Year '1972' ('
MCMLXXII') was a
leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the
Gregorian calendar.
Events of 1972
January
★
January 2 - The Pierre Hotel Heist: Six men rob the
safety deposit boxes of
The Pierre Hotel in
New York City, of at least $4 million.
★
January 4 -
Rose Heilbron becomes the first woman judge at the
Old Bailey in
London.
★
January 4 -
Kurt Waldheim becomes the
Secretary General of the United Nations.
★
January 5 - U.S. President
Richard Nixon orders the development of a
space shuttle program.
★
January 7 - An Iberian Airlines passenger plane crashes into a 250-meter peak on the island of Ibiza; 104 dead.
★
January 9 -
Howard Hughes speaks by telephone to denounce
Clifford Irving's supposed biography about him.
★
January 9 -
RMS Queen Elizabeth is destroyed by fire in
Hong Kong harbor.
★
January 11 - East Pakistan wins independence with the name
Bangladesh.
★
January 13 - Prime Minister of
Ghana Kofi Abrefa Busia is overthrown in a military coup.
★
January 14 - King
Frederick IX of Denmark dies; he's succeeded by his daughter Queen
Margaret II of Denmark.
★
January 19 - The
Libertarian enclave
Minerva on a platform in the
South Pacific, sponsored by the
Phoenix Foundation, declares
independence. Soon neighboring
Tonga annexes the area and dismantles the platform.
★
January 23 - A
New Delhi bootlegger sells
wood alcohol to a
wedding party - 100 dead.
★
January 24 -
Japanese soldier
Shoichi Yokoi is discovered in
Guam. He had spent 28 years in the jungle.
★
January 25 -
Shirley Chisholm, the first
African American Congresswoman, announces her candidacy for President.
★
January 26 -
Yugoslavian air stewardress
Vesna Vulovic is the only survivor when her plane crashes in
Czechoslovakia. She survives after falling 9,000 meters in the tail section of the aircraft.
★
January 28 -
Richard Chanfray claims he is the
Count of St Germain on French television.
★
January 30 -
Bloody Sunday: - the
British Army kills 13 unarmed
Roman Catholic/
Nationalist civil rights marchers in
Derry,
Northern Ireland.
★
January 30 -
Pakistan withdraws from the
Commonwealth of Nations.
★
January 31 - King
Mahendra of Nepal dies (the second king to die that month) and is succeeded by his son,
Birendra.
February
★
February 1 - First scientific hand-held calculator (
HP-35) is introduced (price $395).
★
February 2 - A bomb explodes at the British Yacht Club in
West Berlin. The only casualty is Irwin Beelitz, a German boat builder.
★
February 2 - The German militant group
Movement 2 June announces its support of the
Irish Republican Army.
★
February 2 - Anti-
British riots throughout
Ireland take place. The British Embassy in
Dublin is burned to the ground, as are several British-owned businesses.
★
February 4 - ''
Mariner 9'' sends pictures from
Mars.
★
February 5 - U.S. airlines begin mandatory inspection of passengers and baggage.
★
February 5 -
Bob Douglas becomes the first
African American elected to the
Basketball Hall of Fame.
★
February 9 - The British government declares a
state of emergency over a miners' strike.
★
February 15 - President of
Ecuador José María Velasco Ibarra is deposed for the fourth time.
★
February 15 -
Phonorecords are granted U.S. Federal
copyright protection for the first time.
★
February 17 -
Volkswagen Beetle sales exceed those of the
Ford Model-T when the 15,007,034th Beetle is produced.
★
February 18 - The
California Supreme Court voids the state's
death penalty, commuting all death sentences to life in prison.
★
February 21 - The
Soviet unmanned
spaceship ''
Luna 20'' lands on the
Moon.
★
February 21-
February 28 - U.S. President
Richard M. Nixon makes an unprecedented
8-day visit to the
People's Republic of China and meets with
Mao Zedong.
★
February 22 -
Aldershot bombing - an
Official IRA bomb kills 7 in
Aldershot,
England.
★
February 23 -
Angela Davis is released from jail. A
Caruthers, California farmer, Rodger McAfee, helps her make bail.
★
February 23 - A
Lufthansa plane is hijacked and taken to
Aden. Passengers are released after a ransom of 16 million
German marks is agreed.
★
February 24 - North Vietnamese negotiators walk out of the Paris Peace Talks to protest U.S. air raids.
★
February 26 - A
coal sludge spill kills 125 in
Buffalo Creek,
West Virginia.
★
February 26 - ''
Luna 20'' comes back to Earth with a cargo of moon rocks.
March
★
March 1 - The Thai province
Yasothon is created after being split off from the
Ubon Ratchathani Province.
★
March 1 - British schoolboy
Timothy Davey, 14, is sentenced in Turkey for "conspiring to sell
cannabis".
★
March 1 - The
Club of Rome publishes its report ''
Limits to Growth''.
★
March 2 - The ''
Pioneer 10'' spacecraft is launched from
Cape Kennedy, to be the first man-made satellite to leave the solar system.
★
March 2 -
Jean-Bedel Bokassa becomes President of the
Central African Republic.
★
March 3 - Sculpted figures of
Jefferson Davis,
Robert E. Lee, and
Stonewall Jackson are completed at
Stone Mountain,
Georgia.
★
March 4 -
Libya and the
Soviet Union sign a cooperation treaty.
★
March 5 - Greek composer
Mikis Theodorakis leaves the
Greek Communist Party.
★
March 13 - The
United Kingdom and the
People's Republic of China elevate diplomatic exchanges to the ambassadorial level after 22 years.
★
March 13 -
Clifford Irving admits to a
New York court that he had fabricated
Howard Hughes' "autobiography".
★
March 16 - The first building of the
Pruitt-Igoe housing development is destroyed.
