Explore 1718 historical events from 1970–1979.
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Unio…
Vietnam War: Kent State shootings: The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city
Derrick Dewan Brooks is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker for his entire 14-year career in the National Football League (NFL) with the Tampa Bay …
Derrick Brooks, American football player
Clement Blair Peach was a New Zealand teacher who was killed during an anti-racism demonstration in Southall, London, England. A campaigner and activist against the far right, in A…
Blair Peach, a New Zealand teacher, dies after being knocked unconscious during an Anti-Nazi League demonstration agains
The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo was conceiv…
Apollo program: The Apollo 16 Lunar Module Orion, commanded by John Young and piloted by Charles Duke, lands on the Moon
Melissa Joan Hart is an American actress, director and producer. She had starring roles as the title characters in the sitcoms Clarissa Explains It All, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, …
Melissa Joan Hart, American actress
Deniz Gezmiş was a Turkish Marxist-Leninist revolutionary, student leader, and political activist in Turkey in the late 1960s. He was one of the founding members of the People's Li…
Deniz Gezmiş, Yusuf Aslan and Hüseyin İnan are executed in Ankara after being convicted of attempting to overthrow the C
Edgar Howard Wright is an English filmmaker. He is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satirical genre films, which feature extensive use of expressive popular music, Steadicam t…
Edgar Wright, English filmmaker
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from…
Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The South African Defence Force (SADF) comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the for…
The South African Defence Force attacks a SWAPO base at Cassinga in southern Angola, killing about 600 people
The Willis Tower, formerly and still commonly referred to as the Sears Tower, is a 110-story, 1,451-foot (442.3 m) skyscraper in the Loop of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Desig…
The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out at 1,451 feet (442 m) as the world's tallest building
On 23 April 1979, SAETA Flight 011, a Vickers Viscount passenger aircraft of Ecuadorian airline SAETA, crashed in a mountainous region of Pastaza Province, Ecuador, killing all 57 …
SAETA Flight 011 crashes in Pastaza Province, Ecuador, killing all 57 people on board
On 30 April 1979, Mount Marapi, a complex volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the most active complex volcano in West Sumatra province, erupted, killing between 80 and …
Eruption of Mount Marapi: Mount Marapi, a complex volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, erupts
The Sydney Ghost Train fire at Luna Park Sydney in Australia killed seven people and destroyed the ride on 9 June 1979. The fire was originally blamed on an electrical fault despit…
The Ghost Train fire at Luna Park Sydney, Australia, kills seven
The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) were two rounds of bilateral conferences and corresponding international treaties involving the United States and the Soviet Union. The C…
SALT II is signed by the United States and the Soviet Union
Clement Blair Peach was a New Zealand teacher who was killed during an anti-racism demonstration in Southall, London, England. A campaigner and activist against the far right, in A…
Blair Peach, a British activist, is fatally injured after being knocked unconscious during an Anti-Nazi League demonstra
Clement Blair Peach was a New Zealand teacher who was killed during an anti-racism demonstration in Southall, London, England. A campaigner and activist against the far right, in A…
Blair Peach, a New Zealand teacher, dies after being knocked unconscious during an Anti-Nazi League demonstration agains
The Conservative and Unionist Party, commonly the Conservative Party and colloquially the Tories, is one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Lab…
The Conservative Party wins the United Kingdom general election
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from…
Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Iranian Jews constitute one of the oldest communities of the Jewish diaspora. Dating back to the biblical era, they originate from the Jews who arrived in Iran as Babylonian captiv…
Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed by firing squad in Tehran, prompting the mass exodus of the once
Christijan Albers is a Dutch former professional racing driver. After success in the DTM he drove in Formula One from 2005 until the 2007 British Grand Prix, shortly after which he…
Christijan Albers, Dutch racing driver
Lars Börgeling is a German pole vaulter.
Lars Börgeling, German pole vaulter
Daniel Browne is currently playing club rugby for London Welsh in the Aviva Championship. He previously played for Bath, Northampton Saints and Leeds Carnegie in the English Premie…
Daniel Browne, New Zealand rugby player
Eric Peter Brewer is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who was a defenceman for sixteen seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 2000 to 2015. He is an NHL A…
Eric Brewer, Canadian ice hockey player
The White Night riots were a series of violent events sparked by an announcement of a lenient sentencing of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone, the mayor of San Fra…
White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George M
John Arthur Spenkelink was an American convicted murderer. He was executed in 1979, the first convicted criminal to be executed in Florida after capital punishment was reinstated i…
John Spenkelink, a convicted murderer, is executed in Florida; he is the first person to be executed in the state after
American Airlines Flight 191 was a regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago to Los Angeles International Airport. On the afternoon…
American Airlines Flight 191: A McDonnell Douglas DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport, Chicago,
Konstantinos G. Karamanlis was a Greek statesman who was the four-time Prime Minister of Greece and two-term president of the Third Hellenic Republic, serving in the former role fr…
Konstantinos Karamanlis signs the full treaty of the accession of Greece with the European Economic Community
Downeast Airlines Flight 46 was a scheduled airline service in the United States from Boston's Logan International Airport to Rockland, Maine, operated by Downeast Airlines. On May…
Downeast Airlines Flight 46 crashes on approach to Knox County Regional Airport in Rockland, Maine, killing 17
Marija Šestak is a Serbian-born Slovenian triple jumper.
Marija Šestak, Serbian-Slovenian triple jumper
Matt Cooper is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. A New South Wales State of Origin and Australia international representa…
Matt Cooper, Australian rugby league player
Kourtney Kardashian Barker is an American media personality, socialite and businesswoman. In 2007, she and her family began starring in the reality television series Keeping Up wit…
Kourtney Kardashian, American television personality
Kate Garry Hudson is an American actress and singer-songwriter. Born to singer Bill Hudson and actress Goldie Hawn, Hudson made her film debut in the 1998 drama Desert Blue, which …
Kate Hudson, American actress
Rhodesia, officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa that existed from 1965 to 1979. Rhodesia was the de facto successor to the col…
The first black-led government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 90 years takes power
Pope John Paul II was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death in 2005. He was the first non-Italian pope since Adrian VI in t…
Pope John Paul II starts his first official visit to his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist cou