1972

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Template:Yearbox Template:C20YearInTopic 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1972 calendar).

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Events

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Designated International year of the book by UNESCO

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January

January 2 - The Pierre Hotel Heist - Six men rob the safe deposit boxes of the Pierre Hotel in New York City. Loot is 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 - President of the United States Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.
January 7 - Iberian Airlines passenger planes crashes into an 800' peak on 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 (Hong Kong harbor).
January 11 - East Pakistan becomes independent with the name Bangladesh.
January 14 - King Frederick IX of Denmark dies - his daughter Queen Margaret II of Denmark ascends to the throne on January 16.
January 19 - 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 22 - Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom join the EEC.
January 23 - 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 woman elected to US Congress, announces her candidacy for US president.
January 26 - Yugoslavian air stewardress Vesna Vulovic is the only survivor when her plane crashes in Czechoslovakia. She survives after falling about 30,000' in the tail section of the aircraft.
January 28 - Richard Chanfray claims he is Count of St Germain on French television.
January 30 - Bloody Sunday - the British Army kills 13 unarmed Roman Catholic civil rights marchers in Derry, Ireland.
January 30 - Pakistan withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations.
January 31 - King Mahendra of Nepal dies, becoming the second king to die that month, and is succeeded by his son, Birendra.

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February

February 1 - First scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) introduced (price $395).

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 - US airlines begin mandatory inspection of passengers and baggage.
February 5 - Tommy Vercetti arrested for 15 years for multiple counts of murder and possession of cocaine
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 granted U.S. Federal copyright protection for the first time.
February 17 - Sales of the Volkswagen Beetle model exceed those of Ford Model-T (15 million).
February 18 - The California Supreme Court invalidates the state's death penalty and converts the sentences of all death row inmates to life in prison.
February 21-February 28 - President Richard M. Nixon makes an unprecedented eight-day visit to the People's Republic of China and meets with Mao Zedong.
February 21 - The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
February 22 - IRA bomb in Aldershot - 7 dead.
February 23 - Angela Davis is released from jail.
February 23 - A Lufthansa plane is hijacked and taken to Aden. Passengers are released after a ransom of 16 million D-marks is agreed.
February 24 - North Vietnamese negotiators walk out of the peace talks in Paris to protest US air raids.
February 26 - A coal sludge spill kills 125 in Buffalo Creek.
February 26 - Luna 20 comes back to Earth with a cargo of moon rocks.

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March

March 1 - British 14-year-old schoolboy Timothy Davey is sentenced in Turkey for "conspiring to sell cannabis."
March 1 - The Club of Rome publishes report "Boundaries on the Growth."
March 2 - Launch of the Pioneer 10 spacecraft.
March 2 - Jean-Bedel Bokassa becomes the 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 24 - To prevent further unionist misrule, Britain takes over direct rule of Northern Ireland.
March 26 - 19 climbers on Mount Fuji die in an avalanche.
March 30 - Vietnam War: The Eastertide Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.

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April

April 3 - First call was made with a cell phone (cellular phone) in New York.
April 7 - US Mafioso Joe Gallo shot in Umberto's Clam House in Little Italy.
April 10 - The USA 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 1/5 of the population of Iranian province of Fars.
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 - Charlie Chaplin re-enters the USA to receive a Special Oscar (Academy Award) from Daniel Taradash.
April 16 - Apollo 16 launched.
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 have rowed across the Pacific.
April 27 - Constructive Vote of No Confidence 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, thirteen Black Panther protesters and the show's co-author, Jim Rado, are arrested for disturbing the peace and marijuana use.

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May

May 5 - An Alitalia DC-8 crashes west of Palermo, Sicily – 115 dead.
May 13 - Fire in a nightclub atop the Sennichi department store in Osaka, Japan – 115 dead.
May 15 - Governor George Wallace of Alabama is shot by Arthur Herman Bremer at a Laurel, Maryland political rally.
May 17 - The closing notice is posted for the Broadway musical Hair.
May 18 - Four troopers of both SAS and SBS are parachuted onto the HMS Queen Elizabeth II, 1000 miles off Britain in the Atlantic, after a bomb threat and demand for ransom. It turns out to be bogus.
May 19 - Three out of six bombs explode in the Springer Press building in Hamburg, Germany - 17 injured. The Red Army Faction claims responsibility.
May 21 - In Rome, Laszlo Toth attacks Michelangelo's Pieta statue with a sledgehammer shouting that he is Jesus Christ
May 22 - Earthquake lasting 20 seconds destroys most of Bingol, Turkey - more than 1000 dead, 10.000 made homeless
May 22 - Ceylon becomes the republic of Sri Lanka under prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike when its new constitution is ratified.
May 24 - A RAF bomb explodes in the Campbell Barracks of the US Army Supreme European Command in Heidelberg. Three US soldiers Clyde Bonner, Ronald Woodard and Charles Peck are killed.
May 26 - Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev sign SALT I treaty in Moscow (including Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty; also other agreements were made).
May 26 - Willandra National Park is established in Australia.
May 30 - The Angry Brigade goes on trial.
May 30 – 3 members of Japanese Red Army kill 24 and injure 100 in Lod Airport, Israel.

