The following events occurred in February 1971:
February 1, 1971 (Monday) The Soviet Union opened the Institute for Management of the National Economy, the first school in a Communist nation for business administration and for management science, long rejected as a feature of Western capitalism. The institute was inaugurated within the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics and had been lobbied for by Dzhermen Gvishiani, the Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Science and Technology (GKNT). Uganda's President Idi Amin ordered the dismissal of all municipal and village officials in the central African nation, firing every mayor and district councilmen because they had been appointed under the regime of the previous president, Milton Obote. People identified with Obote's political party, the Uganda People's Congress, were attacked throughout the nation. The Hague Conference on Private International Law passed its convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters.HCCH: Full text British commercial diver Michael Lally died of hypothermia and drowning due to a decompression problem while conducting a surface-orientated dive in the North Sea from the semi-submersible drill rig Ocean Viking. Another British diver, Michael Brushneen, would die exactly one month later during a dive from the same rig. Died: Raoul Hausmann, 84, Austrian artist and writer Harry Roy, 71, English bandleader Amet-khan Sultan, 50, Crimean Tatar fighting ace for the Soviet Air Force, killed in the crash of a Tupolev Tu-16 he was piloting.
February 2, 1971 (Tuesday) The Ramsar Convention (the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat), an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands, was signed by representatives of seven nations in Ramsar, Mazandaran, Iran.Ramsar By its terms, the treaty went into effect on December 21, 1975. February 2 is now regularly observed by environmentalists as World Wetlands Day. The signing came on the same day that a meeting in the Iranian capital of Tehran, between the 10-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and representatives of 22 oil companies to negotiate a price rise in oil."Talks on Oil Prices Collapse in Teheran", The New York Times, February 3, 1971, p1 Eight days after leading a coup d'état, General Idi Amin Dada ordered the dissolution of the Ugandan Parliament and declared himself President of Uganda, assuming all executive and legislative authority and pledging to begin rule by decree."Ugandan Leader Ousts Parliament— General Assumes Executive and Legislative Powers", The New York Times, February 3, 1971, p8
February 3, 1971 (Wednesday) In Tehran, the representatives of the ten OPEC member states adopted the "XXII Conference Resolution", in which each nation pledged that by February 15, they would have in place the necessary regulatory or legislative measures necessary to implement an embargo on shipments of crude oil to any of the 22 oil companies that failed to accept payment of a 55% tax, with the cutoff of oil to take place on February 21. The companies signed the agreement with the OPEC nations on February 14.Thomas M. Rees, Oil Imports and Energy Security: An Analysis of the Current Situation and Future Prospects, Report of the U.S. House Ad Hoc Committee on the Domestic and International Monetary Effect of Energy and Other Natural Resource Pricing, (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1974) p50 Eight people were killed by the explosion of a gas pipeline in Lambertville, New Jersey at about 8:00 in the morning, two hours after they had escaped injury in an earlier explosion in the same area. An explosion at the Thiokol chemical plant near Woodbine, Georgia, killed 29 employees and seriously injured 50 others. The explosion, believed to have been due to a fire caused by tripflares being manufactured by Thiokol for use in the ongoing Vietnam War, occurred at 10:53 in the morning. Died: Jay C. Flippen, 71, US actor
February 4, 1971 (Thursday) The British luxury car and jet engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce declared bankruptcy, after sustaining financial losses in developing the engine for the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar jumbo jet under a misjudged price contract agreement."Rolls-Royce Is Bankrupt; Blames Lockheed Project", by John M. Lee, The New York Times, February 5, 1971, p1 The British government would subsequently nationalise the Rolls engine operations as a matter of national security and British pride. Died: Brock Chisholm, 74, Canadian World War I veteran, physician and first Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO)
February 5, 1971 (Friday)
At 0918 UTC (4:05 a.m. Eastern Time), the Apollo 14 mission commanded by Alan Shepard, achieved the third crewed lunar landing."2 Astronauts Land on Moon; Prepare to Explore Surface", by John Noble Wilford, The New York Times, February 5, 1971, p1 The lunar module Antares on the Apollo 14 mission, landed on the Moon near the Fra Mauro crater, the site that Apollo 13 had intended to explore. Stuart Roosa remained in orbit on the command module Kitty Hawk. At 9:49 a.m. Eastern (1449 UTC), Shepard set foot on the Moon,"2 Astronauts Walk and Work for Hours on Moon's Surface", The New York Times, February 6, 1971, p1 and then he and Edgar Mitchell began deploying scientific equipment. They were the first Apollo crew to use the Modular Equipment Transporter (MET), a two-wheeled cart used to carry equipment. While on the Moon, Shepard surprised television viewers around the world by driving two golf balls, in the lesser lunar gravity, with a makeshift golf club. The beginning of the week of the Hajj, the required pilgrimage to Mecca as one of the Five Pillars