1972

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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 ).


 * Pierre Hotel Robbery: Six men rob the safe deposit boxes of The Pierre hotel in New York City of at least $4 million.


 * The first scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) is introduced (price $395).


 * U.S. President Richard Nixon orders the development of a Space Shuttle program.


 * The Libertarian enclave Minerva on a platform in the South Pacific, sponsored by the Phoenix Foundation, declares independence. Soon neighboring Tonga annexes the area and dismantles the platform.


 * The Apollo program ends.


 * Jupiter :  Voyager 1 and 2 all made close up fly-bys between March 1972


 * Images of Alien activity on Venus  surpressed by AXIOM (A group of renegade Sarans try to find Information on the Seeders anf gain access to their technology) See : The Jupiter Question


 * Alien Star Map Found in Kupang, Indonesia


 * 18th Soviet Antarctic Expedition — led by Pavel Senko starts