1972

Centuries: Year in Review 20th Century (19th century - 20th century - 21st century)

Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s - 1970s - 1980s 1990s 2000s

Years: 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 - 1972 - 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977

---

Births

• February 11 - [Dennis Iliohan]?, Dutch football player.

Deaths

• February 11 - [Jan Wils]?, architect
• May 2 - J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director
• October 24 - Jackie Robinson (Baseball Hall of Famer)
• December 31 - Roberto Clemente (baseball Hall of Famer)
• M. C. Escher - Dutch graphic artist

Events

• Swedish prime minister [Olof Palme]? compares the American bombings of North Vietnam to Nazi massacres. The US breaks diplomatic contacts with Sweden.
• February 21 - February 27 - President Richard M. Nixon makes an unprecedented eight-day visit to Communist China and meets with Mao Zedong.
• March 24 - In a bid for peace, Britain takes over direct rule of Northern Ireland.
• May 15 - Governor [George C. Wallace]? of Alabama is shot by [Arthur H. Bremer]? at a Laurel?, Md., political rally.
• June 17 - Watergate? break-in, Washington, D.C.
• Return of Okinawa from United States' control to Japan.
• June 29 - United States Supreme Court rules that the death penalty is unconstitutional
• September 5 - Eleven Israeli athletes at the Summer Olympic Games in Munich are killed after eight members of an Arab terrorist group invade Olympic Village; five guerrillas and one policeman are also killed.

Sport

• January 16 - Super Bowl VI Dallas Cowboys (24) def. Miami Dolphins (3)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - John Bardeen, [Leon Neil Cooper]?, [John Robert Schrieffer]?
• Chemistry - [Christian B Anfinsen]?, [Stanford Moore]?, [William H Stein]?
• Medicine - [Gerald M Edelman]?, [Rodney R Porter]?
• Literature - [Heinrich Böll]?
• Peace - Not awarded.
• Economics - [John Hicks]?, [Kenneth Arrow]?