1962 in the United Kingdom

1962 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1960 | 1961 | 1962 (1962) | 1963 | 1964

Sport and Music

1962 English cricket season Football England | Scotland 1962 in British music

Events from the year 1962 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

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

Events

• 2 January – BBC television broadcasts the first episode of Z-Cars, noted as a realistic portrayal of the police.
• 5 January – The first album on which The Beatles play, My Bonnie, credited to "Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers" (recorded last June in Hamburg), is released by Polydor.
• 18 January – Union-Castle Line ship RMS Transvaal Castle (1961) makes her maiden voyage Southampton–Durban, perhaps the last major British ship built to enter the regular passenger ocean liner trade.
• 22 January – James Hanratty goes on trial for the A6 murder. He denies the murder of 36-year-old Michael Gregsten and the attempted murder of Mr Gregsten's mistress Valerie Storie, who was paralysed by a gunshot wound.
• 4 February – The Sunday Times becomes the first paper to print a colour supplement.
• 21 February – Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev first dance together in a Royal Ballet performance of Giselle.
• 23 February – Twelve European countries form the European Space Agency.
• 13 March – A by-election is held in Blackpool North.
• 14 March – A by-election is held in Middlesbrough East.
• 15 March – Orpington by-election, often described as the start of the Liberal Party revival in the UK, has Liberal Eric Lubbock upsetting the expected winner, Conservative candidate Peter Goldman for the seat in Orpington.
• 2 April – Panda crossings are introduced but their complex sequences of pulsating and flashing lights cause confusion amongst drivers and pedestrians.
• 4 April – James Hanratty is hanged at Bedford Prison for the A6 murder, despite protestations from many people who believed he was innocent, and the late introduction of witnesses who claimed to have seen him in Rhyl, North Wales, on the day of the murder.
• 18 April – Commonwealth Immigrants Act in the United Kingdom removes free immigration from the citizens of member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, requiring proof of employment in the UK. This comes into effect on 1 July.
• 28 April – Ipswich Town win the Football League First Division title in their first season at that level.
• 5 May – Tottenham Hotspur retain the FA Cup with a 3-1 win over Burnley at Wembley Stadium, with goals from Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Smith and captain Danny Blanchflower.
• 25 May – The new Coventry Cathedral is consecrated.
• 31 May
  • The Northern Ireland general election again produces a large majority for the Ulster Unionist Party, winning 34 out of 51 seats, though the Nationalist Party gains two seats for a total of 9.
  • The British West Indies Federation collapses and is officially wound up due to internal power struggles.
• 2 June
  • Britain's first legal casino opens in Brighton, Sussex.
  • St. Andrew's Methodist Church in Swindon, is officially opened in the presence of the Mayor & Mayoress of Swindon; Rev Fred Cottrell, Chairman of the Bristol Methodist District; the first minister of St. Andrew's, Rev B. Randolph Nash; Rev Raymond Wright, Swindon Circuit Superintendent; the Archdeacon of Swindon, the Ven. L.C. Cornwell and Mrs. Pocket, who officially opens the doors. The new building cost £30,000 and replaced the chapels at Haydon Wick, Moredon and Rodbourne Cheney. The Architect was W.H. Cripps of Oxford and the builders were W. Beard of Swindon. Over 200 people attended the ceremony.
• 6 June – The Beatles play their first session at Abbey Road Studios.
• 14 June – BBC television broadcasts the first series episode of the sitcom Steptoe and Son, written by Galton and Simpson.
• 1 July – Another heavy smog develops over London.
• 3 July – Opening of Chichester Festival Theatre, Britain's first large modern theatre with a thrust stage. Laurence Olivier is the first artistic director.
