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1971

From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids

Centuries: 19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
Years: 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
1971 by topic:
Arts
Architecture - Art - Film - Literature
Music (Country, UK) - Television - Home video
Science and technology
Archaeology - Aviation
Meteorology - Rail transport - Radio - Science
By country
Australia - Canada - France - Germany - India
Ireland - Malaysia - Mexico - New Zealand - Pakistan
Singapore - South Africa - UK - Wales - Zimbabwe
Other topics
Awards - Sport - Law - State leaders - Sovereign states - Religious leaders - Video gaming
Birth and death categories
Births - Deaths
Establishments and disestablishments categories
Establishments - Disestablishments
Works category
Works
1971 in other calendars
Gregorian calendar 1971
MCMLXXI
Ab urbe condita 2724
Armenian calendar 1420
ԹՎ ՌՆԻ
Chinese calendar 4667 – 4668
庚戌 – 辛亥
Ethiopian calendar 1963 – 1964
Hebrew calendar 5731 – 5732
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat 2026 – 2027
- Shaka Samvat 1893 – 1894
- Kali Yuga 5072 – 5073
Iranian calendar 1349 – 1350
Islamic calendar 1391 – 1392

1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar).

Contents

Events

January

January
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
  1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31
  • January 1 - The British Divorce Reform Act comes into force.
  • January 2 - Ibrox disaster: A stairway crush at the Rangers vs. Celtic football match in Glasgow, Scotland kills 66.
  • January 2 - A ban on television cigarette advertisements goes into effect in the United States.
  • January 3 - BBC Open University begins in the United Kingdom.
  • January 7 - The British heavy metal band Black Sabbath releases their breakthrough album, Paranoid.
  • January 8 - Tupamaros kidnap Geoffrey Jackson, British ambassador to Uruguay, in Montevideo; they keep him captive until September.
  • January 9 - Uruguayan president Jorge Pacheco Areco demands emergency powers for 90 days due to kidnappings, and receives them the next day.
  • January 14 - Seventy Brazilian political prisoners are released in Santiago. Giovanni Enrico Bucher is released January 16.
  • January 15 - The Aswan Dam is officially opened in Egypt.
  • January 18 - Strikes in Poland demand the resignation of Interior Minister Kazimierz Switala. He resigns January 23 and is replaced by Franciszek Szlachcic.
  • January 18 - In Madison Square Garden, New York, Ivan Koloff pins Bruno Sammartino to win the WWWF World Title, ending the longest reign ever of that title to date.
  • January 19 - Representatives of 23 western oil companies begin negotiations with OPEC in Tehran to stabilize oil prices. February 14 they sign a treaty with 6 Persian Gulf countries.
  • January 19 - No, No Nanette premieres (46th Street Theatre, New York City).
  • January 24 - The Guinean government sentences to death 92 Guineans who helped Portuguese troops in the failed landing attempts in November 1970; 72 are sentenced to hard labor for life; 58 of the sentenced are hanged the next day.
  • January 25 - In Los Angeles, Charles Manson and 3 female "family members" are found guilty of the 1969 murder of Sharon Tate and others at her house.
  • January 25 - In Uganda, Idi Amin deposes Milton Obote in a coup, and becomes president.
  • January 25 - Himachal Pradesh becomes the 18th Indian state.
  • January 25 - Intelsat IV (F2) is launched; it enters commercial service over the Atlantic Ocean March 26.
  • January 31 - Apollo program: Apollo 14 (Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, Edgar Mitchell) lifts off on the third successful lunar landing mission.

