1970

1950–1980	UK [television]	Watch With Mother, a series for young children featuring favourite characters such as Andy Pandy, the Flowerpot Men, Rag, Tag, and Bobtail, and the Woodentops, is shown on British television.
October 1969 - December 1974	UK [television]	Monty Python's Flying Circus, an anarchic comedy sketch show starring John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, and Terry Gilliam, is shown on British television.
1970	UK [television]	BBC2 begins broadcasting Open University programmes in Britain, to support students on the Open University distance learning courses.
1970	Australia, England [women's rights]	The Australian feminist Germaine Greer writes The Female Eunuch, a radical independent statement of feminism which argues that women should take responsibility for their lives rather than blaming men.
1970	USA [biology]	US geneticist Hamilton Smith discovers the Hind II restriction enzyme that breaks the DNA strand at predictable places, making it an invaluable tool in recombinant DNA technology.
1970	USA [communications]	The US military initiates the Global Positioning System (GPS), consisting of 21 satellites. An individual can determine his or her position anywhere on the Earth to within 23 m/75 ft by receiving the radio signals from a minimum of three satellites.
1970	USA [computing]	US computer programmers Kenneth Thomson and Dennis Ritchie develop the Unix computer operating system. It becomes the standard operating system for computer systems with multiple tasking and multiple users.
1970	USA [computing]	The US firm IBM develops the floppy disk for storing computer data.
1970	USA [legislation]	New York State liberalizes the abortion laws, virtually permitting ‘abortion on demand’. Only two other states in the USA, Hawaii and Alaska, have this kind of legislation.
1970	USA [medicine]	US biochemists Howard Temin and David Baltimore separately discover the enzyme reverse transcriptase, which allows some cancer viruses to transfer their RNA to the DNA of their hosts turning them cancerous – a reversal of the common pattern in which genetic information always passes from DNA to RNA.
1970	USA [music]	US electronics engineer Robert Moog's synthesizer goes on the market in the USA.
1970	England [music]	The English composer Elisabeth Lutyens completes her choral work The Roots of the World.
1970	UK [newspapers]	The British tabloid newspaper the Sun features its first topless woman on page three.
1970	USA [philosophy]	The US philosopher W V Quine publishes his Philosophy of Logic and The Web of Belief.
1970	Italy [plays]	The play Morte accidentale di un anarchico/Accidental Death of an Anarchist, by the Italian actor and dramatist Dario Fo, is first performed in Milan, Italy.
1970	England [poetry]	The English poet Ted Hughes publishes his poetry collection Crow.
1970	UK [popular music]	The British rock group the Beatles release the single ‘Let It Be’ and an album of the same name. The group officially split up; all four members release solo albums.
1970	USA [popular music]	Shortly after the deaths of Jimi Hendrix of inhalation asphyxia, associated with alcohol and drugs, and of Janis Joplin from a heroin overdose, the US president Richard M Nixon appeals for restrictions on pop music which promotes drug use.
1970	UK [popular music]	The underground music of the 1960s, typified by bands such as Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, and the early Rolling Stones, has by the end of the decade been absorbed into mainstream culture.
1970	Italy [law and government]	Divorce is legalized in Italy.
1970–1979	USA [statistics and demography]	There are over 4 million immigrants to the USA in the period 1970–79, coming mainly from Asia and the Americas.
1970	world [statistics and demography]	The population of the world is about 3.7 billion.
1970	USA [statistics and demography]	Women's median income in the USA is $5,440; that of men is $9,184.
1970–1979	USA [statistics and demography]	The number of one-parent families in the USA increases 79%, representing one in five of all families.
1970	USA [statistics and demography]	In the USA, the lowest-earning fifth of the population earns 5.4% of the total income; the second fifth earns 12.2%; the third fifth earns 17.6%; the fourth fifth earns 23.8%; and the highest-earning fifth earns 40.9%.
1970	USA [statistics and demography]	In the USA, 31% of white males and 39% of white females have completed four years of high school; the corresponding numbers for black males and females are 22% and 25%.
1970	UK [technology]	The Dutch electronics company Philips launches the first car cassette player in Britain.
January - September 1970	Australia [tennis]	The Australian tennis player Margaret Court becomes only the second woman (after Maureen Connolly in 1953) to achieve the Grand Slam, winning all four major tennis tournaments (the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open) in the same calendar year.
12 January 1970	Nigeria, Biafra [revolution]	In the Nigerian civil war, the Biafran leader General Chukwuemeka Ojukwu flies into exile. On 15 January, Nigeria accepts Biafra's unconditional surrender.