★
March 19 -
India and
Bangladesh sign a friendship
treaty.
★
March 22 - The 92nd
U.S. Congress votes to send the proposed
Equal Rights Amendment to the states for ratification.
★
March 24 - ''
The Godfather'' is released in cinemas in the
USA.
★
March 24 - The
British government announces the prorogation of the
Parliament of Northern Ireland and the introduction of '
Direct Rule' of
Northern Ireland, after the
Unionist government refuses to cede security powers.
★
March 26 - An
avalanche on
Mount Fuji kills 19 climbers.
★
March 30 -
Vietnam War: The
Easter Offensive begins after
North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of
South Vietnam.
April
★
April 7 - U.S.
Mafioso Joe Gallo is shot in ''Umberto's Clam House'' in
Little Italy.
★
April 10 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union join some 70 nations in signing an agreement to ban
biological warfare.
★
April 10 - A 7.0
Richter scale earthquake kills 5,000 people in the
Iranian province of
Fars.
★
April 10 - The 44th Annual Academy Awards are held at the
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.
★
April 13 - The
Universal Postal Union decides to recognize the
People's Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative, effectively expelling the
Republic of China administering
Taiwan.
★
April 16 - ''
Apollo 16'' (
John Young,
Ken Mattingly,
Charlie Duke) is launched. During the mission, the astronauts achieve a
lunar rover speed record of 18 km/h.
★
April 16 -
Vietnam War: Nguyen Hue offensive - Prompted by the
North Vietnamese offensive, the
United States resumes bombing of
Hanoi and
Haiphong.
★
April 18 - The
Roland Corporation is founded in
Osaka.
★
April 22 - Sylvia Cook and
John Fairfax finish rowing across the
Pacific.
★
April 27 - A no-confidence vote against
German Chancellor Willy Brandt fails under obscure circumstances.
★
April 29 - The fourth anniversary of the Broadway musical ''
Hair'' is celebrated with a free concert at a Central Park bandshell, followed by dinner at the Four Seasons. There, 13
Black Panther protesters and the show's co-author,
Jim Rado, are arrested for disturbing the peace and marijuana use.
May
★
May - Burundian Genocide against
Hutu begins. More than 500,000 Hutus die.
★
May - The
Magnavox Odyssey video game system is released, thus marking the dawn of the video game age.
★
May 2 - Fire in a
silver mine in
Idaho,
United States kills 91.
★
May 5 - An
Alitalia DC-8 crashes west of
Palermo,
Sicily (115 dead).
★
May 7 -
General elections are held in
Italy.
★
May 8 - U.S. President
Richard Nixon orders the mining of
Haiphong Harbor in
Vietnam.
★
May 13 - Fire in a nightclub atop the Sennichi department store in
Osaka,
Japan, leaves 115 dead.
★
May 15 - Governor
George C. Wallace of
Alabama is shot by
Arthur Herman Bremer at a
Laurel, Maryland political rally.
★
May 18 - Four troopers of both
SAS and
SBS are parachuted onto the ''
RMS Queen Elizabeth 2'', 1,000 miles off Britain in the Atlantic, after a bomb threat and ransom demand, which turns out to be bogus.
★
May 19 - Three out of 6 bombs explode in the
Springer Press building in
Hamburg,
Germany, injuring 17 (the
Red Army Faction claims responsibility).
★
May 21 - In
Rome,
Laszlo Toth attacks
Michelangelo's "
Pietà" statue with a sledgehammer, shouting that he is
Jesus Christ.
★
May 23 - Tamil United Front (now known as
Tamil United Liberation Front, a pro-
Tamil organization, is founded.
★
May 22 -
Ceylon becomes the republic of
Sri Lanka under prime minister
Sirimavo Bandaranaike, when its new
constitution is ratified.
★
May 24 -
Rangers lift the
Cup Winners Cup, defeating
Dynamo Moscow in the
final at the
Nou Camp. Their supporters cause a
riot, with the team banned from defending the trophy the following season.
★
May 24 - A
RAF bomb explodes in the
Campbell Barracks of the U.S. Army Supreme European Command in
Heidelberg,
West Germany. Three U.S. soldiers (Clyde Bonner, Ronald Woodard and Charles Peck) are killed.
★
May 26 -
Richard Nixon and
Leonid Brezhnev sign the
SALT I treaty in
Moscow, as well as the
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and other agreements.
★
May 26 - First failed attempt at
Watergate first break-in: the "Ameritas dinner" at the Watergate.
★
May 26 -
Wernher von Braun retires from
NASA, frustrated by the agency's unwillingness to pursue a manned trans-orbital space program.
★
May 26 -
Willandra National Park is established in
Australia.
★
May 27 - Second failed attempt at
Watergate first break-in.
★
May 28 -
Watergate first break-in.
★
May 30 -
The Angry Brigade goes on trial in the
United Kingdom.
★
May 30 - Three
Japanese Red Army members kill 24 and injure 100 in
Lod Airport,
Israel.
June
★ June -
Iraq nationalizes the
Iraq Petroleum Company.
★
June 2 -
Andreas Baader,
Jan-Carl Raspe,
Holger Meins and some other members of
Red Army Faction are arrested in
Frankfurt am Main after a shootout.
★
June 3 -
Sally Priesand becomes the first female U.S. rabbi.
★
June 4 -
Angela Davis is found not guilty of murder.
★
June 14-
June 23 -
Hurricane Agnes kills 117 on the U.S. East Coast.
★
June 15 -
Ulrike Meinhof and
Gerhard Müller of
Red Army Faction are arrested in a teacher's apartment in
Langenhagen, West Germany.
★
June 15-
June 18 - The first U.S.
Libertarian Party National Convention is held in Denver,
Colorado.
★
June 16 - 108 die as two passenger trains hit debris of a collapsed railway tunnel near
Soissons,
France.
