1 January–7 March – The Three-Day Week is introduced by the Conservative Government as a measure to conserve electricity during the period of industrial action by coal miners.[1]
February
4 February – Eleven people are killed in the M62 coach bombing;[2] on 8 February the toll reaches 12 with the death in hospital of an 18-year-old soldier seriously injured in the bombing.
3 March – 180 Britons are among the dead when Turkish Airlines Flight 981 travelling from Paris to London crashes in a wood near Paris, killing all 346 aboard.
The current system of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties came into effect on 1 April 1974 and replaced the administrative counties and county boroughs, which were abolished at that time.
