September 1972 - September 29, 1972 (Friday)

September 29, 1972 (Friday)

• Vasil Mzhavanadze, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Georgian SSR, and Soviet Georgia's de facto leader, was removed from his job by the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee. Mzhavadnadze retained his post as a full member of the Politburo, but was replaced as the Georgian leader by Eduard Shevardnadze.
• Sino-Japanese relations: Under a Joint Communiqué of the Government of Japan and the Government of the People's Republic of China, Japan, normalized diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China after breaking official ties with the Republic of China (Taiwan). On August 12, 1978, the two nations formally ended their state of war with a peace treaty.
• In a story headlined "Mitchell Controlled Secret GOP Fund", Washington Post investigative reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward broke the story that "while serving as U.S. Attorney General, Mitchell personally controlled a secret Republican fund that was used to gather information about the Democrats, according to sources involved in the Watergate investigation."
• The eight member nations of the European Space Research Organization (ESRO) officially adopted the METEOSAT programme, providing for European launched meteorological satellites.