Year 1972

1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1972nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 972nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 72nd year of the 20th century, and the 3rd year of the 1970sdecade.

Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar time , its duration was 31622401.141 seconds of Terrestrial Time (or Ephemeris Time), which is slightly shorter than 1908).

Events

January

• January 1 – Kurt Waldheim becomes Secretary-General of the United Nations.
• January 2 – Pierre Hotel Robbery, the most successful robbery from a hotel in history: Six men rob the safe deposit boxes of The Pierre Hotel in New York City of at least $4 million.
• January 3 – MGM’s 1951 Show Boat is presented on television by NBC for the first time. This marks the first complete network telecast of any version of Show Boat (it had already been filmed as a part-talkie in 1929, and as a full-sound musical in 1936).
• January 4
  • The first scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) is introduced (price $395).
  • Rose Heilbron becomes the first woman judge at the Old Bailey in London.
• January 5 – U.S. President Richard Nixon orders the development of a Space Shuttle program.
• January 7
  • Iberia Airlines Flight 602 crashes into a 462-meter peak on the island of Ibiza; 104 are killed.
  • Howard Hughes speaks to the press by telephone to denounce Clifford Irving’s hoax biography of him.
• January 9 – The RMS Queen Elizabeth is destroyed by fire in Hong Kong harbor.
• January 10 – Independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman returns to Bangladesh after spending over nine months in prison in Pakistan.
• January 11 – Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declares a new constitutional government in Bangladesh, with himself as President.
• January 13 – Prime Minister of Ghana Kofi Abrefa Busia is overthrown in a military coup by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.
• January 14 – Queen Margrethe II of Denmark succeeds her father, King Frederick IX, on the throne of Denmark, the first Queen of Denmark since 1412 and the first Danish monarch not named Frederick or Christian since 1513.
• January 16 – Super Bowl VI: the Dallas Cowboys win their first National Football League championship, defeating the Miami Dolphins 24–3 in New Orleans.
• January 18 – Members of the Mukti Bahini lay down their arms to the government of the newly independent Bangladesh, 33 days after winning the war against the occupying Pakistan Army.
• January 19 – The Libertarian enclave Minerva on a platform in the South Pacific, sponsored by the Phoenix Foundation, declares independence. Soon neighboring Tonga annexes the area and dismantles the platform.
• January 20
  • President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto announces that Pakistan will immediately begin a nuclear weapons program.
  • Fears are growing about the economy of the United Kingdom, where unemployment is now exceeding 1 million for the first time since World War II.
• January 21
  • A New Delhi bootlegger sells wood alcohol to a wedding party; 100 die.
  • Tripura, part of the former independent Twipra Kingdom, becomes a full state of India.
• January 24 – Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi is discovered in Guam; he had spent 28 years in the jungle.
• January 25 – Shirley Chisholm, the first African American Congresswoman, announces her candidacy for president.
• January 26
  • Yugoslavian air stewardess Vesna Vulović is the only survivor when her plane crashes in Czechoslovakia. She survives after falling 10,160 meters (33,330 feet) in the tail section of the aircraft.
  • The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is set up on the lawn of Parliament House in Canberra.
• January 27 – Two New York City Police Department officers, Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie, are assassinated by members of the Black Liberation Army (BLA) while on foot patrol in New York’s East Village area.
• January 30
  • Bloody Sunday: The British Army kills 14 unarmed nationalist civil rights marchers in Derry, Northern Ireland.
  • Pakistan withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations.
• January 31 – King Birendra succeeds his father as King of Nepal.

February

• February 2
  • A bomb explodes at the British Yacht Club in West Berlin, killing Irwin Beelitz, a German boat builder.
  • The German militant group 2 June Movement announces its support of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
  • Anti-British riots take place throughout Ireland. The British Embassy in Dublin is burned to the ground, as are several British-owned businesses.
  • The last draft lottery is held, a watershed event in the wind-down of military conscription in the United States during the Vietnam era. These draft candidates are never called to duty.
• February 3–13 – The 1972 Winter Olympics are held in Sapporo, Japan.
• February 4 – Mariner 9 sends pictures as it orbits Mars.
• February 15
  • President of Ecuador José María Velasco Ibarra is deposed for the fourth time.
  • Phonorecords are granted U.S. federal copyright protection for the first time.
• February 17 – Volkswagen Beetle sales exceed those of the Ford Model T when the 15,007,034th Beetle is produced.
• February 18 – The California Supreme Court voids the state’s death penalty, commuting all death sentences to life in prison.
• February 19 – Asama-Sansō incident: Five United Red Army members break into a lodge below Mount Asama, taking the wife of the lodge keeper hostage.
• February 21 – The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
• February 21 – February 28 – U.S. President Richard M. Nixon makes an unprecedented 8-day visit to the People’s Republic of China and meets with Mao Zedong.
• February 22
  • Aldershot Bombing: An Official IRA bomb kills seven in Aldershot, UK.
  • Lufthansa Flight 649 is hijacked and taken to Aden. Passengers are released the following day after a ransom of 5 million US dollars is agreed.
• February 23 – US activist Angela Davis is released from jail. Rodger McAfee, a farmer from Caruthers, California, helps her make bail.
• February 26
  • A coal sludge spill kills 125 people in Buffalo Creek, West Virginia.
  • Luna 20 comes back to Earth with 55 grams (1.94 oz) of lunar soil.
• February 28 – The Asama-Sanso incident ends in a standoff between 5 members of the Japanese United Red Army and the authorities, in which two policemen are killed and 12 injured.

March

• March 1 – Juan María Bordaberry is sworn in as President of Uruguay amid accusations of electoral fraud.
• March 2
  • The Club of Rome presents the research results leading to its report The Limits to Growth, published later in the month.
  • The Pioneer 10 spacecraft is launched from Cape Kennedy, to be the first man-made satellite to leave the solar system.
  • Jean-Bédel Bokassa becomes President of the Central African Republic.
• March 3
  • Sculpted figures of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson are completed at Stone Mountain in the U.S. state of Georgia.
  • Mohawk Airlines Flight 405 crashed into a house on Edgewood Avenue in Albany, New York, killing 16 of the 47 persons on board, and one person in an upstairs apartment. The impact happened at 8:48 pm after the commuter plane lost power during a snowstorm.
  • Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull is released, a concept album supposedly written by an 8-year-old boy, Gerald Bostock.
• March 4
  • Libya and the Soviet Union sign a cooperation treaty.
  • The Organisation of the Islamic Conference Charter is signed (effective February 28, 1973).
• March 5 – Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis leaves the Greek Communist Party.
• March 13
  • The United Kingdom and the People’s Republic of China elevate diplomatic exchanges to the ambassadorial level after 22 years.
  • Clifford Irving admits to a New York court that he had fabricated Howard Hughes’ “autobiography”.
• March 15 – The Godfather has its premiere at the Loew’s State Theatre in New York City.
• March 16 – The first building of the Pruitt–Igoe housing development in St. Louis is destroyed.
• March 19 – India and Bangladesh sign the Indo-Bangladeshi Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Peace.
• March 22 – The 92nd U.S. Congress votes to send the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the states for ratification.
• March 24 – The British government announces the prorogation of the Parliament of Northern Ireland and the introduction of ‘Direct Rule’ of Northern Ireland, after the Unionistgovernment refuses to cede security powers.
• March 25 – Après toi sung by Vicky Leandros (music by Klaus Munro & Mario Panas, lyric by Klaus Munro & Yves Dessca) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1972 for Luxembourg.
• March 26
  • An avalanche on Mount Fuji kills 19 climbers.
  • The last trolleybus system in the United Kingdom closes in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire after over 60 years of operation.
  • After 14 years, the last of Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts is telecast by CBS. This last concert is devoted to Gustav Holst’s The Planets.
• March 27 – The First Sudanese Civil War ends.
• March 30
  • Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam
  • The Parliament of Northern Ireland is suspended.

