In the year 1972, East Pakistan renames itself Bangladesh (Jan 11), a Japanese WW2 soldier is discovered in Guam, having spent 28 years in the jungle (Jan 24), Nixon’s visit in China begins (Feb 21), The Godfather premiers in New York City (Mar 15), Okinawa is returned to Japan (May 15), Watergate scandal commences (Jun 17), 11 Israeli athletes are murdered at the Munich Olympics (Sep 5), M*A*S*H begins its run on CBS (Sep 17), Emmerdale premiers on ITV (Oct 16), Apollo 17 crew takes on their way to the Moon The Blue Marble photograph (Dec 7) and conclude on their return the program of lunar exploration (Dec 19), worship of Norse gods is officially approved in Iceland - and all these fine people were born:
1972-0101 Lilian Thuram* football player/political activist - Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, France
1972-0105
1972-0110 Thomas Alsgaard* cross-country skier/OG - Lørenskog, Norway
1972-0111 Wes McCauley* hockey player/NHL referee - Georgetown, ON Canada
1972-0112 Zabryna Guevara* actress - USA
1972-0116 Richard T. Jones* American actor - Kobe, Japan
1972-0120
1972-0127 Mark Owen* singer/ songwriter (Take That) - Oldham, Lancashire, England
1972-0128 Peter McDonald* actor/ director - Dublin, Ireland
1972-0128 Emery Smith* scientist/ biotechnologist (alien technology)/ whistleblower - Plainfield, NJ USA
1972-0131
1972-0202 Naheed Nenshi* politician/Calgary Mayor - Toronto, ON Canada
1972-0213 Virgilijus Alekna* discus thrower/politician - Terpeikiai, Lithuania, Soviet Union
1972-0214 Najwa Nimri* actress (La casa de papel) - Pamplona, Navarra, Spain
1972-0215 Jaromír Jágr* hockey player (NHL 100)/3GC - Kladno, Czechoslovakia
1972-0217 Brian Acton* computer programmer/ Internet entrepreneur - MI USA
1972-0217 Taylor Hawkins* musician/ drummer (Foo Fighters) - Fort Worth, TX USA (2022/50)
1972-0218
1972-0220 Brent Gretzky* hockey player - Brantford, ON Canada
1972-0224 Kurt Wubben* marathon speed skater - Pijnacker, Netherlands
1972-0228 Jared Bednar* hockey player/ coach - Yorkton, SK Canada
1972-0228 Ville Haapasalo* actor/documentary maker - Hollola, Finland
1972-0303 Kim Väisänen* entrepreneur/ investor - Outokumpu, Finland
1972-0308 Andrey Melnichenko* billionaire industrialist - Gomel, Belarus, Soviet Union
1972-0309 Sinuhe Wallinheimo* hockey goalie/politician - Jyväskylä, Finland
1972-0310 Dustin Higgs* executed inmate - Poughkeepsie, NY USA (2021/48)
1972-0313 Common* (b Lonnie Lynn) rapper/actor - Chicago, IL USA
1972-0314 Sami Hintsanen* singer/ actor - Tampere, Finland
1972-0317 Mia Hamm* football player - Selma, AL USA
1972-0318 Dane Cook* stand-up comedian/actor - Cambridge, MA USA
1972-0320
1972-0321 Piotr Adamczyk* actor / voice actor - Warsaw, Poland
1972-0325 Naftali Bennett* politician/PM - Haifa, Israel
1972-0326 Leslie Mann* actress/w Finnish grandmother - San Francisco, CA USA
1972-0327 Kieran Modra* Paralympic swimmer/tandem cyclist/OG - Port Lincoln, SA Australia (2019/47)
1972-0328 Richard Andersson* singer/ songwriter/musician - Ystad, Sweden
1972-0328 Keith Tkachuk* hockey player - Melrose, MA USA
1972-0331
1972-0401
1972-0403 Jennie Garth* actress - Urbana, IL USA
1972-0403 Sandrine Testud* tennis player - Lyon, France
1972-0404 Martin Rundkvist* archaeologist - Stockholm, Sweden
1972-0407 Tim Peake* astronaut - Chichester, West Sussex, England
1972-0417 Jennifer Garner* actress - Houston, TX USA
1972-0417 Jarkko Wiss* football player/coach - Tampere, Finland
1972-0418 Eli Roth* film director/producer/actor - Newton, MA USA
1972-0420 Carmen Electra* model/ actress/singer - Sharonville, OH USA
1972-0425 Sofia Helin* actress (The Bridge) - Hovsta, Sweden
1972-0430
1972-0501
