Timeline of Top News Stories 1970-1979

PRINT

With links to coverage from the Facts On File^® World News Digest

			The 2010s The 2000s The 1990s The 1980s The 1970s The 1960s The 1950s The 1940s 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970

1979

• Soviets Invade Afghanistan (December 27, 1979)
• Iranians Seize U.S. Embassy in Teheran, Take Hostages (November 4, 1979)
• Hurricane David Kills More Than 1,100 (August 30, 1979)
• Lord Mountbatten Killed by IRA Bomb (August 27, 1979)
• SALT II Treaty Signed at U.S.-Soviet Summit in Vienna; Carter, Brezhnev Embrace (June 18, 1979)
• Jet Crash Kills 275 in Chicago (May 25, 1979)
• Margaret Thatcher Becomes Britain's First Woman Prime Minister (May 3, 1979)
• Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant Accident Nearly Leads to Meltdown (March 28, 1979)
• Israel, Egypt Sign Peace Treaty Formally Ending State of War (March 26, 1979)
• Chinese Troops Invade Vietnam (February 17, 1979)
• Shah of Iran Overthrown (January 16, 1979)

1978

• U.S. and China Set Diplomatic Ties (December 15, 1978)
• Hundreds Die in Mass Murder-Suicide at Jonestown Commune in Guyana (November 18, 1978)
• U.S. President Carter Takes Emergency Steps to Rescue Plunging Dollar (November 1, 1978)
• Polish Cardinal Becomes Pope John Paul II (October 16, 1978)
• Equal Rights Amendment Ratification Deadline Extended by U.S. Congress (October 6, 1978)
• Israel, Egypt Agree on Mideast Peace Framework at Camp David Summit (September 17, 1978)
• 'Test-Tube Baby' Born in Britain (July 25, 1978)
• U.S. Supreme Court Makes Affirmative Action Ruling in Bakke Case (June 28, 1978)
• Californians Approve Proposition 13, Slashing Property Taxes (June 6, 1978)
• Kidnapped Former Italian Premier Aldo Moro Found Murdered (May 9, 1978)
• Panama Canal Treaty Ratified by U.S. Senate (April 18, 1978)

1977

• Anti-Apartheid Sentiment Mounts in South Africa, Sparking Government Crackdown (October 19, 1977)
• Carter Aide Bert Lance Resigns in Personal Finance Controversy (September 21, 1977)
• New Wave of Vietnamese Refugees Arrives in U.S. (September 20, 1977)
• Elvis Presley Dies (August 16, 1977)
• "Son of Sam" Murder Suspect Arrested (August 10, 1977)
• Korean Lobbying Scandal Unfolds (June 5, 1977)
• Menachem Begin Wins in Israeli Elections (May 17, 1977)
• Carter Calls for Conservation and Sacrifice in Attempt to Overcome Energy Crisis (April 20, 1977)
• Carter Speaks Out on Human Rights to the United Nations (March 17, 1977)
• 'Roots' Makes Television History (January 23, 1977)
• Firing Squad Execution of Gilmore Marks First U.S. Use of Death Penalty in a Decade (January 17, 1977)

1976

• Jimmy Carter Defeats Gerald Ford in U.S. Presidential Election (November 2, 1976)
• Truce Eases Fighting in Lebanon's Civil War (October 21, 1976)
• Mao Zedong, Principal Founder and Longtime Leader of Communist China, Dies at Age 82 (September 9, 1976)
• Viking I Lands on Mars (July 20, 1976)
• Summer Olympic Games in Montreal Marked by Political Strife, Defections -- and Gymnastic Perfection (July 17 - August 1, 1976)
• U.S. Celebrates Bicentennial (July 4, 1976)
• Pro-Palestinian Guerrillas Hijack Air France Jet; 31 Die During Rescue of Hostages (July 3, 1976)
• Death Penalty in Murder Cases Upheld by Supreme Court in Gregg v. Georgia Decision (July 2, 1976)
• CIA Activities Probed by Senate (April 26, 1976)
• Karen Anne Quinlan's Parents Win Right to Let Her Die (March 31, 1976)

1975

• New York City Plunges Into Fiscal Crisis; Ford OKs Federal Aid Despite Earlier Resistance (November 26, 1975)
• Assassination Attempt on President Ford Fails; California Incident is Second Thwarted Attack in 17 Days (September 22, 1975)
• Patricia Hearst Arrested by FBI (September 18, 1975)
• Former Teamster Leader James Hoffa Reported Missing (July 31, 1975)
• U.S. and Soviet Union Link Together in Space; Apollo and Soyuz Crafts Dock in Orbit (July 17, 1975)
• India Declares Nationwide Emergency after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi Convicted of Election Fraud (June 26, 1975)
• School Busing Plan Ordered to Desegregate Boston's Public Schools (May 10, 1975)
• South Vietnamese Government Surrenders; Communists Enter Saigon; Americans Evacuated (April 30, 1975)
• Cambodian Government Falls; Khmer Rouge Enters Phnom Penh (April 16, 1975)
• Four Nixon Aides Convicted in Watergate Case (January 1, 1975)

