1970 –Kent State andJackson State shootings occur during student protests which grew violent. National Guard troops and police kill six students, wound others.
1970 –American Top 40, hosted by radio personalityCasey Kasem, becomes the first successful nationally syndicated radio program featuring a weekly countdown.
1972 – First African-American major league baseball playerJackie Robinson dies.
1972 –Watergate scandal: Five men arrested for theburglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C.
1972 –Apollo 17 flies and lands to the Moon, and becomes the last crewed mission there (as of May 2025)(Artemis III will launch in mid-2027 with the next crewed landing on the Moon).
January 20, 1973 – President Nixon and Vice President Agnew begin second terms.
1973 – Former presidentLyndon B. Johnson dies inStonewall,Texas, of his third and final heart attack. It was at the LBJ ranch.
October 10, 1973 – Vice President Agnew resigns in disgrace as part of a plea bargain.
December 6, 1973 –Gerald R. Ford becomes the first person to be appointed vice president under the25th Amendment to the Constitution.
1973 – Watergate scandal: President Nixonfires two attorneys general, and their appointed acting attorney general replacement fires the Watergate Special Prosecutor over disposition of the secret tapes.
1973–1974 — The United States is affected by theArab Oil Embargo; gasoline prices skyrocket as supplies of gasoline and heating oil are in short supply. In response,daylight saving time is started in January (nearly four months earlier than usual), and thenational speed limit is lowered to 55 mph.
1974 – The1974 Super Outbreak, the second-largest series oftornadoes in history (at 148), hits 13 U.S. states and one Canadian province; 315 people are killed and more than 5,000 are injured.
August 9, 1974 – President Nixon resigns, becoming the first and only U.S. president to step down. Vice President Ford becomes the 38th president.
December 19, 1974 –Nelson A. Rockefeller becomes the second person to be appointed vice president under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.
1974 – Watergate scandal:Ford pardons Nixon for any crimes he may have committed against the United States while president, believing it to be in the "best interests of the country."
1975 – Bill Gates foundsMicrosoft, which will eventually dominate the home computer operating system market.
1975 – TheApollo–Soyuz Test Project begins, where an AmericanApollo spacecraft and a SovietSoyuz spacecraft dock in orbit, marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations.
1977 –Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll, dies in his home in Graceland at age 42. 75,000 fans line the streets of Memphis for his funeral
1977 – TheAtari 2600 becomes the first successfulhome video game system, popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code.
The International Women’s Year Conference (IWY), is held in Houston, Texas, where 2,000 state-appointed delegates vote on planks to form a “Plan of Action” called “What Women Want.”
1978 –Volkswagen becomes the second non-American automobile manufacturer (after Rolls-Royce) to open a plant in the United States, commencing production of theRabbit.
1978 – TheHumphrey Hawkins Full Employment Act is signed into law, adjusting the government's economic goals to include full employment, growth in production, price stability, and a balance of trade and budget.
1978 – The Senate votes to turn thePanama Canal over to Panamanian control on December 31, 1999.
1978 – SupervisorHarvey Milk and MayorGeorge Moscone are assassinated by Dan White in San Francisco on November 27.
1979 – TheThree Mile Island nuclear accident occurs, America's most catastrophic nuclear power plant accident in its history.
1979 – TheIran hostage crisis begins. In the aftermath, a second energy crisis develops, tripling theprice of oil and sending U. S. gasoline prices over $1 per gallon for the first time.
1979 — Facing bankruptcy,Chrysler receives government loan guarantees upon the request of CEOLee Iacocca to help revive the company.
1979 –The Sugarhill Gang releasesRapper's Delight, widely considered the first major hip hop song. The hip hop music movement occurred in the Early 1970s, but would evolve over time.
1980 – TheRefugee Act of 1980 is signed into law, reforming United States immigration law and admitted refugees on systematic basis for humanitarian reasons
January 20, 1981 – Reagan becomes the 40th president; Bush becomes the 43rd vice president. On the same dayIran releases hostages, marking the end of theIran hostage crisis.
March 30, 1981 – Attempted assassination of President Reagan byJohn Hinckley Jr.
1981 – 1982 United States is part of the global recession, with national unemployment as high as 9%, with some areas much higher, and inflation as high as 13.5%.Early 1980s recession
1981–1982 — The killing of 6-year-oldAdam Walsh (1981), and the disappearance ofJohnny Gosch, a 12-year-old newspaper carrier fromDes Moines, Iowa (1982), raise awareness of missing children cases in the United States.
1985 – World awareness of famine in Third World countries spark "We Are the World" andLive Aid. Also, awareness ofAIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is raised with the death of actorRock Hudson.
1985 – Country music singerWillie Nelson andJohn Mellencamp organize the firstFarm Aid concert to raise money for family farmers facing financial crisis.
November 22, 1987 – An unidentified man wearing theMax Headroom mask appears out of nowhere on television stationsWGN-TV andWTTW inChicago. It is to this day the most notorious television broadcast interruption. As of 2019, the mystery is still unsolved, However, many people onReddit claim they were behind the crime.
1988 – Drunk driving awareness is raised after a drunk driver's car crashes into a church bus nearCarrollton, Kentucky, killing 27.
1988 – Severe droughts and massive heat wave gripping the Midwest and Rocky Mountain states. The crisis reaches its peak with theYellowstone fires of 1988.
1989 – The animated television sitcomThe Simpsons debuts onFox.
1989 – President Bush and Soviet Premier Gorbachev release statements indicating that the Cold War between their nations may be coming to an end. Symbolic elsewhere around the world was the fall of theBerlin Wall in Germany.
Postwar United States travel guide from Wikivoyage