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst.
  • February 28 – The United Kingdom general election results in an almost dead-heat. Harold Wilson becomes Prime Minister again, despite his Labour Party having received fewer votes than the Conservative Party.
• March
• April
  
  • April 1 – The Local Government Act 1972 comes into effect in England and Wales, creating 6 new metropolitan counties and comprehensively redrawing the administrative map.
  • April 15 – In San Francisco, members of the Symbionese Liberation Army rob a branch of the Hibernia National Bank, joined by Patricia Hearst, their erstwhile captive.
  • April 27 – The Lewis' store in Manchesters Piccadilly Gardens is evacuated after an IRA bomb threat; nobody is hurt.
• May
  
  • May 4 – The Expo '74 World's Fair opens in Spokane, Washington.
  • May 17 – Thirty-three people die and over 300 are wounded in the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings in the Republic of Ireland. Members of the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force are behind the blast, allegedly in collusion with members of the British intelligence service.
• June
  
  • June 1 – Flixborough disaster: A chemical plant explosion in Flixborough, UK, kills 28 people.
  • June 17 – A bomb explodes at the Houses of Parliament in London, damaging Westminster Hall. The Provisional Irish Republican Army claims responsibility for planting the bomb.
  • June 30 – Alberta Williams King, mother of the late Martin Luther King, Jr., is killed during a church service in Atlanta, Georgia.
• July
  
  • July 1 – Juan Peron, President of Argentina, dies and is succeeded by his wife, Vice President Isabel Peron (the first female head of state in South America).
  • July 15 – Christine Chubbuck, U.S. television presenter for WXLT-TV, draws a revolver and shoots herself in the head during a live broadcast. She dies in a hospital 14 hours later.
  • July 17 – A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb explodes in the White Tower at the Tower of London, killing 1 person and injuring 41. Another bomb explodes outside a government building in South London.
  • July 27–30 – Watergate Scandal: The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee adopts 3 articles of impeachment, charging President Richard M. Nixon with obstruction of justice, failure to uphold laws, and refusal to produce material subpoenaed by the committee.
• August
  
  • August 4 – A bomb explodes in an Italicus Expressen train between Italy and West Germany. Italian neo-fascist terrorists take responsibility.
  • August 9 – Richard M. Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office, an action taken to avoid being removed by impeachment in response to his role in the Watergate scandal. Vice President Gerald R. Ford becomes the 38th President, taking the oath of office in the East Room of the White House.
• September
  
  • September - Remus Lupin, at the start of his fifth year, becomes Gryffindor Prefect
  • September 8 – TWA Flight 841 crashes into the Ionian Sea 18 minutes after take off from Athens, after a bomb explodes in the cargo hold, and kills 88 people.
• October
  
  • October 5 – The Guildford pub bombings at The Horse and Groom and The Seven Stars kill 5 people, and lead to the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of the Guildford Four the next year.
• November
  
  • November 7 – A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb explodes at the Kings Arms, Woolwich.
  • November 8 – Richard Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan disappears in England.
  • November 17 – In Dublin, Ireland, President Erskine H. Childers dies suddenly of a heart attack in the middle of a public speech.
  • November 21 – In Birmingham, England, 2 pubs are bombed, killing 21 people (the Birmingham Six are later sentenced to life in prison for this).
  • November 24 – A skeleton from the hominid species Australopithecus afarensis is discovered and named Lucy.
  • November 27 – The Prevention of Terrorism Act is passed in the United Kingdom.
• December
  
  • December 19 – Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh becomes the 5th President of Ireland, in a state inauguration in Dublin Castle.
  • December 23 – Former British minister John Stonehouse, who faked his drowning in Florida, is arrested in Melbourne, Australia.
• Undated
  
  • The Milgram experiment is first described by Harvard University psychologist Stanley Milgram in his 1974 book Obedience to Authority; An Experimental View.
  • Sirius Black disowned by his family, moves in with James Potter
  • The Marauders succeed in becoming Animagi
  • Knight Bus conductor Stan Shunpike is born