1972

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century 20th century 21st century
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
Years:	1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975

Template:C20YearInTopicX 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. According to measurements of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this year, an event which has not since been repeated. Template:C20YearTOCship

Events of 1972

January

See also January 1972 Template:Month3

• January 1
  • Kurt Waldheim becomes Secretary General of the United Nations.
  • Pierre Hotel Robbery: Six men rob the safety deposit boxes of The Pierre Hotel in New York City of at least $4 million.
• January 4
  • The first scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) is introduced (price $395).
  • Rose Heilbron becomes the first woman judge at the Old Bailey in London.
• 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 are killed.
  • Howard Hughes speaks by telephone to denounce Clifford Irving's supposed biography of him.
• January 9 – The RMS Queen Elizabeth is destroyed by fire in Hong Kong harbor.

Wreck of Queen Elizabeth in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong in 1972.

• January 10 – Father of The Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman returns Bangladesh from Pakistan
• January 13 – Prime Minister of Ghana Kofi Abrefa Busia is overthrown in a military coup.
• January 14 – King Frederick IX of Denmark dies; he is succeeded by his daughter Queen Margaret II of Denmark.
• January 16 – Super Bowl VI: The Dallas Cowboys defeat the Miami Dolphins 24–3.
• 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 21 – A New Delhi bootlegger sells wood alcohol to a wedding party; 100 die.
• 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 stewardess Vesna Vulović is the only survivor when her plane crashes in Czechoslovakia. She survives after falling 10,160 meters in the tail section of the aircraft.
  • The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is set up on the lawn of Parliament House in Canberra.
• January 28 – Richard Chanfray claims he is the Count of St Germain on French television.
• January 30
  • Bloody Sunday: The British Army kills 14 unarmed nationalist civil rights marchers in Derry, Northern Ireland.
  • Pakistan withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations.
• January 31 – King Birendra succeeds his father as King of Nepal.

February

See also February 1972 Template:Month3

• February 2
  • A bomb explodes at the British Yacht Club in West Berlin, killing Irwin Beelitz, a German boat builder.
  • The German militant group Movement 2 June announces its support of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
  • Anti-British riots take place throughout Ireland. The British Embassy in Dublin is burned to the ground, as are several British-owned businesses.
• February 3–13 – The 1972 Winter Olympics are held in Sapporo, Japan.
• February 4 – Mariner 9 sends pictures from Mars.
• February 5
  • U.S. airlines begin mandatory inspection of passengers and baggage.
  • 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.
  • 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 19 – Asama-Sansō incident: Five United Red Army members break into a lodge below Mount Asama, taking the wife of the lodge keeper hostage.
• February 21 – The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
• February 21–28 – 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 22 – A Lufthansa plane is hijacked and taken to Aden. Passengers are released after a ransom of 16 million German marks is agreed.
• February 23 – Angela Davis is released from jail. A Caruthers, California farmer, Rodger McAfee, helps her make bail.
• 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 people in Buffalo Creek, West Virginia.
• February 26 – Luna 20 comes back to Earth with 55 grams (1.94 oz) of lunar soil.
• February 28 – The Asama-Sanso incident ends in a standoff between 5 members of the Japanese United Red Army and the authorities, in which 2 policemen are killed and 12 injured.

An HP-35 calculator

March

See also March 1972 Template:Month3

• March 1
  • The Thai province Yasothon is created after being split off from the Ubon Ratchathani Province.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • The Organisation of the Islamic Conference Charter is signed (effective 28 February 1973).
• 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.
  • 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 United States.
  • 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 25 – Après Toi sung by Vicky Leandros (music by Klaus Munro & Mario Panas, lyric by Klaus Munro & Yves Dessca) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1972 for Luxembourg
• March 26
  • An avalanche on Mount Fuji kills 19 climbers.
  • The last trolleybus system in the United Kingdom closes in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire after over 60 years of operation.
• March 30 – Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.

April

See also April 1972 Template:Month3

• 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.
  • A 7.0 Richter scale earthquake kills 5,000 people in the Iranian province of Fars.
  • 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.
  • Vietnam War – Nguyen Hue Offensive: Prompted by the North Vietnamese offensive, the United States resumes bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong.
• April 17 - The first Boston Marathon in which women are officially allowed to compete.
• April 22 – Sylvia Cook and John Fairfax finish rowing across the Pacific.
• April 26 - The Lockheed L-1011 Tristar enters service with Eastern Airlines.
• 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 for using marijuana.

