1971 in the United States

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← 1970 1969 1968 1971 in the United States → 1972 1973 1974
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
See also:	History of the United States (1964–1980) Timeline of United States history (1970–1989) List of years in the United States

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 8
  • Voyageurs National Park is established.
  • Gulf Islands National Seashore is established.
• 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 M_w Sylmar earthquake hits the Greater Los Angeles Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing 58–65 and injuring 200–2,000.
  • 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 U.S., United Kingdom, and the USSR (along with others) sign the Seabed Treaty, outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor.
• February 20
  • The Mississippi Delta tornado outbreak leaves 123 dead and more than 1,592 injured.
  • The U.S. Emergency Broadcast System sends an erroneous warning; many radio stations ignore it.

March[]

• March 1 – A bomb explodes in the men's room at the U.S. Capitol; the Weather Underground organization claims responsibility.^[2]
• March 8 – Boxer Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali in a 15-round unanimous decision at Madison Square Garden.
• March 24 – Congress discontinues funding for supersonic transport (SST); primary contractor was Boeing.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}
• 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. After intervention from President Nixon, he is released in 1974.
  • A Los Angeles jury recommends the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers.
• March 31 – The first Starbucks coffee shop opens, in Pike Place Market, Elliott Bay, Seattle.

April[]

• April 9 – Charles Manson is sentenced to death; in 1972, the sentence for all California death row inmates is commuted to life imprisonment (see Furman v. Georgia).
• April 10 – Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia opens.
• April 15 – The 43rd Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by 34 various "Friends of Oscar", is held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. Franklin J. Schaffner's Patton wins seven awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Schaffner. The film is also tied with George Seaton's Airport in receiving ten nominations. George C. Scott becomes the first actor to reject an Oscar, declining his Best Actor win.
• 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.
  • National Public Radio goes live.
• April 24 – Five hundred thousand people in Washington, DC and 125,000 in San Francisco march in protest against the Vietnam War.^[2]
• April 30 – The Milwaukee Bucks win the championship of the National Basketball Association in just their third season, completing a four-game sweep of the Baltimore Bullets in the finals.

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 activists 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.^[8][9]
• June 17 – Representatives of Japan and the United States sign the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, whereby the U.S. will return control of Okinawa.^[10]
• 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.
  • WTVP (PBS) first airs in Peoria, Illinois.
• 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 and paralyzing him. He dies seven years later as a result of his injuries.
  • Lemon v. Kurtzman: The Supreme Court of the U.S. rules in a landmark case on the Establishment Clause.
• June 30 – New York Times Co. v. United States: The Supreme Court of the U.S. rules that the Pentagon Papers may be published, rejecting government injunctions as unconstitutional prior restraint.^[8]

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 is formally certified by President Richard Nixon, lowering 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 people 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, 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.
• 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.^[11]
• September 22 – Ernest Medina is cleared of all charges connected with the My Lai massacre.
• September 28 – Cardinal József Mindszenty, who had taken refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Budapest since 1956, is allowed to leave Hungary.
• September 30 – Unruly fans storm the field at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium during the final game for the second incarnation of the Washington Senators, who will move to Arlington, Texas prior to the next season and become the Texas Rangers. The Senators, leading the New York Yankees 7-5 with two out in the ninth inning when fans invade the diamond, are forced to forfeit.

October[]

• October 1 – Walt Disney World opens in Orlando, Florida.
• October 17 – The Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Baltimore Orioles, 4 games to 3, to win their fourth World Series title.
• 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 23 – Texas Christian University football coach Jim Pittman collapses on the sideline and dies from a massive heart attack while coaching the Horned Frogs during a game against Southwest Conference rival Baylor in Waco, Texas.
• October 24 – Detroit Lions wide receiver Chuck Hughes collapses and dies of a heart attack near the end of a game against the Chicago Bears in Detroit.
• October 29 – Vietnam War: Vietnamization: The total number of American troops 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 12 – Arches National Park is established.
• 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 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
  • George Lucas founds Lucasfilm.
• 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.
  • Capitol Reef National Park is established.
• December 22 – KUAC-TV in Fairbanks, Alaska launches, becoming the 49th state's first public television station.
• December 23 – Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer airs for the last time on NBC, as KENI-TV (now KTUU-TV) in Anchorage Alaska, KFAR-TV (now KATN, current ABC affiliate) in Fairbanks Alaska, KHON-TV (current Fox affiliate) in Honolulu, Hawaii and KUAM-TV in Guam air the special in prime time. It will move to CBS a year later. NBC's next airing of any special in the Rudolph franchise is the sequel, Rudolph Shines Again, which premiered on December 6, 2019 at 8 pm, 55 years to the day of the special's first broadcast on NBC. The special itself would return to NBC on November 26, 2020 at 2 pm, followed by its 2019 sequel at 3 pm. On June 12, 2021, in a surprise announcement, NBC confirmed Rudolph is officially returning to NBC beginning with the 2021 Holiday season.
• December 25 – In the longest game in NFL history, the Miami Dolphins beat the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24 after 22 minutes, 40 seconds of sudden death overtime.

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 (1947–1991)
• Space Race (1957–1975)
• Vietnam War, U.S. involvement (1964–1973)
• Détente (c. 1969–1979)

Births[]

Deaths[]

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• January 4 – Arthur Ford, psychic, founder of Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship (b. 1896)
• January 21 – Richard Russell Jr., United States Senator from Georgia; President pro tempore during the 91st Congress (b. 1897)
• March 11 – Philo Farnsworth, inventor and television pioneer (b. 1906)
• March 16 – Thomas E. Dewey, 47th Governor of New York and Republican nominee for president (b. 1902)
• March 24 – George G. O'Connor, general (b. 1914)
• April 6 – Igor Stravinsky, composer (b. 1882 in Russia)
• April 15 – Dan Reeves, businessman, owner of the National Football League's Los Angeles Rams (b. 1912)
• May 19 – Ogden Nash, poet (b. 1902)^[22]
• July 3 – Jim Morrison, singer-songwriter and poet, died in Paris, France (b. 1943)
• July 4 – August Derleth, author and anthologist (b. 1909)^[23]
• July 6 – Louis Armstrong, African American jazz trumpeter and actor (b. 1901)
• July 7 – Ub Iwerks, animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor and special effects technician (b. 1901)
• September 25 – Hugo Lafayette Black, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1937–71 (b. 1886)
• November 10 – Walter Van Tilburg Clark, novelist (b. 1909)^[24]
• December 7 – Ferdinand Pecora, lawyer (b. 1882 in Sicily)
• December 9 – Ralph Bunche, Nobel diplomat (b. 1904)
• December 29 – Stuart Holmes, American actor (b. 1884)

See also[]

• List of American films of 1971
• Timeline of United States history (1970–1989)

References[]

External links[]

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