1972

Leading white campaigners for black majority rule in Rhodesia, former Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia, Garfield Todd, and his daughter, Judith, were arrested after violence erupted over Anglo-Rhodesian plans for independence.

The number of people out of work and claiming benefit rose above one million for the first time since the 1930s. There were angry demonstrations in the House of Commons with the Prime Minister, Edward Heath, subjected to abuse and catcalls from the Labour benches.

British troops opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators in the Bogside district of Londonderry, killing 13 civilians, on the worst day of violence in the city since 1969.

The British embassy in Dublin was destroyed by a furious crowd of demonstrators protesting over the shooting dead of 13 people in Londonderry on Sunday.

The mob threw hundreds of petrol bombs, as well as stones and other missiles. Fire engines which arrived to tackle the blaze were prevented from getting through for several hours.

The Central Electricity Generating Board announced that many homes and businesses would be without electricity for up to nine hours a day.

Miners were into the sixth week of their strike over pay, and were picketing power stations and other sources of fuel supply in an attempt to step up pressure on the Government.

American President Richard Nixon arrived in China at the start of a week-long summit aimed at ending 20 years of frosty relations between the two countries.

His visit began with an unexpected audience with Chairman Mao Zedong at the leader's home which involved a "serious and frank discussion".

Five women and an army priest were killed in an IRA bomb attack on the 16th Parachute Brigade headquarters at Aldershot, Hampshire.

The Official IRA said the attack was in revenge for the events in Londonderry on 30 January when 13 civilians were shot dead by the Parachute Regiment.

A group of Palestinian hijackers who took over a Lufthansa jet in the skies over India released the crew and surrendered at an airstrip in the Yemen.

All the 172 passengers - including Joseph Kennedy, son of the late Senator Robert Kennedy - were freed after painstaking negotiations with the prime minister of Yemen, Nasser Muhammad, and West German officials.

Miners voted overwhelmingly in favour of a pay settlement after a seven-week strike for increased wages.

The strike had crippled the country's power supplies, seen 1.2 million workers laid off as a result of the imposition of a three-day week and a state of emergency declared on 9 February.

A bomb exploded aboard a Trans World Airlines Boeing 707 at Las Vegas airport.

No-one was injured in the blast which destroyed the cockpit of the aircraft as it stood empty on the tarmac.

The explosion happened hours after an anonymous phone caller threatened TWA with a series of bomb attacks unless £760,000 was handed over.

A crowd of more than 500 people attended a rally in London's Trafalgar Square ahead of a four-day demonstration against nuclear arms.

Protesters - singing, blowing horns and carrying banners - were launching the latest leg of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament - a 56-mile Easter march from London to Aldermaston, Berkshire.

Up to 4,000 people were thought to have died in a massive earthquake in southern Iran.

The quake centred on the town of Ghir, where almost 1,000 people were feared dead.

The British army were largely exonerated of blame for Bloody Sunday which ended in the deaths of 14 civilians in Northern Ireland.

A report into the events which followed a civil rights march in Londonderry in January said the Army's operation was justified.

The Apollo 16 mission landed on the Moon after a seven-hour crisis that nearly aborted the mission altogether. An engine on the command module, Casper, had malfunctioned after it had separated from the lunar module.

Twelve Israeli soldiers disguised as maintenance staff stormed a hijacked Sabena Boeing at Lod airport in Tel Aviv and released the 100 people on board. Two of the Arab hijackers were shot dead and their two female companions were captured.

Six of the passengers were also wounded in the gun battle. The 90 passengers and 10 crew had been held hostage for 23 hours.

The Duke of Windsor was not well enough to attend tea with the Queen when she visited his home in Paris.

He was said to be "dreadfully disappointed" after doctors told him he was not to come downstairs because of ill health.

American President Richard Nixon arrived in Moscow for talks with Soviet leaders.

He was given a modest welcome as he stepped off the plane at Vnukovo airport with his wife.

A twenty-minute ceremony, during which the president briefly inspected a guard of honour, was held and broadcast live by Moscow television.

The state-owned travel firm Thomas Cook & Son was sold for £22.5m to a consortium of private businesses headed by the Midland Bank.

This had come after depressed results from the travel industry as a whole and a sharp fall in Thomas Cook's profits over the last few years.

Three Japanese gunmen, recruited by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, opened fire on crowds at Lod International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, killing 26 people and injuring dozens more.

The three men arrived on an Air France flight from Paris and once their luggage had come through to the baggage hall, they drew out automatic guns and hand grenades and fired randomly at anybody in sight.

The official wing of the IRA in Northern Ireland announced a ceasefire, reserving the right of self-defence against attacks by the British Army and sectarian groups.

However the Provisional IRA dismissed the truce as having "little effect" on the situation.

The Northern Ireland Secretary, William Whitelaw, welcomed the move and a spokesperson said it was "a step in the right direction".

A Protestant march against the creation of "no-go" areas in Londonderry ended in a bloody battle on the Craigavon Bridge.

Soldiers used rubber bullets and water cannon to control the crowd when the so-called "Tartan gangs" at the tail end of the march began to throw bottles and stones at the Army.

The Duke of Windsor, who died on 28 May, was laid to rest at the royal burial ground near Windsor Castle.

Hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers faced flight delays and cancellations after pilots threatened to strike over hijack fears.

The International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations (IFALPA) called a 24-hour stoppage and accused governments of failing to take action to halt air piracy.

All 118 people on board a flight from London Heathrow to Brussels died when the airliner crashed minutes after take-off.

The British European Airways plane came down in a field in Staines, missing the town centre by just a few hundred yards. It is the worst disaster in British aviation history.

The Chancellor, Anthony Barber, announced his decision to temporarily float the pound.

The news comes only a day after the bank lending rate was increased by 1% - and four days after an interview on the BBC's Panorama programme in which he denied Britain was in danger of devaluation.