Historical events from 1 January 1950 to 31 December 1969
(+9999) = Day count from end of World War Two in Europe. Easter Sundays derived from https://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/easter/easter_text2b.htm
For dates from 1/1/1970 click here
18/12/1969. Thursday
(+8,990) The death penalty for
murder was formally abolished in Britain.
15/12/1969. Monday (+8,987) (1) Dubcek was made Czechoslovak Ambassador to
Turkey. He was expelled from the Czech Communist party on 26/6/1970.
(2) Swansea received City Status.
10/12/1969, Wednesday
(+8,982) A Nobel Prize was added for
Economics.
6/12/1969. Saturday (+8,978)
A free concert given by the Rolling Stones, at Altamont, California, ended
in tragedy when Hell’s Angels stabbed a man to death.
25/11/1969, Tuesday
(+8,967) John Lennon returned his
MBE to Buckingham Palace, in protest at British involvement in the Biafra civil
war in Nigeria.
19/11/1969. Wednesday
(+8,961) Second landing on the Moon. See 20/7/1969.
15/11/1969. Saturday (+8,957)
(1) The first colour TV advert went on British
television – for Birds Eye peas.
(2) Huge anti Vietnam War demonstration in Washington.
14/11/1969. Friday (+8,956) (1) Ghaddaffi
nationalised all foreign banks in Libya.
(2) The US launched Apollo 12,
crewed by Charles Conrad, Richard Gordon, and Alan Bean. Conrad and Bean made the 2nd Moon
landing.
13/11/1969, Thursday
(+8,955) In London, a woman had
quintuplets after fertility drug treatment.
11/11/1969, Tuesday (+8,953) The
owners of the Torrey Canyon agreed to
pay £1.5 million compensation to Britain and France.
5/11/1969, Wednesday
(+8,947) Anti-Apartheid
demonstrators invaded the pitch at Twickenham, during a game by the touring
South African Springboks.
29/10/1959, Wednesday
(+8,940) King Sisavang Vong of Laos died, aged 74, after a reign over 50
years. He was succeeded by his son, King Savang.
21/10/1969. Tuesday (+8,932) Willy
Brandt was elected Chancellor of West Germany.
15/10/1969, Wednesday
(+8,926) The biggest
anti-Vietnam-War demonstration to date took place in America. The war so far
had cost the USA the lives of 40,000 servicemen, over 8 years.
14/10/1969. Tuesday (+8,925) The
7-sided 50p coin came into circulation in Britain, replacing the 10-shilling
note.
10/10/1969, Friday (+8,921) (1) The Hunt Commission on Northern Ireland
recommended disarming the police and disbanding the ‘B Specials’.
(2) Concorde 001 broke the sound barrier
for the first time during a test flight over Paris.
6/10/1969, Monday
(+8,917) The Wymondham to Dereham railway closed.
5/10/1969, Sunday (+8,916)
Monty Python was first screened.
1/10/1969, Wednesday
(+8,912) The first line of the Beijing
Metro, 24 km long, opened. Construction had been approved in 1965.
28/9/1969, Sunday (+8,909) Police in Belfast erected a
‘peace wall’ between Protestant and Catholic communities.
27/9/1969, Saturday
(+8,908) Purge of reformers in Czechoslovak Government.
25/9/1969, Thursday (+8,906)
Heavy rains began in Tunisia. Flooding killed 700 and left 200,000 homeless.
17/9/1969, Wednesday
(+8,898) A week of violence between Hindus and Muslims broke out in
Gujarat.
16/9/1969. Tuesday (+8,897) President
Nixon announced the withdrawal of a further 36,000 troops from Vietnam by
mid-December.
12/9/1969. Friday (+8,893) President Nixon continued B52 bombing raids
on Vietnam.
3/9/1969. Wednesday (+8,884)
Ho Chi Minh, President of
North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, died of a heart attack aged 79.
2/9/1969. Tuesday
(+8,883) ITV began broadcasting
in colour.
1/9/1969. Monday (+8,882) (1) Portsmouth Polytechnic was
established, one of the first under the UK’s 1966 White Paper, A Plan for
Polytechnics and Other Colleges.
(2) President Ghaddaffi ousted King Idris of Libya in a military
coup.
31/8/1969, Sunday (+8,881)
Bob Dylan starred in a pop festival on the Isle of Wight, drawing in 150,000 fans.
29/8/1969. Friday (+8,879) Arab guerrillas hijacked a TWA
aircraft en route from Rome to Tel Aviv and forced it to land in Damascus.
19/8/1969, Tuesday (+8,869) The British Army took over security
and policing in Northern Ireland.
17/8/1969, Sunday (+8,867) Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architect, died.
15/8/1969. Friday (+8,865) The famous American rock festival,
Woodstock, began. It was attended by 400,000.
14/8/1969, Thursday (+8,864)
British troops moved into Londonderry to stop rioting between Catholics and
Protestants. This was known as ‘The Troubles’, and the police were initially
welcomed by Catholics, hoping for protection from extremist Protestants.
However the Catholics were to come to see the police themselves as oppressors.
10/8/1969, Sunday (+8,860)
9/8/1969. Saturday (+8,859)
The Royal Ulster Constabulary used tear gas for the first time in its
history. Thus followed nine hours of rioting by the Roman Catholics in Bogside,
Londonderry. Eighty police were injured in these riots.
8/8/1969, Friday (+8,858) The
French Franc was devalued by 11.1%, and Sterling came under pressure.
4/8/1969, Monday (+8,854)
1/8/1969. Friday (+8,851) The
British pre-decimal halfpenny ceased to be legal tender.
24/7/1969, Thursday
(+8,843) The Apollo 11 astronauts returned
successfully to earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
23/7/1969. Wednesday
(+8,842) The Open University was established at Milton Keynes. See
11/1/1973.
22/7/1969, Tuesday
(+8,841) (1) Apollo 11 left the Moon.
(2) Spanish dictator General Franco
named Juan Carlos, grandson of King Alfonso XIII, as his heir apparent.
21/7/1969, Monday
(+8,840)
20/7/1969. Sunday (+8,839) Neil Armstrong became the first man on the Moon. He said, as he emerged from
the Eagle lunar module, “One small step for man, one giant leap for
mankind”. The Eagle had separated
from the Apollo 11 spacecraft. See 7/10/1968 and 19/11/1969. The
mission had launched from Cape Canaveral on 16/7/1969, and the astronauts
returned to earth, splashing down in the Pacific, on 24/7/1969.
19/7/1969, Saturday
(+8,838) John Fairfax became the first person to row the Atlantic when he
arrived at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after 180 days at sea.
18/7/1969. Friday (+8,837)
Senator Edward Kennedy crashed his car into the Chappaquidick River on the
east coast of the USA. Kennedy escaped but his companion Mary Jo Kopechne
drowned. Kennedy didn’t report the incident for ten hours and was found guilty
of leaving the scene of an accident.
16/7/1969, Wednesday
(+8,835) The US launched Apollo 11, crewed by Neil Armstrong,
Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins.
14/7/1969, Monday
(+8,833) Outbreak of the ‘Football War’ between El Salvador and Honduras;
hostilities lasted until 18/7/1969, and a ceasefire was negotiated on 20/7/1969
by the Organisation of American States. In 1969 wealthy landowners controlled
most of the land in El Salvador, which resulted in the migration of many poor
El Salvadoran labourers into Honduras, causing social tensions there. In 1969
Honduras decided to distribute land to its own poor, thereby evicting the
Salvadoran migrants. El Salvador became concerned that the returning peasants
would spark demands for land reform there too, Tensions between the two
countries rose during the qualifying matches for the 1970 FIFA World Cup,
Salvadoran troops attacked into Honduras. The troops were withdrawn in early
August 1969, but a full peace treaty was not signed between the two combatants
until 30/10.1980. The border essentially remained where it had been before the
war. Both sides suffered around 2,000 casualties each.
5/7/1969, Saturday (+8,824) (1)
Tom Mboya, leader of the campaign for Kenyan independence from Britain, was
assassinated in Nairobi.
(2) Sir Walter Gropius, architect,
founder of the Bauhaus school of design, died.
4//7/1969. Friday (+8,823) Franco
offered Gibraltarians Spanish citizenship.
3/7/1969, Thursday
(+8,822)
1/7/1969. Tuesday (+8,820) Prince
Charles was formally invested as Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle. This event was
watched by a TV audience of some 200 million worldwide. The Daily Mail cost 5d (2p).
30/6/1969, Monday (+8,819) (1) Spain returned the enclave of
Ifni to Morocco; however the towns of Ceuta and Melilla were retained.
(2) The Nigerian Government seized
control of all relief for Biafra.
29/6/1969, Sunday (+8,818) Tshombe died of a heart
attack, in an Algerian prison.
27/6/1969, Friday
(+8,816) Freight services at Broad Street, London, were withdrawn.
24/6/1969. Tuesday
(+8,813) The 20 year old Prince Charles tackled the ‘awfully difficult’
question of his future marriage. ‘You have to chose somebody very carefully, I
think’ said the Prince.
20/6/1969, Friday (+8,809) High-grade oil was discovered in the
North Sea.
17/6/1969, Tuesday (+8,806) Boris Spassky became world chess
champion when he beat Tigran Petrosian.
16/6/1969, Monday(+8,805) Earl
Alexander of Tunis, British military commander who led the invasion of Italy in
WW2, died.
15/6/1969, Sunday (+8,804) Pompidou
became President of France, see 28/4/1969.
14/6/1969, Saturday (+8,803)
Steffi Graf, tennis champion, was born.
13/6/1969, Friday (+8,802)
In the UK, the Divorce Reform Bill received its third reading. It provided for
a divorce after 2 years separation with mutual consent, or after five years
without this consent.
12/6/1969, Thursday (+8,801)
Alexander
Deyneka: Ukrainian artist (born 1899), died.
11/6/1969, Wednesday (+8,800) John Llewellyn Lewis, US Trades Union
leader (born 2/12/1880 in Lucas, Iowa), died.
10/6/1969, Tuesday (+8.799) James Earl Ray was sentenced to 99 years in
Memphis, Tennessee, for the murder of Martin Luther King in April 1968.
9/6/1969, Monday (+8,798) Enoch Powell proposed voluntary
repatriation of immigrants, causing a storm of protest.
8/6/1969. Sunday (+8,797) President Nixon announced that 25,000
US troops would be withdrawn from Vietnam by the end of August.
30/5/1969, Friday (+8,788)
Rioting over low wages and unemployment broke out in Curacao. Shops were looted
and burnt. From 1955 the oil refineries had begun to replace labour with
automation, and began to contract out services such as cleaning and
construction, and contractors paid lower wages than the refinery had done.
26/5/1969. Monday (+8,784) John Lennon and Yoko Ono began a ‘bed
– in’ at a Montreal hotel in aid of world peace. See 8/12/1980.
25/5/1969, Sunday (+8,783) The
Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl set sail with seven crew from the Moroccan port of
Safi in a reed boat in order to prove that The ancient Egyptians could have
reached America, accounting for the Pyramids in central America. He used 12
tons of papyrus reeds, and traditional boat builders from Chad made the vessel.
The boat did not sink, and Heyerdahl completed the voyage; in 1948 he successfully
completed a voyage from Polynesia to Peru to prove that Pacific Islanders could
have settled South America.
24/5/1969. Saturday (+8,782)
The Black and White Minstrel Show at London’s Victoria Palace closed after
4,354 performances over seven years. It was the longest running musical show in
Britain.
20/5/1969, Tuesday
(+8,778)
18/5/1969, Sunday (+8,776)
Apollo 10 was launched, crewed by Thomas Stafford, John Young, and Eugene
Cernan.
17/5/1969. Saturday (+8,775)
Dubliner Tom McLean completed the first solo transatlantic crossing by
rowing boat, from Newfoundland to Ireland.
16/5/1969, Friday (+8,774)
The Russian spacecraft Venus 5 touched down on Venus.
15/5/1969, Thursday
(+8,773) Violence in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, between Malays and Chinese.
14/5/1969, Wednesday
(+8,772)
12/5/1969. Monday (+8,770)
The voting age in Britain was
lowered to 18 from 21. See
2/7/1928, 13/3/1970.
11/5/1969, Sunday (+8,769)
The Vietcong launched ground and rocket attacks throughout South Vietnam.
10/5/1969, Saturday
(+8,768) In the UK, local elections left Labour in control of only 28 of
342 borough councils in England and Wales.
5/5/1969, Monday
(+8,763) The Rugby to Nottingham (Great Central) railway closed. Kings Lynn to Hunstanton closed.
2/5/1969. Friday (+8,760) The
Queen Elizabeth II sailed from Southampton on her maiden voyage.
1/5/1969, Thursday
(+8,759) Queen Elizabeth II opened the new Ordnance Survey offices in
Southampton.
28/4/1969. Monday (8,756)
General De Gaulle, 79 years old,
resigned as Prime Minister of France. President Pompidou, who became
French President on 15/6/1969, succeeded him.
De Gaulle lost a referendum on changes to French regional
institutions. De Gaulle was resented for
high taxation to pay for the French military, whilst health, education, and
social services were neglected, leading to French student riots in spring
1968. De Gaulle retired to
Colombey. See 9/11/1970.
22/4/1969. Tuesday (+8,750) IRA bombs hit the main post office and
bus station in Belfast.
18/4/1969, Friday (+8,746) Bernadette Devlin became
Britain’s youngest MP for nearly 200 years when she was elected for Mid-Ulster,
6 days before her 22nd birthday.
17/4/1969, Thursday
(+8,745) Alexander Dubcek was replaced as First Secretary of the Czech
Communist Party.
16/4/1969. Wednesday (+8,744)
Desmond Dekker became the first Jamaican artist to top the UK charts with The Israelites.
15/4/1969, Tuesday
(+8,743) The Woodstock music
festival began in Bethel, New York.
12/4/1969, Saturday
(+8,740)
9/4/1969, Wednesday (+8,737)
(1)
Sikh bus drivers in Wolverhampton won the right to wear turbans.
(2) Concord’s
first trial flight from Bristol to Fairford. See 21/1/1976. The French Concorde
made its first flight on 2/3/1969. The Concorde project had begun in 1962
between the British and French governments to develop a supersonic aircraft.
Sceptics doubted that it was possible to build a passenger aircraft with over
100 seats that travelled as fast as a military fighter. However Concorde halved
flight times across the Atlantic.
8/4/1969, Tuesday
(+8,736) Arab guerrillas attacked Eilat. In retaliation, Israeli jets
attacked Aqaba, Jordan.
6/4/1969, Sunday (+8,734)
Easter Sunday.
2/4/1969, Wednesday
(+8,730) Jim Morrison, of pop group
‘The Doors’ was arrested in the USA.
1/4/1969. Tuesday (+8,729) France
formally left NATO.
31/3/1969, Monday (+8,728) An airline pilots strike
grounded all BOAC flights.
29/3/1969, Saturday
(+8,726)
28/3/1969, Friday (+8,725)
Dwight D Eisenhower,
American Army Commander and Republican 34th President 1953 to 1961,
died in Washington.
27/3/1969, Thursday
(+8,724) Harold Wilson arrived in Nigeria for talks with General Gowon.
25/3/1969, Tuesday
(+8,722) Amidst increasing separatist tension in East Pakistan, Ayub
resigned, handing power to General Yahya Khan. Khan promised elections for
7/12/1970, and that 162 of the 300 seats in the National Assembly would be
reserved for East Bengalis. Given the popularity of the Awami League in East
Pakistan, this appeared to invite further problems of governance.
22/3/1969. Saturday (+8,719) Soccer
hooligans ran riot on the London Underground, causing thousands of pounds of
damage.
20/3/1969. Thursday (+8,717) The
Beatle John Lennon married Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.
19/3/1969. Wednesday (+8,716) British
forces landed on the Caribbean island of Anguilla. The rebel government set up
self-appointed President Ronald Webster offered no resistance. Many of the
6,000 islanders welcomed the British invasion force, whose arrival had already
been announced by the BBC.
18/3/1969, Tuesday
(+8,715) The US began heavily bombing Cambodia, the aim being to cut the Ho
Chi Minh trail and thereby disrupt supplies to the Communist Vietcong. The
operation was not publicised to the West, because that would have revealed
Sihanouk’s complicity in the bombing of his own country. Sihanouk was pro-US
because he perceived Pol Pot to be allied to Hanoi. In fact the bombing
destabilised Cambodia so that within a year Sihanouk was deposed by his own
ministers. The new Cambodian leader, Lon Nol, insisted that all Vietnamese
troops leave Cambodian soil to the delight of the US. However Lon Nol was weak
and his rule facilitated the advance of Pol Pot’s forces into rural areas,
forcing Lon Nol’s troops back into the cities.
15/3/1969, Saturday (+8,712)
12/3/1969, Wednesday
(+8,709) Beatle Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman at Marylebone Registry
Office, London.
11/3/1969. Tuesday
(+8,708) (1) Golda Meir, aged 70, became Prime
Minister of Israel after the death of Levi Eshkol. Mrs Meir remained Prime
Minister until her resignation in 1974.
(2) The author John Wyndham died.
10/3/1969, Monday (+8,707) James Ray Earl pleaded guilty
to the murder of civil rights leader Martin Luther King. He was sentenced to 99
years.
7/3/1969, Friday (+8,704)
London’s Victoria Line opened, from Warren Street to Victoria, see
3/11/1968.
5/3/1969. Wednesday (+8,702)
The gangland twins Ronald and Roger Kray, 35, were found guilty of murder
at the Old Bailey and given life sentences. The judge said they should not be
released for 30 years.
3/3/1969, Monday (+8,700)
(1) Apollo 9 was launched, manned by James
McDivitt, David Scott, and Russell Schweickart.
(2) The Richmond (Yorkshire) branch
closed. Kilmarnock to Troon via Gatehead closed.
2/3/1969. Sunday (+8,699) (1) The French built Concorde made its maiden
flight from Toulouse Airport. See 9/1/1969.
It was piloted by Andre Turcat, chief test pilot of Sud Aviation; he got
the plane to 300 mph.
(2) Soviet and Chinese troops clashed on
their border.
1/3/1969, Saturday (+8,698)
In Laos, the Pathet Lao opposition rejected the government’s offer of talks to
end the civil war.
28/2/1969, Friday (+8,697) Dwight D Eisenhower, US statesman,
died aged 78.
27/2/1969, Thursday
(+8,696)
26/2/1969, Wednesday
(+8,695) Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister
of Israel, died.
25/2/1969, Tuesday
(+8,,694) Mariner 6 was launched from Cape Canaveral, to fly by
Mars.
24/2/1969, Monday
(+8,693) The Uckfield to Lewes railway closed.
23/2/1969, Sunday (+8,692)
President Nixon of the USA began a tour of European capitals.
22/2/1969. Saturday (+8,691)
President Nixon arrived in Britain for talks with Prime Minister Harold
Wilson.
On TV a wheelchair bound detective called Ironside battled San Francisco’s crooks.
Films on release included 2001: A Space
Odyssey.
18/2/1969. Tuesday (+8,687) At
Zurich an Israeli aircraft was attacked by four Arabs, injuring 6 passengers;
one Arab was killed.
13/2/1969. Thursday (+8,682) Scientists
in Cambridge announced the first successful in-vitro fertilisation of a human
being.
12/2/1969, Wednesday
(+8,681) Ndabaningi Sithole, leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union,
was convicted of incitement to murder Ian Smith.
11/2/1969. Tuesday (+8,680) In
the UK, female workers at the Ford car plant won equal pay with male workers.
9/2/1969, Sunday (+8,678)
The Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet made its maiden flight. See 21/1/1970.
7/2/1969, Friday
(+8,676) Marvin Gaye’s I Heard It
Through The Grapevine was released.
5/2/1969. Wednesday (+8,674)
The Governor of California, Ronald Reagan, declared a state of ‘extreme
emergency’ at the university campus at Berkeley after violent struggles there
between students and police. On BBC1 All
Gas and Gaiters was a comedy about a young Church of England priest, Derek
Nimmo.
3/2/1969. Monday (+8,672) In
Cairo, Yasser Arafat became
leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, the PLO.
30/1/1969. Thursday (+8,668) The
Beatles performed together for the last time.
27/1/1969. Monday (+8,665) In
Northern Ireland, the Protestant leader, Ian Paisley was jailed.
24/1/1969, Friday
(+8,662) General Franco imposed martial law in Spain.
23/1/1969, Thursday
(+8,661) The British Government
rejected proposals to cut penalties for smoking cannabis.
21/1/1969, Tuesday
(+8,659)
20/1/1969. Monday (+8,658) President Nixon was sworn in as US
President.
19/1/1969, Sunday (+8,657) A 21-year-old student, Jan
Palach, set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square, Prague, in protest at the
Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
15/1/1969, Wednesday
(+8,653)
10/1/1969, Friday
(+8,648) Sweden became the first European country to recognise North
Vietnam.
9/1/1969, Thursday
(+8,647) Concorde made its first trial flight from Bristol.
6/1/1969, Monday (+8,644) The rail service between
Edinburgh and Carlisle via Galashiels, Riccarton Junction, Hawick (Waverley
Line) closed. Leuchars
to St Andrews closed.
2/1/1969, Thursday
(+8,640) A civil rights march from
Belfast to London ended in violence.
1/1/1969. Wednesday (+8,639)
Sir Learie Constantine
became Britain’s first Black peer.
31/12/1968, Tuesday
(+8,638) (1) Russia’s TU144 flew, becoming the
world’s first supersonic aircraft.
(2) The ‘lion’ ceased to be stamped on
British eggs. The practice began on 30/6/1957.
30/12/1968, Monday (+8,637)
Trygve Lie, Norwegian ambassador and Secretary-General to the UN, 1946 to 1952,
died.
28/12/1968. Saturday (+8,635) Israeli
commandos in helicopters raided Beirut Airport, destroying 13 Lebanese
aircraft. This was in retaliation for
alleged Lebanese toleration of guerrilla raids into northern Israel.
26/12/1968. Thursday (+8,633) Two
Arab gunmen, killing one passenger, attacked an Israeli Boeing 707 in Athens.
22/12/1968, Sunday (+8,629)
The captain and crew of the Pueblo were released by the North Koreans at
Panmunjom.
21/12/1968. Saturday (+8,628)
The first flight of a man around the Moon, when Apollo 8 was launched. It
was crewed by Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders.
20/12/1968. Friday (+8,627) (1) Franco banished Prince Carlos from Spain.
(2) John Steinbeck, American author who
wrote The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men, Nobel Prize Winner in
1962, died in New York City.
16/12/1968, Monday
(+8,623) World premiere of the film Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang.
4/12/1968. Wednesday
(+8,611) On TV Bill and Ben the
Flowerpot Men still entertained children 16 years after their initial
appearance. The weak willed pair still lived in fear of the gardener and were
mercilessly bullied by Weed.
30/11/1968. Saturday (+8,607)
The Trades Descriptions Act came into force.
29/11/1968, Friday
(+8,606) Arab guerrillas attacked a potash plant on the Dead Sea. Israeli jets
retaliated by blowing up two bridges in Jordan.
28/11/1968. Thursday (+8,605) Enid Blyton, creator of Noddy and Big Ears, died. She
was born on 11/8/1897 in East Dulwich. In the mid 1930s she began writing her
stories, which featured Noddy, the Famous Five, and the Secret Seven.
26/11/1968, Tuesday
(+8,603) In Britain the Race
Relations Act came into force, banning racial discrimination at work.
15/11/1968. Friday (+8,592)
Cunard’s flagship liner the Queen
Elizabeth docked at Southampton for the last time. Launched in September
1938, she was used during the War as a troopship based in Sydney, Australia.
Her first commercial voyage was from Southampton in 1946. She was replaced by
the Queen Elizabeth II.
12/11/1968. Tuesday
(+8,589) One thousand people attended the first public meeting of the
Greater London Council. Ideas discussed included a monorail down Oxford Street
by 1972 and an ‘end to the architecture of totalitarianism’. The Milton Keynes
Development Corporation announced that the first blueprint for the new city
would be available by February 1969. On TV Z
Cars patrolled Merseyside whilst Trumpton
kept watch at the Fire Station.
5/11/1968 Tuesday (+8,582) (1) Richard Milhous Nixon, born 9/1/1913, won the
37th Presidency of the USA by a narrow majority. He had stood for election in 1960 but was
defeated by John F Kennedy. J F Kennedy was born on 29/5/1917.
(2) The first Black woman was elected to
the US House of Representatives.
3/11/1968. Sunday (+8,580) (1) The
second section of London’s Victoria Line opened, from Highbury to Warren
Street, see 1/9/1968 and 7/3/1969.
(2) Severe storms and floods in northern Italy killed over
100 people.
1/11/1968, Friday (+8,578) Georgios Papandreou, Prime
Minister of Greece, died.
31/10/1968. Thursday (+8,577) President
Johnson of the USA ordered a total halt to US bombing of North Vietnam.
27/10/1968, Sunday (+8,573) Violent anti-Vietnam war protests outside the US
Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London.
16/10/1968, Wednesday
(+8,562) (1)
In Britain, the Foreign and Commonwealth Offices merged.
(2) The Czechoslovak Government signed,
under duress, an agreement that Warsaw Pact troops would remain in the country
indefinitely.
14/10/1968, Monday (+8,560)
The new Euston Station in London was opened by the Queen. Work had begun in 1963.
13/10/1968, Sunday (+8,559) The Chinese Cultural
Revolution ended when President Liu was dismissed from his posts in the Party
and the Republic. The Cultural
Revolution (see 3/9/1965), encouraging a return to basic Maoist principles, but
also public criticism of all party members, had been too disruptive to China’s
government and economy.
12/10/1968. Saturday (+8,558) (1)
Equatorial Guinea became independent.
(2) The 19th Olympic Games opened in Mexico
City.
11/10/1968, Friday (+8,557)
The USA’s Apollo 7 spacecraft was launched flawlessly by its 700 ton Saturn 1B
rocket and began 10 days and 21 hours in space.
It was crewed by Walter Schirra, Don Eiselle and Walter Cunningham.
10/10/1968, Thursday (+8,556) Enoch
Powell warned that immigration might ‘change the character of England’
9/10/1968, Wednesday (+8,555)
Harold Wilson, British PM, met Ian Smith for further talks about Rhodesian
independence aboard HMS Fearless moored off Gibraltar. The talks failed to resolve the situation.
7/10/1968. Monday (+8,553) (1) Rhodesia’s leader Ian Smith announced that
there would be no majority rule in Rhodesia in his lifetime. He continued with
talks between himself and Prime Minister Harold Wilson; but Mr Smith said that
‘ordinary Africans were incapable of answering the simplest question regarding
a constitution’.
Films on release included 2001:
A Space Odyssey.
(2) Goods facilities at Sutton station,
SW London, were closed.
5/10/1968, Saturday (+8,551)
Police in Londonderry broke up a Protestant civil
rights march using water cannon and batons.
2/10/1968, Wednesday
(+8,548) Marcel Duchamp, French-US painter and sculptor, died 81.
1/10/1968, Tuesday
(+8,547) The University of Ulster,
at Coleraine, opened.
27/9/1968, Friday (+8,543) (1) The French again vetoed UK membership of the EEC.
(2) Antonio Salazar resigned as Prime
Minister of Portugal, after holding the office for 36 years and 84 days, the
longest term of office of any politician.
(3) The Rock musical Hair with 13 naked actors opened at the
Shaftesbury Theatre, London, the day after the Theatres Act lifted censorship
of it.
19/9/1968, Thursday
(+8,535) (1) Death of Chester Carlson, US inventor of the Xerox photocopier.
(2) The TV Times, a weekly magazine for British
independent TV, was first published.
18/9/1968, Wednesday
(+8,534) Indonesia claimed sovereignty over most of Sabah. On 19/9/1968
Malaysia withdrew its diplomats from Manila.
17/9/1968, Tuesday
(+8,533)
16/9/1968. Monday (+8,532)
Britain adopted a two tier postal system, stamps cost 5d or 4d.
15/9/1968, Sunday (+8,531) Severe
flooding in south east England, the worst since 1953.
14/9/1968, Saturday
(+8,530)
13/9/1968, Friday (+8,529) (1)
British banks announced plans to cease Saturday opening.
(2)
Press censorship was reimposed in Czechoslovakia.
12/9/1968, Thursday (+8,528) Warsaw formally left the Warsaw Pact.
9/9/1968, Monday (+8,525)
The railway from Dereham to Kings Lynn closed. March to Magdalen Road (Kings
Lynn) opened.
7/9/1968, Saturday (+8,523) Protests by the New York Radical Women
(NYRW) Group disrupted the Miss World competition in New York.
6/9/1968. Friday (+8,522)
Swaziland became independent from Britain.
4/9/1969, Wednesday
(+8,520)
2/9/1968. Monday (+8,518) A
major earthquake in Iran killed over 20,000 people.
1/9/1968, Sunday (+8,517) The
first section of London’s new Victoria line opened, from Walthamstow to Highbury,
see 3/11/1968.
30/8/1968, Friday
(+8,515) The single Hey Jude was
released by The Beatles.
27/8/1968. Tuesday
(+8,512) Russian patrols watched the streets of Prague after a failed
anti – Communist uprising. Tanks had first entered Czechoslovakia on 20/8/1968.
The Soviets overthrow President Dubcek, and 175,000 troops, mostly Russian,
occupied the major cities of Czechoslovakia. Prague was put under curfew. 20
people were reported dead and at least 200 injured, many of them students,
after the anti-Soviet protests.
25/8/1968, Sunday (+8,510) The French exploded their
first Hydrogen Bomb.
22/8/1968, Thursday
(+8,507) Soviet tanks entered
Prague.
21/8/1968, Wednesday (+8,506)
President Dubcek was arrested and taken to Moscow. He returned to Czechoslovakia
on 27/8/1968, having agreed to Soviet demands.
20/8/1968. Tuesday (+8,505) Russia sent tanks into
Czechoslovakia. Dubcek had said on 18/7/1968 he would not go back on his
progressive policies, see 5/4/1968.
16/8/1968, Friday (+8,501)
12/8/1968. Monday (+8,497) Race riots in Watts, Los Angeles.
11/8/1968, Sunday (+8,496) The
last main line passenger steam train ran on British Railways. Called the
Fifteen Guinea Special, it ran from Manchester to Carlisle.
8/8/1968, Thursday (+8,493)
5/8/1968, Monday (+8,490)
The southern railway branch from Tooting to Wimbledon was closed to goods
traffic, see 3/3/1929.
4/8/1968, Sunday (+8,489) Israeli aircraft bombed Palestinian bases in
Jordan.
3/8/1968, Saturday (+8,488) (1) The last
scheduled normal service steam train ran on British Railways. It ran from
Preston to Liverpool.
(2) The Countryside Act allowed local authorities to designate
National Parks.
1/8/1968. Thursday (+8,486) (1) President Nixon said the Vietnam War
should be scaled down.
(2) The Princess
Margaret inaugurated the hovercraft service between Dover and Boulogne.
29/7/1968, Monday (+8,483) (1) The Pope condemned
all forms of birth control.
(2) President Dubcek
met with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in the village of Cierna nad Tisou (on
the Czech-USSR border). Brezhnev agreed that Czechoslovakia could follow ‘its
own road to Socialism’ and Dubcek promised ‘Socialist solidarity’. The meeting
closed on 1/8/1968.
24/7/1968, Wednesday (+8,478) A conference of Spanish bishops asserted
the right of Spanish workers right to strike and form independent trades
unions.
23/7/1968. Tuesday (+8,477) An Israeli Boeing 707, flying from
Rome to Tel Aviv, was hijacked and flown to Algeria.
18/7/1968, Thursday (+8,472)
Dubcek said he would not go back on his progressive policies, see 20/8/1968.
16/7/1968, Tuesday (+8,470) Other Warsaw Pact leaders, from East
Germany, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria, declared the Czechoslovak reforms unacceptable.
14/7/1968, Sunday (+8,468) Soviet troops failed to leave Czechoslovakia
after Warsaw Pact exercises.
9/7/1968, Tuesday (+8,463) Czechoslovakia rejected a demand by Russia
for a meeting of Communist Party leaders.
2/7/1968, Tuesday (+8,456) Britain offered famine relief to both
Nigeria and Biafra. Biafra refused it whilst the Uk was still supplying arms to
Nigeria.
1/7/1968. Monday (+8,455) (1) The USA and the USSR signed the
Non-Proliferation treaty regarding nuclear weapons (see 5/8/1963). This bound
its signatories not to transfer nuclear weapons or knowledge to non-nuclear
countries. This was a recognition that both the USA and the USSR had interests
in not assisting China to become nuclear.
(2) The railway from
Matlock to Chinley closed.
30/6/1968. Sunday (+8,454) De
Gaulle won massive support in French elections.
29/6/1968, Saturday (+8,453) The Keighley and Worth Valley preserved
railway, to Oxenhope, opened.
28/6/1968, Friday (+8,452)
27/6/1968, Thursday (+8,451) The Czechoslovak National Assembly passed
laws abolishing censorship and rehabilitating political prisoners.
26/6/1968, Wednesday (+8,.450) Earl Warren announced his resignation as
Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court.
25/6/1968. Tuesday (+8,449) Comedian Tony Hancock killed himself
in a hotel bathroom in Sydney, Australia.
20/6/1968, Thursday (+8,444) Total US war deaths in Vietnam now exceeded
25,000.
12/6/1968, Wednesday (+8,436) The French Government banned demonstrations
and dissolved 11 student organisations,
11/6/1968, Tuesday (+8,435) East Germany began requiring visas for West
Germans to cross its territory.
10/6/1968, Monday (+8,434) NHS
prescription charges were reintroduced. See 1/2/1965.
8/6/1968, Saturday (+8,432)
Bermuda achieved internal self-government.
5/6/1968. Wednesday (+8,429)
A Jordanian-Arab called Sirhan Bishara Sirhan shot Robert Kennedy, US
Senator (born 1925), in the Hotel Ambassador, Los Angeles. Kennedy, younger brother
of President Kennedy, died 25 hours later. Sirhan was arrested. He was
protesting against Kennedy’s outspoken support for Israel, on the first
anniversary of the Six Day War.
1/6/1968, Saturday
(+8,425) Helen Keller, US author, died aged 87.
31/5/1968, Friday
(+8,424) Nigerian – Biafran peace talks in Kampala, Uganda, broke down.
30/5/1968, Thursday
(+8,423) French President De Gaulle
announced he would not resign, and called a General Election.
27/5/1968, Monday (+8,420) The trial of the executives of the Chemie-Grunenthal
company, responsible for the Thalidomide
disaster that killed 80,000 babies and maimed 20,000 more, opened in
Alsdorf, near Aachen. The trail was expected to last at least three years, but
was shut down on 18/12/1970. All defendants were granted immunity from
prosecution. The German Government and Grunenthal agreed a compensation scheme
that many parents regarded as inadequate. Thalidomide
was launched as a wonder cure for morning sickness on 1/10/1957; it was
withdrawn on 27/11/1961. It was sold as Distaval in the UK, as Contergan in
Germany. It emerged that no tests were done for effects on embryos; the executives
claimed nobody in the 1950s realised that drugs taken by the mother could
affect the foetus, which claim was untrue even then. Adults who took
thalidomide as a sedative in 1959 had suffered serious nerve damage.
25/5/1968. Saturday (+8,418) Riots
continued in Paris. Demonstrators erected barricades and students stormed the
Bourse and set fire to the interior. In London a demonstration of support for
the rioters was made outside the French Embassy; the police moved in and
arrests were made, resulting in fines totalling £145 for 17 people. In north
London, students at Hornsey College of Art continued a sit in of the main
building, demanding ‘a change to the college’s educational system’.
24/5/1968, Friday
(+8,417) The Rolling Stones hit, Jumpin’
Jack Flash was released.
22/5/1968. Wednesday (+8,415) Striking French workers now numbered
9 million.
20/5/1968, Monday
(+8,413) The goods yard at Bromley North station closed.
19/5/1968. Sunday (+8,412) (1)
Nigerian forces captured Port Harcourt in the civil war against the breakaway
region of Biafra.
(2) Two
million workers in France were on strike.
18/5/1968, Saturday
(+8,411)
17/5/1968. Friday (+8,410)
French president Georges Pompidou appealed to ordinary Parisians to help
stop the anarchy as student riots continued in Paris. However the Cannes Film
Festival collapsed in chaos as striking technicians and directors caused film
screenings to be cancelled, and three days later the number of striking French
workers had risen to about six million. Three people died in east London when
22 floors of a block of flats collapsed at Ronan Point, Newham, following a gas
explosion. Council officials met with solid resistance when they suggested that
the 80 families evacuated after the disaster should return to their flats. The
director of the Transport studies centre predicted that in the future people
would be ‘piped’ in high speed pneumatic trains like oil and gas. TV viewers
could watch The Saint, Danger Man, or
The Avengers.
