1971

1950–1980	UK [television]	Watch With Mother, a series for young children featuring favourite characters such as Andy Pandy, the Flowerpot Men, Rag, Tag, and Bobtail, and the Woodentops, is shown on British television.
October 1969 - December 1974	UK [television]	Monty Python's Flying Circus, an anarchic comedy sketch show starring John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, and Terry Gilliam, is shown on British television.
1970–1979	USA [statistics and demography]	The number of one-parent families in the USA increases 79%, representing one in five of all families.
1970–1979	USA [statistics and demography]	There are over 4 million immigrants to the USA in the period 1970–79, coming mainly from Asia and the Americas.
1971–1978	USA, North America, Asia, Europe, South America, Africa [statistics and demography]	Immigration patterns in the USA: 38% from North America (Mexico, Caribbean); 35% from Asia; 19% from Europe; 6% from South America; and 2% from Africa.
1971	France [women's rights]	Over 300 women in France announce they have had abortions and demand legalization of the procedure.
1971	Switzerland [Catholicism]	The Swiss Catholic theologian Hans Küng publishes Infallible? An Enquiry, a challenge to papal infallibility.
1971	USA [cinema and film]	The controversial film A Clockwork Orange is released in the USA. Based on Anthony Burgess's novel, it is directed by Stanley Kubrick and stars Malcolm McDowell.
1971	USA [cinema and film]	The film The French Connection is released in the USA. It is directed by William Friedkin and stars Gene Hackman and Fernando Rey. It will win several Academy Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor.
1971	USA [computing]	The ‘Poketronic’ is launched in the USA by Texas Instruments; the first battery-powered pocket calculator it weighs more than 1 kg/2.2 lb, can only add, subtract, multiply, and divide and costs $150.
c. 1971	USA [computing]	The programming language C is developed by Dennis Ritchie and Kenneth Thompson at Bell Laboratories; it is the preferred language of professional programmers and is widely used for writing software packages.
1971	Europe, USA [clothing and fashion]	‘Hot pants’ – very brief skin-tight shorts – become a popular fashion item for women in the West.
1971	Russia [fiction]	The Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn publishes his novel Avgust chetynadtsatovo/August 1914 in the West (his works were banned in the USSR during the 1960s).
c. 1971	USA [information technology]	A technique known as large-scale integration (LSI) is developed in the USA which makes it possible to pack thousands of transistors, diodes, and resistors on a silicon chip less than 5 mm/0.2 in square; it makes possible the development of microprocessors and microcomputers.
1971	USA [musicals]	The rock musical Godspell, with lyrics and music by Stephen Schwartz, opens at the Cherry Lane Theater in New York City.
1971	USA, UK [telephone services]	Telephone direct-dialling between London, England, and New York City is introduced.
1971	UK [popular music]	Glam rock emerges. A reaction against progressive rock, it is characterized by elaborate costumes, makeup, and stage posturing, as exemplified by British bands such as T Rex and the Sweet.
1971	UK [popular music]	The first Glastonbury music festival takes place, in England.
1971	UK [Protestantism]	The General Synod of the Church of England allows baptized members of other Christian denominations to receive communion in Anglican churches.
1971	USA [psychology]	US psychologist B F Skinner publishes Beyond Freedom and Dignity, a controversial defence of behaviourism.
1971	England [psychology]	German-born English psychologist Hans Eysenck publishes Race, Intelligence, and Education.
10 January 1971	France [births and deaths]	Coco (Gabrielle) Chanel, French couturier whose classic designs have been widely copied, dies in Paris, France (87).
4 February 1971	UK [motor vehicles]	The prestigious Rolls Royce company, the manufacturer of luxury cars, goes bankrupt. To save face and to prevent job losses, the British government intervenes.
13 February 1971	Laos, South Vietnam, North Vietnam [Vietnam War (1954–75)]	South Vietnamese troops invade Laos to close the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the North Vietnamese.
15 February 1971	Israel [political events]	Israel affirms a Jewish settlement policy in its occupied territories.
15 February 1971	UK [banking and finance]	Decimal currency is introduced in Britain: the half-crown and florin go out of use and the pound is now worth 100 rather than 240 pennies.
8 March 1971	USA [boxing]	US boxer Joe Frazier beats Muhammad Ali of the USA over 15 rounds at Madison Square Garden, New York City, and retains the world heavyweight title. With takings from closed-circuit television the fight grosses almost $20 million.
26 March 1971	Pakistan [political events]	Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the leader of the Awami League, which has a majority in the all-Pakistan National Assembly, declares the independence of East Pakistan as Bangladesh (‘Bengali country’). The split sparks a civil war.
31 March 1971	USA, South Vietnam [crime and punishment]	The US lieutenant William Calley is sentenced to life imprisonment for the My Lai massacre of 109 civilians in South Vietnam by US troops in March 1968. On 20 August 1971 Lieutenant Calley's prison term is reduced to 20 years.
7 April 1971	USA, Vietnam [Vietnam War (1954–75)]	The US president Richard Nixon announces the withdrawal of 100,000 more troops from Vietnam by 1 December.
