January
1st	The British Divorce Reform Act comes into force
2nd	A stairway crush at the Rangers vs. Celtic football match in Glasgow, Scotland kills 66
2nd	A ban on radio and television cigarette advertisements goes into effect in the United States
3rd	BBC Open University begins in the United Kingdom
5th	The 1st ever ODI cricket match is played between Australia & England at the M.C.G.
8th	Tupamaros kidnap Geoffrey Jackson, British ambassador to Uruguay, in Montevideo; they keep him captive until September
9th	Uruguayan president Jorge Pacheco Areco demands emergency powers for 90 days due to kidnappings, and receives them the next day
14th	Seventy Brazilian political prisoners are released in Santiago, Chile. Giovanni Enrico Bucher is released January 16
15th	The Aswan High Dam officially opens in Egypt
18th	Strikes in Poland demand the resignation of Interior Minister Kazimierz Switala. He resigns January 23 and is replaced by Franciszek Szlachcic
19th	Representatives of 23 western oil companies begin negotiations with OPEC in Tehran to stabilize oil prices. February 14 they sign a treaty with 6 Persian Gulf countries
25th	In Uganda, Idi Amin deposes Milton Obote, in a coup, and becomes president
25th	In Los Angeles, Charles Manson and three female "Family" members are found guilty of the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders
25th	Intelsat IV (F2) is launched; it enters commercial service over the Atlantic Ocean March 26
31st	Apollo 14 (carrying astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell) lifts off on the third successful lunar landing mission

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February
4th	Rolls-Royce goes bankrupt and is nationalised
5th	Apollo 14 lands on the Moon
7th	The city of Tuscania, Italy, is wrecked in an earthquake. 31 die
7th	Switzerland gives women voting rights in state elections, but not in all canton-specific ones
8th	A new stock market index called the Nasdaq debuts
9th	Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned Moon landing
11th	The US, UK, USSR and others sign the Seabed Treaty, outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor
13th	Backed by American air and artillery support, South Vietnamese troops invade Laos
15th	Decimal Currency was introduced in the UK and Ireland to replace the old, confusing monetary system of Pounds, Shillings and Pence
16th	In Italy, a local parliament elects the city of Catanzaro as the capital of Calabria; residents of Reggio di Calabria riot for 5 days because of the decision
21st	The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna
26th	Secretary General U Thant signs the United Nations proclamation of the vernal equinox as Earth Day
27th	Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic (Mildredhuis in Arnhem) start to perform abortus provocatus
28th	Evel Knievel sets world record and jumps 19 cars

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March
1st	A bomb explodes in the men's room at the U.S. Capitol; the Weather Underground Organization claims responsibility
4th	The southern part of Québec, and especially Montreal, receive 42 cm of snow in what became known as the Century's Snowstorm (la tempête du siècle)
5th	The Pakistani army occupies East Pakistan
6th	A fire in a mental hospital at Burghölzli, Switzerland, kills 28 people
7th	The British postal workers' strike, led by UPW General Secretary Tom Jackson, ends after 47 days
8th	Boxer Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden
12th	Hafez al-Assad becomes president of Syria
16th	Trygve Bratteli forms a government in Norway
18th	A landslide at Chungar, Peru crashes into Lake Yanahuani, killing 200
23rd	General Alejandro Lanusse of Argentina takes power in a military coup
25th	The Pakistani army starts genocide in East Pakistan from midnight, after President Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, a military ruler, voids election results that gave the Awami League an overwhelming majority in the parliament
26th	East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) independence is declared by Local Awami League Leader Hannan Sarker on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from Kalurghat Radio Station, Chittagong
27th	East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) independence is repeatedly declared by Army Major (later President of Bangladesh) Ziaur Rahman on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from Kalurghat Radio Station, Chittagong
28th	The Ed Sullivan Show airs its final episode in the United States
29th	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)
29th	A Los Angeles, California jury recommends the death penalty for Charles Manson and 3 female followers

