highlights

1971

President:   Richard Nixon
Vice President:   Spiro Agnew
Population of USA:       205,052,000 approx.
Life expectancy:  70.5 years
Unemployment 3.8%
Inflation Rate 4.3%
Dow Jones closes year at 890

Average Income	$ 10,600.00
Minimum wage	$ 1.40 per hour
Cost of new house	$ 25,250.00
Cost of new car	$ 3,579.00 (Dodge Charger), $ 1,866.00 (Datsun coupe)
Rent on 2 bedroom apt	$ 150.00 per mo.
Cost of 1st class stamp	$ .08
Cost of gallon of gas	$ .40 – .47
Price of a dozen eggs	$ .49
Price of gallon of milk	$ 1.03
Turkey	$ .43 per lb.
Price of Wranger jeans	$ 10.00
Price of movie ticket	$ 1.50
Cassette Recorder	$ 29.99
Price of Timex watch	$ 30.00 and up (Ladies dress watch)

NEWS of 1971

1. All in the Family debuts on CBS-TV with a disclaimer at the beginning of the program warning people that they might find certain “potentially offensive content”.  In the 2^ndmonth of the series, new neighbors are introduced to the Bunkers, The Jeffersons move in next door, but it isn’t until 1973 that you finally meet George Jefferson.
2. The final cigarette advertisements are televised on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on NBC. (January 1, 1971)
3. Idi Amin takes control of Uganda, beginning his reign of terror.
4. Attica Prison riots take place.  10 hostages and 29 inmates are killed (ATTICA ATTICA)
5. Charles Mason and 3 female members of “the Family” are found guilty of the 1969 Tate – LaBianca murders and sentenced to death.
6. Apollo 14 lands on the moon (Feb 5^th) returns to earth Feb 9^th.
7. The Sylmar earthquake in San Fernando CA measures 6.4 on Richter scale.
8. Feb 20^th, 50 tornados strike in Mississippi killing 74.
9. Evil Knievel sets world jump record and clears 19 cars (Jump by Van Halen would be funny here)
10. Joe Frazier beats Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Gardens
11. The Ed Sullivan Show airs it’s final show on March 28, 1971
12. Amtrak begins inter-city rail passenger service in the US
13. US ends trade embargo of China
14. The 26^th Amendment is signed into being on July 5^th, lowering the voting age to 18 yrs old from 21 yrs old.
15. July 16^th the World’s 4 billionth baby (that’s 4,000,000,000) is born.
16. August 6^th, a lunar eclipse lasting 1 hour, 40 minutes and 4 seconds is observed (becoming one of the longest lunar eclipses in history)
17. Construction begins on the Superdome in New Orleans
18. The first orca named “Shamu” dies
19. William H Rehnquist is nominated to the US Supreme Court
20. Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire
21. November 24^th, over Washington State in a thunderstorm a hijacker named D.B. Cooper jumps from a Northwest Orient plane with $200,000 in ransom money…………….never to be seen again.
22. The U.S. dollar is devalued (second time in history)
23. Crude Oil production in the United States reaches 4.5 million barrels a day.

New inventions of 1971

1. Magic Cubes by Sylvania
2. Hologram camera by Gaertner (sells for about $500)
3. Quartz Wrist watches from Seiko (Starting at $1,250.00)
4. Charles Hall, a California furniture designer sells his first Waterbed to King Koil Sleep Products
5. The 10 speed bike debuts
6. plastic KLACKER balls debut  (much to all parents disgust)
7. The Kodak XL movie camera debuts requiring no extra light for indoor filiming.
8. Home pregnancy tests are available in Britan
9. Kelvar is introduced

PEOPLE BORN IN 1971 (or How to feel really old!)

1. Taye Diggs
2. Mary J. Blige
3. Kid Rock
4. Shawn Wayans
5. Sara Evans (Country singer)
6. Denise Richards
7. Johnny Knoxville
8. Ewan McGregor
9. Picabo Street (Olympic skier)
10. Shannon Doherty
11. Jason Sehorn (I believe that he was originally from Redding CA)
12. Sofia Coppolla (Film producer)
13. Tony Stewart (race car driver)
14. Mark Wahlberg
15. Tupac Shakur
16. Missy Elliott
17. Kristi Yamaguchi (Olympic Ice Skater, and Champ-Dancing w/ the Stars)
18. Alison Krauss (amazing voice)
19. Tom Green (hate him)
20. Jeff Gordon (race car driver)
21. Pete Sampras (tennis pro)
22. Janet Evans (Olympic Swimmer, held most Golds before M. Phelps)
23. Brooke Burke (model, now on Dancing w/ stars)
24. Lance Armstrong (uh, do I need to say who he is?)
25. Jada Pinkett Smith (married to Will Smith)
26. Luke Wilson
27. Alfonso Riberio (Carlton on Fresh Prince)
28. Kevin Richardson (Backstreet Boys)
29. Sacha Baron Cohen
30. Snoop Doggy Dog
31. Winona Ryder
32. Christina Applegate
33. Ryan White (teenager who died in 1990 from AIDS)
34. Tyson Beckford (the “IT” male model)
35. Corey Haim
36. Ricky Martin (Livin La Vida Loca)

