Original subtitles

1970, the year that brought the swinging '60s to a close

was about as harsh a morning after as the Poseidon

Adventure, although that was still a few years away.

After instilling the nation with the blind optimism

of flower power and Beatlemania, the back half of the 1960s

came crashing down with the assassinations of John F.

Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.,

the beginning of the Vietnam War, and the Manson family.

Go ride a horse.

1970 rode that bleak wave into a decade

marked by geopolitical unrest, gas shortages,

natural disasters, serial killers, terrorism,

and one of the biggest scandals in 20th century

American politics, and also a bunch of really groovy movies,

almost too many really.

Oh, I can imagine quite a bit.

We're going to talk about the news, culture, sports

and entertainment, and all that was weird in the '70s.

This is Timeline.

[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]

Get ready for some forgettable Beatles solo albums

because this one is all about 1970.

But before we get started, be sure to subscribe to the Weird

History Channel and let us in the comments

below your favorite '70s memory.

Now are you ready to boogie down?

(SINGING) Let's all dance through the night together.

Despite positive changes brought about by the Civil Rights

Movement and a national excitement

over the possibilities of space exploration following

Neil Armstrong's historic first steps on the moon,

the decade began on uncertain ground.

Two thirds of Americans disapproved

of the US's involvement in the Vietnam War.

The year ahead would see the continued proliferation

of nuclear weapons, a shocking display

of state violence, an infamous space disaster that nearly

ended in tragedy, and the dissolution of one

of the most influential bands of all time.

But it wasn't all bad.

The Hollywood corner says an overdose of narcotics

is responsible for the death of the well-known rock singer

Janis Joplin.

OK, so it was mostly bad.

Some years just start out in desperate need of a do over

and never fully recover.

When we get started.

When do we get started?

Tonight.

This is 1970.

Sayonara, miss--

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The Who's drummer and resident party animal Keith Moon

kicked off the decade by drunkenly running over

his own chauffeur while trying to escape

an unruly mob of skinheads outside a pub in London.

The group surrounded Moon's Bentley

and began pelting it at which point

Moon's driver, Neil Boland, climbed out to confront them.

The skinheads pummeled Boland mercilessly,

and a terrified Moon grabbed the wheel and took off.

And this was ultimately ruled an accident,

and Moon was cleared of any wrongdoing

although it haunted the drummer for the rest of his life.

Where are you?

Still didn't answer my question.

Which was?

You were sort of lost in thought when I came in.

What about?

Maybe I was trying to be one of your grandmother's gypsies,

read the future in the flames.

Four months after leading a military coup

against Libya's King Idris, Muammar El Gaddafi

is declared premier of Libya by the government

he'd just created.

Funny how that works out.

Gaddafi was an army captain and fierce Arab nationalist

who sought to purge Libya of Western influence,

removing US and British military bases from the country

and deporting Libyans with Italian and Jewish heritage

within his first year of power.

The controversial dictator remained

in power for just over 40 years until he

would be captured and killed by members of Libya's National

Liberation Army on October 2011 during the first Libyan civil

war.

It's safe to say his popularity rating had dropped

some in the intervening years.

This isn't a hospital!

It's an insane asylum, and it's your fault

because you don't do anything to discourage 'em.

What do you want me to do?

Put them under arrest.

See what a court martial [INAUDIBLE]

Famed folk pop duo Simon and Garfunkel released

their final studio album, Bridge Over Troubled Water

on January 26th before splitting up for good later that year.

Their swan song, considered by many to be the pair's best,

went on to become one of the best selling albums of all time

with over 25 million copies sold worldwide.

That's a whole lot of wax.

Speaking of landmark albums, the Jackson 5's first single

"I Want You Back" reached the number one spot

on the Billboard Hot 100 on January 31st fresh

off their history making appearance on "The Ed Sullivan

Show" in December.

Here's the youthful Jackson 5 opening

with a medley of their hits that have sold over a million.

The group released three other number one singles that year--

"ABC," "The Love You Save," and "I'll Be There"--

making them the first recording artists

in history to have their first four singles

reach the top spot.

Flash forward to October 7, 1971,

when the group's magnetic lead singer Michael Jackson released

his first single as a solo artist,

"Got to Be There," when he was just 13 years old.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

We'll be right back.

(SINGING) Gimme a J, gimme a A, when I'm eating Alpha Bits,

I'm OK.

