What happened in 1971

“Joy To The World”

Three Dog Night · 6 weeks at #1 in 1971

▶

Tap the cover for a 30-second preview

Spotify ↗Apple Music ↗YouTube ↗

1. Jan 2My Sweet Lord/Isn't It A PityGeorge Harrison3 wks
2. Jan 23Knock Three TimesDawn3 wks
3. Feb 13One Bad AppleThe Osmonds5 wks
4. Mar 20Me And Bobby McGeeJanis Joplin2 wks
5. Apr 3Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)The Temptations2 wks
6. Apr 17Joy To The WorldThree Dog Night6 wks
7. May 29Brown SugarThe Rolling Stones2 wks
8. Jun 12Want AdsThe Honey Cone1 wk
9. Jun 19It's Too Late/I Feel The Earth MoveCarole King5 wks
10. Jul 24Indian Reservation (The Lament Of The Cherokee Reservation Indian)The Raiders1 wk
11. Jul 31You've Got A FriendJames Taylor1 wk
12. Aug 7How Can You Mend A Broken HeartBee Gees4 wks
13. Sep 4Uncle Albert/Admiral HalseyPaul & Linda McCartney1 wk
14. Sep 11Go Away Little GirlDonny Osmond3 wks
15. Oct 2Maggie May/Reason To BelieveRod Stewart5 wks
16. Nov 6Gypsys, Tramps & ThievesCher2 wks
17. Nov 20Theme From ShaftIsaac Hayes2 wks
18. Dec 4Family AffairSly & The Family Stone3 wks
19. Dec 25Brand New KeyMelanie1 wk

Dates are the first chart week at #1 in 1971; weeks count only those in 1971.Find the #1 song on your birthday →

1. Jan 25Charles Manson and four "Family" members (three of them female) are found guilty of the 1969 Tate–LaBianca murders.
2. Feb 9An earthquake registering 6.6 Mw struck the northern San Fernando Valley near the Los Angeles district of Sylmar, killing 65 people.
3. Apr 19Charles Manson is sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment) for conspiracy in the Tate–LaBianca murders.
4. Jun 6Hughes Airwest Flight 706 collided with a US Marine Corps jet near Duarte, California, killing 50 people.
5. Jun 13The New York Times published the first excerpts from the Pentagon Papers, a 7,000-page classified Department of Defense history of the United States' political and military involvement in the Vietnam War.
6. Aug 1The Concert for Bangladesh, a pair of benefit concerts organised by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar for refugees of the Bangladesh genocide, took place at Madison Square Garden in New York.
7. Aug 14Bahrain declares independence from Britain.
8. Aug 15President Richard Nixon completes the break from the gold standard by ending convertibility of the United States dollar into gold by foreign investors.
9. Aug 18Vietnam War: Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from Vietnam.
10. Sep 3Qatar becomes an independent state.
11. Sep 21Bahrain, Bhutan and Qatar join the United Nations.
12. Oct 1Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida.
13. Nov 18Oman declares its independence from the United Kingdom.
14. Nov 24After collecting a ransom payout of $200,000, D. B. Cooper (depicted) parachuted out of the rear stairway of the airplane he had hijacked over the Pacific Northwest and disappeared.

Event summaries from Wikipedia’s “On this day”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Each links to its article.

• U.S. President

  Richard Nixon

• UK Prime Minister

  Edward Heath

• Prime Minister of Canada

  Pierre Trudeau

• President of France

  Georges Pompidou

• German Chancellor

  Willy Brandt

• Prime Minister of Japan

  Eisaku Satō

• Soviet leader

  Leonid Brezhnev

Everyone who held the office at some point in 1971, from Wikidata.

A selection of the best-documented titles on Wikidata, by first release year; not a box-office ranking.

• Jeremy RennerAmerican actor · Jan 7
• Mary J. BligeAmerican singer-songwriter, producer, and actress · Jan 11
• Regina KingAmerican actress · Jan 15
• Kid RockAmerican singer-songwriter, producer, and actor · Jan 17
• Jonathan DavisAmerican singer-songwriter · Jan 18
• Shawn WayansAmerican actor, producer, and screenwriter · Jan 19
• Michael C. HallAmerican actor and producer · Feb 1
• Denise RichardsAmerican model and actress · Feb 17
• Sean AstinAmerican actor, director and producer · Feb 25
• Peter SarsgaardAmerican actor · Mar 7

From Wikipedia’s “On this day”, CC BY-SA 4.0.