1971





Events

   * January 1 - British divorce Reform Act comes into force
   * January 2 - 66 die in stairway crush at Rangers v Celtic football
     match, Glasgow, Scotland.
   * 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 15 - Aswan Dam officially opened
   * January 19 - No, No Nanette premieres (46th Street Theatre, New York
     City).
   * 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.
   * February 2 - In Uganda after a coup, Idi Amin replaces President Milton
     Obote as leader.
   * 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 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 13 - Vietnam War: Backed by American air and artillery
     support, South Vietnamese troops invade Laos.
   * February 15 - "Decimalization" - United Kingdom switches to decimal
     currency.
   * March 1 - Bomb explodes in men's room in the White House - Weather
     Underground claims responsibility.
   * 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 18 - A landslide at Chungar, Peru crashes into Lake Yanahuani
     killing 200.
   * March 26 - 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.
   * April 5 - Mount Etna erupts.
   * April 9 - Charles Manson is sentenced to death but the sentence is
     commuted to life imprisonment.
   * April 17 - Libya, Syria and Egypt sign an agreement to form a
     confederation.
   * 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 24 - 500.000 demonstrate against Vietnam War in Washington DC.
   * 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 19 - Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union.
   * 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 - The Pentagon Papers are published
   * June 14 - Norway begins oil production in North Sea.
   * June 17 - USA and Japan sign a treaty which gives Okinawa and other
     islands back to Japan.
   * June 28 - Black assassin 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
   * 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 - Britain sends 500 more soldiers to Northern Ireland.
   * July 16 - Franco makes Prince Juan Carlos his successor.
   * 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.
   * 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 14 - Emirate of Bahrain declares independence.
   * August 18 - Vietnam War: Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw
     their troops from Vietnam.
   * August 26 - Civilian government in Greece.
   * 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 - September 13 - Attica Prison riots - 43 dead, 10 of them
     hostages.
   * September 24 - Britain expels 90 KGB and GRU officials and 15 is 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 tidal wave in the Bay of Bengal in Orissa
     state in India kills 10.000
   * 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 favor 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
   * November 6 - US nuclear bomb test in Aleuts.
   * November 13 - Mariner 9 enters Mars orbit.
   * November 24 - "D.B. Cooper" hijacks a plane with alleged bomb, demands
     and gets a ransom of $200,000 and parachutes out over the Cascade
     Mountains. Never caught.
   * December 2 - Six Sheikdoms in Persian Gulf founds United Arab Emirates
   * December 3 - Indian-Pakistan War begins
   * 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
   * Don't Make A Wave Committee changes its name to Greenpeace
   * Intel introduces the microprocessor for micro-computers. The 4004 chip
   * Libertarian party established in USA
   * First Concorde test flights
   * Free City of Christiania is founded.
   * Intelsat IV

Births

   * January 11 - Mary J. Blige, pop singer
   * January 17 - Kid Rock, singer
   * January 19 - Shawn Wayans, actor, writer, producer
   * February 3 - Sarah Kane, playwright
   * 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 11 - Johnny Knoxville, ("Jackass"), television personality
   * March 27 - David Coulthard, Formula One racing driver
   * March 31 - Ewan McGregor, actor
   * March 31 - Pavel Bure, ice hockey player
   * April 1 - Method Man, musician
   * April 17- Selena Quintanilla, famous Mexican-American tejano music
     singer († 1995)
   * May 17 - M‡xima Zorreguieta, wife of Prince Willem-Alexander of the
     Netherlands
   * May 25 - Sonya Smith, actress
   * June 16 - Tupac Shakur, rapper, poet, actor († 1996)
   * June 22 - Kurt Warner, two-time NFL MVP
   * 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 12 - Pete Sampras, tennis player
   * September 18 - Lance Armstrong, cyclist, five-time Tour de France
     winner
   * October 25 - Pedro Mart'nez, baseball pitcher, three-time Cy Young
     Award winner
   * October 29 - Winona Ryder, actress
   * November 25 - Christina Applegate, actress
   * December 24 - Ricky Martin, singer
   * December 25 - Dido, singer

Deaths

   * January 5 - Douglas Shearer, pioneer motion-picture sound engineer
   * January 6 -- Sonny Liston (date he was found dead)
   * January 10 --Gabrielle Chanel, perfumer
   * January 10 - Coco Chanel, fashion designer
   * January 11 - Jose Arigo,"psychic surgeon"
   * January 20 - Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, actor, director,
     writer, producer
   * 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 21 - Papa Doc Duvalier, despotic President of Haiti.
   * May 11 - Sean Lemass, former Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, aged
     71
   * May 15 - Sir Tyrone Guthrie, director, producer, writer
   * May 19 - Ogden Nash, poet
   * June 30 - Viktor Patsayev, Georgi Dobrovolsky, and Vladislav Volkov,
     cosmonauts on Soyuz 11
   * July 3 - Jim Morrison, American singer, songwriter and poet.
   * July 4 - August Derleth, American author and anthologist.
   * September 11 -Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, Soviet politician and
     leader. He was buried without official honors.
   * July 7 - Claude Gauvreau, Quebec playwright, poet and polemist
   * September 12 - Bi Lao, China's defense minister. Air crash in
     suspicious circumstances
   * October 24 - Carl Ruggles, composer

Nobel Prizes

   * Physics - Dennis Gabor
   * Chemistry - Gerhard Herzberg
   * Medicine - Earl W Sutherland, Jr
   * Literature - Pablo Neruda
   * Peace - Willy Brandt
   * Economics - Simon Kuznets