February 1971 ....more

Feb 2nd - Idi Amin ousts Milton Obote to become dictator of Uganda

Feb 3rd - KTSC TV channel 8 in Pueblo-Colorado Spgs, CO (PBS) 1st broadcast

Feb 3rd - There is a series of house searches by the British Army in Catholic areas of Belfast, resulting in serious rioting and gun battles

Feb 3rd - OPEC mandates "total embargo" against any company that rejects 55 percent tax rate

Feb 4th - Baseball announces a special hall of fame wing for blacks

Feb 4th - British car maker Rolls Royce declared itself bankrupt

Feb 4th - Government exhibit under construction in Brazil collapses, kills 65

Feb 4th - National Guard mobilized to quell rioting in Wilmington NC

Feb 4th - Lieutenant-General Vernon Erskine-Crum becomes General Officer Commanding of the British Army in Northern Ireland

Feb 5th - Apollo 14, 3rd US manned Moon expedition, lands near Fra Mauro Alan Shepard & Edward Mitchell (Apollo 14) walk on Moon for 4 hrs

Feb 6th - 1st time a golf ball is hit on Moon (by Alan Shepard)

Feb 6th - Bernard Watt (28), a Catholic civilian, is shot and killed by the British Army (BA) during street disturbances in Ardoyne, Belfast

Feb 6th - The Irish Republican Army shoots and kills Gunner Robert Curtis, the first British soldier to die during the 'Troubles'

Feb 6th - James Saunders (22), a member of the IRA, is shot and killed by the British Army during a gun battle near the Oldpark Road, Belfast

Feb 7th - Switzerland votes in women's suffrage

Feb 8th - Pedro Morales beats Ivan Koloff in NY, to become WWF wrestling champ

Feb 8th - South Vietnamese troops invade Laos

Feb 8th - The Nasdaq stock market index debuts.

Feb 9th - Apollo 14 returns to Earth

Feb 9th - Probably 1st gay theme TV episode - All in the Family

Feb 9th - Quake in San Fernando Valley kills 64 & causes over $½B damage

Feb 9th - Satchel Paige becomes 1st negro-league player elected to baseball HOF

Feb 9th - 5 men are killed near a BBC transmitter on Brougher Mountain, County Tyrone, in a landmine attack carried out by the Irish Republican Army

Feb 10th - American Mensa Ltd incorporates in New York

Feb 10th - Bill White becomes 1st African American baseball announcer (NY Yankees)

Feb 10th - John Guares "House of Blue Leaves," premieres in NYC

Feb 10th - Royal Albert Hall bans scheduled concert featuring Frank Zappa

Feb 11th - Montreal Canadien John Believau scores his 500th NHL goal

Feb 11th - US, UK, USSR, others sign Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons

Feb 12th - Only Test Cricket for Ken Eastwood, who scored 5 & 0 Aust v England

Feb 13th - 12,000 South Vietnamese troops cross into Laos

Feb 13th - Golfing VP Spiro Agnew hits 2 tee shots into crowd, injuring 2

Feb 14th - Movie "Ben Hur" 1st shown on television

Feb 14th - Tehran agreement signed; oil companies accept 55 percent tax rate, immediate increase in posted prices, and further successive increases

Feb 15th - After 1,200 years Great Britain abandons 12-shilling system for the decimal currency

Feb 15th - A British soldier dies

 7 days after being mortally wounded in an Irish Republican Army attack in North Ireland

Feb 17th - England regains cricket Ashes with a 2-0 series win

Feb 19th - Paul McCartney releases "Another Day" in UK

Feb 19th - Walt Wesley becomes 1st Cleve Cavalier to score 50 pts in a game

Feb 20th - Bruin Phil Esposito is NHL's quickest to score 50 goals in a season

NHL Center Phil EspositoNHL Center Phil Esposito Feb 20th - Maj General Idi Amin Dada appoints himself president of Uganda 

Feb 20th - Natl Emergency Center erroneously orders US radio & TV stations to go off the air. Mistake wasn't resolved for 30 minutes

Feb 21st - Ruth Jessen wins LPGA Sears Women's World Golf Classic

Feb 21st - Series of tornadoes cuts through Miss & La killing 117

Feb 21st - The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.

Feb 22nd - Lt Gen Hafiz al-Assad becomes President of Syria

Feb 23rd - Boston Bruins begin 13 NHL game win streak

Feb 23rd - George Harrison is fined & his driving license is suspended for 1 year

Feb 23rd - Lt Calley confessed & implicates Captain Medina

Feb 24th - Algeria nationalizes 51 percent of French oil concessions

Feb 25th - "Oh! Calcutta!" opens at Belasco Theater NYC for 1,316 performances

Feb 25th - P Zindel's "And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little," premieres in NYC

Feb 25th - Northern Ireland Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark holds a meeting with Catholic Cardinal of Ireland William Conway, the first such meeting between men holding these offices since 1921

Feb 26th - Secretary-General U Thant signs United Nations proclamation of the vernal equinox as Earth Day.

Feb 26th - Two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers are shot and killed by the Irish Republican Army while on a mobile patrol in the Ardoyne area of Belfast, North Ireland

Feb 27th - Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic (the Mildredhuis in Arnhem) start to perform aborti provocati.

Feb 28th - WDRB TV channel 41 in Louisville, KY (IND) begins broadcasting

Golfer Jack NicklausGolfer Jack Nicklaus Feb 28th - 53rd PGA Championship: Jack Nicklaus shoots a 281 at PGA Natl FL Jack Nicklaus wins his 2nd golf grand slam

Feb 28th - A British soldier dies in Derry after his vehicle had been attacked with petrol bombs (he died as a resul