What happened in 1970

World9

• Mar 31Japan 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.
• Aug 17Venera program: Venera 7 is launched from the Soviet Union toward Venus. It later becomes the first spacecraft to transmit data from the surface of another planet successfully.
• Aug 31Solar eclipse of August 31, 1970: An annular solar eclipse is visible in Oceania, and is the 14th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 144.
• Sep 1An assassination attempt against King Hussein of Jordan precipitates the country's Black September crisis.
• Sep 20Luna 16 lands on the Moon and lifts off the next day with samples, landing back on Earth September 24.
• Sep 28Vice President Anwar Sadat is named temporary president of Egypt following the death of Gamal Abdel Nasser.
• Nov 3The 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.
• Nov 9The Soviet Union launches Luna 17 for the moon.
• Dec 15The USSR's Venera 7 becomes the first spacecraft to land successfully on Venus and transmit data back to Earth.

Japan4

• Feb 11Ohsumi, Japan's first satellite, is launched on a Lambda-4 rocket.
• FebJapan's first satellite, ŌsumiLaunched on February 11 on the University of Tokyo's L-4S rocket. Japan was the fourth country after the Soviet Union, the United States and France. It came after four failed attempts.
• Mar 15The Expo '70 World's Fair opens in Suita, Osaka, Japan.
• Nov 25In 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).

North America19

• Apr 8Israeli 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.
• Apr 11Apollo program: Apollo 13 (Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, Jack Swigert) is launched from the United States toward the Moon.
• Apr 13An oxygen tank in the Apollo 13 spacecraft explodes, forcing the crew to abort the mission and return in four days.
• May 4Kent State shootings: Four students at Kent State University in Ohio, are killed and nine wounded by Ohio National Guardsmen at a protest against the U.S. incursion into Cambodia.
• Jun 19The Patent Cooperation Treaty is signed into international law, providing a unified procedure for filing patent applications to protect inventions.
• Jul 1Xerox PARC computer laboratory opens in Palo Alto, California, United States.
• Oct 3The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is formed in the United States and the Weather Bureau is renamed to National Weather Service as part of NOAA.
• Oct 4American rock singer Janis Joplin is found dead of an overdose, age 27, in her hotel room in Hollywood.
• Oct 5The Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnaps British trade commissioner James Cross in Montreal and demands release of all imprisoned FLQ members, beginning Quebec's October Crisis. The next day the Canadian government announces that it will not meet the demand.
• Oct 10October Crisis: In Montreal, Quebec Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte becomes the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.
• Oct 16October Crisis: The Canadian government declares a state of emergency and outlaws the Quebec Liberation Front.
• Oct 17October Crisis: Quebec politician Pierre Laporte is found murdered by the FLQ in south Montreal.
• Nov 16The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar flies for the first time.
• Dec 2The United States Environmental Protection Agency is established.
• Dec 21The Grumman F-14 Tomcat makes its first flight.

4 more in the app

Europe13

• FebMulti-business conglomerate Virgin Group is founded as a discount mail-order record retailer by Richard Branson in the UK.
• Mar 12Citroën introduces the Citroën SM, the world's fastest front-wheel drive auto at this time, at the annual Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland.
• Mar 21"All Kinds of Everything", sung by Dana (music and lyrics by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith), wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1970 (staged in Amsterdam) for Ireland.
• Apr 10In 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.
• May 6Arms 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 Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.
• May 14Ulrike Meinhof helps Andreas Baader escape and create the Red Army Faction in West Germany which exists until 1998.
• Jul 3All 112 people on board Dan-Air Flight 1903 are killed when the chartered British De Havilland Comet crashes into mountains north of Barcelona through navigational error.
• Aug 11Creation of the International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Arts in Confolens, France.
• Sep 16Death of Jimi Hendrix: American rock musician Jimi Hendrix gives his last public performance, two days before his drug-related death in London.
• Sep 29In Berlin, Red Army Faction members rob three banks, with loot totaling over DM 200,000.
• Oct 4Jochen Rindt becomes Formula One World Driving Champion, the first to earn the honor posthumously.
• Nov 1The Club Cinq-Sept fire in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France, kills 146.
• Dec 7During 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").

USSR / Russia3

• Jun 1Soyuz 9, a two-man spacecraft, is launched from the Soviet Union for an orbital flight of nearly 18 days, an endurance record at this time.
• Oct 20The Soviet Union launches the Zond 8 lunar probe.
• Nov 17Luna 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.

Asia7

• Jan 5The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). Between 10,000 and 14,621 are killed and 30,000 injured.
• Apr 29Cambodian campaign: The U.S. incursion into Cambodia begins.
• Sep 7Vietnam Television was established.
• Oct 9The Khmer Republic is proclaimed in Cambodia, escalating the Cambodian Civil War between the government and the Khmer Rouge.
• Nov 131970 Bhola cyclone: A 120-mph (193 km/h) tropical cyclone hits the densely populated Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan (modern-day 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.
• Nov 13Hafez al-Assad comes to power in Syria, following a military coup within the Ba'ath Party.
• Nov 21Vietnam War – Operation Ivory Coast: A joint Air Force and Army team raids the 4Sơn Tây prison camp in an attempt to free American prisoners of war 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).

Middle East5

• Jun 12National Democratic Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Arabian Gulf guerrillas attack military garrisons at Izki and Nizwa in Oman.
• Jul 231970 Omani coup d'état: Said bin Taimur, Sultan of Muscat and Oman, is deposed in a bloodless palace coup by his son, Qaboos, with covert British support. Among the reforms he introduces is the abolition of chattel slavery in Oman.
• Sep 6Dawson'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 Zurich and flies them to a desert airstrip in Jordan.
• Sep 17Black September: King Hussein of Jordan orders the Jordanian Armed Forces to oust Palestinian fedayeen from Jordan.
• Nov 8Egypt, Libya and Sudan announce their intentions to form a federation.

Latin America7

• Feb 1The Benavídez rail disaster near Buenos Aires, Argentina (a rear-end collision) kills 236.
• May 31The 7.9 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 are killed and 50,000 injured.
• May 31The 1970 FIFA World Cup in association football is inaugurated in Mexico. Tactical substitutes are first permitted.
• Jun 1Assassination of Pedro Eugenio Aramburu: Former de facto President of Argentina is extrajudicially executed by Montoneros three days after being kidnapped from his Buenos Aires apartment.
• Jun 21Brazil defeats Italy 4–1 to win the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. As 3-times winner, they keep the Jules Rimet Trophy permanently (but it is subsequently stolen and lost).
• Sep 4Chilean 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.
• Oct 22Chilean army commander René Schneider is shot in Santiago; the government declares a state of emergency. Schneider dies October 25.

Africa2

• Nov 22Guinean 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.
• Dec 22The Libyan Revolutionary Command Council declares that it will nationalize all foreign banks in the country.

Oceania3

• Apr 21The Principality of Hutt River "secedes" from Australia (it remained unrecognised by Australia and other nations, and is dissolved in 2020).
• Jun 4Tonga gains independence from the United Kingdom.
• Oct 10Fiji becomes independent.