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 [the legal time scale], its duration was 31622401.141 seconds of Terrestrial Time (or Ephemeris Time), which is slightly shorter than 1908).[1]
January 11 – Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declares a new constitutional government in Bangladesh, with himself as president.[4]
January 12 – In a 10-hour siege, a cell of 4 left-wing insurgents hold off a task force of 2500 army soldiers and police agents in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: eight members of the security forces and the entire insurgent cell are killed in the course of the siege.[5]
January 14 – Queen Margrethe II of Denmark succeeds her father, King Frederik 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 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.
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.[9]
February 26 – Luna 20 comes back to Earth with 55 grams (1.9 ounces) of lunar soil.
February 28 – The Asama-Sansō 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.
Eisenstadt v. Baird: The Supreme Court of the U.S. rules that unmarried people have the right to access contraception on the same basis as married couples
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.
Hong Kong's worst flooding and landslides in recorded history with 653.2 millimetres (25.72in) 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.
July 10 – At least 24 people have been killed by elephants crazed by heat and drought in separate incidents in the Chandka Forest of India, according to news agency reports.
August 1972 solar storms: A huge solar flare (one of the largest ever recorded) knocks out cable lines in the 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 is seen in the western U.S. and Canada as an Apollo asteroid skips off the Earth's atmosphere.[32]
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).
The first publication reporting the production of a recombinant DNA molecule, by Paul Berg and colleagues, marks the birth of modern molecular biology methodology.[44]
October 26 – A coup in the Republic of Dahomey (later Benin) led by Mathieu Kérékou removes a civilian government (which has been headed by a triumvirate consisting of Ahomadégbé, Apithy and Maga).
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, found not guilty of murder by the court, was condemned as Buffet's accomplice. President Georges Pompidou, in private an abolitionist, upholds both death sentences in deference to French public opinion.[49]
United Airlines Flight 553 crashes short of a runway in Chicago, killing 43 of 61 passengers and two people on the ground. A day later, over $10,000 cash is found in the purse of Watergate conspirator Howard Hunt's wife, who was on board.[51]
Braathens SAFE Flight 239, also known as the Asker Accident: An aircraft crashes during approach to Oslo Airport, Fornebu, Norway; forty people on board are killed.
December 31 – 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.
Date unknown
Colombian looters find the lost 1st millennium city of Ciudad Perdida; it is not reached by official archaeologists until 1976.
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