date: April 27

text: April 27 – Montreal, Quebec, Expo 67, a World's Fair to coincide with the Canadian Confederation centennial, officially opens with Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson igniting the Expo Flame in the Place des Nations.


date: May 1

section: Culture & Society

text: May 1 – Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu are married in Las Vegas.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 25

text: 25 May – Celtic F.C. defeat Inter Milan 2–1 in Lisbon to win the European Cup, becoming the first British football club to win the competition. The team, later nicknamed the Lisbon Lions, was composed entirely of players born within 30 miles of Glasgow.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – The Beatles release the groundbreaking album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in the United Kingdom. It becomes one of the most influential albums in popular music history.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Margrethe, heir apparent to the throne of Denmark, marries French count Henri de Laborde de Monpezat.

source_section: Events › June


date: June 12

text: June 12 – Loving v. Virginia: The United States Supreme Court declares all U.S. state laws prohibiting interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Canada celebrates its first one hundred years of Confederation.

source_section: Events › July


text: July 1 – The first UK colour television broadcasts begin on BBC2. The first one is from the Wimbledon tennis championships. A full colour service begins on BBC2 on December 2.


date: August 6

text: August 6 – A pulsar is noted by Jocelyn Bell and Antony Hewish. The discovery is first recorded in print in 1968: "An entirely novel kind of star came to light on Aug. 6 last year [...]".

source_section: Events › August


date: August 7

text: August 7 – A general strike in the old quarter of Jerusalem protests Israel's unification of the city.


date: September 3

text: September 3 – At 5:00 a.m. local time, all road traffic in Sweden switches from left-hand traffic pattern to right-hand traffic.<

source_section: Events › September


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Jim Morrison and The Doors defy CBS censors on The Ed Sullivan Show, when Morrison sings the word "higher" from their #1 hit Light My Fire, despite having been asked not to.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Walt Disney's 19th full-length animated feature The Jungle Book, the last animated film personally supervised by Disney, is released and becomes an enormous box-office and critical success. On a double bill with the film is the (now) much less well-known true-life adventure, Charlie the Lonesome Cougar.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 26

text: October 26 – The coronation ceremony of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran, ruler of the nation since 1941, takes place.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – The 50th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution is celebrated in the Soviet Union.

source_section: Events › November


text: November 7 – Carl B. Stokes is elected Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the first African American elected mayor of a major United States city.


date: November 27

text: November 27 – The Beatles release Magical Mystery Tour in the U.S. as a full album. The songs added to the original six songs on the double EP include "All You Need Is Love", "Penny Lane", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Baby, You're a Rich Man" and "Hello, Goodbye". Release as a double EP will not take place in the UK until December.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – Magical Mystery Tour is released by The Beatles as a double EP in the UK, while the only psychedelic rock album by The Rolling Stones, Their Satanic Majesties Request, is released in the UK and in the US.

source_section: Events › December


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, one of the seminal race relations films of the 1960s, is released to theaters.


date: January 8

section: Births

text: January 8 – R. Kelly, American R&B singer, songwriter, and convicted sex offender

source_section: Births › January


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Mark Rutte, Dutch politician, 50th Prime Minister of the Netherlands (2010-present) and NATO Secretary General

source_section: Births › February


date: June 7

text: June 7 – Dave Navarro, American guitarist and singer (Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers)

source_section: Births › June


date: June 16

text: June 16 – Jürgen Klopp, German former footballer and former manager of Liverpool F.C.


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Jeanine Áñez, President of Bolivia

source_section: Births › August


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Layne Staley, American rock musician (Alice in Chains) (d. 2002)


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court since 2017


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Tim "Ripper" Owens, American rock singer (Judas Priest, Iced Earth, Yngwie Malmsteen)

source_section: Births › September


date: October 7

text: October 7 – María Corina Machado, Venezuelan politician, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize

source_section: Births › October


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Eddie Guerrero, Mexican-American professional wrestler (d. 2005)


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Gavin Newsom, American politician, 40th Governor of California


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Peter Thiel, German-American entrepreneur and venture capitalist


date: November 2

text: November 2 – Scott Walker, American legislator and politician; 45th Governor of Wisconsin (2011–2019)

source_section: Births › November


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgian politician, 3rd President of Georgia and Governor of Odessa Oblast

source_section: Births › December


date: January 3

section: Deaths

text: January 3 – Jack Ruby, American nightclub owner, best known as the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald (b. 1911)

source_section: Deaths › January


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Henry Morgenthau Jr., United States Secretary of the Treasury during World War II (b. 1891)

source_section: Deaths › February


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Abelardo L. Rodríguez, substitute president of Mexico (1932–1934) (b. 1889)


date: February 18

text: February 18 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1904)


date: February 22

text: February 22 – David Ferrie, American pilot and anti-communist activist who was alleged by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison to have been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iranian politician, 35th Prime Minister of Iran (b. 1882)

source_section: Deaths › March


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Langston Hughes, American writer, novelist, playwright, and columnist (b. 1901)

source_section: Deaths › May


date: June 16

text: June 16 – Eugénie Cotton, French physicist, socialist, women's rights advocate (b. 1881)

source_section: Deaths › June


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Lewis H. Brereton, American aviation pioneer and air force general (b. 1890)

source_section: Deaths › July


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Albert Luthuli, South African politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1898)


text: July 21 – Jimmie Foxx, American baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics) and member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1907)


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Brian Epstein, English band manager (The Beatles) (b. 1934)

source_section: Deaths › August


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Shigeru Yoshida, Japanese diplomat and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1878)

source_section: Deaths › October


date: November 7

text: November 7 – John Nance Garner, 32nd Vice President of the United States (b. 1868)

source_section: Deaths › November


date: January 5

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.

source_section: Events › January–February


date: January 10

text: January 10 – John Gorton is sworn in as 19th Prime Minister of Australia, taking over from John McEwen after being elected leader of the Liberal Party the previous day, following the disappearance of Harold Holt. Gorton becomes the only Senator to become Prime Minister, though he immediately transfers to the House of Representatives through the 1968 Higgins by-election in Holt's vacant seat.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Nauru president Hammer DeRoburt declares independence from Australia, Britain and New Zealand.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – Mauritius achieves independence from British rule.

source_section: Events › March–April


date: March 16

text: March 16 – U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy enters the race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – Pierre Elliott Trudeau becomes the 15th Prime Minister of Canada.


date: April 23

text: April 23 – President Mobutu releases captured mercenaries in the Congo.


date: June 23

text: June 23–30 – 1968 French legislative election: The Gaullist Union pour la défense de la République becomes the first party in French political history to obtain an absolute majority in the National Assembly. George Pompidou leads the party through the campaign but resigns as prime minister afterwards. The public unrest of May 68 subsides.

source_section: Events › May–June


date: June 26

text: June 26 – The Bonin Islands are returned to Japan after 23 years of occupation by the United States Navy.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty opens for signature.

source_section: Events › July–August


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Swaziland (later known as Eswatini) becomes independent of the United Kingdom.

source_section: Events › September–October


date: September 27

text: September 27 – Marcelo Caetano becomes prime minister of Portugal.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – A referendum in Greece gives more power to the military junta.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Equatorial Guinea receives its independence from Spain.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Luis A. Ferré of the newly formed New Progressive Party is elected Governor of Puerto Rico by beating incumbent governor Roberto Sánchez Vilella of the People's Party, Luis Negrón López of the Popular Democratic Party and Antonio J. Gonzalez of the Puerto Rican Independence Party; he also becomes the first "statehooder" governor of the Island.

source_section: Events › November–December


text: November 5 – 1968 United States presidential election: Republican candidate Richard Nixon defeats the Democratic candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and American Independent Party candidate George Wallace.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – A second republic is declared in the Maldives.


date: January 21

section: Conflict & Security

text: January 21 – Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh – One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins, ending on April 8.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins as Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks across South Vietnam.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – Civil rights movement in the United States: Orangeburg Massacre – A civil rights demonstration on a college campus to protest de facto racial segregation in South Carolina is broken up by highway patrolmen; three African American students are killed, the first instance of police killing student protestors at an American campus.


date: February 24

text: February 24 – Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South Vietnam recaptures Huế.


