1970

1970 was a common year starting on Thursday.

align="center" colspan=2 | Years:
1967 1968 1969 - 1970 - 1971 1972 1973

align="center" colspan=2 | Decades:
1940s 1950s 1960s - 1970s - 1980s 1990s 2000s

align="center" | Centuries:
19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Events

January-February

January 1 - Construction begins on Arcosanti, by Paolo Soleri, in Mayer, Arizona, located 65, miles north of Phoenix, Arizona.
January 1 - Unix epoch at 00:00:00 UTC.
January 12 - Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian civil war.
January 15 - After a 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria, Biafran forces under General Effiong formally surrender to General Yakubu Gowon.
January 15 - Muammar al-Qaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.
January 16 - Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects.
February 11 - Launch of Japan's first satellite Osumi with a Lamba-4 Rocket.

March-April

March 1 - Rhodesia severs its last tie with the British crown and declares itself a racially segregated republic.
March 5 - A nuclear non-proliferation treaty goes into effect after ratification by 43 nations.
March 16 - The Expo '70 world's fair opens in Osaka, Japan.
March 16 - Publication of complete New English Bible.
March 17 - My Lai massacre: The United States Army charges 14 officers with suppressing information related to the incident.
March 18 - Lon Nol ousts Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.
March 18 - Post Office strike in USA - 210,000 out of 750,000 US postal employees walk out. President Nixon assigns military units to New York City post offices. Strike lasts two weeks.
March 31 - Explorer I re-entry (after 12 years in orbit).
April 1 - President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law banning cigarette television advertisements in the United States starting on January 1, 1971.
April 1 - American Motors introduces the Gremlin.
April 10 - Paul McCartney announces that the Beatles have disbanded.
April 11 - Apollo 13 ill-fated space mission launched.
April 17 - Apollo 13 returns safely to earth.
April 22 - First Earth Day celebrated.
April 29 - U.S. invades Cambodia to hunt out Viet Cong. Massive protests against the war continue in the U.S.

May-June

May 4 - The Kent State shootings: Four students at Kent State University in Ohio are killed by National Guardsmen at a demonstration protesting against the incursion into Cambodia.
May 6 - Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney are dismissed as members of the Irish Government due to accusations of their involvement in a plot to import arms for use in Northern Ireland.
May 9 - 100,000 people demonstrate in Washington DC against the Vietnam War.
May 14 - Ulrike Meinhof helps Andreas Baader escape.
May 17 - Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II to sail the Atlantic Ocean.
May 26 - The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.
May 27 - British expedition climbs south face of Annapurna I.
May 31 - Avalanche on Huascarn destroys the town of Yungay, Peru.
June 2 - Norway announces that it has rich oil deposits off its North Sea coast.
June 4 - Tonga gains independence from the United Kingdom.
June 18 - Edward Heath is elected Prime Minister of United Kingdom.
June 21 - Brazil defeats Italy to win the Football World Cup 1970
June 24 - The United States Senate repeals the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
June 28 - US ground troops withdraw from Cambodia.

July-August

July 4 - Chartered Dan-Air Comet crashes into mountains north of Barcelona - at least 112 dead.
July 11 - The first tunnel under the Pyrenees links the French and Spanish towns of Aranoutes and Biesma.
July 21 - Aswan High Dam in Egypt completed.
July 30 - Damages awarded to Thalidomide victims,
August 17-18 - US sinks 418 containers of nerve gas into the Gulf Stream near the Bahamas
August 17 - Venera program: Venera 7 is launched. It will later becomes the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from another planet.

September

September 1 - Assassination attempt against king Hussein of Jordan
September 3 - Salvador Allende wins the presidential election in Chile.
September 3-6 - Israeli forces fight Palestinian guerillas in southern Lebanon.
September 5 - 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 (operation ends in October 1971).
September 7 - An anti-war rally is held at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, attended by John Kerry, Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland.
September 7 - Fighting between Arabic guerillas and government forces in Amman, Jordan
September 8-10 - Jordanian government and Palestinian guerillas make truces that keep breaking.
September 9 – Guinea recognizes East Germany.
September 10 – Cambodian government forces break the blockage around Kompong Tho after a 3-month siege.
September 11 - The Ford Pinto is introduced.
September 13 - First running of the New York City Marathon.
September 15 - King Hussein of Jordan forms a military government with Muhammad Daoud as the prime minister.
September 20 - End of term for Ismail Nasiruddin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Zainal Abidin III as the 4th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
September 20 - Syrian armored forces cross Jordanian border.
September 20-21 - Luna 16 lands on the Moon and lifts off the day later with samples. Lands on Earth September 24.
September 21 - Palestinian armored forces reinforce Palestinian guerillas in Irbidi, Jordan.
September 21 - Tuanku Al-Mutassimu Billahi Muhibbudin Sultan Abdul Halim Al-Muadzam Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Badlishah, Sultan of Kedah becomes the 5th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
September 26 - Laguna Fire starts in San Diego County burning 175,425 acres (710 km²).
September 27 - Richard Nixon begins a tour in Europe and visits Italy, Yugoslavia, Spain, United Kingdom and Ireland.
September 28 - Gamal Abdal Nasser dies - vice president Anwar Sadat is named temporary president of Egypt.
September 29 - US Congress gives president Richard Nixon authority to sell arms to Israel.
September 29 - In Berlin, Baader-Meinhof Gang members rob three banks, loot totaling over DM200.000.

