UK, 
US, 
Australia & 
IrelandAt A Glance
16 January 1972 at a glance
- Day of the week
- 16 January 1972 was a Sunday.
- Billboard Hot 100 No. 1
- The Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 was “American Pie” by Don McLean.
- Top Film of 1972
- The highest-grossing film worldwide released in 1972 was The Godfather.
- Bestselling Novel of 1972
- “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” by Richard Bach was No. 1 on Publishers Weekly's US fiction list for 1972.
- Top-Rated TV Show
- “All in the Family” (CBS) was No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1972–73 season.
- Star sign
- The star sign for 16 January is Capricorn.
- Chinese zodiac
- In the Chinese zodiac, 16 January 1972 fell in the Year of the Pig.
- Birthstone
- The birthstone for January is Garnet.
- Moon phase
- The moon phase on 16 January 1972 was New Moon.
On this day: 16 January
- 1969 Space Race: Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of crewed spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk.
- 1979 Iranian Revolution: The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt.
- 1984 A radiation detector at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, United States, detects radioactivity after a truck carrying rebar accidentally passed through the laboratory's area, revealing a contamination incident that occurred in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, the previous month.
- 1991 Coalition Forces go to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War.
- 1992 El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City, Mexico ending the 12-year Salvadoran Civil War that claimed at least 75,000 lives.
Famous people born on January 16
- Aaliyah, American singer and actress (1979–2001)
- Lin-Manuel Miranda, American actor, playwright, and composer (born 1980)
- Sade, Nigerian-English singer-songwriter and producer (born 1959)
- Sidharth Malhotra, Indian actor (born 1985)
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Choose your country: the charts, news and leaders change to match.
Events of 1972 in the United States
A selection from Wikipedia's '1972 in the United States'. Not a complete list.
- March 15 – The Godfather has its premiere at the Loew's State Theatre in New York City.
- April 10 – The 44th Annual Academy Awards, hosted by Helen Hayes, Alan King, Sammy Davis Jr. and Jack Lemmon, is held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. William Friedkin's The French Connection wins five awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Friedkin.
- April 12 – The X-rated animated movie Fritz the Cat is released.
Life in the US in 1972
President
Richard Nixon
Gas (per gallon)
$0.36
Loaf of Bread
$0.25
Average House
$19,400
Weekly Wage
$154
Or
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Famous Faces Born in the 1970s
Well-known people born in the same decade as you, not on your birthday.
Keri Russell23 March 1976ActressView their day →Tupac Shakur16 June 1971Rapper & actorView their day →Zoe Saldaña19 June 1978ActressView their day →Christopher Nolan30 July 1970FilmmakerView their day →Jon Bernthal20 September 1976ActorView their day →Jason Sudeikis18 September 1975Actor & comedianView their day →Milo Ventimiglia8 July 1977ActorView their day →Sarah Paulson17 December 1974ActressView their day →Sources: Wikidata and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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