February 1972

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February 21, 1972: Richard M. Nixon becomes first U.S. president to visit Communist China

The following events occurred in February 1972:

February 1, 1972 (Tuesday)
  • Four days after Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld had found that Klaus Barbie was living in Bolivia (as "Klaus Altmann"), the French government requested his extradition. Barbie was not brought to justice until 1983.[1]
  • In a private White House meeting between Billy Graham and U.S. President Richard Nixon, Graham voiced his concern that the Jewish "stranglehold" on the media "has got to be broken". Graham had to apologize for anti-Semitic remarks after the tape of the conversation was released by the National Archives in 2002.[2]
  • Democrat Edwin Edwards was elected to the first of his four terms as Governor of Louisiana, defeating Republican David C. Treen in the general election by a margin of 57-43 percent.

February 2, 1972 (Wednesday)
  • Following the funerals in Derry of 13 of the persons killed by British paratroopers in Northern Ireland on "Bloody Sunday", a mob, estimated at 25,000, poured into Dublin's Merrion Square and burned down the four story British embassy in Ireland. Due to threats and attacks earlier in the week, all important records had been removed and the building was unoccupied.[3]
  • Born: Naheed Nenshi, the first Muslim mayor of a large North American city, Mayor of Calgary since 2010; in Toronto
  • Died: Genaro Vázquez, Mexican guerilla leader; Natalie Barney, lesbian pioneer

February 3, 1972 (Thursday)
  • The 1972 Winter Olympics opened in Sapporo, Japan, with 1,006 athletes from 35 nations marching in the opening ceremony at Makomanai Stadium. Schoolboy Hideki Takada lit the Olympic flame.[4]
  • A blizzard began in Iran that would kill more than 4,000 people over a six-day period.[5] As much of 26 feet (7.9 m) of snow fell on top of existing drifts in western Iran and into the Soviet Union's Azerbaijani SSR, and killed people in more than 200 Iranian villages. The snow finally abated on February 9.
  • The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued new rules for cable television in the United States. American systems had to carry at least 20 channels (including public-access television). The reform opened the door for new cable television networks.[6]
  • "Tutankhamen's curse" claimed another victim nearly 3,300 years after the death of the boy pharaoh (1324 BC). As King Tut's mask was being placed on a plane to be taken from Cairo to Paris, the museum's Director of Antiquities, Gamal Mehrej, died.[7]

February 4, 1972 (Friday)

February 5, 1972 (Saturday)
  • Jean-Bédel Bokassa, the President of the Central African Republic since 1966, was proclaimed "President for Life". In 1976, he would proclaim himself Emperor, ruling until his overthrow in 1979.[10]
  • Died: Marianne Moore, 84, American poet

February 6, 1972 (Sunday)
  • Two weeks before his historic visit to the People's Republic of China, President Nixon secretly (and unsuccessfully) asked the Chinese government to arrange a meeting there with North Vietnam's peace negotiator, Lê Đức Thọ.[11]
  • Died: Llewellyn Thompson, former American ambassador to the USSR

February 7, 1972 (Monday)
Holyoake
Marshall

February 8, 1972 (Tuesday)

February 9, 1972 (Wednesday)
  • The Iran blizzard ended after seven days, during which as much as 26 feet (7.9 m) of snow buried villages in northwestern, central and southern Iran. An estimated 4,000 people were killed, particularly in the area around Ardakan.[18]
  • Born: Crispin Freeman, American voice actor, in Chicago
  • Died: Chico Ruiz, 33, Cuban-born American major league baseball player, was killed in a car accident a month after having become a U.S. citizen.

