The year 1970 had two solar eclipses (March 7 and August 31) and two partial lunar eclipses (February 21 and August 17).
Events
January
January 5 – The 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. January 15 – After a 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria, Biafran forces under Philip Effiong formally surrender to General Yakubu Gowon, ending the Nigerian Civil War.
February
February 1 – The Benavídez rail disaster near Buenos Aires, Argentina (a rear-end collision) 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. February – Multi-business conglomerate Virgin Group is founded as a discount mail-order record retailer by Richard Branson in the UK.
March
March 1 – Rhodesia's white minority government severs its last tie with the United Kingdom, declaring itself a republic. March 4 – All 57 men aboard the French submarine Eurydice 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 world's fastest front-wheel drive auto at this 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 in the UK. 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 Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique (ACCT) is founded. March 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. 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. 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 from the United States 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 15 - The Apollo 13 crew sets the record for the farthest humans have traveled, , which would stand until the Artemis II lunar flyby in 2026. April 17 – Apollo 13 splashes down safely in the Pacific. April 21 – The Principality of Hutt River "secedes" from Australia (it remained unrecognised by Australia and other nations, and is dissolved in 2020). 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. April 29 – Cambodian campaign: The U.S. incursion into Cambodia begins.
May
May 4 – Kent 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. 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 Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland. Feyenoord win the European Cup in association football after a 2–1 win over Celtic. May 11 – Lubbock tornado: A strong, multi-vortex F5 tornado impacts areas of Lubbock, Texas, after dark, resulting in 26 fatalities and over 1,500 injuries. May 14 Ulrike Meinhof helps Andreas Baader escape and create the Red Army Faction in West Germany which exists until 1998. Jackson State killings: 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 cross the South Atlantic. May 26 – The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2. May 31 The 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. The 1970 FIFA World Cup in association football is inaugurated in Mexico. Tactical substitutes are first permitted.
June
June 1 Soyuz 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. Assassination 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. 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 – National Democratic Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Arabian Gulf 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. As 3-times winner, they keep the Jules Rimet Trophy permanently (but it is subsequently stolen and lost). Penn Central, America's largest railroad, files for chapter 77 bankruptcy; the largest U.S. corporate bankruptcy at this time.
July
July 1 – Xerox PARC computer laboratory opens in Palo Alto, California, United States. July 3 All 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. 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 through pilot error; all 109 passengers and crew are killed. July 12 – Thor Heyerdahl's papyrus boat Ra II arrives in Barbados. July 16 - Three Rivers Stadium opens in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, home to NFL Steelers and MLB Pirates. 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, with covert British support. Among the reforms he introduces is the abolition of chattel slavery in Oman. July 30 – Thalidomide scandal: Damages totalling £485,528 are awarded to 28 Thalidomide victims in the UK. July 31 – Black Tot Day, the last daily distribution of one-eighth of an imperial pint of rum to sailors of the British Royal Navy, an amount that had been dispensed since 1866.
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 from the Soviet Union toward Venus. It later becomes the first spacecraft to transmit data from the surface of another planet successfully. August 31 – Solar eclipse of August 31, 1970: 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 country's 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. Soviet Russian prima ballerina Natalia Makarova defects to the West while on tour with the Kirov Ballet in London. 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 Zurich and flies them to a desert airstrip in Jordan. September 7: Fighting breaks out between Arab guerillas and government forces in Amman, Jordan. Vietnam Television was established. 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 Thom after three months. September 15 – King Hussein of Jordan forms a military government with Muhammad Daoud as the prime minister. September 16 – Death of Jimi Hendrix: American rock musician Jimi Hendrix gives his last public performance, two days before his drug-related death in London. 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 Republic of Ireland. Pope Paul VI names Saint Teresa of Ávila (d. 1582) as the first female Doctor of the Church. September 28 – Vice President Anwar Sadat is named temporary president of Egypt following the death of Gamal Abdel Nasser.