1972: Encyclopedia - 1972

1972

1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year that started on a Saturday.

1972 - Events

• International year of the book

• January 2 - The Pierre Hotel Heist - Six men rob the safety deposit boxes of the Pierre Hotel in New York City. Loot is at least $4 million.
• January 4 - Rose Heilbron becomes the first woman judge at the Old Bailey in London.
• January 5 - President of the United States Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.
• January 4 - Kurt Waldheim becomes the Secretary General of the United Nations.
• January 7 - Iberian Airlines passenger planes crashes into an 800' peak on island of Ibiza - 104 dead.
• January 9 - Howard Hughes speaks by telephone to denounce Clifford Irving's supposed biography about him.
• January 9 - RMS Queen Elizabeth is destroyed by fire (Hong Kong harbor).
• January 11 - East Pakistan becomes independent with the name Bangladesh.
• January 14 - King Frederick IX of Denmark dies - his daughter Queen Margaret II of Denmark ascends to the throne at January 16.

• January 19 - 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 22 - Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom join the EEC.
• January 23 - New Delhi bootlegger sells wood alcohol to a wedding party - 100 dead
• 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 woman elected to US Congress, announces her candidacy for US president.
• January 26 - Yugoslavian air stewardress Vesna Vulovic is the only survivor when her plane crashes in Czechoslovakia. She survives after falling about 30,000' in the tail section of the aircraft.
• January 28 - Richard Chanfray claims he is Count of St Germain on French television.
• January 30 - Bloody Sunday - the British Army kills 13 unarmed Roman Catholic civil rights marchers in Derry, Ireland.
• January 30 - Pakistan withdraws from the British Commonwealth.
• January 31 - King Mahendra of Nepal dies, becoming the second king to die that month, and is succeeded by his son, Birendra.

1972 - February

• February 1 - First scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) introduced (price $395).
• February 2 - A bomb explodes in British Yacht Club in West Berlin. Only casualty is Irwin Beelitz, a German boat builder. Movement 2 June announces it is in support of Irish Republican Army.
• February 2 - 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 - The Winter Olympics begin in Sapporo, Japan.
• February 4 - Mariner 9 sends pictures from Mars.
• February 5 - US airlines begin mandatory inspection of passengers and baggage.
• February 5 - 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.
• February 15 - Phonorecords granted U.S. Federal copyright protection for the first time.
• February 17 - Sales of the Volkswagen Beetle model exceed those of Ford Model-T (15 million).
• February 18 - The California Supreme Court invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life in prison.
• February 21-February 27 - President Richard M. Nixon makes an unprecedented eight-day visit to the People's Republic of China and meets with Mao Zedong.
• February 21 - The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
• February 22 - IRA bomb in Aldershot - 7 dead.
• February 23 - Angela Davis is released from jail.
• February 23 - A Lufthansa plane is hijacked and taken to Aden. Passengers are released after a ransom of 16 million D-marks is agreed.
• February 24 - North Vietnamese negotiators walk out of the peace talks in Paris to protest US air raids.
• February 26 - A coal sludge spill kills 125 in Buffalo Creek.
• February 26 - Luna 20 comes back to Earth with a cargo of moon rocks.

1972 - March

• March 1 - Thai province Yasothon created after being split off from the Ubon Ratchathani Province.
• March 1 - British 14-year-old schoolboy Timothy Davey is sentenced in Turkey for "conspiring to sell cannabis."
• March 1 - The Club of Rome publishes report "Boundaries on the Growth."
• March 2 - Launch of the Pioneer 10 spacecraft.
• March 2 - Jean-Bedel Bokassa becomes the 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.
• 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.
• March 13 - 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 24 - To prevent further unionist misrule, Britain takes over direct rule of Northern Ireland.
• March 26 - 19 climbers on Mount Fuji die in an avalanche.
• March 30 - Vietnam War: The Eastertide Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.

