50 Fun Facts About 1971

Which food company financed the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory to promote a new candy bar?

Quaker Oats had never made a film before, but paid for the picture to launch a Wonka Bar from its Chicago confectionery subsidiary. The movie earned only about $4 million on first release.

Which country's 19-year-old 'Baby Doc' became the world's youngest president in April 1971, succeeding his father?

Haiti passed from François 'Papa Doc' Duvalier to his son Jean-Claude, who took over his father's title of president for life and ruled until an uprising drove him into exile in France in 1986.

Which Soviet mission's three cosmonauts died in June 1971 when a valve vented their cabin during re-entry?

The Soyuz 11 crew remain the only humans to have died in space, above the Kármán line, after a breathing valve jolted open at 168 km and emptied the cabin in under a minute. They had just spent 23 days aboard the first space station.

Which coffee chain opened its first shop at Seattle's Pike Place Market in 1971, selling beans rather than drinks?

Starbucks sold only beans, tea and spices until Howard Schultz, who joined in 1982, pushed its founders to try espresso drinks and later turned it into a café chain.

Which Sunday-night CBS variety series was cancelled in March 1971 in a purge of programmes advertisers found too old?

The Ed Sullivan Show bowed out on 28 March 1971 after 23 years and was replaced in September by the CBS Sunday Night Movie. Its final guests included folk singer Melanie.

Which university's 1971 mock-prison experiment, led by Philip Zimbardo, ended after six days rather than two weeks?

Stanford stopped the study after psychologist Christina Maslach visited the basement 'prison' and confronted Zimbardo about how the student guards were treating the student prisoners.

Which stock market began trading on 8 February 1971 as the world's first fully electronic exchange?

Nasdaq started life as a screen-based quotation system rather than a trading floor, and was not registered as a stock exchange in its own right until 2006.

Which rapper, born in East Harlem in June 1971, was renamed after an Inca-descended rebel executed in Peru in 1781?

Tupac Shakur was born a month after his mother Afeni, a Black Panther, was acquitted in the Panther 21 trial; she later renamed him in honour of Túpac Amaru II.

Which two countries both scrapped pounds, shillings and pence on the same 'Decimal Day', Monday 15 February 1971?

The UK and Ireland decimalised together because both still operated inside the sterling area as a single monetary zone. Each introduced a tiny new halfpenny coin that day.

Which environmental group grew from a Vancouver committee that sailed a fishing boat toward a nuclear test in 1971?

Greenpeace grew out of the Don't Make a Wave Committee, whose boat the Phyllis Cormack set off to protest a US test on Amchitka island in Alaska; the 5-megaton blast went ahead regardless.

Which NASA probe became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet in 1971, arriving as a dust storm hid the surface?

Mariner 9 beat two Soviet probes into orbit by a matter of weeks, then waited months for the dust to settle before mapping volcanoes, valleys and dried riverbeds.

Which craft, launched in April 1971 and burned up after 175 days, was the world's first space station?

Salyut 1, a Soviet station, hosted a single crew for 23 days of experiments before re-entering over the Pacific; an earlier crew had docked but failed to get inside at all.

Who sent the first email between two ARPANET computers in 1971, picking the @ sign to separate user from machine?

Ray Tomlinson's first message was only a test sent between two machines sitting side by side, yet his user@machine scheme has been used in email addresses ever since.

Which document did Michael Hart type into an Illinois mainframe in 1971 as the first Project Gutenberg e-book?

The Declaration of Independence became the first Gutenberg e-text because Hart happened to have a copy in his backpack and decided to type it in and share it over the network.

Which record label employed Godfrey Hounsfield, whose scanner made the first CT brain scan of a patient in 1971?

EMI had hired Hounsfield as an electronics engineer; he tested his prototype on a preserved human brain, a cow brain from a butcher and himself before the Wimbledon scan.

Which lander made the first soft landing on the Red Planet in 1971, then fell silent after about 20 seconds?

Mars 3, a Soviet probe, sent only a grey, featureless image before transmission stopped for reasons never established; its twin lander, Mars 2, had crashed days earlier.

What did Richard Nixon suspend in a televised address on 15 August 1971, alongside a 90-day freeze on wages and prices?

