February 15, 1971: Decimalisation Day takes place in the UK; the shilling, formerly worth 12 pence, replaced by "five new pence" coinFebruary 9, 1971: Earthquake in Los Angeles collapses VA hospital, kills 38 peopleFebruary 16, 1971: U.S. President Nixon activates secret tape recording system in White House
Uganda's PresidentIdi Amin ordered the dismissal of all municipal and village officials in the central African nation, firing every mayor and district councilmen because they had been appointed under the regime of the previous president,Milton Obote. People identified with Obote's political party, theUganda People's Congress, were attacked throughout the nation.[2]
British commercial diver Michael Lally died ofhypothermia and drowning due to adecompression problem while conducting asurface-orientated dive in theNorth Sea from thesemi-submersible drill rigOcean Viking. Another British diver, Michael Brushneen, would die exactly one month later during a dive from the same rig.[4]
TheRamsar Convention (the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat), an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands, was signed by representatives of seven nations inRamsar, Mazandaran, Iran.[8] By its terms, the treaty went into effect on December 21, 1975. February 2 is now regularly observed by environmentalists asWorld Wetlands Day. The signing came on the same day that a meeting in the Iranian capital ofTehran, between the 10-nationOrganization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and representatives of 22 oil companies to negotiate a price rise in oil.[9]
Eight days after leading a coup d'état, GeneralIdi Amin Dada ordered the dissolution of the Ugandan Parliament and declared himselfPresident of Uganda, assuming all executive and legislative authority and pledging to beginrule by decree.[10]
InTehran, the representatives of the ten OPEC member states adopted the"XXII Conference Resolution", in which each nation pledged that by February 15, they would have in place the necessary regulatory or legislative measures necessary to implement an embargo on shipments of crude oil to any of the 22 oil companies that failed to accept payment of a 55% tax, with the cutoff of oil to take place on February 21. The companies signed the agreement with the OPEC nations on February 14.[11]
Eight people were killed by the explosion of a gas pipeline inLambertville, New Jersey at about 8:00 in the morning, two hours after they had escaped injury in an earlier explosion in the same area.[12]
An explosion at theThiokol chemical plant nearWoodbine, Georgia, killed 29 employees and seriously injured 50 others. The explosion, believed to have been due to a fire caused bytripflares being manufactured by Thiokol for use in the ongoing Vietnam War, occurred at 10:53 in the morning.[13]
The British luxury car and jet engine manufacturerRolls-Royce declared bankruptcy, after sustaining financial losses in developing the engine for theLockheed L-1011 TriStar jumbo jet under a misjudged price contract agreement.[15] The British government would subsequently nationalise the Rolls engine operations as a matter of national security and British pride.
Died:Brock Chisholm, 74, Canadian World War I veteran, physician and first Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO)[16]
At 0918 UTC (4:05 a.m. Eastern Time), theApollo 14 mission commanded byAlan Shepard, achieved the third crewed lunar landing.[17] The lunar moduleAntares on theApollo 14 mission, landed on theMoon near theFra Mauro crater, the site thatApollo 13 had intended to explore.Stuart Roosa remained in orbit on the command moduleKitty Hawk. At 9:49 a.m. Eastern (1449 UTC), Shepard set foot on the Moon,[18] and then he andEdgar Mitchell began deploying scientific equipment. They were the first Apollo crew to use the Modular Equipment Transporter (MET), a two-wheeled cart used to carry equipment. While on the Moon, Shepard surprised television viewers around the world by driving two golf balls, in the lesser lunar gravity, with a makeshift golf club.
