1970 - What happened in 1970 ?

January 1970

Thursday 01:

The Unix epoch begins at 00:00:00 UTC.

Monday 12:

Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian civil war.

Wednesday 14:

Sato Eisaku is elected to his third term as Prime Minister of Japan.

Thursday 15:

Muammar al-Qaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.

Friday 16:

Curt Flood files suit, stating that major league baseball had violated the American anti-trust laws.

February 1970

Sunday 15:

A Dominican DC-9 crashes into the sea during takeoff from Santo Domingo, killing 102

Monday 16:

Joe Frazier starts a heavyweight world boxing champion winning streak with the knock out of Jimmy Ellis in five rounds.

Saturday 21:

Swissair Flight 330: A mid-air bomb explosion and subsequent crash kills 38 passengers and nine crew members near Zürich, Switzerland.

Tuesday 24:

National Public Radio is founded.

Thursday 26:

National Public Radio incorporates as a non-profit corporation.

March 1970

Thursday 05:

1970 - Dubnium atoms first detected conclusively.

Tuesday 10:

Vietnam War: Capt. Ernest Medina is charged with My Lai war crimes

Tuesday 17:

My Lai massacre: The United States Army charges 14 officers with suppressing information related to the incident.

Wednesday 18:

Lon Nol ousts Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.

Saturday 21:

In Amsterdam, Netherlands, Dana wins the fifteenth Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland singing "All Kinds of Everything".

April 1970

Monday 06:

Four California Highway Patrol officers died in one of the worst cop killings in the CHP's history, this is known as the Newhall Incident

Saturday 11:

Apollo 13 is launched

Monday 13:

The oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew into deadly peril.

Friday 17:

Apollo program: The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.

Tuesday 28:

Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to fight communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.

May 1970

Monday 04:

Vietnam War: Kent State shootings – The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after the ROTC building was burnt down, opens fire on students protesting at the United States' invasion of Cambodia. Four students are killed, nine are wounded.

Saturday 09:

Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 75,000 to 100,000 war protestors peacefully demonstrate behind a barricaded White House.

Tuesday 12:

Ernie Banks becomes the ninth member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois.

Friday 15:

Philip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green killed at Jackson State University by police during student protests.

Sunday 17:

Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II to sail the Atlantic Ocean.

June 1970

Thursday 04:

Tonga gains independence from the United Kingdom.

Friday 05:

Chile becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.

Thursday 11:

After being appointed on May 15, Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington officially receive their ranks as U.S. Army Generals, becoming the first females to do so.

Saturday 13:

"The Long and Winding Road" becomes the Beatles' last Number 1 song.

Friday 19:

Signature of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)

July 1970

Friday 03:

A British Dan-Air De Havilland Comet chartered jetliner crashes into mountains north of Barcelona, Spain killing 112 people.

Sunday 05:

An Air Canada DC-8 crashes near Toronto International Airport killing 108 people.

Tuesday 21:

After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed.

Thursday 23:

Qaboos ibn Sa?id, becomes Sultan of Oman.

Thursday 30:

Powder Ridge Rock Festival

August 1970

Saturday 01:

Powder Ridge Rock Festival

Friday 07:

Harold Haley, California Judge taken hostage and murdered in an effort to free George Jackson from police custody.

Tuesday 11:

A trademark application by the Van Brode Milling Company for the word Spork was published by the USPTO.

Monday 17:

Venera program: Venera 7 is launched. It will later becomes the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet, Venus.

September 1970

Saturday 05:

Vietnam War: Operation Jefferson Glenn begins: the United States 101st Airborne Division and the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division initiate a new operation in Thua Thien Province.

Monday 07:

Fighting between Arabic guerillas and government forces in Amman, Jordan.

Sunday 13:

First running of the New York City Marathon.

Saturday 19:

Grateful Dead at Fillmore East.

Monday 21:

Monday Night Football premieres.

October 1970

Monday 12:

Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas

Wednesday 14:

1970 - The U.S. conducts an underground nuclear weapon test at the Nevada Test Site.

Thursday 15:

Thirty-five construction workers are killed when a section of the new West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapses.

Saturday 24:

Salvador Allende elected President of Chile

Friday 30:

In Vietnam, the worst monsoon to hit the area in six years causes large floods, kills 293, leaves 200,000 homeless and virtually halts the Vietnam War.

November 1970

Monday 09:

Vietnam War: The Supreme Court of the United States to not hear a case to allow Massachusetts to enforce its law granting residents the right to refuse military service in an undeclared war.

Tuesday 10:

1970 - Soviet Lunar probe Lunokhod 1 launched.

Thursday 12:

The Oregon Highway Division attempts to destroy a rotting beached Gray whale with explosives, leading to the now infamous exploding whale incident

Saturday 14:

Southern Airways DC-9 crashes in the mountains near Huntington, West Virginia, killing 75.

Wednesday 25:

In Japan, author Yukio Mishima and two compatriots commit ritualistic suicide after failing to sway public opinion during an unsuccessful coup attempt.

December 1970

Wednesday 02:

The United States Environmental Protection Agency begins operations.

Thursday 10:

Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution, often credited with saving a billion people from starvation, is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Friday 11:

John Lennon releases the classic album Plastic Ono Band.

Wednesday 16:

Shipworkers in Gda?sk, Poland clash with government police and the seeds of the Solidarity movement are sown.

Thursday 17:

Coastal cities events Mass riots in the coastal cities of Poland ended in massacre of shipyard workers in Gdynia