Events of 1970 from Wiki
January
• January 1 – Voting age reduced from 21 years to 18
• January 5 – The first episode of All My Children is broadcast on the ABC television network.
• January 5 – An earthquake (Richter Scale 7.7 magunitude) at Yunnan, China kills at least 15,621.
• January 11 – Super Bowl IV: The Kansas City Chiefs beat the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings 23–7.
• January 12 – Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian civil war.
• January 14 – Diana Ross & The Supremes perform their farewell live concert together at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas, and Ross's replacement, Jean Terrell, is introduced onstage at the end of the last show.
• January 15 – After a 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria, Biafran forces under Philip Effiong formally surrender to General Yakubu Gowon.
• January 20 – The Greater London Council announces its plans for the Thames Barrier at Woolwich to prevent flooding (the barrier opens in 1981).
• January 21 – Five lifeboatmen are killed when the Fraserburgh lifeboat Duchess of Kent capsizes during a rescue off Kinnaird's Head, Aberdeenshire.
• January 26 – Mick Jagger is fined £200 for possession of cannabis.
February
• February 1 – A train collision near Buenos Aires, Argentina kills 236.
• February 10 – An avalanche at Val d'Isère, France kills 39 tourists.
• February 11 – Ōsumi, Japan's first satellite, is launched on a Lambda-4 rocket.
• February 13 – Black Sabbath's debut album, Black Sabbath released; often regarded as the first true heavy metal album.
• February 14 – The iconic live album The Who: Live at Leeds is recorded.
• February 17 – MacDonald family massacre: Jeffrey R. MacDonald kills his wife and children at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, claiming that drugged-out "hippies" did it.
• February 17 – Author David Irving is ordered to pay £40,000 libel damages to Capt. John Broome over his book The Destruction of Convoy PQ17.
• February 18 – A jury finds the Chicago Seven defendants not guilty 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 a riot.
• February 21 – Construction begins on the Boğaziçi Bridge crossing the Bosphorus in Istanbul.
• February 22 – Guyana becomes a Republic within the Commonwealth of Nations.
• February 26 – The Pontiac 2nd generation Trans Am bodystyle is introduced.
March
• March 1 – Rhodesia severs its last tie with the United Kingdom, declaring itself a racially segregated republic.
• March 5 – The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty goes into effect, after ratification by 43 nations.
• March 6 – A bomb being constructed by members of the Weathermen and meant to be planted at a military dance in New Jersey, explodes, killing 3 members of the organization.
• March 7 – Citroën introduces the SM at the Geneva Auto Salon
• March 12 – Teenagers in the United Kingdom vote for the first time, in a by-election in Bridgwater.
• March 15 – The Expo '70 World's Fair opens in Suita, Osaka, Japan.
• March 16 – The complete New English Bible is published.
• March 17 – My Lai massacre: The United States Army charges 14 officers with suppressing information related to the incident.
• March 18 – General 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, Ohio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Chicago, Boston, and Denver, Colorado; 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 2 weeks.
• March 21 – The first Earth Day proclamation is issued by San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto.
• March 21 – "All Kinds of Everything", sung by Dana (music and text by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith), wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1970 for Ireland.
• March 25 – The Concorde makes its first supersonic flight (700 mph 1,127 km/h).
• March 31 – NASA's Explorer 1, the first American satellite and Explorer program spacecraft, reenters Earth's atmosphere after 12 years in orbit.
• March 31 – Japan Airlines Flight 351, carrying 131 passengers and 7 crew from Tokyo to Fukuoka, is hijacked by Japanese Red Army members. All passengers are eventually freed.
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 Corporation introduces the Gremlin.
• April 8 – A huge gas explosion at a subway construction site in Osaka, Japan kills 79 and injures over 400.
• April 10 – Paul McCartney announces that the Beatles have disbanded, while at the same press conference, announcing the release of his first solo album.
• April 11 – An avalanche at a tuberculosis sanatorium in the French Alps kills 74, mostly young boys.
