Timeline | |||||
 |
Jan. 4 | |
Austrian Kurt Waldheim becomes Secretary-General of the United Nations. |
||
| |||||
|
Jan. 5 | |
Nixon orders development of space shuttle program. |
||
| |||||
|
Jan. 11 | |
Following a bloody civil war, East Pakistan gains independence and is renamed Bangladesh. |
||
| |||||
|
Jan. 25 | |
Shirley Chisholm announces her candidacy for the presidency at Brooklyn's Concord Baptist Church. |
||
| |||||
|
Feb. 4 | |
NASA scientists unveil the first close-up photos of Mars, sent by Mariner 9. | ||
| |||||
|
Feb. 21-27 | |
 President Nixon becomes the first president to visit China, establishing a new working relationship between China and the United States.
|
||
| |||||
|
Mar. 8 | |
 The Goodyear blimp flies for the first time.
|
||
| |||||
|
Mar. 22 | |
Congress passes the Equal Rights Amendment. | ||
| |||||
|
Mar. 22 | |
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Eisenstadt v. Baird that the right to privacy means single people are entitled to contraceptives. | ||
| |||||
|
Apr. 16 | |
The fifth American mission to the moon, Apollo 16, launches. | ||
| |||||
|
Apr. 17 | |
Women are allowed to compete in the Boston Marathon for the first time. Nina Kuscsik is the first winner. | ||
| |||||
|
May 2 | |
J. Edgar Hoover, longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, dies. | ||
| |||||
|
May 15 | |
Alabama governor and presidential candidate George Wallace is shot and paralyzed by Arthur Bremer in Laurel, Maryland. | ||
| |||||
|
May 26 | |
Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev sign the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) in Moscow. | ||
| |||||
|
Jun. 4 | |
 Black activist Angela Davis found not guilty of murder in California.
|
||
| |||||
|
Jun. 23 | |
Title IX passes, prohibiting sex discrimination in sports funding in schools receiving federal money. | ||
| |||||
|
Jun. 29 | |
In a 5-4 ruling in Furman v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the death penalty is unconstitutional. | ||
| |||||
|
Jul. 1 | |
 First issue of Ms. Magazine published.
|
||
| |||||
|
Jul. 10 | |
Democratic National Convention opens in Miami Beach. | ||
| |||||
|
Aug. 12 | |
The last American ground forces are withdrawn from Vietnam. | ||
| |||||
|
Sep. 5-6 | |
Eleven Israeli athletes murdered by terrorist group at Munich Olympics. | ||
| |||||
|
Sep. 17 | |
First episode of MASH is aired. | ||
| |||||
|
Oct. 25 | |
The FBI hires its first female agents. | ||
| |||||
|
Nov. 5 | |
American Indian Movement activists occupy Bureau of Indian Affairs | ||
| |||||
|
Nov. 14 | |
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 1000 for the first time. (1003.16) | ||
| |||||
|
Dec. 11 | |
 Apollo 17, the last American moon mission, lands on the moon.
|
||
| |||||
|
Dec. 22 | |
Earthquake strikes Managua, Nicaragua. | ||
| |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
SOURCES
ยป Wikipedia: 1972
PHOTO CREDITS
(Top to bottom)
President Nixon meets with China's Communist Party Leader, Mao Tse-Tung, 2/29/1972. Source: National Archives.
The Goodyear blimp. Source: National Archives.
Angela Davis. Source: Library of Congress.
Cover of first issue of Ms. Magazine.
Launch of Apollo 17. Source: NASA.
