Contemporary
Aboriginal Tent Embassy (1972): Protest at Parliament House
The protest put Aboriginal land rights at the centre of national politics and the Embassy, permanently re-established in 1992, still stands.
Era · 1945 – present
Contemporary
From the Cold War and the Space Race to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the world we live in today.
Contemporary
Bloody Sunday (1972): Shootings at a Derry Civil Rights March
Thirteen civilians were killed on the day and another died months later; the shootings deepened the Troubles and were declared unjustified by the Saville Inquiry in 2010.
Contemporary
Title IX (1972): The Law That Transformed Women's Sport in the US
Federal law barred sex discrimination in any education programme receiving federal funds, leading to a large expansion of girls' and women's sport.
Contemporary
Munich Massacre (1972): Hostage Attack at the Summer Olympics
All eleven Israeli team members taken hostage or attacked were killed, along with a West German police officer; five of the eight attackers died.
Contemporary
Pioneer 10 (1972): The First Spacecraft to Reach Jupiter
Pioneer 10 crossed the asteroid belt safely, returned the first close-up images and measurements of Jupiter and became the first spacecraft set to leave the solar system.
Contemporary
Apollo 17 (1972): The Last Crewed Moon Landing
Two astronauts spent about three days on the Moon and returned the largest haul of lunar samples of any Apollo mission; no human has landed on the Moon since.
Contemporary
Paris Peace Accords (1973): The Agreement to End US Fighting
US forces withdrew from Vietnam and American prisoners were released, but the ceasefire between North and South Vietnam soon collapsed.
Contemporary
Chilean Coup of 1973: Pinochet Overthrows Salvador Allende
The elected Popular Unity government fell, Allende died in La Moneda, and a military junta led by Augusto Pinochet ruled Chile until 1990.
Contemporary
Chipko Movement (1973): Hugging Trees in the Indian Himalayas
Village protests halted commercial felling in parts of the Garhwal Himalaya and led to a 15-year ban on green felling in the Uttar Pradesh Himalaya in 1980.
Contemporary
APA Removes Homosexuality from the DSM (1973): A Turning Point
The APA Board of Trustees voted to delete homosexuality as a mental disorder from the DSM-II, a decision upheld by a membership referendum in 1974.
Contemporary
Wounded Knee Occupation (1973): AIM's 71-Day Standoff
The occupation ended by agreement after 71 days with two occupiers dead and a federal marshal paralysed; it drew national attention to Native American grievances.
Contemporary
Battle of the Sexes (1973): Billie Jean King vs Bobby Riggs
King won 6–4, 6–3, 6–3, a widely watched victory that boosted women's professional tennis and the wider campaign for equality in sport.