BRITAIN AND THE WORLD SINCE 1953
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| Jan23 | A British diplomat is reported missing by the Embassy in Beruit. His name is Kim Philby |
| Jan28 | Black student Harvey Gantt entered Clemson College in South Carolina, the last state to hold out against integration. |
| Jan29 | France under Charles De Gaulle vetos Britain's entry into the Common Market |
| Feb11 | The unemployment total for the UK reaches 878,000 the highest since 1947. In an effort to combat this rise the Labour Party elect Harold Wilson as leader three days later |
| Feb18 | Gunung Agung the highest and most venerated of Bali's volcanos begins to erupt. These eruptions resulted in the death of over 1500 people and left 100,000 people homeless. The entire island of Bali was covered in ash and crops were destroyed everywhere. It has remained dormant since |
| Feb21 | An earthquake in Libya destroys the village of Barce killling 500 people |
| Feb27 | Female suffrage is permitted in Iran |
| Mar5 | A
private plane crash near Camden, Tennessee, claimed the
lives of country music performers Patsy Cline,
"Cowboy" Copas and "Hawkshaw" Hawkins. |
| Mar15 | BBC ended its ban on mentioning politics, royalty, religion and sex in comedy shows. |
| Mar16 | The volcanic Mount Agung on Bali erupts, killing at least 11,000 people. |
| Mar18 | James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi |
| Mar21 | Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay, a harsh maximum security jail which once housed gangster Al Capone, closed when the last 27 prisoners were transferred. It was also renowned for its escape-proof status. Three men who may have successfully escaped were Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin, who made a bid for freedom on 11 June 1962. The three were never seen again but no evidence has ever been found to solve the mystery of their disappearance |
| Mar22 | John Profumo (Secretary of State for War) makes personal statement to Parliament. On Jun4 he again makes a statement and said his first one misled the House. He resigned. Five days later the News of the World serialises the life of Christine Keeler |
| Mar27 | Beeching Report on British Railways (the 'Beeching Axe') is released |
| Apr7 | Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was established with Marshall Tito as its President for life. |
| Apr9 | Sir Winston Churchill gains honorary citizenship of the USA - the honour is accepted by his son Randolph |
| Apr10 | The US nuclear submarine Thresher sinks to the bottom of the Mediterranean killing all 129 men on board |
| Apr15 | 70,000 marchers arrived in London from Aldermarston in a huge demonstration against nuclear weapons. |
| May23 | Fidel Castro visits the USSR and becomes the first foreigner to receive the title "Hero of The Soviet Union" |
| May25 | Amateur-professional status ended in English cricket |
| Jun1 | Kenya gains formal independence from Britain |
| Jun2 | Slavery is declared illegal in Saudi-Arabia |
| Jun3 | Pope John XX111 dies in Rome |
| Jun5 | British
War Minister John Profumo resigned from government and
parliament after admitting he had lied to the House of
Commons about his affair with call girl Christine Keeler. |
| June11 | A Buddhist monk Thich Quang Due immolates himself in Saigon in protest at the anti-Buddhist policies that are being enacted by the government of President Diem |
| Jun16 | The first woman to travel into space blasted off. Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova made her flight in USSR craft Vostok 6 and spent almost three days in orbit. Although the event is groundbreaking, it will be a further 19 years before the second female space passenger goes into space |
| Jun26 | President John F Kennedy on a visit to West Germany declaring "Ich bin ein Berliner" |
| Jun30 | The telephone "hotline" is activated between the White House and the Kremlin |
| Jul1 | Zip codes are introduced in the USA |
| July26 | An earhquake in Skopje Yugoslavia kills 1800 people |
| Jul30 | Soviet newspaper Izvestia reported that Kim Philby, recently revealed as the "third man" in Britain's Burgess and Maclean spy affair, had been given asylum in Moscow. He was to spend the rest of his life in exile |
| Aug1 | Minimum prison age raised to 17 |
| Aug8 | The Great Train Robbery on Glasgow to London mail train |
| Aug9 | Ready Steady Go! was first transmitted by ITV to rival the BBC's Top of the Pops |
| Aug28 | Martin Luther King's speech at The Lincoln Memorial - "I have a dream that one day" |
| Sep2 | Gov. George C. Wallace prevents the integration of Tuskegee High School in Alabama by encircling the building with state troopers |
| Sep5 | Christine Keeler was arrested and charged with perjury. On December 6 she was found guilty and sentenced to nine months in jail |
| Sep10 | Twenty black students entered public schools in Birmingham, Mobile, and Tuskegee, Alabama, after President John F. Kennedy sent National Guardsman to end the standoff with Alabama Governor George Wallace. |
| Sep15 | Four girls were killed when dynamite exploded outside the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Four men, believed to be members of the Ku Klux Klan, were identified as suspects: One died before standing trial. Two others were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison: Robert Chambliss in 1977 (he died in prison), and Thomas Blanton Jr. in 2001.Bobby Frank Cherry was charged in 2000 along with Blanton, but was ruled incompetent to stand trial. |
| Sep16 | The Malaysian Federation is founded but there are riots in Jakarta when mobs attack the British and Malaysian embassies. Indonesia breaks off relations with Malaysia and five days later Sukarno vows to crush the Federation |
| Sep17 | A church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama killed four young children, helping to mobilize the civil rights movement. |
| Sep17 | Fylingdales (North Yorks Moors) early warning system operational |
| Sep25 | Denning Report on Profumo affair |
| Oct18 | Prime Minister Harold Macmillan resigns as Prime and is replaced by Sir Alec Douglas Hume |
| Nov2 | The President of South Vietnam Ngo Dinh Diem is assassinated along with his brother in an US sponsored military coup |
| Nov14 | A volcanic eruption under the sea near Iceland creates a new island that was later called Surtsey. |
| Nov18 | Dartford Tunnel opens |
| Nov22 | President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas by an alleged lone gunman who is later identified as Lee Harvey Oswald |
| Nov23 | The first episode of Dr Who appeared on British TV. - BBC |
| Nov24 | First live murder was shown on TV, Jack Ruby shoots Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK's assassin, in the garage of Dallas Police headquarters. Millions of Americans witnessed the murder on live TV. |
| Dec6 | Christine Keeler who was a central figure in the "Profumo Scandal" is jailed for nine months for perjury. |
| Dec12 | Kenya gains independence with Jomo Kenyatta as it's first President |
| Dec24 | A brief civil war begins in Cyprus between Greek and Turkish Cypriots |
| Dec31 | Central African Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was formally dissolved. On January 22 1964 Kenneth Kaunda is inaugurated as the first President of Northern Rhodesia |
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Last Updated 13/08/08 11:20