The beginning of the week of theHajj, the required pilgrimage toMecca as one of theFive Pillars of Islam, attracted a record number of believers at its start on the 9th day ofDhu al-Hijjah, with more than one million Saudis and foreign Muslims starting from Mount Ararat to reach Mecca. The growth of the number of pilgrims followed improvements in the Saudi transportation infrastructure, including an expansion of theJeddah airport that could accommodate 120 aircraft landings and 10,000 visitors per day.[19]
A fire broke out at Mike's Grocery inWilmington, North Carolina, the product of a firebomb, followed by riots, and leading to the wrongful conviction of the "Wilmington Ten". In 1972, the men would be convicted of arson and conspiracy after prosecutorial misconduct, and receive sentences ranging from 15 to 34 years in prison.[26] The sentences would be reduced in 1978 by the state Governor, and in 1980, the convictions would be overturned by a federal court which concluded that prosecutors had suppressed evidence. Finally, on December 31, 2012, almost 42 years after the initial crime, the Wilmington Ten would be pardoned by North Carolina governor Beverly Perdue.[27]
Apollo 14's lunar module successfully lifted off from the Moon's surface at 1:49 p.m. Eastern time (1837 UTC) and was reunited with the command module piloted byStuart Roosa for the return voyage to Earth.[29]
In areferendum inSwitzerland, male voters approved giving Swiss women the right to vote in national elections and the right to hold federal office, by a margin of 65.7% to 34.3%.[30] In local elections, voting was still prohibited in eight the 22cantons opposed could still prohibit women from voting in national elections.
Wladyslaw Gomulka was expelled from the Central Committee of the Polish Communist Party, which criticized the former General Secretary of the Polish United Workers Party for "serious mistakes in recent years".[31] Gomulka had already been removed as the leader of the Party (thede facto leader of the nation in the Communist-controlled state) and from the Politburo on December 20.
NASDAQ, a new stock exchange of theNationalAssociation ofSecuritiesDealersAutomatedQuotations, began operations in New York, initially as the reporter of theNASDAQ Composite Index which consisted of "securities less widely held or those that, for other reasons, do not appear on the daily Over-the Counter list".[32] The first list was of price quotations of companies publicly listed ranging from the wholesale pharmaceutical sellerAmerisourceBergen Corporation (ABC) to the meatpacking company Zemco Industries (ZemcoInd), now a division of Tyson Foods.
Operation Lam Son 719, an attack by the First Infantry Division of theArmy of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) from South Vietnam into theKingdom of Laos, was launched in the Vietnam War against North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces operating across the border. The 3,000 ARVN troops crossed the border in armored columns and by American-piloted helicopter troopships and reached a trail complex 20 miles (32 km) south ofXépôn (Tchepone), the key enemy supply center for the Communists.[33] The South Vietnamese designation replaced the American code name of "Operation Dewey Canyon II", and was the 719th ARVN operation to honor theLam Son uprising by the Vietnamese people in1418 against the Chinese Empire.[34]
South Africa's white minority government eased itsapartheid regulations to a degree by allowing mixed-race Africans ("Coloureds") to work in construction jobs formerly limited to whites only. Black South Africans were still barred from working on "white" projects inPretoria, and the change in policy, prompted by a shortage of skilled workers, was limited to bricklayers and plasterers. Gert Beetge, the general secretary of the all-white Union of Building Workers, criticized the decision of the Labor Ministry and said that it marked "the death knell to white building workers".[35]
TheSiahkal incident marked the beginning of guerrilla attacks against the Iranian monarchy, with the killing of three police in the town ofSiahkal in order to release two prisoners. The 11 surviving guerrillas, and both prisoners, were executed.[36]
TheIBM company retired its first high-selling computer model, theIBM 1401, that had been introduced in 1959 and sold 12,000 units.[37] The company also halted further sales of its less expensive version of the 1401, theIBM 1440.
At exactly 41 seconds after 6:00 in the morning local time, the 6.5MwSylmar earthquake struck theGreater Los Angeles Area with a maximumMercalli intensity of XI (Extreme) and lasted 12 seconds.[39] With an epicenter at thePacoima section of Los Angeles, it killed 58 people by falling debris; another seven died from heart attacks. Most of the deaths were in the collapse of theOlive View hospital and theVA hospital inSylmar.
The six member nations of theEuropean Economic Community (EEC), also known as the "Common Market", approved a plan to create a common unit of currency over the next ten years.[40] TheEuropean Currency Unit (ECU) would be implemented by 1979 for use in international transactions involving the EEC members (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany) but theEuro would not be put in to circulation until 2002.
