1971 in the United Kingdom
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 1971 in the United Kingdom: |
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Events from the year 1971 in the United Kingdom.
Contents |
[edit] Incumbents
- Monarch:
- Prime Minister:
[edit] Events
[edit] January - March
- January 1 - The British Divorce Reform Act comes into force.
- January 2 - Ibrox disaster: A stairway crush at the Rangers vs. Celtic football match in Glasgow kills 66.
- January 3 - BBC Open University broadcasts begin.
- January 7 - The British heavy metal band Black Sabbath releases their breakthrough album, Paranoid.
- January 8 - Tupamaros kidnap Geoffrey Jackson, British ambassador to Uruguay, in Montevideo; they keep him captive until September.
- February 4 - Rolls-Royce goes bankrupt [1]and is nationalised.
- February 11 - The US, UK, USSR and others sign the Seabed Treaty, outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor.
- February 15 - Decimal Day: The United Kingdom and Ireland both switch to decimal currency. See also decimalisation. [1]
- March 5 - The Pakistani army occupies East Pakistan.
- March 7 - The British postal workers' strike, led by UPW General Secretary Tom Jackson, ends after 47 days.
[edit] April - June
- April 1 - The United Kingdom lifts all restrictions on gold ownership.
- June 7 - The children's show Blue Peter buries a time capsule in the grounds of BBC Television Centre, due to be opened on the first episode of the year 2000.
- 14 June - The first Hard Rock Cafe opens near Hyde Park Corner in London.
- June 20 – Britain announces that Soviet space scientist Anatoli Fedoseyev has been granted asylum.
- June 21 – Britain begins new negotiations for EEC membership in Luxembourg.
[edit] July - September
- July 29 - The United Kingdom opts out of the Space Race, with the cancellation of its Black Arrow launch vehicle.
- August 9 - British security forces in Northern Ireland detain hundreds of guerrilla suspects and put them into Long Kesh prison - the beginning of an internment without trial policy. Twenty die in riots that follow.
- August 12 - Three thousand people from Belfast and Derry flee to Ireland because of the violence.
- August 14 - British troops are stationed on the Ireland border to stop arms smuggling. The total number of troops in Northern Ireland is raised to 12,500.
- August 18 - British troops engage in a firefight in Derry.
- August 25 - The Who Release their critically acclaimed album Who's Next.
- September - Godfrey Hounsfield's invention, the CAT scan, is first used on a patient at a hospital in Wimbledon. [2]
- September 21 - The television music show The Old Grey Whistle Test premieres on BBC2, lasting until 1987.
[edit] October - December
- September 3 - 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.
- September 24 - Britain expels 90 KGB and GRU officials; 15 are not allowed to return.
- October 21 - A gas explosion in Clarkston, Glasgow kills 20 people.
- October 28:
- The House of Commons votes in favour of joining the EEC by a vote of 356-244.
- The United Kingdom becomes the 6th nation to launch a satellite into orbit, the Prospero X-3, using a Black Arrow carrier rocket.
- October 30 - The Democratic Unionist Party is founded by the Rev. Ian Paisley's in Northern Ireland.
- October 31 - A bomb explodes at the top of the Post Office Tower in London.
- December 29 - The United Kingdom gives up its military bases in Malta.
[edit] Unknown dates
- Dennis Gabor wins the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his invention and development of the holographic method". [3]
[edit] Births
[edit] January - February
- January 1 - Suzanne Virdee, British Newsreader-Midlands Today BBC ONE
- January 5 - Jayne Middlemiss, British television presenter
- January 6 - Charlie Neil, British regional TV weather reader
- January 7 - Joanne Malin, British television presenter
- January 14 - Yiolanda Koppel, British television presenter
- January 15 - Lara Cazalet, British actress
- January 21 - Alan McManus, Scottish snooker player
- January 31 - Patrick Kielty, Northern Irish comedian and television presenter
- February 3 - Sarah Kane, English playwright (d. 1999)
- February 13 - Sonia Evans, English pop singer
- February 16 - Amanda Holden, British actress
- February 23 - Melinda Messenger, British television presenter and model.
