January 5 - The first episode of All My Children is broadcast on the ABC television network.
January 5 - An earthquake (Richter Scale 7.7 magnitude) at Yunnan, China kills at least 15,621.
January 11 - Super Bowl IV: The Kansas City Chiefs beat the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings 23-7.
January 14 - Diana Ross & The Supremes perform their farewell live concert together at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas, and Ross's replacement, Jean Terrell, is introduced onstage at the end of the last show.
January 26 - Mick Jagger is fined £200 for possession of cannabis.
February 13 - Black Sabbath's debut album, Black Sabbath released; often regarded as the first true heavy metal album.
February 14 - The iconic live album The Who: Live at Leeds is recorded.
February 17 - MacDonald family massacre: Jeffrey R. MacDonald kills his wife and children at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, claiming that drugged-out "hippies" did it.
February 18 - A jury finds the Chicago Seven defendants not guilty of conspiring to incite a riot, in charges stemming from the violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Five of the defendants are found guilty on the lesser charge of crossing state lines to incite a riot.
February 26 - The Pontiac 2nd generation Trans Am bodystyle is introduced.
March 6 - A bomb being constructed by members of the Weathermen and meant to be planted at a military dance in New Jersey, explodes, killing 3 members of the organization.
March 15 - The Expo '70 World's Fair opens in Suita, Osaka, Japan.
March 25 - The Concorde makes its first supersonic flight (700 mph 1,127 km/h).
April 1 - President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, banning cigarette television advertisements in the United States, starting on January 1, 1971.
April 1 - American Motors Corporation introduces the Gremlin.
April 10 - Paul McCartney announces that the Beatles have disbanded, while at the same press conference, announcing the release of his first solo album.
April 13 - An oxygen tank in the Apollo 13 spacecraft explodes, forcing the crew to abort the mission and return in 4 days.
April 22 - The first Earth Day is celebrated in the U.S.
April 24 - China's first satellite (Dong Fang Hong 1) is launched into orbit using a Long March-1 Rocket (CZ-1).
April 29 - The U.S. invades Cambodia to hunt out the Viet Cong; widespread, large antiwar protests occur in the U.S.
May 4 - Kent State shootings: Four students at Kent State University in Ohio are killed and 9 wounded by Ohio State National Guardsmen, at a protest against the incursion into Cambodia.
May 8 - The Beatles release their 12th and final album, Let It Be.
May 9 - In Washington, D.C., 100,000 people demonstrate against the Vietnam War.
May 11 - Lubbock Tornado: An F5 tornado hits downtown Lubbock, Texas, the first to hit a downtown district of a major city since Topeka, Kansas in 1966; 28 are killed.
June 1 - Soyuz 9, a two man spacecraft, is launched in the Soviet Union.
June 10 - U.S. President Richard Nixon signs a measure lowering the voting age to 18.
June 21 - Brazil defeats Italy 4-1 to win the 1970 FIFA World Cup.
July 16 - Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh opens.
July 21 - The Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed.
July 23 - Two CS gas canisters are thrown into the chamber of the British House of Commons.
August 17 - August 18 - The U.S. sinks 418 containers of nerve gas into the Gulf Stream near the Bahamas.
August 26 - The Women's Strike For Equality takes place down Fifth Avenue in New York City.
August 26-30 - The Isle of Wight Festival 1970 takes place on East Afton Farm off the coast of England. Some 600,000 people attend the largest rock festival of all time. Artists include Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Doors, Chicago, Richie Havens, John Sebastian, Joan Baez, Ten Years After, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Jethro Tull.
September 7 - An anti-war rally is held at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, attended by John Kerry, Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland.
September 10 - The Chevrolet Vega is introduced.
September 11 - The Ford Pinto is introduced.
September 18 - Jimi Hendrix dies of alcohol related complications.
September 29 - The U.S. Congress gives President Richard Nixon authority to sell arms to Israel.
October 4 - In Los Angeles, Rock and blues singer Janis Joplin dies in her hotel room, from an overdose of heroin.
October 5 - The Public Broadcasting Service begins broadcasting.
October 15 - The Baltimore Orioles defeat the Cincinnati Reds in Game 5 of the World Series, 9-3, to win the series 4 games to 1 for their 2nd World Championship.
October 26 - Garry Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury debuts in approximately two dozen newspapers in the United States.
October 28 - Gary Gabelich drives the rocket-powered Blue Flame to an official world land speed record of 622.287 mph (1 001.452 863 km/h) on the dry lake bed of the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The record, the first above 1 000 km/h, stands for nearly 13 years.
November 14 - Southern Airlines Flight 932 crashes in Wayne County, West Virginia; all 75 on board, including 37 players and 5 coaches from the Marshall University football team, are killed.
December 2 - The United States Environmental Protection Agency begins operations.
December 3 - October Crisis: In Montreal, Quebec, kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross is released by the Front de Libération du Québec terrorist group after being held hostage for 60 days. Police negotiate his release and in return the Government of Canada grants 5 terrorists from the FLQ's Chenier Cell their request for safe passage to Cuba.
December 7 - The U.N. General Assembly supports the isolation of South Africa for its apartheid policies.
December 12 - A landslide in western Colombia leaves 200 dead.
December 23 - The North Tower of the World Trade Center is topped out at 1,368 feet (417 m), making it the tallest building in the world.
December 31 - Paul McCartney sues in Great Britain to dissolve the Beatles' legal partnership.