Paige
Satchel Paige became the first primarilyNegro league player to become voted into theBaseball Hall of Fame inCooperstown, New York. Paige had played five full seasons in theAmerican League after the integration ofMajor League Baseball, but was enshrined for his 18 years in thefirst andsecond Negro National Leagues and theNegro American League. The original plan by the Hall was to admit one Negro league player per year "as part of a new exhibit commemorating the contributions of the Negro leagues to baseball"[41] to be honored plaques separately-located, but equal to those of the MLB players. After critics pointed out the irony of segregating the honor to the enshrined stars, the plan would be revised in time for Paige's formal enshrinement. At the time of the decision, only two African-American players—Jackie Robinson andRoy Campanella— were enshrined in the Hall of Fame. While both Robinson (for the Kansas City Monarchs) and Campanella (for the Washington Elite Giants) had also played in the Negro leagues, they had both been voted in for their MLB achievements.
Apollo 14 returned toEarth after the third crewedMoon landing, with a splashdown in the South Pacific Ocean at 2105 UTC (10:05 a.m. local time) at a point south ofTonga.[42] The capsule and the crew were picked up by the amphibious assault shipUSSNew Orleans.
Banks in the UK closed at 3:30 p.m. in order to rewrite all 25,000,000 bank accounts in the nation in preparation forDecimal Day, not reopening until the following Monday.[43][44] Britain's post offices closed at 1:00 in the afternoon on February 12.[45]
TheSenate of Chile approved an amendment to the South American nation's constitution to give PresidentSalvador Allende authority to nationalize foreign interests in Chile's copper industry.[47]
Tapestry, recorded byCarole King and one of the best-selling record albums of all time, with 30 million copies sold, was released byA&M Records.[48]
Died:Larry Burrows, 44;Henri Huet, 43; Kent Potter, 23; and Keizaburo Shimamoto, 34, photojournalists covering Operation Lam Son, were all killed when the helicopter they were on was shot down over Laos.[49][50]
Representatives of the U.S., UK, USSR and 61 other nations signed theSeabed Arms Control Treaty (officially the Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Sea-Bed and the Ocean Floor and in the Subsoil thereof), which opened for signature inWashington DC,London andMoscow outlawingnuclear weapons on the ocean floor. In all three capitals, American, British and Soviet officials signed; in each of the three sites, the host nation'shead of government andforeign minister were joined by the ambassadors of the other two nations.[51]
The United States and the Soviet Union entered into an agreement to respect each other's territorial waters when allowing their commercial fishing boats to fish forking crab or fortanner crab. The agreement, signed in Washington, entered into force the same day. Agreements between the U.S. and the Soviet Union on fishing.[52]
J. C. Penney (1875–1971)
Died:
James Cash Penney, 95, American entrepreneur who founded the Golden Rule Store department store inKemmerer, Wyoming in 1902 and had built it into a chain of 1,660 J.C. Penney stores by the time of his death.[53]
Ella Cara Deloria, 83, Native American educator, anthropologist, ethnographer, linguist, and novelist[54]
The Soviet Union publicly released itslatest "Five-Year Plan" (pyatiletniy plan), covering the period from January 1, 1971, to December 31, 1975, to be presented for approval at the24th Soviet Communist Party Congress in April, and intended to focus on increasing the standard of living for the average Soviet citizen.[55] The stated goals were "expanding economically-justified commercial, scientific and technical relations" with capitalist nations, and increases of at least 40% in national income, capital goods and consumer goods.[56]
Paul Esser, a 21-year-old cave diver, drowned in thePorth yr Ogof cave inWales. His body would remain entombed in the cave for 39 years, and would not be recovered until April 2010.[58]
The"Tehran Agreement", obligating oil producers to pay a 55% tax rate on their exports of oil from six of the OPEC member states on thePersian Gulf (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates) was signed by the representatives of 23 oil companies, all of whom faced an embargo by February 21. The accord was signed at the Iranian Finance Ministry shortly after 3:00 in the afternoon local time.[59][11] A turning point in history, the agreement "passed the initiative in oil pricing from the multinational companies to the exporting countries", which would then steadily raise the price of petroleum during the rest of the 1970s.[60] The original agreement was to immediately increase the price of a barrel (42 U.S. gallons) of crude oil by 35 cents (from a then-average price of $1.79 a barrel), followed by 5 cent increases annually, and had been negotiated by teams headed by Iranian Finance MinisterJamshid Amouzegar for the OPEC nations and byBritish Petroleum ChairmanGeorge Fraser, 2nd Lord Strathalmond.[59]
Poisonous fumes from a diesel fire killed 34 passengers and seriously injured 60 more on a train inYugoslavia that had been halted in a tunnel outside ofVranduk, in what is now Bosnia.[61] Most of the casualties were factory workers and miners who were among the 200 passengers. Investigators concluded that "nothing serious would have happened if the train had been in the open instead of a tunnel" and blamed the disaster on the train's engineer and fireman. An electrical spark had ignited diesel fuel in the locomotive's reservoir as it passed through the Vranduk tunnel, and the crew brought the train to a stop rather than exiting.
