As the Vietnam War expanded into Cambodia, anti-war rallies flared at home; at Kent State University in Ohio, National Guardsmen killed four unarmed student protesters, shocking the nation. Americans held their breath as NASA scrambled to bring Apollo 13 astronauts home safely after their aborted moon mission. Some 20 million people celebrated the first Earth Day, rock icons Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix both died of drug overdoses at age 27, and the Beatles called it quits.
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On March 16, 1970, Motown star Tammi Terrell died of complications from the malignant brain tumor that caused her 1967 collapse.
NEW YORK - CIRCA 1966: Motown recording star Tammi Terrell poses for a portrait circa1966 in New York City, New York. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images)
Getty Images
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On April 11, 1970, Apollo 13, the third lunar landing mission, is successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise. The spacecraft’s destination was the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon, where the astronauts were to explore the Imbrium Basin and conduct geological experiments. After an oxygen tank exploded on the evening of April 13, however, the new mission objective became to get the Apollo 13 crew home alive.
T_he Apollo 13 lunar landing mission prime crew from left to right are: Commander, James A. Lovell, Jr., Command Module pilot, John L. Swigert Jr. and Lunar Module pilot, Fred W. Haise, Jr._
NASA
Apr
17
With the world anxiously watching, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey to the moon, safely returns to Earth on April 17, 1970.
Flight controllers man the control room of the NASA Mission Control Center in Houston as the Apollo 13 reenters earth's atmosphere for splashdown and recovery. (Photo by F. Carter Smith/Sygma via Getty Images)
Sygma via Getty Images
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On May 4, 1970, in Kent, Ohio, 28 National Guardsmen fire their weapons at a group of anti-war demonstrators on the Kent State University campus, killing four students, wounding eight and permanently paralyzing another. The tragedy was a watershed moment for a nation divided by the conflict in Vietnam, and further galvanized the anti-war movement.
Following the May 4, 1970 shooting of students at Kent State University students at UNM took over the student union building. After several days of the occupation the National Guard were called upon to clear the students from the building. (Photo by Steven Clevenger/Corbis via Getty Images)
Corbis via Getty Images
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