date: March 10

text: March 10–11 – Vietnam War: Battle of Lima Site 85, the largest single ground combat loss of United States Air Force members (12) during the (at this time) secret war later known as the Laotian Civil War.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson barely edges out antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, a vote which highlights the deep divisions in the country, and the party, over Vietnam.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Vietnam War – My Lai massacre: American troops kill between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians and rape women and children. The story, initially covered up as a military victory, will first become public in November 1969 and will help undermine public support for the U.S. efforts in Vietnam.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Brazilian high school student Edson Luís de Lima Souto is shot by the police in a protest for cheaper meals at a restaurant for low-income students. The aftermath of his death is one of the first major events against the military dictatorship.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.: Martin Luther King Jr. is shot dead at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray. King-assassination riots erupt in major American cities, lasting for several days afterwards.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – A shootout between Black Panthers and police in Oakland, California, United States, results in several arrests and deaths, including 17-year-old Panther Bobby Hutton.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – The nuclear weapon "Boxcar" is tested at the Nevada Test Site in the biggest detonation of Operation Crosstie.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – The Catonsville Nine enter the Selective Service offices in Catonsville, Maryland, take dozens of selective service draft records, and burn them with napalm as a protest against the Vietnam War.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Nigerian forces capture Port Harcourt and form a ring around the Biafrans. This contributes to a humanitarian disaster as the surrounded population already suffers from hunger and starvation.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – May 68: President de Gaulle of France leaves Paris without telling his prime minister, Georges Pompidou, where he is going – which is in fact to the headquarters of the French Forces in Germany at Baden-Baden to assure himself of military support.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy: Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a leading 1968 Democratic presidential candidate, is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Palestinian-born Sirhan Sirhan is arrested.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – The Malayan Communist Party launches a second insurgency and the state of emergency is again imposed in Malaysia.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – A student demonstration in front of the Jornal do Brasil ("JB") building in Rio de Janeiro ends with 28 dead and over a thousand arrested.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – The "March of the One Hundred Thousand" takes place in Rio de Janeiro as crowds demonstrate against the Brazilian military government.


date: August 22

text: August 22–30 – 1968 Democratic National Convention protests: Police clash with anti-Vietnam War protesters in Chicago outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which nominates Hubert Humphrey for U.S. president and Edmund Muskie for vice president. The riots and subsequent trials are an essential part of the activism of the Youth International Party.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Albania officially withdraws from the Warsaw Pact upon the Soviet Union-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, having already ceased to participate actively in Pact activity since 1962.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – The D'Oliveira affair: The Marylebone Cricket Club tour of South Africa is cancelled when the South Africans refuse to accept the presence of Basil D'Oliveira, a Cape Coloured, in the England side.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive comes to an end in South Vietnam.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – In Peru, Juan Velasco Alvarado takes power in a revolution.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Start of the 1968 movement in Pakistan, which leads to the resignation of General Ayub Khan, and ultimately the split of the country and formation of Bangladesh.


date: May 1

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: May 1 – CARIFTA, the Caribbean Free Trade Association, is formally created as an agreement between Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – English yachtsman Alec Rose, 59, receives a hero's welcome as he sails into Portsmouth, after his 354-day solo round-the-world trip.


date: July 25

text: July 25- Tysons Corner Center one of the largest malls in the U.S. opens to the public and the Washington DC area.


text: An oil field is confirmed in Northern Alaska: the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field.

source_section: Events › Dates unknown


date: April 23

section: Religion & Belief

text: April 23 – The United Methodist Church is created by the union in Dallas, Texas, of the former Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren churches.


text: July 25 – Pope Paul VI publishes the encyclical Humanae vitae, reaffirming the Catholic Church's opposition to artificial birth control.


date: March 1

section: Economy & Finance

text: March 1 – Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 further reduces right of entry for citizens from the British Commonwealth to the United Kingdom.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Late this evening, the U.K. government at the request of the U.S. agrees that the London Gold Pool will be closed from tomorrow. George Brown, the British Foreign Secretary, apparently drunk, is absent from meetings to discuss the crisis and is forced to resign from the government on March 15.


date: March 18

text: March 18 – Gold standard: The United States Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back U.S. currency.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – May 68: Grenelle agreements concluded in France, giving a large increase in minimum wages, but are rejected by trade unions.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – The Standard & Poor's 500 index in the United States closes above 100 for the first time, at 100.38.


date: February 1

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: February 1 – The Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad merge to form Penn Central, the largest ever corporate merger up to this date.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson mandates that all computers purchased by the federal government support the ASCII character encoding.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – The first Rotaract club is chartered in North Charlotte, North Carolina.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – London Bridge is sold to U.S. entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch for reconstruction at Lake Havasu City, Arizona.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – The Israel Broadcasting Authority commences television broadcasts.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Mattel's Hot Wheels toy cars are introduced in the United States.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Bobby Unser wins the Indianapolis 500 automobile race.


date: June 7

text: June 7 – Ford sewing machinists strike for equal pay starts at the Ford Dagenham plant in London.


date: July 18

text: July 18 – The semiconductor company Intel is founded in what becomes known as the Silicon Valley of California.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – The Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals is signed and ratified.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – British European Airways introduces the BAC One-Eleven into commercial service.


text: Drainage of the Flevopolder in the Netherlands is completed, creating by some definitions the largest artificial island in the world.


date: April 4

section: Science & Discovery

text: April 4 – Apollo program: Apollo-Saturn mission 502 (Apollo 6) is launched, as the second and last uncrewed test-flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – The Soviet Zond 5 uncrewed lunar flyby mission returns to Earth, with its first-of-a-kind biological payload intact.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first crewed Apollo mission (Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, Walter Cunningham). Mission goals include the first live television broadcast from orbit and simulating lunar module rendezvous and docking, using the S-IVB rocket stage as a test target.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – U.S. athlete Bob Beamon breaks the long jump world record by 55 cm / 21 ins at the Olympics in Mexico City. His record stands for 23 years, and remains the second longest jump in history.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Apollo program: The crewed U.S. spacecraft Apollo 8 enters orbit around the Moon. Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders become the first humans to see the far side of the Moon and planet Earth as a whole, as well as having traveled further away from Earth than any people in history. Anders photographs Earthrise. The crew also give a reading from the Book of Genesis.


date: April 20

section: Health & Medicine

text: April 20 – Conservative British politician Enoch Powell makes a controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech in Birmingham deploring the effects of immigration; he is dismissed from the Shadow Cabinet the following day.


date: April 23

text: April 23 – Surgeons at the Hôpital de la Pitié, Paris, perform Europe's first heart transplant, on Clovis Roblain.


date: February 1

section: Crime & Justice

text: February 1 – Vietnam War: Execution of Nguyễn Văn Lém – A Viet Cong officer is summarily executed by Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. The event is photographed by Eddie Adams. The photo makes headlines around the world, eventually winning the 1969 Pulitzer Prize, and sways U.S. public opinion against the war.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – Un-recognized Rhodesia executes 3 black citizens, the first executions since UDI, prompting international condemnation.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Bombs explode at midnight in two department stores in Frankfurt-am-Main; Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin are later arrested and sentenced for arson.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – German left-wing students blockade the Springer Press headquarters in Berlin and many are arrested (one of them Ulrike Meinhof).


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Radical feminist Valerie Solanas shoots Andy Warhol at his New York City studio, The Factory; he survives after a 5-hour operation.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – Austin Currie, Member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, along with others, squats in a house in Caledon to protest discrimination in housing allocations.


date: July 23

text: July 23–28 – Black militants led by Fred (Ahmed) Evans engage in a fierce gunfight with police in the Glenville Shootout of Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States, leaving 7 people killed.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Trương Đình Dzu is sentenced to 5 years hard labor for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – Japan's biggest heist, the never-solved "300 million yen robbery", occurs in Tokyo.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – The first known Zodiac Killer murder takes place in Lake Herman Road, Vallejo, California.


date: January 21

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: January 21 – 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash: A U.S. B-52 Stratofortress crashes in Greenland, discharging 4 nuclear bombs.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Israeli submarine sinks in the Mediterranean Sea, killing 69.


date: January 28

text: January 28 – French submarine Minerve sinks in the Mediterranean Sea, killing 52.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Baggeridge Colliery closes marking the end of over 300 years of coal mining in the Black Country of England.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Air France Flight 212, a Boeing 707, crashes in Guadeloupe while approaching an airport. As a result, 63 people die.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – The Soviet ballistic missile submarine K-129 sinks with all 98 crew members, about 90 nautical miles (104 miles or 167 km) southwest of Hawaii.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Aer Lingus Flight 712 crashes en route from Cork to London near Tuskar Rock, Wexford, killing 61 passengers and crew.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Richmond, Indiana explosion: A double explosion in downtown Richmond caused by a methane leak kills 41 and injures 150.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – British racing driver Jim Clark is killed in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – South African Airways Flight 228 a Boeing 707 crashed shortly after take-off killing 123 people on board.


date: May 3

text: May 3 – Braniff Flight 352 crashes near Dawson, Texas, United States, killing all 85 people on board.


