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.

Monday 26:

Folk rock duo Simon and Garfunkel release classic album Bridge Over Troubled Water.

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

Tuesday 10:

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

Sunday 15:

The Expo '70 world's fair opens in Osaka, Japan.

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".

Tuesday 31:

1970- Eight terrorists from the Japanese Red Army hijacked a Japan Airlines Boeing 727 at Tokyo International Airport, wielding samurai swords and carrying a bomb.

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

Wednesday 22:

First Earth Day celebrated.

Friday 24:

The Gambia becomes a republic within the British Commonwealth, with Dawda Jawara as the first President.

Tuesday 28:

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

Wednesday 29:

Vietnam War: United States and South Vietnamese forces invade Cambodia to hunt Viet Cong.

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.

Monday 11:

The Lubbock Tornado: An F5 tornado hits downtown Lubbock, Texas, killing 26.

Sunday 17:

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

Tuesday 26:

The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.

Sunday 31:

The Ancash earthquake causes a landslide that buries the town of Yungay, Peru; more than 47,000 people are killed.

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.

Wednesday 09:

Elvis Presley begins a 6 city tour at the Phoenix Veterans Memorial Coliseum. This show is filmed for inclusion in the movie .

Sunday 13:

First running of the New York City Marathon.

Monday 21:

Monday Night Football premieres.

Tuesday 22:

Tunku Abdul Rahman resigns as Prime Minister of Malaysia.

October 1970

Wednesday 07:

1970 - Richard Nixon announces a new five-point peace proposal to end the Vietnam War.

Thursday 08:

Vietnam War: In Paris, a Communist delegation rejects US President Richard Nixon's October 7 peace proposal as "a maneuver to deceive world opinion."

Friday 09:

The Khmer Republic is proclaimed in Cambodia.

Monday 12:

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

Thursday 15:

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

November 1970

Tuesday 03:

Salvador Allende is inaugurated as president of Chile.

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 21:

A joint Air Force and Army team raids the Son Tay prison camp in an attempt to free American POWs thought to be held there (there were zero Americans killed, but the prisoners had already moved to another camp; All US POWs were moved to a handful of central prison complexes as a result of this raid).

December 1970

Wednesday 02:

The United States Environmental Protection Agency begins operations.

Thursday 03:

October Crisis: In Montreal, Quebec, kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross is released by the Front de Libération du Québec terrorist group after being held hostage for 60 days. Police negotiate his release and in return the Government of Canada grants five terrorists from the FLQ's Chenier Cell their request for safe passage to Cuba.

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.

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