17 April 1971	Egypt, Syria, Libya [diplomacy]	Egypt, Syria, and Libya sign the Benghazi Agreement to establish the Federation of Arab Republics that, based on democratic socialism, creates a joint defence policy and pursues a hard-line attitude towards Israel.
19 April 1971	Sierra Leone [colonies and mandate]	Sierra Leone becomes a republic within the Commonwealth.
19 April 1971	USSR [space exploration]	The USSR launches the 15-m/50-ftlong Salyut 1 space station. Visited by a three-person crew from 7 to 29 June, the cosmonauts die during their return to Earth when a faulty valve causes their capsule to lose pressure. The station re-enters the Earth's atmosphere six months later.
10 June 1971	USA, China [diplomacy]	The USA ends its 21-year embargo on trade with China, which had been imposed by US president Harry S Truman during the Cold War.
13 June 1971	Australia [everyday life]	Geraldine Boodrick gives birth to the world's first set of nonuplets, five boys and four girls, in Sydney, Australia. Only six of the babies survive.
21 June 1971	South Africa, Namibia [law and government]	The International Court of Justice in The Hague, the Netherlands, rules South Africa's administration of Namibia (South West Africa) to be illegal.
24 June - 14 August 1971	UK, New Zealand [rugby]	The British Lions win a rugby union Test series in New Zealand for the first time.
6 July 1971	USA [births and deaths]	Louis Armstrong, US jazz trumpeter, composer, and band leader, dies in New York City (71).
13 July - 19 July 1971	Jordan [political events]	Heavy fighting takes place in Jordan between the Jordanian army and Palestinian guerrillas, with 1,500 guerrillas captured by 19 July.
August 1971	UK [statistics and demography]	Provisional returns from the 1971 British census show a considerable decrease in the populations of London, England, and other big cities.
1 August 1971	USA [popular music]	George Harrison, joined by Ravi Shankar, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Russell, Ringo Starr, and Bob Dylan, performs in the Benefit for Bangladesh in Madison Square Gardens, New York City.
15 August 1971	USA [legislation]	The US president Richard Nixon introduces a ‘New Economic Policy’, effectively ending the 1944 Bretton Woods system. The new policy suspends the conversion of dollars into gold and imposes a 90-day wage freeze and a 10% import surcharge, following the first US trade deficit since 1894.
15 August 1971	Bahrain, UK [decolonization]	Bahrain declares its independence from Britain.
18 August 1971	Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam [Vietnam War (1954–75)]	Australia and New Zealand announce the withdrawal of their forces from the Vietnam War.
1 September 1971	Qatar, UK [decolonization]	Qatar declares its independence from Britain.
1 October 1971	USA [parks and recreation]	Disney World opens in Orlando, Florida: the development has cost an estimated $500 million.
3 October 1971	USA [tennis]	US tennis player Billie Jean King is the first female athlete to earn more than $100,000 in prize money in a year
25 October 1971	China, Taiwan [political events]	The United Nations General Assembly votes to admit communist China (the People's Republic of China) and expel Taiwan (the Republic of China).
31 October 1971	UK [everyday life]	Britain reverts to Greenwich Mean Time after three years of British Standard Time.
1 November 1971	USA [computing]	US firm Intel introduces the 4-bit 0.1MHz 4004 microprocessor; devised by Ted Hoff, and containing 2,250 transistors, it is labelled a ‘micro-programmable computer on a chip’. It can only process 4 bits (binary digits) of information at a time, but has about the same calculating power as ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator, Analyser, and Calculator) and allows the development of microcomputers.
12 November 1971	USA [Vietnam War (1954–75)]	The US president Richard Nixon proclaims the end of the US offensive role in the Vietnam War and withdraws 45,000 more troops.
24 November 1971	USA [space exploration]	The US space probe Mariner 9 (launched in May) becomes the first artificial object to orbit another planet (Mars); it transmits 7,329 photographs of the planet and its two moons, Deimos and Phobos.
24 November 1971	UK, Rhodesia [political events]	An agreement is reached between the British foreign secretary Alec Douglas-Home and the Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith on a new Rhodesian constitution.
2 December 1971	United Arab Emirates [political events]	The seven emirates of Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Dubai, Umm al Qaiwain, Ras al Khaimah, Ajman, and Fujairah form the United Arab Emirates.
16 December 1971	India, Pakistan [political events]	East Pakistani forces surrender to India after its recognition of East Pakistan's independence as Bangladesh. India orders a ceasefire on the West Pakistan front, and on 17 December a ceasefire is declared in West Pakistan.
16 December 1971	Rhodesia [political events]	Leaders of the Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) (ZANU (PF)) and the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) form the African National Council with the aim of rejecting the Anglo-Rhodesian independence settlement, which favours white majority rule.
18 December 1971	USA [births and deaths]	Bobby Jones, US amateur golfer, the first man to win the Grand Slam – the British and US Amateur and Open Championships – dies in Atlanta, Georgia (69).
18 December 1971	USA [banking and finance]	The USA devalues the dollar by 7.9% and lifts its import surcharge. Other major currencies are realigned accordingly.