of Islam, attracted a record number of believers at its start on the 9th day of Dhu al-Hijjah, with more than one million Saudis and foreign Muslims starting from Mount Ararat to reach Mecca. The growth of the number of pilgrims followed improvements in the Saudi transportation infrastructure, including an expansion of the Jeddah airport that could accommodate 120 aircraft landings and 10,000 visitors per day."Refurbished Mecca Draws More Pilgrims Than Ever for the Hadj", by Eric Pace, The New York Times, February 6, 1971, p10 The first performance of the musical Grease took place at the Kingston Mines Theater in Chicago, with music and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey."Night Scene: Women wowing 'em in the spotlights' glow", Chicago Tribune, February 5, 1971, p. 2-2 The show would move to New York City and become a long-running hit on Broadway and a popular film. The 28th Golden Globe Awards ceremony was held by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. Love Story and M*A*S*H won the awards for motion pictures for best drama and best musical or comedy. George C. Scott (for Patton) and Ali MacGraw (for Love Story) won the Best Actor and Best Actress Awards for a Motion Picture Drama, respectively, and Albert Finney (for Scrooge) and Carrie Snodgress (for Diary of a Mad Housewife) won the top acting awards for Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Medical Center and The Carol Burnett Show won the Golden Globes for Best TV Drama and Best TV Comedy."Golden Globe Awards", by Dan Knapp, Los Angeles Times, pIV-1 Born: Peter Cipollone, American Olympic oarsman and coxswain of the U.S. gold medal-winning team in 2004; in Marietta, Ohio Died: Mátyás Rákosi, 78, General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party from 1948 to 1956 until his forced removal under pressure from the Soviet Union prior to the Hungarian Revolution.
February 6, 1971 (Saturday) An earthquake in Italy's Lazio region killed 31 people in the city of Tuscania."Quake Kills 14, Injures 100 in City in Central Italy", The New York Times, February 7, 1971, p1 Gunner Robert Curtis became the first British Army soldier to die in the Northern Ireland Conflict (referred to colloquially as "The Troubles") between the majority Protestant and minority Catholic residents of Northern Ireland, and between supporters and opponents of the area remaining within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland rather than as a part of the Republic of Ireland."British Reinforce Troops in Belfast— Fly 600 Men There After 4 Civilians and a Soldier Are Killed in Rioting", The New York Times, February 7, 1971, p1Larkspirit Irish History A fire broke out at Mike's Grocery in Wilmington, North Carolina, the product of a firebomb, followed by riots, and leading to the wrongful conviction of the "Wilmington Ten". In 1972, the men would be convicted of arson and conspiracy after prosecutorial misconduct, and receive sentences ranging from 15 to 34 years in prison."February 1971— The Wilmington Ten", This Month in North Carolina History, University of North Carolina Libraries The sentences would be reduced in 1978 by the state Governor, and in 1980, the convictions would be overturned by a federal court which concluded that prosecutors had suppressed evidence. Finally, on December 31, 2012, almost 42 years after the initial crime, the Wilmington Ten would be pardoned by North Carolina governor Beverly Perdue."North Carolina Governor Pardons Wilmington 10", Prison Legal News (January 2013) p45 At the first open gathering of gay women and men in Australia, held at Balmain, New South Wales, John Ware and Christabel Poll formally organized Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP), the first LGBT rights advocacy in Australia."Australia's queer history", by Robert French, O&G Magazine (Summer 2018) Apollo 14's lunar module successfully lifted off from the Moon's surface at 1:49 p.m. Eastern time (1837 UTC) and was reunited with the command module piloted by Stuart Roosa for the return voyage to Earth."Two Astronauts Lift Off from Moon, Rejoin Command Ship and Head Home", The New York Times, February 7, 1971, p1
February 7, 1971 (Sunday) In a referendum in Switzerland, male voters approved giving Swiss women the right to vote in national elections and the right to hold federal office, by a margin of 65.7% to 34.3%."Swiss Women Given the Federal Vote", by Thomas J. Hamilton, The New York Times, February 7, 1971, p1 In local elections, voting was still prohibited in eight the 22 cantons opposed could still prohibit women from voting in national elections. Wladyslaw Gomulka was expelled from the Central Committee of the Polish Communist Party, which criticized the former General Secretary of the Polish United Workers Party for "serious mistakes in recent years"."Poles Suspend Gomulka From Highest Party Body", by James Feron, The New York Times, February 8, 1971, p1 Gomulka had already been removed as the leader of the Party (the de facto leader of the nation in the Communist-controlled state) and from the Politburo on December 20.
February 8, 1971 (Monday) NASDAQ, a new stock exchange of the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations, began operations in New York, initially as the reporter of the NASDAQ Composite Index which consisted of "securities less widely held or those that, for other reasons, do not appear on the daily Over-the Counter list"."Supplementary Over-Counter List", The New York Times, February 8, 1971, p52 The first list was of price quotations of companies publicly listed ranging from the wholesale pharmaceutical seller AmerisourceBergen Corporation (ABC) to the meatpacking company Zemco Industries (ZemcoInd), now a division of Tyson Foods.