Nelson Frazier Jr., American professional wrestler for WWF andWWE, who performed under the ring names "Viscera", "Nelson Knight", "King Mabel" and "Big Daddy V"; inGoldsboro, North Carolina (died of heart attack 2014)
OnDecimalisation Day, the United Kingdom and Ireland both switched todecimal currency at 10:00 a.m.[62] as banks opened for conversion of money. As a reporter pointed out to non-Britons, "The old currency, the most complicated in the world, divided the pound into 20 shillings and the shilling into 12 pence... Now the pound is divided into 100 new pence, each worth 2.4 American cents."[63] Theshilling and theflorin were replaced by thefive pence andten pence coins, and unusual denominations like thehalf crown (2 shillings and a sixpence) and theguinea had no decimal coin equivalent. The popularsixpence remained legal tender until being phased out.[64] TheRepublic of Ireland converted its currency on the same day,[65] allowing Ireland and the UK's Northern Ireland to have a similar system. Retired permanently was the old system of pricing in pounds, shillings and pence, referred to as£sd for the abbreviations of Latin terms for the British pounds (librae or "£."), shillings (solidi or "s.") and pennies (denarii or "d.").[66] Thus, 2 pounds, 7 shillings and five pence was "£2.7s.5p." but became £2.37 afterward. However, the Decimal Currency Board had announced that "£sd will be legal tender for up to 18 months after D-day and some shops will be pricing and giving change in £sd," with the changeover period ending on August 15, 1972.[67] In addition to Ireland, the African nation ofMalawi went decimal on the same day, along withGibraltar, whilethe Gambia,Nigeria andMalta continued to use the old system.[68]
"President's Day" was celebrated as a legal holiday nationwide in the U.S. for the first time, as new federal legislation took effect moving theGeorge Washington's birthday holiday from February 22 to the third Monday in February.[69][70] Washington had been born on February 22, 1732 ("February 11, 1731" under the Julian calendar at the time); the third Monday only falls in a range from the 15th to the 21st of the month and never on the actual anniversary of his birth. The federal holiday would become popularly known as President's Day in that it comes between the birthdays ofAbraham Lincoln (born February 12, 1809) and of Washington, both days that had been observed as state holidays in the past.