May

See also May 1972 Template:Month3

• May
  • The Burundian Genocide against the 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 kills 91.
• May 5 – An Alitalia DC-8 crashes west of Palermo, Sicily; 115 die.
• 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, kills 115.
• May 15 – Okinawa is returned to Japan after 27 years of United States Military occupation.
• 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 (1,600 km) 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 22 - Ferit Melen forms the new (interim) government of Turkey (35th government)
• May 23 – The Tamil United Front (now known as Tamil United Liberation Front), a pro-Tamil organization, is founded.
• May 24 – Rangers lift the Cup Winners Cup, defeating Dynamo Moscow in the final at the Nou Camp. Their supporters invade the pitch, with the team banned from defending the trophy the following season.
• May 24 – A Red Army Faction bomb explodes in the Campbell Barracks of the U.S. Army Supreme European Command in Heidelberg, West Germany; 3 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.
  • The Watergate first break-in, the "Ameritas dinner", fails.
  • Wernher von Braun retires from NASA, frustrated by the agency's unwillingness to pursue a manned trans-orbital space program.
  • Willandra National Park is established in Australia.
• May 27 – A second Watergate break-in attempt fails.
• 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

See also June 1972 Template:Month3

• 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 5–16 – The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment is held in Stockholm, Sweden
• June 8 – Seven men and 3 women hijack a plane from West Germany to Czechoslovakia.
• June 9 – The Black Hills flood kills 238 in South Dakota.
• June 14–23 – Hurricane Agnes kills 117 on the U.S. East Coast.
• June 15 - Ulrike Meinhof and Gerhard Müller of the Red Army Faction are arrested in a teacher's apartment in Langenhagen, West Germany.
• June 15–18 – The first U.S. Libertarian Party National Convention is held in Denver, Colorado.
• June 16 – 108 die as two passenger trains hit the 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.
  • The United States returns Okinawa, occupied and governed since the WW-II Battle of Okinawa, to Japan.
  • Chilean president Salvador Allende forms a new government.
• June 18
  • Staines air disaster: 118 die when a Trident 1 jet airliner crashes 2 minutes after take off from London Heathrow Airport.
  • 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.
• June 30 – An extra leap second (23:59:60) is added to end the month.

July

See also July 1972 Template:Month3

• 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.
  • The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms becomes independent from the IRS.
• 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 - India's news agency reports that at least 24 people have been killed in separate incidents, in the Chandka Forest in India, by elephants.
• July 10–14 – 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.
  • 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.
  • A collision between two trains near Sevilla, Spain kills 76 people.
• July 23 – The United States launches Landsat 1, the first Earth-resources satellite.
• July 25 – U.S. health officials admit that African-Americans were used as guinea pigs in the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.
• July 29 – A national dock strike begins in Britain.
• July 31 – Operation Motorman: British troops move into the no-go areas of Belfast and Derry, Northern Ireland, ending Free Derry.

August

See also August 1972 Template:Month3

• 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.
• 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 3 months.
  • A huge solar flare (one of the largest ever recorded) knocks out cable lines in U.S. It begins with the appearance of sunspots on August 2; an August 4 flare kicks off high levels of activity until August 10.
• August 10 – A brilliant, daytime meteor skips off the Earth's atmosphere due to an Apollo asteroid streaking 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; all 156 onboard perish.
• August 16 – As part of a coup attempt, members of the Royal Moroccan Air Force fire upon, but fail 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 Gravesend, Brooklyn, N.Y, an event later dramatized in the film Dog Day Afternoon.
• August 26 – September 11 – The 1972 Summer Olympics are held in Munich, West Germany.

September

See also September 1972 Template:Month3

• 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 5–6 – 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 10 – The Brazilian driver Emerson Fittipaldi wins the Italian Grand Prix at Monza and becomes the youngest Formula One World Champion.
• 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 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 8 of the 1972 Summit Series (French: La Série du Siècle, Russian: Суперсерия СССР — Канада), 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

See also October 1972 Template:Month3

• October – The government of former President of Somalia Mohamed Siad Barre formally introduces the Somali alphabet as Somalia's official writing script.
• 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 (U.S.) 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 people.
• 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 the Gulf of Tonkin, a racial riot involving more than 200 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 Airbus A300 flies for the first time.
• October 29 – The Black September group hijacks a Lufthansa Boeing 727 over Turkey, demanding the release of 3 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.
  • A commuter train collision in Chicago kills 45, injures hundreds.

November

See also November 1972 Template:Month3

Nixon's landslide victory in the electoral college during the 1972 Election .

The arcade version of Pong was released in November 1972

• 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 [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 28 – The last executions in Paris, France. Roger Bontems and Claude Buffet – the Clairvaux Mutineers – were guillotined at La Sante Prison by chief executioner Andre Obrecht (already suffering from Parkinson's Disease). Bontems had been found innocent of murder by the court, but as Buffet's accomplice was condemned to death anyway. President Georges Pompidou, in private an abolitionist, upheld both death sentences in deference to French public opinion.
• 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 will be stationed to protect British trawlers off Iceland.

