January 1972


The following events occurred in January 1972:

January 1, 1972 (Saturday)

January 2, 1972 (Sunday)

January 3, 1972 (Monday)

  • Mariner 9 began the first mapping of the planet Mars, after dust storms on the red planet had ceased.

January 4, 1972 (Tuesday)

  • The first scientific electronic pocket calculator, the HP-35 was introduced by Hewlett-Packard and priced at $395. Although hand-held electronic machines, that could multiply and divide had been made since 1971, the HP-35 could handle higher functions including logarithms and trigonometry.

January 5, 1972 (Wednesday)

  • From his "Western White House" residence in San Clemente, California, President Richard Nixon announced that the United States would develop the Space Shuttle as the next phase of the American space program, with dollars allocated to the first reusable spacecraft. "It would transform the space frontier of the 1970s into familiar territory," said Nixon, "easily accessible for human endeavor of the 1980s and 1990s."
  • Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky was convicted of Anti-Soviet agitation and sentenced to two years in prison, five in a labour camp, and five more in internal exile.

January 6, 1972 (Thursday)

January 7, 1972 (Friday)

January 8, 1972 (Saturday)

January 9, 1972 (Sunday)

  • Shortly after midnight, Britain's 280,000 coal miners walked off the job in the first nationwide miners' strike since 1926. As the strike dragged on, Britain was forced to go to the Three-Day Week.
  • The, largest ocean liner ever built, was destroyed by a fire as it sat in Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong. The ship was being renovated to become "Seawise University".
  • The Los Angeles Lakers finally lost after 33 consecutive wins, falling to the Milwaukee Bucks, 120–104.
  • Died: Liang Sicheng, 70, "Father of Modern Chinese Architecture"

January 10, 1972 (Monday)

January 11, 1972 (Tuesday)

January 12, 1972 (Wednesday)

  • The first regulations limiting exposure to asbestos were announced by the United States Department of Labor. Widely used in construction because of its fireproof nature, asbestos had been proven to be carcinogenic in the long term.
  • The Detroit Tigers signed a 40-year lease for a dollar domed stadium, to be built downtown. Detroit voters, however, would refuse to approve funding a bond issue to pay for the dome, and it would never be built. The team would continue to play at Tiger Stadium until moving to the outdoor Comerica Park in 1998.
  • Born: Espen Knutsen, Norwegian hockey star, in Oslo

January 13, 1972 (Thursday)

  • While he was out of the country for treatment of an eye ailment, Kofi Abrefa Busia, the Prime Minister of Ghana, lost his job when the government was overthrown in a bloodless coup, led by Lt. Col. Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, leader of the "National Redemption Council". Dr. Busia lived the rest of his life in London. Acheampong was overthrown in 1978 and was executed the following year.
  • U.S. President Richard Nixon announced that 70,000 American troops would be pulled out of Vietnam by May 1, cutting the existing force of 139,000 by half.
  • Alabama Governor George C. Wallace announced his candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination. The previous day, the Internal Revenue Service had dropped its investigation of Wallace's brother Gerald. Historian Stephen E. Ambrose suggested in his 1989 book Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician, 1962–1972, that President Nixon had brokered a deal in order to ensure his re-election in 1972. With Nixon and Hubert Humphrey having announced their candidacies earlier in the week, all three major contenders in the 1968 election were in the 1972 race.
  • A plane, taking West Germany's Chancellor Willy Brandt home after his visit to the United States, came within of colliding with Eastern Airlines Flight 870, as both planes were flying at northeast of Jacksonville, Florida. A spokesman for the Professional Air Traffic Controllers' Association said on January 15 that the incident had been reported to him by controllers at the Jacksonville airport.
  • Born:
  • *Nicole Eggert, American actress, in Glendale, California
  • *Vitaly Scherbo, Belarusian gymnast, winner of six Olympic gold medals in 1992, in Minsk

January 14, 1972 (Friday)

January 15, 1972 (Saturday)

January 16, 1972 (Sunday)

January 17, 1972 (Monday)

  • Police in Chicago arrested two college students, Allan C. Schwandner and Stephen Pera, who had planned to poison the city's water supply with typhoid and other bacteria. Schwandner had founded a terrorist group, "R.I.S.E.", while Pera collected and grew cultures from the hospital where he worked. The two men fled to Cuba after being released on bail. Schwandner was fatally beaten by a Cuban prison director in 1974. Pera returned to the U.S. in 1975 and was put on probation.
  • "Huge Monday" took place on the North Shore of Oahu; waves made it "the greatest single day in surfing history".
  • Born:
  • *Ken Hirai, Japanese pop singer, in Higashiōsaka, Osaka
  • *Mike Lieberthal, MLB catcher, in Glendale, California
  • Died:
  • *Orville Nix, 61, Dallas air conditioning engineer who filmed the assassination of John F. Kennedy
  • *Betty Smith, 75, author of ''A Tree Grows in Brooklyn''

January 18, 1972 (Tuesday)

January 19, 1972 (Wednesday)

January 20, 1972 (Thursday)

January 21, 1972 (Friday)

  • India added three new States, bringing the total to 20, with statehood granted to Tripura, Manipur and Meghalaya. On the same day, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh were granted union territory status. As of 2009, there are 28 states and seven territories in India.
  • Hundreds of guests at a wedding in New Delhi drank bootleg liquor and were poisoned by what turned out to be a mixture of rubbing alcohol and paint varnish. By Sunday, more than 100 had died.

