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 Some stations cease broadcasting until the message is rescinded, as required by federal rules, while most ignore it.[3]
Pakistani president
Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan indefinitely postpones the pending National Assembly session, precipitating massive civil disobedience in
East Pakistan.
March 4 – The southern part of
Quebec, and especially
Montreal, receives 16½" (42 cm) of snow in what becomes known as the
Century's Snowstorm (la tempête du siècle).
Nihat Erim (a former
CHP member) forms the new government of
Turkey (33rd government, composed mostly of technocrats).
March 27 – East Pakistan's independence is repeatedly declared by army major (later president of Bangladesh) Ziaur Rahman on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from Kalurghat Radio Station,
Chittagong.
U.S. Army lieutenant
William Calley is found guilty of 22 murders during the
My Lai Massacre and is sentenced to life in prison (he is later pardoned).
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.[13]
1971 May Day Protests: Anti-war militants attempt to disrupt government business in
Washington, D.C.; police and military units arrest as many as 12,000, most of whom are later released.
The
U.S. dollar floods the European
currency markets and especially threatens the
Deutsche Mark; the central banks of Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland stop the currency trading.
The
Montreal Canadiens win the
Stanley Cup against the
Chicago Black Hawks. The Canadiens became only the second team in
NHL history to win the Cup in Game 7 on the road, and did so after the home team had won each of the previous six games in the series. This also marked
Jean Béliveau's last NHL game.
June 1 –
Vietnam War: Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace, claiming to represent the majority of U.S. veterans who served in
Southeast Asia, speak against war protests.
June 20 – Britain announces that Soviet space scientist
Anatoli Fedoseyev has been granted asylum.
June 21 – Britain begins new negotiations for
EEC membership in Luxembourg.
June 25 –
Madagascar accuses the U.S. of conspiring to oust the government; the U.S. recalls its ambassador.
June 27 – Concert promoter
Bill Graham closes the legendary
Fillmore East, which first opened on 2nd Avenue in New York City on March 8, 1968.
June 28 – Assassin Jerome A. Johnson shoots
Joe Colombo, boss of his eponymous crime family, in the head during an
Italian-American rally, putting him in a coma.
After a successful mission aboard Salyut 1, the world's first human-occupied space station, the crew of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft die after their air supply leaks out through a faulty valve.
July 9 – The United Kingdom increases the number of its troops in
Northern Ireland to 11,000.
July 10–
11 – Coup attempt in
Morocco: 1,400 cadets take over the king's palace for three hours and kill 28 people; 158 rebels die when the king's troops storm the palace (ten high-ranking officers are later executed for involvement).
July 19 – The South Tower of the
World Trade Center in
New York City tops out at 1,362 feet (415 m), making it the second-tallest building in the world.
July 19–
23 – Major
Hashem al-Atta ousts Jaafar Muhammad al-Nimeiri in a military coup in
Sudan. Fighting continues until
July 22, when pro-Nimeiri troops regain power. Al-Atta and three officers are executed.
A
BOAC flight from London to Khartoum is ordered to land at
Benghazi, Libya, where two leaders of the unsuccessful Sudanese coup, travelling as passengers, are forced to leave the plane and are subsequently executed.[31]
August 6 – A
total lunar eclipse lasting 1 hour, 40 minutes, and 4 seconds is observed, visible from South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, and is the 38th lunar eclipse of
Lunar Saros 128.
The number of British troops in Northern Ireland is raised to 12,500.
President
Richard Nixon announces that the United States will no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value, effectively ending the
Bretton Woods system. He also imposes a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents.
September –
Operation Sourisak Montry VIII opens when forces of the
Royal Thai Army recapture several positions in the territory of
Laos on the south bank of the
Mekong in response to an encroaching Chinese presence to the north.
The United Kingdom becomes the sixth nation successfully to launch a satellite into orbit using its own
launch vehicle, the
Prospero (X-3) experimental communications satellite, using a
Black Arrow carrier rocket from
Woomera, South Australia.
November 20 – A bridge still under construction, called Elevado Engenheiro Freyssinet, falls over the Paulo de Frontin Avenue, in
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil; 48 people are killed and several injured. Reconstructed, the bridge is a part of the Linha Vermelha elevate.
November 22 – 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.
During a severe storm over
Washington State, a man calling himself
D. B. Cooper parachutes from the
Northwest Orient Airlines plane he had hijacked, with US$200,000 in ransom money, and is never seen again (as of November 2022, this case remains the only unsolved skyjacking in history).
