September 1972


The following events occurred in September 1972:

September 1, 1972 (Friday)

September 2, 1972 (Saturday)

September 3, 1972 (Sunday)

September 4, 1972 (Monday)

September 5, 1972 (Tuesday)

September 6, 1972 (Wednesday)

September 7, 1972 (Thursday)

  • Prime Minister Indira Gandhi gave scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre the go-ahead to manufacture India's first nuclear bomb. India became the world's fifth nuclear power with the successful explosion of the bomb on May 18, 1974.
  • The Soviet Union's Council of Ministers issued a directive to amend Section 74 of the Soviet Regulations on Communications, providing that "The use of telephonic communications ... for aims contrary to the interest of the State and to public order is forbidden." Under the regulation, telephone service was disconnected for dissidents without formally charging them with a crime.

September 8, 1972 (Friday)

September 9, 1972 (Saturday)

September 10, 1972 (Sunday)

September 11, 1972 (Monday)

September 12, 1972 (Tuesday)

  • Nearly four years after it was proposed by President Nixon, the federal revenue sharing plan, which would transfer of U.S. government revenues to state and local governments, was approved by the Senate, 64–20. The measure had passed the House, 275–122, on June 22.
  • The attack on two British fishing trawlers, by the Icelandic gunboat ICGV Aegir, triggered the second Cod War between the UK and Iceland.
  • The television show Maude premiered on CBS-TV at, opposite the premiere on ABC of Temperatures Rising.
  • Born: Budi Putra, Indonesian journalist; in Payakumbuh, West Sumatra

September 13, 1972 (Wednesday)

  • Fifty-four North Korean members of its Red Cross delegation crossed the border at Panmunjom at and were welcomed by their South Korean counterparts, in the first visit by North Korean officials since the end of the Korean War.
  • More than 30 people, mostly schoolchildren, drowned when a ferry across the Kerian River capsized. Some children were able to swim to safety, but most drowned in waters.
  • Air Mauritius, the national airline of Mauritania, made its first flight, five years after the company's founding, with a six-seat Piper PA-31 Navajo airplane that flew every Wednesday from Port Louis to Rodrigues and back again. Twenty-five years later, the Air Mauritius fleet would have four Airbus A340-300s, three Boeing 767s, two Boeing 747s, two ATR 42 turboprop carriers, and two Bell 206 helicopters.
  • Born: Kelly Chen, Hong Kong singer; in Hong Kong
  • Died: Zoel Parenteau, American composer; in Englewood, New Jersey

September 14, 1972 (Thursday)

  • Pope Paul VI issued a motu proprio, rejecting calls to allow women to have any formal ministerial role in the Roman Catholic Church. "In accordance with the venerable tradition of the Church," the Pope proclaimed, "installation in the ministries of lector and acolyte is reserved to men".
  • More than 33 years after the outbreak of World War II, West Germany and Poland restored diplomatic relations. East Germany had been an ally of Poland since that nation's establishment in 1949.
  • The People's Republic of China made its first commitment ever to purchasing food from the U.S., as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz announced that China had placed an order to buy 15 million bushels of U.S. wheat.
  • The Waltons, based on producer Earl Hamner's reminiscences of his rural childhood, began a ten-season run on CBS. The setting was the fictional "Jefferson County, Virginia" in the 1930s.
  • That Championship Season, written by Jason Miller, made its Broadway debut at the Booth Theatre for the first of exactly 700 performances. It would run until April 21, 1972, and win the 1973 Tony Award for Best Play.
  • Born: Notah Begay III, American Indian golfer; in Albuquerque

September 15, 1972 (Friday)

  • A federal grand jury indicted the five Watergate burglars, along with E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. On the same day, White House staff attorney John Dean met with President Nixon for the first time concerning the scandal. In the meeting, which lasted from 5:27 to 6:17, they discussed the covering up of the White House role in the Watergate break-in. Dean would testify about his memory of the discussion at the Watergate hearings on June 25, 1973, unaware that Oval Office conversations were all recorded at Nixon's request. Nixon, Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, and Dean, discussed plans to take revenge on the President's enemies. "They are asking for it and they are going to get it," commented Nixon, adding "We haven't used the Bureau and we haven't used the Justice Department, but things are going to change now. They're going to get it right."
  • South Vietnam's army regained control of the city of Quảng Trị, more than three months after the provincial capital had been captured by North Vietnamese forces.
  • SAS Flight 130 was hijacked over Sweden by three members of the Croatian National Resistance terrorist group, after taking off from Gothenburg to Stockholm. The four crew and the other 83 passengers were held hostage as the DC-9 jet was diverted to Malmö. As a condition of release of the hostages, seven Croatian terrorists imprisoned in Sweden were set free and allowed to leave the country.
  • Born: Jimmy Carr, British comedian; in Hounslow, London
  • Died: Geoffrey Fisher, 85, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1945 to 1961

September 16, 1972 (Saturday)

September 17, 1972 (Sunday)

  • In the first release of prisoners of war since 1969, North Vietnam released three American POWs. Navy Lieutenants Norris Charles and Markham Gartley and Air Force Major Edward Elias were provided civilian clothes and then allowed to stay in Hanoi with an American welcoming team. Another 539 American POWs remained in captivity, and more than 1,000 Americans listed as missing in action were unaccounted for.
  • 1,000 soldiers of the "Uganda People's Militia" invaded Uganda from Tanzania. The Ugandan Army would repel the invasion after two weeks of fighting.
  • The popular television series M*A*S*H began an eleven-season run, eight years longer than the Korean War which provided its setting.

