1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar).

Events

January

• January 1 - British Divorce Reform Act comes into force
• January 2 - 66 die in stairway crush at Rangers v Celtic football match, Glasgow, Scotland. See Ibrox disaster.
• January 2 - A ban on television cigarette advertisements goes into effect in the United States.
• January 3 - BBC Open University begins in the United Kingdom
• January 8 - Tupamaros kidnap Geoffrey Jackson, British ambassador to Uruguay, in Montevideo; they keep him captive until September
• January 9 - Uruguayan president Jorge Pacheco Areco demands emergency powers for 90 days due to kidnappings and receives them the next day
• January 14 - 70 Brazilian political prisoners released in Santiago. Giovanni Enrico Bucher is released January 16
• January 15 - Aswan Dam officially opened
• January 18 - Strikes in Poland demand resignation of interior minister Kazimierz Switala. He resigns January 23 and is replaced by Franciszek Szlachcic
• January 18 - Ivan Koloff pins Bruno Sammartino to win the WWWF World Title ending the longest reign ever of that title to date. This occurred in Madison Square Garden
• January 19 - Representatives of 23 western oil companies begin negotiations with OPEC in Tehran to stabilize oil prices. February 14 they sign a treaty with six Persian Gulf countries
• January 19 - No, No Nanette premieres (46th Street Theatre, New York City)
• January 24 - Guinean government sentences to death 92 Guineans who helped Portuguese troops in the failed landing attempts in November 1970. 72 are sentenced to hard labor for life. 58 of the sentenced are hanged the next day
• January 25 - Charles Manson and three female "family members" are found guilty of the 1969 murder of Sharon Tate and others at Sharon's house
• January 25 - Idi Amin leads a coup deposing Milton Obote and becomes Uganda's president
• January 25 - Himachal Pradesh becomes the 18th Indian state
• January 30 - Musician and designer Eric Chamberlain is born
• January 31 - Apollo program: US spaceflight Apollo 14, commanded by Alan Shepard, lifts off on the third successful lunar landing mission