• 11 July – Live television broadcast from the USA to Britain for the first time, via the Telstar satellite and Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station.
• 12 July – The Rolling Stones make their debut at London's Marquee Club, Number 165 Oxford Street, opening for Long John Baldry.
• 13 July – In what the press dubs "the Night of the Long Knives", the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismisses one-third of his Cabinet.
• 20 July – The world's first regular passenger hovercraft service introduced between Rhyl in North Wales and Wallasey.
• 23 July – First live public transatlantic television broadcasts of full-length programmes, via the Telstar satellite.
• 28 July – Race riots break out in Dudley, West Midlands.
• 31 July – A crowd assaults the rally of the right-wing Union Movement of Sir Oswald Mosley in London.
• 4 August – Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, the Welsh Language Society, is founded.
• 6 August – Jamaica becomes independent.
• 17 August – The Tornados' recording of Joe Meek's Telstar is released.
• 18 August – The Beatles play their first live engagement with the line-up of John, Paul, George and Ringo, at Hulme Hall, Port Sunlight.
• 23 August – John Lennon secretly marries Cynthia Powell.
• 31 August
  • Trinidad and Tobago gains its independence.
  • Mountaineers Chris Bonington and Ian Clough becomes the first Britons to climb the north face of the Eiger.
• September – Ford launches its new Cortina family car, built at the Dagenham plant in London.
• 2 September – Glasgow Corporation Tramways runs its last cars in normal service, leaving the Blackpool system as the only remaining one in Britain.
• 8 September – Last Gentlemen v Players cricket match played, at Scarborough.
• 21 September
  • First broadcast of the long-running television quiz programme University Challenge.
  • Ford launches the Cortina, a family saloon costing £573.
• 5 October
  • Dr No, the first James Bond film, is released, with 32-year-old Edinburgh-born Sean Connery playing the lead, a British Secret Service agent.
  • The Beatles' first single in their own right, Love Me Do, is released by Parlophone.
• 9 October – Uganda gains its independence.
• 17 October – The Beatles make their first televised appearance on People and Places.
• 31 October – The UN General Assembly asks the United Kingdom to suspend enforcement of the new constitution in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), but the constitution comes into effect on November 1.
• 17 November – Seaham life-boat George Elmy capsizes entering harbour after service to coble Economy: all five crew and four of the five survivors are killed.
• 22 November – A by-election is held in Chippenham, Wiltshire.
• 24 November – The first episode of influential satire show That Was The Week That Was is broadcast on BBC Television.
• 29 November – An agreement is signed between Britain and France to develop the Concorde supersonic airliner.
• 2 December to 7 December – Severe smog in London causes numerous deaths.
• 9 December – Tanganyika (now Tanzania) becomes a republic within the Commonwealth, with Julius Nyerere as president.
• 10 December
  • Britons Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, along with American James D. Watson, win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material".
  • British biochemists Max Perutz and John Cowdery Kendrew win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work in investigating the structure of haem-containing proteins.
  • David Lean's film Lawrence of Arabia released.
• 19 December – Britain acknowledges the right of Nyasaland (now Malawi) to secede from the Central African Federation.
• 21 December – Nassau Agreement: Britain agrees to buy the Polaris missile system from the United States.
• 22 December – "Big Freeze" in Britain: no frost-free nights until 5 March 1963.
• 30 December – United Nations troops occupy the last rebel positions in Katanga; Moise Tshombe moves to South Rhodesia.

