1970

Encyclopedia : 1 : 19 : 197 : 1970

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1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). 1970 is the Unix epoch time.

Contents

Events

January

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 5 - The first episode of All My Children was broadcast on the ABC television network.
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.

February

February 11 - Osumi, Japan's first satellite is launched on a Lamba-4 rocket.
February 17 - MacDonald family massacre at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Jeffrey R. MacDonald kills his wife and children and claims that "faggots" did it.
February 18 - A jury finds the Chicago Seven defendants not guilty on charges of conspiring to incite a riot in charges stemming from the violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Five of the defendants are found guilty on the lesser charge of crossing state lines to incite to riot.
February 20 - Construction begins on the Bogazici Bridge crossing the Bosphorus in Istanbul.

March

March 1 - Rhodesia severs its last tie with the United Kingdom and declares itself a racially-segregated republic.
March 4 - Francis Okechukwu Ohanyido Nigerian poet, African oral historian, Public Health Physician and founder of Afrisecal movement born in Jos.
March 5 - The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty goes into effect after ratification by 43 nations.
March 11 - Henry "Dickie" Marrow is murdered in a violent hate crime in Oxford, North Carolina.
March 15 - The Expo '70 world's fair opens in Suita, 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 - United States Postal Service workers in New York City go on strike; the strike spreads to the state of California and the cities of Akron, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Denver; 210,000 out of 750,000 U.S. postal employees walk out. President Nixon assigns military units to New York City post offices. The strike lasts two weeks.
March 21 The first Earth Day proclamation is issued by San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto.
March 25 - The Concorde makes its first supersonic flight (700 mph/1127 km/h).
March 31 - NASA's Explorer I, the first American artificial satellite and the first of the Explorer program spacecrafts, reenters Earth's atmosphere after 12 years in orbit.

April

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 - US spaceflight Apollo 13 launches for the moon, carrying Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert. On April 13, an oxygen tank in the spacecraft explodes, forcing the crew to abort the mission. The crew returns to earth safely on April 17.
April 22 - First Earth Day celebrated.
April 24 - Launch of China's first satellite Dong Fang Hong 1 with a Long March-1 Rocket(CZ-1).
April 29 - U.S. invades Cambodia to hunt out Viet Cong. Massive protests against the war continue in the U.S.

May

May 4 - The Kent State shootings: Four students at Kent State University in Ohio are killed and 9 wounded by National Guardsmen at a demonstration protesting against the incursion into Cambodia.

May 5 - Opening of The Sahastrara of Universe by Nirmala Srivastava(Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi), the founder of Sahaja yoga.

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 6 - Feyenoord won the Champions League after a 2-1 win over Celtic
May 9 - 100,000 people demonstrate in Washington DC against the Vietnam War.
May 14 - Ulrike Meinhof helps Andreas Baader escape.
May 14 - In the second day of violent demonstrations at Jackson State College in Jackson, Mississippi, state law enforcement officers fire into the demonstrators, killing 2 and injuring 12.
May 17 - Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II to sail the Atlantic Ocean.
May 23 - An outbreak of fire occurs in the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Straits in north Wales contributing to its partial destruction and amounting to approximately £1,000,000 worth of fire damage.
May 24 - The drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole begins in the USSR
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 - The Ancash earthquake causes a landslide that buries the town of Yungay, Peru; more than 47,000 people are killed.

June

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 10 - President Nixon signed a measure lowering the voting age to 18.
June 11 - The United States gets its first female Generals: Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington.
June 18 - Edward Heath is elected Prime Minister of United Kingdom.
June 21 - Brazil defeat Italy 4-1 to win the 1970 FIFA World Cup
June 24 - The United States Senate repeals the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
June 28 - US ground troops withdraw from Cambodia.

July

July 1 - Colorado State College changes name to University of Northern Colorado
July 4 - Chartered Dan-Air Comet crashes into mountains north of Barcelona - at least 112 dead.
July 4 - A bipartisan group of entertainers, including Bob Hope, gathers in New York City for Honor America Day.
July 11 - The first tunnel under the Pyrenees links the Basque towns of Aranoutes and Biesma.
July 21 - Aswan High Dam in Egypt completed.
July 30 - Damages awarded to Thalidomide victims,

August

August 7 - Harold Haley, Marin County Superior Court Judge taken hostage and murdered in an effort to free George Jackson from police custody.
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.
August 26- The Women's Strike For Equality takes place down Fifth Avenue in New York City.
August 26- August 30- The Isle of Wight Festival 1970 takes place on East Afton Farm off the coast of England. 600,000 people attend the largest rock festival of all time. Artists include Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Doors, Chicago, Richie Havens, John Sebastian, Joan Baez, Ten Years After, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Jethro Tull.

September

September 1 - Assassination attempt against king Hussein of Jordan
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 9 - Elvis Presley begins his first concert tour since 1958 in Phoenix, Arizona at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
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 18 - Jimi Hendrix dies of barbiturate overdose in London
September 19 - Kostas Georgakis sets himself ablaze in Genoa, Italy as a protest to the Greek military junta of 1967-1974
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 22 - Tunku Abdul Rahmanresigned as prime minister of Malaysia and he was succeeded by his deputy Tun Abdul Razak.
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 2 - The Wichita State University football team's "Gold" plane crashes in Colorado, killing most of the players. They were on their way (along with administrators and fans) to a game with Utah State University
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 Candía – president fires him.
October 4 - Janis Joplin dies of a heroin overdose inside her hotel room in Los Angeles, California
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 5 - The Public Broadcasting Service commenced broadcasting.
October 6 - Bolivian president Alfredo Ovando Candía resigns – general Rogelio Miranda takes over but resigns soon after.
October 6 - French president Georges Pompidou visits Soviet Union.
October 7 - General Juan José 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 - 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 24 - Salvador Allende is elected President of Chile.
October 26 - US and Soviet space researchers meet in Moscow.
October 26 - Garry Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury, debuts in approximately two dozen newspapers in the United States.
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 28 - Gary Gabelich drives the rocket-powered Blue Flame to an official world land speed record of 622.287 mph (1,001.452863 km/h) on the dry lake bed of the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The record, the first above 1,000 km/h, stands for nearly 13 years.
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.
November 4 - Social authorities in California, USA, take custody of Genie, a girl who had been kept in solitary confinement since her birth
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 all 75 onboard, including 37 players and 5 coaches from the Marshall University football team.
November 16 - Canadian Child Advocate John Dunn is born in Toronto at Doctors Hospital
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, Eritrean 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 Japan Self-Defense Forces 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 Echeverría Álvarez 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 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.
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 of the Warsaw Ghetto.
December 12 - Landslide in western Colombia – over 200 dead.
December 13 - Government of Poland announces increases in the price 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 prices for two years.
December 15 - The USSR's Venera 7 becomes the first spacecraft to land successfully on Venus and transmit data back to earth
December 16 - Ethiopian government declares state of emergency in the county of Eritrea due to activities of Eritrean Liberation Front.
December 20 - General Secretary of the Polish Communist Party, Władysław Gomułka, 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 23 - The North Tower of the World Trade Center is topped out at 1,368 feet, making it the tallest building in the world.
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 28 - Suspects of killing Pierre Laporte, Jacques & Paul Rose and Francis Sunard, are arrested near Montreal.
December 30 - Franco commutes the death sentences to 30 years in prison.
December 30 - In Viscaya Basque county 15,000 go on strike to protest Burgos trial death sentences.
December 31 - Paul McCartney sues in Great Britain to dissolve the Beatles's legal partnership.

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.

Births