1971

1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar).

Years: 1968 1969 1970 - 1971 - 1972 1973 1974
Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s - 1970s - 1980s 1990s 2000s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century 1971 in aviation 1971 in film 1971 in literature 1971 in music 1971 in sports 1971 in television 1971 in Canada

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Events

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January

January 1 - British divorce Reform Act comes into force
January 2 - 66 die in stairway crush at Rangers v Celtic football match, Glasgow, Scotland. See Ibrox disaster.
January 3 - Open University begins in the United Kingdom
January 2 - A ban on television cigarette advertisements goes into effect in the United States.
January 3 - BBC Open University commences
January 7 - Howard Hughes breaks his silence to announce that his supposed biography is a forgery.
January 8 ? Tupamaros kidnap Geoffrey Jackson, British ambassador to Uruguay, in Montevideo; they keep him captive until September
January 9 ? Uruguayan president Jorge Pacheco demands emergency powers for 90 days due to kidnappings and receives them the next day
January 14 ? 70 Brazilian political prisoners released in Santiago. Giovanni Enrico Bucher is released January 16
January 15 - Aswan Dam officially opened
January 18 ? Strikes in Poland demand resignation of interior minister Kazimierz Switala. He resigns January 23 and is replaced by Franciszek Szlachcic
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 six Persian Gulf countries
January 19 - No, No Nanette premieres (46th Street Theatre, New York City)
January 24 ? 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 - Charles Manson and three female "family members" are found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Sharon Tate and others
January 25 - Idi Amin leads a coup deposing Milton Obote and becomes Uganda's president
January 25 - Himachal Pradesh becomes the 18th Indian state
January 31 - Apollo program: Astronauts aboard Apollo 14 lift off for a mission to the moon

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February

February 4 - In Britain, Rolls Royce goes bankrupt - state takes over
February 5 - Apollo 14 lands on the Moon.
February 7 - Tuscany, Italy, wrecked in an earthquake
February 7 - Men of Switzerland vote for giving voting rights to women in state elections - but not in all canton-specific ones.
February 7 ? Wladyslaw Gomulka is expelled from central council of the Polish communist party
February 8 - A new stock-market index called the Nasdaq debuts
February 9 - The 6.4 on the Richter Scale Sylmar earthquake hits the San Fernando Valley area of California.
February 9 - Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro League player to become voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame
February 9 - Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned moon landing
February 11 - US, UK, USSR, others sign Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons.
February 11-12 ? Palestinian and Jordanian fighters clash in Amman
February 13 - Vietnam War: Backed by American air and artillery support, South Vietnamese troops invade Laos.
February 15 - "Decimalization Day" - United Kingdom and Ireland both switch to decimal currency. See also decimalization.
February 15 ? Angry Belgian farmers crash the EEC meeting in Brussels with three live cows with them
February 16 ? In Italy, local parliament elects the city of Catanzaro as the capital of Calabria ? residents of Reggio di Calabria riot for five days because of the decision
February 20 ? 50 tornadoes rage in Mississippi ? 74 dead

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March

March 1 - Bomb explodes in men's room in the White House - Weather Underground claims responsibility.
March 1 - Pakistani President Yahya Khan indefinitely postponed the pending national assembly session, precipitating massive civil disobedience in East Pakistan.
March 1 - Canadian John Robarts ends his term of office as 17th premier of Ontario
March 5 ? Pakistani army occupies the East Pakistan
March 7 ? Strike of British postal workers ends after 47 days
March 10 - Twenty-sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution lowers voting age to 18.
March 12 - Hafez al-Assad becomes president of Syria.
March 16 ? Government of Trygve Bratteli in Norway
March 18 - A landslide at Chungar, Peru crashes into Lake Yanahuani killing 200
March 23 ? Military coup in Argentina ? general Alejandro Lanusse takes power
March 25 ? Pakistani army fights the local rebels in East Pakistan after the negotiations between Jahja Khan and Mujibur Rahman stall
March 26 - Secret radio station in East Pakistan declares its independence from Pakistan and the establishment of Bangladesh.
March 29 - William Calley is found guilty of 22 murders in My Lai massacre and sentenced to life in prison. He is later pardoned.
March 29 - A Los Angeles, California jury recommends the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers.

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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.

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June

June - The Pentagon Papers are published.
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 launches.
June 10 ? USA ends trade embargo of China
June 13 - Vietnam War: The New York Times begins to publish the Pentagon Papers.
June 14 - Norway begins oil production in North Sea.
June 17 - Representatives of Japan and the United States sign the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, setting out a plan where the U.S. would return control of Okinawa.
June 20 ? Britain announces that Soviet space scientist Anatoli Fedosejev has been granted asylum
June 21 ? Britain begins new negotiations for EEC membership in Luxembourg
June 25 ? Madagascar accuses USA of being connected to the plot to oust the current government ? USA recalls its ambassador
June 28 - Black assassin Jerome A. Johnson shoots Joe Colombo to the head in a middle of a Italian-American rally. Colombo goes into coma
June 30 - The crew of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft are killed when their air supply leaks out through a faulty valve.