1972 - April

• April 3 - First call was made with a cell phone (cellular phone) in New York.
• April 7 - US Mafioso Joe Gallo shot in Umberto's Clam House in Little Italy.
• April 10 - The USA and the Soviet Union join some 70 nations in signing an agreement to ban biological warfare.
• April 10 - A 7.0 Richter scale earthquake kills 1/5 of the population of Iranian province of Fars.
• 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 - Charlie Chaplin re-enters the USA to receive a Special Oscar (Academy Award)from Daniel Taradash.
• April 16 - Apollo 16 launched.
• April 16 - Vietnam War: Nguyen Hue Offensive – Prompted by the North Vietnamese offensive, the United States resumes bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong.
• April 18 - The Roland Corporation is founded in Osaka.
• April 22 - Sylvia Cook and John Fairfax have rowed across the Pacific.
• April 27 - Constructive Vote of No Confidence 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, thirteen Black Panther protesters and the show's co-author, Jim Rado, are arrested for disturbing the peace and marijuana use.

1972 - May

• May 5 - An Alitalia DC-8 crashes west of Palermo, Sicily – 115 dead.
• May 13 - Fire in a nightclub atop the Sennichi department store in Osaka, Japan – 115 dead.
• May 15 - Governor George Wallace of Alabama is shot by Arthur Herman Bremer at a Laurel, Maryland political rally.
• May 17 - The closing notice is posted for the Broadway musical Hair.
• May 18 - Four troopers of both SAS and SBS are parachuted onto the HMS Queen Elizabeth II, 1000 miles off Britain in the Atlantic, after a bomb threat and demand for ransom. It turns out to be bogus.
• May 19 - Three out of six bombs explode in the Springer Press building in Hamburg, Germany - 17 injured. The Red Army Faction claims responsibility.
• May 21 - In Rome, Laszlo Toth attacks Michelangelo's Pieta statue with a sledgehammer shouting that he is Jesus Christ
• May 22 - Earthquake lasting 20 seconds destroys most of Bingol, Turkey - more than 1000 dead, 10.000 made homeless
• May 22 - Ceylon becomes the republic of Sri Lanka under prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike when its new constitution is ratified.
• May 24 - A RAF bomb explodes in the Campbell Barracks of the US Army Supreme European Command in Heidelberg. Three US soldiers Clyde Bonner, Ronald Woodard and Charles Peck are killed.
• May 26 - Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev sign SALT I treaty in Moscow (including Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty; also other agreements were made).
• May 26 - Willandra National Park is established in Australia.
• May 30 - The Angry Brigade goes on trial.
• May 30 – 3 members of Japanese Red Army kill 24 and injure 100 in Lod Airport, Israel.

1972 - June

• 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 US rabbi.
• June 4 - Angela Davis found not guilty of murder.
• June 14 - June 23 - Hurricane Agnes kills 117 in US east coast.
• June 15 - Ulrike Meinhof and Gerhard Müller of Red Army Faction are arrested in a teacher's apartment in Langenhagen, West Germany.
• June 17 - Watergate scandal: Five White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee.
• June 17 - Return of Okinawa from United States' control to Japan.
• June 17 - Chilean president Salvador Allende forms a new government.
• June 18 - West Germany beat 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 Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation into the Watergate break-ins.
• June 25 - Juan Peron is elected president of Argentina.
• June 26 - Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney found Atari.
• June 28 - US president Nixon announces that no new draftees will be sent to Vietnam.
• June 29 - Supreme Court of the United States rules that the death penalty is unconstitutional.

1972 - July

• July 1 - The Broadway production of the musical Hair closes after 1,752 performances.
• 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 held in Colorado.
• July 8 - The USA sells grain to the Soviet Union for $750 million.
• July 10 - A stampede of elephants kills 24 in the Chandka Forest in India.
• July 15 - The Pruitt-Igoe housing development is demolished.
• July 18 - Anwar Sadat expels 20.000 soviet advisors from Egypt
• July 21 - Bloody Friday — 22 bombs explode in Belfast, Ireland. 9 people were killed and a further 130 seriously injured.
• July 23 - The United States launches Landsat 1, first Earth-resources satellite.
• July 25 - US Health officials admit that blacks were used as guinea pigs in a syphilis experiment.
• July 29 - National dock strike begins in Britain.