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Ronan Point, a 23 floor tower block in Canning Town, east London, partially collapses after a gas explosion, killing 5.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – The U.S. nuclear-powered submarine Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 miles southwest of the Azores.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Puerta 12 tragedy: A football stampede in Buenos Aires leaves 74 dead and 150 injured.


date: August 11

text: August 11 – The last steam passenger train service runs in Britain. A selection of British Rail steam locomotives make the 120-mile journey from Liverpool to Carlisle and return – the journey is known as the Fifteen Guinea Special.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – Two charter buses are forced into the Hida River on National Highway Route 41 in Japan in an accident caused by heavy rain; 104 are killed.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – The crash of Air France Flight 1611 kills 95 people, including French Army General René Cogny, as the Caravelle jetliner plunges into the Mediterranean Sea following a fire while making its approach to Nice following its departure from the island of Corsica.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – The Farmington Mine disaster in Farmington, West Virginia, kills seventy-eight men.


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Japan Air Lines Flight 2, flying from Tokyo to San Francisco International Airport ditches in San Francisco Bay due to pilot error; all 107 on board survive without injury.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – 4 men hijack Pan Am Flight 281 from JFK International Airport, New York to Havana, Cuba.


date: January 15

section: Climate & Environment

text: January 15 – The 1968 Belice earthquake in Sicily kills 380 and injures around 1,000.


date: April 10

text: April 10 – The ferry strikes a reef at the mouth of Wellington Harbour, New Zealand, with the loss of 53 lives, in Cyclone Giselle, which has created the windiest conditions ever recorded in New Zealand.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – Arenal Volcano erupts in Costa Rica for the first time in centuries.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Great Drought of 1968: Amidst a collapse of hydropower President of Chile Eduardo Frei Montalva decrees the establishment of daylight saving time.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – The "Heidi Game": NBC cuts off the final 1:05 of an Oakland Raiders–New York Jets football game to broadcast the pre-scheduled Heidi. Fans are unable to see Oakland (which had been trailing 32–29) score 2 late touchdowns to win 43–32; as a result, thousands of outraged football fans flood the NBC switchboards to protest.


date: February 6

text: February 6–18 – The 1968 Winter Olympics are held in Grenoble, France.


date: February 19

text: February 19 – The television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood premieres on National Educational Television in the United States and becomes one of the longest running children's shows ever.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – First performance of an Andrew Lloyd Webber–Tim Rice musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in its original form as a "pop cantata", by pupils of a private school in London.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – The first student protests spark the 1968 Polish political crisis.


date: March 19

text: March 19–23 – Afrocentrism, Black Power, Vietnam War: Students at Howard University in Washington, D.C., signal a new era of militant student activism on college campuses in the U.S. Students stage rallies, protests and a 5-day sit-in, laying siege to the administration building, shutting down the university in protest over its ROTC program and the Vietnam War, and demanding a more Afrocentric curriculum.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – René Riesel and 7 other enragés students occupy the administrative offices of the new Nanterre campus of the University of Paris as part of protests over a rigid educational system, setting in motion a chain of 'May 68' events that lead France to the brink of revolution.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – AEK Athens wins the FIBA European Cup Winners Cup Final in basketball against Slavia Prague, in front of a record attendance of 80,000 spectators. It is the first major European trophy won at club level of any sport in Greece.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – 13th Eurovision Song Contest is held in the Royal Albert Hall, London, UK. The winning song, Spain's "La, la, la" (music and lyrics by Manuel de la Calva and Ramón Arcusa) is sung in Spanish by Massiel after Spanish authorities refuse to allow Joan Manuel Serrat to perform it in Catalan. The United Kingdom finishes in second place, one point behind, with the song "Congratulations" sung by Cliff Richard, which goes on to outsell the winning Spanish entry throughout Europe.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – West Bromwich Albion win the English Football Association Cup, defeating Everton 1–0 after extra time. The winning goal is scored by Jeff Astle.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Manchester United F.C. wins the European Cup Final, becoming the first English team to do so.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Italy beats Yugoslavia 2–0 in a replay to win the 1968 European Championship in Association football. The original final on June 8 ended 1–1.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – The horror film Rosemary's Baby premieres in the U.S.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – The first International Special Olympics Summer Games are held at Soldier Field in Chicago, Ill, with about 1,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – The Municipal University of São Caetano do Sul is established in São Caetano do Sul, São Paulo.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Crown Prince Harald of Norway marries Sonja Haraldsen, the commoner he has dated for 9 years.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – John Eliot Gardiner conducts Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine with the Monteverdi Choir at the BBC Proms in London.


date: October 10

text: October 10 – The Detroit Tigers win the 1968 World Series in baseball in seven games.


date: October 12

text: October 12–27 – The 1968 Summer Olympics are held in Mexico City, Mexico.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – 1968 Olympics Black Power salute: In Mexico City, African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their fists in a Black Power salute after winning, respectively, the gold and bronze medals in the Olympic men's 200 metres (with the support of Australian silver medallist Peter Norman).


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Rock band Led Zeppelin make their first live performance, at Surrey University in England


date: November 22

text: November 22 – The Beatles ("The White Album") and The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society are released.


date: December 9

text: December 9 – Douglas Engelbart publicly demonstrates his pioneering hypertext system, NLS, in San Francisco, together with the computer mouse, at what becomes retrospectively known as "The Mother of All Demos".


date: December 11

text: December 11 – The film Oliver! based on the hit London and Broadway musical, opens in the U.S. after being released first in the UK. It goes on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Mao Zedong advocates that educated urban youth in China be sent for re-education in the countryside. It marks the start of the "Up to the mountains and down to the villages" movement.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – King Felipe VI of Spain

source_section: Births › January


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Lisa Marie Presley, American singer-songwriter, daughter of Elvis Presley (d. 2023)

source_section: Births › February


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece (2019–present)

source_section: Births › March


date: April 29

text: April 29 – Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, President of Croatia (2015–2020)

source_section: Births › April


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Vanessa Leggett, American freelance journalist, author, lecturer and First Amendment advocate

source_section: Births › May


date: June 2

text: June 2 – Beetlejuice, American entertainer, member of the Wack Pack (The Howard Stern Show)

source_section: Births › June


date: June 20

text: June 20 – Mateusz Morawiecki, Polish banker and politician, 17th Prime Minister of Poland


date: July 19

text: July 19 – Robert Flynn, American vocalist and guitarist (Machine Head)

source_section: Births › July


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Mohamed Atta, 9/11 ringleader of the hijackers and pilot of American Airlines Flight 11 (d. 2001)

source_section: Births › September


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Mika Häkkinen, Finnish double Formula 1 world champion


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Troy Davis, American high-profile death row inmate and human rights activist (d. 2011)

source_section: Births › October


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Tarique Rahman - Bangladeshi politician, 11th Prime Minister of Bangladesh

source_section: Births › November


text: December 9 – Kurt Angle, American amateur and professional wrestler, 1996 Olympic gold medalist

source_section: Births › December


text: December 11 – Emmanuelle Charpentier, French biochemist, recipient of Nobel Prize in Chemistry


date: January 16

text: January 16 – Bob Jones Sr., American evangelist, religious broadcaster and founder of Bob Jones University (b. 1883)

source_section: Deaths › January


date: February 21

text: February 21 – Howard Florey, Australian-born pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (b. 1898)

source_section: Deaths › February


date: March 27

text: March 27 – Yuri Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut, first human in space (b. 1934)

source_section: Deaths › March


date: April 1

text: April 1 – Lev Landau, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)

source_section: Deaths › April


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Jim Clark, Scottish racing driver and double Formula One World Champion (b. 1936)