16/5/1968, Thursday
(+8,409) The Ronan Point block of flats collapsed in London’s East End. Three died when the 22-storey flats in
Butcher’s Road, Plaistow, were brought down by a gas explosion in a flat on the
18th floor. The pre-fabricated ‘system building’ technique used to
construct the flats meant that every flat on that corner then collapsed.
15/5/1968, Wednesday
(+8,408)
14/5/1968, Tuesday
(+8,407) French workers called a
one-day strike to support the students. The French Franc plummeted.
13/5/1968, Monday
(+8,406) US and North Vietnamese negotiators began peace talks in Paris.
10/5/1968. Friday (+8,403) (1)
Student clashes with police continued in Paris, with 30,000 people involved
in a day and a night of violence. Students at The Sorbonne were locked out of
campus, causing further unrest; the demonstrations were against the Vietnam
War.
(2) Peace talks began between the USA
and North Vietnam in Paris. The talks failed because North Vietnam wanted the
country unified under the Vietcong, whilst the United States wanted North
Vietnam to withdraw from the South which would remain an independent state.
Eventually the North agreed to Southern independence and the US agreed not to
demand the withdrawal of Communist forces from the North. However the North was
to invade the South two years later as US forces withdrew from the South.
6/5/1968, Monday (+8,399) (1)
An opinion poll suggested 74% of Britons supported Enoch Powell’s views on
immigration. Enoch Powell made his famous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, see
20/4/1968.
(2) The Vietnam War continued with house
to house fighting in Saigon. The Kray Twins were charged with ten offences
including two of conspiracy to murder. The Home Secretary James Callaghan told
the Ministry of Public Building and Works that he had no power to deport Tariq
Ali back to his native Pakistan. Mr Ali was a member of the Vietnam Solidarity
campaign in Britain. Ironside was on TV, and the films 2001: A Space Odyssey and
Planet of the Apes were showing.
(3) Spain closed its border with
Gibraltar to all but Spaniards.
(4) The railway from Okehampton to Bere
Alston closed. The Ulceby to Brocklesby rail curve closed. Local services Grange
Junction to Elgin via Dufftown closed. Freight services were withdrawn at
Richmond station, SW London.
3/5/1968. Friday (+8,396) (1)
French police evicted striking students from campus, sparking large street
demonstrations.
(2) Britain’s
first heart transplant.
2/5/1968, Thursday
(+8,395) Students rioted in Paris.
1/5/1968. Wednesday (+8,394) Legoland Family Park, the Danish toy maker’s answer to
Disneyland, opened at Billund in Denmark.
30/4/1968, Tuesday
(+8,393) Frankie Lymon, US pop star,
died of a heroin overdose.
27/4/1968. Saturday (+8,390) Abortion was legalised in
Britain, as the 1967 Abortion Act became Law. The Liberal MP David Steel had introduced
the Abortion Act to Parliament.
23/4/1968. Tuesday
(+8,386) First decimal coins, the 5p
and 10p coins, appeared in Britain, see 15/2/1971. On 14/10/1969, 50 pence pieces replaced ten
shilling notes; these notes ceased to be legal tender on 21/11/1970.
21/4/1968, Sunday (+8,384)
Pierre Trudeau succeeded Lester Pearson as Prime Minister of Canada.
20/4/1968, Saturday (+8,383)
Enoch Powell, Conservative MP for south-west Wolverhampton, made his famous
‘Rivers of Blood’ speech about the dangers of immigration at a hotel in
Birmingham. See 6/5/1968.
19/4/1968, Friday
(+8,382) Josef Smirnovsky, chairman of the Czechoslovak National Assembly,
promised freedom of press, assembly and religion.
18/4/1968. Thursday (+8,381) London Bridge was sold for
£1million to oil tycoon Robert McCullough.
He had it rebuilt at Lake Havasu in the USA. It was rumoured that he
thought he was buying Tower Bridge.
14/4/1968, Sunday (+8,377)
Easter Sunday.
9/4/1968, Tuesday
(+8,372) In Britain, the Race Relations Bill was published.
8/4/1968, Monday
(+8,371) New Czechoslovak government took office, under Oldrich Cernik.
7/4/1968, Sunday (+8,370) US President Johnson ordered a
slowdown in the bombing of North Vietnam.
6/4/1968, Saturday (+8,369)
5/4/1968, Friday (+8,368) In Czechoslovakia, Dubcek
began a programme of reform which was to lead to a measure of political
democracy and restoration of personal freedoms, see 5/1/1968 and 20/8/1968.
4/4/1968. Thursday (+8,367) Martin Luther King, 39, was
assassinated, shot dead by James Earl Ray on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel
in Memphis. He was on a trip to support striking sanitation workers in
Memphis. The funeral was attended by Jacqueline Kennedy. White and Black were briefly united in anger, and there were riots in
hundreds of towns across America. Martin Luther King had campaigned on civil
rights for Black people, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1964.
3/4/1968, Wednesday
(+8,366) The US and North Vietnam agreed to establish direct contact as a
first step towards peace.
2/4/1968, Tuesday
(+8,365) Two West German terrorists, Baader and Ensslin, firebombed a
Frankfurt department store, in protest against the bombs being dropped by the
US on Vietnam.
1/4/1968, Monday (+8,364) (1) Speculation in the gold
market; gold was US$ 38 in London.
(2) Finsbury Park, London, goods depot,
closed.
27/3/1968. Wednesday (+8,359) (1)
The UK foreign secretary said the Falklands will stay British.
(2) Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space
in 1961, was killed in a plane crash near Moscow, on a routine training flight.
23/3/1968, Saturday (+8,355) President Dubcek was summoned
to an emergency Warsaw Pact meeting to try and stop his liberal policies in
Czechoslovakia.
21/3/1968, Thursday
(+8.353) (1)
In Britain, road deaths fell 23% in the three months after introduction of
breath tests. See 8/10/1967.
(2) Students at Nanterre University,
Paris, began a sit-in, which soon spread to other French universities.
20/3/1968, Wednesday
(+8,352) Six French students were
arrested in Paris during an anti-Vietnam War demonstration.
19/3/1968, Tuesday
(+8,351)
17/3/1968, Sunday (+8,349) Violent anti-Vietnam War
demonstrations outside the US Embassy in London.
16/3/1968. Saturday (+8,348) The My Lai massacre; US soldiers
massacred 700 Vietnamese civilians in a raid on hamlets in Son My district,
where Communist Vietcong rebels were suspected to be hiding out. US forces
believed that 250 Vietcong guerrillas were hiding in My Lai and that all
civilians would have left for market. As the 30 US troops went in under the
command of Lieutenant William Calley they threw grenades and deployed
flamethrowers on the thatched roof huts; it was soon clear that only women,
children and the elderly were present. There was no counter fire. However a
‘contagion of slaughter’ had set in and the rape and murder continued. Senior
US army officials turned a blind eye to the event; only five people were ever
court-martialled, with just one, Lieutenant Calley, found guilty. He was
sentenced to life imprisonment but served 3 ½ years before release on parole. This
event turned many civilians within the US against the Vietnam War.
15/3/1968, Friday (+8,347)
13/3/1968. Wednesday (+8,345) Dubcek abolished press censorship in Czechoslovakia.
12/3/1968,
Tuesday (+8,344)
Mauritius, a volcanic island in
the Indian Ocean, became independent from the UK, and joined the Commonwealth.
It had been a British colony since 1810.
8/3/1968, Friday (+8,340) Student unrest in Poland
intensified. On 30/1/1968 a play by Mickiewicz, Dziady (The Forefathers) was shown at the Warsaw National Theatre
for the last time; the authorities were concerned that the play provoked
anti-Soviet sentiments in its audience. On the occasion of its last showing,
Warsaw University students staged a street demonstration. The organisers of the
demonstration were arrested; meanwhile the Warsaw branch of the Writers Union,
supported by well-known personalities such as Slonimski, Jastrun, Andrzejewksi,
Kolakowski and Jasienica protested the decision to close Dziady as Party censorship
curtailing creativity. On 8/3/1968 a student protest meeting was brutally
broken up by police and paramilitaries. Unrest spread onto the streets of
Warsaw and to other Polish universities. The intelligentsia supported the
students but the workers, influenced by official propaganda, opposed them.
Around 1,200 students were arrested but only a small number were tried and
received jail terms. Some were temporarily suspended from their university,
Some academics also lost their posts, entire university departments were closed,
new academic appointments were made on political grounds not ability, and
overall, academic freedom was replaced by repression and suspicion, at least
while Gomulka held power in Poland.
23/2/1968, Friday
(+8,326) Tom Jones released his song Delilah.
22/2/1968, Thursday
(+8,325) The UK Government was
concerned at the level of immigration of Asians from East Africa.
21/2/1968, Wednesday (+8,324) Lord Florey, Australian-born
British pathologist who made possible the large-scale production of penicillin,
died.
20/2/1968, Tuesday
(+8,323) In Britain, the provision
of free school milk at secondary schools ceased.
4/2/1968. Sunday (+8,307) The world’s largest
hovercraft, 165 tonnes, was launched at Cowes.
31/1/1968. Wednesday (+8,303) Nauru became independent from
Britain.
30/1/1968. Tuesday
(+8,302) The Vietcong launched the great Tet Offensive against South Vietnam,
named after the Tet holiday of January 31, when south Vietnamese soldiers would
be off-guard. Militarily the Tet offensive was disastrous for the North; they
held none of the towns they captured. The last town, Hue, was recaptured by US
Marines three weeks after the Tet Offensive began. However the North won the
propaganda war, with massive damage inflicted on the South during the
Offensive, much of by US forces whilst evicting the Communists. Martial law was
proclaimed in Vietnam. US casualties now amounted to 1,000 per day. Questions
were asked why the US and South were suffering so many losses without obvious
success in the war.
29/1/1968, Monday
(+8,301) The Alnmouth to Alnwick railway closed.
26/1/1968. Friday (+8,298) The two British banks, the
National Provincial and the Westminster, merged to form the National
Westminster Bank.
23/1/1968,
Tuesday (+8,295)
The USS Pueblo, an intelligence ship, and its 89 man crew was seized by the
North Koreans in the Sea of Japan.
21/1/1968, Sunday (+8,293) North Korean commandos made an
assassination attempt upon President Park of South Korea, getting within 300
metres of the Presidential Palace.
16/1/1968, Tuesday (+8,288) The UK government announced
public expenditure cuts of £700 million. This included postponing a rise in the
school-leaving age, and re-imposing prescription charges. There would also be a
withdrawal of the military from all bases east of Suez, except for Hong Kong.
12/1/1968, Friday
(+8,284) Soviet dissidents Yuri Galanskov and Alexander Ginsburg were
sentenced in Moscow to hard labour.
11/1/1968. Thursday
(+8,283) Emigration from Britain
exceeded immigration by 30,000 in the second quarter on 1967. The world’s fifth
heart transplant was performed in New York. A new magazine, Student, hit Britain’s newsstands. Its
publisher, Richard Branson, hoped the new magazine would become the voice of
Britain’s youth.
Children were entertained on TV by The Magic Roundabout and Blue
Peter.
10/1/1968, Wednesday
(+8,282) John Grey Gorton became 20th Prime Minister of
Australia.
8/1/1968, Monday
(+8,280)
5/1/1968. Friday (+8, 277) Alexander Dubcek became the Czech leader, replacing Novotny. Czech discontent at oppressive government
from Prague and economic exploitation by the USSR led to criticism of the
Communist leader of Czechoslovakia, Novotny (see 25/2/1948), at a Workers Union
Congress in June 1967, and to student demonstrations in October 1967. See 5/4/1968.
4/1/1968, Thursday (+8,276)
The US now had 486,000 troops in Vietnam.
3/1/1968, Wednesday
(+8,275)
2/1/1968, Tuesday
(+8,274) Christiaan Barnard
performed a second heart transplant; the recipient Philip Blaiberg survived 594
days, proving the technique was feasible.
1/1/1968, Monday
(+8,273) The Bedford to Cambridge via Sandy railway closed. Oxford to
Bletchley closed. Larbert to Alloa closed.
31/12/1967, Sunday (+8,272) Hippies embraced love, flower
power, LSD and the Rolling Stones as a cure for the world’s ills.
30/12/1967, Saturday
(+8,871) Vincent Massey, Canadian lawyer and diplomat, died aged 80.
29/12/1967, Friday
(+8,870) Paul Whiteman, US composer, died aged 77.
21/12/1967, Thursday
(+8,262) Mikheil Saakashvili,
President of Georgia, was born.
19/12/1967. Tuesday
(+8,260) Second French veto by De
Gaulle on British membership of the E.E.C. The pound was devalued, and Harold
Wilson made his ‘pound in your pocket’ television speech.
13/12/1967. Wednesday
(+8,254) King Constantine II fled Greece
after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the military junta, see 21/4/1967,
and 1/6/1973.
11/12/1967. Monday (+8,252) The prototype of the world’s
first supersonic airliner, Concorde, was revealed in Toulouse, France. It first
flew from Bristol on 9/1/1969.
9/12/1967. Saturday (+8,250) Nicolae Ceausescu became President of Romania.
5/12/1967. Tuesday (+8,246) The Beatles opened their Apple
store on Baker Street.
3/12/1967. Sunday (+8,244) Professor Christian Barnard,
born 1923, performed the world’s first heart transplant in Cape Town. The
recipient, a 53-year old grocer called Waskansky, who received the heart of a
25 year old traffic casualty, died 18 days later of pneumonia. The drugs given
to suppress rejection compromised Waskansky’s immune system. A second heart
transplant patient (see 2/1/1968) survived much longer.
30/11/1967. Thursday (+8,241) The British withdraw from Aden, and the Republic of South Yemen was formed.
29/11/1967, Wednesday
(+8,240) Roy Jenkins succeeded James
Callaghan as Chancellor.
28/11/1967. Tuesday (+8,239) (1) Horseracing was suspended in Britain because of an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease.
(2) The first pulsar was discovered by radio astronomers at
Cambridge, England. The regular radio pulses were initially thought to be
signals from intelligent aliens.
27/11/1967, Monday (+8,238) De Gaulle vetoed Britain’s
entry into the EEC.
26/11/1967, Sunday (+8,237)
23/11/1967. Thursday
(+8,234) The UK government was about to ban meat imports from Europe
because of the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease there. TV shows included a
debate on The Roman Catholic Church has
no place in the 20th Century and The Man from UNCLE.
22/11/1967. Wednesday (+8,233)
The UN passed the famous Resolution
242. It promised secure Israeli borders in exchange for an Israeli
withdrawal from the occupied territories, and stated the need for a solution to
the Palestinian refugee problem. However no timetable was given for achieving
these aims.
18/11/1967. Saturday (+8,229)
Devaluation of Sterling. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr James
Callaghan, announced a 14.3% devaluation, from $2.80 to $2.40 to the pound. He
resigned the Chancellorship eleven days later.
10/11/1967, Friday
(+8,221) The Moody Blue’s single, Nights
in White Satin was released.
8/11/1967. Wednesday
(+8,219) The first local radio station in the UK, Radio Leicester, went
on the air. It was opened by the
Postmaster-General, Edward Short.
5/11/1967, Sunday (+8,216) 49 people were killed at a
rail crash at Hither Green, south London.
2/11/1967, Thursday
(+8,213) The first Scottish
Nationalist Party candidate took their seat at Westminster. In the by-election
at Hamilton, Winifred Ewing took the seat for the SNP, a party formed in 1934.
1/11/1967, Wednesday
(+8,212) Rolling Stone Magazine started
publication, the first Rock’n’Roll periodical in the USA.
31/10/1967, Tuesday
(+8,211) The Expo ’67 exhibition in Montreal closed; it had opened on
27/4/1967.
30/10/1967. Monday (+8,210)
Statistics showed that the number of Britain’s drug addicts under 20 rose
from 145 in 1965 to 329 in 1966. Captain
Scarlet merchandise hit the shops. TV showed Bewitched, Dr Finlays Casebook, The Saint, and Z Cars.
29/10/1967, Sunday (+8,209)
27/10/1967, Friday (+8,207) The UK’s Abortion Act received
Royal Assent.
26/10/1967. Thursday (+8,206) The
Shah of Iran and his wife were
crowned in Tehran.
25/10/1967. Wednesday (+8,205)
UK Parliament passed the Abortion Act, decriminalising abortion.
24/10/1967. Tuesday (+8,204) Israeli
artillery destroyed a petrol refinery at Port Suez.
21/10/1967. Saturday (+8,201) The
Israeli destroyer Eilat was sunk by
Egyptian missiles
18/10/1967, Wednesday
(+8,198) The Soviet space probe
Venera 4 made the first soft landing on Venus.
15/10/1967. Sunday (+8,195)
Henry Pu Yi, the last emperor of China from the age of 2, died in Peking
aged 61. The Guardian offered its readers ‘the first binary computer kit’
called Digi-Comp 1, for £3 10 shillings. Meanwhile in Tokyo the Nippon Electric
Co was offering the world’s first commercial television telephone. TV viewers
saw Steptoe and Son, whilst Patrick
McGoohan was unable to accept his lot in North Wales as The Prisoner. Ironside
the wheelchair bound detective propelled himself around the streets of San
Francisco.
9/10/1967. Monday (+8,189)
The revolutionary Marxist leader
Che Guevara was captured in Bolivia and shot. Bolivian troops killed
Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and six other guerrillas they had cornered in the village
of La Higuera near Vallegrande. The Argentine born hero of Latin American revolutionaries,
Guevara was a prominent figure in Fidel Castro’s successful Cuban Revolution of
the 1950s and 60s. Guevara then decided to join other struggles of
‘liberation’. Guevara came from a middle class family and his travels convinced
him that only violent revolution would solve the economic, political, and
poverty problems facing many Latin American countries. The French philosopher
Jean Paul Satre described him as ‘the most complete human being of our age’.
8/10/1967. Sunday (+8,188)
(1) A motorist in Flax Bourton, Somerset became the
first person to be breathalysed in Britain. See 21/3/1968.
(2) Clement Atlee, British Prime Minister 1945-51, died aged 84.
7/10/1967, Saturday
(+8,187) Norman Angell, English author and politician, died aged 92.
5/10/1967, Thursday
(+8,185) The first majority verdict was recorded in a UK court, 10 to 2,
at Brighton Quarter Sessions.
30/9/1967. Saturday (+8,180) BBC
Radio was reorganised. BBC Radio 1, 2, 3, and 4 began broadcasting, with Tony
Blackburn introducing The Breakfast Show. His first record was Flowers In The
Rain by The Move.
27/9/1967, Wednesday
(+8,177) The liner Queen Mary arrived at Southampton, at the end
of her last transatlantic voyage.
20/9/1967. Wednesday
(+8,170) The Queen launched the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth II,
at Clydebank, Scotland.
18/9/1967, Monday (+8,168)
Sir John Cockroft, British scientist who along with Ernest Walton split the
atom, died.
12/9/1967. Tuesday (+8,162) Governor
Reagan called for an escalation of the Vietnam
War.
10/9/1967. Sunday (+8,160) Gibraltar voted overwhelmingly to
stay British. 12,318 voted for Britain, and 44 for Spanish rule. In 2002 the
British government was considering sharing sovereignty with Spain but the
Gibraltarian governor was to hold an unauthorised referendum, which he believed
would show the majority wished to stay British.
8/9/1967, Friday (+8,158)
Uganda became a republic, with Milton Obote as the first President.
3/9/1967. Sunday (+8,153)
Sweden switched over from driving on the left to driving on the right. All
traffic was banned from Sweden’s roads between 1.am. and 6.am. that day. This
reduced accidents since neighbouring Norway and Denmark already drove on the
right. An earlier referendum, in 1955, had rejected the switchover but the
Swedish Government finally approved the change in 1963.
1/9/1967, Friday (+8,151) At a meeting in Khartoum, the
Arabs decided to lift the oil embargo that had been imposed on the West since
the Six Day War.
31/8/1967, Thursday
(+8,150) Ilya Ehrenburg, Soviet author, died aged 75.
29/8/1967, Tuesday
(+8,148)
28/8/1967, Monday (+8,147) Death of Charles Darrow, US
inventor of the board game Monopoly.
27/8/1967, Sunday (+8,146)
Brian Epstein, who managed The Beatles rise to rock stardom, died in a swimming
pool accident.
25/8/1967, Friday
(+8,144)
23/8/1967, Wednesday
(+8,142) Race riots in Detroit.
22/8/1967, Tuesday
(+8,141) Red Guards set fire to the British Embassy in Beijing.
15/8/1967. Tuesday
(+8,134) The Marine Broadcasting Act came into force in the UK,
outlawing pop pirate radio stations.
9/8/1967, Wednesday
(+8,128) Joe Orton, English author and playwright, died aged 34.
8/8/1967, Tuesday
(+8,127) ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) was founded. The
original members were Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and
Thailand. Brunei joined in 1984, Vietnam in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in
1997, and Cambodia in 1999. East Timor
attempted to join, post-independence, but was blocked by Indonesia.
4/8/1967, Friday
(+8,123) The Tagus Road Bridge at Lisbon opened.
2/8/1967, Wednesday
(+8,121) The second Blackwall road tunnel, London, opened (first tunnel
opened 22/5/1897).
30/7/1967, Sunday (+8,118)
29/7/1967, Saturday
(+8,117) An earthquake in Caracas, Venezuela killed 240.
28/7/1967, Friday (+8,116) The UK steel industry was nationalised.
27/7/1967. Thursday
(+8,115) Robin Scott, the man in charge of the brand new Radio One,
announced that should pop music prove to be a passing fad, he would devote the
station’s output to ‘sweet music’.
26/7/1967, Wednesday (+8,114)
25/7/1967, Tuesday
(+8,113) (1) In the UK, the Sexual Offences
Act partially decriminalised homosexuality. Two men could have sex together if
they were above the age of 21.
(2) During a State visit to Canada,
General Charles de Gaulle of France encouraged French-speaking Quebec citizens
to break away; he was rebuked for this breach of etiquette by the Canadian
Prime Minister and returned to France.
24/7/1967, Monday (+8,112)
Graham Greene, Francis Crick, and The Beatles were among those who signed a
full-page advertisement in The Times,
saying the law against marijuana was ‘immoral in principle and unworkable in
practice’.
23/7/1967, Sunday (+8,111)
Riots broke out in Detroit after police raided a ‘blind pig’, an unlicensed
bar, in the 12th street area of Detroit. In 5 days of disorder, 43
people were killed and 467 injured. 7,200 were arrested and almost 3,000
buildings burnt or looted. The US Army had to go in with tanks and machine
guns. The root cause of the riots was credit discrimination by banks against
addresses in districts that were mainly Black.
22/7/1967, Saturday
(+8,110) The US poet Carl Sandburg died in North Carolina.
21/7/1967, Friday (+8,109) Majority verdicts were now
allowed in UK courts.
18/7/1967, Tuesday
(+8,106) British forces were to
withdraw from areas east of Suez by the mid-1970s,
15/7/1967, Saturday
(+8,103) Israel said it would not comply with the UN request to withdraw
from east Jerusalem (4/7/1967) and also would not give up the
strategically-important Golan Heights.
14/7/1967. Friday (+8,102)
Parliament in the UK voted to legalise abortion. This was after a record 64
hour debate. This was
after a record 64 hour debate. The 1967 Abortion Act allowed for the legal
termination of pregnancy if two registered doctors believed that continuation
of the pregnancy could damage the physical or mental health of the woman, or of
members of her family, or where there was substantial risk of the baby being
born with physical or mental abnormalities.
10/7/1967, Monday
(+8,098)
8/7/1967, Saturday (+8,096) Fatima Jinnah, Pakistani
politician, died.
7/7/1967. Friday (+8,095) (1) Nigerian
troops invaded the breakaway region of Biafra, see 30/5/1967. The
Biafrans had, initially, the main oil reserves and the refinery at Port
Harcourt, so were able to secure help and weapons from abroad. However they
faced an overwhelmingly larger Federal Nigerian Army. The ruler of Nigeria,
Gowon, faced the threat of regional secession and was determined to maintain the unity of his country.
(2) Using Sir Francis Drake’s sword, the
Queen knighted Sir Francis Chichester, who had sailed solo around the world in
Gypsy Moth IV.
6/7/1967, Thursday
(+8,094)
4/7/1967, Tuesday
(+8,092) The United Nations asked Israel to withdraw from Arab East
Jerusalem.
3/7/1967, Monday (+8,091) In Britain, ITV launched News at Ten.
2/7/1967, Sunday (+8,090)
1/7/1967. Saturday (+8,089) BBC 2 began colour broadcasting in Britain.
Wimbledon was covered in colour for the first time.
30/6/1967, Friday
(+8,088) Moise Tshombe, former President of Katanga and former prime
minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was kidnapped to Algeria.
29/6/1967. Thursday
(+8,087) The American child psychologist Dr Benjamin Spock led a march
of nearly 5,000 people in London in protest against the Vietnam War. Eighteen
people were arrested as the march headed towards the US Embassy in Grosvenor
Square. The Magic Roundabout
continued on TV, as did The Man from
UNCLE as he battled with the evil THRUSH organisation.
28/6/1967, Wednesday
(+8,086) Israel declared the annexation of East Jerusalem.
27/6/1967. Tuesday
(+8,085) Barclay’s Bank, in Enfield, north London, opened Britain’s
first cash dispenser.
25/6/1967, Sunday (+8,083) The first worldwide
TV show was broadcast; via satellite link it reached 26 countries. The
programme, Our World, had an
estimated audience of 400 million. It concluded with a live Beatles performance
of All You Need is Love.
17/6/1967. Saturday (+8,075) China
exploded its first hydrogen bomb. This raised tensions between China and the
USSR.
15/6/1967. Thursday
(+8,073) (1)
Race riots shook New Jersey, USA, following the arrest of a black taxi driver
for a traffic offence. The riots lasted for four nights 1,600 people were
arrested, 1,100 were injured, and 22 died.
(2) In Britain the Latey Commission
reported that the voting age should be lowered to 18. Films included The Further Perils of Laurel and Hardy.
The Guardian TV critic complained that ‘with the basically green and white
Wimbledon being followed by Late Night
Line Up with everyone wearing basically black and white’ people paying
nearly £2 a week to rent the colour sets should be getting ‘the occasional
dazzle’. Whickers World and Till Death do
us Part formed part of the TV schedules.
14/6/1967. Wednesday
(+8,072) At a telecommunications conference in London, the Postmaster
General predicted shopping by picture television and news reports by computer
before the end of the century. He went on to discuss the imminent arrival of
household robots. Australian and New Zealand woolgrowers expressed concern over
the effects of the mini skirt on wool
prices, which were down 6d a pound on the last season. On TV, ‘Games
without Frontiers’ was on. It’s a
Knockout and The Likely Lads was
also on.
12/6/1967, Monday
(+8,070)
10/6/1967, Saturday
(+8,068) The White House, Washington, received a threat from the USSR over
the ‘hotline’ that Russia would get involved in the Israel-Arab conflict to
prevent a total Israeli victory. Moscow, ally of Egypt, had moved naval forces
from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean and was planning an invasion of
Israel from the coast. The world was in danger of a new World War between the
USSR and USA, Israel’s ally. Russia’s ultimate failure to intervene caused it
to lose some credibility with its other allies such as Cuba. This day Moscow
severed diplomatic relations with Israel.
9/6/1967, Friday (+8,067) As Egypt was heavily defeated
in the Six Day war, Nasser resigned.
8/6/1967, Thursday
(+8,066) The Israeli Air Force, during the Six-Day War, attacked and severely
damaged a US research ship, the USS Liberty. Israel maintained that the attack
was an accident, the ship having been mistaken for an Egyptian one.
7/6/1967, Wednesday
(+8,065) Israeli forces captured Arab East Jerusalem.
6/6/1967, Tuesday
(+8,064) Paul Giamatti, US actor, was born.
5/6/1967. Monday (+8,063) The Six Day War began between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. Israel routed the armies of
three Arab nations and occupied an area larger than the entire State of Israel
in just six days. The war began after Colonel Nasser, having formed a pact with
Syria and Jordan, moved his forces into Sinai and closed the Straits of Tiran
to Israeli shipping. Early on the morning of 5/6/1967 Israel made lightning
strikes against Arab airbases, and within 24 hours the Egyptian and other Arab
air forces were destroyed. Three Israeli tank divisions moved into the Sinai
Desert. The Sinai capital El Arish fell on 6/6/1967 and by then the Egyptian
army was in total disarray. By 7/6/1967 King Hussein's Jordanian forces were
also routed and most of the West bank, including the Old City of Jerusalem, was
in Israeli hands. On 9/6/1967, amid calls for a ceasefire, Israeli forces
pressed on to the Suez Canal. Israel also launched an attack on the Golan
Heights and by 10/6/12967 had taken these from Syria.
4/6/1967, Sunday (+8,062)
British Midland flight G-ALHG crashed in Hopes Carr, Stockport, Manchester, killing
72 passengers and crew.
3/6/1967, Saturday (+8,061) Appleby station, on the line
between Scunthorpe and Grimsby, closed.
2/6/1967, Friday
(+8,060) Rioting in West Berlin against the visit of the Shah of Iran, in which
Benno Ohnesorg was killed by a police officer. His death resulted in the
founding of the terrorist group Movement 2 June.
1/6/1967. Thursday (+8,059) Moshe Dayan appointed the Israeli
Defence Minister.
31/5/1967. Wednesday (+8,058)
The President of Iraq stated, “The existence of Israel is an error that
must be rectified. This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy that has
been with us since 1948. Our goal is clear – to wipe Israel off the map”.
30/5/1967. Tuesday
(+8,057) Biafra, 44,000 square miles, seceded from Nigeria under the military
commander of the Eastern Ibo region, Odumegwu Ojukwu, starting a civil war. See 7/7/1967, 19/5/1968, and 12/1/1970.
Nigeria at independence in 1960 had a
population of around 50 million, consisting mainly of Muslim Hausa and Fulani
in the north, Catholic Ibos in the east, and Muslim Yorubas in the west. There
was considerable enmity between the Ibos and the Muslims. In January 1966 a coup by Major-General
Johnson Ironsi, an Ibo, replaced the civilian post-independence government,
This coup provoked a massacre of Ibos in the northern Muslim regions. At end
July 1966 a second coup, by northern Army officers, deposed Ironsi, who was
then tortured and murdered. General Yakubu Gowon, a Christian from a minority
tribe, now came to power. He tried to reassure the Ibos but hundreds of
thousands of them fled to the eastern Ibo region for safety. Gowon planned to
institute a 12-region federal structure for Nigeria, but the military Governor
of the eastern region, Colonel Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, refused to accept this.
Ojukwu was a wealthy Ibo, Oxford-educated, who declared the oil-rich Eastern Region
independent on 30/5/1967 as Biafra, hoping for support from the oil
multinationals. However Nigerian troops overran Biafra, over an extended time
period, making Biafra a byword for mass starvation.
Biafran-controlled
territory shrank, by September 1968, to a landlocked enclave 100km by 50 km.
Ojukwu hired a Swiss public relations firm, Markpress, to plead his cause to
the world. Markpress played the religious factor, painting (to the West) Ojukwu
as a Christian under Muslim threat; Gowon countered that many on the Nigerian
side, including Gowon himself, were also Christian. From August 1968 aid
agencies began sending food aid to the starving Biafrans. France backed the
Biafran side and sent military aid via Gabon and Cote D’Ivoire. Britain and
Russia both backed the Nigerian side. Mercenaries under Colonel Rolf Steiner
arrived to bolster the Biafran forces; this held back the Nogerian forces,
however only prolonging the suffering of the Biafran people. Nigeria, unable to
overcome Steiner’s men, settled upon bombing raids and blockade. Gowon blocked
food aid, arguing it was being used as a cover for arms shipments.
29/5/1967, Monday
(+8,056) Geronimo
Baqueiro Foster, composer, died aged 69.
28/5/1967. Sunday (+8,055)
Sir Francis Chichester arrived in Plymouth after a solo voyage around the
world in his yacht, Gypsy Moth IV. See 27/8/1966.
27/5/1967. Saturday (+8,054) President
Nasser, nine days before the Six Day War began, declared, “Our objective will
be the destruction of Israel”.
23/5/1967, Tuesday
(+8,050)
15/5/1967, Monday (+8,042) In the village of Naxalbari,
West Bengal, peasants rebelled against landowners. This was the start of the
Maoist rebel Naxalite movement in eastern India.
14/5/1967. Sunday (+8,041)
Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King was consecrated.
12/5/1967, Friday
(+8,039) The British Government chose Stansted as the site for London’s
third airport. Protestors won another enquiry, scheduled for February 1968.
27/4/1967, Thursday
(+8,024) The Expo ’67 exhibition opened in Montreal. It closed on 31/10/1967.
24/4/1967. Monday (+8,021) The
first space casualty occurred when Vladimir Komarov was killed as the Russian
spacecraft Soyuz I crashed to earth after leaving orbit. It came
to earth on the Steppes of Orenburg.
21/4/1967. Friday (+8,018) Colonels in Greece under Papadopolous took power in a military
coup; parliamentary democracy was suspended. King Constantine II
initially collaborated with the colonels until 13/12/1967 but then unsuccessfully attempted a counter
coup. He later fled to Rome.
19/4/1967, Wednesday
(+8,016) Konrad Adenauer, West German Chancellor from 1949 to 1963,
died.
15/4/1967. Saturday (+8,012) 100,000
protested against the Vietnam War
in New York.
12/4/1967. Wednesday
(+8,009) The UK£ reached parity with the US$.
4/4/1967, Tuesday
(+8,001) Martin Luther King
denounced the Vietnam War.
1/4/1967. Saturday (+7,998)
(1) The Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserves
formed.
(2) Britain’s first Ombudsman was
created, Sir Edmund Compton.
31/3/1967, Friday
(+7,997) The Supreme Headquarters of NATO moved from France to Casteau,
Belgium.
30/3/1967, Thursday
(+7,996) The Torrey Canyon
was finally destroyed by RAF bombing.
26/3/1967. Sunday (+7,992) Easter Sunday. 10,000 hippies held a
rally in New York's Central Park.
19/3/1967, Sunday (+7,985)
French Somaliland (now Djibouti) rejected independence in a referendum.
18/3/1967. Saturday (+7,984)
The Torrey Canyon ran aground on the Seven Stones reef off Lands End. The 975 foot tanker spilled
117,000 tons of Kuwaiti crude oil that was bound for Milford Haven. Within six
days 30,000 tons of oil had escaped producing a 260 square mile slick.
Thousands of gallons of detergent were dumped on the slick, but two days later
the tanker broke her back during a salvage attempt, releasing a further 30,000 tons
of oil. On 28 and 29 March the RAF took emergency action, and tried to burn off
the oil. They dumped aviation fuel, high explosive bombs, rockets, and napalm
onto the slick. The six hour bombardment was a success but by then the oil had
fouled 100 miles of Cornish coastline.
12/3/1967. Sunday (+7,978) Mrs
Ghandi re-elected Prime Minister of India.
10/3/1967. Friday (+7.976) The
US bombed industrial targets in North Vietnam.
9/3/1967, Thursday
(+7,975) Svetlana Alliluyeva,
daughter of Joseph Stalin, defected to the West, requesting political asylum at
the US Embassy in India.
8/3/1967, Wednesday
(+7,974)
7/3/1967, Tuesday
(+7,973) The first North Sea gas was brought ashore in Britain.
6/3/1967, Monday
(+7,972) The railway from Millers Dale to Buxton closed. Sidmouth Junction
to Sidmouth closed. Tipton
St John to Exmouth closed. Appledore to New Romney closed. Cambridge to Sudbury
closed. March to St Ives closed. Harrogate to Northallerton closed.
26/2/1967, Sunday (+7,964) The US stepped up the Vietnam
war with an attack on the Vietcong HQ.
22/2/1967, Wednesday
(+7,960) Suharto replaced Sukarno as
President of Indonesia.
18/2/1967, Saturday (+7,956)
Robert Oppenheiner, American scientist who developed the US atom bomb, died
in Princeton, New Jersey.
17/2/1967, Friday
(+7,955) The Beatles’ hit, Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever single was
released.
14/2/1967. Tuesday (+7,952) 100 Labour MPs in Westminster condemned the
US bombing of Vietnam. On 26/2/1967 the US stepped up the war by
attacking the Vietcong's HQ.
13/2/1967, Monday
(+7,951) The Kirkham to Blackpool South (direct) railway closed.
