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1970
• On 19 March, German chancellor Willy Brandt opens negotiations with Warsaw Pact countries, defusing Cold War tensions and leading to better relations between East and West. • On 4 May, in the United States, four students are shot dead by national guardsmen during a protest against the Vietnam War at Kent State University in Ohio. This signals the abrupt end of 'flower power'; later protests take on a more serious air. • On 18 June, the Conservatives win the British general election. The new prime minister Edward Heath forms a government. • On 5 September, the Marxist Salvador Allende is elected president of Chile. • On 6 September, Palestinian terrorists hijack three aircraft: one is flown to Cairo, two to Dawson's Field in Jordan and one to Heathrow, outside London (where hijacker Leila Khaled is arrested). Two days later, another airliner is hijacked and joins the others in Jordan; all three are blown up on 19 September. • Japanese writer Mishima Yukio completes his tetralogy Hojo no umi (Sea of Fertility) and then commits ritual suicide in public after a failed coup in protest against the Westernisation of Japan. • Australian feminist Germaine Greer publishes The Female Eunuch, which rapidly becomes highly influential. • The British pop group The Beatles officially breaks up, all four members going on to solo careers. • The US film Five Easy Pieces, directed by Bob Rafelson and starring Jack Nicholson, has as its theme America's loss of direction. |
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