April

• April 7 – Vietnam War veteran Richard McCoy Jr. hijacks a United Airlines jet and extorts $500,000; he is later captured.
• April 10
  • The U.S. and the Soviet Union join some 70 nations in signing the Biological Weapons Convention, an agreement to ban biological warfare.
  • Tombs containing bamboo slips, among them Sun Tzu’s Art of War and Sun Bin’s lost military treatise, are accidentally discovered by construction workers in Shandong.
  • The 6.7 M_w  Qir earthquake shook southern Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing 5,374 people in the province of Fars.
  • The 44th Annual Academy Awards are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.
• April 12 – The X-rated animated movie Fritz the Cat is released.
• April 13 – The Universal Postal Union decides to recognize the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative, effectively expelling the Republic of China administering Taiwan.
• April 16
  • Apollo 16 (John Young, Ken Mattingly, Charlie Duke) is launched. During the mission, the astronauts, driving the Lunar Roving Vehicle, achieve a lunar rover speed record of 18 km/h.
  • Vietnam War – Nguyen Hue Offensive: Prompted by the North Vietnamese offensive, the United States resumes bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong.
• April 17 – The first Boston Marathon in which women are officially allowed to compete.
• April 22 – Sylvia Cook and John Fairfax finish rowing across the Pacific.
• April 26 – The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar enters service with Eastern Airlines.
• April 27
  • The Burundian Genocide against the Hutu begins; more than 500,000 Hutus die.
  • A no-confidence vote against German Chancellor Willy Brandt fails under obscure circumstances.
• April 29 – The fourth anniversary of the Broadway musical Hair is celebrated with a free concert at a Central Park bandshell, followed by dinner at the Four Seasons. There, 13 Black Panther protesters and the show’s co-author, Jim Rado, are arrested for disturbing the peace and for using marijuana.

May

• May 2 – Fire at the Sunshine Mine, a silver mine in Idaho, kills 91.
• May 5 – An Alitalia DC-8 crashes west of Palermo, Sicily; 115 die.
• May 7 – General elections are held in Italy.
• May 8 – U.S. President Richard Nixon orders the mining of Haiphong Harbor in Vietnam.
• May 10 – Operation Linebacker and Operation Custom Tailor begin with large-scale bombing operations against North Vietnam by tactical fighter aircraft.
• May 11 – The Boston Bruins defeat the New York Rangers four games to two to win the Stanley Cup.
• May 13 – A fire in a nightclub atop the Sennichi department store in Osaka, Japan, kills 115.
• May 15
  • Okinawa is returned to Japan after 27 years of United States occupation.
  • Governor George C. Wallace of Alabama is shot and paralyzed by Arthur Bremer at a political rally in Laurel, Maryland, United States.
• May 18 – Four troopers of the British Special Air Service and Special Boat Service are parachuted onto the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 1,600 kilometres (1,000 mi) across the Atlantic after a bomb threat and ransom demand which turn out to be bogus.
• May 19 – Three out of six bombs explode in the Axel Springer AG media company offices in Hamburg, Germany, injuring 17; the Red Army Faction claims responsibility.
• May 21 – In St. Peter’s Basilica (Vatican City), Laszlo Toth attacks Michelangelo’s Pietà statue with a geologist’s hammer, shouting that he is Jesus Christ.
• May 22
  • The Dominion of Ceylon becomes the republic of Sri Lanka under prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, when its new constitution is ratified.
  • Ferit Melen forms the new (interim) government of Turkey (35th government)
• May 23 – The Tamil United Front (later known as Tamil United Liberation Front), a pro-Tamil organization, is founded in Sri Lanka.
• May 24
  • Scottish Association football club Rangers F.C. win the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, defeating FC Dynamo Moscow 3–2 in the final at Camp Nou in Barcelona (Spain). A pitch invasion by their supporters leads to the team being banned from defending the trophy the following season.
  • A Red Army Faction bomb explodes in the Campbell Barracks of the U.S. Army Supreme European Command in Heidelberg, West Germany; three U.S. soldiers (Clyde Bonner, Ronald Woodard and Charles Peck) are killed.
  • The Magnavox Odyssey video game system is first demoed, marking the dawn of the video game age; it goes on sale to the public in August.
• May 26
  • Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT I treaty in Moscow, as well as the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and other agreements.
  • Wernher von Braun retires from NASA, frustrated by the agency’s unwillingness to pursue a manned trans-orbital space program.
  • Willandra National Park is established in Australia.
• May 27 – Mark Donohue wins the Indianapolis 500 in a Penske Racing McLaren–Offenhauser.
• May 30
  • The Angry Brigade, a far-left militant group who carried out bomb attacks in England between 1970 and 1972, go on trial.
  • Three Japanese Red Army members kill 24 and injure 100 in Lod Airport, Israel.

June

• June – Iraq nationalizes the Iraq Petroleum Company.
• June 2 – Andreas Baader, Jan-Carl Raspe, Holger Meins and some other members of the Red Army Faction are arrested in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, after a shootout.
• June 5–16 – The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment is held in Stockholm, Sweden
• June 8
  • Seven men and three women hijack a plane from Czechoslovakia to West Germany.
  • Vietnam War: Associated Press photographer Nick Ut takes his Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of a naked nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc running down a road after being burned by napalm.
• June 9 – The Black Hills flood kills 238 in South Dakota.
• June 11 – Henri Pescarolo (France) and co-driver former World Drivers’ Champion Graham Hill (Britain) win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Equipe Matra MS670.
• June 14–23 – Hurricane Agnes kills 117 on the U.S. East Coast.
• June 14
  • Japan Airlines Flight 471 crashes outside of New Delhi airport, killing 82 of 87 occupants.
  • The first Popeyes fried chicken restaurant opens in the New Orleans suburb of Arabi, Louisiana.
• June 15 – Ulrike Meinhof and Gerhard Müller of the Red Army Faction are arrested in a teacher’s apartment in Langenhagen, West Germany.
• June 15–18 – The first U.S. Libertarian Party National Convention is held in Denver, Colorado.
• June 16 – 108 die as two passenger trains hit the debris of a collapsed railway tunnel near Soissons, France.
• June 17
  • Watergate scandal: Five White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee.
  • The United States returns Okinawa, occupied and governed since the World War II Battle of Okinawa, to Japan.
  • Chilean president Salvador Allende forms a new government.
• June 18
  • Staines air disaster: 118 die when a Trident 1 jet airliner crashes two minutes after takeoff from London Heathrow Airport.
  • West Germany beats the Soviet Union 3–0 to win Euro 72.
  • Hong Kong’s worst flooding and landslides in recorded history with 653.2 millimetres (25.72 in) of rainfall in the previous three days. 67 people die due to building collapses in Mid-levels districts landslide and building collapses, with a further 83 due to flooding-related fatalities. It is the second worst fatality due to building collapses, and the worst flooding in Hong Kong’s recorded history.
• June 23 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about using the C.I.A. to obstruct the F.B.I.’s investigation into the Watergate break-ins.
• June 26 – Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney co-found Atari, Inc.
• June 28 – U.S. President Richard Nixon announces that no new draftees will be sent to Vietnam.
• June 29 – Furman v. Georgia: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that capital punishment is unconstitutional.
• June 30 – The International Time Bureau adds the first leap second (23:59:60) to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) at the end of the month.

