Contemporary
Battle of Hamburger Hill (1969): The Assault on Ap Bia Mountain
US and South Vietnamese troops took the hill on 20 May 1969 at heavy cost, then abandoned it in early June, fuelling criticism of the war in the United States.
Region
Asia
Contemporary
Sino-Soviet Border Conflict (1969): Clash at Zhenbao Island
The fighting stopped short of full-scale war after the Kosygin–Zhou meeting of 11 September 1969, but it pushed China towards rapprochement with the United States.
Contemporary
Cambodian Campaign (1970): The US Incursion Into Cambodia
Allied forces captured large supply caches and disrupted communist bases, but the operation widened the war in Cambodia and triggered mass protests in the United States.
Contemporary
Venera 7 (1970): The First Landing on Another Planet
The first spacecraft to land intact on another planet and transmit data from its surface, recording about 475 °C and roughly 90 times Earth's air pressure.
Contemporary
1970 Bhola Cyclone: The Deadliest Tropical Cyclone on Record
An estimated 300,000-500,000 people died; anger at the government's response fed the political crisis that led to Bangladesh's independence in 1971.
Contemporary
Bangladesh Liberation War 1971: The Birth of a New Nation
Pakistani forces in the east surrendered on 16 December 1971 and Bangladesh became an independent state.
Prehistory
Fighting Dinosaurs Fossil: Velociraptor and Protoceratops (1971)
The expedition recovered a unique fossil of a predator and its prey buried in mid-fight, now regarded as a Mongolian national treasure.
Contemporary
Salyut 1 (1971): The First Space Station and Soyuz 11
The first crew lived aboard a space station for 23 days, but all three cosmonauts died when their Soyuz 11 capsule depressurised during the return to Earth.
Contemporary
Operation Linebacker II (1972): The Christmas Bombing of Hanoi
North Vietnam returned to the Paris talks, and the Paris Peace Accords were signed a month later, at the cost of heavy US aircraft losses and civilian deaths in the North.
Contemporary
Nixon's Visit to China (1972): The Week That Changed the World
The United States and the People's Republic of China opened direct relations, set out their positions in the Shanghai Communiqué and moved towards full diplomatic recognition in 1979.
Contemporary
Paris Peace Accords (1973): The Agreement to End US Fighting
US forces withdrew from Vietnam and American prisoners were released, but the ceasefire between North and South Vietnam soon collapsed.
Contemporary
Chipko Movement (1973): Hugging Trees in the Indian Himalayas
Village protests halted commercial felling in parts of the Garhwal Himalaya and led to a 15-year ban on green felling in the Uttar Pradesh Himalaya in 1980.