What happened in 1972

World6

• Feb 4Mariner 9 sends pictures as it orbits Mars.
• Feb 26Luna 20 comes back to Earth with of lunar soil.
• Mar 27The Soviet Union launches Venera 8, which will make the first soft landing on Venus.
• Apr 10The U.S. and the Soviet Union join some 70 nations in signing the Biological Weapons Convention, an agreement to ban biological warfare.
• May 10Operation Linebacker and Operation Custom Tailor begin with large-scale bombing operations against North Vietnam by tactical fighter aircraft.
• Dec 31For the first and last time, a 2nd leap second is added (23:59:60) to a year, making 1972 366 days and two seconds long, the longest year ever within the context of UTC.

Japan3

• Feb 3The 1972 Winter Olympics are held in Sapporo, Japan.
• Feb 19Asama-Sansō incident: Five United Red Army members break into a lodge below Mount Asama in Japan, taking the wife of the lodgekeeper hostage.
• May 13A fire in a nightclub atop the Sennichi department store in Osaka, Japan, kills 115.

North America23

• Feb 21U.S. President Richard Nixon makes an unprecedented 8-day visit to the People's Republic of China and meets with Mao Zedong.
• Mar 2The Pioneer 10 spacecraft is launched from Cape Kennedy, to be the first man-made spacecraft to leave the Solar System.
• Apr 16Apollo 16 (John Young, Ken Mattingly, Charlie Duke) is launched. During the mission, the astronauts, driving the Lunar Roving Vehicle, achieve a lunar rover speed record of 17 km/h.
• Apr 26The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar enters service with Eastern Airlines.
• May 26Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT I treaty in Moscow, as well as the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and other agreements.
• Jun 12Popeyes was formed in Arabi, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, Louisiana, in St. Bernard Parish.
• Jun 17Watergate scandal: Five White House operatives are arrested for burgling the offices of the Democratic National Committee.
• Jun 23Watergate 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 investigation by the F.B.I. into the Watergate break-ins.
• Jul 27The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle fighter aircraft makes its first flight in the United States.
• Nov 71972 United States presidential election: Republican incumbent Richard Nixon defeats Democratic Senator George McGovern in a landslide. The election has the lowest voter turnout since 1948, with only 55 percent of the electorate voting.
• Dec 7Apollo 17 (Gene Cernan, Ronald Evans, Harrison Schmitt), the last crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit until the Artemis II lunar flyby in 2026, is launched to the Moon and The Blue Marble photograph of the Earth is taken. The mission also includes five mice.
• Dec 8United Airlines Flight 553 crashes short of a runway in Chicago, killing 43 of 61 passengers and two people on the ground. A day later, over $10,000 cash is found in the purse of Watergate conspirator Howard Hunt's wife, who was on board.
• Dec 11Apollo 17 lands on the Moon.
• Dec 14Apollo program: Eugene Cernan becomes the last person to walk on the Moon until 2028 at the earliest, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of Apollo 17.
• Dec 19Apollo program: Apollo 17 returns to Earth, concluding the program of lunar exploration.

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Europe24

• Jan 7Iberia Airlines Flight 602 crashes into a 462-meter peak on the island of Ibiza; 104 are killed.
• Jan 14Queen Margrethe II of Denmark succeeds her father, King Frederik IX, on the throne of Denmark, the first queen regnant of Denmark since 1412 and the first Danish monarch not named Frederick or Christian since 1513.
• Jan 30Bloody Sunday: The British Army kills 14 unarmed nationalist civil rights marchers in Derry, Northern Ireland.
• Feb 2A bomb explodes at the British Yacht Club in West Berlin, killing Irwin Beelitz, a German boat builder. The West German militant group June 2 Movement claims responsibility, announcing its support of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
• Mar 2The Club of Rome presents the research results leading to its report The Limits to Growth, published later in the month.
• Mar 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 (staged in Edinburgh) for Luxembourg.
• May 5An Alitalia DC-8 crashes west of Palermo, Sicily; 115 die.
• Jun 5The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment is held in Stockholm, Sweden
• Jun 18Staines air disaster: 118 die when a British European Airways Trident 1 jet airliner crashes two minutes after takeoff from London Heathrow Airport.
• Jul 1The 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.
• Jul 21The Troubles: Bloody Friday – 22 bombs planted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army explode in Belfast, Northern Ireland; nine people are killed and 130 seriously injured.
• Sep 5Munich massacre: Eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich are murdered 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.
• Sep 251972 Norwegian EC referendum: Norway rejects membership of the European Economic Community.
• Oct 8A major breakthrough occurs in the Paris peace talks between Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ.
• Oct 28The Airbus A300 flies for the first time.

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USSR / Russia1

• Feb 21The Soviet uncrewed spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.

Asia11

• Jan 10Independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman returns to Bangladesh after spending over nine months in prison in Pakistan.
• Jan 18Members of the Mukti Bahini lay down their arms to the government of the newly independent Bangladesh, 33 days after winning the war against the occupying Pakistan Army.
• Jan 21Tripura, part of the former independent Twipra Kingdom, becomes a full state of India.
• Mar 19India and Bangladesh sign the Indo-Bangladeshi Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Peace.
• Mar 30Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam
• Apr 4The U.S. formally recognizes Bangladesh.
• May 22The Dominion of Ceylon becomes the republic of Sri Lanka under prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, when its new constitution is ratified.
• Jun 14Japan Airlines Flight 471 crashes outside New Delhi airport, killing 82 of 87 occupants.
• Jul 2Following 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.
• Jul 24Jigme Singye Wangchuck succeeds his father Jigme Dorji Wangchuck as King of Bhutan.
• Sep 23Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos announces on national television the issuance of Proclamation No. 1081 placing the entire country under martial law.

Middle East2

• Feb 22Lufthansa Flight 649 is hijacked and taken to Aden. Passengers are released the following day after a ransom of 5 million US dollars is agreed.
• May 30Lod Airport massacre: Three Japanese Red Army members operating on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations kill 26 and injure 80 people at Lod Airport, Israel.

Latin America3

• Aug 22In the Almirante Zar Naval Base, Argentina, 16 detainees are executed by firing squad in the Trelew massacre.
• Oct 13Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571: A Fairchild FH-227D passenger aircraft transporting a rugby union team crashes at about 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.
• Dec 23The 6.2 Nicaragua earthquake kills 5,000–11,000 people in the capital Managua. President Anastasio Somoza Debayle is later accused of not distributing millions of dollars worth of foreign aid.

Africa2

• Apr 27Ikiza: Burundi government forces begin a 4-month genocide against the Hutu people, killing 100,000–300,000.
• Dec 15The United Nations Environment Programme is established as a specialized agency of the United Nations.

Oceania3

• Jan 19The 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.
• Jan 26The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is set up on the lawn of Parliament House in Canberra.
• May 26Willandra National Park is established in Australia.