1962 in the United Kingdom explained
Events from the year 1962 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
Events
- January–April – An outbreak of smallpox spreading from Cardiff infects 45 people and kills 19 in South Wales; 900,000 people in the region are vaccinated against the disease.[1]
- 2 January – BBC Television broadcasts the first episode of Z-Cars, noted as a realistic portrayal of the police force.
- 5 January – The first album on which The Beatles play, My Bonnie, as backing to Tony Sheridan (recorded last June in Hamburg), is released by Polydor.[2] [3]
- 11 January–12 February – Bradford smallpox outbreak of 1962.[4]
- 18 January – Union-Castle Line ship (1961) makes her maiden voyage Southampton–Durban, perhaps the last major British ship built to enter the regular passenger ocean liner trade.
- 22 January – James Hanratty goes on trial for the A6 murder. He denies the murder of 36-year-old Michael Gregsten and the attempted murder of Mr Gregsten's mistress Valerie Storie, who is paralysed by a gunshot wound.[5]
- 4 February – The Sunday Times becomes the first newspaper to print a colour supplement.[6]
- 10 February – End of the Queen's 10th regnal year. From this year, Acts of Parliament are dated by calendar year.
- 16 February - the 430-ft high 275kV Tyne Crossing collapsed on the same day there was the British highest wind speed of 177mph on Lowther Hill in south-west Scotland.[7] [8] [9]
- 21 February – Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev first dance together, in a Royal Ballet performance of Giselle.
- 26 February – The Irish Republican Army officially calls off its Border Campaign in Northern Ireland.[10]
- 1 March – British nuclear testing in the United States begins with "Pampas", Britain's first underground test, at the Nevada Test Site, the first of 24 critical tests up to 1991.
- 6 March – Accrington Stanley, members of the Football League Fourth Division, resign from the Football League due to huge debts.[11]
- 7 March
- 13 March – 1962 Blackpool North by-election: the Blackpool North seat is retained by the Conservative Party. This is on a Tuesday; it is the last parliamentary by-election in England to be held on a day other than Thursday.
- 14 March
the Middlesbrough East seat is retained by Labour.
Liberal Party candidate Eric Lubbock takes the Orpington seat in the outer London suburbs from the expected winner, Conservative candidate Peter Goldman, seen as the start of a Liberal revival in the UK.
- 29 March – Education Act 1962 requires local education authorities to pay the tuition fees of students attending full-time first degree (or comparable) courses and to provide them with a maintenance grant, superseding the former system of state scholarships.[14]
- 2 April – Panda crossings are introduced but their complex sequences of pulsating and flashing lights cause confusion amongst drivers and pedestrians.[15]
- 4 April – James Hanratty is hanged at Bedford Prison for the A6 murder, despite protests from many people who believe he is innocent, and the late introduction of witnesses who claim to have seen him in Rhyl, North Wales, on the day of the murder.
- 18 April – Commonwealth Immigrants Act in the United Kingdom removes free immigration from the citizens of member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, requiring proof of employment in the UK. This comes into effect on 1 July.[16]
- 27 April – Opinion polls show that less than half of voters now approve of Harold Macmillan as Prime Minister.[17]
- 28 April – Ipswich Town win the Football League First Division title in their first season at that level.[18]
- 5 May – Tottenham Hotspur retain the FA Cup with a 3–1 win over Burnley at Wembley Stadium, with goals from Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Smith and captain Danny Blanchflower.[19]
- 8 May – The last trolleybuses in London are run.[20]
- 25 May – The new Coventry Cathedral is consecrated.[6]
- 26 May – Acker Bilk's 1961 instrumental recording "Stranger on the Shore" becomes the first British recording to reach number one in the US Billboard Hot 100.
- 31 May
- 2 June
- 6 June – The Beatles play their first session at Abbey Road Studios.
- 14 June
- 1 July – Another heavy smog develops over London.
- 3 July – Opening of Chichester Festival Theatre, Britain's first large modern theatre with a thrust stage. Laurence Olivier is the first artistic director.
- 11 July – Live television broadcast from the US to Britain for the first time, via the Telstar communications satellite and Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station.
- 12 July – The Rolling Stones make their debut at London's Marquee Club, Number 165 Oxford Street, opening for Long John Baldry.
- 13 July – In what the press dubs "the Night of the Long Knives", the prime minister Harold Macmillan dismisses one-third of his Cabinet.
- 20 July – The world's first regular passenger hovercraft service introduced between Rhyl in North Wales and Wallasey.[6]
- 22 July – Advertising Standards Authority set up.
