2020: 50th

50th Anniversary:

March 18, 1970:  The Cambodian Coup of 1970 occurred when Cambodia went from being a Monarchy to the Khmer Republic with Lon Nol as Prime Minister.

March 18, 1970: The US Postal Strike started in New York City. It then spread across the country with 210,000 postal employees going on strike. President Nixon declared a State of Emergency and sent in 24,000 Military personnel to sort and deliver the mail (18,500 troops in New York City alone.) It ended after 8 days with the signing of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970.

April 22, 1970: The First Earth Day was held in the US. It became global in 1990 when 200 million people in 141 countries participated. Today it is celebrated in 193 countries.

Aril 29, 1970:  The US Invaded Cambodia as part of the widening of the Vietnam War and in support of the Cambodian Civil War against the Communists (the Khmer Rouge, the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese) who were using Cambodia as their base of operations to attack South Vietnam.

May 4, 1970: The Kent State Shootings in Ohio occurred. During a mass protest against the bombing of neutral Cambodia by United States military forces 28 Ohio National Guard soldiers fired  67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing 4 students (Jeffrey Glenn Miller: 20 years old, Allison B. Krause: 19 years old, William Knox Schroeder: 19 years old, and Sandra Lee Scheuer: 20 years old)  and wounding 9 others, 1 of whom suffered permanent paralysis.

May 8, 1970:  The US Student Strike of 1970 took place. Ten days after President Nixon announced the Cambodian invasion (and 4 days after the Kent State shootings), 100,000 protesters gathered in Washington and another 150,000 in San Francisco. Nationwide, students turned their anger on what was often the nearest military facility—College and University Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) offices. All told, 30 ROTC buildings went up in flames or were bombed. There were violent clashes between students and police at 26 schools and National Guard units were mobilized on 21 campuses in 16 states.  Walkouts and protests were reported by the National Strike Information Center at over 700 campuses across the country, with heavy concentrations in New England, the Midwest, and California. For the most part, however, the protests were peaceful — if often tense. Students at New York University, for example, hung a banner out of a window which read "They Can't Kill Us All."

May 8, 1970: The Hard Hat Riot occurred. It started when 200 construction workers were mobilized by the New York State AFL-CIO to attack some 1,000 College and High School students and others who were protesting the May 4th Kent State shootings, the Vietnam War, and the April 30th  announcement by President Richard Nixon of the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. It lasted two hours with more than 70 people, including 4 policemen, were injured on what became known as "Bloody Friday". Six people were arrested.

May 15, 1970: The Jackson State Killings in Mississippi occurred. A group of students were confronted by city and State Police. Shortly after 12 am, the Police opened fire, killing 2 students (Phillip Lafayette Gibbs: 21 years old and a Junior and James Earl Green: 17 years old and a Senior and miler at nearby Jim Hill High School)  and injuring 12. The event happened only 11 days after the Kent State Shootings, in which National Guardsmen killed 4 students at Kent State University in Ohio, which had first captured national attention. Nothing happened to the Jackson Police or the Mississippi Highway Patrol involved in the shootings.

June 5, 1970: Operation Wedding occurred in the Soviet Union. Officially called the Dymshits–Kuznetsov Aircraft Hijacking Affair it was an attempt to steal a civilian aircraft by a group of 16 Soviet Refuseniks in order to escape to the West and eventually settle in Israel (which the USSR had cut-off diplomatic relations with in 1967.)

June 19, 1970: The Patent Cooperation Treaty was signed. It provides a unified procedure for filing patent applications to protect inventions in each of its contracting states. Today 153 countries are part of the PCT.

August 29, 1970: The Chicano Moratorium took place. It was a movement of Mexican-American groups to organize opposition to the Vietnam War. During the march in East Los Angeles that drew 30,000 demonstrators. 4 protesters were killed (including Ruben Salazar who was a Civil Rights Activist and a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, the first Mexican-American journalist from mainstream media to cover the Chicano community. Salazar died as a result of injuries sustained when he was struck by a tear-gas projectile fired by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy, Tom Wilson. No criminal charge was filed, but Salazar's family reached an out-of-court financial settlement with the county) and 150 people arrested by the Los Angeles Police. More than 20 local protests were held in cities such as Houston, Albuquerque, Chicago, Denver, Fresno, San Francisco, San Diego, Oakland, Oxnard, San Fernando, San Pedro and Douglas, Arizona. Most had 1,000 or more participants.

September 6, 1970: The Dawson’s Field Hijackings occurred. Members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked 4 airliners bound for New York City and 1 for London. Three aircraft were forced to land at Dawson's Field, a remote desert airstrip near Zarqa, Jordan. While the majority of the 310 hostages were transferred to Amman and freed on September 11th, the PFLP segregated the flight crews and Jewish passengers, keeping the 56 Jewish hostages in custody, while releasing the non-Jews.

September 13, 1970: The First New York City Marathon was held.

September 19, 1970: The Kostas Georgakis Protest occurred. Georgakis was a 22 year old Greek student of Geology, who, in the early hours, set himself ablaze in Matteotti Square in Genoa, Italy as a protest against the Dictatorial Regime (Junta) of Georgios Papadopoulos which ruled Greece since 1967. The Greek Junta ended in 1974.

October 3, 1970: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was established in the US. NOAA warns of dangerous weather, charts seas, guides the use and protection of ocean and coastal resources, and conducts research to provide understanding and improve stewardship of the environment.

October 5, 1970: The October Crisis started in Quebec, Canada. Members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped the Provincial Deputy Premier Pierre Laporte and British Diplomat James Cross. In response, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the only peacetime use of the War Measures Act. 497 individuals were arrested under the Act, all but 62 of whom were later released without charges. The Government of Quebec also requested military aid to the civil power, and Canadian Forces deployed throughout Quebec acting in a support role to the civil authorities of Quebec. The kidnappers murdered Laporte and negotiations led to Cross's release and the kidnappers' exile to Cuba. The Crisis ended on December 28, 1970. The War Measures Act was replaced in 1988 by the Emergencies Act.

October 13, 1970: Canada and the People’s Republic of China established diplomatic relations.

November 10, 1970: For the first time in 5 years, an entire week ends with no reports of American combat fatalities in Southeast Asia.

December 2, 1970: The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was formed to conduct environmental assessment, research, and education. It has the responsibility of maintaining and enforcing national standards under a variety of environmental laws, in consultation with State, Tribal, and local Governments.

December 7, 1970: The Warschauer Kniefall (German for "Warsaw Genuflection") occurred. It was a gesture of humility and penance by West German Chancellor Willy Brandt towards the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on his visit to Communist Poland.

December 14, 1970: The Polish 1970 Strikes began in Communist Poland. The protests were sparked by a sudden increase of prices of food and other everyday items. As a result of the strikes, which were put down by the Polish People's Army and the Citizen's Militia, 42 people were killed, more than 1,000 wounded and 3,000 were arrested. The strikes ended on December 19th when, with the consent of Leonid Brezhnev in Moscow, Władysław  Gomułka and other Communist leaders were forced to resign; the price increases were reversed, wage increases announced, and sweeping economic and political changes were promised. Edward Gierek took over the Communist Party leadership and tensions eased.