1964 in the United Kingdom

1964 in the United Kingdom
Other years
1962 | 1963 | 1964 (1964) | 1965 | 1966
Constituent countries of the United Kingdom
England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales
Popular culture

Events from the year 1964 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Events
Forth Road Bridge.
  • 1 January – Top of the Pops first airs on BBC TV.
  • 11 January – teen girls' magazine Jackie first published.[1]
  • 20 January – eleven men go on trial at Buckinghamshire Assizes in Aylesbury charged in connection with the Great Train Robbery five months ago.
  • 21 January – Government figures show that the average weekly wage is £16.
  • 22 January – film Zulu released.
  • 28 January – families from Springtown Camp make a silent march through Derry to demand rehousing.[2]
  • 29 January – 9 February: Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, and win one gold medal.
  • 6 February – the British and French governments agree a deal for the construction of a Channel Tunnel. The twin-tunneled rail link is expected to take five years to build.[3]
  • 11 February – Southampton is granted city status, the first such designation of the current reign.[4]
  • 19 February – actor Peter Sellers marries actress Britt Ekland.
  • 21 February – £10 banknotes are issued for the first time since the Second World War.
  • 9 March – London Fisheries Convention signed.
  • 10 March – the Queen gives birth to her fourth child and third son.
  • 19 March
  • 26 March – verdicts are passed on ten men for their role in the Great Train Robbery after one of the longest criminal trials and longest jury retirals in English legal history.
  • 28 March – "pirate" radio station Radio Caroline begins regular broadcasting from a ship anchored just outside UK territorial waters off Felixstowe.[8]
  • 29 March – first purpose-built gurdwara in Britain opened, the Guru Gobind Singh Ji Gurdwara in Bradford.[9]
  • 30 March – violent disturbances between Mods and Rockers at Clacton beach.[10]
  • 31 March – Minister of Labour Joseph Godber appoints Lord Justice Pearson to chair a court of inquiry into the power dispute.[11]
  • 1 April – Ministry of Defence takes over the duties of the War Office, Admiralty and Air Ministry, which cease to exist. The title of Lord High Admiral is re-vested in the Monarch.[10]
  • 9 April – Labour wins the first elections to the Greater London Council.
  • 10 April – Runcorn, a small town in north Cheshire, is designated as a new town by Alec Douglas-Home's government. Extensive house building and industrial and commercial developments are predicted to inflate the town's population to around 70,000 by 1981.[12]
  • 11 April – the National Trust reopens the southern section of the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal, the first major restoration of a canal for leisure use.[13]
  • 16 April – sentence is passed on eleven men for their role in the Great Train Robbery, seven receiving 30 years each.[8]
  • 18 April – Liverpool win the Football League First Division for the sixth time in their history.[14]
  • 20 April
    • The Queen's son's name is registered as Edward.
    • The scheduled opening night of BBC Two, the UK's third television channel, is disrupted by power cuts, and all that can be screened is announcer Gerald Priestland delivering apologies from Alexandra Palace. On the same day, the BBC Television Service is renamed BBC One.[15]
  • 21 April – BBC Two begins scheduled broadcasting; its first programme is Play School.[8]
  • 29 April – all schools in Aberdeen are closed following 136 cases of typhoid being reported.
  • 1 May – Princess Margaret gives birth to a baby girl.
  • 2 May
  • 5 May – Granada Television broadcasts the first in what will become a series of documentary interviews, Seven Up!
  • 6 May – Joe Orton's black comedy Entertaining Mr Sloane premieres at the New Arts Theatre in London.[17]
  • 11 May – Terence Conran opens the first Habitat store on London's Fulham Road.[8]
  • 12 May – "pirate" radio station Radio Atlanta begins broadcasting from MV Mi Amigo anchored off Frinton-on-Sea; in July its operations are merged with Radio Caroline.
  • 15 May – Lord Justice Pearson reports on the power dispute.[18]
  • 16 – 18 May: violent disturbances between Mods and Rockers at Brighton.
  • 27 May – "pirate" radio station Radio Sutch begins broadcasting from Shivering Sands Army Fort in the Thames Estuary.[19]
  • 29 May – official opening of the UK's first undercover shopping centre, at the Bull Ring, Birmingham.[20]