October

October 3 - In Lebanon, government of the prime minister Rashid Karami resigns.
October 4 - In Bolivia, army commander general Rogelio Miranda and group of officers rebel and demand resignation of the president Alfredo Ovando Canda – president fires him.
October 5 - Nixon's European tour ends.
October 5 - The Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnap James Cross in Montreal and demands release of all its imprisoned members. The next day the Canadian government announces it won't accept the demand - first stirrings of Quebec's October Crisis.
October 6 - Bolivian president Alfredo Ovando Canda resigns – general Rogelio Miranda takes over but resigns soon after.
October 6 - French president Georges Pompidou visits Soviet Union.
October 7 - General Juan Jos Torres becomes the new president of Bolivia.
October 7 - Anwar Sadat accepted as Egyptian president.
October 8 - US foreign office announces that it renews its arms sales to Pakistan.
October 8 - Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn is awarded Nobel Prize for Literature.
October 8 - Vietnam War: In Paris, a Communist delegation rejects US President Richard Nixon's October 7 peace proposal as "a maneuver to deceive world opinion."
October 9 - The Khmer Republic is proclaimed in Cambodia.
October 9 - Divorce law in Italy.
October 10 - Fiji becomes independent.
October 10 - October Crisis: 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.
October 11 - 11 French soldiers are killed in a shootout with rebels in Chad.
October 12 - Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas.
October 13 - Canada and the People's Republic of China established diplomatic relations.
October 13 - China and Canada renew diplomatic relations.
October 13 - Saeb Salam's government forms in Lebanon.
October 14 - Chinese nuclear test in Lop Nor.
October 15 - In Egypt, referendum supports Anwar Sadat 90.04%.
October 15 - 35 construction workers are killed when a section of the new West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapses into the river below.
October 16 - Canadian government declares state of emergency and outlaws Quebec Liberation Front.
October 17 - Pierre Laporte is found killed in south of Montreal.
October 17 - Cholera epidemic in Istanbul.
October 17 - Anwar Sadat becomes officially president of Egypt.
October 20 - Soviet Union launches Zond 8 lunar probe.
October 20 - Algerian ex-minister Krim Belkacem is found strangled in his hotel room in Frankfurt.
October 20 - Egyptian president Anwar Sadat names Mahmoud Fawzi as his prime minister.
October 21 - US Air Force plane makes an emergency landing near Leninakan, Soviet Union. Soviets release the American officers, including two generals, November 10.
October 22 - Chilean army commander Rene Schneider is shot in Santiago – government declares state of emergency. Schneider dies October 25.
October 26 - US and Soviet space researchers meet in Moscow.
October 28 - In Jordan, government of Ahmed Toukan resigns – next prime minister is Wasfi Al-Tal.
October 28 - Cholera outbreak in eastern Slovakia – Hungary closes its border with Czechoslovakia.
October 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