7/2/1967, Tuesday
(+7,945) In Britain the Far Right anti-immigration National Front party was
formed. It was founded by A.K.Chesterton, cousin of the famous author.
30/1/1967, Monday
(+7,937) The railway from Bodmin Road to Padstow closed.
27/1/1967, Friday (+7,934)
Fire broke out on the spacecraft Apollo I during ground tests at Cape
Kennedy. Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee were killed. Normally
fire-resistant plastics ignited in the pure oxygen used by the astronauts.
26/1/1967, Thursday
(+7,933) Red Guards besieged the Soviet Embassy in Beijing, alleging
mistreatment of Chinese students in Moscow.
18/1/1967. Wednesday
(+7,925) Jeremy Thorpe, born on 29/4/1929, became leader of the Liberal Party, replacing Joe Grimond. Thorpe
resigned on 10/5/1976.
12/1/1967, Thursday
(+7,919) Plans were announced for a
new city at Milton Keynes.
8/1/1967, Sunday (+7,915) Rioting in Shanghai, China, as
workers went on strike.
4/1/1967. Wednesday
(+7,911) Donald Campbell died attempting to break his own water speed
record of 276.33 mph on Coniston Water in the Lake District. He had made one
run, then turned for another run too soon, and his boat hit its own wake and
catapulted out of the water. His boat was called Bluebird K 7.
3/1/1967, Tuesday
(+7,910) Jack Ruby, who shot Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of
President Kennedy, died of natural causes at a Dallas hospital. Mr Ruby was
awaiting the retrial of his murder case.
2/1/1967. Monday (+7,909) (1) Ronald
Reagan sworn in as Governor of California.
(2) Groombridge to Three Bridges railway
closed. Stopping services withdrawn Ipswich to Norwich via Stowmarket.
28/12/1966, Wednesday (+7,904)
Westminster Abbey celebrated its 900th anniversary.
22/12/1966, Thursday
(+7,898) Rhodesia left the
Commonwealth.
15/12/1966, Thursday
(+7,891) Walt Disney, US film producer and leader in animation, died.
6/12/1966. Tuesday (+7,882) Ian Smith of Rhodesia refused UK
government proposals to end UDI. Rhodesia left the Commonwealth on 22/12/1966.
5/12/1966, Monday
(+7,881) The railway from Verney Junction to Buckingham closed. Bury to
Accrington closed. Rawtensall to Bacup closed.
3/12/1966, Saturday
(+7,879)
2/12/1966, Friday (+7,878)
British Prime Minister Harold Wilson met Ian Smith on HMS Tiger off
Gibraltar, for talks on the independence of Rhodesia.
1/12/1966, Thursday
(+7,877) Britain’s Post Offices issued the first Christmas Stamps.
30/11/1966, Wednesday
(+7,876) Barbados proclaimed full independence.
26/11/1966. Saturday (+7,872)
Charles De Gaulle in Brittany opened the world’s first tidal power
station. It was in the Rance Estuary, in
the Golfe de St Malo. The station, first planned in 1955, cost French Francs
420 million (UK£ 42 million) to build.
10/11/1966, Thursday (+7,856) The
UK held discussions about entry to the EEC.
9/11/1966. Wednesday (+7,855)
Severe flooding hit Florence, ruining many art treasures. The River Arno
burst its banks after heavy rain upstream from the city which was situated in a
narrow valley, and 100 people died.
8/11/1966. Tuesday
(+7,854) Edward Brooke became the USA’s first black senator.
7/11/1966, Monday
(+7,853) The Callington branch railway closed. Gobowen to Oswestry closed.
Stopping services withdrawn
Cambridge to Bury St Edmunds.
26/10/1966. Wednesday (+7,841)
US President Johnson visited US troops in Vietnam.
23/10/1966, Sunday (+7,838) BP
announced the discovery of large gas fields in the North Sea.
22/10/1966. Saturday (+7,837)
KGB master spy George Blake escaped from Wormwood Scrubs, using a home-made
rope ladder to scale the high perimeter wall,
He had been serving a 42-year sentence for espionage meted out in 1962,
one year for each of the lives his treachery was estimated to have cost. On
20/11/1966 he arrived in East Berlin.
21/10/1966. Friday (+7,836) The Aberfan disaster. A coal waste tip
collapsed at 9.30am, burying a school in the Welsh Valleys, shortly after the
children had arrived for morning assembly. It was a half day and by midday
the schools would have been empty again for the half term holiday. 2 million
tons of rock and sludge engulfed both the infants and junior schools. Also
engulfed were a row of cottages and a farm; 147 people, 116 of them children,
were killed. Aberfan was a close-knit community, and now had just five
surviving children. The National Coal Board was blamed for siting the colliery
waste tip on top of a natural spring; heavy rain had further destabilised the
waste heap.
18/10/1966. Tuesday
(+7,833) (1) Death of the cosmetic
company founder, Elizabeth Arden.
(2) The hanged Timothy Evans won a
posthumous Royal Pardon, see 15/7/1953.
7/10/1966, Friday
(+7,822) The USSR expelled all Chinese students.
6/10/1966, Thursday (+7,821) (1) The EEC published an adverse report on the UK
economy; the UK was trying to join the EEC.
(2) California made possession of LSD
illegal.
5/10/1966, Wednesday
(+7,820) Spain closed the frontier with Gibraltar to all but pedestrian
traffic.
4/10/1966. Tuesday
(+7,819) Lesotho became independent. It had been formerly known as
Basutoland, and had been a British Protectorate since 1868.
3/10/1966, Monday
(+7,818) The Clevedon branch line, Somerset, closed. Halwill to Bude and Halwill to Meldon
Junction closed. Halwill to Wadebridge via Launceston closed.
1/10/1966, Saturday
(+7,716) The railway from Taunton to Barnstaple closed to passengers.
30/9/1966. Friday (+7,815)
Botswana became independent. It had formerly been called Bechuanaland. Sir Setese Khama was its first President.
29/9/1966. Thursday (+7,814) Argentina
raided the Falkland Islands.
23/9/1966. Friday (+7,808)
USA planes dropped tons of herbicides on Vietnam turning the demilitarised
zone between North and South Vietnam into a barren wasteland.
Mr Joe Kagan, raincoat maker to Mr Harold Wilson, suggested
that by the 1980s men would be wearing something like a mini skirt with a toga
over it in cold weather. On TV Emergency
Ward Ten was on as Patrick Mc Goohan’s
Danger Man was about to give way to The
Prisoner.
16/9/1966, Friday (+7,801)
Britain’s first Polaris nuclear submarine, the Resolution, was launched
by the Queen Mother.
12/9/1966, Monday
(+7,797) The Aldeburgh branch (Suffolk) closed.
10/9/1966, Saturday (+7,795)
(1)
Ireland said it would introduce free post-primary education from 1967.
(2) Sir Seretse Khama became President of the new Republic of
Ghana.
8/9/1966.
Thursday (+7,793) (1) Queen Elizabeth II opened the Severn Bridge. The
career of ferryman Enoch Williams, who had carried passengers and cars across
the Severn estuary since starting his business on the first day of the general
Strike 1926, ended.
(2) Star
Trek was first broadcast.
6/9/1966, Tuesday
(+7,791) South African Prime
Minister Dr Hendrik Voerwoerd, aged 65, was assassinated, stabbed four times in
the chest by a White Parliamentary messenger, with a stiletto, because ‘his
Government didn’t do enough for Whites’. Voerwoerd had, since 1950, created
semi-independent and poverty stricken ‘homelands’ for South Africa’s 73% Black
majority, covering just 13% of South African territory; effectively creating a
White majority in the remainder of the country.
5/9/1966, Monday
(+7,790) Passenger services ceased between Aylesbury and Rigby (Great
Central). Banbury to
Woodford Halse closed.
3/9/1966, Saturday (+7,788)
Captain Ridgeway and Sergeant Blyth became the first Britons to row across the
Atlantic. The journey, in English
Rose III, took 91 days.
29/8/1966. Monday (+7,783) The
Beatles gave their last live concert performance in Candlestick Park, San
Francisco.
27/8/1966, Saturday (+7,781)
Francis Chichester left Plymouth on his solo round the world voyage in the
yacht Gypsy Moth IV. He arrived back in
Plymouth on 28/5/1967.
23/8/1966, Tuesday
(+7,777) The Cotswolds were designated an Area of Outstanding Natural
Beauty.
19/8/1966, Friday
(+7,773) Earthquake in eastern Turkey killed 2,000.
18/8/1966. Thursday
(+7,772) The Queen Mother opened the Tay Road Bridge.
13/8/1966. Saturday (+7,767)
Chairman Mao of China announced a 'cultural revolution'. On 18/8/1966 Mao appeared on
the gallery of the Tiananmen Gate in Peking to a crowd of over a million Red
Guards. Then the student Red Guards spread out into China to radicalise the
towns and countryside.
11/8/1966. Thursday (+7,765) Malaysia and Indonesia ended a 3
year war.
10/8/1966, Wednesday (+7,764) America’s first Moon satellite, Orbiter
1, was launched.
4/8/1966, Thursday (+7,758)
John Lennon suggested that The Beatles were ‘more popular than Jesus’. Within
days US radio stations had banned their music and there were public bonfires of
their records.
31/7/1966, Sunday (+7,754) In
the US, there were race riots in Chicago, New York, and Cleveland.
30/7/1966. Saturday (+7,753) England beat West Germany 4 – 2 in
extra time (towards the end of normal time England were 2-1 ahead, but Germany
secured a last-minute equaliser) to win the World Cup at Wembley Stadium,
London.
29/7/1966, Friday (+7,752) General Yakubu Gowon succeeded General
Ironsi as ruler of Nigeria, after an army mutiny.
28/7/1966, Thursday (+7,751)
Florence Nagle, 70, became the first
woman racecourse trainer.
23/7/1966, Saturday (+7,746) The Secretary of State for Wales opened the
Port Talbot motorway (now part of the M4).
21/7/1966, Thursday (+7,744)
The first Welsh Nationalist MP, Gwynfor Evans, took his seat in Parliament
after a by-election.
20/7/1966. Wednesday (+7,743)
(1) Harold
Wilson imposed a wages freeze in the UK. Inflation was high.
(2) Racial unrest
continued in Brooklyn, New York, resulting in the fatal stabbing of an 11 year
old boy. There were other racial tensions across the USA.
(3) Reverend Ian
Paisley was jailed for breaching the peace at a church assembly in June.
18/7/1966, Monday (+7,741) The US launched the Gemini 10
spacecraft, crewed by John Young and Michael Collins.
16/7/1966. Saturday (+7,739)
Race riots in Chicago caused Governor Kerner to call out 3,000 men from the
Illinois National Guard who supplemented 900 police facing 5,000 rioters.
The Home Secretary Roy Jenkins decided that the drug LSD-25
should be controlled under the Drugs (Prevention of Misuse) Act, following a
rise in use of the drug by young people.
Doctor Who continued to entertain on TV, and
scare kids into hiding behind the sofa so the Daleks wouldn’t get them.
14/7/1966, Thursday
(+7,737) The Welsh Nationalists won
their first by-election, at Carmarthen
5/7/1966. Tuesday
(+7,728) Dozens of captured USA airmen in the Vietnam War were paraded
through the streets of Hanoi to shouts of ‘death to the American air pirates’.
3/7/1966. Sunday (+7,726) Anti-Vietnam war protests outside the
US Embassy, London.
1/7/1966, Friday (+7,724)
(1) In
the UK, the average wage for teachers was £1,400 per year (152% of average
pay). A top league footballer earned £5,200, and a manual worker was on £1,040
a year, 112% of average. A GP earned £2,964, 320% of average. A train driver
earned £884, 95% of average pay. Average pay in 1966 was £1,220 for men, and
£630 for women. The average annual wage was £926. A pint of beer cost 2
shillings (10p). A two bedroom terraced house in Northampton cost £1,150. A
gallon of petrol cost 5s 3d (26p). An off-the-peg Burton’s suit cost £15.
(2) France withdrew its armed forces
from NATO.
29/6/1966, Wednesday
(+7,722) Barclaycard, the first
British credit card, was introduced.
26/6/1966, Sunday (+7,719)
The last scheduled steam train left Scunthorpe railway depot. It was a freight
train to west Yorkshire. All subsequent scheduled trains were diesel hauled,
although some steam services from the Yorkshire area ran to Scunthorpe until
Spring 1967.
7/6/1966, Tuesday
(+7,700) Demonstrations in East Pakistan, demanding greater autonomy.
6/6/1966, Monday (+7,699) (1)
Britain outlawed the Ulster Volunteer Force.
(2) The Melton Mowbray to Nottingham
railway closed. Rugby to Lufffenham via Market Harborough closed. The Seaton to
Wansford, Northamptonshire, railway closed.
(3) On British TV the first episode of Til Death Us Do Part was showing, with
Warren Mitchell as Alf Garnett.
4/6/1966, Saturday
(+7,697)
3/6/1966, Friday
(+7,696) Gemini 9 was launched, with 2 astronauts on board.
2/6/1966. Thursday (+7,695) (1) Eamon de Valera was re-elected president of
Eire, now aged 83.
(2) The US unmanned spacecraft Surveyor
made the first soft landing on the Moon.
(3) Philips Petroleum found a large gas
field off the Humber estuary.
1/6/1966. Wednesday
(+7,694) Folk music fans at the Albert Hall booed Bob Dylan for
performing with an electric guitar.
26/5/1966. Thursday
(+7,688) Guyana became independent, under President Burnham. It was
formerly known as British Guyana.
23/5/1966, Monday (+7,685) In Britain, a State of
Emergency was declared in response to the Seamen’s strike.
16/5/1966. Monday (+7,678) Post Office Tower, London, opened to
the public.
6/5/1966. Friday (+7,668) The
Moors murderers Ian Brady, 28, and Myra Hindley, 24, were found guilty of
murder at Chester Crown Court and jailed for life.
2/5/1966, Monday
(+7,664) The Times carried news headlines on its front page instead of advertising for the first
time.
30/4/1966. Saturday (+7,662) A
regular hovercraft service began across the English Channel between Calais and
Ramsgate.
21/4/1966, Thursday (+7,653) The
opening of the UK Parliament was televised for the first time.
18/4/1966, Monday
(+7,650) Stopping services were withdrawn between Chester and Crewe.
Stopping services were withdrawn between Newbury (Berks) and Westbury.
Cockermouth to Workington closed. The Royton branch (Oldham) closed. Chippenham
to Trowbridge closed. Patney & Chirton to Holt via Devizes closed. Shanklin
to Ventnor (IoW) closed. Freight services were withdrawn from Loughton station,
NE London.
16/4/1966, Saturday
(+7,648) General Abdul Rahman Arif succeeded his brother as President of
Iraq.
15/4/1966, Friday (+7,647) Time Magazine declared London
‘the city of the decade’, for its fashion, and opportunities for young people.
14/4/1966, Thursday (+7,646) The
South Downs was designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
12/4/1966, Tuesday
(+7,644)
10/4/1966, Sunday (+7,642) Easter Sunday.
9/4/1966, Saturday (+7,641)
The UN authorised Britain to seize by force any oil being shipped to Rhodesia.
8/4/1966, Friday
(+7,640)
6/4/1966, Wednesday
(+7,638) Increased ferry tolls sparked riots in Hong Kong.
5/4/1966, Tuesday (+7.637) Shell
announced the discovery of oil off Great Yarmouth.
4/4/1966. Monday (+7,636) Soviet
spacecraft orbited the Moon.
3/4/1966, Sunday (+7,635)
2/4/1966, Saturday (+7,634) Protests in Saigon as
demonstrators demanded an end to military rule.
1/4/1966, Friday (+7,633) The newly-created British
Airports Authority took responsibility for London’s’ Gatwick and Heathrow
Airports.
31/3/1966. Thursday
(+7,632) General Election in the UK. Labour under Harold Wilson won a landslide victory,
gaining a majority of 66. Labour won 363 seats, the Conservatives won 253
seats, and the Liberals won 12.
30/3/1966, Wednesday
(+7,631) In South Africa, the National Party won a large majority in
elections.
29/3/1966, Tuesday
(+7,630)
28/3/1966, Monday
(+7,629) The Ballachulish branch (Oban) closed.
27/3/1966, Sunday (+7,628)
The football World Cup, which had been stolen a few days earlier, was
discovered in a south London garden by a sniffer dog.
23/3/1966. Wednesday
(+7,624) (1) In Rome the first official meeting for 400 years between the heads of
the Catholic and Anglican Churches took place, Pope Paul VI met with Dr Michael
Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury.
(2) In New York, 20,000 people marched
down Fifth Avenue demanding an end to the Vietnam War.
17/3/1966. Thursday (+7,618) US
astronauts docked in space.
15/3/1966, Tuesday
(+7,616) The US spacecraft Gemini 8 was launched, with Neil Armstrong
and David Scott.
14/3/1966, Monday (+7,615) Britain’s first Asian
policeman, Muhammad Yusuf, was sworn in to the Coventry force.
13/3/1966, Sunday (+7,614)
12/3/1966. Saturday (+7,613) General
Suharto assumed power in an army coup
in Indonesia.
11/3/1966, Friday
(+7,612) De Gaulle announced that France was to withdraw from NATO and that
NATO must remove its bases from France by the end of 1966.
9/3/1966, Wednesday
(+7,610)
8/3/1966, Tuesday
(+7,609) Australia tripled its force in Vietnam to 4,500 troops.
7/3/1966, Monday (+7,608) The railway from Horsham to
Shoreham closed. Bath to Templecombe and Wimborne via Shepton Mallet closed.
Bath to Mangotsfield closed.
Evercreech to Burnham via Glastonbury closed. The Seaton branch (Devon) closed.
Stopping services were
withdrawn between Salisbury and Exeter.
6/3/1966, Sunday (+7,607)
Food riots in West Bengal, India, spreading to Kolkata and Delhi.
5/3/1966. Saturday (+7,606)
The IRA destroyed the Nelson Column
in Dublin by a bomb.
4/3/1966, Friday
(+7,605) John Lennon asserted that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus
Christ. In response, Beatles records were burnt in the US Bible Belt.
3/3/1966, Thursday
(+7,604)
2/3/1966, Wednesday
(+7,603) Britain protested to Portugal about oil supplies reaching Rhodesia
via Mozambique.
1/3/1966, Tuesday
(+7,602) The Russian spacecraft Venus III became the first
man-made object to land on another planet when it made a hard landing on Venus.
It had been launched on 16/11/1965.
28/2/1966, Monday (+7,601) (1)
The Cavern Club, where The Beatles first played, went into liquidation.
(2) The Aberdeen to Ballater railway
closed.
26/2/1966, Saturday
(+7,599)
24/2/1966, Thursday
(+7,597) Kwame Nkrumah, President of Ghana since its independence in
1957, was overthrown by an army coup
and went into exile in Guinea.
23/2/1966, Wednesday
(+7,596) A military junta seized power in Syria.
22/2/1966, Tuesday
(+7,595)
21/2/1966, Monday
(+7,594) The Ryde to Cowes railway (IoW) closed.
20/2/1966, Sunday (+7,593)
Chester Nimitz, American General and Pacific Fleet Commander in World War
II, died in San Francisco, four days before his 81st birthday.
19/2/1966. Saturday (+7,592) A 26 year old man was gassed as he
attempted to cook a dinner for his wife. He had failed to realise that you had
to ignite the gas. Lord Silkin’s Bill to legalise abortion ran into
difficulties in the House of Lords. The Ministry of Public Works revealed plans
to build an underground cafe, ticket office, and sales room, beneath Stonehenge.
Statistics in the Ministry of Labour Gazette revealed the weekly average income
for a British household as £24 2s 11d.
TV shows included Bewitched
and Dixon of Dock Green. Thunderbirds was on at 6pm, and The Morecambe and Wise Show at 9.20 pm.
18/2/1966, Friday
(+7,591) Dean Rusk stated that the USA had exhausted all possibilities for
bringing peace to Vietnam.
17/2/1966, Thursday (+7,590) The
UK protested to South Africa about petrol supplies to Rhodesia.
14/2/1966, Monday
(+7,587) Passenger services ceased on the Fawley (Southampton) branch.
9/2/1966, Wednesday
(+7.582) Sophie Tucker, last of the
‘red hot mamas’, died.
8/2/1966. Tuesday (+7,581) Freddie
Laker formed a cut-price transatlantic airline.
3/2/1966, Thursday
(+7,576) The Soviet unmanned spacecraft, Luna IX, made the first
soft landing on the Moon.
1/2/1966, Tuesday
(+7,574) The silent film comedian Buster Keaton died.
31/1/1966, Monday
(+7,573) Britain banned all trade with Rhodesia.
28/1/1966, Friday
(+7,570)
25/1/1966, Tuesday
(+7,567) Harold Holt became Prime Minister of Australia, succeeding Robert
Menzies.
24/1/1966, Monday
(+7,566) An Air India Boeing 707 crashed into Mont Blanc, killing all 117
passengers on board.
22/1/1966, Saturday (+7,564) Martin Luther King moved to a
tenement flat in a deprived part of Chicago to draw attention to Black urban
poverty.
20/1/1966, Thursday
(+7,562) Robert Menzies retired as Prime Minister of Australia.
19/1/1966. Wednesday (+7,561)
Indira Ghandi (no relation to Mahatma Gandhi) became prime Minister of
India. She succeeded her father Jawaharlal Nehru. She had been leader of the
National Congress Party since 1959.
17/1/1966, Monday
(+7,555) A US bomber aircraft on exercises was attempting to refuel mid-air
over Spain when an error resulted in the fuel boom from the other aircraft
clipping the bomber’s wing. The bomber crashed in flames; its crew parachuted
to safety. However the bomber was carrying four Hydrogen Bombs. The Bombs were
not armed so the electrical sequence necessary to detonate the fission bomb
that would have set off the Hydrogen bomb never initiated. In other fortunate
events, the parachutes on the bombs failed so they buried themselves deep in
the soil, limiting radiation dispersal, and a breeze carried much of the
radiation out to sea as flaming bits of aircraft rained down in the area.
11/1/1966. Tuesday (+7,553) Barclays announced plans to go into the credit card
business with its Barclaycard,
available free to both customers and non customers of the bank. The card would
have a limit of £25, and higher amounts could be spent following a telephone
check. Hoteliers objected vigorously since promoters make their profit by
taking a discount from the amount charged to the card, typically 5% to 10%.
Barclays announced that the discount would be 3% to 5%.
8/1/1966. Saturday (+7,550) US
launched biggest offensive to date in Vietnam.
3/1/1966, Monday
(+7,545) Passenger services ceased on the Heysham (Lancaster) branch.
Wennington to Lancaster closed.
1/1/1966. Saturday (+7,543) Bokassa
took over as leader of the Central African Republic. In 1977 he organised a
lavish coronation ceremony., appointing himself ‘emperor’, which cost
US$20million, a quarter of his country’s annual income.
31/12/1965, Friday
(+7,542) The executives of the European Economic Community, Euratom, and
the European Coal and Steel Community were merged into one executive authority.
30/12/1965, Thursday
(+7,541) In the Philippines,
Ferdinand E Marcos became President.
29/12/1965. Wednesday (+7,540)
North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh rejected US peace talks.
28/12/1965. Tuesday
(+7,539) (1) A British magistrate who was also
a rally driver said he would refuse to sit on the bench when motorists were
charged with exceeding the speed limit unless injury or damage was also alleged.
(2) On TV, Phil Silvers starred in Sergeant Bilko.
27/12/1965. Monday (+7,538)
The North Sea oilrig Sea Gem collapsed into the sea, killing 13 people.
22/12/1965. Wednesday (+7,533)
The UK introduced a national 70mph
speed limit. See 24/11/1965.
19/12/1965. Sunday (+7,530) De Gaulle was re-elected president of France.
18/12/1965, Saturday
(+7,529) Nine African States broke off relations with tye UK for not using
force against Rhodesia.
17/12/1965, Friday
(+7,528) Britain imposed an oil embargo on Rhodesia.
16/12/1965, Thursday
(+7,527) Somerset Maugham, author, died this day.
15/12/1965, Wednesday
(+7,526) US astronauts achieved the
first rendezvous of two vehicles in space. Gemini 6, crewed by Walter P Shirra
and Thomas P Stafford, met alongside Gemini 7, crewed by Frank Borman and James
A Lovell. The two craft then orbited together, about 3 metres apart, completing
two earth orbits at an altitude of 315 kilometres. This exercise was vital in
planning the manned lunar programme, where a lunar module would detach from the
command ship to land on the Moon, then rejoin the main ship to return to Earth.
6/12/1965. Monday (+7,517)
The Redundancy Payments Act came into force; it was described as a major
step in the modernisation of British industry. General De Gaulle failed to win
the French presidential Election outright, necessitating a second ballot
between him and Monsieur Mitterand. The Governor of California received a
report on the necessity of stimulating employment and education among the Black
population as a means of avoiding race riots.
4/12/1965, Saturday (+7,515) The US spacecraft Gemini 7
was launched, crewed by Frank Borman and James Lovell.
29/11/1965. Monday (+7,510)
(1) Mary Whitehouse began her clean up
campaign concerning TV broadcasts, by setting up the National Viewers and
Listeners Association to tackle ‘bad taste and irresponsibility’.
(2) The Lyme Regis branch line closed.
27/11/1965, Friday
(+7,507) The York to Beverley via Market Weighton railway closed to
passengers.
25/11/1965, Thursday
(+7,506) In the Congo Republic (Zaire), General Sese Sese Mobuto deposed
President Kasavubu.
24/11/1965. Wednesday
(+7,505) The UK government imposed an experimental 70mph speed limit on the
motorways (see
22/12/1965). UK motorways, the first of which was a stretch of the M6 known
then as the Preston by-pass, had had no speed limits since their inception in
1958. However early one morning in June 1964 the makers of the AC Cobra sports
car decided to take their Le Mans contender out for a spin on the M1 and got it
up to 185 mph. This led to questions in Parliament and the 70 mph national
speed limit. There were also issues of pile ups on motorways in snow, ice or
foggy conditions, and a 30mph limit was considered for motorways in these
conditions. The 30mph limit was not implemented but the 70mph limit became
permanent in 1967.
20/11/1965, Saturday
(+7,501)
16/11/1965, Tuesday
(+7,497) The Russians launched Venus III on a voyage to Venus, see
1/3/1966.
15/11/1965, Monday (+7,496) In the USA, Craig Breedlove
set a new land speed record of 613 mph at Bonneville salt flats.
11/11/1965. Thursday (+7,492) Rhodesia declared UDI from Britain under Ian
Smith, the Prime Minister. The opposition leaders Joshua Nkomo and
Robert Mugabe were in jail. The British Prime Minister Harold Wilson imposed
trade sanctions and an oil embargo. However South Africa, and the neighbouring
Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola, assisted Mr Smith in overcoming
sanctions, and large multinationals evaded them anyway. However the end of
Portuguese rule in Angola and Mozambique in 1975 undermined Mr Smith’s regime
and assisted the transfer to Black majority rule there.
9/11/1965. Tuesday
(+7,490) (1) A transmission relay in New York City failed, sparking a domino effect
that led to a blackout across New York State, Connecticut,
Massachusetts, New England, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and parts of
Pennsylvania and Ontario.
(2) The
Act legally abolishing capital punishment in the UK came into force. This Act
was largely due to the efforts of Sidney Silverman MP.
8/11/1965, Monday (+7,489)
In Canadian elections, the Liberals under Lester B Pearson became the largest
Party with 131 seats, but without an overall majority. The Progressive
Conservatives secured 97 seats, Others won 37 seats.
4/11/1965, Wednesday
(+7,484)
1/11/1965, Sunday (+7,481)
The Callander to Dunblane railway closed.
30/10/1965, Saturday (+7,480) In North Lincolnshire, all
intermediate stations on the Barnetby to Lincoln line except Market Rasen
closed. The stations closed to passengers were North Kelsey, Howsham, Reepham,
Langworth, Snelland, Wickenby, Holton-le-Moor and Moortown. These halts
remained open for goods traffic only.
28/10/1965. Thursday (+7,478) The Moors Murderers, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, were charged
with murdering a 13-year old girl, Lesley Ann Downey, whose body had been found
on the moors on 15/10/1965.
26/10/1965. Tuesday (+7,476) The Beatles went to Buckingham
Palace to be presented with their MBE’s.
25/10/1965. Monday (+7,475) Harold Wilson went to Rhodesia for talks with
Ian Smith. But see 11/11/1965.
22/10/1965, Friday
(+7,472)
19/10/1965, Tuesday
(+7,469) In the USA, the Un-American Activities Committee of the House of
Representatives began a public hearing on the Klu Klux Klan.
18/10/1865, Monday (+7,468) The Aviemore to Forres and Aviemore to Craigellachie railways closed.
17/10/1965. Sunday (+7,467) Anti-Vietnam War protests in the UK
and USA.
12/10/1965, Tuesday
(+7,462) Paul Muller, the Swiss chemist who formulated the insecticide
DDT in 1939, died in Basle.
8/10/1965, Friday (+7,458) (1) Edward
Heath said he would take Britain into the European Community.
(2) The Prime Minister Harold Wilson
made the first telephone call as the £2 million, 620 foot tall, Post Office
Tower in London’s Tottenham Court Road opened.
7/10/1965. Thursday (+7,457) Ian Smith met Harold Wilson for
talks at 10 Downing Street; the talks failed to avert UDI by Rhodesia on
11/11/1965.
4/10/1965, Monday (+7,454) (1) The railway from
Barnstaple to Torrington closed. Dyce (Aberdeen) to Fraserburgh closed. The
Coalburn branch closed.
(2) Pope Paul VI visited New York City; the first Papal visit to America.
30/9/1965, Thursday (+7,450) The first episode of Thunderbirds was
broadcast in the UK.
29/9/1965, Wednesday (+7,449) The USSR admitted supplying weapons to
North Vietnam.
28/9/1965, Tuesday (+7,448) The railway from Callendar to Balquihidder
closed. Killin Junction to Killin closed.
27/9/1965, Monday (+7,447) The Earby to Barnoldswick railway closed.
25/9/1965, Friday (+7,444)
22/9/1965. Wednesday (+7,442) India and Pakistan halted fighting
in Kashmir.
21/9/1965, Tuesday (+7,441) BP (British Petroleum) became the first company to discover oil in the
North Sea.
18/9/1965, Saturday (+7,438) The Calne branch railway (Wiltshire) closed.
14/9/1965, Tuesday
(+7,434) The comprehensive school in Market Drayton, Shropshire, opened,
replacing the town’s old secondary modern and grammar schools.
10/9/1965, Friday (+7,430)
Yale University published a map showing that the Vikings discovered America in
the 11th century.
6/9/1965. Monday (+7,426) (1) India
invaded West Pakistan. A three-pronged attack threatened the Pakistani city of
Lahore. Pakistan parachuted troops in behind Indian lines. The conflict in
Kashmir escalated.
(2) The railway from
Leven to St Andrews closed. Stopping services Ayr to Stranraer were withdrawn.
5/9/1965, Sunday (+7,425) The word "hippie" first appeared in
print, in an article in the San Francisco Examiner by reporter Michael Fallon,
who was writing a series about the Haight-Ashbury neighbourhood. "Five
untroubled young 'hippies'," Fallon began, "sprawled on floor
mattresses and slouched in an armchair retrieved from a debris box, flipped
cigaret ashes at a seatbelt in their Waller Street flat and pondered their next
move."
4/9/1965. Saturday (+7,424) Albert Schweitzer, French medical
missionary, died aged 90 in Lambarene, Gabon, in the village where he had
opened his hospital for natives in 1913.
He was aged 90, and won the Nobel Prize in 1952.
3/9/1965, Friday (+7,423)
The Cultural Revolution began in China.
A reassertion of Maoist principles, it began with a speech by Marshal
Lin Piao urging pupils in schools and colleges to return to the basics of the
Chinese Revolution and to purge liberal and Kruschevian trends in the Chinese
Communist Party. See 13/10/1968.
2/9/1965, Thursday (+7,422) Tahir Yahya was forced to resign as Prime
Minister of Iraq. The vacancy was filled four days later by Arif Abd ar-Razzaq,
who fled the country on September 17 after only 10 days in office
1/9/1965. Wednesday (+7,421)
Pakistani troops crossed into
Kashmir over the cease-fire line.
27/8/1965. Friday (+7,416) The
Swiss architect Le Corbusier died.
21/8/1965, Saturday (+7,410)
The US launched the spacecraft Gemini 5, crewed by Gordon Cooper and
Charles Conrad. It orbited the Earth for 8 days before a safe splashdown in the
Atlantic.
13/8/1965, Friday (+7,402) Ikeda Hayato, Prime Minister
of Japan, died.
12/8/1965, Thursday
(+7,401) 19 days after the US learned that North Vietnam had bases around
its capital from which to fire surface-to-air missiles, the North Vietnamese
revealed that they had mobile missile units that could be taken to any
location, shooting down a U.S. Navy A-4 Skyhawk attack jet flying 50 miles
southwest of Hanoi. Lieutenant Donald H. Brown of the USS Coral Sea was killed
in the crash, becoming the first U.S. Navy flier to be downed by a SAM missile.
11/8/1965, Wednesday
(+7,400) Race riots in the Watts
area of Los Angeles, USA. A local Black woman, Marquette Fry, was arrested by
White police officers on suspicion of drunk-driving and then beaten up. Over
the next two nights rioting in the predominantly Black area spread to involve
some 130 square kilometres, with cars and shops being looted and burnt. On
13/8/1965 2,000 national Guardsmen arrived to support the thousands of police
in enforcing an 8.pm curfew for the next three nights. The riots saw the deaths
of 34 people, mostly Black civilians shot by National Guards or police.
10/8/1965, Tuesday
(+7,399) The agreement between the United States and the Philippines on
U.S. military bases was formally amended, returning exclusive jurisdiction over
the Port of Manila and the city of Olongapo to the Philippines, and ceding more
than 1,200 km2 of territory back to the Philippine government.
9/8/1965. Monday (+7,398)
Singapore seceded from the Federation of Malaysia. It became an independent Republic within the
Commonwealth.
6/8/1965, Friday (+7,395) US Congress passed the Voting
Rights Act of 1965, outlawing racial discrimination in voting procedures.
2/8/1965, Monday (+7,391) A UK White Paper limited
immigration from the Commonwealth.
1/8/1965, Sunday (+7,390)
General Lo Jui-ching, the Chief of Joint Staff of the armed forces of the
People's Republic of China, declared that the Chinese were ready to fight the
United States again, as they had in the Korean War.
31/7/1965, Saturday (+7,389) (1) The
last advert for cigarettes appeared on British TV.
(2) J
K Rowling, British author of the Harry Potter series, was born.
30/7/1965, Friday (+7,388) Coronation Street was the top
TV show
29/7/1965, Thursday
(+7,387) The governments of Algeria and France
signed an agreement which allowed French petroleum companies to retain their
concessions for the right to drill for oil in Algeria, but required also that
they cooperate with Algeria's government-owned oil and gas consortium.
28/7/1965. Wednesday
(+7,386) (1) US President Lyndon Johnson sent a further 50,000 ground troops to
Vietnam. The US now had 175,000 troops in Vietnam.
(2) Edward
Heath, born 9/7/1916, became leader of the Conservative Party. Sir Alec Douglas
Home had resigned as leader on 22/5/1965.
Heath was leader until 1975 when Mrs Thatcher became Party leader
(11/2/1975). Heath received 155 votes against 133 for Reginald Maudling and 15
for Enoch Powell. At 49 Heath was the youngest leader of the Conservative Party
for a century.
27/7/1965, Tuesday (+7,385) The Maldives Islands became
independent, having been a British Protectorate since 1887.
26/7/1965, Monday (+7,384)
The Post Office announced that in future UK telephone numbers would not include
letters.
19/7/1965, Monday (+7,377)
Syngman Rhee, first President of the Republic of Korea (1948-60) died in
Hawaii.
16/7/1965. Friday (+7,374) The seven-mile Mont Blanc road tunnel opened, linking France with
Italy. This road tunnel had first been proposed by French engineer Lepiney back
in 1870. The tunnel took 6 years to build.
15/7/1965, Thursday (+7,373) Mariner 4 flew by Mars, returning images of
the planet’s surface. It revealed that Mars was covered with impact craters,
demonstrating a lack of geological activity. A measurement of the changes in
radio transmissions as the signals passed through the Martian atmosphere also
showed that surface pressure was 94% less than had been predicted, showing that
it was mostly carbon dioxide and that the Martian ice caps were actually frozen
CO2.
14/7/1965, Wednesday (+7,372) US politician Adlai Ewing Stevenson, born
5/2/1900 in Los Angeles, California, died suddenly.
