What else was happening in 1974?

Nearly 40 years ago, daily headlines detailed the developments in the Watergate scandal that started with the break-in at Democratic National Headquarters in 1972 and ended with the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Also in 1974, sports records were broken, tornadoes turned deadly and a tightrope walker defied gravity.

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Aug. 7, 1974

Philippe Petit, a French high-wire artist, walks across a tightrope suspended between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York.

Alan Welner / AP

April 8, 1974

The Atlanta Braves' Hank Aaron (44) breaks Babe Ruth's record for career home runs, hitting No. 715 off Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Al Downing in the fourth inning of the game at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in Georgia.

/ AP

Oct. 30, 1974

Perspiration flies from the head of defending heavyweight champion George Foreman as he takes a right from challenger Muhammad Ali in the seventh round in their world championship bout dubbed "Rumble in the Jungle" in Kinshasa, Zaire. Ali regained the world heavyweight crown by knocking out Foreman in the eighth round.

Ed Kolenovsky / AP

April 9, 1974

Two tornado funnels strike a Nashville subdivision. Tornadoes devastated 10 Southern and Midwestern states and Ontario, causing more than 337 deaths and heavy property damage.

Les Seago / AP

Feb. 8, 1974

Skylab 3 astronauts in New Orleans. Edward G. Gibson, left, Bill Pogue and Gerald Carr sit on chairs aboard their mobile platform, which transported them from the command module to the Skylab mobile laboratories where they underwent extensive medical examinations following their record 84 days in the weightlessness of Earth’s orbit.

/ AP

September 1974

Roddy McDowall, as the chimpanzee Galen from the hit movie “Planet of the Apes.”

/ AP

A 1983 photo of the fossil skeleton known as Lucy, on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Lucy is a 3.2 million-year-old fossilized partial skeleton of a species with chimp-like features that walked upright. The discovery in 1974 of Lucy in Ethiopia forced a major revision of theories about the evolution of Homo sapiens.

/ AP

July 10, 1974

Russian ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov, right, talks with his manager, Dina Makarova, at his first public appearance after his defection to Canada. The former Bolshoi Ballet member was rehearsing with members of the National Ballet of Canada, which was trying to work out a contract with him. Baryshnikov had been in hiding for 10 days.

/ AP

June 23, 1974

A child with smallpox at Hakegora village in India. By 1977, the deadly disease was eradicated by the World Health Organization.

Santosh Basak / AP

April 12, 1974

Pipes waiting to be used in the Alaskan pipeline are stacked, crusted with snow and half-buried in drifts in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. The stockpile held 168-miles worth of pipe for the four-foot-diameter pipeline, which would have a total length of 789 miles.The rest of the pipes to be used were ready and waiting in two other stockpiles, in Fairbanks and Valdez. The pipeline was scheduled to open in 1977 and estimated to deliver, at peak, 2 million barrels of crude oil a day.

George Brich / AP

Aug. 14, 1974

Two of five Greek Cypriot soldiers surrender to advancing Turkish troops near Kiados (Tziaos) village during the second phase of Turkey's invasion of the island. Cyprus was ethnically split in 1974 when Turkey invaded in response to a coup by supporters of a union with Greece. A government spokesman for Cyprus had urged Turkey to account for some 1,500 Greek Cypriots who vanished during the invasion. About 500 Turkish Cypriots also disappeared during inter-ethnic clashes in the early 1960s.

/ Cyprus Press and Information Office via AP

March 2, 1974

Alice Cooper, left, joins Stevie Wonder, who received the most nominations for the Grammy Awards in 1974. Wonder won four awards during the 16th annual presentation in Los Angeles. Cooper was one of the presenters.

/ AP

March 2, 1974

Bette Midler, center, is flanked by Karen and Richard Carpenter backstage during the Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. The Carpenters presented Midler the Best New Recording Artist award.

/ AP

Sept. 28, 1974

Dolly Parton was the featured performer at Virginia's state fair in Richmond.

/ THE WASHINGTON POST

December 1974

Romanian Ilie Nastase backtracks for a one-in-a-million piece of tennis acrobatics at the Grand Prix of Tennis in Australia.

/ AP

Aug. 9, 1974

Richard Nixon says goodbye with a victorious salute to his staff members outside the White House as he boards a Marine helicopter after resigning the presidency. Nixon was the first president in American history to resign the nation's highest office. His resignation came after approval of an impeachment article against him by the House Judiciary Committee for withholding evidence from Congress. With a 2,026-day term, he stepped down as the 37th president, urging Americans to rally behind Vice President Gerald R. Ford. A month later, Ford fully pardoned Nixon.

/ AP

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