Youtube Playlist (click top right icon for songtitles)
January
- January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
- January 5 – The 7.1 Mw Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). Between 10,000 and 14,621 were killed and 26,783 were injured.
- January 14 – Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian Civil War.
- January 15 – After a 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria, Biafran forces under Philip Effiong formally surrender to General Yakubu Gowon.
February
- February 1 – The Benavídez rail disaster near Buenos Aires, Argentina, kills 236.
- February 10 – An avalanche at Val-d’Isère, France, kills 41 tourists.
- February 11 – Ohsumi, Japan’s first satellite, is launched on a Lambda-4 rocket.
- February 22 – Guyana becomes a Republic within the Commonwealth of Nations.
March
- March 1 – Rhodesia severs its last tie with the United Kingdom, declaring itself a republic.
- March 4 — All 57 men aboard the French submarine Eurydice (S644) are killed when the vessel implodes while making a practice dive in the Mediterranean Sea.
- March 5 – The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty goes into effect, after ratification by 56 nations.
- March 6 – Süleyman Demirel of AP forms the new government of Turkey (32nd government).
- March 12 – Citroën introduces the Citroën SM, the fastest front-wheel drive auto in the world at that time, at the annual Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland.
- March 15 – The Expo ’70 World’s Fair opens in Suita, Osaka, Japan.
- March 16 – The complete New English Bible is published.
- March 18 – General Lon Nol ousts Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia and holds Queen Sisowath Kossamak under house arrest.
- March 19
- Ostpolitik: The leaders of West Germany and East Germany meet at a summit for the first time since Germany’s division into two republics. West German Chancellor Willy Brandt is greeted by cheering East German crowds as he arrives in Erfurt for a summit with his counterpart, East German Ministerpräsident Willi Stoph.
- March 20 – The Agency for Cultural and Technical Co-operation (ACCT) (Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique) is founded.
- 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 31
- NASA‘s Explorer 1, the first American satellite and Explorer program spacecraft, reenters Earth’s atmosphere after 12 years in orbit.
- Japan Airlines Flight 351, carrying 131 passengers and 7 crew from Tokyo to Fukuoka, is hijacked by Japanese Red Army members. All passengers and crew are eventually freed.
April
- April 4 – Fragments of burnt human remains believed to be those of Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun, Joseph Goebbels, Magda Goebbels and the Goebbels children are crushed and scattered in the Biederitz river at a KGB center in Magdeburg, East Germany.
- April 8
- A huge gas explosion at a subway construction site in Osaka, Japan, kills 79 and injures over 400.
- Israeli Air Force F-4 Phantom II fighter bombers kill 47 Egyptian school children at an elementary school in what is known as Bahr el-Baqar massacre. The single-floor school is hit by five bombs and two air-to-ground missiles.
- April 10 – In a press release written in mock-interview style, that is included in promotional copies of his first solo album, Paul McCartney announces that he has left The Beatles.[1]
- April 11
- An avalanche at a tuberculosis sanatorium in the French Alps kills 74, mostly young boys.
- 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 four days.
- April 17 – Apollo program: Apollo 13 splashes down safely in the Pacific.
- April 21 – The Principality of Hutt River “secedes” from Australia (it remains unrecognised by Australia and other nations).
- April 24 – China’s first satellite (Dong Fang Hong 1) is launched into orbit using a Long March-1 Rocket (CZ-1).
- April 26 – The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is founded.
May
- May 4 – Kent State shootings: Four students at Kent State University in Ohio, USA are killed and nine wounded by Ohio 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.
- Feyenoord wins the European Cup after a 2–1 win over Celtic.
- May 14
- Ulrike Meinhof helps Andreas Baader escape and create the Red Army Faction in West Germany which exists until 1998.
- 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 26 – The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.
- May 31
- The 7.9 Mw Ancash earthquake shakes Peru with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe) and a landslide buries the town of Yungay, Peru. Between 66,794 and 70,000 were killed and 50,000 were injured.
- 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 4 – Tonga gains independence from the United Kingdom.
