June 1970

Stuff that happened 50 years ago.

June 1970 started off pretty slow in terms of major events. On June 13, Kent State University opened its campus for the first time since the May 4 shootings in which National Guardsmen killed four students and wounded nine. Twelve hundred students in the Class of 1970 received diplomas in ceremonies open only to those invited.

Charles Manson

The first criminal trial of Charles Manson and several of his followers, for the 1969 murders of Sharon Tate and six others, opened in Los Angeles on June 15.

Kenneth Gibson was elected mayor of Newark, N.J., on June 16, becoming the first African-American mayor of a major East Coast city.

On June 24, the U.S. Senate voted to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, approved in 1964 to support American intervention in Vietnam.

The first Gay Pride march in the U.S. took place June 27 in Chicago. There were about 150 participants.

U.S. ground troops withdrew from Cambodia on June 29. A total of 339 American servicemen had been killed during the two-month incursion.