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| 1970s |
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| Deindustrialization. The nation's industrial base entered a long period of decline. By the end of the 1970s, the nation's capital was being invested in speculative and foreign investments, rather than in the country's basic industries. Estimates suggest that the U.S. lost between 32 million and 38 million jobs. By the end of the decade, the 100 largest multinational corporations and banks earned more than one-third of their profits outside the U.S. | 1 |
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| 1970, Jan. 1 |
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| The three-person Council on Environmental Quality was established, a crucial step in the fight against pollution. | 2 |
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| Jan. 26 |
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| Pres. Nixon vetoed a $19 billion appropriation for health, education, and antipoverty measures on grounds that such expenditure would aggravate inflation. The House of Representatives failed to override the veto. | 3 |
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| Feb. 20 |
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| Five of the “Chicago Eight” were convicted of crossing state lines to incite riots and were sentenced to five years in prison. | 4 |
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| March 6 |
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| The president signed a revised appropriations bill for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and the Department of Labor. | 5 |
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| April 22 |
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| The first Earth Day. Environmentalism was becoming a mass movement; on this day, 22 million people across the country gathered to show their support for the ecology of the planet. | 6 |
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| April 30 |
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| The president announced the commitment of U.S. troops in the war in Cambodia (See April 30) against the Vietnamese Communists. This announcement, involving an escalation of a war that Nixon had promised to conclude, caused a storm of indignation in the country and rekindled the peace movement. | 7 |
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| May 4 |
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| At Kent State University in Ohio, four students were killed when the National Guard opened fire on a demonstration. Added to the outrage felt over Cambodia, the Kent State incident, regarded by most people as indefensible for any reason, produced such disorder that many universities and colleges were temporarily closed. | 8 |
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| May 8 |
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| Construction workers attacked antiwar demonstrators in New York City. | 9 |
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| May 9 |
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| Huge antiwar protest demonstration by students in Washington, D.C. | 10 |
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| May 11–12 |
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| In Augusta, Ga., violence followed the beating death of a black prisoner. | 11 |
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| May 12 |
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| After failing to confirm two earlier candidates, the Senate finally confirmed a presidential nomination for the Supreme Court, Justice Harry A. Blackmun. | 12 |
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