February

February
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28

March

March
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31
  • March 1 - A bomb explodes in the men's room at the White House; the Weather Underground claims responsibility.
  • March 1 - Pakistani President Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan indefinitely postpones the pending National Assembly session, precipitating massive civil disobedience in East Pakistan.
  • March 1 - Canadian John Robarts ends his term of office as the 17th Premier of Ontario.
  • March 5 - The Pakistani army occupies East Pakistan.
  • March 7 - The British postal workers' strike, led by UPW General Secretary Tom Jackson, ends after 47 days.
  • March 12 - Hafez al-Assad becomes president of Syria.
  • March 12 - March 13 - The Allman Brothers Band plays their legendary concert at the Fillmore East.
  • March 16 - Trygve Bratteli forms a government in Norway.
  • March 18 - A landslide at Chungar, Peru crashes into Lake Yanahuani, killing 200.
  • March 23 - General Alejandro Lanusse of Argentina takes power in a military coup.
  • March 25 - The Pakistani army starts massive killings in East Pakistan, after President Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, a military ruler, voids election results that gave the Awami League an overwhelming majority in the parliament.
  • March 26 - East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) independence is declared by Army Major (later President of Bangladesh) Ziaur Rahman from Kalurghat Radio Station, Chittagong.
  • March 29 - Filming begins on The Godfather.
  • March 29 - U.S. Army Lieutenant William Calley is found guilty of 22 murders in the My Lai massacre and sentenced to life in prison (later pardoned).
  • March 29 - A Los Angeles, California jury recommends the death penalty for Charles Manson and 3 female followers.

April

April
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
  1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30
  • April 1 - The United Kingdom lifts all restrictions on gold ownership.
  • April 3 - Un banc, un arbre, une rue by Séverine (music by Jean-Pierre Bourtayre, text by Yves Dessca) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1971 for Monaco.
  • April 5 - In Ceylon, a group calling themselves the People’s Liberation Front begin a rebellion against the Bandaranaike government.
  • April 5 - Chile and East Germany establish diplomatic relations.
    • Mount Etna erupts.
  • April 7 - Greece releases 261 political prisoners, 50 of which are sent to internal exile.
  • April 8 - A right-wing coup attempt is exposed in Laos.
  • April 9 - Charles Manson is sentenced to death but the sentence is commuted to life imprisonment.
  • April 12 - Palestinians retreat from Amman to the north of Jordan.
  • April 17 - Bangladesh officially declares independence, but Pakistani troops continue the fighting.
  • April 17 - Libya, Syria and Egypt sign an agreement to form a confederation.
  • April 19 - The government of Bangladesh flees to India.
  • April 19 - Sierra Leone becomes a republic.
  • April 19 - The Soviet Union launches Salyut 1.
  • April 19 - Followers of Charles Manson, the Manson Family, are sentenced to the gas chamber.
  • April 20 - The Supreme Court of the United States rules unanimously (Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education) that busing of students may be ordered to achieve racial desegregation.
  • April 20 - Cambodian Prime Minister Lon Nol resigns, but remains effectively in power until the next elections.
  • April 21 - Siaka Stevens is elected the first president of Sierra Leone.
  • April 21 - François Duvalier, president of Haiti, dies; his son Jean-Claude Duvalier follows him as president-for-life.
  • April 24 - Soyuz 10 docks with Salyut 1.
  • April 24 - Five hundred thousand people in Washington, DC and 125,000 in San Francisco march against the Vietnam War.
  • April 24 - A tsunami 85 m high rises over the Ryūkyū Islands in Japan. It throws a 750-ton block of coral 2.5 km inland.
  • April 25 - Todor Zhivkov is re-elected as the leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party.
  • April 25 - Franz Jonas is re-elected as chancellor of Austria.
  • April 26 – The government of Turkey declares a state of siege in 11 provinces, Ankara included, because of violent demonstrations.
  • April 29 - Bolivia nationalizes the American-owned zinc mine of Matilde.
  • April 29 - The third anniversary of the Broadway musical Hair is celebrated with a concert at a Central Park bandshell.