• April 11 – Apollo program: Apollo 13 (Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, Jack Swigert) is launched toward the Moon.
• April 13 – An oxygen tank in the Apollo 13 spacecraft explodes, forcing the crew to abort the mission and return in 4 days.
• April 16 – Rev. Ian Paisley wins a by-election to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland.
• April 16 – The National Westminster Bank begins trading in the United Kingdom.
• April 17 – Apollo program: Apollo 13 splashes down safely in the Pacific.
• April 21 – The Hutt River Province Principality secedes from Australia.
• April 21 – Alliance Party founded in Northern Ireland
• April 22 – The first Earth Day is celebrated in the U.S.
• April 24 – China's first satellite (Dong Fang Hong 1) is launched into orbit using a Long March-1 Rocket (CZ-1).
• April 29 – The U.S. invades Cambodia to hunt out the Viet Cong; widespread, large antiwar protests occur in the U.S.
May
• May 1 – Demonstrations against the trial of the New Haven Nine, Bobby Seale, and Ericka Huggins draw 12,000. President Richard Nixon orders U.S. forces to cross into neutral Cambodia, threatening to widen the Vietnam War, sparking nationwide riots and leading to the Kent State Shootings.
• May 4 – Kent State shootings: Four students at Kent State University in Ohio are killed and 9 wounded by Ohio State National Guardsmen, at a protest against the incursion into Cambodia.
• May 6 – Arms Crisis in the Republic of Ireland: Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney are dismissed as members of the Irish Government, for accusations of their involvement in a plot to import arms for use by the Provisional IRA in Northern Ireland.
• May 6 – Feyenoord wins the European Cup after a 2–1 win over Celtic.
• May 8 – Hard Hat riot: Unionized construction workers attack about 1,000 students and others protesting the Kent State shootings near the intersection of Wall Street and Broad Street and at New York City Hall.
• May 8 – The Beatles release their 12th and final album, Let It Be.
• May 9 – In Washington, D.C., 100,000 people demonstrate against the Vietnam War.
• May 11 – Henry Marrow is murdered in a violent hate crime in Oxford, North Carolina.
• May 11 – Lubbock Tornado: An F5 tornado hits downtown Lubbock, Texas, the first to hit a downtown district of a major city since Topeka, Kansas in 1966; 28 are killed.
• May 14 – Ulrike Meinhof helps Andreas Baader escape.
• May 14 – In the second day of violent demonstrations at Jackson State University 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 – A fire occurs in the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Strait in north Wales, contributing to its partial destruction and amounting to approximately £1,000,000 worth of fire damage.
• May 24 – The scientific 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 – A British expedition climbs the south face of Annapurna I.
• May 31 – The 1970 Ancash earthquake causes a landslide that buries the town of Yungay, Peru; more than 47,000 people are killed.
• May 31 – The 1970 FIFA World Cup is inaugurated in Mexico.
June
• June 1 – Soyuz 9, a two man spacecraft, is launched in the Soviet Union.
• 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 6 – A D-Day celebration is held in Washington, D.C..
• June 8 – A coup in Argentina brings a new junta of service chiefs; on June 18, Roberto M. Levingston becomes President.
• June 10 – U.S. President Richard Nixon signs 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 12 – N.D.F.L.O.A.G. guerrillas attack military garrisons at Izki and Nizwa in Oman.
• June 18 – United Kingdom general election, 1970: the Conservative Party wins and Edward Heath becomes Prime Minister.
• June 21 – Brazil defeats Italy 4–1 to win the 1970 FIFA World Cup.
• June 24 – The United States Senate repeals the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
• June 25 – The Greater London Council's Policy and Resources committee endorses the "Fleet Line" and the extension of the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow Airport.
• June 28 – U.S. ground troops withdraw from Cambodia.
July
• July 1 – Colorado State College changes its name to University of Northern Colorado.
• July 3 – the French Army detonated a 914 kiloton thermonuclear device in the Mururoa Atoll on July 3, 1970. It was the fourth nuclear test and largest.
