1961 in the United Kingdom

1961 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1959 | 1960 | 1961 (1961) | 1962 | 1963

Sport and Music

1961 English cricket season Football England | Scotland 1961 in British music

Events from the year 1961 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister – Harold Macmillan, Conservative Party

Events

• 1 January
  • The farthing coin, used since the 13th century, ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom.
  • The Conservative Monday Club is established.
• 7 January – The Avengers television series first screened on ITV.
• 9 January – British authorities announce that they have discovered a large Soviet spy ring in London.
• 5 February – Sunday Telegraph first published.
• 19 February – Police break up a demonstration outside the Belgian embassy in London protesting about the murder of the ex-Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba.
• 13 March
  • The five members of the Portland Spy Ring go on trial at the Old Bailey accused of passing nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union.
  • Black and white £5 notes cease to be legal tender.
• 15 March – Jaguar launches its new E Type sports car, available as a two-seater roadster and 2+2 coupe.
• 20 March – Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, becomes the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and its company the Royal Shakespeare Company (Peter Hall (director)).
• 21 March – The Beatles perform at the legendary Cavern Club in Liverpool for the first time.
• 3 April - The Jaguar E-Type, a sports car capable of 150mph, is launched as a two-seater roadster or 2+2 coupe.
• 17 April – Tottenham Hotspur win the Football League First Division for the second time, with a 2-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday. They have epically failed to win it since.
• 27 April – Sierra Leone gains independence from the UK.
• 1 May
  • Betting shops are legalised.
  • A fire at the Top Storey Club in Bolton results in nineteen deaths. A new Licencing Act is rapidly passed to improve fire safety.
• 2 May – The United Kingdom becomes a member of the OECD.
• 6 May – Tottenham Hotspur becomes the first English football team this century, and only the third in history, to win the double of the league title and FA Cup, with a 2-0 victory over Leicester City in the FA Cup Final. (The last previous team to achieve this were Aston Villa in 1897.)
• 8 May – George Blake is sentenced to 42 years imprisonment for spying, having been found guilty of being a double agent in the pay of the Soviet Union.
• 17 May – Consecration of Guildford Cathedral.
• 28 May – Peter Benenson's article "The Forgotten Prisoners" is published in several internationally read newspapers. This will later be thought of as the founding of the human rights organization Amnesty International.
• 8 June - The Duke of Kentmarries Katherine Worsley
• 14 June – The government unveils new "panda" crossings with push button controls for pedestrians. The new crossings will appear on British roads next year.[3]
• 19 June – The British protectorate ends in Kuwait and it becomes an emirate.
• 27 June
  • Michael Ramsey enthroned as the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury, in succession to Geoffrey Fisher.
  • Kuwait requests British help; the United Kingdom sends in troops.
• July – Government calls for a voluntary 'pay pause' in wage increases (continuing to April 1962).
• 4 July – Barclays open their 'No. 1 Computer Centre' in Drummond Street, London, with an EMI mainframe computer, Britain’s first bank with an in-house computing centre.
• 21 July – The Runcorn Widnes Bridge (later known as the Silver Jubilee Bridge) over the River Mersey opened by Princess Alexandra.
• 25 July – The Lancashire-set film Whistle Down the Wind, starring Hayley Mills and Alan Bates, opens.
• 10 August – Britain applies for membership in the EEC.
• 16 August – The play Lady Chatterley by John Harte – based on D. H. Lawrence's novel – opens at the Arts Theatre in London and is well reviewed by West End theatre critic Harold Hobson.
• 23 August – Police launch a manhunt for the perpetrator of the A6 murder, who shot dead 36-year-old Michael Gregsten and paralysed his mistress Valerie Storie.
• 31 August – Premiere of the film Victim, notable as the first in English to use the word "homosexual".
• September
  • Film A Taste of Honey, including themes of unmarried pregnancy and homosexuality, released.
  • First Mothercare shop opens, in Kingston upon Thames.
• 4 September – James Pitman's Initial Teaching Alphabet is tested in a number of schools.
• 16 September – Three people die and 35 are injured when a stand collapses during a Glasgow Rangers football match at Ibrox Park.[4]
• 17 September – Police arrest over 1,300 protesters in Trafalgar Square during a CND rally.
• October – Acker Bilk's Stranger on the Shore released.
• 1 October – Religious programme Songs of Praise first broadcast on BBC Television; it will still be running fifty years later.
• 9 October – Skelmersdale, a small Lancashire town 15 miles north-east of Liverpool, is designated as a new town and its population will expand over the coming years, bolstered by large council housing developments to re-house families from inner city slums on Merseyside.
• 10 October – The population of the South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha is evacuated to Britain because of a volcanic eruption.
• 25 October – The first edition of Private Eye, the satirical magazine, is published.
• 8 November – In a referendum on Sunday opening of public houses in Wales, the counties of Anglesey, Cardiganshire, Caernarfonshire, Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire, Merionethshire, Montgomeryshire and Pembrokeshire all vote to stay "dry".
• 27 November – Royal Air Force participates in air drops of food to flood victims in Somalia.
• 4 December – Birth control pills become available on the National Health Service after their availability is backed by Health Minister Enoch Powell.
• 9 December – Tanganyika gains independence from the UK.