  • 17 June – A missing persons investigation is launched in Fallowfield, Manchester, as police search for 12-year-old Keith Bennett, who was last seen on his way to his grandmother's house yesterday evening. He is a victim of the Moors murders.
  • July
  • 6 July
  • 10 July – more than 300 people are injured in Liverpool when a crowd of some 150,000 people welcome the Beatles back to their home city.
  • 15 July – the Post Office Tower in London is completed, although it does not begin operation until October 1965.[10]
  • 28 July – Winston Churchill retires from the House of Commons at the age of 89.
  • 4 August
  • 13 August – Peter Anthony Allen, at Walton Prison in Liverpool and Gwynne Owen Evans, at Strangeways Prison in Manchester, are hanged for the murder of John Alan West on 7 April, the last executions to take place in the British Isles.[24]
  • 22 August – the first Match of the Day airs on BBC Two television.
  • September – the British Motor Corporation launches the BMC ADO17 family saloon car, initially as the Austin 1800; this again wins BMC the European Car of the Year award, in its second year.
  • 4 September – the Forth Road Bridge opens over the Firth of Forth, linking Fife and Edinburgh.[8]
  • 14 September – the final edition of the left-wing Daily Herald newspaper is published.
  • 15 September
    • The Sun newspaper goes into circulation, replacing the Daily Herald.
    • Sir Alec Douglas-Home calls a general election for 15 October.
  • 21 September – Malta obtains independence from the UK.[22]
  • 29 September – announcement that American car manufacturer Chrysler is taking a substantial share in the British Rootes Group combine, which includes the Hillman, Singer and Sunbeam marques.[25]
  • October – Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (the first British woman to win a Nobel) "for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances".[26]
  • 10 – 24 October: Great Britain competes at the Olympics in Tokyo and wins 4 gold, 12 silver and 2 bronze medals.
  • 15 October – the general election is held. The Labour Party defeats the Conservatives. Harold Wilson becomes prime minister, having gained a majority of five seats. The election result spells the end of 13 years of Conservative government, although the prime minister Alec Douglas-Home had only entered office 12 months ago. Among the retiring MP's is the former prime minister Sir Winston Churchill, who has been an MP for 63 of the last 65 years. A surprise casualty as MP is Patrick Gordon Walker who was widely expected to become the foreign secretary in a Labour government but loses his Smethwick seat to the Conservatives following a controversial racially motivated campaign by the opposing party's supporters.[27]
  • 17 October – Harold Wilson's cabinet is announced; it includes James Callaghan (who missed out on the Labour leadership in February 1963), Denis Healey, Barbara Castle and Roy Jenkins. Jim Griffiths becomes the first Secretary of State for Wales.
  • 18 October – Wilson creates the Welsh Office.[10]
  • 24 October – Northern Rhodesia, a former British protectorate, becomes the independent Republic of Zambia, ending 73 years of British rule.[22]
  • 2 November – ITV soap opera Crossroads airs for the first time.[8]
  • 9 November – House of Commons votes to abolish the death penalty for murder in Britain. The last execution took place in August and the death penalty is set to be officially abolished before the end of next year, with the number of executions having gradually fallen during the last decade.
  • 27 November – power unions announce that they will start balloting for a strike.[28]
  • 30 November – power dispute settled and strike action called off.[29]
  • 16 December – Government, Trades Union Congress and employers produce a joint Statement of Intent on Productivity, Prices and Incomes.
  • 21 December – MPs vote 355 to 170 for the abolition of the death penalty, with the abolition likely to be confirmed before the end of next year. The death penalty has gradually fallen out of use over the last twenty years, with the two most recent executions having taken place in August this year.
  • 23 December
  • 24 December – the Beatles gain the Christmas number one for the second year running with I Feel Fine, which has topped the singles charts for the third week running. The Beatles have now had six number ones in the United Kingdom alone.[31]
  • 26 December – Police launch a missing persons investigation after ten-year-old Lesley Ann Downey goes missing from a fairground near her home in Ancoats, Manchester. She is a victim of the Moors murders.
  • 31 December – Donald Campbell sets the world speed record on water at 276.33 mph on Dumbleyung Lake in Australia.[8]