★
June 17 -
Watergate scandal: Five
White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the
Democratic National Committee.
★
June 17 - The
United States returns
Okinawa, occupied and governed since the
WW-II Battle of Okinawa, back to the government of
Japan.
★
June 17 -
Chilean president
Salvador Allende forms a new government.
★
June 18 - A
British European Airways Trident 1 jet airliner crashes alongside the busy
A30 Staines bypass, killing all 118 passengers and crew.
★
June 18 -
West Germany beats the
Soviet Union 3-0 to win
Euro 72.
★
June 23 -
Watergate Scandal: U.S. President
Richard M. Nixon and
White House chief of staff
H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about using the
C.I.A. to obstruct the
F.B.I.'s investigation into the
Watergate break-ins.
★
June 26 -
Nolan Bushnell and
Ted Dabney co-found
Atari.
★
June 28 - U.S. President
Richard Nixon announces that no new draftees will be sent to
Vietnam.
★
June 29 - ''
Furman v. Georgia'': The
Supreme Court of the United States rules that the
death penalty is unconstitutional.
July
★
July - U.S. actress
Jane Fonda tours
North Vietnam, during which she is photographed sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun.
★
July 1 - The Canadian ketch ''
Vega'', flying the Greenpeace III banner, collides with the French naval minesweeper ''La Paimpolaise'' while in
international waters to protest French nuclear weapon
tests in the
South Pacific.
★
July 2 - Following
Pakistan's surrender to
India in the
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, both nations sign the historic
Simla Agreement, agreeing to settle their disputes bilaterally.
★
July 4 - The first
Rainbow Gathering is held in
Colorado.
★
July 8 - The U.S. sells
grain to the Soviet Union for $750 million.
★
July 10 - A
stampede of elephants kills 24 in the Chandka Forest in India.
★
July 10-
July 14 - The
Democratic National Convention meets in
Miami Beach. Senator
George McGovern, who backs the immediate and complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from
South Vietnam, is nominated for President. He names fellow Senator
Thomas Eagleton as his running mate.
★
July 15 - The
Pruitt-Igoe housing development is demolished in
Saint Louis, Missouri.
★
July 18 -
Anwar Sadat expels 20,000 Soviet advisors from
Egypt.
★
July 21 -
Bloody Friday: 22 bombs planted by the
Provisional IRA explode in
Belfast,
Northern Ireland; 9 people are killed and 130 seriously injured.
★
July 21 - Comedian
George Carlin is arrested by
Milwaukee, Wisconsin police for public
obscenity, for reciting his “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television” at
Summerfest.
★
July 21 - Collision between two trains near
Sevilla,
Spain kills 76.
★
July 23 - The
United States launches
Landsat 1, the first Earth-resources
satellite.
★
July 25 - U.S. health officials admit that blacks were used as guinea pigs in a
syphilis experiment.
★
July 29 - A national dock strike begins in Britain.
August
★
August 1 - U.S. Senator
Thomas Eagleton, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, withdraws from the race after revealing he was once treated for mental illness. He was eventually replaced by
Sargent Shriver.
★
August 4 -
Arthur Bremer is jailed for 63 years for shooting
George Wallace.
★
August 4 - Dictator
Idi Amin declares that
Uganda will expel 50,000 Asians with British passports to Britain within three months.
★
August 10 - A brilliant, daytime
meteor skips off the
Earth's atmosphere as it streaks over the western
US into
Canada.
★
August 12 - The last U.S. ground troops are withdrawn from Vietnam.
★
August 14 - An
East German Ilyushin airliner crashes near
East Berlin killing all 156 onboard.
★
August 16 - The
Royal Moroccan Air Force mistakenly fires upon, but fails to bring down,
Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he is traveling back to
Rabat.
★
August 21 - The
Republican National Convention in
Miami Beach,
Florida renominates U.S. President
Richard Nixon and Vice President
Spiro Agnew for a second term.
★
August 22 -
John Wojtowicz, 27, and Sal Naturile, 18, hold several Chase Manhattan Bank employees hostage for 17 hours in Flatbush, Brooklyn, N.Y.
★
August 22 -
Jane Fonda makes an antiwar broadcast from a hotel room in
Hanoi.
★
August 26-
September 11 - The
1972 Summer Olympics are held in
Munich,
West Germany.
★
August 28 -
Prince William of Gloucester dies in an air crash.
September
★
September 1 -
Bobby Fischer defeats
Boris Spassky in a
chess match at
Reykjavík, Iceland, becoming the first American chess champion (see
Match of the Century).
★
September 4 - The first episode of
The Price Is Right is hosted on
CBS by
Bob Barker. Gambit and The Joker's Wild also premiere.
★
September 5-
September 6 -
Munich Massacre: Eleven
Israeli athletes at the
1972 Summer Olympics in
Munich are murdered after 8 members of the
Arab terrorist group
Black September invade the Olympic Village; 5 guerillas and 1 policeman are also killed in a failed
hostage rescue.
★
September 14 - West Germany and Poland renew diplomatic relations.
★
September 17 -
Uganda announces that there are
Tanzanian troops in its territory.
★
September 18 -
São Paulo Metro is inaugurated in
Brazil.
★
September 19 - A
parcel bomb sent to the
Israeli Embassy in
London kills 1 diplomat.
★
September 21 -
Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos issues
Proclamation No. 1081[1] placing the entire country under
martial law.
★
September 24 - An
F-86 fighter aircraft leaving an air show at
Sacramento Executive Airport fails to become airborne and crashes into a
Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor, killing 12 children and 11 adults.
★
September 25 -
Norwegian EC referendum, 1972: Norway rejects membership in the European Economic Community.
★
September 27 - The
Joint Communique of the Government of Japan and the Government of the People's Republic of China is signed in
Beijing.
