January 1972

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  1
After first appearing as an insert in New York magazine the previous month, the first stand-alone issue of Ms., edited by Gloria Steinem, is published.
2
All cigarette advertising is banned from TV.
 3
 4
Maine senator Edmund Muskie joins Senator George McGovern and New York City mayor John Lindsay in the race for the White House by announcing his candidacy for the Democratic nomination. He is soon followed by Minnesota senator Hubert Humphrey, Alabama governor George Wallace, New York congresswoman Shirley Chisholm and Washington senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson.
 5
New antihijacking regulations requiring the screening of air passengers and their baggage go into effect.

NASA begins to focus its efforts on a manned, reusable space-shuttle program, with a target launch date of 1978.
 6
 7
President Nixon announces his intention to run for reelection. Spiro Agnew will again be his running mate.
 8
Melanie Safka, better known simply as Melanie, enjoys the biggest hit of her career with "Brand New Key," which remains at Number One for the third consecutive week on this date. The daghter of a one-time jazz singer, Melanie, whose folky compositions ooze with sincerity -- first gained attention with 1970's "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)." But her career takes a sharp turn downward after the success of "Brand New Key."
9
Billionaire recluse Howard Hughes reveals in a conference call with the press that his puported autobiography, told to Clifford Irving, is a fraud. Two months later, Irving and his wife plead guilty to defrauding their publisher, McGraw-Hill Inc.
 10
According to the U.S. surgeon general, the health of nonsmokers is endangered by secondhand cigarette smoke.
 11
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 15
16
Ross Bagdasarian, who had a string of novelty hits in the Fifties "sung" by TV cartoon characters the Chipmunks, dies at age fifty-two. Once a raisin farmer and a bit actor, Bagdasarian did the voices for Alvin, Simon and Theodore. Under the name David Seville, he recorded the Number One hit "Witch Doctor" in 1957, and the following year he sold more than 4 million records with the "Chipmunk Song." Bagdasarian also cowrote the Rosemary Clooney hit "Come On-a My House."

Led by star quarterback Roger Staubach, the Dallas Cowboys defeat the Miami Dolphins, 24-3, in Super Bowl VI.
 17
 18
 19
The National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse reveals that 24 million Americans have experimented with marijuana and that a third of those are regular users.
 20
 21
 22
One of the least conspicuous success stories in rock is that of Rare Earth, who on this date rack up their fifth -- and last -- Top Twenty hit, "Hey Big Brother." The group, a white band whose Rare Earth label was a subsidiary of Motown, had its biggest hit in 1970 with a cover of the Temptations' 1966 hit "Get Ready."

Top of the charts: Don McLean's "American Pie" (pop single) and American Pie (pop album).
23
Maybelle Smith, also known as Big Maybelle, dies at age forty-seven in Cleveland. Born in Jackson, Tennessee, Smith hit her peak as a jazz singer in the late Forties and early Fifties, and accumulated several million-selling records, including "Candy," "96 Tear Drops" and "Ain't Nothin' but a Hound Dog."
 24
Discovered still hiding in the jungles of Guam, Sergeant Shoichi Yokio of Japan's Imperial Army is informed of his country's World War II surrender 27 years earlier.
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 27
The New Seekers receive a gold record for "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing," a song that probably will be better remembered as the music for Coca-Cola commercials.

Mahalia Jackson once remarked that she sang "because I was lonely," but who became one of America's best-loved vocalists. The sixty-year-old gospel singer, who'd been in failing health ever since a heart attack in 1964, dies in Chicago. Born in New Orleans, she earned her first recording contract in 1935 after a talent scout from Decca Records heard her sing at a funeral. "You had all those people crying in there," he said. Though Jackson was profoundly afffected by the records of Bessie Smith, she never sang the blues, only gospel music.
 28
Carol Feraci, one of the Ray Conniff Singers, holds aloft an antiwar sign reading STOP THE KILLING while performing at the White House for President Nixon and his guests.
 29
30
Los Angeles Laker Will "the Stilt" Chamberlain grabs the NBA title for most career rebounds, with 21,734. Two weeks later, he becomes the first NBA player to score more than 30,000 career points.
 31
More than 40,000 mourners file past Mahalia Jackson's open coffin in Chicago's Greater Salem Baptist Church. Funeral services are held the next day; in attendance are Coretta King, Mayor Richard Daley and Sammy Davis, Jr., who reads a telegram from President Nixon. At the end of the services, Aretha Franklin sings "Precious Lord, Take My Hand," moving many to tears.

Joan Baez claims a gold record for her album Any Day Now, which was comprised solely of songs by Bob Dylan. The LP went gold three years after its release.

Large-print health-risk warnings will now be mandatory on cigarette advertising, according to a Federal Trade Commission report.
  


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