March 1971

[March 1], 1971 (Monday)

• Angela Richards born at Usk maternity hospital.
• John Deacon became an official member of Queen and the band was complete, creating the classic line up of the legendary British rock band.
• A bomb explodes in the men's room at the United States Capitol. Weather Underground Organization claims responsibility.
• Pakistani President Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan indefinitely postpones the pending National Assembly session, precipitating massive civil disobedience in East Pakistan.
• John Robarts ends his term of office as the 17th Premier of Ontario, Canada.
• In Italy, the PRI leaves the Colombo cabinet, also if serving it the external support in Parliament, for dissents about the actuation of the program. The 7th,Prime Minister Emilio Colombo takes ad interim the Ministry of Justice, left by the Republican Oronzo Reale.
• In London, world premiere of Luchino Visconti's Death in Venice, at the presence of Queen Elizabeth and Princess Anne. The proceeds are devolved to the fund “Venice in peril”.
• Born: Allen Johnson, American athlete, in Washington, D.C.
• Died: Harald Damsleth, Norwegian cartoonist and illustrator, 64
• Bernardo Mattarella, Italian politician, 65, father of Piersanti and Sergio.

  [March 2], 1971 (Tuesday)

• Born: Dave Gorman, English comedian, in Stafford
• Stefano Accorsi, Italian actor, in Bologna.
• Died: Assault, 28, American thoroughbred racehorse; Charles W. Engelhard, Jr., 54, American businessman

  [March 3], 1971 (Wednesday)

• Beginning of the Eastern Canadian Blizzard of March 1971.
• The Tonkin Ministry is constituted by the Governor, Major-General Sir Douglas Kendrew.
• Born: Willie Martinez, Puerto Rican jockey, in Santurce, San Juan

  [March 4], 1971 (Thursday)

• The southern part of Quebec, and especially Montreal, receive 42 cm of snow in what becomes known as the Century's Snowstorm.
• A Lockheed D-21B military reconnaissance drone aircraft makes an abortive mission to spy on the Lop Nor nuclear test site in the People's Republic of China.
• Died: Jacinto Gutierrez, University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras campus ROTC cadet, and Puerto Rican police officers Juan Birino Mercado and Miguel Rosario Rondón, all murdered at the Reserve Officers Training Corps building during a riot by groups opposing the program's presence on the campus

  [March 5], 1971 (Friday)

• Led Zeppelin perform "Stairway to Heaven" live for the first time, at Belfast's Ulster Hall.
• Died: Punch Broadbent, 78, Canadian ice hockey player

  [March 6], 1971 (Saturday)

• A fire in a mental hospital at Burghölzli, Switzerland, kills 28 people.
• The cold wave out of season that afflicts Italy from the beginning of the month, with snow and frost from the Alps to Sicily, gets its peak: Rome is paralyzed by a snowstorm, in Plateau Rosa the temperature touches – 34,6 C.
• In Rome, at the Palazzetto dello Sport, the Italian boxer Bruno Arcari, stoically bearing a bleeding wound to the eyebrows, beats on points the Brazilian Joao Henrique and serves the title of light-welterweight world champion. Because the very bad weather and the proximity of the match Clay-Frazier, the receipts of the reunion are disappointing..

  [March 7], 1971 (Sunday)

• The British postal workers' strike, led by UPW General Secretary Tom Jackson, ends after 47 days.
• Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, political leader of then East Pakistan, delivers his famous speech in the Racecourse Field in Dhaka, calling on the masses to be prepared to fight for national independence.
• Died: Stevie Smith, 68, English poet

  [March 8], 1971 (Monday)

• Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden.
• Members of the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI break into the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, stealing documents that they later released to the media.
• Died: Harold Lloyd, 77, American actor.

  [March 9], 1971 (Tuesday)

• Born: Kinga Rusin, Polish TV journalist and producer; Diego Torres, Argentinian singer, in Buenos Aires
• Died: K. Asif, 48, Indian film director; Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria, 68, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church; Anthony Berkeley Cox, 77, English crime writer; Barry Wood, 60, American footballer and medical educator

  [March 10], 1971 (Wednesday)

• Beginning of the McMahon Ministry, the forty-seventh Australian Commonwealth ministry.