1972-0502 Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson* professional wrestler/actor/businessman - Hayward, CA USA
1972-0506 Martin Brodeur* hockey goalie (NHL 100)/manager/OG - Montreal, QC Canada
1972-0507 Ashgar Farhadi* film director/screenwriter - Homayoon Shahr, Imperial State of Iran
1972-0509 Claire Ward* politician - North Shields, Northumberland, England
1972-0510 Mikko Hautala* diplomat - Seinäjoki, Finland
1972-0516 Khary Payton* actor/ voice actor - Augusta, GA USA
1972-0520
1972-0521 Brett Tucker* actor/ singer - Melbourne, VIC Australia
1972-0522 Max Brooks* actor/ author/son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft - New York City, NY USA
1972-0522 Alison Eastwood* actress/fashion designer/daughter of Clint Eastwood - Carmel, CA USA
1972-0525 Octavia Spencer* actress - Montgomery, AL USA
1972-0526
1972-0527 Lynn Ban* fine jewelry designer/to U.S. at age 4 - Singapore (2025/52)
1972-0528 Roland Møller* actor - Odense, Denmark
1972-0529 Laverne Cox* (b Roderick Leverne Cox) actress/LGBT advocate - Mobile, AL USA
1972-0531 Antti Niemi* football goalie - Oulu, Finland
1972-0531 Archie Panjabi* actress - Edgware, London, England
1972-0602 Wentworth Miller* actor - Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England
1972-0606 Noriaki Kasai* ski jumper - Shimokawa, Hokkaido, Japan
1972-0606 Marko Kiprusoff* hockey player/WC/OB - Turku, Finland
1972-0607 Karl Urban* actor - Wellington, New Zealand
1972-0616 Andy Weir* novelist (The Martian) - Davis, CA USA
1972-0619 Poppy Montgomery* actress - Sydney, NSW Australia
1972-0620
1972-0628 Brendan Hunt* actor/ writer/co-creator of Ted Lasso - Chicago, IL USA
1972-0628 Alessandro Nivola* actor - Boston, MA USA
1972-0629 Sakis Tolis*singer/guitarist (Rotting Christ) - Athens, Greece
1972-0630 Molly Parker* actress - Maple Ridge, BC Canada
1972-0701 Steve Little* actor/voice actor/comedian - USA
1972-0701 Steffi Nerius* athlete (javelin/OS) - Bergen auf Rügen, Germany
1972-0710 Sofia Vergara* actress/model - Barranquilla, Colombia
1972-0711 Michael Rosenbaum* actor/producer/singer - Oceanside, NY USA
1972-0714 Deborah Mailman* Aboriginal actress/singer - Mount Isa, QLD Australia
1972-0718 Hannes Stefánsson* chess grandmaster - Reykjavik, Iceland
1972-0720
1972-0722 Seth Fisher* comic book artist - Seattle, Washington D.C. USA (2006/33)
1972-0726 Jonny Pasvolsky* Australian actor - Cape Town, South Africa
1972-0727 Clint Robinson* canoeist/ OG - Brisbane, QLD Australia
1972-0727 Maya Rudolph* actress/voice actress/singer - Gainesville, FL USA
1972-0727 Takashi Shimizu* 清水 崇 film director - Maebashi, Gunma, Japan
1972-0728 Janis Sarts* Latvian politician/ NATO director - Latvia, Soviet Union
1972-0729 Anssi Kela* singer/songwriter/musician - Kerava, Finland
1972-0729 Wil Wheaton* actor (Stand by Me)/voice actor/blogger - Burbank, CA USA
1972-0731
1972-0801 D-Von Dudley* (b Devon Hughes) pro wrestler/producer - New Rochelle, NY USA
1972-0806 Geri Halliwell* singer (the Spice Girls)/actress/author - Watford, Hertfordshire, England
1972-0809 A-Mei* (b Kulilay Amit) singer/record producer - Beinan, Taiwan
1972-0809 Virpi Butt* TV-gladiator/convicted killer - Finland (2021/49)
1972-0810 Angie Harmon* actress - Dallas, TX USA
1972-0815 Ben Affleck* actor/filmmaker - Berkeley, CA USA
1972-0817 Dawn Mabalon* academic/writer/activist - Stockton, CA USA (2018/45)
1972-0819 Sammi Cheng* singer/ actress - British Hong Kong
1972-0820
1972-0826 Paula Hawkins* author - Salisbury, Rhodesia
1972-0827 Mike Smith* actor - New Glasgow, NS Canada
1972-0829 Juliana Yendork* Ghanaian American athlete (long jump/triple jump) - Ghana
1972-0830 Cameron Diaz* actress - San Diego, CA USA
