The planned launch of the
World Hockey Association for the 1972-1973 professional hockey season, as a competitor to the
National Hockey League, was announced in New York City by Dennis Murphy and Gary Davidson, who had created the
American Basketball Association (ABA) as a rival to the NBA in 1967.[1] The initial lineup of 10 franchises was announced as being in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, St. Paul (Minnesota) and Dayton (Ohio) in the U.S.; and Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary in Canada.[2]
In the U.S., the
Eisenhower dollar was made available to the general public for the first time by the United States Mint.[3]
Reverend
Gonville ffrench-Beytagh, the
Anglican Church's Dean of Johannesburg, was sentenced to five years imprisonment under South Africa's
Terrorism Act for speaking out against the
apartheid policies of South Africa's white-minority government.[4] Free on bail while pursuing his appeal, ffrench-Beytagh, a coloured member of the Anglican clergy, was allowed to leave South Africa in April after his conviction was upheld.[5]
British-Burmese commercial diver Htun Minn, 36, died of an
air embolism after making an uncontrolled ascent to the surface while conducting a
surface-orientatedhard-hat dive in the
North Sea from the drill ship Glomar III. Minn's family would try for many years to prove negligence.[10]
The
People's Republic of China, recently approved as the representative of the Chinese people in the United Nations, named its nine-member delegation to the UN, headed by its chief delegate,
Qiao Guanhua (Chiao Kuan-hua).[12]
Off-year elections were held for governors and state legislators in the United States, and included the
election for Governor of Mississippi, the first in that state in which an African-American challenged a white nominee.
Bill Waller, the Democratic nominee, was a prosecutor who had unsuccessfully sought to convict the accused murder of civil rights activist
Medgar Evers, and his independent challenger,
James Charles Evers, was the brother of Medgar and the incumbent mayor of the primarily-black municipality of
Fayette, Mississippi. There was no Republican nominee. Waller won overwhelmingly with over 75% of the vote in a race that had an unprecedented large turnout of black voters and white voters.[13]
The first UNIX Programmer's Manual was published, originally to quickly bring in more users for the testing of the world's first
portable programming system for the so-called Uniplexed Information and Computing Service ("unics") as an improvement on
multics.[14]
Emma Groves, Irish mother of eleven, was hit in the face by a rubber bullet and blinded; she spent the rest of her life campaigning against the use of rubber bullets.[16]
The first, and only, launch of the Europa-2 rocket by the
European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) failed when the missile exploded two minutes and 41 seconds after liftoff from the ELDO launch site at
Kourou in
French Guiana. Electrical interference in the inertial guidance system for the rocket's third stage when it reached an altitude of 27,000 metres (89,000 ft) and the Europa-2 tilted, putting a strain on the second stage that ended in the explosion.[21]
Died:Spessard Holland, 79, former four-term U.S. Senator and wartime Governor of Florida from 1941-1945 of an apparent heart attack at his Bartow, Florida home. Holland sponsored the 24th amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning poll taxes in elections for federal office.[27]
The fourth best selling record album of all time the untitled
fourth studio album of
Led Zeppelin, was released, making its debut in the United States four days before its November 12 release in the United Kingdom, and contained the band's most popular song, "
Stairway to Heaven".[29]
Berkeley, California, became the first "
sanctuary city" in the United States, with the passage of an ordinance that prohibited its city employees, including its police, from enforcing federal arrest warrants for non-violent offenses. The "sanctuary city" concept was later adopted in other politically liberal communities in the U.S.[31]
The U.S. House of Representatives considered, but failed to pass, a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would have permitted voluntary prayer in public schools. The response to the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Abington School District v. Schempp, which had barred state-sanctioned Bible reading and prayer in non-private schools, the proposed 27th Amendment received 240 votes in favor and 162 against, but constitutional amendments required a two-thirds majority (268 of the 402 votes cast) to pass.[32]
Died: Robert "Bobbie" Brown, Jr., 68, U.S.
Medal of Honor recipient for his bravery in the 1944
Battle of Crucifix Hill in
Aachen during World War II, committed suicide with a single gunshot wound to the chest. Brown had been suffering from PTSD and constant pain from his war injuries for more than 27 years.[33]
In
Westfield, New Jersey, accountant
John List murdered his mother, his wife and his three children.[36][37] He would remain a fugitive for almost 18 years, working under a variety of aliases, before being captured in 1989 after the case was featured in a nationwide broadcast of the relatively new FOX Network show America's Most Wanted.[38][39] List would remain in prison until his death in 2008 at the age of 82.[40]
The
Bangladesh Navy was inaugurated with six patrol vessels.