23 February 1970	Guyana [decolonization]	Guyana becomes a republic within the British Commonwealth.
10 March 1970	Israel [law and government]	The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, defines what constitutes a Jew under Israeli law, following a dispute between secular and religious factions.
11 March 1970	Iraq [law and government]	Iraq recognizes Kurdish autonomy and gives Kurds a bigger say in central government, following a nine-year civil war.
19 March 1970	East Germany, West Germany [diplomacy]	The first meeting of East and West German heads of government takes place at Erfurt, East Germany. On 21 May, East German leader Willi Stoph and West German leader Willy Brandt meet again at Kassel, West Germany.
1 April 1970	USA [radio]	President Richard M Nixon signs a bill banning cigarette advertising on US radio and television. This takes effect the following year.
1 April 1970	North Vietnam, South Vietnam [Vietnam War (1954–75)]	The Vietcong launch major assaults throughout South Vietnam after a six-month lull.
19 April 1970	Laos, Cambodia [wars]	The communist Pathet Lao of Laos advances on the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, and, on 20 April, the Cambodian government appeals for US assistance.
20 April 1970	USA, North Vietnam, South Vietnam [Vietnam War (1954–75)]	The US president Richard M Nixon announces the withdrawal of a further 150,000 US troops from Vietnam.
22 April 1970	USA, world [conservation]	Millions of Americans participate in the first ‘Earth Day’ as a series of mass meetings, speeches, and events take place across the USA.
24 April 1970	Gambia [decolonization]	Gambia becomes a republic within the British Commonwealth.
1 May - 4 May 1970	USA [wars]	Demonstrations begin at universities across the USA in protest at military intervention in Cambodia; the National Guard fire on a peaceful demonstration at Kent State University, Ohio, killing four students.
2 May 1970	USA, North Vietnam [Vietnam War (1954–75)]	The USA bombs North Vietnam in the heaviest raids since November 1968.
13 May 1970	UK [law and government]	The voting age in Britain is lowered from 21 to 18. Susan Wallace becomes the first person under 21 to vote, when she votes in the Bridgwater by-election.
15 May 1970	South Africa [human rights]	The International Olympic Committee expels South Africa because of its apartheid policies.
5 June 1970	France, USA [diplomacy]	France ends its 15-month boycott of the Western European Union (begun following a still-unresolved dispute over cooperation with the USA in European defence policy).
19 June 1970	UK [administration]	The British prime minister Harold Wilson resigns following the general election and Edward Heath forms a Conservative ministry, with Sir Alec Douglas-Home as foreign secretary, Iain Macleod as chancellor of the Exchequer, and Reginald Maudling as home secretary.
September 1970	USA [biology]	Indian-born US biochemist Har Gobind Khorana assembles an artificial yeast gene from its chemical components.
9 September 1970	UK [sex and sexuality]	Ann Summers launches her chain of sex shops with the opening of the Ann Summers Sex Supermarket in London, England.
18 September 1970	USA, England [births and deaths]	Jimi Hendrix, US rock singer and influential guitarist, dies as a result of mixing drugs and alcohol in London, England (27).
19 September 1970	Israel, Jordan, UK, West Germany, Switzerland [terrorism]	Palestinian hijackers blow up three aircraft (two hijacked 6 September, one 9 September) at Dawson's Field, Jordan. On 30 September the remaining hostages go free, after Britain, West Germany, and Switzerland release their Palestinian prisoners.
27 September 1970	Jordan [wars]	King Hussein of Jordan, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Yasser Arafat, and other Arab leaders sign an agreement in Cairo, Egypt, to end the civil war in Jordan.
28 September 1970	Egypt [births and deaths]	Gamal Abdel Nasser, prime minister of Egypt 1954–56 and then president 1956–70, dies in Cairo, Egypt (52).
10 October 1970	Pacific [decolonization]	Fiji Islands becomes independent within the British Commonwealth.
9 November 1970	France [births and deaths]	Charles de Gaulle, French general and president of France 1958–69, dies in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, France (79).
December 1970	USA [ecology]	US president Richard M Nixon signs the Clean Air Act. The act imposes stricter air pollution standards and requires US car manufacturers to reduce emissions of nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons by 90% by the mid-1970s.
7 December 1970	West Germany, Poland [treaties]	West Germany and Poland sign a treaty, formally recognizing the Oder–Neisse Line as the frontier between East Germany and Poland.
13 December 1970	Poland [law and government]	The Polish government sharply increases food, fuel, and clothing prices. On 14 December strikes, riots, and arson begin in Gdansk, Poland, spreading to other Baltic ports.