December

See also December 1972 Template:Month3

• December 2 – Edward Gough Whitlam becomes the first Labor Party Prime Minister of Australia for 23 years. He is sworn in on 5 December and his first action using executive power is to withdraw all Australian personnel from the Vietnam War.
• December 7 – Apollo 17 (Gene Cernan, Ronald Evans, Harrison Schmitt), the last manned Moon mission to date, is launched.
• December 7 – The 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 passengers and 2 people on the ground.
  • Over $10,000 cash is found in the purse of Watergate conspirator Howard Hunt's wife.
  • International Human Rights Day is proclaimed by the United Nations.
• December 11 – Apollo 17 lands on the Moon.
• December 14 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of Apollo 17. This is the last manned mission to the moon of the 20th Century.
• December 15
• * The Commonwealth of Australia ordains equal pay for women.
  • The United Nations Environment Programme is established as a specialized agency of the United Nations.
• December 16
  • The Constitution of Bangladesh comes into effect.
  • The 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.
  • 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.
  • Australia establishes diplomatic relations with China and West Germany.
  • A peace delegation that includes singer-activist Joan Baez and human rights attorney Telford Taylor visit Hanoi to deliver Christmas mail to American prisoners of war (they will be caught in the Christmas bombing of North Vietnam).
• December 23
  • A 6.25 Richter scale earthquake in Nicaragua kills 5,000–12,000 people in the capital, Managua; President Somoza is later accused of pocketing millions of dollars worth of foreign aid intended for relief.
  • The Pittsburgh Steelers win their first ever post-season NFL game, defeating the Oakland Raiders 13–7, on a last second play that becomes known as The Immaculate Reception.
• December 24 – Swedish Prime minister Olof Palme compares the American bombings of North Vietnam to Nazi massacres. The U.S. breaks diplomatic contact with Sweden.
• 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 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 crashes into the Everglades in Florida, killing 101 of 176 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.
  • An extra leap second (23:59:60) is added to end the year.
  • The US ban on the pesticide DDT takes effect.

Undated

• The International Year of the Book is designated by UNESCO.
• The last major epidemic of smallpox in Europe breaks out in Yugoslavia.
• The United Kingdom begin to train Special Air Service for anti-terrorist duties.
• The "tea house" Mellow Yellow opens on the Amstel River in Amsterdam, pioneering the legal sale of cannabis in the Netherlands.
• The first women are admitted to Dartmouth College.
• Colombian looters find Ciudad Perdida but keep it a secret until the government reveals it in 1975.
• The Yellow River dries up for the first time in known history.
• Worship of Norse gods is officially approved in Iceland.
• The Second Cod War breaks out between the United Kingdom and Iceland.
• The Climatic Research Unit is founded by climatologist Hubert Lamb at the University of East Anglia.
• The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia bans the cultural organization Matica hrvatska, founded in 1842.

Ongoing

• Cold War
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• The Troubles
• Vietnam War

Births

1972 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	1972 MCMLXXII
Ab urbe condita	2725
Armenian calendar	1421 ԹՎ ՌՆԻԱ
Assyrian calendar	6722
Baháʼí calendar	128–129
Balinese saka calendar	1893–1894
Bengali calendar	1379
Berber calendar	2922
British Regnal year	20 Eliz. 2 – 21 Eliz. 2
Buddhist calendar	2516
Burmese calendar	1334
Byzantine calendar	7480–7481
Chinese calendar	辛亥年 (Metal Pig) 4669 or 4462     — to — 壬子年 (Water Rat) 4670 or 4463
Coptic calendar	1688–1689
Discordian calendar	3138
Ethiopian calendar	1964–1965
Hebrew calendar	5732–5733
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2028–2029
- Shaka Samvat	1893–1894
- Kali Yuga	5072–5073
Holocene calendar	11972
Igbo calendar	972–973
Iranian calendar	1350–1351
Islamic calendar	1391–1392
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 47 (昭和４７年)
Javanese calendar	1903–1904
Juche calendar	61
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4305
Minguo calendar	ROC 61 民國61年
Nanakshahi calendar	504
Thai solar calendar	2515
Tibetan calendar	阴金猪年 (female Iron-Pig) 2098 or 1717 or 945     — to — 阳水鼠年 (male Water-Rat) 2099 or 1718 or 946
Unix time	63072000 – 94694399

