1970 History, Facts, and Trivia
Quick Facts from 1970
- World Changing Event: The Beatles officially disbanded in 1970, ending the most influential musical partnership in history. Paul McCartney announced his departure on April 10; the legal dissolution took years. The world has been arguing about who was at fault ever since.
- Top Song: Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel
- Influential Songs: 25 or 6 to 4 by Chicago, Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine by James Brown, Ball of Confusion by The Temptations, and Lola by The Kinks
- Must-See Movies: M*A*S*H, Woodstock, Patton, Five Easy Pieces, Love Story, Catch-22, Tora! Tora! Tora!, THX 1138, and The Aristocats
- Most Famous American: Probably Paul Newman
- Notable Books: The Late, Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey and Love Story by Erich Segal
- Movie ticket: $1.55; Gallon of gas: 36 cents; First-class stamp: 6 cents
- Federal spending: $195.65 billion; Federal debt: $380.9 billion; Unemployment: 3.5%
- The Funny Troupe: Firesign Theatre
- The Funny Late Night Host: Johnny Carson
- The Conversation: Four students were shot and killed by National Guardsmen at Kent State University in Ohio. Nine more were wounded. The Vietnam War debate had reached a breaking point.
- Super Bowl IV ad cost: $78,000 for 30 seconds
- San Diego Comic-Con International opened at the Grant Hotel in 1970, with approximately 145 attendees. It now draws over 130,000.
Top Ten Baby Names of 1970
Girls: Jennifer, Lisa, Kimberly, Michelle, Amy, Angela, Melissa, Tammy, Mary, Tracy Boys: Michael, James, David, John, Robert, Christopher, William, Brian, Mark, Richard
Fashion Icons and Sex Symbols
Dyan Cannon, Veronica Carlson, Catherine Deneuve, Barbara Eden, Barbara Feldon, Jane Fonda, Goldie Hawn, Peggy Lipton, Ann-Margret, Caroline Munro, Ingrid Pitt, Diana Rigg, Diana Ross, Cheryl Tiegs, Tina Turner, Twiggy, Raquel Welch
Hollywood Hunks and Leading Men
Warren Beatty, Tom Jones, Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley
The Quotes
“It’s not easy being green.” — Kermit the Frog, Sesame Street, 1970
“Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” — Ali MacGraw as Jenny Cavilleri, Love Story
“It’s the real thing.” — Coca-Cola advertising campaign, 1970
“Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” — Apollo 13 astronaut Jack Swigert, April 13, 1970 (commonly misquoted as “Houston, we have a problem”)
Time Magazine Person of the Year
Willy Brandt — West German Chancellor, honored for his Ostpolitik policy of reconciliation with Eastern Europe and East Germany
Miss America and Miss USA
Miss America: Pamela Eldred, West Bloomfield, MI
Miss USA: Deborah Shelton, Virginia
We Lost in 1970
Jimi Hendrix, guitarist, died September 18, age 27, in London from asphyxiation related to barbiturate intoxication. He is widely considered the greatest electric guitarist in history. #27club Janis Joplin, singer — died October 4, age 27, from an accidental heroin overdose in Hollywood. She was recording Pearl at the time, and the recording was released posthumously. #27club
Ed Sullivan, television host — still alive in 1970; his show was canceled in 1971 after 23 years. He died in 1974.
Bertrand Russell, philosopher and mathematician, died February 2, at the age of 97
E.M. Forster, author of A Room with a View and Howard’s End, died June 7, at the age of 91
Erle Stanley Gardner, author of the Perry Mason series, died March 11, at age 80
Rube Goldberg, cartoonist and inventor of absurdly complicated machines, died December 7, at age 87
Charles de Gaulle, former French president and WWII resistance leader, died on November 9, at the age of 79.
Sonny Liston, former heavyweight boxing champion, died on December 30 at approximately age 38; the circumstances are disputed.
Louis Armstrong, still very much alive in 1970, though he died the following year at age 69
Kent State
On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen fired into a crowd of students protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia at Kent State University. Twenty-eight guardsmen fired approximately 67 rounds in 13 seconds. Four students were killed: Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder. Nine others were wounded, one permanently paralyzed. Scheuer and Schroeder were not even participating in the protest; they were walking between classes.