7/7/1965, Wednesday (+7,365)
30/6/1965, Wednesday (+7,358)
India and Pakistan agreed a ceasefire.
29/6/1965, Tuesday (+7,357)
The first US military ground action began in Vietnam.
27/6/1965, Sunday (+7,355)
24/6/1965, Thursday (+7,352)
South Vietnam severed relations with France.
23/6/1965, Wednesday (+7,351)
The USSR rejected a Vietnam peace initiative proposed by Harold Wilson.
22/6/1965, Tuesday (+7,350) The Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan
and the Republic of Korea was signed in Tokyo, almost twenty years after South
Korea had been liberated from the Japanese Empire.
21/6/1965, Monday (+7,349)
The UK government announced that the Broad Street to Richmond railway service,
earmarked for closure by Beeching, would be reprieved.
20/6/1965, Sunday (+7,348) Police in Algiers broke up demonstrations by
people who had taken to the streets chanting slogans in support of deposed
President Ben Bella.
19/6/1965, Saturday (+7,347)
The President of Algeria, Ben Bella, was overthrown in a military coup by his
Minister of Defence, Colonel Houari Boumedienne.
18/6/1965, Friday (+7,346)
An alcohol limit was to be set for UK drivers.
16/6/1965, Wednesday (+7,344)
14/6/1965, Monday (+7,342) The railway from Eridge to Hailsham closed.
Christs
Hospital to Guildford closed. Dumfries to Glenluce closed.
13/6/1965, Sunday (+7,341) Martin Buber, Austrian-born Israeli Jewish
philosopher, died aged 87.
12/6/1965. Saturday (+7,340) The Beatles were made MBEs in the
Queen’s birthday honours. A number of
other holders of the medal returned theirs in disgust.
11/6/1965, Friday (+7,339) President Johnson declared that the
promotion of learning the English language should be a major policy in American
foreign aid, and directed the Peace Corps, the United States Agency for
International Development and other organizations to encourage the such study,
in what was viewed as elevating "the status of English as an international
language.
10/6/1965, Thursday (+7,338)
A British European Airways De Havilland jet airliner flying from Paris to
London made the first landing by automatic control.
3/6/1965, Thursday
(+7,331) Gemini IV was launched, crewed by James McDivitt and Edward
White. During the flight, Edward H White
became the first man to walk in space, for 20 minutes.
31/5/1965. Monday (+7,328)
Major US air strikes in Vietnam
saved the South Vietnamese forces from annihilation, reported The Guardian.
Within a day of moving into a semi detached house on a
Staffordshire housing estate a Jamaican family was approached by the resident’
association with an offer to buy them out. ‘We are not against coloured people’
said the chairman, ‘but we are concerned about maintaining the value of our
house’.
Duty free cigarettes went on sale at Heathrow Airport at £1
for 200. A spokesman for Tetley’s, Britain’s biggest teabag manufacturer, said
they would have 25% of the market by 1975.
24/5/1965, Monday (+7,321) Westminster
announced that Britain was to switch to metric measurements.
23/5/1965, Sunday (+7,320)
David Smith, US sculptor, died aged 59.
21/5/1965. Friday (+7,318) Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, British
aircraft designer who was knighted n 1944, died in Stanmore, Middlesex.
12/5/1965. Wednesday (+7,309) West Germany established
diplomatic relations with Israel.
3/5/1965, Monday (+7,300) (1) Major earthquake hit San Salvador City, El Salvador.
(2) The railway from
Maud to Peterhead closed. Ballinluig to Aberfeldy closed. Kirkcudbright to
Castle Douglas closed. Stopping services Inverness to Elgin were withdrawn.
Stopping services Perth to Inverness were withdrawn. Freight facilities were
withdrawn from Hampton Court Station (Surbiton branch).
2/5/1965. Sunday (+7,299) The British satellite, Early Bird,
began transmitting TV programmes to 300 million viewers in 24 countries.
1/5/1965, Saturday (+7,298)
29/4/1965, Thursday (+7,296) Australia began contributing troops to the
US war effort in Vietnam.
28/4/1965, Wednesday (+7,295)
US forces invaded the Dominican Republic. This country had been in political
turmoil since the death of the longstanding dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1961.
Free elections in December 1962 brought the mildly left-wing Juan Bosch to
power, but he was quickly deposed in a military coup. This right-wing military
junta was itself deposed in a further coup led by Colonel Francisco Caama, and
Bosch was invited to return from exile and restore democracy. However the US
was extremely wary, after Cuba, of any more leftist regimes being established
in the Caribbean. On 28/4 US troops occupied the western half of the capital,
Santo Domingo, whilst in the east right-wing generals took over the San Isidro
air base, which was then opened to US military flights. However the US did not
want to undertake a permanent occupation of the Dominican Republic; US troops
were replaced by a Pan-American force under Brazilian command, and free
elections organised in 1966, won by President Joaquin Balaguer.
26/4/1965, Monday (+7,293) The railway from Welwyn to Dunstable via
Luton closed.
23/4/1965. Friday (+7,290) (1) Heavy US air raids
on North Vietnam.
(2) The Pennine Way,
250 miles from Edale in Derbyshire to Kirk Yetholm in Roxburghshire, opened.
This was the first long distance
footpath in Britain.
17/4/1965, Saturday (+7,284) US
students protested against US bombing in Vietnam.
16/4/1965, Friday (+7,283)
the Ditton Priors branch railway, Shropshire, closed.
13/4/1965, Tuesday (+7,280)
9/4/1965. Friday (+7,276) Border clashes between India and
Pakistan.
8/4/1965, Thursday (+7,275) Members of the European Coal and Steel
Community, the Economic Community and Euratom signed a treaty providing for the
merger of these institutions’ functions into a single Commission and Council of
Ministers.
4/4/1965. Sunday (+7,271) US jets shot down by North Vietnam.
1/4/1965, Thursday (+7,268) Greater London was created, from the City of London and 32
boroughs.
29/3/1965, Monday (+7,265)
The railway from West Drayton to Staines, west London, was closed to
passengers.
28/3/1965. Sunday (+7,264) Major earthquake in Chile.
27/3/1965, Saturday (+7,263)
25/3/1965, Thursday (+7,261) In elections in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Mrs
Srimavo Bandaranaike lost to Dudley Senanayake.
24/3/1965. Wednesday (+7,260) David Steel became Britain’s youngest MP at the age of 26.
23/3/1965, Tuesday (+7,259) US spacecraft Gemini I was
launched, crewed by Virgil Grissom and John Young.
22/3/1965, Monday (+7,258) The railway from Arthington to Otley closed.
Ilkley to Skipton closed.
18/3/1965. Thursday (+7,254) (1) The first walk in
space, lasting about 10 minutes,
was made by Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, from the spaceship Voskhod 2.
(2) Farouk I, King of
Egypt from 1936 to 1952, died in exile in Italy.
15/3/1965. Monday (+7,251)
Doctor Martin Luther King led a Freedom March in Selma, Alabama, in
defiance of a court ban. State police stopped the procession with tear gas.
8/3/1965, Monday (+7,244) (1)
The US stepped up military action in Vietnam. 3,500 American Marines, the first
combat troops to arrive in Vietnam, landed, welcomed by an enthusiastic crowd. By July 1965 there were
75,000 US troops in Vietnam, by end-1965 184,000, and by early 1968, 510,000.
(2) The Bishop Auckland to
Crook railway closed. Scarborough to Whitby closed. Rillington via Pickering to
Grosmont (Whitby) closed.
7/3/1965, Sunday (+7,243) US State Troopers and police
attacked some 600 Civil Rights marchers with clubs, whips, and tear gas on the
Selma Freedom March from Selma, Alabama, to the State capital, Alabama. 17
marchers were hospitalised and scores more injured.
6/3/1965, Saturday
(+7,242) Herbert Morrison, UK Labour politician, died aged 77.
5/3/1965, Friday
(+7,241) The new Hornsey Central Library, London, was opened by Princess
Alexandra.
4/3/1965, Thursday
(+7,240)
3/3/1965, Wednesday
(+7,239) Bechuanaland (now Botswana) became self-governing, with Seretse
Khama as Prime Minister.
2/3/1965, Tuesday
(+7,238) The Sound of Music went on release in the USA. It was an instant
hit.
1/3/1965, Monday
(+7,237) The Torrington to Halwill railway closed.
25/2/1965, Thursday
(+7,233)
24/2/1965,Wednesday (+7,232)
The UK Government rejected the Robbins Commission’s recommendation for creating
more new universities.
23/2/1965, Tuesday
(+7,231) Stan Laurel,
English-born American film comedian along with Oliver Hardy, died aged 74.
22/2/1965, Monday
(+7,230) The Carmarthen to Aberystwyth railway closed.
21/2/1965. Sunday (+7,229) American Black leader Malcolm X
was shot dead whilst addressing a meeting in New York. He was shot 15 times at
point-blank range by three gunmen, and was dead on arrival at hospital. Born on
19/5/1925 in Nebraska, Malcolm X was the son of a Baptist minister, Earl
Little, who was a supporter of the Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey.
Little received death threats and in 1931 his body was found, mutilated.
Malcolm dropped out of school and by 1942 was involved in the criminal gangs of
Harlem, New York. He was imprisoned for burglary in 1946 and in the same year
converted to an Islamic sect led by Elijah Mohammed. Malcolm changed his
surname to X because he viewed Little as a slave name. Out on parole in 1952,
Malcolm preached for the sect, supporting Black separatism and violence. He
made a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964 and then changed his views to supporting all
races. He founded the Organisation of Afro-American Unity and toured many
countries before he was assassinated.
18/2/1965. Thursday
(+7,226) The Gambia, the smallest country in Africa, became an
independent monarchy. It had been a British colony since 1843.
16/2/1965, Tuesday (+7,224) British Rail published plans, based on
Beeching’s, to halve the rail network.
15/2/1965, Monday
(+7,223) Canada flew the newly-adopted Maple Leaf Flag for the first time.
12/2/1965, Friday
(+7,220)
8/2/1965. Monday (+7,216) The
British Government, Health Minister Kenneth Robinson, announced a ban on
cigarette advertising on TV, to take
effect on 31/7/1965.
7/2/1965. Sunday (+7,215) US
aircraft bombed North Vietnam. The US hoped that by relying on a sustained air
bombing campaign, US casualties would be minimised.
5/2/1965, Friday
(+7,213)
3/2/1965, Wednesday
(+7,211) Spain began a blockade of
Gibraltar.
2/2/1965, Tuesday
(+7,210) In the UK, PM Harold Wilson announced the cancellation of three
expensive defence projects. Two were for aircraft capable of vertical takeoffs
and landing, the Armstrong Whitworth AW.681 was a large military transport
plane, and the Hawker Siddeley P.1154 was supersonic fighter aircraft. The
third, the British Aircraft Corporation TSR-2 was a high-speed attack and
reconnaissance jet. Wilson said that the cost of the research and development
for the TSR-2 alone had already reached £750 million, more than eight times the
original forecast, and that each of the 150 planned TSR-2s would cost £4
million each.
1/2/1965, Monday (+7,209)
In the UK, NHS prescription charges were removed. They were re-introduced
on 10/6/1968.
31/1/1965, Sunday (+7,208)
The Yugoslavian cargo ship SS Rascisce sank in the Ionian Sea, but all 30 crew
were rescued
30/1/1965, Saturday (+7,207) State funeral of Sir Winston
Churchill, see 24/1/1965.
24/1/1965. Sunday (+7,201) Sir Winston Churchill died, aged 90, exactly 70 years after
his father died. He was buried in Bladon churchyard, within sight of Blenheim
Palace, his birthplace. He was born, on 30/11/1874, a descendant of the Duke of
Marlborough, in Blenheim Palace. His funeral was on 30/1/1965, when Big Ben was
silenced.
20/1/1965, Wednesday
(+7,197) (1)
LB Johnson was inaugurated as US President.
(2) American disc jockey Alan Freed died
in California. He created the phrase ‘Rock’n’Roll’.
19/1/1965, Tuesday
(+7,196) The unmanned Gemini 2 was launched on a suborbital test of various
spacecraft systems, in preparation for the first US mission to send two
astronauts into space.
18/1/1965, Monday
(+7,195) The railway from Nuneaton to Coventry closed. Whitchurch to Oswestry and Buttington
closed. Ruabon to Barmouth closed.
13/1/1965, Wednesday
(+7,190)
8/1/1965, Friday
(+7,185) Further Indonesian attacks on Malaysian territory.
7/1/1965. Thursday (+7,184) Indonesia
left the United Nations, under President Sukarno.
4/1/1965. Monday (+7,181)
(1) The poet and playwright T S Eliot died.
He was born on 26/9/1888 in Saint Loius, Missouri. After studying at Harvard
University he went to Paris in 1910 to teach French literature and philosophy
at the Sorbonne. Later, after the start of World War One, he went to Merton College,
Oxford, to read Greek Philosophy. In 1915 he married Vivien Haigh-Wood and in
1919 became a British citizen. His first volume of poetry, Prufrock and other Observations, was published in 1917 followed by Poems in 1919. In 1922 The Waste Land, regarded as his greatest
poem, reflected the discontent that followed the trauma of the Great War. In
1948 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.
(2) The Leek to Uttoxeter railway
closed. Lostwithiel to Fowey closed. Stopping services Swindon to Bristol withdrawn. Bristol to
Worcester stopping services withdrawn. Glasgow to Carlisle stopping services withdrawn.
2/1/1965, Saturday
(+7,179) In Pakistani presidential elections, President Ayub Khan gained a
clear majority over Miss Fatimah Jinnah.
30/12/1964. Wednesday (+7,176)
500 were arrested in India on suspicion of spying for China.
28/12/1964, Monday
(+7,174) The railway from Melton Constable to Sheringham closed.
21/12/1964. Monday (+7,167) The
UK Commons voted to end capital
punishment.
15/12/1964, Tuesday
(+7,161) The Canadian Parliament voted in favour of a single maple leaf
design for the Canadian Flag.
14/12/1964, Monday
(+7,160) In elections in British Guiana, Cheddi Jagan’s Progressive
People’s Party lost its majority. Forbes Burnham of the People’s National
Congress became the new Prime Minister.
12/12/1964. Saturday (7,158) Kenya
became a republic in the Commonwealth.
Kenyatta continued as head of state, see 12/12/1963.
10/12/1964, Thursday
(+7,156) Dorothy Hodgkin became the first British woman to win a Nobel
Prize. She researched the structure of proteins such as insulin.
9/12/1964, Wednesday
(+7,155) English poet Dame Edith
Sitwell died, aged 77.
8/12/1964, Tuesday
(+7,154) Simon Marks, successful retailer in conjunction with Thomas
Spencer, knighted in 1944, and made a peer in 1961, died in London at his head
office.
7/12/1964, Monday (+7,153)
In London, the railway from Edmonton to Angel Road closed. Caernarvon to Afon Wen closed.
Gaerwen to Amlwch (Anglesey)
closed.
6/12/1964, Sunday (+7,152)
Antonio Segni, Italian Prime Minister resigned for health reasons. He was
succeedd on 28/12/1964 by Guiseppe Saragat.
30/11/1964, Monday
(+7,146) The railway from Darlington to Midedleton in Teesdale via Barnard
Castle closed.
28/11/1964, Saturday (+7,144) Mariner 4 was launched; 228 days later
it passed within 9,700 kilometres of Mars.
23/11/1964, Monday (+7,139)
(1)
In an attempt to avert a Sterling
Crisis, the Bank of England raised rates from 5% to 7%. This was merely
seen by the markets as a sign of panic and the next day, a massive sell off of
Sterling began. On 26/10/1964 a
temporary 15% charge was placed on imports to the UK to rectify the balance of
trade deficit. On 2/12/1964 the UK was forced to draw US$ 1 billion from
the IMF. Further IMF funds were drawn during 1965. The import charge was
reduced to 10% on 22/2/1965.
(2) The first British commercial radio
station, Radio Manx, began broadcasting.
(3) The Severn Beach to Pilning railway
closed. St Andrew’s Road
to Filton Junction (Bristol) closed to passengers.
21/11/1964, Saturday (+7,137)
The Verrazano Narrows suspension bridge, across the entrance to New York
Harbour, opened to traffic.
19/11/1964. Thursday (+7,135) Major offensive by South Vietnam against the
North began.
17/11/1964, Tuesday (+7,133) The
UK imposed an arms embargo on South Africa because of its apartheid policy.
11/11/1964, Wednesday (+7,127)
In the UK, the new Labour Chancellor introduced a mildly deflationary
budget. Measures included 6d a gallon more tax on petrol.
10/11/1964, Tuesday
(+7,126) Kenya became a one-party State after the Kenya African Democratic
Union Party merged with the Kenyan Africa National Union Party.
7/11/1964, Saturday
(+7,123)
5/11/1964, Thursday
(+7,121) Zhou Enlai, Prime Minister of China, visited the USSR for a summit
meeting of Communist States.
4/11/1964. Wednesday (+7,120)
Lyndon B Johnson was elected 36th US President.
2/11/1964. Monday (+7,118)
(1) King Faisal became King of Saudi Arabia,
succeeding his brother.
(2) First showing of the TV serial Crossroads.
(3) The Fleetwood (Blackpool) branch
line closed to passengers. The Gloucester Grange Court to Hereford railway closed. Berkeley Road to
Sharpness closed. The Newbiggin branch (Newcastle on Tyne) closed.
29/10/1964, Thursday
(+7,114) The name of Tanzania was officially adopted, for the union this
day of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.
28/10/1964, Wednesday
(+7,113) Rioting in Catholic areas
of Belfast after a Republican flag was removed by the police.
27/10/1964, Tuesday (+7,112) Wilson
warned Rhodesia that a declaration of UDI would be treason.
24/10/1964. Saturday (+7,109)
Northern Rhodesia became the independent Republic of Zambia. Kenneth Kaunda was the first President. This ended 75 years of British rule.
20/10/1964, Tuesday
(+7,105) Herbert Hoover, American Republican and 31st
President from 1929 to 1933, died in New York City aged 90.
19/10/1964, Monday
(+7,104) The Hull to Hornsea railway closed to passengers. Hull to
Withernsea closed to passengers.
17/10/1964, Saturday
(+7,102)
16/10/1964, Friday (+7,101) China exploded a nuclear
weapon at Lop Nor.
15/10/1964. Thursday (+7,100) (1)
Labour won the UK General Election with a majority of 4. Labour had 317 seats,
the Conservatives 304, and the Liberals 9. Harold Wilson was the new Prime Minister, succeeding Alec Douglas
Home. He inherited a balance of payments deficit of nearly £700 million. James
Callaghan became Chancellor of the Exchequer.
(2) Nikita Khrushchev was replaced, in
the USSR, as First Secretary of the Communist Party by Leonid Brezhnev and as
Prime Minister by Alexei Kosygin.
14/10/1964. Wednesday (+7,099) Martin Luther King received the
Nobel Peace Prize.
12/10/1964. Monday (+7,097)
(1) The Worksop (Shireoaks East) to
Nottingham line closed to passengers.
(2) Russia launched the first three man
space ship.
10/10/1964. Saturday (+7,095) The 18th Olympic Games
opened in Tokyo.
9/10/1964. Friday (+7,094) A planned tour by the Rolling Stones
to South Africa was cancelled due to the British Musician’s Union’s
anti-apartheid embargo.
8/10/1964, Thursday (+7,093)
6/10/1964, Tuesday (+7,091) The first episode of Stingray aired in UK
TV. The puppet caste included Captain Troy, Tempest, Phones, and the
green-haired Marina, aboard their atomic-powered submarine.
5/10/1964, Monday (+7.090)
Passenger services between Belmont and Harrow, north London, ceased, Dereham to
Wells next the Sea closed. Lanark to Muirkirk closed. Freight services between
Harrow and Belmont, London, closed (total line closure). Freight services on
the St Albans to Hatfield branch closed (total line closure).
4/10/1964, Sunday (+7,089)
Services on the Moorgate to Finsbury Park line, north London, were cut back to
Drayton Park to allow for Victoria Line trains at Finsbury Park, see 1/9/1968.
1/10/1964, Thursday (+7,086)
28/9/1964. Monday (+7,083) (1) Harpo Marx, the silent one who chased
girls and played the harp, died aged 75.
(2) Goods services were closed at Caterham railway
station.
27/9/1964, Sunday (+7,082) The Warren Report was published, stating that
Lee Harvey Oswald alone was responsible for the assassination of President
Kennedy. Conspiracy theorists were not satisfied.
25/9/1964, Friday (+7,080)
22/9/1964, Tuesday (+7,077) The James Bond film Goldfinger premiered in
Leicester Square, London.
21/9/1964. Monday (+7,076) Malta became independent of Britain,
after 164 years of British rule.
18/9/1964, Friday (+7,073)
15/9/1964, Tuesday
(+7,070) The Sun was first published.
14/9/1964. Monday (+7,069) The
British daily newspaper, The Herald, closed and was replaced by The
Sun.
10/9/1964, Thursday
(+7,065)
7/9/1964, Monday
(+7,062) The railway from Audley End to Bartlow closed to passengers. The
railway from Stafford to Wellington closed to passengers. Carlisle to Silloth
closed to passengers. Derby Friargate to Nottingham via West Hallam closed.
Middleton to Middleton Junction
(Oldham) closed. Leicester (London Road) to Burton on Trent closed. Stalybridge
to Diggle closed. Southport to Preston closed. The Newport Pagnell branch
closed. Stopping services between Shrewsbury and Wellington were withdrawn.
Bristol to Portishead closed.
Worcester Shrub Hill to Bromyard closed. North Walsham to Mundesley on Sea
closed.
6/9/1964, Sunday (+7,061) (1) Ian
Smith arrived in the UK for talks on independence.
(2) Trains from Waterloo Station,
London, ceased to serve destinations beyond Exeter St David’s.
5/9/1964, Saturday
(+7,060)
4//9/1964. Friday (+7,059) Queen
Elizabeth II opened the Forth Road Bridge.
It was 6,156 feet long, with a centre span of 3,300 feet. Construction
began 21/11/1958.
3/9/1964, Thursday
(+7,058) Britain agreed to support
Malaysia against threats from Indonesia.
2/9/1964, Wednesday
(+7,057) Indonesian army units landed on Malaysian territory at Labis.
1/9/1964, Tuesday
(+7,056)
22/8/1964, Saturday (+7,046) BBC2 first broadcast Match of
the Day; Arsenal played Liverpool at their Anfield ground, watched by a TV
audience of 20,000 in black and white. Over 40,000 actually attended the
ground. In 2014 BBC1’s Match of the Day has a TV audience of 3.6 million. In
1964 each of the Football League Clubs made £136 from the TV programme; in 2014
each Club made £3 million from the show.
21/8/1964, Friday (+7,045) In London, three women were
found guilty of indecency for wearing ‘topless’ dresses.
20/8/1964. Thursday (+7,044) South Africa was banned from the
Olympics because of its apartheid policy.
17/8/1964, Monday (+7,041)
Greece withdrew its forces from NATO because of tension with Turkey over
Cyprus.
13/8/1964. Thursday (+7,037) The last hangings in Britain took place – the murderers
Peter Anthony Allen at Walton Prison, Liverpool, and John Robson Walby at
Strangeways Prison, Manchester.
12/8/1964, Wednesday
(+7,036) (1)
Ian Fleming, British author and creator of James Bond, died aged 56.
(2) Great train robber Charlie Wilson
escaped from Winson Green prison, Birmingham. He was recaptured four years
later in Canada.
11/8/1964, Tuesday
(+7,035) A Christian-sectarian based rebellion in Zambia led by Alice
Lenshina ended.
10/8/1964. Monday (+7,034)
(1)
The Roxburgh to Jedburgh railway closed (goods); passenger services ceased
after floods on 13/8/1948.
(2) An
emergency casualty station had to be set up in Brighton to deal with a constant
stream of hysterical girls overcome during a performance of the Rolling Stones.
9/8/1964, Sunday (+7,033)
The United Nations ordered a ceasefire in Cyprus.
8/8/1964. Saturday (+7,032) Turkish
planes attacked Cyprus.
7/8/1964, Friday (+7,031) In South Vietnam, General Nguyen Khanh
proclaimed a State of Emergency and ousted President Duong Vanh Minh.
2/8/1964, Sunday (+7,026)
(1) North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the
US destroyer Maddox, which was
patrolling 16 km off the North Vietnamese coast. One Vietnamese boat was
sunk, another badly damaged; the Maddox
was undamaged and continued her patrol. On the stormy night of 4-5/8/1964 the
radar allegedly spotted five Vietnamese boats in ‘attack formation’; in fact
these boats almost certainly did not exist. Either the radar image was
misinterpreted, or were fabricated to justify further US actions in Vietnam. US President Johnson got the Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution passed through Congress; authorising ‘any necessary measures’ to
repel attacks on US forces or US allies, including South Vietnam. This resolution justified a large
escalation in US activity in Vietnam from 1965 onwards.
(2) US Congress passed the Civil Rights
Act 1964.
31/7/1964, Friday (+7,024) NASA succeeded in landing the
Ranger 7 probe on the Moon.
27/7/1964. Monday (+7,020)
Sir Winston Churchill last appeared in the House of Commons. He died on
24/1/1965.
26/7/1964, Sunday (+7,019)
Sugar workers strike in British Guiana was called off.
22/7/1964, Wednesday
(+7,015)
18/7/1964, Saturday
(+7,011) Race riots in Harlem, New York; start of the ‘ghetto revolts’.
17/7/1964. Friday (+7,010) Donald
Campbell set a world land speed record of 403mph. He was driving a car called Bluebird,
on the salt flats at Lake Eyre, South Australia.
16/7/1964, Thursday
(+7,009) (1)
In the UK, the abolition of Resale Price Maintenance on most goods facilitated
the subsequent growth of the supermarkets.
(2) The Rolling Stones had their first
UK No.1 hit with It’s All Over Now.
15/7/1964, Wednesday
(+7,008) Anastas Mikoyan succeeded Leonid Brezhnev as President of the
USSR.
13/7/1964, Monday (+7,006) Freight traffic ceased on the
West Drayton to Vine Street (Uxbridge) line, closing it completely, see
10/9/1962.
10/7/1964, Friday (+7,003) The Bahamas became independent
from Britain.
6/7/1964. Monday (+6,999)
(1)
The Craigendoran to Arrochar and Tarbert railway closed. Crieff to Gleneagles
closed. Tillnyaught to Banff closed. Freight facilities at Queens Park station,
NW London, were withdrawn.
(2) Malawi, formerly Nyasaland, became
independent. It had been a British
Protectorate since 1891. The Scottish
explorer David Livingstone named the lake, Lake Nyasa, after being told that
was its name by the locals; however nyasa
meant ‘mass of waters’. So Lake Nyasa meant ‘lake-lake’. On independence the
name Malawi was chosen, from the former 16th century Kingdom of
Maravi, believed to have ruled over the Zambesi river as far as Mombasa.
(3)
Magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck
Guerrero, Mexico, killing 78.
2/7/1964. Thursday (+6,995) President
Johnson of the USA signed the Civil Rights Bill prohibiting racial
discrimination.
1/7/1964, Wednesday
(+6,994) Roscoe Pound, US legal scholar, died aged 93.
30/6/1964, Tuesday
(+6,993) UN troops ceased fighting
in the Congo.
15/6/1964, Monday (+6,978) (1)
The Barry to Bridgend railway closed. St Boswells to Tweedmouth closed to
passengers. The Thetford
to Swaffham railway closed to passengers. The Langholm (Carlisle) branch railway closed. Johnston to Neyland closed to passengers.
(2) Courtney Cox, US actress, was born.
14/6/1964. Sunday (+6,977)
Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to Robben
Island, seven miles off Cape Town. There were international protests. See
27/1/1963.
12/6/1964, Friday
(+6,975)
11/6/1964, Thursday
(+6,974) Walter Seifert attacked a school in Cologne, Germany, with a
home-made flamethrower and a lance, killing 8 pupils and 2 teachers, and
injuring 22 others. He then committed suicide by self-poisoning.
10/6/1964, Wednesday
(+6,973) The U.S. Senate voted closure of the Civil Rights Bill after a
75-day filibuster.
9/6/1964. Tuesday (+6,972) British newspaper tycoon Lord
Beaverbrook died, aged 85.
7/6/1964, Sunday (+6,970)
5/6/1964, Friday (+6,968) The first British space flight, as
the Blue Streak rocket took off from
Woomera in Australia.
4/6/1964, Thursday (+6,967) The United Nations Security Council passed
Resolution 189, condemning military incursions into Cambodia.
3/6/1964, Wednesday (+6,966)
The Rolling Stones began their first US tour.
2/6/1964. Tuesday (+6,965) The PLO was created in Jerusalem.
27/5/1964 Wednesday (+6,959) The Indian statesman 'Pandit'
Nehru died, aged 74, having been the first Prime Minister of India since
independence in 1947. He was succeeded by Lal Shastri.
22/5/1964, Friday (+6,954) UK troops flown to British Guiana as a state
of emergency was proclaimed as unrest grew.
19/5/1964, Tuesday (+6,951) The US lodged a complaint with Russia over
microphones found at its Moscow Embassy.
18/5/1964, Monday (+6,950) Mods and Rockers clashed at UK south
coast resorts.
17/5/1964, Sunday (+6,949) Bob
Dylan made his first major London appearance, at the Royal Albert Hall.
14/5/1964. Thursday (+6,946) Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev and
Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser opened the first stage of the Aswan Dam in Egypt. The Nile had been
diverted four years earlier to build the dam, which will create a lake 6 miles
wide and 350 miles long, displacing 100,000 people but irrigating a million
acres of desert for farmland. Many of Egypt’s historic sites were also flooded,
but the buildings were moved to safe locations.
6/5/1964, Wednesday (+6,938) (1) In South Africa the
Bantu Laws Amendment Act was passed. This attempted to control the informal
settlement of Black Africans on the periphery of urban areas.
(2) The Northampton to
Peterborough via Wellingborough line closed.
5/5/1964, Tuesday (+6,937) Heike Henkel, German athlete, was born in
Kiel
4/5/1964, Monday (+6,936) The Brockenhurst to West Moors railway
(Bournemouth) closed. The railway from Alderbury Junction (Salisbury) to West Moors
(Poole) closed. Bishop Auckland to Durham closed. Sunderland to Durham closed.
3/5/1964, Sunday (+6,935) In the Lebanese general election, Independent
candidates won the majority of seats, on a voter turnout of 53.0%.
2/5/1964, Saturday (+6,934) Nancy, Lady Astor, the first woman to
sit in the House of Commons in 1919, died aged 84.
28/4/1964, Tuesday (+6,930)
27/4/1964, Monday (+6,929) Greville Wynne, British businessman
sentenced in Moscow in 1963 for spying, was exchanged at the Berlin border for
Gordon Lonsdale, KGB agent sentenced in London for espionage in 1961.
26/4/1964. Sunday (+6,928) Tanganyika and Zanzibar united as
Tanzania. Julius Nyerere was the first President.
25/4/1964, Saturday (+6,927) The head of the Little Mermaid statue in
Copenhagen Harbour was hacked off and stolen. The statue was in honour of the
children’s’ author, Hans Christian Anderson.
24/4/1964, Friday (+6,926)
22/4/1964, Wednesday (+6,924)
British businesswoman Greville Wynne who had been imprisoned in the USSR for a
year on spying charges was exchanged for the Soviet agent Gordon Lonsdale.
21/4/1964. Tuesday (+6,923) BBC2 began transmission. The first programme was Play School.
19/4/1964, Sunday (+6,921)
17/4/1964, Friday (+6,919)
The Rolling Stones released their first LP.
16/4/1964. Thursday (+6,918) Twelve members of the Great Train
Robbers were sentenced to a total of 307 years in jail.
15/4/1964, Wednesday (+6,917) The Langport to Yeovil railway closed.
13/4/1964. Monday (+6,915) Ian Smith became Prime Minister of
Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He succeeded Winston Field, who had resigned.
11/4/1964, Saturday (+6,913) Marshal Humberto Castello Branco became
President of Brazil,
9/4/1964. Thursday (+6,911) The first driverless trains ran on
the London Underground. They were first trialled on the Central Line between
Woodford and Hainault.
6/4/1964, Monday (+6,908) The railway from Dalrymple Junction to
Dalmellingtion (Ayr) closed. Kilmarnock to Irvine closed. Hurlford to Darvel
closed. The Lossiemouth branch (Elgin) closed.
5/4/1964, Sunday (+6,907) Douglas
MacArthur, American General and commander in the Pacific during World
War Two, died in Washington DC aged 84.
4/4/1964, Saturday (-6,906) (1) Archbishop Makarios
rejected the 1960 treaty; fighting broke out in Cyprus.
(2) The last goods
train ran from Mill Hill East to Edgware; the tracks were lifted later that
year. The Malmesbury branch line closed to passengers.
1/4/1964, Wednesday (+6,903) President Goulart of Brazil was
overthrown in a military coup. President Johnson of the USA feared a socialist
takeover.
30/3/1964, Monday (+6,901) Mods and Rockers clashed on the
seafront at Clacton.
29/3/1964, Sunday (+6,900) Easter Sunday.
28/3/1964. Saturday (+6,899) (1) Radio Caroline, Britain’s first
private radio broadcasting station, began broadcasting from The Channel outside
British waters.
27/3/1964. Friday (+6,898) (1) A UN peace force took over in Cyprus.
(2) Powerful
earthquake, magnitude 9.2, hit Alaska, 139 died.
26/3/1964, Thursday (+6,897)
25/3/1964, Wednesday (+6,896) Unrest in British Guiana as a strike by
sugar workers continued (strike ended 26/7/1964).
24/3/1964, Tuesday (+6,895) Stanstead, Essex, was provisionally
chosen as the site of London’s third airport.
22/3/1964. Sunday (+6,893) Anti-Muslim violence broke out in
India.
20/3/1964, Friday (+6,891)
Irish playwright Brendan Behan died.
19/3/1964. Thursday (+6,890) Harold Wilson presented each of The
Beatles with a silver heart as joint winners of the Show Business Personality
of 1963 award.
17/3/1964, Tuesday (+6,888)
15/3/1964, Sunday (+6,886) Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton married in
Montreal.
14/3/1964. Saturday (+6,885) Jack Ruby, aged 52, was found guilty
in Dallas of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, alleged assassin of President Kennedy
(see 22/11/1963). He was sentenced to death but died of a blood clot on the
lung in 1967.
12/3/1964, Thursday (+6,883)
11/3/1964, Wednesday (+6,882)
South Africa left the International Labour Organisation
10/3/1964, Tuesday
(+6,881) Prince Edward (Edward Antony
Richard Louis) was born in Buckingham Palace, the third son of Elizabeth II.
9/3/1964, Monday (+6,882) Fighting in Ktima, Cyprus.
6/3/1964, Friday (+6,877) Constantine II became king of the
Hellenes, succeeding his father Paul I.
2/3/1964, Monday (+6,873)
Blyton railway station, Lincolnshire, closed to freight. Passenger services had
been withdrawn in February 1959. The Etruria to Kidsgrove railway closed.
Middlesborough to Guisborough closed.
21/2/1964. Friday (-6,863) £10 notes were issued for the first
time since World War Two.
11/2/1964. Tuesday (+6,853) Fighting broke out at Limassol, Cyprus, between Greeks and Turks.
8/2/1964, Saturday (+6,850)
The Beatles began their first US tour.
7/2/1964, Friday (+6,849)
25,000 fans gathered at Kennedy Airport to greet the Beatles on their first
visit to America.
6/2/1964. Thursday (+6,848) Britain
and France reaffirmed agreement to build a Channel Tunnel.
3/2/1964. Monday (+6,845) China challenged the USSR for leadership of
the Communist world.
1/2/1964. Saturday (+6,843)
The mayor of Notasulga, Alabama, turned away six black pupils from an all
white school.
EMI’s
managing director announced that The Beatles were making over £500,000 a month.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain called for unauthorised possession
of amphetamines to be made an offence.
30/1/1964, Thursday (+6,841)
Coup in South Vietnam; General Duong Van Minh was replaced by General Nguyen
Kanh. However Minh remained as nominal head of state.
27/1/1964. Monday (+6,,838) France
recognised Communist China.
22/1/1964, Wednesday
(+6,833) Kenneth Kaunda, leader of the United National Independence Party,
became the first President of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).
20/1/1964. Monday (+6,831) In
the UK, the trial of the Great Train Robbers began.
17/1/1964, Friday (+6,828) The top UK TV programme was Steptoe and Son.
13/1/1964. Monday (+6,824) (1) In
Calcutta, 200 died in Muslim-Hindu riots.
