1970s facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

The 1970s was a ten-year period that started on January 1, 1970, and ended on December 31, 1979. It was a time of big changes around the world, from new countries gaining independence to exciting discoveries in space and the rise of new music and technology.

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

Key Events of the 1970s
Famous People of the 1970s
Technology and Culture in the 1970s
- New Technologies
- Popular Culture and Trends
Images for kids
See also

Key Events of the 1970s

The 1970s saw many important events that changed the world. Countries gained independence, space exploration reached new heights, and major conflicts ended.

Countries Gaining Independence

Throughout the 1970s, many countries became independent from colonial rule. These included Angola, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Oman, and the Bahamas.

Major Global Conflicts and Changes

1971: The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 led to the creation of Bangladesh as a new country, separating from Pakistan.
1973: The 1973 Arab-Israeli War was a conflict in the Middle East.
1974: Richard Nixon resigned as President of the United States because of the Watergate scandal.
1975: The Vietnam War officially ended.
1975: Communist groups took power in Cambodia.
1978: Vietnam invaded Cambodia.
1979: The Iranian Revolution changed Iran into an Islamic theocracy (a government ruled by religious leaders).

Space Exploration Milestones

The 1970s was a busy time for exploring space, with many probes sent to other planets.

1970, December 15: The spaceship Venera 7 successfully landed on Venus.
1972, March 2: Pioneer 10 was launched. It became the first spaceship to fly close to Jupiter and through the asteroid belt.
1973, April 6: Pioneer 11 was launched. It was the first spaceship to fly near Saturn.
1976, July 20: The spaceship Viking 1 landed on Mars.
1977, August 20: Voyager 2 was launched. It later became the first spaceship to fly near Uranus and Neptune.
1977, September 5: Voyager 1 was launched. It is now the farthest spaceship from Earth.

Health and Global Efforts

1977: The last natural cases of smallpox were found.
1979: The World Health Organization announced that smallpox had been completely eliminated worldwide.

Famous People of the 1970s

Many influential people shaped the 1970s, from political leaders to music stars and athletes.

Leaders and Politicians

Richard Nixon: U.S. President until 1974.
Gerald Ford: U.S. President until 1977.
Jimmy Carter: U.S. President starting in 1977.
Edward Heath: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974.
Margaret Thatcher: Became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1979.
Fidel Castro: Cuban leader.
Indira Gandhi: Prime Minister of India until 1977.
Anwar Sadat: President of Egypt starting in 1970.
Ayatollah Khomeini: Became the leader of Iran in 1979.

Music and Entertainment Stars

ABBA: A very popular Swedish music group.
Sex Pistols: A famous British punk band.
John Travolta: An American actor known for movies like Saturday Night Fever.
Cher: A popular American singer.
Elvis Presley: A famous American singer.
Stevie Wonder: An American musician and singer.
David Bowie: A British musician known for his unique style.
Elton John: A British singer and pianist.
The Rolling Stones: A long-lasting British rock band.
Kiss: An American rock band known for their makeup and stage shows.

Sports Heroes

Pelé: A legendary Brazilian football (soccer) player.
Pete Maravich: A famous American basketball player.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: A dominant American basketball player.
Nadia Comăneci: A Romanian gymnast who achieved the first perfect score in Olympic gymnastics.
Billie Jean King: An American tennis star.

Technology and Culture in the 1970s

The 1970s brought new technologies that changed how people lived and played. Fashion and music also saw big shifts.

New Technologies

The first scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, was introduced.
Floppy disks, used for storing computer data, became common.
The first commercially available video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, was released in 1972.
The arcade game Pong became very popular in 1972.
The Atari 2600 home video game console was launched in 1977.
The Sony Walkman, a portable cassette player, was introduced in 1979.
The CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, was completed in 1976, becoming the world's tallest free-standing structure at the time.

Popular Culture and Trends

Disco music became extremely popular, with artists like ABBA and Boney M.
Rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Queen were very influential.
Reggae music, especially by Bob Marley, gained popularity.
Fashion trends included bell-bottomed pants and the Farrah Fawcett hairstyle.
Lava lamps were popular decorative items.
TV shows like The Brady Bunch were widely watched.
The arcade game Space Invaders became a huge hit in 1978.

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.
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.
Pink Floyd performing The Dark Side of the Moon in 1973, one of the highest selling albums of the 1970s.
British rock band Queen (pictured here in 1977) was considered to be one of the most influential bands of the '70s.
Bruce Lee helped make martial arts movies popular.
Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson from Sanford and Son.
Pong (1972).
The first commercially available video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, released in September 1972.
Microvision (1979) is the very first handheld game console that used interchangeable cartridges.
The CN Tower was completed in 1976.
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 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.
Atari 2600, launched in 1977.
Sony Walkman, the original TPS-L2 model.
1970s analogue synthesizer Yamaha CS-80.
1970 Dodge Challenger Trans Am, an example of muscle cars from the early 1970s.
Honda Civic cars 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.
Space Invaders, an arcade game, released in 1978.
Earth, Wind and Fire was a popular band in the disco scene.
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.