May

May
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
  1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
  • May 1 - Amtrak begins operation of inter-city rail passenger service in the United States.
  • May 1 - The Ceylonese government promises amnesty for those guerillas who surrender before April 5.
  • May 2 – In Ceylon, left-wing guerillas launch a series of assaults against public buildings.
  • May 3 - The Harris Poll claims that 60% of Americans are against the war in Vietnam.
  • May 3 - East German leader Walter Ulbricht resigns as Communist Party leader but retains the position of head of state.
  • May 3 - Anti-war militants attempt to disrupt government business in Washington, D.C.; police and military units arrest as many as 12,000, most of whom are later released.
  • May 3 - All Things Considered, National Public Radio's flagship news program, broadcasts for the first time.
  • May 5 – The US dollar floods the European currency markets and threatens especially the Deutsche Mark; the central banks of Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland stop the currency trading.
  • May 6 – The Ceylon government begins a major offensive against the People's Liberation Front.
  • May 9Mariner 8 fails to launch.
  • May 12 – An earthquake in Turkey destroys most of the city of Burdur.
  • May 15 – Efraim Elrom, Israeli ambassador to Turkey, is kidnapped; he is found killed in Istanbul May 25.
  • May 16 – A coup attempt is exposed and foiled in Egypt.
  • May 19 - Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union.
  • May 26 - Austria and the People's Republic of China establish diplomatic relations.
  • May 26 - Qantas agrees to pay $500,000 to bomb hoaxer-extortionist Mr. Brown (Peter Macari) who is later arrested.
  • May 27 - Six armed passengers hijack a Romanian passenger plane and force it to fly to Vienna.
  • May 27 - Christie's auctions a diamond known as Deepdene - it is later found to be artificially colored.
  • May 28Portugal resigns from UNESCO.
  • May 30 - Mariner program: Mariner 9 is launched toward Mars.
  • May 31 - The birth of Bangladesh is declared by the government in exile, in territory formerly part of Pakistan.

June

June
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
  1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30
  • Massachusetts passes its Chapter 766 laws enacting Special Education.
  • June 1 - Vietnam War: Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace, claiming to represent the majority of U.S. veterans who served in Southeast Asia, speak against war protests.
  • June 6 - Soyuz program: Soyuz 11 (Vladislav Volkov, Georgi Dobrovolski, Viktor Patsayev) is launched.
  • June 6 - A midair collision between a Hughes Airwest Douglas DC-9 jetliner and a U.S. Marine Corps McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom jet fighter near Duarte, California, claims 50 lives.
  • June 10 - The U.S. ends its trade embargo of China.
  • June 10 - (Corpus Thursday): A student rally on the streets of Mexico City is roughly dispersed.
  • June 13 - Vietnam War: The New York Times begins to publish the Pentagon Papers. [1].
  • June 13 - Gijs van Lennep wins the 24 hours of Le Mans together with Helmut Marko.
  • June 14 - Norway begins oil production in the North Sea.
  • June 17 - Representatives of Japan and the United States sign the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, whereby the U.S. will return control of Okinawa.[2]
  • June 20 – Britain announces that Soviet space scientist Anatoli Fedoseyev has been granted asylum.
  • June 21 – Britain begins new negotiations for EEC membership in Luxembourg.
  • June 25Madagascar accuses the U.S. of being connected to the plot to oust the current government – the U.S. recalls its ambassador.
  • June 27 - Concert promoter Bill Graham closes the legendary Fillmore East, which was located on 2nd Avenue between 5th and 6th Streets in New York City. The Fillmore East opened on March 8, 1968.
  • June 28 - Assassin Jerome A. Johnson shoots Joe Colombo in the head in a middle of an Italian-American rally, putting him in a coma.
  • June 30 - After a successful mission aboard Salyut 1, the world's first manned space station, the crew of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft are killed when their air supply leaks out through a faulty valve.
  • June 30 - The U.S. Supreme Court (New York Times Co. v. United States) rules that the Pentagon Papers may be published, rejecting government injunctions as unconstitutional prior restraint.
  • June 30 - The movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is released in theaters.