In
Cambodia,
Khmer Rouge forces attacked the
Phnom Penh international airport, killing 44 people, mostly civilians who were members of families traveling with soldiers, wounding 30 others and damaging nine aircraft.[43]
Cuba's Premier,
Fidel Castro, arrived to the only other Latin American nation where he was welcomed by the government, arriving in
Santiago as the guest of
Chile's Marxist President,
Salvador Allende.[44] The relationship between Cuba and Chile fueled the belief by U.S. President Nixon that, if either regime continued, "you will have in Latin America a
red sandwich. And eventually, it will be all red."[45]
The U.S. Senate voted, 84 to 6, to ratify the
Okinawa Reversion Agreement, returning the island of
Okinawa, and other Japanese territory captured in 1945 during World War II, to Japanese control.[46] The treaty, signed on June 17, provided that the United States would be able to maintain its military bases on Okinawa, but would not be able to launch military operations from the bases without consultation and approval by the Japanese government.[47]
Peru's military government, headed by General
Juan Velasco Alvarado, issued the "General Telecommunications Law" by decree, requiring that the Republic of Peru be the owner of at least 51 percent of the shares of the South American nation's 19 television stations, and that the government have 25 percent ownership of its 222 radio stations.[48]
All 43 passengers and five crew on
Aeroflot Flight N-63 were killed when the
Antonov An-24B airplane crashed while attempting to land at
Vinnitsa after taking off from
Kiev in a flight within the
Ukrainian SSR.[52]
As part of the policy of
Vietnamization, U.S. President
Richard M. Nixon announced that 45,000 additional American troops would be removed from
Vietnam by February 1.[53]
Mexico's research institute for astrophysics, optics, and electronics, the Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica (INAOE), was created by presidential decree.[54] It is now located at the site of the
Tonantzintla Observatory, outside of
San Andrés Cholula in Mexico's
Puebla state.
Died: Soichi Sunami, 86, Japanese-born American portrait photographer[55]
The U.S. probe Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to successfully enter the orbit of
Mars. Previous American and Soviet probes had made close "fly-by" approaches. At 4:42 p.m. California time (00:42 UTC on 14 November), the technicians at the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, California, made Mariner 9 the first object from Earth to be put into orbit around another planet. The elliptical orbit ranged between 800 miles (1,300 km) above the Martian surface and 10,700 miles (17,200 km) twice a day[56]
Greece and
Albania restored full diplomatic relations and the Greek government dropped a 100-year-old claim it had had for what Greece called
Northern Epirus and Albania called
Toskëria. Incorporating 1,930 square miles (5,000 km2) of the Albanian counties of
Vlorë (Avlona) and
Gjirokastër (Argyrokastro), the area had been captured from Greece by the Ottoman Empire, from which Albania was formed after World War I.[57]
U.S. President Nixon issued Executive Order 11627, the implementation of "Phase II" of the nationwide wage and price controls authorized by the
Economic Stabilization Act of 1970. Controls against increases in wages, rents, prices on certain goods and services, would be ended by a subsequent order on January 11, 1973.[58]
Duel, one of the most successful of made-for-TV films produced in the U.S. for the ABC Movie of the Weekend program, was broadcast for the first time. The horror film was the first to be directed by
Steven Spielberg and featured
Dennis Weaver as a car driver pursued by the never-visible driver of a large gasoline truck. The TV version had a running time of 74 minutes punctuated by 16 minutes of commercials between 8:30 and 10:00 p.m.[59]
Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria was enthroned as the leader of the Coptic Christian Church and the 117th successor to
Saint Mark. He would serve until his death on March 17, 2012.[60][61]
Elections were held in East Germany for the 434 directly elected seats in the 500-member Volkskammer. All 584 candidates had to be approved by East Germany's
National Front, which was controlled by the Communist party, the
Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), in a nominally multiparty contest in which the 434 persons receiving the highest number of votes were elected, and other candidates getting at least 5% of the votes were placed on a reserve list to fill vacancies.[62][63]
The
International Organization of Space Communications (Intersputnik) was founded by scientist delegates from the
Soviet Union and from seven Soviet allies (Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Mongolia, and Cuba) to cooperate on communications satellites, in the same manner as the western
Intelsat organization.[66]
Britain's Foreign Secretary
Alec Douglas-Home arrived in
Salisbury, capital of
Rhodesia, to discuss proposals for a political settlement.[68] Salisbury, Rhodesia would later be renamed Harare, Zimbabwe, after the white minority government yielded to black majority rule and economic disaster. [69]