Undated

Publications

Births

Deaths

See also

References
  1. McRobbie, Angela (1991). Feminism and youth culture: from "Jackie" to "Just Seventeen". Basingstoke: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-45263-9.
  2. "Springtown Camp from the inside". Springtown Camp 1946–1967. 2006. Archived from the original on 21 March 2012. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
  3. "1964: Green light for Channel Tunnel". BBC News. 6 February 1964. Archived from the original on 4 December 2007. Retrieved 10 January 2008.
  4. "City Status For Southampton". The Times. 12 February 1964. p. 5.
  5. "Power Dispute Talks Break Down Overtime Ban On Monday, Union Delegation Walks Out Of Meeting". The Times. 20 March 1964. p. 14, col.A.
  6. "1964: 'Ambitious' plans for south east". BBC. 19 March 1964. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  7. Those were the days Archived 16 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  8. Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 978-0-14-102715-9.
  9. "First places of devotion". Vaguely Interesting. 6 March 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  10. Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 422–423. ISBN 978-0-7126-5616-0.
  11. "Lord Justice Pearson Inquiry Chairman". The Times. 1 April 1964. p. 10, col.B.
  12. Archived 7 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  13. Hadfield, Charles; Norris, John (1968). Waterways to Stratford (2nd ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-4231-2.
  14. On this day – 18 April 1964 – Liverpool FC
  15. "BBC2 Opening Night". British TV History. Archived from the original on 10 October 2012. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  16. "Announcement of the christening of Lady Louise Windsor". The British Monarchy. 8 April 2004. Archived from the original on 31 December 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  17. Banham, Martin (1995). The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge University Press. p. 827. ISBN 978-0-521-43437-9.
  18. "Both Sides To Blame in Power Dispute "Bury Past, Build For Future" Report Says". The Times. 16 May 1964. p. 5, col.A.
  19. "Radio Sutch & City in Pictures & Audio Part 1". Bob Le-Roi. 31 March 2010. Archived from the original on 20 May 2013. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  20. Kennedy, Liam, ed. (2004). Remaking Birmingham: The Visual Culture of Urban Regeneration. Routledge Ltd. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-0-415-28839-2.
  21. "Special events in the development of women's equality". Catherine of Siena Virtual College. Archived from the original on 19 March 2012. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
  22. The Hutchinson Factfinder. Helicon. 1999. p. 502. ISBN 978-1-85986-000-7.
  23. A Hard Day's Night on IMDb
  24. "Last executions in the UK". Stephen-stratford.com. Archived from the original on 9 September 2010. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
  25. Bullock, John (1993). The Rootes Brothers: story of a motoring empire. Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 228. ISBN 978-1-85260-454-7.
  26. "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1964". Archived from the original on 26 October 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2008.
  27. "1964 General election results summary". UK Political Info. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  28. "Power Dispute Talks Fail Strike Threat Draws Near, Union Ballot To Start On Monday". The Times. 28 November 1964. p. 8, col.C.
  29. "Power Stations Overtime Ban Called Off – Payments Claim Settled". The Times. 1 December 1964. p. 10, col.C.
  30. "1964: Beeching to leave British Railways". BBC News. 23 December 1964. Archived from the original on 18 December 2007. Retrieved 10 January 2008.
  31. "The Beatles U.K. Singles Chart Number Ones". JPGR. 2009. Archived from the original on 25 July 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  32. "Our history". Hanson. Archived from the original on 28 September 2010. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  33. Jack Galusha, "Daihatsu Sirion 1.0 S", Autocar, archived from the original on 3 April 2012, retrieved 13 April 2013
  34. Lambert, Tim. "Britain Since 1948". Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  35. http://en.espn.co.uk/scrum/rugby/player/252243.html

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