(2) The Beatles entered the US Charts at
no. 45 with I Wanna Hold Your Hand.
12/1/1964, Sunday (+6,823) Zanzibar was proclaimed a
republic. The Sultan of Zanzibar was banished from the country.
11/1/1964. Saturday (+6,822) Health
experts in America published the first warnings that cigarettes could be
dangerous for your health.
9/1/1964, Thursday
(+6,820)
8/1/1964, Wednesday
(+6,819) In the US, President Johnson proposed a reduction in defence
spending.
7/1/1964, Tuesday
(+6,818) In a drive to improve trade
links with Europe, Cuba ordered 400 British buses.
6/1/1964. Monday (+6,817) (1) The Church Fenton to Wetherby railway
closed. Cross Gates (Leeds) to Harrogate via Wetherby closed.
(2) Pope Paul VI finished a three-day
tour of the Holy Land, the first Pope to visit there since Christianity began.
He was also the first Pope to leave Italy for over 150 years. On 5/1/1964 Pope
Paul VI met the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in Jerusalem, the first
meeting between the heads of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches for 500
years.
5/1/1964, Sunday (+6,816)
The first automatic ticket barrier on the London Underground was installed,
at Stamford Brook station.
1/1/1964. Wednesday
(+6,812) The first Top of the Pops was broadcast, with Jimmy Savile as
its presenter.
22/12/1963, Sunday (+6.802) Violent clashes between Greeks
and Turks in Cyprus; UN Peace Forces intervened.
21/12/1963, Saturday (+6,801)
Leeds Rugby Club, the first with undersoil heating, used it during a game with
Dewsbury.
15/12/1963, Sunday (+6,795) In the UK, the CEGB's 400 kV Supergrid was first
tested when High Marnham Power Station was connected to Monk Fryston substation,
near Selby.
12/12/1963. Thursday
(+6,792) Kenya became
independent, with Kenyatta as President.
11/12/1963, Wednesday
(+6,791) In Los Angeles, Frank
Sinatra Jr was set free after his father paid kidnappers a US$ 240,000 ransom.
10/12/1963. Tuesday
(+6,790) Zanzibar became
independent. It had been a
British Protectorate since 1890.
9/12/1963, Monday
(+6,789) Royal Jordanian Airlines was established, on decree by King
Hussein,
8/12/1963, Sunday (+6,788) Sarit Dhanarajata, Prime
Minister of Thailand, died.
1/12/1963, Sunday (+6,781)
25/11/1963, Monday (+6,775) State funeral of President
Kennedy.
24/11/1963, Sunday (+6,774)
Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President Kennedy, was himself shot dead by Jack
Ruby.
23/11/1963. Saturday (+6,773) The
BBC screened the first episode of Dr Who.
The doctor was played by William Hartnell.
22/11/1963. Friday (+6,772) John F Kennedy was assassinated, in
Dallas, Texas, during the run up to the 1964 USA presidential election. He had
become President of the USA in 1960, defeating Richard M Nixon. Lee Harvey
Oswald, the man charged with the killing, was shot on 24/11/1963 by club owner
Jack Ruby at Dallas Police headquarters. Vice President Lyndon Johnson
completed the remainder of his term. See 14/3/1964.
18/11/1963. Monday (+6,768) (1) The Dartford Tunnel was opened. Initial
construction works had begun in 1936, when a pilot tunnel was dug (completed
1938). However further works were delayed due to World War Two, and further
tunnel works only resumed in 1959.
(2) The push button phone was
introduced.
14/11/1963. Thursday (+6,764) The
island of Surtsey, off Iceland, was born as an undersea volcano erupted.
9/11/1963, Saturday (+6,759) A mining disaster at Omuta,
Japan, killed 442.
4/11/1963, Monday
(+6,754) The Havant to Hayling Island railway closed.
2/11/1963, Saturday (+6,752) The first President of
Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, was assassinated, along with his brother, in a military
coup encouraged by the CIA.
1/11/1963, Friday
(+6,751) In South Vietnam, a coup organised by General Duong Van Minh
overthrew President Ngo Dinh Diem.
31/10/1963, Thursday
(+6,750) Britain suspended aid to Indonesia.
28/10/1963, Monday
(+6,747) The railway from Haywards Heath to Horsted Keynes closed.
26/10/1963, Saturday
(+6,745) Khrushchev said the USSR would not race the US to get a man on the
Moon.
19/10/1963. Saturday (+6,738)
Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Conservative, became Prime Minister. Harold Macmillan resigned as Prime Minister
on 18/10/1963.
11/10/1963, Friday
(+6,730) Jean Cocteau, French artist (born 1889) died.
10/10/1963, Thursday
(+6,729) Harold Macmillan announced
he would resign as Prime Minister, due to ill-health and the Profumo Affair;
see 5/6/1963 and 19/10/1963.
9/10/1963, Wednesday
(+6,728) Three thousand were killed
as the Vaijont Dam burst in the Italian Alps. Despite warnings that the valley
sides were being destabilised as the dam filled, work continued until a rock
slide hit the site.
7/10/1963, Monday
(+6,727) The railway from Exeter to Morebath via Tiverton closed to
passengers.
1/10/1963. Tuesday (+6,720) Nigeria
became a republic within the Commonwealth.
26/9/1963, Thursday
(+6,715) Lord Denning’s report on the Profumo affair was published. He said
there was no breach of security and government ministers were not involved in
promiscuous behaviour.
21/9/1963, Saturday (+6,710)
Vilian Siroky, Czechoslovak Prime Minister, was dismissed.
20/9/1963, Friday (+6,709) The first pre-natal blood
transfusion was performed at the National Women’s hospital in Auckland, New
Zealand, by Professor George Green, on a child born to Mrs E McLeod.
19/9/1963, Thursday
(+6,708) France and Britain agreed
to build a Channel Tunnel.
18/9/1963, Wednesday
(+6,707) The UN Special Committee on Apartheid in South Africa called for
prohibition of arms and petroleum traffic with South Africa.
17/9/1963, Tuesday
(+6,706)
16/9/1963. Monday (+6,705) Malaysia
became independent from Britain; a mob of over 100,000 burned down the British
Embassy. The name Malaysia was adopted,
from the previous name, Federation of Malaya, when joined by Singapore and
Sarawak.
15/9/1963, Sunday (+6,704)
During race violence in the US, an African-American church in Birmingham,
Alabama, was blown up.
14/9/1963, Saturday
(+6,703) The Brent to Kingsbridge railway, Devon, closed.
12/9/1963, Thursday
(+6,701)
10/9/1963. Tuesday
(+6,699) The people of Gibraltar voted overwhelmingly to remain under
British rule.
9/9/1963, Monday
(+6,698) The Shrewsbury to Bewdley railway closed. Llandeilo to Carmarthen
closed. Pyle to Porthcawl closed. The Abingdon branch closed to passengers.
Tiverton Junction to Hemyock closed. Wellington to Nantwich via Market Drayton
closed. The Witham to Yatton via Wells railway closed.
8/9/1963, Sunday (+6,697)
A new Constitution in Algeria established Ben Bella as President.
7/9/1963, Saturday
(+6,696)
5/9/1963. Thursday (+6,694) Christine Keeler, one of the girls
at the centre of the Profumo scandal, was arrested and charged with perjury.
She was sentenced to nine months on 6/12/1963. See 5/6/1963.
4/9/1963, Wednesday
(+6,693) (1)
Desegregation riots in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
(2) Robert Schuman, French Prime
Minister, died.
2/9/1963, Monday (+6,691) George
Wallace, Governor of Alabama, halted integration of Black and White students by
surrounding Tuskegee High School with state troopers. See 15/5/1972.
1/9/1963, Sunday (+6,690)
About 100,000 people in two Japanese cities demonstrated against the presence
of American nuclear submarines.
31/8/1963, Saturday (+6,689)
The ‘hot line’, linking the Kremlin and the White House, went into operation.
30/8/1963, Friday (+6,688) Guy Burgess, Cambridge spy who
worked for the Soviet Union, died.
29/8/1963, Thursday (+6,687) Gulzarilal
Nanda replaced Lal Bahadur Shastri as Indian Minister for Home Affairs.
28/8/1963. Wednesday
(+6,686) Black civil rights leader Martin Luther King made his famous
speech, “I have a dream…” to a rally of 200,000 people in Washington DC,
demonstrating for civil rights for Blacks. On 4/9/1963 there were desegregation
riots at Birmingham, Alabama.
27/8/1963, Tuesday
(+6,685) Du Bois, fighter for Black equality (born in Great Barrington,
Massachusetts, 23/2/1868), died in Accra, Ghana. He founded the Niagara
Movement, an association of Black intellectuals, in 1905, which became part of
the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) in
1909. Du Bois also participated on the conferences that led to the founding of
the United Nations, moving to Ghana in 1961.
25/8/1963, Sunday (+6,683)
23/8/1963, Friday
(+6,681) The Beatles single She Loves You was released.
22/8/1963, Thursday
(+6,680) Lord Nuffield, founder of
Morris Motors, died, aged 84.
21/8/1963, Wednesday
(+6,679) Martial law was declared in
South Vietnam.
13/8/1963, Tuesday
(+6671)
8/8/1963. Thursday
(+6,666) The Great Train Robbery took place at Sear’s Crossing,
Mentmore, near Cheddington, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire. A gang of 15 men stole
over £2.5million. Their haul was £2.5 million in banknotes scheduled for
destruction. The robbery was well
planned. They used batteries and a light to simulate a red stop signal for the
Glasgow to London mail train. When the train stopped they coshed the driver,
Jack Mills, decoupled the engine and some of the carriages, and drove them to
Bridego bridge further up the line. Here the loot was loaded onto a lorry and
taken to a farm nearby, which the police quickly found. Charlie Wilson, the
first of the robbers, was arrested and charged later the same month. The train
driver was coshed on the head and died six years later, never fully regaining
his health.
5/8/1963. Monday (+6,663) President Kennedy signed a Nuclear
Test Ban Treaty in Washington. This treaty forbade testing in the atmosphere,
outer space, or underwater, and was aimed at preventing other nations than the
USA or USSR developing nuclear weapons. However to allow America and Russia to
develop their nuclear weapons, underground testing was allowed under this
treaty (see 1/7/1968).
3/8/1963. Saturday (+6,661) The Beatles played in The Cavern,
Liverpool, for the last time.
1/8/1963, Thursday (+6,659) The
minimum age for prison in the UK was raised to 17 by the Criminal Justice Act.
31/7/1963, Wednesday
(+6,658) In Britain, Mr A N Wedgwood Benn, who had become 2nd
Viscount Stansgate, renounced his peerage as he was now allowed to do under the
Peerage Act 1963. This made them eligible to become MPs in the House of
Commons. He changed his name to Tony Benn in 1972.
30/7/1963. Tuesday
(+6,657) The ‘third man’, Kim Philby, turned up in Moscow after escaping
arrest in Britain for spying. He had defected to Russia on 23/1/1963.
26/7/1963. Friday (+6,653) Big
earthquake hit Skopje, Yugoslavia, killing 1,100. 150,000 were left homeless.
22/7/1963, Monday (+6,649) In Britain, a commission into
slum housing was set up.
21/7/1963, Sunday (+6,748)
In Britain, Prime Minister Harold MacMillan appointed Lord Denning to
investigate the security aspects of the Profumo affair.
8/7/1963, Monday
(+6,635) The Fred Bassett cartoon
first appeared in The Daily Mail.
3/7/1963, Wednesday
(+6,630) The Clyde Road Tunnel,
Glasgow, opened; construction began in 1957.
1/7/1963, Monday (+6,628) Kim Philby, British spy, was
revealed as the ‘third man’.
30/6/1963. Sunday (+6,627)
Coronation of Giovanni Batista Montini as Pope Paul VI.
26/6/1963. Wednesday (+6,623) President
Kennedy made his famous ‘Ich bin ein
Berliner’ speech. He meant to say ‘I am a Berliner’, to indicate US
support for the freedom of West Germany. However what he actually said
translated as ‘I am a doughnut’.
21/6/1963, Friday (+6,618)
(1)
France withdrew its navy from NATO.
(2) Giovanni Battista Montini was elected as Pope Paul VI.
20/6/1963. Thursday
(+6,617) The White House and the Kremlin agreed to set up a ‘hot line’.
18/6/1963, Tuesday
(+6,615)
17/6/1963, Monday (+6,614) (1)
The Cheadle branch line closed to passengers. Redditch to Ashchurch via Alcester
and Evesham closed to passengers. Boston to Lincoln closed to passengers.
(2) The Goxhill to Immingham Docks railway closed to passengers.
(3) The USSR achieved the first link-up
of two spacecraft in space. Valentina Tereshkova (26) aboard the Vostok 6
rocket met with Valery Bykovsky (28) who had been orbiting Earth aboard Vostok
5 for two days. Crowds celebrated in the streets of Moscow.
16/6/1963. Sunday (+6,613)
(1) Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova
became the first woman to travel into space. She was born to a peasant family
in Maslennikovo, Russia, in 1937, and made her first parachute jump aged 22
with a local aviation club. Her enthusiasm for skydiving brought her to the
attention of the soviet space programme, which wanted a woman in space in the
early 1960s. Tereshkova was launched into space on 16/6/1993 from Tyaturum
aboard Vostok 6, guided by an automatic control system. After just under 3 days
in space, and 48 Earth orbits, Vostok 6 re-entered the atmosphere and
Tereshkova successfully parachuted to Earth after ejecting at 20,000 feet. She
later received the Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union awards.
(2) Ben Gurion, Israeli Prime Minister,
resigned aged 76. He was replaced by Levi Eshkol.
14/6/1963, Friday (+6,611)
12/6/1963, Wednesday
(+6,609) Civil Rights lawyer Medgar
Evers was murdered by White
segregationists in Mississippi.
11/6/1963, Tuesday
(+6,608) George C Wallace, Governor
of Alabama, barred the path of two Black students, James A Hood and Vivian J
Malone, who were attempting to enrol at the University of Alabama.
8/6/1963, Saturday (+6,605)
5/6/1963. Wednesday
(+6,602) War Minister John Profumo resigned, admitting he misled the
Commons about his relationship with a call girl called Christine Keeler, who
had links to a Russian diplomat. See 5/9/1963.
4/6/1963, Tuesday
(+6,601) At the World Food Congress,
John F Kennedy said “The war against hunger is truly mankind’s war of
liberation”.
3/6/1963, Monday (+6,600)
Pope John XXIII, Angelo Guiseppe Roncalli, died.
1/6/1963, Saturday (+6,598) Jomo Kenyatta became the first
Prime Minister of a self-governing Kenya.
25/5/1963, Saturday
(+6,591) The OAU (Organisation of African Unity) was founded at Addis
Ababa.
15/5/1963, Wednesday
(+6,581) US astronaut Gordon Cooper, launched in an Atlas rocket, made 22
orbits of the Earth.
14/5/1963, Tuesday
(+6,580) Kuwait was admitted to the
United Nations.
13/5/1963, Monday
(+6,579) The railway from Churston to Brixham, Devon, closed.
11/5/1963, Saturday
(+6,577)
10/5/1963, Friday (+6,576) African-Americans were finally
allowed to use the shops and public services in Birmingham, Alabama, after the
‘Birmingham Campaign’ led by Martin Luther King.
9/5/1963, Thursday (+6,575) A state of
emergency was proclaimed in British Guiana but her governor, at the request of
Prime Minister Cheddi Jagan.
28/4/1963, Sunday (+6,564) Cuban President Fidel Castro visited the
USSR.
22/4/1963, Monday (+6,558) A
general strike began in British Guiana (Guyana), with rioting and terrorism.
The strike lasted until 8/7/1963.
18/4/1963, Thursday (+6,554) The first human nerve transplant was
carried out by Dr James Campbell at New York University Medical Centre.
17/4/1963, Wednesday (+6,553)
The Royal Navy’s first nuclear powered submarine, Dreadnought, was commissioned.
16/4/1963, Tuesday
(+6,552)
15/4/1963, Monday
(+6,551) In Britain, disorder broke out during the last stages of the
Aldermaston March, organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).
14/4/1963, Sunday (+6,550)
Easter Sunday.
13/4/1963, Saturday (+6,549)
Gary Kasparov, Russian world chess champion, was born.
12/4/1963, Friday
(+6,548) Indonesian forces attacked Malaysia.
11/4/1963, Thursday
(+6,547)
10/4/1963, Wednesday
(+6,546) The nuclear-powered submarine USS
Thresher sank in the Atlantic with the loss of all 129 men on board.
9/4/1963, Tuesday
(+6,545) Winston Churchill was given
honorary US citizenship.
8/4/1963, Monday
(+6,544) General election in Canada was won by the Liberals with 129 seats.
The Progressive Conservatives won 95 seats, Others won 41 seats.
7/4/1963, Sunday (+6,543)
6/4/1963, Saturday (+6,542) Anglo-US Polaris weapons
agreement signed.
5/4/1963, Friday (+6,541) Bradwell
nuclear power station opened in the UK.
2/4/1963, Tuesday
(+6,538) A Black Civil Rights
campaign began in the USA.
27/3/1963, Wednesday
(+6,532) Beeching published his report, recommending extensive
cuts to the UK rail network. He proposed closing a quarter of the rail network,
closing 2,128 stations, scrapping 8,000 rail coaches, and axing 67,700 jobs.
There would be no rail service north of Inverness, and most branch lines in
north and central Wales and the West Country would close.
25/3/1963, Monday (+6,530) The Co-op on Frodingham Road,
Scunthorpe, converted from counter service to self service. Now 24 of the 35
Co-ops in the area were self service, and just three remained offering counter
service in Scunthorpe itself.
22/3/1963, Friday
(+6,527) In the British House of Commons, John Profumo, Secretary of State
for War, denied that he had sexual relations with Miss Christine Keeler, an
attache of the Soviet Embassy in London.
21/3/1963. Thursday (+6,526) (1) Alcatraz, the notorious prison in San
Francisco Bay, was closed. It
had been a maximum-security prison since 1934.
(2) Aden joined the South Arabian
Federation.
19/3/1963, Tuesday
(+6,524)
18/3/1963, Monday
(+6,523) In the USA, in Gideon v Wainwright, the Supreme Court required the
State to appoint defence counsel if the defendant could not afford a private
lawyer.
17/3/1963. Sunday (+6,522) (1) A volcano erupted in Bali, killing 11,000.
(2) The first of the Tristan da Cunha
islanders returned home from Britain.
16/3/1963. Saturday (+6,521) Lord
Beveridge, founder of the Welfare State, died.
6/3/1963, Wednesday (+6,511) Britain
had its first frost-free night since December, after a very cold winter.
19/2/1963. Tuesday (+6,496) The
USSR agreed to withdraw troops from Cuba.
14/2/1963 Thursday (+6,491) Harold
Wilson became leader of the Labour Party, see 18/1/1963. Other candidates were
James Callaghan and George Brown. See 18/1/1963.
9/2/1963, Saturday
(+6,486) In Russia, the former head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and
Archbishop of Lvov, was released after 18 years imprisonment, which began when
the Ukrainian Catholic Church was forcibly united with the Russian orthodox
Church.
8/2/1963, Friday
(+6,485) The Beatles were asked to leave the Carlisle Golf Club because
they were wearing leather jackets.
6/2/1963, Wednesday
(+6,483)
5/2/1963, Tuesday
(+6,482) Maarten Schmidt identified
red shifts in quasars.
4/2/1963. Monday (+6,481) (1) The
Chacewater to Newquay railway closed.
(2) In
the UK, a learner-driver was fined for driving on after the instructor had
jumped out of the car for fear of his life.
1/2/1963, Friday (+6,478) Nyasaland
became independent, later to be called Malawi.
27/1/1963. Sunday (+6,473)
Mrs Winnie Mandela was served with an injunction preventing her seeing her
imprisoned husband Mandela. See 14/6/1964. Films on release included Cape Fear.
23/1/1963, Wednesday
(+6,469) (1)
The Volta River Project, Ghana, to dam the Rover Volta, was inaugurated by Dr
Nkrumah.
(2) Kim Philby was officially reported
as ‘missing’ after failing to meet his wife at a dinner party in Beirut.
Formerly a high-ranking British intelligence officer, he had been accused of spying
for the USSR in 1955 but had been exonerated by Prime Minister Harold
MacMillan. Philby’s accomplices Guy Burgess and Donald McClean had fled to
Moscow in 1951; MacMillan insisted there was no ‘third man’.
22/1/1963. Tuesday
(+6,468) UK unemployment was it its highest since World War Two, at
814,632. TV showed The Flintstones at
the prime slot of 7pm. TV closed down around midnight. On 19/1/1963 snow and ice meant only 9 out of 63
League Cup Football matches were played, and two of those were abandoned.
18/1/1963. Friday (+6,464)
Hugh Gaitskell, former UK Labour Party leader from 1955 to 1963, died
unexpectedly. See 14/2/1963.
15/1/1963. Tuesday
(+6,461) The BBC ended its ban on mentioning politics, royalty,
religion, and sex in comedy shows.
14/1/1963. Monday (+6,460) (1) De Gaulle vetoed Britain’s membership of the
EEC. He said the UK was too close to the Commonwealth and the USA, and not
‘sufficiently European’.
(2) The secession of Katanga from the
Congo ended, see 11/7/1960. The province
was renamed Shaba, and its capital town, formerly Elizabethville, was renamed
Lubumbashi.
11/1/1963, Friday (+6,457)
The world’s first disco, called Whisky a Go Go, opened in Los
Angeles.
8/1/1963, Tuesday
(+6,454) Fire damaged eight floors
of the Empire State Building in New York.
7/1/1963, Monday
(+6,453) The branch railway from Seven Sisters to Palace Gates, N London,
closed. The railway from Princes Risborough to Oxford closed. Princes
Risborough to Banbury closed. Nottingham to Pinxton South closed.
31/12/1962, Monday
(+6,446) The railway from Caersws to Talyllyn via Builth Road closed. The
railway from Brecon to Hereford via Talyllyn and Eardisley closed; Brecon to
Merthyr Tydfil closed. Newport to New Tredegar closed. Plymouth to Launceston
via Bickleigh closed.
29/12/1962, Saturday
(+6,444) UN troops occupied Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi).
28/12/1962, Friday
(+6,443) UN troops engaged in heavy fighting in Katanga Province, Congo
Republic.
27/12/1962, Thursday
(+6,442) India and Pakistan reopened talks on Kashmir,
26/12/1962. Wednesday
(+6,441) The worst winter in Britain since 1740 began with a ‘big
freeze’ that lasted well into January 1963
Base rates in Britain were 4%, the Chancellor, Reginald Maudling,
announced that rates were to fall. The Beatles, an obscure group from
Liverpool, just made no.17 in the charts with their single Love Me Do.
21/12/1962, Friday (+6,436) The US agreed to sell Polaris
missiles to the UK.
18/12/1962, Tuesday
(+6,433) PM Harold MacMillan of the
UK and President Kennedy of the USA concluded the Nassau Agreement, at Nassau,
Bahamas. This allowed the US navy to
provide Polaris missiles for the Royal Navy, normally operating under NATO
command. This Anglo-US collaboration was
resented by general De Gaulle of France, who saw it as proof that Britain was
not sufficiently European. Within a
month De Gaulle had vetoed UK membership of the EEC, see 14/1/1963.
17/12/1962, Monday
(+6,432) In the UK, a committee on the reform of the House of Lords
recommended that an heir should be allowed to disclaim his peerage.
14/12/1962. Friday (+6,429)
Mariner II sent back the first close-up pictures of the planet Venus.
11/12/1962, Tuesday
(+6,426) In West Germany, a coalition government of Christian Democrats,
Christian Socialist and Free Democrats was formed.
10/12/1962, Monday (+6,425) Crick and Watson received the
Nobel prize for their work on DNA.
9/12/1962, Sunday (++6,424)
Tanzania became a Republic within the Commonwealth, with Julius Nyerere as
first President.
8/12/1962, Saturday (+6,423) Revolt in Brunei suppressed
with British help.
7/12/1962, Friday
(+6,422) Kirsten Flagstad, Norwegian opera singer, died aged 67.
6/12/1962, Thursday
(+6,421)
5/12/1962, Wednesday (+6,420)
(1) Britain exploded a thermonuclear device
underground in Nevada.
(2) US diplomat Dean Acheson said
Britain was 'played out'.
4/12/1962, Tuesday
(+6,419) Pietro Tomasi Della Torretta, Italian politician and diplomat,
died aged 89.
3/12/1962, Monday
(+6,418) The railway from Kingham to Chipping Norton closed.
1/12/1962, Saturday
(+6,416)
29/11/1962, Thursday
(+6,414) France and Britain agreed to develop the ‘Concorde’ airliner.
28/11/1962, Wednesday
(+6,413) Wilhelmina, Queen of The Netherlands from 1890 to 1948, died.
27/11/1962, Tuesday
(+6,412) Britain agreed to supply arms to India in case of further Chinese
military action.
22/11/1962, Thursday
(+6,407)
21/11/1962, Wednesday
(+6,406) Ceasefire in the
India-China border dispute.
20/11/1962, Tuesday
(+6,405) President Kennedy lifted
the blockade of Cuba, having verified that Soviet nuclear missiles had been
removed.
19/11/1962, Monday
(+6,404) The Newfoundland general election was won by the Liberal Party of
Newfoundland and Labrador, led by Joey Smallwood.
18/11/1962. Sunday (+6,403) As blizzards and snowstorms hit Britain (see
26/12/1962), the House of Lords expressed concern at Britain’s 7,000 road
deaths a year. The Birmingham Corporation revoked a ban on turbaned Sikhs
working as bus conductors and drivers. President
Kennedy told a press conference that Nikita Khrushchev had told him all Soviet jet bombers would be withdrawn
from Cuba within ten days. Bishop
Ambrose Reeves encouraged Oxford students to write to their MPs urging them to
repeal the laws on homosexuality. The first James Bond film, Dr No, was released.
16/11/1962, Friday
(+6,401)
14/11/1962. Wednesday
(+6,399) Britain resumed negotiations to join the EEC. Macmillan and De
Gaulle talked at Rambouillet on 15-16/12/1962. However De Gaulle was intransigent, fearing the UK would import US
influence into Europe. De Gaulle resigned in May 1969.
13/11/1962. Tuesday
(+6,398) UK doctors estimated that 40,000 Britons were taking pep pills.
America launched its biggest rocket yet, the Saturn booster, in its effort to
reach the Moon. Fidel Castro, the Cuban leader, warned the US reconnaissance
planes would be shot down if they continued to fly over Cuba. Kenneth Adam,
Director of BBC TV, announced that a second channel would be launched in 1964.
The new channel would show very little repeated programmes and not have much
American material.
7/11/1962. Wednesday (+6,392)
In South Africa, Nelson Mandela was jailed for seven years.
5/11/1962, Monday
(+6,390) In the US, elections left Democrats in control of both Houses.
3/11/1962, Saturday
(+6,388) The Helston to Gwinear Road railway closed to passengers.
2/11/1962, Friday (+6,387) Tangynika elected Nyerere as
president.
30/10/1962, Tuesday
(+6384)
28/10/1962. Sunday (+6,382) (1) Khrushchev began to dismantle
Soviet missile bases in Cuba, so ending the Cuba Missile Crisis; the Soviet Union simply
ignored its earlier demand regarding Turkey. President Kennedy was leader of
the USA at the time; on Saturday 27/10/1962 he was just about to order US air
strikes on the missile bases, when on Sunday the news came that the USSR had
agreed to withdraw the missiles. The USSR attempted to leverage the removal of
NATO missiles from Turkey but did not achieve this. The USA had to achieve this
result, for political, not military, reasons, or else how could USA support be
relied upon further from home. In fact the danger from the Cuban missiles was
not much greater than if the same intercontinental ballistic missiles had been
launched from 5,000 miles away in the USSR. Actually the 40 or so missiles on
Cuba would have reached the USA before any USSR-launched missiles, so acting as
an early warning for the USA to launch its 1,685 missiles against the USSR. The
USA did not know, however, that only a fraction of the USSR-based missiles were
operational, so the 40 Cuban missiles did amount to a substantial increase in
Soviet firepower against the USA.
(2) The US pledged to send arms to India
in its dispute with China.
26/10/1962, Friday (+6,380) The USSR offered to remove
nuclear missiles from Cuba if NATO missiles were removed from Turkey; the US
rejected this idea. In fact the US had been planning to remove these missiles
anyway, seeing them as obsolete; however a removal now might be seen as a
victory for the Soviet Union.
24/10/1962. Wednesday
(+6,378) The USA began to blockade Cuba over the Cuban Missile Crisis. At 10.15am, 500 miles from the Cuban
coastline, two Soviet merchant vessels, the Gargarin and the Komiles,
encountered American warships. The Essex had orders to sink the
accompanying Soviet submarines should they refuse to surface when challenged.
22/10/1962 Monday (+6,376) (1) Nelson Mandela, leader of the African National
Congress, went on trial charged with treason; he pleaded not guilty.
(2) President Kennedy ordered a blockade of Cuba after Soviet missile sites
were found there.
20/10/1962, Saturday (+6,374)
Chinese troops attacked Indian border positions.
16/10/1962, Tuesday (+6,370)
President Kennedy saw aerial photos of Cuba which appeared to show
nuclear-armed missiles being installed in Cuba.
15/10/1962, Monday (+6,369) The railway
from Kingham to Cheltenham closed. Neath to Brecon closed.
13/10/1962, Saturday (+6,367)
11/10/1962, Thursday (+6,365)
Hugh Foot resigned as British representative at the UN in protest at the
British Government’s support for the regime in Southern Rhodesia (now
Zimbabwe).
10/10/1962, Wednesday (+6,364)
Ceasefire in the Congo civil war.
9/10/1962. Tuesday (+6,363) Uganda became independent, after 62 years of British rule. Milton Obote was the
first Prime Minister. See 25/1/1971.
8/10/1962, Monday (+6,362) Judge Elizabeth Lane became
the first female judge to sit in the High Court.
4/10/1962, Thursday
(+6,358) The TV Series, The Saint, starring Roger Moore as Simon Templar,
first broadcast this day.
1/10/1962. Monday (+6,355) The
first Black student attended classes at Mississippi University, and 200 were
arrested in subsequent riots. James Howard Meredith arrived at university with
a large guard of 170 federal marshals. After White rioting, gunfire erupted in
the evening, with two killed and over 50 injured, including a French
journalist. Under armed guard for his entire period of study, Meredith obtained
his degree. However four years later he was shot dead by an armed White man in
ambush, in June 1966 on a civil rights march in Mississippi.
29/9/1962, Saturday (+6,353)
Canada launched its first satellite, the Alouette.
26/9/1962, Wednesday
(+6,350) Ahmed ben Bella was elected Prime Minister of Algeria.
21/9/1962, Friday (+6,345)
The British TV quiz programme University Challenge conducted by Bamber
Gascoigne was first transmitted.
14/9/1962, Friday (+6,338) Distillers Company agreed to
pay £14 million to the victims of thalidomide.
10/9/1962, Monday (+6,334) The passenger service between
Vine Street, Uxbridge, and West Drayton, closed to passengers, see 13/7/1964.
West Drayton to Staines closed to passengers. The Didcot to Newbury railway
closed to passengers. The Dursley branch, Gloucestershire, closed to
passengers. The Ellesmere to Wrexham railway closed. Castle Cary to Taunton
closed (local services). Taunton to Chard Junction closed. Whitland to Cardigan
closed.
9/9/1962. Sunday (+6,333)
President Kennedy called for the USA to launch a full speed drive for the
Moon and first place in space over Russia, so that space will be an area of
peace and not a terrifying theatre of war.
TV showed another episode of Steptoe and Son, and The
Morecambe and Wise Show.
8/9/1962. Saturday (+6,332) China-India border dispute escalated.
China attacked Indian border posts on 20/10/1962. On 28/10/1962 the USA pledged
to send arms to India.
4/9/1962, Tuesday
(+6,328)
3/9/1962. Monday (+6,327) The
Trans-Canada highway, 4,800 miles from St John’s Newfoundland to Victoria,
British Columbia, was opened.
2/9/1962. Sunday (+6,326) The
USSR agreed to supply weapons to Cuba. This
started the Cuban Missile Crisis.
1/9/1962, Saturday (+6,325) Severe earthquake hit Iran,
killing 20,000.
31/8/1962. Friday (+6,324) Trinidad and Tobago became
independent. It had been a British colony since 1802.
29/8/1962. Wednesday (+6,322)
American spy planes took pictures of Soviet technicians constructing
missile launch pads in Cuba.
27/8/1962, Monday (+6,320) The US spacecraft Mariner II
was launched, on the first interplanetary space mission, to Venus.
22/8/1962, Wednesday
(+6,315) President De Gaulle of
France escaped an assassination attempt by the OAS, a terrorist organisation of
White Algerian settlers opposed to De Gaulle’s policies there.
21/8/1962, Tuesday
(+6,314) Savannah, the world’s first nuclear-powered merchant
ship, began her maiden voyage.
18/8/1962, Saturday
(+6,311) The Shirebrook to Nottingham railway closed.
9/8/1962, Thursday
(+6,302) The National Theatre was
established in London, with Sir Lawrence Olivier as director.
7/8/1962, Tuesday
(+6,300) Egypt agreed terms with the UK for compensating British subjects
whose property was seized after the Suez Crisis of 1956.
6/8/1962. Monday (+6,299)
Jamaica became independent, after being a colony of Britain for over 300
years.
5/8/1962. Sunday (+6,298) Marilyn
Monroe, US film actress, died in Los Angeles aged 36, of a barbiturates
overdose.
30/7/1962. Monday (+6,292) The former Great Western goods
depot below Smithfield Market, London, closed. The railway from Bewdley to
Tenbury Wells closed. Stourbridge to Wolverhampton via Himley closed.
23/7/1962, Monday
(+6,285) The railway from Wellington to Much Wenlock via Buildwas closed to
passengers.
22/7/1962, Sunday (+6,284)
The Mariner 1 spacecraft flew erratically several minutes after launch and had
to be destroyed after less than five minutes, at a cost of $4,000,000 for the
satellite and $8,000,000 for the rocket. The $12 million dollar loss was later
traced to the omission of an overbar in the handwritten text from which the
computer programming for the rocket guidance system was drawn.
21/7/1962. Saturday (+6,283)
The Rolling Stones made their first appearance at the Marquee Club in
London.
20/7/1962, Friday (+6,282)
The world’s first regular hovercraft service began, on the Dee estuary between
Wallasey and Rhyl.
10/7/1962. Tuesday
(+6,272) (1) Telstar I, the world’s first television telecommunications
satellite, was launched in America. The following day it transmitted a special
television inaugural programme to mark the first communications satellite.
(2) The first motorway in Ireland
opened, running from Belfast to Lisburn.
3/7/1962. Tuesday (+6,265) France
recognised Algerian independence, after a referendum. Algeria had been under French rule for 132
years. French property was taken over by Algerians. Ben Hella was the first Prime Minister of
Algeria. De Gaulle had begun peace talks
with the FLN on 30/3/1961 and peace was concluded mostly on the FLN’s terms on
18/3/1962.
2/7/1962, Monday,
(+6,264) The Dunstable to Leighton Buzzard railway closed.
1/7/1962. Sunday (+6,263) Rwanda and Burundi became
independent. They had formerly been part
of the Belgian administration of Ruanda-Urundi.
18/6/1962, Monday
(+6,250) The railway from Oxford to Fairford closed. The railway from
Cambridge to Mildenhall via Fordham closed. The railway from Barnard Castle to
Bishop Auckland closed.
15/6/1962, Friday (+6,247) Berkeley
nuclear power station in Gloucestershire began operating.
14/6/1962, Thursday
(+6,246) The European Space Research
Organisation was formed in Paris.
10/6/1962, Sunday (+6,242)
The Blackburn to Hellifield railway closed.
7/6/1962, Thursday
(+6,239) William Faulkner, US writer (born 25/9/1897 in New Albany,
Mississippi) died in Oxford, Mississippi.
3/6/1962, Sunday (+6,235) An Air France Boeing 707,
flying from Orly, Paris to Atlanta, Georgia, crashed on take-off, killing 130.
2/6/1962, Saturday (+6,234) Vita Sackville-West, British
novelist, died.
1/6/1962, Friday
(+6,233) The Soviet
Union raised the price of consumer goods by more than 25 percent in order to
cover higher operating expenses for the U.S.S.R.'s collective farm program.
Butter was up 25%, and pork and beef by 30%. In protest, workers walked off of
the job at the Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Factory and the strike soon
turned into an uprising.
