• Music of 1972
• Radio in 1972
• TV in 1972
• Movies of 1972
• Books of 1972
• Postwar Cars
• Vietnam in 1972
• 1972 Memorabilia

Richard Nixon meets Mao Zedong

• Pakistani civil war ends with the establishment of Bangladesh
• American B-52s bomb Hanoi and Haiphong in North Vietnam
• British government assumes direct rule of Northern Ireland
• Palestinian terrorists capture  Israeli athletes at the Olympic games in Munich resulting in the death of 9 athletes, 1 policeman & 5 terrorists
• Nixon meets Mao Zedong in Beijing 
• "Watergate Affair" begins with the arrest of five burglars at the Democratic Party headquarters
• Gough Whitlam elected Prime Minister of Australia
• Conscription ends in Australia
• Landslide victory for the Labour Party in New Zealand
• Apollo 17 makes the last manned landing on the Moon
• Space Shuttle program authorised
• Richard Leakey discovers a 2.6 million year old hominid skull in Kenya
• Ord River Dam (Lake Argyle) completed
• Lake Pedder flooded as part of a hydro-electric scheme
• DDT insecticide banned in the US
• American Bobby Fischer defeats Russian world chess champion Boris Spassky

Gough Whitlan

The Whitlam "Duumvirate"

Immediately after his election, Gough Whitlam, together with his deputy, Lance Barnard, established a two-man Ministry which sat for two weeks, from the 5th to 19th December, until a full Ministry could be formed.

In just those two weeks, this so-called Duumviate established full relations with China, effectively abolished conscription*, freed those who had been jailed for rufusing conscription, ordered all Australian troops home from Vietnam, re-opened the equal pay case, appointed a schools' commission, banned racially discriminate sports teams, voted to support sanctions against apartheid in the U.N., abolished sales tax on the conraceptive pill and announced major grants to the arts.

* It wasn't possible to get legislation passed, so everyone was exempted from conscription under Lance Barnard's authority as Minister for Defence.

It's Time
Australian Labor Party election campaign TV ad



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The Music of 1972

• The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Roberta Flack) 
• Without You (Nilsson) 
• Alone Again (Naturally) (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
• Popcorn (Hot Butter)
• Amazing Grace (Pipes & Drums of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards)
• I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (New Seekers)
• Day by Day (Colleen Hewett)
• American Pie (Don Maclean)
• Imagine (John Lennon)
• A Horse with No Name (America)
• Most People I Know (Billy Thorpe)
• Boppin' the Blues (Blackfeather)
• School's Out (Alice Cooper)

Australian Radio in 1972

• Blue Hills (1948-76)

Television in 1972

Lassie	1954-72
Gunsmoke	1955-75	cast
(Australian) Bandstand	1957-72
The Black & White Minstrel Show	1958-78
Z Cars	1960-78
Four Corners	1961-current
Dr Who	1963-93, 2005-current	cast
Till Death Us Do Part	1964-74	cast
Homicide	1964-76	cast
Get Smart	1965-79	cast
Mission Impossible	1966-73	cast
Mannix	1967-75
Bellbird	1967-77
This Day Tonight became The 7.30 Report then 7.30	1967-current
Mod Squad	1968-73	cast
Dad's Army	1968-77	cast
It's Academic	1968-78
Sesame Street	1968-current	cast
(US) 60 Minutes Australian version from 1979	1968-current
Monty Python's Flying Circus	1969-74	cast
Doctor in the House	1969-77
Sesame Street	1969-current	cast
The Parteidge Family	1970-74
Matlock Police	1972-75
All in the Family	1972-83
Young Talent Time	1972-88
Hey! Hey! It's Saturday	1972-99 & 2010
Number 96	1972-77
M*A*S*H	1972-83	cast

Movies in 1972

Title	Cast	Academy Awards	Buy
CabaretvBob Fosse	Liza Minnelli Joel Gray Michael York	Best Directing Best Actress Best Supporting Actor (Joel Gray) Best Art Direction Best Cinematography Best editing Best Score Best Sound
Deliverance directed by John Boorman	Burt Reynolds John Voight
The Godfather directed by Francis Ford Coppola	Marlon Brando Al Pacino James Caan John Cazala Diane Keaton Robert Duvall	Best Picture Best Actor Best Screenplay
The Poseidon Adventure directed by Ronald Neame	Gene Hackman Ernest Borgnine Shelley Winters Roddy McDowall Stella Stevens
What's Up Doc? directed by Peter Bogdanovich	Ryan O'Neal Barbra Streisand Madeline Kahn Kenneth mars

Watch a free movie from 1972 now:

• Count Dracula's Great Love Stranger's arrive at Castle Dracula and are greeted by a stocky, sad Count Dracula (Paul Naschy).
• The Proud & the Damned A group of five Confederate mercenaries led by Sergeant Will Hansen (Chuck Connors) must choose sides carefully in a small village where they find themselves trapped in the middle of a rebellion.
• Horror Express An ancient fossil is discovered and is believed to be the missing link in human evolution. However, when brought aboard a train, an alien life force is awakened from the remains. Stars Christopher Lee.

Books of 1972

Title	Author	Buy
The Betsy	Harold Robbins
Books Do Furnish a Room	Anthony Powell
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee	Des Brown
The Day of the Jackal	Frederick Forsythe
The Exorcist	William Peter Blattey
The Passions of the Mind	Irving Stone
Rabbit Redux	John Updike
The Unknown Industrial Prisoner	John Ireland
Wheels	Arthur Haley
The Winds of War	Herman Wouk

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