- 23 July – First live public transatlantic television broadcasts of full-length programmes, via the Telstar satellite.[24]
- 29 July – Race riots break out in Dudley, West Midlands.[25] [26] [27] [28] [29]
- 31 July – A crowd assaults the rally of the right-wing Union Movement of Sir Oswald Mosley in London.[30]
- 4 August – Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, the Welsh Language Society, is founded.
- 6 August – Jamaica becomes independent from the United Kingdom.[31]
- 12 August – The BMC ADO16 economy car series, best known as the Austin/Morris 1100, is launched; this becomes Britain's best selling car for most of the 1960s.
- 17 August – The Tornados' recording of Joe Meek's "Telstar" is released.
- 18 August – The Beatles play their first live engagement with the line-up of John, Paul, George and Ringo, at Hulme Hall, Port Sunlight.
- 23 August – John Lennon marries Cynthia Powell at an unpublicised register office ceremony at Mount Pleasant, Liverpool.
- 31 August
- 1 September – Channel Television, the ITV franchise for the Channel Islands, goes on air.
- 2 September – Glasgow Corporation Tramways runs its last tramcars in normal service, leaving the Blackpool tramway as the only remaining one in the UK.
- 6 September – Archaeologist Peter Marsden discovers the first of a set of Roman shipwrecks at Blackfriars in London, known as the Blackfriars Ships.
- 8–11 September – Last Gentlemen v Players cricket match played, at Scarborough.
- 14 September – Wales West and North Television (Teledu Cymru) goes on air to the North and West Wales region, extending ITV to the whole of the United Kingdom.
- 20 September – The Ford Motor Company launches the Cortina, a family saloon costing £573 (equivalent to £12,500 in 2022) and similar in size to the Vauxhall Victor, Hillman Minx and Morris Oxford Farina.[32]
- 21 September – First broadcast of the long-running television quiz programme University Challenge, made by Granada Television with Bamber Gascoigne as quizmaster.[6]
- 1 October – Elizabeth Lane takes her seat as the first female county court judge.
- 5 October
- 9 October – Uganda gains independence from the United Kingdom.[31]
- 17 October – The Beatles make their first televised appearance, on Granada television's north west local news programme People and Places.[6]
- 21 October – The first American Folk Blues Festival European tour plays its only UK date at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester; artists include Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee and T-Bone Walker. It will be influential on the British R&B scene, with the audience including: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones with Jimmy Page, Paul Jones, John Mayall and other musicians, and with a second show filmed and shown on Independent Television.[35]
- 22 October – Manchester Ringway Airport opens the first hub and pier terminal in Europe.
- 24 October – GCHQ's interception station at Scarborough is the first to detect that Soviet merchant ships implicated in the Cuban Missile Crisis are returning to their bases.[36]
- 26 October – St Andrew's Hall, a concert hall in Glasgow, is destroyed in a fire thought to have been caused by a cigarette discarded during a Scotland versus Romania boxing match the previous day. The surviving facade is later incorporated into the Mitchell Library.[37]
- 31 October – The United Nations General Assembly asks the United Kingdom to suspend enforcement of the new constitution in Southern Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe), but the constitution comes into effect on 1 November.
- November – John Charnley makes the world's first successful whole hip replacement operation at Wrightington Hospital, Wigan.[38]
- 17 November – Seaham life-boat George Elmy capsizes entering harbour after service to coble Economy: all five crew and four of the five survivors are killed.
- 22 November – 1962 Chippenham by-election: the Conservatives are narrowly re-elected in Chippenham, Wiltshire, ahead of a challenge from the Liberals.
- 24 November – The first episode of influential satire show That Was the Week That Was is broadcast on BBC Television.
- 29 November – An agreement is signed between Britain and France to develop the Concorde supersonic airliner.[6]
- 2–7 December – Severe smog in London causes numerous deaths.[39]
- 6 December – The last permanent inhabitants leave the Scottish Island of Stroma.
- 9 December – Tanganyika (modern-day Tanzania) becomes a republic within the Commonwealth, with Julius Nyerere as president.
- 10 December
- 19 December – Britain acknowledges the right of Nyasaland (later Malawi) to secede from the Central African Federation.
- 21 December – Nassau Agreement: Britain agrees to buy the Polaris missile system from the United States.[42]
- 22 December
- "Big Freeze" in Britain: no frost-free nights until 5 March 1963.
- "Telstar", by The Tornados, becomes the first single by a British group to reach No. 1 on the US charts, predating The Beatles by 13 months.
- 30 December – United Nations troops occupy the last rebel positions in Katanga; Moise Tshombe moves to Southern Rhodesia.
Undated
Publications
Births
January – April
- January – Richard Leonard, Leader of the Scottish Labour Party (2017-21).