January–February

• January 1
  • Barron Miles, defensive back for the BC Lions in the CFL
  • Lilian Thuram, French football player
  • Yoon Chan, South Korean actor
• January 4 – Brad Zavisha, Canadian ice hockey player
• January 10 – Thomas Alsgaard, Norwegian cross-country skier
• January 11 – Amanda Peet, American actress
• January 12 – Espen Knutsen, Norwegian hockey player
• January 13 – Nicole Eggert, American actress
• January 13 – Vitaly Scherbo, Belarusian gymnast
• January 15 – Il Mi Chung, South Korean golfer
• January 15 – Claudia Winkleman, British television presenter
• January 15 - Yang Yong-eun, South Korean golfer
• January 16
  • Ruben Bagger, Danish footballer
  • Ang Christou, Australian rules footballer
  • Yuri Drozdov, Russian footballer
  • Ezra Hendrickson, Vincentian footballer
  • Salah Hissou, Moroccan long-distance runner
  • Joe Horn, American football player
  • Greg Page, Australian musician and actor
  • Alen Peternac, Croatian footballer
• January 17 – Ken Hirai, Japanese singer and songwriter
• January 18 – Mike Lieberthal, American baseball player
• January 19 – Angham, Egyptian singer, record producer and actress
• January 21 – Billel Dziri, Algerian footballer
• January 22 – Romi Park, Japanese seiyu (voice actress)
• January 23 – Ewen Bremner, Scottish actor
• January 23 – Marcel Wouda, Dutch swimmer
• January 27
  • Mark Owen, British pop singer (Take That)
  • Keith Wood, Irish rugby player
  • Wynne Evans, Welsh operatic tenor
• February 2
  • Klára Dobrev, wife of Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány
  • Hendrick Ramaala, South African long-distance runner
• February 4 – Giovanni Silva De Oliveira, Brazilian footballer
• February 5
  • Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark
  • Koriki Chōshū, Japanese comedian
• February 7 – Alex Bassi, American race car driver
• February 8 – Big Show, American professional wrestler
• February 11
  • Steve McManaman, British footballer
  • Kelly Slater, American professional surfer
• February 14
  • Drew Bledsoe, American football player
  • Rob Thomas, American singer-songwriter
  • Big Daddy V, American professional wrestler
• February 15 – Jaromír Jágr, Czech hockey player
• February 16 – Jerome Bettis, American football player
• February 17
  • Billie Joe Armstrong, American rock musician and lead singer/guitarist (Green Day)
  • Yuki Isoya, Japanese singer
  • Philippe Candeloro, French figure skater
• February 19 – Malky Mackay, Scottish footballer
• February 21 – Seo Taiji, Korean musician
• February 22
  • Michael Chang, American tennis player
  • Claudia Pechstein, German speed-skater
• February 23 – Drew Bledsoe, American football player
• February 24 – Richard Chelimo, Kenyan athlete (d. 2001)
• February 25 – Jaak Mae, Estonian cross-country skier
• February 29 – Antonio Sabato Jr., Italian actor

March–April

• March 3 – Darren Anderton, English footballer
• March 4
  • Pae Gil-Su, North Korean gymnast
  • Ivy Queen, Puerto Rican composer and singer
  • Jos Verstappen, Dutch race car driver
• March 6 - Shaquille O'Neal, American basketball player
• March 9
  • Ronald Cheng, Hong Kong singer and actor
  • Spencer Howson, Australian radio announcer
  • Travis Lane Stork, American emergency room physician and television personality
• March 10
  • Takashi Fujii (Matthew Minami), Japanese television performer
  • Matt Kenseth, American race car driver
  • Michael Lucas, Russian gay pornographic actor and director
• March 17 – Mia Hamm, American soccer player
• March 18 – Dane Cook, American comedian
• March 21
  • Chris Candido, American professional wrestler (d. 2005)
  • Derartu Tulu, Ethiopian long-distance runner
• March 22
  • Elvis Stojko, Canadian figure skater
  • Cory Lidle, American baseball player (d. 2006)
• March 23 – Joe Calzaghe, Welsh boxer
• March 23 – Judith Godrèche, French actress
• March 27
  • Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Dutch footballer
  • Charlie Haas, American professional wrestler
  • Ignacio Garrido, Spanish golfer
• March 28 – Eby J. Jose, Indian journalist and human rights activist
• March 29 - Junichi Suwabe Japanese voice actor
• March 30 – Karel Poborsky, Czech Republic football player
• April 3 – Jennie Garth, American actress
• April 4 – Tag Adams, American gay pornographic film actor
• April 5 – Junko Takeuchi, Japanese voice actress
• April 8
  • Sung Kang, Korean actor
  • Ariel Hernandez, Cuban boxer
• April 11 – Jason Varitek, American baseball player
• April 12 – Şebnem Ferah, Turkish singer and song-writer
• April 13 – Mariusz Czerkawski, Polish ice hockey player
• April 15 – Arturo Gatti, Canadian boxer (d. 2009)
• April 16 – Conchita Martínez, Spanish tennis player
• April 17
  • Tony Boselli, American football player
  • Jennifer Garner, American actress
  • Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lankan cricketer
  • Terran Sandwith, Canadian ice hockey player
• April 19 – Rivaldo, Brazilian footballer
• April 20
  • Carmen Electra, American actress and singer
  • Le Huynh Đuc, Vietnamese footballer
• April 23 – Choky Ice, Hungarian porn actor
• April 24 – Chipper Jones, American baseball player
• April 26 – Avi Nimni, Israeli footballer

