February 15 - Sandblasting, which is a method of cutting hard substances by the erosive action of a jet of driven sand, is invented by B. C. Tilgham and demonstrated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
April 7 - The first National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. begins.
April 27 - Surety National Bank has the first automated banking at the Civic Center Branch in Los Angeles, California.
May 4 - Four students are killed by National Guardsman during an antiwar demonstration at Kent State University in Ohio.
May 5 - The first nun to join the Air Force Reserves is Sister Nancy Ann Eagan.
June 11 - E. P. Hoisington and P. M. Hoisington are the first U.S. Army Generals who are brother and sister.
June 18 - A bill giving 18 year olds the right to vote is signed into law by President Nixon.
July 6 - The first state "no fault" divorce law is enacted in California.
August 12 - The U.S. Post Office becomes an independent government corporation.
August 15 - Patricia Palinkas, playing for the Orlando Panthers, is the first female professional football player.
September 6 - The first African American contestant in the Miss America Pageant is C. A. Browne.
September 8 - The orthodox canonization of St. Father Herman in Kodiak, Alaska is the first of such ceremonies held in North America.
October 20 - An American Norman Borlaug receives the Nobel Peace Prize for perfecting and introducing new strains of wheat and rice crops.