(SPEAKING) I'm gonna eat a dog.

What, you crazy, man?

What's that spell?

Dog.

I ate it. (SINGING) Gonna eat my Alpha Bits, A-B-C.

I want you to remember that no bastard ever won war

by dying for his country.

You won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die

for his country.

The legendary heavy metal band Black Sabbath

released their self-titled debut album

on February 13th introducing the world

to their colorful frontman Ozzy Osbourne for the first time.

We like the name Black Sabbath, so we said--

We just like the name, you know.

Why did you pick the name in the first place?

Why did The Beatles pick The Beatles, you know?

Nobody knows.

According to the band's guitarist, Tony Iommi,

the album was recorded in one day

during a single 12-hour session.

Black Sabbath's debut is widely considered

to be the first heavy metal album and one

of the most influential records of the 20th century.

Black Sabbath.

The Chicago Seven, the name given to the men standing trial

for allegedly inciting a riot during anti-Vietnam protests

at the Democratic National Convention in August of 1968,

were found innocent on charges of conspiracy on February 18th.

Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, John Froines, Tom Hayden,

Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Lee Weiner were all acquitted.

The judge knows that the only one who is in contempt of court

is Julius Hoffman.

We're going to have demonstrations at local courts

across this country.

The last witness was a rebuttal to Rennie's testimony.

It was hysterical.

He didn't see any defendant there.

He didn't see anybody on a bullhorn yelling kill a pig.

Nothing.

Where's their case?

I seen more evidence in the case of Scotch.

Davis, Dellinger, Hayden, Hoffman, and Rubin

were convicted of crossing state lines to start a riot,

but those convictions, along with several others

for contempt of court, were eventually reversed.

In late March the United States detonated

its 500th nuclear device since dropping

atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

in 1945 as part of its ongoing nuclear testing program.

America would set off more than 1,000 nuclear explosions

before a moratorium was placed on testing by President George

HW Bush.

In October 2, 1992, President Clinton extended the moratorium

and signed the comprehensive nuclear test ban

treaty in 1996.

The treaty will constrain any nation

from improving its existing nuclear arsenal

and in the development of advanced nuclear weapons

and help to stop their spread.

The treaty has yet to be ratified by Congress,

not that we're going to start setting off nukes again.

We just like to keep our options open.

At the end of March, jazz legend Miles Davis

released his 27th studio album Bitches Brew.

The album would go on to become Davis's highest charting,

topping out at number 35, and would earn him the first gold

record of his career.

To date, Bitches Brew is regarded

as one of the best jazz albums ever recorded.

On April 1st, President Richard Nixon

signed a bill banning cigarette advertising

on radio and television.

Hey, how would you like to have a phone like that.

Great, then I could see you all the time.

(SINGING) Don't settle for some of the taste some of the time.

Viceroy gives you all the taste all the time.

To the woe of the tobacco industry,

this was not an April Fool's joke.

Philip Morris company has bought all commercial time

on the first half hour of all the network talk shows tonight.

That is the last half hour on which

it is legal to sell cigarettes on radio or television

in the United States.

It marks as we like to say the end of an era.

Regulation of the tobacco industry

had ramped up following increasingly alarming health

studies linking smoking to cancer,

heart disease, and birth defects including

an report by the surgeon general linking smoking

to low birth weight.

The last televised cigarette ad ran on January 1, 1971,

at 11:50 PM during The Johnny Carson Show.

The hearts of millions of Beatlemaniacs around the world

were shattered on April 10th when Paul McCartney officially

announced his departure from The Beatles.

In the spirit of the well-known tensions that had steadily

developed between the bandmates, McCartney

revealed he would no longer be working

with the rest of the fab four in a press release promoting

the impending release of his solo album McCartney.

The release took the form of a fictional Q&A featuring

questions reportedly written mostly by Sir Paul himself.

Despite the fact that neither the general public nor the rest

of the Beatles themselves initially

knew how seriously to take McCartney's announcement,

it turned out to be the real deal.

The band never reunited.

Keeping it real classy, Sir Paul.

One day later, Apollo 13 embarked

on its ill-fated voyage to the moon.

Two days into the mission, an oxygen tank at the command

module failed, forcing the crew--

Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert--

to abandon their planned lunar landing.

Uh, Houston, we've had a problem.

Over the next three days, the entire nation

held its breath as NASA mission control worked tirelessly

in a race against time to bring the three astronauts home.