May–June

• May 2
  • The Rock, American professional wrestler and actor
  • Paul Adcock, English footballer
• May 4 - Mike Dirnt, American rock musician and bassist (Green Day)
• May 5 – James Cracknell, British Olympic winning rower
• May 6
  • Naoko Takahashi, Japanese long-distance runner
  • Janne Blomqvist, Finnish swimmer
• May 8 – Darren Hayes, Australian musician
• May 10
  • Radosław Majdan, Polish goalkeeper
  • Katja Seizinger, German alpine skier
• May 16 – Derek Mears, American actor/stuntman
• May 17 – Tyson Cane, American gay pornographic actor
• May 19 – Jenny Berggren, Swedish rock singer (Ace of Base)
• May 20
  • Busta Rhymes, American musician and actor
  • Andreas Lundstedt, Swedish singer and actor (Alcazar)
• May 21 – The Notorious B.I.G., American musician (d. 1997)
• May 23 – Rubens Barrichello, Brazilian race car driver
• May 25 – Jules Jordan, American pornographic movie director, actor, and producer
• May 28 – Michael Boogerd, Dutch cyclist
• May 29 – Stanislas Renoult, French singer
• May 30
  • Sōichirō Hoshi, Japanese seiyuu
  • Manny Ramírez, Dominican baseball player
• May 31
  • Dave Roberts, American baseball player
  • Frode Estil, Norwegian cross-country skier
• June 2 – Wayne Brady, American comedian
• June 4
  • Derian Hatcher, American ice hockey player
  • Debra Stephenson, English actress
• June 5
  • Pavel Kotla, Polish conductor
  • Mike Bucci, American professional wrestler
• June 6 – Cristina Scabbia, Italian singer
• June 7 – Karl Urban, New Zealand actor
• June 8 – Chapman To, Hong Kong actor
• June 10 – Steven Fischer, American film producer and director
• June 11 – Jillian Bell, Canadian writer and editor
• June 14 – Matthias Ettrich, German computer scientist
• June 15 – Andy Pettitte, American baseball player
• June 17 – Iztok Čop, Slovenian rower
• June 18 – Roger "Infernus" Tiegs, Norwegian black metal musician, original member of Gorgoroth
• June 19 – Poppy Montgomery, Australian actress
• June 21 – Irene van Dyk, South African–born netball player
• June 22 – Miguel Del Toro, Mexican baseball player
• June 23 – Zinedine Zidane, French footballer
• June 24
  • Robbie McEwen, Australian professional road bicycle racer
  • Denis Zvegelj, Slovenian rower
• June 25 – Carlos Delgado, Puerto Rican baseball player
• June 28 – John Heidenreich, American professional wrestler
• June 29
  • Samantha Smith, American peace activist (d. 1985)
  • Nawal Al Zoghbi, Lebanese singer

July–August

• July 3 – Asha Gill, British-born television host
• July 4 – Craig Spearman, New Zealand cricketer
• July 4 – Alexei Shirov, Spanish chess Grandmaster
• July 6 – Mark Gasser, British concert pianist
• July 7 – Lisa Leslie, American basketball player
• July 8 – Sourav Ganguly, Indian cricketer
• July 10 - Sofía Vergara, Columbian-American actress and former TV personality/model
• July 13 – Sean Waltman, American professional wrestler
• July 21 – Catherine Ndereba, Kenyan long-distance runner
• July 22 – Keyshawn Johnson, American football player
• July 26 – Nathan Buckley, Australian rules footballer
• July 27
  • Maya Rudolph, American actress, comedian
  • Takako Fuji, Japanese actress
  • Takashi Shimizu, Japanese director
• July 28 – Elizabeth Berkley, American actress
• July 29 – Wil Wheaton, American actor
• July 31 – Tami Stronach, former actress
• August 1
  • Devon Hughes, American professional wrestler
  • Tanya Reid, Canadian actress
  • Marc Costanzo, Canadian musician
• August 2 – Kelly Richardson, Canadian contemporary artist
• August 3 – Patrik Isaksson, Swedish singer and songwriter
• August 6 – Geri Halliwell, British pop singer
• August 7 – Sarah Cawood, British television presenter
• August 7 – Brad Patton, Swedish gay pornographic actor
• 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
  • Grey DeLisle, American voice actress and singer
• August 13 – Kevin Plank, American entrepreneur (Under Armour)
• August 14 – Ed O'Bannon, American basketball player
• August 15
  • Ben Affleck, American actor
  • Mikey Graham, Irish singer (Boyzone)
• August 16 – Emily Robison, American country music performer (Dixie Chicks)
• August 17 – Ken Ryker, American pornographic actor
• August 18 – Leo Ku, Hong Kong actor and singer
• August 19 – Sammi Cheng, Hong Kong singer and actress
• August 20 – Chaney Kley, American actor (d. 2007)
• August 22 – Jonathan Coachman, American World Wrestling Entertainment announcer
• August 25 – Marvin Harrison, American football player
• August 27 – Mike Smith, Canadian actor
• August 29 – Bae Yong Joon, South Korean actor
• August 30
  • Cameron Diaz, American actress
  • Pavel Nedvěd, Czech footballer
• August 31 – Chris Tucker, American actor

