Also in 1972

• 15 of February - José María Velasco Ibarra, serving as President of Ecuador for the fifth time, is overthrown by the military for the fourth time.
• 16 of June - The largest single-site hydroelectric power project in Canada is inaugurated at Churchill Falls Generating Station.
• 10 of November - Southern Airways Flight 49 from Birmingham, Alabama is hijacked and, at one point, is threatened with crashing into the nuclear installation at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After two days, the plane lands in Havana, Cuba, where the hijackers are jai