Died: Rudolf Abel (William August Fisher), 68, English-born KGB spy for the Soviet Union who was convicted in the U.S. for smuggling American nuclear secrets to the Soviet government, and returned to the Soviets in 1962 in exchange for captured American pilot Francis Gary Powers.[70]
The British Government committee of inquiry, chaired by
Lord Parker, the
Lord Chief Justice of England and charged to look into the legal and moral aspects of the use of the
five techniques of interrogation in Northern Ireland, released its 72-page report. Although the Commission noted that prisoners arrested on August 9 had been subjected to
sleep deprivation, a "bread and water" diet, "continuous and monotonous noise" and "hooded isolation", it noted that "Where we have concluded that physical ill-treatment took place, we are not making a finding of brutality. We consider that brutality is an inhuman or savage form of curelty. We do not think that happened here."[71]
Thailand's Prime Minister
Thanom Kittikachorn, a Field Marshal in the
Royal Thai Air Force, staged a coup d'état against his own government, dissolving the national parliament and his cabinet, including longtime Foreign Minister
Thanat Khoman. A five-member "Revolutionary Council", headed by Kittikachorn, was created to replace the constitutional government, and the monarchy was maintained.[74]
Nine Irish Republican Army prisoners escaped the
Crumlin Road Jail in
Belfast,
Northern Ireland, after rope ladders were thrown over the wall to them. Two Roman Catholic monks and several Belfast businessmen would later be charged with aiding the escape. Seven were able to flee across the border to
Ireland, which allowed them to remain.[75]
Died:
Debaki Kumar Bose, 73,
Indian film producer and director known for his innovations in Hindi and Bengali film[76]
Gladys Cooper, 82, English stage, film and television character actress known for My Fair Lady and Now, Voyager.[77]
At a cafe in the town of
Hestroff, the government of
France began the first auction of the structures of the 40-year old
Maginot Line that had been built in the 1930s along the border with Germany, finally disposing of what one journalist observed to be "an emblem of a false sense of security".[78] The heavily fortified Maginot Line, designed to stop a German invasion, never saw battle after World War Two broke out in 1939. In 1940, the German Wehrmacht invaded France anyway, sweeping across the unfortified border with Belgium.
The
Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) released its report of
the November 6 nuclear detonation in Alaska of a five megaton thermonuclear weapon, and said that there was no radiation detected nor evidence of radioactive contamination to the environment of
Amchitka Island. The AEC said that the explosive force of the $200 million test had created a concussion that killed "hundreds of fish... as well as 18 sea otters, four seals and 16 birds."[81]
In Brazil, 29 people were killed in the collapse of a bridge still under construction, the Elevado Engenheiro Freyssinet, when a 110 m (360 ft) section of the structure fell on traffic at the intersection of Paulo de Frontin Avenue and Haddock Lobo, in
Rio de Janeiro. According to authorities, at least two buses and ten cars were crushed under thousands of tons of debris.[82][83][84]
The
Cairngorm Plateau disaster, which ended in the deaths of five teenagers and an inexperienced adult guide during a mountain hike in Scotland, began with a weekend expedition into the mountains known as the
Cairngorms, even with snow predicted.[85] The teenagers, all 15 years old, were students at
Ainslie Park School in
Edinburgh
Women from all over the U.S. marched in support of abortion rights in events in
Washington D.C. and
San Francisco. The marches were organized by a new organization, WONAAC, which had been created in July.[86][87][88]
Born: Joel McHale, American comedian and TV actor known for Community; to American parents in
Rome.[89]
The
Battle of Garibpur took place as the first major conflict between India and Pakistan prior to the
Indo-Pakistani War that would end with Pakistan recognizing the independence of Bangladesh.[90]
China Airlines Flight 825, a Caravelle III jet, crashed into the waters of the
Taiwan Strait when it exploded in mid-air during a flight from
Taipei to
Hong Kong, killing all 25 people on board.
After six days of negotiations, Prime Minister
Ian Smith of
Rhodesia signed a short-lived accord with British Foreign Secretary
Alec Douglas-Home, to gradually end white-minority rule of the southern African nation.[92]
The U.S. and
Honduras signed a treaty in the Honduran city of
San Pedro Sula to return the U.S.-controlled and uninhabited
Swan Islands to Honduras after 108 years.[93] Located in the
Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles (160 km) north of Honduras, the islands of Greater Swan and Lesser Swan, and a coral reef called the Bobby Cay, had been under U.S. sovereignty since 1863 and housed weather, navigation and communication stations. The islands, totaling 3 square miles (7.8 km2) in area, are now referred to by the Spanish word for a
swan, Islas de Cisne.[94]
The long-running nightly Australian TV news show
A Current Affair, still on stations of the
Nine Network 49 years later, made its debut as a local feature of the
Melbourne Channel 9 station,
GTV-9, with
Mike Willesee as the first host.
