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.

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.

Monday 26:

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

February 1970

Monday 16:

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

Wednesday 18:

The Chicago Eight are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic Party national convention.

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

Sunday 15:

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

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

Wednesday 01:

American Motors introduces the Gremlin.

Saturday 11:

Apollo 13 is launched

Monday 13:

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

Wednesday 22:

First Earth Day celebrated.

Friday 24:

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

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.

Monday 11:

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

Thursday 14:

The Red Army Faction is established in Germany.

Tuesday 26:

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

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

Monday 07:

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

Friday 11:

The Ford Pinto is introduced.

Sunday 13:

First running of the New York City Marathon.

Tuesday 22:

Tunku Abdul Rahman resigns as Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Saturday 26:

The Laguna Fire starts in San Diego County, California, burning 175,425 acres (710 km²).

October 1970

Wednesday 07:

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

Saturday 10:

In Montreal, Quebec, a national crisis hits Canada when Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte becomes the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.

Wednesday 14:

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

Friday 16:

In response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invokes the War Measures Act.

Wednesday 28:

Land speed record set by Gary Gabelich in a rocket powered automobile called the Blue Flame

November 1970

Thursday 05:

Vietnam War: The United States Military Assistance Command in Vietnam reports the lowest weekly American soldier death toll in five years (24).

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

Wednesday 25:

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

Thursday 26:

In Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe, 1.5 inches (38.1mm) of rain falls in one mintue, the heaviest rainfall ever on record.

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