September–October

• September 2 – Sergei Zholtok, Latvian hockey player (d. 2004)
• September 3 – Kim Joo-hyuk, South Korean actor
• September 4 – Françoise Yip, Chinese-Canadian actress
• September 6 – Anika Noni Rose, American actress
• September 8 – Os du Randt, South African rugby player
• September 8
  • Lisa Kennedy Montgomery, American disc jockey and political satirist
  • Tomokazu Seki, Japanese seiyu (voice actor)
• September 9 – Natasha Kaplinsky, English newsreader
• September 10 – Ghada Shouaa, Syrian athlete
• September 10 – Rio Tahara, Japanese snowboarder
• September 12
  • Budi Putra, Indonesian journalist, writer and blogger
  • Jason Statham, British actor
• September 13 – Kelly Chen, Hong Kong actress and singer
• September 15 – Jimmy Carr, British comedian
• September 16 – Sprent Dabwido, Nauruan politician
• September 17 – Bobby Lee, American comedian
• September 19 – Jim Druckenmiller, National Football League quarterback
• September 19 – Ashot Nadanian, Armenian chess player, theoretician and coach
• September 21
  • Liam Gallagher, British singer (Oasis)
  • Jon Kitna, American football player
• September 22
  • Matthew Rush, American gay pornographic actor
  • Bob Sapp, American boxer and kickboxer
• September 24 – Karyn Bosnak, American author
• September 27
  • Sylvia Crawley, American basketball player
  • Gwyneth Paltrow, American actress
• September 28 – Dita Von Teese, American burlesque artist
• September 30 – Ari Behn, Norwegian author
• September 30 – Shaan, Indian singer
• October 1 – Jean Paulo Fernandes, Brazilian footballer
• October 2 - Konstantinos Papadakis, Greek pianist
• October 4 - Van Darkholme, Vietnamese-American gay pornographic actor, director, and photographer
• October 5 – Grant Hill, American basketball player
• October 5 – Aaron Guiel, Canadian baseball player
• October 6
  • Ko So-young, South Korean actress
  • Anders Iwers, Swedish musician
• October 9 – Etan Patz, American missing schoolboy
• October 10 – Jun Lana, Filipino playwright and screenwriter
• October 11 – Claudia Black, Australian actress
• October 12 – Mechele Linehan, American murderer
• October 17
  • Eminem, American rapper and actor
  • Wyclef Jean, Haitian rapper
  • Tarkan, Turkish singer
  • Sharon Leal, American actress and director
• October 20 – Snoop Dogg, American rapper and producer
• October 21 – Masakazu Morita, Japanese seiyu (voice actor)
• October 21 – Evhen Tsybulenko, Ukrainian professor of international law
• October 22 – D'Lo Brown, American professional wrestler
• October 24
  • Kim Ji-soo, South Korean actress
  • Pat Williams, American football player
• October 27
  • Lee Clark, English footballer
  • Elissa, Lebanese singer
  • Brad Radke, American baseball player
  • Marika Krook, Finnish singer (Edea)
  • Maria de Lurdes Mutola, Mozambican athlete
• October 28 – Terrell Davis, American football player
• October 29
  • Tracee Ellis Ross, American actress
  • Takafumi Horie, Japanese entrepreneur
  • Gabrielle Union, American actress
• October 31 – Matt Dawson, English rugby player and TV personality

November–December

• November 1
  • Toni Collette, Australian actress
  • Jenny McCarthy, American actress and model
• November 2
  • Vladimir Vorobiev, Russian ice hockey player
  • Samantha Womack, British actress
• November 4 – Luís Figo, Portuguese footballer
• November 6 – Thandie Newton, British actress
• November 7 – Danny Grewcock, British rugby player
• November 9 – Naomi Shindou, Japanese seiyuu
• November 10 – Shawn Green, American baseball player
• November 11 – Ben Richards, British actor (The Bill)
• November 13 – Takuya Kimura, Japanese actor
• November 14
  • Matt Bloom, American wrestler
  • Josh Duhamel, American actor, model
• November 23 – Alf-Inge Håland, Norwegian footballer
• November 29 – Andreas Goldberger, Austrian ski jumper
• November 30 – Christopher Fitzgerald, American stage actor
• December 1 – Norbert Wójtowicz, Polish historian and theologian
• December 5 – Cole Youngblood, American pornographic actor
• December 6 – Mónica Santa María, Peruvian model and TV host (d. 1994)
• December 7
  • Hermann Maier, Austrian skier
  • Tammy Lynn Sytch, American wrestling manager and personality
• December 9 - Tré Cool, American rock musician and drummer (Green Day)
• December 11 – Daniel Alfredsson, Swedish NHL hockey player
• December 12 – Joel Cahen, Israeli artist
• December 13 – Chris Grant, Australian footballer
• December 15 – Rodney Harrison, American football player
• December 16 – Angela Bloomfield, New Zealand actress
• December 19 – Alyssa Milano, American actress
• December 19 – Warren Sapp, American football player
• December 22 – Vanessa Paradis, French singer and actress
• December 24 – Klaus Schnellenkamp, German-Chilean author
• December 25 – Qu Yunxia, Chinese middle-distance runner
• December 27 – Colin Charvis, Welsh rugby player
• December 28 – Patrick Rafter, Australian tennis 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

