Elephants in the Alps - Don't Know Much About Geography - page 126

1964 Kenya becomes a republic; Tanganyika and Zanzibar unite to form Tanzania; Northern
Rhodesia becomes the independent republic of Zambia.
1965 Gambia gains independence.
1965 Under a white minority government, Rhodesia declares its independence from the United
Kingdom.
1966 Colonial British Guiana, located on the north coast of South America, becomes the independ-
ent republic of Guyana.
1967 In the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War, Israel gains control of the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the
Golan Heights from Syria, and the Jordan River's West Bank; all of Jerusalem, once partly con-
trolled by Jordan, is united under Israeli rule.
1968 Soviets invade Czechoslovakia to crush its liberal government.
1970 Celebration of the first “Earth Day,” aimed at increasing awareness of environmental dangers.
1970 After a long, unsuccessful war for independence, the region of Biafra surrenders to Nigeria
after millions have been starved by the civil war.
1971 Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, becomes independent.
1971 The United Nations seats Communist China and expels Nationalist China (Taiwan).
1973 The Yom Kippur War. Arab armies strike Israel during the highest holy day. Egypt retakes a
portion of the Sinai Peninsula. An Israeli counterattack into Egypt is halted by a ceasefire.
1974 A team led by Donald Johanson and Maurice Taieb discover 40 percent of the skeletal remains
of an early hominid that is more than three million years old in the Afar region of Ethiopia. Named
Lucy because the Beatles' song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was playing at the time of the
discovery, the remains are representative of a previously undiscovered species that Johanson names
Australopithecus afarensis.
1975 The world's population reaches an estimated 4 billion people.
1976 North and South Vietnam are reunited under Communist control after twenty-two years of
separation. Hanoi is the new capital and Saigon is renamed Ho Chi Minh City.
1976 The Central African Republic, a former French colony, is renamed the Central African Empire
by Emperor Bokassa I, who installs himself in a lavish $25 million ceremony. Bokassa is later de-
posed and the country reverts to the Central African Republic.