July

• July – U.S. actress Jane Fonda tours North Vietnam, during which she is photographed sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun.
• July 1
  • The Canadian ketch Vega, flying the Greenpeace III banner, collides with the French naval minesweeper La Paimpolaise while in international waters, to protest French nuclear weapon tests in the South Pacific.
  • The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms becomes independent from the IRS.
• July 2 – Following Pakistan’s surrender to India in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, both nations sign the historic Simla Agreement, agreeing to settle their disputes bilaterally.
• July 4 – The first Rainbow Gathering is held in Colorado.
• July 8 – The U.S. sells grain to the Soviet Union for $750 million.
• July 10 – India’s news agency reports that at least 24 people have been killed in separate incidents, in the Chandka Forest in India, by elephants crazed by heat and drought.
• July 11
  • The long anticipated chess match between world champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union, and United States champion Bobby Fischer, began in Iceland at Reykjavík.
  • Curtis Mayfield releases the soundtrack to the 1972 film, Super Fly.
• July 10–14 – The Democratic National Convention meets in Miami Beach. Senator George McGovern, who backs the immediate and complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Vietnam, is nominated for president. He names fellow Senator Thomas Eagleton as his running mate.
• July 15 – The Pruitt–Igoe housing development is demolished in St. Louis, Missouri.
• July 18 – Anwar Sadat expels 20,000 Soviet advisors from Egypt.
• July 21
  • Bloody Friday: 22 bombs planted by the Provisional IRA explode in Belfast, Northern Ireland; nine people are killed and 130 seriously injured.
  • Comedian George Carlin is arrested by Milwaukee police for public obscenity, for reciting his “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television” at Summerfest.
  • A collision between two trains near Seville, Spain kills 76 people.
• July 23 – The United States launches Landsat 1, the first Earth-resources satellite.
• July 24 – King Jigme Singye Wangchuck succeeds his father Jigme Dorji Wangchuck as king of Bhutan.
• July 25 – U.S. health officials admit that African-Americans were used as guinea pigs in the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.
• July 27 – The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle makes its first flight.
• July 28 – A national dock strike begins in Britain.
• July 31 – The Troubles, Northern Ireland:
  • Operation Motorman 4:00 AM: The British Army begins to regain control of the “no-go areas” established by Irish republican paramilitaries in Belfast, Derry (“Free Derry”) and Newry.
  • Claudy bombing (“Bloody Monday”), 10:00 AM: Three car bombs in Claudy, County Londonderry, kill nine. It becomes public knowledge only in 2010 that a local Catholicpriest was an IRA officer believed to be involved in the bombings but his role was covered up by the authorities.

August

• August 1 – U.S. Senator Thomas Eagleton, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, withdraws from the race after revealing he had been treated for mental illness.
• August 4
  • Arthur Bremer is jailed for 63 years for shooting George Wallace.
  • Dictator Idi Amin declares that Uganda will expel 50,000 Asians with British passports to Britain within 3 months.
  • A huge solar flare (one of the largest ever recorded) knocks out cable lines in U.S. It begins with the appearance of sunspots on August 2; an August 4 flare kicks off high levels of activity until August 10.
• August 10 – A brilliant, daytime meteor skips off the Earth’s atmosphere due to an Apollo asteroid streaking over the western US into Canada.

• August 12 – Oil tankers Oswego-Guardian and Texanita collide near Stilbaai, South Africa.
• August 14 – An East German Ilyushin airliner crashes near East Berlin; all 156 on board perish.
• August 16 – As part of a coup attempt, members of the Royal Moroccan Air Force fire upon, but fail to bring down, Hassan II of Morocco’s plane while he is traveling back to Rabat.
• August 19 – The first daytime episode of the second incarnation of American game show The Price Is Right is taped at CBS Television City, to be aired on September 4.
• August 21 – The Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida renominates U.S. President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew for a second term.
• August 22
  • Rhodesia is expelled by the IOC for its racist policies.
  • John Wojtowicz, 27, and Sal Naturile, 18, hold several Chase Manhattan Bank employees hostage for 17 hours in Gravesend, Brooklyn, N.Y. (an event later dramatized in the film Dog Day Afternoon).
  • In the Almirante Zar Naval Base, Argentina, 16 detainees are executed by firing squad in the Trelew massacre.
• August 26 – September 10 – The 1972 Summer Olympics are held in Munich, West Germany.

September

• September 1
  • Bobby Fischer defeats Boris Spassky in a chess match in Reykjavík, Iceland, becoming the first American world chess champion.
  • The Second Cod War begins between the United Kingdom and Iceland.
• September 4 – The New Price is Right, a revival of the 1956-65 NBC and ABC game show of the same name premieres on CBS, along with Gambit and The Joker’s Wild, overhauling the network’s daytime schedule.
• September 5–6 – Munich massacre: Eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich are murdered after eight members of the Arab terrorist group Black September invade the Olympic Village; five guerillas and one policeman are also killed in a failed hostage rescue.
• September 10 – The Brazilian driver Emerson Fittipaldi wins the Italian Grand Prix at Monza and becomes the youngest Formula One World Champion at the age of 25.
• September 12 – Maude, the first in a series of spin-offs from All in the Family, premieres on CBS. Bea Arthur starred as the title character.
• September 14 – West Germany and Poland renew diplomatic relations.
• September 17
  • Uganda announces that there are Tanzanian troops in its territory.
  • The television series M*A*S*H begins its run on CBS.
• September 18 – São Paulo Metro is inaugurated in Brazil.
• September 19 – A parcel bomb sent to the Israeli Embassy in London kills one diplomat.
• September 23 – Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos announces on national television the issuance of Proclamation No. 1081 placing the entire country under martial law.

  

  September 23: Martial law in the Philippines.

• September 24 – An F-86 fighter aircraft leaving an air show at Sacramento Executive Airport fails to become airborne and crashes into a Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour, killing 12 children and 11 adults.
• September 25 – 1972 Norwegian EC referendum: Norway rejects membership in the European Economic Community.
• September 28 – The Canadian national men’s hockey team defeats the Soviet national ice hockey team in Game 8 of the 1972 Summit Series(French: La Série du Siècle, Russian: Суперсерия СССР — Канада), 6–5, to win the series 4–3–1.
• September 29 – Sino-Japanese relations: The Joint Communiqué of the Government of Japan and the Government of the People’s Republic of China is signed in Beijing, which normalizes diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China after breaking official ties with the Republic of China (Taiwan).
• September 30 – Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente collects his 3,000 career base hit against the New York Mets. It was the final hit of his career, as he died in a plane crash three months later.

October

• October – The government of former President of Somalia Mohamed Siad Barre formally introduces the Somali alphabet as Somalia’s official writing script.
• October 1
  • The first publication reporting the production of a recombinant DNA molecule marks the birth of modern molecular biology methodology.
  • Alex Comfort’s bestselling manual The Joy of Sex is published.
• October 2 – Denmark joins the European Community; the Faroe Islands stay out.
• October 5 – The United Reformed Church is founded out of the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches.
• October 6 – A train crash in Saltillo, Mexico kills 208 people.
• October 8
  • A major breakthrough occurs in the Paris peace talks between Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ.
  • R. Sargent Shriver is chosen to replace Thomas Eagleton as the U.S. vice-presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.
• October 12 – En route to the Gulf of Tonkin, an anti-war protest, the USS Kitty Hawk riot led by African-Americans and interpreted by some as a race riot involving more than 200 sailors, breaks out aboard the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk; nearly 50 sailors are injured.
• October 13 – Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571: A Fairchild FH-227D passenger aircraft transporting a rugby union team crashes at about 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in the Andesmountain range, near the Argentina/Chile border. Sixteen of the survivors are found alive December 20 but they have had to resort to cannibalism to survive.
• October 16
  • The long-running soap opera, Emmerdale, made by Yorkshire Television, is broadcast on the UK’s ITV network for the first time, under the title Emmerdale Farm.
  • A plane carrying U.S. Congressman Hale Boggs of Louisiana and three other men vanishes in Alaska. The wreckage has never been found, despite a massive search at the time.
  • Rioting Maze Prison inmates cause a fire that destroys most of the camp.
• October 17 – Elizabeth II visits Yugoslavia.
• October 22 – The Oakland Athletics defeat the Cincinnati Reds four games to three to capture Major League Baseball’s World Series. It is the Athletics’ first championship since 1930, when the franchise was in Philadelphia.
• October 24 – Jackie Robinson, the first black player in modern Major League Baseball history, dies at his home in Stamford, Connecticut at the age of 53.
• October 25
  • The first female FBI agents are hired.
  • Belgian Eddy Merckx sets a new world hour record in cycling in Mexico City.
• October 26 – Following a visit to South Vietnam, U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger suggests that “peace is at hand.”
• October 28 – The Airbus A300 flies for the first time.
• October 29 – Lufthansa Flight 615 is hijacked and threats are made to be blown up if the three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre are not released from prison in West Germany. The demands are accepted, leading to fierce condemnation by Israel.
• October 30
  • U.S. President Richard Nixon approves legislation to increase Social Security spending by US$5.3 billion.
  • A commuter train collision in Chicago kills 45, injures hundreds.