February 10, 1972 (Thursday)
Formerly "Kinney Services, Inc."
  • Kinney Services, Inc., a conglomerate which had purchased the Warner Bros. studio in 1969, completed reorganization as shareholders approved its disincorporation in New York and its reincorporation in Delaware, with the new name of Warner Communications, Inc..[19] The company, which now owns Turner Broadcasting, HBO, Cinemax, DC Comics, New Line Cinema, ViacomCBS and part of TheCW television network, is now known as WarnerMedia.
  • In Calama, Chile, where it was said that no rain had fallen "for more than 400 years", rain fell in a downpour and caused mudslides.[20]
  • David Bowie opened his concert tour with his new alter ego of "Ziggy Stardust", starting at the Toby Jug Pub in Tolworth.[21]
  • American and South Vietnamese forces completed a 24-hour period of bombing strikes against North Vietnam, with almost 400 bombing strikes carried out in some of the heaviest raids of the Vietnam War.[22]
  • Ras Al Khaimah joined the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as its sixth emirate.[23]

February 11, 1972 (Friday)

February 12, 1972 (Saturday)

February 13, 1972 (Sunday)
  • The 1972 Winter Olympics closed in Sapporo. The Soviet Union had the most medals (16) and most gold medals (8), followed by East Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United States.[30]
  • The Tony Award-winning musical 1776 closed after 1,217 performances on Broadway.[31]

February 14, 1972 (Monday)

February 15, 1972 (Tuesday)

February 16, 1972 (Wednesday)

February 17, 1972 (Thursday)
  • British Prime Minister Edward Heath narrowly won a vote in the House of Commons on whether to ratify the treaty for the United Kingdom to join the European Community. Heath turned the matter into a vote of confidence by pledging to resign and to call new elections in the midst of a crisis, saying that "If the House will not agree ... my colleagues and I are unanimous that in these circumstances, this Parliament could not sensibly continue." By a margin of only eight votes (309–301), the bill passed.[41]
  • The Volkswagen Beetle broke the record for the most popular automobile in history, as the 15,007,034th Beetle was produced.[42] Between 1908 and May 26, 1927, a total of 15,007,033 Model Ts had been produced.[43]
  • Born: Billie Joe Armstrong, American musician, lead singer of Green Day, in Oakland, California.

February 18, 1972 (Friday)
  • In a 6–1 decision in the case of People v. Anderson (6 Cal.3d 628), California's Supreme Court declared that the death penalty law violated the State Constitution. The Court commuted the death sentences, of 102 men and five women on death row, to life imprisonment.[44]

February 19, 1972 (Saturday)
  • Radio Hanoi broadcast a live press conference to display five newly captured American prisoners of war.[45]
  • The TV show All in the Family first aired what became its most famous episode, which ended with black musician Sammy Davis, Jr. giving a kiss on the cheek to America's most popular bigot, Archie Bunker.[46]
  • The Asama-Sansō incident, which would soon be watched on live television across Japan, began when five members of the Japanese Red Army began a standoff in a mountain lodge with a woman hostage.
  • Died: John Grierson, Scottish documentary filmmaker (b. 1898); jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan (shot and killed at Slug's, a New York bar, after completing a concert)[47]

February 20, 1972 (Sunday)
  • In the United States sixty million people tuned in to watch live television coverage of President Nixon's Monday morning arrival in Communist China, starting at 9:30 pm Eastern time (0230 on February 21 UTC) and 10:30 in the morning February 21 in Beijing. The three networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) split the cost of $8,300 per hour for satellite broadcasting during the eight-day visit, and each sent eleven persons on the trip.[48]
  • What one author would describe as "the best live performance" of The Dark Side of the Moon by British progressive rock band Pink Floyd took place one year before the best-selling album was released.[49]
  • Died: Maria Goeppert Mayer, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906); Walter Winchell, American journalist (b. 1897)

February 21, 1972 (Monday)
  • At 11:30 a.m. local time (0330 UTC) in Peking (now Beijing), Richard M. Nixon became the first President of the United States to visit the People's Republic of China, ending more than 22 years of hostility between the two nations. Nixon greeted China's Prime Minister Zhou Enlai with one of the most famous handshakes in history. "When our hands met", Nixon would write later, "one era ended and another began", while Zhou told Nixon on their trip from the airport, "Your handshake came over the vastest ocean in the world – twenty-five years of no communication." [50]