- 3 January – Guy Pratt, English musician and songwriter
- 4 January – Robin Guthrie, Scottish guitarist and producer (Cocteau Twins)
- 5 January – Andrew Rawnsley, English journalist and broadcaster
- 11 January
- 20 January – Sophie Thompson, English actress
- 25 January – Emma Freud, English broadcaster and cultural commentator
- 28 January – Hamish McColl, comedian, writer and actor
- 2 February – Andy Fordham, English darts player (died 2021)
- 4 February – Stephen Hammond, English banker and politician
- 7 February – Eddie Izzard, British actor and comedian
- 8 February
- 12 February – Jimmy Kirkwood, field hockey player
- 13 February – Hugh Dennis, British actor, comedian and writer (The Now Show)
- 17 February – Sarah Wollaston, physician and politician
- 21 February
- 25 February – John Lanchester, British journalist and novelist
- 26 February – Pen Hadow, Arctic explorer
- 4 March
- 9 March
- 12 March – Graham Stuart, British Conservative politician, MP for Beverley and Holderness
- 17 March – Clare Grogan, Scottish actress and singer
- 23 March – Steve Redgrave, English rower
- 26 March – Sarah Mullally (née Bowser), Chief Nursing Officer for England, later first woman Bishop of London)
- 27 March – John O'Farrell, British author and broadcaster
- April – Sarah Gilbert, English vaccinologist
- 1 April – Phillip Schofield, British television presenter
- 9 April – Imran Sherwani, British field hockey player
- 15 April
- 19 April – Dorian Yates, English professional bodybuilder
- 22 April – Ann McKechin, Scottish Labour politician, MP for Glasgow North
- 23 April – John Hannah, Scottish actor
- 24 April
- 26 April – Colin Anderson, English footballer
- 29 April – Polly Samson, English journalist and writer
May – August
- 2 May – Jimmy White, British snooker player
- 6 May – Tom Brake, British Liberal Democrat politician, MP for Carshalton and Wallington
- 9 May
- 12 May – Gregory H. Johnson, American astronaut
- 14 May – Ian Astbury, British singer (The Cult)
- 17 May
- 20 May – Claire Horton, charity executive
- 26 May – Black, English singer-songwriter (died 2016)
- 29 May – Perry Fenwick, English actor
- 6 June – Mark Bright, English footballer, radio presenter and television pundit
- 8 June – Nick Rhodes, English rock keyboardist (Duran Duran)
- 13 June – Mark Frankel, actor (died 1996)
- 15 June – Chris Morris, English comedian, writer, director, actor, voice actor and producer
- 25 June – Phill Jupitus, comedian and broadcaster
- 27 June – Michael Ball, singer
- 29 June – Amanda Donohoe, English actress
- 30 June – Julianne Regan, singer/songwriter
- 1 July – Dominic Keating, English actor
- 4 July – Neil Morrissey, English actor
- 12 July – Dean Wilkins, English football manager
- 21 July – Victor Adebowale, Baron Adebowale, social entrepreneur
- 30 July – Lavinia Greenlaw, poet and novelist
- 1 August – Robert Clift, Welsh field hockey player
- 2 August – Lee Mavers, English musician
- 7 August – Doon Mackichan, British actress and comedian
- 9 August – Yinka Shonibare, artist
- 11 August – John Micklethwait, English journalist, editor-in-chief of The Economist
- 13 August – Heidi Thomas, screenwriter and playwright
- 20 August – Sophie Aldred, British actress and television presenter
- 23 August – Shaun Ryder, English musician, singer-songwriter and actor
- 24 August – Ali Smith, writer
- 30 August – Alexander Litvinenko, British citizen, previously KGB colonel and FSB lieutenant-colonel (killed 2006)
September – December
- 2 September – Keir Starmer, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2024
- 5 September – Peter Wingfield, Welsh actor
- 8 September – Daljit Dhaliwal, British newsreader and television presenter
- 15 September – Steve Punt, British actor, comedian and writer (The Now Show)
- 18 September – John Fashanu, English football player and commentator
- 21 September – Nick Knowles, English television presenter
- 24 September
- 26 September – Tracey Thorn, British singer
- 30 September – Tony Morris, newsreader (d. 2020)
- October – Micky Flanagan, comedian
- 5 October – Caron Keating, television presenter (died 2004)
- 7 October – Micky Flanagan, English comedian
- 8 October – Richard Lintern, English actor
- 11 October – Nicola Bryant, actress
- 14 October
- 18 October – Naive John, Stuckist artist and figurative painter
- 19 October – Claude Callegari, English YouTube personality (d. 2021)[45]
- 20 October