★
September 28 - The
Canadian national men's hockey team defeats the
Soviet national ice hockey team in game eight of the 1972
Summit Series (La Série du Siècle), 6-5, to win the series 4-3-1.
★
September 29 -
Sino-Japanese relations:
Japan normalizes diplomatic relations with the
People's Republic of China after breaking official ties with the
Republic of China (Taiwan).
October
★
October 1 - The first publication reporting the production of a recombinant
DNA molecule, marks the birth of modern
molecular biology methodology.
:: Jackson, David A.; Symons, Robert H.; and Berg, Paul. (1972).
Biochemical Method for Inserting New Genetic Information into DNA of Simian Virus 40: Circular SV40 DNA Molecules Containing Lambda Phage Genes and the Galactose Operon of Escherichia coli. ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA)'' '69'(10), 2904-2909.
★
October 2 -
Denmark joins the
European Community. The
Faroe Islands stay out.
★
October 5 - The
United Reformed Church is founded out of the
Congregational and
Presbyterian Churches.
★
October 6 - A
train crash in
Saltillo,
Mexico kills 208.
★
October 8 -
R. Sargent Shriver is chosen to replace
Thomas Eagleton as the U.S. vice-presidential nominee of the
Democratic Party.
★
October 12 - En route to her station in the
Gulf of Tonkin, a
racial brawl involving more than 100 sailors breaks out aboard the
United States Navy aircraft carrier
USS ''Kitty Hawk''. Nearly 50 sailors are injured.
★
October 13 -
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571: A
Fairchild FH-227D passenger
aircraft transporting a
rugby union team crashes at about 14,000' in the
Andes mountain range, near the Argentina/Chile border. Sixteen of the survivors are found alive
December 20 but they have had to resort to
cannibalism to survive.
★
October 16 - A plane carrying U.S. Congressman
Hale Boggs of Louisiana and 3 other men vanishes in Alaska. The wreckage has never been found, despite a massive search at the time.
★
October 16 - Rioting
Maze Prison inmates cause a fire that destroys most of the camp.
★
October 17 - Queen
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom visits
Yugoslavia.
★
October 25 - The first female
FBI agents are hired.
★
October 25 - Belgian
Eddy Merckx sets a new world
hour record in
cycling in
Mexico City.
★
October 26 - Following a visit to
South Vietnam,
U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger suggests that "peace is at hand."
★
October 28 - The first flight of the
Airbus A300, the first airliner built by Airbus
★
October 29 - The
Black September group hijacks a
Lufthansa Boeing 727 over
Turkey, and demands the release of 3 of their comrades still held for the massacre of
Israeli
athletes at the
Olympic games.
★
October 30 - U.S. President
Richard Nixon approves legislation to increase
Social Security spending by US$5.3 billion.
★
October 30 - A
commuter train collision in
Chicago kills 45, injures hundreds.
November
Nixon's landslide victory in the electoral college during the
1972 Election .
★
November 1 (exact date not known) - At a scientific meeting in
Honolulu,
Herbert Boyer and
Stanley N. Cohen conceive the concept of
recombinant DNA. They publish their results in November 1973 in
PNAS. Separately in 1972,
Paul Berg also recombines DNA in a test tube. Recombinant DNA technology has dramatically changed the field of biological sciences, especially
biotechnology, and opened the door to
genetically modified organisms.
★
November 5 - A group of Amerindians occupies the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
★
November 7 -
U.S. presidential election, 1972:
Republican incumbent
Richard Nixon defeats
Democratic Senator
George McGovern in a landslide (the election had the lowest voter turnout since 1948, with only 55 percent of the electorate voting).
★
November 11 -
Vietnam War:
Vietnamization - The
United States Army turns over the massive Long Binh military base to
South Vietnam.
★
November 14 - The
Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 1,000 (1,003.16) for the first time.
★
November 16 - The
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization adopts the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage
[1].
★
November 19 -
Seán Mac Stíofáin, a leader of the
Provisional Irish Republican Army, is arrested in
Dublin after giving an interview to
RTÉ.
★
November 22 -
Vietnam War: The
United States loses its first
B-52 Stratofortress of the war.
★
November 29 -
Atari kicks off the first generation of
video games with the release of their seminal
arcade version of ''
Pong'', the first game to achieve commercial success.
★
November 30 - Vietnam War:
White House Press Secretary
Ron Ziegler tells the press that there will be no more public announcements concerning
United States troop withdrawals from
Vietnam due to the fact that troop levels are now down to 27,000.
★
November 30 -
Cod War:
British Foreign Secretary Sir
Alec Douglas-Home says that
Royal Navy ships would be stationed to protect British trawlers off
Iceland.
December
★
December 2 -
Edward Gough Whitlam becomes the first
Labor Party Prime Minister of Australia for 23 years. He is famously sworn in on the election night and his first action using executive power is to withdraw all Australian personnel from the
Vietnam War.
★
December 7 - ''
Apollo 17'' (
Gene Cernan,
Ron Evans,
Harrison Schmitt), the last manned mission to the
Moon to date, is launched.
★
December 7 -
Provisional Irish Republican Army kidnaps
Jean McConville in
Belfast.
★
December 7 -
Imelda Marcos is stabbed and seriously wounded by an assailant; her bodyguards shoot him.
★
December 8 -
United Airlines Boeing 737 from
Washington National to
Chicago Midway crashes short of the runway, killing 43 of 61 onboard and 2 on the ground.
★
December 8 - Over $10,000 cash is found in the purse of
Watergate conspirator
Howard Hunt's wife.
★
December 8 -
International Human Rights Day is proclaimed by the
United Nations.
★
December 11 -
Apollo 17 lands on the
Moon.
★
December 15 - The Commonwealth of
Australia ordains equal pay for women.