Neil Young wrote Ohio within days. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young recorded and released it within weeks. It became one of the defining protest songs of the era.
Four days later, in New York City, the Hard Hat Riot occurred when construction workers attacked approximately 1,000 students and anti-war protesters near Wall Street. The riot reflected the deep class divisions that the Vietnam War had opened in American society.
The Apollo 13 Emergency
On April 13, 1970, two days into its journey toward the Moon, Apollo 13’s oxygen tank exploded. The planned lunar landing was immediately abandoned. Astronauts James Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise spent the next four days using the lunar module as a lifeboat, rationing power and water in temperatures that dropped to 38°F, navigating around the Moon and back to Earth using manual calculations. All three survived.
The actual quote was: “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” The famous film version — “Houston, we have a problem” — uses the present tense. It is one of the most famous misquotes in history.
Pop Culture Facts and History
Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel was released on February 6, 1970, spent six weeks at #1, and won five Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year. It was the duo’s last major release before their split. Paul Simon wrote it. Art Garfunkel sang it. Paul Simon has occasionally mentioned noticing that fact.
The Beatles released Let It Be on May 8, 1970. It was actually recorded before Abbey Road but released after it. Paul McCartney’s lawsuit to dissolve the band was filed in December 1970. The legal proceedings were not fully resolved until 1975.
M*A*S*H, directed by Robert Altman and released on January 25, 1970, was a satirical war film about the Korean War that was very obviously about the Vietnam War. It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and inspired one of the longest-running and most beloved TV series in American history.
Patton, released February 4, 1970, starred George C. Scott as General George Patton. Scott refused to accept his Academy Award for Best Actor, becoming the first person to decline an Oscar. He called the ceremony a “two-hour meat parade.” He won anyway.
Monday Night Football debuted on ABC on September 21, 1970. The Cleveland Browns defeated the New York Jets 31-21 before more than 85,000 fans. The broadcast team of Howard Cosell, Don Meredith, and Keith Jackson created a format that defined sports television for decades.
The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970, and was organized by Senator Gaylord Nelson, who was inspired by the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. An estimated 20 million Americans participated. The EPA was established later that same year.
Black Sabbath’s debut album was released on Friday, February 13, 1970, in the UK. It is widely regarded as the first true heavy metal album. The band deliberately chose Friday the 13th. The album was recorded in a single 12-hour session for £500.
The Jackson 5 had three separate #1 hits in 1970: I Want You Back, ABC, and The Love You Save. Michael Jackson was 11 years old. I’ll Be There reached #1 in October, giving them a fourth. No group had ever scored four #1 singles from a debut album.
The Boeing 747 made its first commercial passenger flight on January 22, 1970, from New York to London. It could carry up to 490 passengers, nearly twice as many as any previous airliner. It changed air travel permanently.
The Carpenters released Close to You in 1970, reaching #1 in July and launching one of the most commercially successful careers of the decade. Karen Carpenter’s voice remains one of the most recognized in American popular music.
Elvis Presley met President Richard Nixon at the White House on December 21, 1970. Elvis had written Nixon a six-page handwritten letter requesting a “Federal Agent at Large” badge, believing he could help fight drug use among young Americans. Nixon gave him the badge. The photograph of their handshake is the most requested image in the National Archives.
Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane was invited to a tea party at the White House by Nixon’s daughter Tricia, who had been her college classmate, in 1970. Slick planned to dose Nixon’s tea with 600 micrograms of LSD. She was turned away at the gate when security recognized her as a counterculture figure. History was made less interesting as a result.
Jim Morrison was convicted of “profanity and indecent exposure” stemming from a 1969 Miami concert, fined $500, and sentenced to six months of hard labor. He died in Paris on July 3, 1971, at age 27, while appealing the conviction. The conviction was posthumously pardoned by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in 2010.
Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 debuted on Los Angeles radio station KIIS on July 4, 1970. It went on to become the most widely syndicated radio program in history.
