April 1971 in History

Events in History

Event of Interest

Apr 5 Sri Lanka's communist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) launches insurrection against the United Front government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike

World's 1st Female Head of State Sirimavo Bandaranaike

Apr 5 US Lt William Calley sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering 22 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai Massacre

Event of Interest

Apr 6 During a debate at Westminster on Northern Ireland, Harold Wilson of the Labour Party claims that a draft Bill for the imposition of direct rule exists

Event of Interest

Apr 7 US President Richard Nixon orders lt Calley (Mi Lai) free

Apr 8 1st legal off-track betting system begins (OTB-New York)
Apr 10 The Republican commemorations is held in Belfast of the Easter Rising (in 1916 in Dublin), revealing conflicts between the two wings of the Irish Republican Army
Apr 10 US table tennis team arrives in People's Republic of China
Apr 11 "Johnny Johnson" opens/closes at Edison Theater NYC for 1 performance
Apr 14 Fort Point, San Francisco dedicated as a national historic site
Apr 14 US President Richard Nixon ends blockade against People's Republic of China
Apr 14 US Supreme Court upheld busing as means of achieving racial desegregation
Apr 17 Egypt, Libya & Syria form federation (FAR)
Apr 19 Sierra Leone becomes a republic (National Day)
Apr 19 USSR Salyut 1 launched; 1st manned lab in orbit
Apr 20 US Supreme Court upholds use of busing to achieve racial desegregation
Apr 21 Original Codex Reguis (with Edda-liederen) returns to Iceland
Apr 22 Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 10 launched
Apr 22 Soyuz 10 launches as the world's first mission to the first-ever space station (the Salyut 1) however the docking was unsuccessful and the cosmonauts returned to Earth
Apr 23 Columbia University operations virtually end, by student strike
Apr 24 Soyuz 10 returns to Earth
Apr 25 About 200,000 anti-Vietnam War protesters march on Washington, D.C.
Apr 25 The Northern Ireland census is held
Apr 25 US canal rights in Nicaragua & rights to Corn Islands expire
Apr 25 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
Apr 26 Heaviest rains ever in Bahia district of Brazil, 15" in 24 hrs
Apr 26 San Francisco lightship replaced by automatic buoy
Apr 26 Turkey state of siege proclaimed
Apr 28 Dutch social democratic party/D'66/DS'70 win parliamentary election
Apr 28 Samuel Lee Gravely Jr. becomes 1st black admiral in US Navy
Apr 29 Boeing receives contract for Mariner 10, Mercury exploration
Apr 29 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

Birthdays in History

Apr 2 ZEEBRA [Hideyuki Yokoi], Japanese hip hop artist, born in Tokyo, Japan
Apr 14 Peter Gibson, American writer, born in Greenwich, Connecticut
Apr 16 Frederik Nilsson, IHL forward (Team Sweden, KC (IHL)), born in Stockholm, Sweden
Apr 21 Alexander Kravchenko, Russian professional poker player
Apr 21 Hasan Akbar, American convicted murderer
Apr 22 Daisuke Enomoto, Japanese people space tourist
Apr 25 Pablo Helguera, Mexican-born artist (The School of Panamerican Unrest), born in Mexico City
Apr 30 Darren Emerson, English DJ (Underworld)
Apr 30 John Boyne, Irish novelist (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas), born in Dublin, Ireland

Deaths in History

Apr 1 Kathleen Lonsdale, Irish-born British pacifist and crystallographer (one of 1st two women elected to Royal Society), dies of cancer at 68
Apr 3 Joseph Valachi, American gangster, dies at 66
Apr 3 Manfred Bonnington Lee [Ellery Queen], American detective writer, dies at 65
Apr 13 Juhan Smuul, Estonian author, dies at 49
Apr 14 Armand Spitz, developer of small educational planetarium, dies