January

January 22 – Boeing 747 makes its first commercial passenger trip from New York to London.

February

March

After overcoming technical and operational hurdles, Radio UNE (RUNE) began test transmissions on 1630 kHz on the AM band in March 1970.

April

Radio UNE was officially opened at 7pm on 27 April, with a pre-recorded message from the Vice Chancellor, Professor Zelman Cowen who oversaw the license application. Richard “Swinging Dick” Mutton, Station Manager, introduced the first music track, Harry Nilsson’s Everybody’s Talking.


April 10 – Paul McCartney leaves the Beatles.  After his bandmates tried to delay his solo album (McCartney), he issued advance copies with a questionnaire style press release where he stated he had no plans to make more music with the Beatles and he wouldn’t write songs with Lennon again.

 

April 11 – NASA launches Apollo 13.

April 13 – Apollo 13 explosion.  One oxygen tank explodes, leading to another tank failing, ultimately causing the loss of the command module’s normal supply of electricity, light and water.  Check out the Apollo 13 mission in real time.

 

April 17 – Apollo 13 crew safely lands after the three crew spent days in a lunar module built for two people to undertake a short mission on the moon.


April 28 – The Queen, Prince Phillip and Princess Anne visit UNE.


April 29 – USA invades Cambodia.  The objective was to wipe out  People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Viet Cong (VC) forces located in Cambodia and to protect the US-backed government of South Vietnam and US forces stationed there.

May

May 4 – Kent State Shootings. The Ohio National Guard opens fire on a crowd of university students protesting the Vietnam War.  Four students were killed. Nine were injured.

June

June 12 – The Australian Metric Conversion Act passed by the Australian Parliament.

July

July 21 – Aswan High Dam completed in Egypt.

August

4 August – Radio UNE put itself firmly on the map with a bold attempt at an Australian record. Nineteen-year-old student Nigel Wood extraordinarily broadcast non-stop for 87 hours going on-air every 15 minutes.

August 11 – Professor Alec Lazenby appointed Vice Chancellor of UNE


August 17 – USSR launches Venera 7 Mission to Venus

September

October

October 13 – Sir Frank Kitto appointed Chancellor of UNE

November

November 10 – USSR launches Luna 17 Mission.  The Luna 17 carried Lunokhod 1,  the first successful remote-controlled robotic rover to land and operate on the Moon.

 

 

December

December 15 – Venera 7 lands on Venus, sending data before crashing onto the planet. It was the first spacecraft to return data after landing on another planet.

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