1972
Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.
Events of 1972
January
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.
- The German militant group Movement 2 June announces its support of the Irish Republican Army.
- Anti-British riots throughout Ireland take place. The British Embassy in Dublin is burned to the ground, as are several British-owned businesses.
- February 3-February 13 - The 1972 Winter Olympics were held in Sapporo, Japan.
- February 4 - Mariner 9 sends pictures from Mars.
- February 5
- February 9 - The British government declares a state of emergency over a miners' strike.
- February 15
- 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 19 - A stand off five Japanese United Red Army and many Japanese police, riot controller begin taking the 31 years-old wife has hostarged lodge house at Karuizawa, Japan, where continue to ten days.
- 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
- February 24 - North Vietnamese negotiators walk out of the Paris Peace Talks to protest U.S. air raids.
- February 26
- February 28 - In Karuizawa, Japan, the Japanese authorities attempt to rescue a female hostage ends with a standoff between five Japanese United Red Army and the authorities, in which two policemen are killed and 12 injured.
March
April
- April 7 - Vietnam War veteran Richard McCoy, Jr. hijacks a United Airlines jet and extorts $500,000 ? he is later captured.
- April 10 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union join some 70 nations in signing the Biological Weapons Convention, 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 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.
- 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 16 - The first financial derivatives exchange, the International Monetary Market (IMM) opens on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
- 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 22 - Ceylon becomes the republic of Sri Lanka under prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, when its new constitution is ratified.
- May 23 - Tamil United Front (now known as Tamil United Liberation Front, a pro-Tamil organization, is founded.
- May 24
- May 26
- 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
July
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.
- Dictator Idi Amin declares that Uganda will expel 50,000 Asians with British passports to Britain within three months.
- Huge Solar Flare knocks out cable lines in U.S. One of the largest flares ever recorded. Event begins with appearance of sunspot on Aug 2, Aug 4 flare kicks off high levels of activity until Aug 10, 1972.
- August 10 - A brilliant, daytime meteor skips off the Earth's atmosphere due to an Apollo asteroid streaking over the western US into Canada.[1]
- 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.
- 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.
September
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.
November
Nixon's landslide victory in the electoral college during the 1972 Election .
- November - 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 http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=182.
- 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
December
Undated
Ongoing
Births
January-February
- January 1 - Lilian Thuram, French football player
- 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 11 - Amanda Peet, American actress
- January 12 - Espen Knutsen, Norwegian hockey player
- January 13 - Nicole Eggert, American actress
- January 16
- Ruben Bagger, Danish soccer player
- Ang Christou, Austrailian soccer player
- Dameon Clarke, Canadian actor
- Yuri Drozdov, Russian soccer player
- Ezra Hendrickson, Vincentian soccer player
- Salah Hissou, Moroccan long-distance runner
- Joe Horn, American football player
- Richard T. Jones, American actor
- Greg Page, Australian actor
- Alen Peternac, Croatian soccer player
- January 17
- January 18 - Mike Lieberthal, American baseball player
- January 19
- January 21 - Billel Dziri, Algerian footballer
- January 22 - Romi Paku, seiyu (voice actress)
- January 23 - Ewen Bremner, Scottish actor
- January 23 - Marcel Wouda, Dutch swimmer
- January 26 - Christopher Boykin, rapper
- January 27
- February 2 - Klára Dobrev, wife of Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány
- February 4 - Giovanni Silva De Oliveira, Brazilian footballer
- February 5
- February 7
- February 8 - Big Show, American professional wrestler
- February 11
- February 14
- February 15 - Jaromír Jágr, Czech hockey player
- February 16
- February 17
- February 19 - Malky Mackay, Scottish footballer