September 18, 1972 (Monday)

September 19, 1972 (Tuesday)

  • A parcel bomb sent to the Israeli Embassy in London killed Ami Schachori, the agricultural attaché, who was scheduled to return home after four years abroad. Another bomb arrived at the Israeli Embassy in Paris later in the day, but was disarmed. Both packages had been sent from Amsterdam. Other packages were delivered the next day in New York and Montreal, and defused.
  • The Oakland A's began a game in which they would use 30 players in a 15-inning game against the Chicago White Sox, setting a Major League Baseball record that still stands. The game also broke a major league record for most players used by both teams in a game. The White Sox, at second place in the American League West division, beat the first place A's, 8 to 7 when the game ended at 12:59 the next morning after 4 hours and 41 minutes of play.
  • Born Ashot Nadanian, Armenian chess player; in Baku, Armenian SSR, Soviet Union
  • Died Robert Casadesus, 73, French pianist

September 20, 1972 (Wednesday)

  • Britain's ratification of the Treaty of Accession to the Common Market was completed.
  • Floyd Patterson's comeback attempt came to an end with a bout against Muhammad Ali. Patterson, the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1956 to 1959, and 1961 to 1962, had been attempting to regain his crown since 1970. The fight was stopped in the seventh round after Ali opened a cut over Patterson's eye.
  • Died: Richard Oakes, 30, Mohawk American Indian activist who led the Occupation of Alcatraz from 1969 to 1971, was shot and killed during an argument with Michael Morgan, the caretaker of a YMCA camp in Annapolis, California. The homicide took place six days after a confrontation between Oakes and Morgan on use of the property.

September 21, 1972 (Thursday)

September 22, 1972 (Friday)

  • West German Chancellor Willy Brandt called for a vote of confidence in his government, one he expected to lose, as a pretext for new parliamentary elections.
  • Hexachlorophene, an anti-bacterial compound that had been a popular additive in skin cleansers, cosmetics, deodorants, toothpastes and baby powder, was banned by the Food and Drug Administration except for prescription use. FDA studies had concluded that HCP caused brain damage in infants. The FDA ordered immediate removal of baby powder with more than 0.75% HCP, and directed that cleansers with 3% concentration could be sold only by prescription.
  • An assassination attempt was staged against Philippine Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile while he was traveling in Manila. While nobody actually saw the attack, witnesses heard gunshots and then saw Enrile's limousine riddled with bullets. In the government announcement that followed, the account was given that Enrile had been riding in a different car, but the attempt was used to justify implementing Proclamation 1081, an authorization that happened to have been signed earlier by President Marcos the day before. Enrile would admit in 1988, after the fall of the Marcos regime, that the event had been a hoax to justify the announcement the next day of martial law.

September 23, 1972 (Saturday)

  • A fire killed 31 people at the Oscar restaurant on the Greek island of Rhodes, after a short circuit set fire to bamboo paneling. Most of the dead were Scandinavian tourists.
  • At an annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund, U.S. Treasury Secretary George P. Schultz unveiled a proposal for "SDRs"—Special Drawing Rights—to replace gold reserves as the asset to which the world currencies would be tied.
  • Julius Erving, remembered for playing for the Philadelphia 76ers, the New York Nets and even the Virginia Squires, played his first professional basketball game, appearing as an NBA draftee for the Atlanta Hawks, for whom he played in an exhibition against the ABA's Kentucky Colonels, in a 112–99 win in Frankfort, Kentucky. Erving would play another exhibition for the NBA Hawks before returning to the ABA.
  • "Moo-la the Cow" was unveiled in Stephenville, Texas, honoring the local dairy industry.
  • A 15-year-old boy in Waldport, Oregon, was killed, and two other people injured, after being struck by lightning. Although he was carrying a box containing 135 sticks of dynamite, the box did not explode, contrary to some repetitions of the story.
  • Born: Karl Pilkington, British TV and radio personality; in Manchester

September 24, 1972 (Sunday)

September 25, 1972 (Monday)

September 26, 1972 (Tuesday)

September 27, 1972 (Wednesday)

  • Canada banned the sale and use of firecrackers.
  • In Fort Lauderdale, Susan Place, 17, and Georgia Jessup, 16, went with their friend, "Jerry Shepard", on a trip "to the beach to play the guitar". Their remains would be found seven months later as they became the first known victims of serial killer Gerard Schaefer. Schaefer had been dismissed from the office of the Martin County, Florida Sheriff's Department earlier in the year, and was awaiting trial after a failed kidnapping, on July 22, of two other teenage girls.
  • Born: Gwyneth Paltrow, American actress, 1998 Oscar winner for Best Actress ; in Los Angeles
  • Died:
  • *Bernardo Alvarado Monzón, 46, Guatemalan Communist and General Secretary of the Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo, was executed by the Guatemalan Army the day after being captured in a raid on the PGT headquarters, along with seven other PGT officials and members. By order of the Guatemalan president, Carlos Arana Osorio, the bodies of the eight victims were dumped into the ocean.
  • *S. R. Ranganathan, 81, pioneering Indian librarian
  • *Rory Storm, 33, British musician, died of a combination of alcohol and sleeping pills

September 28, 1972 (Thursday)

September 29, 1972 (Friday)

September 30, 1972 (Saturday)