Highlights from 1971 - the year of my birth

January

• January 1 - The British Divorce Reform Act comes into force. | Panaram International Trading Company / USA Towl is created in Belleville, New Jersey by Ira Feinberg
• January 2 - Ibrox disaster: A stairway crush at the Rangers vs. Celtic football match in Glasgow, Scotland kills 66. | A ban on radio and television cigarette advertisements goes into effect in the United States.
• January 3 - BBC Open University begins in the United Kingdom.
• January 4 - U.S. Congressional Black Caucus organizes. | Dr. Melvin H. Evans inaugurated as first elected governor of Virgin Islands. | Philadelphia's Veteran Stadium dedicated.
• January 5 - The 1st ever ODI cricket match is played between Australia & England at the M.C.G.
• January 6 - Berkeley chemists announce first synthetic growth hormones.
  
• January 7 - The British heavy metal band Black Sabbath releases their breakthrough album, Paranoid, in the U.S.
• 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, Chile. Giovanni Enrico Bucher is released January 16.
• January 15 - The Aswan High Dam officially opens 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 WWF World Title, ending the longest reign ever of a pro wrestling heavyweight championship.
• 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 Uganda, Idi Amin deposes Milton Obote, in a coup, and becomes president.
• 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 - 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 4 - In Britain, Rolls-Royce goes bankrupt and is nationalised.
  
• February 5 - Apollo 14 lands on the Moon.
• February 7 - The city of Tuscania, Italy, is wrecked in an earthquake. 31 die.
• February 7 - Switzerland gives women voting rights in state elections, but not in all canton-specific ones.
• February 7 - W?adys?aw Gomu?ka is expelled from the Central Council of the Polish Communist Party.
• February 8 - A new stock market index called the Nasdaq debuts.
• February 9 - The Sylmar earthquake (6.4 on the Richter Scale) 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 - The US, UK, USSR and others sign the Seabed Treaty, outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor.
• February 11-February 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 - Decimalisation Day: - The United Kingdom and Ireland both switch to decimal currency. See also decimalisation.
• February 15 - Angry Belgian farmers bring 3 live cows to crash the EEC meeting in Brussels.
• February 16 - In Italy, a local parliament elects the city of Catanzaro as the capital of Calabria; residents of Reggio di Calabria riot for 5 days because of the decision.
• February 20 - Fifty tornadoes rage in Mississippi, killing 7.
• February 20 - The U.S. Emergency Broadcast System sends an erroneous warning; many radio stations just ignore it.
• February 21 - The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
• February 26 - Secretary General U Thant signs the United Nations proclamation of the vernal equinox as Earth Day.
• February 27 - Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic (Mildredhuis in Arnhem) start to perform abortus provocatus.
  

March

• March 1 - A bomb explodes in the men's room at the U.S. Capitol; 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 4 - The southern part of Québec, and specially Montréal, receive 42 cm of snow in what became known as the Century's Snowstorm (la tempête du siècle).
• 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. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, political leader of the then East Pakistan delivers his great speech in the Racecourse Field in Dhaka. He called the mass to be prepared and fight for national independance.
• 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 genocide in East Pakistan from midnight, 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 on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur 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 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.
• April 5 - 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; in 1972, the sentence for all California Death Row inmates 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 - Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education: The 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, 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 Ryukyu 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, due to violent demonstrations.
• April 28 - The first number of Il Manifesto is issued in Italy.
• 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 1 - Amtrak begins 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 Vietnam War.
• 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 9 - Mariner 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 22 - An earthquake lasting 20 seconds destroys most of Bingöl, Turkey - more than 1,000 are killed, 10,000 made homeless.
• May 23 - An air crash at Rijeka Airport, Yugoslavia kills 78 people, mostly British tourists.
• 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 28 - Portugal 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

• 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 8 - Mark Wyman is born (All American Hero).
• 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.
• 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.
• June 18 - Southwest Airlines, the most successful low cost carrier in history begins its first flights between Dallas, Houston, And San Antonio.
• 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 25 - Madagascar 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 first opened on 2nd Avenue (between 5th and 6th Streets) in New York City 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 - New York Times Co. v. United States: The U.S. Supreme Court 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 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: 1,400 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.
• July 17 - Italy and Austria sign a treaty that ends the schism about Alto Adige/Südtirol.
• 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 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 21 - The first orca to be named "Shamu" dies.
• 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 3 - Qatar gains independence from the United Kingdom. Unlike most nearby emirates, Qatar declines to become part of either the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia.
• September 3 - Manlio Brosio resigns as NATO Secretary General.
• September 4 - A Boeing 727 (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 - September 13 - Attica Prison riots: - A revolt breaks out at the maximum-security prison in Attica, New York. In the end, state police and the United States National Guard storm the facility; 42 are killed, 10 of them hostages.
• September 21 - Pakistan declares a state of emergency.
• September 24 - Britain expels 90 KGB and GRU officials; 15 are not allowed to return.
• September 27-October 11 - Japanese Emperor Hirohito travels abroad.
• September 28 - József Cardinal Mindszenty, who has taken refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Budapest since 1956, is allowed to leave Hungary.
• September 29 - A cyclone in the Bay of Bengal, in Orissa State in India, kills 10,000.
  

