January 24 – Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi is discovered in Guam; he had spent 28 years in the jungle and becomes the third-to-last Japanese soldier to surrender after World War II.
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.
Februaryedit
February 2 – 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.
Mohawk Airlines Flight 405 crashes 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 8:48 pm after the commuter plane lost power during a snowstorm.
April 17 – The first Boston Marathon in which women are officially allowed to compete.
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. On this day Kings Island in Mason Ohio opened to the public.
American Airlines Flight 96 during a domestic flight leg between Detroit, Michigan and Buffalo, New York, suffers an explosive rapid decompression over Windsor, Ontario due to the aircraft's left cargo door breaking off mid-flight.[4] Everyone onboard survives after the aircraft makes a successful emergency landing back in Detroit.
August 1 – U.S. Senator Thomas Eagleton, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, withdraws from the race after revealing he suffered from depression and had been hospitalized three times for its treatment.[6]
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 22 – 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 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon.
September 17 – The television series M*A*S*H begins its run on CBS.
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 Parlor, killing 12 children and 11 adults.[11]
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.[12]
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.
November 30 – Vietnam War: White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler tells the press that there will be no more public announcements concerning United States troop withdrawals from Vietnam because troop levels are now down to 27,000.[13]
December 19 – Apollo program: Apollo 17 returns to Earth, concluding the program of lunar exploration.
December 22 – 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.
December 24 – Swedish Prime minister Olof Palme compares the American bombings of North Vietnam to Nazi massacres. The U.S. breaks diplomatic contact with Sweden.
^FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice. 1972. p. 9.
^Sayuri Daimon (May 14, 2002). "Handover of Okinawa to Japan was prickly issue". Japan Times. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
^United States (1973). United States Statutes at Large. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 146.
^Magazine, Smithsonian; Chittum, Samme. "A Tale of Two DC-10s". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved December 4, 2023.
^Mitchell K. Hall (2008). "Chronology". Historical Dictionary of the Nixon-Ford Era. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6410-8.
^Michael A. Genovese (May 12, 2010). Encyclopedia of the American Presidency. Infobase Publishing. pp. 158–. ISBN 978-1-4381-2638-8.
^Fulton Lewis (1972). The Top of the News with Fulton Lewis III. Fulton Lewis Productions. p. 249.
^Observation of Meteoroid Impacts by Space-Based Sensors Archived 2007-10-20 at the Wayback Machine astrosociety.org, 1998, 'Apollo asteroid about ten meters in diameter'
^Bell, Daniel (March 17, 2016). Encyclopedia of International Games. McFarland. p. 517. ISBN 978-1-4766-1527-1.
^The Summer Of Music Documentaries: 'Wattstax' National Public Radio, 2010-07-16.
^"Crash at Farrell's". Archived from the original on March 20, 2008. Retrieved March 16, 2008.
^Lewis Deschler (1977). Deschler's Precedents of the United States House of Representatives: Including References to Provisions of the Constitution and Laws, and to Decisions of the Courts. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 583. ISBN 978-0-16-087787-2.
^John S. Bowman (1985). The Vietnam War: An Almanac. World Almanac Publications. p. 331. ISBN 978-0-911818-85-7.
^US EPA, OCSPP (January 7, 2014). "DDT - A Brief History and Status". US EPA. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
^Murphy, John (August 11, 2011). "Mission, Vision, Values, History and Goals". 1: 4–12. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^"Data Bank of Scientists: Emma Perry Carr". Project NOVA (NASA Opportunities for Visionary Academics). California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Archived from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved June 20, 2013.
^Dictionary of North Carolina Biography: Vol. 5, P–S edited by William S. Powell. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979, p. 372.
^Whitman, Alden, "Mahalia Jackson, Gospel Singer And a Civil Rights Symbol, Dies", The New York Times, (January 28, 1972) p. 1.
^"Deaths" (PDF). Broadcasting. February 14, 1972. p. 54. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
^"John Litel Dies". Independent Press-Telegram. February 5, 1972. p. 2. Retrieved December 31, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
^Gregory, Elizabeth (2017). Twenty-first century Marianne Moore. Essays from a critical Renaissance. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 257. ISBN 9783319651095.
^Seabrook, Jack (1993). Martians and misplaced clues : the life and work of Fredric Brown. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. p. 10. ISBN 9780879725914.
^"Lorenzo Wright Bio, Stats, and Results | Olympics at Sports-Reference.com". April 18, 2020. Archived from the original on April 18, 2020.
^"Gil Hodges dies of heart attack". Victoria Advocate. (Texas). Associated Press. April 3, 1972. p. 1B.
^"Powell, Adam Clayton, Jr. - Biographical Information". bioguide.congress.gov. United States Congress. Archived from the original on January 26, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
^Wilson, Scott (2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed. (2 volume set). McFarland. p. 128. ISBN 9781476625997. Retrieved February 3, 2017.
^Smith, Michael (July 16, 2021). "Local voices: When did American slavery really end?". The Fayetteville Observer. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
^"Victor Milner". The Founding Fathers. American Cinematographer. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
^Peter Ackroyd (1980). Ezra Pound and His World. Scribner. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-684-16798-5.
^Harry Richman Is Dead at 77; Broadway Singer of the 1930s
^Nick Talevski (1999). The Encyclopedia of Rock Obituaries. Omnibus. p. 314. ISBN 978-0-7119-7548-4.
^Gerald E. Wheeler (1995). Kinkaid of the Seventh Fleet: A Biography of Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, U.S. Navy. Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy. p. 486. ISBN 978-0-945274-26-1.
^Nick Talevski (1999). The Encyclopedia of Rock Obituaries. Omnibus. p. 460. ISBN 978-0-7119-7548-4.
^James Bohn (May 12, 2017). Music in Disney's Animated Features: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to The Jungle Book. University Press of Mississippi. p. 60. ISBN 978-1-4968-1215-5.
^Paul Donnelley (2000). Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries. Omnibus. p. 455. ISBN 978-0-7119-7984-0.