November

• November
  • At a scientific meeting in Honolulu, Herbert Boyer and Stanley N. Cohen conceive the concept of recombinant DNA. They publish their results in November 1973 in PNAS. Separately in 1972, Paul Berg also recombines DNA in a test tube. Recombinant DNA technology has dramatically changed the field of biological sciences, especially biotechnology, and opened the door to genetically modified organisms.
  • The Nishitetsu Lions baseball club, part of the NPB’s Pacific League, is sold to the Fukuoka Baseball Corporation, a subsidiary of Nishi-Nippon Railroad. The team is renamed the Taiheiyo Club Lions.
• November 7 – 1972 U.S. presidential election: Republican incumbent Richard Nixon defeats Democratic Senator George McGovern in a landslide (the election had the lowest voter turnout since 1948, with only 55 percent of the electorate voting).
• November 11 – Vietnam War – Vietnamization: The United States Army turns over the massive Long Binh military base to South Vietnam.
• November 14 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 1,000 (1,003.16) for the first time.
• November 16 – The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization adopts the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage
• November 19 – Seán Mac Stíofáin, a leader of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, is arrested in Dublin after giving an interview to RTÉ.
• November 22 – Vietnam War: The United States loses its first B-52 Stratofortress of the war.
• November 28 – The last executions in Paris, France. Roger Bontems and Claude Buffet – the Clairvaux Mutineers – are guillotined at La Santé Prison by chief executioner André Obrecht. Bontems had been found innocent of murder by the court, but as Buffet’s accomplice is condemned to death anyway. President Georges Pompidou, in private an abolitionist, upholds both death sentences in deference to French public opinion.
• November 29
  • Atari, Inc. kicks off the first generation of video games with the release of their seminal arcade version of Pong, the first game to achieve commercial success.

    

    The arcade version of Pong is released.

  • The “tea house” Mellow Yellow opens on the Amstel River in Amsterdam, pioneering the legal sale of cannabis in the Netherlands.
• November 30
  • Vietnam War: White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler tells the press that troop levels in Vietnam are down to 27,000 and consequently there will be no more public announcements concerning United States troop withdrawals from Vietnam.
  • Cod War: British Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home says that Royal Navy ships will be stationed to protect British trawlers off Iceland.

December

• December 2 – 1972 Australian federal election: The Labor Party led by Gough Whitlam defeats the Liberal/Country Coalition Governmentled by Prime Minister William McMahon. Consequently, Whitlam becomes the first Labor Prime Minister of Australia since the defeat of Ben Chifley in 1949. Whitlam would be sworn in on December 5th; his first action using executive power was to withdraw all Australian personnel from the Vietnam War. McMahon resigned from the Liberal leadership almost immediately; he would be replaced by outgoing Treasurer Billy Snedden.
• December 7
  • Apollo 17 (Gene Cernan, Ronald Evans, Harrison Schmitt), the last manned Moon mission to date, is launched and The Blue Marblephotograph of the Earth is taken. The mission also includes five mice.
  • The Provisional Irish Republican Army kidnaps Jean McConville in Belfast.
  • Imelda Marcos is stabbed and seriously wounded by an assailant; her bodyguards shoot him.
• December 8
  • United Airlines Flight 553 crashes short of the runway, killing 43 of 61 passengers and two people on the ground.
  • Over $10,000 cash is found in the purse of Watergate conspirator Howard Hunt’s wife.
  • International Human Rights Day is proclaimed by the United Nations.
• December 11 – Apollo 17 lands on the Moon.
• December 14 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the Moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of Apollo 17. This is currently the last manned mission to the Moon.
• December 15
  • The Commonwealth of Australia ordains equal pay for women.
  • The United Nations Environment Programme is established as a specialized agency of the United Nations.
• December 16
  • The Constitution of Bangladesh comes into effect.
  • The Portuguese army kills 400 Africans in Tete, Mozambique.
• December 19 – Apollo program: Apollo 17 returns to Earth, concluding the program of lunar exploration.
• December 21
  • East Germany and West Germany recognize each other.
  • ZANLA troopers attack Altera Farm in north-east Rhodesia.
• December 22
  • Australia establishes diplomatic relations with China and East Germany.
  • A peace delegation that includes singer-activist Joan Baez and human rights attorney Telford Taylor visit Hanoi to deliver Christmas mail to American prisoners of war (they will be caught in the Christmas bombing of North Vietnam).
• December 23
  • The 6.2 M_w Nicaragua earthquake kills 5,000–11,000 people in the capital Managua. President Anastasio Somoza Debayle is later accused of not distributing millions of dollars worth of foreign aid.
  • The Pittsburgh Steelers win their first ever post-season NFL game, defeating the Oakland Raiders 13–7, on a last second play that becomes known as The Immaculate Reception.
  • Swedish Prime minister Olof Palme compares the American bombings of North Vietnam to Nazi massacres. The U.S. breaks diplomatic contact with Sweden.
  • Braathens SAFE Flight 239, also known as the Asker Accident: Aircraft crashed during approach to Oslo Airport, Fornebu, Norway. Forty people on board were killed.
• December 25 – The Christmas bombing of North Vietnam causes widespread criticism of the U.S. and President Richard Nixon.
• December 26 – Former United States President Harry S. Truman dies in Kansas City, Missouri.
• December 28 – The bones of Martin Bormann are discovered in Berlin.
• December 29 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 crashes into the Everglades in Florida, killing 101 of 176 on board. It is the first hull-loss of a wide-body aircraft.
• December 31
  • Roberto Clemente dies in a plane crash off the coast of Puerto Rico while en route to deliver aid to Nicaraguan earthquake victims.
  • For the first and last time, a 2nd leap second is added (23:59:60) to a year, making 1972 366 days and two seconds long, the longest year ever within the context of UTC.
  • The US ban on the pesticide DDT takes effect.

Date unknown

• The International Year of the Book is designated by UNESCO.
• The last major epidemic of smallpox in Europe breaks out in Yugoslavia.
• The United Kingdom begin to train Special Air Service for anti-terrorist duties in response to the Munich massacre
• The first women are admitted to Dartmouth College in the United States.
• Colombian looters find Ciudad Perdida but keep it a secret until the government reveals it in 1975.
• The Yellow River dries up for the first time in known history.
• Worship of Norse gods is officially approved in Iceland.
• The Climatic Research Unit is founded by climatologist Hubert Lamb at the University of East Anglia.
• The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia bans the cultural organization Matica hrvatska, founded in 1842.
• The German company SAP AG is founded.
• Kadir Nurman introduces a sandwich made with döner kebab meat as a fast-food item in Berlin.
• Burt Reynolds poses nude for the centerfold of the April edition of Cosmopolitan.
• Film director Stanley Kubrick asks Warner Bros. to withdraw A Clockwork Orange from exhibition in the UK following death threats made against his family. The film does not receive a public viewing in the country for another 27 years.
• Motown moves all of its operations from Detroit to Los Angeles in June.