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June

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June - Iraq nationalizes the Iraq Petroleum Company.
June - First national convention of the US Libertarian Party held in Denver, Colorado.
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 US rabbi.
June 4 - Angela Davis found not guilty of murder.
June 14 - June 23 - Hurricane Agnes kills 117 in US 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 17 - Watergate scandal: Five White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee.
June 17 - Return of Okinawa from United States' control to Japan.
June 17 - Chilean president Salvador Allende forms a new government.
June 18 - A British European Airways Trident 1 jet airliner crashed alongside the busy A30 Staines bypass killing all 118 passengers and crew.
June 18 - West Germany beat 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 Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation into the Watergate break-ins.
June 25 - Juan Peron is elected president of Argentina.
June 26 - Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney found Atari.
June 28 - US president Nixon announces that no new draftees will be sent to Vietnam.
June 29 - Supreme Court of the United States rules that the death penalty is unconstitutional.

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July

July 1 - The Broadway production of the musical Hair closes after 1,752 performances.
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 held in Colorado.
July 8 - The USA sells grain to the Soviet Union for $750 million.
July 10 - A stampede of elephants kills 24 in the Chandka Forest in India.
July 15 - The Pruitt-Igoe housing development is demolished.
July 18 - Anwar Sadat expels 20.000 Soviet advisors from Egypt
July 21 - Bloody Friday — 22 bombs explode in Belfast, Ireland. 9 people were killed and a further 130 seriously injured.
July 23 - The United States launches Landsat 1, first Earth-resources satellite.
July 25 - US Health officials admit that blacks were used as guinea pigs in a syphilis experiment.
July 29 - National dock strike begins in Britain.

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August

August 4 - Arthur Bremer 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 11-August 12 - Last US ground troops withdrawn from Vietnam.
August 16 - The Royal Moroccan Air Force mistakenly fires upon, but fails to bring down, Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he was traveling back to Rabat.
August 22 - 27 year old John Wojtowicz and 18 year old Sal Naturile held several Chase Manhattan Bank employees hostage for 17 hours in Flatbush, Brooklyn, N.Y.
August 28 - Prince William of Gloucester dies in an air crash.

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September

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September 1 - Bobby Fischer defeats Boris Spassky in a chess match at Reykjavík, Iceland, and becomes the first American chess champion (see Match of the Century).
September 5-September 6 - Munich Massacre: Eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich are killed after eight members of the Arab terrorist group Black September invade the Olympic Village; five guerillas and one 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 17 - M*A*S*H debuts on CBS.
September 19 - Parcel bomb sent to Israeli Embassy in London kills one diplomat.
September 21 - Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos issued Proclamation No. 1081 placing the entire country under martial law.
September 25 - Norwegian EC referendum, 1972 - the people of Norway reject membership into the European Economic Commission.
September 27 - Joint Communique of the Government of Japan and the Government of the People's Republic of China.
September 29 - Sino-Japanese relations: Japan normalized diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China after breaking official ties with the Republic of China.

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October

October 1 - First publication reporting the production of a recombinant DNA molecule, marking 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 EEC. The Faroe Islands stay out.
October 5 - The United Reformed Church is founded out of the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches.
October 6 - Train crash in Saltillo, Mexico – 208 dead.
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 - A Fairchild passenger plane 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 (see Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571).
October 16 - A plane carrying US congressman Hale Boggs of Louisiana and three other men vanishes in Alaska. The wreckage has never been found, despite a massive search at the time.
October 16 - Rainbow, a British television programme for children, debuts.
October 16 - Rioting inmates of the Maze prison cause a fire that destroys most of the camp
October 17 - Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom visits Yugoslavia.
October 25 - First female FBI agents hired.
October 25 - Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx sets a new world hour record in Mexico City.
October 29 - The Black September group hijacks a Lufthansa Boeing 727 over Turkey and demands the release of three of their comrades still held for the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Olympic games
October 30 - US President Richard Nixon approves legislation to increase Social Security spending by US$5.3 billion.

