What Happened in 1971 — Events, Births & Deaths

The second Ibrox disaster kills 66 fans at a Rangers-Celtic association football match.

The Harrisburg Seven: Rev. Philip Berrigan and five other activists are indicted on charges of conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger and of plotting to blow up the heating tunnels of federal buildings in Washington, D.C.

The current Emley Moor transmitting station, the tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom, begins transmitting UHF broadcasts.

The Singapore Declaration, one of the two most important documents to the uncodified constitution of the Commonwealth of Nations, is issued.

Charles Manson and four "Family" members (three of them female) are found guilty of the 1969 Tate–LaBianca murders.

Idi Amin leads a coup deposing Milton Obote and becomes Uganda's president.

The last of its many UFO sightings is made at Pudasjärvi, Finland.

Apollo program: Apollo 14: Astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell, aboard a Saturn V, lift off for a mission to the Fra Mauro Highlands on the Moon.

The Winter Soldier Investigation, organized by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War to publicize alleged war crimes and atrocities by Americans and allies in Vietnam, begins in Detroit.

Idi Amin replaces President Milton Obote as leader of Uganda.

The international Ramsar Convention for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands is signed in Ramsar, Mazandaran, Iran.

New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn and survives to later testify against police corruption.

Astronauts land on the Moon in the Apollo 14 mission.

South Vietnamese ground troops launch an incursion into Laos to try to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail and stop communist infiltration into the country.

The 6.5–6.7 Mw Sylmar earthquake hits the Greater Los Angeles Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing 64 and injuring 2,000.

Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro league player to be voted into the USA's Baseball Hall of Fame.

Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third human Moon landing.

Cold War: The Seabed Arms Control Treaty opens for signature, outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor in international waters.

The decimalisation of the currencies of the United Kingdom and Ireland is completed on Decimal Day.

The United States Emergency Broadcast System is accidentally activated in an erroneous national alert.

The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.

Operation Lam Son 719: South Vietnamese General Do Cao Tri was killed in a helicopter crash en route to taking control of the faltering campaign.

The All India Forward Bloc holds an emergency central committee meeting after its chairman, Hemantha Kumar Bose, is killed three days earlier. P. K. Mookiah Thevar is appointed as the new chairman.

U.N. Secretary-General U Thant signs United Nations proclamation of the vernal equinox as Earth Day.

Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic (the Mildredhuis in Arnhem) start performing artificially-induced abortions.

President of Pakistan Yahya Khan indefinitely postpones the pending national assembly session, precipitating massive civil disobedience in East Pakistan.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, political leader of then East Pakistan (present day-Bangladesh), delivers his historic 7th March speech in the Racecourse Field (Now Suhrawardy Udyan) in Dhaka.

John Gorton resigns as Prime Minister of Australia and the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia after a secret ballot vote of confidence, being replaced in both positions by William McMahon.

The 1971 Turkish military memorandum is sent to the Süleyman Demirel government of Turkey and the government resigns.

Peru: A landslide crashes into Yanawayin Lake, killing 200 people at the mining camp of Chungar.

The Army of the Republic of Vietnam abandon an attempt to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos.

East Pakistan, then a province of Pakistan, declares its independence from Pakistan to form Bangladesh; the Bangladesh War of Independence begins.

My Lai massacre: Lieutenant William Calley is convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army massacre more than a thousand people in Keraniganj Upazila, Bangladesh.

In Sri Lanka, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna launches a revolt against the United Front government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announces his decision to quicken the pace of Vietnamization.

The Provisional Government of Bangladesh is formed.

Sierra Leone becomes a republic, and Siaka Stevens the president.

Launch of Salyut 1, the first space station.

Charles Manson is sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment) for conspiracy in the Tate–LaBianca murders.

Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army and Razakars massacre approximately 3,000 Hindu emigrants in the Jathibhanga area of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

Erich Honecker becomes First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, remaining in power until 1989.

Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union.

In the Chuknagar massacre, Pakistani forces massacre thousands, mostly Bengali Hindus.

Seventy-eight people are killed when Aviogenex Flight 130 crashes on approach to Rijeka Airport in present-day Rijeka, Croatia (then the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia).

The Intercontinental Hotel in Bucharest opens, becoming the second-tallest building in the city.

Joetha Collier, a recent high school graduate, is killed in a shooting in Drew, Mississippi, attracting extensive attention from the media and civil rights activists.

Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army slaughters at least 71 Hindus in Burunga, Sylhet, Bangladesh.

The Dahlerau train disaster, the worst railway accident in West Germany, kills 46 people and injures 25 near Wuppertal.

Pakistani forces massacre over 200 civilians, mostly Bengali Hindus, in the Bagbati massacre.