★
December 16 - The
Constitution of Bangladesh comes into effect.
★
December 16 -
Portuguese army kills 400 Africans in
Tete,
Mozambique.
★
December 19 -
Apollo program: ''
Apollo 17'' returns to
Earth, concluding the program of lunar exploration.
★
December 21 -
East Germany and
West Germany recognize each other.
★
December 21 -
ZANLA troopers attack Altera Farm in north-east
Rhodesia.
★
December 22 - Two small earthquakes are felt at about 9:30 and 10:15 local time in
Managua,
Nicaragua.
★
December 22 - Australia establishes diplomatic relations with China and West Germany.
★
December 23 - A 6.25
Richter scale earthquake in
Nicaragua kills 5,000-12,000 in the capital,
Managua; President
Somoza will later be accused of pocketing millions of dollars worth of
foreign aid intended for relief.
★
December 24 - The highest recorded temperature in Australia is recorded in
Birdsville,
Queensland of 49.5C (121.1F).
★
December 25 - The
Christmas bombing of
North Vietnam causes widespread criticism of the U.S. and President
Richard Nixon.
★
December 26 - Former
United States President Harry S. Truman dies in
Kansas City, Missouri.
★
December 28 - The bones of
Martin Bormann are identified in Berlin.
★
December 29 - An Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 crashes into the
Everglades in Florida, killing 101 of 163 onboard.
★
December 31 -
Roberto Clemente dies in a plane crash off the coast of
Puerto Rico while en route to deliver aid to Nicaraguan earthquake victims.
Undated
★
Creedence Clearwater Revival brakes up.
★
Tom Fogerty starts his solo Career.
★
John Fogerty Starts his solo career a few months after
Tom Fogerty as
The Blue Ridge Rangers
★ Designated ''International Year of the Book'' by
UNESCO.
★
New Holland was renamed
New South Wales.
★ The
last major epidemic of smallpox in Europe breaks out in
Yugoslavia.
★ Prime minister of
Sweden,
Olof Palme compares the American bombings of North
Vietnam to
Nazi massacres. The US breaks diplomatic contact with Sweden.
★ The
United Kingdom begin to train
Special Air Service for anti-terrorist duties.
★
Steve Jobs graduates from
Homestead High School and enrolls in
Reed College in
Portland, Oregon but drops out after one semester.
★ The
Japanese government begins building a railway tunnel between
Honshū and
Hokkaidō.
★
Stephen Hawking is confined to a wheelchair due to
motor neuron disease.
★ The
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms becomes independent from
IRS.
★ The "tea house" Mellow Yellow opens on the
Amstel River in
Amsterdam, pioneering the legal sale of
cannabis in the
Netherlands.
★ The
Aboriginal Tent Embassy founded on the lawn of
Parliament House in
Canberra.
★ First women admitted to
Dartmouth College.
★
Colombian looters find
Ciudad Perdida but keep it a secret until government reveals it
1975.
★
Frank Serpico exposes corruption in
New York City police.
★
Vietnam War veteran
Richard McCoy hijacks a
United Airlines jet and extorts $500,000 – he is later captured.
★ The
Yellow River dries up for the first time in known history.
★
Somalian language gets a written form.
★ Assassination of
Zanzibar's leader
Sheik Abeid Karume.
★ Worship of Norse gods officially approved in
Iceland.
★ Women are allowed to compete in the
Boston Marathon for the first time.
★ The
Second Cod War between the
United Kingdom and
Iceland.
★ First use of the term
Hadean.
Ongoing
★
Cold War
Fictional
The following are references to year 1972 in fiction:
★ The sons of
Big Boss are born in the
Metal Gear video game series.
★ The year the
A-team is sent to prison and escapes
★
Denzel Q. Crocker loses his
fairy godparents after
Timmy Turner travels back in time to prevent this from happening.
★
Margaret Atwood publishes ''Surfacing''.
★
Borat Sagdiyev is born.
★ The events of take place.
Births
January-February
★
January 2 -
Taye Diggs, American actor
★
January 3 -
Yoon Chan, South Korean actor
★
January 4 -
Brad Zavisha, Canadian ice hockey player
★
January 7 -
Donald Brashear, American ice hockey player
★
January 9 -
Jay Powell, American baseball player
★
January 12 -
Espen Knutsen, Norwegian hockey player
★
January 13 -
Nicole Eggert, American actress
★
January 17 -
Ken Hirai, Japanese singer and songwriter
★
January 18 -
Mike Lieberthal, American baseball player
★
January 19 -
Drea de Matteo, American actress
★
January 22 -
Romi Paku,
seiyu (voice actress)
★
January 23 -
Ewen Bremner, Stottish actor
★
January 23 -
Marcel Wouda, Dutch swimmer
★
January 26 -
Chris Boykin, bodyguard to pro-skater
Rob Dyrdek and rapper
★
January 27 -
Guillermo, Mexican American talk show personality (
Jimmy Kimmel)
★
January 27 -
Mark Owen, British singer and
Take That member
★
January 27 -
Keith Wood, Irish rugby player
★
February 1 -
Yoshi DeHerrera, American television personality
★
February 2 -
Klára Dobrev, wife of Hungarian Prime Minister
Ferenc Gyurcsány
★
February 4 -
Giovanni Silva De Oliveira, Brazilian footballer
★
February 5 -
Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark
★
February 5 -
Koriki Chōshū, Japanese comedian
★
February 7 -
Alex Bassi, American race car driver
★
February 7 -
Robyn Lively, American actress
★
February 8 -
Big Show, American professional wrestler
★
February 11 -
Craig Jones, a member of the band
Slipknot
★
February 11 -
Steve McManaman, British footballer
★
February 14 -
Drew Bledsoe, American football player
★
February 14 -
Hiroshi, Japanese comedian
★
February 14 -
Viscera, American professional wrestler
★
February 15 -
Jaromir Jagr, Czech hockey player
★
February 16 -
Jerome Bettis, American football player
★
February 17 -
Billie Joe Armstrong, American musician and lead singer (
Green Day)
★
February 17 -
YUKI, Japanese singer (
JUDY AND MARY)
★
February 17 -
Philippe Candeloro, French figure skater
★
February 19 -
Malky Mackay, Scottish footballer
★
February 21 -
Seo Taiji, Korean musician
★
February 22 -
Michael Chang, American tennis player
★
February 23 -
Steve Holy, American country singer
★
February 24 -
Richard Chelimo, Kenyan athlete (d.