1972 - August

• August 4 - Arthur Bremer jailed for 63 years for shooting George Wallace.
• August 4 - Dictator Idi Amin declares that Uganda will expel 50,000 Asians with British passports to Britain within three months.
• August 11-August 12 - Last US ground troops withdrawn from Vietnam.
• August 16 - The Royal Moroccan Air Force mistakenly fires upon, but fails to bring down, Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he was traveling back to Rabat.
• August 23 - R.J (Dick) Hamer replaces Henry Boltie As Victorian Premier.
• August 28 - Prince William of Gloucester dies in an air crash.

1972 - September

• September 1 - Bobby Fischer defeats Boris Spassky in a chess match at Reykjavík, Iceland, and becomes the first American chess champion (see Match of the Century).
• September 5-September 6 - Munich Massacre: Eleven Israeli athletes at the Summer Olympic Games in Munich are killed after eight members of the Arab terrorist group Black September invade the Olympic Village; five guerillas and one policeman are also killed in a failed hostage rescue.
• September 14 - West Germany and Poland renew diplomatic relations.
• September 17 - Uganda announces that there are Tanzanian troops in its territory.
• September 17 - M*A*S*H debuts on CBS.
• September 19 - Parcel bomb sent to Israeli Embassy in London kills one diplomat.
• September 21 - Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos issued Proclamation No. 1081 placing the entire country under martial law.
• September 25 - Norwegian EC referendum, 1972 - the people of Norway reject membership into the European Economic Commission.
• September 27 - Joint Communique of the Government of Japan and the Government of the People's Republic of China.
• September 28 - The goal heard round the world. Canada wins the summit series with a goal by Paul Henderson.
• September 29 - Sino-Japanese relations: Japan normalized diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China after breaking official ties with the Republic of China.

1972 - October

• October 1 - First publication reporting the production of a recombinant DNA molecule, marking the birth of modern molecular biology methodology.

• October 2 - Denmark joins the EEC. The Faroe Islands stay out.
• October 5 - The United Reformed Church is founded out of the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches.
• October 6 - Train crash in Saltillo, Mexico – 208 dead.
• October 12 - En route to her station in the Gulf of Tonkin, a racial brawl involving more than 100 sailors breaks out aboard the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk. Nearly 50 sailors are injured.
• October 13 - A Fairchild passenger plane 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 (see Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571).
• October 16 - A plane carrying US congressman Hale Boggs of Louisiana and three other men vanishes in Alaska. The wreckage has never been found, despite a massive search at the time.
• October 16 - Rainbow, a British television programme for children, debuts.
• October 16 - Rioting inmates of the Maze prison cause a fire that destroys most of the camp
• October 17 - Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom visits Yugoslavia.
• October 25 - First female FBI agents hired.
• October 25 - Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx sets a new world hour record in Mexico City.
• October 29 - The Black September group hijacks a Lufthansa Boeing 727 over Turkey and demands the release of three of their comrades still held for the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Olympic games
• October 30 - US President Richard Nixon approves legislation to increase Social Security spending by US$5.3 billion.

1972 - November

• November ? - At a scientific meeting in Honolulu, over corned beef sandwiches, Herbert Boyer and Stanley N. Cohen conceived the concept of recombinant DNA. They published their results in November 1973 in PNAS. Separately in 1972, Paul Berg also recombined 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 - 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 (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.
• November 17 - Juan Perón returns to Argentina.
• November 22 - Vietnam War: The United States loses its first B-52 Stratofortress of the war.
• November 30 - Vietnam War: White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler tells the press that there will be no more public announcements concerning American troop withdrawals from Vietnam due to the fact that troop levels are now down to 27,000.