- June 8 – A coup in Argentina brings a new junta of service chiefs; on June 18, Roberto M. Levingston becomes President.
- June 12 – NDFLOAG guerrillas attack military garrisons at Izki and Nizwa in Oman.
- June 19 – The Patent Cooperation Treaty is signed into international law, providing a unified procedure for filing patent applications to protect inventions.
- June 21 – Brazil defeats Italy 4–1 to win the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico.
July
- July 3
- All 112 people on board Dan-Air Flight 1903 are killed when the British De Havilland Comet crashes into mountains north of Barcelona.
- The French Army detonates a 914 kiloton thermonuclear device in the Mururoa Atoll. It is the fifth in a series that started on June 15 in their program to perfect a hydrogen bomb small enough to be delivered by a missile.
- July 5 – Air Canada Flight 621 crashes near Toronto International Airport, Toronto, Ontario; all 109 passengers and crew are killed.
- July 12 – Thor Heyerdahl‘s papyrus boat Ra II arrives in Barbados.
- July 21 – The Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed.
- July 23 – 1970 Omani coup d’état: Said bin Taimur, Sultan of Muscat and Oman, is deposed in a bloodless palace coup by his son, Qaboos.
- July 30 – Damages totalling £485,528 are awarded to 28 Thalidomide victims.
August
- August 11 – Creation of the International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Arts in Confolens, France.
- August 17 – Venera program: Venera 7 is launched toward Venus. It later becomes the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet.
- August 31 – An annular solar eclipse is visible in Oceania, and is the 14th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 144.
September
- September 1 – An assassination attempt against King Hussein of Jordan precipitates the Black September crisis.
- September 3–6 – Israeli forces fight Palestinian guerillas in southern Lebanon
- September 4 – Chilean Socialist Senator Salvador Allende wins 36.2% of the vote in his run for presidency defeating former right-wing President Jorge Alessandri with 34.9% of the votes and Christian Democrat Radomiro Tomic with 27.8% of the votes.
- 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 – Dawson’s Field hijackings, The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacks four passenger aircraft from Pan Am, TWA and Swissair on flights to New York from Brussels, Frankfurt and Zürich and flies them to a desert airstrip in Jordan.
- September 7 – Fighting breaks out between Arab guerillas and government forces in Amman, Jordan.
- September 8–10 – The Jordanian government and Palestinian guerillas make repeated unsuccessful truces.
- September 9 – Guinea recognizes the German Democratic Republic.
- September 10 – Cambodian government forces break the siege of Kompong Tho after three months.
- September 15 – King Hussein of Jordan forms a military government with Muhammad Daoud as the prime minister.
- September 17 – “Black September“: King Hussein of Jordan orders the Jordanian Armed Forces to oust Palestinian fedayeen from Jordan.
- September 19 – Kostas Georgakis, a Greek student of geology, sets himself ablaze in Matteotti Square in Genoa, Italy, as a protest against the dictatorial Greek junta led by Georgios Papadopoulos.
- September 20
- Syrian armored forces cross the Jordanian border.
- Luna 16 lands on the Moon and lifts off the next day with samples, landing back on Earth September 24.
- September 21 – Palestinian armed forces reinforce guerillas in Irbidi, Jordan.
- September 22
- The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) is founded.
- Tunku Abdul Rahman resigns as prime minister of Malaysia, and is succeeded by his deputy Tun Abdul Razak.
- September 27
- Richard Nixon begins a tour of Europe, visiting Italy, Yugoslavia, Spain, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
- Pope Paul VI names Saint Teresa of Ávila as the first female Doctor of the Church.[2]
- September 28 – Vice President Anwar Sadat is named temporary president of Egypt following the death of Gamal Abdel Nasser.
- September 29 – In Berlin, Red Army Faction members rob three banks, with loot totaling over DM 200,000.
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.
- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is formed.
- The Weather Bureau is renamed to National Weather Service, as part of NOAA.
- Pope Paul VI names Saint Catherine of Siena as the second female Doctor of the Church.