Dollar-to-gold conversion had underpinned the Bretton Woods system; ending it, together with a surcharge on imports, became known as the 'Nixon shock'.

What did Richard Nixon call 'public enemy number one in the United States' at a press conference in June 1971?

Drug abuse got the label on 17 June 1971, and the press quickly turned Nixon's 'worldwide escalation' against narcotics into the phrase 'war on drugs'.

US television's last cigarette commercial aired at 11:59 pm on 1 January 1971 during which talk show?

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson carried a Virginia Slims spot at the last legal minute; broadcasters had won a one-day reprieve so the ads could run during the New Year's Day bowl games.

Which monarch, touring Europe in autumn 1971, became the first reigning Japanese emperor ever to travel abroad?

Hirohito had visited Europe as crown prince in 1921, but no sitting emperor had left Japan before; Richard Nixon met his plane at a refuelling stop in Anchorage, the first meeting between an emperor and a US president.

Which federation was formed on 2 December 1971 by six Gulf sheikhdoms, with a seventh joining the following year?

The United Arab Emirates began with Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain; Ras Al Khaimah held out until early 1972.

Which charity was formed in Paris in December 1971 by French doctors and journalists in the wake of the Biafran famine?

Médecins Sans Frontières came from the merger of two groups on 22 December 1971, founded on the idea that care should cross borders regardless of race, religion or politics.

Which West German chancellor took the 1971 Nobel Peace Prize for his Ostpolitik of reconciliation with the East?

Willy Brandt won a year after he unexpectedly knelt in silence before the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising during a state visit to Poland.

Which ancient capital hosted the Shah's tent-city celebration of 2,500 years of monarchy in October 1971?

Persepolis hosted luxury 'tents' arranged in a star around a fountain, with Maxim's of Paris closing its restaurant for almost two weeks to cater the banquets.

Which British firm went bankrupt in February 1971 as its RB211 jet engine overran its budget, and was nationalised?

Rolls-Royce was rescued as a state-owned company called Rolls-Royce (1971) Limited, which kept the year in its name until 1977 and hived off the car division.

Which British institution took its first students in January 1971, teaching by post and late-night BBC broadcasts?

The Open University was created by Harold Wilson's Labour government to give adults who had missed out on university a second chance; its BBC television courses ran from January 1971 until 2006.

Which Education Secretary was branded a 'milk snatcher' in 1971 for ending free school milk for children over seven?

Margaret Thatcher kept a daily third of a pint for younger children and argued she was only continuing what Labour began when it ended free milk in secondary schools.

Which British employees, led by union chief Tom Jackson, staged their first national strike in 1971, lasting 47 days?

Postal workers walked out on 20 January after the Post Office offered less than the 15 to 20 per cent they sought; private services such as the Vectis postal service sprang up to carry letters.

Which Glasgow shipyard group collapsed in 1971, prompting a 'work-in' where Jimmy Reid banned 'bevvying'?

Upper Clyde Shipbuilders went into receivership under Edward Heath's 'lame duck' policy, so the workers occupied the yards and finished the ships; John Lennon sent £5,000.

Which BBC show, launched with Bruce Forsyth in 1971, ended with a contestant memorising prizes on a conveyor belt?

The Generation Game was adapted from a Dutch show called Één van de acht ('One of the Eight'), and winners kept whatever they could recall in 45 seconds.

Roger Hargreaves' first Mr. Men book, published in 1971, starred which round orange character with long, bendy arms?

Mr. Tickle is said to have begun when Hargreaves' son Adam asked what a tickle looked like; Adam took over the series after his father's death in 1988.

Which club won the 1971 Double, Charlie George scoring the extra-time FA Cup final winner against Liverpool?

Arsenal's 2–1 win capped a 64-match season and was the first Double by any club since Tottenham's in 1961; all three Wembley goals came in the added half-hour.

Which touring side, coached by Carwyn James, won a 1971 Test series in New Zealand for the only time in its history?

The British Lions remain the only Lions team to beat the All Blacks in a series, despite losing the tour's first match to Queensland on the way over.

Which 19-year-old won the 1971 French Open and Wimbledon singles titles, and was named Australian of the Year?

