March 1972

[March 1], 1972 (Wednesday)

• The Buffalo River in Arkansas became the first American river to become part of the protected National Wild and Scenic Rivers program.
• Juan María Bordaberry was inaugurated as the newly elected President of Uruguay, and soon assumed dictatorial power, including the operation of the nation's courts by the military under his command.

  [March 2], 1972 (Thursday)

• Pioneer 10 was launched from the Cape Kennedy at Bearing a 6-by-9-inch gold anodized plaque that contained a message for alien civilizations, the American probe attained a record speed of more than 30,000 m.p.h. on its way to the planet Jupiter, which it would reach on December 3, 1973. Pioneer 10 became, on June 13, 1983, the first man-made object to depart the Solar System, moving toward the star Aldebaran. The last transmissions from Pioneer 10 were received on March 31, 1997, and the last signal was received on January 22, 2003.
• Edward Heath, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, announced in the House of Commons that the Government of the UK would no longer use the "five techniques" of torture in the interrogation of prisoners. Heath's decision came on the same day as the publication of the "Parker Report" from a committee of inquiry chaired by Hubert Parker, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, finding the techniques to be illegal and immoral. The five techniques were wall-standing (prolonged standing in a stress position, hooding to prevent sight, loud noise, sleep deprivation and deprivation of food and drink, and had been used in Northern Ireland starting on August 9, 1971 in Operation Demetrius, the mass arrest of 342 suspected Irish Republican Army members and sympathizers.
• The student senate at Stanford University voted, 18–4, to accept the recommendation that the school's athletic teams drop the nickname "Stanford Indians". Other college and high school teams would follow, retiring names such as Indians, Redskins, Braves, and other Native American referencing mascots.
• Born: Phil Watkins From Pontypool, South Wales UK, born on this day.

  [March 3], 1972 (Friday)

• After more than 48 years, the carving of the bas relief sculpture on Stone Mountain was completed under the direction of Walker Hancock. The 90 foot high representation of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson had been started on June 23, 1923, by Gutzon Borglum.
• Mohawk Airlines Flight 405 crashed 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 after the commuter plane lost power during a snowstorm.
• Born: Darren Anderton, English footballer, in Southampton

  [March 4], 1972 (Saturday)

• "About 1.1 million young people reached adulthood at midnight", as the New York Times described it, when a law took effect in California to lower the age of majority from 21 to 18.
• The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, as sung by Roberta Flack, entered the Billboard Magazine charts at No. 77. Within six weeks, it hit No. 1 and remained for six more weeks, becoming the best selling single of 1972.
• Stoke City beat Chelsea 2–1 to win the 1972 Football League Cup Final, before a crowd of 100,000 at Wembley Stadium.
• Born: Pae Gil-Su, North Korean gymnast

  [March 5], 1972 (Sunday)

• Prime Minister Edward Heath informed the House of Commons that the United Kingdom had renounced the use of the five techniques for deep interrogation.

  [March 6], 1972 (Monday)

• The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party adopted a resolution condemning Tbilisi city authorities in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic for corruption, failure to meet economic goals, and liberalism in personnel policies. The action was the beginning of the end of the rule of Georgian First Secretary Vasil Mzhavanadze, and his replacement in that job by Eduard Shevardnadze.
• United States immigration authorities revoked the visa of John Lennon.
• Born: Shaquille O'Neal, American NBA star, in Newark, New Jersey

  [March 7], 1972 (Tuesday)

• TWA Flight 7 was half an hour into its flight from New York to Los Angeles when the airline's officials were notified that it had a time bomb on board. The plane landed back at JFK at. A trained German shepherd named "Brandy" sniffed out the explosive, found in an attache case in the cockpit. With five pounds of C4, the device would have destroyed the, with 52 on board, in midflight at. Police defused the explosive with 12 minutes to spare.
• Federal Express was granted an FAA Operating Certificate by the Federal Aviation Administration, permitting it to operate jet service to deliver packages.

