On this date in 1971 the British House of Commons voted to join the European Economic Community. This did not bring the UK into the EEC, however, but only supported a move to enter into negotiations to do so.
There had been two prior efforts to do so, but the EEC President at the time, Charles DeGaulle, had vetoed British entry. DeGaulle had just stepped down from that position. His leaving office, and the Commons vote, assured British entry in the near future.
On the same day, the UK became the sixth nation in the world to launch a satellite into orbit, something it undertook from Australia. It sadly is the only such example from a British rocket, the UK having decided to abandon such efforts the prior July.
Both events were signs of British decline at the time. The UK had concluded that being a loner in space endeavors wasn't something it could do, and gave it up, never to return. And reluctance to join the EEC, which the British had been a standoffish founder of, had been completely overcome, with all that meant, in the wake of a long-lasting post World War Two economic decline. The sun was truly setting on the British Empire.
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