• Television Highlight: While she was the highest-paid woman on television, with 42% of the viewing audience, Debbie Reynolds quit her show because NBC was running cigarette commercials during its airtime.
• The Top Song was Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkle
• The Big Movies included Love Story, Airport and M*A*S*H
• Price of a loaf of bread in 1970: 25 cents
  Ford Pinto automobile: $1,919.00
  Ford Galaxie 500: $3,176.00
• The World Population was ~ 3,657,000,000
• US Life Expectancy: Males: 67.1 years, Females: 74.7 years
• Southwest Airlines began flying on June 18, 1971.
• Samsung originally sold noodles! It wasn’t until 1970 that they started selling electronics.
• George Harrison subconsciously plagiarized a 1963 song called He’s So Fine while writing his My Sweet Lord.
• And… In the 1970 Mr. Olympia final, the judges could not decide between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sergio Olivia, so the two of them, exhausted, agreed to walk off. After taking one step, Sergio left, but Arnold turned back to the judges, mocked Sergio for leaving, and started posing again and won.

“I told my coach, ‘Jimi Hendrix just died, and I’m quitting the team to become a guitar player.'”
– Joe Satriani

“Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”
– Ali MacGraw in Love Story

“It’s the real thing.”
– Coca-Cola

George C. Scott, who played Patton in the 1970 classic, refused to show up to the Oscar and accept his award because “The whole thing is a g*ddamn meat parade. I don’t want any part of it.” He believed every dramatic performance was unique and could not be compared.

After Elvis performed Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water, Paul Simon, who attended the show in Las Vegas, said, “That’s it, we might as well all give up now.”

Elton John charted a Top 40 single every year from 1970 to 1997.

In 1901, the town of Sing Sing, NY, changed its name to Ossining to avoid association with the prison. In 1970, New York renamed Sing Sing to the Ossining Correctional Facility to associate it with the renamed town. In 1985, the prison name was reverted to Sing Sing.

Sesame Street character Ernie’s song Rubber Ducky You’re The One made it to #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1970.

On January 3, 1970, residents in Oklahoma saw a fireball cross the sky. Researchers had a possible landing zone within four days. 2 days later, Gunther “Skip” Schwartz was driving when he noticed a dark object sitting on the road. Schwartz had found a 9.83-kg chunk of the Lost City meteorite.

Orville Redenbacher paid an advertising company $13,000 to create a name for his popcorn company. Their advice was to call it “Orville Redenbacher.”

The Royal Navy served sailors daily rum rations until 1970. The last day of rum was called Black Tot Day. Sailors wore black armbands, and ships held mock funerals for tots of rum.

Ross Perot was “the biggest individual loser ever on the New York Stock Exchange”: in April 1970, he lost $450 million in a single day.

Apollo 13 holds the absolute altitude record for a manned spacecraft, reaching 248,655 miles from Earth on 7:21 pm EST, April 14, 1970.

In 1970, Monsanto paid $5 for the glyphosate patent (Roundup) created by Dr. John Franz.

The BBC’s rule against product placement forced the lead singer of the Kinks, Ray Davies, to fly back to re-record the words “Coca-Cola” with “cherry cola” in the band’s 1970 classic song “Lola”.

In 1970, the US Surgeon General declared it was “time to close the book on infectious diseases.” 11 years later, AIDS was clinically observed for the first time.

She was the highest-paid woman on television, with 42% of the viewing audience, but Debbie Reynolds quit her show because NBC was running cigarette commercials during its airtime.

Radio Shack was one of the first companies to start the personal computer revolution, back in 1970, with its TRS-80 computer.

John Lennon paid all the fines for 96 people arrested for protesting against the apartheid South Africa rugby team playing in Britain.

Tarawood Antigone, a four-year-old Burmese cat, gave birth to 19 kittens. Fourteen males and one female survived from the litter in Oxfordshire, UK.

Writer Hunter S. Thompson shaved his head bald so he could refer to the Republican candidate as his “long-haired opponent” in the 1970 Pitken County, CO sheriff’s election. His opponent had a crew cut.

“Devo” bassist/singer Gerald Casale witnessed the Kent State shootings. That day, he “stopped being a hippie” and focused on their concept of devolution, that mankind had begun to regress.

Rock and Roll Deaths: Jimi Hendrix (chocked on drug-induced vomit), Janis Joplin (heroin overdose)

A state commission in Mississippi voted to ban Sesame Street because of its “highly integrated cast of children”.

United Airlines had men-only flights. The “New York” and “Chicago Executive” were advertised as “a club in the sky for men only”, with business-oriented amenities, free cigars, and a steak dinner served by stewardesses (the only women aboard). A lawsuit by feminists ended the flights.

