of biological sciences, especially biotechnology, and opened the door to genetically modified organisms. The Nishitetsu Lions baseball club, part of the NPB's Pacific League, is sold to the Fukuoka Baseball Corporation, a subsidiary of Nishi-Nippon Railroad. The team is renamed the Taiheiyo Club Lions. November 7 – 1972 United States presidential election: Republican incumbent Richard Nixon defeats Democratic Senator George McGovern in a landslide (the election had the lowest voter turnout since 1948, with only 55 percent of the electorate voting). November 11 – Vietnam War – Vietnamization: The United States Army turns over the massive Long Binh military base to South Vietnam. November 14 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 1,000 (1,003.16) for the first time. November 16 – The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization adopts the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage November 19 – Seán Mac Stíofáin, a leader of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, is arrested in Dublin after giving an interview to RTÉ. November 28 – The last executions in Paris, France. Roger Bontems and Claude Buffet – the Clairvaux Mutineers – are guillotined at La Santé Prison by chief executioner André Obrecht. Bontems, found not guilty of murder by the court, was condemned as Buffet's accomplice . President Georges Pompidou, in private an abolitionist, upholds both death sentences in deference to French public opinion. November 29 – The "tea house" Mellow Yellow opens on the Amstel River in Amsterdam, pioneering the legal sale of cannabis in the Netherlands. December December 2 – 1972 Australian federal election: The Labor Party led by Gough Whitlam defeats the Liberal/Country Coalition Government led by Prime Minister William McMahon. Consequently, Whitlam becomes the first Labor Prime Minister of Australia since the defeat of Ben Chifley in 1949. Whitlam would be sworn in on December 5th; his first action using executive power was to withdraw all Australian personnel from the Vietnam War. McMahon resigned from the Liberal leadership almost immediately; he would be replaced by outgoing Treasurer Billy Snedden. December 7 Apollo 17 (Gene Cernan, Ronald Evans, Harrison Schmitt), the last manned Moon mission to date, is launched and The Blue Marble photograph of the Earth is taken. The mission also includes five mice. Imelda Marcos is stabbed and seriously wounded by an assailant; her bodyguards shoot the assailant. December 8 United Airlines Flight 553 crashes short of the runway, killing