The crew finally returned safely to Earth thanks

to some DIY ingenuity that would have made MacGyver proud.

The men of Apollo 13 epitomized the character

that accepts danger and surmounts it.

Theirs is the spirit that built America.

Flash forward to June 30, 1995, when Director Ron Howard's

blockbuster film about the unforgettable mission

was released in theaters.

Houston, we have a problem.

The appropriately titled Apollo 13

went on to become the second highest grossing movie of 1995

and was nominated for nine Oscars.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

We'll be right back.

Introducing the GI Joe Space-a-Matic.

Space-a-Matic, the futuristic space vehicle

you program yourself.

Program it to lift or to scoop or use the magnetic pickup.

Watch this.

Way to go, Joe.

GI Joe Space-a-Matic from Hasbro.

Moving into May, America watched in horror

as 28 national guardsmen fired into a crowd

of unarmed students at Ohio's Kent State University,

killing four and wounding nine others,

leaving one victim permanently paralyzed.

Leave this area immediately.

The National Guard had been deployed two days earlier

in response to escalating student protests

against the Vietnam War.

The guardsmen, armed with tear gas and bayoneted rifles,

first ordered the demonstrators to disperse before firing

into the crowd without warning.

The event sparked widespread outrage and demonstrations

on college campuses across America.

Ultimately a federal court dropped

all charges against the National Guard troops

responsible for the shootings.

The Beatles' final studio album, Let It Be,

was released on May 8th just a few weeks

after the news of their unofficial official breakup

left millions of fans confused.

The album, released alongside a documentary film

of the same name, was met with an equally mild response,

earning the group some of the most mediocre reviews

of their career.

Despite its lukewarm initial reception,

Let It Be one the fab four an Academy

Award for Best Original Song score the following year--

On their behalf, thank you very much.

And has since been reappraised by fans and critics

alike as The Beatles' most underrated album.

The band's tense rehearsal sessions were captured on film

for the documentary and later repurposed by none other than

Peter Jackson in an eight-hour documentary series about

the creation of the album titled The Beatles--

Get Back.

Leave it to Peter Jackson to turn an 80-minute movie

into an epic.

Maybe one day he can do the reverse to those Hobbit movies.

Staying with music, founding Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter

Green walked away from the band following a final performance

on May 20th to join a German commune he discovered

a few months earlier.

Green had been invited to a party at the commune

by model and actress Uschi Obermaier.

Green decided he didn't want to leave.

Bandmate Mick Fleetwood and two Fleetwood Mac roadies

had to literally drag him away to complete the rest

of their European tour.

John is to this day absolutely furious with these people.

Called them the German jet set and they captured Peter

completely.

Hey, it was the '70s.

You might wander off and join a cult was just

an occupational hazard for musicians.

In fact, Flash forward to March of 1971

when guitarist Jeremy Spencer went out

to get a magazine while Fleetwood Mac was in California

to play a series of shows at the Whisky a Go Go

and never returned.

Spencer left to join the infamous Children

of God cult, now known as The Family International.

He remains a member to this day.

That's one way to avoid the drama of making Rumors.

Who do you think you are talking to,

some kid that fixes bicycles?

I know every inch of the 707.

Take the wings off this and you could use it as a tank.

This plane is built to withstand anything except a bad pilot.

All right, hold it, hold it.

This kind of talk will get us nowhere.

In late May, Detroit Tigers outfielder Al Kaline

suffered one of sport's most bizarre injuries

during a game against the Milwaukee Brewers.

While running to catch a fly ball,

Kaline collided with teammate Jim Northrup

so violently that he actually swallowed his tongue.

Kaline collapsed on the field unable to breathe.

His teeth were clenched so tightly

that Milwaukee's bullpen Coach Jackie Moore was

unable to force his mouth open.

Luckily, left fielder and renowned slugger Willie Horton

had the Hulk's strength necessary to pry

Kaline's jaws open and clear his airway, leaving Horton

with scars on his hand.

Kaline ultimately only missed one game,

and Horton was presented with a Michigan Heart Association

award for his actions.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

We'll be right back.

(SINGING) Come on, come on, come on and taste the Pepsi way.

La, la, la, la.

Come on, come on, come on, and have a Pepsi day.

You found a place to celebrate.

Pepsi's cold.

The food is great.

Come on, come on, and have a Pepsi day.