• July 4 – A chartered Dan-Air De Havilland Comet crashes into the mountains north of Barcelona; at least 112 are killed.
• July 4 – Bob Hope and other entertainers gather in Washington, D.C. for Honor America Day, a nonpartisan holiday event.
• July 6 – Air Canada Flight 621 catches fire after landing at Toronto International Airport, Toronto, Ontario; all 109 passengers and crew are killed.
• July 11 – The first tunnel under the Pyrenees links the towns of Aragnouet (France) and Bielsa (Spain).
• July 16 – Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh opens.
• July 21 – The Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed.
• July 23 – Said bin Taimur, Sultan of Muscat and Oman, is deposed in a palace coup by his son, Qaboos.
• July 23 – Two CS gas canisters are thrown into the chamber of the British House of Commons.
• July 30 – Damages totalling £485,528 are awarded to 28 Thalidomide victims.
• July 31 – NBC anchor Chet Huntley retires from full-time broadcasting.
August
• August 7 – Harold Haley, Marin County Superior Court Judge, is taken hostage and murdered, in an effort to free George Jackson from police custody.
• August 17 – August 18 – The U.S. sinks 418 containers of nerve gas into the Gulf Stream near the Bahamas.
• August 17 – Venera program: Venera 7 is launched. It later becomes the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from another planet.
• August 21 – Social Democratic and Labour Party founded in Northern Ireland
• August 26 – The Women's Strike For Equality takes place down Fifth Avenue in New York City.
• August 26–30 – The Isle of Wight Festival 1970 takes place on East Afton Farm off the coast of England. Some 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.
• August 29 – Rubén Salazar is shot and killed during a rally in East Los Angeles.
September
• September 1 – An assassination attempt against King Hussein of Jordan precipitates the Black September crisis.
• September 3 – September 6 – Israeli forces fight Palestinian guerillas in southern Lebanon.
• September 5 – Vietnam War – Operation Jefferson Glenn: The United States 101st Airborne Division and the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division initiate a new operation in Thua Thien Province (the operation ends in October 1971).
• September 6 – The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacks 4 passenger aircraft from Pan Am, TWA and Swissair on flights to New York from Brussels, Frankfurt and Zürich.
• September 7 – An anti-war rally is held at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, attended by John Kerry, Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland.
• September 7 – Fighting breaks out between Arab guerillas and government forces in Amman, Jordan.
• September 8–10 – The Jordanian government and Palestinian guerillas make truces they 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 siege of Kompong Tho after 3 months.
• September 10 – The Chevrolet Vega is introduced.
• September 11 – The Ford Pinto is introduced.
• September 13 – The first New York City Marathon begins.
• September 15 – King Hussein of Jordan forms a military government with Muhammad Daoud as the prime minister.
• September 18 – Jimi Hendrix dies of alcohol related complications.
• September 20 – Syrian armored forces cross the Jordanian border.
• September 20 – Luna 16 lands on the Moon and lifts off the next day with samples. It lands on Earth September 24.
• September 21 – Palestinian armored forces reinforce Palestinian guerillas in Irbidi, Jordan.
• September 22 – Tunku Abdul Rahman resigns as prime minister of Malaysia, and is succeeded by his deputy Tun Abdul Razak.
• September 26 – The Laguna Fire starts in San Diego County, burning 175,425 acres (710 km²).
• September 27 – Richard Nixon begins a tour of Europe, visiting Italy, Yugoslavia, Spain, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
• September 28 – Gamal Abdal Nasser dies; Vice President Anwar Sadat is named temporary president of Egypt.
• September 29 – The U.S. Congress gives President Richard Nixon authority to sell arms to Israel.
• September 29 – In Berlin, Baader-Meinhof Gang members rob 3 banks, with 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, the government of Prime Minister Rashid Karami resigns.
• October 4 – In Bolivia, Army Commander General Rogelio Miranda and a group of officers rebel and demand the resignation of President Alfredo Ovando Candía, who fires him.
• October 4 – National Educational Television ends operations, being succeeded by PBS.
• October 4 – In Los Angeles, Rock and blues singer Janis Joplin dies in her hotel room, from an overdose of heroin.