Mariner program: Mariner 9 is launched to map 70% of the surface, and to study temporal changes in the atmosphere and surface, of Mars.

In accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1968, observation of Memorial Day occurs on the last Monday in May for the first time, rather than on the traditional Memorial Day of May 30.

Soyuz 11 is launched. The mission ends in disaster when all three cosmonauts, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev are suffocated by uncontrolled decompression of the capsule during re-entry on 29 June.

Hughes Airwest Flight 706 collides with a McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II of the United States Marine Corps over the San Gabriel Mountains, killing 50.

The United States Supreme Court overturns the conviction of Paul Cohen for disturbing the peace, setting the precedent that vulgar writing is protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Division of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service raids the home of Ken Ballew for illegal possession of hand grenades.

Allegheny Airlines Flight 485 crashes on approach to Tweed New Haven Airport in New Haven, Connecticut, killing 28 of 31 aboard.

The U.S. Government forcibly removes the last holdouts to the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz, ending 19 months of control.

Vietnam War: The New York Times begins publication of the Pentagon Papers.

U.S. president Richard Nixon in a televised press conference calls drug abuse "America's public enemy number one", starting the war on drugs.

Prior to re-entry (following a record-setting stay aboard the Soviet Union's Salyut 1 space station), the crew capsule of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft depressurizes, killing the three cosmonauts on board. Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev are the first humans to die in space.

The crew of the Soviet Soyuz 11 spacecraft are killed when their air supply escapes through a faulty valve.

The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 years, is formally certified by President Richard Nixon.

The nationalization of all large copper mines in Chile is completed.

The Australian Aboriginal flag is flown for the first time.

The United Red Army is founded in Japan.

The Sohagpur massacre is perpetrated by the Pakistan Army.

Apollo program: Launch of Apollo 15 on the first Apollo "J-Mission", and first use of a Lunar Roving Vehicle.

Apollo program: On Apollo 15, David Scott and James Irwin in the Apollo Lunar Module Falcon land on the Moon with the first Lunar Rover.

An All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 and a Japanese Air Force F-86 collide over Morioka, Iwate, Japan, killing 162.

Apollo program: The Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.

The Concert for Bangladesh, organized by former Beatle George Harrison, is held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

The first Pacific Islands Forum (then known as the "South Pacific Forum") is held in Wellington, New Zealand, with the aim of enhancing cooperation between the independent countries of the Pacific Ocean.

The Troubles: In Northern Ireland, the British authorities launch Operation Demetrius. The operation involves the mass arrest and internment without trial of individuals suspected of being affiliated with the Irish Republican Army (PIRA). Mass riots follow, and thousands of people flee or are forced out of their homes.

The Society for American Baseball Research is founded in Cooperstown, New York.

Bahrain declares independence from Britain.

President Richard Nixon completes the break from the gold standard by ending convertibility of the United States dollar into gold by foreign investors.

Bahrain gains independence from the United Kingdom.

Vietnam War: Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from Vietnam.

A bomb exploded in the Liberal Party campaign rally in Plaza Miranda, Manila, Philippines with several anti-Marcos political candidates injured.

J. Edgar Hoover and John Mitchell announce the arrest of 20 of the Camden 28.

An attempted coup d'état fails in the African nation of Chad. The Government of Chad accuses Egypt of playing a role in the attempt and breaks off diplomatic relations.

Qatar becomes an independent state.

Alaska Airlines Flight 1866 crashes near Juneau, Alaska, killing all 111 people on board.

Paninternational Flight 112 crashes on the Bundesautobahn 7 highway near Hamburg Airport, in Hamburg, Germany, killing 22.

In Washington, D.C., the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is inaugurated, with the opening feature being the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass.

The four-day Attica Prison riot begins, eventually resulting in 39 dead, most killed by state troopers retaking the prison.

The Egyptian Constitution becomes official.

The Festival Rock y Ruedas de Avándaro rock festival is held in the State of Mexico. It attracted more than 100,000 attendees during the Mexican Dirty War, a period marked by widespread political repression.

State police and National Guardsmen storm New York's Attica Prison to quell a prison revolt, which claimed 43 lives.

Chairman Mao Zedong's second in command and successor Marshal Lin Biao flees China after the failure of an alleged coup. His plane crashes in Mongolia, killing all aboard.

The first Greenpeace ship departs from Vancouver to protest against the upcoming Cannikin nuclear weapon test in Alaska.

Having weakened after making landfall in Nicaragua the previous day, Hurricane Irene regains enough strength to be renamed Hurricane Olivia, making it the first known hurricane to cross from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific.

Bahrain, Bhutan and Qatar join the United Nations.

