April 4
Play ball! Philadelphia’s new Veterans Stadium (right) opens for business on this day and hosts a Phillies home opener on April 10. Though the City of Philadelphia has high hopes for its artificially turfed multi-purpose venue, players and fans alike complain that its odd shape makes it ideal for neither baseball or football. The stadium is scene of the 1980 Phillies World Series triumph.

May 5
Thousands are imprisoned in the Washington Coliseum when 12,000 are arrested during three days of anti-war protests in the Washington, DC.

June 30
The New York Times and Washington Post are given permission by The Supreme Court to resume publication of the Pentagon Papers.

July 1
The Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.

July 3
Live Fast - Die Young III
Jim Morrison, leader of the Los Angeles based rock band, The Doors is found dead in his bathtub in Paris, France. Drugs are suspected in his untimely demise. His tomb in Paris will become a graffiti covered shrine for traveling rockers.

August 15
A Wage and Tax Freeze is issued for 90 days by President Nixon.

September 3
The Anglo-French Concorde (right) makes its first transatlantic crossing. The flight takes 3 hours 30 minutes.

September 3
Burglars break into a psychiatrist's office to find files on Daniel Ellsberg, a former defense analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers to newspapers. The burglars are later linked to the White House as part of the so-called plumbers, a unit designed to stop leaks of sensitive information.

October 1
Walt Disney World opens in Orlando, Florida.

November 24
Northwest Airlines flight skyjacker "D.B. Cooper" parachutes from a Boeing 727 somewhere over Washington state wilderness with $200,000 in ransom. Neither Cooper nor the money are ever found. The sketch at left is all the FBI have to go by in their search for the skydiving extortionist.

ALSO IN 1971:
Newspapers switch from hot metal letterpress to the faster offset printing process.

To halt increasing inflation America abandons the Gold Standard.

3-2-1 Blast off! Apollo missions 14 and 15 explore the Moon.

The CAT Scan is invented

The first VCR is introduced to TV fans looking for an alternative to real time viewing.

The term "Silicon Valley" is coined by a journalist for Santa Clara Valley, California, referring to the boom of high tech industries that have located there.

Gasoline is 44¢ per gallon, an average new US made car will set you back $2,700. The stamp on the envelope in which you send your monthly payment is 8¢.

What's On TV
The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour premieres on TV. Archie Bunker rules the Top TV Show spot with Norman Lear’s groundbreaking All In The Family (right)...British TV series are first broadcast over PBS via Masterpiece Theater.