Timeline of the history of the United States (1970-1990)
List of years in the United States
1972 in U.S. states and territories
States
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Territories
American Samoa
Guam
Puerto Rico
United States Virgin Islands
Washington, D.C.
List of years in the United States by state or territory
Events from the year 1972 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government
President: Richard Nixon (R-California)
Vice President: Spiro Agnew (R-Maryland)
Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger (Virginia)
Speaker of the House of Representatives: Carl Albert (D-Oklahoma)
Senate Majority Leader: Mike Mansfield (D-Montana)
Congress: 92nd
Governors and lieutenant governors
Governors
Governor of Alabama: George Wallace (Democratic)
Governor of Alaska: William A. Egan (Democratic)
Governor of Arizona: Jack Richard Williams (Republican)
Governor of Arkansas: Dale Bumpers (Democratic)
Governor of California: Ronald Reagan (Republican)
Governor of Colorado: John Arthur Love (Republican)
Governor of Connecticut: Thomas J. Meskill (Republican)
Governor of Delaware: Russell W. Peterson (Republican)
Governor of Florida: Reubin Askew (Democratic)
Governor of Georgia: Jimmy Carter (Democratic)
Governor of Hawaii: John A. Burns (Democratic)
Governor of Idaho: Cecil D. Andrus (Democratic)
Governor of Illinois: Richard B. Ogilvie (Republican)
Governor of Indiana: Edgar Whitcomb (Republican)
Governor of Iowa: Robert D. Ray (Republican)
Governor of Kansas: Robert Docking (Democratic)
Governor of Kentucky: Wendell H. Ford (Democratic)
Governor of Louisiana: John J. McKeithen (Democratic) (until May 9), Edwin W. Edwards (Democratic) (starting May 9)
Governor of Maine: Kenneth M. Curtis (Democratic)
Governor of Maryland: Marvin Mandel (Democratic)
Governor of Massachusetts: Francis W. Sargent (Republican)
Governor of Michigan: William Milliken (Republican)
Governor of Minnesota: Wendell R. Anderson (Democratic)
Governor of Mississippi: John Bell Williams (Democratic) (until January 18), Bill Waller (Democratic) (starting January 18)
Governor of Missouri: Warren E. Hearnes (Democratic)
Governor of Montana: Forrest H. Anderson (Democratic)
Governor of Nebraska: J. James Exon (Democratic)
Governor of Nevada: Mike O'Callaghan (Democratic)
Governor of New Hampshire: Walter R. Peterson Jr. (Republican)
Governor of New Jersey: William T. Cahill (Republican)
Governor of New Mexico: Bruce King (Democratic)
Governor of New York: Nelson Rockefeller (Republican)
Governor of North Carolina: Robert W. Scott (Democratic)
Governor of North Dakota: William L. Guy (Democratic)
Governor of Ohio: John J. Gilligan (Democratic)
Governor of Oklahoma: David Hall (Democratic)
Governor of Oregon: Tom McCall (Republican)
Governor of Pennsylvania: Milton Shapp (Democratic)
Governor of Rhode Island: Frank Licht (Democratic)
Governor of South Carolina: John C. West (Democratic)
Governor of South Dakota: Richard F. Kneip (Democratic)
Governor of Tennessee: Winfield Dunn (Republican)
Governor of Texas: Preston Smith (Democratic)
Governor of Utah: Cal Rampton (Democratic)
Governor of Vermont: Deane C. Davis (Republican)
Governor of Virginia: Linwood Holton (Republican)
Governor of Washington: Daniel J. Evans (Republican)
Governor of West Virginia: Arch A. Moore Jr. (Republican)
Governor of Wisconsin: Patrick J. Lucey (Democratic)
Governor of Wyoming: Stanley K. Hathaway (Republican)
Lieutenant governors
Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: Jere Beasley (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Alaska: H. A. Boucher (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas: Bob C. Riley (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of California: Edwin Reinecke (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: John David Vanderhoof (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: T. Clark Hull (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: Eugene Bookhammer (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Florida: Thomas Burton Adams Jr. (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Georgia: Lester Maddox (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii: George Ariyoshi (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: Jack M. Murphy (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Paul Simon (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Richard E. Folz (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Roger Jepsen (Republican) (until month and day unknown), vacant (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Reynolds Shultz (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Julian Carroll (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: C. C. Aycock (Democratic) (until May 9), Jimmy Fitzmorris (Democratic) (starting May 9)
