1970
February 18, 1970 - Five members of the Chicago 7 are convicted of crossing state lines to incite riots during the 1968 Democratic Presidential Convention in Chicago.
April 1, 1970 - For the first time, the 1970 census counted over200 million people living in the United States. The 13.4%increase since the last census indicated that a 203,302,031population now called the U.S.A. home. It had taken only fiftyyears to go from the first 100 million census in 1920 to thesecond. Once again, the geographic center of the United Statespopulation was in Illinois, five miles east southeast of Mascoutah.
April 22, 1970 - The first Earth Day celebration is held withmillions of Americans participating in anti-pollutiondemonstrations. These demonstrations included school childrenwalking to school instead of riding the bus.
May 4, 1970 - Four students from Kent State University in Ohiowere killed and nine wounded by National Guardsmen during aprotest against the Vietnam War spread into Cambodia.
August 12, 1970 - The United States Postal Service is madeindependent in a postal reform measure for the first time inalmost two centuries.
Great Book for the History Fan with Fifty Short Essays Telling the Story of American History.
1971
January 2, 1971 - A ban on the television advertisem*nt ofcigarettes goes into affect in the United States.
February 8, 1971 - A forty-four day raid into Laos by SouthVietnamese soldiers is begun with the aid of United States airand artillery.
March 10, 1971 - The Senate approves a ConstitutionalAmendment, the 26th, that would lower the voting age from 21 to18. House approval came on March 23. It was ratified by thestates by June 30 and received certification by President Richard M. Nixon on July 5.
June 30, 1971 - The United States Supreme Court upholds theright of the New York Times and the Washington Post to publishclassified Pentagon papers about the Vietnam War, under thearticles of the First Amendment to the Constitution. The NewYork Times had begun the publication of the Pentagon papers onJune 13.
September 17, 1971 - The advent of the microprocessor age atTexas Instruments includes the introduction of the 4-bit TMS1000 with a calculator on the chip; on November 15, 1971, Intelreleased the 4-bit 4004 microprocessor developed by Federicofa*ggin. It is unknown whose chip predated the other in thelaboratory environment.
October 1, 1971 - Walt Disney World opens in Orlando, Florida,expanding the Disney empire to the east coast of the UnitedStates.
1972
February 21, 1972 - The journey for peace trip of the U.S.President to Peking, China begins. The eight day journey byRichard M. Nixon and meetings with Mao Zedong, unprecedented at the time, began the process for normalization of relations with China.
March 30, 1972 - The largest attacks by North Vietnam troopsacross the demilitarized zone in four years prompts bombingraids to begin again by United States forces against Hanoi andHaiphong on April 15, ending a four year cessation of thoseraids.
May 22, 1972 - President Richard M. Nixon makes the first trip of the U.S. President to Moscow. The week of summit discussionswould lead to a strategic arms pact, SALT I that would be signedby Nixon and Premier Leonid Brezhnev on May 26. On July 8, theWhite House would announce the sale of American wheat to theSoviet Union.
June 17, 1972 - The Watergate crisis begins when four men arearrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committeeheadquarters in the Watergate office building in Washington,D.C. on the same day that Okinawa is returned from U.S. controlback to Japan.
November 7, 1972 - In one of the most lopsided races inAmerican Presidential election history, incumbent PresidentRichard M. Nixon beat his Democratic challenger George S.McGovern, winning 520 Electoral College votes to McGovern's17, and taking over 60% of the popular vote. This election,however, would be the beginning of the end for the presidency ofRichard M. Nixon, once the Watergate affair brought questioninto the tactics within the election process.
1973
January 22, 1973 - The United States Supreme Court rules inRoe vs. Wade that a woman can not be prevented by a state inhaving an abortion during the first six months of pregnancy.
January 27, 1973 - Four part Vietnam peace pacts, the ParisPeace Accords, were signed in Paris, France. The announcement of the military draft ending also occurred on that date. The last U.S. military troops would leave the war zone on March 29.
January 30, 1973 - Two defendants in the Watergate break-intrial are convicted. The remaining five defendants had pleadedguilty to the crime two weeks earlier. On April 30, the Watergate affair widens when four members of the Nixon administration; aides H.R. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman, John W. Dean, and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst resign under suspicion of obstructing justice. During Senate hearings on June 25, Dean would admit that the administration had conspired to cover up facts about the case, leading to the refusal of the President to release tapes concerning Watergate.
June 9, 1973 - In one of the most awesome displays ofdominance in sports history, Secretariat, wins the BelmontStakes by 31 lengths, winning the Triple Crown of United StatesThoroughbred Racing for the first time since 1948.
October 10, 1973 - Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigns amidcharges of tax evasion and is replaced by the appointment ofGerald R. Ford on October 12.
October 19, 1973 - The Arab Oil Embargo: Oil imports from Araboil-producing nations are banned to the United States after thestart of the Arab-Israeli war, creating the 1973 energy crisis.They would not resume until March 18, 1974.
1974
March 7, 1974 - Legislation is signed by President Nixon creating the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area along the Cumberland River in Kentucky and Tennessee.
May 4, 1974 - Expo '74, the Bureau of International Exhibitionssanctioned special exposition was held for six months in theWashington State city of Spokane, one of the smaller cities tohost a BIE world expo in their history. Held on the theme"Celebrating Tomorrow's Fresh, Clean Environment," the eventcapitalized on the Earth Day sentiments of the time, and drewover 5 million visitors to eastern Washington State.
