By Michael & Noelle

    1972 was a year of great change in the United States, with many amazing events, and unfortunately many tragedies. The United States lifts a twenty-two year ban on travel to China, and shows interest in becoming more involved with other nations. The U.S. birthrate is at it's lowest point since 1917, as approximately sixteen people are born for every thousand of the population. Travel was gaining importance, and the fastest passenger plane, the Concorde took flight. The first female FBI agents are hired, and the Christmas Bombings of Vietnam led to Richard Nixon being criticized greatly. 1972 was a very important year in the history of the United States, and the rest of the world. 

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• President Nixon signs a bill on January 5 authorizing a $5.5 billion 6-year program to develop a Space Shuttle craft that will lift off as a rocket and return to earth as an airplane.
• On January 10, the US Surgeon General reported that cigarettes are severely harmful to health. The inhalation of the smoke of nonsmokers is a severe health hazard and his report prompted calls to ban smoking in such public areas as restaurants, offices, and planes.
• The 11th Winter Olympic Games are held in Sapporo, Japan from February 3, 1972 until February 13. The USSR wins 8 gold medals; East Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, 4 each; and the United States and West Germany, 3 each. Yukio Kasaya wins the 70 meters ski jump to give the host country its first ever gold medal at the Winter Olympics.
• President Nixon arrives in Beijing February 21 and meets with Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai, which ended the U.S. hostility toward the People’s Republic of China that was formed in 1949.
• The unmanned U.S. spacecraft Pioneer 10 lifts off from Cape Kennedy March 2 on a 639-day, 620 million-mile journey past Jupiter.
• A major offensive begins in Vietnam War in March, after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.
• The U.S. Senate sends the proposed 27th Amendment, known as the Equal Rights Amendment, to the states for ratification in March. The amendment, which would have prohibited sex discrimination, failed to be approved by the necessary number of states.
• Mafia leader Joseph "Crazy Joe" Gallo is gunned down April 7 during a birthday party at Umberto’s Clam House in New York’s "Little Italy." Six other men with gangland connections meet violent deaths in 11 days.
• The U.S. and the Soviet Union join some 70 nations in signing an agreement to ban biological warfare on April 10.
• The Los Angeles Lakers beat the New York Knicks to win the National Basketball Association (NBA) championship on May 7.
• On May 15, the U.S. Democratic Presidential Candidate George Wallace is shot and paralyzed at a rally in Maryland.
• President Nixon arrives in Moscow on May 22 and has a meeting with Party Secretary Leonid Brezhnev to sign the SALT Anti-Ballistic Missile System Treaty. He was first U.S. president to visit the Soviet Union since 1945. Nixon also visits Teheran, Iran, Peking, China, and Warsaw, Poland.
• The eastern United States is wracked by hurricane Agnes from June 10 until June 20. Several states are declared disaster areas as thousands flee their homes following widespread flooding; 122 die and nearly $2 billion property damage is caused.
• On June 17, 1972, U.S. police arrest five men planting electronic bugs at the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex, Washington, D.C.
• On June 28, U.S. President Richard Nixon announces that no new draftees will be sent to Vietnam.  
• The Supreme Court ruled on June 29 in a 5 to 4 decision in Furman vs. Georgia that the death penalty in the United States is considered "cruel and unusual punishment" and is unconstitutional.
• Ms. Magazine begins publication in July with former Look editor, Patricia Carbine, as publisher and feminist Gloria Steinem as editor. 
• Landsat 1, is launched on July 23. It is the first of a series of satellites for surveying Earth's resources from space.
• The last U.S. ground troops are withdrawn from Vietnam on August 12
• The Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida re-nominates U.S. President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew for a second term on August 21.
• Mr. McVeigh was born on September 1.
• The 20th Olympic Games open in Munich, West Germany, on August 26 attended by 7,123 competitors, including 1,058 women, from 121 countries. The games attract a record 7173 athletes from a record 121 countries. Soviet athletes win the most gold medals. American swimmer Mark Spitz wins a record seven gold medals. 
• On September 1, Bobby Fischer becomes the first American to win the world chess championship since Wilhelm Steintz. He defeats Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky 12.5 games to 8.5 at Reykjavik, Iceland, winning $250,000. The event brings world attention to chess.
• On the morning of September 5, the Olympic Games at Munich are marred by the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the hands of Palestine Liberation Organization terrorists organized by Mohammed Daoud Mohammed Auda.
• On September 6, a memorial service is held at the Olympic stadium in Munich, West Germany, in honor of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered by Arab terrorists on September 5.
• On October 22 the Oakland Athletics beat the Cincinnati Reds in seven games in the World Series. 
• Jackie Robinson, the first black player in the major leagues, dies in Stamford, Connecticut on October 24.
• The first female FBI agents are hired on October 25.
• The U.S. State Department lifts a 22-year ban on travel to China in November.
• On November 7 in the 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).
• On November 29, Atari 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 Christmas bombing of North Vietnam, called Linebacker II, causes widespread criticism of the U.S. and President Richard Nixon on December 25.
• Former United States President Harry S. Truman dies in Kansas City, Missouri on December 26.
• On December 31, the British inventor Clive Sinclair launches his pocket calculator, the first to be widely available. The "Sinclair Executive," weighs 70 g/12.5 oz and goes on sale for £79 in Britain and $195 in the United States.
• Roberto Clemente dies in a plane crash off the coast of Puerto Rico while en route to deliver aid to Nicaraguan earthquake victims on December 31.
• Mount Erebus in Antarctica erupts. 
• Magnavox develops Odyssey, the first video arcade game.

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