October

• October 1 - Walt Disney World opens in Florida.
• October 15 - The 2,500 Year Celebration of Iran begins, celebrating the birth of Persia.
• October 18 - In New York City, the Knapp Commission begins public hearings on police corruption.
• October 21 - U.S. President Richard Nixon nominates Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. and William H. Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court.
• October 21 - A gas explosion in Clarkston, Glasgow kills 20 people.
• 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 - The British House of Commons votes 356-244 in favour of joining the European Economic Community.
• October 28 - The United Kingdom becomes the 6th nation to launch a satellite into orbit, the Prospero X-3, using a Black Arrow carrier rocket.
• October 29 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - The total number of American troops still in Vietnam drops to a record low of 196,700 (the lowest since January 1966).
• October 29 - Legendary Southern Rock guitarist and Allman Brothers Band founding member Duane Allman is killed in a motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia.
• October 30 - Rev. Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party is founded in Northern Ireland.
• October 30 - Pink Floyd's sixth LP Meddle is released, containing 6 tracks, including the epic 23-minute "Echoes".
• October 31 - A bomb explodes at the top of the Post Office Tower in London.
  

November

• 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", and the most requested rock song of all time, "Stairway To Heaven". Led Zeppelin IV will become the fourth best selling album of all time with sales of 22 million copies, and a source of inspiration for generations of rock artists to come.
• November 10 - In Cambodia, Khmer Rouge forces attack Phnom Penh and its airport, killing 44, wounding at least 30 and damaging 9 airplanes.
• November 12 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - U.S. 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 becomes the first spacecraft to enter Mars orbit successfully.
• November 15 - Intel releases the world's first microprocessor, the Intel 4004.
• November 20 - A bridge still in construction, called Elevado Engenheiro Freyssinet, fell over the Paulo de Frontin Avenue, at Rio de Janeiro city (Brazil). 48 people died and several injured. Reconstructed, the bridge is currently a part of the Linha Vermelha elevate.
• November 23 - The People's Republic of China took the Republic of China's seat on the United Nations Security Council.
• 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).
• November 24 - A Brussels court sentences pretender Alexis Brimeyer to 18 months in jail for falsely using a noble title; Brimeyer has already fled to Greece.
  

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 Persian Gulf sheikdoms found the United Arab Emirates.
• December 3 - The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 begins as Pakistan attacks 9 Indian airbases. The next day India launches a massive invasion of East Pakistan.
  
• December 3-December 4 night: The Indian navy destroyer INS Rajput sinks Pakistani submarine PNS Ghazi (former USS Diablo).
• December 4 - The Montreux Casino burns down during a Frank Zappa concert. The event is memorialized in the Deep Purple song "Smoke on the Water". The casino will be rebuilt in 1975.
• December 7 - I AM BORN.
• December 8 - U.S. President Richard Nixon orders the 7th Fleet to move towards the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean.
• December 11 - The Libertarian Party (United States) is established.
• December 14 - Facing defeat, the Pakistan Army kills hundreds of Bangladeshi intellectuals.
• December 16 - Victory Day of Bangladesh: The Pakistan Army surrenders to the Indian Armed Forces and Mukti Bahini (Freedom Force), ending the Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 simultaneously.
• December 18 - The U.S. dollar is devalued for the second time in U.S. history.
• December 18 - The world's largest hydroelectric plant in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, begins operations.
• December 19 - The Clube Atletico Mineiro wins the first Brazil Football Championship.
• December 19 - Intelsat IV (F3) is launched; it enters commercial service over the Atlantic Ocean February 18, 1972.
• December 24 - Giovanni Leone is elected President of the Italian Republic.
• December 25 - In the longest game in NFL history, the Miami Dolphins beat the Kansas City Chiefs.
• December 25 - Fire at a 22-story hotel in Seoul, South Korea kills 158.
• December 29 - The United Kingdom gives up its military bases in Malta.
  

Undated

• Ray Tomlinson sends the first ARPAnet e-mail between host computers.
• Seychelles International Airport in Victoria, Seychelles (Mahe) is completed.
• Johnny Cash, the American country and western singer, writes a song titled The Man in Black.
• Crude oil production peaks in the continental United States at approximately 4.5 million barrels/day.
• Center for Science in the Public Interest established.
• National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism established.