The government of Poland announced that it was reversing the increase of food prices that had triggered nationwide rioting in December, and that prices would return to normal on March 1. At the same time, Prime MinisterPiotr Jaroszewicz announced that plans to raise wages would be halted as a compromise for the reduction of food prices.[71]
Angry over proposed price increases for agricultural supplies proposed by theEuropean Economic Community (EEC)'s Agricultural Commissioner, a group of Belgian farmers brought three cows into a meeting room inBrussels where the six EEC nations' ministers of agriculture were meeting to discuss pricing. The "Young Farmers Alliance" carried out what one reporter noted was "a major feat of cowherding" in that they "had succeeded in driving three cows... through swift swing doors, past security guards, up three flights of marble steps, through a press room, down a corridor and into the council chamber." France's Minister of Agriculture commented that "It was an event unworthy of the construction of Europe".[72]
The first recording by the secret taping system installed by U.S. President Nixon was made. There were nine original microphones in the Oval Office––five in thepresident's desk and one on each side of the fireplace; and two in theCabinet Room under the table near the president's chair. Years after theWatergate scandal, former White House Chief of StaffH. R. Haldeman would admit that it had been his suggestion to Nixon to make the system voice-activated rather than to be controlled by an on/off switch; Haldeman's thought at the time was "that this president was far too inept with machinery ever to make a success of a switch system."[76][77] The first conversation, made sometime after 7:56 in the morning, was between Nixon andAlexander P. Butterfield and is saved as "Conversation 450-001" by theNixon Library.[78]
In what was later dubbed the"fuddle duddle incident", Canadian Prime MinisterPierre Trudeau was accused of mouthing obscenities at Opposition MPs in theCanadian House of Commons in Ottawa. News reports tastefully reported that MPs sitting across from Trudeau had "accused him of mouthing a two-word expression commonly translated without profanity to mean 'get lost'" and that "The prime minister later told reporters that he had said 'fuddle-duddle or something like that'."[80][81] The incident added the euphemism "fuddle duddle" to the Canadian vocabulary and has made the news annually ever since.[82]
For the first time in 12 years,England wonThe Ashes, the quadrennialTest cricket tournament againstAustralia, bringing the ceremonial cremation urn (containing the figurative ashes of the sport of cricket for the losing team) back to England.[83][84] England was represented by theMarylebone Cricket Club, captained byRay Illingworth and the 7-Test Series came down to the Seventh Test inSydney, played over six days beginning February 12. In that England had won the Fourth Test on January 14 and four other matches were played to a draw with no winner, Australia would have retained possession of the Ashes if it could end the series as a 1–1 draw. England won by 62 runs (England 184 & 302 Australia 264 & 160).
Greek archaeologists in Jerusalem discovered the remains of theChurch of the Holy Sepulchre, a Greek Orthodox basilica that had been built in the4th century roughly 30 feet (9.1 m) from theRock of Calvary, the traditional site of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.[86] The church had been consecrated onSeptember 13,335.
U.S. President Nixon proposed his program for national health care, the National Health Strategy, to Congress. Under the Republican president's plan, all U.S. employers "ranging from giant corporations to the couple with a maid"[87] would pay 65 percent of the health insurance premium for their employees starting on July 1, 1973, increasing to 75 percent by 1976.
Chuck Hostetler, 67, American baseball player remembered as "baseball's oldest rookie" for making hisMajor League Baseball debut at the age of 40 for the Detroit Tigers in 1944[89]
The U.S.Naval Undersea Warfare Center's Project Deep Ops, trainingpilot whales to retrieve submerged objects ran into a problem when "Ishmael" was released into the Pacific Ocean and used the opportunity to escape after three years in captivity. According to the final report on Project Deep Ops, "Ishamael was lost during an open-ocean training exercise. Several days were spent searching for him with surface craft and helicopters," without success. The whale's flight to freedom was aided by "a malfunctioning automatic direction finder system" that had been strapped to his back.[91]
The Canada/USSR Agreement on Co-operation in Fisheries in the Northeastern Pacific Ocean off the Coast of Canada, entered into force, allowing fishing vessels of the USSR to conduct fishing with trawls in specified areas between 3 and 12 miles of the territorial sea of Canada.