31/5/1962, Thursday
(+6,232) Adolf Eichmann
was executed inside Ramleh Prison, Tel Aviv, for his part in the mass killing
of millions of Jews during World War Two.
30/5/1962, Wednesday
(+6,231) Coventry’s new Cathedral
was inaugurated. The original mediaeval building had been destroyed by German
bombers in November 1940.
25/5/1962. Friday (+6,226) Coventry’s new cathedral, designed by
Sir Basil Spence, was consecrated.
18/5/1962, Friday
(+6,219) In Canada, the Progressive Conservatives lost their majority in
the elections; however John Deifenbaker remained as Prime Minister. The
Progressive Conservatives won 116 seats, the Liberals won 100, others 49.
17/5/1962, Thursday
(+6,218) Hong Kong built a wall to
keep out Chinese migrants.
14/5/1962, Monday
(+6,215)
12/5/1962, Saturday
(+6,213) The South African General Law Amendment Bill imposed the death
penalty for sabotage.
11/5/1962. Friday (+6,212)
President Kennedy ordered US naval, air, and land forces into the Indo
China area, to prevent Laos from falling under Communist control. TV showed Emergency Ward Ten.
10/5/1962, Thursday
(+6,211)
9/5/1962, Wednesday (+6,210) The
Beatles signed a recording contract with EMI’s Parlophone label.
8/5/1962. Tuesday (+6,209) Trolley buses ran for the last time in London.
7/5/1962, Monday (+6,208)
Negotiations began in Laos between the three warring parties.
6/5/1962, Sunday (+6,207)
In Italy, Antonio Segni was elected President on the 9th ballot.
5/5/1962. Saturday (+6,206) Eleven
elderly East Berliners escaped to the West through a tunnel. They had dug the
tunnel six feet high so the women wouldn’t have to crawl.
30/4/1962, Monday
(+6,201) The Chester to Denbigh railway closed.
26/4/1962, Thursday (+6,197) Britain’s
first satellite, Ariel, was launched
from Cape Canaveral.
23/4/1962, Monday (+6,194) 150,000 people gathered in
Hyde Park, London, for the biggest-ever Ban the Bomb demonstration.
22/4/1962, Sunday (+6,193)
Easter Sunday.
17/4/1962, Tuesday
(+6,188)
11/4/1962, Wednesday
(+6,182) In Jamaica, Alexander Bustamante, labour, formed a government.,
10/4/1962, Tuesday
(+6,181) The Dodger Stadium, major league baseball’s modern showpiece,
opened in Los Angeles, USA.
9/4/1962. Monday (+6,180)
The Budget dominated much of the day’s TV. Measures included abolition of
tax on sugar, coffee, tea, and cocoa. But a 15% Purchase Tax was placed on ice
cream, sweets, and soft drinks. A Picasso fetched £80,000, the highest price
ever paid for the work of a living artist. Scotland Yard announced that
visitors from abroad who illegally parked in meter zones would be given a
polite cautionary leaflet instead of the £2 parking ticket.
8/4/1962. Sunday (+6,179) In
Cuba, over 1,000 Bay of Pigs invaders
were sentenced to 30 years in jail. See 17/4/1961.
2/4/1962, Monday (+6,173) (1)
The first push-button panda road crossings were installed.
(2) Prince Charles arrived as a new
pupil at Gordonstoun School, near Elgin, Scotland, the school his father Prince
Philip attended.
26/3/1962. Monday (+6,166) The
French Army launched an offensive to crush an armed uprising in Algeria. See
3/7/1962.
5/3/1962, Monday
(+6,145) The Bedford to Northampton via Olney railway closed to passengers.
2/3/1962. Friday (+6,142) The
UK applied to join the European Coal and Steel Community. On 5/3/1962 the UK
applied to join the European Atomic Energy Community.
1/3/1962, Thursday
(+6,141) Uganda achieved full self-government, with Benedicto Kiwanuka as
Prime Minister.
26/2/1962, Monday (+6,138) The IRA announced a ceasefire
after a 5-year campaign of violence.
20/2/1962. Tuesday
(+6,132) Astronaut John Glenn
made three orbits of the Earth in his spacecraft Mercury VI, the first American
in orbit. Bad weather on 26/1/1962 at Cape Canaveral had delayed his launch. On
27/1/1962 an unmanned US craft passed within 20,000 miles of the moon.
10/2/1962. Saturday (+6,122) The
USA exchanged a Soviet spy for the captured pilot Gary Powers. The exchange took place in the middle of a bridge
linking the American and Soviet sectors of Berlin.
5/2/1962, Monday
(+6,117) The Eyemouth (Berwick)
branch closed. The Galashiels to Rosewell via Peebles line closed.
4/2/1962. Sunday (+6,116) The
Sunday Times became the first paper to issue a colour supplement. The idea was
expected to fail.
1/2/1962, Thursday
(+6,113)
22/1/1962. Monday (+6,103)
(1)
The Barnard Castle to Penrith railway closed.
(2) The
‘A6 murder’ trial began. It was to be the longest murder trial in British legal
history, lasting until 17/2/1962, and ended with the hanging of James Hanratty. He had murdered
Michael Gregston in a lay-by on the A6.
21/1/1962 Sunday (+6,102) (week
commencing). The threat of a general strike loomed as trade unions made it
clear they intended to oppose the government’s wage restraint policy. Smallpox
was also a threat as an epidemic hit Britain and other countries insisted visitors
from the UK were vaccinated. It was announced that, 20 years after the birth of
the atomic Age, the world now possessed 280 atomic bombs, 40 of them in
Britain. The Met Office started using centigrade as well as Fahrenheit and ring
pull cans came into use. In Paris OAS terrorists opposed to President De
Gaulle’s plans for Algeria planted ten plastic explosives bombs. In Communist
China it was revealed that only ‘registered addicts ‘ were allowed to buy or
smoke cigarettes. The Beatles and Cliff Richard were making the charts. On
TV, new, were Steptoe and Son and Z Cars.
14/1/1962. Sunday (+6,095) The European Economic Community agreed on a
Common Agricultural Policy.
9/1/1962, Tuesday
(+6,090) A Cuban-Soviet trade treaty
was signed.
3/1/1962, Wednesday
(+6,084) Pope John XXIII
excommunicated Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
1/1/1962. Monday (+6,082) (1) In the
UK, the total number of full-time students in the universities and university
colleges stood at 93,524, up from 63,063 in 1947-8.
(2) Western Samoa became independent.
(3) The Wigston to Rugby railway closed.
Haverhill to Chappel and Wakes Colne closed. The Oxenhope branch closed.
30/12/1961, Saturday
(+6,080) The Bedford to Hitchin railway closed to passengers.
22/12/1961, Friday (+6,072) James Davis became the first
US casualty of the war in Vietnam.
19/12/1961. Tuesday (+6,069) India
annexed Goa from the Portuguese, after 400 years of Portuguese rule.
16/12/1961, Saturday
(+6,066) The USSR agreed to make a loan to Ghana for the construction of
the Volta River Project, for generating hydroelectric power.
15/12/1961, Friday (+6,065)
Adolf Eichmann, Nazi official
responsible for the execution of millions of Jews, was sentenced to death after
a four-month trial in Jerusalem.
13/12/1961, Wednesday
(+6,063) Grandma Moses, US painter, died aged 101.
9/12/1961, Saturday (+6,059)
Tangynika became independent. See 9/12/1962.
8/12/1961, Friday
(+6,058) Seamus Robinson, Irish republican leader, died aged 71.
7/12/1961, Thursday (+6,057) The
London County Council approved the building of 300-foot high blocks of flats at
Hammersmith, the tallest in Britain.
4/12/1961. Monday (+6,054)
(1)
The Allhallows on Sea (Kent) branch closed.
(2) The birth control pill became
available on the National Health Service.
13/11/1961, Monday
(+6,033) The Merthyr to Pontsticill railway closed.
10/11/1961. Friday (+6,030) The
USSR renamed Stalingrad as Volgograd.
9/11/1961, Thursday
(+6,029) Jill Dando, British journalist and BBC television presenter, was
born in Weston-super-Mare (murdered 1999).
8/11/1961. Wednesday (+6,028)
Negotiations with Britain began in Brussels to join the Common Market.
7/11/1961, Tuesday
(+6,027) Konrad Adenauer was elected
Chancellor of Germany for the fourth time.
6/11/1961. Monday (+6,026)
The Fenchurch Street (London) lines saw their first electric services (peak
hours only). A full electric service began on 18/6/1962.
5/11/1961, Sunday (+6,025)
3/11/1961, Friday
(+6,023) The Burmese diplomat U Thant was elected UN Secretary-General.
2/11/1961, Thursday
(+6,022) James Thurber, author, died in New York.
1/11/1961, Wednesday
(+6,021) (1)
The UK, concerned about rising immigration, planned a Commonwealth Immigration
Bill to limit their numbers. 21,000 Commonwealth citizens migrated to the UK in
1960 but 100,000 were expected for 1961. Number quotas and/or skills
requirements could be imposed. See 2/7/1962.
(2) In the Soviet Union, a
‘de-Stalinisation’ programme resulted in Stalin’s body being removed from the
Red Square mausoleum where it had lain next to Lenin since his death in 1953.
Even Stalingrad, with its great
significance regarding World War Two, was renamed Volgograd.
30/10/1961, Monday
(+6,019)
29/10/1961, Sunday (+6,018)
General elections in Greece were won by the National Radical Union. Constantine
Karamanlis became Prime Minister.
28/10/1861, Saturday
(+6,017) The branch railway from Dunton Green to Westerham closed to
passengers.
27/10/1961, Friday
(+6,016) Mauritania and Mongolia were admitted to the United Nations.
25/10/1961. Wednesday
(+6,014) The satirical magazine Private
Eye was published for the first time.
18/10/1961. Wednesday (+6,007) A work by Henri Matisse
attracted big crowds in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Only after
116,000 people had seen it over 46 days did someone notice it was hung
upside-down.
12/10/1961. Thursday (+6,001) New
Zealand voted to abolish the death penalty.
11/10/1961, Wednesday
(+6,000) Chico Marx, the piano-playing member of the Marx Brothers
comedy team, died.
10/10/1961, Tuesday
(+5,999) A volcanic eruption on the southern Atlantic island of Tristan
da Cunha forced the evacuation of the entire population to Britain.
9/10/1961. Monday (+5,998) Margaret Thatcher got her first
government job, as Parliamentary Secretary.
4/10/1961, Wednesday (+5,993)
The Labour Party Conference voted against having Polaris bases in Britain.
1/10/1961. Sunday (+5,990) The
British Trust territory of Southern Cameroons joined with French Cameroons to
form the Republic of Cameroon.
30/9/1961, Saturday
(+5,989) The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)
was founded in Paris.
29/9/1961, Friday (+5,988)
Syria seceded from the United Arab Republic after anti-Egyptian uprisings. See 1/2/1958, and 2/9/1971.
28/9/1961, Thursday
(+5,987) In Ghana, President Kwame Nkrumah imprisoned leading members of
the opposition, claiming a plot to assassinate him.
25/9/1961, Monday
(+5,984)
21/9/1961,Thursday (+5,980) In
Egypt, Nasser confiscated the assets of wealthier Egyptians.
20/9/1961. Wednesday (+5,979) (1) Rhodesian Prime Ministers
Ian Smith banned the Black opposition party.
(2) Argentinean
Antonio Albertondo completed the first non-stop swim across the English Channel
and back. He completed the feat on 21/9 after 43 hours 5 minutes in the water.
19/9/1961, Tuesday
(+5,978) Jamaica left the West
Indies Federation.
18/9/1961, Monday (+5,977)
Dag Hammarskjold, Swedish Secretary General of the United Nations and Nobel
Prize Winner, was killed a plane crash near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia. He had been flying from Leopoldville, Congo.
17/9/1961. Sunday (+5,976)
(1) A large ‘Ban the Bomb’ demonstration in
London was ended by the police with 830 arrested, including Vanessa Redgrave.
15,000 had attended the demonstration in Trafalgar Square.
(2) The ex-President of Turkey, Menderes,
(see 27/5/1960) was executed at the prison on Imrali island, having been
accused of breaking the Turkish Constitution.
16/9/1961, Saturday
(+5,975)
14/9/1961, Thursday
(+5,973) New Zealand introduced compulsory selective military service.
13/9/1961. Wednesday (+5,972)
U.N. forces defeated Katangan rebels. See 11/7/1960.
12/9/1961, Tuesday (+5,971) The
philosopher Bertrand Russell, aged 89, was arrested and imprisoned for
protesting against nuclear weapons.
11/9/1961, Monday
(+5,970)
10/9/1961, Sunday (+5,969) Passenger services ceased on
the Andover-Swindon-Cheltenham line.
9/9/1961, Saturday
(+5,968) London Metropolitan line services north of Amersham were
withdrawn. The entire line from Dunbridge (Southampton) through Andover,
Marlborough, Swindon and Cirencester to Andoversford closed to passengers.
5/9/1961, Tuesday (+5,964) The
USA announced it would resume underground nuclear tests.
31/8/1961, Thursday (+5,959) (1) After failure of the Geneva Conference, the
USSR announced it would resume nuclear weapons testing.
(2) Last Spanish troops withdrew from
Morocco.
21/8/1961, Monday (+5,949) Britain released Jomo
Kenyatta, who had been imprisoned for his part in the Mau-Mau rebellion, to
facilitate Kenyan political negotiations.
17/8/1961, Thursday
(+5,945) Construction of the Berlin Wall began, see 13/8/1961. The
Soviets had hidden building materials close to the site of the wall, so
construction was rapid. 2,000 people a
day had been leaving the east for West Germany.
14/8/1961, Monday
(+5,942) The Ashchurch to Upton on Severn railway closed.
13/8/1961. Sunday (+5,941) East German border guards stopped cars passing through the Brandenburg
Gate, Berlin. The border between East
and West Berlin was sealed, at first with barbed wire, later by the Berlin Wall, erected on 17/8/1961. On
22/8/1961 a 100 metre no-man’s-land was created either side of the Berlin Wall.
The Wall was 96 miles long and 3.6 metres high. It had 302 armed watchtowers
and 20 bunkers. 192 persons were killed
at the Wall, and another 200 wounded by shooting. The East German Government
called the barrier ‘an anti-fascist protection wall’. A second wall was added
in June 1962, and a third in 1965, reinforced by a fourth in 1975. The
Berlin Wall finally came down on 8/11/1989.
10/8/1961. Thursday
(+5,938) Britain first applied for membership of the EEC.
4/8/1961, Friday (+5,932)
Barak Hussein Obama, first
African-American President (44th) of the USA from 2009, was born.
31/7/1961, Monday (+5,928) The
Woofferton to Tenbury Wells railway closed.
25/7/1961, Tuesday (+5,922) The
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Selwyn Lloyd, introduced a pay freeze for UK
workers which was to last 9 months. He was concerned that over the previous 12
months, pay had risen 8% whereas national production had only risen 3%.
22/7/1961, Saturday (+5,919) The UN ordered a ceasefire in Tunisia, after
clashes between Tunisians and French.
21/7/1961, Friday (+5,918)
Runcorn Bridge, on the River Mersey, opened. It was then the longest steel arch bridge in
the UK.
20/7/1961, Thursday
(+5,917) In a move to thwart Iraqi
claims on Kuwait, the Arab League admitted Kuwait as a member.
18/7/1961. Tuesday (+5,915) The
six Common Market countries issued the Bonn Declaration aimed at political
union.
14/7/1961, Friday
(+5,911) Boy George was born.
3/7/1961, Monday
(+5,900) The Grimsby to Immingham Dock/Town railway closed.
2/7/1961, Sunday
(+5,899) The author Ernest Hemingway, born 21/7/1899 in Oak Park, Illinois,
committed suicide.
1/7/1961. Saturday (+5,898) (1) British
troops were stationed in Kuwait in case of an attack by Iraq. In June
1961 Kuwait gained independence from Britain and a week later Iraq called for
‘a return of Kuwait to the Iraqi homeland’. On 30/6/1961 Kuwait requested
assistance from the UK, and Royal Marines were sent out. The British troops
remained for two years.
(2) Lady Diana Spencer was born, in Park House, Sandringham.
27/6/1961, Tuesday
(+5,894) Dr Ramsey was enthroned as the 100th Archbishop of
Canterbury in Canterbury Cathedral.
25/6/1961, Sunday (+5,892) Iraq claimed newly-independent
Kuwait as Iraqi, on the grounds that both had been part of the Ottoman Empire
and arbitrarily divided by Britain.
19/6/1961, Monday (+5,886)
Kuwait became independent.
16/6/1961. Friday (+5,883)
Rudolf Nureyev defected from the Soviet Union whilst in Paris, travelling
with the Leningrad Kirov Ballet.
10/6/1961, Saturday (+5,877)
The Paddock Wood to Hawkhurst line closed to passengers.
9/6/1961, Friday
(+5,876) The UN called on Portugal to cease repressive measures in Angola.
7/6/1961, Wednesday
(+5,874)
6/6/1961.Tuesday (+5,873) Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss psychologist and
associate of Freud, died aged 85.
5/6/1961, Monday
(+5,872) The US Supreme Court ruled that the Communist Party must register
as a foreign-dominated organisation. On 17/6/1961 the US Communist Party
refused to comply with this ruling.
3/6/1961, Saturday
(+5,870)
1/6/1961, Thursday (+5,868) (1)
Dr Richard Beeching was
appointed by the Conservative Minister for Transport as Chairman Designate of
the British Railways Board.
(2) Northern Cameroons joined the
Federation of Nigeria.
31/5/1961. Wednesday (+5,867)
The Republic of South Africa was formed, and it left the Commonwealth.
30/5/1961, Tuesday
(+5,866) Rafael Trujillo, corrupt and dictatorial President of the
Dominican Republic, was assassinated. He had been ruler since he overthrew the
benevolent but inefficient rule of President Horacio Velasquez, who acceded in
July 1924. After the assassination a brief period of democratic rule under
President Juan Bosch from December 1962 to September 1963 was succeeded by a
military junta.
29/5/1961, Monday
(+5,865) The Western European Union agreed that West Germany would be
allowed to build destroyers equipped to fire nuclear weapons.
28/5/1961. Sunday (+5,864) Amnesty International was founded in London.
27/5/1961, Saturday (+5,863)
25/5/1961, Thursday
(+5,861) (1)
US President Kennedy announced the Apollo space programme.
(2) Klu Klux Klan marchers clashed with
civil rights ‘Freedom Riders’ in Montgomery, Alabama.
24/5/1961, Wednesday
(+5,860) Cyprus joined the Council
of Europe.
20/5/1961, Saturday (+5,856) The Orient Express left Paris
on its final journey to Istanbul. The service started in 1883, and was suspended
for World War Two. It used to be the peak of luxury travel but air travel had
now superseded it.
18/5/1961, Thursday (+5,854) Plans
were announced for new UK universities at Canterbury, Colchester, and Coventry.
17/5/1961. Wednesday
(+5,853) Guildford Cathedral consecrated.
16/5/1961, Tuesday
(+5,852) A 14-nation conference on Laos opened in Geneva. It soon ran into
deadlock.
11/5/1961, Thursday
(+5,487) US President Kennedy sent
400 Special Forces troops to conduct covert anti-Communist operations in North
Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
9/5/1961, Tuesday
(+5,845) Ali Amini, the new Prime Minister of Iran, dissolved Parliament
and banned political meetings.
8/5/1961. Monday (+5,844)
George Blake, 38, a former British diplomat, was jailed for 42 years for
spying for Russia.
5/5/1961. Friday (+5,841) The
Americans put Alan Shephard into space for 15 minutes, reaching an altitude of
116 miles before splashing down 303 miles from the launch site. He was the
second man and the first American to reach space. However the Russian space
flight on 12/4/1961 had lasted 108 minutes and circled the Earth.
2/5/1961, Tuesday
(+5,838) Warring factions in Laos agreed to a ceasefire.
1/5/1961. Monday (+5,837) Off-course betting shops became legal in
Britain. They were legalised under the Betting and Gaming Act, 1960. 10,000 of
them opened within the first 6 months thereafter.
29/4/1961, Saturday
(+5,835) The World Wildlife Fund was founded in Switzerland.
27/4/1961. Thursday
(+5,833) Sierra Leone became independent, and joined the Commonwealth.
17/4/1961. Monday (+5,823) 1,300 Anti-Castro Cuban exiles, led by Jose
Cardona, attempted to invade Cuba from the Bay of Pigs. However on 18 and
19/4/1961 the exiles were pinned down on the beach by Castro’s troops. The USA
under President Kennedy backed
down following Khrushchev’s
declaration that the USSR would defend Cuba against the USA and the 1,200
survivors were left to their fate. They surrendered to Cuban authorities on
20/4/1961.
13/4/1961, Thursday
(+5,819) The UN General Assembly condemned apartheid in South Africa.
12/4/1961. Wednesday
(+5,818) Yuri Gagarin (1934 – 1968) made the first orbit of the Earth,
at an altitude of 300km, in his spaceship Vostok 1. He took off from Tyuratom
in Kazakhstan, made a single Earth-orbit, and landed near Engels in the Saratov
region.
11/4/1961, Tuesday
(+5,817) The trial of the Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann, opened in
Jerusalem.
10/4/1961, Monday
(+5,816) The Bury St Edmunds to Long Melford railway closed.
2/4/1961, Sunday (+5,808)
Easter Sunday.
27/3/1961. Monday (+5,802) The
first women traffic wardens began ticketing, in Leicester.
26/3/1961, Sunday (+5,801)
In Belgian elections, the Christian Socialists lost their overall majority and
formed a coalition government with the Socialists. Theodore Lefevre (Christian
Socialist) succeeded Gaston Eyskens (also Christian Socialist) as Prime
Minister.
20/3/1961, Monday
(+5,795)
15/3/1961, Wednesday
(+5,790) South Africa stated it
would leave the Commonwealth.
14/3/1961, Tuesday
(+5,789) The New English Bible was
published.
13/3/1961, Monday (+5,788)
In the UK, the old black and white £5 notes ceased to be legal tender.
11/3/1961, Saturday
(+5,786)
9/3/1961, Thursday
(+5,784) the Dalai Lama appealed to the UN to restore the independence of
Tibet.
8/3/1961. Wednesday
(+5,783) The death of the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham. Born in 1876 in
St Helens, Lancashire, he was the grandson of the founder of the Beecham’s
pills business.
6/3/1961, Monday (+5,781)
Mini cabs began operating in Britain.
1/3/1961, Wednesday (+5,776)
US President Kennedy formed the Peace Corps, a group of volunteers to work in
less-developed countries.
28/2/1961, Tuesday
(+5,775) Barry McGuigan, world featherweight boxing champion, was born.
27/2/1961, Monday
(+5,774) Britain and Iceland settled their fishing dispute. British ships
would no longer fish within 12 miles of the Icelandic coast.
26/2/1961, Sunday (+5,773)
King Hassan II became ruler of Morocco on the death of his father, King
Mohammad V.
14/2/1961, Tuesday
(+5,761) The synthesis of element Lawrencium was confirmed at University of
Berkeley California.
8/2/1961, Wednesday
(+5,755) The BBC dropped its radio
programme Children’s Hour because TV had cut its audiences.
5/2/1961. Sunday (+5,752) The
Sunday Telegraph began publishing.
4/2/1961, Saturday (+5,751) The
MPLA began its fight against the Angolan Government at Luanda.
2/2/1961, Thursday (+5,749)
31/1/1961, Tuesday
(+5,747) The West Claire Railway,
immortalised in songs by Percy French, closed.
30/1/1961. Monday (+5,746) The
contraceptive pill went on sale in Britain. It was called Conovid, see
18/10/1960.
25/1/1961, Wednesday
(+7,541)
20/1/1961, Friday (+5,736) (1) Queen Elizabeth II met Archbishop Makarios in
Cyprus.
19/1/1961, Thursday
(+5,735) Michael Ramsey was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, following
the retirement of Archbishop Fisher.
17/1/1961, Tuesday
(+5,733) Ex-President Patrice Lumumba
of Zaire (deposed 14/9/1960) was executed by rebel Katangese troops.
7/1/1961, Saturday (+5,723)
The first episode of The Avengers was broadcast.
6/1/1961, Friday (+5,722)
Dag Hammarskjold, UN Secretary General, visited South Africa to discuss
apartheid.
5/1/1961, Thursday
(+5,721)
3/1/1961. Tuesday (+5,719) (1) The US severed all diplomatic relations with Cuba.
(2) The millionth Morris Minor car came
off the assembly lines in Britain.
2/1/1961, Monday (+5,718) The Watlington to Princes
Risborough railway closed to goods traffic. The Buckingham to Banbury railway
closed.
31/12/1960, Saturday (+5,716) (1) National Service ceased in the UK. The last
batch of 18-year olds were called up. Of the 2,049 who received their call-up
cards, 50 would join the RAF at Cardington, Bedfordshire, the rest went to
Aldershot for 2 weeks basic training and joined the Army.
(2) The farthing ceased to be legal
tender in Britain. At a quarter of an old penny there were 960 of them to the
pound sterling.
21/12/1960. Wednesday (+5,706)
King Saud took over the Saudi Arabian government.
9/12/1960. Friday (+5,694)
Coronation Street first
televised. The series was expected to last just 13 weeks.
5/12/1960, Monday
(+5,689) The Louth to Mablethorpe railway closed.
28/11/1960, Monday (+5,683) Mauretania became fully
independent from France.
26/11/1960, Saturday
(+5,681) General election in New Zealand was won by the National party,
with 46 seats. Labour won 34 seats. Keith Holyoake was appointed Prime
Minister.
21/11/1960, Monday
(+5,676) The Chingford branch, London, was electrified.
19/11/1960. Saturday (+5,674)
The first VTOL (vertical take off, landing) aircraft made by British Hawker
Siddeley, flew for the first time.
10/11/1960, Thursday (+5,665) The initial print run of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, 200,000 copies
at 3s 6d each, sold out on the first day.
9/11/1960. Wednesday (+5,664)
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1919-63), Democrat, became President of the USA,
with 34,227,096 votes against 34,108,546 votes for Nixon. Aged 43, Kennedy was
the first Roman Catholic president and the youngest so far.
8/11/1960, Tuesday
(+5,663) (1)
Ten Irish soldiers in the UN peacekeeping force in The Congo were killed in
an ambush at Niemba. Irish sadness at the event was also coloured by the
recognition that this marked Ireland’s emergence from the isolation it had been
in since its neutrality in World War Two.
(2) Former Massachusetts
Attorney-General Edward Brooke became the first Black Senator in the US. He was
born in Washington DC in 1919.
7/11/1960, Monday (+5,662) (1)
The North Rode to Leek (Staffordshire) railway closed.
(2) Missiles first appeared on the Red
Square military parade.
5/11/1960, Saturday (+5,660) Mack Sennett, Canadian-born US
actor and film director, died aged 80.
3/11/1960, Thursday (-5,658) Hugh
Gaitskell successfully fought off a challenge for Labour Party leadership by
Harold Wilson.
2/11/1960, Wednesday
(+5,657) The publisher of Lady
Chatterley’s :Lover was found not guilty on 2/11/1960. On 10/11/1960, the first
day of publication, 200,000 copies were sold in Britain.
1/11/1960, Tuesday (+5,656) It
was announced that US Polaris missile submarines were to be based in the Firth
of Clyde.
25/10/1960, Tuesday
(+5,649)
21/10/1960. Friday (+5,645) Britain’s first nuclear-powered submarine,
Dreadnought, was launched at Barrow in Furness.
20/10/1960. Thursday
(+5,644) D H Lawrence’s book Lady
Chatterley’s Lover put Penguin Books in the dock at the Old Bailey, under
the Obscene Publications Act.
19/10/1960. Wednesday (+5,643)
The USA imposed an embargo on
shipments to Cuba, banning all exports to Cuba except food and medicine.
Cuba had been buying arms from the USSR, and when the USA imposed economic
sanctions by refusing to buy Cuban sugar, Castro nationalised USA businesses.
Cuba also attempted to 'export Revolution', to the Dominican Republic, Panama,
and Nicaragua. However many young US citizens supported Castro.
18/10/1960, Tuesday
(+5,642) The first approved
contraceptive pill, called Enovid 10, went on sale in the USA. Catholics
objected. See 30/1/1961.
17/10/1960, Monday (+5,641) The British daily newspaper News Chronicle ceased publication and
was incorporated into the Daily Mail.
9/10/1960. Sunday (+5,633) The worst storms since 1953
caused severe flooding in southern England.
1/10/1960. Saturday (+5,625) Nigeria
became independent.
28/9/1960, Wednesday
(+5,622) NATO introduced a unified system of air command.
27/9/1960. Tuesday (+5,621) (1) Death of Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst, suffragette.
(2) Bank Underground Station, London,
opened the first travellator, or moving pavement, in Europe.
24/9/1960. Saturday (+5,618)
The first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, was
launched at Newport, Virginia. She cost US$ 445 million, carried n100 aircraft,
had a complement of 440 officers and 4,160 enlisted men, and a flight deck the
size of four football pitches.
22/9/1960, Thursday
(+5,616) Mali became independent.
15/9/1960, Thursday (+5,609) Traffic
wardens began operating in London. 40 began operations in the Westminster area
of London; their first ticket was issued to a doctor who had parked outside a
hotel as he treated a heart attack victim inside. Plus ca change.
14/9/1960, Wednesday
(+5,608) (1)
OPEC was set up by Iran, Iraq,
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
(2) Successful military coup in Zaire by
Colonel Mobutu, against President Lumumba.
13/9/1960, Tuesday
(+5,607) In Washington, D.C., charges were filed against a Tennessee bank
and 27 individuals said to have used economic pressure to prevent black people
from voting.
12/91960. Monday (+5,606) MOTs
on motor vehicles introduced in Britain.
11/9/1960, Sunday (+5,605)
The first episode of Danger Man, starring Patrick McGoohan, was broadcast on UK
TV.
10/9/1960, Saturday (+5,604)
(1)
Medge Hall station, near Crowle, Lincolnshire, closed. It had opened in
November 1859. Nearby Mauds Bridge halt had closed back in 1866. Other nearby
station closures included Keadby in October 1974, Appleby in June 1967, and
Elsham in October 1993.
9/9/1960, Friday (+5,603) Jussi Bjorling, Swedish tenor, died aged 49.
6/9/1960, Tuesday (+5,600)
(2) The first English Football league match to be televised was
broadcast today. Blackpool played Bolton
Wanderers.
1/9/1960. Thursday (+5,595) Nyerere became Tangynika's first
Prime Minister.
31/8/1960. Wednesday (+5,594) East Germany closed the border
with West Berlin.
25/8/1960. Thursday (+5,588) The 17th Olympic Games
opened in Rome.
23/8/1960, Tuesday (+5,586) Oscar Hammerstein, US theatrical producer,
died aged 65.
22/8/1960. Monday (+5,585)
(1) Two dogs returned to Earth in a Soviet space craft. The
Russian dogs, named Byelka (Squirrel) and Strelka (Arrow) returned on board
Sputnik Five, along with 40 mice,
two rats, and some plants, as they prepared for a human launch. President John F Kennedy angrily asked US
scientists why the first pair of space dogs were called Strelka and Byelka and
not Rover and Fido.
(2) Senegal seceded
from Mali.
21/8/1960, Sunday (+5,584) David B Steinman, US bridge engineer, died
aged 74.
20/8/1960, Saturday (+5,583) (1) Senegal became independent.
(2) Plastic carrier
bags were used for the first time, by a Swedish shoe retailer.
19/8/1960, Friday (+5,582)
In London, Penguin Books was prosecuted for obscenity over its plans to publish
Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
18/8/1960. Thursday (+5,581) The birth control pill, the world’s first oral contraceptive, was
launched in America.
17/8/1960, Wednesday (+5,580) Gabon
became an independent nation, from France.
16/8/1960. Tuesday
(+5,579) Cyprus became independent, with Archbishop Makarios as
President. Fazil Kuchuk, leader of the
Turkish Cypriots, was Vice-President, but relations between the two communities
were strained. The island’s Greek population, some 80% of the total, wanted
union, or enosis, with Greece. See 15/7/1974 and 3/4/1955. Britain retained military
bases on the island.
15/8/1960. Monday (+5,578) (1) The
Congo (Brazzaville) became independent from France.
(2) Britain’s
first motorway service station opened to the public, on the M.1 at Newport
Pagnell. Motorist Graham Miller was the first to buy food there. The services
had opened in 1959 but only for lorry drivers.
14/8/1960, Sunday (+5,577)
Sarah Brightman, English singer, was born in Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire.
13/8/1960, Saturday (+5,576) The Central African Republic
became independent.
12/8/1960. Friday (+5,575) The
first US communications satellite, Echo 1,
was launched.
11/8/1960, Thursday
(+5,574) Chad formerly a French colony, became an independent Republic.
9/8/1960, Tuesday
(+5,572)
8/8/1960, Monday
(+5,571) Coup in Laos; General Souvanna Phoumi became leader/
7/8/1960. Sunday (+5,570) Ivory
Coast became independent from France.
6/8/1960, Saturday
(+5,569) Castro nationalised all US-owned property in Cuba, in retaliation
for US economic sanctions.
5/8/1960, Friday (+5,568) Upper Volta became
independent.
4/8/1960, Thursday
(+5,567) NASA test pilot Joseph A. Walker became the fastest man in history
as he flew an X-15 at a speed of 2,196 miles per hour, breaking a record set in
1956 by Milburn Apt, who had been killed while flying an X-2.
3/8/1960, Wednesday
(+5,566) Niger became independent
from France.
2/8/1960, Tuesday
(+5,565) The Continental League, proposed as a third major league for
baseball, came to an end after CL President Branch Rickey and co-founder
William Shea concluded a meeting in Chicago with representatives of the
National League and American League.
1/8/1960, Monday (+5,564) Benin (Dahomey) became
independent from France.
30/7/1960, Saturday
(+5,562)
28/7/1960, Thursday
(+5,560) UN Secretary General Dag
Hammarskjold arrived in the Congo in a bid to end the civil war there.
27/7/1960, Wednesday
(+5,559) In Britain, Derick Heathcoat Amory retired as Chancellor of the
Exchequer. He was replaced by Selwyn Lloyd, former Foreign Secretary. The Earl
of Home became the new Foreign Secretary.
24/7/1960, Sunday (+5,556)
21/7/1960. Thursday (+5,553) (1) Sirimavo Bandarainake became the world’s first
woman Prime Minister, of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). This followed the assassination of
her husband, Solomon, the former Prime Minister.
(2) Francis Chichester, 58, arrived in
New York on his yacht, Gypsy Moth,
having set a record of 40 days for a solo Atlantic crossing.
20/7/1960, Wednesday
(+5,552) General election in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) was won by the Sri Lanka
Freedom Party. Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike, widow of the late Prime Minister
assassinated September 1959, became Prime Minister, She was the first woman
Prime Minister of a Commonwealth country.
16/7/1960, Saturday (+5,548)
Albert Kesselring, German Air Commander on all fronts during World War Two,
condemned as a war criminal, died.
12/7/1960, Tuesday
(+5,544) (USA,
Russia) President
Khrushchev of the USSR asserted that the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 was no longer
valid; this would legitimate Soviet interference in the Caribbean. On 14/7/1960
the US confirmed that the Monroe Doctrine was still in operation.
11/7/1960. Monday (+5,543) (1) The
communications satellite TELSTAR became operational. Britain could now receive
US television shows,
(2) Katanga rebels declared independence from
the Congo under Tshombe. See
13/9/1961. Belgium sent troops to the
Congo. See 14/1/1963.
9/7/1960, Saturday
(+5,541)
7/7/1960, Thursday
(+5,539) Belgium sent troops to the
Congo.
6/7/1960. Wednesday (+5,538)
Aneurin Bevan, founder of the National Health Service in 1948, Minister of
Health 1945-51, died. He was born on
15/11/1897.
5/7/1960, Tuesday
(+5,537)
1/7/1960. Friday (+5,533) (1) A pint of milk cost 3.3p
1 kg old potatoes cost 2.57p. A GP earned
£2,425 per annum, and a coal miner was paid £9 17s 6d a week. The average
annual UK salary was £700. A Belling 48T electric cooker cost £51 and a Lavalux
washing machine cost £87 3s. A hoover steam-dry iron cost £4 12s 1d. A loaf of
bread cost 1 shilling (5p). The average house price in the UK was £2,500. A second
class return rail fare London to Glasgow cost £8.40
(2) Ghana became
independent (formerly Gold Coast and British Togoland). Kwame Nkrumah was its first President.