1972 - December

• December 2 - Gough Whitlam becomes the first Labour Party Prime Minister of Australia for 23 years. He is famously sworn in on the election night and his first action using executive power is to withdraw all Australian personnel from the Vietnam War.
• December 7 - PIRA kidnaps Jean McConville in Belfast.
• December 7 - Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon, is launched.
• December 7 - Imelda Marcos is stabbed and seriously wounded by an assailant; her bodyguards shoot him.
• December 15 - The Commonwealth of Australia ordains equal pay to women.
• December 21 - East Germany and West Germany recognize each other.
• December 21 - ZANLA troopers attack Altera Farm in north-east Rhodesia
• December 22 - 6.25 Richter scale earthquake in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua – over 12,000 dead. President Somoza is later accused of pocketing millions of dollars worth of foreign aid.
• December 22 - Australia establishes diplomatic relations with China and West Germany.
• December 23 - Earthquake in Nicaragua kills 5000-10.000 in the capital Managua
• December 28 - The bones of Martin Bormann identified in Berlin.
• December 29 - An Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 crashes into the Everglades in Florida, killing 99 of 163 onboard.

1972 - Unknown dates

• Prime minister of Sweden, Olof Palme compares the American bombings of North Vietnam to Nazi massacres. The US breaks diplomatic contact with Sweden.
• 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.
• Steve Jobs graduates from Homestead High School and enrolls in Reed College in Portland, Oregon but drops out after one semester.
• Kim Sung-il becomes president of North Korea.
• The Japanese government begins building a railway tunnel between Honshu and Hokkaido.
• Stephen Hawking is confined to a wheelchair due to motor neuron disease.
• The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms becomes independent from IRS.
• The "tea house" Mellow Yellow opens on the Amstel River in Amsterdam, pioneering the legal sale of marijuana in the Netherlands.
• The Aboriginal Tent Embassy founded on the lawn of Parliament House in Canberra.
• First women admitted to Dartmouth College.
• Colombian looters find Ciudad Perdida but keep it a secret until government reveals it 1975.
• Frank Serpico exposes corruption in New York City police.
• Vietnam War veteran Richard McCoy hijacks a United Airlines jet and extorts $500,000 – he is later captured.
• The Yellow River dries up for the first time in known history.
• Somalian language gets a written form.
• Assassination of Zanzibar's leader Sheik Abeid Karume.
• Tamil United Front, pro-Tamil organization, founded.
• Worship of Norse gods officially approved in Iceland.
• Women are allowed to compete in the Boston Marathon for the first time.
• The Second Cod War between UK and Iceland.
• First use of the term Hadean.
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation established.
• The first Ruby Tuesday(resturant) founded.

1972 - Births

1972 - January

• January 2 - Taye Diggs, American actor
• January 12 - Espen Knutsen, Norwegian hockey player
• January 17 - Ken Hirai, Japanese singer and songwriter
• January 18 - Mike Lieberthal, baseball player
• January 23 - Marcel Wouda, Dutch swimmer

1972 - February

• February 1 - Yoshi DeHerrera, American television personality
• February 2 - Klára Dobrev, wife of Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány
• February 4 - Giovanni Silva De Oliveira, Brazilian footballer
• February 7 - Alex Bassi, American Race Car Driver
• February 11 - Steve McManaman, English footballer
• February 14 - Drew Bledsoe, American football player
• February 15 - Jaromir Jagr, Czech hockey player
• February 16 - Jerome Bettis, American football player
• February 17 - Billie Joe Armstrong, American musician (Green Day)
• February 17 - Philippe Candeloro, French figure skater
• February 21 - Seo Taiji, Korean musician
• February 24 - Richard Chelimo, Kenyan athlete (d. 2001)
• February 29 - Antonio Sabato Jr., Italian actor
• March 6 - Shaquille O'Neal, American basketball player

