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| 1972 |
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| Reduction of East-West tension continued. U.S. president Nixon visited the People's Republic of China (Feb.). In May Nixon made the first official visit of a U.S. president to the Soviet Union, giving an unprecedented televised address directly to the Soviet people and negotiating a number of agreements with Soviet leader Brezhnev. | 1 |
| Important international monetary system modifications. In April the U.S. dollar was officially devalued, and discussions continued throughout the year regarding modifications of the international system. The IMF Committee of Twenty opened formal negotiations on reforming the monetary system (Nov.). | 2 |
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| May |
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| The Third UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) met in Chile and reached little agreement. | 3 |
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| June |
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| The UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm adopted a declaration of 26 international environmental guidelines; an important landmark in international environmental policy. | 4 |
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| Aug.–Sept |
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| The Olympic Games were held in Munich. “Black September” Palestinian terrorists seized 11 Israeli athletes as hostages. All were killed, and a West German police attack ended the incident. | 5 |
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