  [March 11], 1971 (Thursday)

• Gualliguaica rail accident: Near Vicuña in the Elqui Province of northern Chile, a runaway train carrying 350 passengers, mostly children, is derailed next to a 12-metre deep ravine, killing twelve people.
• Died: Philo Farnsworth, 64, American inventor

  [March 12], 1971 (Friday)

• 1971 Turkish coup d'état: In a "coup by memorandum", the Chief of the General Staff, Memduh Tağmaç, hands prime minister Süleyman Demirel an ultimatum from the armed forces; Demirel resigns after a three-hour meeting with his cabinet.
• Hafez al-Assad becomes president of Syria.
• The Allman Brothers Band begin their legendary concert at the Fillmore East.
• In Florence, at the Palazzo Vecchio, the Madonna with child by Masaccio and the Portrait of a man by Hans Memling are stolen.
• Died: Elliot Quincy Adams, 82, American scientist

  [March 13], 1971 (Saturday)

• At Inzell, Ard Schenk sets a new world record of 7:12.0 in the 5,000 m speed skating event.
• At Cardiff Arms Park, Wales defeat Ireland 23-9 in the 1971 Five Nations Championship to take the Triple Crown.
• In Milan, second manifestation of the “Silent Majority”, center-right movement expression of the anticommunist and conservative middle class. Thousands of people take part to a procession from Porta Venezia to Piazza del Duomo, led by the former monarchist partisan Adamo Degli Occhi, wrapped in a tricolor flag.
• The Italian Socialist Party direction approves a document about the necessity of “more advanced equilibria” and elects secretary Francesco De Martino.
• In Åre the Italian Gustav Thoni, getting the fifth place in the giant slalom race, mathematically wins the fifth FIS Alpine Ski World Cup. It's the beginning of row of five successes by Italian skiers in the circuit.
• Born: Annabeth Gish, American actress, in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Maxim Kononenko, Russian journalist, in Apatity; Allan Nielsen, Danish footballer, in Esbjerg
• Died: Rockwell Kent, 88, American artist

  [March 14], 1971 (Sunday)

• First round of the French municipal elections, 1971
• The 1971 Bandy World Championship is won by the Soviet Union.
• In Rome, in a manifestation of the “Friends of the Armed Forces”, at the presence of right-wing politicians as Giovanni de Lorenzo, slogans asking for a coup d’état are uttered.
• Died: David John Cashman, 58, English Roman Catholic bishop

  [March 15], 1971 (Monday)

• Beginning of the 5th Lok Sabha
• Nicolai M. Klaksvig was born in Copenhagen

  [March 16], 1971 (Tuesday)

• Trygve Bratteli forms a government in Norway.
• On Italy, the Constitutional Court abrogates the articles of the Penal Code forbidding the propaganda, the sale and the use of the birth control means.
• The movie Sacco e Vanzetti by Giuliano Montaldo is released on Italy.
• Died: Bebe Daniels, 70, American actress, singer, dancer, writer and producer
• Thomas E. Dewey, 68, American politician, Republican presidential nominee in 1944 and 1948.

  [March 17], 1971 (Wednesday)

• In Norway, Per Borten's Cabinet ends its tenure in government, to be replaced by Bratteli's First Cabinet.
• The Italian Minister of Interior Franco Restivo reveals to the Chamber of Deputies that December 7, 1970, prince Junio Valerio Borghese attempted a coup d’état; the news had been already made public by the Communist newspaper Paese Sera. All over Italy, police search 32 seats of extreme right-wing movements.

  [March 18], 1971 (Thursday)

• A landslide at Chungar, Peru, crashes into Yanawayin Lake, killing 200 people.

  [March 19], 1971 (Friday)

• President's rule is imposed in the Indian states of Karnataka and West Bengal.
• In Rome, the deputy prosecutor Claudio Vitalone issues four arrest warrants for the attempted coup d’état against Junio Valerio Borghese and three his accomplices. The "black prince" escapes capture fleeing in Spain.
• Eddy Merckx wins for the fourth time the Milan-Sanremo, with a half-our advantage on the runner up, Felicce Gimondi, after a race made very tough by cold, rain and sleet. The Belgian biker equals Gino Bartali for number of successes in the contest.
• Born: Julien MacDonald, Welsh fashion designer, in Merthyr Tydfil; Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, in Taunton, England
• Died: Jean-Marie Beaudet, 63, Canadian conductor, organist, pianist, radio producer, and music educator

  [March 20], 1971 (Saturday)

• The Lockheed D-21B military reconnaissance drone attempts its final spying mission over the Lop Nor nuclear test site in China. It is thought to have malfunctioned and crashed in a forest, whence the wreckage was collected by the Chinese military.
• The Rome tribunal refers to trial Pietro Valpreda and the members of the anarchist Circle 22 March, for the Piazza Fontana bombing, together with some Valpreda's relatives and the neofascist Stefano Delle Chiaie, for false testimony.