Evonne Goolagong was only the second woman of the Open era to complete that 'Channel Slam', and won Wimbledon again in 1980 as the first mother to take the title in 66 years.

Which golfer won the US Open, Canadian Open and Open Championship within about three weeks in the summer of 1971?

Lee Trevino beat Jack Nicklaus in an 18-hole playoff for the US Open, then became the first player to take all three national titles in one year.

Which Cowboys linebacker remains the only Super Bowl MVP from a losing team, after the Colts' 16–13 win in January 1971?

Chuck Howley intercepted two passes and forced a fumble in Super Bowl V, making him the first defensive player and first non-quarterback to be named MVP.

Which team won the first World Series game played at night, Game 4 in 1971 against the Baltimore Orioles?

The Pittsburgh Pirates hosted the floodlit game and went on to take the series in seven; a rain-out had nearly produced a night game even earlier in the week.

Which singer, denied a ringside seat at the 1971 Ali–Frazier 'Fight of the Century', photographed it for Life magazine?

Frank Sinatra, who gave a farewell concert that June before a two-year retirement, shot the night Joe Frazier handed Muhammad Ali his first professional defeat on a unanimous decision.

Which long shot came from 18th place to win the 1971 Kentucky Derby, then added the Preakness?

Cañonero II had sold as a yearling for just $1,200 and was shipped to Venezuela; his Triple Crown bid drew a then-record crowd to the Belmont, where he finished fourth.

Which 1971 ballad, composed on a Steinway at Tittenhurst Park, Ascot, became its writer's best-selling solo single?

Imagine was taped at John Lennon's newly built home studio in May 1971, with strings added in New York; the UK single only reached number one in January 1981, after his death.

Which comedian's 'Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West)' was the UK's Christmas number one of 1971, for four weeks?

Benny Hill drew on his own early job as a milkman in Eastleigh, Hampshire, and first performed the song on television in 1970, a year before it topped the chart.

Which rock opera, a hit album before it was ever staged, opened on Broadway in October 1971?

Jesus Christ Superstar, by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, reached the stage only because the 1970 album sold so well; the Broadway production was condemned by several religious groups.

Which jazz trumpeter died in Queens in July 1971, four months after defying his doctor to play the Waldorf-Astoria?

Louis Armstrong was living in Corona, Queens, where his house is now a museum, when he died; the Waldorf's Empire Room engagement in March had been against medical advice.

Which 1971 Bond film paid Sean Connery a record $1.25 million, which he put into a trust for Scottish artists?

Diamonds Are Forever was Connery's sixth and last Eon Bond film; his fee founded the Scottish International Education Trust so that artists could get funding without leaving Scotland.

Which 1971 thriller about a Carmel radio DJ stalked by an obsessed fan was Clint Eastwood's debut as a director?

Play Misty for Me was the film Eastwood and his late Malpaso partner Irving Leonard had discussed as the one to give him full artistic control; it premiered at the San Francisco Film Festival.

Which 1971 film takes Michael Caine's London gangster to Newcastle after his brother's suspect drunk-driving death?

Get Carter was adapted from Ted Lewis's novel Jack's Return Home and went from book to finished film in ten months, with Caine also serving as an uncredited co-producer.

Which 1971 TV movie, Steven Spielberg's feature debut, pits Dennis Weaver's salesman against a menacing tanker truck?

Duel came to Spielberg through his secretary, who spotted the short story being turned into a TV movie and told him to apply to direct it; he wanted Weaver for his work in Touch of Evil.

Which Frederick Forsyth thriller of 1971 follows a professional assassin hired by the OAS to kill Charles de Gaulle?

The Day of the Jackal opens with a real event, the 1962 Petit-Clamart ambush on de Gaulle's car, and won the 1972 Edgar Award for best novel despite getting no pre-publication reviews.

Which Hunter S. Thompson book began as a two-part Rolling Stone series in 1971, narrated by Raoul Duke?

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas began as a 250-word photo caption job for Sports Illustrated and grew into a novel-length feature illustrated by Ralph Steadman.

Which 1971 Dr. Seuss book pits a creature who 'speaks for the trees' against the tree-felling Once-ler?

The Lorax was kept on a California school reading list in 1988 over complaints that it was unfair to loggers; a wood-flooring trade group later answered with its own book, Truax.