February 22, 1972 (Tuesday)

February 23, 1972 (Wednesday)
  • The hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 649 ended in Aden International Airport after Palestinian gunmen released their last hostages, the 14 member crew. The Boeing 747-200 had been seized en route from Delhi to Athens on 22 February by five gunmen and forced it to land in South Yemen, where all 172 passengers (including future Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II) were freed. The release came after the government of West Germany paid a five million dollar ransom.[53][54]
  • After 16 months in prison, black militant Angela Davis was released on bail when a white farmer posted most of the required $102,500.[55]
  • The Environmental Protection Agency published its first regulations requiring unleaded gasoline to be made available at all gas stations.[56]

February 24, 1972 (Thursday)
  • Twenty-eight men on board the Soviet nuclear submarine K-19 were killed when fires broke out in three of its compartments while the sub was submerged. The twelve survivors remained trapped inside the sub as it was towed, over the next three weeks, from the Arctic Ocean back to the Kola Peninsula.[57]
  • For the first time since the Paris Peace Talks (concerning the Vietnam War) three years earlier, the two Communist delegations walked out of a session. The groups were protesting the recent surge in bombing by the United States. The talks resumed the following week.[58]
  • Born:

February 25, 1972 (Friday)

February 26, 1972 (Saturday)

February 27, 1972 (Sunday)
  • The Addis Ababa Agreement was signed at the palace of Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie, bringing an end to the First Sudanese Civil War after more than 17 years and more than 500,000 deaths. Ezboni Mondiri Gwonza of the South Sudan Liberation Movement, and Sudan's Foreign Minister, Mansour Khalid, signed an agreement to end fighting in return for recognition by the Islamic governments of political and religious autonomy for the people living in the southern half of the nation. The agreement lasted until 1983, when fighting broke out again.[62]
  • The New York Times carried on its front page the troublesome World3 forecast of a group at MIT for the century ahead, writing that began "A major computer study of world trends has concluded, as many have feared, that mankind probably faces an uncontrollable and disastrous collapse of its society within 100 years unless it moves speedily to establish a "global equilibrium" in which growth of population and industrial output are halted." The study, soon published as The Limits to Growth, was funded by the Club of Rome.[63]

February 28, 1972 (Monday)
  • Before departing the People's Republic of China following an historic visit, President Nixon of the United States signed the Shanghai Communiqué with and Premier Zhou of China, setting out agreements to improve diplomatic relations and to prevent the hegemony of any nation (including the Soviet Union) over the "Asia-Pacific Region".[64]

February 29, 1972 (Tuesday)
  • "We now have evidence that the settlement of the Nixon administration's biggest antitrust case was privately arranged between Atty. Gen. John Mitchell and the top lobbyist for the company involved", was the opener to Jack Anderson's syndicated column. "We have this on the word of the lobbyist herself, crusty, capable Dita Beard of the International Telephone and Telegraph Co. She acknowledged the secret deal after we obtained a highly incriminating memo, written by her, from ITT's files."[65] The subsequent investigation by the Nixon Administration into the source of leaked information was one of seven improper activities cited by the Watergate Committee in its final report.[66]
  • Born: Antonio Sabàto Jr., Italian actor, in Rome

