1970
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s - 1970s - 1980s 1990s 2000s
Years: 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 - 1970 - 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975
Events
- January 1: Unix epoch begins at 00:00:00 UTC.
- January 12 - Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian civil war.
- January 15 - After a 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria, Biafra surrenders.
- Muammar al-Qaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya
- January 16 - Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects.
- February 11 - John Lennon pays £1,344 in fines for 96 people who had protested against the South African rugby team playing in Scotland.
- February 11 - Japan becomes the fourth country to launch a satellite into orbit.
- February 16 - Joe Frazier starts a heavyweight world boxing champion winning streak with the knock out of Jimmy Ellis in five rounds.
- March 1 - Rhodesia severs its last tie with the British crown and declares itself a racially segregated republic.
- March 31 - Explorer I reentry (after 12 years in orbit)
- April 11 - Apollo 13 ill-fated space mission launched
- April 17 - Apollo 13 returns safely to earth
- April 29 - U.S. invades Cambodia to hunt out Viet Cong
- May 4 Four students at Kent State University in Ohio are killed by National Guardsmen at a demonstration protesting incursion into Cambodia.
- June 24 - The United States Senate repeals the Gulf of Tonkin resolution.
- July 21 - - Aswan High Dam in Egypt completed.
- August 17 - Venera 7 was launched and became the first spacecraft to successfully land on another planet.
- September 11 - The Ford Pinto is introduced
- September 13 - First running of the New York City Marathon
- October - the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnap James Cross and murder Pierre Laporte, provoking Quebec's October Crisis
- October 15 - 35 construction workers are killed when a section of the new West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapses into the river below.
- October 17 - Anwar Sadat becomes president of Egypt
Art, Culture & Fashion
- 1970 in film
- 1970 in literature
- Deliverance by James Dickey (in 2001, named as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century, as chosen by the editorial board of the Modern Library.)
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- 1970 in music
- 1970 in sports
- January 11 - Super Bowl IV Kansas City Chiefs (23) def. Minnesota Vikings (7)
- Brazil wins Football World Cup in Mexico
- British Commonwealth Games held in Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- 1970 in television
- January 5 - Soap opera: All My Children premieres.
Births
- January 29 - Heather Graham, actress
- January 31 - Minnie Driver, actress
- February 4 - Gabrielle Anwar, actress
- February 11 -
- Alistair Brown, English cricket player.
- Jason Allyn Scott, US rower.
- Simon Pegg, writer, actor and comedian.
- February 14 - Simon Pegg, comedian, writer and actor
- March 27 -
- Mariah Carey, singer
- Princess Leila of Iran
- April 13 - Ricky Schroeder, actor
- April 29 - Andre Agassi, tennis player
- April 29 - Uma Thurman, actress
- May 16 - Gabriela Sabatini, tennis player
- May 22 - Naomi Campbell, model, actress
- May 24 -
- Jeff Zgonina, football player
- Tommy Page, singer
- May 27 - Joseph Fiennes, actor
- June 26 - Chris O'Donell, actor
- July 8 - Beck, rock and roll singer
- July 24 - Jennifer Lopez, actress, singer
- August 6 - M. Night Shyamalan, film director, writer, producer, actor
- August 13 - Alan Shearer, England and Newcastle soccer player
- August 18 - Malcolm-Jamal Warner, actor
- August 23 - Jay Mohr, actor, comedian
- August 25 - Claudia Schiffer, model
- August 31 - Debbie Gibson, singer
- September 9 - Macy Gray, singer
- September 23 - Ani Difranco, musician
- September 28 - Isabelle Brasseur, figure skating champion
- October 2 - Kelly Ripa, actress, television host
- October 8 - Matt Damon, actor
- October 15 - Eric Benet, singer
Deaths
- January 5 -
- Max Born, physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1954
- Jock Yablonski, President of the United Mine Workers, death discovered of he and family)
- January 25 - Jane Bathori, opera singer
- January 31 - Slim Harpo, blues singer
- February 2 - Bertrand Russell, logician and philosopher
- February 11 - Emil Abranyi, composer
- February 25 - Mark Rothko, painter
- March 11 - Erle Stanley Gardner, author
- March 30 - Heinrich Brüning, German Reichskanzler 1930-1932
- April 26 - John Knittel, dramatist
- April 27 - Gypsy Rose Lee, burlesque entertainer
- May 9 - Walter Reuther, labor union leader
- May 14 - Billie Burke, actress, The Wizard of Oz
- May 12 - Nelly Sachs, writer and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1966
- June 16 - Brian Piccolo, American football star
- June 21 - Sukarno, Indonesian President
- July 4 - Barnett Newman, painter
- July 13 - Arthur Miller, writer
- July 19 - Egon Eiermann, architect
- July 22 - Fritz Kortner, director
- July 22 - Grete Wiesenthal, dancer and choreographer
- July 29 - John Barbirolli, conductor
- August 1 - Frances Farmer, actress
- September 1 - Francois Mauriac, author
- September 3 - Vince Lombardi, American football coach
- September 5 - Jochen Rindt, Austrian racing driver
- September 11 - Ernst May, architect
- September 18 - Jimi Hendrix, rock musician
- September 25 - Erich Maria Remarque, author
- September 28 - Gamal Abdal Nasser, first president of Egypt
- September 28 - John Dos Passos, novelist
- September 29 - Edward Everett Horton, actor
- October 4 - Janis Joplin, blues and rock and roll singer
- October 10 - Grethe Weiser, actress
- October 17 - Pierre Laporte, statesman, murdered by FLQ terrorists
- October 24 - Richard Hofstadter, historian
- November 9 - Charles de Gaulle, French general, statesman
- December 7 - Rube Goldberg, cartoonist