WHAT ALL HAPPENED FEBRUARY TO JULY 1972
Find out what all happened February to July 1972

Severe rainfall causes a dam in the Black Hills of South Dakota to burst, creating a flood that kills 238 people and causes $160 million in damage. (9. June 1972)

The United Kingdom imposes direct rule over Northern Ireland. (24. March 1972)

Red Army Faction co-founder Ulrike Meinhof is captured by police in Langenhagen. (15. June 1972)

Alitalia Flight 112 crashes into Mount Longa near Palermo, Sicily, killing all 115 aboard, making it the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in Italy. (5. May 1972)

Bugojno group is caught by Yugoslav security forces. (24. July 1972)

Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam. (30. March 1972)

Vietnam War – U.S. President Richard Nixon announces his order to place mines in major North Vietnamese ports in order to stem the flow of weapons and other goods to that nation. (8. May 1972)

The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. (26. May 1972)

Vietnam War: The Battle of An Lộc begins. (13. April 1972)

Seventy-four nations sign the Biological Weapons Convention, the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning the production of biological weapons. (10. April 1972)

Four Black September terrorists hijack Sabena Flight 571. Israeli Sayeret Matkal commandos recapture the plane the following day. (8. May 1972)

The Pioneer 10 space probe is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a mission to explore the outer planets. (2. March 1972)

The Asama-Sansō hostage standoff begins in Japan. (19. February 1972)

The Troubles: In Belfast, British Army snipers shoot five civilians dead in the Springhill Massacre. (9. July 1972)

The U.S. Supreme Court rules in the case Furman v. Georgia that arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. (29. June 1972)

The Troubles: A Provisional IRA car bomb kills seven and injures 148 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was the first of many car bomb attacks by the group. (20. March 1972)

The first leap second is added to the UTC time system. (30. June 1972)

Apollo 16, commanded by John Young, lands on the moon. (20. April 1972)

Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth. (21. May 1972)

The fast food restaurant chain Popeyes is founded in Arabi, Louisiana. (12. June 1972)