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The 1970s

2,680 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 20th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1970 CE275 entries

  • April 17 – Apollo 13 splashes down safely in the Pacific.
  • 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.
  • June 21: Brazil defeats Italy 4–1 to win the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. It is the third time Brazil wins the FIFA World Cup.

1971 CE324 entries

  • March 25 – Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistani army starts Operation Searchlight in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) at midnight after President Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, a military ruler, voids election results that gave the Awami League an overwhelming majority in the parliament; start of the 1971 Bangladesh genocide. That ended the non-cooperation movement.
  • June 13 – Vietnam War: The New York Times begins to publish the Pentagon Papers.
  • September 9–13 – Attica Prison riot: A revolt breaks out at the maximum-security prison in Attica, New York. In the end, state police and the United States National Guard storm the facility; 42 are killed, 10 of them hostages.

1972 CE279 entries

  • February 21–28 – U.S. President Richard Nixon makes an unprecedented 8-day visit to the People's Republic of China and meets with Mao Zedong.
  • June 23 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about using the C.I.A. to obstruct the investigation by the F.B.I. into the Watergate break-ins.
  • September 5–6 – Munich massacre: Eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich are murdered after eight members of the Arab terrorist group Black September invade the Olympic Village; five guerillas and one policeman are also killed in a failed hostage rescue.

1973 CE226 entries

  • September 11 – Chile's democratically elected government is overthrown in a violent military coup after serious political instability. President Salvador Allende allegedly commits suicide during the coup in the presidential palace and General Augusto Pinochet heads a US-backed military junta that governs Chile for the next 17 years.
  • 6 October – Yom Kippur War: The fourth and largest Arab–Israeli conflict begins, as Egypt and Syria initiate a surprise attack on Israeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Hebrew calendar. Jordan, Iraq and other Arab nations support the Epyptian-Syrian war effort but do not take part in the conflict.
  • October 17 – An OPEC oil embargo against several countries supporting Israel triggers the 1973 energy crisis.

1974 CE213 entries

  • 21 July – 10,000 Greek-Cypriots protest in London against the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
  • August 9 – Richard Nixon becomes the first president of the United States to resign from office, an action taken to avoid being removed by impeachment and conviction in response to his role in the Watergate scandal. Vice President Gerald R. Ford becomes the 38th president upon Nixon's resignation, taking the oath of office in the East Room of the White House.
  • September 12 – Ethiopian Revolution: Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is deposed by the Derg, bringing an end to the Solomonic dynasty's rule since 1270. The Ethiopian Civil War begins.

1975 CE233 entries

  • 25 August – An Australian women's soccer team captained by Pat O'Connor are defeated by Thailand 3-2 in Hong Kong in a Group A match of the 1975 Asian Cup Ladies Football Tournament. The Australian team are a representative team consisting mostly of players from suburban Sydney club St George-Budapest, but were not official international players until they were controversially recognised in 2024 as the first Matildas which prompts anger and disappointment from former Matildas who describe the decision as disrespectful to the women who were formally chosen to represent Australia from 1978 onwards. The decision to elevate the 1975 team to official status also results in Tarita Yvonne Peters (who played under the name Stacey Tracy) becoming the first women's Indigenous player to represent Australia, a title which was previously held by Karen Menzies.
  • November 10 – United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379: By a vote of 72–35 (with 32 abstentions), the United Nations General Assembly approves a resolution equating Zionism with racism. The resolution provokes an outcry among Zionists. It is repealed in 1991.
  • November 15 – The "Group of 6" industrialized nations (G-6) is formed and holds its 1st summit at the Château de Rambouillet in France.

1976 CE284 entries

  • July 17 – The 1976 Summer Olympics begin in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
  • July 28 – The Tangshan earthquake flattens Tangshan, China, killing 242,769 people, and injuring 164,851.
  • September 9 — Mao Zedong, the 1st Paramount leader of China and Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party dies at 82.

1977 CE248 entries

  • May 25 - Star Wars is released in the United States by director George Lucas, It immediately became a major pop culture phenomenon, and became a major box office hit for the next 6 years.
  • August 16 – Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll, dies in his home in Graceland at age 42. 75,000 fans lined the streets of Memphis for his funeral, which occurred on August 18, but wasn't televised until August 20.
  • August 25 – Radio Shack’s new TRS-80 Micro Computer System uses a computer keyboard to plug into an included 64 column video monitor, programmed by cassette tapes played on a home cassette player, shown at the Boston Computer Show on August 25, 1977. From left, visitors Robert Lundgren of Des Plaines, Illinois, Malcolm MacLeod of Montreal, and Radio Shack salesman Steven Carlozzi of Brockton, Massachusetts

1978 CE278 entries

  • June 1 – The 1978 FIFA World Cup starts in Argentina.
  • 17 September – The Camp David Accords are signed between Israel and Egypt. The Accords lead directly to the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.
  • December 11 – Iranian Revolution: Two million demonstrate against the Shah in Iran.

1979 CE320 entries

  • May 25 – American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport, killing all 271 on board and 2 people on the ground in the deadliest aviation accident in U.S. history.
  • November 4 – Iran hostage crisis begins: 500 Iranian radicals, mostly students, invade the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages (53 of whom are American). They demand that the United States send the former Shah of Iran back to stand trial.
  • December 24 – The Soviet Union covertly launches its invasion of Afghanistan – 3 days later, PDPA general secretary Hafizullah Amin is executed in Operation Storm-333 and Babrak Karmal replaces him, beginning the war.