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1971 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1971 in the United Kingdom. The year was marked by the introduction of decimal currency.

Incumbents

Events

January

  • 1 January – The Divorce Reform Act 1969 came into effect in England and Wales, allowing couples to divorce after a separation of two years (five if only one of them agrees). A divorce can also be granted on the grounds that the marriage has irretrievably broken down, and it is not essential for either partner to prove "fault". It was revealed on 19 January 1972 that the number of divorces in the United Kingdom during 1971 exceeded 100,000 for the first time.
  • 2 January – Ibrox disaster: a stairway crush at the Rangers vs. Celtic football match at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow killed 66 and left many more injured.
  • 3 January – BBC Open University broadcasts began.
  • 8 January – Tupamaros kidnapped Geoffrey Jackson, British ambassador to Uruguay, in Montevideo; they kept him captive until September.
  • 12 January – The Hertfordshire house of Robert Carr, Secretary of State for Employment, was bombed. Nobody was injured. On 14 January, "The Angry Brigade", an extremist group, admitted responsibility for this bombing, as well as planting a bomb at the Department of Employment offices at Westminster.
  • 20 January – The first ever postal workers' strike took place, led by UPW General Secretary Tom Jackson, in an attempt to win a 19.5% pay rise.
  • 21 January – After collapsing in March 1969, a newly reconstructed Emley Moor transmitter in West Yorkshire started transmitting again. Now a concrete tower, at 1084 feet (330.4m), it is the United Kingdom's tallest freestanding structure.
  • 23 January – The first Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, in Singapore, gave the United Kingdom permission to sell weapons to South Africa.

February

March

  • 1 March
  • An estimated 120,000 to 250,000 "kill the bill" protesters went on strike against the 1971 Industrial Relations Act in London.
  • The Vehicle & General insurance company collapsed leaving 500,000 motorists uninsured.
  • 7 March – Following the recent protests in London, some 10,000 striking workers protested in Glasgow against the Industrial Relations Bill.
  • 8 March – The national postal workers' strike ended after 47 days. Among alternatives privately offered during the strike was the Vectis postal service.

April

  • 1 April – The United Kingdom lifted all restrictions on gold ownership with the Exchange Control (Gold Coins Exemption) Order 1971. Since 1966 British citizens had been banned from holding more than four gold coins or from buying any new ones unless they held a licence.
  • 11 April – Ten British Army soldiers were injured in rioting in Derry, Northern Ireland.
  • 15 April – The planned Barbican Centre in London was given the go-ahead.
  • 18 April – There was a serious fire at Kentish Town West railway station. The station remained closed until 5 October 1981.
  • 19 April – Unemployment reached a post-Second World War high of nearly 815,000.
  • 27 April
  • Eight members of the Welsh Language Society went on trial for destroying English language road signs in Wales.
  • British Leyland launched the Morris Marina which succeeded the Minor (a smaller model, production of which ceased after 23 years with 1.6 million sold) and Oxford models and was similar in size to the Ford Cortina (to which it had been designed as a direct competitor), Vauxhall Victor and Hillman Hunter. It had 1.3 and 1.8 litre petrol engines, rear-wheel drive and a choice of four-door family saloon and two-door coupé body styles, with a five-door estate set to follow in the next two years.

May

June

  • 7 June – The children's show Blue Peter buried 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 opened near Hyde Park Corner in London.
  • Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher's proposals to end free school milk for children aged over seven years were backed by a majority of 33 MPs.
  • 15 June
  • Several Labour run councils threatened to increase rates in order to continue the free supply of milk to school children aged over seven years, in reaction to Thatcher's plans to end free milk supply to school children of that age group. Thatcher defended her plans, saying that the change would free more money to be spent on the construction of new school buildings.
  • Upper Clyde Shipbuilders entered liquidation.
  • 20 June – The United Kingdom announced that Soviet space scientist Anatoli Fedoseyev had been granted asylum.
  • 21 June – The United Kingdom began new negotiations for EEC membership in Luxembourg.
  • 24 June – The EEC agreed terms for the United Kingdom's proposed membership and it was hoped that the nation will join the EEC next year.
  • 25–27 June – The first Reading Festival "of jazz and progressive music" took place.