Births

January

• January 1 – Lilian Thuram, French football player
• January 2 – Shiraz Minwalla, Indian theoretical physicist and string theorist
• January 5
  • Ariel McDonald, American-Slovenian basketball player
  • Sakis Rouvas, Greek recording, film and television artist, athlete and businessman
• January 10 – Thomas Alsgaard, Norwegian cross-country skier
• January 11 – Amanda Peet, American actress
• January 12 – Toto Wolff, Austrian former racing driver and team principal
• January 13 – Vitaly Scherbo, Belarusian gymnast
• January 16
  • Ang Christou, Australian rules footballer
  • Yuri Alekseevich Drozdov, Russian footballer
  • Salah Hissou, Moroccan long-distance runner
• January 20 – Nikki Haley, Indian-American politician, Governor of South Carolina (2010-2017) and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (2017-2018)
• January 21 – Billel Dziri, Algerian footballer and manager
• January 22 – Gabriel Macht, American actor
• January 23 – Marcel Wouda, Dutch swimmer
• January 27
  • Bibi Gaytán, Mexican singer and actress
  • Mark Owen, British pop singer (Take That)
  • Keith Wood, Irish rugby player
• January 28 – Amy Coney Barrett, American attorney, jurist, and associate justice, U.S. Supreme Court

February

• February 1
  • Tego Calderón, Puerto Rican hip hop musician and actor
  • Leymah Gbowee, Liberian peace activist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
• February 2
  • Klára Dobrev, wife of Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány
  • Hendrick Ramaala, South African long-distance runner
• February 4
  • Paul Anthony McDermott, Irish lawyer and academic (d. 2019)
  • Giovanni Silva de Oliveira, Brazilian footballer
• February 5
  • Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark
  • Koriki Chōshū, Japanese comedian
• February 8 – Big Show, American professional wrestler
• February 9 – Norbert Rózsa, Hungarian swimmer
• February 11
  • Craig Jones, American sampler / keyboardist
  • Steve McManaman, British footballer
  • Kelly Slater, American professional surfer
• February 13 – Virgilijus Alekna, Lithuanian discus thrower
• February 14 – Rob Thomas, American singer-songwriter (Matchbox Twenty)
• February 15 – Jaromír Jágr, Czech hockey player
• February 17
  • Billie Joe Armstrong, American rock musician and lead singer/guitarist (Green Day)
  • Ralphie May, American stand-up comedian and actor (d. 2017)
  • Valeria Mazza, Argentinian model and businesswoman
• February 18 – Olexandra Timoshenko, Ukrainian rhythmic gymnast
• February 21 – Seo Taiji, Korean musician
• February 22
  • Michael Chang, American tennis player
  • Claudia Pechstein, German speed-skater
  • Haim Revivo, Israeli footballer
• February 24
  • Pooja Bhatt, Indian actress
  • Richard Chelimo, Kenyan athlete (d. 2001)
• February 26 – Keith Ferguson, American voice actor
• February 29
  • Dave Williams, American singer (d. 2002)
  • Pedro Sánchez, Spaniard politician

March

• March 3 – Darren Anderton, English footballer
• March 4
  • Pae Gil-su, North Korean gymnast
  • Jos Verstappen, Dutch racing driver
• March 6 – Shaquille O’Neal, American basketball player
• March 9
  • Ronald Cheng, Hong Kong singer and actor
  • Jean Louisa Kelly, American actress
• March 10
  • Takashi Fujii (Matthew Minami), Japanese television performer
  • Timbaland, American record producer, songwriter and rapper
• March 13
  • Leigh-Allyn Baker, American actress
  • Common, African-American rapper and actor
  • Reshef Levi, Israeli comedian
• March 15 – Mark Hoppus, American musician and bassist (blink-182)
• March 17 – Mia Hamm, American soccer player
• March 18 – Dane Cook, American comedian
• March 21
  • Balázs Kiss, Hungarian Olympic athlete
  • Derartu Tulu, Ethiopian long-distance runner
• March 22
  • Shawn Bradley, American basketball player
  • Elvis Stojko, Canadian figure skater
• March 23
  • Joe Calzaghe, Welsh boxer
  • Judith Godrèche, French actress
• March 26 – Leslie Mann, American actress and comedian
• March 27
  • Kieran Modra, Australian Paralympic swimmer and cyclist (d. 2019)
  • Charlie Haas, American professional wrestler
  • Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Dutch footballer
• March 28 – Nick Frost, English actor, comedian and screenwriter
• March 29
  • Hera Björk, Icelandic singer
  • Priti Patel, British Indian politician, Secretary of State for the Home Department
• March 30 – Karel Poborský, Czech football player

April

• April 2 – Eyal Berkovic, Israeli footballer
• April 3 – Jennie Garth, American actress
• April 4 – Lisa Ray, Canadian model and actress
• April 5 – Junko Takeuchi, Japanese voice actress
• April 8
  • Ariel Hernandez, Cuban boxer
  • Paul Gray, American bassist (d. 2010)
  • Sung Kang, Korean-American actor
• April 7 – Tim Peake, British astronaut
• April 10 – Vincent Zhao, Chinese actor and martial artist
• April 13
  • Aaron Lewis, American vocalist / musician
  • Mariusz Czerkawski, Polish ice hockey player
• April 15 – Arturo Gatti, Canadian boxer (d. 2009)
• April 16 – Conchita Martínez, Spanish tennis player
• April 17
  • Jennifer Garner, American actress
  • Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lankan cricketer
• April 19 – Rivaldo, Brazilian footballer
• April 20
  • Lê Huỳnh Đức, Vietnamese footballer
  • Carmen Electra, American actress and singer
  • Željko Joksimović, Serbian singer, composer songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer
• April 26 – Avi Nimni, Israeli footballer
• April 30 – Takako Tokiwa, Japanese actress

May

• May 1 – Julie Benz, American actress
• May 2 – Dwayne Johnson, American professional wrestler and actor
• May 4 – Mike Dirnt, American rock musician and bassist (Green Day)
• May 5
  • Devin Townsend, Canadian musician
  • James Cracknell, British Olympic rower
• May 6
  • Martin Brodeur, Canadian ice hockey goaltender
  • Naoko Takahashi, Japanese long-distance runner
• May 7 – Asghar Farhadi, Iranian film director
• May 8 – Darren Hayes, Australian musician
• May 9 – Daniela Silivaș, Romanian gymnast
• May 10
  • Radosław Majdan, Polish goalkeeper
  • Katja Seizinger, German alpine skier
• May 19
  • Jenny Berggren, Swedish rock singer (Ace of Base)
  • Claudia Karvan, Australian actress
• May 20
  • Busta Rhymes, African-American rapper and actor
  • Christophe Dominici, French rugby union player (d. 2020)
• May 21 – The Notorious B.I.G., African-American rapper (d. 1997)
• May 22
  • Max Brooks, American horror author and screenwriter
  • Alison Eastwood, American actress
• May 23 – Rubens Barrichello, Brazilian racing driver
• May 24 – Maia Sandu, Prime Minister of Moldova
• May 25
  • Karan Johar, Indian film director, producer and screenwriter
  • Octavia Spencer, African-American actress, author and producer
• May 27 – Ivete Sangalo, Brazilian singer-songwriter, actress and television show host
• May 28 – Michael Boogerd, Dutch cyclist
• May 29
  • Laverne Cox, American actress and LGBTQ+ advocate
  • Stanislas Renoult, French singer
• May 30 – Manny Ramírez, Dominican baseball player
• May 31 – Frode Estil, Norwegian cross-country skier

