1972
From top to bottom, left to right: the Watergate scandal begins with the DNC break-in, triggering a major U.S. political crisis; President Richard Nixon makes a historic visit to China; the 1972 Summer Olympics are marred by the Munich massacre; Apollo 17 becomes the final Apollo Moon landing; Bloody Sunday intensifies the Troubles in Northern Ireland; the 1972 Iran blizzard kills thousands; the Magnavox Odyssey launches as the first home video game console; Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashes in the Andes, leading to a dramatic survival ordeal; and the 1972 Nicaragua earthquake devastates Managua.
| Years |
|---|
| Millennium |
| 2nd millennium |
| Centuries |
| Decades |
| Years |
| 1972 by topic |
|---|
| Subject |
| By country |
|
| Lists of leaders |
| Birth and death categories |
|
| Establishments and disestablishments categories |
|
| Works category |
|
Wikimedia Commons has media related to 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 1970s decade.
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).