April 1971

[April 1], 1971 (Thursday)

• The United Kingdom lifted all restrictions on gold ownership with the Exchange Control Order 1971.
• The postal code used in Canada was started with a test in Ottawa, with plans to introduce it in Manitoba in the autumn, Saskatchewan in the spring of 1972, and other provinces between 1972 and 1974.
• The day after U.S. Army Second Lieutenant William Calley was sentenced to life in prison in his court-martial for 22 murders, he was transferred from prison to house arrest by order of U.S. President Richard M. Nixon.
• An attempted coup d'état in Ecuador ended only hours after it started, without any violence. The night before, Army General Luis Jacome Chavez and about 50 Ecuadorian War Academy officers several disgruntled soldiers announced that they were commencing a revolt against President José Velasco Ibarra and his nephew, Defense Minister Jorge Acosta Velasco. Acosta's assistant announced on Thursday morning that Jacome had surrendered.
• The city of Bizen was founded in the Okayama Prefecture of Japan. As of 2017, it had a population of almost 36,000 people.
• Born:
• *Danielle Smith, Canadian politician, Premier of Alberta, in Calgary
• *Jessica Collins, American TV actress, as Jennifer Lynn Campogna in Schenectady, New York

  [April 2], 1971 (Friday)

• The Tripoli Agreement was signed in the Libyan city of Tripoli by representatives of oil companies from around the world and by oil ministers of OPEC, providing for higher prices to be paid to OPEC nations for petroleum until 1976.
• The cult classic U.S. TV soap opera Dark Shadows broadcast its 1,226th and final episode.
• Born: Todd Woodbridge, Australian professional tennis player and half of the Grand Slam doubles winning team of Woodbridge and Woodforde, and Woodbridge and Bjorkman ; in Sydney

  [April 3], 1971 (Saturday)

• Tajuddin Ahmad, the General Secretary of the Awami League and a leader of the independence movement for the Bengali population of East Pakistan, met with India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to seek Indian aid in the fight for Bangladesh's liberation from Pakistan.
• Un banc, un arbre, une rue, sung by Séverine, won the Eurovision Song Contest 1971 for Monaco.
• Born: Picabo Street, American skier and celebrity, 1998 Olympic gold medalist; in Triumph, Idaho
• Died:
• *Jacques Ochs, 88, Belgian artist and Olympic fencing champion
• *Joe Valachi, 66, American gangster who became a government witness who testified in detail before Congress about the inner workings of the American Mafia, died of a heart attack while serving a prison sentence.

  [April 4], 1971 (Sunday)

• Kosmos 404 was launched by the USSR as an ASAT test. Its target was Kosmos 400, which it intercepted and destroyed.
• The Mukti Bahini, a guerrilla force of East Pakistanis and the predecessor of the Bangladesh Armed Forces, was organized under the command of General M. A. G. Osmani, a retired Pakistan Army officer, from units of Pakistan's East Bengal Regiment and the East Pakistan Rifles, joined by civilians who volunteered to serve in the "People's Army" the Gonobahini.
• Died: Victor Odlum, 90, Canadian journalist, soldier, and diplomat

  [April 5], 1971 (Monday)

• In Ceylon, the Marxist–Leninist group Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna began a rebellion against the government of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, starting with plans for a simultaneous surprise attack on police stations nationwide at 11:00 at night and a plot to kidnap Bandaranaike from her residence. Because of a failure to attend a planning meeting on April 2, and a misunderstanding of a specific time for the uprising to start, a unit assigned to assault the police station at Wellawaya launched its attack on the morning of April 5 and ruined the JVP's plan to catch the rest of Ceylon's police off guard.
• Frances Phipps became the first woman to travel to the North Pole as she and her husband Welland Phipps, co-owners of the Atlas Aviation charter service, flew a Twin Otter ski plane to install a radar beacon at the Pole.
• A major eruption of Mount Etna in Sicily began. In the course of the eruption, lava buried the Etna Observatory, destroyed the first generation of the Etna cable-car, and seriously threatened several small villages on Etna's east flank.
• The Marxist government of Chile and the Communist government of East Germany established diplomatic relations.
• Yu Song-gun, a diplomat of South Korea's Embassy in West Germany, was kidnapped by North Korean agents while he and his wife were visiting West Berlin.
• Robert M. Blais was sworn into office as the mayor of tiny Lake George Village, New York, and would celebrate half a century in office in 2021. Blais retired in 2023 after more than 52 years in office.