July

August

  • 6 August – Chay Blyth became the first person to sail around the world east to west against the prevailing winds.
  • 9 August – British security forces in Northern Ireland detained hundreds of guerrilla suspects and put them into Long Kesh prison – the beginning of an internment without trial policy. Twenty died in the riots that followed, including 11 in the Ballymurphy Massacre.
  • 11 August – Prime Minister Edward Heath participated in the British victory in the Admiral's Cup yacht race.
  • 14 August – The Who released their critically acclaimed album Who's Next.
  • 15 August – Showjumper Harvey Smith was stripped of his victory in the British Show Jumping Derby by judges for making a V sign.

September

  • 1 September – The pre-decimal penny and threepence ceased to be legal tender.
  • 3 September – Qatar gained independence from the United Kingdom. Unlike most nearby emirates, it declined to become part of either the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia.
  • 7 September – The death toll in the Troubles of Northern Ireland reached 100 after three years with the death of 14-year-old Annette McGavigan, who was fatally wounded by a gunshot in crossfire between British soldiers and the IRA.
  • 9 September – British ambassador Geoffrey Jackson was freed after being held captive for eight months by extreme left-wing guerrillas in Uruguay.
  • 21 September – Television music show The Old Grey Whistle Test was aired for the first time on BBC 2.
  • 24 September – Operation FOOT: the United Kingdom expelled 90 Soviet Union intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover for spying, partly prompted by revelations made by KGB defector Oleg Lyalin earlier in the year; a further 15 staff on leave in the USSR were not allowed to return to the UK.

October

November

  • Erin Pizzey established the world's first domestic violence shelter in Chiswick, London.
  • 9 November - An RAF Hercules crashed in Italy, killing 52
  • 10 November – The 10-route Spaghetti Junction motorway interchange was opened north of Birmingham city centre, incorporating the A38(M) (Aston Expressway) and the southern section of the M6 motorway. The interchange would have a total of 12 routes when the final stretch of the M6 was opened the following year.
  • 22 November – Cairngorm Plateau disaster: Five children and one adult on an expedition die of exposure in the Scottish Highlands.

December

  • 2 December – The Queen's yearly allowance was increased from £475,000 to £980,000.
  • 4 December – McGurk's Bar bombing: Fifteen people were killed and 17 injured in a bomb attack that destroyed a bar in Belfast, the highest death toll from a single incident in the city during "The Troubles". The Ulster Volunteer Force is believed to have been behind the bombing.
  • 10 December – Dennis Gabor won the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his invention and development of the holographic method".
  • 16 December
  • Banking and Financial Dealings Act passed, updating the definition of bank holidays in the U.K.
  • Trial of the Mangrove Nine, a group of black activists, concluded with them being acquitted of the most serious charge (incitement to riot at a 1970 protest against police targeting of The Mangrove, a London Caribbean restaurant) and judicial acknowledgement of behaviour motivated by racial hatred within the Metropolitan Police.
  • 29 December – The United Kingdom gave up its military bases in Malta.
  • 30 December – The seventh James Bond film – Diamonds Are Forever – was released. Sean Connery, who appeared in the first five films before being succeeded by George Lazenby for On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1969, returned to the role for one final appearance in the official series of films.

Undated

  • Inflation stood at a 30-year high of 8.6%.
  • The government introduced a policy of Competition and Credit Control, lifting quantitative limits on lending by retail banks and allowing them greater freedom to offer savings accounts.
  • The government imposed a rent freeze.
  • Oil overtook coal as the most consumed fuel in the United Kingdom for the first time.
  • David Hockney's acrylic painting Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy was completed.

Publications

Births

January – March

April – June

July – September

October – December

Deaths

January – March

  • 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)
  • 16 March – Bebe Daniels, American-born actress (born 1901)

April – June

July – September

October – December

Undated

  • Reg Bunn, comic book artist (born 1905)
  • Edith Garrud, pioneer martial artist and suffragist (born 1872)

See also

References