This Year in History:
1970
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
The bodies of dissident union leader Joseph “Jock” Yablonski, his wife, and daughter are discovered in their Clarksville, Pennsylvania, farmhouse by Yablonski’s son Kenneth. The family had been dead for nearly a week, killed on New Year’s Eve by killers hired by the United Mine Workers (UMW) union leadership. Yablonski’s murder eventually brought down the […]
They were the most successful American pop group of the 1960s—a group whose 12 #1 hits in the first full decade of the rock and roll era places them behind only Elvis and the Beatles in terms of chart dominance. They helped define the very sound of the 60s, but like fellow icons the Beatles […]
Muammar al-Qaddafi, the young Libyan army captain who deposed King Idris in September 1969, is proclaimed premier of Libya by the so-called General People’s Congress. Born in a tent in the Libyan desert, Qaddafi was the son of a Bedouin farmer. He attended university and the Libyan military academy and steadily rose in the ranks […]
U.S. Navy Lt. Everett Alvarez Jr. spends his 2,000th day in captivity in Southeast Asia. First taken prisoner when his plane was shot down on August 5, 1964, he became one of the longest-held POWs in U.S. history. Alvarez was downed over Hon Gai during the first bombing raids against North Vietnam in retaliation for […]
“I wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch and we’re putting it out for dinner.” That’s the way John Lennon told the story of “Instant Karma,” one of his most memorable songs as a solo artist and the third Lennon single to appear before the official breakup of the Beatles. The only exaggeration in […]
On February 10, 1970, an avalanche crashes down on a ski resort in Val d’Isere, France, killing 42 people, mostly young skiers. This disaster was the worst such incident in French history. The resort at Val d’Isere was operated by a nonprofit youth organization and attracted many young ski enthusiasts. On the morning of February […]
From the Kagoshima Space Center on the east coast of Japan’s Ohsumi Peninsula, Ohsumi, Japan’s first satellite, is successfully launched into an orbit around Earth. The achievement made Japan the world’s fourth space power, after the Soviet Union in 1957, the United States in 1958, and France in 1965. Two months after Japan’s launching of […]
On February 12, 1970, Joseph Searles III shatters a deeply entrenched color barrier by becoming the first Black member of the New York Stock Exchange. In the historically white dominated financial industry, people of color were routinely denied access not only to services, but to employment opportunities. Searles made history when, as a partner for […]
The Chicago Seven (formerly the Chicago Eight—one defendant, Bobby Seale, was being tried separately) are acquitted of riot conspiracy charges, but found guilty of inciting riot. The eight antiwar activists were charged with the responsibility for the violent demonstrations at the August 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The defendants included David Dellinger of the […]
National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger begins secret peace talks with North Vietnamese representative Le Duc Tho, the fifth-ranking member of the Hanoi Politburo, at a villa outside Paris. Le Duc Tho stated that the North Vietnamese position continued to require an unconditional U.S. withdrawal on a fixed date and the abandonment of the Thieu government […]
The U.S. Marines turn over control of the five northernmost provinces in South Vietnam to the U.S. Army. The Marines had been responsible for this area since they first arrived in South Vietnam in 1965. The change in responsibility for this area was part of President Richard Nixon’s initiative to reduce U.S. troop levels as […]
The U.S. Army accuses Capt. Ernest Medina and four other soldiers of committing crimes at My Lai (also known as Songmy) in March 1968. The charges ranged from premeditated murder to rape and the “maiming” of a suspect under interrogation. Medina was the company commander of Lt. William Calley and other soldiers charged with murder […]
On March 16, 1970, Motown star Tammi Terrell died of complications from the malignant brain tumor that caused her 1967 collapse. Over a span of just 12 months beginning in April 1967, the duo of Terrell and Marvin Gaye and enjoyed a string of four straight hits with some of the greatest love songs ever […]
The National Assembly grants “full power” to Premier Lon Nol, declares a state of emergency, and suspends four articles of the constitution, permitting arbitrary arrest and banning public assembly. Lon Nol and First Deputy Premier Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak had conducted a bloodless coup against Prince Norodom Sihanouk the day before and proclaimed the establishment […]
On April 1, 1970, President Richard Nixon signs legislation officially banning cigarette ads on television and radio. Nixon, who enjoyed the occasional cigar, supported the legislation at the increasing insistence of public health advocates. Alarming health studies emerged as early as 1939 that linked cigarette smoking to higher incidences of cancer and heart disease and, […]
On April 6, 1970, Sam Sheppard, a doctor convicted of murdering his pregnant wife in a trial that caused a media frenzy in the 1950s, dies of liver failure. After a decade in prison, Sheppard was released following a re-trial. His story is rumored to have loosely inspired the television series and movie The Fugitive. […]
On April 7, 1970, the legendary actor John Wayne wins his first—and only—acting Academy Award, for his star turn in the director Henry Hathaway’s Western True Grit. Wayne appeared in some 150 movies over the course of his long and storied career. He established his tough, rugged, uniquely American screen persona most vividly in the […]
On April 10, 1970, when promoting the release of his forthcoming solo album, Paul McCartney announces that he is taking a break from the Beatles, the legendary rock band he had been a part of for a decade. It wasn’t that much of a surprise. The Beatles spent the better part of three years breaking […]
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 […]
On April 13, 1970, disaster strikes 200,000 miles from Earth when oxygen tank No. 2 blows up on Apollo 13, the third manned lunar landing mission. Astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise had left Earth two days before for the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon but were forced to […]