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November

November 1 (exact date not known) - At a scientific meeting in Honolulu, Herbert Boyer and Stanley N. Cohen conceived the concept of recombinant DNA. They published their results in November 1973 in PNAS. Separately in 1972, Paul Berg also recombined 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 - 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 (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 17 - Juan Perón returns to Argentina.
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 American troop withdrawals from Vietnam due to the fact that troop levels are now down to 27,000.

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December

December 2 - Gough Whitlam becomes the first Labour 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 - PIRA kidnaps Jean McConville in Belfast.
December 7 - Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon, is launched.
December 7 - Imelda Marcos is stabbed and seriously wounded by an assailant; her bodyguards shoot him.
December 15 - The Commonwealth of Australia ordains equal pay to women.
December 21 - East Germany and West Germany recognize each other.
December 21 - ZANLA troopers attack Altera Farm in north-east Rhodesia
December 22 - 6.25 Richter scale earthquake in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua – over 12,000 dead. President Somoza is later accused of pocketing millions of dollars worth of foreign aid.
December 22 - Australia establishes diplomatic relations with China and West Germany.
December 23 - Earthquake in Nicaragua kills 5000-10.000 in the capital Managua
December 28 - The bones of Martin Bormann 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 Nicaragua earthquake victims.

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Unknown dates

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 Honshu and Hokkaido.
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 marijuana 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.
Tamil United Front, pro-Tamil organization, founded.
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 UK and Iceland.
First use of the term Hadean.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation established.
First Ruby Tuesday restaurant established.
ABBA founded

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Births

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January

January 2 - Taye Diggs, American actor
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 23 - Marcel Wouda, Dutch swimmer

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February

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 Choshu, Japanese comedian
February 7 - Alex Bassi, American race car driver
February 8 – Paul Wight, American professional wrestler (billed as The Big Show)
February 11 - Steve McManaman, British footballer
February 14 - Drew Bledsoe, American football player
February 14 - Hiroshi, Japanese comedian
February 15 - Jaromir Jagr, Czech hockey player
February 16 - Jerome Bettis, American football player
February 17 - Billie Joe Armstrong, American musician (Green Day)
February 17 - Philippe Candeloro, French figure skater
February 21 - Seo Taiji, Korean musician
February 24 - Richard Chelimo, Kenyan athlete (d. 2001)
February 29 - Antonio Sabato Jr., Italian actor

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March

March 6 - Terry Murphy, Northern Irish snooker player
March 6 - Shaquille O'Neal, American basketball player
March 8 - Angie Hart, Australian pop singer
March 10 - Takashi Fujii (Matthew Minami), Japanese television performer
March 10 - Matt Kenseth, American race car driver
March 10 - Eugene Roshal, Russian-born computer programmer
March 15 - Mark Hoppus, American musician (blink-182)
March 17 - Mia Hamm, American soccer player
March 20 - Alexander Kapranos, British singer and guitarist (Franz Ferdinand)
March 22 - Shawn Bradley, American basketball player
March 22 - Elvis Stojko, Canadian figure skater
March 23 - Judith Godrèche, French actress
March 27 - Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Dutch footballer

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April

April 3 - Jennie Garth, American actress
April 4 - Adam Clayton Powell Jr., American politician
April 5 - Krista Allen, American actress
April 11 - Jason Varitek, American baseball player
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 19 - Rivaldo, Brazilian footballer
April 24 - Chipper Jones, American baseball player
April 29 - Roman Dirge, American artist, writer and cartoonist

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May

May 2 - The Rock, American professional wrestler and actor (birth name – Dwayne Johnson)
May 4 - Mike Dirnt, American musician (Green Day)
May 8 - Darren Hayes, Australian musician
May 10 - Radosław Majdan, Polish goalkeeper
May 20 - Busta Rhymes, American musician and actor
May 21 - The Notorious B.I.G., American musician (d. 1997)
May 28 - Michael Boogerd, Dutch cyclist
May 30 - Manny Ramírez, Dominican baseball player