Lieutenant Governor of Maryland: Blair Lee III (political party unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Donald R. Dwight (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: James H. Brickley (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Rudy Perpich (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Charles L. Sullivan (Democratic) (until January 18), William F. Winter (Democratic) (starting January 18)
Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: William S. Morris (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Montana: Thomas Lee Judge (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Frank Marsh (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Harry Reid (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: Roberto Mondragón (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of New York: Malcolm Wilson (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Hoyt Patrick Taylor Jr. (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Richard F. Larsen (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: John William Brown (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: George Nigh (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Ernest P. Kline (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: J. Joseph Garrahy (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Earle Morris Jr. (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: William Dougherty (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: John S. Wilder (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Ben Barnes (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: John S. Burgess (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Henry Howell (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Washington: John Cherberg (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Martin J. Schreiber (Democratic)
Events
January
January 5 – U.S. President Richard Nixon orders the development of a Space Shuttle program.
January 7 – Howard Hughes speaks to the press by telephone to denounce Clifford Irving's hoax biography of him.
January 16 – Super Bowl VI: The Dallas Cowboys defeat the Miami Dolphins 24–3.
January 24 – Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi is discovered in Guam; he had spent 28 years in the jungle and becomes the third-to-last Japanese soldier to surrender after World War II.
January 25 – Shirley Chisholm, the first African American Congresswoman, announces her candidacy for president.
January 27 – Two New York City Police Department officers, Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie, are assassinated by members of the Black Liberation Army (BLA) while on foot patrol in New York's East Village area.
February
February 2 – The last draft lottery is held, a watershed event in the wind-down of military conscription in the United States during the Vietnam era. These draft candidates are never called to duty.
February 4 – Mariner 9 sends pictures from Mars.
February 5 – Bob Douglas becomes the first African American elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
February 15 – Phonorecords are granted U.S. federal copyright protection for the first time.
February 18 – The California Supreme Court voids the state's death penalty, commuting all death sentences to life in prison.
February 21–28 – U.S. President Richard Nixon makes an unprecedented 8-day visit to the People's Republic of China and meets with Mao Zedong.
February 23 – Activist 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.
March
March 2 – The Pioneer 10 spacecraft is launched from Cape Kennedy, to be the first man-made satellite to leave the Solar System.
March 3
Sculpted figures of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson are completed at Stone Mountain in the U.S. state of Georgia.
Mohawk Airlines Flight 405 crashes into a house on Edgewood Avenue in Albany, New York, killing 16 of the 47 people on board, and one person in an upstairs apartment. The impact happened at 8:48 pm after the commuter plane lost power during a snowstorm.
March 13 – Clifford Irving admits to a New York court that he had fabricated Howard Hughes' "autobiography".
March 15 – The Godfather has its premiere at the Loew's State Theatre in New York City.
March 16 – The first building of the Pruitt–Igoe housing development in St. Louis is destroyed.
March 22 – The 92nd U.S. Congress votes to send the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the states for ratification.
March 24 – Gilchrest Road, New York crossing accident: A school bus crashes into a train in Congers, New York, killing five students.
March 26 – After 14 years, the last of Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts is telecast by CBS. This last concert is devoted to Gustav Holst's The Planets.
April
April 1 - The Major League Baseball Players Association calls a strike, the first work stoppage in the 103-year history of the sport. The walkout lasts 13 days, with 86 games cancelled.
April 4 – The Wall Street Journal announced the Digital Watch was on sale.
April 7 – Vietnam War veteran Richard McCoy Jr. hijacks a United Airlines jet and extorts $500,000; he is later captured.[1]
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.
