April 1971

January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December

The following events occurred in April 1971.

April 1, 1971 (Thursday)

• The United Kingdom lifts all restrictions on gold ownership.
• James Taylor's album Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon is released.

April 2, 1971 (Friday)

• Born: Todd Woodbridge, Australian tennis player, in Sydney; Zeebra, Japanese rapper, in Tokyo

April 3, 1971 (Saturday)

• Un banc, un arbre, une rue, sung by Séverine (music by Jean-Pierre Bourtayre, lyrics by Yves Dessca), wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1971 for Monaco.
• Born: Picabo Street, American alpine ski racing world champion, in Triumph, Idaho
• Died: Joe Valachi, 67, American Mafia boss

April 4, 1971 (Sunday)

• Kosmos 404 is launched by the USSR as an ASAT test. Its target is Kosmos 400, which it intercepts and destroys.
• Died: Frank Loomis, 74, American athlete and Olympic champion hurdler; Victor Odlum, 90, Canadian journalist, soldier, and diplomat

April 5, 1971 (Monday)

• In Ceylon, a group calling themselves the People's Liberation Front begins a rebellion against the Bandaranaike government.
• Chile and East Germany establish diplomatic relations.
• A major eruption of Mount Etna in Sicily begins. In the course of the eruption, lava buries the Etna Observatory (built in the late 19th century), destroys the first generation of the Etna cable-car, and seriously threatens several small villages on Etna's east flank.
• West German leader Willy Brandt meets British prime minister Edward Heath, at Schloss Gymnich near Bonn.
• Born: Victoria Hamilton, English actress, as Victoria Sharp, in Wimbledon

April 6, 1971 (Tuesday)

• West Germany's Chancellor, Willy Brandt, writes to French President Georges Pompidou to reiterate his determination to re-open negotiations for the United Kingdom 's to join the European Community.
• Died: Igor Stravinsky, 88, Russian composer, conductor and pianist

April 7, 1971 (Wednesday)

• Greece releases 261 political prisoners, 50 of whom are sent into internal exile.
• Paulo Maluf ends his first term as mayor of São Paulo, Brazil.
• Born: Guillaume Depardieu (d. 2008), French actor, son of Gérard Depardieu and Élisabeth Depardieu, in Paris

April 8, 1971 (Thursday)

• A right-wing coup attempt is exposed in Laos.
• In golf, the 1971 Masters Tournament opens at Augusta National Golf Club.

April 9, 1971 (Friday)

• Charles Manson is sentenced to death; the following year, the sentence for all California Death Row inmates would be commuted to life imprisonment.
• Born: Austin Peck, American actor, in Honolulu, Hawaii; Jacques Villeneuve, Canadian racing driver, in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec

April 10, 1971 (Saturday)

• A provisional Bangladeshi government takes its oath of office in Meherpur Kushtia.

April 11, 1971 (Sunday)

• Sheikh Mujibur Rahman takes office as 1st President of Bangladesh.
• Died: Zbigniew Drzewiecki, 81, Polish pianist and teacher

April 12, 1971 (Monday)

• Palestinians retreat from Amman to the north of Jordan.
• Born: Eyal Golan, Israeli singer, in Rehovot
• Died: Igor Tamm, 75, Russian physicist and Nobel Prize laureate

April 13, 1971 (Tuesday)

• Born: Dina Korzun, Russian actress, in Smolensk
• Died: Constantin Brătescu, 79, Romanian World War II general; Sergo Zakariadze, 61, Georgian actor

April 14, 1971 (Wednesday)

• Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary is established in Senegal.