- February 21 - Seo Taiji, Korean musician
- February 22 - Michael Chang, American tennis player
- February 24 - Richard Chelimo, Kenyan athlete (d. 2001)
- February 28 - Rory Cochrane, American Actor
- February 29 - Antonio Sabato Jr., Italian actor
March-April
- March 3 - Darren Anderton, English footballer
- March 4
- March 6
- March 8 - Angie Hart, Australian pop singer
- March 9 - Spencer Howson, Australian radio announcer
- March 10
- 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
- March 23
- March 27
- March 28 - Nick Frost, English comedian actor
- March 30 - Karel Poborsky, Czech Republic football player
May-June
- May 2
- May 4 - Mike Dirnt, American musician (Green Day)
- May 5 - James Cracknell, British Olympic winning rower
- May 7 - Felix da Housecat, House music DJ and record producer
- May 8 - Darren Hayes, Australian musician
- May 10 - Rados?aw Majdan, Polish goalkeeper
- May 19 - Jenny Berggren, Swedish singer (Ace of Base)
- May 20
- May 21 - The Notorious B.I.G., American musician (d. 1997)
- May 23 - Rubens Barrichello, Brazilian race car 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
- June 5
- June 6 - Cristina Scabbia, Italian singer
- June 7 - Karl Urban, New Zealand actor
- June 10 - Steven Fischer, American film producer and director
- June 14 - Matthias Ettrich, German computer scientist
- June 15
- June 17 - Iztok ?op, Slovenian rower
- June 19 - Brian McBride, American soccer player
- June 21
- June 22 - Miguel Del Toro, Mexican baseball player
- June 23 - Zinedine Zidane, French footballer
- June 24
- 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)
- June 29 - Nawal Al Zoghbi, Lebanese singer
July-August
- July 3 - Asha Gill, British-born television host
- July 4 - Craig Spearman, New Zealand cricketer
- July 6 - Mark Gasser, British concert pianist
- July 7 - Lisa Leslie, American basketball player
- July 8 - Sourav Ganguly, Indian cricketer
- July 13 - Sean Waltman, American professional wrestler
- July 24 - Rev. Jen Miller, American actress, painter and poet
- July 27 - Jill Arrington, American football reporter
- July 28 - Elizabeth Berkley, American actress
- July 29 - Anssi Kela, Finnish rock musician
- July 31 - Tami Stronach, former actress
- August 1
- August 2 - Kelly Richardson, Canadian contemporary artist
- August 3 - Patrik Isaksson, Swedish singer and songwriter
- 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 12 - Del tha Funkee Homosapien, American hip-hop artist
- August 13 - Kevin Plank, American entrepreneur (Under Armour)
- 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 22 - Jonathan Coachman, World Wrestling Entertainment announcer
- August 25 - Marvin Harrison, American football player
- August 27 - Jimmy Pop, American musician (Bloodhound Gang)
- August 28 - Jay Witasick, Major League Baseball player
- August 30
- 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
- September 10
- September 12
- September 17 - Bobby Lee, American comedian
- September 19 - Jim Druckenmiller, National Football League quarterback
- September 21
- September 22 - Bob Sapp, American boxer and kickboxer
- September 24 - Karyn Bosnak, American author
- September 27 - Sylvia Crawley, American basketball player
- September 28
- September 30
- October 5
- October 8 - Tricia Vessey, American actress
- October 9 - Etan Patz, disappeared school boy
- October 10 - Jun Lana, Filipino playwright and screenwriter
- October 11 - Claudia Black, Australian actress
- October 12 - Mechele Linehan, American murderer
- October 17
- October 21
- October 22 - D'Lo Brown, American professional wrestler
- October 24
- October 27
- October 28
- October 29
- October 31 - Matt Dawson, English rugby player
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
- November 10 - Shawn Green, American baseball player
- November 13 - Takuya Kimura, Japanese actor
- November 14
- November 23 - Alf-Inge Håland, Norwegian footballer
- November 28 - Jesper Strömblad, Swedish musician (In Flames)
- 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 11 - Daniel Alfredsson, NHL hockey player
- 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
- December 18 - DJ Lethal, member of Limp Bizkit and House of Pain
- December 19
- December 22 - Vanessa Paradis, French singer and actress
- December 27 - Colin Charvis, Welsh rugby player
- December 28 - Patrick Rafter, Australian tennis player
- December 29 - Jason Kreis, American soccer player
- December 29 - Jude Law, British actor
- December 30 - Kerry Collins, American football player
- December 31 - Joey McIntyre, American actor and singer
Deaths
January - March
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