The remains ofLittle Miss Lake Panasoffkee were discovered. She would remain unidentified until October 2025 when it was determined she was 21-year-old Maureen Rowan (née Minor).[92]
The U.S.Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) sent an erroneous warning to all the nation's radio and television stations, meant to be a standard weekly test conducted byNORAD in Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado at 7:33 in the morning (9:33 a.m. Eastern time, 6:33 a.m. Pacific). Many stations didn't notice that the warning included the message authentication code word provided to all Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licensed stations on a quarterly basis. Those that did, and that verified the code word "hatefulness", broadcast the warning "This is not a test. A state of national emergency exists. This station will now go off the air. Please tune your dial to a station on the Emergency Broadcast System for a message from the President. This is not a test. This is not a test." Instructions were then given for how to locate the EBS station broadcast serving the area.[93] Although the reason for the alert wasn't directly mentioned by announcers, the activation of the EBS for a nationwide emergency was normally reserved for a warning of an attack on the United States.[94] All broadcast stations had heard the tone, followed by a teletype message with the authentication word that said "Message authenticator: Hatefulness – Hatefulness. This is an Emergency Action Notification (EAN) directed by the President. Normal broadcasting will cease immediately. All stations will broadcast EAN Message One preceded by the attention signal, per FCC rules. Only stations holding NDEA may stay on air in accord with their state EBS plan." Thirteen minutes later, news services informed broadcasters that a mistake had been made and that stations should disregard the order to go off the air, and the official cancel notice did not get sent until 10:30 Eastern time with the statement "Message authenticator: Impish- Impish. Cancel message sent at 09:33 EST. Repeat Cancel message sent at 09:33 EST."[95] The mistake was traced to a long-time civilian employee of NORAD who mistakenly loaded the wrong tape when sending the message to all stations. He told reporters "I can't imagine how the hell I did it."[96] The FCC later reported that a survey showed that only 8 percent of the nation's TV and radio stations went off of the air as directed by the alert; of the 92% that kept broadcasting, one-third said that they questioned whether the message was valid and another one-third didn't see the alert until after it had been canceled.[97]
Tornadoes killed 123 people as nineteen storms raged across the Deep South part of the United States, primarily in the state ofMississippi, but also in northeastern Louisiana and southern Tennessee. Hardest hit was the town ofInverness, Mississippi, with the black residential section destroyed.[98]
Pakistan's President, Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan, announced the firing of his 10-member cabinet of ministers, 11 days before the nation's 313-member National Assembly was to meet inDacca inEast Pakistan, which had more members than Yahya Khan'sWest Pakistan for the first time in history.[99]
TheConvention on Psychotropic Substances was signed atVienna at a conference attended by representatives of 71 nations. Under the agreement, which would become effective upon ratification by 40 nations, governments would maintain strict restrictions on four different classes of drugs and 32 identified substances, with the strictest controls overhallucinogens includingLSD andmescaline.[100]
Speaking about the Bengali minority in East Pakistan, theRepublic of Pakistan's President, GeneralYahya Khan, said "Kill three million of them, and the rest will eat out of our hands."[101] In the civil war that followed East Pakistan's declaration of independence, Yahya Khan's West Pakistan soldiers killed at least 26,000 Bengalis and perhaps as many as 100,000. The statement was recorded by journalist Robert Payne during an interview.[102]
Malaysia's government established the MKN (Majlis Keselamatan Negara or Council of National Security), linking several agencies into one unit to maintain public order in the country and to strengthen national defense.[103]
The government ofAlgeria seized majority control (51 percent) of stock ownership in all French oil companies and nationalizing the natural gas pipelines and gasoline pipelines constructed by the companies.[107]
Vatican City ratified the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, pledging not to develop or deploy nuclear weapons, primarily as a sign of encouragement to other nations.[108]
The reactor of thePickering Nuclear Generating Station, the first commercial nuclear power station in Canada, went critical, and would generate power for the first time on April 4.[109]
TheU.S. Department of State issued its "Foreign Policy Report" to the public, noting that it wished to improve relations with mainland China, and referring to the nation for the first time as the People's Republic ofChina.[110]
Secretary GeneralU Thant signed theUnited Nations proclamation of theMarch equinox (March 21, the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere) as internationalEarth Day.[113] Earth Day continues to be observed in the U.S. and much of the Western world on April 22, the date of the original 1970 movement.
Eleven students and four police were killed inCali,Colombia, in rioting that arose after students at theUniversidad del Valle accused the university's president of misusing funds and then occupied the administration buildings.[114]
Per Borten, thePrime Minister of Norway, admitted that he had lied to investigators about disclosing confidential information to an opponent of Norway's application to theEuropean Economic Community, prompting a demand by the opposition leader in theStortinget,Trygve Bratteli, that Borten resign.[115] LawyerArne Haugestad, the EEC opponent to whom Borten showed a confidential report from Norway's ambassador on February 15, then leaked the report to theOslo newspaperDagbladet, which published on February 19. Borten would step down and Bratteli would form a new government as prime minister on March 17.
