random retro-spective
The Queen opened the doors of the most famous house in the country
It's 1993 and if you paid £8, you could have a look around selected areas of Buckingham Palace.
the retro hour: 1972
We've been through the archive and compiled everything we think you need to know about the year. To make it easier for you to find what you're looking for, everything is organised into categories.
the top stories
Unemployment in the UK rose above a million
The Winter Olympics were held in Tokyo
French actor and singer Maurice Chevalier died
Fire destroyed the liner Queen Elizabeth, the former symbol of Britain's
maritime glory
Power cuts end after 20 days of blackouts due to the miners' strike
A bomb exploded aboard a TWA jet after a phone call demanding $2 million
Apollo 16 landed on the moon.
Paul McCartney was fined for importing cannabis into Sweden
John Edgar Hoover died in Washington
Nixon and Brezhnev signed a pact in Moscow
118 people died in the worst ever crash at Heathrow
The Olympics were held in Munich
Access credit cards were introduced for the first time
A kidney donor card scheme was announced by the Government
on the chart
Elvis and Priscilla Presley split up
Reginald Dwight changed his name by Deed Poll to Elton John
Liam Gallagher was born
The Eurovision Song Contest was won by Vicky Leandros of Luxembourg with
the song Apre Toi (Come What May)
The band of the year were T.Rex (originally known as Tyrannosaurus Rex)
Marc Bolan was the biggest-selling musician of the year
on the tv and at the cinema
The programme of the year was Steptoe and Son starring Harry H Corbett
and Wilfrid Brambell. In America, the show was known as Sanford And Son.
Mastermind made its UK debut.
M*A*S*H and The Waltons were televised for the first time in America.
Top shows of 1972 were The Eurovision Song Contest, This Is Your Life,
Miss World, Steptoe And Son and Love Thy Neighbour
Charlie Chaplin was refused a star on the
Walk of Fame because of his Marxist views.
Best Picture at the Oscars went to The French Connection. Gene Hackman
took the Oscar for Best Actor for his part in the film.
The BAFTA for Best Film was awarded to Sunday Bloody Sunday.
Other box office favourites were Diamonds Are Forever, Fiddler On The
Roof, Dirty Harry, Mutiny On The Buses and A Clockwork Orange.
sports achievements and milestones
Stan Smith and Billie Jean King won Wimbledon
Liverpool were First Division champions
Leeds United won the FA Cup, they beat Arsenal 1-0 in the final
Manchester United football club appointed Tommy Docherty as their new
manager
The Grand National was won by Well To Do
Emerson Fittipaldi became Formula 1 World Champion
At the Olympics, American swimmer Mark Spitz won a record seven gold medals
Lee Trevino won The Open
and finally
South Korea banned long hair
It was announced that the VW Beetle had become the biggest-selling car
ever
New words included acid rain and veggie burger
Access launched its first credit card, Nike trainers were available for
the first time and the BBC developed the CEEFAX teletext service