All times in UTC ·
Dashed edge = started before, or continues beyond, this day
Events on Thursday 31 December 1970 12
1962 – 1970Early Career and National TheatreBegan appearing in films in the 1960s. Worked with the National Theatre alongside Laurence Olivier and Maggie Smith, building his reputation as a versatile classical actor.
1964 – 1970Miles Davis's Second Great QuintetJoined Miles Davis's quintet in 1964, contributing compositions that helped shape one of the most innovative periods in jazz history. Participated in the landmark recordings In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew.
1968 – 1970Promises, Promises RevivalThe Broadway musical Promises, Promises, with lyrics by Hal David, ran for over 1,200 performances and earned Bacharach a Tony nomination.
1968 – 1970Promises, Promises on BroadwayComposed the score for the Broadway musical Promises, Promises, based on Billy Wilder's The Apartment, which ran for over 1,200 performances.
1969 – 1970Butch Cassidy and the Sundance KidWon two Academy Awards for the score of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the song Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head.
1969 – 1970In a Silent Way and Bitches BrewPlayed a key role on Miles Davis's epoch-making albums In a Silent Way (1969) and Bitches Brew (1970), which launched the jazz fusion movement.
1969 – 1970Life Is ElsewhereWrote Life Is Elsewhere, a novel satirising revolutionary romanticism. It won the Prix Médicis étranger in France in 1973.
1969 – 1970Postdoc at the Salk InstituteWorked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute under Renato Dulbecco, who would later win the Nobel Prize. When his American visa expired, Dulbecco recommended him to the newly established Basel Institute for Immunology in Switzerland.
19701970: Jochen RindtLotusRindt became the sport's only posthumous World Champion, having been killed during practice at the Italian Grand Prix. His points lead proved unassailable in the remaining races.
1970First Congressional RunRan for the US House of Representatives in Ohio as an anti-war Democrat. Despite being in a conservative district, he received 44% of the vote.
1970Myra BreckinridgePlayed the title role in the controversial film adaptation of Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge, portraying a transgender revolutionary.
1970The US Clean Air ActThe engine acquires a regulatorSigned on the last day of 1970, the Act sets emissions standards that no existing engine can meet and gives manufacturers a deadline. For the first time the design of the internal combustion engine is driven by law rather than by performance or cost. Every engine built since has been shaped by it.