You're the Pepsi generation.

Have a Pepsi day.

Come on!

On June 20th, UCLA fired assistant professor

of philosophy Angela Davis for the second time.

This firing was for her use of inflammatory language

in speeches about the handling of the People's Park rally

the previous summer in which she characterized

the police as pigs and the university regents

as killers and murderers.

Three weeks ago, there were pigs on the campus attacking

everybody they saw.

The People's Park rally deviated from its topic

of the Arab-Israeli conflict into a protest,

which turned into a park takeover in which police fired

shotguns into crowds of demonstrators,

ending the life of one and injuring dozens more.

The college had previously terminated Davis's employment

back in September of 1969 because she

was a member of the Communist party.

Davis was also an activist and member

of the Black Panthers, which will matter

when we fast forward to October 13, 1970,

when Davis was arrested after a two-month manhunt

for her connection to the Marin County Civic Center

domestic terrorist attack on August 7th.

Using three guns owned by Davis, one of which

was a shotgun she had purchased just two days before,

four men took five hostages from a courtroom including Superior

Court Judge Harold Haley.

They demanded the release of three Black inmates

who were on trial for the stabbing of a white prison

guard.

Three of the kidnappers and the judge were killed.

Davis spent 16 months in prison awaiting her trial

but was eventually acquitted of any crime.

She continues her activism to this day.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Here we go with the top 40 hits in the nation

this week on American Top 40.

This is Casey Kasem in Hollywood.

The syndicated radio countdown show American Top 40

with Casey Kasem aired its first episode on the 4th of July.

A show in which Kasem counted down the top 40 Billboard

singles of the week became a staple of American culture

for the next several decades.

All right, all you dream analysts turn up the sound.

Here's Eric Burdon with his new group called War,

and the song is called "Spill the Wine."

Kasem's sonorous voice is what we think of when

we hear the words top 40 DJ.

He walked so Carson Daly and Ryan Seacrest could run.

Incidentally, Seacrest is the current host

of American Top 40, which he took over

from a retiring Kasem in 2004.

In addition to the radio, you might

recognize Kasem as the original voice of Shaggy on Scooby Doo--

I'm so scared I wish I had a ham sandwich to calm my nerves.

A character he played for roughly 40 years.

A week later Norwegian ethnologist Thor Heyerdahl

completed his trip across the Atlantic sailing

from Morocco to Barbados in a raft in 57 days.

The trip was an effort to prove Heyerdahl's theory

that the ancient Egyptians and other ancient Mediterranean

civilizations actually sailed to America

and exchanged trade and culture with the people in Central

and South America.

Heyerdahl's raft, the Ra II, was constructed of papyrus

and modeled after Egyptian sailing vessels of the period.

Despite successfully completing the 4,000-mile journey,

his theory is still not accepted by most anthropologists.

Well, several things have been proven.

One of them is definitely that a papyrus vessel is seaworthy.

You go on a 57-day raft trip and you get nothing?

That's got to sting.

Moving into September, legendary football coach Vince Lombardi

passed away at age 57.

Mr. Vincent Lombardi, coach and executive vice president

of the Washington Redskins, died at 7:12 AM today

at Georgetown University hospital.

Lombardi led the Green Bay Packers

to five NFL championships including the first two

Super Bowls.

After his death, the Super Bowl trophy

was renamed the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

To this day, Lombardi is regarded as the greatest coach

in the history of the NFL.

Most times, the streets are named after the deceased.

I just want you to know I'm not dead.

[CHUCKLING]

The music world was shocked when Jimmy Hendrix, one

of rock's most towering icons, died suddenly

on September 18th at the age of 27.

During his short career, Hendrix flailed his electric guitar

into some of the most unusual sounds of an unusual music.

An astonishing performer whose onstage

gyrations could make Elvis Presley look like a PE teacher.

Sadly, Hendrix wouldn't be the only 27-year-old talent

that would be lost in 1970.

Just a few weeks later, rock legend Janis Joplin

passed on October 4th at the age of 27.

Joplin was in Los Angeles recording her upcoming album

Pearl when she was found unresponsive in her hotel room

after missing a recording session.

The passing of both Hendrix and Joplin

coupled with the deaths of blues musician Alan "Blind Owl"

Wilson earlier that September and Rolling Stones

guitarist Brian Jones a few years earlier,

marked the unofficial beginning of the infamous 27 Club.