2001)
★
February 28 -
Nick Wright, English football player
★
February 29 -
Antonio Sabato Jr., Italian actor
March-April
★
March 4 -
Ivy Queen, American composer and singer
★
March 4 -
Jos Verstappen, Dutch race car driver
★
March 4 -
Pae Gil-Su, North Korean gymnast
★
March 6 -
Terry Murphy, Northern Irish snooker player
★
March 6 -
Shaquille O'Neal, American basketball player
★
March 6 -
Jaret Reddick, American musician (
Bowling for Soup)
★
March 8 -
Angie Hart, Australian pop singer
★
March 9 -
Spencer Howson, Australian radio announcer
★
March 10 -
Takashi Fujii (Matthew Minami), Japanese television performer
★
March 10 -
Matt Kenseth, American race car driver
★
March 15 -
Mark Hoppus, American musician (
blink-182)
★
March 17 -
Mia Hamm, American soccer player
★
March 18 -
Dane Cook, American comedian
★
March 20 -
Alexander Kapranos, British singer and guitarist (
Franz Ferdinand)
★
March 21 -
Chris Candido, American professional wrestler (d.
2005)
★
March 22 -
Shawn Bradley, American basketball player
★
March 22 -
Elvis Stojko, Canadian figure skater
★
March 22 -
Cory Lidle, American baseball player (d.
2006)
★
March 23 -
Judith Godrèche, French actress
★
March 27 -
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Dutch footballer
★
March 27 -
Charlie Haas, American professional wrestler
★
March 30 -
Karel Poborsky, Czech Republic football player
★
April 3 -
Jennie Garth, American actress
★
April 5 -
Krista Allen, American actress
★
April 5 -
Junko Takeuchi, Japanese voice actress
★
April 11 -
Jason Varitek, American baseball player
★
April 12 -
Şebnem Ferah, Turkish singer and song-writer
★
April 12 -
NiCole Robinson, American actress
★
April 13 -
Mariusz Czerkawski, Polish ice hockey player
★
April 17 -
Tony Boselli, American football player
★
April 17 -
Jennifer Garner, American actress
★
April 17 -
Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lankan cricketer
★
April 17 -
Terran Sandwith, Canadian ice hockey player
★
April 19 -
Rivaldo, Brazilian footballer
★
April 20 -
Carmen Electra, American actress and singer
★
April 20 -
Le Huynh Đuc, Vietnamese footballer
★
April 22 -
Sarah Patterson, British actress
★
April 24 -
Chipper Jones, American baseball player
★
April 29 -
Roman Dirge, American artist, writer and cartoonist
May-June
★
May 2 -
The Rock, American professional wrestler and actor (birth name – Dwayne Johnson)
★
May 2 -
Paul Adcock, English footballer
★
May 4 -
Mike Dirnt, American musician (
Green Day)
★
May 5 -
James Cracknell, British Olympic winning rower
★
May 8 -
Darren Hayes, Australian musician
★
May 10 -
Radosław Majdan, Polish goalkeeper
★
May 19 -
Jenny Berggren, Swedish singer (
Ace of Base)
★
May 20 -
Busta Rhymes, American musician and actor
★
May 21 -
The Notorious B.I.G., American musician (d.
1997)
★
May 22 -
Anna Belknap, American actress
★
May 23 -
Rubens Barrichello, Brazilian racecar driver
★
May 28 -
Michael Boogerd, Dutch cyclist
★
May 30 -
Manny Ramírez, Dominican baseball player
★
May 31 -
Dave Roberts,
Major League Baseball player
★
June 2 -
Wayne Brady, American comedian
★
June 4 -
Derian Hatcher, American hockey player
★
June 4 -
Rob Huebel, American comedian
★
June 4 -
Debra Stephenson, English actress
★
June 5 -
Pavel Kotla, Polish conductor
★
June 5 -
Justin Smith, American drummer
★
June 5 -
Mike Bucci, American professional wrestler
★
June 6 -
Cristina Scabbia, Italian singer
★
June 7 -
Karl Urban, New Zealand actor
★
June 14 -
Matthias Ettrich, computer scientist who founded the
KDE project
★
June 15 -
Andy Pettitte, American baseball player
★
June 15 -
James Morris, boxer, rapper
★
June 16 -
Tupac Shakur, rapper, actor (d.
1996)
★
June 17 -
Iztok Čop, Slovenian rower
★
June 19 -
Brian McBride, American soccer player
★
June 21 -
Irene van Dyk, South African-born netball player
★
June 21 -
Christopher Matthews, English musician
★
June 22 -
Miguel Del Toro, Mexican baseball player
★
June 23 -
Zinedine Zidane, French footballer
★
June 24 -
Robbie McEwen, Australian professional road bicycle racer
★
June 24 -
Denis Zvegelj, Slovenian rower
★
June 25 -
Carlos Delgado, Puerto Rican baseball player
★
June 25 -
Mike Kroeger, Canadian bass guitarist (
Nickelback)
★
June 28 -
John Heidenreich, American professional wrestler
★
June 29 -
Samantha Smith, American activist (d.
