All About 1970

Yes that is when I was born a long time ago :)  As most people I do not recall anything from the year 1970...actually for I remember very little of anything before the mid 1980s.   Of course being Canadian gives me a totally different perspective on the world :)  The day I was born there was an avalnche in Val d"Isere, France killing 39 tourists, what a horrible thing to happen on the day I enter the world...forshadowing maybe :)

Since I am Canadian I will tell you that Pierre Elliott Trudeau was the Prime Minister when I was born, the 15th Prime Minister of Canada.  1970 was a big year in his polictical career with the October Crisis.  During the October Crisis the FLQ kidnapped British Trade Cousul James Cross.  Five days later Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte was also kidnapped and murdered a week later.  PM Trudeau responded by invoking the War Measures Act, which gave the government sweeping powers of arrest and detention without trial.  Five of the FLQ terrorists were flown to Cuba in 1970 as a part of a deal in exchange for James Cross's life, but all members were eventually arrested.  The five flown to Cuba were jailed after they returned to Canada years later.  PM Trudeau was remembered for many things in his first few years including implementing offficial bilingualism in Canada.

The First Juno Award Winners

Best Male Vocalist Andy Kim

Best Female Vocalist Ginette Reno

The Best Group The Guess Who

Best Country Male Artist Tommy Hunter

Best Country Female Artist Dianne Leigh

Best Country Group The Mercey Brothers

Best Folk Artist Gordon Lightfoot

Best Single Which Way You Goin' Billy? by The Poppy Family

The top 10 Songs of 1970 

1. Layla-Derek and The Dominos

2. Bridge Over Troubled Waters-Simon and Garfunkel

3. Let It Be-The Beatles

4. Your Song-Elton John

5. Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine-James Brown

6. Lola-The Kinks

7. Who'll Stop The Rain- CCR

8. Fire and Rain-James Taylor

9. Paranoid-Black Sabbath

10. All Right Now-Free

I do know all of these songs but I can't say it was from knowing them in the 1970s or just through out my life hearing them.  Bridge Over Troubled Waters is one of the songs from my High School Grad class.

Top 10 Movies of 1970

1. Two Mules for Sister Sara

2. MASH

3. Kelly's Heroes

4. Little Big Man

5. Woodstock

6. The Twelve Chairs

7. Airport

8. The Cheyenne Social Club

9. The Great White Hope

10. Pippi in the South Seas

I remember the first movie, not from 1970 but through out my life, it was one of my father's favourite movies.  I actually don't remember sitting down and watching the whole thing but I have seen it all in bits and pieces by watching some every time he watched it.  Other than Airport and Pippi in the South Seas I don't know any of the other movies on this list.  I probably saw a lot of them because in the 70s my parents would take me and my brothers to the drive in all the time...and of course kids never go to sleep as early as you want them to at the drive in :)

Entertainment Awards in 1970

Song of the Year Games People Play by Joe South...which isn't on the top 10 songs

Best Country Vocal Stand By Your Man by Tammy Wynette...any coincidence that Tammy was in the top 10 names that year :)

Best Actor George C. Scott for his role in PATTON

Best Actress Glenda Jackson for her role in WOMEN IN LOVE...I haven't heard of either of these people

Best Musical (Tony Award) Applause

Best Play Borstal Boy

Top 10 Television shows of 1970

1. Marcus Welby, MD

2. The Flip Wilson Show

3. Here's Lucy

4. Ironside

5. Gunsmoke

6. ABC Movie of the Week

7. Hawaii Five-0

8. Medical Center

9. Bonanza

10. The FBI

Same as with the movies I haven't seen many of these shows but I do recall my parents talking about them so I probably have seen some of them...and of course when my mother is around she watches them on Deja-Vu so I am sure I have seen episodes of a lot of them.

All My Children aired on 5 Jan 70 and as far as I know is still on the air today :)

Top 10 Baby Names of 1970

       Boys                                               

1. Michael

2. James

3. David

4. John

5. Robert

6. Christopher

7. William  

8. Brian

9. Mark

10. Richard

    Girls

1. Jennifer

2. Lisa

3. Kimberly

4. Michelle

5. Amy

6. Angela

7. Melissa

8. Tammy

9. Mary

10. Tracy

My mother said she had never heard the name Tammy before she went in the hospital and the very day I was born three other 'Tammy Lynne's" were born.  Every where she looked she would see a new baby girl named Tammy Lynn...the only difference for me was that Lin is short for Linda and a rare spelling compared to the several Tammy Lynn's I run into in my life.  I have never lived any where that I haven't had a Tammy for a friend...well except where I live now but Ido know a bunch.  I thought it funny looking at the list that the kids I grew up with I know lots of people with the top 5 on the girls list yet not on the boys :)

Interesting fact on 7 March 70 there was a total solar eclipse that affect the Maritime Provinces of Canada.   Bobby Orr becomes the first NHL defencemen to win the scoring title.  Canada lowered it voting age from 21 to 18, a few months later Nixon follows suit and signs a measure to lower the voting age in the USA as well.  Apollo 13 was launced towards the Moon and after an oxygen tank explodes they are forced to return after 4 days.  The Soviet Union lands Lunokhod1 on Mare Imbruim on the Moon, this is the first roving remote-controlled robot that was released by the orbitint Luna 17 spacecraft.

1970 was different time in the world, the Vietnam War was still going on and many people were still protesting.  The Cold War between the USA and USSR was still going on in full force.  Just like today there were many tragedies in 1970, an Air Canada flight that caught fire after landing in Toronto and all 109 passenger and crew perished; 3 Canadians were killed when a ferry collided with a Soviet Freighter;  6 people are killed in one of the worst tornadoes in Canadian history, leaving 200 people injured and $17 million in property damage all in under five minutes; an earthquake registering 7.7 in Yunnan, China killed at least 15, 621 people...to me that might seem like a lot more than to some people...there is under 13, 000 people in the town I live...that would take out my whole town and then some :(  A train collision in Argentina takes 236 people; a Japanese Airline Flight was hijacked by the Japanese Red Army, later all passengers were released; a gas explosion in a subway in Osaka, Japan kills 70 people; an avalanche in the French Alps kills 74, mostly young boys as it buries a Tuberculosis Sanatorium; four students at Kent State University are killed at a protest against the incursion into Cambodia; an F5 Tornado hits downtown Lubbock, Texas killing 28 people; two people are killing during violent demonstrations at Jackson State University; an assassination attempt was made against Kind Hussein of Jordan; the Wichita State University football team's plane crashed in Colorado killing most of the team (I believe I have seen the movie about this one); a monsoon hit Vietnam killing 293 people and leaving 200,000 or more homeless which virtually halts the Vietnam War; a fire in France kills another 144.  This is just the deaths of innocent bystanders…not to mention the ‘famous’ people who died during that year including Jimi Hendrix who died at the age of 28 or Janis Joplin who died of a heroin overdose at age 27.  

 For my American friends a US Postal Service strike took place in 1970 over 200, 000 postal workers walked out for 2 weeks :(

I am sure like every other year if you dig deep enough you will find that a lot of things were going on in this big world of ours in that year.