# Anything interesting happen in 1972? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 21, 2006, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520 "2006-07-21T19:08:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/1 "2006-07-21T19:08:38Z")
Didn’t Nixon get impeached? Or was it the year the conflict in Viet Nam ended? Or was that '74? I don’t know. You always hear about 1812 (big war) and 1776 (American Independence), but rarely hear about years like 1972. It’s criminal, I tells ya. Criminal. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/2 "2006-07-21T19:10:57Z")
The Whitlam government was elected in Australia, ending 23 unbroken years of Liberal-Country Party governments. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/3 "2006-07-21T19:12:09Z")
[Ta-daaa.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972) A few highlights from January … January 9 - Howard Hughes speaks by telephone to denounce Clifford Irving’s supposed biography about him. January 19 - 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 January 23 - New Delhi bootlegger sells wood alcohol to a wedding party - 100 dead January 24 - Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi is discovered in Guam. He had spent 28 years in the jungle. January 31 - King Mahendra of Nepal dies, becoming the second king to die that month, and is succeeded by his son, Birendra. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/4 "2006-07-21T19:13:08Z")
I graduated from high school. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/5 "2006-07-21T19:23:54Z")
_West Side Story_ was broadcast on TV for the first time. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/6 "2006-07-21T19:32:04Z")
Either the 13-year or 17-year cicadas came to Middle Tennessee. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/7 "2006-07-21T19:34:14Z")
I was born! Sorry **twickster** , not trying to make you feel old! ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/8 "2006-07-21T19:44:46Z")
In 1972: - Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded Atari with $500 in Santa Clara, CA. - 22 IRA bombs go off in Belfast. - Nixon met with Chinese Premier Chou En-lai for peace talks - Poineer 10 was launched - 11 Isreili olympic competitors were killed by Black September geurillas in Munich - I turned 1. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/9 "2006-07-21T19:46:11Z")
> [@August West](#): > > I was born! > > Sorry **twickster** , not trying to make you feel old! What’s that sonny? **waves cane threateningly** ---
**Author:** ![Euthanasiast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Euthanasiast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euthanasiast)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/10 "2006-07-21T19:47:20Z")
> [@August West](#): > > I was born! As was I, making the world a fantastic place for women almost immediately. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/11 "2006-07-21T19:51:45Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I graduated from high school. Me, too! Different high school, tho. Different states even! It’s also the year my paternal grandmother died. I also think that was the year I got my hair cut really short - after graduation. Yep, one historical year. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/12 "2006-07-21T19:57:40Z")
I met the future Razorette at a college graduation party on May 17, 1972. Exactly one month later, five men were caught burglarizing the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. October 7, 1972, I proposed marriage to my future (and current) wife. Exactly one month later, Richard Nixon won re-election in a landslide. On July 21, 1973, Razorette and I were married in a double-ring ceremony in the same church where she first received communion. Two days later, Nixon refused to hand over presidential tape recordings to the Senate Watergate Committee. October 20, 1973, I and five other apprentices lost our jobs as house painters for a construction firm. The cover story was that “not enough houses are being built.” That night Nixon fired Archibald Cox and abolishes the office of the special prosecutor; and Attorney General Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus resign in what is called the “Saturday Night Massacre.” Coincidences? I think not. ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/13 "2006-07-21T19:57:41Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I graduated from high school. Ditto. Man, that was a great year for music, too. [1972 in Music (Wikipedia)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_in_music) ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/14 "2006-07-21T20:06:05Z")
Only one the most important moments in the Canadian conciousness. [The Summit Series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Summit_Series) ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/15 "2006-07-21T20:08:31Z")
> [@Caprese](#): > > Ditto. > Man, that was a great year for music, too. > [1972 in Music (Wikipedia)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_in_music) God, **Exile on Main Street** _and_ Paul Simon’s first solo album. Yikes, I guess so. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/16 "2006-07-21T20:10:39Z")
I was 8 and pissed because that Nixon putz keep pre-empting my cartoons with his damn investigation! ---
**Author:** ![Alonzo\_John\_Blitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@Alonzo\_John\_Blitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alonzo_John_Blitz)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/17 "2006-07-21T20:17:19Z")
I was burned by a mole in MI6. After eight months in Lubyanka I was exchanged for a KGB busboy and a hodful of pet rocks. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/18 "2006-07-21T20:18:11Z")
> [@Sunrazor](#): > > I met the future Razorette at a college graduation party on May 17, 1972. Sweeeeeet. That’s my birthday!!! ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/19 "2006-07-21T20:21:52Z")
[1972](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972) I wasn’t alive then, but the one thing that I immediately think of when I hear that date is the Munich Massacre, followed by the break-in at the Watergate, the Immaculate Reception, and the death of Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente on December 31 (I was a big baseball fan when I was younger). ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520/20 "2006-07-21T20:41:22Z")
I met my wife. In December, the last Apollo mission, Apollo 17, left for the moon, and I saw it take off. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-interesting-happen-in-1972/365520.md?page=2)