The 1970s Science and Technology: Chronology

1970:      The floppy disk is introduced for storing computer information.

1970:     January 21 The Boeing 747, the first jumbo jet, is put into commercial service.

1970:     April 11 The Apollo 13 mission begins. Two days, later an oxygen leak and fire disable the spacecraft, and the astronauts barely make it home safely.

1970:     April 22 The first Earth Day is celebrated.

1971:      Intel introduces the first silicon computer chip (microprocessor).

1971:      Texas Instruments introduces the first pocket calculator, weighing 2.5 pounds and costing around $150.

1971:     May 8 Mars probe Mariner 8 is launched. It suffers engine failure, falls back to Earth, and lands north of Puerto Rico.

1972:      The California State Board of Education demands that textbooks give equal weight to creationism as a type of evolutionary theory.

1972:      The large particle accelerator at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, begins operation.

1972:     March 22 The Pioneer 10 space probe is launched to explore the outer planets; on June 13, 1983, it becomes the first human-created object to leave the solar system.

1972:     June 14 Following warnings that DDT is interfering with the reproduction of birds and is potentially toxic to humans, the Environmental Protection Agency announces a ban on most uses of pesticides, beginning December 31.

1972:     December 7 Apollo 17, the last manned lunar landing, is launched.

1973:      The push-through tab is introduced in soft drinks and beer cans.

1973:      Scientists first express concern to the public that genetic engineering might produce new and dangerous microorganisms.

1973:     April 5 Pioneer 11 is launched. In 1979 it becomes the first human-made object to fly by Saturn.

1973:     May 25 The first Skylab mission is launched. A three-man crew conducts experiments for twenty-eight days in this orbiting space station.

1974:      Scientists warm that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used as propellants in spray cans may be destroying the ozone layer of Earth's atmosphere.

1974:      Hewlett Packard introduces a programmable pocket calculator.

1974:     November 24 A three-million-year old humanlike skeleton is found in Ethiopia and is named Lucy.

1975:      The first personal computer, the Altair 8800, is introduced in kit form.

1975:     July 15 The American-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz orbiting space station is launched.

1975:     August 20 Viking 1 is launched. It begins sending pictures from Mars in June 1976.

1976:      The French-English supersonic jet Concorde begins regular passenger service.

1976:      Genentech, the first company devoted to creating products through genetic engineering, is founded near San Francisco, California.

1976:     September 13 The U.S. Naval Academy of Sciences says that CFCs, especially those in aerosol cans, endanger the ozone layer.

1977:      Deep-sea "chimneys" are found near the Galapagos Islands, where warm water allows bacteria, giant clams, and tube worms to survive beyond the reach of sunlight.

1977:      The Apple II, the first successful personal computer, is introduced.

1977:     August 20 and September 5 Space probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are launched on a journey to Jupiter and the outer planets.

1978:      Lois Gibbs of the Love Canal Homeowners' Association demonstrates that residents' health is being adversely affected by a nearby toxic-waste dump.

1978:      Apple releases the first disk drive for use with personal computers.

1978:     March 15 CFCs are banned as spray propellants.

1978:     May 20 and August 8 Two Pioneer space probes are launched toward Venus.

1979:      VisiCalc introduces a spreadsheet program for personal computers, allowing users who know nothing about programming to use a business application for computers for the first time.

1979:      Evidence dating from about sixty-five million years ago in deep-sea cores shows that there are no fossils for a period of about one hundred thousand years.

1979:     March 28 Partial accidental meltdown begins in the reactor at Unit 2 of Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

1979:     July 11 Skylab falls into the atmosphere, breaking up over Australia and the Indian Ocean.