April 15, 1971 (Thursday)

• Sergei Nikolayevich Anokhin, Russian engineer and former cosmonaut, is injured in the crash of a Tupolev Tu-16 into the Aral Sea while the bomber was flying parabolas for zero-G tests of the engine of the Molniya Block L upper stage, to study why the stage was continually failing to restart in earth orbit.
• Born: Katy Hill, English TV presenter, in Poole, Dorset
• Died: Friedebert Tuglas, 85, Estonian writer and dissident

April 16, 1971 (Friday)

• Born: Moses Chan, Hong Kong actor, in Hong Kong; Natasha Zvereva, Belarussian tennis player, in Minsk

April 17, 1971 (Saturday)

• The People's Republic of Bangladesh forms, under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, at Mujibnagor.
• Libya, Syria and Egypt sign an agreement to form a confederation.
• In the Belgian general election, the Belgian Socialist Party wins most seats but not an overall majority. Gaston Eyskens of the Christian Social Party remains Prime Minister.
• Born: Claire Sweeney, English actress and singer, in Liverpool

April 18, 1971 (Sunday)

• Born: David Tennant, Scottish actor, as David John McDonald, in Bathgate, West Lothian

April 19, 1971 (Monday)

• The government of Bangladesh flees to India.
• Sierra Leone becomes a republic.
• The Soviet Union launches Salyut 1.
• Followers of Charles Manson, the Manson Family, are sentenced to death in the gas chamber.

April 20, 1971 (Tuesday)

• Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education: The Supreme Court of the United States rules unanimously that busing of students may be ordered to achieve racial desegregation.
• Cambodian Prime Minister Lon Nol resigns, but remains effectively in power until the next elections.
• Died: Cecil Parker, 73, English actor

April 21, 1971 (Wednesday)

• Siaka Stevens is elected the first president of Sierra Leone.
• The New Democratic Party leadership convention, 1971, opens in Ottawa, Canada.
• Died: François Duvalier ("Papa Doc"), 64, president of Haiti; his 19-year-old son Jean-Claude Duvalier immediately succeeds him as president-for-life.

April 22, 1971 (Thursday)

• The prototype Aero Boero AB-210 flies for the first time.
• Born: Daisuke Enomoto, first Japanese space tourist, in Matsudo; Ingo Rademacher, Australian actor, in Iserlohn, West Germany

April 23, 1971 (Friday)

• A USAF F-111E, 67-0117, from Edwards AFB, California, crashes in the Mojave Desert during a test flight; both crew, pilot Maj. James W. Hurt, 34, of Indianapolis, Indiana, and WSO Maj. Robert J. Furman, 31, of New York City, are killed when the parachute on the escape module fails to open until just before ground impact.
• The Rolling Stones' album Sticky Fingers is released.
• The Flag Institute is founded by William Crampton.

April 24, 1971 (Saturday)

• Soyuz 10 docks with Salyut 1.
  • Five hundred thousand people in Washington, D.C. and 125,000 in San Francisco march in protest against the Vietnam War.
• A tsunami 85m high rises over the Ryukyu Islands in Japan. It throws a 750-ton block of coral 2.5 km inland.
• David Lewis is elected to succeed Tommy Douglas as leader of Canada's NDP.
• The International Relations Institute of Cameroon is created by decree of President Ahmadou Ahidjo.
• Born: Alejandro Fernández, Mexican singer, in Guadalajara

April 25, 1971 (Sunday)

• Todor Zhivkov is re-elected as leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party.
• Franz Jonas is re-elected as chancellor of Austria.
• Died: Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, 79

April 26, 1971 (Monday)

• The government of Turkey declares a state of siege in 11 provinces, Ankara included, due to violent demonstrations.

April 27, 1971 (Tuesday)

• The first number of Il Manifesto is issued in Italy.

April 28, 1971 (Wednesday)

• The Grateful Dead appear live at Fillmore East, one of their last performances at the venue.
• Born: Nikhil Advani, Indian film director, in Mumbai

April 29, 1971 (Thursday)

• Bolivia nationalizes the American-owned Matilde zinc mine.
• Born: Siniša Vuco, Croation singer-songwriter, in Split

April 30, 1971 (Friday)

• The Milwaukee Bucks win the NBA World Championship, sweeping the Baltimore Bullets in four straight games.
• The Joint Social Welfare Institute is created by the government of Costa Rica.
• In the USA, all F-111s are grounded as a result of the fatal accident on April 23, after it is determined that the recovery chute compartment door failed to separate, making crew escape impossible.