  [March 8], 1972 (Wednesday)

• As the extortion plot against Trans World Airlines continued, a C4 packed time bomb was found on a second. Hidden in a bathroom, the bomb exploded at while the jet sat, unoccupied, at the airport in Las Vegas. Two searches had failed to detect the explosive. The plane had arrived seven hours earlier from New York. The plotters had warned TWA about bombs on four separate flights, and had demanded a $2,000,000 ransom.
• The highest recorded speed for a gust of wind was measured at 207 m.p.h. during a storm at Thule Air Base in Greenland.
• President Nixon issued Executive Order 11652, setting standards for top secret, secret, and confidential classifications of government documents, as well as a schedule of declassification. EO 11652 was superseded by the orders of later American Presidents, and classified information is now governed by Executive Order 13292.
• Born: Andrey Melnichenko, Russian billionaire, in Gomel, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union
• Died: Erich von dem Bach, 73, Nazi SS-Obergruppenführer who crushed the Warsaw Uprising

  [March 9], 1972 (Thursday)

• The Volkskammer voted to legalize abortion in East Germany, although 14 legislators voted against the bill and another 8 abstained, a rarity in a Communist state. The new law gave a woman, rather than a government board, the right to terminate her pregnancy within the first 12 weeks after conception, effective immediately. The number of legal abortions went from 18,700 in 1971 to 115,600 in 1972.
• Died: Basil O'Connor, 80, co-founder of the March of Dimes

  [March 10], 1972 (Friday)

• Broadcaster Larry King was cleared of charges of grand larceny that had been brought by a former business partner. His arrest in December 1971 nearly ruined his career, and King would work at various radio jobs before getting a nationally syndicated talk show in 1978. In 1985, he would launch Larry King Live on CNN.
• Born:
• *Takashi Fujii, Japanese comedian, in Toyonaka, Osaka;
• *Matt Kenseth, American NASCAR driver, in Cambridge, Wisconsin
• *Michael Lucas, Russian-born gay pornographic actor and director, founder of Lucas Entertainment; in Moscow
• *Timbaland, American rapper; in Norfolk, Virginia.

  [March 11], 1972 (Saturday)

• Carnival Cruise Lines made its very first voyage, as the Mardi Gras departed Miami for an 8-day cruise ... and ran aground on a sandbar. The 530 passengers, most of whom were travel agents and their families, continued to enjoy themselves until tugboats dislodged the ship the next day, and the new company received national publicity from the incident.
• Died:
• *Fredric Brown, 65, science fiction and mystery author
• *Zack Wheat, 83, Baseball Hall of Famer and Brooklyn Dodgers outfielder

  [March 12], 1972 (Sunday)

• Britain's Granada Television telecast a one-hour drama by Brian Clark, called Whose Life Is It Anyway?. The videotaped story became a popular stage play in 1978 and a film in 1981.
• The European satellite TD-1A was launched, designed to be the first to measure the ultraviolet spectrum.
• The last troops from India were withdrawn from Bangladesh, whose independence they had secured from Pakistan in December.
• Gordie Howe's No. 9 jersey was retired by the Detroit Red Wings and Bill Russell's No. 6 was retired by the Boston Celtics.

  [March 13], 1972 (Monday)

• The Australian soap opera Number 96 made its debut on Network Ten, after an ad campaign with the slogan "Tonight at 8:30, Television loses its virginity!". During its five-year run, the show would break taboos against showing nudity and sexual intercourse.
• On United States television, The Merv Griffin Show returned as a syndicated program after two years at the CBS Network's 11:30 time slot and began a successful and award-winning run that ended in 1986.
• Clifford Irving and his wife Edith pleaded guilty in a New York federal court to charges of conspiracy to defraud and grand larceny. Irving admitted that he had made up the autobiography of Howard Hughes, for which he had received an advance from McGraw-Hill.
• Born: Common , American rapper and actor; in Chicago, Illinois

  [March 14], 1972 (Tuesday)

• Sterling Airways Flight 267, which was bringing Danish vacationers home from a holiday in Sri Lanka, crashed on its approach to the Dubai airport in the United Arab Emirates. All 112 people on board were killed.

  [March 15], 1972 (Wednesday)

• The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, debuted in five cinemas in New York City, and would set a record for the highest-grossing film in history, taking in $87,500,000 in its first release.
• Italian multimillionaire and radical Giangiacomo Feltrinelli was found dead in the Milan suburb of Segrate, apparently the victim of his own bomb. Feltrinelli had apparently planned to destroy the pylon of a high-voltage power line in order to plunge the area into darkness, when the explosive went off prematurely. He bled to death from his injuries.
• King Hussein of Jordan unveiled his plan for the "United Arab Kingdom", a federation consisting of the existing Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and a Palestinian Arab state on Jordan's former territories on the Israeli occupied West Bank, each with their own parliament, united under one monarch. The UAK would be dependent upon a treaty between Jordan and Israel. The PLO and other Arab nations opposed the plan.
• Born: Mark Hoppus, Bassist and vocalist of the Pop Punk band blink-182, in Ridgecrest, California
• Died: Linda Jones, 27, African-American pop singer, of diabetes