1971 in the United Kingdom
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1971 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973

Sport and Music

British and Irish current events

1971 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

1971 in British music

Events from the year 1971 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister - Edward Heath, Conservative Party

Events

January - March

• 2 January - A stairway crush at the Rangers vs. Celtic football match at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow kills 66 and leaves many more injured.^[1]
• 3 January - BBC Open University broadcasts begin.
• 7 January - The British heavy metal band Black Sabbath releases their breakthrough album, Paranoid.
• 8 January - Tupamaros kidnap Geoffrey Jackson, British ambassador to Uruguay, in Montevideo; they keep him captive until September.
• 12 January - The house of Robert Carr, Secretary of State for Employment, bombed by The Angry Brigade.^[2]
• 23 January - The Commonwealth Conference in Singapore gives Britain permission to sell weapons to South Africa.^[3]
• February - British Leyland launches the new Morris Marina range of family saloons and coupes, which replace the long-running Morris Minor and are designed as a direct competitor for the Ford Cortina.
• 4 February - Rolls-Royce goes bankrupt^[4]and is nationalised.
• 11 February - The US, UK, USSR and others sign the Seabed Treaty, outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor.
• 15 February - The United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland both switch to decimal currency. See also decimalisation.^[4]
• 24 February - Enoch Powell predicts an "explosion" unless there is a massive repatriation scheme for the immigrants.
• 5 March - The Pakistani army occupies East Pakistan.
• 8 March - The British postal workers' strike, led by UPW General Secretary Tom Jackson, ends after 47 days.^[5]

April - June

• 1 April - The United Kingdom lifts all restrictions on gold ownership.
• 27 April - Eight members of the Welsh Language Society go on trial for destroying English language road signs in Wales.^[6]
• 11 May - The Daily Sketch, Britain's oldest tabloid newspaper, is withdrawn from circulation after 62 years.^[7]
• 23 May - Jackie Stewart wins the 1971 Monaco Grand Prix.^[4]
• 7 June - 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.
• 20 June – Britain announces that Soviet space scientist Anatoli Fedoseyev has been granted asylum.
• 21 June – Britain begins new negotiations for EEC membership in Luxembourg.

July - September

• 6 July - Police launch a murder investigation after three French tourists are found shot dead in Staffordshire.^[8]
• 8 July - Two rioters shot dead by British troops in Derry, Northern Ireland.^[9]
• 13 July - Barlaston man Michael Bassett, 24, is found dead in his fume-filled car near the scene of the recent triple French tourist murder. Police identify Bassett as their prime suspect in the murder investigation.^[8]
• 29 July - The United Kingdom opts out of the Space Race, with the cancellation of its Black Arrow launch vehicle.
• 6 August - Chay Blyth becomes the first person to sail around the world east to west against the prevailing winds.^[10]
• 9 August - 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.^[11]
• 11 August - Prime Minister Edward Heath participates in the British victory in the Admiral's Cup yacht race.^[4]
• 15 August - Showjumper Harvey Smith stripped of his victory in the British Show Jumping Derby by judges for making a V sign.^[12]
• 25 August - 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.
• 1 September - the pre-decimal penny and threepence cease to be legal tender.^[4]
• 9 September - British Ambassador Geoffrey Jackson is freed after being held captive for eight months by extreme left-wing guerrillas in Uruguay.^[13]
• 21 September - The television music show The Old Grey Whistle Test is aired for the first time on BBC 2.

October - December

• 3 September - 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.
• 24 September - Britain expels 90 KGB and GRU officials; 15 are not allowed to return.
• 13 October - The British Army begins to destroy roads between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland as a security measure.^[14]
• 21 October - A gas explosion in Clarkston, Glasgow kills 20 people.
• 23 October - Two women shot dead by soldiers in Belfast as their car fails to stop at a checkpoint.^[15]
• 28 October:
  • 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.
• 30 October - The Democratic Unionist Party is founded by the Rev. Ian Paisley's in Northern Ireland.
• 31 October - A IRA bomb explodes at the top of the Post Office Tower in London.^[16]
• 22 November - Six climbers die trying to climb Cairn Gorm.^[17]
• 4 December - 15 people are killed and 17 others injured in a bomb attack that destroys a pub in Belfast. The IRA are believed to have been behind the bombing.^[18]
• 10 December - Dennis Gabor wins the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his invention and development of the holographic method".^[19]
• 29 December - The United Kingdom gives up its military bases in Malta.

Undated

• Production of the Morris Minor ceases after 23 years. It is succeeded by the Morris Marina, a larger car which is sold as a saloon or coupe, and is aimed at the hugely successful Ford Cortina.