May 7, 1974 - Impeachment hearings are begun by the HouseJudiciary Committee against President Richard M. Nixon in theWatergate affair. On July 24, the United States Supreme Courtrules that President Nixon must turn over the sixty-four tapes of White House conversations concerning the Watergate break-in.
July 27, 1974 - The first of three articles of impeachment against President Richard M. Nixon is recommended in a 27-11 vote of the House Judiciary Committee, charging that Nixon had been part of a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice in the Watergate affair.
August 9, 1974 - President Richard M. Nixon resigns the office of the presidency, avoiding the impeachment process and admitting his role in the Watergate affair. He was replaced by Vice President Gerald R. Ford, who, on September 8, 1974, pardoned Nixon for his role. Nixon was the first president to ever resign from office.
1975
January 1, 1975 - The Watergate cover up trials of Mitchell,Haldeman, and Ehrlichman are completed; all are found guilty ofthe charges.
January 6, 1975 - The television show Wheel of Fortunepremiers.
March 30, 1975 - At the railroad depot in Plains, Georgia, hishome town, former Democratic Georgia governor Jimmy Carteropens his campaign headquarters for the 1976 presidential race.
April 29-30, 1975 - Communist forces complete their takeover ofSouth Vietnam, forcing the evacuation from Saigon of civiliansfrom the United States and the unconditional surrender of SouthVietnam.
September 18, 1975 - Heiress Patty Hearst is captured after her year of kidnap and bank robbery in California. She would be convicted of the crime six months later.
1976
July 4, 1976 - The Bicentennial of the United States is celebrated throughout the nation. The 200th anniversary included Operation Sail in New York City, as well as a Bicentennial Wagon Train that traversed the nation during the year.
July 20, 1976 - The Viking 1 space probe successfully lands onMars. It would be followed by a second unmanned Viking II onthe Utopia Plains on September 3. The first color photos of thesurface of Mars are taken on these flights.
July 21-24, 1976 - Twenty-nine people attending an AmericanLegion convention in Philadelphia are killed by a mysteriousailment, one year later discovered as a bacterium.
November 2, 1976 - Challenger Jimmy Carter, a relativelyunknown former Democratic governor from Georgia, bestsGerald Ford in a closely contested election. Carter received aslight majority of the popular vote, as well as an Electoral College victory of 297 to 240.
November 26, 1976 - Microsoft becomes a registered trademark,one year after its name for microcomputer software is firstmentioned by Bill Gates to Paul Allen in a letter.
1977
January 21, 1977 - The majority of Vietnam War draft evaders, ten thousand in number, are pardoned by President JimmyCarter.
May 25, 1977 - The movie Star Wars opens and becomes thehighest grossing film at the time.
August 4, 1977 - The cabinet level Energy Department is createdby Jimmy Carter.
July 13, 1977 - The New York City blackout results in massivelooting and disorderly conduct during its twenty-five hourduration.
September 21, 1977 - Fifteen nations, including the United States and the Soviet Union, sign a nuclear-proliferation pact, slowing the spread of nuclear weapons around the world.
1978
March 3, 1978 - In one of the first articles on the subject of human cloning, the New York Post prints an article on the book The Cloning of Man which supposes the cloning of a humanbeing.
April 18, 1978 - The United States Senate votes to return thePanama Canal back to Panama on December 31, 1999. A treatyfor the return had been signed on September 7 of the previousyear, pending approval by the U.S. Congress.
August 17, 1978 - The first balloon, Double Eagle II, to cross the Atlantic Ocean comes to rest in Miserey, France, after onehundred and thirty-seven hours of flight from Presque Isle,Maine.
September 17, 1978 - The Camp David Peace Agreementbetween Israel and Egypt is formulated in twelve days of secretnegotiations at the Camp David retreat of the President.President Jimmy Carter witnessed the signing of the agreementbetween Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and EgyptianPresident Anwar Sadat at the White House.
October 16, 1978 - Pope John Paul II, Karol Wojtyla of Poland, is elected Pope at Vatican City.
1979
March 28, 1979 - An accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania occurs when a partial core meltdown is recorded. A tense situation ensued for five days until the reactor was deemed under control. It is the largest accident in U.S. nuclear power history and considered the worst in the world until the Soviet Chernobyl accident seven years later.
September 1, 1979 - The American Pioneer Eleven passes theplanet Saturn, becoming the first spacecraft to visit the ringedplanet, albeit at a distance of 21,000 kilometers.
October 6, 1979 - The Federal Reserve system changes itsmonetary policy goals from interest rate based to a money supplytarget orientation.
November 1, 1979 - The Chrysler Bailout is approved by thefederal government. A $1.5 billion loan-guarantee plan is floated to assist the third largest car maker in the United States.
November 4, 1979 - The Iran Hostage Crisis begins whensixty-three Americans are among ninety hostages taken at theAmerican embassy in Tehran by three thousand militant studentfollowers of Ayatollah Khomeini, who demand that the formershah return to Iran to stand trial.
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HistoryPhoto Bomb
The Watergate Office Complex exhibit photo. Trial of June 17,1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee. Source: U.S.District Court for the District of Columbia.
Construction on the site of Expo 74, Spokane, Washington, oneyear before opening. Theme to be the Environment. May 1973. Photo: Environmental Protection Agency.
Camp David Peace Accord negotiated at the presidential retreat within Catoctin Mountain Park. Courtesy National Archives.
