1974 in Michigan

Events from the year 1974 in Michigan.

The Associated Press (AP) selected the top news stories of 1974 in Michigan as follows:

1. Gerald Ford's elevation to President of the United States after the resignation of Richard Nixon;
2. The decline of the automobile industry tied to the 1973 oil crisis with layoffs of more than 200,000 automobile workers;
3. The re-election of William Milliken as Governor of Michigan despite a general tide in favor of Democrats;
4. The United States Supreme Court ruling in Milliken v. Bradley reversing a lower court order requiring cross-district busing of public school students among 53 school districts in metropolitan Detroit and instead directing the creation of a desegregation plan limited to the Detroit schools;
5. Voters' repeal of the state sales tax on food and drugs;
6. Gasoline shortage;
7. Contaminated feed forces the slaughter of thousands of farm animals;
8. Democrats take the Fifth and Eighth Congressional Districts and then hold them in post-Watergate elections resulting in Democrats taking control of the Michigan Legislature and the state's Congressional delegation;
9. The worst snowstorm of the century hit southern Michigan; and
10. Utilities suffered lower profit margins and were granted large rate increases.

The AP also selected the state's top sports stories of 1974 as follows:

1. Al Kaline's retiring after 21 years with 3,007 hits and 399 home runs;
2. The 1974 Michigan Wolverines football team compiling a 10–0 record before losing to Ohio State on November 23;
3. The death of Detroit Lions head coach Don McCafferty on July 28;
4. The 1974 Michigan State Spartans football team compiling a 7–3–1 record and upsetting No. 1 ranked Ohio State on November 9;
5. The 1974 Central Michigan Chippewas football team winning the NCAA Division II Football Championship;
6. The 1973–74 Detroit Pistons compiling a 52–30 record, the best in franchise history to that point;
7. The rise and fall of the Detroit Wheels of the World Football League;
8. The 1974 Detroit Lions compiling a 7–7 record under new head coach Rick Forzano;
9. Hudson High School won the Class C state football championship and kept its winning streak alive; and
10. John Hiller of the Detroit Tigers set an American League record with 17 wins as a relief pitcher and was named to the All-Star team.

The year's highlights in Michigan music included the releases of Stevie Wonder's Fulfillingness' First Finale which reached #1 and won the Grammy for Album of the Year, Grand Funk Railroad's Shinin' On album with the #1 hit The Loco-Motion, and Aretha Franklin's Let Me in Your Life album that reached #1 on Billboard's R&B albums chart.