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July

July 5 - Right to vote: The voting age in the United States is reduced to 18 from 21 (provision of the 26th Amendment formally certified by President Richard Nixon on this day)
July 9 - United Kingdom increases its troops in Northern Ireland to 11.000
July 10-11 ? Coup attempt in Morocco - 1400 cadets take over the king's palace for three hours and kill 28 people; 158 rebels die when king's troops storm the palace. 10 high-ranking officers are later executed for involvement
July 13 ? Olafur Johannesson's government in Iceland
July 13 ? Jordanian army troops launch offensive against Palestinian guerillas in Jordan
July 14 ? Libya severs its diplomatic ties to Morocco
July 14 ? Yugoslavian government allows foreign companies to take their profits from the country
July 16 - Franco makes Prince Juan Carlos his successor.
July 16 - The four billionth baby was born. (see World Population).
July 17 ? Italy and Austria sign a treaty that ends the schism about South Tyrol
July 18 ? Trucial States formed in the Persian Gulf
July 19-23 ? Military coup in Sudan ousts Yafar al-Nimeiri and major Hashem al-Atta takes over. 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 26 - Apollo program: Launch of Apollo 15. On July 31 the Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover a day after landing on the surface
July 28 - Abdel Madgoub, Sudanese communist leader, is hanged
July 30 ? In Japan, Boeing 707 collides with a fighter ? 162 dead

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August

August 9 - India signs a twenty 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. 20 die in riots that follow.
August 12 ? 3000 people from Belfast and Londonderry has fled to Ireland because of the violence
August 12 ? Syria severs diplomatic relations to Jordan because of border clashes
August 14 ? British troops stationed on Ireland border to stop arms smuggling
August 14 - Emirate of Bahrain declares independence
August 15 ? Number of British troops in Northern Ireland rises to 12.500
August 15 - President Richard Nixon announces that the United States would no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value, effectively ending the Bretton Woods Gold Standard
August 18 - Vietnam War: Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from Vietnam
August 18 ? British troops in firefight in Londonderry
August 19-22 ? 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 between Tanzania and Uganda
August 25 ? Large flood in Bangladesh and eastern Bengal ? thousands flee the area
August 26 - Civilian government 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.

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September

September 3 - Qatar regains independence from the United Kingdom
September 4 - A Boeing 727 carrying Alaska Airlines Flight 1866 crashes into the side of a mountain near Juneau, Alaska killing all 111 people on board
September 8 - In Washington, DC, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is inaugurated with the opening feature being the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass
September 9 - 13 - Attica Prison riots - Revolt at the maximum-security prison in Attica, New York. In the end, state police and National Guard storm the facility - 42 dead, 10 of them hostages
September 24 - Britain expels 90 KGB and GRU officials and 15 are not allowed to return
September 27 - October 11 - Emperor Hirohito travels abroad.
September 28 - Cardinal Mindszenty, who has resided in US embassy in Budapest from 1956 is allowed to move out of Hungary.
September 29 - Cyclone and tsunami in the Bay of Bengal in Orissa state in India kills 10.000.

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October

October 1 - Walt Disney World opens.
October 25 - The United Nations General Assembly admits the People's Republic of China and expels the Republic of China (on Taiwan).
October 27 - Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire.
October 28 - British House of Commons votes in favour of joining the EEC by 356-244.
October 29 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - The total number of American troops still in Vietnam drops to a record low of 196,700 (the lowest level since January 1966)
October 30 - Rev. Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party founded in Northern Ireland
October 31 - A bomb explodes at the top of the Post Office Tower in London

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November

November 3 - The UNIX Programmer's Manual is published
November 6 - US nuclear bomb test in Aleuts.
November 10 - In Cambodia, Khmer Rouge forces attack the city Phnom Penh and its airport, killing 44, wounding at least 30 and damaging nine airplanes.
November 12 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - US President Richard M. Nixon sets February 1, 1972 as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000 American troops from Vietnam.
November 13 - Mariner program: Mariner 9 enters Mars orbit.
November 15 - Intel releases world's first microprocessor, the 4004.
November 23 - The People's Republic of China is given the Republic of China's seat on the United Nations Security Council (see China and the United Nations)
November 24 - During a severe thunderstorm over Washington, a man calling himself D.B. Cooper parachutes from the Northwest Orient Airlines plane he hijacked with US$200,000 in ransom money (he was never heard from again)

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December

December 1 - Cambodian Civil War: Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray, 10 kilometers northeast of Phnom Penh
December 2 - Six Sheikdoms in Persian Gulf founds United Arab Emirates.
December 3 - The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 begins as Pakistan attacks eight India airbases. The next day India launches a massive invasion of East Pakistan.
December 16 - Victory Day of Bangladesh: marks surrender of occupying Pakistan army after nine months of war.
December 18 - US dollar devalued for the second time in US history.
December 18 - World's largest hydroelectric plant in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, begins operations.
December 29 - The United Kingdom gives up its military bases in Malta.