Editing 1971

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== Events ==
* January 25 - [[Idi Amin Dada]] deposes [[Milton Obote]] in a successful ''coup d'etat'' and declares himself President of Uganda.
* February 7 - A soldier named Robert Curtis is shot dead by the [[IRA]].
* March 12 - [[Hafez al-Assad]] declares himself President of Syria.
* March 21 - The [[1971 Bangladesh Genocide]] is initiated by Pakistani dictator [[Yahya Khan]] as a means of suppressing Bengali calls for self-determination.
* March 26 - [[Operation Searchlight]] is launched by the Pakistan Army, beginning the Bangladesh Liberation War.
* March 31 - [[William Calley]] is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the [[My Lai Massacre]]; three days later, President [[Richard Nixon]] commutes his sentence to house arrest.
* April 1 - The [[Fatherland and Liberty Nationalist Front]] is founded.
* April 22 - [[Jean-Claude Duvalier]] takes office as President of Haiti following the death of his father [[François Duvalier]]. Duvalier is only 19 when he takes office, making him the youngest president in the world at the time.
* April 25 - The first victim of the [[Freeway Phantom]], 13-year old Carol Denise Spinks, is found [[murder]]ed  behind St. Elizabeths Hospital on a grassy embankment next to the northbound lanes of I-295, about 1,500 feet south of Suitland Parkway in Washington D.C.
* May 3 - [[Erich Honecker]] succeeds [[Walter Ulbricht]] as General Secretary of the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]].
* May 25 - End of [[Operation Searchlight]].
* June 8 - Chilean politician and former Minister of the Interior Edmundo Pérez Zujovic is assassinated by three members of the [[Organized Vanguard of the People]].
* June 10 - The ''[[El Halconazo]]'' massacre takes place in Mexico City.
* July 23 - [[William Tolbert]] is elected President of Liberia.
* August 18 - [[Hugo Banzer]] takes power in Bolivia in a successful military coup.
* September 1 - [[Muammar Gaddafi]] enters into a political union with Egypt and Syria, known as the '''Federation of Arab Republics'''.
* September 30 - The [[Democratic Unionist Party]] is founded by [[Ian Paisley]].
* October 12 - [[Jaafar Nimeiry]] is elected President of Sudan. The National Revolutionary Command Council is subsequently dissolved.
* October 27 - [[Mobutu Sese Seko]] renames the Democratic Republic of the Congo as the '''Republic of Zaire'''.
* November 9 - [[John List]] murders his wife, mother, and three children at their home in Westfield, New Jersey, before going on the run.
* November 24 - A man calling himself "[[D. B. Cooper]]" hijacks a Boeing 727 aircraft in the northwest United States, in the airspace between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, extorting $200,000 in ransom before parachuting off the plane to an unknown fate.
* November 28 - Jordanian Prime Minister Wasfi Tal is assassinated by [[Black September]].
* December 16 - The Bangladesh Genocide comes to an end. Bangladesh formally declares independence from Pakistan.
* December 20 - [[Yahya Khan]] resigns as President of Pakistan.
* Unknown - The [[Japanese Red Army]] is founded.
* Unknown - [[Provo Canyon School]] is founded.
* Unknown - [[The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord]] is founded.

== Births ==

=== Villain births ===
* January 12 - [[Alfredo Beltrán Leyva]] & [[Peter Madsen]]
* February 16 - [[Michael Avenatti]]
* March 7 - [[Todd Kohlhepp]]
* April 2 - [[Lorenzo Fayne]]
* April 21 - [[Anwar al-Awlaki]]
* June 4 - [[Joseph Kabila]]
* June 27 - [[Dipendra of Nepal]]
* July 26 - [[Kendall Francois]]
* July 28 - [[Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi]]
* August 14 - [[Chris Nelloms]]
* September 1 - [[Christina Marie Riggs]]
* September 15 - [[Dario Antonio Úsuga]]
* September 26 - [[Susan Smith]]
* September 30 - [[Joshua Blahyi (General Butt Naked)]]
* October 2 - [[Chris Savino]]
*November 9 - [[Ronald Baquiran Bae]]
* November 11 - [[Wade Michael Page]]
* December 15 - [[Tawana Brawley]]
* December 19 - [[Amy Locane]]
* Unknown - [[Harold Keke]]
* Unknown - [[Benny Sela]]
* Unknown - [[Eric Paul Engel]]

=== Victim births ===
* January 18 - [[Junko Furuta's Murderers|Junko Furuta]]
* February 23 - Aubrey Hawkins 
*March 15 - Jonathan Downey 
*March 17 - Xiaojie Tan
*April 16 - [https://real-life-heroes.fandom.com/wiki/Selena Selena Quintanilla-Perez]
*May 2 - Michael Briggs 
* May 10 - Kim Jong-nam 
*May 18 - Marie Hartley  
* May 28 - Krista Harrison 
*June 27 - Lee Baisden  
* June 16 - Tupac Shakur
*June 21 - Alona Abraham (9/11 Victim)
*June 26 - Lisa Patterson
*July 11 - Heidi Stevenson 
*July 27 - Neysa Tonks
*September 20 - Deanna Criswell
*September 23 - Donald Arthur DeLapp Jr
* October 8 - Phillip DeVine
*October 20 - Amy King (9/11 Victim
* November 5 - Teri Jo Bradish
*November 9 - Jamie Bishop 
*November 22 - Jody Billingsley 
*December 2 - Ronald Owens
*December 30 - Bill Evans 
*Unknown - Nava Elimelech

== Deaths ==
=== Villain deaths ===
* February 5 - [[Mátyás Rákosi]]
* April 21 - [[François Duvalier]]
* May 15 - [[Billy Reid]]
* June 28 - [[Franz Stangl]]
* August 29 - [[Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb|Nathan Leopold]]
* September 11 - [[Nikita Khrushchev]]
* October 10 - [[Nardong Putik]]

=== Victim deaths ===
* April 25 - Carol Spinks
* May 21 - Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones
* June 8 - Edmundo Pérez Zujovic
* July 8 - Darlenia Denise Johnson
* July 27 - Brenda Faye Crockett
* August 29 - John Victor Young
* September 10 - Lynn Eusan
* October 1 - Nenomoshia Yates
* November 3 - James R. Greene
* November 9 - Helen, Alma, Patricia, Frederick, and John List, Jr.
* November 15 - Brenda Woodward
* November 28 - Wasfi Tal