Oman joins the Arab League.

Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida.

The first practical CT scanner is used to diagnose a patient.

South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu is re-elected in a one-man election.

British European Airways Flight 706 crashes near Aarsele, Belgium, killing 63.

Aeroflot Flight 773 is destroyed by a bomb over Moscow Oblast, killing 25.

The 2,500 year celebration of the Persian Empire begins.

A gas explosion kills 22 people at a shopping centre near Glasgow, Scotland.

The People's Republic of China replaces the Republic of China at the United Nations.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire.

Prospero becomes the only British satellite to be launched by a British rocket.

The United States Atomic Energy Commission tests the largest U.S. underground hydrogen bomb, code-named Cannikin, on Amchitka Island in the Aleutians.

American banker John List murdered his wife, mother, and three children with a pair of handguns.

In Cambodia, Khmer Rouge forces attack the city of Phnom Penh and its airport, killing 44, wounding at least 30 and damaging nine aircraft.

A Merpati Nusantara Airlines Vickers Viscount crashes into the Indian Ocean near Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia, killing all 69 people on board.

Vietnam War: As part of Vietnamization, U.S. President Richard Nixon sets February 1, 1972 as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000 American troops from Vietnam.

Aeroflot Flight N-63 crashes on approach to Vinnytsia Airport, killing 48.

Mariner 9 enters orbit around Mars.

Intel releases the world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.

Oman declares its independence from the United Kingdom.

Indian troops, partly aided by Mukti Bahini (Bengali guerrillas), defeat the Pakistan army in the Battle of Garibpur.

In Britain's worst mountaineering tragedy, the Cairngorm Plateau Disaster, five children and one of their leaders are found dead from exposure in the Scottish mountains.

Representatives of the People's Republic of China attend the United Nations, including the United Nations Security Council, for the first time.

During a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a hijacker calling himself Dan Cooper (aka D. B. Cooper) parachutes from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane with $200,000 in ransom money. He has never been found.

The Soviet space program's Mars 2 orbiter releases a descent module. It malfunctions and crashes, but it is the first man-made object to reach the surface of Mars.

Fred Quilt, a leader of the Tsilhqot'in First Nation suffers severe abdominal injuries allegedly caused by Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers; he dies two days later.

Wasfi al-Tal, Prime Minister of Jordan, is assassinated by the Black September unit of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Iran seizes the Greater and Lesser Tunbs from the Emirates of Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah.

Cambodian Civil War: Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray.

Purge of Croatian Spring leaders starts in Yugoslavia at the meeting of the League of Communists at the Karađorđevo estate.

Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, and Umm al-Quwain form the United Arab Emirates.

Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: Pakistan launches a pre-emptive strike against India and a full-scale war begins.

The PNS Ghazi, a Pakistan Navy submarine, sinks during the course of the Indo-Pakistani Naval War of 1971.

During a concert by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention at the Montreux Casino, an audience member fires a flare gun into the ceiling, causing a fire that destroys the venue. The incident served as the inspiration for Deep Purple's 1973 song Smoke on the Water.

Battle of Gazipur: Pakistani forces are defeated as India cedes Gazipur to Bangladesh.

Pakistan severs diplomatic relations with India, initiating the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

The Battle of Sylhet is fought between the Pakistani military and the Indian Army.

Pakistan President Yahya Khan announces the formation of a coalition government with Nurul Amin as Prime Minister and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as Deputy Prime Minister.

Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Navy launches an attack on West Pakistan's port city of Karachi.

Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Air Force executes an airdrop of Indian Army units, bypassing Pakistani defences.

Bangladesh Liberation War: Over 200 of East Pakistan's intellectuals are executed by the Pakistan Army and their local allies. (The date is commemorated in Bangladesh as Martyred Intellectuals Day.)

Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The surrender of the Pakistan Army brings an end to both conflicts. This is commemorated annually as Victory Day in Bangladesh and Vijay Diwas in India respectively.

The United Kingdom recognizes Bahrain's independence, which is commemorated annually as Bahrain's National Day.

The international aid organization Doctors Without Borders is founded by Bernard Kouchner and a group of journalists in Paris, France.

LANSA Flight 508 is struck by lightning and crashes in the Puerto Inca District in the Department of Huánuco in Peru, killing 91.

A fire at the Daeyeonggak Hotel in Seoul, South Korea kills 164 people.

David Tennant, Scottish actor

Allan Houston, American basketball player

Mikey Welsh, American bassist and painter (died 2011)

Eric Mabius, American actor

Bernard Grech, Maltese lawyer and politician

Bubba Ray Dudley, American professional wrestler

Ásta Sigurðardóttir, Icelandic writer and visual artist (born 1930)