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April
1st	The United Kingdom lifts all restrictions on gold ownership
3rd	Un banc, un arbre, une rue by Séverine (music by Jean-Pierre Bourtayre, text by Yves Dessca) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1971 for Monaco
5th	In Ceylon, a group calling themselves the People’s Liberation Front begin a rebellion against the Bandaranaike government
5th	Chile and East Germany establish diplomatic relations
5th	Mount Etna erupts
7th	Greece releases 261 political prisoners, 50 of which are sent to internal exile
8th	A right-wing coup attempt is exposed in Laos
9th	Charles Manson is sentenced to death; in 1972, the sentence for all California Death Row inmates is commuted to life imprisonment
17th	People's Republic of Bangladesh forms, under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Mujibnagor
17th	Libya, Syria and Egypt sign an agreement to form a confederation
19th	The government of Bangladesh flees to India
19th	Sierra Leone becomes a republic
19th	The Soviet Union launches Salyut 1
19th	Followers of Charles Manson, the Manson Family, are sentenced to the gas chamber
20th	Cambodian Prime Minister Lon Nol resigns, but remains effectively in power until the next elections
21st	Siaka Stevens is elected the first president of Sierra Leone
21st	François Duvalier, president of Haiti, dies; his son Jean-Claude Duvalier follows him as president-for-life
24th	Soyuz 10 docks with Salyut 1
24th	Five hundred thousand people in Washington, DC and 125,000 in San Francisco march in protest against the Vietnam War
24th	A tsunami 85 m high rises over the Ryukyu Islands in Japan. It throws a 750-ton block of coral 2.5 km inland
25th	Todor Zhivkov is re-elected as the leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party
25th	Franz Jonas is re-elected as chancellor of Austria

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May
1st	Amtrak begins inter-city rail passenger service in the United States
3rd	The Harris Poll claims that 60% of Americans are against the Vietnam War
3rd	East German leader Walter Ulbricht resigns as Communist Party leader but retains the position of head of state
3rd	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
5th	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
6th	The Ceylon government begins a major offensive against the People's Liberation Front
10th	Arsenal win the FA Cup
12th	An earthquake in Turkey destroys most of the city of Burdur
15th	Efraim Elrom, Israeli ambassador to Turkey, is kidnapped; he is found killed in Istanbul May 25
19th	Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union
22nd	An earthquake lasting 20 seconds destroys most of Bingöl, Turkey - more than 1,000 are killed, 10,000 made homeless
23rd	An air crash at Rijeka Airport, Yugoslavia kills 78 people, mostly British tourists
23rd	Austria and the People's Republic of China establish diplomatic relations
27th	Six armed passengers hijack a Romanian passenger plane and force it to fly to Vienna
27th	Christie's auctions a diamond known as Deepdene; it is later found to be artificially coloured
28th	Portugal resigns from UNESCO
30th	Mariner 9 is launched toward Mars
31st	The birth of Bangladesh is declared by the government in exile, in territory formerly part of Pakistan

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June
1st	Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace, claiming to represent the majority of U.S. veterans who served in Southeast Asia, speak against war protests
6th	Soyuz 11 (Vladislav Volkov, Georgi Dobrovolski, Viktor Patsayev) is launched
6th	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
10th	The U.S. ends its trade embargo of China
13th	The New York Times begins to publish the Pentagon Papers
14th	Norway begins oil production in the North Sea
17th	Representatives of Japan and the United States sign the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, whereby the U.S. will return control of Okinawa
20th	Britain announces that Soviet space scientist Anatoli Fedoseyev has been granted asylum
21st	Britain begins new negotiations for EEC membership in Luxembourg
25th	Madagascar accuses the U.S. of being connected to the plot to oust the current government. The U.S. recalls its ambassador
28th	Assassin Jerome A. Johnson shoots Joe Colombo in the head in a middle of an Italian-American rally, putting him in a coma
30th	After a successful mission aboard Salyut 1, the world's first manned space station, the crew of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft are killed when their air supply leaks out through a faulty valve

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July
5th	The 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution, formally certified by President Richard Nixon, lowers the voting age from 21 to 18
6th	Hastings Banda is proclaimed President for Life of Malawi
9th	The United Kingdom increases its troops in Northern Ireland to 11,000
13th	Ólafur Jóhannesson forms a government in Iceland
13th	Jordanian army troops launch an offensive against Palestinian guerillas in Jordan
13th	The Yugoslavian government begins allowing foreign companies to take their profits from the country
14th	Libya severs its diplomatic ties with Morocco
16th	Spanish dictator and head of state Francisco Franco makes Prince Juan Carlos his successor
18th	The Trucial States are formed in the Persian Gulf
19th	The South Tower of the World Trade Center is topped out at 1,362 feet, making it the second tallest building in the world
26th	Apollo 15 (carrying astronauts David Scott, Alfred Worden, and James Irwin) is launched
28th	Abdel Madgoub, Sudanese communist leader, is hanged
30th	In Japan, an All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 collides with a Japanese fighter jet; 162 people are killed
31st	Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin become the first to ride in a lunar rover, a day after landing on the Moon