1972-0901 Amy Anderson* Swedish-American stand-up comedian/ actress/ writer - Seoul, South Korea
1972-0903 Tim Lobinger* athlete (polevault/ES) - Rheinbach, West Germany (2023/50)
1972-0908 Piia Koriseva* television host/lyricist/personal trainer - Toivakka, Finland
1972-0906 Idris Elba* actor - Hackney, London, England
1972-0909 Goran Visnjic* American-Croatian actor (ER) - Sibenik, Croatia, Yugoslavia
1972-0910
1972-0912 Anders Aukland* runner/cross-country skier/OG (Vasaloppet) - Tønsberg, Norway
1972-0915 Queen Letizia of Spain* (b Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano) the wife of King Felipe VI - Oviedo, Asturias, Spain
1972-0916 Sprent Dabwido* weightlifter/politician/P - Nauru (2019/46)
1972-0919 Ashot Nadanian* Armenian chess player/ theoretician/coach - Baku, Azerbaijan, Soviet Union (2022/50)
1972-0920 Kimbal Musk* entrepreneur/philanthropist/restaurateur - Pretoria, South Africa
1972-0927 Gwyneth Paltrow* actress - Los Angeles, CA USA
1972-0930 Ari Behn* Norwegian author/ex-husband of Princess Märtha Louise - Århus, Denmark (2019/47)
1972-1001
1972-1004 Krista Griffith* Democratic politician - USA
1972-1006 Brooke Howard-Smith* entrepreneur/television personality/ artist - Auckland, New Zealand
1972-1008 Enrique Arce* actor (La casa de papel) - Valencia, Spain
1972-1008 Melanie McGuire* (b Slate) nurse/ convicted of the “suitcase murder” - Ridgewood, NJ USA
1972-1010
1972-1014 Jonathan Kerrigan* actor (Heartbeat) - Lincolnshire, England
1972-1017 Eminem* (b Marshall Mathers III) rapper/record producer - St. Joseph, MO USA
1972-1020 Sanna Hellström* veterinarian/politician/zoo manager - Jyväskylä, Finland
1972-1024 Scott Peterson* fertilizer salesman/convicted of murder - San Diego, CA USA
1972-1027 Marika Krook* Finnish singer - Stockholm, Sweden
1972-1028 Brad Paisley* country singer/songwriter - Glen Dale, WV USA
1972-1030
1972-1101 Toni Collette* actress/musician - Blacktown, NSW Australia
1972-1101 Jenny McCarthy* actress - Evergreen Park, IL USA
1972-1104 Myles Pollard* actor - Perth, WA Australia
1972-1104 Anders Holch Povlsen* billionaire businessman (Bestseller) - Ringkøbing, Denmark
1972-1106 Thandie Newton* actress - Westminster, London, England
1972-1109 Eric Dane* actor - San Francisco, CA USA
1972-1111 Steve Konowalchuk* hockey player/coach - Salt Lake City, UT USA
1972-1114 Hovik Keuchkerian* Spanish boxer/ comedian/actor - Beirut, Libanon
1972-1120
1972-1125 Petteri Nummelin* hockey player/WC/OS - Turku, Finland
1972-1126 Christopher Fitzgerald* actor/singer - Bryn Mawr, PA USA
1972-1126 Chris Osgood* hockey goalie - Peace River, AB Canada
1972-1129 Brian Baumgartner* actor/director - Atlanta, GA USA
1972-1129 Andreas Goldberger* ski jumper - Ried im Innkreis, Austria
1972-1129 Paula Lehtomäki* politician - Kuhmo, Finland
1972-1130
1972-1201
1972-1207 Hermann Maier* alpine ski racer/OG - Altenmarkt im Pongau, Austria
1972-1212 Melissa Francis* child actress/TV commentator - Los Angeles, CA USA
1972-1212 Wilson Kipketer* middle distance runner/WC/OS - Kapchemoiywo, Nandi, Kenya
1972-1213 Hilaree Nelson* ski mountaineer - Seattle, WA USA (2022/49)
1972-1215 Lee Jung-jae* 이정재 model/actor - Seoul, South Korea
1972-1215 Stuart Townsend* actor - Howth, County Dublin, Ireland
1972-1218 Julian Arahanga* actor - Raetihi, Manawatū-Whanganui, New Zealand
1972-1220 Alexandre Willaume* actor - Copenhagen, Denmark
1972-1222 Poorna Jagannathan* American actress/producer/of Indian descent - Tunis, Tunisia
1972-1229 Jude Law* actor - Lewisham, London, England
1972-1229 Leonor Varela* actress - Santiago, Chile
1972-1231
1972-0
1972-0
1972-0
Updated 2025-0505 Helsinki-Stockholm
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