I’m a leap-year baby!

This and other random nonsense from the year of 1972

Jun 11, 2022

This and other random nonsense from the year of 1972

A Salvador Dali obsessive and leap year baby, and why this says so much about me! **(Author’s Collection)**.

According to the holy Bible of The Matrix, Wikipedia, I’m a leap year baby, and it’s taken me exactly 50 earthly years and a few added months to discover this fascinating fact. It also says a lot about the buffoon in the picture above. Or does it? Leap years? Please. We have to have an extra day every four years (we simply make it up!) and everyone whistles a happy tune as we all believe in fairy tales every four years and we have our very own make believe day. As I understand it in my own distinct and criminally unintelligent way, it’s to fit the Gregorian Calendar bestowed upon humanity by a Pope who also needed to delete days (they deleted days!) just to shoehorn together their natural calendar order as well as enabling the always blossoming industry in those calendars you hang on the back of a door and never, ever, look at. At least for 365 days or, on an extra day, when, according to a holy man with obviously a very close ear to almighty God herself, just changed the calendar. 10 days were simply forgotten about centuries ago (Turkey deleted 13 days between 1926 and 1927!) and abracadabra we now get an extra day in February every four years.

And we don’t live within an electrical simulated Matrix?

Also according to the soothsayers (truth sayers, surely? Social Media Editor), 1972 was also, and I quote, “the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366 day year, an event which has not been repeated”.

Now read that quote again. Are you ready?

And we don’t live within an electrical simulated Matrix?

Leap seconds! Leap. Seconds. I love living within a quixotic and deeply troubling simulated world whereby not only do we play pretend once every four years but for one year in particular, 1972, we also had a further two seconds to enjoy too. Cue Louis Armstrong and “What a wonderful world!”

Oh yeahhhhhhhh.

Here’s another utterly stupendous and enthralling fact I have recently discovered. In 1993, and again according to Wikipedia, the “Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its calendar advanced 24 hours to the Eastern Hemisphere side of the International Date Line, skipping August 21, 1993”.

They skipped a day! Just forgot about it and crossed the day off the calendar hanging on the back of their collective kitchen doors. Gone. Forgotten about. Mother earth presumably turned this tiny island a little to the left or right and boom! The international date line was crossed and a day had to be completely forgotten about.

What if the islanders had scheduled a game of football?

And if you’re not confused by now, well I’m simply not doing my job as a responsible writer and so I must ask you this, a further question if you will. Who do we attribute the quote demonstrably saying that 1972, the leap year of my birth, was indeed “the longest year ever”?

The concept of “Coordinated Universal Time” that’s who! We have to coordinate time!

My mate Salvador will be surreally enjoying this governing of the universal unknowable and I hope he’s twirling his magnificent moustache in the great beyond at the utter absurdity of it all.

But 1972 was a treasure trove of wonders, and I hope you enjoy the rambling on this leap year that follows but first, and as I’m missing her spirited presence every single day, leap year or not, and as 1972 was unmistakably proven as the longest year ever, I’m sorry Mum!

And I miss you.

The trademarked upside down smile of a mother’s son! **(Author’s Collection)**.

In keeping with the spirit of this particular article we must adhere to the strict time and day limitations as well as journeying through the year of 1972 within a chronological timely order, so starting in April, and boy was there fun to be had within this foolish month of 1972! The 44th annual Academy Awards were held in the middle of a month that saw Apollo 16 launched into space, a sizeable earthquake killed over 5,000 human beings in Iran and the Boston Marathon finally allowed the female of the species to take part. 50 years ago and a marathon race was still restricted to just males. In America.

Sobering thought eh?

As were the deaths within this April month of 50 years ago of four Presidents worldwide (FOUR!) as well as King Ntare of Burundi. On the more positive side of the human balance sheet we welcomed footballers Eyal Berkovic and all time Hall of Famer Rivaldo who was born just two days after a fellow all time great, this time from the world of cricket in Sri Lankan spin bowling wizard Muttiah Muralitharan. Carmen Electra (Actress) and Conchita Martinez (Tennis Player) would both find a sizeable space in my admiring heart for their goddamn beauty, and they entered this weirdest of all possible worlds in the April month of 1972 along with British astronaut Tim Peake and the courageous and pugnacious boxer Arturo Gatti.