1972 - March

• March 10 - Takashi Fujii (Matthew Minami), Japanese television performer
• March 10 - Matt Kenseth, American race car driver
• March 10 - Eugene Roshal, Russian-born computer programmer
• March 15 - Mark Hoppus, American musician (Blink 182)
• March 17 - Mia Hamm, American soccer player
• March 20 - Alexander Kapranos, English singer and guitarist (Franz Ferdinand (band))
• March 22 - Shawn Bradley, American basketball player
• March 22 - Elvis Stojko, Canadian figure skater
• March 23 - Judith Godrèche, French actress
• March 27 - Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Dutch footballer

1972 - April

• April 3 - Jennie Garth, American actress
• April 4 - Adam Clayton Powell Jr., American politician
• April 11 - Jason Varitek, baseball player
• April 17 - Tony Boselli, American football player
• April 17 - Jennifer Garner, American actress
• April 17 - Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lankan cricketer
• April 19 - Rivaldo, Brazilian footballer
• April 24 - Chipper Jones, baseball player

1972 - May

• May 2 - The Rock, American professional wrestler and actor
• May 4 - Mike Dirnt, American musician (Green Day)
• May 10 - Radosław Majdan, Polish goalkeeper
• May 20 - Busta Rhymes, American musician and actor
• May 21 - The Notorious B.I.G., American musician (d. 1997)
• May 28 - Michael Boogerd, Dutch cyclist
• May 30 - Manny Ramirez, baseball player

1972 - June

• June 4 - Derian Hatcher, American hockey player
• June 5 - Justin Smith, American drummer, The Seeds
• June 7 - Karl Urban, New Zealand actor
• June 15 - Andy Pettitte, baseball player
• June 19 - Brian McBride, American soccer player
• June 21 - Irene van Dyk, South African-born netball player
• June 23 - Zinédine Zidane, French footballer
• June 25 - Carlos Delgado, baseball player
• June 29 - Samantha Smith, American activist (d. 1985)

1972 - July

• July 3 - Asha Gill, English-born television host
• July 8 - Saurav Ganguly, Indian cricketer
• July 2 - Wayne Brady, American actor and comedian
• July 7 - Lisa Leslie, American Basketball player
• July 27 - Jill Arrington, American football reporter
• July 28 - Elizabeth Berkley, American actress

1972 - August

• August 6 - Geri Halliwell, English musician (Spice Girls)
• August 11 - Jonathon Prandi, American model and actor
• August 14 - Ed O'Bannon, American basketball player
• August 15 - Ben Affleck, American actor
• August 23 - Dave Chappelle, American actor and comedian
• August 25 - Marvin Harrison, American football player
• August 30 - Cameron Diaz, American actress
• August 30 - Pavel Nedved, Czech footballer

1972 - September

• September 2 - Sergei Zholtok, Russian hockey player (d. 2004)
• September 8 - Lisa Kennedy, American disc jockey and political satirist
• September 10 - Ghada Shouaa, Syrian athlete
• September 12 - Jason Statham, English actor
• September 17 - Bobby Lee, American comedian
• September 21 - Liam Gallagher, British singer (Oasis)
• September 21 - Jon Kitna, American football player
• September 22 - Bob Sapp, American boxer and kickboxer
• September 24 - Karyn Bosnak, American author
• September 28 - Gwyneth Paltrow, American actress
• September 30 - Ari Behn, Norwegian author

1972 - October

• October 5 - Grant Hill, American basketball player
• October 9 - Etan Patz, dissapeared school boy
• October 17 - Eminem, American rapper and actor
• October 17 - Wyclef Jean, Haitian rapper
• October 24 - Pat Williams, American football player
• October 28 - Terrell Davis, American football player
• October 28 - Trista Rehn, American television personality
• October 29 - Takafumi Horie, Japanese entrepreneur

1972 - November

• November 4 - Luis Figo, Portuguese footballer
• November 7 - Danny Grewcock, English rugby player
• November 6 - Thandie Newton, British actress
• November 10 - Shawn Green, baseball player
• November 13 - Takuya Kimura, Japanese actor

