Selected Sixties Events for 1970

Selected Sixties Events for 1970 - 1973
Year	Month	Day	Event	Related Resource
1970	March	10	Captain Ernest Medina is charged with murder for his participation at My Lai. This event leads to the My Lai Courts-Martial. On March 29, 1970 Lt. William L. Calley Jr. is convicted of premeditated murder in the My Lai massacre.	Link
	April	30	President Richard Nixon announces to a national television audience that US troops are invading Cambodia, the country west of Vietnam through which the North Vietnamese military is supplying their troops in the South. In fact, the US has been conducting bombing raids in Cambodia for over a year. The invasion initiates campus protests.	Link
	May	04	Four students are killed by National Guardsmen at Kent State University in Ohio. The killings shocked the American public and generated hundreds of protest activities across college campuses in the United States.
	May	04	The Cambodian invasion leads to campus protests. Four demonstrating students are killed and 10 wounded by National Guardsmen at Kent State University in Ohio. The killings shocked the American public and increase protest activities across college campuses in the United States.
	June	30	Invasion of Cambodia ends.
1971	February		South Vietnam and the U.S. invade Laos in an attempt to sever the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
	June	13	The New York Times begins publishing the top-secret Pentagon Papers, which explore the U.S. decision-making process regarding South Vietnam.	Link
	July		President Nixon certifies the 26th Amendment, lowering the voting age to 18.	Link
	December	09	Inmates, mostly African American and Puerto Rican, take over the Attica State Penitentiary. They issue demands for improved living conditions, call the prison administration "racist," and criticize the "ruthless brutalization" of prisoners. Governor Nelson Rockefeller orders the prison retaken by force in a bloody, punitive operation.
1972	March		In Eisenstadt v. Baird, a Massachusetts statue restricting the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried persons is invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court as a violation of the rights of single persons under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.	Link
	March	22	The Equal Rights Amendment is approved by the full Senate without changes — 84-8. Senator Sam Ervin and Representative Emanuel Celler succeed in setting an arbitrary time limit of seven years for ratification. The Amendment ultimately failed to achieve ratification by the required thirty-eight states, even though the deadline for ratification was extended to June 30, 1982. The defeat of the era was spearheaded by Phyllis Schlafly and her organization Stop ERA.
	June	23	Congress passes the Education Amendments of 1972, including Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions which receive federal funds.
	November		President Nixon wins second term, defeating Democrat George S. McGovern.
	December	18	U.S. bombing of Hanoi and North Vietnam begins.
	December	28	The North Vietnamese announce that they will return to Paris if Nixon ends the bombing. The bombing campaign is halted and the negotiators met during the first week of January, 1973.
1973	January	22	A U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade declares invalid all state laws restricting abortion in the 1st three months of preganancy.	Link
	January	23	United States, South Vietnam, and North Vietnam sign the Paris Peace Accords, ending the American combat role in war. The U.S. military draft ends. A cease-fire goes into effect 5 days later.	Link
	February	12	POWs begin to come home as part of Operation Homecoming.
	March	29	Last U.S. combat troops leave Vietnam.
	April	01	North Vietnam releases the last 591 acknowledged American POWs.
	October	24	Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in "The Battle of the Sexes" in the Houston Astrodome.	Link
	November		Congress overrides presidential veto of War Powers Act, which limits president's ability to wage war without congressional approval.
	November	30	The United Nations General Assembly adopts the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.

Selected Sixties Events for 1970 - 1973