• January 1 – Maurice Chevalier, French entertainer (b. 1888)
• January 6 – Chen Yi, Chinese communist military commander and politician (b. 1901)
• January 7 – John Berryman, American poet and scholar (b. 1914)
• January 8
  • Kenneth Patchen, American poet and painter (b. 1911)
  • Wesley Ruggles, American film director (b. 1889)
• January 9 – Ted Shawn, American dancer (b. 1891)
• January 10 – Aksel Larsen, Danish politician (b. 1897)
• January 14 – King Frederick IX of Denmark (b. 1899)
• January 16 – Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., American record producer (Alvin and the Chipmunks) (b. 1919)
• January 17
  • Rochelle Hudson, American actress (b. 1916)
  • Betty Smith, American writer (b. 1896)
• January 18 – Clarence Earl Gideon, Defendant during civil rights court case (Gideon v. Wainwright) (b. 1910)
• January 24 – Jerome Cowan, American actor (b. 1897)
• January 26 – Mahalia Jackson, African-American gospel singer (b. 1911)
• February 2 – Jessie Royce Landis, American actress (b. 1896)
• February 3 – John Litel, American actor (b. 1892)
• February 5 – Marianne Moore, American poet (b. 1887)
• February 7 – Walter Lang, American film director (b. 1896)
• 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)
  • Walter Winchell, American journalist (b. 1897)
• February 22 – Tedd Pierce, American animator (b. 1906)
• February 27 – Pat Brady, American actor (b. 1914)
• March 13 – Tony Ray-Jones, British photographer (b. 1941)
• March 20 – Marilyn Maxwell, American actress (b. 1921)
• March 21 – David McCallum, Sr., British violinist and father of actor David McCallum (b. 1897)
• March 24 – Cristobal Balenciaga, Spanish couturier (b. 1895)
• March 27
  • Sharkey Bonano, American jazz musician (b. 1904)
  • 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, American baseball player (b. 1924)
• April 3 – Ferde Grofé, American composer (b. 1882)
• April 4
  • Stefan Wolpe, German-born composer (b. 1902)
  • Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., African-American politician (b. 1908)
• April 5
  • Brian Donlevy, American actor (b. 1901)
  • Isabel Jewell, American actress (b. 1907)
• April 7
  • Betty Blythe, American actress (b. 1893)
  • Abeid Karume, President of Zanzibar (b. 1905)
• April 8 – Andrea Feldman, American actress (b. 1948)
• April 9 – James F. Byrnes, United States Secretary of State and Justice of the Supreme Court (b. 1879)
• April 11 – George H. Plympton, American screenwriter (b. 1889)
• April 13 – Dorothy Dalton, American actress (b. 1893)
• April 16 – Yasunari Kawabata, Japanese writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
• April 25 – George Sanders, British actor (b. 1906)
• April 26 – Fernando Amorsolo, Filipino painter (b. 1892)
• April 27 – Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanaian politician (b. 1909)
• April 30 – Gia Scala, English actress (b. 1934)
• May 2 – J. Edgar Hoover, American Federal Bureau of Investigation director (b. 1895)
• May 3 – Bruce Cabot, American actor (b. 1904)
• May 4 – Edward Calvin Kendall, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1886)
• May 5 – Frank Tashlin, American film director (b. 1913)
• May 5 – Martiros Saryan, Armenian painter (b. 1880)
• May 6 – Deniz Gezmiş, Turkish revolutionary (b. 1947)
• May 13 – Dan Blocker, American actor (Bonanza) (b. 1928)
• May 18 – Sidney Franklin, American film director (b. 1893)
• May 22
  • Cecil Day-Lewis, British poet (b. 1904)
  • Margaret Rutherford, English actress (b. 1892)
• May 23 – Richard Day, Canadian art director (b. 1896)
• May 24
  • Asta Nielsen, Danish silent film actress (b. 1881)
  • Ismail Yasin, Egyptian comedian and actor (b. 1915)
• May 28 – King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (b. 1894)
• May 31 – Walter Freeman, American physician (b. 1895)
• June 12 – Edmund Wilson, American writer and critic (b. 1895)
• June 13
  • Clyde McPhatter, American singer (b. 1932)
  • Georg von Békésy, Hungarian biophysicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)
  • Stephanie von Hohenlohe, Austrian-born German World War II spy (b. 1891)
• June 22 – Vladimir Durković, Serbian footballer (b. 1937)
• June 25 – Jan Matulka, American painter, (b. 1890)