Now March of 1972 was a real doozy! We said hello to Priti Patel, a lady all these years later who’s taciturn scowl is such a joy to see on our UK Telescreens as she gives the nation the thousand yard death stare as a government “Home Secretary” and is the very epitome today of the grotesque and, some dare call it Fascist, current Conservative Government. Away from such joy we also welcomed the actor and all round provider of chuckles and smiles Nick Frost, the beautiful lady with the haunting singing voice in Icelandic legend Bjork and future ladies football Hall of Famer, Mia Hamm. March also had a fabulous array of sporting births from the near to home (England football International Darren Anderton was born mere miles away from me) through to Welsh boxer Joe Calzaghe, Dutch footballer Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and fellow countryman and Formula One racing driver, Jos Verstappen. Across the pond, the births of two future NBA stars were notable in the shape of Shawn Bradley and Shaquille O’Neal and we’ll keep the positive vibe of this article going by skating over the unlucky seven notable deaths in the month, the first of which on March 8th was notable only for the demise of a German Nazi politician and former member of the SS.

March 1972 was bookended by electoral fraud in Uruguay and the suspension of the Northern Ireland Parliament whilst war circulated everywhere sadly, notably Vietnam and Sudan and this too was bookended throughout the month by peace treaties and accords being signed between numerous nations around the world. The Club of Rome, those cheery chaps who seem intent on steering our permanent attention to the end of the natural world, published a now conspiratorially minded and famous article entitled “The Limits to Growth”, an avalanche killed 19 on Mount Fuji and a plane crash in New York took the lives of 16 of the 47 recorded on board. Far, far more pleasing was that little old Luxembourg won the Eurovision Song Contest and a tiny, little film was premiered for the first time on 15th March 1972 at Loew’s State Theatre in New York City.

The film was entitled “The Godfather”.

During a brief return home on 14th May 2022. My hometown across the bay has changed somewhat since 1972! **(Author’s Collection)**.

June of 1972 hoved into view through the prism of the death of American writer and activist Saul Alinsky, whilst New Zealand actor Karl Urban and French International genius footballer Zinedine Zidane were busy being born. Elsewhere in the world when I was just four months old was a worldwide shit show to end them all. Aeroplane hijackings, floods, a hurricane, two air disasters and one deadly train collision accounted for the loss of over 650 human lives, and these tragedies were scattered amongst the human debris of the horrific images of the burning Vietnamese girl running screaming in agony from the napalm dropped from American warplanes in an unforgivable war that has echoed throughout every bloody war since. Just nine days later the American political scandal named “Watergate” broke and the following day saw West Germany beat the Soviet Union to win the 1972 European Football Championship, or Euro 72.

West Germany?

The Soviet Union?

July was a hoot, naturally, and gradually descended further into madness as the month progressed. From Jane Fonda visiting the troops in Vietnam and Boris Spassky facing Bobby Fischer across a chessboard for world chess domination, we also had the pleasing nomination of George McGovern for President of the USA and who’s run for the presidency formed the basis of so many long form articles and books from my literary hero and all around madman, Hunter S Thompson. The final ten days of July descended into hell as Northern Ireland was rocked by a “Bloody Friday” that killed 9 and left over 130 seriously wounded and the dreadfully named “Troubles” ended the month with a “Bloody Monday” that killed 9. Of the 14 notable deaths away from the carnage of every day society, Wikipedia list 2 Kings, a President and a “Count”! Slim pickings on the birth front in July, so we’ll welcome Maya Rudolph (Actress) and actor Marlon Wayans and move on to September shall we?

September saw the massacre at the Munich Olympic Games and the slaying of eleven Israeli athletes and all whilst the world looked on in horror, and for possibly the first real time in history, in real, actual time. In the positive ledger of life we have the births of British actor Idris Elba, singer songwriter Liam Gallagher and a particular favourite actor of mine, Croatia’s Goran Visnjic. Aside from the immediately titled “Munich Massacre”, President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines declared his country to be under Martial Law, M*A*S*H premiered on American television screens, as did a revamped version of the “The Price is Right” (and a game that would be rebranded again during my teenage years!) before on the very first day of the month itself, Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky to become World Chess Champion.

The end of 1972 in December perfectly encapsulated the year as a whole with the sad death of famed baseball player Roberto Clemente whilst on a humanitarian aid mission, one of over an estimated 6,000 tragic deaths in this month alone. The 23rd December saw a huge earthquake in Nicaragua account for a substantial proportion of the grisly death toll, but this was added to via the American bombing of Vietnam on Christmas Day, the Portuguese Army killing hundreds in Mozambique and two separate and highly fatal aeroplane disasters. Apollo 17 landed on the Moon, Eugene Cernan was the last man to walk on the lunar surface and the entire crew landed safely back on earth all during a 8 day period in the middle of the month before it ended, as it should, being as it’s a leap year, with the addition of a second leap year second at midnight on 31st December.

