November 24, 1974: Lucy In the Ground with Fossils

Left to right: The bones that were found, laid out on a table;

the bones arranged properly;

and a model of what Lucy might have looked like.

November 24, 1974: The most complete "early human" skeleton ever found is discovered, in the Afar region outside Hadar, Ethiopia. It is a teenage female, later classified as Australopithecus afarensis, dated to about 3.2 million years ago, about 40 percent complete.

It was found by a team led by American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson, and he names her Lucy, as the team had been listening to Elton John's soon-to-be-Number 1 cover of The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

As of November 24, 2022, Johansen, now 79, still insists that Lucy is the elusive "Missing Link" between apes and humans. The British-Kenyan Richard Leakey, until his death at 77 earlier in 2022 the other serious contender for the title of greatest living paleoanthropologist, was equally sure that Lucy is another point along the extinct Australopithecus line, not connected with Homo sapiens, and that the Missing Link remains out there somewhere.

Johanson with a model of Lucy's skull

The original Lucy is stored in a safe at the National Museum of Ethiopia, in the capital of Addis Ababa. The model shown in the photo above is a re-creation, on display at the Naturmuseum Senckenberg in Frankfurt, Germany.

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November 24, 1974 was a Sunday. This day also saw the premiere of a new version of Agatha Christie’s Murder On the Orient Express. It had an “all-star cast” that was typical for big movies of the 1970s, led by Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot.

These NFL games were played:

* The New York Giants lost to the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 23-21 at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut.

* The New York Jets beat the Miami Dolphins, the team then considered their arch-rivals, 17-14 at Shea Stadium.

* The New England Patriots beat the Baltimore Colts, 27-17 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 26-7 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Cleveland Browns, 15-10 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 33-6 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Chicago Bears, 34-17 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Five days later, on Thanksgiving, the Lions played the Denver Broncos to a tie in their last game at Tiger Stadium. They moved into the Silverdome in suburban Pontiac, Michigan the next season.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the San Diego Chargers, 34-0 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the other Texas team, the Houston Oilers, 10-0 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Minnesota Vikings 20-17 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Atlanta Falcons, 27-0 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* The Denver Broncos beat the Oakland Raiders, 20-17 at the Oakland Coliseum.

And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the New Orleans Saints, 28-7 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans.

The World Football League was between rounds of its Playoffs. Baseball was out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Buffalo Braves, 91-89 at the Chicago Stadium. In defeat, Bob McAdoo of the Braves led all scorers on the day with 31 points.

* The Kansas City-Omaha Kings beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 109-94 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 111-108 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Houston Rockets beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 124-109 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 3 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets beat the newly-renamed Denver Nuggets, 99-90 at the Nassau Coliseum. The Nuggets had been the Denver Rockets, but, anticipating a merger deal with the NBA, which already had the Houston Rockets, they took on the name of the long-gone 1st Denver team in the NBA.

* The Memphis Sounds beat the Spirits of St. Louis, 103-94 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis.

* And the San Diego Conquistadors beat the Utah Stars, 117-97 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).

One game was played in the NHL: The St. Louis Blues and the Toronto Maple Leafs played to a tie, 2-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. In contrast, 6 games were played in the World Hockey Association:

* The Cleveland Crusaders beat the Quebec Nordiques, 3-1 at The Coliseum, newly opened in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Michigan Stags beat the Minnesota Fighting Saints, 3-2 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place).

* The Toronto Toros beat the Indianapolis Racers, 9-2 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The New England Whalers beat the Chicago Cougars, 9-5 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago.

* The Phoenix Roadrunners beat the Winnipeg Jets, 3-1 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And the Houston Aeros beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-3 in overtime at the newly-opened Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.