A
Brussels court sentences pretender
Alexis Brimeyer to 18 months in jail for falsely using a noble title; Brimeyer has already fled to Greece.
Former teacher
Patrick Critton hijacks Air Canada Flight 932, diverting the flight from Canada to Cuba. He would remain a fugitive for almost 30 years.[39]
The first reported sighting of the
Nullarbor Nymph in Australia was made. The story traveled around the world until it was proven to be a hoax in 1972.
December 29 – The United Kingdom gives up its military bases in
Malta.
^Though initially to be accused as communists by President
Ferdinand Marcos, some theorized that the bombings were staged by pro-Marcos affiliates, but to this day the perpetrators remain unknown.
^"One Man's Mistake Triggers U.S. Alert; Many Stations Go Off Air", Los Angeles Times, February 21, 1971, p1
^Fulghum, David; Maitland, Terrence (1984). The Vietnam Experience South Vietnam on Trial: Mid-1970–1972. Boston Publishing Company. p. 61.
ISBN0939526107.
^Heard-Bey, Frauke (2005). From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates: a society in transition. London: Motivate. p. 366.
ISBN1860631673.
OCLC64689681.
^"This day in history - The Boston Globe". Boston Globe. January 2, 2018. Retrieved September 20, 2018. Jan. 2, the second day of 2018... Birthdays... Actress Renee Elise Goldsberry is 47.
^"마동석-예정화, 3개월째 교제중이다". 허프포스트코리아 (in Korean). Huffington Post. November 18, 2016. Archived from
the original on September 14, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
^Krech, Eva-Maria; Stock, Eberhard; Hirschfeld, Ursula; Anders, Lutz Christian (2009). Deutsches Aussprachewörterbuch (in German). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 731 and 810.
ISBN978-3-11-018202-6.
^Mangold, Max (2005). Das Aussprachewörterbuch (in German) (6th ed.). Mannheim: Dudenverlag. pp. 540 and 617.
ISBN9783411040667.
^"Mobster". Independent Press-Telegram. Long Beach, California. April 4, 1971. p. 2.
Archived from the original on February 17, 2017. Retrieved October 8, 2016 – via
Newspapers.com.
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.[3]
Pakistani president
Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan indefinitely postpones the pending National Assembly session, precipitating massive civil disobedience in
East Pakistan.
March 4 – The southern part of
Quebec, and especially
Montreal, receives 16½" (42 cm) of snow in what becomes known as the
Century's Snowstorm (la tempête du siècle).
Nihat Erim (a former
CHP member) forms the new government of
Turkey (33rd government, composed mostly of technocrats).
March 27 – East Pakistan's independence is repeatedly declared by army major (later president of Bangladesh) Ziaur Rahman on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from Kalurghat Radio Station,
Chittagong.
U.S. Army lieutenant
William Calley is found guilty of 22 murders during the
My Lai Massacre and is sentenced to life in prison (he is later pardoned).
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.[13]
1971 May Day Protests: Anti-war militants attempt to disrupt government business in
Washington, D.C.; police and military units arrest as many as 12,000, most of whom are later released.
The
U.S. dollar floods the European
currency markets and especially threatens the
Deutsche Mark; the central banks of Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland stop the currency trading.
The
Montreal Canadiens win the
Stanley Cup against the
Chicago Black Hawks. The Canadiens became only the second team in
NHL history to win the Cup in Game 7 on the road, and did so after the home team had won each of the previous six games in the series. This also marked
Jean Béliveau's last NHL game.
June 1 –
Vietnam War: Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace, claiming to represent the majority of U.S. veterans who served in
Southeast Asia, speak against war protests.
June 20 – Britain announces that Soviet space scientist
Anatoli Fedoseyev has been granted asylum.
June 21 – Britain begins new negotiations for
EEC membership in Luxembourg.
June 25 –
Madagascar accuses the U.S. of conspiring to oust the government; the U.S. recalls its ambassador.
June 27 – Concert promoter
Bill Graham closes the legendary
Fillmore East, which first opened on 2nd Avenue in New York City on March 8, 1968.
June 28 – Assassin Jerome A. Johnson shoots
Joe Colombo, boss of his eponymous crime family, in the head during an
Italian-American rally, putting him in a coma.
After a successful mission aboard Salyut 1, the world's first human-occupied space station, the crew of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft die after their air supply leaks out through a faulty valve.