July–September

• July 2 – Joseph Fielding Smith, 10th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1876)
• July 6 – Brandon De Wilde, American actor (b. 1942)
• July 7 – King Talal, King of Jordan (b. 1909)
• July 21 – Ralph Craig, American athlete (b. 1889)
• July 24 – Lance Reventlow, American playboy and race car driver (b. 1936)
• July 28 – Helen Traubel, American soprano (b. 1903)
• August 7
  • Joi Lansing, American actress (b. 1929)
  • Tom Neal, American actor (b. 1914)
• 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 16 – Pierre Brasseur, French actor (b. 1905)
• August 19 – James Patterson, American actor (b. 1932)
• August 26 – Francis Chichester, British sailor and aviator (b. 1901)
• August 28 – Prince William of Gloucester (b. 1941)
• September 5 (Munich massacre):
  • Yossef Romano, Israeli weightlifter (b. 1940)
  • Moshe Weinberg, Israeli wrestling coach (b. 1939)
• September 6 (Munich massacre):
  • Luttif Afif and four other Palestinian terrorists
  • David Mark Berger, Israeli weightlifter (b. 1944)
  • Ze'ev Friedman, Israeli weightlifter (b. 1944)
  • Yossef Gutfreund, Israeli wrestling referee (b. 1932)
  • Eliezer Halfin, Israeli wrestler (b. 1948)
  • Amitzur Shapira, Israeli athletics coach (b. 1932)
  • Kehat Shorr, Israeli shooting coach (b. 1919)
  • Mark Slavin, Israeli wrestler (b. 1954)
  • Andre Spitzer, Israeli fencing coach (b. 1945)
  • Yakov Springer, Israeli weightlifting judge (b. c. 1921)
• September 8 – Warren Kealoha, American Olympic swimmer (b. 1904)
• September 11 – Max Fleischer, American animator (b. 1883)
• September 12 – William Boyd, American actor (b. 1895)
• September 14 – Lane Chandler, American actor (b. 1899)
• September 15 – Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1887)
• September 17 – Akim Tamiroff, Russian actor (b. 1899)
• September 19 – Robert Casadesus, French pianist (b. 1899)
• September 21 – Henry de Montherlant, French writer (b. 1896)
• September 26
  • Charles Correll, American radio actor (b. 1890)
  • Robert E. Dolan, American composer (b. 1906)

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 16 – Leo G. Carroll, English actor (b. 1886)
• October 20 – Harlow Shapley, American astronomer (b. 1885)
• October 24
  • Jackie Robinson, African-American baseball player (b. 1919)
  • Claire Windsor, American actress (b. 1892)
• October 26 – Igor Sikorsky, Russian aviation engineer (b. 1889)
• October 28 – Mitchell Leisen, American film director (b. 1898)
• October 29 – Victor Milner, American cinematographer (b. 1893)
• November 1 – Ezra Pound, American poet (b. 1885)
• November 5 – Reginald Owen, English actor (b. 1887)
• November 12 – Rudolf Friml, Czech composer (b. 1879)
• November 13 – Margaret Webster, American actress (b. 1905)
• November 14 – Martin Dies, Jr., American politician (b. 1900)
• November 18 – Danny Whitten, American musician (b. 1943)
• November 23 – Marie Wilson, American actress (b. 1916)
• November 25 – Henri Coandă, Romanian aerodynamics pioneer (b. 1886)
• November 28 – Havergal Brian, English composer (b. 1876)
• November 29 – Carl Stalling, American composer (b. 1891)
• December 2
  • José Limón, Mexican choreographer (b. 1908)
  • Yip Man, master of Wing Chun Kung Fu (b. 1893)
• December 3 – Bill Johnson, American musician (b. 1872)
• December 6 – Janet Munro, British actress (b. 1934)
• December 9
  • William Dieterle, German film director (b. 1893)
  • Louella Parsons, American gossip columnist (b. 1881)
• December 15 – Edward Earle, Canadian actor (b. 1882)
• December 21 – Paul Hausser, German Waffen SS general (b. 1880)
• December 22 – Jimmy Wallington, American radio personality (b. 1907)
• December 24
  • Charles Atlas, Italian-American strongman and sideshow performer (b. 1892)
  • Gisela Richter, English art historian (b. 1882)
• December 25 – C. Rajagopalachari, Indian politician and freedom-fighter. Last Governor-General of India (1948–50) (b. 1878)
• December 26 – Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States (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

External links

• 1972 Coin Pictures
• 1993 movie 'Alive' at IMDB 1993 movie 'Alive' at IMDB