The Year 1972
History and Politics
US returns Okinawa to Japan.
Bangladesh (E. Pakistan) established as sovereign state;
Sheik Mujibur Rahman named prime minister.
District of Columbia police arrest 5 men inside Democratic National
Headquarters in the Watergate complex-beginning of the "Watergate" affair.
Gov. George C. Wallace of Alabama, a contender for the Democratic presidential
nomination, is shot by Arthur Bremer and partially paralized.
Richard M. Nixon is re-elected President of the US in a near record landslide.
Lon Nol takes complete control of Cambodian government.
Following years of violence between Catholics and Protestants, Britian impose direct
rule on Northern Ireland; 467 Nothern Irish killed during the year.
Phase II ecomonic measures continue to control US wages, prices and profits.
J Edgar Hoover, FBI director since 1942 dies.
Vietnam: Paris peace talks continue; US mines N. Vietnamese ports; Henry Kissinger
makes his "peace is at hand" statement shortly before the November elections.
Ireland, Britian, and Denmark agree to full membership in the European
Economic Community (Common Market); Norway voters reject entry.
Ceylon becomes a republic and changes its name to Sir Lanka.
Kakuei Tanaka elected Premier of Japan.
Arab terrorists kill 2 Isreali Olympic athletes in Munich; take 9 others
hostage; all 9 killed during shoot-out with W. German police and soldiers.
Sporadic Arab-Isreali violence continues to errupt throughout Middle East.
Phillippine President Ferdinand Marcos declares martial law in response to what
he calls a "Communist rebellion"; Marcos assumes near-dictatorial powers.
New Zealand's Labour Party, led by Norman E. Kirk, unseats National Party, ending 12 years of rule.
Australian Labour Party, led by Gough Whitlam, ends 23 years of Liberal-Country Party rule.
At years end fewer than 24,000 American troops remain in Vietnam.
Harry S. Truman, 33rd President to the US dies.
Managua, Nicaragua, earthquake kills 10,000.
US petroleum products shortage first becomes apparent.
Science, Technology, Growth
Apollo 16 astronauts, John Watts and Charles Duke, spend 71 hours on the surface of the moon;
Apollo 17 crew, Eugene Cernan and Dr. Harrison Schmitt, later stay a record 74 hours, 59 minutes.
The Tasadays, a Stoneage tribe, are discovered living in caves in
the southern Phillippines, subsequently revealed to be a hoax.
Richard Leakey and Glynn Issac discover a 2.5 million-year-old skull in Northern Kenya.
Dr. Louis S B Leakey, Eng. archaeologist and anthropologist dies.
Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine: Gerald M. Edelman (US) and Rodney R. Porter (Eng)
Nobel Prize for Chemistry: Standford Moore, William Howard Stein, and Christian B. Anfisen (all US)
Nobel Prize for Physics: John Bardeen, Leon N. Cooper, and John Robert Schreiffer (all US)
Soviet sapcecraft, Venus 8, soft-lands on Venus.
Daily Life
Dallas Cowboys defeat Miami Dolphins, 24-3 to win Super Bowl.
Strict anti-hijack laws are instituted at US airports.
11th Winter Olympics at Sapporo, Japan: USSR wins 8 gold medals.
Summer Olympics held in Munich; USSR takes 50 gold medals; American swimmer Mark Spitz
captures record 7 gold medals; deaths of 11 Isreali athletes mar event.
Professional baseball players strike over pension rights, delaying season's opening by 13 days.
The Star of Sierra Leone, the largest diamond (969.8 carats) ever discovered, is unearthed in Sierra Leone.
Militant Angela Davis is acquitted of murder conspiracy charges.
Hurricane Agnes causes an estimated $1.7 billion damage to the eastern US.
National League wins All-Star game, 4-3 over American League.
Bobby Fischer (US) wins world chess title from Boris Spassky (USSR)
The military draft is phased out in the US; armed forces becomes all-volunteer.
US tennis team wins Davis Cup for 5th straight time.
Oakland Athletics win World Series over Cincinnati Reds, 3-2.
Roberto Clemente, Pittsburgh Pirate superstar, becomes 11th player
to reach 3,000 base hits; later dies in plane crash.
Jackie Robinson, first Black to play major league baseball dies.
The Dow-Jones Index for industrial stocks closes above the 1,000 mark for the first time.
"Team Canada" defeats Soviet Union for world hockey championship.
"All in the Family" leading TV show in US.
"Life" magazine ceases publication.
Charles Atlas, promoter of body building dies.
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