- 25 October – Nick Hancock, British actor and television presenter
- 26 October – Cary Elwes, English actor
- 3 November
- Marilyn, born Peter Robinson, Jamaican-born pop singer
- Jacqui Smith, English Labour politician
- 11 November – Alan Yau, Hong Kong-born restaurateur (Wagamama food chain)
- 12 November – Mariella Frostrup, journalist and television presenter
- 15 November – Maggie O'Neill, actress
- 21 November – Alan Smith, footballer
- 24 November – John Kovalic, Anglo-American cartoonist
- 27 November
- 29 November – Ronny Jordan, guitarist (died 2014)
- 2 December – Steve Huison, actor
- 3 December – Richard Bacon, British Conservative politician, MP for South Norfolk
- 6 December
- 7 December – Jeffrey Donaldson, Northern Irish politician, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party
- 17 December – Paul Dobson, English footballer
- 22 December – Ralph Fiennes, English actor
- 31 December – Heather McCartney, born Heather See, adopted daughter of Sir Paul McCartney
Unknown dates
Deaths
- 16 January – R. H. Tawney, English historian and social critic (born 1880)
- 26 January – George Jeffreys, Welsh Pentecostalist (born 1889)
- 13 February – Hugh Dalton, Labour politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (1945–1947) (born 1887)
- 16 March – Fred Pentland, footballer and coach (born 1883)
- 23 March – Clement Davies, Welsh Liberal politician (born 1884)
- 4 April – James Hanratty, murderer, one of the last people to be hanged in the UK (born 1936)
- 10 April – Stuart Sutcliffe, English artist and musician (The Beatles) (born 1940)
- 19 April – Sir Harold Yarrow, 2nd Baronet, industrialist (born 1884)
- 21 April – Sir Frederick Handley Page, English aircraft manufacturer (born 1885)
- 30 April – Sir Jameson Adams, Antarctic explorer, Royal Navy officer and civil servant (born 1880)
- 5 May – Ernest Tyldesley, English cricketer (born 1889)
- 2 June – Vita Sackville-West, English writer and landscape gardener (born 1892)
- 12 June – John Ireland, English composer (born 1879)
- 13 June – Sir Eugene Goossens, English composer (born 1893)
- 21 July – G. M. Trevelyan, English historian (born 1876)
- 27 July – Richard Aldington, English poet (born 1892)
- 15 August – Bob McIntyre, Scottish motorcycle racer (born 1928; died of injuries received in motorcycle race)
- 7 September – Graham Walker, English motorcycle racer (born 1896)
- 23 September
- 30 September – Sir Bernard Rawlings, British admiral (born 1889)
- 21 October – Hugh Franklin, English activist for women's suffrage (born 1889)
- 4 November – Saxon Sydney-Turner, English civil servant, eccentric, member of the Bloomsbury Group (born 1880)
- 5 November – Percy Cudlipp, Welsh-born journalist (born 1905)
- 15 December – Charles Laughton, English actor and director (born 1899)
- 21 December – Gary Hocking, Welsh motorcycle racer (born 1937; died in automobile racing accident)
- December – Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, English working class novelist and campaigner (born 1886)
See also
Notes and References
- Web site: 1962 south Wales smallpox outbreak memories recorded. BBC News. 2012-01-13. 2012-06-12.
- Book: Everett, Walter. 2001. The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-514105-4. 100.
- Book: Spitz, Bob. 2005. Bob Spitz. The Beatles: The Biography. Little, Brown. New York. 978-0-316-80352-6. The Beatles: The Biography.
- Tovey. Derrick. Derrick Tovey. May 2004. The Bradford smallpox outbreak in 1962: a personal account. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 97. 5. 244–247. 10.1177/014107680409700512. 0141-0768. 1079469. 15121819.
- News: 1962: 'A6 murder' trial begins. BBC News. 2008-02-02. 22 January 1962. https://web.archive.org/web/20080117191710/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/22/newsid_2669000/2669115.stm. 17 January 2008. live.
- Book: Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 978-0-14-102715-9. 2006.
- Newcastle Evening Chronicle Friday 16 February 1962, page 1
- Newcastle Journal Saturday 17 February 1962, page 11
- Times Saturday February 17 1962, page 8
- The United Irishman March 1962 p. 1.
- News: 6 March 1962: Accrington Stanley resign from the Football League. London. The Guardian. Simon. Burnton. 6 March 2010.
- Book: Marr, Andrew. Andrew Marr. A History of Modern Britain. London. Macmillan. 2007. 978-1-4050-0538-8. 239.
- News: NED planners go into action. Daily Mirror. 1962-03-08. 32.
