January 1971

January 1, 1971 (Friday)

• The last cigarette commercials on U.S. television and radio were broadcast, and tobacco manufacturers spent US$1,250,000 for the farewell advertising prior to the ban that went into effect at midnight. The last commercial was a 60-second ad for Virginia Slims that was run by the Philip Morris company at 11:59 during a break on The Tonight Show on NBC. The company had bought the last pre-midnight ads on the late night talk shows of all three networks, with ads for Marlboro on CBS on The Merv Griffin Show and for Benson & Hedges on ABC on The Dick Cavett Show.
• The major bowl games of the 1970 college football season saw the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams defeated in the afternoon and in the evening, respectively. In Dallas, the Cotton Bowl was a rematch of the 1969 Cotton Bowl, when Notre Dame was upset by Texas. In the rematch, the #1-ranked Texas Longhorns lost to the #6 Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, 24 to 11. Notre Dame, whose shot at No. 1 had been dashed by the Longhorns the year before, snapped a streak of 30 consecutive Texas victories as future NFL great Joe Theismann ran for two touchdowns and passed for another. Later in the day, the second-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes lost to the No. 12–ranked Stanford Indians, losing 27 to 17 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Thus, the No. 3–ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers, who had beaten the No. 5 LSU Tigers at the Orange Bowl in Miami after the Cotton Bowl and before the Rose Bowl, were the only major unbeaten team in the nation, with a final record of 11 wins, no losses and one tie. The Cornhuskers were voted No. 1 in the Associated Press poll of sportswriters on January 4. Texas is also noted as an NCAA 1970 college football champion for its 10–0–0 regular season record and its No. 1 ranking at season's end by United Press International's poll of college coaches; UPI did not do a postseason poll at the time.
• The International Investment Bank began operations as a lending institution for members states of the Soviet Union's allies in Comecon, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance.
• No-fault insurance went into effect within the United States for the first time, as an innovation in Massachusetts where the first law was enacted on August 13, 1970, "with the promise of lower rates for drivers, quicker settlements for those injured in accidents and much-needed relief for a court system swamped with litigation." Under the scheme, now universal in the U.S., a person's own insurance would pay for the initial medical expenses and damages for lost work for an injured person up to a limit and the carrier would then seek recovery from the insurance carrier of the driver at fault.
• Project VOLAR began as an experiment at Fort Benning, Fort Carson, and Fort Ord to improve conditions within the United States Army in order to encourage soldiers to enlist into military service. Among the experimental reforms were the abolition of KP duty and reveille. The VOLAR project would lead to reforms marketed as "The New Army".
• Born: Jarosław Wasik, Polish singer-songwriter, in Prudnik, Poland

  January 2, 1971 (Saturday)

• Sixty-six people were killed in Glasgow, and over 200 injured at Ibrox Park while leaving a soccer football match between Rangers and Celtic. Celtic had taken a 1 to 0 lead near the end of the match, and Rangers fans on the northeast stands were moving toward the exits when a goal was scored by Rangers to tie the match 1–1. Many of the fans tried to turn back around to return to the stands. As a police sergeant said afterward, "Then somebody fell. Somebody fell on top of him. And it snowballed until a crush barrier collapsed." Those killed ranged in age from 13 to 49.
• Dr Benjamin Sheares, a retired gynecologist, was sworn in as the second President of Singapore after being elected by the parliament to replace the late Yusof Ishak, who had died on November 23. During the interim between Ishak's death and Dr. Sheares's inauguration, a surgeon, Dr. Yeoh Ghim Seng, had served as the acting president.
• A group of Israeli anthropologists and doctors, led by Dr. Nicu Haas of the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, announced the discovery of "the first authenticated physical evidence of a crucifixion in Biblical times." The skeleton was of a man whose name, according to the inscription in Aramaic on his ossuary, was Jehohanan Ben-Hagkol, had apparently been between the age of 24 and 28, had been unearthed in June 1968 during the development of a government housing project in the Givat HaMivtar section of northeastern Jerusalem; of 35 individuals whose tombs were found underneath the grounds of the housing site, pathologists concluded that 30 had died from natural causes, two by fire, one from an arrow wound, one from a skull fracture, and one by crucifixion. Professor Yigal Yadin explained that the conclusion of crucifixion was supported by the discovery of a corroded iron nail in the heel bones of the victim, which the persons who buried Jehohanan had been unable to remove before burial because the nail had been bent after striking a knot in the wood of the cross.
• Born:
• *Renée Elise Goldsberry, American stage and television actress and 2016 Tony Award winner; in San Jose, California
• *Taye Diggs

