1971 - What happened in 1971 ?

January 1971

Saturday 02:

The Ibrox disaster occured.

Sunday 10:

Masterpiece Theatre debuts on PBS.

Tuesday 12:

Harrisburg Six: The Reverend Philip Berrigan and five others are indicted on charges of conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger and of plotting to blow up the heating tunnels of federal buildings in Washington, DC.

Tuesday 19:

Revival of No, No, Nanette premieres (46th Street Theatre, New York City).

Monday 25:

Himachal Pradesh becomes the 18th Indian state.

February 1971

Sunday 07:

Women gain the right to vote in Switzerland.

Thursday 11:

US, UK, USSR, others sign Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons in international waters.

Saturday 13:

Vietnam War: Backed by American air and artillery support, South Vietnamese troops invade Laos.

Sunday 21:

The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.

Saturday 27:

Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic (the Mildredhuis in Arnhem) start to perform abortus provocatus

March 1971

Monday 01:

Pakistani President Yahya Khan indefinitely postponed the pending national assembly session, precipitating massive civil disobedience in East Pakistan.

Saturday 13:

In New York City, Rock group The Allman Brothers Band record a concert that will be released as their classic live album At Fillmore East

Thursday 18:

A landslide at Chungar, Peru crashes into Lake Yanahuani killing 200.

Thursday 25:

Bangladesh Liberation War: Beginning of Operation Searchlight of Pakistan Army against East Pakistani civilians.

Monday 29:

A Los Angeles, California jury recommends the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers.

April 1971

Friday 02:

The final broadcast of Dark Shadows aired on ABC-TV.

Saturday 03:

In Dublin, Ireland, Séverine wins the sixteenth Eurovision Song Contest for Monaco singing "Un banc, un arbre, une rue" (A bench, a tree, a street).

Thursday 08:

a 6 pound meteorite struck the home of Robert and Wanda Donahue in Wethersfield, Connecticut

Monday 19:

Launch of Salyut 1, first human-made space station.

Thursday 22:

John Kerry, dressed in combat fatigues, testifies on his views of the Vietnam War before the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee

May 1971

Saturday 01:

Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) is formed to take over U.S. passenger rail service.

Monday 03:

All Things Considered, National Public Radio's flagship news program, broadcasts for the first time.

Wednesday 19:

Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union.

Sunday 30:

Mariner program: Mariner 9 is launched toward Mars.

June 1971

Tuesday 01:

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.

Sunday 06:

The Ed Sullivan Show goes off the air.

Sunday 13:

Vietnam War: The New York Times begins to publish the Pentagon Papers. http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/48.htm

Thursday 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.

Wednesday 30:

The 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, lowering the voting age to 18, is ratified as Ohio became the 38th state to approve it.

July 1971

Saturday 03:

Singer Jim Morrison of The Doors is found dead of a heart attack in his bathtub.

Monday 05:

Right to vote: the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 years, is formally certified by President Richard Nixon.

Sunday 11:

Copper mines in Chile nationalised.

Monday 26:

Apollo program: Launch of Apollo 15.

Friday 30:

An All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 and a Japanese Air Force F-86 collide over Morioka, Japan killing 162

August 1971

Tuesday 10:

Harmon Killebrew becomes the 10th member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Saturday 14:

Bahrain declares its independence from United Kingdom

Sunday 15:

President Richard Nixon ends convertibility of U.S. dollar into gold

Wednesday 18:

Vietnam War: Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from Vietnam.

Saturday 21:

Black Panther George Jackson is shot and killed in the prison yard at California's San Quentin prison.

September 1971

Friday 03:

Qatar regains independence from the United Kingdom.

Wednesday 08:

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.

Thursday 09:

Attica Prison riots

Saturday 11:

1971 - The becomes official.

Tuesday 28:

UK Misuse of Drugs Act: medicinal cannabis is banned.

October 1971

Sunday 10:

Sold, dismantled and moved to the United States, the London Bridge reopens in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

Thursday 14:

1971 - The U.S. conducts an underground nuclear weapon test at the Nevada Test Site.

Wednesday 20:

The Nepal stock exchange collapses.

Monday 25:

United Nations seats the People's Republic of China and expels the Republic of China (see China and the United Nations)

Friday 29:

The total number of American troops still in Vietnam drops to a record low of 196,700 (the lowest level since January 1966).

November 1971

Saturday 06:

The AEC tests the largest U.S. underground hydrogen bomb, code-named Cannikin, on Amchitka Island in the Aleutians.

Tuesday 09:

John List, an accountant from Westfield, New Jersey murders his mother, wife and three children. He then hides under a new identity for 18 years.

Wednesday 10:

In Cambodia, Khmer Rouge forces attack the city Phnom Penh and its airport, killing 44, wounding at least 30 and damaging nine airplanes.

Friday 12:

Vietnam War: As part of Vietnamization, US President Richard M. Nixon sets February 1, 1972 as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000 American troops from Vietnam.

Thursday 18:

Hard rock band Led Zeppelin release an untitled album, often dubbed "Led Zeppelin IV," featuring "Rock & Roll," "Stairway to Heaven" and other classic songs.

December 1971

Wednesday 01:

Cambodian Civil War: Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray.

Thursday 02:

The United Arab Emirates is formed.

Friday 03:

Pakistan launches airstrikes on Indian airfields. Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 begins as India retaliates with a massive invasion of East Pakistan.

Saturday 11:

The United States Libertarian Party is formed.

Thursday 16:

The Pakistan Army surrenders, ending the Liberation War of Bangladesh and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 simultaneously.