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Josef Bachmann tries to assassinate Rudi Dutschke, leader of the left-wing movement (APO) in Germany, and tries to commit suicide afterwards, failing in both, although Dutschke dies of his brain injuries 11 years later.

source_section: Events › March–April


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Sir Walter Nash, 27th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1882)

source_section: Deaths › June


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Robert F. Kennedy, American lawyer, politician (United States Senator, U.S. Attorney General) and a leading 1968 Democratic presidential candidate (b. 1925)


text: June 6 – Randolph Churchill, British politician, son of Winston Churchill (b. 1911)


date: August 3

text: August 3 – Konstantin Rokossovsky, Soviet officer, Marshal of the Soviet Union (b. 1896)

source_section: Deaths › August


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Padre Pio, Italian Roman Catholic priest and saint (b. 1887)

source_section: Deaths › September


date: October 27

text: October 27 – Lise Meitner, German-Austrian physicist, discoverer of nuclear fission (b. 1878)

source_section: Deaths › October


date: December 20

text: December 20 – John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)

source_section: Deaths › December


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Augustus Agar, British naval officer, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1890)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Richard Nixon is sworn in as the 37th president of the United States of America.

source_section: Events › January


date: February 4

text: February 4 – In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is elected Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.

source_section: Events › February


date: March 17

text: March 17 – Golda Meir becomes the first female prime minister of Israel.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 25

text: March 25 - Ayub Khan resigns as President of Pakistan and transfers the power to Yahya Khan.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – Charles de Gaulle steps down as president of France after suffering defeat in a referendum the day before.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 26

text: May 26 – The Andean Pact (Andean Group) is established.

source_section: Events › May


date: June 8

text: June 8 – U.S. President Richard Nixon and South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu meet at Midway Island. Nixon announces that 25,000 U.S. troops will be withdrawn by September.

source_section: Events › June


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Georges Pompidou is elected President of France.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – The United Kingdom and Rhodesia sever diplomatic relations, after the Rhodesian constitutional referendum.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – French is made equal to English throughout the Canadian national government.

source_section: Events › July


date: July 14

text: July 14 – The Act of Free Choice for West Irian commences in Merauke, Indonesia.


date: August 2

text: August 2 – U.S. President Richard Nixon visits Romania, becoming the first incumbent U.S. president to visit a communist state since the start of the Cold War.

source_section: Events › August


date: September 28

text: September 28 – 1969 West German federal election: The Social Democrats, led by Vice Chancellor Willy Brandt, and the Free Democrats led by Walter Scheel, formed a coalition government with Brandt as Chancellor, after the Social Democrats severed their relationship with Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger's Christian Democratic Union.

source_section: Events › September


date: October 1

text: October 1 – In Sweden, Olof Palme is elected Leader of the Social Democratic Worker's Party, replacing Tage Erlander as Prime Minister on October 14.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 21

text: October 21 – Willy Brandt becomes Chancellor of West Germany.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – 1969 Australian federal election: John Gorton's Liberal/Country Coalition government is narrowly re-elected with a sharply reduced majority, defeating a resurgent Labor Party led by Gough Whitlam. Prime Minister Gorton survived a leadership challenge by his deputy William McMahon as well as David Fairbairn in the immediate aftermath of the election.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – Süleyman Demirel of AP forms the new government of Turkey (31st government).

source_section: Events › November


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki, to begin the SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – U.S. President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Satō agree in Washington, D.C. to the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. retains rights to military bases on the island, but they must be nuclear-free.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – The Liberal Democratic Party wins 47.6% of the votes in the 1969 Japanese general election. Future prime ministers Yoshirō Mori and Tsutomu Hata and future kingmaker Ichirō Ozawa are elected for the first time.

source_section: Events › December


text: International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage, a maritime treaty, is adopted.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: January 4

text: January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco.


date: January 19

text: January 19 – End of the siege of the University of Tokyo, marking the beginning of the end for the 1968–69 Japanese university protests.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Soviet and Chinese forces clash at a border outpost on the Ussuri River.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Sirhan Bishara Sirhan is found guilty of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – British troops arrive in Northern Ireland to reinforce the Royal Ulster Constabulary.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – The Battle of Dong Ap Bia, also known as Hamburger Hill, begins during the Vietnam War.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – May 13 Incident: Race riots occur in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – Colonel Muammar Gaddafi visits Mecca, Saudi Arabia.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – United States National Guard helicopters spray skin-stinging powder on anti-war protesters in California.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – An international communist conference begins in Moscow.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – After a 23-game match, Boris Spassky defeats Tigran Petrosian to become the World Chess Champion in Moscow.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – The Stonewall riots, a milestone in the modern gay rights movement in the United States, began in New York City.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – Football War: After Honduras loses an association football match against El Salvador, rioting breaks out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant workers. Of the 300,000 Salvadoran workers in Honduras, tens of thousands are expelled, prompting a brief Salvadoran invasion of Honduras. The OAS works out a cease-fire on July 18, which takes effect on July 20.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam, meeting with President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and U.S. military commanders.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, U.S. representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. They eventually fail since the two sides cannot agree to any terms.


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Serious border clashes occur between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – The Troubles: British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland to restore order following three days of political and sectarian violence, marking the beginning of the 37-year Operation Banner.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – 1969 Libyan coup d'état: A bloodless coup in Libya ousts King Idris and brings Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to power.


date: October 9

text: October 9–12 – Days of Rage: In Chicago, the Illinois National Guard is called in to control demonstrations involving the radical Weathermen, in connection with the "Chicago Eight" Trial.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – Vietnam War: Hundreds of thousands of people take part in Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam demonstrations across the United States.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – General Siad Barre comes to power in Somalia in a coup, 6 days after the assassination of President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – Vietnam War: A Cleveland, Ohio newspaper, The Plain Dealer, publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States since World War II is held. September 14 is the first of the 366 days of the year selected, meaning that anyone born on September 14 in the years from 1944 to 1951 would be the first to be summoned. On January 4, 1970, The New York Times will run a long article, "Statisticians Charge Draft Lottery Was Not Random".


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Nigerian troops capture Umuahia. The last Biafran capital before its dissolution becomes Owerri.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – The landmark art exhibition When Attitudes become Form, curated by Harald Szeemann, opens at the Kunsthalle Bern in Bern, Switzerland.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – English sailor Robin Knox-Johnston becomes the first person to sail around the world solo without stopping.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Francisco Franco orders the closing of the Gibraltar–Spain border and communications between Gibraltar and Spain in response to the 1967 Gibraltar sovereignty referendum. The border remains closed until a partial reopening on December 15, 1982.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – John Fairfax lands in Hollywood Beach, Florida, United States and becomes the first person to row across an ocean solo, after 180 days spent at sea on board the 25' ocean rowboat Britannia (left Gran Canaria on January 20, 1969).


text: November 19 – Richard Oakes returns with 90 followers to Alcatraz Island and begins a 19 month long occupation, lasting until June 1971.


text: December 24 – The oil company Phillips Petroleum made the first oil discovery in the Norwegian sector of North Sea.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Reverend Ian Paisley, Northern Irish Unionist leader and founder of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster is jailed for three months for illegal assembly.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Pope Paul VI issues Mysterii Paschalis, a motu proprio, deleting many names from the Roman calendar of saints (including Valentine, who was celebrated on this day).


