Top News Stories from 1971
World Events
World Statistics
Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade
Nobel Peace Prize:
Willy Brandt (West Germany)
More World Statistics...
- A military junta led by Major General Idi Amin siezes power in Uganda (Jan. 25).
- Mao Zedong invites the US ping-pong team to visit Beijing (Apr. 6).
- Nixon ends the US trade embargo against China. (Apr. 14).
- Erich Honecker assumes leadership of the East German Communist Party after Walter Ulbricht's resignation (May).
- India and the USSR sign a 20-year friendship pact (Aug. 9).
- President Mobutu renames the Democratic Republic of Congo, establishing Zaire (Oct. 27).
U.S. Events
U.S. Statistics
President:
Richard M. Nixon
Vice President:
Spiro T. Agnew
Population:
207,660,677
Life expectancy:
71.1 years
Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000):
41.6
Property Crime Rate (per 1,000)
37.7
More U.S. Statistics...
- US Supreme Court rules unanimously that busing of students may be ordered to achieve racial desegregation (April 20).
- Anti-war militants attempt to disrupt government business in Washington (May 3)—police and military units arrest as many as 12,000; most are later released.
- Pentagon Papers published (June 13).
- Twenty-sixth Amendment to US Constitution lowers voting age to 18. (June 30).
Economics
US GDP (1998 dollars):
$1,125.40 billion
Federal spending:
$210.17 billion
Federal debt
$408.2 billion
Median Household Income(current dollars):
$9,028 billion
Consumer Price Index:
$40.5
Unemployment:
4.9%
Cost of a first-class stamp:
$0.06 ($0.08 as of 5/16/71)
Sports
Super Bowl
Baltimore d. DallasWorld Series
Pittsburgh d. BaltimoreNBA Championship
Milwaukee d. Baltimore BulletsStanley Cup
Montreal d. ChicagoWimbledon
Women: Evonne Goolagong d. M. Court (6-4 6-1)Men: John Newcombe d. S. Smith (6-3 5-7 2-6 6-4 6-4)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Canonero IINCAA Basketball Championship
UCLA d. VillanovaNCAA Football Champions
Nebraska (13-0-0)Entertainment
Entertainment Awards
Pulitzer Prizes
Music:
Synchronisms No. 6 for Piano and Electronic Sound, Mario Davidowsky
Drama:
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Paul Zindel
Oscars awarded in 1971
Academy Award, Best Picture:
Patton, Frank McCarthy, producer (Twentieth Century-Fox)
Nobel Prize for Literature:
Pablo Neruda (Chile)
Record of the Year:
"Bridge Over Troubled Water," Simon and Garfunkel
Album of the Year:
Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel (Columbia)
Song of the Year:
"Bridge Over Troubled Water," Paul Simon, songwriter
Miss America:
Phyllis Ann George (TX)
More Entertainment Awards...
Events
- All in the Family debuts on CBS and introduces a trend in socially conscious programming.
- Jim Morrison dies in Paris at age 27. (July 3).
- The Allman Brothers' Duane Allman dies in a motorcycle accident at age 24. (Oct. 29).
- The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts opens in Washington, D.C. with the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass.
Movies
- A Clockwork Orange, The French Connection, The Last Picture Show, Fiddler on the Roof, McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Books
- E.M. Forster, Maurice
- John Hawkes, Blood Oranges
- Frank O'Hara, The Collected Poems
- Bernard Malamud, The Tenants
- Cynthia Ozick, The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories
- Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry:
Gerhard Herzberg (Canada), for contributions to knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals
Physics:
Dennis Gabor (UK), for invention of holographic method of three-dimensional imagery
Physiology or Medicine:
Earl W. Sutherland, Jr. (US), for research on how hormones work
More Nobel Prizes in 1998...
- Intel introduces the microprocessor. Background: Computers and Internet
- Cho Hao Li synthesizes the growth hormone somatotropin. Background: Health & Nutrition
- Mariner IX, orbitting Mars, takes revealing pictures of the planet's surface. Background: US Unstaffed Planetary and Lunar Programs
Death
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