Undated

• Park Hill Flats, Sheffield, opened.
• Release of short documentary film Seawards the Great Ships, which will be the first Scottish film to win an Academy Award.

Publications

• Agatha Christie's novel The Pale Horse.
• Ian Fleming's novel Thunderball.
• Richard Hughes' novel The Fox in the Attic.
• John le Carré's first novel Call for the Dead, introducing the character George Smiley.
• Iris Murdoch's novel A Severed Head.
• Muriel Spark's short novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
• Evelyn Waugh's novel Unconditional Surrender, last of the Sword of Honour trilogy.
• Parker Morris Committee's report Homes for Today and Tomorrow.
• Raymond Williams's The Long Revolution sets out the importance of cultural change.

Births

January – April

• 1 January – Mark Wingett, British actor
• 12 January – Simon Russell Beale, British actor
• 13 January – Suggs, British singer (Madness)
• 18 January - Peter Beardsley, English footballer and football coach
• 31 January – Lloyd Cole, British singer and songwriter
• 16 February – Andy Taylor, British musician (Duran Duran)
• 20 February – Imogen Stubbs, British actress
• 24 February – John Grogan, British Labour politician
• 3 March – Fatima Whitbread, British javelin thrower and Olympic medalist
• 12 March – Betty Sworowski, English racewalker
• 26 March – William Hague, British Politician
• 27 March – Ellery Hanley, English rugby league footballer and coach
• 29 March – Michael Winterbottom, British filmmaker
• 14 April – Robert Carlyle, Scottish actor
• 17 April – Bella Freud, British fashion designer and columnist
• 18 April – Jane Leeves, English actress
• 20 April – Nicholas Lyndhurst, actor

May – August

• 2 May – Phil Vickery, British celebrity chef
• 4 May - Jay Aston, English singer
• 8 May – Janet McTeer, British actress
• 12 May – Billy (William H) Duffy, English guitarist (The Cult)
• 14 May – Tim Roth, English actor
• 30 May – Harry Enfield, English comedian
• 5 June – Rosie Kane, member of Scottish Parliament
• 13 June – Bob Crow, British trade union leader
• 14 June – Boy George, English musician
• 15 June – Dave McAuley, Northern Irish boxer
• 25 June – Ricky Gervais, English comedian
• 27 June – Meera Syal, British comedian and writer
• 1 July – Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 1997)
• 17 July – Jeremy Hardy, English comedian, broadcaster, and singer
• 3 August – Nicholas Harvey, English politician
• 7 August – Brian Conley, English comedian, television presenter, singer and actor
• 22 August – Roland Orzabal, English musician (Tears for Fears)

September – December

• 7 September – Kevin Kennedy, British actor
• 13 September – Tom Holt, British author
• 22 September – Liam Fox, British Conservative politician and Shadow Defence Secretary
• 26 September – Will Self, English novelist, reviewer and columnist
• 29 September – Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia
• 20 October - Ian Rush, Welsh footballer and football manager
• 3 November – David Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley, chairman of Christie's U.K. auction house
• 4 November – Nigel Worthington, Northern Irish footballer and football manager
• 9 November – Jill Dando, television newsreader (died 1999)
• 16 November – Frank Bruno, British boxer
• 20 November – Dave Watson, English footballer
• 26 November – Karan Bilimoria, Baron Bilimoria, British Asian entrepreneur and university chancellor
• 28 November – Martin Clunes, actor
• 11 December – Marco Pierre White, British chef and restaurateur
• 12 December
  • Sarah Sutton, British actress
  • Philip Parkin, Welsh golfer
• 19 December – Matthew Waterhouse, British actor
• 29 December – Jim Reid, Scottish musician
• 31 December – Sharon Gibson, English javelin thrower

Unknown dates

• Sexton Ming, British artist, poet and musician
• Gerard Woodward, British novelist and poet

Deaths

• 26 January – Stan Nichols, English cricketer (born 1900)
• 6 March – George Formby, British singer, comedian and actor (born 1904)
• 8 March – Thomas Beecham, English conductor (born 1879)
• 7 April – Vanessa Bell, English artist and interior designer (born 1879)
• 28 June – Huw Menai, Welsh poet (born 1886)
• 1 October – Sir William Reid Dick, Scottish sculptor (born 1879)
• 13 October
  • Augustus John, Welsh artist (born 1878)
  • John MacCormick, Scottish lawyer (born 1904)
• 24 December – Charles Hamilton, English children's story writer (born 1876)

See also

• UK No.1 Hits of 1961
• List of Statutory Instruments of the United Kingdom, 1961
• Society of Film and Television Arts Television Awards 1961