1970s

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s - 1970s - 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s

Years: 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979

Events and trends

Computers, technology

• Pocket calculators make the slide rule obsolete.
• Home computer revolution starts
• Unix created along with C programming language
• Microsoft is founded (1975)

Science

• Viking missions to Mars
• Voyager spacecraft explore the outer solar system
• Theory of quantum chromodynamics postulated to describe the strong interaction, one of the four fundamental forces of nature

War, peace and politics

• fear of Nuclear war
• The United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark join Common Market in 1973.
• Watergate break-in, cover-up, and scandal, leading to U.S. president Richard Nixon's resignation
• Widespread strikes and industrial unrest in the United Kingdom throughout decade.
• Margaret Thatcher elected Britain's first female prime minister.
• Democracy established in Spain after death of dictator Francisco Franco who ruled for 40 years.
• Democracy established in Portugal after dictatorship overthrown in military coup.
• US backed coup in Chile topples government of Salvador Allende. Is replaced by Augusto Pinochet.
• Elected government in Pakistan replaced by Martial Law.
• Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge government in Cambodia results in 2.5 million deaths.
• USSR begins disastrous military campaign in Afghanistan.
• Iranian revolution and hostage situation
• end of Vietnam War
• Indonesia invades East Timor and follows it with a long occupation.
• Raise of environmental awareness and green movements, peace movement and women's liberation in Europe and the USA

Economics

• high inflation
• high unemployment
• OPEC oil embargo

Culture

• Disco, Punk rock, Gothic rock music
• Star Wars
• An age of superstars and idols in sports, music, literature and film.
• Jamaican reggae music begins to gain an international audience, while dub music influences African Americans in New York City, leading to the development of hip hop

Others

• Indonesian Archaeological Service and UNESCO restore Borobodur

World leaders

• Gough Whitlam (Australia)
• Pierre Trudeau (Canada)
• Mao Zedong (People's Republic of China)
• Deng Xiaoping (People's Republic of China)
• President Chiang Kai-shek (Republic of China on Taiwan)
• President C. K. Yen (Republic of China on Taiwan)
• President Anwar Sadat (Egypt)
• President Georges Pompidou (France)
• President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (France)
• Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (India)
• President Suharto (Indonesia)
• President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr (Iraq)
• Prime Minister Golda Meir (Israel)
• Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (Israel)
• Prime Minister Menachem Begin (Israel)
• Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
• Pope Paul VI
• Pope John Paul I
• Pope John Paul II
• Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark (Northern Ireland)
• Prime Minister Brian Faulkner (Northern Ireland)
• President Erskine Hamilton Childers (Ireland)
• President Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (Ireland)
• President Patrick Hillery (Ireland)
• Taoiseach Jack Lynch (Republic of Ireland)
• Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave (Republic of Ireland)
• Taoiseach Charles Haughey (Republic of Ireland)
• Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (Pakistan)
• Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore)
• Leonid Brezhnev (Soviet Union)
• Queen Elizabeth II (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Edward Heath (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Harold Wilson (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister James Callaghan (United Kingdom)
• President Richard Nixon (United States)
• President Gerald Ford (United States)
• President Jimmy Carter (United States)
• Chancellor Willy Brandt (West Germany)
• Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (West Germany)
• President Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia)

Sports figures

• Henry Aaron
• Muhammad Ali (U.S. boxer)
• Rick Barry
• Franz Beckenbauer (West German soccer player)
• Wilfred Benitez
• George Best (Northern Irish soccer player)
• Larry Bird
• Bjorn Borg (Swedish tennis player)
• Terry Bradshaw
• Rod Carew
• Nadia Comaneci (Romanian gymnast)
• Jimmy Connors (U.S. tennis player)
• Roberto Duran (Panamanian boxer)
• Gareth Edwards (Welsh rugby player)
• Julius Erving
• George Foreman (U.S. boxer)
• Joe Frazier (U.S. boxer)
• Wilfredo Gómez
• Bobby Hull
• Kareem Abdul Jabbar (U.S. basketball player)
• Reggie Jackson
• Barry John (Welsh rugby player)
• Billie Jean King (U.S. tennis player)
• Olga Korbut (Russian gymnast)
• Guy Lafleur
• Niki Lauda (Austrian racing driver)
• Clive Lloyd (Guyanan cricketer)
• Pete Maravich
• Willie Mays (U.S. baseball player)
• Eddie Merckx (Belgian cyclist)
• Carlos Monzon
• Gerd Müller (West German soccer player)
• Joe Namath (U.S. American football player)
• Jack Nicklaus (U.S. golfer)
• Jim Palmer
• Pelé (Brazilian soccer player)
• Richard Petty
• Pete Rose
• Secretariat
• Barry Sheene (English motorcycle racer)
• O.J. Simpson (U.S. American football player)
• Mark Spitz (U.S. swimmer)
• Roger Staubach
• Bill Walton

