January
2nd	The last studio performance of The Beatles takes place
5th	At least 15,621 killed, Richer Scale 7.7 magunitude of Yunnan earthquake at China
14th	Diana Ross & The Supremes perform their farewell live concert together at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas, and Ross's replacement, Jean Terrell, is introduced onstage at the end of the last show
15th	After a 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria, Biafran forces under Philip Effiong formally surrender to General Yakubu Gowon
20th	The Greater London Council announces its plans for the Thames Barrier at Woolwich to prevent flooding. The barrier opened in 1981
21st	Five lifeboatmen are killed when the Fraserburgh lifeboat Duchess of Kent capsizes during a rescue off Kinnaird's Head, Aberdeenshire
26th	Mick Jagger is fined £200 for possession of cannabis

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February
1st	A train crash near Buenos Aires, Argentina, leaves at least 236 dead
2nd	British philosopher and logician Bertrand Russell dies
10th	An avalanche at Val d'Isère, France kills 39 tourists
13th	Black Sabbath's self titled debut album released. This record is often regarded as the first true heavy metal album
14th	Iconic live album "The Who: Live at Leeds" recorded
21st	Construction begins on the Bogazici Bridge crossing the Bosphorus in Istanbul
22nd	Guyana becomes a Republic within the Commonwealth of Nations

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March
1st	Rhodesia severs its last tie with the United Kingdom, declaring itself a racially segregated republic
5th	The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty goes into effect, after ratification by 43 nations
12th	Teenagers in the United Kingdom vote for the first time, in a by-election in Bridgwater
15th	The Expo '70 World's Fair opens in Suita, Osaka, Japan
16th	The complete New English Bible is published
18th	General Lon Nol ousts Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia
21st	The first Earth Day proclamation is issued by San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto
21st	"All Kinds of Everything" sung by Dana (music and text by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith) wins Eurovision Song Contest 1970 for Ireland
25th	The Concorde makes its first supersonic flight (700 mph/1127 km/h)
31st	NASA's Explorer 1, the first American satellite and Explorer program spacecraft, reenters Earth's atmosphere after 12 years in orbit
31st	Japan Airlines Flight 351, carrying 131 passengers and 7 crews from Tokyo to Fukuoka, is hijacked by Japanese Red Army members. All passengers are eventually freed

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April
1st	President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, banning cigarette television advertisements in the United States, starting on January 1, 1971
8th	A huge gas explosion at a subway construction site in Osaka, Japan kills 79 and injures over 400
10th	Paul McCartney announces that the Beatles have disbanded, while at the same press conference, announcing the release of his first solo album
11th	74 people, mostly young boys, die as an avalanche buries a tuberculosis sanatorium in the French Alps
11th	Apollo 13 (Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, Jack Swigert) is launched toward the Moon. On April 13, an oxygen tank in the spacecraft explodes, forcing the crew to abort the mission and return in 4 days
16th	Rev. Ian Paisley wins a by-election to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland
16th	The National Westminster Bank begins trading in the United Kingdom
17th	Safe return & splashdown of Apollo 13
21st	The Hutt River Province Principality secedes from Australia
22nd	The first Earth Day is celebrated in the U.S.
24th	China's first satellite (Dong Fang Hong 1) is launched to orbit using a Long March-1 Rocket (CZ-1)
29th	The U.S. invades Cambodia to hunt out the Viet Cong; massive antiwar protests occur in the U.S.

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May
4th	Kent State shootings: Four students at Kent State University in Ohio are killed and nine wounded by Ohio State National Guardsmen at a protest against the incursion into Cambodia
6th	Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney are dismissed as members of the Irish Government, due to accusations of their involvement in a plot to import arms for use by the Provisional IRA in Northern Ireland
6th	Feyenoord wins the European Cup after a 2-1 win over Celtic
8th	Unionized construction workers attack about 1,000 students and others protesting the Kent State shootings near the intersection of Wall Street and Broad Street and at New York City Hall, leading to the Hard Hat riot
8th	The Beatles release their 12th and final album Let It Be
9th	In Washington, D.C., 100,000 people demonstrate against the Vietnam War
10th	Chelsea won The FA cup
14th	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
17th	Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II, to sail the Atlantic Ocean
23rd	A fire occurs in the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Straits in north Wales, contributing to its partial destruction and amounting to approximately £1,000,000 worth of fire damage
27th	A British expedition climbs the south face of Annapurna I
31st	The 1970 Ancash earthquake causes a landslide that buries the town of Yungay, Peru; more than 47,000 people are killed
31st	The football World Cup Finals begin in Mexico