- October 4
- Jochen Rindt becomes Formula One World Driving Champion, the first to earn the honor posthumously.
- 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 5 – The Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnaps James Cross in Montreal and demands release of all its imprisoned members, beginning Quebec‘s October Crisis. The next day the Canadian government announces that it will not meet the demand.
- October 6
- Bolivian President Alfredo Ovando Candía resigns; General Rogelio Miranda takes over but resigns soon after.
- October 7 – General Juan José Torres becomes the new President of Bolivia.
- October 8
- The U.S. Foreign Office announces the renewal of arms sales to Pakistan.
- Soviet author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
- Vietnam War: In Paris, a Communist delegation rejects U.S. President Richard Nixon‘s peace proposal as “a maneuver to deceive world opinion.”
- October 9 – The Khmer Republic is proclaimed in Cambodia, escalating the Cambodian Civil War between the government and the Khmer Rouge.
- October 10
- Fiji becomes independent.
- October Crisis: In Montreal, 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 – Saeb Salam forms a government in Lebanon.
- October 14 – A Chinese nuclear test is conducted in Lop Nor.
- October 15
- A section of the new West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapses into the river below, killing 35 construction workers.
- In Egypt, a referendum supports Anwar Sadat 90.04%.
- 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.
- A cholera epidemic breaks out in Istanbul.
- Anwar Sadat officially becomes President of Egypt.
- October 20
- The Soviet Union launches the Zond 8 lunar probe.
- Egyptian president Anwar Sadat names Mahmoud Fawzi as his prime minister.
- October 22 – Chilean army commander René Schneider is shot in Santiago; the government declares a state of emergency. Schneider dies October 25.
- October 23 – Gary Gabelich sets a land speed record in a rocket-powered automobile called the Blue Flame, fueled with natural gas.
- October 24 – Salvador Allende is elected President of Chile by a run-off vote in the National Congress
- October 25 – The wreck of the Confederate submarine Hunley is found off Charleston, South Carolina, by pioneer underwater archaeologist, Dr. E. Lee Spence, then just 22 years old. Hunley was the first submarine in history to sink a ship in warfare.
- October 28
- In Jordan, the government of Ahmad Toukan resigns; the next prime minister is Wasfi al-Tal.
- A cholera outbreak in eastern Slovakia causes Hungary to close its border with Czechoslovakia.
- Gary Gabelich drives the rocket-powered Blue Flame to an official land speed record of 622.407 mph (1,001.667 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
- The Club Cinq-Sept fire in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France, kills 146.
- Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Zygfryd Wolniak and three Pakistanis are killed in an attack on a group of Polish diplomats at the Karachi airport.
- November 3
- Salvador Allende takes office as president of Chile.
- The 1970 Bhola cyclone makes landfall in modern-day Bangladesh around high tide, causing $86.4 million in damage (1970 USD, $576 million 2020 USD) and becomes the world’s deadliest storm killing over 500,000 people.
- November 5 – Vietnam War: The United States Military Assistance Command in Vietnam reports the lowest weekly American soldier death toll in five 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.
- 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 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). It gives rise to the temporary island of New Moore / South Talpatti.
- Hafez al-Assad comes to power in Syria, following a military coup within the Ba’ath Party.
- November 14
- Southern Airways 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.
- The Soviet Union enters the International Civil Aviation Organization, after having resisted joining the UN Agency for more than 25 years. Russian becomes the fourth official language of the ICAO.
- November 16 – The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar flies for the first time.
- November 17 – Luna programme: 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 19 – The six European Economic Community nation prime ministers meet in Munich to begin the new programme of European Political Cooperation (EPC), a unified foreign policy for a future European Union.
- November 20 – The Miss World 1970 beauty pageant, hosted by Bob Hope at the Royal Albert Hall, London is disrupted by Women’s Liberation protesters. Earlier on the same evening a bomb is placed under a BBC outside broadcast vehicle by The Angry Brigade, in protest at the entry of separate black and white contestants by South Africa.
