1971 in the United States

1971 in the United States
Years:	1968 1969 1970 – 1971 – 1972 1973 1974
Flag
50 stars (1960–present)
Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1964–80)

Events from the year 1971 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: Richard Nixon (R-California)
• Vice President: Spiro Agnew (R-Maryland)
• Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger (Minnesota)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: John William McCormack (D-Massachusetts) (until January 3), Carl Albert (D-Oklahoma) (starting January 21)
• Senate Majority Leader: Mike Mansfield (D-Montana)
• Congress: 91st (until January 3), 92nd (starting January 3)

Events

January

January 25: Charles Manson is found guilty of murder

• January 1 – The Uniform Monday Holiday Act takes effect: Washington's Birthday and several other Federal holidays are always observed on certain Mondays, resulting in more three-day weekends for federal employees.
• January 2 – A ban on radio and television cigarette advertisements goes into effect in the United States.^[1]
• January 12 – The landmark television sitcom All in the Family, starring Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker, debuts on CBS.
• January 17 – Super Bowl V: The Baltimore Colts defeat the Dallas Cowboys 16–13 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida.
• January 25 – In Los Angeles, Charles Manson and three female "Family" members are found guilty of the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders.
• January 31 – Apollo program: Apollo 14 (carrying astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell) lifts off on the third successful lunar landing mission.

February

• February 9 – 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.
  • Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned Moon landing.
  • Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro League player to become voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
• February 11 – The US, UK, USSR and others sign the Seabed Treaty, outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor.
• February 20
  • Fifty tornadoes rage in Mississippi, killing 74.
  • The U.S. Emergency Broadcast System sends an erroneous warning; many radio stations just ignore it.

March

• March 1 – A bomb explodes in the men's room at the United States Capitol; the Weather Underground Organization claims responsibility.^[2]
• March 8 – Boxer Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden.
• March 29
  • U.S. Army Lieutenant William Calley is found guilty of 22 murders in the My Lai massacre and sentenced to life in prison (later pardoned).
  • A Los Angeles, California, jury recommends the death penalty for Charles Manson and 3 female followers.

April

• April 9 – Charles Manson is sentenced to death; in 1972, the sentence for all California Death Row inmates is commuted to life imprisonment.
• April 10 – Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia opens.
• April 20 – Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education: The Supreme Court of the United States rules unanimously that busing of students may be ordered to achieve racial desegregation.
• April 24 – Five hundred thousand people in Washington, DC and 125,000 in San Francisco march in protest against the Vietnam War.^[2]

May

• May 1 – Amtrak begins inter-city rail passenger service in the United States.
• May 3 – A Harris Poll claims that 60% of Americans are against the Vietnam War.
  • 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.
• May 5 – The US dollar floods the European currency markets and threatens especially the Deutsche Mark; the central banks of Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland stop the currency trading.
• May 9 – Mariner 8 fails to launch.
• May 29 – Al Unser wins the Indianapolis 500 in the Vel's Parnelli Jones Special Colt-Ford.
• May 30 – Mariner program: Mariner 9 is launched toward Mars.

June

• June – Massachusetts passes its Chapter 766 laws enacting Special Education.
• 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 6 – A midair collision between Hughes Airwest Flight 706 Douglas DC-9 jetliner and a U.S. Marine Corps McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom jet fighter near Duarte, California, claims 50 lives.
• June 10 – The U.S. ends its trade embargo of China.
• June 13 – Vietnam War: The New York Times begins to publish the Pentagon Papers.^[3][4]
• June 17 – Representatives of Japan and the United States sign the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, whereby the U.S. will return control of Okinawa.^[5]
• June 18 – Southwest Airlines, the most successful low cost carrier in history, begins its first flights between Dallas, Houston, And San Antonio.
• June 25 – Madagascar accuses the U.S. of being connected to the plot to oust the current government; the U.S. recalls its ambassador.
• June 27 – Concert promoter Bill Graham closes the legendary Fillmore East, which first opened on 2nd Avenue (between 5th and 6th Streets) in New York City on March 8, 1968.
• June 28 – Assassin Jerome A. Johnson shoots Joe Colombo in the head in a middle of an Italian-American rally, putting him in a coma.
• June 30 – New York Times Co. v. United States: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Pentagon Papers may be published, rejecting government injunctions as unconstitutional prior restraint.