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June
1st	Soyuz 9, a two man spacecraft, is launched in the Soviet Union
2nd	Norway announces that it has rich oil deposits off its North Sea coast
4th	Tonga gains independence from the United Kingdom
8th	A coup in Argentina brings a new junta of service chiefs; on June 18, Roberto M. Levingston becomes President
10th	U.S. President Richard Nixon signs a measure lowering the voting age to 18
18th	United Kingdom general election, 1970: the Conservative Party wins and Edward Heath becomes Prime Minister
21st	Brazil win the football World Cup in Mexico, beating Italy 4 - 1 in the final
22nd	Led Zeppelin perform in Iceland, with the visit reportedly inspiring them to write the Immigrant Song
25th	The Greater London Council's Policy and Resources committee endorses the "Fleet Line" and the extension of the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow Airport
28th	U.S. ground troops withdraw from Cambodia

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July
4th	A chartered Dan-Air De Havilland Comet crashes into the mountains north of Barcelona; at least 112 are killed
6th	Air Canada Flight 621 caught fire after landing at Pearson International Airport, Toronto, Ontario, all 108 passengers and crew are killed
11th	The first tunnel under the Pyrenees is completed and links the Basque towns of Aranoutes and Biesma
21st	The Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed
23rd	Said bin Taimur, Sultan of Muscat and Oman, is deposed in a palace coup by his son, Qaboos
23rd	Two CS gas canisters are thrown into the chamber of the British House of Commons
30th	Damages totalling £485,528 are awarded to 28 Thalidomide victims

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August
17th	Venera 7 is launched. It will later becomes the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from another planet
26th	The Women's Strike For Equality takes place down Fifth Avenue in New York City
26th	The Isle of Wight Festival begins on East Afton Farm off the coast of England. Some 600,000 people attend the largest rock festival of all time. Artists include Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Doors, Chicago, Richie Havens, John Sebastian, Joan Baez, Ten Years After, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Jethro Tull
29th	News reporter, Ruben Salazar shot during rally in East L.A.

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September
1st	An assassination attempt against King Hussein of Jordan precipitates the Black September crisis
3rd	Israeli forces fight Palestinian guerillas in southern Lebanon
5th	Vietnam War: Operation Jefferson Glenn begins - 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)
6th	The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacks 4 passenger aircraft from Pan Am, TWA and Swissair on flights to New York from Brussels, Frankfurt and Zürich
7th	An anti-war rally is held at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, attended by John Kerry, Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland
7th	Fighting breaks out between Arab guerillas and government forces in Amman, Jordan
9th	Elvis Presley begins his first concert tour since 1958 in Phoenix, Arizona at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum
10th	Cambodian government forces break the siege of Kompong Tho after 3 months
13th	The first New York City Marathon begins
15th	King Hussein of Jordan forms a military government with Muhammad Daoud as the prime minister
18th	Jimi Hendrix dies from choking on his own vomit while unconscious due to a barbiturate overdose in London
19th	Kostas Georgakis sets himself ablaze in Genoa, Italy as a protest against the Greek military junta of 1967-1974
20th	Syrian armored forces cross the Jordanian border
20th	Luna 16 lands on the Moon and lifts off the next day with samples. It lands on Earth September 24
21st	Palestinian armored forces reinforce Palestinian guerillas in Irbidi, Jordan
28th	Gamal Abdal Nasser dies; Vice President Anwar Sadat is named temporary president of Egypt
29th	The U.S. Congress gives President Richard Nixon authority to sell arms to Israel
29th	In Berlin, Baader-Meinhof Gang members rob 3 banks, with loot totaling over DM200,000

