50 Fun Facts About 1972

Who became Secretary-General of the United Nations on January 1, 1972?

The Austrian diplomat held the post for ten years.

Who succeeded King Frederik IX on the Danish throne in January 1972?

She was Denmark's first queen regnant since 1412.

Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi was found in January 1972 after 28 years hiding on which island?

He had never surrendered after World War II.

Vesna Vulović survived a 10,160-metre fall in January 1972 — what was her job?

She came down in the tail section of a plane that broke apart over Czechoslovakia.

In which Northern Ireland city did Bloody Sunday take place on January 30, 1972?

Fourteen unarmed civil rights marchers were killed by the British Army.

Which city hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics?

They were the first Winter Games held outside Europe and North America.

In February 1972, which car overtook the Ford Model T as the best-selling car ever?

The record-breaking car was number 15,007,034 off the line.

Which country did Richard Nixon visit for eight days in February 1972?

He met Mao Zedong during the unprecedented trip.

Which probe, launched in March 1972, was the first built to leave the Solar System?

It lifted off from Cape Kennedy.

In March 1972, Congress sent which proposed measure to the states for ratification?

It never reached the number of state ratifications needed.

Which 1972 agreement, signed by some 70 nations in April, banned germ warfare?

Both the US and Soviet Union were among the signatories.

Bamboo slips of which ancient text were found in Shandong tombs in April 1972?

Construction workers stumbled on the tombs; a lost treatise by Sun Bin was in the same find.

Laszlo Toth attacked which Michelangelo sculpture with a hammer in May 1972?

He shouted that he was Jesus Christ during the attack in St. Peter's Basilica.

The Dominion of Ceylon became a republic under which name in May 1972?

Sirimavo Bandaranaike was prime minister when the new constitution was ratified.

Nixon and Brezhnev signed which arms-control treaty in Moscow in May 1972?

The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was signed at the same summit.

Sally Priesand became the first American woman ordained as what in June 1972?

She was only the second known woman anywhere to be ordained in Judaism.

Nick Ut's Pulitzer-winning 1972 photograph showed a girl running from what?

The nine-year-old in the picture was Phan Thi Kim Phuc.

Which fast-food chain was founded in Arabi, Louisiana, in June 1972?

Arabi is a suburb of New Orleans.

The June 1972 Watergate burglars broke into the offices of which organisation?

Five White House operatives were arrested.

What did the International Time Bureau add to UTC for the first time on June 30, 1972?

A second one followed on December 31, making 1972 the longest year in UTC.

In which city did Boris Spassky lose his world chess title in 1972?

The long-anticipated match began on July 11 and ended September 1.

Anwar Sadat expelled 20,000 military advisors from Egypt in July 1972 — from which country?

The move reshaped Cold War alliances in the Middle East.

Idi Amin ordered 50,000 Asians holding which passports out of Uganda in August 1972?

They were given three months to leave and most of their property was confiscated.

Which city hosted the 1972 Summer Olympics?

The Games ran from August 26 to September 10.

Who became the first American world chess champion in 1972?

He won the title on September 1.

Which Brazilian became Formula One's youngest world champion, at 25, in 1972?

He clinched it by winning the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Which Philippine president placed the whole country under martial law in September 1972?

He announced Proclamation No. 1081 on national television.

Which country rejected European Community membership in a September 1972 referendum?

Denmark joined the following week, on October 2.

Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed in the Andes in October 1972 carrying which athletes?

Sixteen survivors were found alive on December 20.

Which team won the 1972 World Series, its first title since 1930?

The franchise had been in Philadelphia when it last won.

Which airliner flew for the first time on October 28, 1972?

It was Airbus's first product.

Whom did Richard Nixon defeat in a landslide in the November 1972 election?

Turnout was the lowest since 1948, with only 55 percent voting.

Which stock index closed above 1,000 for the first time on November 14, 1972?

It finished the day at 1,003.16.

Atari released the production version of which game on November 29, 1972?

Nolan Bushnell and Allan Alcorn devised it.

Which Labor leader won the December 1972 Australian federal election?

His first act in office was to pull all Australian personnel out of the Vietnam War.

Which famous photograph of Earth was taken by the Apollo 17 crew in December 1972?

Five mice also flew on the mission.

Who became the last person to walk on the Moon, on December 14, 1972?

He and Schmitt completed Apollo 17's third and final moonwalk.

An earthquake devastated which Central American capital on December 23, 1972?

President Somoza was later accused of withholding millions in foreign aid.

Whose remains were found during Berlin construction work in December 1972?

The Nazi Party official had been tried in absentia at Nuremberg.

Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 crashed into which Florida landscape on December 29, 1972?

It was the first hull loss of a wide-body aircraft.

Who won the 1972 Nobel Prize in Literature?

No Peace Prize was awarded that year.

Which basketball center was born on March 6, 1972?

Mia Hamm was born 11 days later.

Which French footballer and manager was born on June 23, 1972?

Busta Rhymes and The Notorious B.I.G. were born a month earlier.

Which actor and professional wrestler was born on May 2, 1972?

J. Edgar Hoover died the same day.

Which rapper was born on October 17, 1972?

Esther Duflo, a future Nobel economics laureate, was born eight days later.

Which actress was born on September 27, 1972?

Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Garner and Carmen Electra were also born in 1972.

Which first director of the FBI died on May 2, 1972?

He had run the bureau since 1924.

Which baseball great died on October 24, 1972?

He had broken Major League Baseball's colour barrier in 1947.

Which former US president died on December 26, 1972?

Johnson died less than a month later, in January 1973.

Which Puerto Rican baseball star died on December 31, 1972?

Lester B. Pearson, Canada's 14th prime minister, had died four days earlier.