A clash in the Philippines between the Philippine Army and predominantly Muslim
Moro insurgents took place on the day of a special election near the town of
Magsaysay, Lanao del Norte. Thirty-seven Moros were killed and 43 wounded, while two Philippine soldiers were wounded. Another battle occurred at the city of
Nunungan where seven Moros were killed after stealing ballot boxes.[95]
Six climbers died while attempting to scale
Cairn Gorm in Scotland.[96]
An agreement was signed in
London between a deputy minister of the British Ministry for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Anthony Royle, and the
Sultan of Brunei,
Hassanal Bolkiah, providing for British recognition of
Brunei's self-government regarding internal matters, and continuation of protectorate status in the matter of Brunei's foreign affairs and defence.
Pakistan's President
Yahya Khan declared a national emergency in an address to his country and told Pakistanis to prepare for a war with
India.[97][98] The action came a day after Indian Army troops crossed into
East Pakistan to aid in an offensive by the Bangladesh guerrilla army."[99]
During a severe
thunderstorm over
Washington, a man calling himself
D. B. Cooper parachuted from
Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727 that he had hijacked, with US$200,000 in ransom money.[100][101] He was never apprehended, and nearly 50 years later, the case would remain the only unsolved skyjacking in history.[102]
A
Brussels court sentenced pretender
Alexis Brimeyer, in absentia, to 18 months in jail for falsely using a title of Belgian nobility. Brimeyer had already fled to
Greece.
Rhodesian Prime Minister
Ian Smith and British Foreign Secretary
Alec Douglas-Home signed an agreement on proposals for a political settlement. Under the terms of the pact, the white minority government (in a nation with 250,000 white European and five million black African citizens) would retain its present power, but British economic sanctions would be lifted if the white government enacted legislation to outlaw racial discrimination, and the goal would be set for eventual black majority rule of
Rhodesia (now
Zimbabwe).[103]
The #1 and #2 ranked teams in the United States, both undefeated after nine games and both in the
Big Eight Conference, met in
the most anticipated college football game of the year, as the #1
University of Nebraska Cornhuskers visited the #2
University of Oklahoma Sooners. Trailing, 31 to 28 with less than two minutes to play, Nebraska scored the winning touchdown with 1:38 left in the game and winning 35–31. The Cornhuskers would go on to win recognition as the NCAA national champions in another #1 vs. #2 game, beating second-ranked Alabama at the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.[105]
British Prime Minister
Harold Wilson presented a plan to the House of Commons for an eventual union of the
Republic of Ireland and the British region of
Northern Ireland that could take effect as early as the year 1987, starting with the formation of a commission composed of British, Northern Irish and Irish members to frame a constitution for
united Ireland, to come into effect 15 years after all three parliaments ratified the instrument. Northern Irish Prime Minister Brian Faulkner rejected the plan the next day, declaring that although he would welcome dialogue with the Republic of Ireland, he would not consider weakening his region within the
United Kingdom.[106]
Born:
Christina Applegate, American television and film actress, known primarily for the TV show Married With Children; in
Hollywood, California to record producer Robert W. Applegate and soap opera actress
Nancy Priddy
Two days of elections were held in Czechoslovakia for the 200 seats of the lower house of the
Federal Assembly, the Chamber of the People (Sněmovna lidu Czech or Snemovňa ľudu Slovak).[107] Voters were limited to approving or disapproving the pre-approved slate of 200 candidates endorsed by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
For the first time since the founding of the modern state of
Israel in 1948, Muslim Israeli citizens were given permission to come to
Mecca in
Saudi Arabia for the
Hajj, the pilgrimage to Islam's holiest city, held annually. The decision was announced in a letter from King Faisal II of Sauid Arabia to the Palestinian Mayor of
Hebron in the
West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967. At the time, about 325,000 of Israel's three million citizens were Muslim. The decision affected the upcoming Hajj starting January 22, 1972, corresponding to the 8th day of the month of
Dhu al-Hijjah, 1391 A.H. on the Muslim calendar.[108]
A ban against "
caning" of students, used as a form of
corporal punishment to enforce discipline in British schools since the early 19th century, was ordered by the Inner London Education Authority for the 880 primary schools in
London, but was not scheduled to go into effect until January 1, 1973, 13 months in the future at the time.[109] The punishment typically was administered by a teacher, with a long stick made of
rattan to an unruly student, generally hitting the recipient across the buttocks.
