1971
1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar).
Events
January
February
March
April-May
- April 1 - United Kingdom lifts all restrictions on gold ownership
- April 5 ? In Ceylon, group calling himself People?s Liberation Front begins a rebellion against Bandaranaike government
- April 5 ? Chile and East Germany form diplomatic relations
- April 5 - Mount Etna erupts
- April 7 ? Greece releases 261 political prisoners, 50 of which are sent to internal exile
- April 8 ? Right-wing coup attempt 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 north of Jordan
- April 17 ? Bangladesh makes official declaration of independence but Pakistani troops continue the fighting
- April 17 - Libya, Syria and Egypt sign an agreement to form a confederation.
- April 19 ? Government of Bangladesh flees to India
- April 19 ? Sierra Leone becomes a republic
- April 19 ? Unemployment in UK is 3.4%
- April 19 - Soviet Union launches Saljut I.
- April 19 - Followers of Charles Manson, the Manson Family, are sentenced to gas chamber.
- April 20 - Supreme Court of the United States rules unanimously that busing of students may be ordered to achieve racial desegregation.
- April 20 ? Cambodian Prime Minister Lon Nol resigns
- April 21 ? Siaka Stevensis elected the first president of Sierra Leone
- April 21 ? Francois Duvalier, president of Haiti, dies ? his son Jean-Claude Duvalier follows him as president-for-life
- April 24 ? Soyuz 10 docks with Saljut
- April 24 ? 500.000 people in Washington DC and 125.000 in San Francisco march against the Vietnam War
- April 25 ? Todor Zhivkov re-elected as a the leader of the Bulgarian communist party
- April 25 ? Franz Jonas re-elected as the new chancellor of Austria
- April 26 ? Government of Turkey declares the state of siege in 11 provinces, Ankara included, because of violent demonstrations
- April 29 ? Bolivia nationalizes American-owned zinc mine of Matilde
- April 29 - The third anniversary of the Broadway musical Hair was celebrated with a concert at a Central Park bandshell.
- May 1 ? 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 ? Harris public opinion poll claims that 60% of Americans are against the war in Vietnam
- May 3 ? East German leader Walter Ulbricht resigns as a party leader but retains the positions of the 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 ? US dollar floods the European currency markets and threatens especially Deutchmark ? Central banks of Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland stop the currency trading
- May 6 ? Ceylon government begins a major offensive against the People's Liberation Front
- May 9 ? Launch of Mariner 8 fails
- May 12 ? Earthquake in Turkey destroys most of the city of Burdur
- May 15 ? Israeli ambassador to Turkey, Efraim Elrom, is kidnapped. He is found killed in Istanbul May 25
- May 16 ? Coup attempt exposed and foiled in Egypt
- May 19 - Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union
- May 26 ? Austria and People's Republic of China form diplomatic relations
- May 27 ? Six armed passengers hijack Romanian passenger plane and force it to fly to Vienna
- May 28 ? Portugal resigns from UNESCO
- May 30 - Mariner program: Mariner 9 is launched toward Mars
- May 31 The birth of a new country, Bangladesh. It is out of territory formerly part of Pakistan.
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
unknown dates
Year in topic
Births
January-April
- January 8 - Jason Giambi, Major League Baseball All-Star
- January 11 - Mary J. Blige, pop singer
- January 17 - Kid Rock, singer
- January 19 - Shawn Wayans, actor, writer, producer
- January 19 - John Wozniak, singer, songwriter of Marcy Playground
- February 3 - Sarah Kane, playwright
- February 15 - Renée O'Connor, actress, director
- February 17 - Denise Richards.
- February 25 - Sean Astin, actor
- February 26 - Erykah Badu, singer
- March 5 - John Frusciante, musician, former member of Red Hot Chili Peppers
- March 10 - Ugonna Wachuku, creative writer, author
- March 11 - Johnny Knoxville, ("Jackass"), television personality
- March 27 - David Coulthard, Formula One racing driver
- March 31 - Ewan McGregor, actor
- March 31 - Pavel Bure, hockey player
- April 1 - Method Man, musician
- April 3 - Picabo Street, Olympic gold-medalist skier
- April 17- Selena Quintanilla, famous Mexican-American tejano music singer (died 1995)
May-August
- May 17 - Máxima Zorreguieta, wife of Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands
- May 20 - Tony Stewart, auto racing driver
- May 25 - Sonya Smith, actress
- May 26 - Matt Stone, co-creator of South Park
- June 2 - Anthony Montgomery, actor (Star Trek: Enterprise)
- June 5 - Mark Wahlberg ("Marky Mark"), actor, singer
- June 16 - Tupac Shakur, rapper, poet, actor (d. 1996)
- June 22 - Kurt Warner, two-time NFL MVP
- July 1 - Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott, hip hop artist
- July 9 - Marc Andreessen, software developer - co-author of Mosaic and cofounder of Netscape
- July 12 - Kristi Yamaguchi, figure skater
- July 17 - Cory Doctorow, author, activist
- July 22 - Kristine Lilly, American soccer star; all-time leader in international matches played (men or women)
- August 4 - Jeff Gordon, NASCAR racing driver
- August 6 - Merrin Dungey, actress
- August 12 - Pete Sampras, tennis player
- August 17 - Jorge Posada, Major League Baseball All-Star
- August 26 - Thalía, Mexican actress
September-December
- September 1 - Hakan Sükür, Turkish football star
- September 8 - Brooke Burke, model
- September 18 - Lance Armstrong, cyclist, five-time Tour de France winner
- September 11 - Richard Ashcroft, singer
- September 20 - Henrik Larsson, Swedish football star
- October 14 - Jorge Costa, football player
- October 25 - Pedro Martínez, baseball pitcher, three-time Cy Young Award winner
- October 29 - Winona Ryder, actress
- November 24 - Keith Primeau, Canadian NHL star
- November 25 - Christina Applegate, actress
- November 25 - Magnus Arvedson, hockey player
- November 30 - Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez, baseball player
- December 24 - Ricky Martin, singer
- December 25 - Dido, singer
- December 28 - Frank Sepe, bodybuilder and male model
- December 31 - Brent Barry, NBA basketball player
Deaths
January-April
- January 5 - Douglas Shearer, pioneer motion-picture sound engineer
- January 6 - Sonny Liston (date he was found dead)
- January 9 - Elmer Flick, baseball player (b. 1876)
- January 10 - Gabrielle Chanel, aka Coco Chanel, fashion designer
- January 11 - Jose Arigo,"psychic surgeon"
- January 19 - Harry Shields, jazz musician (b. 1899)
- January 20 - Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, actor, director, writer, producer
- January 28 - Donald Winnicott, British psychoanalyst
- February 11 - Whitney Young Jr, National Urban League director.
- February 26 - Fernandel, French comedian
- March 8 - Harold Lloyd, silent screen comedian
- March 11 - Philo T. Farnsworth, television pioneer
- March 16 - Thomas Dewey, candidate for President of the United States in 1944 and 1948
- April 6 - Igor Stravinsky, composer
- April 19 - Earl Thomson, Canadian athlete
- April 21 -