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Pope Paul VI increases the number of Roman Catholic cardinals by one-third, from 101 to 134.


date: April 3

text: April 3 – The Mass of Paul VI is promulgated in the Catholic Church by the Pope.


date: July 22

text: July 22 – Spanish dictator and head of state Francisco Franco appoints Prince Juan Carlos to be his successor as head of state following his death.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Pope Paul VI arrives in Entebbe, Uganda for the first visit by a reigning Pope to Africa.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) terrorists bomb the Montreal Stock Exchange.


date: February 9

text: February 9 – The Boeing 747 "jumbo jet" is flown for the first time, taking off from the Boeing airfield at Everett, Washington.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – RFC series begins with Network Working Group RFC 1 on ARPANET host software.


text: July 19 – Chappaquiddick incident: US Senator Edward M. Kennedy drives off a bridge into a tidal pond after leaving a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, killing Mary Jo Kopechne. Kennedy does not report the accident for nine or ten hours.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – 1969 Tour de France: Belgian Eddy Merckx wins the cycle race for the first time.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – The Beijing Subway begins operation.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – A 1.2 megaton thermonuclear device is tested at Amchitka Island, Alaska. This test is code-named Project Milrow, the 11th test of the Operation Mandrel 1969–1970 underground nuclear test series. This test is known as a "calibration shot" to test if the island is fit for larger underground nuclear detonations.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Sazae-san first airs on Fuji Television.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – DZKB-TV Channel 9, the Philippines' sixth TV station, is launched.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – The first electronic message is sent between two computers connected via ARPANET between University of California, Los Angeles and SRI International in California at around 10:30pm local time, the initial forerunning technology to the Internet.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – The first ARPANET link is established (the progenitor of the global Internet).


text: Summer – Invention of Unix under the potential name "Unics" (after Multics).


date: January 16

text: January 16 – First successful docking of two crewed spacecraft in orbit and the first transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another (by a space walk) between Soviet craft Soyuz 5 and Soyuz 4.


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Failure of Soyuz 5's service module to separate correctly causes a near-fatal re-entry (not publicly acknowledged until 1997) but the module makes a hard landing in the Ural Mountains.


date: February 24

text: February 24 – The Mariner 6 Mars probe is launched from the United States.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 (James McDivitt, Rusty Schweickart, David Scott) to test the lunar module.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.


date: March 18

text: March 18 – An annular solar eclipse is visible in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and is the 49th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 129.


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Venera program: Soviet space probe Venera 5 lands on Venus.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Venera program: Soviet space probe Venera 6 begins to descend into Venus's atmosphere, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Apollo program: Apollo 10 (Gene Cernan, Tom Stafford, John Young) is launched. It is to be a full rehearsal for the Moon landing, stopping 15 kilometers short of actually reaching the lunar surface.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Apollo program: Apollo 10's lunar module flies to within 15,400 m of the Moon's surface.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to Earth, after a successful 8-day test of all the components needed for the upcoming first crewed Moon landing.


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Apollo program: Apollo 11 (Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins) lifts off from Cape Kennedy in Florida towards the first crewed landing on the Moon.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Apollo program Moon landing: At 3:17 pm ET (20:17 UTC) Apollo 11's Lunar Module Eagle lands on the Moon's surface. At 10:56 pm ET (02:56 UTC July 21), an estimated 650 million people worldwide, the largest television audience for a live broadcast at this time, watch in awe as Neil Armstrong takes his first historic steps on the surface.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – The Soviet Union returns British lecturer Gerald Brooke to the United Kingdom freed from a Soviet prison in exchange for their spies Peter and Helen Kroger (Morris and Lona Cohen).


text: July 24 – Apollo program: Apollo 11 returns from the first successful Moon landing and the astronauts are placed in biological isolation for several days in case they may have brought back lunar germs. The airless lunar environment is later determined to rule out microscopic life.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Mariner program: Mariner 7 makes its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 km).


date: September 11

text: September 11 – An annular solar eclipse is visible in Pacific Ocean and South America, and is the 41st solar eclipse of Solar Saros 134.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – China carries out an underground nuclear bomb test.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Willard S. Boyle and George Smith invent the CCD at Bell Laboratories (30 years later, this technology is widely used in digital cameras).


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12 (Pete Conrad, Richard Gordon, Alan Bean), the second crewed mission to the Moon.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – Professional footballer Pelé scores his 1,000th goal.


text: November 19 – Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum ("Ocean of Storms"), becoming the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – Apollo program: The Apollo 12 spacecraft splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second crewed mission to the Moon.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – The Boeing 747 jumbo jet makes its first passenger flight. It carries 191 people, most of them reporters and photographers, from Seattle to New York City.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Fourteen men, 9 of them Jews, are executed in Baghdad for spying for Israel.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – In a Los Angeles court, Sirhan Sirhan admits that he killed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.


date: April 9

text: April 9 – Fermín Monasterio Pérez is murdered by ETA in Biscay, Spain; the 4th victim in the name of Basque nationalism.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – The Zodiac Killer adopts his persona in a letter in which he introduces himself with the phrase, "This is the Zodiac speaking."


date: August 9

text: August 9 – On orders from Charles Manson, members of the Manson Family invade the Los Angeles home of film director Roman Polanski, and murder his pregnant wife, the actress Sharon Tate, and four others.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – A day after murdering Sharon Tate and four others, members of the Manson Family kill Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in Los Angeles.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – A Trans World Airlines flight from Rome to Tel Aviv is hijacked and diverted to Syria.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – The Zodiac Killer shoots and kills taxi driver Paul Stine in the Presidio Heights neighborhood of San Francisco; this is the serial killer's last known murder.


date: October

text: October 18th - Carravagio's Nativity with Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence is stolen from the oratory of San Lorenzo in Palermo, Sicily.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – Meredith Hunter is stabbed to death by Hells Angels at the Altamont Free Concert, an event which came to be viewed as the end of the hippie era and the de facto conclusion of late-1960s American youth culture.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Charles Manson is allowed to defend himself at the Tate-LaBianca murder trial.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to London's Gatwick Airport, killing 50 of the 62 people on board and two of the home's occupants.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – An explosion aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 28 and injures 314.


date: January 28

text: January 28 – 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill: A blowout on Union Oil's Platform A spills 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil into a channel and onto the beaches of Santa Barbara County in Southern California; on February 5 the oil spill closes Santa Barbara's harbor. The incident inspires Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson to organize the first Earth Day in 1970.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – The Allende meteorite explodes over Mexico.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Viasa Flight 742 crashes into a neighborhood in Maracaibo, Venezuela, shortly after taking off for Miami; all 84 people on board the DC-9 jet are killed along with 71 people on the ground.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – The Longhope life-boat is lost after answering a mayday call during severe storms in the Pentland Firth between Orkney and the northern tip of Scotland; the entire crew of 8 die.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – One hundred of the 105 passengers and crew on a United Arab Airlines flight, most of them Muslim pilgrims returning to Aswan from Mecca, are killed when the Ilyushin-18 turboprop crashes during a sandstorm.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The Barroterán coal mine disaster kills 153 coal miners in Mexico.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – The EC-121 shootdown incident: North Korea shoots down a US reconnaissance aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 on board.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – While operating at sea on SEATO maneuvers, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne accidentally rams and slices into the American destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in the South China Sea, killing 74 American seamen.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – Australian Denis Michael Rohan sets fire to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.


date: September 9

text: September 9 – Allegheny Airlines Flight 853, a DC-9 airliner, collides in flight with a small Piper PA-28 airplane, and crashes near Fairland, Indiana, killing all 83 people in both aircraft.


date: September 22

text: September 22–25 – An Islamic conference in Rabat, Morocco, following the al-Aqsa Mosque fire (August 21), condemns the Israeli claim of ownership of Jerusalem.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – The SS United States, the last active United States Lines passenger ship, is withdrawn from service.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – Air France Flight 212, a Boeing 707 registered as F-BHSZ, crashed shortly after takeoff from Venezuela killing all 62 occupants on board. The cause of the accident is not yet known since the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) did not publish an investigation report. It will not be released until 2029, sixty years after the accident.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – The Piazza Fontana bombing in Milan, Italy, kills 17 people and injures 88.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – The 1969 Portugal earthquake hits Portugal, Spain and Morocco.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – A 6.4 earthquake shakes the Chinese city of Yangjiang destroying thousands of homes and killing 3,000 people.


date: August 17

text: August 17 – Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast of the United States, killing 248 people and causing US$1.5 billion in damage (1969 USD).


date: January 12

text: January 12 – The New York Jets defeat the Baltimore Colts 16–7 in Super Bowl III.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – After 147 years, the last weekly issue of The Saturday Evening Post is published in the United States. (The magazine is later briefly resurrected as a monthly magazine.)


