There are years when history rushes at breakneck speed and what was valid yesterday is already forgotten today. And then there are also years when history gives itself a bit of an "impression". One of them is the year 1974. The story of the sixty-eighth is now a definitively closed chapter and people are coming to terms with reality. After all, there are definitely bonuses - new apartments are being built, the metro is starting to run in Prague and, thanks to the support of young families, the most children in history will be born in Czechoslovakia.

People solve their everyday problems - in the readers' letters section, we can read complaints about rude tobacconists and arrogant tour guides. Painting with a roller is slowly going out of fashion and there is a lack of children's snacks in stores. In Vienna, Jiří Voskovec meets Jan Werich for the last time, and Bohumil Hrabal leaves Postřižiny. For now in samizdat.

In the United States, two years after the outbreak of the Watergate affair, President Richard Nixon resigns. He is the first head of state whose downfall the media contributed to. Turkey occupies northern Cyprus and a Chinese peasant discovers the Terracotta Army.

The World Cup is being played in West Germany, but without our participation, Isabel Perón becomes the first female president in history, the Swedish group ABBA begins its triumphant campaign through the world of popular music, and the Hungarian engineer Rubik invents the cube.