Entertainers

• Alan Alda
• David Cassidy
• Gary Coleman
• Richard Dreyfuss
• Harrison Ford
• Redd Foxx
• Louis de Funes
• Serge Gainsbourg
• Mel Gibson
• Mark Hamill
• Ron Howard
• Jack Lemmon
• Steve Martin
• Robert De Niro
• Bob Newhart
• Jack Nicholson
• The Not Ready for Prime-Time Players
• Carroll O'Connor
• Al Pacino
• Robert Redford
• Sony
• Barbra Streisand
• John Travolta
• Mary Tyler Moore
• Johnny Whitaker
• Henry Winkler

Music

• ABBA
• Aerosmith
• Allman Brothers Band
• Bachman-Turner Overdrive
• Black Sabbath
• Blue Öyster Cult
• David Bowie
• Jackson Browne
• Budgie
• Jimmy Buffett
• The Carpenters
• Johnny Cash
• Cher
• Chicago
• Eric Clapton
• The Clash
• Alice Cooper
• Elvis Costello
• Crass
• The Damned
• Deep Purple
• Neil Diamond
• The Eagles
• Electric Light Orchestra
• Fleetwood Mac
• Gloria Gaynor
• Genesis
• Gary Glitter
• Grateful Dead
• Merle Haggard
• Waylon Jennings
• Billy Joel
• Elton John
• Journey
• Kiss
• DJ Kool Herc
• Led Zeppelin
• John Lennon
• Loretta Lynn
• Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Barry Manilow
• Bob Marley & the Wailers
• Steve Miller Band
• Motörhead
• Willie Nelson
• P Funk (Parliament/Funkadelic)
• Queen
• Rainbow
• Rush
• Sex Pistols
• Styx
• Donna Summer
• James Taylor
• T. Rex
• Triumph
• UFO
• Van Halen
• War
• Neil Young

See also: List of rock and roll albums in the 1970s

Writers

• Chinua Achebe
• Ai
• Edward Albee
• Kingsley Amis
• Mulk Raj Anand
• J. G. Ballard
• Saul Bellow
• Anthony Burgess
• A. S. Byatt
• Amy Clampitt
• Anita Desai
• E. L. Doctrow
• Margaret Drabble
• Janet Frame
• John Gardner
• Zulfikar Ghose
• William Golding
• Thom Gunn
• Alamgir Hashmi
• Seamus Heaney
• Ted Hughes
• Philip Larkin
• Robert Lowell
• Norman Mailer
• Kamala Markandaya
• Arthur Miller
• Iris Murdoch
• R. K. Narayan
• Harold Pinter
• Thomas Pynchon
• Salman Rushdie
• Anne Sexton
• Louis Simpson
• Wole Soyinka
• William Stafford
• Anne Stevenson
• Tom Stoppard
• Mark Strand
• John Tranter
• Kurt Vonnegut
• Gore Vidal
• Alice Walker
• Judith Wright

Film

• Woody Allen
• Peggy Ashcroft
• Alan Bates
• Ingmar Bergman
• Ingrid Bergman
• Jean-Paul Belmondo
• Humphrey Bogart
• Kenneth Branagh
• Richard Burton
• Claudia Cardinale
• Sean Connery
• Francis Ford Coppola
• Marlene Dietrich
• Douglas Fairbanks
• Greta Garbo
• Ava Gardner
• John Gielgud
• Gene Hackman
• Rex Harrison
• Audrey Hepburn
• Katharine Hepburn
• Dustin Hoffman
• William Holden
• Rock Hudson
• Diane Keaton
• David Niven
• Peter O'Toole
• Laurence Olivier
• Gregory Peck
• Anthony Quinn
• Robert Redford
• Vanessa Redgrave
• Diana Rigg
• George C. Scott
• Meryl Streep
• Elizabeth Taylor
• Liv Ullmann
• Peter Ustinov
• John Wayne
• Norman Wisdom
• Franco Zeffirelli