This Year in History:
1972
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
Richard Nixon signs a bill authorizing $5.5 million in funding to develop a space shuttle. The space shuttle represented a giant leap forward in the technology of space travel. Designed…
On January 8, 1972, the NCAA grants freshmen eligibility in its two biggest team sports, basketball and football. An overwhelming majority of representatives at the annual NCAA convention vote for…
On January, 9, 1972, the longest winning streak in major professional sports is snapped at 33 games when the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 120‑104. A 39‑point performance…
On January 9, 1972, the ship Seawise University (formerly the RMS Queen Elizabeth) sinks in Hong Kong Harbor despite a massive firefighting effort over two days. The Queen Elizabeth, named…
On January 15, 1972, “American Pie,”, an epic poem in musical form that has long been etched in the American popular consciousness, hits #1 on the Billboard charts. The story…
President Richard Nixon warns South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu in a private letter that his refusal to sign any negotiated peace agreement would render it impossible for the United…
On January 19, 1972, 36‑year‑old Sandy Koufax, the former Los Angeles Dodgers star, becomes the youngest player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. “This is the only thing that’s made…
On January 24, 1972, local farmers on Guam discover Shoichi Yokoi, a Japanese sergeant who fought in World War II, still hiding in the jungle—26 years after the official end of…
In Londonderry, Northern Ireland, 13 unarmed civil rights demonstrators are shot dead by British Army paratroopers in an event that becomes known as “Bloody Sunday.” The protesters, all Northern Catholics,…
On February 10, 1972, a relatively minor rocker named David Bowie debuts the spaceman character Ziggy Stardust during a concert at Greater London’s Toby Jug pub. It’s one of those…
About 6,000 Cambodian troops launch a major operation to wrestle the religious center of Angkor Wat from 4,000 North Vietnamese troops entrenched around the famous Buddhist temple complex, which had…
On February 17, 1972, the 15,007,034th Volkswagen Beetle comes off the assembly line, breaking a world car production record held for more than four decades by the Ford Motor Company’s…
In an amazing turn of events, President Richard Nixon takes a dramatic first step toward normalizing relations with the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC) by traveling to Beijing for…
Pioneer 10, the world’s first outer‑planetary probe, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to Jupiter, the solar system’s largest planet. In December 1973, after successfully negotiating the…
On March 16, 1972, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, performs two shows for inmates on Rikers Island, the notorious New York City prison complex. Brown pulls out all the…
On March 22, 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment is passed by the U.S. Senate and sent to the states for ratification. First proposed by the National Woman’s political party in…
On March 24, 1972, The Godfather—a three‑hour epic chronicling the lives of the Corleones, an Italian‑American crime family led by the powerful Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando)—is released in theaters nationwide.…
At 12:01 a.m. on April 1, 1972, the first collective players’ strike in Major League Baseball history begins. The strike lasts 12 days, ending on April 13, and 86 games…
From Cape Canaveral, Florida, Apollo 16, the fifth of six U.S. lunar landing missions, is successfully launched on its 238,000‑mile journey to the moon. On April 20, astronauts John W.…
After nearly five decades as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), J. Edgar Hoover dies, leaving the powerful government agency without the administrator who had been largely responsible…