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October
3rd	In Lebanon, the government of Prime Minister Rashid Karami resigns
4th	In Bolivia, Army Commander General Rogelio Miranda and a group of officers rebel and demand the resignation of President Alfredo Ovando Candía, who fires him
4th	Janis Joplin dies of a heroin overdose in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 27
7th	General Juan José Torres becomes the new President of Bolivia
8th	Soviet author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature
8th	Vietnam War: In Paris, a Communist delegation rejects U.S. President Richard Nixon's October 7 peace proposal as "a maneuver to deceive world opinion."
9th	The Khmer Republic is proclaimed in Cambodia
10th	Fiji becomes independent
12th	Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas
13th	Saeb Salam forms a government in Lebanon
14th	A Chinese nuclear test is conducted in Lop Nor
15th	In Egypt, a referendum supports Anwar Sadat 90.04%
17th	Anwar Sadat officially becomes President of Egypt
20th	The Soviet Union launches the Zond 8 lunar probe
22nd	Chilean army commander Rene Schneider is shot in Santiago; the government declares a state of emergency. Schneider dies October 25
24th	Salvador Allende is elected President of Chile
25th	The wreck of Confederate submarine Hunley is found off Charleston, South Carolina, by pioneer underwater archaeologist, Dr. E. Lee Spence, then just 22 years old. Hunley was the first submarine in history to sink a ship in warfare
26th	Garry Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury debuts in approximately two dozen newspapers in the United States
28th	In Jordan, the government of Ahmed Toukan resigns; the next prime minister is Wasfi Al-Tal
28th	A cholera outbreak in eastern Slovakia causes Hungary to close its border with Czechoslovakia
28th	Gary Gabelich drives the rocket-powered Blue Flame to an official world land speed record of 622.287 mph (1,001.452863 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
30th	In Vietnam, the worst monsoon to hit the area in 6 years causes large floods, kills 293, leaves 200,000 homeless and virtually halts the Vietnam War

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November
4th	Vietnam War: The United States turns control of the air base in the Mekong Delta to South Vietnam
5th	Vietnam War: The United States Military Assistance Command in Vietnam reports the lowest weekly American soldier death toll in 5 years (24 soldiers died that week, which was the fifth consecutive week the death toll was below 50; 431 were reported wounded that week, however)
8th	Egypt, Libya and Sudan announce their intentions to form a federation
9th	The Soviet Union launches Luna 17
9th	Vietnam War: The Supreme Court of the United States votes 6-3 not to hear a case by the state of Massachusetts, about the constitutionality of a state law granting Massachusetts residents the right to refuse military service in an undeclared war
10th	Vietnam War: For the first time in 5 years, an entire week ends with no reports of United States combat fatalities in Southeast Asia
12th	Soviet author Andrei Amalrik is sentenced to 3 years for 'anti-Soviet' writings
13th	Hafez al-Assad comes to power in Syria, following a military coup
13th	A 120-mph tropical cyclone hits the densely populated Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an estimated 500,000 people (considered the 20th century's worst cyclone disaster)
14th	A fatal airplane accident in Wayne County, West Virginia, Southern Airlines Flight 932, claims the lives of all 75 onboard, including 37 players and 5 coaches from the Marshall University football team
17th	Vietnam War: Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai massacre
17th	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
21st	Vietnam War: A joint Air Force and Army team raids the Son Tay prison camp in an attempt to free American POWs 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)
23rd	Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! makes its network TV debut, when CBS telecasts the 1955 film version as a three-hour Thanksgiving special
27th	Bolivian artist Benjamin Mendoza tries to assassinate Pope Paul VI during his visit in Manila

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December
1st	The Italian House of Representatives accepts the new divorce law
1st	The Basque ETA kidnaps West German Eugen Beihl in San Sebastián
1st	Luis Echeverría becomes president of Mexico
4th	The Spanish government declares a 3-month martial law in the Basque county of Guipuzco, due to strikes and demonstrations
7th	Giovanni Enrico Bucher, the Swiss ambassador to Brazil, is kidnapped in Rio de Janeiro; kidnappers demand the release of 70 political prisoners
7th	The U.N. General Assembly supports the isolation of South Africa due to its apartheid policies
7th	During his visit to the Polish capital, German Chancellor Willy Brandt goes down on his knees in front of a monument to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto
13th	The government of Poland announces increases in the price of food. Riots and looting lead to a bloody confrontation between the rioters and the government on December 15, and martial law December 17-22. December 23 the government will freeze the food prices for two years
15th	The USSR's Venera 7 becomes the first spacecraft to land successfully on Venus and transmit data back to Earth
22nd	Franz Stangl, the ex-commander of Treblinka, is sentenced to life imprisonment
23rd	The North Tower of the World Trade Center is topped out at 1,368 feet, making it the tallest building in the world
28th	Three Basques are sentenced to death (3 twice), others sentenced for 12-62 years, and 1 is released
30th	In Viscaya, Spain, Basque county, 15,000 go on strike to protest the Burgos trial death sentences
30th	Francisco Franco commutes the death sentences of the Burgos Trial defendants to 30 years in prison
31st	Paul McCartney sues in Great Britain to dissolve the Beatles's legal partnership