Publications

• Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel Nemesis.
• E. M. Forster's novel Maurice (posthumous).
• Frederick Forsyth's novel The Day of the Jackal.
• V. S. Naipaul's novel In a Free State.
• Terry Pratchett's novel The Carpet People.
• Paul Scott's novel The Towers of Silence, third of the Raj Quartet.

Births

January - February

• 1 January - Suzanne Virdee, British Newsreader-Midlands Today BBC ONE
• 5 January - Jayne Middlemiss, British television presenter
• 6 January - Charlie Neil, British regional TV weather reader
• 7 January - Joanne Malin, British television presenter
• 14 January - Yiolanda Koppel, British television presenter
• 15 January - Lara Cazalet, British actress
• 20 January - Gary Barlow, singer
• 21 January - Alan McManus, Scottish snooker player
• 30 January - Darren Boyd, actor
• 31 January - Patrick Kielty, Northern Irish comedian and television presenter
• 2 February - Michelle Gayle, singer and actress
• 3 February - Sarah Kane, English playwright (died 1999)
• 13 February - Sonia Evans, English pop singer
• 16 February - Amanda Holden, British actress
• 23 February - Melinda Messenger, British television presenter and model

March - April

• 7 March - Rachel Weisz, British actress
• 23 March - Gail Porter, British television presenter.
• 27 March - David Coulthard, Scottish race car driver
• 31 March - 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
• 18 April - David Tennant, Scottish actor
• 27 April - Tess Daly, British television presenter.

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
• 27 May - Paul Bettany, British actor
• 28 May - Richard Gunn, British journalist and motoring writer
• 5 June - Susan Lynch, Northern Irish actress
• 25 June - Neil Lennon, Northern Irish footballer

July - August

• 9 July - Dani Behr, British television presenter and actress.
• 2 August - Michael Hughes, Northern Irish footballer
• 7 August - Melanie Sykes, British television presenter
• 9 August - Kate Sanderson, British television presenter and newsreader
• 31 August - Kirstie Allsopp, British television presenter

September - October

• 1 September - Daniel Hannan, Conservative British politician and MEP for the South East England region
• 2 September - Lisa Snowdon, English fashion model, actress and television presenter
• 13 September
  • Louise Lombard, British actress.
  • Stella McCartney, British fashion designer
• 17 September - Parmjit Dhanda, British Labour politician and MP for Gloucester
• 25 September - Jessie Wallace, British actress
• 28 September - Liza Walker, British actress
• 29 September - Mackenzie Crook, English actor
• 9 October - Simon Atlee, British fashion photographer (died 2004)
• 13 October - Sacha Baron Cohen, British comedian
• 16 October - Craig Phillips, British reality show star, Winner of Big Brother UK in 2000
• 19 October - Kacey Ainsworth, British actress.

November - December

• 8 November - Michael Jeffrey, English footballer
• 22 November
  • Cath Bishop, British rower and Olympic medallist
  • Kyran Bracken, Irish-born rugby union footballer
• 1 December - Emily Mortimer, British actress
• 5 December - Ashia Hansen, British athlete
• 25 December - Dido, English singer

Deaths

• 12 January - John Tovey, British admiral of the fleet (born 1885)
• 24 January - St. John Greer Ervine, Northern Irish dramatist and author (born 1883)
• 28 January - Donald Winnicott, British psychoanalyst (born 1896)
• 6 March - Thurston Dart, English harpsichordist and conductor (born 1921)
• 7 March - Stevie Smith, English poet (born 1902)
• 1 May - Violet Jessop, Titanic survivor (born 1887)
• 15 May - Sir Tyrone Guthrie, English film director, producer and writer (born 1900)
• 20 May - Waldo Williams, Welsh language poet (born 1904)
• 10 June - Michael Rennie, English actor (born 1909)
• 6 June - Edward Andrade, English poet and physicist (born 1887)
• 25 June - John Boyd Orr, Scottish physician and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (born 1880)
• 1 July - William Lawrence Bragg, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1890)
• 19 July - John Jacob Astor, 1st Baron Astor of Hever, British businessman (born 1886)
• 27 July - Charlie Tully, Northern Irish footballer (born 1924)
• 30 August - Peter Fleming, travel writer and brother of Ian Fleming (born 1907)
• 11 November - A. P. Herbert, politician and writer (born 1890)
• 12 December
  • Torry Gillick, Rangers winger (born 1915)
  • Alan Morton, Rangers outside left (born 1893)

References

See also