  [April 6], 1971 (Tuesday)

• "Ping-pong diplomacy" began when the People's Republic of China sent an invitation to the U.S. national table tennis team to visit as the first Americans to be invited to mainland China since the Communist government had taken over in 1949. For more than 20 years, mainland China had been closed to the U.S. and other Western nations. The American team was in Nagoya, Japan for the world championships at the same time that the People's Republic was participating in the competition for the first time since 1965. Earlier, Glenn Cowan of the U.S. team was befriended by three-time men's world champion Zhuang Zedong of China and the press coverage led to the invitation. Rufford Harrison, the captain of the U.S. team accepted the invitation on behalf of the team the next day.
• West Germany's Chancellor, Willy Brandt, wrote to French President Georges Pompidou to reiterate his determination to re-open negotiations for the United Kingdom to join the European Community.
• Born: Lou Merloni, American baseball player and radio personality, in Framingham, Massachusetts
• Died: Igor Stravinsky, 88, Russian composer, conductor and pianist

  [April 7], 1971 (Wednesday)

• Two Croatian nationalists invaded the Yugoslavian Embassy in Stockholm and took Ambassador to Sweden Vladimir Rolović hostage, then tortured him and shot him. Stockholm police stormed the building after being called to the scene and arrested the two men, Miro Barešić and Anđelko Brajković, at the scene. Rolović died eight days later. Barešić and Brajković would be released 17 months later after the hijacking of SAS Flight 130.
• U.S. President Richard M. Nixon announced in a nationally televised speech that he had scheduled the withdrawal of 100,000 additional U.S. troops from South Vietnam by December 1, with 14,300 to return home each month. At the time, there were 284,000 U.S. troops still participating in the Vietnam War.
• Archbishop Meliktu Jenbere was elected as the second Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, succeeding the late Abuna Basilios, who had died on October 13. He was enthroned as Patriarch Abuna Theophilos on May 9 and would reign until 1979.
• For the last time in Major League Baseball history, the Opening Day was a doubleheader. With the Oakland A's hosting the visiting Chicago White Sox, winning 6 to 5 and 12 to 4.
• Born: Guillaume Depardieu, French actor, son of Gérard Depardieu and Élisabeth Depardieu, in Paris

  [April 8], 1971 (Thursday)

• The first legalized off-track betting system in the United States began operating in the state of New York at a terminal in Grand Central Station in New York City, for betting on horse races at Roosevelt Raceway.
• A bomb exploded in a Saigon club where the CBC band was performing, killing a GI and a female civilian, the drummer's girlfriend.
• The "Hughes 500-P", a modified Hughes OH-6 Cayuse chopper billed as "the quietest helicopter ever", because of its noise dampening technology and black paint that absorbed radar waves, was given its first public demonstration.
• The championship game of the Europe's FIBA European Champions Cup was held in Antwerp in Belgium. The league champions of 24 nations participated, and in the final, the Soviet Army team, CSKA Moscow, defeated Italy's Ignis Varese, 67 to 53.

  [April 9], 1971 (Friday)

• The Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was enlarged from 11 members to 15 as the Central Committee voted to approve the promotion of four men to full Politburo status. Dinmukhamed A. Kunayev, Vladimir V. Scherbitsky and Viktor V. Grishin were promoted from candidate members to full members, and the CPSU's secretary in charge of agriculture Fyodor D. Kulakov was added to the group that held the de facto power in the U.S.S.R., while the original 11 were elected to new terms. Party General Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev was re-elected as the CPSU General Secretary.
• Troops of the Pakistan Army invaded the home of Zakir Husain, a native Bengali and a former Governor of East Pakistan, killing most of his staff. Husain himself and his eldest son were almost executed on the scene until the unit's commanding officer realized what was happening and stopped the act.
• Born: Jacques Villeneuve, Canadian racing driver, 1995 CART World Series champ, 1995 Indianapolis 500 winner and 1997 Formula One world champion; in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec

  [April 10], 1971 (Saturday)

• Sixteen members of the U.S. national table tennis team became the first contingent of Americans in more than 20 years to be welcomed to the People's Republic of China as nine players, four team officials and two wives walked across a bridge from British Hong Kong at the invitation of the Chinese government for an eight-day visit described as ping-pong diplomacy. The team and accompanying reporters were flown from Guangzhou to Tokyo seven days later after their historic visit.
• A provisional Bangladeshi government took its oath of office in Meherpur Kushtia.
• Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, opened with the home team, the Phillies, defeating the Montreal Expos 4–1, in front of a crowd of 55,352. The first ball was dropped by helicopter to Mike Ryan.