text: March 20 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono are married at Gibraltar, and proceed to their honeymoon "Bed-in" for peace in Amsterdam.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – UCLA wins its third consecutive NCAA basketball championship by defeating Purdue University, 92 to 72.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 is held in Madrid, and results in four co-winners, with 18 votes each, from Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and France.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – The Montreal Expos become Major League Baseball's first team outside the United States.


date: May 26

text: May 26–June 2 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono conduct their second bed-in. The follow-up to the Amsterdam event is held at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec. Lennon composes and records the song "Give Peace a Chance" during the event.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Cordobazo: A general strike and civil unrest break out in Córdoba, Argentina.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Riots in Curaçao mark the start of an Afro-Caribbean civil rights movement on the island.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – Gay intercourse is officially legalized in Canada.


date: August 15

text: August 15–18 – The Woodstock Festival is held near White Lake, New York, featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – For Brazil, the Jornal Nacional was created on Monday, 1 September 1969.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! premieres on CBS, starting the Scooby-Doo franchise.


date: September 25

text: September 25 – The Organisation of the Islamic Conference is founded.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – The Beatles release their eleventh studio album, Abbey Road in the United Kingdom


date: October 11

text: October 11–16 – The New York Mets upset the Baltimore Orioles four games to one in the World Series.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Experimental research showing that protons were composed of smaller particles, the first evidence of quarks, is published.


date: November 10

text: November 10 – The television series Sesame Street premiered on National Educational Television, becoming the most famous preschool television series of all time.


text: Common African, Malagasy and Mauritian Organization (OCAMM) (Organisation Commune Africaine Malgache et Mauricienne) is established.


date: January 3

text: January 3 – Michael Schumacher, German seven-time Formula One world champion

source_section: Births › January


date: January 13

text: January 13 – Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, Mexican writer, wife of Andrés Manuel López Obrador


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Jennifer Aniston, American actress, director, producer and businesswoman

source_section: Births › February


date: March 22

text: March 22 – Tony Fadell, American engineer, inventor, designer and entrepreneur (Nest Labs, Apple Inc)

source_section: Births › March


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Renée Zellweger, American Academy Award-winning actress and producer

source_section: Births › April


date: April 27

text: April 27 – Cory Booker, US Senator from New Jersey


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Raphael Warnock, American pastor and junior senator from Georgia

source_section: Births › July


date: July 28

text: July 28 – Dana White, American businessman and president of Ultimate Fighting Championship


text: August 15 – John Fetterman, American politician, Senator of Pennsylvania

source_section: Births › August


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Gwen Stefani, American singer, actress and television host

source_section: Births › October


date: November 29

text: November 29 – Mariano Rivera, Panamanian-American professional baseball player

source_section: Births › November


text: November 29 – Kasey Keller, American Major League Soccer player


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Sajid Javid, British Pakistani politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer

source_section: Births › December


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Ed Miliband, English academic and politician, Foreign Secretary


date: February 3

text: February 3 – Eduardo Mondlane, leader of the Mozambique nationalist organization FRELIMO (b. 1920)

source_section: Deaths › February


date: April 9

text: April 9 – FS Hussain, Pakistani aerobatic pilot who fought in World War II (b. 1924)

source_section: Deaths › April


date: April 20

text: April 20 – Vjekoslav Luburić, Croatian Ustaše official and concentration camp administrator (b. 1914)


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Franz von Papen, 22nd Chancellor of Germany and 26th Prime Minister of Prussia (b. 1879)

source_section: Deaths › May


date: May 3

text: May 3 – Zakir Husain, Indian politician, 3rd President of India (b. 1897)


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Rosariazo: Civil unrest breaks out in Rosario, Argentina, following the death of a 15-year-old student.

source_section: Events › May


date: June 16

text: June 16 – Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, British field marshal and 17th Governor General of Canada (b. 1891)

source_section: Deaths › June


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Theodor W. Adorno, German sociologist and philosopher (b. 1903)

source_section: Deaths › August


date: August 9

text: August 9 – C. F. Powell, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Ho Chi Minh, the president of Democratic Republic of Vietnam, died at the age of 79.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Lieutenant William Calley is charged with six counts of premeditated murder for the 1968 My Lai Massacre deaths of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai, Vietnam.


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Liu Shaoqi, President of China (b. 1898)

source_section: Deaths › November


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Iskander Mirza, Pakistani politician, 1st President of Pakistan (b. 1899)


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Enrique Peñaranda, Bolivian general, 38th President of Bolivia, leader during World War II (b. 1892)

source_section: Deaths › December


text: Septimius Severus, who had spared the Senate at the beginning of his reign, now excludes it from controlling the Roman Empire by declaring a military dictatorship.

source_section: Events › By place › Roman Empire


text: Septimius Severus reconstitutes the Province of Mesopotamia under an equestrian governor commanding two legions.


text: Sansang becomes ruler of the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo.

source_section: Events › By place › Asia


date: February 19

text: February 19 – Battle of Lugdunum: Emperor Septimius Severus defeats the self-proclaimed emperor Clodius Albinus at Lugdunum (modern Lyon). Albinus commits suicide; legionaries sack the town.


text: Battle of Wancheng: Zhang Xiu launches a surprise attack at Cao Cao.


text: Yuan Shu declares himself emperor of the short-lived Zhong dynasty.


text: Legio I, II, and III Parthica are levied by Septimius Severus for his Parthian campaign.


text: The Roman army marches east to repel a Parthian invasion of Mesopotamia; they loot the royal palace at Ctesiphon and capture an enormous number of its inhabitants as slaves.


text: A Christian council is held in Edessa.

source_section: Events › By topic › Religion


text: Septimius Severus forms new naval units, manning all the triremes in Italy with heavily armed troops for war in the East. His soldiers embark on an artificial canal between the Tigris and Euphrates.


text: Septimius Severus returns to Rome and has about 30 of Albinus's supporters in the Senate executed. After his victory he declares himself the adopted son of the late Marcus Aurelius.


text: Galen's major work on medicines, Pharmacologia, is published.

source_section: Events › By topic › Art and Science


text: Deng Ai, Chinese general of the Cao Wei state (d. 264)

source_section: Births


text: Cao, Chinese empress of the Han Dynasty (d. 260)


text: February 19 – Clodius Albinus, Roman general and usurper

source_section: Deaths


text: Guo Si (or Guo Duo), Chinese general and regent


text: Titus Flavius Claudius Sulpicianus, Roman statesman


text: Yang Feng, Chinese general serving under Li Jue


text: Li Jue, Chinese general serving under Dong Zhuo


text: Gaius Julius Erucius Clarus Vibianus, Roman politician


text: Liu Chong, Chinese nobleman and Prince of Chen


text: Cao Ang (or Zixiu), eldest son of Cao Cao (b. 177)


text: Gogukcheon of Goguryeo, Korean ruler of Goguryeo


text: Dian Wei, Chinese general serving under Cao Cao


date: March 5

text: March 5 – The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty goes into effect, after ratification by 56 nations.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 6

text: March 6 – Süleyman Demirel of AP forms the new government of Turkey (32nd government).


date: March 19

text: 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.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Feyenoord win the European Cup in association football after a 2–1 win over Celtic.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – The 1970 FIFA World Cup in association football is inaugurated in Mexico. Tactical substitutes are first permitted.


date: September 4

text: 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.


date: September 9

text: September 9 – Guinea recognizes the German Democratic Republic.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Tunku Abdul Rahman resigns as prime minister of Malaysia, and is succeeded by his deputy Tun Abdul Razak.


date: October 6

text: October 6 – Bolivian President Alfredo Ovando Candía resigns; General Rogelio Miranda takes over but resigns soon after.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 7

text: October 7 – General Juan José Torres becomes the new President of Bolivia.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – Saeb Salam forms a government in Lebanon.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Salvador Allende is elected President of Chile by a run-off vote in the National Congress


date: October 28

text: October 28 – In Jordan, the government of Ahmad Toukan resigns; the next prime minister is Wasfi al-Tal.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – Salvador Allende takes office as president of Chile.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Hafez al-Assad comes to power in Syria, following a military coup within the Ba'ath Party.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – The six European Economic Community nation prime ministers meet in Munich to begin the new programme of European Political Cooperation (EPC), a unified foreign policy for a future European Union.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Syrian Prime Minister Hafez al-Assad forms a new government but retains the post of defense minister.