France and the United States signed an agreement confirming cooperation between the two nations in fighting the trafficking of narcotics. U.S. Attorney GeneralJohn N. Mitchell and France's Minister of the InteriorRaymond Marcellin concluded the agreement in Paris.[116]
Comet Bennett, discovered on December 28, 1969, by astronomerJohn Caister Bennett, was seen for the last time fromEarth, with the final photo taken by astronomerElizabeth Roemer.[120] With an orbital period of 1,678 years, it will not be seen again until the year3647.[120]
Oscar Serlin, 70, Russian-born U.S. theater producer known forLife with Father, which remains the longest-running non-musical play onBroadway, with 3,224 performances from 1939 to 1947.[123] Serlin's record for longest-running Broadway play would stand until 1972, when exceeded by the 3,225th performance ofFiddler on the Roof in 1972.
Male voters in the tiny European principality ofLiechtenstein participated ina referendum on whether to allow women to vote and rejected women's suffrage by a margin of 80 votes (1,897 against and 1,817 for), leaving Liechtenstein as "the only area in the Western world where women cannot vote".[125]
Jack Nicklaus won the1971 PGA Championship, becoming the first person to win each of the world's four major golfing tournaments (the Masters, the British Open, the U.S. Open and the PGA title) more than once.[126] Nicklaus finished two strokes ahead ofBilly Casper on 72 holes (281 to 283) for the $40,000 first place purse.
Motorcycle stuntmanEvel Knievel set a world record by jumping over 19 cars prior to the beginning of the1971 Miller High Life 500 stock car race inOntario, California.[127] Robert Knievel, "extending by one his own world record, for which there are no challengers" commented to reporters afterward that he had been helped by the fact that the 19 automobiles were all "small cars—Dodge Colts. Maybe if Dodge starts making 'em smaller I'll try for 20."[128]
^"Talks on Oil Prices Collapse in Teheran",The New York Times, February 3, 1971, p1
^"Ugandan Leader Ousts Parliament— General Assumes Executive and Legislative Powers",The New York Times, February 3, 1971, p8
^abThomas M. Rees,Oil Imports and Energy Security: An Analysis of the Current Situation and Future Prospects, Report of the U.S. House Ad Hoc Committee on the Domestic and International Monetary Effect of Energy and Other Natural Resource Pricing, (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1974) p50
^"8 Dead as Gas Explosions Destroy 4 Homes in Jersey".The New York Times. February 4, 1971. p. 1.
^"Blast at Arms Plant in Georgia Kills 24; 33 Are Hospitalized".The New York Times. February 4, 1971. p. 1.
^"Quake Kills 14, Injures 100 in City in Central Italy",The New York Times, February 7, 1971, p1
^"British Reinforce Troops in Belfast— Fly 600 Men There After 4 Civilians and a Soldier Are Killed in Rioting",The New York Times, February 7, 1971, p1
^"Two Astronauts Lift Off from Moon, Rejoin Command Ship and Head Home",The New York Times, February 7, 1971, p1
^"Swiss Women Given the Federal Vote", by Thomas J. Hamilton,The New York Times, February 7, 1971, p1
^"Poles Suspend Gomulka From Highest Party Body", by James Feron,The New York Times, February 8, 1971, p1
^"Supplementary Over-Counter List",The New York Times, February 8, 1971, p52
^"South Vietnamese Reach Foe's Supply Line in Laos; 2 U.S. Copters Shot Down",The New York Times, February 9, 1971, p1
^"Laos Incursion Is Given Vietnamese Code Name",The New York Times, February 10, 1971, p13
^"South Africa Eases Apartheid To Gain Labor for Construction",The New York Times, February 9, 1971, p5
^Andrew Scott Cooper,The Oil Kings: How the U.S., Iran, and Saudi Arabia Changed the Balance of Power in the Middle East (Simon and Schuster, 2011) pp. 59–60
^"Heavy Quake in Los Angeles Area Kills at Least 35; Hundreds Hurt; Houses, Hospitals, Freeways Hit", by Steven V. Roberts,The New York Times, February 10, 1971, p1