June

• June 2
  • Wayne Brady, African-American comedian
  • Wentworth Miller, British-born American actor and screenwriter
• June 4 – Stoja, Serbian pop-folk singer
• June 5 – Yogi Adityanath, Indian priest and politician
• June 6
  • Noriaki Kasai, Japanese ski jumper
  • Cristina Scabbia, Italian singer
• June 7 – Karl Urban, New Zealand actor
• June 11 – Stephen Kearney, New Zealand rugby league player and coach
• June 14 – Matthias Ettrich, German computer scientist
• June 16 – John Cho, Korean-American actor and musician
• June 17
  • Iztok Čop, Slovenian rower
  • C. H. Greenblatt, American animator
• June 18 – Michal Yannai, Israeli actress
• June 19 – Jean Dujardin, French actor, comedian, and film director
• June 20 – Shane Hamman, American Olympic weightlifter and powerlifter
• June 21 – Irene van Dyk, South African and New Zealand netball player
• June 23 – Zinedine Zidane, French-Algerian footballer and manager
• June 24
  • Robbie McEwen, Australian professional road bicycle racer
  • Kim Yeo-jin, South Korean actress and activist
• June 28
  • Geeta Tripathee, Nepali poet, lyricist and literary critic
  • Maria Butyrskaya, Russian figure skater
• June 29
  • Samantha Smith, American peace activist (d. 1985)
  • Nawal Al Zoghbi, Lebanese singer
• June 30
  • Molly Parker, Canadian actress
  • Fabiano Scherner, German-Brazilian mixed martial artist and jiu-jitsu black belt

July

• July 2 – Darren Shan, Irish author
• July 4
  • Nina Badrić, Croatian pop singer
  • Alexei Shirov, Spanish chess Grandmaster
  • Craig Spearman, New Zealand cricketer
• July 5
  • Robert Esmie, Canadian Olympic athlete
• July 6 – Isabelle Boulay, French Canadian singer
• July 7
  • Lisa Leslie, American basketball player
  • Kirsten Vangsness, American actress and writer
• July 8 – Sourav Ganguly, Indian cricketer
• July 10
  • Sofía Vergara, Colombian-American actress, television producer, comedian, presenter and model
  • Julián Legaspi, Uruguayan-Peruvian actor
• July 11 – Michael Rosenbaum, American actor, producer, singer and comedian
• July 14 – Deborah Mailman, Australian actress and singer
• July 15 – Chitalu Chilufya, Zambian doctor and politician
• July 19 – Naohito Fujiki, Japanese actor and singer
• July 20 – Jozef Stümpel, Slovak professional ice hockey player
• July 21
  • Catherine Ndereba, Kenyan long-distance runner
  • Josué Guébo, Ivorian academic
• July 22
  • Andrew Holness, 9th Prime Minister of Jamaica
  • Keyshawn Johnson, American football player
• July 23 – Marlon Wayans, American actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter
• July 27
  • Takako Fuji, Japanese actress
  • Clint Robinson, Australian kayaker
  • Maya Rudolph, American actress, comedienne and singer
  • Takashi Shimizu, Japanese director
  • Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, Malaysian orthopaedic surgeon and the first commercial astronaut
• July 28
  • Elizabeth Berkley, American actress
  • Evan Farmer, American television host, actor, and musician
• July 29 – Wil Wheaton, American actor, blogger, and writer
• July 31 – Tami Stronach, Iranian-born dancer and former actress

August

• August 1 – Devon Hughes, American professional wrestler
• August 3 – Atsunori Inaba, Japanese baseball manager and player
• August 6 – Geri Halliwell, British pop singer (Spice Girls)
• August 9 – A-mei, Taiwanese singer
• August 10 – Angie Harmon, American actress
• August 12 – Demir Demirkan, Turkish rock musician and songwriter
• August 14
  • Takako Honda, Japanese voice actress
  • Yoo Jae-suk, South Korean comedian and television comedy show host
• August 15
  • Ben Affleck, American actor and film director
  • Mikey Graham, Irish singer (Boyzone)
• August 19 – Sammi Cheng, Hong Kong singer and actress
• August 27
  • Denise Lewis, English track and field athlete
  • The Great Khali, Indian promoter, actor, powerlifter and professional wrestler
• August 29 – Bae Yong-joon, South Korean actor
• August 30
  • Cameron Diaz, American actress
  • Pavel Nedvěd, Czech footballer

September

• September 2 – Sergejs Žoltoks, Latvian hockey player (d. 2004)
• September 4 – Françoise Yip, Chinese-Canadian actress
• September 6 – Idris Elba, English actor
• September 9 – Goran Višnjić, Croatian-American actor
• September 10
  • Ghada Shouaa, Syrian athlete
  • Rio Tahara, Japanese snowboarder
• September 15 – Queen Letizia of Spain
• September 16
  • Sprent Dabwido, Nauruan politician (d. 2019)
  • Vebjørn Rodal, Norwegian Olympic athlete
• September 17 – Bobby Lee, Asian-American comedian
• September 19 – Ashot Nadanian, Armenian chess player, theoretician and coach
• September 20 – Victor Ponta, 3-Time Prime Minister of Romania
• September 21
  • David Silveria, American drummer (ex-Korn)
  • Liam Gallagher, British singer (Oasis)
  • Erin Fitzgerald, Canadian-American voice actress
• September 23
  • Pierre Amine Gemayel, Lebanese politician (d. 2006)
  • Galit Gutman, Israeli female model
• September 25 – Emma Hannigan, Irish author (d. 2018)
• September 26
  • Beto O’Rourke, American politician, representative of Texas 16th congressional district
  • Shawn Stockman, American singer and musician (Boyz II Men)
• September 27 – Gwyneth Paltrow, American actress
• September 28
  • Guta Stresser, Brazilian actress
  • Dita Von Teese, American burlesque artist, model, and businesswoman
• September 30
  • Ari Behn, Norwegian author (d. 2019)
  • José Lima, Dominican baseball player (d. 2010)
  • Shaan, Indian singer

October

• October 2 – Konstantinos Papadakis, Greek pianist
• October 3 – Kim Joo-hyuk, South Korean actor (d. 2017)
• October 5 – Grant Hill, African-American basketball player
• October 8 – Kim Myung-min, South Korean actor
• October 11 – Claudia Black, Australian actress
• October 15 – Sandra Kim, Belgian singer, Eurovision Song Contest 1986 winner
• October 17
  • Eminem, American rapper and actor
  • Sharon Leal, American actress and director
  • Tarkan, Turkish singer
• October 19 – Sayaka Aoki, Japanese voice actress
• October 21
  • Evgeny Afineevsky, Russian-born American film director and producer
  • Evhen Tsybulenko, Ukrainian professor of international law
• October 22 – Saffron Burrows, British actress
• October 24 – Kim Ji-soo, South Korean actress
• October 25 – Esther Duflo, French American economist, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
• October 27
  • Elissa, Lebanese singer
  • Marika Krook, Finnish singer (Edea)
  • Maria de Lurdes Mutola, Mozambican athlete
• October 29 – Gabrielle Union, American actress

