The following events occurred in December 1971:
December 1, 1971 (Wednesday) The British House of Commons narrowly approved the Government's plan for a settlement with Rhodesia, negotiated by Alec Douglas-Home, 297 to 289. In the Cambodian Civil War, Khmer Rouge rebels intensified their assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing the Cambodian retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray, 10 kilometers northeast of Phnom Penh. The French submarine Redoutable (S611) was commissioned as the first SNLE (‘’’S ‘’’ous-marin ‘’’N ‘’’ucléaire ‘’’L ‘’’anceur d'‘’’E ‘’’ngins or "Device-Launching Nuclear Submarine"). The National Industrial Relations Court was established in the UK. The municipality of Buchenbach was formed by the merger of the former political entities of Buchenbach and Falkensteig. The Belgian singing duo Nicole & Hugo were married at Wemmel. Born: Jason Keng-Kwin Chan, Malaysian-Australian actor; in Kuala Lumpur
December 2, 1971 (Thursday) The United Arab Emirates was founded by the six of the seven Trucial Sheikhdoms (Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain; Ras Al Khaimah joined later) of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Emir of Abu Dhabi, was selected as the UAE's first president, and Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emir of Dubai, was vice president. Saeed's son, Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, was named as the prime minister. The Mars 3 lander, released by the orbiting Soviet spacecraft of the same name, made the first soft landing on the planet Mars. It began transmitting data to the orbiter on December 5, but failed after only 20 seconds. Scientists quoted in Pravda speculated that the lander had either encountered a dust storm or that there was another problem in the landing area. An explosion in Taiwan, fire and carbon monoxide poisoning killed 40 underground coal miners near the port city of Keelung. The blast happened below ground in the Seven Star mine. Chile's President Salvador Allende decreed emergency rule after riots in the capital, the day after the "March of the Empty Pots" by women in Santiago, injured more than 150 people. Allende authorized General Augusto Pinochet, commander of the Chilean Army garrison in Santiago, to put down the rebellion. Alan Enver, a 52-year old hiker who had survived being stranded for six days with his wife Maibritt on a snow-covered mountain in New South Wales in Australia, died when he lost his balance while waving to a rescue helicopter. Mr. Enver and his wife had been hiking in Kosciuszko National Park, with their dog, on November 28 and had gotten lost while on Mount Kosciuszko. They were "walking along a narrow path on the side of a deep gorge" when the RAAF rescue copter came over the ridge, and as Mr. Enver "waved vigorously to the crew to attract attention" he slipped and fell into a stream below. Died: Fred van Deventer, 67, American radio newscaster and game show host who created the popular quiz show Twenty Questions in 1946 on the Mutual Broadcasting System radio network, and later for the DuMont television network. The show debuted on February 2, 1946 and ran until May of 1955.
December 3, 1971 (Friday) The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 began as Pakistan carried out air attacks on nine Indian airbases. The next day India launched a massive invasion of East Pakistan. The Indian Navy destroyer INS Rajput (former HMS Rotherham) sank the Pakistan submarine PNS Ghazi (which had formerly been USS Diablo). The Bangladesh Air Force, composed of Bengali pilots and technicians defecting from the Pakistan Air Force, launched attacks on depots and communication lines, flying light aircraft donated by India. A squad of about 200 Pakistani Army troops in East Pakistan began a massacre in six villages on the west bank of the Buriganga River, about from the Bengali capital of Dhaka, indiscriminately killing thousands of residents both Hindu and Muslim, and destroying homes. Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu was installed as eighth monarch of the Zulus at a traditional ceremony at Nongoma in South Africa, attended by 20,000 people. The United States and Canada signed an extradition treaty providing for each nation to return persons wanted for hijacking or for an attack on a diplomat, as a waiver of the traditional "political exclusion clause" used refusing a request for return. U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers and Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs Mitchell Sharp signed on behalf of their respective nations at the U.S. State Department in Washington. Krzysztof Penderecki's De Natura Sonoris No 2 was premièred at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.