1972 - December

• December 4 - Nikki Tyler, American actress
• December 7 - Hermann Maier, Austrian skier
• December 9 - Tre Cool, German drummer (Green Day)
• December 10 - Brian Molko, Belgian singer (Placebo)
• December 13 - Chris Grant, Australian footballer
• December 19 - Alyssa Milano, American actress
• December 19 - Warren Sapp, American football player
• December 22 - Vanessa Paradis, French Singer and actress
• December 28 - Patrick Rafter, Australian tennis player
• December 29 - Jason Kreis, American soccer player
• December 29 - Jude Law, English actor
• December 30 - Kerry Collins, American football player

1972 - Deaths

1972 - January

• January 1 - Maurice Chevalier, French entertainer (surgical complications) (b. 1888)
• January 6 - Chen Yi, Chinese communist military commander and politician (b. 1901)
• January 8 - Kenneth Patchen, American poet and painter (b. 1911)
• January 10 - Aksel Larsen, Danish politician (b. 1897)
• January 14 - King Frederick IX of Denmark (b. 1899)
• January 26 - Mahalia Jackson, American singer (b. 1911)

1972 - February

• 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)
• February 20 - Walter Winchell, American journalist (b. 1897)
• February 22 - Tedd Pierce, American animator (b. 1906)

1972 - March

• March 13 - Tony Ray-Jones, British photographer (b. 1941)
• March 21 - David McCallum Sr., British violinist (b. 1897)
• March 24 - Cristobal Balenciaga, Spanish couturier (b. 1895)
• March 27 - Sharkey Bonano, American jazz musician (b. 1904)
• March 27 - M. C. Escher, Dutch artist (b. 1898)
• March 29 - Lord J. Arthur Rank, British industrialist and film producer (b. 1888)

1972 - April

• April 2 - Gil Hodges, baseball player (b. 1924)
• April 3 - Ferde Grofé, American composer (b. 1882)
• April 4 - Stefan Wolpe, German-born composer (b. 1902)
• April 8 - Andrea Feldman, American actress (suicide) (b. 1948)
• April 16 - Yasunari Kawabata, Japanese writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)

1972 - May

• May 2 - J. Edgar Hoover, American Federal Bureau of Investigation director (b. 1895)
• May 4 - Edward Calvin Kendall, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1886)
• May 13 - Dan Blocker, American actor (b. 1928)
• May 22 - Cecil Day-Lewis, English poet (b. 1904)
• May 22 - Margaret Rutherford, English actress (b. 1892)
• May 28 - King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (b. 1894)

1972 - June

• June 13 - Georg von Békésy, Hungarian biophysicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)

1972 - July

• July 2 - Joseph Fielding Smith, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1876)
• July 7 - King Talal, King of Jordan (b. 1909)
• July 19 - Hezekiah M. Washburn, American missionary (b. 1884)
• July 21 - Ralph Craig, American athlete (b. 1889)
• July 28 - Helen Traubel, American soprano (b. 1903)

1972 - August

• 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 28 - Prince William of Gloucester (airplane crash) (b. 1941)

1972 - September

• September 15 - Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1887)
• September 19 - Robert Casadesus, French pianist (b. 1899)

1972 - October

• October 1 - Louis Leakey, British paleontologist (b. 1903)
• October 20 - Harlow Shapley, American astronomer (b. 1885)
• October 24 - Jackie Robinson, baseball player (b. 1919)
• October 26 - Igor Sikorsky, Russian aviation engineer (b. 1889)

1972 - November

• November 1 - Ezra Pound, American poet (b. 1885)
• November 14 - Martin Dies, Jr., American politician (b. 1900)
• November 25 - Henri Coanda, Romanian aerodynamics pioneer (b. 1886)
• November 28 - Havergal Brian, English composer (b. 1876)

1972 - December

• December 3 - Bill Johnson, American musician (b. 1872)
• December 24 - Gisela Richter, English art historian (b. 1882)
• December 26 - Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States (heart failure} (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)

1972 - 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

Category: 1972

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "1972", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972, used and available under the GNU Free Documentation License.