  January 3, 1971 (Sunday)

• BBC Open University, allowing older, working students to obtain an undergraduate university degree through distance learning, began operations in the United Kingdom, with the broadcast of early morning television courses to supplement written and audio materials provided to the students. In the first year, 25,000 students applied for the program. The first bachelor's degrees would be awarded on January 11, 1973.
• American serial killer Carl "Charlie" Brandt, suspected in the murder of eight victims, took his first life at the age of 13 at his home in Fort Wayne, Indiana, killing his pregnant mother and wounding his father by shooting them at his home. Brandt, too young to be tried for murder, was released and moved to Florida where, on September 16, 2004, he would claim his final victims, his wife and their niece, before hanging himself.

  January 4, 1971 (Monday)

• The New York Daily Mirror, reviving the name of an unrelated daily paper that had ceased publishing in 1963, went on sale as a new tabloid published by Robert W. Farrell and was published Monday through Friday. On the same day journalists returned to work at London's more famous Daily Mirror newspaper after a three-day protest strike. The tabloid would last less than 14 months, ceasing entirely after its February 29, 1972, issue.
• Carlos Camacho took office as the first elected Governor of Guam, after having been the last appointed governor of the U.S. territory.
• Philadelphia's "Black Mafia" gang committed the brutal robbery of the Dubrow Furniture store. Eight of its members entered the store at different times and then rounded up the employees after closing time and then began torturing them, shooting three people and setting fire to another in an attempt to burn down the building. The inexplicably sadistic crime later was dramatized in the novel The Witness, by W.E.B. Griffin.
• For the first time in 20 years, a passenger ship from a Communist nation was allowed to sail into the New York Harbor, as the Polish luxury liner Stefan Batory docked at Pier 40 at Houston Street. The International Longshoreman's Association refused to unload the ship because of a protest against Communism, and the passengers carried off their baggage without assistance.
• Born: Haytham Farouk, Egyptian footballer, in Alexandria

  January 5, 1971 (Tuesday)

• In the only known instance of the Harlem Globetrotters being defeated by the designated losers in their exhibition performances, the New Jersey Reds won, 100 to 99 at Martin, Tennessee. The last instance of a Globetrotters defeat before that had been in April, 1962, against a group of college all-stars in Denver. The Reds' owner and coach, Louis "Red" Klotz, told reporters later that his semipro team was under contract with the Harlem Globetrotters to appear at arena dates at a negotiated price for fees and expenses, and was not instructed to lose on purpose.
• "One Day International" was introduced to the sport of cricket as an alternative to test cricket matches between national teams that were played over a four-day period. The format, approved as a separate category in 1975 by the International Cricket Council for the inauguration of the Cricket World Cup, was an unintended consequence of the and was an adaptation of limited overs cricket that had been created in India in 1951, and happened after heavy rains had stopped the third test cricket match of the 1970–71 Ashes series that had been scheduled for Melbourne Cricket Ground from December 31 to January 4 between England and Australia. The Australian team won by 5 wickets.
• Gunnar Jarring's mission to achieve a peaceful settlement of the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors resumed after initial failure.
• The body of Sonny Liston, the former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, was found dead in his Las Vegas home, after having last been heard from a week earlier. A coroner determined that Liston had probably died on December 30 after falling while alone. The date was arrived at based on the number of newspapers and milk that had been delivered to his home but not picked up.

  January 6, 1971 (Wednesday)

• In one of the few instances of a referee dying during a professional sporting event, Andy Hershock collapsed during an American Basketball Association game between the New York Nets and the visiting Memphis Pros. Hershock, who was only 43, went to the Memphis bench during a timeout in the first period, complaining that he was dizzy. When he attempted to return to the court, he collapsed and was pronounced dead 20 minutes later. The game resumed after a substitute referee was located, and the Nets finished with a 110–101 win. The ABA later staged a doubleheader with two games as a fundraiser for the Hershock family.
• A group of Canadian parents in Vancouver, who would be nicknamed the Militant Mothers of Raymur, began a successful campaign to stop the Canadian National Railroad from running its freight cars during the hours that about 400 children were walking to and from Admiral Seymour Elementary School in the Strathcona neighborhood. After the group halted a train, CN Rail and Burlington Northern officials promised to not send trains through the area at the times that children were crossing the tracks.
• The University of California Medical Center announced that a research team led by Dr. Choh Hao Li had made the first laboratory synthesis of the growth hormone
• Died: Jorge Barbosa, 68, Cape Verdean poet and writer