November

• November 1
  • Mario Barth, German comedian
  • Toni Collette, Australian actress, singer, and musician
  • Jenny McCarthy, American actress and model
• November 2 – Vladimir Vorobiev, Russian ice hockey player
• November 4 – Luís Figo, Portuguese footballer
• November 5 – Krassimir Avramov, Bulgarian singer and songwriter
• November 6
  • Adonis Georgiades, Greek historian and politician, Greek Minister of Health
  • Thandie Newton, British actress
  • Rebecca Romijn, American actress and model
• November 8
  • Gretchen Mol, American actress
  • Maja Marijana, Serbian pop-folk singer
• November 9 – Eric Dane, American actor
• November 10 – Trevor Devall, Canadian voice actor and podcaster
• November 11
  • Adam Beach, Canadian actor
  • Nga Kor Ming, Malaysian politician
• November 13 – Takuya Kimura, Japanese actor
• November 14 – Josh Duhamel, American actor and model
• November 15 – Jonny Lee Miller, English-American actor
• November 16
  • Aurelia Dobre, Romanian artistic gymnast
  • Missi Pyle, American actress and singer
• November 18 – Zubeen Garg, Indian singer
• November 23 – Alf-Inge Håland, Norwegian footballer
• November 26 – Arjun Rampal, Indian actor
• November 29
  • Brian Baumgartner, American actor and director
  • Andreas Goldberger, Austrian ski jumper
• November 30 – Christopher Fitzgerald, American actor

December

• December 4 – Yūko Miyamura, Japanese voice actress, actress and singer
• December 7 – Hermann Maier, Austrian skier
• December 9 – Tré Cool, American rock musician and drummer (Green Day)
• December 11 – Daniel Alfredsson, Swedish-Canadian former ice hockey player
• December 12 – Wilson Kipketer, Kenyan-Danish athlete
• December 13 – Mauricio Solís, Costa Rican footballer
• December 14 – Miranda Hart, British comedian and actress
• December 15
  • Lee Jung-jae, South Korean actor
  • Stuart Townsend, Irish actor
• December 16 – Zeljko Kalac, Australian footballer
• December 17 – John Abraham, Indian actor
• December 18 – Eimear Quinn, Irish Celtic singer, Eurovision Song Contest 1996 winner
• December 19 – Alyssa Milano, American actress
• December 22 – Vanessa Paradis, French singer and actress
• December 23 – Morgan, Italian singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and X Factor (Italy) judge
• December 24 – Álvaro Mesén, Costa Rican footballer
• December 25
  • Josh Freese, American musician and drummer
  • Qu Yunxia, Chinese middle-distance runner
• December 27 – Colin Charvis, Welsh rugby player
• December 28 – Patrick Rafter, Australian tennis player
• December 29
  • Jude Law, British actor
  • Barry Atsma, Dutch actor

Date unknown

• Erik Del Bufalo, Venezuelan philosopher
• Kathy Vivas, Venezuelan astrophysicist

Deaths

January

• January 1
  • Maurice Chevalier, French singer and actor (b. 1888)
  • Patriarch Maximus V of Constantinople, Turkish Orthodox Christian bishop (b. 1897)
• January 3 – Frans Masereel, Belgian painter and graphic artist (b. 1889)
• January 7 – Emma P. Carr, American spectroscopist (b. 1880)
• January 8 – Wesley Ruggles, American film director (b. 1889)
• January 9 – Ted Shawn, American dancer (b. 1891)
• January 14 – Frederick IX of Denmark (b. 1899)
• January 16 – Ross Bagdasarian, American record producer (b. 1919)
• January 17 – Rochelle Hudson, American actress (b. 1916)
• January 19 – Mohammad Al-Abbasi, 45th Prime Minister of Jordan (b. 1914)
• January 24 – Jerome Cowan, American actor (b. 1897)
• January 25 – Erhard Milch, German field marshal and Luftwaffe officer (b. 1892)
• January 27 – Mahalia Jackson, American gospel singer (b. 1911)
• January 30 – Prince Sisowath Watchayavong, 5th Prime Minister of Cambodia (b. 1891)
• January 31 – King Mahendra of Nepal (b. 1920)

February

• February 2 – Jessie Royce Landis, American actress (b. 1896)
• February 5 – Marianne Moore, American poet (b. 1887)
• February 7 – Walter Lang, American film director (b. 1896)
• February 11
  • Jan Wils, Dutch architect (b. 1891)
  • Colin Munro MacLeod, Canadian-American geneticist (b. 1909)
• February 17 – Gavriil Popov, Soviet Russian composer (b. 1904)
• February 19
  • John Grierson, Scottish documentary filmmaker (b. 1898)
  • Lee Morgan, American jazz trumpeter and composer (b. 1938)
• February 20
  • Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
  • Walter Winchell, American journalist (b. 1897)

• February 25 – Gottfried Fuchs, German footballer (b. 1889)

March

• March 8 – Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, German Nazi politician and SS functionary (b. 1899)
• March 11 – Fredric Brown, American science fiction and mystery writer (b. 1906)
• March 16 – Pie Traynor, American baseball player (Pittsburgh Pirates) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1898)
• March 20 – Marilyn Maxwell, American actress (b. 1921)
• March 23 – Cristóbal Balenciaga, Spanish couturier (b. 1895)
• March 27
  • M. C. Escher, Dutch artist (b. 1898)
  • Lorenzo Wright, American athlete (b. 1926)
• March 28 – Joseph Paul-Boncour, 71st Prime Minister of France (b. 1873)
• March 31 – Meena Kumari, Indian actress, singer and poet (b. 1933)

April

• April 2
  • Franz Halder, German general (b. 1884)
  • Gil Hodges, American baseball player (b. 1924)
• April 3 – Ferde Grofé, American pianist and composer (b. 1892)
• April 4
  • Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., American politician (b. 1908)
  • Stefan Wolpe, German-born composer (b. 1902)
• April 5 – Isabel Jewell, American actress (b. 1907)
• April 6
  • Brian Donlevy, American actor (b. 1901)
  • Heinrich Lübke, 2nd President of the Federal Republic of Germany (b. 1894)
• April 7
  • Abeid Karume, 1st President of Zanzibar (assassinated) (b. 1905)
  • August Zaleski, 6th President of Poland (b. 1883)
• April 9 – James F. Byrnes, United States Secretary of State and Justice of the Supreme Court (b. 1879)
• April 13 – Dorothy Dalton, American actress (b. 1893)
• April 20 – Jorge Mistral, Spanish actor (b. 1920)
• April 25 – George Sanders, Russian-born British actor (b. 1906)
• April 26 – Fernando Amorsolo, Filipino painter (b. 1892)
• April 27 – Kwame Nkrumah, 1st President of Ghana (b. 1909)
• April 29 – King Ntare V of Burundi (b. 1947)
• April 30
  • Gia Scala, British actress (b. 1934)
  • Clara Campoamor, Spanish politician and suffragist (b. 1888)

May

• May 2 – J. Edgar Hoover, American civil servant, 1st Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (b. 1895)
• May 3 – Bruce Cabot, American actor (b. 1904)
• May 4
  • Edward Calvin Kendall, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1886)
  • Josep Samitier, Spanish footballer (b. 1902)
• May 5
  • Reverend Gary Davis, American blues and gospel singer (b. 1896)
  • Frank Tashlin, American animation director (b. 1913)
• May 6 – Deniz Gezmiş, Turkish Marxist revolutionary (executed) (b. 1947)
• May 10 – Rhys Gemmell, Australian tennis champion (b. 1896)
• May 11 – Lee Beom-seok, Korean activist, 1st Prime Minister of South Korea (b. 1900)
• May 13 – Dan Blocker, American actor (b. 1928)
• May 15 – Nigel Green, South African-English actor (b. 1924)
• May 17 – Gordon Lowe, Australian tennis champion (b. 1884)
• May 18 – Sidney Franklin, American film director (b. 1893)
• May 22
  • Cecil Day-Lewis, British poet (b. 1904)
  • Dame Margaret Rutherford, English actress (b. 1892)
• May 23 – Richard Day, Canadian art director (b. 1896)
• May 28
  • The Duke of Windsor, former King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (b. 1894)
  • Violette Leduc, French writer (b. 1907)
• May 29 – Prithviraj Kapoor, Indian actor and director (b. 1906)
• May 31 – Walter Freeman, American physician (b. 1895)