30/6/1960. Thursday (+5,532) The Belgian Congo became independent, under
President Lumumba. Civil war erupted within a week, the mineral-rich
region of Katanga seceded, and UN peacekeeping troops arrived as the Belgians
left. In August the mineral-rich province of Kasai also seceded. Without these
two provinces, Congo would have been one of the poorest countries in Africa.
Paramilitary troops from Rhodesia, Europe, and South Africa were ready to defend
breakaway Katanga and their mining interests. The UN said it would restore law
and order but was not concerned with the secession of Katanga. Lumumba now made
the mistake of turning to the USSR for help. Russia sent aid and Kasai was
retaken for a while. However other government members decided to rid themselves
of the radical Lumumba, and the Chief of Staff, Mobutu, set up a new
government; Lumumba was assassinated in January 1961. Tschombe, leader of
Katanga, was supported by the Belgian’s decision to pay mining royalties to
him, not the Congo government. However the UN leader, Dag Hammarskjold, was
determined to crown his first major international peacekeeping exercise with
success, and there was now a pro-Western government in the Congo.
Hammarskjold’s plane crashed in uncertain circumstances on 17 September 1961
whilst negotiating with Tschombe. There was fighting between Katangan and UN
forces in Elisabethville, capital of Katanga, and the UN attitude hardened. The
UN ordered the forcible occupation of Katanga, and in January 1963 UN forces
fully occupied the breakaway province.
26/6/1960, Sunday (+5,528)
Madagascar became an
independent republic. It had been a
French colony since 1896.
23/6/1960, Thursday
(+5,525) Castro threatened to seize US-owned property in Cuba, in
retaliation for US economic sanctions.
22/6/1960. Wednesday
(+5,524) Nan Winton became the first woman to read the national news on
BBC television.
21/6/1960, Tuesday
(+5,523)
20/6/1960, Monday (+5,522) Mali became independent from
France as the federation of Mali, including Senegal. See 22/8/1960.
19/6/1960, Sunday (+5,521) Jaguar took over the Daimler
motor company.
18/6/1960, Saturday (+5,520) Jehovah’s Witnesses released
the New World Translation of the
Bible.
13/6/1960, Monday
(+5,515) The Uppingham (Rutland) branch closed. Newport (S Wales) to Risca
closed. Local services Inverness to Wick were withdrawn. The Dornoch branch
closed.
7/6/1960, Tuesday
(+5,509) (1)
The first NHS hearing aids were issued.
31/5/1960, Tuesday
(+5,502) Walter Funk, Nazi government official, died aged 69.
30/5/1960, Monday (+5,501)
Boris Pasternak, Russian author of Dr Zhivago, Nobel Prize winner in 1958
(which he declined), died near Moscow.
27/5/1960, Friday (+5,498) President Adnan Menderes
(1889-1961) of Turkey was ousted in an army coup. He founded the Democratic Party in 1945 and
became Prime Minister in 1950. Pro-Western, he took Turkey into NATO in 1952.
However severe inflation from 1954 has eroded his support in the towns;
Menderes relied on rural peasant support.
Menderes was forced to assume dictatorial powers in April 1960, just
before his overthrow. See 17/9/1961. In September 1990 Menderes was
posthumously ‘rehabilitated’ and given a State Funeral, attended by the Turkish
President.
23/5/1960. Monday (+5,494)
The Israelis announced the capture
of the war criminal Adolf Eichmann. Israeli Mossad agents snatched Eichmann on
11/5/1960 as he returned home after work, and he was taken to a secret
hiding place outside Buenos Aires. He was living under the name Ricardo
Klement. On 21/5/1960 he was disguised in the uniform of an El Al flight
attendant and bundled on board a flight to Tel Aviv. Eichmann was found guilty
of war crimes by a court in Jerusalem, on 15/12/1961, and hanged on 31/5/1962
at Ramleh Prison, Jerusalem. He remains the only person ever executed by due
legal process in Israel, after a trial involving 210 witnesses over 14 weeks.
His last words were ‘long live Germany, long live Argentina, long live Austria,
I shall not forget them’.
21/5/1960, Saturday (+5,492)
Conception, Chile, was hit by an earthquake that killed 1,000 people and
damaged 145,000 buildings,
18/5/1960. Wednesday
(+5,489) The Queen Mother opened the Kariba dam on the Zambesi River.
15/5/1960, Sunday (+5,486) Sputnik IV was launched.
3/5/1960, Tuesday
(+5,474) The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) was founded in Geneva.
It had seven members; Norway,
Sweden, Denmark, the UK, Switzerland, Austria, and Portugal.
2/5/1960, Monday
(+5,473) The Guisborough to Loftus railway closed.
1/5/1960. Sunday (+5,472)
A US spy plane, the U-2, piloted by Gary Powers, was hit by an SA2 missile and shot down over the USSR
near Sverdlovsk. On 8/7/1960 Gary
Powers was indicted as a spy; he was sentenced to 10 years in prison,
but was released after 18 months in exchange for Soviet agent Rudolf Abel.
30/4/1960, Saturday (+5,471) Britain abandoned the Blue
Streak ,missile programme.
27/4/1960. Wednesday (+5,468)
(1) Synghman Rhee resigned as President of South
Korea.
(2) Togo became independent
25/4/1960, Monday (+5,466) Race riots in Mississippi, ten
Blacks were shot dead. Extremist Whites in the State disliked the 1954 US
Supreme Court ruling that racially segregated schools were unconstitutional.
21/4/1960. Thursday (+5,462) Brasilia
was inaugurated as the new capital of Brazil. The city was planned by Lucio
Costa.
19/4/1960, Tuesday (+5,460) A
crowd of between 60,000 and 100,000 protested in Trafalgar Square, London,
against the atom bomb.
17/4/1960, Sunday (+5,458)
Easter Sunday.
12/4/1960, Tuesday
(+5,453) The musician Ray Charles
won Best Male Vocalist Grammy award
11/4/1960, Monday (+5,452) The178 acre railway
marshalling yard at Margam, south Wales, opened.
10/4/1960. Sunday (+5,451) The
US Senate passed the Civil Rights Bill.
9/4/1960, Saturday (+5,450) David Pratt, a 52-year-old
White man, fired two shots at South African President Dr Hendrik Verwoerd,
wounding him.
4/4/1960, Monday (+5,445)
(1)
The railway from Basford to Netherfield closed.
(2) Senegal became independent.
1/4/1960. Friday (+5,442) The
US launched the world’s first meteorological satellite, Tiros I. Launched from
Cape Canaveral, it only orbited earth for 78 days, but proved that satellites
could be useful for surveying global weather conditions. The satellite was 42
inches in diameter, 19 inches high, weighed 270 pounds, and had 9,200 solar
cells to power it. It had two television cameras and could store pictures taken
whilst out of range of the ground radar station. In total, Tiros I took 22,500
pictures of weather conditions.
30/3/1960, Wednesday
(+5,440) State of Emergency in South
Africa after the Sharpeville riots.
29/3/1960, Tuesday
(+5,439) UK PM Harold MacMillan
reached agreement with US leaders on a nuclear test ban treaty to be put to the
USSR.
25/3/1960, Friday (+5,435) Following Sharpeville, all
non-White political organisations, including the ANC, were banned in South
Africa.
21/3/1960. Monday (+5,431) South African police killed
67 Black Africans at Sharpeville, and wounded 186. The demonstrations were against the hated 'Pass Laws'. All over
South Africa, Black people deliberately left their passes at home and awaited
arrest. Versions of what provoked the shooting at Sharpeville, a township 5
miles north of Vereeniging, varied. According to police, a crowd of 20,000
Blacks were about to storm the police station. Black witnesses said only 5,000
Blacks were present and had gone peacefully to the police station to discuss
the Pass Laws. A medical expert testified that 70% of the victims were shot
from behind. On 30/3/1960 South Africa declared a State of Emergency following
the Sharpeville riots.
15/3/1960, Tuesday
(+5,425) Presidential elections in South Korea were won fraudulently by
Synghman Rhee, 85; demonstrations across the country forced his resignation on
27/4/1960.
14/3/1960, Monday (+5,424) (1) Plans were announced for a
Thames Flood Barrier at London.
(2) Jodrell Bank radio telescope set a
record for the furthest communication with a man made object. Radio
communications were established with the US satellite Pioneer 5, over 407,000
miles away.
7/3/1960, Monday
(+5,417) The railway from Newbury to Winchester closed.
29/2/1960, Monday (+5,410) Hugh Hefner opened the first
Playboy Club in Chicago. Brought up in a strict Methodist home, Hefner started
the Playboy Magazine with US$ 10,000 in 1953.
28/2/1960. Sunday (+5,409) Agadir,
Morocco, was devastated by an earthquake, killing 12,000.
27/2/1960. Saturday (+5,408) The
magazine ‘Playboy’ was banned in Connecticut.
23/2/1960, Tuesday
(+5,404)
22/2/1960, Monday (+5,403) Britain and France announced
plans to build a supersonic airliner.
21/2/1960. Sunday (+5,402) Castro nationalised all private businesses in
Cuba.
20/2/1960, Saturday
(+5,401)
19/2/1960, Friday (+5,400)
Prince Andrew (Andrew Albert Christian Edward), third child and second son
of Queen Elizabeth II, was born in
Buckingham Palace.
18/2/1960, Thursday (+5,399)
Seven South American countries established the Latin American Free Trade
Association.
17/2/1960, Wednesday (+5,398)
(1) The UK Government said it would allow the US to
build a missile early warning system to be built at Fylingdales, Yorkshire.
(2) Martin Luther King was arrested in
the USA.
16/2/1960, Tuesday
(+5,397) USS Triton nuclear submarine
began her round the world voyage, the first such vessel to undertake this
journey.
15/2/1960, Monday
(+5,396)
14/2/1960, Sunday (+5,395)
Muhammad Ayub Khan was elected President of Pakistan.
13/2/1960. Saturday (+5,394) France
exploded its first atom bomb, in the Sahara.
7/2/1960, Sunday (+5,388) Israeli archaeologists
announced the discovery of scrolls from the Dead Sea area.
3/2/1960, Wednesday
(+5,384) UK Prime Minister Harold
Macmillan upset his hosts in South Africa when he called for racial equality;
Macmillan was concerned that the newly independent ex-colonies of Africa and
Asia would align themselves with the USSR, not the former European colonisers.
2/2/1960. Tuesday (+5,383) Black protestors began a
lunch-counter sit-in campaign in the USA.
29/1/1960. Friday (+5,379) Race riots in Johannesburg.
24/1/1960. Sunday (+5,374) Revolt against French rule broke out in
Algeria, after General de Gaulle dismissed the pieds noir hero General Massau.
French settlers felt they lacked protection against FLN terrorists and those
who had supported De Gaulle 2 years earlier now demonstrated against him. E
Gaulle ordered in paratroops who debated whether to open fire on fellow
Frenchmen. The order was never given and by February 1960 the revolt had
collapsed and many insurgents arrested.
23/1/1960, Saturday (+5,373) The US Navy submarine Trieste,
manned by Dr Piccard and Lieutenant Walsh, reached a record depth of 35,820
feet in the Challenger Deep section of the Marianas Trench, Pacific Ocean.
9/1/1960. Saturday (+5,359) Work began on the Aswan High Dam, Egypt.
5/1/1960, Tuesday (+5,355)
The Swansea and Mumbles railway, opened in 1806, the first to carry fare-paying
passengers, closed.
4/1/1960, Monday (+5,354) The railways from Wigan to Adlington Junction (Chorley) and Chorley to Blackburn (Cherry Tree Junction) closed. The Sandbach to Northwich railway closed. The Northampton to Market Harborough railway closed. Northampton to Blisworth closed. Bala to Blaenau Festiniog closed. Newbury to Lambourn closed.
1/1/1960. Friday (+5,351) The independent Republic of the
Cameroons was proclaimed.
30/12/1959, Wednesday (+5,349) Tracey Ullman, actress, was born.
29/12/1959, Tuesday (+5,348)
Durgapur steel works, West Bengal, officially opened.
28/12/1959, Monday (+5,347)
26/12/1959. Saturday (+5,345) (1) The first charity walk was organised,
in aid of the World Refugee Fund, by Kenneth Johnson of Letchworth,
Hertfordshire. The intended route covered 50 miles from Letchworth to Yatesbury
in Wiltshire. 20 men and one woman paid 1 shilling to enter; ten gave up after
13 miles, 3 after 22 miles, 1 after 25 miles, 4 at Princes Risborough, and 3,
including Johnson, carried on for 50 miles, giving up at Ewelme, Oxfordshire.
About £20 was raised.
(2) Bulgarian National
Television was founded. Colour broadcasting began in 1970.
25/12/1959, Friday (+5,346) (Syria, Turkey) The USSR agreed to supply financial and
technical aid to Syria.
23/12/1959, Wednesday (+5,342) The Earl of Halifax, politician
and Viceroy of India, 1926-31, died.
20/12/1959, Sunday (+5,339) The
first atomic ice-breaker, The Lenin,
started operating.
14/12/1959. Monday (+5,333) Makarios
was elected President of Cyprus. he assumed office on 16/8/1960. His Turkish rival Fazil
Kucuk became Vice-President.
13/12/1959. Sunday (+5,332) The UN decided not to intervene in
Algeria.
10/12/1959. Thursday (+5,329) (1) In Britain, the
Crowther report recommended raising the school leaving age to 16.
(2) US troops began to
leave Iceland.
1/12/1959. Tuesday (+5,320) Twelve countries (Argentina,
Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa,
UK, USA, USSR) signed an agreement to preserve Antarctica for peaceful
scientific research.
28/11/1959, Saturday (+5,317) The dockyard at Hong Kong closed,
after 80 years of operation.
25/11/1959, Wednesday (+5,314)
Charles Kennedy, British politician, was born.
19/11/1959, Thursday (+5,308) The Archbishop of Canterbury said
adultery should be a criminal offence.
17/11/1959. Tuesday (+5,306) Two Scottish airports, Prestwick and
Renfrew, became the first to offer duty-free goods in Britain.
16/11/1959. Monday (+5,305) The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music opened on Broadway,
New York.
15/11/1959, Sunday (+5,304)
14/11/1959, Saturday (+5,303) The
Dounreay fast breeder reactor in Scotland began operating.
13/11/1959, Friday
(+5,302) In South Africa, the South African Progressive party was founded
at a conference in Johannesburg.
12/11/1959, Thursday
(+5,301)
11/11/1959, Wednesday
(+5,300) The film Ben Hur
premiered in London.
10/11/1959. Tuesday (+5,299) The
UN condemned apartheid and racism.
5/11/1959, Thursday
(+5,294)
2/11/1959. Monday (+5,291)
(1) London
to Birmingham motorway opened. The first stretch of the M1 opened on
1/11/1959. Sightseers flocked to look at it.
(2) Rioting in the Belgian Congo left 70
dead.
(3) The Bristol to Frome via Midsomer
Norton railway closed. Leverton to Torksey (Lincoln-Retford) line closed. The
Holmfirth branch (Yorkshire) closed.
1/11/1959, Sunday (+5,290) Jet air services began between
London, UK, and Sydney, Australia, run by BOAC.
31/10/1959, Saturday (+5,289)
The first television broadcasts in Africa began, from Ibadan, Nigeria.
30/10.1959, Friday
(+5,288)
28/10.1959, Wednesday
(+5,286) South Africa rejected the introduction of television.
27/10/1959, Tuesday
(+5,285) The Queen’s Speech promised
independence for Cyprus and Nigeria.
16/10/1959, Friday (+5,274) George Marshall, US soldier
and politician who formulated the Marshall Plan to aid post-War Europe, died in
Washington DC.
9/10/1959, Friday
(+5,267) Henry Tizard, English inventor, died aged 74.
8/10/1959. Thursday
(+5,266) UK general election. The Conservatives under Harold MacMillan
and his slogan ‘You’ve never had it so good’ won, and Mrs Thatcher was elected an MP. The Conservatives won 365 seats,
labour won 258, and the Liberals got 6. Macmillan remained Prime Minister.
7/10/1959, Wednesday (+5,265)
The first photographs of the far side of the
Moon were transmitted by the Russian spacecraft Lunik III.
3/10/1959, Saturday (+5,261)
The postcode system for sorting mail was first used in Britain, in Norwich.
25/9/1959, (+5,253) Solomon
Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 1956, was shot by a Buddhist
monk in Colombo; he died the following day.
22/9/1959. Tuesday (+5,250) The
United Nations refused to admit Communist China.
20/9/1959, Sunday (+5,248)
The last fly-past of Hurricane aircraft over London to commemorate the Battle
of Britain.
16/9/1959, Wednesday
(+5,244) Charles de Gaulle, French
President, offered Algeria a referendum on independence.
14/9/1959, Monday (+5,242)
The first man-made object landed on the Moon; the Russian space probe Lunik
II, near the Mare Serenitatis.
4/9/1959, Friday (+5,232)
The Melmerby to Thirsk railway closed.
24/8/1959, Monday (+5,221) House of Fraser beat Debenhams
in a takeover battle for Harrods.
21/8/1959. Friday (+5,218)
(1) Death of the sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein.
(2) Hawaii became the 50th State
of the USA.
18/8/1959, Tuesday
(+5,215) The British Motor
Corporation’s Mini car was launched. At £500 including Purchase Tax, it was
short on luxuries, but affordable with a nippy engine and its small size made
it was convenient for town driving.
13/8/1959, Thursday
(+5,210) Work began on the Verrazano
Narrows cable suspension bridge in New York City.
12/8/1959, Wednesday
(+5,209) Parents and children rioted
in Arkansas over racial segregation in schools.
4/8/1959. Tuesday (+5,201) Barclays
Bank became the first to use computers for its branch accounts.
28/7/1959. Tuesday
(+5,194) Postcodes were introduced to Britain by the Postmaster General,
along with new postal sorting machines. They were used first in the Norwich
area on 3/10/1959.
26/7/1959. Sunday (+5,192) President
Nasser of Egypt announced in a speech in Alexandria “I announce from here, on
behalf of the United Arab Republic people, that this time we will exterminate
Israel”.
25/7/1959. Saturday (+5,191)
The hovercraft, SRN 1, made its first crossing of the English Channel from
Dover to Calais in a little over 2 hours.
23/7/1959. Thursday
(+5,189) Donald Campbell broke the world water speed record on Ullswater
when he reached 202.32mph in Bluebird.
21/7/1959. Tuesday (+5,187) The
first nuclear merchant ship, USS Savannah, was launched at Camden, New
Jersey, in the USA. She was launched by
Mrs Mamie Eisenhower.
13/7/1959, Monday
(+5,179) The Gloucester to Ledbury railway closed.
5/7/1959. Sunday (+5,171) Ghana
began a boycott of all South African products.
1/7/1959. Wednesday (+5,167)
A teacher got £900 a year, a nurse was paid £540. At Oxendales in
Manchester, a Mastra V.35 camera cost £13 14s 11d (£13.75) and a one-bar
electric fire cost £2 6s 3d (£2.31). The average UK house price was £2,500.
29/6/1959, Monday
(+5,164) The Barnsley to Penistone railway closed.
26/6/1959, Friday (+5,162) Queen Elizabeth II and US
President Eisenhower opened the St Lawrence Seaway, linking the Great Lakes to
the Atlantic.
25/6/1959, Thursday
(+5,161) Eamon de Valera took up office as President of Ireland.
21/6/1959, Sunday (+5,157)
18/6/1959. Thursday (+5,154) There
was serious rioting in Durban when police moved in on Black settlements. The
police were destroying illicit stills discovered during an operation to
resettle some 100,000 Black people. Rioting continued throughout June, and 4 Black
people died. Property damage was estimated at £250,000. More deaths occurred in
September 1959 when police opened fire on rioters.
17/6/1959. Wednesday (+5,153)
De Valera became Prime Minister of Eire.
16/6/1959, Tuesday
(+5,152)
15/6/1959, Monday
(+5,151) The railway from Kettering via Thrapston to Huntingdon closed.
Rolleston Junction to Southwell closed. Rugby to Leamington Spa closed.
Wellingborough to Higham Ferrers branch closed. The Wallingford branch (Didcot)
closed. The Essendine to Stamford railway closed. The railway from St Ives to
Cambridge closed. Local services between Peterborough and Grantham were
withdrawn.
14/6/1959, Sunday (+5,150)
The US agreed to provide Greece with nuclear information and supply ballistic
missiles.
11/6/1959, Thursday
(+5,147) The first experimental
hovercraft capable of carrying a man was launched at Cowes, Isle of Wight.
9/6/1959. Tuesday (+5,145) The
USA launches its first ballistic missile submarine, the George Washington.
4/6/1959. Thursday (+5,140) Cuba
nationalised USA sugar mils in its territory.
3/6/1959. Wednesday (+5,139)
Singapore achieved self-government. Lee Kuan Yew was Prime Minister.
2/6/1959, Tuesday
(+5,138)
30/5/1959. Saturday (+5,135) (1) Auckland’s Harbour Bridge on New Zealand’s
North Island officially opened.
(2) The first hovercraft flight took
place at Cowes, Isle of Wight. The Suffolk boat builder, Christopher Cockerell,
had announced its invention in 1958.
29/5/1959, Friday (+5,134) Charles de Gaulle formed a
‘Government of National Safety’ in France.
28/5/1959, Thursday
(+5,133) The Mermaid Theatre opened in
the City of London.
27/5/1959, Wednesday
(+5,132) Sales of filter tipped
cigarettes helped tobacco manufacturers maintain sales after recent reports
linking smoking to cancer.
26/5/1959, Tuesday
(+5,131)
25/5/1959, Monday (+5,130) The US Supreme Court ruled
that Alabama’s ban on boxing matches between Black and White contestants was
unconstitutional.
24/5/1959, Sunday (+5,129)
(1)
John Foster Dulles (born 1888), US Secretary of State until his resignation due
to ill-health in April 1959, died from cancer. He was chief spokesperson for US
President Woodrow Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. He believed in a
robust ‘brinkmanship’ approach to Soviet threats, reinforcing NATO and creating
SEATO. He did not get on with UK prime Minister Anthony Eden, disagreeing in
particular with the UK’s policy over Suez. He opposed the Anglo-French invasion
of Egypt in late 1956, and sometimes failed to anticipate Arab nationalist reactions
to external intervention.
(2) Empire
day was renamed Commonwealth Day.
17/5/1959, Sunday (+5,122)
7/5/1959, Thursday
(+5,112) An agreement was reached
enabling Britain to buy components of atomic weapons, as opposed to actual
nuclear warheads, from the USA.
6/5/1959. Wednesday (+5,111)
The UK protested to Iceland about violence in the Cod War. Icelandic
gunboats had fired live ammunition at British trawlers. Iceland said they were
just warning shots, but one only missed a trawler by three metres.
2/5/1959, Saturday (+5,107) The
first nuclear power station in Scotland, at Chapelcross, began operations.
23/4/1959, Thursday
(+5,098) Britain’s first heliport opened, on the River Thames in London.
19/4/1959, Sunday (+5,094) The Dalai Lama arrived in
India.
31/3/1959, Tuesday
(+5,075) The Dalai Lama escaped to
India. Tibet lost its independence to China in 1951.
29/3/1959, Sunday (+5,073) Easter Sunday. Barthelemy
Boganda, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic, was born.
28/3/1959, Saturday (+5,072)
(1) China
dissolved the government of Tibet.
(2) Two monkeys returned alive to earth
after being sent into space by the USA.
27/3/1959, Friday
(+5,071) Soviet fighter aircraft buzzed US aircraft in the air corridor
connecting West Berlin to West Germany.
26/3/1959, Thursday
(+5,070) Jersey Zoological Park
opened.
17/3/1959, Tuesday (+5,061) The
UK Government announced plans for a major expansion of the road network.
16/3/1959. Monday (+5,060) The
USSR lent money to Iraq.
9/3/1959, Monday
(+5,053) A doll named Barbara Millicent Roberts, or Barbie for short, was
exhibited at the New York Toy Fair, wearing a black and white swimming costume.
3/3/1959, Tuesday
(+5,047) In Nyasaland (Malawi) Hastings Banda and other leaders of the
Nyasaland African Congress were arrested.
2/3/1959, Monday (+5,046)
The railway from Saxby (Melton Mowbray) through Spalding, Kings Lynn, Fakenham
and South Walsham to Great Yarmouth closed. The railway from Melton Constable
to Norwich via Reepham closed. The railway from Peterborough to Sutton Bridge
via Wisbech closed.
1/3/1959. Sunday (+5,045) Archbishop
Makarios returned to Cyprus, after almost three years exile.
26/2/1959, Thursday
(+5,042) State of Emergency in
Southern Rhodesia.
23/2/1959. Monday (+5,039) The
European Court of Human Rights sat
for the first time.
21/2/1959, Saturday
(+5,037) Harold MacMillan, British Prime Minister, and Selwyn Lloyd,
Foreign Secretary, visited the USSR.
20/2/1959, Friday
(+5,036) Disturbances in the British territory of Nyasaland (now Malawi).
19/2/1959. Thursday (+5,035) Greece
and Turkey agreed on plans for the independence of Cyprus.
17/2/1959, Tuesday
(+5,033)
16/2/1959. Monday (+5,032) Fidel
Castro became Prime Minister of Cuba after overthrowing the regime of Fulgencio
Batista. At age 32, he was the youngest ever leader of Cuba. See 1/1/1959.
15/2/1959, Sunday (+5,031) Archbishop
Makarios arrived in London for talks on Cyprus with Macmillan.
13/2/1959, Friday
(+5,029) The first Barbie Doll went on sale, priced at US$3 (£2), in a
zebra-stripe swimsuit. She was created by Ruth Handler, whose daughter was
called Barbara.
9/2/1959. Monday (+5,025) The
UK supplied arms to Indonesia.
7/2/1959. Saturday (+5,023) Daniel
Francois Malan, Prime Minister of South Africa 1948-54 and creator of apartheid, died at Stellenbosch, Cape
Province, South Africa, aged 84.
3/2/1959, Tuesday
(+5,019) Buddy Holly, US musician, was killed in an air crash in Iowa.
2/2/1959, Monday
(+5,018) The Kilmacolm to Greenock Princes Pier railway closed. The Newton
Abbot to Moretonhampstead railway closed.
1/2/1959. Sunday (+5,017) Swiss referendum turned down votes for women. But see 7/2/1971.
30/1/1959, Friday (+5,015) Britain’s first drive-in bank
opened.
22/1/1959, Thursday
(+5,007) Two thirds of British home
snow had a television. The Rank Organisation, on 17/9/1959, said cinema
attendance in Britain fell from 1.396 million in 1950 to 1.101 million in 1956
and was still in decline.
21/1/1959, Wednesday
(+5,006) Cecil B de Mille, Hollywood film producer, died.
17/1/1959. Saturday (+5,002) Senegal
and French Sudan united to form Mali.
12/1/1959, Monday (+4,997) A US$ 400 million contract for
the Mercury US space programme was awarded to the McDonnell Aircraft
Corporation of St Louis.
8/1/1959, Thursday
(+4,993) (1) Fidel Castro entered Havana in triumph, see 2/12/1956.
(2) Charles de Gaulle was installed as first President of the 5th
Republic. See 21/12/1958.
5/1/1959, Monday
(+4,990) The Chepstow to Monmouth and Ross on Wye railway closed.
4/1/1959, Sunday (+4,989) Rioting in the Belgian Congo.
3/1/1959. Saturday (+4,988)
Alaska became the 49th state of the USA. It is the USA’s largest
state.
2/1/1959, Friday (+4,987)
The Russians launched Lunik 1, the first rocket to pass near the Moon, from
Tyuratam.
1/1/1959. Thursday
(+4,986) The Right-wing President Fulgencio Batista of Cuba was
overthrown and fled to the Dominican Republic. Fidel Castro, aged 32, proclaimed a new Government. See 16/2/1959.
Castro executed his opponents and legalised the Communist Party.
31/12/1958, Wednesday
(+4,985) (1)
President Sukharno proclaimed a state of Emergency in Sumatra.
(2) There were fears that a drug
prescribed for morning sickness, thalidomide, might be causing birth defects.
30/12/1958, Tuesday
(+4,984)
21/12/1958. Sunday (+4,975) De
Gaulle was elected the first President of the Fifth Republic, with 78% of the
vote. He now had the strong Presidency
he had desired in 1945 (see 13/11/1945). See 29/5/1958.
15/12/1958. Monday (+4,969)
The last steam locomotive was made at Crewe. This was the 7,331st
locomotive made at Crewe.
14/12/1958, Sunday (+4,968) The Antarctic ‘pole of
inaccessibility’, the point furthest from all coasts, was reached by a Soviet
tractor traverse.
10/12/1958, Wednesday
(+4,964) The first domestic jet airliner service within the US began,
operated by National Airlines between New York and Miami.
8/12/1958, Monday (+4,962) The
last of the four nuclear reactors at Calder Hall began operating.
5/12/1958. Friday (+4,959) (1) The first STD telephone exchange in the UK
opened. It was in Bristol, and was
inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II calling up the Lord Provost of Edinburgh.
(2) The UK’s first stretch of motorway, 6 ½ miles of the M6 at Preston,
was opened by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. It took two years to build at a
cost of £3,750,000.
3/12/1958. Wednesday (+4,957)
Indonesia nationalised Dutch businesses.
21/11/1958, Friday (+4,945) Work began on the Forth Road Suspension
Bridge, then the longest suspension bridge in the UK. It was completed
in 1964.
4/11/1958, Tuesday
(+4,928) In the USA, Democrats won the mid-term elections, gaining 62 seats
in the Senate (Republicans 34 seats). The Democrats gained 281 seats in
the House of Representatives
(Republicans 153 seats).
3/11/1958, Monday
(+4,927) The Newnham to Cinderford railway closed. The Totnes to Ashburton
railway closed.
2/11/1958. Sunday (+4,926) Last
British troops left Jordan.
31/10/1958. Friday (+4,924) Ake
Senning, Swedish doctor, in Stockholm implanted the first internal heart pacemaker.
28/10/1958. Tuesday (+4,921) (1) Cardinal Roncalli, aged 81, was elected Pope
John XXIII, succeeding Pope Pius XII. Pope Pius XII died on 9/10/1958.
(2) In Britain, the
State Opening of Parliament was televised for the first time.
27/10/1958. Monday (+4,920)
The first edition of the BBC programme Blue
Peter was broadcast.
26/10/1958, Sunday (+4,919)
Two new air services began this day. The New York to London route was operated
by BOAC, and the New York to Paris route was operated by Pan Am.
23/10/1958, Thursday
(+4,916)
21/10/1958, Tuesday
(+4,914) Women took seats in the UK House of Lords for the first time.
20/10.1958, Monday
(+4,913) Military coup in Thailand,
19/10/1958, Sunday (+4,912) The 1958 World Fair closed in
Brussels. It attracted 40 million visitors, the main centrepiece being The
Atomuim, which remains today.
14/10/1958, Tuesday
(+4,907) Madagascar became
independent.
11/10/1958. Saturday (+4,904)
The BBC sports programme Grandstand was first transmitted. It was the idea of Paul Fox.
9/10/1958, Thursday
(+4,902) Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli) died at Castel Gandolfo, the
Papal summer residence, 27 kilometres south-east of Rome, aged 82. In Belfast,
Protestants objected when the City Hall flag was flown at half-mast.
7/10/1958, Tuesday
(+4,900) Following unrest in Pakistan, President Iskander Mirza proclaimed
martial law and suspended the Constitution.
6/10/1958, Monday
(+4,899) The Foxfield to Coniston railway closed. Stopping services between
Grantham and Doncaster were withdrawn.
5/10/1958, Sunday (+4,898) In France the Fifth Republic
was formed.
4/10/1958. Saturday (+4,897)
BOAC, now British Airways, began the first transatlantic jet air service,
with two de Havilland Comet IV jets. Flight time was a record 6hours 11 minutes.
2/10/1958, Thursday (+4,895) (1) Marie Stopes,
promoter of birth control, died (born 1880).
(2) Guinea was
proclaimed an independent republic.
17/9/1958, Wednesday (+4,880) Fidel Castro began an offensive
against the Batista regime in Cuba.
15/9/1958, Monday (+4,878) The Weedon to Leamington Spa railway closed.
Grafton & Burbage to Marlborough railway closed. Stopping services between
Doncaster and York and Darlington were withdrawn.
14/9/1958, Sunday (+4,877) Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of West Germany,
visited French Prime Minister De Gaulle at his home in Colombey les deux
Eglises to discuss Franco-German relations.
12/9/1958. Friday (+4,875) The
Governor of Arkansas closed all High Schools in Little Rock.
8/9/1958. Monday (+4,871) Race riots in Notting Hill, London.
White youths attacked five Black people, leading to 150 arrests and gang fights
involving up to 2,000 people.
7/9/1958, Sunday (+4,870) Nikita Kruschev stated that any attack by the
US on China would be regarded as an attack on the USSR.
5/9/1958, Friday (+4,868)
3/9/1958, Wednesday (+4,866) Hendrik Verwoerd became Prime Minister of
South Africa.
2/9/1958. Tuesday (+4,865) (1) South
African President Hendrik Verwoerd promised to strengthen Apartheid.
(2) The first television station in China opened in Beijing.
1/9/1958, Monday (+4,864) British trawlers defied the Icelandic
12-mile fishing limit, which came into force this day.
31/8/1958, Sunday (+4,863) Fighting between Black and White youths
in Notting Hill, London.
30/8/1958, Saturday (+4,862) The police clashed with 500 ‘Teddy
Boys’ in Nottingham.
29/8/1958, Friday (+4,861) Michael Jackson, pop star, was born
in Gary, Indiana.
28/8/1958, Thursday (+4,860) Ernest O Lawrence, US nuclear scientist,
died aged 57.
27/8/1958, Wednesday (+4,859)
26/8/1958, Tuesday (+4,858) Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer,
died aged 85.
25/8/1958, Monday (+4,857)
Midland Bank was the first bank to announce it would offer personal loans, from
September 1958.
24/8/1958, Sunday (+4,856) J G Strijdom, Prime Minister of South Africa,
died 65. He was succeeded by Hendrik Verwoerd on 3/9/1958.
23/8/1958, Saturday (+4,855)
The Egyptian Government approved the Aswan Dam project.
20/8/1958, Wednesday (+4,852)
17/8/1958, Sunday (+4,849) Britain announced plans to resume Atom
Bomb testing on Christmas Island.
16/8/1958, Saturday (+4,848) Madonna, US singer, was born.
12/8/1958, Tuesday (+4,844)
9/8/1958. Saturday (+4,841) The USA reaffirmed its refusal to
recognise Red China.
8/8/1958. Friday (-4,840)
Columbia Records signed up a 17-year-old
singer called Cliff Richard.
7/8/1958. Thursday (+4,839) The
Litter Act came into force in Britain.
5/8/1958. Tuesday (+4,837) The
nuclear-powered submarine Nautilus
completed its voyage beneath the ice of the North Pole. William Anderson commanded it. Launched in
January 1954, she left Pearl Harbour on 23/7/1958 and sailed through the Bering
Strait, passing the North Pole on 3/8/1958, emerging near Greenland on
5/8/1958. The Nautilus was
decommissioned in 1980 to become a floating museum.
1/8/1958, Friday
(+4,833) King Hussein dissolved the federation of Jordan with Iraq.
31/7/1958. Thursday (+4,832) Kham tribesmen in eastern Tibet rebelled
against Chinese rule.
30/7/1958, Wednesday
(+4,831) A left-wing coup overthrew
the Iraqi monarchy. The West feared a Middle Eastern domino effect.
29/7/1958. Tuesday (+4,830) NASA,
the National Aeronautical and Space Administration, was founded.
26/7/1958. Saturday (+4,827) Queen
Elizabeth II created her eldest son Prince Charles as Prince of Wales.
24/7/1958. Thursday (-4,825) The
first life peerages were awarded in Britain, under the Life Peerages Act.
15/7/1958, Tuesday
(+4,824) US troops landed near
Beirut to protect US lives and property during rioting.
14/7/1958. Monday (+4,815) King
Faisal of Iraq was assassinated in a military coup led by General Kasseem, and
a Republic was declared.
3/7/1958. Thursday (+4,804) The last debutantes were presented to the Queen. British high society
mourned the passing of this tradition; the Queen had decided this had no place
in modern society. Presentation
at Court had been reserved for the daughters of the aristocracy and those
prominent in society. Those who made
their curtsies to the Queen were sponsored and chaperoned by those who had been
presented themselves earlier. But some
socially ambitious parents had fallen on hard times to finance the fees and
expenses of qualified chaperones. Prince
Philip was reported to have suggested the move.
1/7/1958. Tuesday (+4,802) A
farm worker earned £7 10s (£7.50) per week and a train driver got £11 2s 6d
(£11.13) a week. The Rolls Royce ‘Phantom V cost £8,905, and a Mars Bar cost 6d
(2.5p).
