1971

Events

January

• January 2 – 1971 Ibrox disaster: During a crush, 66 people are killed and over 200 injured in Glasgow, Scotland.
• January 5 – The first ever One Day International cricket match is played between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
• January 8 – Tupamaros kidnap Geoffrey Jackson, British ambassador to Uruguay, in Montevideo, keeping 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 12 – The landmark United States television sitcom All in the Family, starring Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker, debuts on CBS.
• 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 Świtała. He resigns January 23 and is replaced by Franciszek Szlachcic.
• * Ivan Koloff defeats Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship in wrestling ending a seven and two thirds years reign, the longest in the Championships history.
• * A South Korean marine kills 6 people in a mass shooting in Kimpo, South Korea.
• 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 Khalij el-Arab countries.
• 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.
• * In Los Angeles, Charles Manson and 3 female "Family" members are found guilty of the 1969 Tate–LaBianca murders.
• * Himachal Pradesh becomes the 18th Indian state.
• * Intelsat IV is launched; it enters commercial service over the Atlantic Ocean March 26.
• January 30 – The last of its many UFO sightings is made at Pudasjärvi, Finland.
• January 31 – Apollo program: Apollo 14 lifts off on the third successful lunar landing mission.

February

• February 4
• * In Britain, Rolls-Royce goes bankrupt and is nationalised.
• * The Nasdaq stock exchange is founded in New York City.
• February 5 – Apollo 14 lands on the Moon.
• February 6 – The 4.6 Mb Tuscania earthquake shakes the Italian province of Viterbo with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII, causing 24 deaths, 150 injuries and extreme damage.
• February 7
• * Switzerland gives women voting rights in state elections, but not in all canton-specific ones.
• * Władysław Gomułka is expelled from the Central Council of the Polish Communist Party.
• February 8 – A new stock market index called the Nasdaq Composite debuts in the United States.
• February 9
• * The 6.5–6.7 Sylmar earthquake hits the Greater Los Angeles Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI, killing 64 and injuring 2,000.
• * Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro league player to be elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
• * Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third human Moon landing.
• February 10 – A total lunar eclipse is visible from Pacific, Americas, Europe and Africa, and is the 50th lunar eclipse of Lunar Saros 123.
• February 11 – The US, UK, USSR and others sign the Seabed Treaty, outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor.
• 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 – Decimal Day: The United Kingdom and Ireland both switch to decimal currency.
• 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 – The U.S. Emergency Broadcast System sends an erroneous warning across the nation's radio and television stations, meant to be a standard weekly test conducted by NORAD in Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado. Some stations cease broadcasting until the message is rescinded, as required by federal rules, while most ignore it.
• February 21
• * The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
• * Between February 21 and 22, an outbreak of nineteen tornadoes rages across the Mississippi Delta in Mississippi and Louisiana, killing 123 people.
• February 23 – Operation Lam Son 719: South Vietnamese General Do Cao Tri is killed in a helicopter crash en route to taking control of the faltering campaign.
• February 25 – A partial solar eclipse is visible from Europe, Africa and Asia, and is the 18th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 149.
• February 26 – Secretary General U Thant signs the United Nations proclamation of the March equinox as Earth Day.
• February 27 – Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic start to perform abortions.
• February 28 – Evel Knievel sets a world record and jumps 19 cars on a motorbike in Ontario, California.

