1970-1979

  • The first Earth Day celebration is held

  • The Senate approves the 26th Amendment, that would lower the voting age from 21 to 18

  • Walt Disney World opens in Orlando, Florida

  • The Watergate crisis begins

  • Two defendants in the Watergate break-in trial are convicted

  • President Richard M. Nixon resigns as president

  • Communist forces complete their takeover of South Vietnam

  • Carter wins presidential election against Ford

  • The U.S. signs a nuclear proliferation pact

  • The United States Senate votes to return the Panama Canal back to Panama on December 31, 1999

  • An accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania occurs when a partial core meltdown is recorded