• October 5 – U.S. President Richard Nixon's European tour ends.
• October 5 – The Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnaps James Cross in Montreal and demands release of all its imprisoned members. The next day the Canadian government announces it will not meet the demand, beginning Quebec's October Crisis.
• October 5 – The Public Broadcasting Service begins 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 the Soviet Union.
• October 7 – General Juan José Torres becomes the new President of Bolivia.
• October 8 – The U.S. Foreign Office announces that renewal of arms sales to Pakistan.
• October 8 – Soviet author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• October 8 – Vietnam War: In Paris, a Communist delegation rejects U.S. 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 10 – Fiji becomes independent.
• October 10 – October Crisis: In Montreal, Quebec, a national crisis hits Canada when Quebec Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte becomes the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.
• October 11 – Eleven French soldiers are killed in a shootout with rebels in Chad.
• October 12 – Vietnam War: U.S. 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 establish diplomatic relations.
• October 13 – Saeb Salam forms a government in Lebanon.
• October 14 – A Chinese nuclear test is conducted in Lop Nor.
• October 15 – In Egypt, a referendum supports Anwar Sadat 90.04%.
• October 15 – A section of the new West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapses into the river below, killing 35 construction workers.
• October 15 – The Baltimore Orioles defeat the Cincinnati Reds in Game 5 of the World Series, 9–3, to win the series 4 games to 1 for their 2nd World Championship.
• October 15 – The domestic Soviet Aeroflot Flight 244 is hijacked and diverted to Turkey.
• October 16 – October Crisis: The Canadian government declares a state of emergency and outlaws the Quebec Liberation Front.
• October 17 – October Crisis: Pierre Laporte is found murdered in south Montreal.
• October 17 – A cholera epidemic breaks out in Istanbul.
• October 17 – Anwar Sadat officially becomes President of Egypt.
• October 20 – The Soviet Union launches the Zond 8 lunar probe.
• October 20 – Egyptian president Anwar Sadat names Mahmoud Fawzi as his prime minister.
• October 21 – A U.S. Air Force plane makes an emergency landing near Leninakan, Soviet Union. The Soviets release the American officers, including 2 generals, November 10.
• October 22 – Chilean army commander René Schneider is shot in Santiago; the government declares a state of emergency. Schneider dies October 25.
• October 24 – Salvador Allende is elected President of Chile.
• October 25 – The wreck of the Confederate submarine Hunley is found off Charleston, South Carolina, by pioneer underwater archaeologist, Dr. E. Lee Spence,[1] then just 22 years old. Hunley was the first submarine in history to sink a ship in warfare.
• October 26 – Garry Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury debuts in approximately two dozen newspapers in the United States.
• October 28 – In Jordan, the government of Ahmed Toukan resigns; the next prime minister is Wasfi Al-Tal.
• October 28 – A cholera outbreak in eastern Slovakia causes Hungary to close 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 (1 001.452 863 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 6 years causes large floods, kills 293, leaves 200,000 homeless and virtually halts the Vietnam
November
• November 1 – Fire destroys the Le Cinq-Sept dance hall in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France, killing 144.
• November 3 – Democrats sweep the U.S. Congressional midterm elections; Ronald Reagan is reelected governor of California; Jimmy Carter is elected governor of Georgia.
• Salvador Allende becomes president of Chile.
• November 4 – Vietnam War – Vietnamization: The United States turns control of the air base in the Mekong Delta to South Vietnam.
• November 4 – Social workers in Los Angeles, California take custody of Genie, a girl who had been kept in solitary confinement since her birth.
• November 5 – Vietnam War: The United States Military Assistance Command in Vietnam reports the lowest weekly American soldier death toll in 5 years (24 soldiers die that week, which is the fifth consecutive week the death toll is below 50; 431 are reported wounded that week, however).
• November 8 – Egypt, Libya and Sudan announce their intentions to form a federation.
• November 9 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 17.
