1970 facts

TELEVISION: There are no cable news networks. CBS still is airing "rural comedies" such as "Beverly Hillbillies," "Green Acres," "Hee Haw" and "Mayberry RFD" (successor to "The Andy Griffth Show") in prime time. It will dump them all next year because, the network says, national advertisers want to target young, urban audiences.

MOVIES: You can see "2001 Space Odyssey" at the Cinema, "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" with Barbra Streisand and Yves Montand at the Palace, "House of Dark Shadows" at the Keith-Albee and a variety of lesser known flicks at several drive-in theaters.

BREAKUP: Paul McCartney departs from the Beatles, in effect disbanding the most successful pop group in history.

SPACE TRAVEL: Three Apollo 13 astronauts barely make it back to Earth aboard a crippled ship.

MOTHER EARTH: Environmentalists march on the first Earth Day.

WAR: President Nixon extends the Vietnam War into Cambodia in an effort to destroy sanctuaries of the communist North Vietnamese army and Viet Cong.

PROTESTS: National Guardsmen fire into a crowd of people protesting the escalation of the Vietnam War at Kent State University, killing four students.

COURT MARTIAL: Testimony links Army 1st Lt. William Calley to the slaughter of helpless Vietnamese civilians in the village of My Lai.

DEATHS: A heart attack claims Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Anwar Sadat replaces him as Egypt's leader. Blues singer Janis Joplin dies of a drug overdose, and France mourns the loss of former President Charles de Gaulle. Other deaths include political activist Bertrand Russell, boxer Sonny Liston, football coach Vince Lombardi and entertainers Ed Begley, Edward Everett Horton, Hal March, Charles Ruggles, Boston's Catholic Archbishop Richard Cardinal Cushing and Gypsy Rose Lee.

ARREST: Six radical left-wing Weathermen are arrested as bomb plotters.

CAPTURE: The FBI takes black activist Angela Davis into custody.

ACCUSATION: Actress Jane Fonda is charged with smuggling pills and kicking a police officer.

BREAKTHROUGH: Scientists report the first artificial synthesis of a living cell.

STYLE SNIT: A 16-year-old Logan High School student goes to court to fight his suspension for refusing to cut his long hair.

SPEAKER: Nobel Prize-winning author and West Virginia native Pearl Buck speaks at the Huntington Galleries (now the Huntington Museum of Art).

PROBE: Military investigators descend on Tri-State Airport to determine the cause of the Oct. 29 crash of a twin-engine Army plane that killed three officers and injured a fourth.