Famous Deaths in 1971

1. Coco Chanel (fashion designer)
2. Harold Lloyd (actor and film maker)
3. Thomas Dewey (Gov. of New York and Presidential candidate)
4. Joseph Valachi (gangster)
5. Igor Stravinsky (Russian composer)
6. Papa Doc Duvalier (president of Haiti)
7. Ogden Nash (poet)
8. Audie Murphy (WWII hero and actor)
9. Jim Morrison
10. Louis Armstrong (jazz trumpeter……..Hellooooooo Dolly)
11. Cliff Edwards (actor)
12. Duane Allman (The Allman Brothers and Derek & the Dominos)
13. Mac McDonald (the Original owner of McDonalds)
14. Pete Duel (Alias Smith & Jones) loved that show

What’s on TV in 1971  

1. Meet the Press
2. Truth or Consequences
3. American Bandstand
4. The Today Show
5. Guiding Light
6. The Tonight Show
7. Captain Kangaroo
8. Gunsmoke
9. The Lawrence Welk Show
10. Bonanza
11. My Three Sons
12. The Mike Douglas Show
13. Password (ended in 1967, but came back in 1971)
14. Bewitched
15. The Dick Cavett Show
16. It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown (1965-present)
17. The Dean Martin Show
18. Mission Impossible
19. Ironside
20. Mannix
21. The Carol Burnett Show
22. Hawaii Five O
23. Laugh In
24. The Mod Squad (Pete, Julie and Linc)
25. Hee Haw (1969-1993)
26. Love, American Style
27. McCloud
28. The Flip Wilson Show (the Devil made me do it!)
29. The Partridge Family
30. Monty Python’s Flying Circus

Shows that ended in 1971

Julia  (1968-1971)

Family Affair (1966-1971)

That Girl (1966-1971)

The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-1971)

Mayberry RFD (1960-1971)

Dark Shadows (1966-1971)

Hogan’s Heroes (1965-1971)

Green Acres (1965-1971)

The Ed Sullivan Show (1948-1971)

The Johnny Cash Show (1969-1971)

** CBS debuts it’s fall 1971 schedule and cancels, in the words of Pat Buttram “every show that has had a tree in it” referring to the family style shows that they have cancelled. ***

TOP MOVIE $$Makers of 1971

1. Summer of 42
2. Love Story
3. Ryans Daughter
4. The Owl & the Pussycat
5. The Aristocats (Disney)
6. French Connection
7. The Andromeda Strain

Newcomers of 1971

1. ABBA
2. Ann Wilson joins Heart
3. Donna Summer
4. Stevie Ray Vaughn
5. The Captain & Tennille
6. The Eagles
7. Michael Jackson goes solo
8. Rick Springfield goes solo (leaving the band Zoot)
9. Blue Oyster Cult
10. Carly Simon
11. Emerson, Lake & Palmer
12. Nazareth
13. Meatloaf

Debuts

1. The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts opens with Leonard Bernstein’s “ Mass”.
2. Walt Disney World in Florida opens on October 1, 1971
3. The UNIX Programmer’s Manual is published
4. The Libertarian Party is established
5. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse is established.
6. CBS airs “The Selling of the Pentagon Papers” documentary.
7. Masterpiece Theatre debuts on PBS
8. Sabrina the Teenage Witch debuts on Saturday morning cartoons
9. The Jackson 5 cartoon debuts on Saturday morning.
10. “The New Dick Van Dyke” show debuts
11. The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour debuts on CBS (1971-1974)
12. McMillian & Wife debut (1971-1979)
13. Colombo debuts (1971-1978)
14. Jesus Christ Superstar debuts
15. The Coca cola company introduces the “I’d Like to teach the world to sing” commercial

TOP Songs of 1971

Imagine by John Lennon (hit number 1 in over 15 countries)

My Sweet Lord by George Harrison

Maggie May by Rod Stewart.

Brown Sugar by The Rolling Stones

I Beg your Pardon by Lynn Anderson

Music Trivia for 1971

1. March 12-13, the Allman Brothers Band play their legendary concert at the Fillmore East.
2. Bill Graham (famous concert promoter) closes down the Fillmore East which opened March 8, 1968
3. July 3^rd, Jim Morrison (of the Doors) is found dead in his bathtub in Paris France.
4. 40,000 show up in New York City for the Concert for Bangladesh.
5. December 4^th.  Frank Zappa was performing at the Montreux Casino on Lake Geniva when a fan shot a flare gun into the ceiling causing the Casino to burn down.   TRIVIA:Deep Purple were going to perform there afterwards, but were sitting in their hotel room across the lake watching the Casino burn.  They wrote “Smoke on the Water” memorializing the event.
6. Eric Burdon & War disband, they do not perform together until April 21, 2008 at the Royal Hall in London
7. Alan David Passaro, a Hells Angel who was acquitted of stabbing to death, Meredith Hunter, tries to sue the Rolling Stones for “Invasion of privacy” because the Documentary Gimme Shelter shows the stabbing. (the nerve of them filming a documentary right as he goes to stab someone)
8. March 5^th, Led Zeppelin play their iconic song “Stairway to Heaven” at the Ulster Hall in Belfast Northern Ireland (debut of song)