• November 9 – Vietnam War: The Supreme Court of the United States votes 6–3 not to hear a case by the state of Massachusetts, about the constitutionality of a state law granting Massachusetts residents the right to refuse military service in an undeclared war.
• November 10 – Vietnam War – Vietnamization: For the first time in 5 years, an entire week ends with no reports of United States combat fatalities in Southeast Asia.
• November 12 – Soviet author Andrei Amalrik is sentenced to 3 years for 'anti-Soviet' writings.
• November 13 – Hafez al-Assad comes to power in Syria, following a military coup.
• November 13 – 1970 Bhola cyclone: A 120-mph (193 km/h) tropical cyclone hits the densely populated Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an estimated 500,000 people (considered the 20th century's worst cyclone disaster).
• November 14 – Southern Airlines Flight 932 crashes in Wayne County, West Virginia; all 75 on board, including 37 players and 5 coaches from the Marshall University football team, are killed.
• November 14 – The Soviet Union enters the ICAO, making Russian the fourth official language of the organization.
• 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 is released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft.
• November 18 – U.S. President Richard Nixon asks the U.S. Congress for US$155 million in supplemental aid for the Cambodian government (US$85 million is for military assistance to prevent the overthrow of the government of Premier Lon Nol by the Khmer Rouge and North Vietnam).
• November 18 – The United Nations Security Council demands that no government recognize Rhodesia.
• November 19 – European Economic Community prime ministers meet 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, the 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 (no Americans are killed, but the prisoners have already moved to another camp; all U.S. POWs are 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 the capital Conakry.
• November 23–24 – The Guinean army repels the landing attempts.
• November 23 – Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! makes its network TV debut, when CBS telecasts the 1955 film version as a 3-hour Thanksgiving special.
• November 25–29 – A U.N. delegation arrives to investigate the Guinea situation.
• November 25 – In Tokyo, author and Tatenokai militia leader Yukio Mishima and his followers take over the headquarters of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. 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 the 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 Pope Paul VI during his visit in Manila.
• November 30 – British Caledonian Airways Ltd. (BCal) is formed.
December
• December 1 – The Italian House of Representatives accepts the new divorce law.
• December 1 – Ethiopia recognizes the People's Republic of China.
• December 1 – The Basque ETA kidnaps West German Eugen Beihl in San Sebastián.
• December 1 – Luis Echeverría 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 5 terrorists from the FLQ's Chenier Cell their request for safe passage to Cuba.
• December 3 – Burgos Trial: In Burgos, Spain, the trial of 16 Basque terrorism suspects begins.
• December 4 – The Spanish government declares a 3-month martial law in the Basque county of Guipuzco, over strikes and demonstrations.
• December 4 – The U.N. announces that Portuguese navy and army units were responsible for the attempted invasion of Guinea.
• December 5 – The Asian and Australian tour of Pope Paul VI ends.
• December 7 – Giovanni Enrico Bucher, the Swiss ambassador to Brazil, is kidnapped in Rio de Janeiro; kidnappers demand the release of 70 political prisoners.
• December 7 – The U.N. General Assembly supports the isolation of South Africa for 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 to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto.
• December 12 – A landslide in western Colombia leaves 200 dead.
• December 13 – The government of Poland announces food price increases. Riots and looting lead to a bloody confrontation between the rioters and the government on December 15, and martial law December 17–22.
• December 15 – The USSR's Venera 7 becomes the first spacecraft to land successfully on Venus and transmit data back to Earth.
• December 15 – The South Korean ferry Namyong Ho capsizes off Korean Strait; 308 are killed.
• December 16 – The Ethiopian government declares a state of emergency in the county of Eritrea over the activities of the Eritrean Liberation Front.
• December 20 – General Secretary of the Polish Communist Party, Władysław Gomułka, resigns; Edward Gierek replaces him.
• December 20 – An Egyptian delegation leaves for Moscow to ask for economic and military aid.
• December 22 – The 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 – The Polish government freezes food prices for 2 years.
• December 23 – The Bolivian government releases Regis Debray.