- Web site: University fees in historical perspective. Anderson. Robert. 2016-02-08. History & Policy. 2016-07-19.
- News: 1962: New pedestrian crossings cause chaos. BBC News. 2008-02-02. 2 April 1962. https://web.archive.org/web/20080307135816/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/2/newsid_2840000/2840919.stm. 7 March 2008. live.
- Book: Roche, T. W. E.. The Key in the Lock: a history of immigration control in England from 1066 to the present day. London. John Murray. 1969. 978-0-7195-1907-9. 205–17.
- News: Polls Show Macmillan Losing Hold in Britain. Daily News Texan. Hurst. 10. 100. 1962-04-27. 2. 2015-12-16.
- News: Ipswich Town, Dundee win English, Scottish Soccer Titles. Montreal Gazette. 1962-04-30. 32. 2015-12-16.
- Web site: 1962 FA Cup Final . FA Cup Finals . 2015-12-16 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080328113418/http://www.fa-cupfinals.co.uk/1962.htm . 28 March 2008.
- Book: Marshall, Prince. Wheels of London. 109. The Sunday Times Magazine. 1972. 978-0-7230-0068-6.
- The West Indies Federation: Decline and Fall. Elisabeth. Wallace. International Journal. 17. 3. Summer 1962. 269–288. Canadian International Council. 40198636. 10.1177/002070206201700305. 147144900.
- Web site: 1962: To the brink of war.... Express & Star. Wolverhampton.
- Web site: Timeline. 2012-07-19. Martin. Brodetsky. Oxford United F.C.. 2015-12-16.
- Web site: Early Satellite Relays to/from Britain . British TV History . 2010-10-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20101027003257/http://www.tvhistory.btinternet.co.uk/html/early_satellite.html . 27 October 2010 . dead .
- Web site: Mr. F. McEvoy and Mr. H. Reeve (Sentences) (Hansard, 20 January 1964) . https://web.archive.org/web/20090702043419/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1964/jan/20/mr-f-mcevoy-and-mr-h-reeve-sentences . 2 July 2009 . live . . 20 January 1964 . 2009-05-10.
- Book: Gough, Graham. The Black Country Album. Stroud. The History Press. 2012. 9780752479743.
- Web site: Alleged race riot in Dudley . The National Archives . Home Office . 22 March 2022.
- Web site: Midlands News: 31.07.1962: Dudley Race Riots . MACE Archive . 23 June 2017 . 22 March 2022.
- Web site: BCLM . 2022-08-12 . Understanding Dudley's Race Riots: pt.1 - What Happened . 2024-08-07 . Black Country Living Museum . en-GB.
- News: 1962: Violence flares at Mosley rally . BBC News. 2008-02-02. 31 July 1962. https://web.archive.org/web/20080307135911/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/31/newsid_2776000/2776295.stm. 7 March 2008 . live.
- Book: The Hutchinson Factfinder. Helicon. 1999. 978-1-85986-000-7 .
- Web site: Ford Cortina (1962–1982): a National Institution. Yahoo! Cars. 2011-06-16.
- Web site: Dr. No (1962). MI6. 2010-09-01.
- New Musical Express 21 September 1962
- Web site: American Folk Blues Festival Live In Manchester 1962. Piccadilly Records. Manchester. 2020. 2020-09-09.
- News: Scarborough's Cuban missile crisis role revealed. Corera. Gordon. Gordon Corera. 2019-10-21. 2019-10-21. BBC News.
- News: Remembering the world-famous Glasgow concert hall destroyed by fire. Ann Fotheringham. Glasgow Times. 28 November 2022. 5 April 2024.
- Book: Waugh, William. Springer-Verlag. London. 1990. John Charnley: The Man and the Hip. 978-3-540-19587-0. 122–4.
- Book: Palmer, Alan. Palmer . Veronica. 1992. The Chronology of British History. Century Ltd. London. 419–420. 978-0-7126-5616-0.
- Web site: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962. 2008-02-02.
- Web site: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1962. 2008-02-02.
- News: 1962: America to sell Polaris to Britain. BBC News. 2008-02-02. 21 December 1962. https://web.archive.org/web/20080307135853/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/21/newsid_3815000/3815251.stm. 7 March 2008. live.
- Web site: 1962. CBRD. 2012-07-03.
- Book: Harrison, Ian. The Book of Firsts. London. Cassell. 2003. 978-1-84403-201-3. 45.
- Web site: Tierney Is Better Than Robertson & Claude Lives On! . https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211113/IbIriOwW6KE. 2021-11-13 . live. 16:59 . AFTV . YouTube . 2 April 2021 .