* Atlas Computer ( Manchester ) ( 1962 – 1971 ), an early computer built at the University of Manchester

* 1971 – Lou Merloni, American baseball player

* 1971 – Sanjay Suri, Indian actor and model

* 1971 – Nick Hexum, American singer and musician ( 311 )

* 1971 – Nicholas Brendon, American actor

* 1971 – Shannen Doherty, American actress, producer, director, and author

* 1971 – John Boyne, Irish novelist

* 1971 – Darren Emerson, English DJ ( Underworld )

* 1971 – An attempted coup fails in the African nation of Chad.

* 1971 – Julian Cheung, Hong Kong actor and singer

* 1971 – Ernest Faber, Dutch footballer and coach

* 1971 – Aygül Özkan, German politician

* 1882 – Ernst Eklund, Swedish actor ( d. 1971 )

* 1886 – Edward Ballantine, American composer ( d. 1971 )

* 1971 – Merrin Dungey, American actress

* 1971 – Scott Minto, English footballer

* 1971 – Piyal Wijetunge, Sri Lankan cricketer

* 1971 – The Troubles: The British security forces in Northern Ireland launch Operation Demetrius.

* 1971 – Mack 10, American rapper and actor ( Westside Connection )

* 1971 – James Kim, American journalist and technology expert ( d. 2006 )

* 1971 – Mark Povinelli, American actor

* 1971 – Davide Rebellin, Italian cyclist

* 1971 – Nikki Ziering, American model and actress

* 1943 – Michael Willetts, English soldier, George Cross recipient ( d. 1971 )

* 1971 – Moritz Bleibtreu, German actor

* 1971 – President Richard Nixon completes the break from the gold standard by ending convertibility of the United States dollar into gold by foreign investors.

* 1956 – 1971 Richard van der Riet Woolley

* 1971 – President Richard Nixon announces his decision to increase the rate of American troop withdrawals from Vietnam.

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act ( ANCSA ) was signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon on December 23, 1971, the largest land claims settlement in United States history.

* 1971 – Richard Krajicek, Dutch tennis player

Pitcher J. R. Richard made his debut in September of the 1971 season against the Giants.

* 1971 – President Richard Nixon declares the U. S. War on Drugs.

* 1971 – Right to vote: the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 years, is formally certified by President Richard Nixon.

* Henderson, James M .; Quandt, Richard E. 1971: Microeconomic Theory-A Mathematical Approach.

Examples include Piet Mondrian's Dam and Ocean ( 1915 ), Joan Miró's Labyrinth ( 1923 ), Pablo Picasso's Minotauromachia ( 1935 ), M. C. Escher's Relativity ( 1953 ), Friedensreich Hundertwasser's Labyrinth ( 1957 ), Jean Dubuffet's Logological Cabinet ( 1970 ), Richard Long's Connemara sculpture ( 1971 ), Joe Tilson's Earth Maze ( 1975 ), Richard Fleischner's Chain Link Maze ( 1978 ), István Orosz's Atlantis Anamorphosis ( 2000 ), Dmitry Rakov's Labyrinth ( 2003 ), and Labyrinthine projection by contemporary American artist Mo Morales ( 2000 ).

* 1971 – Vietnam War: as part of Vietnamization, US President Richard M. Nixon sets February 1, 1972 as the deadline for the removal of another 45, 000 American troops from Vietnam.

A 1971 college production was coincidentally also the first college performance by later-acclaimed Shakespearean actor Richard Hauenstein.

The 20th century saw a gradual movement to fiat currency, with most of the world monetary system losing its link to precious metals after Richard Nixon took the United States dollar off the gold standard in 1971 ; the last currency backed by gold was the Swiss franc, which became a pure fiat currency on 1 May 2000.

* 1971 – Richard Ashcroft, English singer-songwriter ( The Verve and RPA & The United Nations of Sound )

In the same month of December 1971, when Richard Nixon sent a carrier battle group led by the into the Bay of Bengal in an attempt to intimidate India, the Soviet Union responded by sending a submarine armed with nuclear missiles from Vladivostok to trail the US task force.

* Ryder, Richard D. ( 1971 ).

Then, on August 15, 1971, United States President Richard Nixon announced that the United States dollar would no longer be convertible to gold, effectively ending the system.

* Tristan da Cunha is the site of a top-secret nuclear disarmament conference in Fletcher Knebel's 1968 political thriller Vanished which was adapted into a 1971 two-part NBC made-for-TV movie starring Richard Widmark.

Richard Nixon meeting with the Washington Redskins football team, November 23, 1971.

** American President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, banning cigarette television advertisements in the United States with effect from January 1, 1971.

This, along with the fiscal strain of federal expenditures for the Vietnam War and persistent balance of payments deficits, led President Richard Nixon to end the direct convertibility of the dollar to gold on August 15, 1971, resulting in the system's breakdown ( the " Nixon Shock ").

ABC News commentator Howard K. Smith with Richard Nixon in 1971.

Her first marriage to Michael Attenborough, the son of British film actor / director Richard Attenborough, lasted from 1971 to 1973.