The year 1972 in review:

• 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 11th Winter Olympic Games are held in Sapporo, Japan
• 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 U.S. Senate sends the proposed 27th Amendment, known as the Equal Rights Amendment, to the states for ratification in March.
• On May 15, the U.S. Democratic Presidential Candidate George Wallace is shot and paralyzed at a rally in Maryland.
• 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.  
• Ms. Magazine begins publication in July with former Look editor, Patricia Carbine, as publisher and feminist Gloria Steinem as editor. 
• The last U.S. ground troops are withdrawn from Vietnam on August 12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.
• The 20th Olympic Games open in Munich, West Germany, on August 26
• On September 1, Bobby Fischer becomes the first American to win the world chess championship since Wilhelm Steintz.
• 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 November 7 in the U.S. presidential election, Republican incumbent Richard Nixon defeats Democratic Senator George McGovern in a landslide
• On November 29, Atari kicks off the first generation of video games with the release of their seminal arcade version of PONG,
• The Christmas bombing of North Vietnam, called Linebacker II, causes widespread criticism of the U.S. and President Richard Nixon on December 25.
• 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.
• Magnavox develops Odyssey, the first video arcade game.

45th Annual Academy Awards:
Best Actor: Marlon Brando from The Godfather
Best Actress: Liza Minnelli from Cabaret
Best Picture: The Godfather

Emmy Awards:
Outstanding Drama Series- The Waltons (CBS)
Outstanding Comedy Series- All in the Family (CBS)

15th Annual Grammy Awards:
Record of the Year: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack
Album of the Year: The Concert for Bangladesh by George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, Bob Dylan
Song of the Year: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack
Best New Artist: America