Kent State, Earth Day, Apollo 13, Beatles - 1970

The year 1970 is remembered for the escalation of the Vietnam war, the tragedy at Kent State, the breakup of the Beatles, the near-tragedy of Apollo 13, several terrorist hijackings, and the deaths of Egyptian President Nasser and France's Charles de Gaulle.

January 11: In the last game played between the rival leagues, the Kansas City Chiefs upset the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 in Super Bowl IV.

January 14: The U.S. Supreme Court rules six southern states must integrate by February 1 in a school segregation case.

January 19: G. Harold Carswell is nominated to the Supreme Court by President Nixon (see April 8).

January 22: The Boeing 747 begins commercial service with a Pan Am flight from New York to London.

February 16: Joe Frazier knocks out Jimmy Ellis in the 5th round to win boxing's heavyweight championship.

February 18: The "Chicago Seven" are acquitted on charges of plotting to incite riots.

February 19: Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers is suspended from baseball for alleged ties to gambling interests.

March 1: The Republic of Rhodesia formally declares its independence from Britain.

March 3: A mob of angry white residents in Lamar, South Carolina, attack three buses carrying black schoolchildren to a desegregated school.

March 15: Expo '70 opens in Osaka Japan and is attended by more than a quarter million on opening day.

March 26: Postal workers in New York City return to work after an eight day strike which affected the entire country.

April 1: The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, passed earlier by both the House and the Senate, is signed into law by President Nixon. All cigarette and TV and radio advertising will cease on January 1, 1971.

April 8: The Senate rejects Nixon Supreme Court nominee G. Harold Carswell (see May 12).

April 13: Apollo 13 mission abandoned after minor explosion and power failure.

April 16: Second round of SALT talks between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. commence in Vienna, Austria.

April 17: Apollo 13 lands safely in the Pacific Ocean.

April 22: The first-ever Earth Day is celebrated.

April 25: The Chinese officially join the space race by placing their first satellite in orbit.

April 30: President Nixon announces U.S. troop movements into Cambodia.

May 2: Dust Commander wins the 96th running of the Kentucky Derby.

May 4: Four students are killed by Ohio National Guardsmen during a war protest on the campus of Kent State University.

May 12: The Senate unanimously approves Nixon's second nominee for the Supreme Court, Harry A. Blackmun of Minnesota.

May 14: Mirroring the violence on May 4, two black students are shot to death by police during unrest at Jackson State in Mississippi.

May 15: The IOC officially bans South Africa from all Olympic events.

May 27: The Dow-Jones industrial average rises a whopping 32.04 points ending a nearly two-week slide in the largest-ever one day point gain.

May 30: The 54th Indianapolis 500 is won by Al Unser.

May 31: A powerful earthquake strikes Peru leaving an estimated 700,000 homeless and 67,000 dead.

May 31: The Canadian government announces that it will allow its dollar to float freely in the world market after eight years of tying it at $.925 to the U.S. dollar.

June 2: Researchers at the University of Wisconsin announce the first complete synthesis of a gene.

June 4: Tonga proclaims its independence from Britain.

June 6: Elliot Richardson is nominated by President Nixon to be Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to replace Robert Finch, who is appointed to the White House staff.

June 7: A constitutional amendment which would have resulted in the deportation of at least 300,000 foreign workers was rejected by Swiss voters.

June 8: A military coup in Argentina is successful as President Juan Carlos Ongania is deposed.

June 10: President Nixon nominates James Hodgson to succeed George Shultz as Secretary of Labor after Shultz is named director of the new Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

June 16: Kenneth Gibson becomes the first black mayor of a major Eastern Seaboard city.

June 19: Labour's upset loss in the general election results in British Conservative party leader Edward Heath replacing Harold Wilson as prime minister.

June 22: A new law giving 18-year-olds the right to vote in federal elections is signed into law by President Nixon.

June 25: Syrian and Israeli forces fight over the Golan Heights in the biggest battle since the 1967 war.

June 29: The movement of the last U.S. ground troops out of Cambodia is announced by the army.

June 30: President Nixon's veto of a $2.7B hospital construction aid bill is overridden by Congress.

July 31: The Israeli government agrees to a U.S. plan for a cease-fire and talks in the Middle East.

August 2: A Pan Am 747 with 379 passengers aboard is hijacked to Cuba while en route to San Juan, Puerto Rico, from New York.

August 3: The military announces the first successful underwater firing of a Poseidon missile.

August 4: Hurricane Celia hits Texas near Corpus Christi killing 31.

August 18: Environmentalists are outraged when the the navy intentionally scuttles the U.S. Liberty 250 miles of Cape Kennedy with containers filled with nerve gas on board.

September 4: Soviet ballerina Natalia Makarova receives political asylum in Britain.

September 6: Four passenger jets bound for New York are hijacked by Arab terrorists. Three of the four land in the Middle East while the fourth lands in London.

September 15: The UAW (United Automobile Workers) announces a strike against GM involving over 340,000 workers.

September 18: Israeli Premier Golda Meir meets with President Nixon in Washington.

September 18: Rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix dies at age 27.

September 28: President Nasser of Egypt dies of a heart attack at age 52. Anwar Sadat is named interim ruler.

September 28: The U.S. retains the America's Cup as the Intrepid defeats Australian yacht Gretel II 4-1.

October 4: Rock singer Janis Joplin dies at age 27.

October 8: Alexander Solzhenitsyn wins the Nobel Prize for literature.

October 10: Fiji declares its independence from Britain ending nearly 100 years of colonial rule.

October 12: President Nixon announces that 40,000 troops are to be withdrawn from Vietnam by Christmas.

October 15: The Baltimore Orioles win the World Series by defeating the Cincinnati Reds 9-3 in game five.

October 18: The Canadian government invokes emergency wartime powers in response to actions by the FLQ, a Quebec extremist group . Hours later, Quebec Labor Minister Pierre Laporte, who had been kidnapped by the FLQ, is found dead near Montreal.

October 27: Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu ends his two week U.S. visit.

November 1: A fire in a night club near Grenoble, France, kills 145 who are trapped behind locked doors.

November 2: SALT talks between the U.S. and Soviet Union resume in Helsinki, Finland.

November 3: The Democrats retain control of Congress and gain a few governorships in mid-term elections.

November 9: Former President Charles de Gaulle of France dies of a heart attack at age 79.

November 12: State University of New York biologists announce the first artificial synthesis of a living cell.

November 13: A cyclone and tidal waves along the coast of Bangladesh leaves an estimated 300,000 dead and three million homeless.

November 15: Country-wide elections are held in Brazil for the first time since 1966.

November 25: Japanese author and self-styled militia leader Yukio Mishima commits hara kiri shortly after he and his "army" had seized a self-defense headquarters in Tokyo.

November 26: Pope Paul VI narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by a Bolivian artist wielding a knife.

December 1: The Italian Parliament approves the nation's first divorce law.

December 3: The FLQ (see October 18) releases British Trade Commissioner James Cross in exchange for allowing three captured kidnappers passage to Cuba.

December 11: President Nixon announces George Bush will succeed Charles Yost as the U.S. delegate to the United Nations.

December 20: A fire in a Tucson, Arizona, hotel leaves 28 dead and 27 injured.