January 22, 1972 (Saturday)

January 23, 1972 (Sunday)

January 24, 1972 (Monday)

  • After hiding for more than 27 years, Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi was discovered on Guam by two hunters, Manuel de Garcia and Jesus Duenas. One of 19,000 Japanese soldiers occupying the island during World War II, Sgt. Yokoi had disappeared into the jungle near the Talofofo River after American forces recaptured Guam in 1944.
  • Meeting with scientists at Multan, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto secretly launched Pakistan's program to build a nuclear weapon.
  • The Iowa Caucus, which would later mark the opening of delegate selection in U.S. presidential election campaigns, was conducted for the first time. The initial event, marked by gatherings in 2,600 at homes and meeting rooms in election precincts statewide, was limited to registered Democrats, and would displace the New Hampshire primary as the first test for political party nominees. When the results were finally tabulated the next day, U.S. Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine won 18 of Iowa's 46 Democratic delegates, while U.S. Senator George McGovern of South Dakota won 10, while the remaining 18 were uncommitted.
  • A month after bringing the Emirate of Sharjah into the United Arab Emirates, the emir, Khalid bin Mohammed Al Qasimi was assassinated in a coup attempt by the previous ruler, Saqr bin Sultan al-Qasimi, whom Khalid had overthrown in 1965. Saqr failed to regain the throne, and Sharjah has been ruled since then by Khalid's brother, Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi.
  • Born: Daniel Kawczynski, Polish-British politician, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, in Warsaw, Poland
  • Died: Gene Austin, 71, American singer

January 25, 1972 (Tuesday)

  • In a nationally televised address, President Nixon revealed that Henry Kissinger had been secretly negotiating with North Vietnamese leaders, and announced "a plan for peace that can end the war in Vietnam". North Vietnam rejected the proposal the next day.
  • Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to be elected to Congress announced that she would seek the Democratic nomination for president.
  • Two Ohio State players—Luke Witte and Mark Wagar—were sent to the hospital when a fight broke out in their college basketball game at Minnesota. With 0:36 left, and Ohio State leading 50–44, Corky Taylor and Ron Behagen of Minnesota attacked Witte. A brawl between both teams lasted for more than a minute before the game was called. Taylor and Behagen were suspended for the rest of the season. Witte declined to file charges.
  • Died:
  • *Carl Hayden, 94; American legislator and former President Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate from 1957 to 1969), who had represented Arizona in Congress for 57 years. Hayden had been the first at-large U.S. Representative when Arizona was admitted to the union in 1912, then continued as a U.S. Senator starting in 1927 until finishing his seventh term in 1969.
  • *Erhard Milch, 79, developer of Germany's Luftwaffe

January 26, 1972 (Wednesday)

  • On the lawn in front of the Australian Parliament in Canberra, four young Aborigine men erected a tent that they called the Aboriginal Embassy, a symbol of the feeling that the indigenous Australians were treated as foreigners in their own homeland. Soon, the four were joined by others, until nearly 2,000 supporters encamped in front of the Parliament. The "embassy" was torn down six months later.
  • A Croatian terrorist organization planted a bomb in JAT Yugoslav Flight 364, which exploded over Czechoslovakia, at an altitude of, killing 27 of the 28 people on board. Remarkably, a stewardess Vesna Vulović, who had been in the tail section of the DC-9, survived despite falling more than, landing near Srbská Kamenice. She was released after a hospitalization of 16 months.
  • The first Eclipse Awards, recognizing horse racing achievements, were made, in a ceremony at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
  • At the request of her ex-husband, actor Richard Wagner, actress Natalie Wood visited his home in Palm Springs, California. Wagner and Wood, who had married in 1957 and divorced in 1962, remained together from this date onward, remarrying each other in July. Wood and Wagner were married until Wood's mysterious death in November 1981; in 2018, Wagner would be named a person of interest in the investigation into Wood's death.
  • Born:
  • *Christopher Boykin, "Big Black" on MTV show Rob & Big, in Wiggins, Mississippi
  • *Peter Peschel, German footballer, in Prudnik, Poland

January 27, 1972 (Thursday)

January 28, 1972 (Friday)

January 29, 1972 (Saturday)

January 30, 1972 (Sunday)

January 31, 1972 (Monday)

  • The Federal Aviation Administration issued new regulations, requiring all United States airlines to screen passengers for weapons before boarding, with a deadline of May 8, 1972, for compliance. There were no hijackings in the United States in 1973.
  • Karl Schranz of Austria, the 1970 alpine skiing champion in the giant slalom, was barred three days before the 1972 Winter Olympics were to begin, by a 28–14 vote by the International Olympic Committee. Schranz was among 40 skiers accused of violating amateur rules by accepting endorsement money from ski equipment companies, and the only skier to be banned.
  • Died: King Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah of Nepal, who had worked to end the isolation of his Himalayan kingdom, died in Kathmandu at 51. He was succeeded by his son, Birendra.