^"Common Market Will Unify Money— Agreement Reached to Make Block into Single Currency Area Over Next Decade", by Clyde H. Farnsworth,The New York Times, February 10, 1971, p1
^"Baseball to Admit Negro Stars of Pre-Integration Era into Hall of Fame",The New York Times, February 4, 1971, p42
^"Apollo Astronauts Land Within a Mile of Target after a 'Terrific Flight'",The New York Times, February 10, 1971, p1
^"Banks shut",The Guardian (London), February 10, 1971, p1
^"14,500 British Banks Shut— Prepare for Decimal Day", AP report inThe Intelligencer-Journal (Lancaster PA), February 11, 1971, p3
^"An Urgent Message from the Post Office: Please collect this week's pension or allowance before 1 o'clock on Friday.", advertisement inThe Guardian (London), February 10, 1971, p3
^"Chilean Senate Gives Allende Power To Nationalize U.S. Copper Interests",The New York Times, February 11, 1971, p2
^Mike Segretto,33 1/3 Revolutions Per Minute: A Critical Trip Through the Rock LP Era, 1955–1999 (Backbeat Books, 2022) p.591
^"4 Photographers Missing as Copter Is Downed in Laos",The New York Times, February 11, 1971, p1
^"4 Lost Photographers Presumed Dead",The New York Times, March 3, 1971, p6
^"Ban on Atom Arms on Seabed Signed in Three Capitals", by Benjamin Welles,The New York Times, February 12, 1971, p1
^William P. Rogers, "Treaties and Agreements Signed or Ratified During 1971",United States Foreign Policy 1971" A Report of the Secretary of State (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972) p592
^"J.C. Penney of Store Chain Dies; Built Business on 'Golden Rule'", by Isadore Barmash,The New York Times, February 13, 1971, p1
^ab"5-Year Oil Accord Is Reached in Iran by 23 Companies; 6 Persian Gulf States Gain More Than $10-Billion in Additional Revenue; Shutdown Is Averted", by John M. Lee,The New York Times, February 15, 1971, p1
^"OPEC— the only game in town", by Jerry Haylins and Keith Marchant,OPEC Bulletin (September 2004) p44
^"Fire Aboard Train in Yugoslavia Kills 34 and Injures 113",The New York Times, February 15, 1971, p7
^"Bewildered Britons start money swap— D (Decimal) Day Is Monday".The Sydney Morning Herald. February 12, 1971. p. 19.
^"For Many, It Was Just Another Weekend".The New York Times. February 15, 1971. p. 13.
^Feron, James (February 16, 1971). "Poland Revoking Food-Price Riots that Led to Riots— Premier, on TV, Also Rules Out Wage Increase".The New York Times. p. 1.
^Pick, Hella (16 February 1971)."Common Market-place".The Guardian. London. Page 1, columns 4-6. Retrieved20 April 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Defeat as Capital Brings New Reggio Calabria Riots",The New York Times, February 17, 1971, p3
^"PM accused of profanity",Vancouver Sun, February 16, 1971, p1
^"Fuddle-duddle or $%&½ $%&?",Edmonton Journal, February 17, 1971, p1
^"'My life has been extreme'— Candid anecdotes from Margaret Trudeau in her one-woman show", by Marie-Danielle Smith,NP (National Post magazine) inOttawa Citizen, May 11, 2019, pNP2
^"Illingworth kept his promise; Lack of fight, skill cost us the Ashes", from Percy Beames,The Age (Melbourne), February 18, 1971, p16
^"Test triumph for Ray Illingworth; Leadership the vital factor for England", from Brian Chapman,The Guardian (London), February 18, 1971, p20
^"'This is no test' unnoticed or disbelieved by many", by Hank Buchard, Washington Post Service, reprinted inHonolulu Star-Bulletin, February 21, 1971, p1
^"'Nuclear Alert' Proves False", by Paul L. Montgomery,The New York Times, February 21, 1971, p1
^"Top Saigon General And Newsweek Man Die in Copter Crash",The New York Times, February 23, 1971, p1
^Fulghum, David; Maitland, Terrence (1984).The Vietnam Experience South Vietnam on Trial: Mid-1970–1972. Boston Publishing Company. p. 61.ISBN0939526107.
^Paul Ruigrok, Karin van den Born en Mirjam Gulmans (29 March 2007)."Abortus".Andere Tijden. NTR en VPRO. Archived fromthe original on 3 June 2019. Retrieved3 June 2019.
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