1985)
July-August
★
July 3 -
Asha Gill, British-born television host
★
July 6 -
Mark Gasser, British concert pianist
★
July 7 -
Lisa Leslie, American basketball player
★
July 8 -
Saurav Ganguly, Indian cricketer
★
July 13 -
Sean Waltman, American professional wrestler
★
July 15 -
Michael Barnett, British singer
★
July 24 -
Reverend Jen Miller, American actress, painter and poet
★
July 27 -
Jill Arrington, American football reporter
★
July 28 -
Elizabeth Berkley, American actress
★
August 1 -
Devon Hughes, American professional wrestler
★
August 1 -
Tanya Reid, Canadian actress
★
August 2 -
Kelly Richardson, Canadian contemporary artist
★
August 3 -
Forbes Johnston, professional football player
★
August 6 -
Geri Halliwell, British musician (
Spice Girls)
★
August 7 -
Sarah Cawood, British television presenter
★
August 9 -
A-Mei, Taiwanese singer
★
August 10 -
Angie Harmon, American actress
★
August 11 -
Jonathon Prandi, American model and actor
★
August 12 -
Demir Demirkan, Turkish rock musician and songwriter
★
August 14 -
Ed O'Bannon, American basketball player
★
August 15 -
Ben Affleck, American actor
★
August 16 -
Emily Robison, American country music performer (
Dixie Chicks)
★
August 18 -
Leo Ku, Hong Kong actor and singer
★
August 19 -
Sammi Cheng, Hong Kong singer and actress
★
August 25 -
Marvin Harrison, American football player
★
August 27 -
Jimmy Pop, American musician (
Bloodhound Gang)
★
August 30 -
Cameron Diaz, American actress
★
August 30 -
Pavel Nedvěd, Czech footballer
★
August 31 -
Chris Tucker, American comedian
September-October
★
September 2 -
Sergei Zholtok, Latvian hockey player (d.
2004)
★
September 6 -
Dylan Bruno, American actor (
Numb3rs)
★
September 8 -
Lisa Kennedy, American disc jockey and political satirist
★
September 8 -
Tomokazu Seki, Japanese
seiyu (voice actor)
★
September 10 -
Ghada Shouaa, Syrian athlete
★
September 12 -
Budi Putra, Indonesian journalist, writer and blogger
★
September 12 -
Jason Statham, British actor
★ September 14 - David Clabaugh, American Dj and Artist son of Puerto Rican Political Activist Carlos Santiago Soto
★
September 17 -
Bobby Lee, American comedian
★
September 21 -
Liam Gallagher, British singer (
Oasis)
★
September 21 -
Jon Kitna, American football player
★
September 22 -
Bob Sapp, American boxer and kickboxer
★
September 24 -
Karyn Bosnak, American author
★
September 27 -
Sylvia Crawley, American basketball player
★
September 28 -
Gwyneth Paltrow, American actress
★
September 28 -
Dita Von Teese, American
burlesque artist
★
September 30 -
Ari Behn, Norwegian author
★
October 5 -
Grant Hill, American basketball player
★
October 5 -
Aaron Guiel, Canadian baseball player
★
October 8 -
Tricia Vessey, American actress
★
October 9 -
Etan Patz, disappeared school boy
★
October 17 -
Marshall Mathers, a.k.a.
Eminem American rapper and actor
★
October 17 -
Wyclef Jean, Haitian rapper
★
October 17 -
Tarkan,
Turkish singer
★
October 21 -
Masakazu Morita,
seiyu (voice actor)
★
October 24 -
Pat Williams, American football player
★
October 28 -
Terrell Davis, American football player
★
October 28 -
Brad Paisley, American country music performer
★
October 28 -
Trista Rehn, American television personality
★
October 29 -
Takafumi Horie, Japanese entrepreneur (
Livedoor)
★
October 29 -
Gabrielle Union, American actress
★
October 29 -
Tracee Ellis Ross, American actress
November-December
★
November 1 -
Toni Collette, Australian actress
★
November 2 -
Vladimir Vorobiev, Russian ice hockey player
★
November 4 -
Luís Figo, Portuguese footballer
★
November 7 -
Danny Grewcock, British rugby player
★
November 6 -
Thandie Newton, British actress
★
November 9 -
Doug Russell, American radio personality
★
November 9 -
Corin Tucker, American musician
★
November 10 -
Shawn Green, American baseball player
★
November 13 -
Takuya Kimura, Japanese actor
★
November 14 -
Matthew Bloom, American wrestler (billed currently as Giant Bernard and Rusher Road)
★
November 14 -
Josh Duhamel, American actor, model
★
November 27 -
Stephanie Hall, American songwriter, voice talent, cover model
★
November 30 -
Christopher Fitzgerald, American stage actor
★
December 1 -
Norbert Wójtowicz, Polish historian and theologian
★
December 4 -
Nikki Tyler, American actress
★
December 7 -
Hermann Maier, Austrian skier
★
December 7 -
Tammy Lynn Sytch, American wrestling valet and topless model
★
December 9 -
Tre Cool, American drummer (
Green Day)
★
December 10 -
Brian Molko, British singer (
Placebo)
★
December 12 -
Joel Cahen, Israeli artist
★
December 13 -
Chris Grant, Australian footballer
★
December 14 -
Eric Anderson, American musical theatre actor
★
December 15 -
Rodney Harrison, American football player
★
December 16 -
Ben Kowalewicz, Lead singer of the Canadian Band
Billy Talent.
★
December 18 -
DJ Lethal, member of
Limp Bizkit and
House of Pain
★
December 19 -
Alyssa Milano, American actress
★
December 19 -
Warren Sapp, American football player
★
December 22 -
Vanessa Paradis, French singer and actress
★
December 28 -
Patrick Rafter, Australian tennis player
★
December 29 -
Jason Kreis, American soccer player
★
December 29 -
Jude Law, British actor
★
December 29 -
Craig Ian Ellis , cie (DJ)
★
December 30 -
Kerry Collins, American football player
Deaths
January - March
★
January 1 -
Maurice Chevalier, French entertainer (surgical complications) (b.