Undated

• Elizabeth Lane appointed as the first female County Court judge.
• Advertising Standards Authority founded.
• National Economic Development Council first meets.
• Britain's motorway network expands with the completion of the first phases of the M5 between Birmingham and north Gloucestershire and the M6 bypassing Stafford.[4]
• Golden Wonder introduce flavoured crisps (cheese & onion) to the UK market.
• Safeway opens its first supermarket at a store in Bedford.

Publications

• The anthology The New Poetry edited by Al Alvarez.
• Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange.
• Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side.
• Len Deighton's first novel The IPCRESS File.
• Ian Fleming's James Bond novel The Spy Who Loved Me.
• Dick Francis' first novel Dead Cert.
• Eric Hobsbawm's book The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789–1848.
• Aldous Huxley's novel Island.
• P. D. James' first novel Cover Her Face.
• Doris Lessing's novel The Golden Notebook.
• David Lodge’s novel Ginger You're Barmy.
• Anthony Sampson's study Anatomy of Britain.

Births

January – April

• 25 January – Emma Freud, English broadcaster and cultural commentator
• 7 February – Eddie Izzard, British actor and comedian
• 8 February – Malorie Blackman, British author
• 12 February – Jimmy Kirkwood, Irish-born field hockey player
• 21 February – Vanessa Feltz, British television presenter
• 25 February – John Lanchester, British journalist and novelist
• 4 March – Simon Bisley, British comic book artist
• 12 March – Graham Charles Stuart, British Conservative politician and MP for Beverley and Holderness
• 17 March – Clare Grogan, Scottish actress and singer
• 23 March – Steve Redgrave, English rower
• 27 March – John O'Farrell, British author and broadcaster
• 1 April – Phillip Schofield, British TV presenter
• 9 April – Imran Sherwani, British field hockey player
• 22 April – Ann McKechin, British Labour politician and MP for Glasgow North
• 23 April – John Hannah, Scottish actor
• April 24 – Roald Bradstock, English javelin thrower
• 26 April – Colin Anderson, English footballer

May – August

• 2 May – Jimmy White, British snooker player
• 6 May – Tom Brake, British Liberal Democrat politician and MP for Carshalton and Wallington
• 9 May – David Gahan, English singer (Depeche Mode)
• 14 May – Ian Astbury, British singer (The Cult)
• 17 May
  • Craig Ferguson, Scottish actor and television presenter
  • Alan Johnston, journalist
• 6 June - Mark Bright, English footballer, radio presenter and TV pundit
• 8 June – Nick Rhodes, English musician (Duran Duran)
• 25 June – Phill Jupitus, comedian and broadcaster
• 27 June – Michael Ball, singer
• 29 June – Amanda Donohoe, English actress
• 4 July – Neil Morrissey, English actor
• 1 August – Robert Clift, British field hockey player
• 20 August – Sophie Aldred, British actress and television presenter
• 30 August – Alexander Litvinenko, British citizen, ex-KGB colonel and ex-FSB lieutenant-colonel (died 2006)

September – December

• 5 September – Peter Wingfield, Welsh actor
• 24 September
  • Jack Dee, British comedian
  • Ally McCoist, Scottish footballer and TV pundit and A Question of Sport team captain
  • Mike Phelan, English footballer and football coach
• 26 September – Tracey Thorn, British singer
• 5 October – Caron Keating, British TV presenter (died 2004)
• 11 October – Nicola Bryant, British actress
• 18 October – Naive John, British Stuckist artist and figurative painter
• 25 October – Nick Hancock, British actor and television presenter
• 26 October – Cary Elwes, British actor
• 3 November
  • Marilyn, British musician
  • Jacqui Smith, politician
• 12 November – Mariella Frostrup, British journalist and television presenter
• 21 November - Alan Smith, English footballer
• 24 November – John Kovalic, Anglo-American cartoonist
• 27 November – Samantha Bond, British actress
• 3 December – Richard Bacon, British Conservative politician and MP for South Norfolk
• 17 December – Paul Dobson, English footballer
• 22 December – Ralph Fiennes, English actor
• 31 December – Heather McCartney (born Heather Louise See), adopted daughter of Sir Paul McCartney

Unknown dates

• Daljit Dhaliwal, British newsreader and television presenter
• Hugh Dennis, British actor, comedian and writer (The Now Show)
• Steve Punt, British actor, comedian and writer (The Now Show)
• Boothby Graffoe, English comedian, singer, songwriter and playwright
• Randy Lerner, American entrepreneur and owner of Aston Villa
• John Micklethwait, British journalist and editor-in-chief of The Economist magazine
• Saskia Reeves, British actress
• Colin Salmon, British actor
• Polly Samson, British journalist and writer
• Alan Yau, British restaurateur (Wagamama food chain)

Deaths

• 10 April – Stuart Sutcliffe, English artist and musician (The Beatles) (born 1940)
• 5 May – Ernest Tyldesley, English cricketer (born 1889)
• 2 June – Vita Sackville-West, English writer and landscape gardener (born 1892)
• 12 June – John Ireland, English composer (born 1879)
• 13 June – Eugène Aynsley Goossens, English composer (born 1893)
• 21 July – G.M. Trevelyan, English historian (born 1876)
• 27 July – Richard Aldington, English poet (born 1892)
• 15 December – Charles Laughton, English actor and director (born 1899)

See also

• UK No.1 Hits of 1962
• List of Statutory Instruments of the United Kingdom, 1962
• Society of Film and Television Arts Television Awards 1962