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1972 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974

British and Irish current events

Sport and Music

1972 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

1972 in British music

Events from the year 1972 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister - Edward Heath, Conservative Party

Events

• 9 January - Miners begin a strike which lasts for seven weeks.^[1]
• 20 January - Unemployment exceeds 1 million for the first time since the 1930s.^[2]
• 30 January - On 'Bloody Sunday' in Northern Ireland 14 killed when troops opened fire on demonstrators.^[3]
• 2 February - Protestors burn down the British Embassy in Dublin.^[4]
• 3 February–13 February - Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, but do not win any medals.
• 22 February - An Official Irish Republican Army bomb kills six people at Aldershot Barracks.^[5]
• 25 February - End of miners' strike after seven weeks.^[6]
• 30 March - The Troubles: Parliament of Northern Ireland suspended.
• 31 March - A CND demonstration is held against the nuclear base at Aldermaston.^[7]
• 1 April - William Whitelaw appointed as the first Northern Ireland Secretary.^[4]
• 19 April - a report into the Bloody Sunday shootings by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Widgery, exonerates the British troops of blame because the demonstration had been illegal.^[8]
• 30 April - the Brighton Belle train makes its last journey from London to Brighton.^[9]
• 24 May - The Gravelly Hill Interchange better known as Spaghetti Junction opened near Birmingham.^[9]
• 26 May - privatisation of state-owned travel firm Thomas Cook & Son.^[10]
• 30 May - Official Irish Republican Army declared a cease fire in Northern Ireland.^[11]
• 3 June - a Protestant demonstration in Derry turned into a battle.^[12]
• 5 June - funeral of Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor at Windsor Castle.^[13]
• 18 June - British European Airways Flight 548 crashes near Staines and 118 people are killed, making it the UK's worst air disaster to date. The only two people who survived the crash were both dead by the time they reached hospital^[14]
• 23 June - Chancellor of the Exchequer Anthony Barber announces decision to float the Pound.^[15]
• 1 July - The first official gay pride march in London is held.^[16]
• 28 July - A strike by thousands of dockers led to the government announcing a state of emergency on 4 August.^[17]
• 9 August - The Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Jesus Christ Superstar makes its West End debut.^[9]
• 26 August–10 September - Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, and win 4 gold, 5 silver and 9 bronze medals.
• 11 September - First broadcast of the BBC quiz programme Mastermind.^[9]
• 12 September - Sinking of two British trawlers by an Icelandic gunboat triggers the second Cod War.^[9]
• 18 September - thousands of expelled Ugandan Asians arrive in Britain after being expelled by Idi Amin.^[18]
• 19 September - a parcel bomb kills a diplomat at the Israeli embassy in London.^[19]
• 10 October - John Betjeman appointed Poet Laureate.^[9]
• 13 October - Bank rates abolished and replaced with the Minimum Lending Rate.^[9]
• 23 October - Access credit cards introduced.^[9]
• 6 November - Government introduces price and pay freezes to counter inflation.^[20]
• 10 December
  • John Hicks was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics with Kenneth Arrow for "pioneering contributions to general economic equilibrium theory and welfare theory."^[21]
  • Rodney Robert Porter wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Gerald Edelman "for their discoveries concerning the chemical structure of antibodies".^[22]

Undated

• Ford announces its new Granada top of the range model, available as a saloon, coupe or estate car, which will be built at the Dagenham plant in England as well as the Cologne plant in West Germany. It is designed to compete with the likes of the Rover P6 and Vauxhall Victor, and on the continent it will be sold as the Ford Consul.
• Inflation has fallen slightly this year to 6.4% from 8.6%. [1]

Publications

• Richard Adams novel Watership Down.
• John Berger's novel G..
• Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novel Elephants Can Remember.

Births

• 27 January — Mark Owen, singer and Take That member
• 11 February — Steve McManaman, footballer
• 19 February — Malky Mackay, footballer
• 6 March — Terry Murphy, snooker player
• 20 March — Alexander Kapranos, singer and guitarist (Franz Ferdinand)
• April 17 — Vicky Lupton, English racewalker
• 22 April — Sarah Patterson, actress
• 2 May — Paul Adcock, footballer
• 5 May — James Cracknell, Olympic winning rower
• 4 June — Debra Stephenson, actress
• 3 July — Asha Gill, British-born television host
• 6 August — Geri Halliwell, musician (Spice Girls)
• 7 August — Sarah Cawood, television presenter
• August 17 — David Ralph, Scottish field hockey forward
• 9 September — Natasha Kaplinsky, newsreader
• 12 September — Jason Statham, actor
• 21 September — Liam Gallagher, singer (Oasis)
• September 21 — Richard Maden, breaststroke swimmer
• October 20 — Debbie McLeod, Scottish field hockey goalkeeper
• 29 September — Robert Webb, comedian and actor
• 2 November — Samantha Janus, actress
• 7 November — Danny Grewcock, rugby player
• 6 November — Thandie Newton, actress
• 29 December — Jude Law, actor

Deaths

• 19 February - John Grierson, documentary film maker (born 1898)
• 29 February - Violet Trefusis, writer and socialite (born 1894)
• 13 March - Tony Ray-Jones, photographer (born 1941)
• 21 March - David McCallum, Sr., violinist and the father of David McCallum (born 1897)
• 29 March - J. Arthur Rank, industrialist and film producer (born 1888)
• 22 May - Cecil Day-Lewis, poet (born 1904)
• 22 May - Margaret Rutherford, actress (born 1892)
• 28 May - King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (born 1894)
• 26 August - Francis Chichester, aviator and sailor (born 1901)
• 28 August - Prince William of Gloucester (air crash) (born 1941)
• 15 September - Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury (born 1887)
• 1 October - Louis Leakey, palaeontologist (born 1903)
• 15 October - Douglas Smith, broadcaster (year of birth unknown)
• 28 November - Havergal Brian, composer (born 1876)
• 30 November - Compton Mackenzie, novelist and Scottish nationalist (born 1883)
• 13 December - L. P. Hartley, writer (born 1895)
• 24 December - Gisela Richter, art historian (born 1882)

References

See also