The world in 1972

Why this year has a page

The year of 1972 Nixon visit to China (dated events index, Wikidata).

Names on the map

As the map labels them, largest first by the area of the outline drawn. Areas are of the drawn outline, rounded, and approximate. The record column says which record draws the outline; a Wikidata item is given where the record links one.

What changed since 1969

Names counted are those the records date to the year or the day (CShapes, OpenHistoricalMap, Cliopatria). Outlines filled from the nearest historical-basemaps sheet are counted only when both years are years that sheet was drawn for — otherwise the change would be the switch between two sheets, not a change in the world. Names are compared as written, so a polity a record names differently in the two years (Carthaginian Empire, then Carthage) is in both lists.

← Earlier: 1969Later: 1978 →

Events dated to 1972

Every record of IntMap’s one index of dated events whose date falls in this year: what the border record (CShapes 2.0) states about its own outlines, IntMap’s war record, and the world events Wikidata dates — each with its source and the precision of its date.

1. 1972

   1972 Nixon visit to China

   official United States visit to the People's Republic of China, leading to establishment of diplomatic relations

   began 1972-02-21 · Wikidata Q862054

2. 1972

   The Easter Offensive — the North attacks on three axes with fourteen divisions and armour, and for six months the war has front lines again

   IntMap’s war record — Vietnam War · 1972-03-30 – 1972-10-22

   On this day →
3. 1972

   Siege of An Lộc — a town of two square kilometres holds out for ninety-five days on airdrops

   IntMap’s war record — Vietnam War · 1972-04-13 – 1972-07-20

   On this day →
4. 1972

   Battle of Kon Tum — the Highlands axis of the offensive is stopped at the provincial capital

   IntMap’s war record — Vietnam War · 1972-04-14 – 1972-05-31

   On this day →
5. 1972

   Operation Pocket Money — Hải Phòng and the northern ports are mined from the air

   IntMap’s war record — Vietnam War · 1972-05-09

   On this day →
6. 1972

   Operation Linebacker — the bombing of the North resumes, this time against its railways, bridges and fuel

   IntMap’s war record — Vietnam War · 1972-05-10 – 1972-10-23

   On this day →
7. 1972

   The map stops drawing Ryukyu Islands (USA); new borders for Japan

   the border record (CShapes 2.0) · 1972-05-15

   On this day →
8. 1972

   Munich massacre

   Palestinian terror attack during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany

   began 1972-09-05 · Wikidata Q229007

9. 1972

   Operation Linebacker II — eleven days of B-52 raids on Hanoi and Hải Phòng over Christmas

   IntMap’s war record — Vietnam War · 1972-12-18 – 1972-12-29

   On this day →

Sources and method

Borders and names: CShapes 2.0 (Schvitz et al. 2022, icr.ethz.ch/data/cshapes) · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 + Cliopatria v0.2.1 (Seshat Global History Databank, github.com/Seshat-Global-History-Databank/cliopatria) · CC BY 4.0 · adapted by IntMap: simplified, BC years made astronomical, and the ground OpenHistoricalMap (1689–1885, and from 1886 where CShapes is silent) and CShapes (1886–2019) state removed on their own dates.

Which years have a page is worked out when the site is built, from three rules applied to the records themselves: every year the historical-basemaps atlas drew a world sheet for; every year whose change from the year before (names the dated records begin or stop drawing) is in the top 5% of all such year-to-year changes since the dated records begin, leaving out the years where one record hands over to another; and every year of a geopolitical, war or revolution event in the dated events index, up to the last year the border records cover (2019).

On each year the map is read on 1 July, the instant the app’s own year links open on. Names are the source’s own, translated where the source or IntMap’s name table has a translation. A name is what a record draws there, not a verdict of history.

World map in 1972 — the map, with the years it stays the same Historical maps by region Countries On this day

All data sources →