• The last
cigarette commercials on U.S. television and radio were broadcast, and tobacco manufacturers spent US$1,250,000 for the farewell advertising prior to the
ban that went into effect at midnight. The last commercial was a 60-second ad for
Virginia Slims that was run by the
Philip Morris company at 11:59 during a break on
The Tonight Show on NBC. The company had bought the last pre-midnight ads on the late night talk shows of all three networks, with ads for
Marlboro on CBS on
The Merv Griffin Show and for
Benson & Hedges on ABC on
The Dick Cavett Show. • The major bowl games of the
1970 college football season saw the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams defeated in the afternoon and in the evening, respectively. In
Dallas, the
Cotton Bowl was a rematch of the 1969 Cotton Bowl, when Notre Dame was upset by Texas. In the rematch, the #1-ranked
Texas Longhorns lost to the #6
Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, 24 to 11. Notre Dame, whose shot at No. 1 had been dashed by the Longhorns the year before, snapped a streak of 30 consecutive Texas victories as future NFL great
Joe Theismann ran for two touchdowns and passed for another. Later in the day, the second-ranked
Ohio State Buckeyes lost to the No. 12–ranked
Stanford Indians (now the Stanford Cardinals), losing 27 to 17 at the
Rose Bowl in
Pasadena. Thus, the No. 3–ranked
Nebraska Cornhuskers, who had beaten the No. 5
LSU Tigers at the
Orange Bowl in
Miami after the Cotton Bowl and before the Rose Bowl, were the only major unbeaten team in the nation, with a final record of 11 wins, no losses and one tie. The Cornhuskers were voted No. 1 in the
Associated Press poll of sportswriters on January 4. Texas is also noted as an NCAA 1970 college football champion for its 10–0–0 regular season record and its No. 1 ranking at season's end by
United Press International's poll of college coaches; UPI did not do a postseason poll at the time. • The
International Investment Bank (IIB) began operations as a lending institution for members states of the Soviet Union's allies in
Comecon, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. •
No-fault insurance went into effect within the United States for the first time, as an innovation in
Massachusetts where the first law was enacted on August 13, 1970, "with the promise of lower rates for drivers, quicker settlements for those injured in accidents and much-needed relief for a court system swamped with litigation." Under the scheme, now universal in the U.S., a person's own insurance would pay for the initial medical expenses (up to $500) and damages for lost work for an injured person up to a limit (initially $2,000) and the carrier would then seek recovery from the insurance carrier of the driver at fault. •
Project VOLAR (an abbreviation for Volunteer Army) began as an experiment at Fort Benning, Fort Carson, and Fort Ord to improve conditions within the United States Army in order to encourage soldiers to enlist into military service. Among the experimental reforms were the abolition of
KP duty (an abbreviation for "kitchen police" for cleaning and food preparation) and
reveille. The VOLAR project would lead to reforms marketed as "The New Army". •
Born: Jarosław Wasik, Polish singer-songwriter, in
Prudnik, Poland ==January 2, 1971 (Saturday)==