November 1 - Fire destroys Le Cinq Sept dance hall in St. Laurent Du Pont, France – 144 dead.
November 4 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - The United States turns control of the air base in the Mekong Delta to South Vietnam. Genie "the Wild Child" discovered in her house at the age of 13 after being in complete isolation for 10 years with no language skills.
November 5 - Vietnam War: United States Military Assistance Command in Vietnam reports the lowest weekly American soldier death toll in five years (24 soldiers died that week, which was the fifth consecutive week the death toll was below 50; 431 were reported wounded that week, however).
November 8 - Egypt, Sudan and Libya announce their intentions to form a federation.
November 9 - Charles de Gaulle dies – he is buried November 13.
November 9 - Soviet Union launches Luna 17.
November 9 - Vietnam War: The Supreme Court of the United States votes 6 to 3 to not hear a case by the state of Massachusetts asking to allow the state the ability to enforce its law granting Massachusetts residents the right to refuse military service in an undeclared war.
November 10 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - For the first time in five years, an entire week ended with no reports of American combat fatalities in Southeast Asia.
November 12 - Soviet author Andrei Amalrik sentenced for three years for anti-Soviet writings.
November 12 - The Oregon Highway Division (now known as the Oregon Department of Transportation) is given the task of removing a rotting beached Grey whale, leading to the now infamous exploding whale incident.
November 13 - Military coup in Syria – Hafez al-Assad takes the power.
November 13 - 1970 Bhola cyclone: A 120-mph tropical cyclone hits the densely populated Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an estimated 500,000 people (this is regarded as the 20th century's worst cyclone disaster).
November 14 - fatal airplane accident in Wayne County, West Virginia, claims the lives of the entire Marshall University football team.
November 17 - Vietnam War: Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai massacre.
November 17 - Luna program: The Soviet Union lands Lunokhod 1 on Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) on the Moon. This is the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world and was released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft.
November 18 - US President Richard Nixon asks the U.S. Congress for US$155 million in supplemental aid for the Cambodian government (US$85 million was for military assistance in order to help prevent the overthrow of the government of Premier Lon Nol by the Khmer Rouge and North Vietnam).
November 18 - United Nations Security Council demands that no government should recognize Rhodesia.
November 19 - EEC prime minister meeting in Munich.
November 21 - Syrian Prime Minister Hafez al-Assad forms a new government but retains the post of defense minister.
November 21 - in Ethiopia, Eritrea Liberation Front kills an Ethiopian general.
November 21 - Vietnam War: Operation Ivory Coast - 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).
November 22 - Guinean president Sekou Toure accuses Portugal of an attack when hundreds of mercenaries land near capital Conakry. Guinean army repels the landing attempts in November 23-24. November 25-29 UN delegation arrives to investigate the situation. In December 4 UN announces that Portuguese navy and army units are responsible.
November 25 - In Japan, world-famous author and Tatenokai militia leader Yukio Mishima and his followers take over Inchigaya HQ of the Japanese Self-Defense Force and take general Kanetoshi Mashita hostage. When Mishima's speech fails to sway public opinion towards his right-wing political beliefs, he commits seppuku.
November 26 - East Pakistan leader sheik Mujibur Rahman accuses central government of negligence in catastrophe relief.
November 26 - Pope Paul VI begins an Asian tour.
November 27 - Bolivian artist Benjamin Mendoza tries to assassinate Paul VI during pope's visit in Manila.

December

December 1 - Italian House of Representatives accepts the divorce law.
December 1 - Ethiopia recognizes People's Republic of China.
December 1 - Basque ETA kidnaps West German Eugen Beihl in San Sebastian.
December 1 - Luis Echeverra lvarez becomes president of Mexico.
December 2 - The United States Environmental Protection Agency begins operations.
December 3 - October Crisis: In Montreal, Quebec, kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross is released by the Front de Libration du Qubec 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.
December 3 - Burgos Trial - In Burgos, Spain, begins a trial against 16 Basques accused of terrorism.
December 4 - Spanish government declares a three-month martial law in Basque county of Guipuzco due to strikes and demonstrations.
December 5 - Asian and Australian tour of Paul VI ends.
December 7 - Giovanni Enrico Bucher, Swiss ambassador to Brazil, is kidnapped in Rio de Janeiro; kidnappers demand release of 70 political prisoners.
December 7 - UN general assembly supports the isolation of South Africa due to its apartheid policies.
December 7 - During his visit to the Polish capital, German chancellor Willy Brandt goes down on his knees in front of a monument for the victims in the ghetto of Warsaw.
December 12 - Landslide in western Colombia – over 200 dead.
December 13 - Government of Poland announces increases in the prize of food. Riots and looting erupt until a bloody confrontation between the rioters against army and the police in December 15. Martial law December 17-22. December 23 the government will freeze the food prizes for two years.
December 15 - Venus 7 lands on Venus.
December 16 - Ethiopian government declares state of emergency in the county of Eritrea due to activities of Eritrea Liberation Front.
December 20 - General secretary of the communist part of Poland, Wladyslaw Gomulka, resigns – Edward Gierek takes his place.
December 20 - Egyptian delegation leaves for Moscow to ask for economic and military aid.
December 22 - Libyan revolutionary council declares that it will nationalize all foreign banks in the country.
December 22 - Franz Stangl, the ex-commander of Treblinka is sentenced to life imprisonment.
December 23 - Bolivian government releases Regis Debray.
December 25 - ETA releases Eugen Beihl.
December 27 - Indian president declares new elections.
December 28 - Burgos Trial – three Basques are sentenced to death (three twice), others sentenced for 12-62 years and one released. December 30 Franco commutes the death sentences to 30 years in prison.
December 28 - Suspects of killing Pierre Laporte, Jacques & Paul Rose and Francis Sunard, are arrested near Montreal.
December 30 - In Viscaya Basque county 15.000 goes to strike to protest Burgos trial death sentences.

Unknown date

The first Regional Technical Colleges open in Ireland.
Disappearance of Sada Abe, Japanese former prostitute and later actress.
Discovery in England of the Sweet Track, the World's oldest engineered roadway.

Year in topic

1970 in film

1970 in literature

Deliverance by James Dickey (in 2001, named as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century, as chosen by the editorial board of the Modern Library.)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou