Also Within This Year in History:
1970
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
“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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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,…
