1972

1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1972nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 972nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 72nd year of the 20th century, and the 3rd year of the 1970s decade.

Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar time [the legal time scale], its duration was 31622401.141 seconds of Terrestrial Time (or Ephemeris Time), which is slightly shorter than 1908).^[1]

September 23: Martial law in the Philippines.

The arcade version of Pong is released.

Billie Joe Armstrong

Keith Ferguson

Pedro Sánchez

Shaquille O'Neal

Common

Leslie Mann

Jennie Garth

Jennifer Garner

Carmen Electra

Željko Joksimović

Julie Benz

Dwayne Johnson

Martin Brodeur

Maia Sandu

Karl Urban

Jean Dujardin

Zinedine Zidane

Geeta Tripathee

Maria Butyrskaya

Lisa Leslie

Sofía Vergara

Maya Rudolph

Wil Wheaton

Geri Halliwell

Ben Affleck

Cameron Diaz

Idris Elba

Queen Letizia of Spain

Gwyneth Paltrow

Ari Behn

Eminem

Gabrielle Union

Toni Collette

Thandiwe Newton

Josh Duhamel

Alyssa Milano

Jude Law

Mahalia Jackson

Maria Goeppert-Mayer

Meena Kumari

George Sanders

Kwame Nkrumah

J. Edgar Hoover

Lee Beom-seok

Edward VIII

Joe Deakin

Paul-Henri Spaak

Max Theiler

Juan Manuel Gálvez

Ásgeir Ásgeirsson

Akim Tamiroff

Jackie Robinson

Arnold Jackson

Harry S. Truman

Lester B. Pearson