The first New York City Marathon was run on September 13, 1970, entirely within Central Park. 127 runners entered; 55 finished. The winner, Gary Muhrcke, completed it in 2 hours, 31 minutes, 38 seconds. The entry fee was $1.
Douglas Engelbart received the patent for the computer mouse in 1970, describing it as an “X-Y position indicator for a display system.” He had demonstrated it in 1968 but received no royalties when the patent expired before the mouse became widely used commercially.
The recycling symbol was created in 1970 by 23-year-old Gary Anderson, a University of Southern California student, for a design contest sponsored by a container company. He won $2,500. The symbol has never been trademarked and belongs to the public domain.
The word “spam,” meaning unwanted mass email, traces its origins to a 1970 sketch on Monty Python’s Flying Circus in which every item on a café menu contained Spam. The internet appropriated it two decades later.
The North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York reached its full height of 1,368 feet in 1970, briefly making it the tallest building in the world. The South Tower surpassed it the following year.
The Isle of Wight Festival 1970 drew an estimated 600,000 people, making it one of the largest gatherings in human history at that point. Jimi Hendrix performed one of his final concerts there. He died 18 days later.
Captain Gary Faust ejected from his Convair F-106 Delta Dart during a training mission in 1970 after losing control. The plane righted itself, continued flying on autopilot, and landed gently in a snow-covered field in Montana. It was recovered with only minor damage and returned to service. The Air Force nicknamed it “The Cornfield Bomber.”
Krazy Glue was introduced commercially in 1970, though its main ingredient, cyanoacrylate, was accidentally discovered by Harry Coover in 1942 while searching for a clear plastic for gun sights. He rejected it at the time because it stuck to everything.
The first quality folding umbrella in the U.S. market was introduced by Totes in 1970, ending centuries of Americans getting wet while carrying inconveniently large umbrellas.
The “blue raspberry” flavor was invented by the makers of ICEE in 1970, specifically to distinguish their raspberry flavor from cherry, since both natural colors are nearly identical. There is no such thing as a blue raspberry in nature.
Project Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force’s official study of UFO sightings from 1952 to 1970, was closed in December 1969. Its final report had 14 chapters; Chapter 13 was mysteriously absent from the released documents and remains so. Draw your own conclusions.
The Isdal Woman Mystery: In November 1970, the badly burned body of an unidentified woman was discovered in Norway’s Isdalen valley. Her clothing labels had been removed, identifying marks scraped from her belongings, and a trail of coded messages, disguised hotel registrations, and false identities was discovered. Norwegian police conducted one of the largest investigations in the country’s history. Her identity has never been established.
The Habit
Reading Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury comic strip, which debuted in approximately two dozen newspapers on October 26, 1970
Christmas Gifts and First Appearances of 1970
Stylophone musical toy, Mastermind, Whizzer top
Nobel Prize Winners
Physics — Hannes Alfvén and Louis Néel Chemistry — Luis Federico Leloir
Medicine — Sir Bernard Katz, Ulf von Euler, and Julius Axelrod
Literature — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (author of The Gulag Archipelago; the Soviet government prevented him from traveling to Stockholm to accept the prize)
Peace — Norman E. Borlaug (for his work on the Green Revolution, developing high-yield crop varieties that prevented famine for hundreds of millions)
Economics — Paul A. Samuelson
Popular and Best-Selling Books of 1970
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret — Judy Blume
Bless the Beasts and Children — Glendon Swarthout
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee — Dee Brown
The Crystal Cave — Mary Stewart
Deliverance — James Dickey
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) — David Reuben
The French Lieutenant’s Woman — John Fowles
The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight — Jimmy Breslin
The Godfather — Mario Puzo
Great Lion of God — Taylor Caldwell
The Greening of America — Charles A. Reich
In the Night Kitchen — Maurice Sendak
Islands in the Stream — Ernest Hemingway
The Late, Great Planet Earth — Hal Lindsey
Love Story — Erich Segal
Play It as It Lays — Joan Didion
QB VII — Leon Uris
Rich Man, Poor Man — Irwin Shaw
The Secret Woman — Victoria Holt
The Selling of the President 1968 — Joe McGinniss
The Sensuous Woman — J (Joan Garrity)
Travels with My Aunt — Graham Greene
Up the Organization — Robert Townsend
What Color Is Your Parachute? — Richard Nelson Bolles
Broadway in 1970
Sleuth (play) opened November 12, 1970, and ran until October 13, 1973. It starred Anthony Shaffer and ran for 1,222 performances, becoming one of the longest-running plays in Broadway history.