  [March 21], 1971 (Sunday)

• Second round of the French municipal elections, 1971
• Died: Kyūya Fukada, 67, Japanese writer and mountaineer

  [March 22], 1971 (Monday)

• In Australia, the McMahon Ministry announces several appointments, including those of David Fairbairn as Minister for Education and Science and Nigel Bowen as Attorney-General.
• Died: Martin Bodmer, 71, Swiss bibliophile

  [March 23], 1971 (Tuesday)

• General Alejandro Lanusse of Argentina takes power in a military coup.
• Died: Basil Dearden, English film director, 60

  [March 24], 1971 (Wednesday)

• The Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification is signed, establishing a common classification for patents for invention, inventors’ certificates, utility models and utility certificates, known as the “International Patent Classification”.
• Died: Arne Jacobsen, 69, Danish architect

  [March 25], 1971 (Thursday)

• The Pakistani army starts Operation Searchlight in East Pakistan from midnight, after President Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, a military ruler, voids election results that gave the Awami League an overwhelming majority in the parliament.
• 1971 Dhaka University massacre: ten teachers and about 34 students are killed by the army.
• The Yugoslavian president Tito begins a five days official visit on Italy, together with the Foreign Minister Tepavic. He meets, beyond the Italian authorities, the Egyptian Foreign Minister Riad. The 27^th, he visits the Fiat in Turin and meets Gianni Agnelli; the 29^th, is the received by Paul VI who, for the first time, allows to a Communist leader an audience in solemn form.
• Definitive sentence for the Vajont disaster, issued two weeks before prescription. The Cassation Court in Rome convicts two engineers, Biadene and Sensidoni, to almost symbolic penalties.

  [March 26], 1971 (Friday)

• East Pakistan independence is declared by local Awami League leader Hannan Sarker on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, from Kalurghat Radio Station in Chittagong.
• Nihat Erim forms the new government of Turkey.
• At the Logie Awards of 1971, Gerard Kennedy and Maggie Tabberer are voted the best Male and Female Personalities on Australian TV, respectively.
• In Genoa, during a robbery, the messenger Alessandro Floris is killed by Mario Rossi, member of the extreme-left October 22 Group;the murderer, escaped on a scooter, is captured after a long chase in the city’'s streets. Floris is the first victim of the Italian Red terrorism.

  [March 27], 1971 (Saturday)

• East Pakistan independence is repeatedly declared by Army Major Ziaur Rahman on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from Kalurghat Radio Station, Chittagong.
• At the Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir, Colombes, Wales defeat France 9-5 to take the Rugby Union "grand slam".

  [March 28], 1971 (Sunday)

• The final edition of The Ed Sullivan Show is broadcast in the US.
• Hogan's Heroes ends its six-year run on CBS.
• The tanker SS Texaco-Oklahoma broke in two on the 27th and foundered on the 28th, 100 miles due east of Sandbridge off Virginia with the loss of 33 of her 44 crew.

  [March 29], 1971 (Monday)

• U.S. Army Lieutenant William Calley is found guilty of 22 murders in the My Lai massacre and sentenced to life in prison.
• A Los Angeles, California jury recommends the death penalty for Charles Manson and 3 female followers.
• Born: José Luis Rodríguez Pittí, Panamanian writer and photographer, in Panama

  [March 30], 1971 (Tuesday)

• Six hijackers attempted to hijack a Philippine Airlines BAC One-Eleven in Guangzhou, China.
• Born: Carlton Meyers, in London, Italian basketball player.
• Died: Dale Morgan, 56, American historian
• The first Starbucks was opened in Seattle, Washington

  [March 31], 1971 (Wednesday)

• Prime minister John Vorster, raises the issue of a new flag of South Africa at a news conference.