The following events occurred in August 1972:
August 1, 1972 (Tuesday) "Bug Suspect Got Campaign Funds", the first article in the famous Watergate investigative series by reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, appeared on the front page of The Washington Post. Air Botswana, the national airline of the southern African nation, began passenger service with a single Fokker F-27, flying a route covering Gaborone, Manzini, Johannesburg, and Salisbury (now Harare). Died: Ray Gunkel, 47, American collegiate and professional wrestler, died from heart trauma a few hours after defeating wrestler Ox Baker in a match in Savannah, Georgia. Although initial reports said that Gunkel "died in the ring", a spokesman said that "He went to the dressing room, showered, dressed, and felt great... He was sitting in a chair, talking to the Savannah promoter... Then as the promoter got up to leave, he fell to the floor." Gunkel, who was found afterward to have had arteriosclerosis, had been punched in the chest during the match, and the resulting hematoma led to a blood clot that caused his death.
August 2, 1972 (Wednesday) At Benghazi, Egypt's President Anwar Sadat and Libya's leader, Muammar al-Gaddafi, announced that their two countries would unite into one nation by September 1, 1973. "The Arabs have realized that the challenges of Zionism and imperialism can only be surmounted by a large entity with enormous resources and capabilities", an Egyptian press release stated."Egypt, Libya Plan One Unified State", Oakland Tribune, August 2, 1972, p1 The Egypt–Libya union, which never took place, would have had the ninth largest area in the world, at 1,066,407 mi2 (2,761,991 km2).
August 3, 1972 (Thursday) The "diploma tax", to deter Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union, was enacted by the Supreme Soviet as Decree No. 572: "Citizens of the USSR leaving for permanent residence abroad in other than socialist countries must compensate the State for their education received from institutions of higher education." The tax, of as much as 25,000 rubles, would be abolished in March 1973, but was paid by 1,435 Soviet Jews until pressure forced Moscow to back down. By an 88–2 vote, the U.S. Senate ratified the Soviet-American Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Voting against the treaty were Senators James Buckley (R-N.Y.) and James B. Allen (D-Ala.) South Korea's President Park Chung Hee issued the "August 3 Decree", officially the Emergency Decree on Economic Stability and Growth, which lowered interest rates and spread out payments on the nation's bank loans.
August 4, 1972 (Friday) At 0620 GMT (2:20 a.m. EDT), the Sun released the most powerful blasts of radiation that had been recorded up to that time.Sten F. Odenwald, The 23rd Cycle: Learning to Live With a Stormy Star (Columbia University Press, 2001), p95 "Storm on the Sun", Time, August 21, 1972 The solar radiation was strong enough to cause the explosion of several naval mines in North Vietnam's Haiphong harbor. Arthur Bremer, 22, was sentenced to 63 years in prison after being found guilty of having shot and paralyzed Alabama Governor George C. Wallace and wounding three other people in a May 15 shooting."Bremer Guilty, Gets 63 Years", Oakland Tribune, August 4, 1972, p1 Bremer would be released from the Maryland Correctional Institution - Hagerstown on November 9, 2007, after 35 years."Man who shot George Wallace to be freed today after 35 years", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 9, 2007 Bobby Fischer reached his highest live ELO rating of 2789.7 (if the forfeited Game 2 is not counted toward change of his ELO rating) after a win in Game 10 of World Chess Championship 1972. This highest live ELO rating was not surpassed for almost 22 years.
August 5, 1972 (Saturday) With its national convention adjourned, the Democratic National Committee confirmed George McGovern's sixth choice to replace Thomas Eagleton, former Ambassador to France (and Peace Corps founder Sargent Shriver as the party's nominee for Vice-President."Shriver Chosen for No. 2 Spot on Ticket" Oakland Tribune, August 6, 1972, p1 McGovern was turned down by Teddy Kennedy, Abraham Ribicoff, Hubert Humphrey, Reuben Askew and Edmund Muskie."George McGovern Finally Finds a Veep", Time, August 14, 1972
August 6, 1972 (Sunday) A baseball game was "called on account of grasshoppers" when millions of the insects swarmed into Hogan Park at Midland, Texas, during the second game of a doubleheader. In the Texas League game, the Amarillo Giants had beaten the Midland Cubs 5–4 in the first game. As Amarillo began the second game, grasshoppers dimmed the lighting and alighted upon many of the 857 spectators. Midland won 2–1 when the game was made up the next day. Sixty-five people were killed in Pakistan when a passenger train from Karachi to Rawalpindi crashed into the back of a freight train parked at the Liaquatpur railway station. Born: Geri Halliwell, British Spice Girls singer ("Ginger Spice"), in Watford
August 7, 1972 (Monday) At 1519 hours GMT (11:19 a.m. EDT), the most powerful solar flare ever measured was observed on Earth."Analysis of the August 7, 1972, white light flare: Its spectrum and vertical structure", by Marcos E. Machado1 and David M. Rust, in Solar Physics (October 1974), 38(1974) 499–516 Sir Anthony Mason began service on the High Court of Australia, and would serve as Chief Justice from 1987 to 1995.Cheryl Saunders, ed., Courts of Final Jurisdiction: The Mason Court in Australia (The Federation Press, 1996), p109
August 8, 1972 (Tuesday)
The U.S. Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, ordered changes in the United States Navy's rules to permit women to serve on ships, become aviators, and attend the U.S. Naval Academy. Previously, WAVES were limited to stateside service. "There will be some who are concerned", said Zumwalt. "But when you look at the level to which our society has developed, there is no reason in theory, in sociology or in equity why women should not have the same opportunities the men have".
