1970s facts for kids

Clockwise from top left: U.S. President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory after he resigned because of the Watergate scandal in 1974; refugees on a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; the 1973 oil crisis causes economic damage throughout the developed world; both the leaders of Israel and Egypt shake hands after the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978; the 1970 Bhola cyclone kills around 500,000 people in the densely populated Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan (which would become independent as Bangladesh in 1971) in November 1970; the Iranian Revolution of 1979 causes Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi to be removed, who is later replaced by an Islamic theocracy led by Ayatollah Khomeini; disco music becomes more popular.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1940s 1950s 1960s – 1970s – 1980s 1990s 2000s
Years:	1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
Categories:	Births – Deaths – Architecture Establishments – Disestablishments

The 1970s was the decade that started on January 1 1970, and ended on December 31 1979.

Events
People
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Events

Throughout the decade: decolonization continued: Angola, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Oman, the Bahamas, and many other countries gained independence.
1970, December 15 – spaceship Venera 7 lands on Venus
1971 – Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
December 16 – Partition of Pakistan of East and West Pakistans into Bangladesh and Pakistan
1972, March 2 – Pioneer 10 is launched (sent into space). It becomes the first spaceship to fly near Jupiter and the asteroid belt.
1972 – Munich massacre
1973, April 6 – Pioneer 11 is launched. It becomes the first the first spaceship to fly near Saturn.
1974 – August 9 Richard Nixon resigned as President of the United States due to the Watergate scandal.
1973 – 1973 Arab-Israeli War
1975 – end of the Vietnam War
1975 – communists take power in Cambodia
1976, July 20 – spaceship Viking 1 lands on Mars
1977, August 20 – Voyager 2 is launched. It becomes the first spaceship to fly near Uranus and Neptune.
1977, September 5 – Voyager 1 is launched. It is now the farthest spaceship from the Earth.
1977: The last cases of smallpox of the world.
1978 – year with three popes
1978, October 1 – Vietnam invades Cambodia
1979 – the World Health Organization says it has eliminated smallpox

People

ABBA, Swedish band
Sex Pistols, British punk band
The Clash, British punk band
The Ramones, American punk band
Boney M, disco group
John Travolta, American actor
Edward Heath, Prime Minister of United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974
Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of United Kingdom from 1974 to 1976
James Callaghan, Prime Minister of United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979
Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of United Kingdom beginning 1979
Fidel Castro, Cuban leader
Augusto Pinochet, dictator of Chile
Willy Brandt, German chancellor until 1974
Leonid Brezhnev, leader of the Soviet Union beginning in 1964
Jimmy Carter, President of the United States beginning in 1977
Cher, American singer
Elizabeth II, British queen since 1952
Gerald Ford, President of the United States until 1977
Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel until 1977
Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India until 1977
Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel until 1974
Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader
Germaine Greer, Australian feminist
Hirohito, emperor of Japan
Pope John Paul I, pope only in the year 1978
Pope John Paul II, pope 1978–2005
Norman Lear, American TV producer
Pete Maravich, United States basketball player
Francisco Franco, dictator of Spain until 1975
Deng Xiaoping, leader in China beginning in 1978
Mao Zedong, leader in China until 1976
Richard Nixon, President of the United States until 1974
Pope Paul VI, pope until 1978
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran until 1979
Ayatollah Khomeini
Juan Perón, President of Argentina until 1974
Jorge Rafael Videla, dictator of Argentina beginning 1976
Muammar al-Gaddafi, dictator Libyan
Pelé, Brazilian football player
Pol Pot, prime minister of Cambodia from 1976 to 1979
Anwar Sadat, president of Egypt beginning in 1970
Helmut Schmidt, German chancellor beginning in 1974
Georges Pompidou, president of France from 1969 to 1974
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, President of France beginning in 1974
Gloria Steinem, American feminist
Pierre Trudeau, Canadian prime minister until 1979
Elvis Presley, American singer

Images for kids

The 1970 Bhola cyclone, considered the 20th century's worst cyclone disaster, kills an estimated 500,000 people in the densely populated Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan during November 1970.
King Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
Line at a gas station in Maryland, June 15, 1979.
Concorde landing at Farnborough in September 1974
Isabel Perón becomes the first woman President of Argentina in 1974 and the first woman non-monarch head of state in the Western hemisphere.
Margaret Thatcher shortly before becoming the United Kingdom's first woman Prime Minister in 1979. Thatcher's political and economic agenda began the first government committed to neoliberalism.
Anti-war protest against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C. on April 24, 1971.
British rock band Led Zeppelin was one of the most popular and influential bands of the 1970s. The band's heavy, guitar-driven sound has led them to be cited as one of the progenitors of heavy metal.
Pink Floyd performing The Dark Side of the Moon in 1973, the highest selling album of the 1970s.
British rock band Queen (pictured here in 1977) was considered to be one of the most influential bands of the '70s (as well as the '80s), along with American rock band Eagles and others
Bruce Lee fostered the popularity of martial arts cinema
Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson from Sanford and Son
Pong (1972)
The first commercially available video game console entitled Magnavox Odyssey was released in September 1972.
Microvision (1979) is the very first handheld game console that used interchangeable cartridges.
The CN Tower was completed in 1976, becoming the world's tallest free-standing structure.
Apollo 17 Astronaut Gene Cernan becomes the last man on the Moon, December 13, 1972
An artist impression of an American Apollo spacecraft and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft docking, a propaganda portrait for the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project mission
America's first space station Skylab in orbit February 8, 1974
Viking 1, the first of two spacecraft sent to Mars, takes this picture of the landing site in Chryse Planitia (1978)
Voyager 1 passing by Jupiter's Great Red Spot February 25, 1979
The first scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) is introduced.
8-inch floppy disk
A Philips N1500 video cassette recorder, with wooden cabinet.
Atari 2600, launched in 1977.
Sony Walkman, the original TPS-L2 model.
1970s analogue synthesizer Yamaha CS-80.
1970 Dodge Challenger Trans Am, example of muscle cars in the earlier part of the decade.
Honda Civic sold well throughout the decade.
1973 Volvo P1800 sportwagon.
The Disco scene was very popular in the 1970s. Here is a disco ball.
Bob Marley and reggae music was popular in the late 1970s.
The Brady Bunch was a popular television show in the 1970s. 1970s slang like "groovy" was used in the show.
Space Invaders, an arcade game, released in 1978.
Earth, Wind and Fire was a popular band in the disco scene at the time with hits like September.
Bell-bottomed pants were especially popular throughout the decade
The Farrah Fawcett hairstyle was considered particularly fashionable during the decade
Lava lamps were especially popular during the decade
Al Pacino
Sylvester Stallone
Robert De Niro
John Travolta
Jack Nicholson
Left to right: Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, and George Lucas
Stevie Wonder, 1973
Marvin Gaye, 1973
Joni Mitchell, 1974
David Bowie, 1975
Elton John, 1975
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, 1970
The Rolling Stones, 1975
Ramones, 1976
Kiss, 1979
Toni Morrison, 1970
Hunter S. Thompson, 1971
Kurt Vonnegut, 1972
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 1974
Nadia Comăneci, 1976
Billie Jean King, 1978

1970s facts for kids

Contents

Events

People

Images for kids

See also