Best Film Oscar Winner
Midnight Cowboy, directed by John Schlesinger and starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, won Best Picture at the 1970 Academy Awards, presented for the 1969 film year. It remains the only X-rated film to win Best Picture. The rating was later changed to R.
The Bomb
Movie: Myra Breckinridge, based on Gore Vidal’s novel and starring Raquel Welch, Rex Reed, and Mae West in her final screen appearance, was so spectacularly awful that it effectively ended several careers simultaneously.
TV: The Leslie Uggams Show was CBS’s attempt to replicate the success of The Flip Wilson Show and lasted exactly one season.
Top Movies of 1970
- Love Story
- Airport
- M*A*S*H
- Patton
- The Aristocats
- Woodstock
- Catch-22
- Little Big Man
- Five Easy Pieces
- Tora! Tora! Tora!
Most Popular TV Shows of 1970
- Marcus Welby, M.D. (ABC)
- The Flip Wilson Show (NBC)
- Here’s Lucy (CBS)
- Ironside (NBC)
- Gunsmoke (CBS)
- Hawaii Five-O (CBS)
- Medical Center (CBS)
- Bonanza (NBC)
- The F.B.I. (ABC)
- The Mod Squad (ABC)
1970 Billboard Number One Songs
December 27, 1969 – January 2, 1970: Someday We’ll Be Together — Diana Ross and The Supremes
January 3 – January 30: Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head — B.J. Thomas
January 31 – February 6: I Want You Back — The Jackson 5
February 7 – February 13: Venus — The Shocking Blue
February 14 – February 27: Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) / Everybody Is a Star — Sly and the Family Stone
February 28 – April 10: Bridge Over Troubled Water — Simon and Garfunkel (6 weeks)
April 11 – April 24: Let It Be — The Beatles
April 25 – May 8: ABC — The Jackson 5
May 9 – May 29: American Woman — The Guess Who
May 30 – June 12: Everything Is Beautiful — Ray Stevens
June 13 – June 26: The Long and Winding Road — The Beatles
June 27 – July 10: The Love You Save — The Jackson 5
July 11 – July 24: Mama Told Me (Not to Come) — Three Dog Night
July 25 – August 21: (They Long to Be) Close to You — The Carpenters (4 weeks)
August 22 – August 28: Make It with You — Bread
August 29 – September 18: War — Edwin Starr (3 weeks)
September 19 – October 9: Ain’t No Mountain High Enough — Diana Ross
October 10 – October 16: Cracklin’ Rosie — Neil Diamond
October 17 – November 20: I’ll Be There — The Jackson 5 (5 weeks)
November 21 – December 11: I Think I Love You — The Partridge Family
December 12 – December 25: The Tears of a Clown — Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
December 26, 1970 – January 22, 1971: My Sweet Lord — George Harrison
The Jackson 5 had four separate #1 hits in 1970, making it one of the most dominant debut years in chart history. The Beatles placed two songs at #1 in the same year they broke up. George Harrison closed the year at #1 with My Sweet Lord, becoming the first solo Beatle to reach the top spot.