March

• March 1
• * A bomb explodes in the men's room at the United States Capitol; the Weather Underground claims responsibility.
• * Pakistani president Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan indefinitely postpones the pending National Assembly session, precipitating massive civil disobedience in East Pakistan.
• * Canadian John Robarts ends his term of office as the 17th Premier of Ontario.
• March 2 – All-Pakistan Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman launched the non-cooperation movement in East Pakistan.
• March 4 – The southern part of Quebec, and especially Montreal, receives " of snow in what becomes known as the Century's Snowstorm.
• March 5
• * The Pakistani army occupies East Pakistan.
• * In Belfast, a Led Zeppelin show includes the first public performance of "Stairway to Heaven," a song from the band's fourth album.
• March 6 – A fire in a mental hospital in Burghölzli, Switzerland kills 28 people.
• March 7
• * Die Sendung mit der Maus airs its first episode on Das Erste.
• * The British postal workers' strike, led by UPW General Secretary Tom Jackson, ends after 47 days.
• * Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, political leader of East Pakistan, delivers a public speech at the Racecourse Field in Dhaka calling for masses to be prepared to fight for national independence.
• March 8
• * The Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI breaks into the Media, Pennsylvania offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and removes all of its files.
• * "Fight of the Century": Boxer Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali in a 15-round unanimous decision at Madison Square Garden.
• March 10 – William McMahon replaces John Gorton as the Liberal/Country Coalition Prime Minister of Australia after Gorton resigns following a vote of confidence that was tied 33-all.
• March 11 – THX 1138, George Lucas' first full-length film, premieres in theaters.
• March 12 – Hafez al-Assad becomes president of Syria.
• March 12–13 – 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 in Chungar, Peru crashes into Yanawayin Lake, killing 200.
• March 23 – General Alejandro Lanusse of Argentina takes power in a military coup.
• March 25 –
• * Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistani army starts Operation Searchlight in East Pakistan at midnight after President Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, a military ruler, voids election results that gave the Awami League an overwhelming majority in the parliament; start of the 1971 Bangladesh genocide. That ended the non-cooperation movement.
• * The North East Mall opens in Hurst, Texas
• March 26
• * Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is arrested by the Pakistan army.
• * East Pakistan's independence is declared by M. A. Hannan on the behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from Kalurghat Radio Station, Chittagong.
• * Nihat Erim forms the new government of Turkey.
• March 27 – East Pakistan's independence is declared by army major Ziaur Rahman from Kalurghat Radio Station.
• March 29
• * U.S. Army lieutenant William Calley is found guilty of 22 murders during the My Lai Massacre and is sentenced to life in prison.
• * A Los Angeles jury recommends the death penalty for Charles Manson and female followers Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten.
• March 30 – Starbucks coffee shop is founded in the U.S. state of Washington.

  April

• April 1 – The United Kingdom lifts all restrictions on gold ownership.
• April 5
• * In Ceylon, a group calling themselves the People's Liberation Front begins a rebellion against the Bandaranaike government.
• * Mount Etna erupts in Sicily.
• April 8 – A right-wing coup attempt is exposed in Laos.
• April 12 – Palestinians retreat from Amman to the north of Jordan.
• April 17
• * The People's Republic of Bangladesh forms under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Mujibnagor.
• * Libya, Syria and Egypt sign an agreement to form a confederation.
• April 19
• * The government of Bangladesh flees to India.
• * Sierra Leone becomes a republic.
• * The Soviet Union launches Salyut 1.
• * Charles Manson is sentenced to death in the United States; in 1972, the sentence for all California death-row inmates will be commuted to life imprisonment.
• 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.
• * Cambodian prime minister Lon Nol resigns but remains effectively in power until the next elections.
• * National Public Radio airs its first broadcast.
• April 21 – Siaka Stevens is sworn in as the first president of Sierra Leone.
• April 23 - The Rolling Stones release their ninth studio album Sticky Fingers.
• April 24
• * Soyuz 10 fails to dock with Salyut 1.
• * An estimated 200,000 people in Washington, D.C., and a further 125,000 in San Francisco march in protest against the Vietnam War.
• April 25
• * Todor Zhivkov is reelected as the leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party.
• * Franz Jonas is reelected as president of Austria.
• April 26 – The government of Turkey declares a state of siege in 11 provinces, including Ankara, in response to violent demonstrations.
• April 30 – The Milwaukee Bucks sweep the Baltimore Bullets in four games to win their first NBA championship.