East Germany's parliament, the Volkskammer, unanimously re-elected former Communist Party Chairman
Walter Ulbricht as the nation's nominal head of state, and Willi Stoph as the head of government.[110]
Died:
Giacomo Alberione, 87, Italian priest, founder of the Society of St. Paul and the Daughters of St. Paul;
The lander of the USSR's
Mars 2 probe, became the first man-made object to reach the surface of
Mars, but was destroyed on impact because its parachute failed to deploy due to a computer malfunction.[111] The orbiter, launched with the lander on May 19, would continue in Martian orbit and transmit data for eight months before being deactivated on August 22, 1972.
Thirty-four members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division were killed in the crash of a CH-47 Chinook helicopter in South Vietnam, when the aircraft impacted the western slope of Mum Kun Sac Mountain near
Phu Loc.[112][113] The wreckage would not be discovered until December 2nd.
Pakistan launched its first direct assault against
India in the
latest war between the two nations, killing at least 20 people and injuring 70 in the city of
Balurghat in the
West Bengal state, near the border with East Pakistan. The Pakistani Army fired artillery shells from their side of the border, at least three miles (about two kilometers) away from the target area. Eight of the shells fell on crowded areas of the city during the morning.[116]
Died:Wasfi al-Tal, 52,
Prime Minister of Jordan, He was assassinated by members of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September while standing on the steps of the Sheraton Hotel in
Cairo, while attending an
Arab League summit meeting in
Egypt.[117] Tal and Jordan's Foreign Minister Abdullah Salah were returning to their hotel after a meeting with the joint defense council of the
Arab League, where the member nations had been discussing strategy against Israel, when three members of the Palestinian guerrilla group
Black September ran toward them from the hotel lobby and began firing with revolvers.[118]
For the first time since the founding of the Swiss Confederation in
1291,
Switzerland's national parliament had female members, as 10 women were sworn into office in the National Council, and one took the office in the Council of State.[119]
The
Sandy's hamburger restaurant chain, with franchises in Illinois, Iowa and other U.S. Midwestern states and operating since 1956, was acquired by the
Hardee's restaurant chain based in the South and founded in 1960.[124]
Pakistan's President
Yahya Khan and the armed forces made the ultimately disastrous decision to launch
Operation Chengiz Khan, an airstrike against India and its airbases near the border with East Pakistan, to take place on December 3. At the same time, India's Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi publicly called on Yahya Khan to pull all Pakistani Army troops from
East Pakistan as "a gesture for peace".[125]
The finance ministers and central bank governors of ten non-Communist nations began discussions at Rome to negotiate a realignment of the national currencies of all 10 states. The "Group of 10" sent representatives for the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Sweden, Japan, France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. U.S. Treasury Secretary
John B. Connally appeared as the American finance minister.[126]
Died: Fred Quilt, a 55-year-old leader of the
Tsilhqot'in First Nation, two days after being fatally injured in the course of his arrest by the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which initially pulled him over for drunk driving.[127] Quilt died two days later and the
Fred Quilt inquiry followed.
^"School Prayers Blocked by House by 28-vote Margin— 240-162 Ballot Turns Down Proposed Amendment for 'Voluntary' Worship", The New York Times, November 9, 1971, p. 1
^"Bobbie E. Brown, Medal of Honor Winner, Is Dead", by Murray Illson, The New York Times, November 11, 1971
^"RAF Plane crashes in Italy, killing 52", by Peter Nichols, The Times (London), November 10, 1971, p. 1
^"52 Missing in Plane Crash Off Italy", The New York Times, November 10, 1971, p. 1
^"Westfielder sought in slaying of 5", The Courier-News (Bridgewater, NJ), December 8, 1971, p. 1
^"A Major Attack in East Pakistan Reported Begun— Pakistan Says India Has Made Dents Along Border", by Malcolm W. Browne, The New York Times, November 23, 1971, p. 1
^"Hijacker Flees, Taking $200,000", The New York Times, November 25, 1971, p. 1
^"Hijacker Collects Ransom of $200,000; Parchutes From Jet and Disappears", by Earl Caldwell, The New York Times, November 26, 1971, p. 1