May 1971

[May 1], 1971 (Saturday)

• Amtrak, the U.S. National Railroad Passenger Corporation, began its inter-city rail passenger service in the United States, operating as a successor to the passenger services of private railroad companies that had operated in the U.S. for more than a century. "The semi-nationalization of the passenger rails," a reporter noted, "was ushered in without fanfare or trouble in most cities." The first official Amtrak service began at 12:05 a.m. as the Metroliner departed Penn Station in New York City on its run to Washington. When it began operating passenger service, Amtrak operated 178 passenger trains and served more than 300 U.S. cities.
• The government of Ceylon announced a four-day amnesty period for all guerrillas who agreed to surrender to the local authorities before May 5, promising that rebels who did participate would be taken, unharmed, to the capital at Colombo and made to participate in "re-education" classes at university. Starting May 6, Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike added, rebels who refused to surrender would be hunted down. She reported that 250 rebels had laid down their weapons.
• American hijacker Raphael Minichiello was released from a prison in Rome, 18 months after hijacking TWA Flight 85 on October 31, 1969 over California and commandeering the Boeing 707 to Italy. Minichiello, a U.S. Marine who had boarded the aircraft on the day he was scheduled to face a court-martial, had faced a minimum sentence of 20 years in a U.S. prison for air piracy. The Italian government had refused to allow his extradition, since the crime took place five months before Italy had entered into an international extradition treaty and because of its own law prohibiting extradition for any crime where the death penalty was applicable.
• The Angry Brigade set off a bomb at the Biba store in London.
• The Kentucky Derby was won by Venezuelan-trained racehorse Canonero II, with Venezuelan jockey Gustavo Ávila riding.
• Born: Ajith Kumar, Indian actor, in Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh
• Died: Glenda Farrell, 66, U.S. actress, from lung cancer

  [May 2], 1971 (Sunday)

• Egypt's President Anwar Sadat fired one of his two Vice Presidents, Aly Sabri, but gave no immediate explanation for the removal. Sabri, who had participated with Gamal Abdel Nasser and with Sadat in the 1952 revolution that deposed King Farouk, had been openly critical of Sadat's pursuit of a federation with Libya and Syria.
• In Ceylon, left-wing guerrillas under the command of Colonel Fernando Mahendran launched a series of assaults against public buildings while the four-day long amnesty continued.
• Police in Washington, D.C., began at dawn to disperse 30,000 anti-war protesters who had camped along the Potomac River after listening to an all-night rock concert. The move had been made in anticipation of announced plans to disrupt traffic on Monday.
• Died:
• *Olaf Barda, 61, first Norwegian International Master in chess
• *John Horne Blackmore, Canadian teacher, 81, first leader of the Social Credit Party of Canada

  [May 3], 1971 (Monday)

• Walter Ulbricht resigned as the General Secretary of East Germany's ruling Communist Party, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, but retained the position of head of state. Speaking to the SED's Central Committee, the 77-year old Ulbricht, who had led the party since 1946, cited his age and his health as the reasons for leaving, and named Erich Honecker as his successor. He continued in office as Chairman of the State Council as the nominal head of state. After being approved by the Central Committee, Honecker made his first speech as the nation's new de facto leader and said that he would continue the hard-line policies against dissent that had been implemented by Ulbricht,
• The Harris Poll announced that a recent survey had found that 60% of Americans opposed the Vietnam War, based on the question of whether the U.S. should withdraw its troops even if it means that South Vietnam would fall to the Communists. For the first time since the question was asked, a majority of Americans agreed that it was "morally wrong" for the U.S. to be fighting in Vietnam. The poll was taken of 1,500 households between April 12 and April 15. Pollster Louis Harris wrote that "The tide of American public opinion has now turned decisively against the war in Indo-China."
• Anti-war activists attempted to disrupt government business in Washington, D.C., a day after police had begun dispersing 30,000. Police and military units arrested as many as 12,000, most of whom were later released.
• In London, the Daily Mail, first published in 1896, was relaunched as a tabloid. The new format came with the merger of the staffs of the Daily Mail and the defunct Daily Sketch.
• All Things Considered, National Public Radio's flagship news program, was broadcast for the first time, starting at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on 90 NPR stations. Robert Conley served as the first host of the 90-minute program.
• General Lon Nol agreed to continue as the nominal Premier of the Khmer Republic after having announced his resignation for reasons of health on April 20. After an unsuccessful 13-day search during which nobody was willing to serve as Prime Minister, General Lon agreed to continue in office, although he delegated most executive power to Lieutenant General Sisowath Sirik Matak.
• Born: Douglas Carswell, British politician who, in 2014, became the first candidate of the UK Independence Party to be elected to the House of Commons
• Died: Joel Lieber, 35, American novelist, was killed after jumping from the window of his apartment in New York City.