- November 21
- Syrian Prime Minister Hafez al-Assad forms a new government but retains the post of defense minister.
- In Ethiopia, the Eritrean Liberation Front kills an Ethiopian general.
- Vietnam War – Operation Ivory Coast: A joint Air Force and Army team raids the Sơn Tây 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).
- 1970 Australian Senate election: The Liberal/Country Coalition Government led by Prime Minister John Gorton and the Labor Party led by Gough Whitlam each ended up with 26 seats; both suffering a swing against them. The Democratic Labor Party won an additional seat and held the balance of power in the Senate. To date, this was the last occasion where a Senate election was held without an accompanying House Of Representatives election.
- November 22 – Guinean president Ahmed Sékou Touré accuses Portugal of an attack when hundreds of mercenaries land near the capital Conakry. The Guinean army repels the landing attempts over the next three days.
- 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 in an attempted coup d’état. After Mishima’s speech fails to sway public opinion towards his right-wing political beliefs, including restoration of the powers of the Emperor, he commits seppuku (public ritual suicide).
- November 27 – Bolivian artist Benjamin Mendoza tries to assassinate Pope Paul VI during his visit in Manila.
- November 28 – The Montréal Alouettes defeat the Calgary Stampeders, 23–10, to win the 58th Grey Cup.
December
- December 1
- The Italian Chamber of Deputies accepts the new divorce law.
- Ethiopia recognizes the People’s Republic of China.
- The Basque ETA kidnaps West German Eugen Beihl in San Sebastián.
- Luis Echeverría becomes president of Mexico.
- December 2 – The United States Environmental Protection Agency is established.
- December 3
- October Crisis: In Montreal, 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.
- 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 Guipuzcoa, over strikes and demonstrations.
- 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.
- Fluminense wins the Brazil Football Championship.
- December 7
- Giovanni Enrico Bucher, the Swiss ambassador to Brazil, is kidnapped in Rio de Janeiro; kidnappers demand the release of 70 political prisoners.
- The U.N. General Assembly supports the isolation of South Africa for its apartheid policies.
- 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, which will become known as the Warschauer Kniefall (“Warsaw Genuflection”).
- December 12 – A landslide in western Colombia leaves 200 dead.
- December 15
- The USSR’s Venera 7 becomes the first spacecraft to land successfully on Venus and transmit data back to Earth.
- The South Korean ferry Namyong Ho capsizes off Korea Strait; 308 people 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 – An Egyptian delegation leaves for Moscow to ask for economic and military aid.
- December 21 – The Grumman F-14 Tomcat makes its first flight.
- December 22
- The Libyan Revolutionary Council declares that it will nationalize all foreign banks in the country.
- Franz Stangl, the ex-commander of Treblinka, is sentenced to life imprisonment.
- December 23
- The Bolivian government releases Régis Debray.
- Law 70-001 is enacted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, amending article 4 of the constitution and making the country a one-party state.
- December 25 – The ETA releases Eugen Beihl.
- December 27 – President of India V. V. Giri declares new elections.
- December 28 – The suspected killers of Pierre Laporte, Jacques and Paul Rose and Francis Sunard, are arrested near Montreal.
- December 29 – U.S. President Richard Nixon signs into law the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
- December 30 – In Biscay in the Basque country of Spain, 15,000 go on strike in protest at the Burgos trial death sentences. Francisco Franco commutes the sentences to 30 years in prison.
- December 31 – Paul McCartney sues in Britain to dissolve The Beatles‘s legal partnership.
Date unknown
- The first Regional Technical Colleges open in Ireland.
- Sada Abe, Japanese former prostitute and later actress, disappears.
- The Sweet Track is discovered in England. It was the world’s oldest engineered roadway at the time of its discovery.
- Alvin Toffler publishes his book Future Shock.
- Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, the Federal collection of contemporary art, is established in Germany.
- Xerox PARC computer laboratory opens in Palo Alto, California.
- A multi-business conglomerate, Virgin Group was founded by Richard Branson in England.