1974

• Democrats Sweep Mid-Term Elections (November 5, 1974)
• Oakland A's Win Third Straight World Series (October 17, 1974)
• Oil Price Increases Drive Inflation, Check Growth Worldwide; Ford Fights 'Stagflation' (September 27, 1974)
• President Nixon Resigns; Ford Becomes President (August 9, 1974)
• Turkey Invades Cyprus after Coup Ousts Makarios (July 20, 1974)
• Israel Agrees to Pull Back Along Syrian Border and in the Sinai (June 5, 1974)
• India Detonates Atomic Device (May 18, 1974)
• Brandt Resigns as West German Leader; Spy Scandal Cited (May 6, 1974)
• Portuguese Dictatorship Overthrown after 42 Years (April 25, 1974)
• Russian Nobelist Solzhenitsyn Forced into Exile (February 13, 1974)
• Patricia Hearst Kidnapped by Radicals (February 5, 1974)

1973

• Watergate Tape Erasure Disclosed (November 21, 1973)
• Watergate Scandal Intensifies, as Nixon Agrees to Give White House Tapes to Court (October 23, 1973)
• Arab States Impose Oil Embargo on U.S. (October 19, 1973)
• Gerald Ford Tapped to Replace Spiro Agnew as V.P. (October 12, 1973)
• Vice President Spiro Agnew, Facing Criminal Charges, Resigns (October 10, 1973)
• Yom Kippur War Erupts in Middle East (October 6, 1973)
• Chile's Salvador Allende Ousted in Military Coup, Found Dead (September 11, 1973)
• Price Freeze Reimposed by Nixon to Fight Rampant Inflation (June 13, 1973)
• Senate Watergate Hearings Begin (May 17, 1973)
• Skylab, the First U.S. Space Station, is Launched into Orbit (May 14, 1973)
• Cease-fire Takes Effect in Vietnam (January 28, 1973)
• Former President Lyndon B. Johnson Dies in Texas (January 22, 1973)
• Roe v. Wade Ruling Establishes Abortion Rights (January 22, 1973)

1972

• Vietnam Peace Talks Collapse; U.S. Resumes Massive Bombing Campaign (December 18, 1972)
• Apollo Missions End with Sixth and Final Manned Moon Landing (December 11, 1972)
• Nixon Reelected in Landslide over McGovern (November 7, 1972)
• Watergate Burglary Investigation Yields Seven Indictments (September 15, 1972)
• Israeli Athletes Slain at Olympic Games in Munich (September 5, 1972)
• Anwar el-Sadat Orders Russian Forces to Leave Egypt (July 18, 1972)
• U.S. Death Penalty Practices Found Cruel and Unusual by Supreme Court in Furman v. Georgia Case (June 29, 1972)
• Burglars Arrested at Democratic National Committee Headquarters in Watergate Hotel (June 17, 1972)
• Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty Signed by Nixon and Brezhnev (May 26, 1972)
• Alabama Governor George C. Wallace Survives Assassination Attempt while Campaigning for Presidential Primary (May 15, 1972)
• Britain Imposes Direct Rule on Northern Ireland (March 30, 1972)
• Nixon Visits Communist China (February 21-28, 1972)

1971

• U.S. Strikes North Vietnam in Massive Air Raids (December 26-30, 1971)
• Communist China Admitted to U.N., Nationalist Taiwan Expelled (October 25, 1971)
• Wage and Price Freeze Ordered by Nixon (August 15, 1971)
• Northern Ireland Violence Surges after Government Cracks Down on IRA (August 9, 1971)
• Nixon Sets China Visit (July 15, 1971)
• "Pentagon Papers" Publication Upheld by Supreme Court (June 30, 1971)
• Anti-War Protesters Stage Huge Rallies in Washington D.C., San Francisco (April 24, 1971)
• School Busing Aimed at Desegregation Upheld by Supreme Court (April 20, 1971)
• Soviets Launch Salyut, the World's First Space Station (April 19, 1971)
• Nixon Steps Up Vietnam Troop Withdrawals (April 7, 1971)
• Pakistan Civil War Erupts (March 25, 1971)
• Charles Manson and Three Followers Convicted of Murder (January 26, 1971)
• Idi Amin Leads Coup in Uganda, Obote Ousted (January 25, 1971)

1970

• Sadat Named to Succeed Nasser as Egypt's President (October 5, 1970)
• Nasser Dies After Cairo Meeting to End Jordan Civil War (September 28, 1970)
• Arab Commandos Blow Up Three Hijacked Jets in Jordanian Desert (September 12, 1970)
• Marxist Salvador Allende Elected President of Chile (September 4, 1970)
• Voting Rights Extended to 18-Year-Olds (June 17, 1970)
• Anti-War Unrest Swells, with Hundreds of U.S. Colleges Closed or on Strike (May 10, 1970)
• Four Kent State Students Killed by National Guardsmen during Anti-War Protest (May 4, 1970)
• Nixon Sends Troops to Cambodia (April 30, 1970)
• First Earth Day Held in U.S. (April 22, 1970)
• "Chicago 7" Trial Ends with Split Verdict (February 18, 1970)
• U.S. Soldiers Charged with Murder in Mylai (Songmy) Massacre (January 8, 1970)

			The 2010s The 2000s The 1990s The 1980s The 1970s The 1960s The 1950s The 1940s 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970