  [May 4], 1971 (Tuesday)

• Thirty-one people were killed in Canada, when their homes in the village of Saint-Jean-Vianney, Quebec were swallowed by a sinkhole and then buried by mud and debris. After a heavy rainstorm, the ground beneath 35 houses gave way. Most of the victims were employees of the Aluminum Company of Canada and their families.
• John Froines, sought by the FBI as the leader of the "Mayday Tribe" and accused of conspiracy to interfere with the civil rights of commuters and federal employees as part of a protest, was arrested 15 minutes after an agent had spotted him. To the surprise of FBI agents, Mr. Froines had been recognized while he was addressing a crowd of thousands of anti-war demonstrators and standing directly beneath the office window of U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell.
• Four home-made bombs were found in the vicinity of Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School in the UK. The authorities at first thought these belonged to the Angry Brigade but concluded that the explosives were more likely to be the work of students who had devised improvised bombs as an experiment on a school trip to Norway in 1970.

  [May 5], 1971 (Wednesday)

• After the U.S. dollar continued to flood the European currency markets and to threaten West Germany's Deutsche Mark. The central banks of Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland stopped further trading of the dollar.
• The English warship Mary Rose, which had sunk with 385 sailors on July 19, 1545, in the Battle of the Solent, was rediscovered after more than 425 years. A timber from the ship had become exposed in the bottom of The Solent, the strait separating the Isle of Wight from the English mainland.
• Israeli archaeologist Dan Bahat announced in Jerusalem that his team had discovered the remains of Herod's Palace, built during the reign of King Herod the Great, ruler of the client state of Judea within the Roman Empire during the late 1st century BC.
• The District of Columbia police arrested and jailed about 1,200 anti-war activists who had entered the U.S. Capitol to listen to a speech by Congressman Ronald Dellums and placed them inside a makeshift jail that had been set up at RFK Stadium. On January 16, 1975, a U.S. District Court jury would award twelve million dollars in damages to the group for false imprisonment after an illegal arrest.
• Died:
• *Violet Jessop, 83, English former nurse who survived the sinkings of the sister ships RMS Titanic and HMHS Britannic in 1912 and 1916, respectively
• *Sir W. D. Ross, 94, Scottish philosopher

  [May 6], 1971 (Thursday)

• The day after the expiration of the four day amnesty period for anti-government guerrillas in Sri Lanka, the Ceylonese Army began a major offensive against the People's Liberation Front.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned American consumers against eating swordfish after finding that more than 95% of 853 samples of the food tested were contaminated with excessive levels of mercury.
• The state of North Carolina ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, granting women the right to vote, more than 50 years after it had taken effect in 1920. The new vote on the amendment was approved unanimously by the North Carolina State Senate. Lieutenant Governor Pat Taylor, in his capacity as president of the senate, called for the vote by saying "All those who favor women, signify by saying 'aye'." At the time, the only state not to have ratified the Nineteenth Amendment was Mississippi, which would finally approve it in 1984.
• All ten passengers and two crewmembers aboard Apache Airlines Flight 33 were killed when the right wing of the De Havilland 104 Dove airplane fell off during the plane's flight from Tucson to Phoenix. The plane crashed onto farmland southwest of Coolidge, Arizona.
• Died: Dickie Valentine, 41, English singer, was killed in a car crash at Glangrwyney in Wales near Crickhowell

  [May 7], 1971 (Friday)

• The 3rd U.S. Marine Expeditionary Brigade ceased all ground and air operations in Vietnam and prepared for its deactivation.
• Owners of the teams in the National Basketball Association and the rival American Basketball Association reached an agreement in New York City to merge the two leagues into a 28-team circuit of 17 NBA teams and 11 ABA teams. Players in both leagues stated at the same time that they opposed the merger because it would move competitive bidding for their services. Although a championship game between the two leagues was not discussed, the parties agreed to play inter-league preseason games during the fall.
• Serial killer Carroll Cole committed the first of 15 strangulation murders of women over a period of more than nine years, starting with Essie Buck, whom he picked up at a bar in San Diego. Arrested in 1980, Cole would be executed by lethal injection in Nevada on December 6, 1985.
• Died: Ranada Prasad Shaha, 74, Pakistani Bengali philanthropist and businessman, was taken from his home by the Pakistani Army, along with his 3-year old grandson. Their bodies have never been found. Forty-eight years later, Mahbubur Rahman, would be convicted of participating in Shaha's murder.