17/6/1958. Tuesday (+4,788) Ex-Hungarian Prime Minister Imre Nagy was
executed after a secret trial, two years after the suppressed Hungarian
Revolution.
16/6/1958, Monday (+4,787) Yellow
lines indicating no waiting were painted along British roads.
14/6/1958, Saturday (+4,785) France announced it was
withdrawing its troops from Morocco.
9/6/1958. Monday (+4,780)
Gatwick Airport was opened by Queen Elizabeth II. (see 6/6/1936). The new
facilities cost £7 million.
7/6/1958, Saturday
(+4,778) Prince, American singer, was born.
3/6/1958, Tuesday
(+4,774) British Railways
re-designated Third Class accommodation as Second Class.
1/6/1958. Sunday (+4,772) Iceland
extended its fishing limits to 12 miles.
31/5/1958, Saturday (+4,771)
The Kremlin and Washington agreed to hold talks on a ban on atmospheric atom
bomb tests.
30/5/1958, Friday
(+4,770)
29/5/1958. Thursday (+4,769) De
Gaulle was voted into power in France, to deal with the crisis in Algeria. See
21/12/1958.
28/5/1958, Wednesday (+4,768) Pierre Pflimlin resigned as French
leader.
27/5/1958, Tuesday (+4,767)
A State of Emergency was declared in Sri Lanka.
23/5/1958, Friday (+4,763) Christopher
Cockerell patented the hovercraft.
14/5/1958, Wednesday
(+4,754) In France, Pierre Pflimlin, Popular Republican, formed a
government.
13/5/1958. Tuesday (+4,753) Rioting
by French settlers in Algeria led to the French army seizing power.
8/5/1958, Thursday
(+4,748) The Supreme Religious Centre for World Jewry was established in
Jerusalem.
5/5/1958, Monday (+4,745) (1)
The railway between Whitby and Saltburn closed. It had been opened in 1883,
construction having started in 1871.
(2) Women in Tunisia were allowed to
vote in municipal elections for the first time.
3/5/1958, Saturday (+4,743) President Eisenhower proposed
a demilitarised Antarctic.
2/5/1958, Friday (+4,742) State of Emergency declared in
Aden.
21/4/1958, Monday
(+4,731) Dom Mintoff, Labour Prime Minister of Malta, found Britain’s terms
for integration unacceptable. The British Governor-General, Sir Robert Laycock, assumed control, and
declared a State of Emergency on 30/4/1958 after demonstrations in Valetta.
18/4/1958, Friday
(+4,728) Maurice Gamelin, French Army General, died aged 85.
16/4/1958. Wednesday
(+4,726) The EEC, the European Economic Community, was set up. The
original six countries were France, Italy, West Germany, Holland, Belgium, and
Luxembourg. See 10/8/1952.
8/4/1958, Tuesday
(+4,718) President Eisenhower of the USA proposed mutual inspections as a
means of enforcing the mutual Test Ban.
7/4/1958. Monday (+4,717) The first CND march from London
arrived at Aldermaston. It had left Hyde Park on 4/4/1958.
6/4/1958, Sunday (+4,716) Easter Sunday.
5/4/1958. Saturday (+4,715) Castro began 'total war' against the Cuban dictator, Batista.
4/4/1958, Friday (+4,714) The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
(CND) held its first protest march this Good Friday. Members marched from Hyde
Park Corner to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston,
arriving on 7/4/1958. 600 members completed the 50-mile march and 12,000
attended the final rally.
2/4/1958. Wednesday (+4,712) The USA embargoed arms shipments
to Cuba.
31/3/1958, Monday (+4,710) General election in Canada. The Progressive
Conservatives won a large majority, 208 seats, against the Liberals with 49
seats, and the Co-operative Commonwealth Foundation with 8 seats. John
Diefenbaker remained Prime Minister.
29/3/1958, Saturday (+4,708) Sir William Burrell, Scottish shipping
merchant and philanthropist, died aged 96.
24/3/1958. Monday (+4,703) Elvis Presley was sworn in as a US
private. He was paid $78 as a regular. He had been given a 60-day deferment to
make the film ‘King Creole’.
21/3/1958. Friday (+4,700) (1) The Shah of Iran
announced on TV that he was divorcing his wife of seven years, Queen Soraya,
because she had not given him an heir. She moved to Paris and became an
actress.
(2) London Planetarium opened in Marylebone Street, the first
planetarium in Britain.
17/3/1958, Monday (+4,696)
The Australian-born polar explorer Sir George Wilkins died.
16/3/1958. Sunday (+4,695) Mothers who worked full-time were
condemned as enemies of family life by the Bishop of Woolwich.
11/3/1958. Tuesday (+4,690) Unemployment in the USA reached 5.2
million.
9/3/1958, Sunday (+4,688)
Yemen merged with the United Arab Republic to form the United Arab States.
7/3/1958, Friday (+4,686) Rick Mayall, actor in The Young Ones, was born.
6/3/1958, Thursday (+4,685) The TUC and the Labour party called
for H-Bomb tests to stop.
5/3/1958, Wednesday (+4,684) Syria accused King Saud of organising a
plot to overthrow the Syrian regime and destroy the union of Syria and Egypt.
2/3/1958, Sunday (+4,681) The British Trans-Antarctic Expedition,
led by Dr Vivian Fuchs, completed the first surface crossing of Antarctica. The group
of 12 travelled
2,158 miles from Shackleton Station on the Weddell Sea to Scott Station on the
Ross Sea in 99 days.
17/2/1958, Monday (+4,668) (1) France and
Tunisia agreed to mediation by the UK and USA.
(2) The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, CND, was launched by Bertrand Russell and Canon John Collins.
14/2/1958, Friday (+4,665)
The Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan was proclaimed.
13/2/1958, Thursday (+4,664) The suffragette, Dame Christobel Pankhurst, daughter of Emmeline
Pankhurst, died (born 1880).
11/2/1958, Tuesday (+4,662)
Tunisia banned French warships from using its port at Bizerta.
9/2/1958, Sunday (+4,660) A
play by Irish-born Samuel Beckett was banned from London stages due to
blasphemy.
8/2/1958, Saturday (+4,659) France bombed the Tunisian town of Sakiet
Sidi Youssef as a reprisal for alleged Tunisian involvement on a French patrol
in Algeria near the Tunisian frontier on 11/1/1958. Tunisia confined all French
troops in the country to barracks.
6/2/1958, Thursday (+4,657) 7 Manchester United players died
when the plane bringing the team home from Belgrade crashed on take-off at
Munich Airport. Three club officials and 8 sports journalists were also
killed. An eighth team member died of
his injuries two weeks later.
1/2/1958. Saturday (+4,652) Egypt and Syria joined to form the
United Arab Republic. See 29/9/1961.
31/1/1958, Friday (+4,651) The US Army at Cape Canaveral
launched America’s first Earth satellite. Explorer I. This led to the accidental discovery of
the Van Allen radiation belts around the Earth, when the satellite’s radiation
meters suddenly showed zero readings. US astronomer James Van Allen realised
that the meters had been overloaded and broken down.
30/1/1958, Thursday (+4,650)
Yves St Laurent held his first Paris fashion show, aged 22. He was apprenticed
to Christian Dior at 18 and when Dior died in 1959 he became head designer of
the Dior fashion house.
22/1/1958, Wednesday (+4,642)
21/1/1958.Tuesday (-4,641) Driffield experienced the lowest
temperature ever recorded in Yorkshire, -18.9 C.
20/1/1958. Monday (+4,640) The first radar speed checks began in Britain.
6/1/1958, Monday (+4,636) The Abergavenny to Merthyr railway closed.
4/1/1958, Saturday (4,624) Sputnik 1 disintegrated after
completing 1,367 orbits of the Earth. It had travelled some 43 million miles in
92 days.
3/1/1958. Friday (+4,623) (1) Banks in The Netherlands were
nationalised.
(2) Sir Edmund Hillary, with a
party from New Zealand, reached the South Pole – the first man to do so since
Captain Scott.
1/1/1958. Wednesday (+4,621) (1) The European Economic Community came into
effect. It then comprised 6 countries; France, West Germany, Italy, and the
Benelux countries.
(2) In Tunisia,
polygamy was abolished.
30/12/1957, Monday (+4,619) Malta, fearing that Britain will not
maintain investment in the island, passed a resolution that Malta had no
obligations to the UK unless Britain found employment for discharged dock
workers.
26/12/1957, Thursday (+4,615)
Death of French film pioneer Charles Pathe.
25/12/1957. Wednesday (+4,614) The Queen made her first Christmas
day broadcast on British TV.
24/12/1957, Tuesday (+4,613)
Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, was born.
23/12/1957, Monday (+4,612)
20/12/1957. Friday (+4,609) At the height of his career, Elvis
Presley received his call-up papers.
19/12/1957. Thursday (+4,608) Regular air services between London
and Moscow began.
10/12/1957, Tuesday (+4,599)
5/12/1957. Thursday (+4,594) All Dutch nationals were expelled
from Indonesia.
4/12/1957, Wednesday (+4,593) Major train crash at Lewisham,
south east London, with 92 killed and over 200 injured. In thick fog, the 4.56
steam express from Cannon Street to Ramsgate missed two red signals and
ploughed into the back of the stationary Charing Cross to Hayes electric train.
The rear of the Hayes train telescoped whilst the tender of the steam train
rose up and brought down a bridge carrying another rail line over the tracks.
The 350-ton bridge crashed down onto the already-damaged carriages. Two minutes
later another train was crossing the bridge; its driver saw the hole in the
tracks just in time and stopped his train with the leading carriage leaning
over the gap. Trains then did not have automatic warning systems if a red
signal was passed.
3/12/1957, Tuesday (+4,592) Sir Hugh Foot became the new British
Governor of Cyprus.
2/12/1957, Monday (+4,591) The Blackburn to Rose Grove via Padiham railway
closed.
1/12/1957, Sunday (+4,590) Women in Colombia voted for the first time,
30/11/1957, Saturday (+4,589) General election in New Zealand was won by
the Labour Party with a majority of one seat. Walter Nash became Prime
Minister.
18/11/1957, Monday (+4,577) London’s Central Line opened from Epping to
Ongar.
15/11/1957, Friday
(+4,574) France left NATO in protest at shipments of arms to Tunisia by the
UK and USA, to forestall arms supply to Tunisia by the USSR; France feared
Tunisian support for Algerian Nationalists.
11/11/1957. Monday (+4,570) Jamaica achieved internal
self-government.
5/11/1957, Tuesday (+4,564) The Delta Plan was published; an ambitious
scheme to strengthen the sea defences of The Netherlands by new bridges, dykes
and dams. The sea inlets between Rotterdam and Antwerp were to be closed off,
and the province of Zeeland opened up to economic development, The project was
successfully completed in 1968.
4/11/1957, Monday (+4,563) Sir John Harding retired as British Governor
of Cyprus.
3/11/1957. Sunday (+4,562) The
Soviets sent a dog into Earth-orbit. The dog, called Laika (meaning
‘barker’) was a Siberian husky rounded up as a stray. She probably died of
overheating after measuring systems on board the Sputnik 2 failed, after a few hours
in orbit 2,000 miles above Earth. The space capsule continued to orbit Earth
until April 1958 when after 2,570 orbits it crashed to Earth, burning up in the
atmosphere. Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space, in April 1961 aboard
Vostok 1. The Soviets sent 13 more dogs into space, 8 of which survived.
2/11/1957, Saturday (+4,561)
Elvis Presley set a record with 8 simultaneous UK top 30 entries.
1/11/1957, Friday (+4,560)
30/10/1957, Wednesday (+4,558)
Women entered the House of Lords for the first time, as a new category of ‘life
peers’ was created. Previously, only male bearers of hereditary titles could
become peers.
29/10/1957, Tuesday (+4,557) Fulgencio Batista suspended the Cuban
Constitution.
24/10/1957, Thursday (+4,552) Christian Dior, French fashion
designer and creator of ‘New Look’, died.
22/10/1957. Tuesday (+4,550) (1) 13 US servicemen and 5 civilians were
injured in Saigon, South Vietnam, by a bomb planted by Communist guerrillas.
This was the worst incident since 1954 when the French admitted defeat in the
fight against North Vietnam’s Viet Minh army and split Vietnam into North and
South, two independent states.
(2) The children’s TV
show, Captain Pugwash, was first
broadcast.
19/10/1957, Saturday (+4,547) West Germany severed diplomatic relations
with Yugoslavia after Yugoslavia recognised East Germany.
18/10/1957, Friday (+4,546)
Queen Elizabeth II met US President Eisenhower; the first visit by a British
monarch to the White House.
17/10/1957. Thursday (+4,545) A fire at Windscale (now
Sellafield) nuclear plant shut down one of the piles producing Plutonium and
released radioactivity into the air. Thousands of gallons of milk from some
Cumbrian cows had to be dumped, due to radio-iodine contamination, despite
government assurances that the radiation had been carried out to sea.
16/10/1957, Wednesday (+4,544) (Turkey) Syria declared a State of Emergency
following Turkish troop movements on the Syrian border. US Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles warned the USSR against attacking Turkey.
15/10/1957, Tuesday (+4,543)
The naval base at Tricomalee was handed over to Sri Lanka by Britain.
13/10/1957, Sunday (+4,541)
11/10/1957. Friday (+4,539) The radio telescope at Jodrell Bank,
Cheshire, planned by Sir Bernard Lovell, went into operation.
10/10/1957. Thursday (+4,538) A major radiation leak was detected
at Windscale after an accident three days earlier.
7/10/1957, Monday (+4,535)
4/10/1957. Friday (+4,532)
The first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik I, by the USSR was
launched from Tyuratam, 170 miles east of the Aral Sea. It weighed 80 kg.
3/10/1957, Thursday
(+4,531) Berlin voted in its
youngest ever mayor, 44-year-old Willy Brandt.
2/10/1957, Wednesday
(+4,530) Poland, along with Hungary and East Germany, outlined its Rapacki
Plan for a denuclearised central Europe to the UN General Assembly.
1/10/1957, Tuesday
(+4,529) The Trentham Gardens branch (Stoke) closed.
29/9/1957, Sunday (+4,527)
26/9/1957, Thursday
(+4,524) Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden was re-elected Secretary-General of the
United Nations for a further 5 years.
25/9/1957, Wednesday
(+4,523) 1,000 US armed paratroopers
turned out to protect 9 Black schoolchildren who were taking their places at
the all-White Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. This followed a US
Supreme Court ruling that segregated schools contravened the 14th
Amendment. However Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus flouted the court ruling
and deployed armed National Guardsmen to bar the Black children, whilst a White
mob shouted ‘Niggers go home’. President Eisenhower intervened and the
Guardsmen were withdrawn, but a White mob remained. In an unprecedented move,
Eisenhower removed control of the National Guard from Faubus and sent in the
101st Airborne Division to protect the Black schoolchildren, to the
fury of southern Governors.
24/9/1957, Tuesday
(+4,522) BBC broadcasts to schools began.
23/9/1957. Monday (+4,521) Dr
Francois ‘Papa doc’ Duvalier was elected President of Haiti. He had promised to
end corrupt military regimes in Haiti but his own regime mixed voodoo with the
presence of brutal secret police, the Ton Ton Macoute.
22/9/1957, Sunday (+4,520)
21/9/1957, Saturday (+4,519)
Norway’s King Haakon VII died, aged 85, after a 52-year reign. His son, aged 54, succeeded him as King Olav
V.
20/9/1957.Friday (+4,518) Jean Sibelius, composer, died.
18/9/1957, Wednesday
(+4,516)
17/9/1957, Tuesday
(+4,515) Military coup in Thailand, Prime Minister Pibul Songgram fled, and
was replaced by Pote Sarasin, Secretary-General of SEATO.
16/9/1957, Monday (+4,514) The Waverton to Whitchurch
(Shropshire) railway closed. The Bentley to Bordon railway (Hampshire) closed.
15/9/1957, Sunday
(+4,513) Konrad Adenauer’s Christian Democratic Union Party won a massive
victory in German general elections.
14/9/1957, Saturday (+4,512)
The last Liverpool tram ran. It was the
6a, from the Pier Head to Bowring Park, full of civic dignitaries.
13/9/1957. Friday (+4,511)
The Mousetrap became Britain’s longest running play, reaching its
1,998th performance.
6/9/1957, Friday
(+4,504)
5/9/1957, Thursday
(+4,503) Rebels under Fidel Castro,
along with Cuban navy Officers, tried to seize a naval base at Cienfuegos. Forces loyal to President Batista of Cuba
defeated the attempt, and the rebel leaders were executed.
4/9/1957. Wednesday (+4,502)
In the UK, the Wolfenden Report recommended decriminalising homosexual acts
between consenting adults. This would remove a significant cause of blackmail. ‘Adult’
meant aged 21 or over; some feared this would be a licence for child abuse. On
14/11/1957 the Church of England backed the Wolfenden reforms. However the UK
government shied away from this controversial change to the law. It was only in
June 1967 when the Sexual Offences Bill legalised such homosexual acts as
Wolfenden recommended.
31/8/1957. Saturday (+4,498) Malaysia
(Malaya) became independent, ending 170 years of British rule. This was
Britain’s last major Asian colony. Malay and British forces had defeated
Communist rebels, and the new Prime Minister was Tenkgu Abdul Rahman. Rahman
(1903-1990) was the son of the Sultan of Kedah, he negotiated the Federation of
Malaysia with Sabah and Singapore, 1961-2, remaining Prime Minister if the
enlarged Malaysia. However he resigned from politics after the violemnt
Chinese-Malay riots of May 1969 in Kuala Lumpur.
29/8/1957. Thursday (+4,496) Police
in the US began using a device to measure the amount of alcohol in a driver’s
breath. It was dubbed the ‘drunkometer’.
12/8/1957, Monday
(+4,479) Following Britain’s decision to restore self-government to British
Guiana (Guyana), an election for the 14 seats on the Legislative Council gave
Cheddi Jagan’s People’s Progressive Party 9 seats. On 15/8/1957 Jagan formed a
new Government.
9/8/1957, Friday (+4,476) The State of Emergency in
Cyprus ended.
7/8/1957, Wednesday
(+4,474) Oliver Hardy, of Laurel and Hardy fame, died of a stroke, aged
65. Laurel was aged 67.
6/8/1957. Tuesday (+4,473) Despite
the Conservative PM, Harold MacMillan, stating that ‘most of us have never had
it so good’, last month, 2,000 people were emigrating from Britain every week,
for the USA or Commonwealth countries like Canada and Australia. Many were
professionals or science and medical graduates.
5/8/1957, Monday
(+4,472) The Andy Capp cartoon first
appeared in The Mirror newspaper.
1/8/1957, Thursday
(+4,468) The West Indies Federation
was formed.
29/7/1957. Monday (+4,465)
International Atomic Energy Agency established.
28/7/1957, Sunday (+4,464)
Magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck Guerrero, Mexico, killing 65.
25/7/1957, Thursday
(+4,461) Tunisia abolished the monarchy and became a republic. Habib Bourguiba was elected as the first
President.
23/7/1957, Tuesday
(+4,459) In Britain, violence broke
out on picket lines as a national bus strike took effect.
22/7/1957. Monday (+4,458) Shell
and BP announced they would pull out of Israel to pacify some Arab nations, who
refused to accept the very existence of Israel.
21/7/1957, Sunday
(+4,457)
20/7/1957, Saturday (+4,456) Conservative PM Harold
Macmillan said that ‘most of our people have never had it so good’.
19/7/1957, Friday
(+4,455) The Imam of Oman rebelled against the Sultan of Oman, who
requested British aid.
15/7/1957, Monday
(+4,451) General Franco announced that the Spanish monarchy would be restored
on his death or retirement.
12/7/1957, Friday (+4,448) US Surgeon-General Leroy E
Burney announced the US Public Health Service’s belief that there was a direct
causal relationship between smoking and lung cancer.
11/7/1957. Thursday
(+4,447) The Aga Khan died in Versoix, Switzerland. He was born in
Karachi on 2/11/1877, and during World War One, when \Turkey was drawn in on
the German side, the Aga Khan was instrumental in reassuring the Moslems of the
British Empire that the Allies had no plans against Islam and to stay loyal to
Britain. In 1937 he was appointed President of the League of Nations. He spent
World war Two in Switzerland and withdrew from further political activity. In
1946, the year of his 60-year jubilee celebration, he was twice weighed by his
subjects and paid a sum of diamonds of equivalent weight. The sum of
US$3,600,000 which resulted was used by the Khan for building schools and other
community projects in Pakistan. He was also famous as a breeder and trainer of
racehorses, winning the Epsom races five times.
7/7/1957 Sunday (+4,443) The Polish economy was
stabilised with the help of a loan of US$ 30 million. US economic aid continued
and between 1957 and 1963 Poland received economic aid worth US$ 529 million.
1/7/1957. Monday (+4,437) (1)
Passenger services on the Watlington to Princes Risborough line were withdrawn.
(2) The
footballer’s maximum wage was raised to £20 per week. A baker earned £7 15s 3d
(£7.76) per week. In the Whiteleys Christmas catalogue, an electric razor cost
£10 17s (£10.85), a cashmere cardigan cost £10 17s 6d (£10.88), and a tropical
fish tank cost £4 4s (£4.20).
30/6/1957, Sunday (+4,436)The ‘lion’ was stamped on
British eggs from this day. The practice
ended on 31/12/1968.
26/6/1957. Wednesday (+4,432)
The UK government began an anti-smoking campaign, despite fears that this
would cause tax revenue to fall. As recently as 1956, the Health Minister, Mr R
Turton, had said there was no proof that smoking caused any harm, but recent
reports in the UK and USA now suggested links to some bronchial and heart
diseases.
13/6/1957. Thursday (+4,419) US
Vice-President Richard Nixon and civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King
discussed how to enforce the racial desegregation of the southern states of the
USA. The Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, said he would never permit racial
integration of his schools and would use state militia to stop Black students
entering White facilities. On 25/9/1957 an angry crowd of 1,500 White
demonstrators watched as 1,000 US armed National Guardsmen, bayonets drawn,
enforce the arrival of nine black students at the Central High School in Little
Rock, Arkansas. Seven protesters were arrested as one demonstrator tried to
grab a guardsman’s rifle; some shouted ‘go home, niggers!’
12/6/1957, Tuesday
(+4,418) In France, Maurice Bourges-Manoury, Radical, formed a Government.
10/6/1957, Monday
(+4,416) In Canada, Progressive Conservatives won the election with 112
seats. The Liberals got 105 seats, the Cooperative Commonwealth foundation got 25
seats, Others got 23 seats. The Liberal leader, Louis St Laurent, resigned,
ending 22 years of Liberal rule, and the Conservative, John Diefenbaker, took
office.
7/6/1957. Friday (+4,413) A
travel report published in London said a small fishing village called Benidorm
was the place for summer holidays, with guaranteed sun and low prices. Tourist
development in Benidorm had just begun, with a German company building bed and
breakfast accommodation there. There were warnings that the bathrooms may be
spartan, with some taps only giving salt water.
6/6/1957, Thursday
(+4,412) In Britain the Rent Act received Royal Assent, This removed many
controls on rents. Labour MPs protested.
3/6/1957, Monday
(+4,409)
1/6/1957. Saturday (+4,407) The
computer, ERNIE, drew the first Premium Bond prize. The first prize was £1,000.
The lowest prize was £10. The Church had condemned the £1 premium Bonds as a
’squalid raffle’ when introduced in 1956.
31/5/1957, Friday (+4,406) The American playwright Arthur
Miller was convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to name other writers
as communists. Miller confessed his own communist sympathies but said his
conscience would not let him finger others; the judge praised his motives but
he could still face a year in jail.
30/5/1957, Thursday
(+4,405) Britain relaxed restrictions on trade with Communist China.
23/5/1957. Thursday (+4,398) The
Church of England broke with tradition by allowing divorcees to take Communion.
The Bible taught that marriage was for life, but Britain’s legal system allowed
divorce.
21/5/1957, Friday
(+4,396) In France, Guy Mollet, Socialist, resigned as Prime Minister after
a Government defeat in the Assembly.
15/5/1957. Wednesday
(+4,390) Britain’s first H – Bomb was exploded on Christmas Island in
the southern Pacific Ocean.
14/5/1957, Tuesday (+4,389) Petrol
rationing in the UK, caused by the Suez Crisis, ended.
10/5/1957, Friday (+4,285)
The USSR appealed to the US and Britain to cease nuclear tests.
7/5/1957, Tuesday
(+4,382) Eliot Ness, the FBI agent who headed the investigation of Al
Capone in Chicago, died.
6/5/1957. Monday (+4,381) The British and French revived plans for a
Channel Tunnel link, despite fears over security and rabies.
4/5/1957, Saturday
(+4,379)
3/5/1957. Friday (+4,378) South
Africa dropped ‘God Save the Queen’ as its national anthem.
2/5/1957. Thursday (+4,377) Senator Joe McCarthy, Republican, died of
liver disease. He was most remembered for his ‘witch-hunts’ against suspected Communists. See 2/12/1954.
1/5/1957, Wednesday
(+4,376)
30/4/1957, Tuesday
(+4,375) Egypt reopened the Suez
Canal.
29/4/1957, Monday
(+4,374) The Leicester to John’O’Gaunt railway closed.
28/4/1957, Sunday (+4,373)
King Hussein of Jordan visited King Saud of Saudi Arabia. The two rulers agreed
that the crisis in Jordan is a purely internal affair; Saudi Arabia paid the
first instalment of financial aid to Jordan.
27/4/1957, Saturday
(+4,372)
26/4/1957. Friday (+4,371)The
Anglican Church and the universities in South Africa continued to defy
government rulings on enforcing racial segregation, or apartheid.
25/4/1957, Thursday
(+4,370) King Hussein proclaimed martial law in Jordan; the USA despatched
the 6th fleet to the Mediterranean. On 29/4/1957 the USSR protested
at this move.
24/4/1957. Wednesday (+4,369)
(1)
In Jordan, Ibrahim Hashem formed a conservative, pro-Western, government
following demonstrations.
(2) The
BBC broadcast Patrick Moore’s ‘The Sky at Night’ for the first time.
23/4/1957, Tuesday
(+4,368) Albert Schweitzer write to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, urging
mobilisation of world opinion against nuclear tests.
22/4/1957, Monday
(+4,367)
21/4/1957, Sunday (+4,366)
Easter Sunday.
20/4/1957, Saturday
(+4,365) The US resumed aid to Israel, which had been suspended on October
1956.
17/4/1957, Wednesday
(+4,362) Archbishop Makarios arrived back in Athens, from a 13-month
exile in the Seychelles.
4/4/1957. Thursday
(+4,349) Britain announced that compulsory National Service, 2 years
long for all reaching 18, would end in 1960.
3/4/1957, Wednesday
(+4,348) The UK Labour Party called for H-Bomb tests to stop.
1/4/1957, Monday (+4,346) The BBC ran an April fools
spoof documentary about spaghetti being harvested from trees in Switzerland.
29/3/1957, Friday (+4,343) Irish-born writer Joyce Carey
died.
28/3/1957, Thursday
(+4,342) Britain freed Archbishop
Makarios.
25/3/1957. Monday (+4,339) Six nations signed the Treaty of
Rome to create the Common Market (EEC) and Euratom. These were Italy, West
Germany, France, and the three Benelux countries. The founding nations foresaw a union of some 160 million people, to be
developed over 15 years. There was also a shared atomic energy programme,
Euratom. Britain was notably absent, preferring to create a wider but looser trading
network involving the Common Market, the Commonwealth, and others. Britain
feared a supra-national authority that would erode its sovereignty over
domestic affairs. However the PM, Harold
MacMillan, privately believed that the UK should have sought Common market
membership and now began to create the European Free trading Area, EFTA, which
included all of western Europe, and involved less loss of sovereignty for the
participating nations. A stand-alone Britain faced greater threats to its trade
and industry from a developing Common Market.
22/3/1957. Friday (+4,336) San
Francisco was hit by the worst earthquake since the 1906 disaster.
21/3/1957, Thursday
(+4,335) Sabrina Le Beauf, US actress, was born.
20/3/1957. Wednesday (+4,334)
Britain favoured UN mediation over Cyprus but the Greeks rejected it.
19/3/1957, Tuesday
(+4,333) Elvis Presley paid the US$ 1,000 deposit on a mansion called
Graceland, being sold by Mrs Ruth Brown-Moore.
18/3/1957, Monday
(+4,332) Wolfgang Schilling, German footballer, was born.
17/3/1957. Sunday (+4,331) 22
were killed and several houses demolished when a British European Airways
turbo-prop airliner crashed at Manchester’s Ringway Airport. Failure of one
wing flap to deploy on landing was blamed; if only one wing flap deployed, the
aircraft would flip over on landing, as was seen by witnesses.
16/3/1957, Saturday
(+4,330) Constantin Brancusi, sculptor, died in Paris.
11/3/1957, Monday (+4,325) (1) Richard Byrd, American aviator and polar
explorer, died.
(2) The World Health Information
published the first indications that radiation may have genetic effects.
8/3/1957, Friday (+4,322) The
Suez Canal reopened for smaller ships.
7/3/1957, Thursday
(+4,321) The United States Congress approved the Eisenhower Doctrine.
6/3/1957. Wednesday (+4,320)
Ghana,
formerly known as the Gold Coast, became independent; the first British
colony in Africa to do so. It had been a British colony since 1874. Dr Kwame
Nkrumah became the first Prime Minsiter, in the capital, Accra. Nkrumah’s party
had won the 1956 elections. The name Ghana was chosen by Nkrumah to inspire his
people from the time when Africans had wealth and power. it was taken from the
Islamic empire which ruled for centuries in Sudan during Europe’s Mediaeval
times. On 7/3/1957 Ghana joined the United Nations.
3/3/1957, Sunday (+4,317)
The UK competed in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time. The British
entry, All, sung by Hull-born
Patricia Bredin, came seventh out of ten in Frankfurt Am Main, Germnay.
21/2/1957. Thursday (+4,307) The 70 year old Israeli president, David Ben
Gurion, defied US and UN calls to leave the Gaza Strip. In Jerusalem,
thousands of Israelis protested on the streets against the UN’s call for
withdrawal. On 22/1/1957 Israeli troops left the Sinai Peninsula, and on
6/3/1957 handed the Gaza Strip over to the UN.
19/2/1957, Tuesday
(+4,305)
16/2/1957, Saturday (+4,302) Sir
Leslie Hore-Belisha, the Minister of Transport responsible for Belisha Beacons,
the driving test, and the Highway Code, died.
15/2/1957, Friday
(+4,301) In the USSR, Andrei Gromyko replaced Dmitri Shepilov as Foreign
Minister.
9/2/1957, Saturday (+4,295) Poland and Japan resumed
diplomatic relations.
5/2/1957, Tuesday
(+4,291) General election in Ireland, after Clann na Poblachta withdrew
from the Fine Gael-led coalition on 28/1/1957. Fianna Fail with 78 seats won a
majority over all other Parties (69 seats, of which 40 were won by Fine Gael).
Eamon de Valera became Prime Minister again on 20/3/1957, now aged 75.
1/2/1957, Friday (+4,287)
The first turbo-prop airliner, the Bristol Britannia, entered scheduled
service in Britain.
31/1/1957, Thursday
(+4,286) The Trans-Iranian oil pipeline, from Abadan to Tehran, was
completed.
28/1/1957, Monday
(+4,283)
26/1/1957, Saturday
(+4,281) Kashmir joined India, under ‘special status’ agreements, providing
for example that non-Kashmiri Indians could not buy property there. Pakistan
protested.
25/1/1957, Friday (+4,280) The UN ordered Israel to quit
Aqaba and Gaza.
20/1/1957. Sunday (+4,275) Wladyslaw
Gomulka was elected First Secretary of the Polish Communist Party. Aware of the
USSR’s crackdown in Hungary in 1956 he tempered ideas for a Polish form of
Communism, strengthening links between Poland and the USSR. However he ended
collective farming in Poland, returning 80% of arable land to private hands,
and curbed the worst excesses of the Polish secret police.
16/1/1957. Wednesday (+4,271)
UK forces repelled an attempted invasion of the colony of Aden by Yemeni
forces. Aden was annexed from Yemeni territory by the British in 1839 as a
military stronghold and naval fuelling station. Yemeni forces managed to
overrun some villages just inside Aden but were repelled by ground based
rockets and air fire.
14/1/1957, Monday (+4,269)
Humphrey Bogart, American film actor and 1951 Oscar winner, died of throat
cancer.
13/1/1957, Sunday (+4,268)
Elvis Presley recorded All Shook Up
in a Hollywood studio.
12/1/1957, Saturday (+4,267) President Eisenhower urged the
USSR to agree to a ban on warfare in space.
11/1/1957, Friday
(+4,266)
10/1/1957. Thursday (+4,265) Eisenhower
was elected President of the USA, defeating the Democrat challenger, Adlai
Stevenson, to win a second term in office. He continued US vigilance against
Communism, and supported countries fighting off USSR and China-backed
insurgents. He also pledged to continue to support the UN.
9/1/1957. Wednesday
(+4,264) (1) Anthony Eden, aged 59, resigned
as Prime Minister, on grounds of ill-health, in the wake of the Suez Crisis. On
10/1/1957 Harold Macmillan became Prime Minister. Rab Butler was deputy PM but
had also supported the Suez adventure and there would have been a back-bench
revolt if Butler had become PM. A bitterly disappointed Butler received the
consolation prize of becoming Home Secretary under Macmillan, and Peter
Thorneycroft became the new Chancellor. Macmillan dismissed Labour calls for a
general election by the Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell, and busied himself with
mending relationships with the US under the recently elected President
Eisenhower.
(2) TV detector vans were first used by the UK Post Office to track down
licence dodgers.
7/1/1957. Monday (+4,262) President Khrushchev of the USSR welcomed
China’s Prime Minister Chou En Lai. Behind the scenes, however, there was
rivalry between the two countries. The USSR supported Manchurian and
Vietnamese Communists, and there were differences on how Communism should be
enforced. However Chou En Lai supported the USSR’s crackdown in 1956 in
Hungary.
5/1/1957, Saturday
(+4,260) In the USA, President Eisenhower announced the Eisenhower
Doctrine; that the US will protect the independence of Middle Eastern States,
fearing that the USSR was behind Arab nationalist movements.
4/1/1957. Friday (+4,259)
In the wake of the Suez Crisis, a UN sponsored force of German tugs and
salvage vessels began to clear the Suez Canal. 13 ships of various
nationalities had been stranded in the Canal and could now resume sailing
towards the Mediterranean. On 1/1/1957 President Colonel Gamal Nasser of Egypt
had abrogated a 1954 treaty that had preciously guaranteed the UK full access
to the Canal during international conflicts.
3/1/1957, Thursday
(+4,258)
1/1/1957, Tuesday
(+4,256) The Saar was formally
integrated in the German Federal Republic.
31/12/1956, Monday
(+4,255) 90% of Chinese farms had been re-organised into collectives, with
land, implements and animals owned collectively, not privately.
30/12/1956, Sunday (4,254)
The last passenger train ran on the Liverpool Overhead Railway. Although the
line was busy, major repairs were found to be needed to the overhead section
and there was no money for this.
27/12/1956, Thursday
(+4,251) Clearance work on the Suez
Canal began.
22/12/1956. Saturday (+4,246) Britain
and France withdrew their forces from Egypt, under intense pressure from the
USA. The Suez Crisis had caused a run on Sterling, and the US would not halt
this without a withdrawal.
18/12/1956. Tuesday (+4,242) Japan
joined the United Nations.
12/12/1956, Wednesday
(+4,236) Twelve attacks by the IRA
in Northern Ireland signalled the start of a new terror campaign.
11/12/1956, Tuesday
(+4,235) In Britain, the start of TV
broadcasting was moved forward from 7pm to 6pm.
10/12/1956.Monday (+4,234)
Martial law was declared in Hungary.
8/12/1956, Saturday (+4,232) (Poland, Christian)The
Polish government completed a process of reconciliation with the Catholic
Church. Cardinal Wyszynski had been released from prison on 26/10/1956, and on
this day the Church was now free to make its own ecclesiastical appointments.
Religious teaching in schools, and religious posts in hospitals and the army,
were restored. Criticism of government policies in church sermons was
permitted.
5/12/1956, Wednesday (+4,229)
Rose Heilbron became Britain’s first female judge. She sat in Burnley,
Lancashire.
2/12/1956, Sunday (+4,226) Fidel Castro clandestinely returned to eastern Cuba, from Mexico, landing in the yacht <