The death register for December 1972 included the first wife of current President of the USA, Joe Biden, Roberto Clemente as noted above, three worldwide Prime Ministers and the 33rd President of the USA, Harry S Truman. Kicking and screaming their way into this earthly experience came French singer songwriter Vanessa Paradis, Australian tennis player Patrick Rafter and British actor Jude Law.

A particular favourite picture with the oldest of friends on 13th May 2022. I’m sure he won’t mind me sharing this here. Cheers Marc, you’re one of a kind **(Author’s Collection)**.

50 years prior to the above picture being taken, Leeds United defeated Arsenal 1–0 in the Centenary FA Cup Final at Wembley and just 18 days later Glasgow Rangers won their first and so far only European final in the Cup Winners Cup in Barcelona against Russian giants Dynamo Moscow. The Boston Bruins lifted ice hockey’s Stanley Cup by beating the New York Rangers 4–2 and sadly the military industrial complex continued to get richer on the back of human catastrophe as the Vietnam war intensified. J Edgar Hoover and the Duke of Windsor both departed this mortal coil along with over 250 fellow humans caught up in an industrial fire and at a nightclub a world away as well as an Italian aeroplane crash and sporadic worldwide terrorism. Depending on your individual tastes you had a wealth of soon to be celebrities of whom to celebrate being born in May 1972, and my particular stand outs include actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, baseball legend Manny Ramirez and American actress Octavia Spencer.

From May we of course travel to January and the births of French footballing World Cup Winner Lilian Thuram, the deaths of a King (Nepal and Denmark), Prince and Prime Minister (Cambodia) and the Prime Minister of Jordan. The first month of 1972 was notable for the usual array of the bizarre through to the macabre and human heartache, from the introduction of the first hand held calculator to a single survivor of yet another aeroplane crash, the poisoning and death of over 100 Indians in the city of New Delhi due to bootlegged and illegal alcohol through to the heartrending and notorious killing of 14 civil rights activists on 30th January and a date forever known as “Bloody Sunday”.

The year wraps up in customary fashion as November follows October into August and we said goodbye to a Princess, a Crown Prince and the Prince of Gloucester as well as President Bush’s Father and Grandfather and the legendary, ground and barrier breaking baseball Hall of Famer, Jackie Robinson. Celebrated births from these scattered months of 1972 include actresses Thandie Newton and Toni Collette, actor and singer songwriter Eminem as well as actor and director Ben Affleck. These coagulated months combine together with two separate train disasters that cost over 250 lives, Richard Nixon defeated Hunter’s mate George McGovern to remain President of the USA and November ended with the grisly notoriety of the last execution by guillotine in France as well as the ridiculous, and the first release by Atari of an annoying game we’d all fall in love with as children named “Pong”. Riots continued in the “Maze” prison of Northern Ireland, the Oakland Athletics won baseball’s World Series for the first time in 42 years and on October 13th an aeroplane crashed into the side of the Andes mountains near the border between Argentina and Chile. Miraculously, 16 rugby players aboard the flight survived, and only so by the most desperate of means, and all dramatised within the future Hollywood blockbuster film, “Alive”.

And so we must conclude our ramble through this longest of all years with the month of my birth and that pesky extra day that rather disappointingly was only notable as that mythic 29th day of February in the year of my birth was significant only for the births of an American singer who subsequently died aged just 30 and a Spanish Politician I’ve never heard of! Elsewhere within our final month of 1972, February was notable for having nothing whatsoever associated with my particular day of birth, but we welcomed into our existence Mary, Crown Prince of Denmark on 5th, Steve McManaman (England International footballer) on 11th and the recently departed Taylor Hawkins on 17th, future drummer with the band Foo Fighters. Sadly we lost 11 poets, actresses, film directors and 1 lone German International footballer within the month, all whilst the elongated 29 days played out in a manner that those alive would come to expect in this, another of those weird years but which remains the longest ever on record. Bomb explosions, riots, hijackings and terrorism incidents were rife, both the USA and the Soviet Union explored the cliched “Space Race” and the 10 days of the 1972 Winter Olympics were held in Japan.

So there you have a scattergun approach to the longest year on record, the year of my birth and yet another year whereby we all pretend an entire 24 hour period and an extra 29th day of February exists, when it ordinarily does not.

And we don’t live within an electrical simulated Matrix?

Selah.