1970 United States Census
Total U.S. Population: 203,302,031
New York, NY — 7,894,862
Chicago, IL — 3,366,957
Los Angeles, CA — 2,816,061
Philadelphia, PA — 1,948,609
Detroit, MI — 1,511,482
Houston, TX — 1,232,802
Baltimore, MD — 905,759
Dallas, TX — 844,401
Washington, D.C. — 756,510
Cleveland, OH — 750,903
Sports Champions of 1970
World Series: Baltimore Orioles
Super Bowl IV: Kansas City Chiefs (defeated Minnesota Vikings 23-7)
NBA Champions: New York Knicks Stanley Cup: Boston Bruins
U.S. Open Golf: Tony Jacklin
U.S. Open Tennis — Men: Ken Rosewall | Women: Margaret Smith Court
Wimbledon — Men: John Newcombe | Women: Margaret Court
NCAA Football: Nebraska, Ohio State, and Texas (three-way shared title)
NCAA Basketball: UCLA (beginning of a dynasty — they won 10 of the next 12 championships)
Kentucky Derby: Dust Commander
FIFA World Cup: Brazil (their third title, winning it outright to keep the Jules Rimet Trophy permanently)
Sports Highlight: Muhammad Ali, stripped of his heavyweight title in 1967 for refusing military induction, won his legal battle and returned to boxing in 1970. His first fight back was on October 26 against Jerry Quarry in Atlanta, which he won by TKO in the third round. His return was one of the most anticipated sporting events of the decade.
FAQ — 1970 Trivia, Fun Facts, and Pop Culture History
Q: Why did The Beatles break up in 1970?
A: Paul McCartney announced his departure on April 10, 1970, citing creative and personal differences, and disputes over management. The legal dissolution involved multiple lawsuits and wasn’t fully resolved until 1975. All four members went on to successful solo careers. The argument over who was responsible continues.
Q: What was the Kent State shooting?
A: On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on students protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others. Two of the four killed were not participating in the protest. Neil Young wrote Ohio within days of the event.
Q: What was the #1 song of 1970?
A: Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel spent six weeks at #1 and won five Grammy Awards. George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord ended the year at #1, making him the first solo Beatle to top the American charts.
Q: What happened on Apollo 13?
A: On April 13, 1970, an oxygen tank exploded on the Apollo 13 spacecraft en route to the Moon. The three astronauts, James Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise, used the lunar module as a lifeboat and returned safely to Earth four days later. The actual quote was “Houston, we’ve had a problem,” not the more dramatic present-tense version popularized by the film.
Q: What was the biggest movie of 1970?
A: Love Story, directed by Arthur Hiller and starring Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw, was the top-grossing film of 1970. Its tagline, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry,” became one of the most parodied lines in film history.
Q: What happened to Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin in 1970?
A: Both died at age 27 within weeks of each other. Jimi Hendrix died September 18 in London from asphyxiation related to barbiturate intoxication. Janis Joplin died on October 4 in Hollywood from an accidental heroin overdose. Both were at the peak of their careers. They joined Jim Morrison, who died the following year at 27, in what became known as the 27 Club.
Q: What debuted on television in 1970 that is still going?
A: Monday Night Football premiered on ABC on September 21, 1970. All My Children premiered on January 5. Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 launched on the radio on July 4, still in syndication.
Q: What environmental agency was created in 1970?
A: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began operations on December 2, 1970. The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, with an estimated 20 million participants, helping build political momentum for the agency’s creation.
Q: What was the first San Diego Comic-Con?
A: The first San Diego Comic-Con International opened on March 21, 1970, at the U.S. Grant Hotel, with approximately 145 attendees. It now draws over 130,000 people annually and is the world’s largest pop culture convention.
Q: What sports legend returned to the ring in 1970?
A: Muhammad Ali, stripped of the heavyweight title in 1967 for refusing military induction during the Vietnam War, won his legal battle and returned to boxing on October 26, 1970, defeating Jerry Quarry in Atlanta by TKO in three rounds.
More 1970 History and Trivia Resources
Most Popular Baby Names (BabyCenter.com)
Born in 1970 (OverTheHill.com)
Popular and Notable Books (popculture.us)
Broadway Shows that Opened in 1970X
1970 Calendar, courtesy of Time and Date.com
Fact Monster
1970s, Infoplease.com World History
1970 in Movies (according to IMDB)
70s Nostalgia
Retrowaste Vintage Culture
1970 Television
15 Trends From the 1970s
1970s Slang
1970 US Census Fast Facts
Wikipedia 1970