The 44th Annual Academy Awards, hosted by Helen Hayes, Alan King, Sammy Davis Jr. and Jack Lemmon, is held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. William Friedkin's The French Connection wins five awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Friedkin. The film is also tied with both Norman Jewison's Fiddler on the Roof and Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show in receiving eight nominations.
April 12 – The X-rated animated movie Fritz the Cat is released.
April 16 – 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 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. On this day Kings Island in Mason Ohio opened to the public.
May
May 2 – A fire in the Sunshine Mine in northern Idaho kills 91.
May 7 - The Los Angeles Lakers win the NBA championship, defeating the New York Knicks in five games.
May 8 – U.S. President Richard Nixon orders the mining of Haiphong Harbor in Vietnam.
May 11 – The Boston Bruins defeat the New York Rangers four games to two to win the Stanley Cup.
May 15
Okinawa is returned to Japan after 27 years of United States occupation.[2]
Governor George C. Wallace of Alabama is shot and paralyzed by Arthur Bremer at a political rally in Laurel, Maryland, United States.[3]
May 16 – The first financial derivatives exchange, the International Monetary Market (IMM), opens on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
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 crewed trans-orbital space program.
May 27
Mark Donohue wins the Indianapolis 500 in the Penske Racing McLaren-Offenhauser. This was the first win for Team Penske in the 500.
A second Watergate break-in attempt fails.
June
June 17: Five men are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Complex (pictured).
June 3 – Sally Priesand becomes the first female rabbi in the U.S.
June 4 – Angela Davis is found not guilty of murder.
June 9 – The Black Hills flood kills 238 in South Dakota.
June 12
American Airlines Flight 96 during a domestic flight leg between Detroit, Michigan and Buffalo, New York, suffers an explosive rapid decompression over Windsor, Ontario due to the aircraft's left cargo door breaking off mid-flight.[4] Everyone onboard survives after the aircraft makes a successful emergency landing back in Detroit.
The first Popeyes opens in Arabi, Louisiana.
June 14–23 – Hurricane Agnes kills 117 on the U.S. east coast.
June 15–18 – The first U.S. Libertarian Party National Convention is held in Denver, Colorado.
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 Battle of Okinawa, to Japan.
Main Street Electrical Parade debuts at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Parade was also cloned for other Disney Parks worldwide
June 23
Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard 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.
President Nixon signs Title IX into law as part of the Education Amendments of 1972, prohibiting gender discrimination in any educational program receiving federal funds.
June 26 – Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney co-found Atari, Inc.
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, converting all death sentences to life imprisonment.
July
July – U.S. actress Jane Fonda tours North Vietnam, during which she is photographed sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms becomes independent from the IRS.
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 10–14 – 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 20 – The Armstrong Air & Space Museum is dedicated to honor Neil Armstrong, first man on the Moon.
July 21 – 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.
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.
August
August 1 – U.S. Senator Thomas Eagleton, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, withdraws from the race after revealing he suffered from depression and had been hospitalized three times for its treatment.[6]
August 4
Arthur Bremer is jailed for 63 years for shooting U.S. presidential primary candidate George Wallace.[7]
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.[8]
August 12 – The last U.S. ground troops are withdrawn from Vietnam.
August 13–18 – The Special Olympics World Games take place in Los Angeles.[9]
August 20 – One hundred thousand people attended the legendary Wattstax Black music concert in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in California.[10]
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 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon.
September
September 1 – World Chess Championship 1972 ("Match of the century"): Bobby Fischer defeats Boris Spassky in a chess match at Reykjavík, Iceland, becoming the first American chess champion.
September 4 – The New Price is Right, a revival of the 1956-65 NBC and ABC game show of the same name premieres on CBS, along with Gambit and The Joker's Wild, overhauling the network's daytime schedule.
September 12 – Maude, the first in a series of spin-offs from All in the Family, premieres on CBS. Bea Arthur stars as the title character.
September 17 – The television series M*A*S*H begins its run on CBS.
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.[11]
October
October 8 – R. Sargent Shriver is chosen to replace Thomas Eagleton as the U.S. vice-presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.