[edit] March - April
- March 7 - Rachel Weisz, British actress
- March 23 - Gail Porter, British television presenter.
- March 27 - David Coulthard, Scottish race car driver
- March 31 - Ewan McGregor, Scottish actor
- 3 April - Douglas Carswell, British Conservative politician and MP for Harwich
- 11 April - John Leech, British Liberal Democrat politician, Shadow Transport Spokesperson, and MP for Manchester Withington
- April 18 - David Tennant, British actor
- April 27 - Tess Daly, British television presenter.
[edit] May - June
- 9 May - Paul McGuigan, British musician and a founding member of Oasis
- 23 May - George Osborne, British Conservative politician, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, and MP for Tatton
- May 27 - Paul Bettany, British actor
- May 28 - Richard Gunn, British journalist and motoring writer
- June 5 - Susan Lynch, Northern Irish actress
- June 25 - Neil Lennon, Northern Irish footballer
[edit] July - August
- July 9 - Dani Behr, British television presenter and actress.
- August 2 - Michael Hughes, Northern Irish footballer
- August 7 - Melanie Sykes, British television presenter.
- August 9 - Kate Sanderson, British television presenter and newsreader
- August 13 - Nichola Holt, contestant in Big Brother (UK series 1)
- August 31 - Kirstie Allsopp, British television presenter
[edit] September - October
- September 2 - Lisa Snowdon, English fashion model, actress and television presenter
- September 9 - Natasha Kaplinsky, British television presenter.
- September 13 - Louise Lombard, British actress.
- September 13 - Stella McCartney, British fashion designer
- 17 September - Parmjit Dhanda, British Labour politician and MP for Gloucester
- September 25 - Jessie Wallace, British actress.
- September 28 - Liza Walker, British actress.
- 29 September - Mackenzie Crook, English actor
- 9 October - Simon Atlee, British fashion photographer (d. 2004)
- October 13 - Sacha Baron Cohen, British comedian
- October 16 - Craig Phillips, British reality show star, Winner of Big Brother UK in 2000
- October 19 - Kacey Ainsworth, British actress.
[edit] November - December
- November 8 - Michael Jeffrey, English footballer
- 22 November - Cath Bishop, British rower and Olympic medallist
- 22 November - Kyran Bracken, Irish-born rugby union footballer
- 1 December - Emily Mortimer, British actress
- 5 December - Ashia Hansen, British athlete
- December 25 - Dido, English singer
[edit] Unknown date
- Daniel Hannan, Conservative British politician and MEP for the South East England region
[edit] Deaths
[edit] January - March
- January 12 - John Tovey, British admiral of the fleet (b. 1885)
- January 24 - St. John Greer Ervine, Northern Irish dramatist and author (b. 1883)
- January 28 - Donald Winnicott, British psychoanalyst (b. 1896)
- March 6 - Thurston Dart, English harpsichordist and conductor (b. 1921)
- March 7 - Stevie Smith, English poet
[edit] April - June
- May 1 - Violet Jessop, Titanic survivor (b. 1887)
- May 15 - Sir Tyrone Guthrie, English film director, producer, and writer (b. 1900)
- May 20 - Waldo Williams, Welsh language poet
- June 10 - Michael Rennie, English actor (b. 1909)
- June 6 - Edward Andrade, English poet and physicist
- June 25 - John Boyd Orr, Scottish physician and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1880)
[edit] July - September
- July 1 - William Lawrence Bragg, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1890)
- July 19 - John Jacob Astor, 1st Baron Astor of Hever, British businessman (b. 1886)
- July 27 - Charlie Tully, Northern Irish footballer (b. 1924)
- August 30 - Peter Fleming, travel writer and brother of Ian Fleming
[edit] October - December
- December 12 - Torry Gillick, Rangers winger.
- December 12 - Alan Morton, Rangers outside left.
[edit] References
- ^ a b (2006) Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. ISBN 0-141-02715-0.
- ^ BMJ obituary of Godfrey Hounsfield
- ^ The Nobel Prize in Physics 1971