• December 23 – The North Tower of the World Trade Center is topped out at 1,368 feet (417 m), making it the tallest building in the world.
• December 25 – The ETA releases Eugen Beihl.
• December 27 – India's president declares new elections.
• December 28 – Burgos Trial: Three Basques are sentenced to death (3 twice), others sentenced to 12 to 62 years, and 1 is released.
• December 28 – The suspected killers of Pierre Laporte, Jacques and Paul Rose and Francis Sunard, are arrested near Montreal.
• December 30 – In Viscaya, Spain, Basque county, 15,000 go on strike to protest the Burgos trial death sentences.
• December 30 – Francisco Franco commutes the death sentences of the Burgos Trial defendants to 30 years in prison.
• December 31 – Paul McCartney sues in Great Britain to dissolve the Beatles' legal partnership.
Britain in the 1970's
The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979
It was the decade of the Space Hopper, the Ford Cortina, Raleigh Chopper bikes, the record player and cassette recorder.
It was a decade of strikes - postal workers, miners and dustmen. It ended with the 'winter of discontent' in 1979 when ITV went off the air for five months. A three-day week was imposed during February 1972 to save on electricity.
During the summer of 1976 the weather turned so dry that water supplies reached critical low levels.
In 1977, the whole nation celebrated the Queen's Silver Jubilee with street parties.
64% of homes had a washing machine
1974 - First domestic microwave cooker was sold
1978 - VHS video recorder went on sale
1979 - Sony began selling the Walkman personal stereo
People could now watch television programmes in colour. Three stations had began broadcasting in colour between 1967 and 1969.
1971 - 91% of families had a TV
1972 - Newsround started
In 1971 Britain went decimal. Before this there was 12d in a shilling, and 20 shillings in a pound.
1971 - Population of Britain = 54 million
Platform shoes and flared trousers.
In the early 1970s hot pants for women were popular.
Barbie, Sindy and Action Man dolls became very popular.
1970 The Stylophone
1971 The Space Hopper
1972 Roller Skates
1973 The Chopper bike
1974 Pong
1975 Monopoly game
1976 Stunt Kites
1977 Skateboards
1978 Star Wars figures
1979 Trivial Pursuit
The first big new sound of the 1970s was “Glam Rock”, the main figures of this were David Bowie, Elton John and of course Gary Glitter. In the bleak political backdrop, these larger that life British bands and characters brought a welcome relief with their platform boots, sequins, nail varnish and colourful hair.
Punk
The punk movement of the late 1970s began in England. Great British bands of this scene were The Sex Pistols and The Clash. The Punk style was Mohicans, bondage clothes, safety pins, piercings and bovver boots.
1970 Edison Lighthouse
1971 T Rex
1972 The New Seekers
1973 Slade
1974 Abba
1975 David Bowie
1976 Abba
1977 Donna Summer
1978 Boomtown Rats
1979 Art Garfunkel
The era of global travel began in 1970 when the first Pan Am Boeing 747 jet landed at Heathrow. Air travel became cheaper and now it is easy to take a holiday in almost any part of the world.
After years of trials, the fastest passenger aeroplane in the world called Concorde, came into service in 1976. It was built by Britain and France. It could fly at about 2,100 kilometres per hour.
Popular cars were the Aston Martin, Triumph TR7, two door Capri and MGB GT (1978)
Many coal mines closed because the need for coal in Britain was no longer as great as it had once been. Electricity was now generated by power stations burning oil or gas from the North Sea or in some cases by the use of nuclear energy.
Date
|
Invention
|
Inventor
|
1971 |
Digital watch |
George Theiss / Willy Crabtree |
1971 |
E-mail |
Ray Tomlinson |
1971 |
Pocket calculator |
Sharp |
1971 |
Personal computer |
MITS |
1972 |
email |
Tomlinson |
1972 |
The word processor |
|
1975 |
Digital camera |
Steven Sasson / Kodak |
1979 |
Post-it notes |
Spencer Silver / 3M |
1979 |
Mobile phone |
NTT |
1979 |
Walkman (personal tape music player) |
Akio Morita |