WHAT ALL HAPPENED AUGUST TO NOVEMBER 1972
Find out what all happened August to November 1972

The United States suffers its first loss of an international basketball game in a disputed match against the Soviet Union at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. (10. September 1972)

Mark Spitz becomes the first competitor to win seven medals at a single Olympic Games. (4. September 1972)

A race riot occurs on the United States Navy aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk off the coast of Vietnam during Operation Linebacker. (11. October 1972)

An Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-62 crashes outside Moscow killing 174. (13. October 1972)

Atari announces the release of Pong, the first commercially successful video game. (29. November 1972)

Roberto Clemente records the 3,000th and final hit of his career. (30. September 1972)

Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashes in the Andes mountains, near the border between Argentina and Chile. By December 23, 1972, only 16 out of 45 people lived long enough to be rescued. (13. October 1972)

The Soviet Union makes its final attempt at successfully launching the N-1 rocket. (23. November 1972)

The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit system has its opening day of passenger service. (11. September 1972)

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

HBO launches its programming, with the broadcast of the 1971 movie Sometimes a Great Notion, starring Paul Newman and Henry Fonda. (8. November 1972)

The three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre are released from prison in exchange for the hostages of hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615. (29. October 1972)

In a referendum, the people of Norway reject membership of the European Community. (25. September 1972)

Sino-Japanese relations: Japan establishes diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China after breaking official ties with the Republic of China. (29. September 1972)

In an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt, the Royal Moroccan Air Force fires upon Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he is traveling back to Rabat. (16. August 1972)

Voters in South Korea overwhelmingly approve a new constitution, giving legitimacy to Park Chung-hee and the Fourth Republic. (21. November 1972)

Vietnam War: In Saigon, Henry Kissinger and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu meet to discuss a proposed cease-fire that had been worked out between Americans and North Vietnamese in Paris. (22. October 1972)

Last executions in Paris: Claude Buffet and Roger Bontems are guillotined at La Santé Prison. The chief executioner is André Obrecht. (Bontems had been found innocent of murder, but as Buffet's accomplice was condemned to death anyway.) (28. November 1972)

In Kentucky's Mammoth Cave National Park, a Cave Research Foundation exploration and mapping team discovers a link between the Mammoth and Flint Ridge cave systems, making it the longest known cave passageway in the world. (9. September 1972)

Vietnam War: the last United States ground combat unit leaves South Vietnam. (11. August 1972)