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August
1st	In New York City, 40,000 attend the Concert for Bangladesh
6th	A lunar eclipse lasting 1 hour, 40 minutes, and 4 seconds is observed
7th	Apollo 15 returns to Earth
9th	British security forces arrest hundreds of nationalists and detain them without trial in Long Kesh prison. Twenty people die in the riots that follow
12th	Three thousand people from Belfast and Derry flee to Ireland because of the violence
12th	Syria severs diplomatic relations with Jordan because of border clashes
14th	British troops are stationed on the Ireland border to stop arms smuggling
14th	Bahrain declares independence as the State of Bahrain
15th	The number of British troops in Northern Ireland is raised to 12,500
18th	Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from Vietnam
18th	British troops are engaged in a firefight in Derry, Northern Ireland
25th	Bangladesh and eastern Bengal are flooded; thousands flee the area
26th	A civilian government takes power in Greece

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September
3rd	Qatar gains independence from the United Kingdom. Unlike most nearby emirates, Qatar declines to become part of either the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia
3rd	Manlio Brosio resigns as NATO Secretary General
4th	A Boeing 727 (Alaska Airlines Flight 1866) crashes into the side of a mountain near Juneau, Alaska, killing all 111 people on board
9th	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
21st	Pakistan declares a state of emergency
24th	Britain expels 90 KGB and GRU officials; 15 are not allowed to return
28th	József Cardinal Mindszenty, who has taken refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Budapest since 1956, is allowed to leave Hungary
29th	A cyclone in the Bay of Bengal, in Orissa State in India, kills 10,000

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October
1st	Walt Disney World opens in Florida
15th	The 2,500 Year Celebration of Iran begins, celebrating the birth of Persia
27th	Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire
28th	The British House of Commons votes 356-244 in favour of joining the European Economic Community
28th	The United Kingdom becomes the 6th nation to launch a satellite into orbit, the Prospero X-3, using a Black Arrow carrier rocket
29th	The total number of American troops still in Vietnam drops to a record low of 196,700 (the lowest since January 1966)
30th	Rev. Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party is founded in Northern Ireland
31st	A bomb explodes at the top of the Post Office Tower in London

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November
3rd	The UNIX Programmer's Manual is published
6th	The U.S. tests a nuclear bomb on Amchitka Island in Alaska
10th	In Cambodia, Khmer Rouge forces attack Phnom Penh and its airport, killing 44, wounding at least 30 and damaging 9 airplanes
12th	U.S. President Richard M. Nixon sets February 1, 1972 as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000 American troops from Vietnam
13th	Mariner 9 becomes the first spacecraft to enter Mars orbit successfully
15th	Intel releases the world's first microprocessor, the Intel 4004
20th	A bridge still in construction, called Elevado Engenheiro Freyssinet, fell over the Paulo de Frontin Avenue, at Rio de Janeiro city (Brazil). 48 people died and several injured. Reconstructed, the bridge is currently a part of the Linha Vermelha elevate
23rd	The People's Republic of China takes the Republic of China's seat on the United Nations Security Council (see China and the United Nations)
24th	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 was never seen again. As of March 2008, this case remains the only unsolved skyjacking in history

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December
1st	Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray, 10 kilometers northeast of Phnom Penh
2nd	Six Persian Gulf sheikdoms found the United Arab Emirates
3rd	The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 begins as Pakistan attacks 9 Indian airbases. The next day India launches a massive invasion of East Pakistan
4th	The Montreux Casino burns down during a Frank Zappa concert. The event is memorialized in the Deep Purple song "Smoke on the Water". The casino will be rebuilt in 1975
8th	U.S. President Richard Nixon orders the 7th Fleet to move towards the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean
14th	Facing defeat, the Pakistan Army kills 1500 Bangladeshi intellectuals
16th	The Pakistan Army surrenders to the Joint Force i.e. Mukti Bahini (Freedom Force) and Indian Armed Forces, ending the Bangladesh Liberation War
18th	The U.S. dollar is devalued for the second time in history
18th	The world's largest hydroelectric plant in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, begins operations
24th	Giovanni Leone is elected President of the Italian Republic
29th	The United Kingdom gives up its military bases in Malta