June

• June 12
  • Saul Alinsky, American political activist (b. 1909)
  • Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Austrian biologist (b. 1901)
  • Edmund Wilson, American writer and critic (b. 1895)
• June 13
  • Georg von Békésy, Hungarian biophysicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)
  • Clyde McPhatter, American singer (b. 1932)
• June 18 – Milton Humason, American astronomer (b. 1891)
• June 22 – Vladimir Durković, Serbian footballer (b. 1937)
• June 28 – Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, Indian scientist (b. 1893)
• June 30 – Joe Deakin, British Olympic athlete (b. 1879)

July

• July 2 – Joseph Fielding Smith, 10th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1876)
• July 5 – Raúl Leoni, 55th President of Venezuela (b. 1905)
• July 6 – Brandon deWilde, American actor (b. 1942)
• July 7
  • Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople (b. 1886)
  • King Talal of Jordan (b. 1909)
• July 20 – Geeta Dutt, Indian singer (b. 1930)
• July 21
  • Ralph Craig, American Olympic athlete (b. 1889)
  • King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck (b. 1929)
• July 24 − Lance Reventlow, English playboy, entrepreneur and racing driver (b. 1936)
• July 27 – Count Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, Austrian-Japanese politician, geopolitician and philosopher (b. 1894)
• July 28 – Helen Traubel, American soprano (b. 1903)
• July 31
  • Alfons Gorbach, Austrian politician, 15th Chancellor of Austria (b. 1898)
  • Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian politician and statesman, 31st Prime Minister of Belgium and 2nd Secretary General of NATO (b. 1899)

August

• August 7
  • Joi Lansing, American actress (b. 1928)
  • Tom Neal, American actor (b. 1914)
• August 8 – Andrea Feldman, American actress (b. 1948)
• August 9 – Ernst von Salomon, German writer (b. 1902)
• August 11 – Max Theiler, South African-born American virologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)
• August 14
  • Oscar Levant, American pianist and actor (b. 1906)
  • Jules Romains, French poet and writer (b. 1885)
• August 16
  • Pierre Brasseur, French actor (b. 1905)
  • Mohamed Oufkir, Moroccan general (b. 1920)
• August 19 – Rudolf Belling, German sculptor (b. 1886)
• August 20
  • Juan Manuel Gálvez, 39th President of Honduras (b. 1887)
  • Harold Rainsford Stark, American admiral (b. 1880)
• August 21 – Heinz Ziegler, German general (b. 1894)
• August 24 – Jinichi Kusaka, Japanese admiral (b. 1888)
• August 26 – Francis Chichester, British sailor and aviator (b. 1901)
• August 28 – Prince William of Gloucester (b. 1941)
• August 29 – René Leibowitz, French composer (b. 1913)

September

• September 5 (Munich massacre):
  • Yossef Romano, Israeli weightlifter (b. 1940)
  • Moshe Weinberg, Israeli wrestling coach (b. 1939)
• September 6 (Munich massacre):
  • David Mark Berger, Israeli weightlifter (b. 1944)
  • Ze’ev Friedman, Israeli weightlifter (b. 1944)
  • Yossef Gutfreund, Israeli wrestling referee (b. 1932)
  • Eliezer Halfin, Israeli wrestler (b. 1948)
  • Amitzur Shapira, Israeli athletics coach (b. 1932)
  • Kehat Shorr, Israeli shooting coach (b. 1919)
  • Mark Slavin, Israeli wrestler (b. 1954)
  • Andre Spitzer, Israeli fencing coach (b. 1945)
• September 8 – Warren Kealoha, American Olympic swimmer (b. 1903)
• September 11 – Max Fleischer, American animator (b. 1883)
• September 12 – William Boyd, American actor (b. 1895)
• September 14 – Lane Chandler, American actor (b. 1899)
• September 15
  • Ásgeir Ásgeirsson, 2nd President of Iceland (b. 1894)
  • Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1887)
• September 17 – Akim Tamiroff, Soviet actor (b. 1899)
• September 19 – Robert Casadesus, French pianist (b. 1899)
• September 21 – Henry de Montherlant, French writer (b. 1896)

October

• October 1 – Louis Leakey, British paleontologist (b. 1903)
• October 5 – Ivan Yefremov, Soviet paleontologist and science fiction author (b. 1908)
• October 8 – Prescott Bush, American banker and politician (b. 1895)
• October 9 – Miriam Hopkins, American actress (b. 1902)
• October 10 – Kenneth Edgeworth, Irish army officer, economist and astronomer (b. 1880)
• October 16 – Leo G. Carroll, English actor (b. 1886)
• October 17 – George, Crown Prince of Serbia (b. 1887)
• October 18 – Edward Cook, American Olympic athlete (b. 1888)
• October 20 – Harlow Shapley, American astronomer (b. 1885)
• October 24
  • Jackie Robinson, African-American baseball player (b. 1919)
  • Claire Windsor, American actress (b. 1892)
• October 26 – Igor Sikorsky, Soviet aviation engineer (b. 1889)
• October 28 – Mitchell Leisen, American film director (b. 1898)
• October 29 – Victor Milner, American cinematographer (b. 1893)

November

• November 1 – Ezra Pound, American poet (b. 1885)
• November 5 – Reginald Owen, English actor (b. 1887)
• November 11 – Berry Oakley, American musician (b. 1948)
• November 12 – Rudolf Friml, Czech composer (b. 1879)
• November 13 – Arnold Jackson, British Olympic athlete (b. 1891)
• November 17
  • Thomas C. Kinkaid, American admiral (b. 1888)
  • Eugène Minkowski, French psychiatrist (b. 1885)
• November 18 – Danny Whitten, American musician (b. 1943)
• November 23 – Marie Wilson, American actress (b. 1916)
• November 25 – Henri Coandă, Romanian aerodynamics pioneer (b. 1886)
• November 28
  • Havergal Brian, English composer (b. 1876)
  • Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1908)
• November 29 – Carl W. Stalling, American composer (b. 1891)
• November 30 – Hans Erich Apostel, Austrian composer (b. 1901)

December

• December 1 – Antonio Segni, 34th Prime Minister of Italy (1955–1957, 1959–1960), 4th President of the Italian Republic (b. 1891)
• December 6 – Janet Munro, British actress (b. 1934)
• December 9
  • William Dieterle, German film director (b. 1893)
  • Louella Parsons, American gossip columnist (b. 1881)
• December 13 – René Mayer, 91st Prime Minister of France (b. 1895)
• December 16 – Ferdinand Čatloš, Slovak military officer and politician (b. 1895)
• December 20 – Günter Eich, German lyricist, dramatist, and author (b. 1907)
• December 21 – Paul Hausser, German Waffen SS general and commander (b. 1880)
• December 23 – Andrei Tupolev, Soviet aircraft designer (b. 1888)
• December 24 – Charles Atlas, Italian-born American strongman and sideshow performer (b. 1892)
• December 25 – C. Rajagopalachari, Indian politician and freedom-fighter. Last Governor-General of India (1948–50) (b. 1878)
• December 26 – Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States (b. 1884)
• December 27 – Lester B. Pearson, 14th Prime Minister of Canada, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1897)
• December 31 – Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rican baseball player (b. 1934)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – John Bardeen, Leon Neil Cooper, John Robert Schrieffer
• Chemistry – Christian B. Anfinsen, Stanford Moore, William H. Stein
• Physiology or Medicine – Gerald M. Edelman, Rodney R. Porter
• Literature – Heinrich Böll
• Peace – not awarded
• Economics – John Hicks, Kenneth Arrow

Other academic awards

• Turing Award – Edsger W. Dijkstra