text: November 21 – 1970 Australian Senate election: The Liberal/Country Coalition government led by Prime Minister John Gorton and the Labor Party led by Gough Whitlam each end up with 26 seats, both suffering a swing against them. The Democratic Labor Party wins an additional seat and holds the balance of power in the Senate. This is the last occasion on which a Senate election is held without an accompanying House of Representatives election.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – The Italian Chamber of Deputies accepts a new divorce law.

source_section: Events › December


text: December 1 – Luis Echeverría becomes president of Mexico.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Pakistan's general elections are held.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – Law 70-001 is enacted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, amending article 4 of the constitution and making the country a one-party state.


text: December 23 – The Bolivian government releases Régis Debray.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – President of India V. V. Giri declares new elections.


date: January 15

text: 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.

source_section: Events › January


date: March 18

text: March 18 – General Lon Nol ousts Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia and holds Queen Sisowath Kossamak under house arrest.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – 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.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 29

text: April 29 – Cambodian campaign: The U.S. incursion into Cambodia begins.


date: May 4

text: 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.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 6

text: 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.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – 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.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – A coup in Argentina brings a new junta of service chiefs; on June 18, Roberto M. Levingston becomes President.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 23

text: 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.

source_section: Events › July


date: September 1

text: September 1 – An assassination attempt against King Hussein of Jordan precipitates the country's Black September crisis.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 3

text: September 3–6 – Israeli forces fight Palestinian guerillas in southern Lebanon.


date: September 5

text: 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).


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Black September: King Hussein of Jordan orders the Jordanian Armed Forces to oust Palestinian fedayeen from Jordan.


date: September 19

text: 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.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Palestinian armed forces reinforce guerillas in Irbidi, Jordan.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – In Lebanon, the government of Prime Minister Rashid Karami resigns.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – The Khmer Republic is proclaimed in Cambodia, escalating the Cambodian Civil War between the government and the Khmer Rouge.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – In Ethiopia, the Eritrean Liberation Front kills an Ethiopian general.


text: November 21 – Vietnam 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).


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Guinean 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.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – In 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).


date: November 28

text: November 28 – The Montreal Alouettes defeat the Calgary Stampeders, 23–10, to win the 58th Grey Cup in Canadian football.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – The Ethiopian government declares a state of emergency in the region of Eritrea over the activities of the Eritrean Liberation Front.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – In Biscay in the Basque country of Spain, 15,000 go on strike in protest at the Burgos trial death sentences. Francisco Franco commutes the sentences to 30 years in prison.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – The Expo '70 World's Fair opens in Suita, Osaka, Japan.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II, to cross the South Atlantic.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Thor Heyerdahl's papyrus boat Ra II arrives in Barbados.


date: September 27

text: September 27 – Richard Nixon begins a tour of Europe, visiting Italy, Yugoslavia, Spain, the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.


text: Women's movement starts in Oman with the establishment of the Omani Women's Association.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: The Sweet Track is discovered in England. It is the world's oldest engineered roadway at the time of its discovery.


text: The first Regional Technical Colleges open in Ireland.


text: September 27 – Pope Paul VI names Saint Teresa of Ávila (d. 1582) as the first female Doctor of the Church.


text: October 3 – Pope Paul VI names Saint Catherine of Siena (d. 1380) as the second female Doctor of the Church.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – The Asian and Australian tour of Pope Paul VI ends.


date: February

text: February – Multi-business conglomerate Virgin Group is founded as a discount mail-order record retailer by Richard Branson in the UK.

source_section: Events › February


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Penn Central, America's largest railroad, files for chapter 77 bankruptcy; the largest U.S. corporate bankruptcy at this time.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Paul McCartney sues in Britain to dissolve The Beatles' legal partnership.


date: March 12

text: 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.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – The Patent Cooperation Treaty is signed into international law, providing a unified procedure for filing patent applications to protect inventions.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Xerox PARC computer laboratory opens in Palo Alto, California, United States.


date: July 16

text: July 16 - Three Rivers Stadium opens in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, home to NFL Steelers and MLB Pirates.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – The Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Jochen Rindt becomes Formula One World Driving Champion, the first to earn the honor posthumously.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – A Chinese nuclear test is conducted in Lop Nor.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – A section of the new West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapses into the river below, killing 35 construction workers.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Gary Gabelich drives the rocket-powered Blue Flame (part fuelled by LNG) to an official land speed record of 622.407 mph km/h on the dry lake bed of the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The record, the first above 1,000 km/h, stands for nearly 13 years.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – The Soviet Union enters the International Civil Aviation Organization, after having resisted joining the UN Agency for more than 25 years. Russian becomes the fourth official language of the ICAO.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar flies for the first time.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – The Grumman F-14 Tomcat makes its first flight.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Ohsumi, Japan's first satellite, is launched on a Lambda-4 rocket.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – NASA's Explorer 1, the first American satellite and Explorer program spacecraft, reenters Earth's atmosphere after 12 years in orbit.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Apollo program: Apollo 13 (Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, Jack Swigert) is launched from the United States toward the Moon.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – An oxygen tank in the Apollo 13 spacecraft explodes, forcing the crew to abort the mission and return in four days.


date: April 15

text: April 15 - The Apollo 13 crew sets the record for the farthest humans have traveled, 400,171 mi km, which would stand until the Artemis II lunar flyby in 2026.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Apollo 13 splashes down safely in the Pacific.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – China's first satellite (Dong Fang Hong 1) is launched into orbit using a Long March-1 Rocket (CZ-1).


date: May 26

text: May 26 – The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.


date: June 1

text: 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.


date: August 17

text: 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.

source_section: Events › August


date: August 31

text: 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.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – Luna 16 lands on the Moon and lifts off the next day with samples, landing back on Earth September 24.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – The 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.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – The Soviet Union launches the Zond 8 lunar probe.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 17 for the moon.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Luna 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.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – The United States Environmental Protection Agency is established.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – The USSR's Venera 7 becomes the first spacecraft to land successfully on Venus and transmit data back to Earth.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – An Egyptian delegation leaves for Moscow to ask for economic and military aid.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – Thalidomide scandal: Damages totalling £485,528 are awarded to 28 Thalidomide victims in the UK.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – American rock singer Janis Joplin is found dead of an overdose, age 27, in her hotel room in Hollywood.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – October Crisis: The Canadian government declares a state of emergency and outlaws the Quebec Liberation Front.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – A cholera epidemic breaks out in Istanbul.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – A cholera outbreak in eastern Slovakia causes Hungary to close its border with Czechoslovakia.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – The U.N. General Assembly supports the isolation of South Africa for its apartheid policies.


date: December 29

text: December 29 – U.S. President Richard Nixon signs into law the Occupational Safety and Health Act.


date: April 4

text: 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.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – 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.


date: September 6

text: 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.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – In Berlin, Red Army Faction members rob three banks, with loot totaling over DM 200,000.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – The 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.


date: October 10

text: October 10 – October Crisis: In Montreal, Quebec Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte becomes the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.


text: October 17 – October Crisis: Quebec politician Pierre Laporte is found murdered by the FLQ in south Montreal.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – The Basque ETA (separatist group) kidnaps West German Eugen Beihl in San Sebastián.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – Burgos Trial: In Burgos, Spain, the trial of 16 Basque terrorism suspects begins.


text: December 3 – October Crisis: In Montreal, kidnapped British trade commissioner James Cross is released by the Front de libération du Québec terrorist group after being held hostage for 60 days. Police negotiate his release and in return the Government of Canada grants 5 terrorists from the FLQ's Chenier Cell their request for safe passage to Cuba.


text: December 7 – Giovanni Enrico Bucher, the Swiss ambassador to Brazil, is kidnapped in Rio de Janeiro; kidnappers demand the release of 70 political prisoners.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Franz Stangl, the ex-commander of Treblinka extermination camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – ETA releases Eugen Beihl in Spain.


date: December 28

text: December 28 – The suspected killers of Pierre Laporte, Jacques and Paul Rose and Francis Sunard, are arrested near Montreal.