October 12 – USS Kitty Hawk riot: En route to 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 15 – Baker v. Nelson is decided in the Minnesota Supreme Court, affirming that state law preventing same-sex marriage is constitutional.
October 16
A plane carrying U.S. 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.[12]
Country singer Loretta Lynn makes history becoming the first female ever to win the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year Award. Her signature song, "Coal Miner's Daughter," is pivotal in earning her this award.
October 22 – The Oakland Athletics defeat the Cincinnati Reds, 4 games to 3, to win their sixth World Series title in baseball.
October 25 – The first female FBI agents are hired.
October 26 – Following a visit to South Vietnam, U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger suggests that "peace is at hand."
October 27 – Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Gateway National Recreation Area, & Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is established.
October 30
U.S. President Richard Nixon approves legislation to increase Social Security spending by US$5.3 billion.
1972 Chicago commuter rail crash: The accidental tripping of a signal at 27th Street station on the Metra Electric system in Chicago causes an IC Electric express train to telescope another, killing 45 and injuring over 300.
November
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 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 8 – HBO begins operating as a pay television service.
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 22 – Vietnam War: The United States loses its first B-52 Stratofortress of the war.
November 29 – Atari, Inc. 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.The arcade version of Pong is released.
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 because troop levels are now down to 27,000.[13]
December
December 7–19: Apollo 17, the last crewed Moon mission
December 8
United Airlines Boeing 737 from Washington National to Chicago Midway crashes short of the runway, killing 43 of 61 onboard and two on the ground.
Over $10,000 cash is found in the purse of Watergate conspirator Howard Hunt's wife.
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 crewed mission to the Moon of the 20th century.
December 19 – Apollo program: Apollo 17 returns to Earth, concluding the program of lunar exploration.
December 22 – 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.
December 23 – The Pittsburgh Steelers win their first ever postseason 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 President Harry S. Truman dies in Kansas City, Missouri.
December 29 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 crashes into the Everglades in Florida, killing 101 of 176 on board.
December 31
Baseball player Roberto Clemente dies in a plane crash off the coast of Puerto Rico while en route to deliver aid to Nicaraguan earthquake victims.
Bill Johnson, African American dixieland jazz double-bassist (born 1872)
December 9 – Louella Parsons, gossip columnist and screenwriter (born 1881)[39]
December 11 – Cornelius Keefe, film actor (born 1900)
December 12 – Thomas H. Robbins Jr., admiral (born 1900)
December 15 – Edward Earle, Canadian-born American actor (born 1882 in Canada)[40]
December 18 – Neilia Hunter Biden, first wife of the 46th US president, Joe Biden (born 1942)
December 23 – Norman Clyde, mountaineer, nature photographer and naturalist (born 1885)
December 24 – Charles Atlas, Italian-born American bodybuilder (born 1892 in Italy)
December 26 – Harry S. Truman, 33rd president of the United States from 1945 to 1953, 34th vice president of the United States from January to April 1945 (born 1884)
December 29 – Joseph Cornell, artist and sculptor (born 1903)
December 31 – Roberto Clemente, baseball player (Pittsburgh Pirates) (born 1934)
^"Data Bank of Scientists: Emma Perry Carr". Project NOVA (NASA Opportunities for Visionary Academics). California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Archived from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved June 20, 2013.
^Dictionary of North Carolina Biography: Vol. 5, P–S edited by William S. Powell. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979, p. 372.
^Whitman, Alden, "Mahalia Jackson, Gospel Singer And a Civil Rights Symbol, Dies", The New York Times, (January 28, 1972) p. 1.
^"Deaths"(PDF). Broadcasting. February 14, 1972. p. 54. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
^"John Litel Dies". Independent Press-Telegram. February 5, 1972. p. 2. Retrieved December 31, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
^Gregory, Elizabeth (2017). Twenty-first century Marianne Moore. Essays from a critical Renaissance. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 257. ISBN 9783319651095.
^Seabrook, Jack (1993). Martians and misplaced clues : the life and work of Fredric Brown. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. p. 10. ISBN 9780879725914.