References
  1. Richard Breitman, et al., U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis (Cambridge University Press 2005), p427
  2. Roger Bruns, Billy Graham: A Biography (Greenwood Press, 2004), pp122–123
  3. "British Embassy Burned In Dublin", Winnipeg Free Press, February 2, 1972, page 1
  4. Tom and Jerry Caraccioli, Striking Silver: The Untold Story of America's Forgotten Hockey Team (Sports Publishing, 2006), pp48–49
  5. "40 Years Ago, Iran Was Hit by the Deadliest Blizzard in History", by Haley Sweetland Edwards, MentalFloss.com, February 7, 2012
  6. Patrick Parsons, Blue Skies: A History of Cable Television (Temple University Press, 2008), pp264–265
  7. Sukhadev Prashad, World-Famous Supernatural Mysteries (Pustak Mahal, 1993), p61; "New Victim of Pharaoh's Curse?", Oakland Sunday Tribune, February 6, 1972, p1
  8. "United Progressive Party", in An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Conflict and Conflict Resolution, 1945–1996 John E. Jessup, ed. (Greenwood Press, 1998).
  9. "Robledo Puch, El Angel Negro", La Nacion (Buenos Aires), March 5, 2006
  10. "Central African Republic", in Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements, Volume 1 (Taylor and Francis, 2003), pp286–287
  11. Larry Berman, No Peace, No Honor: Nixon, Kissinger and Betrayal in Vietnam (Simon and Schuster, 2001), pp119–120
  12. Anthony Corrado, et al, The New Campaign Finance Sourcebook (Brookings Institution Press, 2005), pp20–21
  13. Peter Dorey, Wage Politics In Britain: The Rise And Fall Of Incomes Policies Since 1945 (Sussex Academic Press, 2001), p122
  14. "Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard Make Hall of Fame— Negro Baseball Stars Honored", Indianapolis Star, February 9, 1972, p38
  15. "Heart Attack Sidelines Bruce Gamble", Winnipeg Free Press, February 10, 1972, p46
  16. Damien Cox and Gord Stellick, 67: The Maple Leafs, Their Sensational Victory, and the End of an Empire (J. Wiley & Sons Canada, 2006), pp71–73
  17. "123-Day Dock Strike Settled", Oakland Tribune, February 8, 1972, p1
  18. "Thousands Missing in Iran Snow", Oakland Tribune, February 10, 1972, p1
  19. "Kinney Changes Name", Des Moines (IA) Tribune, February 11, 1972, p. 3-S
  20. Mel Goldstein, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weather (Alpha Books, 2002), p37
  21. Christopher Sandford, Bowie: Loving the Alien (Da Capo Press, 1998), p89
  22. "400 Bombing Runs Hit Reds", Oakland Tribune, February 10, 1972, p1
  23. Kourosh Ahmadi, Islands and International Politics in the Persian Gulf: The Abu Musa and Tunbs in Strategic Context (Routledge, 2008) p96
  24. Oakland Tribune, February 11, 1972, p1
  25. TIME February 21, 1972
  26. "Irving Book Is Hoax, Says Time", Oakland Tribune, February 11, 1972, p1; "The Fabulous Hoax of Clifford Irving", TIME, February 21, 1972
  27. "Barry Directs Nets To 129–121 Triumph", Bridgeport Telegram, February 12, 1972, p15; Peter Botte and Alan Hahn, Fish Sticks: The Fall and Rise of the New York Islanders (Sports Publishing LLC, 2002), p85
  28. Antarctic Challenge: Conflicting Interests, Cooperation, Environmental Protection, Economic Development (Duncker and Humblot, 1984), p99
  29. "The Fabulous Hoax of Clifford Irving", TIME, February 21, 1972; "Time Wins Right to Print Excerpts From Hughes Book", Oakland Tribune, February 11, 1972, p1; "Irving Book Is Hoax, Says Time", Oakland Tribune, February 13, 1972, p2;
  30. "Medal Standings", Oakland Tribune, February 14, 1972, p37
  31. M. Paul Holsinger, War and American Popular Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999), p38
  32. "Nixon Lifts Some China Trade Bans", Oakland Tribune, February 14, 1972, p1
  33. Ben Ikenson, Patents: Ingenious Inventions, How They Work and How They Came to Be (Black Dog Publishing, 2004) p16