July

July
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
  1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31
  • July 3 - The Doors musician Jim Morrison is found dead in his Paris, France apartment.
  • July 5 - Right to vote: The 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution, formally certified by President Richard Nixon, lowers the voting age from 21 to 18.
  • July 7 - Tom Morey builds the first boogie board.
  • July 9 - The United Kingdom increases its troops in Northern Ireland to 11,000.
  • July 10-July 11 – Coup attempt in Morocco: 1400 cadets take over the king's palace for 3 hours and kill 28 people; 158 rebels die when the king's troops storm the palace. Ten high-ranking officers are later executed for involvement.
  • July 13 - Ólafur Jóhannesson forms a government in Iceland.
  • July 13 - Jordanian army troops launch an offensive against Palestinian guerillas in Jordan.
  • July 14 - Libya severs its diplomatic ties to Morocco.
  • July 14 - The Yugoslavian government allows foreign companies to take their profits from the country.
  • July 16 - Spanish dictator and head of state Francisco Franco makes Prince Juan Carlos his successor.
  • July 16 - The four billionth baby is born. (see World Population).
  • July 17Italy and Austria sign a treaty that ends the schism about South Tyrol.
  • July 18 – The Trucial States are formed in the Persian Gulf.
  • July 19 – The South Tower of the World Trade Center is topped out at 1,362 feet, making it the second tallest building in the world.
  • July 19-July 23 – Major Hashem al-Atta ousts Jaafar Muhammad al-Nimeiri in a military coup in Sudan. Fighting continues until on July 22 pro-Nimeiri troops win. Al-Atta and 3 officers are executed July 23. Nimeiri launches an anti-communist campaign.
  • July 25-July 30 - Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli records in Munich two Debussy works for Deutsche Grammophon; it's his fifth recording.
  • July 26 - Apollo 15 (David Scott, Alfred Worden, James Irwin) is launched.
  • July 28 - Abdel Madgoub, Sudanese communist leader, is hanged.
  • July 29 - The United Kingdom opts out of the Space Race, with the cancellation of its Black Arrow launch vehicle.
  • July 30 – In Japan, an All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 collides with a Japanese fighter jet; 162 are killed.
  • July 31 - Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin become the first to ride in a lunar rover, a day after landing on the Moon.

August

August
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
  1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31
  • August 1 - In New York City, 40,000 attend the Concert for Bangladesh.
  • August 6 - A lunar eclipse lasting 1 hour, 40 minutes, and 4 seconds is observed.
  • August 7 - Apollo 15 returns to Earth.
  • August 9 - India signs a 20-year treaty of friendship and cooperation with the Soviet Union.
  • August 9 - British security forces in Northern Ireland detain hundreds of guerilla suspects and put them into Long Kesh - the beginning of an internment without trial policy. Twenty die in riots that follow.
  • August 11 - Construction begins on the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.
  • August 12 - Three thousand people from Belfast and Derry flee to Ireland because of the violence.
  • August 12 - Syria severs diplomatic relations with Jordan because of border clashes.
  • August 14 - British troops are stationed on the Ireland border to stop arms smuggling.
  • August 14 - Bahrain declares independence as the State of Bahrain (Kingdom of Bahrain as of February 2002).
  • August 15 - British troops in Northern Ireland are raised to 12,500.
  • August 15 - President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value, effectively ending the Bretton Woods system. He also imposes a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents.
  • August 18 - Vietnam War: Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from Vietnam.
  • August 18 - British troops engage in a firefight in Derry, Northern Ireland.
  • August 19-August 22 – A right-wing coup ignites a rebellion in Bolivia. Miners and students join troops to support president Juan Jose Torres, but eventually Hugo Banzer takes over.
  • August 25 - Border clashes occur between Tanzania and Uganda.
  • August 25 - Bangladesh and eastern Bengal are flooded; thousands flee the area.
  • August 25 - The Who release their critically acclaimed album Who's Next.
  • August 26 - A civilian government takes power in Greece.
  • August 30 - The Alberta Progressive Conservatives under Peter Lougheed defeat the Social Credit government under Harry E. Strom in a general election, ending 36 years of uninterrupted power for Social Credit in Alberta.

September

September
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
  1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30

October

October
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
  1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31

November

November
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30
  • November 3 - The UNIX Programmer's Manual is published.
  • November 6 - The U.S. tests a nuclear bomb on Amchitka Island in Alaska.
  • November 8 - Led Zeppelin releases their untitled fourth album, sometimes called Led Zeppelin IV or Runes. The album contains such hits as "When the Levee Breaks", "Rock and Roll",