August 9, 1972 (Wednesday)
Idi Amin, the President of Uganda, summoned Britain's representative and other diplomats to his residence, and announced a decree that all Asians, who were not Ugandan citizens, would have to leave Uganda within 90 days. Between 40,000 and 80,000 of Uganda's Asian residents had opted to keep British citizenship when the former British colony had attained independence."Uganda: The Expulsion of the Asians", by Charles Harrison, in Case Studies on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: A World Survey, Vol IV (Nijhoff, 1975), p305 Born: A-Mei (Chang Hui-mei), Taiwanese female pop singer, as Amit Kulilay in Beinan
August 10, 1972 (Thursday) A meteor came within of the Earth, entering the atmosphere over Utah at 20:28:29 GMT and departing 101 seconds later at 20:30:10 over Canada, before skipping back out. The fireball was visible in daylight, with the occurrence happening at local time.Heiner Klinkrad, Space Debris Models and Risk Analysis (Praxis Publishing, 2006), p301; "Flaming Object Reported Streaming Across Skies", The Post-Register (Idaho Falls, ID), August 11, 1972, p1
August 11, 1972 (Friday) With the deactivation of the 3rd Battalion of the 21st U.S. Infantry, the last American ground combat units were pulled out of South Vietnam. The 1,043-man unit had been assigned to the U.S. airbase at Da Nang. Air and sea operations continued and more than 40,000 U.S. servicemen remained in Vietnam. Andrew B. Topping, 27, was arrested at the boat basin at New York's Central Park after paying $1,000 to Stewart J. Henry, an undercover federal agent posing as a killer for hire, to carry out a hit. Topping's intended victim was the President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon. Henry, a U.S. Secret Service agent, negotiated the terms the night before and then completed the sting. Died: Max Theiler, 73, South African virologist who developed a vaccine against yellow fever and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1951
August 12, 1972 (Saturday) Arrowhead Stadium opened in Kansas City, Missouri, with a preseason game for the Missouri Governor's Cup. The original American Hairless Terrier dog was born. "Josephine" did not produce another carrier of the mutated gene until she was nine years old. The Chevrolet Corvair automobile, subject of the first chapter of Ralph Nader's book Unsafe at Any Speed, was exonerated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in a letter to all Corvair owners. Corvairs had been discontinued three years earlier. W. Averell Harriman and Cyrus Vance, the two original U.S. negotiators at the Paris peace talks, said in a press conference that President Nixon had missed an opportunity in 1969 to end the Vietnam War, at a time when the North Vietnamese had withdrawn most of their combat troops from South Vietnam's northernmost provinces. Born: Del tha Funkee Homosapien (stage name for Teren Delvon Jones), American rap music artist, in Oakland Died: Sister Clara Muhammad, 72, American educator known as the "First Lady of the Nation of Islam" for her marriage to NOI leader Elijah Muhammad
August 13, 1972 (Sunday) Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark returned from North Vietnam, where he had traveled as a private individual as part of a factfinding group. Clark said that he had confirmed that the United States was bombing hospitals and dikes, and that he had been told that American prisoners "will be released immediately when we stop this senseless, murderous bombing and end the war and get out, get home, and get to the business of building the peace and giving happiness to little children around the world". Clark's comments were proven to be false a few days later. The New York Times stated that he had used "poor judgement". In 1974 an investigation into the matter showed that Clark had been "exploited" by the Hanoi regime. Born: Kevin Plank, creator of Under Armour, in Kensington, Maryland
August 14, 1972 (Monday) In the worst aviation accident in Germany to date, all 156 people on board an Ilyushin Il-62 of East German Interflug were killed when the aircraft crashed near Königs Wusterhausen. Born: Yoo Jae-suk, South Korean comedian, in Seoul Died: Oscar Levant, 65, American pianist and actor
August 15, 1972 (Tuesday) On the 25th anniversary of its independence, India introduced the six digit "PIN Code" for mail delivery. As with the American ZIP code, the name is a backronym. It stands for "Postal Index Number". Deep Purple, British Rock Band, played live first night in Japan, in Osaka. Born: Ben Affleck, American film actor, in Berkeley, California
August 16, 1972 (Wednesday) King Hassan II of Morocco was returning home from a meeting with President Pompidou of France, when his was fired upon by the rebels within the Moroccan Air Force. Although several people were wounded, the King escaped injury, and the pilot was able to land after falsely stating that Hassan had been killed. While the attempted assassination was taking place, the royal palace was being bombed by others in the plot. As it turned out, Defense Minister Mohammed Oufkir had conspired, with others in the Moroccan armed forces, to stage a coup d'état and to set up a republic. Oufkir died the next day. Officially, it was a suicide, but there were rumors that Hassan himself had executed his former right-hand man. As punishment, Oufkir's family was imprisoned for nearly 20 years."Morocco King's Palace Bombed", Oakland Tribune, August 16, 1972, p1; Stephen O. Hughes, Morocco Under King Hassan (Ithaca, 2001), pp. 170–171; Marvine Howe, Morocco: The Islamist Awakening and Other Challenges (Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 111–112 Born: Emily Strayer, American musician for the Chicks (formerly known as Dixie Chicks), in Pittsfield, Massachusetts
August 17, 1972 (Thursday)