From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Jan. 1, 1974:

• The New Year was greeted with plenty of shivering in the Lawrence area today as record-tying low temperatures and the remainder of snow from an earlier storm kept many people at home. The official Lawrence temperature dropped to nine degrees below zero this morning, making it as cold as any New Year’s Day since 1928. More sub-zero temperatures were expected tonight, and there was 60 percent chance that snow in the next few days would add to the 4 1/2 inches still on the ground from a snowfall two days earlier.
• A brief summary of the year just ended reminded readers of several events in the life of Lawrence in 1973. Archie Dykes had become Kansas University’s 13th chancellor, and the 12th chancellor, Raymond Nichols, became the first chancellor emeritus. Nancy Hambleton had become the city’s first female mayor, and Clyde Walker had been named KU’s new athletic director. The weather had grabbed local headlines many times as 1973 had featured icy blasts in January, severe winds during the summer, record rains in the fall, and more ice and snow in December. At the polls, a bond issue for the Lawrence Airport expansion had been defeated, but a tougher pet control ordinance had been voted in. The Clinton Parkway project had ended the year caught up in red tape, but five new buildings had been dedicated at Haskell and plans for campus improvement were moving ahead. At KU, Moore Hall and Wescoe Hall had been completed and groundbreaking had taken place for an addition to Learned Hall. Downtown, renovations were in the works at the Community Building.