In September, some now iconic TV shows debuted.

So here I am in Minneapolis, new life, new job, well,

not a new job yet.

First, I had to go on an interview at a local TV

station.

The job that's open is associate producer.

I like it.

Associate producer.

Mary's making new friends.

Make yourself at home on Tuesday.

I painted this whole room without bothering you.

It won't cost me a cent.

I'm going to sell the old furniture to buy new.

You won't touch anything in my room?

Have I ever?

You won't be sorry.

Hey, kids, Hollywood Boulevard.

If anyone had told me four months ago

that I'd be driving an old school bus filled with my five

children and a large dog through Hollywood,

I'd have thought they were crazy.

Ladies and gentlemen, America's latest success story,

the Partridge Family.

[APPLAUSE]

The Doors frontman Jim Morrison was

convicted of indecent exposure and profanity

on September 20th.

The charges stemmed from a 1969 concert

in Miami during which Morrison allegedly

used some swear words and may or may not have dropped his pants.

Morrison was sentenced to six months in jail

and a $500 fine for the scandalous incident.

To this day, Doors bandmates maintain

Morrison's pants stayed on.

This is PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service.

PBS began operations as a US television network on the 5th.

The nonprofit organization, dedicated

to high-quality educational programming,

has been the broadcast home of beloved children's shows

like Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood,

and The Magic School Bus as well as

stuff here grownup shows like Masterpiece Theater and Downton

Abbey, which have way less puppets.

Garry Trudeau's satirical political comic strip

Doonesbury made its debut in newspapers on October 26th.

The scathingly topical cartoon became

the first daily comic strip to win a Pulitzer

Prize for the strip titled "Stonewall" published on August

12, 1974, that took aim at the then unfolding Watergate

scandal.

Although Doonesbury has gone on several hiatuses,

Trudeau continues to publish new strips half a century later,

continuing to prove that comic strips don't have to be funny.

On November 4th, the nation was stunned

by the discovery of Genie, a 13-year-old girl who had grown

up in almost total isolation.

Mr. Wylie, why did you keep your daughter in a room.

Mr. Wylie has no comment.

The abuse was so severe that Genie

had no concept of language.

When her mother finally got her out of the house,

Genie's developmental age was similar to that of an infant's.

Genie became a ward of the state,

and although her case initially received widespread attention,

she never made a significant recovery

and her current whereabouts are unknown.

Tragedy struck again on November 14th

when a jet carrying the Marshall University football team

crashed in Kenova, West Virginia.

The team had been returning from a loss

to East Carolina University when the plane struck

some trees during its approach to the tri-state airport

and crashed.

Everyone on board perished including

37 players, the coach, and 25 team boosters.

The devastating loss nearly resulted in Marshall

suspending its football program indefinitely.

Flash forward to December 22, 2006,

when the film We Are Marshall debuted.

The movie stars Matthew McConaughey

and a pre-MCU Anthony Mackie.

Chicanery was up in the air on December

5th when the Stanley Cup, the Conn Smythe Trophy,

and the Bill Masterson Trophy were all stolen during a break

in at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

Luckily, the Stanley Cup was only a replica,

but the other two trophies were very real.

The trophies were unceremoniously

returned just a few weeks later when the thieves left them

in the driveway of a Toronto police officer

after discovering that as far as ransom goes,

the trophies were basically worthless.

One of the oddest meetings in White House history

occurred on December 21st when Elvis Presley

paid President Richard Nixon a visit in the Oval Office.

The king of rock and roll dropped in on Nixon

to offer his services as an anti-drug spokesman,

showing up at the White House Gates unannounced.

The Secret Service didn't bother to search the king.

If they had they would have discovered the antique Colt 45

pistol Presley carried inside, which he presented to Nixon

as a gift.

It's good to be king just for a while.

The famous photograph of their strange conversation

is the single most requested image

from the National Archives.

And that's how 1970 ended, with a historic meeting

of two rulers, neither of whom would reign much longer.

1971 was right around the corner,

bringing the demise of several more musical icons

and the conviction of one of the 20th century's most

notorious criminals.

And Dirty Harry would begin patrolling cinema streets.

Jeez, the '70s need to lighten up.

But that is for next year.

Coming soon, 1971.

So what do you think?

What was your fondest memory of 1970?

Let us in the comments below.

And while you're at it, check out

some of these other Timeline videos.