It’s March 6, 1971 — a Saturday, as it happens — and the world is rotating in its typically manic and unpredictable fashion.
In Montreal, many are still without power and digging out after the so-called Storm of the Century two days before. The storm brought a record one-day total of almost 17 inches of snow, as well as hurricane-force winds.
In New York City, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier are in the final stages of preparation for the so-called Fight of the Century, two days in the future.
Elsewhere in New York, a coin collection built by former President John Quincy Adams and his descendants is sold at auction.
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, a group of women marching for International Women’s Day take over a Harvard University building. They will occupy it for more than a week.
In Mexico, New York — it’s near Oswego — buzzworthy news topics for the week include socialized medicine; “pot parties” in Vietnam; Miss Letts, the “very pretty teacher of the month;” and the mutilation of wild deer by loose dogs.
In Dublin, Ireland, Led Zeppelin plays a gig at the National Boxing Stadium. The show is most notable for the second performance of an epic new tune introduced the night before in Belfast. It’s called “Stairway to Heaven.”
Elsewhere in the music world, Black Sabbath plays Pirates World in Dania Park, Florida; Elton John plays the University of Leicester in England; Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes play a theater in Birmingham, Michigan; the Rolling Stones play in Coventry, England; Big Brother and the Holding Company, soldiering on without Janis Joplin, play Shasta College in Redding, California; and the Staple Singers perform in Accra, Ghana.
In Seattle, Washington, the third U.S. Navy ship to bear the name USS Trenton is commissioned.
On TVs across America, the syndicated show “Celebrity Bowling” features Morey Amsterdam and Jack Carter joining forces against Dick Gaultier and Richard Roundtree.
In Davenport, Iowa, 18-year-old Judith Haeker is murdered in her apartment. The case remains unsolved.
In Lansing, Michigan, a record crowd of 4,134 fans sees the Michigan State Spartans hockey team knock off archrival Michigan in overtime.
Another intense rivalry plays out in Leeds, U.K., where Leeds United and Derby County — whose managers, Don Revie and Brian Clough, do not much care for one another — play in Leeds. The home team wins 1-0.
In Harrison, Arkansas, a small plane piloted by a professional orthodontist crashes, killing all six people on board. A legal case related to the doctor’s insurance coverage later reaches the U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.
In Cumberland, Maine, residents at Town Meeting vote to accept Hallmark Road — all two-tenths of a mile of it — as a town-maintained road, pending the correction of a drainage problem. The problem apparently is not corrected, as residents vote again to accept the road in July 1975.
In St. Louis, listeners of KXOK-AM 630 prefer Henry Mancini’s “Theme from ‘Love Story’ ” to all other current music.
Somewhere in Italy, a spaghetti Western with the charming title Bastardo, vamos a matar (“Bastard, Go and Kill”) makes its big-screen debut. It features 6-foot-9-inch leading man George Eastman, born Luigi Montefiori.
In Boston, the controversial Jule Styne-Bob Merrill musical Prettybelle, with Angela Lansbury as the female lead, closes after little more than a month. Its planned New York City opening later in the month is canceled.
In Michigan, former national archery champion, Miss Michigan pageant winner and Sports Illustrated cover girl Ann Marston dies of diabetes-related causes at 32.
In Stamford, Connecticut, none of this whirlwind of activity makes the faintest dent on an unemployed 60-year-old man whose kids are out of the house.
His calendar for the day marks only the weather — high of 50 degrees, low of 30, cloudy — and a final note about the sun going down.
March 6, 1971.
Hopefully, the following day offered more to entertain him.