1888)
★
January 6 -
Chen Yi, Chinese communist military commander and politician (b.
1901)
★
January 7 -
John Berryman, American poet and scholar (b.
1914); suicide
★
January 8 -
Kenneth Patchen, American poet and painter (b.
1911)
★
January 10 -
Aksel Larsen, Danish politician (b.
1897)
★
January 14 - King
Frederick IX of Denmark (b.
1899)
★
January 16 -
Ross Bagdasarian, American record producer and creator of
Alvin and the Chipmunks (b.
1919)
★
January 26 -
Mahalia Jackson, American singer (b.
1911)
★
February 11 -
Jan Wils, Dutch architect (b.
1891)
★
February 19 -
John Grierson, Scottish documentary filmmaker (b.
1898)
★
February 20 -
Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1906)
★
February 20 -
Walter Winchell, American journalist (b.
1897)
★
February 22 -
Tedd Pierce, American animator (b.
1906)
★
March 13 -
Tony Ray-Jones, British photographer (b.
1941)
★
March 21 -
David McCallum, Sr., British violinist and the father of
David McCallum (b.
1897)
★
March 24 -
Cristobal Balenciaga, Spanish couturier (b.
1895)
★
March 27 -
Sharkey Bonano, American jazz musician (b.
1904)
★
March 27 -
M.C. Escher, Dutch artist (b.
1898)
★
March 29 -
J. Arthur Rank, British industrialist and film producer (b.
1888)
April - June
★
April 2 -
Gil Hodges, baseball player (b.
1924)
★
April 3 -
Ferde Grofé, American composer (b.
1882)
★
April 4 -
Stefan Wolpe, German-born composer (b.
1902)
★
April 8 -
Andrea Feldman, American actress (suicide) (b.
1948)
★
April 11 -
George H. Plympton, American screenwriter (b.
1889)
★
April 16 -
Yasunari Kawabata, Japanese writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1899)
★
May 2 -
J. Edgar Hoover, American Federal Bureau of Investigation director (b.
1895)
★
May 4 -
Edward Calvin Kendall, American chemist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.
1886)
★
May 13 -
Dan Blocker, American actor (b.
1928)
★
May 22 -
Cecil Day-Lewis, English poet (b.
1904)
★
May 22 -
Margaret Rutherford, English actress (b.
1892)
★
May 28 - King
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (b.
1894)
★
June 13 -
Georg von Békésy, Hungarian biophysicist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.
1899)
★
June 13 -
Stephanie von Hohenlohe, Austrian-born German World War II spy (b.
1891)
★
June 22 -
Vladimir Durković, Serbian footballer (killed by a Swiss police officer) (b.
1937)
July - September
★
July 2 -
Joseph Fielding Smith, tenth president of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b.
1876)
★
July 7 -
King Talal,
King of Jordan (b.
1909)
★
July 19 -
Hezekiah M. Washburn, American missionary (b.
1884)
★
July 21 -
Ralph Craig, American athlete (b.
1889)
★
July 28 -
Helen Traubel, American soprano (b.
1903)
★
August 11 -
Max Theiler, South African virologist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.
1899)
★
August 14 -
Oscar Levant, American pianist and actor (b.
1906)
★
August 28 -
Prince William of Gloucester (air crash) (b.
1941)
★
September 15 -
Geoffrey Fisher,
Archbishop of Canterbury (b.
1887)
★
September 19 -
Robert Casadesus, French pianist (b.
1899)
October - December
★
October 1 -
Louis Leakey, British paleontologist (b.
1903)
★
October 5 -
Ivan Yefremov, Soviet paleontologist and science fiction author (b.
1907)
★
October 9 -
Miriam Hopkins, American actress (b.
1902)
★
October 20 -
Harlow Shapley, American astronomer (b.
1885)
★
October 24 -
Jackie Robinson, baseball player (b.
1919)
★
October 26 -
Igor Sikorsky, Russian aviation engineer (b.
1889)
★
November 1 -
Ezra Pound, American poet (b.
1885)
★
November 14 -
Martin Dies, Jr., American politician (b.
1900)
★
November 25 -
Henri Coandă, Romanian aerodynamics pioneer (b.
1886)
★
November 28 -
Havergal Brian, English composer (b.
1876)
★
December 3 -
Bill Johnson, American musician (b.
1872)
★
December 24 -
Charles Atlas, Italian-American
strongman and
sideshow performer
★
December 24 -
Gisela Richter, English art historian (b.
1882)
★
December 26 -
Harry S. Truman, 33rd
President of the United States (heart failure) (b.
1884)
★
December 27 -
Lester B. Pearson 14th
Prime Minister of Canada, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (b.
1897)
★
December 31 -
Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rican
Major League Baseball player (b.
1934)
Nobel prizes
★
Physics -
John Bardeen,
Leon Neil Cooper,
John Robert Schrieffer
★
Chemistry -
Christian B. Anfinsen,
Stanford Moore,
William H. Stein
★
Physiology or Medicine -
Gerald M. Edelman,
Rodney R. Porter
★
Literature -
Heinrich Böll
★
Peace - not awarded
★
Economics -
John Hicks,
Kenneth Arrow
Ship events
★
List of ship launches in 1972
★
List of ship commissionings in 1972
★
List of ship decommissionings in 1972
See also
★
20th century
Notes
1. Full Text - Proclamation 1081
External links
★
1972 Coin Pictures
★
1993 movie 'Alive' at IMDB 1993 movie 'Alive' at IMDB
Table of contents
__TOC__
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