World Events

Population: 3.860 billion

President Nixon makes unprecedented eight-day visit to Communist China and meets with Mao Zedong (Feb. 17).

Britain takes over direct rule of Northern Ireland in bid for peace (March 24).

Eleven Israeli athletes at Olympic Games in Munich are killed after eight members of an Arab terrorist group invades Olympic Village; five guerrillas and one policeman are also killed (Sept. 5).

Nixon orders "Christmas bombing" of North Vietnam (Dec.). Background: Vietnam War


U.S. Events

President: Richard M. Nixon

Vice President: Spiro T. Agnew

Population: 209,896,021

Life expectancy: 71.2 years

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 39.6

Property Crime Rate (per 1,000): 35.6

US GDP (1998 dollars): $1,237.30 billion

Federal spending: $230.68 billion

Federal debt: $435.9 billion

Median Household Income

(current dollars): $9,697

Consumer Price Index: 41.8

Unemployment: 5.9%

Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.08

Gov. George C. Wallace of Alabama is shot by Arthur H. Bremer at Laurel, Md., political rally (May 15).

Five men are apprehended by police in attempt to bug Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C.’s Watergate complex—start of the Watergate scandal (June 17).

US Supreme Court rules that death penalty is unconstitutional (June 29).


Sports

Super Bowl

Dallas d. Miami (24-3)

World Series

Oakland A's d. Cincinnati (4-3)

NBA Championship

LA Lakers d. New York (4-1)

Stanley Cup

Boston d. NY Rangers (4-2)

Wimbledon

Women: Billie Jean King d. E. Goolagong (6-3 6-3)

Men: Stan Smith d. I. Nastase (4-6 6-3 6-3 4-6 7-5)

Kentucky Derby Champion

Riva Ridge

NCAA Basketball Championship

UCLA d. Florida St. (81-76)

NCAA Football Champions

USC (12-0-0)


Entertainment

Pulitzer Prizes

Fiction: Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner

Music: Windows, Jacob Druckman

Oscars awarded in 1972

Academy Award, Best Picture: The French Connection, Philip D'Antoni, producer (Twentieth Century-Fox)

Nobel Prize for Literature: Heinrich Böll (Germany)

Grammy Awards

Record of the Year: It's Too Late - Carole King

Album of the Year: Tapestry - Carole King (Ode)

Song of the Year: You've Got a Friend - Carole King, songwriter

Miss America: Laurie Lea Schaefer (OH)

Time Inc. transmits HBO, the first pay cable network.

Women dominate the 1971 Grammy Awards, taking all four top categories. Carole King won Record, Album and Song of the Year, while Carly Simon takes the Best New Artist award.

The National Institute of Mental Health and the surgeon general issue a report that claims exposure to violence on television fosters aggression in children.

Gloria Steinem's Ms magazine debuts.

M*A*S*H premieres on CBS.

Atari introduces the arcade version of Pong, the first video game. The home version comes out in 1974.

Movies

The Godfather, Deliverance, Cabaret, Sleuth, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

Books

John Ashberry, Three Poems

John Gardner, The Sunlight Dialogues

Maxine Kumin, Up Country

James Merrill, Braving the Elements

Eudora Welty, The Optimist's Daughter


Science

Nobel Prizes in Science

Chemistry: Christian Boehmer Anfinsen, Stanford Moore, and William Howard Stein (all US), for pioneering studies in enzymes.

Physics: John Bardeen, Leon N. Cooper, and John Robert Schrieffer (all US), for theory of superconductivity, where electrical resistance in certain metals vanishes above absolute zero temperature.

Physiology or Medicine: Gerald M. Edelman (US), and Rodney R. Porter (UK), for research on the chemical structure and nature of antibodies.

CAT (Computerized Axial Tomography) scanning is developed in England.

The compact disk is developed by RCA (US).

The antidepressant Prozac (fluoxetine) is developed by Bryan B. Malloy (Scotland) and Klaus K. Schmiegel (US). Background: Health & Nutrition.

The video disk is introduced by Philips Company (Netherlands).

Electronic mail is introduced. Queen Elizabeth will send her first email in 1976. Background: Computers and Internet.

Apollo XVII, the last manned moon landing to date, returns to Earth with 250 pounds of lunar samples. Background: US Staffed Space Flights.


Deaths

Gil Hodges

J. Edgar Hoover

Harry S. Truman