[1] After graduating from Richfield High School in 1942, he served as a sergeant in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II from 1943 to 1946.

While in Congress, Nielson sponsored two resolutions calling on Israel to reopen Palestinian schools and colleges.

[3] In 1985 he was one of just two "nay" voters on a resolution urging Taiwan to extradite gangster Chen Chi-li, who had murdered dissident journalist Henry Liu in San Francisco the previous year.

[6] He also was a leading proponent of releasing the names of people who tested positive for AIDS to Public Health Officials.

He later married Donna Esther Brown, herself a widow and the sister of one of his former House colleagues, Ron Packard of California.