  34. John D. Martz, Politics and Petroleum in Ecuador (Transaction, 1987), pp88–89
  35. Douglas J. Cusine and John P. Grant, eds., The Impact of Marine Pollution (Taylor and Francis, 1980), p184
  36. John E. Jessup, An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Conflict and Conflict Resolution, 1945-1996 (Greenwood Publishing, 1998) p300
  37. Richard Schulenberg, Legal Aspects of the Music Industry: An Insider's View (Billboard Books, 1999), p202
  38. "CNDLS". Archived from the original on 2010-06-20. Retrieved 2009-10-25.
  39. "History of Closed Captioning", National Captioning Institute
  40. Maldives Online Guide
  41. "Heath's Government Survives by 8 Votes", The Post-Standard (Syracuse), p1
  42. Volkswagen website Archived 2009-07-29 at the Wayback Machine
  43. Rudi Volti, Cars and Culture: The Life Story of a Technology (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), p49
  44. "Death Penalty Is Illegal, High Court Rules" Oakland Tribune, February 18, 1972, p1
  45. "Five New POWS on Hanoi Radio", Oakland Tribune, February 20, 1972, p1
  46. Kathleen Fearn-Banks, Historical Dictionary of African-American Television (Scarecrow Press, 2006), p12
  47. Frederick J. Spencer, Jazz and Death: Medical Profiles of Jazz Greats (University Press of Mississippi, 2002), p75; "Jazz Trumpeter Morgan Slain", Oakland Tribune, February 20, 1972, p36
  48. "China TV Cost: Over $3 million", Independent Press-Telegram (Long Beach CA), February 27, 1972, Tele-Vues section p23
  49. Glenn Povey, Echoes: The Complete History of Pink Floyd (Mind Head Publishing, 2007) pp154-155
  50. Yafeng Xia, Negotiating With the Enemy: U.S.-China Talks During the Cold War, 1949–1972 (Indiana University Press, 2006), p193; "Now, in Living Color from China", TIME Magazine, February 28, 1972
  51. Rosemarie Said Zahlan, The Creation of Qatar (Barnes & Noble Books, 1979), p112
  52. "From the Archives", The Guardian, February 23, 2009
  53. "On This Day—23 February1972: Hijackers surrender and free Lufthansa crew". BBC. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  54. Michael Newton (2002). The Encyclopedia of Kidnappings. Infobase Publishing. p. 175. ISBN 978-0816044870. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  55. "Angela Freed as Judge Grants Bail", Oakland Tribune, February 24, 1972. Rodger McAfee's neighbors in Caruthers, California, were infuriated and his four sons were expelled from school."Freed Angela", TIME Magazine, March 6, 1972
  56. Lead in the Human Environment: A Report (National Academy of Sciences, 1980), p469
  57. Norman Polmar and Kenneth J. Moore, Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines (Brassey's, 2004), p113
  58. "Reds Walk Out of Paris Talk", Oakland Tribune, February 24, 1972, p1
  59. "Miners Vote, End Strike", Oakland Tribune, February 25, 1972, p1
  60. "Buffalo Creek", West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and history
  61. "Buffalo Creek Disaster". West Virginia Division of Culture and History. Retrieved April 27, 2005.
  62. Millard Burr and Robert O. Collins, Requiem for the Sudan: War, Drought, and Disaster Relief on the Nile (Westview Press, 1995), pp 7–10
  63. Charles T. Rubin, The Green Crusade: Rethinking the Roots of Environmentalism (Rowman and Littlefield, 1994), p130; "Mankind Warned of Perils in Growth", New York Times, February 27, 1972, p1
  64. Robert G. Sutter, Historical Dictionary of United States-China Relations (Scarecrow Press 2006), p152
  65. "Mitchell Settled ITT Case", Jack Anderson, San Antonio News-Express, February 29, 1972, p7-B
  66. The Senate Watergate report: The Final Report (1974), p206
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