On July 4, 1970 Casey Kasem hosted “American Top 40” on radio for the first time. I cannot tell a lie; in high school I spent every Sunday afternoon listening to Casey Kasem count down the top 40 songs on Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles chart each week.
The first #1 song on American Top 40’s inaugural 1970 broadcast was “Mama Told Me Not to Come” by Three Dog Night.
January 15, 1970. After a 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria, Biafran forces surrender to the Nigerian government.
April 17, 1970. Apollo 13, crippled by an explosion in its service module early in its flight, returns to the earth safely, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. The three astronauts on board are safe and in good health.
April 29, 1970. The U.S. invades Cambodia to hunt out the Viet Cong; widespread, large antiwar protests occur in the U.S.
September 1, 1970. An assassination attempt against King Hussein of Jordan precipitates the Black September crisis, war between Palestinian guerillas and Jordanian troops.
September 27, 1970. King Hussein of Jordan and Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yassir Arafat sign a peace agreement to end the war between Jordanian troops and Palestinian guerrillas.
October, 1970. Anwar Sadat becomes president of Egypt after the death of Gamel Abdel Nasser. Sadat is expected to take a more moderate attitude toward Israel and the U.S.
October 9, 1970. The Khmer Republic is officially proclaimed in Cambodia. The Khmer Republic is a right-wing pro-United States military-led government headed by General Lon Nol and Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak that took power in the March 18, 1970 coup against Prince Norodom Sihanouk, then the country’s head of state.
October 22-24, 1970. Chilean army commander René Schneider is shot in Santiago; the government declares a state of emergency. Schneider dies October 25th. On October 24, Salvador Allende is elected President of Chile.
November 13, 1970. Hafez al-Assad comes to power in Syria, following a military coup within the Ba’ath party. Assad will rule Syria for the next thirty years until his death in June, 2000.
November 13, 1970. 500,000 people are feared dead after a tidal wave hits East Pakistan (Bangladesh).
Today is the birthday of Russian author and 1970 Nobel Prize laureate, Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn. Go here for an informative article about Solzhenitsyn’s writing and thoughts in the journal First Things. The article by Daniel J. Mahoney is called “Traducing Solzhenitsyn.”