Victim, released August 31, 1961 in the United Kingdom, is the first English-speaking film to explicitly name homosexuality and deal with it "sympathetically". It helped with changing attitudes towards LGBT persons in Great Britain.
Dirk Bogarde stars as a successful barrister in London and is blackmailed for being gay. Upon its release, it was considered controversial to the British Board of Film Censors, and the American Motion Picture Production Code refused a seal of approval. It received critical acclaim and is now considered a British classic.
Dreamy, heartthrob Jeremy Renner, born January 7, 1971 in Modesto, California, is probably best known for his portrayal of Hawkeye of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Avengers. He was nominated for a Saturn Award for his performance in Avengers: Endgame. He has been nominated for numerous awards for his work in The Hurt Locker and The Town.
Luna 19, launched September 28, 1971 by the Soviet Union, was sent to the moon to carry out studies of gravitational fields, the radiation environment, and solar wind. Luna 19 entered a parking orbit around Earth and headed toward the moon October 2.
Luna 19 studied the moon until contact was lost November 1, 1972.
Three Dog Night released Liar, the follow-up single to their mega-hit Joy to the World July 10, 1971. It was the second single from their fifth studio album Naturally. Liar was written by Russ Ballard and his band Argent released it in 1970 on their self-title debut album but it did not chart.
In the US, Three Dog Night's Liar reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at #4 in Canada.
Simon & Garfunkels' mega-hit Bridge Over Troubled Water won a whopping 6 Grammy Awards at the 13th annual ceremony held March 16, 1971. It swept the top 3: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year. It also won Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists Larry Knechtel and Paul Simon; Best Contemporary Song; and Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical for Roy Halee.
Billy Joel released his debut album Cold Spring Harbor November 1, 1971. A mixing error in post-production caused the songs to be played slightly faster, making Billy's voice sound a little high. It did not perform well and only reached #158 on the US Billboard 200.
He recorded and released live versions of She's Got a Way and Everybody Loves You on his Songs in the Attic album in 1981. She's Got a Way was released as a single in 1982 and peaked at #23 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
I remember first seeing Winona Ryder (born October 29, 1971 in Winona, Minnesota) in Heathers and reading all the rave reviews about her acting, especially after her performance in Mermaids, which I did not see.
I guess I became a bigger fan when I saw her in Alien: Resurrection and then in the Star Trek reboot as Spock's mother, Amanda Grayson. But what cemented it for me was her performance in Stranger Things. I think she did an amazing job and is underappreciated for her work.
She has been nominated for two Academy Awards and has been nominated for Golden Globes for her performance in Stranger Things. For Alien: Resurrection she got a nomination for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress and a nomination as Worst Supporting Actress from the Stinker Bad Movies Award.
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music for Mark Warren at the 23rd ceremony held May 9, 1971.
The show was nominated for Outstanding Variety Series - Musical, but lost to the Flip Wilson Show.
Disney World, now the Magic Kingdom, opened its gates October 1, 1971 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida near Orlando. Today the area includes Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. Epcot opened October 1, 1982.
It was the most visited vacation resort in the world in 2018, but in 2020, the coronavirus pandemic hit, and the parks had to close for a time.
Aleksey Ovchinin, born September 28, 1971 in the former USSR, is a veteran of two space mission and one aborted flight.
His first flight was aboard Soyuz TMA-20M as commander to the International Space Station in March 2016. He participated in Expeditions 47 and 48 before returning to Earth in September 2016.
His second flight was aboard Soyuz MS-10 as commander in October 2018, but the mission was aborted just after launch because the launch vehicle boosters failed. He and fellow astronaut Nick Hague returned to Earth safely.
His third mission was aboard Soyuz MS-12 to the International Space Station in March 2019. He participated in Expedition 59 and made commander of Expedition 60. He returned to Earth in October 2019.
Shortly before the crew of Apollo 15 (Commander David Scott, Alfred Worden, James Irwin) left the moon after a successful mission, they launched a "subsatellite", the Apollo 15 Particles and Fields Subsatellite (PFS-1), August 4, 1971. Its main objectives were to study the plasma, particle and magnetic field of the moon. PFS-1 transmitted data until January 1973. A series of failures resulted in the termination from the ground support. It's assumed that it crashed on the moon sometime after that.
Airport, based on the novel by Arthur Haley, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, April 15, 1971. Helen Hayes took home the award for her role as Ada Quonsett, the lovable stowaway. Released in May 1970, Airport received ten nominations, but won only one Oscar.
It was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing.
