WHAT ALL HAPPENED FEBRUARY TO AUGUST 1972
Find out what all happened February to August 1972

Watergate Scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation into the Watergate break-ins. (23. June 1972)

Tombs containing bamboo slips, among them Sun Tzu's Art of War and Sun Bin's lost military treatise, are accidentally discovered by construction workers in Shandong. (10. April 1972)

Rhodesia is expelled by the IOC for its racist policies. (22. August 1972)

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

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

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

Apollo program: The launch of Apollo 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. (16. April 1972)

Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s. (2. April 1972)

Willandra National Park is established in Australia. (26. May 1972)

Watergate scandal: An 18½-minute gap appears in the tape recording of the conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and his advisers regarding the recent arrests of his operatives while breaking into the Watergate complex. (20. June 1972)

The Universal Postal Union decides to recognize the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative, effectively expelling the Republic of China administering Taiwan. (13. April 1972)

Sound recordings are granted U.S. federal copyright protection for the first time. (15. February 1972)

President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations. (21. February 1972)

The United States Senate ratifies the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. (3. August 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)

Staines air disaster – 118 are killed when a BEA H.S. Trident crashes two minutes after take off from London Heathrow Airport. (18. June 1972)

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

Vietnam War: Vietnamization – South Korea withdraws 11,000 of its 48,000 troops from Vietnam. (29. February 1972)

Vietnam War: For the first time since November 1967, American B-52 bombers reportedly begin bombing North Vietnam. (10. April 1972)