July 9 – The United Kingdom increases the number of its troops in
Northern Ireland to 11,000.
July 10–
11 – Coup attempt in
Morocco: 1,400 cadets take over the king's palace for three hours and kill 28 people; 158 rebels die when the king's troops storm the palace (ten high-ranking officers are later executed for involvement).
July 19 – The South Tower of the
World Trade Center in
New York City tops out at 1,362 feet (415 m), making it the second-tallest building in the world.
July 19–
23 – Major
Hashem al-Atta ousts Jaafar Muhammad al-Nimeiri in a military coup in
Sudan. Fighting continues until
July 22, when pro-Nimeiri troops regain power. Al-Atta and three officers are executed.
A
BOAC flight from London to Khartoum is ordered to land at
Benghazi, Libya, where two leaders of the unsuccessful Sudanese coup, travelling as passengers, are forced to leave the plane and are subsequently executed.[31]
August 6 – A
total lunar eclipse lasting 1 hour, 40 minutes, and 4 seconds is observed, visible from South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, and is the 38th lunar eclipse of
Lunar Saros 128.
The number of British troops in Northern Ireland is raised to 12,500.
President
Richard Nixon announces that the United States will no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value, effectively ending the
Bretton Woods system. He also imposes a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents.
September –
Operation Sourisak Montry VIII opens when forces of the
Royal Thai Army recapture several positions in the territory of
Laos on the south bank of the
Mekong in response to an encroaching Chinese presence to the north.
The United Kingdom becomes the sixth nation successfully to launch a satellite into orbit using its own
launch vehicle, the
Prospero (X-3) experimental communications satellite, using a
Black Arrow carrier rocket from
Woomera, South Australia.
November 20 – A bridge still under construction, called Elevado Engenheiro Freyssinet, falls over the Paulo de Frontin Avenue, in
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil; 48 people are killed and several injured. Reconstructed, the bridge is a part of the Linha Vermelha elevate.
November 22 – 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.
During a severe storm over
Washington State, a man calling himself
D. B. Cooper parachutes from the
Northwest Orient Airlines plane he had hijacked, with US$200,000 in ransom money, and is never seen again (as of November 2022, this case remains the only unsolved skyjacking in history).
A
Brussels court sentences pretender
Alexis Brimeyer to 18 months in jail for falsely using a noble title; Brimeyer has already fled to Greece.
Former teacher
Patrick Critton hijacks Air Canada Flight 932, diverting the flight from Canada to Cuba. He would remain a fugitive for almost 30 years.[39]
The first reported sighting of the
Nullarbor Nymph in Australia was made. The story traveled around the world until it was proven to be a hoax in 1972.
December 29 – The United Kingdom gives up its military bases in
Malta.
^Though initially to be accused as communists by President
Ferdinand Marcos, some theorized that the bombings were staged by pro-Marcos affiliates, but to this day the perpetrators remain unknown.
^"One Man's Mistake Triggers U.S. Alert; Many Stations Go Off Air", Los Angeles Times, February 21, 1971, p1
^Fulghum, David; Maitland, Terrence (1984). The Vietnam Experience South Vietnam on Trial: Mid-1970–1972. Boston Publishing Company. p. 61.
ISBN0939526107.
^Heard-Bey, Frauke (2005). From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates: a society in transition. London: Motivate. p. 366.
ISBN1860631673.
OCLC64689681.
^"This day in history - The Boston Globe". Boston Globe. January 2, 2018. Retrieved September 20, 2018. Jan. 2, the second day of 2018... Birthdays... Actress Renee Elise Goldsberry is 47.
^"마동석-예정화, 3개월째 교제중이다". 허프포스트코리아 (in Korean). Huffington Post. November 18, 2016. Archived from
the original on September 14, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
^Krech, Eva-Maria; Stock, Eberhard; Hirschfeld, Ursula; Anders, Lutz Christian (2009). Deutsches Aussprachewörterbuch (in German). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 731 and 810.
ISBN978-3-11-018202-6.
^Mangold, Max (2005). Das Aussprachewörterbuch (in German) (6th ed.). Mannheim: Dudenverlag. pp. 540 and 617.
ISBN9783411040667.
^"Mobster". Independent Press-Telegram. Long Beach, California. April 4, 1971. p. 2.
Archived from the original on February 17, 2017. Retrieved October 8, 2016 – via
Newspapers.com.