text: Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, the Federal collection of contemporary art, is established in Germany.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – The Benavídez rail disaster near Buenos Aires, Argentina (a rear-end collision) kills 236.


date: March 4

text: 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.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – 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.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – A huge gas explosion at a subway construction site in Osaka, Japan, kills 79 and injures over 400.


date: July 3

text: 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.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Air Canada Flight 621 crashes near Toronto International Airport, Toronto, Ontario through pilot error; all 109 passengers and crew are killed.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – The Wichita State University football team's "Gold" plane crashes in Colorado, killing most of the players. They were on their way (along with administrators and fans) to a game with Utah State University.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – The wreck of the Confederate submarine Hunley is found off Charleston, South Carolina, by 22-year-old pioneer underwater archaeologist, Dr. E. Lee Spence. Hunley is the first submarine in history to sink a ship in warfare.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – The Club Cinq-Sept fire in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France, kills 146.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Southern Airways Flight 932 crashes in Wayne County, West Virginia; all 75 on board, including 37 players and 5 coaches from the Marshall University football team, are killed.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – The South Korean ferry Namyong Ho capsizes off Korea Strait; 308 people are killed.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Hurricane Creek mine disaster, near Hyden, Kentucky, USA


date: January 5

text: 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.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – An avalanche at Val-d'Isère, France, kills 41 tourists.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – An avalanche at a tuberculosis sanatorium in the French Alps kills 74, mostly young boys.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – The Principality of Hutt River "secedes" from Australia (it remained unrecognised by Australia and other nations, and is dissolved in 2020).


date: May 11

text: 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.


date: May 31

text: 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.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – In Vietnam, the worst monsoon to hit the area in six years causes large floods, kills 293, leaves 200,000 homeless and virtually halts the Vietnam War.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – The 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.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – 1970 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.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – A landslide in western Colombia leaves 200 dead.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – The complete New English Bible is published in the UK.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – The Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique (ACCT) is founded.


date: March 21

text: 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.


date: April 10

text: 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.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is founded.


date: June 21

text: 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).


date: July 31

text: 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.


date: August 11

text: August 11 – Creation of the International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Arts in Confolens, France.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) is founded.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Fluminense win the Brazil Football Championship.


date: January 7

text: January 7 - Andy Burnham, British politician, Prime Minister and Mayor of Greater Manchester (2017–2026)

source_section: Births › January


date: February 4

text: February 4 – Hunter Biden, American attorney and son of U.S. president Joe Biden

source_section: Births › February


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Aleksandar Vučić, President of Serbia

source_section: Births › March


date: March 30

text: March 30 – Karim Ahmad Khan, British barrister and prosecutor, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (2021–2026)


text: April 26 – Melania Trump, Slovenian model, First Lady of the United States

source_section: Births › April


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Gavin McInnes, Canadian writer and political commentator (co-founder of Vice Media)

source_section: Births › July


date: July 19

text: July 19 – Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland (2014–present)


text: July 19 – Christopher Luxon, 42nd Prime Minister of New Zealand


date: August 2

text: August 2 – Kevin Smith, American screenwriter, film director and actor

source_section: Births › August


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Jim Thome, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Fame member


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Ketanji Brown Jackson, American jurist and associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

source_section: Births › September


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Sadiq Khan, British politician; 3rd Mayor of London (2016–present)

source_section: Births › October


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Chavo Guerrero Jr., Mexican-American professional wrestler


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Ted Cruz, Canadian-American politician, U.S. Senator (R-Tx.) from 2013 and 2016 presidential candidate

source_section: Births › December


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Max Born, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)

source_section: Deaths › January


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Eiji Tsuburaya, Japanese film director and special effects designer (b. 1901)


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Bertrand Russell, British logician and philosopher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (b. 1872)

source_section: Deaths › February


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Francis Peyton Rous, American pathologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1879)


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Israeli writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)


date: May 9

text: May 9 – Walter Reuther, American labor union leader and president of the United Auto Workers (b. 1907)

source_section: Deaths › May


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Frances Farmer, American actress and television host (b. 1913)

source_section: Deaths › August


text: August 1 – Otto Heinrich Warburg, German physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate (b. 1883)


date: September 3

text: September 3 – Vince Lombardi, American football player and coach (b. 1913)

source_section: Deaths › September


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Yitzhak Gruenbaum, leader of the Zionist movement in the interwar period (b. 1879)


date: September 16

text: 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.

source_section: Events › September


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Lázaro Cárdenas, 44th President of Mexico (b. 1895)

source_section: Deaths › October


date: November 23

text: November 23 – Yusof Ishak, Singaporean politician, 1st President of Singapore (b. 1910)

source_section: Deaths › November


date: December 14

text: December 14 – William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim, British field marshal and 13th Governor-General of Australia (b. 1891)

source_section: Deaths › December


text: January 5 – The first ever One Day International cricket match is played between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

source_section: Events › January


date: January 19

text: January 19 – Representatives of 23 western oil companies begin negotiations with OPEC in Tehran to stabilize oil prices; February 14 they sign a treaty with 6 Arab states of the Persian Gulf.


text: January 25 – Himachal Pradesh becomes the 18th Indian state.


text: January 25 – In Uganda, Idi Amin deposes Milton Obote in a coup, and becomes president.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – The US, UK, USSR and others sign the Seabed Treaty, outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor.

source_section: Events › February


text: February 16 – In Italy, a local parliament elects the city of Catanzaro as the capital of Calabria; residents of Reggio di Calabria riot for 5 days because of the decision.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Canadian John Robarts ends his term of office as the 17th Premier of Ontario.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 26

text: March 26 – Nihat Erim (a former CHP member) forms the new government of Turkey (33rd government, composed mostly of technocrats).


date: March 27

text: March 27 – East Pakistan's independence is declared by army major (later president of Bangladesh) Ziaur Rahman from Kalurghat Radio Station.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – The People's Republic of Bangladesh forms under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Mujibnagor.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 20

text: April 20 – Cambodian prime minister Lon Nol resigns but remains effectively in power until the next elections.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Todor Zhivkov is reelected as the leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party.


date: May 3

text: May 3 – East German leader Walter Ulbricht resigns as Socialist Unity Party leader but retains the position of head of state.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 9

text: May 9 – Arsenal FC beats Liverpool F.C. 2–1 to win the English FA Cup, thus completing the league and cup 'double'.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Neville Bonner becomes the first Indigenous Australian to sit in the Australian Parliament.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Right to vote: The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, formally certified by President Richard Nixon, lowers the voting age from 21 to 18.

source_section: Events › July


date: July 14

text: July 14 – Libya severs its diplomatic ties with Morocco.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – American President Richard Nixon announces his 1972 visit to China.


date: August 30

text: August 30 – The Progressive Conservatives under Peter Lougheed defeat the Social Credit government under Harry E. Strom in a general election, ending 36 years of uninterrupted power for Social Credit in Alberta.

source_section: Events › August


date: September 2

text: September 2 – The United Arab Republic is renamed to the Arab Republic of Egypt


date: October 21

text: October 21 – U.S. President Richard Nixon nominates Lewis Franklin Powell Jr. and William H. Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 25

text: October 25 – The United Nations General Assembly admits the People's Republic of China and expels the Republic of China (or Taiwan).


date: November 23

text: November 23 – The People's Republic of China takes the Republic of China's seat on the United Nations Security Council (see China and the United Nations).

source_section: Events › November


date: December 11

text: December 11 – Nihat Erim forms the new government of Turkey (34th government; Nihat Erim has served two times as prime minister).

source_section: Events › December


date: January 24

text: January 24 – The Guinean government sentences to death 92 Guineans who helped Portuguese troops in the failed landing attempts in November 1970; 72 are sentenced to hard labor for life; 58 of the sentenced are hanged the next day.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – A bomb explodes in the men's room at the United States Capitol; the Weather Underground claims responsibility.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – "Fight of the Century": Boxer Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali in a 15-round unanimous decision at Madison Square Garden.


date: March 25

text: 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.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – U.S. Army lieutenant William Calley is found guilty of 22 murders during the My Lai Massacre and is sentenced to life in prison (he is later pardoned).