Maureen Stapleton was also nominated Best Supporting Actress for her role as Inez Guerrero.
Michael Crichton's best-selling novel The Andromeda Strain was brought to the big screen by director Robert Wise March 12, 1971. It starred Arthur Hill, David Wayne, James Olson and Kate Reid.
It was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Film Editing.
John Stewart as Green Lantern is DC Comics first African-American superhero, first appearing in the December 1971/January 1972 issue of Green Lantern Vol 2, #87. Neil Adams, an artist for DC, came up with the idea of a substitute Green Lantern and had a discussion with editor Julius Schwarz. The decision to make John Stewart black stemmed from that conversation in which Adams said "we ouught to have a black Green Lantern, not because we're liberals, but because it just makes sense".
Oleg Novitskiy, born October 12, 1971 in Belarus, has been in space twice.
His first trip into space was as commander of Soyuz TMA-06M in October 2012 to the International Space Station. He remained on board for Expeditions 33 and 34. He returned to Earth in March 2013.
His second trip was aboard Soyuz MS-03 as commander in November 2016 to the ISS. He was part of the crews of Expeditions 50 and 51, returning to Earth in June 2017.
Roman Romanenko, born August 9, 1971 in the former Soviet Union, is a cosmonaut and a veteran of two expeditions on the International Space Station. His father is cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko, a Soyuz and Mir cosmonaut.
Romanenko's first trip into space was aboard Soyuz TMA-15 to the ISS in May 2009, where he became part of Expeditions 20 and 21. He was the third second-generation astronaut after Sergey Volkov and Richard Garriott.
His second trip into space was aboard Soyuz TMA-07M in December 2012. He was a member of Expeditions 34 and 35. He conducted his first space walk during this mission.
Mars 3, an unmanned Soviet probe launched May 28, 1971, made the first soft landing on the Red Planet. It was identical to the Mars 2 probe, which crashed onto the martian surface.
The decent module separated from the orbiter on December 2 and achieved a soft landing by aerodynamic braking, parachutes and retrorockets. It began transmitting 90 seconds after landing, but, 20 seconds later, stopped for an unknown reason.
Soyuz 10, launched April 22, 1971, was the first mission to the world's first space station. Her crew consisted of Vladimir Shatalov, Flight Engineer Aleksei Yeliseyev, and Test Engineer Nikolai Rukavishnikov.
The crew was unable to dock with Salyut 1 and had to return to Earth.
Salyut 1, the
first space station ever, was launched by the Soviet Union April 19, 1971.
After Apollo 11 landed on the moon in
July 1969, the Soviets shifted the emphasis of their space program to orbiting
stations, with a possible moon landing later in the 1970s.
They began construction of Salyut 1 in early 1970 and planned to launch on April 12 to
coincide with Yuri Gagarin’s history flight on Vostok 1 technical problems postponed the launch until April 19.
The first crew to arrive was aboard Soyuz 10, launched April 22 with Vladimir Shatalov, Aleksei
Yeliseyev and Nikolai Rikavishnikov.
They managed to ‘soft-dock’ with Salyut
1 but hard-docking had to be aborted due to technical malfunctions. However, after undocking, toxic fumes began
to fill the capsule during re-entry and Rukavishnikov lost consciousness, but
all crew members were recovered successfully.
The second crew, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and
Viktor Patsayev, launched in Soyuz 11
June 6, 1971 and docked with Salyut 1
and transferred to the space station.
They were able to carry out some of their tasks but after 23 days, their
mission was cut short due to problems aboard the station. They transferred back to Soyuz 11 and re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. A pressure relief valve malfunctioned during
the descent, depressurizing the capsule, suffocating the crew.
The Soviets then moved Salyut
1 to a higher orbit to be sure it would not be destroyed too early through
orbital decay. While this maneuver was
being fulfilled, the Soviets worked on an effort to redesign the capsules so
pressure suits could be worn during launch, docking, re-entry, etc.
Their efforts took too much time and in September, Salyut 1 was running low on attitude
control gas. On October 11, 1971, the
Soviets fired the main engines for a deorbit maneuver and the space station
burned up over the Pacific Ocean.
Three Dog Night's fourth studio album, Naturally, featured Joy to the World, a "silly song" written by Hoyt Axton (Okie!). On April 17, 1971, Joy to the World hit #1 on the Billboard's Hot 100 and stayed there for six weeks.
It was named by Billboard magazine as the year-end pop single for 1971 and has sold 5 million copies world-wide, making it one of the best selling singles of all time.
