1972 Trivia
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50 free 1972 trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This 1972 trivia quiz covers a year that began with Bloody Sunday and ended with the last footsteps on the Moon. Expect questions on the Watergate break-in, Nixon's trip to China, the SALT I treaty, the Munich Olympics, the Fischer–Spassky chess match, the Andes plane crash, Apollo 17 and the first leap second. Culture and sport rounds take in Pong, the Volkswagen Beetle overtaking the Model T, Emerson Fittipaldi, the Oakland Athletics, the 1972 Nobel Prizes and the babies of 1972, from Shaquille O'Neal to Eminem, alongside the year's notable deaths. Early rounds suit anyone who lived through it; later rounds reward real year-by-year buffs. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who became Secretary-General of the United Nations on January 1, 1972?
Kurt Waldheim
Kurt Waldheim served two terms, and while running for Austria's presidency in 1986 it emerged that he had lied about his wartime Wehrmacht service.
Q 02Who succeeded King Frederik IX on the Danish throne in January 1972?
Margrethe II
Margrethe II could reign only because Denmark's 1953 Act of Succession let a king's daughter inherit the throne when she had no brothers.
Q 03Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi was found in January 1972 after 28 years hiding on which island?
Guam
Shoichi Yokoi stayed hidden on Guam because soldiers were taught capture was the ultimate disgrace; his line "It is with much embarrassment that I return" became a saying in Japan.
Q 04What was Vesna Vulović's job when she survived the break-up of a JAT airliner over Czechoslovakia in 1972?
Flight attendant
Vesna Vulović was a flight attendant, and by her own account JAT had put her on that flight by mistake, confusing her with another stewardess named Vesna.
Q 05In which Northern Ireland city did Bloody Sunday take place on January 30, 1972?
Derry
In Derry, soldiers shot dead unarmed civil rights marchers; in 2010 Prime Minister David Cameron apologised, calling what happened "unjustified and unjustifiable".
Q 06Which Asian city hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics?
Sapporo
Sapporo's Games opened in controversy when IOC president Avery Brundage had Austrian ski star Karl Schranz banned for his commercial deals with ski makers.
Q 07In February 1972, which car overtook the Ford Model T as the best-selling car ever?
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Beetle's postwar comeback began when British Army major Ivan Hirst got its Wolfsburg factory running again after World War II.
Q 08Which country did Richard Nixon visit for eight days in February 1972?
China
Richard Nixon's week in China ended with the Shanghai Communiqué, which laid the groundwork for formal US–China diplomatic relations in 1979.
Q 09Which probe, launched in March 1972, became the first spacecraft to fly past Jupiter?
Pioneer 10
Pioneer 10 carries a plaque showing a man and a woman, in case intelligent aliens ever find the spacecraft.
Q 10In March 1972, Congress sent which proposed measure to the states for ratification?
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was still three states short of the 38 it needed when its extended 1982 deadline passed.
Q 11Which treaty, opened for signature in April 1972, was the first to ban an entire category of weapons of mass destruction?
Biological Weapons Convention
The Biological Weapons Convention has no formal verification regime, and the Soviet Union, one of its depositary states, kept an enormous bioweapons programme after joining.
Q 12Bamboo slips of which ancient text were found in Shandong tombs in April 1972?
The Art of War
The Art of War slips turned up during building work, and the same tombs held Sun Bin's Art of War, a separate book long lost.
Q 13Laszlo Toth attacked which Michelangelo sculpture with a hammer in May 1972?
Pietà
Q 21In which city did Boris Spassky lose his world chess title in 1972?
Reykjavík
In Reykjavík the challenger lost game one, forfeited game two in a dispute over TV cameras, and still went on to take the title.
Q 22In July 1972, Anwar Sadat publicly ordered which country's military advisers out of Egypt?
Soviet Union
Sadat's order sent thousands of Soviet Union personnel home, though some historians now argue the famous 'expulsion' was partly a cover for Egypt's war plans.
Q 23Idi Amin ordered 50,000 Asians holding which passports out of Uganda in August 1972?
British
Asians with British passports were given 90 days to leave, after Idi Amin accused Uganda's Asian minority of milking the economy.
Laszlo Toth cried "I am Jesus Christ" as he struck the Pietà, and the sculpture has stood behind protective glass ever since the restoration.
Q 14The Dominion of Ceylon became a republic under which name in May 1972?
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka's 1972 republican constitution gave Buddhism a primary place and weakened minority safeguards, further antagonising the Tamil minority.
Q 15Nixon and Brezhnev signed which arms-control treaty in Moscow in May 1972?
SALT I
The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was signed at the same summit.
Q 16Sally Priesand became the first American woman ordained as what in June 1972?
Rabbi
Sally Priesand made history as a rabbi, yet some synagogues refused even to interview her.
Q 17The Pulitzer-winning 1972 photograph known as The Terror of War shows a girl running from what?
A napalm attack
The napalm attack photo was credited to Nick Ut, but in 2025 World Press Photo suspended that credit after a documentary named another photographer.
Q 18Which fast-food chain did Al Copeland found in Arabi, Louisiana, in the early 1970s?
Popeyes
Popeyes grew from Al Copeland's first chicken restaurant, which failed; he added Cajun spice to the recipe and reopened under the new name.
Q 19The June 1972 Watergate burglars broke into the offices of which organisation?
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee break-in led to a cover-up that forced Richard Nixon to resign on August 9, 1974.
Q 20What did the International Time Bureau add to UTC for the first time on June 30, 1972?
A leap second
A leap second is needed because atomic clocks are steadier than Earth's irregular rotation, so UTC must now and then add a second to stay in step.
Q 24Which city hosted the 1972 Summer Olympics?
Munich
Munich's Games saw 11 Israeli team members murdered, yet the IOC held its first official memorial ceremony for them only in 2016.
Q 25Which 1972 world chess champion later gave up his title without playing a single game in defence of it?
Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer refused FIDE's match terms in 1975, so Anatoly Karpov was named champion by default, and Fischer played no competitive game for 20 years.
Q 26Which Brazilian won the 1972 Formula One world championship with Lotus at the age of 25?
Emerson Fittipaldi
Emerson Fittipaldi later won the 1993 Indianapolis 500 and snubbed the winner's traditional milk, drinking orange juice to promote the Brazilian citrus he produced.
Q 27Which Philippine president placed the whole country under martial law in September 1972?
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Marcos formally lifted martial law in 1981, but he kept ruling with near-total power until he was ousted in 1986.
Q 28Which country rejected European Community membership in a September 1972 referendum?
Norway
Norway voted no, and Prime Minister Trygve Bratteli, who had campaigned for membership, resigned as a result.
Q 29Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed in the Andes in October 1972 carrying which athletes?
Rugby union players
The rugby union players' survivors were saved only after two of them trekked out of the Andes into Chile and found a herdsman, Sergio Catalán.
Q 30Which team won the 1972 World Series, its first title since 1930?
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics were dubbed the 'Mustache Gang' after owner Charlie Finley offered his players cash to grow mustaches in 1972.