A book published in 1970 alleged that Amelia Earhart survived and changed her identity to Irene Craigmile Bolam, a New York banker. Bolam sued and the book was pulled.

The Oregon Highway Division attempted to blow up a washed ashore dead sperm whale, using half a ton of dynamite, to dispose of its rotting carcass. The explosion threw whale flesh over 800 feet away, crushing cars and almost killing bystanders.

Dr. Robert J. White was able to swap the head of one monkey completely put it on another monkey, and have it remain alive for nine days.

Sean Flynn, the son of famous actor Errol Flynn, was a freelance photojournalist who covered the Vietnam War. He took an assignment in Cambodia in 1970 and has not been heard from since.

Project Bluebook was the US government’s study of UFOs from 1952 through 1970. A 14-part report was issued, but chapter 13 was mysteriously missing. It still is.

A group of hikers outside of Bergen, Norway, suddenly came upon a woman’s charred, naked, fingerprint-less corpse in the middle of the Isdalen Valley. The woman was nicknamed the Isdal Woman, and her story remains one of Norway’s deepest mysteries.

On August 25, 1970, a group of Icelandic farmers blew up a dam project on the Laxá River that would have swept away their farms. Around 100 farmers turned themselves in, but not one would snitch on who lit the fuse, so they all walked free.

Doc Ellis pitched a no-hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates while high on LSD.

For the Muhammad Ali-Jerry Quarry boxing match in Atlanta in 1970, printed invitations were circulated to attendees for a post-fight gala. The people who showed up were robbed at gunpoint as they walked in the door.

McSorley’s Old Ale House, the oldest Irish tavern in New York City (founded 1854), didn’t allow women inside until 1970 when the National Organization of Women sued them for discrimination.

A bomb exploded in the Senate Chamber of the Louisiana State Capitol building and left a pencil embedded in the ceiling, which remains to this day.

The burnt remains of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were destroyed in 1970 by order of KGB head Yuri Andropov, except for a few fragments of bone and skull, which were rediscovered in 1993. In 2009, DNA testing by Univ of Connecticut on the fragments confirmed they didn’t belong to Hitler or Braun.

Stylophone musical toy, Mastermind, Whizzer

In 1970, Totes brought the first quality folding umbrella to US markets.

Krazy Glue was introduced in 1970, although the main ingredient, cyanoacrylate, was discovered in 1942 by Harry Coover while working for Kodak.

Boeing’s Jumbo Jet, the 747 debuted.

Cost of a Superbowl ad in 1970: $78,000

National Lampoon Magazine (1970-1998)

Smithsonian began publication

(Data is compiled from charts including Billboard’s Pop, Rock, Airplay, R&B/Dance, and Singles Charts. The Hot 100 is the primary chart used for this list.)

January 3, 1970 – January 30, 1970: B. J. Thomas – Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head

January 31, 1970 – February 6, 1970: The Jackson 5 – I Want You Back

February 7, 1970 – February 13, 1970: Shocking Blue – Venus

February 14, 1970 – February 27, 1970: Sly & the Family Stone – Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) / Everybody Is a Star

February 28, 1970 – April 10, 1970: Simon & Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water

April 11, 1970 – April 24, 1970: The Beatles – Let It Be

April 25, 1970 – May 8, 1970: The Jackson 5 – ABC

May 9, 1970 – May 29, 1970: The Guess Who – American Woman / No Sugar Tonight

May 30, 1970 – June 12, 1970: Ray Stevens – Everything Is Beautiful

June 13, 1970 – June 26, 1970: The Beatles – The Long and Winding Road / For You Blue

June 27, 1970 – July 10, 1970: The Jackson 5 – The Love You Save

July 11, 1970 – July 24, 1970: Three Dog Night – Mama Told Me (Not to Come)

July 25, 1970 – August 21, 1970: The Carpenters – (They Long to Be) Close to You

August 22, 1970 – August 28, 1970: Bread – Make It with You

August 29, 1970 – September 18, 1970: Edwin Starr – War

September 19, 1970 – October 9, 1970: Diana Ross – Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

October 10, 1970 – October 16, 1970: Neil Diamond – Cracklin’ Rosie

October 17, 1970 – November 20, 1970: The Jackson 5 – I’ll Be There

November 21, 1970 – December 11, 1970: The Partridge Family – I Think I Love You

December 12, 1970 – December 25, 1970: Smokey Robinson & the Miracles – The Tears of a Clown

December 26, 1970 – January 22, 1971: George Harrison – My Sweet Lord / Isn’t It a Pity