July

July 26–August 7: Apollo 15

• July 1 – The Postal Reorganization Act goes into effect replacing the Cabinet-level Post Office Department with the United States Postal Service.
• July 3 – Jim Morrison, lead singer and lyricist of The Doors, is found dead in his bathtub in Paris, France.
• July 5 – Right to vote: The 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution, formally certified by President Richard Nixon, lowers the voting age from 21 to 18.
• July 19 – The South Tower of the World Trade Center is topped out at 1,362 feet (415 m), making it the second tallest building in the world.
• July 26 – Apollo 15 (carrying astronauts David Scott, Alfred Worden, and James Irwin) is launched.
• July 31 – Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin become the first to ride in a lunar rover, a day after landing on the Moon.

August

• August – the unemployment rate peaks at 6.1%.
• August 1 – In New York City, 40,000 attend the Concert for Bangladesh.
• August 7 – Apollo 15 returns to Earth.
• August 11 – Construction begins on the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.
• August 15 – 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.
• August 20 – The USS Manatee (AO-58) spills 1,000 US gallons (3,800 L) of fuel oil on President Nixon's Western White House beach in San Clemente, California.

September

• September 4 – A Boeing 727 (Alaska Airlines Flight 1866) crashes into the side of a mountain near Juneau, Alaska, killing all 111 people on board.
• September 8 – In Washington, DC, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is inaugurated, with the opening feature being the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass.
• September 9 – September 13 – Attica Prison riots: – A revolt breaks out at the maximum-security prison in Attica, New York. In the end, state police and the United States National Guard storm the facility; 42 are killed, 10 of them hostages.^[6]
• September 22 – Ernest Medina is cleared of all charges connected with the Mylai massacre
• September 28 – Cardinal József Mindszenty, who has taken refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Budapest since 1956, is allowed to leave Hungary.

October

• October 1 – Walt Disney World opens in Orlando, Florida
• October 18 – In New York City, the Knapp Commission begins public hearings on police corruption.
• October 21 – U.S. President Richard Nixon nominates Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. and William H. Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court.
• October 29 – Vietnam War – Vietnamization: The total number of American troops still in Vietnam drops to a record low of 196,700 (the lowest since January 1966).

November

November 15: The Intel 4004, the first commercially available microprocessor, is released

• November 6 – Operation Grommet: The U.S. tests a thermonuclear warhead at Amchitka Island in Alaska, code-named Project Cannikin. At around 5 megatons, it is the largest ever U.S. underground detonation.
• November 12 – Vietnam War – Vietnamization: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon sets February 1, 1972, as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000 American troops from Vietnam.
• November 13 – Mariner program: Mariner 9 becomes the first spacecraft to enter Mars orbit successfully.
• November 15 – Intel releases the world's first commercially available microprocessor, the Intel 4004.
• November 24 – During a severe thunderstorm over Washington, a man calling himself D. B. Cooper parachutes from the Northwest Orient Airlines plane he hijacked, with US$200,000 in ransom money, and is never seen again.

December

• December 8 – U.S. President Richard Nixon orders the 7th Fleet to move towards the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean.
• December 10 – The John Sinclair Freedom Rally in support of the imprisoned activist features a performance by John Lennon at Crisler Arena, Ann Arbor, MI.
• December 11 – The Libertarian Party (United States) is established.
  • An explosion in a water tunnel beneath Lake Huron in Port Huron, Michigan, kills 22.
• December 18 – The U.S. dollar is devalued for the second time in history.
• December 25 – In the longest game in NFL history, the Miami Dolphins beat the Kansas City Chiefs.

Undated

• Crude oil production peaks in the continental United States at approximately 4.5 million barrels per day (720,000 m³/d).

Ongoing

• Cold War (1945–1991)
• Space Race (1957–1975)
• Vietnam War, U.S. involvement (1962–1973)
• Détente (c. 1969–1979)

Births

Deaths

• January 4 – Arthur Ford, American psychic, founded the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship (b. 1896)
• March 16 – Thomas E. Dewey, 47th Governor of New York and Republican nominee for president (b. 1902)
• April 6 – Igor Stravinsky, Russian-born American composer (b. 1882)
• July 3 – Jim Morrison, singer, songwriter, and poet, died in Paris, France (b. 1943)
• July 6 – Louis Armstrong, trumpeter and actor (b. 1901)
• December 9 – Ralph Bunche, Nobel diplomat (b. 1904)

See also

• List of American films of 1971

References

External links

• Media related to 1971 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons