Events
- 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.[2]
- 22 January – film Zulu released.
- 28 January – families from Springtown Camp make a silent march through Derry, Northern Ireland, to demand rehousing.[3]
- 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.[4]
- 11 February – Southampton is granted city status, the first such designation of the current reign.[5]
- 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, whose name is registered on 20 April as Edward.
- 19 March
- Power dispute talks break down and it is feared that supply disruptions will follow industrial action.[6]
- The government announces plans to build three new towns in South East England to act as overspill for overpopulated London.[7] One of these is centred on the village of Milton Keynes in north Buckinghamshire.[8]
- 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.[9]
- 29 March – first purpose-built gurdwara in Britain opens, the Guru Gobind Singh Ji Gurdwara in Bradford.[10]
- 30 March – violent disturbances between Mods and Rockers at Clacton beach.[11]
- 31 March – Minister of Labour Joseph Godber appoints Lord Justice Pearson to chair a court of inquiry into the power dispute.[12]
- 1 April – the 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.[11] The Ministry of Education and Ministry of Science merge to form the Department of Education and Science.
- 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.[13]
- 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.[14]
- 16 April – sentence is passed on eleven men for their role in the Great Train Robbery, seven receiving 30 years each.[9]
- 18 April – Liverpool win the Football League First Division for the sixth time in their history.[15]
- 20 April – the scheduled opening night of BBC Two, the UK's third television channel, is disrupted by power cuts in London, 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.[16]
- 21 April – BBC Two begins scheduled broadcasting; its first programme is Play School.[9]
- 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
- West Ham United win the FA Cup for the first time in their history, beating Preston North End 3–2 at Wembley Stadium.
- The Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh's seven-week-old son is christened Edward Antony Richard Louis – later he is created Earl of Wessex and Duke of Edinburgh.[17]
- 5 May – Granada Television broadcasts the first in what will become a series of documentary interviews with a generation of children, Seven Up!
- 6 May – Joe Orton's black comedy Entertaining Mr Sloane premieres at the New Arts Theatre in London.[18]
- 11 May – Terence Conran opens the first Habitat store on London's Fulham Road.[9]
- 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.[19]
- 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.[20]
- 29 May – official opening of the UK's first undercover shopping centre, at the Bull Ring, Birmingham.[21]
- 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
- Resale Prices Act ends most resale price maintenance.
- Helen Brook sets up the first Brook Advisory Centre offering teenage contraception and sexual health advice.[22]
- 6 July
- Malawi gains its independence.[23]
- The Beatles' first film, A Hard Day's Night, is released.[24]
- 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.[11]
- 27 July – former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill is present in the House of Commons for the last time at the age of 89, having been an MP for 63 of the last 65 years; the following day he receives a Parliamentary resolution recording his service to the House and nation and marking his retirement.[25]
- 4 August
- The first portable televisions go on sale.
- Release of London group The Kinks' successful single You Really Got Me, written by Ray Davies.
- 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.[26]
- 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.[9]
- 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.
- 17 September – Goldfinger, the third James Bond film, premieres at Odeon Leicester Square in London.
- 20 September – at the autumnal equinox, the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD) is founded in England, as the equivalent of Wales's Gorsedd of Bards.
- 21 September – Malta obtains independence from the UK.[23]
- 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.[27]
- 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".[28]
- 10–24 October – Great Britain competes at the Olympics in Tokyo and wins 4 gold, 12 silver and 2 bronze medals.
- 15 October – 1964 United Kingdom general election. The Labour Party defeats the Conservatives and 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 entered office only 12 months ago. A surprise casualty as MP is Patrick Gordon Walker who was widely expected to become the Foreign Secretary in a future Labour government, but who loses his Smethwick seat to the Conservatives following a controversial racially motivated campaign by the opposing party's supporters.[29]
- 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.[11]
- 24 October – Northern Rhodesia, a former British protectorate, becomes the independent Republic of Zambia, ending 73 years of British rule.[23]
- 2 November – ITV soap opera Crossroads airs for the first time.[9]
- 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.[30]
- 30 November – power dispute settled and strike action called off.[31]
- 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
- Richard Beeching announces his intention to resign as Chairman of the British Railways Board after three-and-a-half years, during which he proposed the closure of many smaller and financially non-viable railway lines as well as many passenger services on surviving lines.[32]
- "Pirate" radio station Wonderful Radio London begins broadcasting from MV Galaxy anchored off Frinton-on-Sea, with a Fab 40 playlist of popular records.
- 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 one singles in the United Kingdom alone.[33]
- 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.[9]
Undated
- Hanson Trust set up by James Hanson and Gordon White to purchase underperforming companies and turn them around.[34]
- Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies established at the University of Birmingham by Richard Hoggart.
- Daihatsu becomes the first Japanese carmaker to import passenger cars to the United Kingdom, launching its Compagno on the British market.[35]
- Some 90% of British households now own a television, compared to around 25% in 1953 and 65% in 1959.[36]
