Timeline May 1972

Events in May 1972 14

• 1894 – 1972 Edward, Duke of Windsor (1894-1972) Died 28 May 1972, aged 77 As King Edward VIII, he abdicated the British throne in 1936 to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson, one of the most famous royal scandals of the twentieth century. He lived most of the rest of his life in France with the title Duke of Windsor. He died of throat cancer in Paris.
• 1895 – 1972 J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972) Died 2 May 1972, aged 77 Hoover served as director of the FBI and its predecessor agency for 48 years, shaping American federal law enforcement and amassing enormous personal power. He died in office of heart disease. His long tenure and use of surveillance against political figures remain controversial.
• 1972 Grateful Dead's Europe '72 tour Live triple album A celebrated tour released as a triple live album.
• 1972 Genocide of Hutus in Burundi Government crackdown kills an estimated 100,000-200,000 people Following a Hutu uprising against the Tutsi-dominated government, Burundian security forces carried out a mass killing campaign targeting educated and elite Hutus across the country. Estimates of the dead range from 100,000 to over 200,000. The massacre drove hundreds of thousands of refugees into neighboring countries.
• 1972 Jackson Browne's Take It Easy a hit for the Eagles Co-written with Glenn Frey The Eagles' first single.
• 1972 Eagles release Take It Easy First single Co-written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey.
• 1972 First US aces of the Vietnam War Cunningham and Driscoll Navy F-4 crew Randy Cunningham and Willie Driscoll shoot down three MiGs in one mission, becoming the first American aces of the war.
• 1972 George Wallace shot at campaign rally Assassination attempt leaves Alabama governor paralyzed Alabama Governor and presidential candidate George Wallace was shot five times by Arthur Bremer at a campaign stop in Laurel, Maryland. Wallace survived but was left paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life. The shooting effectively ended his 1972 presidential bid.
• 1972 – present Andrzej Duda Current President The current President of Poland, first elected in 2015.
• 1972 – 1997 Notorious B.I.G. (1972-1997) Died 9 March 1997, aged 24 Christopher Wallace, known as the Notorious B.I.G., was a rapper whose album Ready to Die established him as one of hip hop's most influential artists. He was shot and killed in Los Angeles amid the East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry, six months after the murder of Tupac Shakur. His case remains officially unsolved.
• 1972 Ceylon becomes the Republic of Sri Lanka New constitution ends dominion status and renames the country A new constitution came into force transforming Ceylon into the independent Republic of Sri Lanka, severing its remaining constitutional links to the British monarchy. The change reflected a broader wave of post-colonial nation-building in South Asia. William Gopallawa became the country's first president.
• 1972 – present Rubens Barrichello Rubinho Record-breaking career in terms of starts; a loyal teammate at Ferrari and a multi-race winner.
• 1972 Exile on Main St. Tenth album — May 26, 1972 Exile on Main St. was released on May 26, 1972, recorded in the basement of Keith Richards' villa in the south of France while the band were tax exiles. Initially received mixed reviews, it is now widely regarded as their masterpiece and one of the greatest rock albums ever made.
• 1972 SALT I and Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty signed Nixon and Brezhnev cap the US-Soviet arms race President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in Moscow. The agreements froze the number of strategic ballistic missile launchers each side could deploy. It marked a high point of Cold War detente.