BRITAIN AND THE WORLD SINCE 1953
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Jan12 | The Labour Government announces that a new town will be built around the village of Milton Keynes |
Jan27 | Lt. Col. Virgil I. Gus Grissom, Lt. Cmdr. Roger B. Chaffee, and White die in a command module fire in ground test |
Jan18 | Jeremy Thorpe is elected Leader of the Liberal Party succeeding Jo Grimond. |
Jan30 | 50,000 Vietcong and North Vietnamese forces launched a ferocious surprise attack on Saigon and 30 provincial capitals in South Vietnam, penetrating the U.S. embassy grounds in Saigon at one point. The attack brought into serious question the reports of progress from U.S. officials and military commanders in Vietnam. |
Feb3 | In Holloway Road, London, the record producer Joe Meek murders his landlady and then commits suicide |
Feb14 | King Constantine of Greece flees the country after his attempted coup d'etat fails |
UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson predicts impending peaceful settlement of Vietnamese conflict | |
Mar4 | The first North Sea gas is pumped ashore at Easington Co Durham |
Mar9 | Svetlana Alliluyeva the daughter of Stalin defects to the West |
Mar14 | The body of President Kennedy was moved from a temporary grave to a permanent memorial site at Arlington National Cemetery. |
Mar18 | Torrey Canyon oil tanker runs aground off Lands End causing massive pollution. It was bombed to destruction on Mar30 |
Apr8 | Sandie Shaw wins the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna with "Puppet on a String" |
Apr9 | First Boeing 737 rolls out |
Apr21 | Military coup in Greece led by Papadopolous and General Patakos |
Apr28 | Muhammad Ali refuses induction into army and is stripped of the Heavyweight Championship. On May 8 he is indicted for draft evasion |
May22 | Fire at the Brussels department store"L'Innovation" killed more than 320 people. |
May25 | Glasgow Celtic became the first British football club to win the European Cup beating Inter Milan 2-1 in the final in Lisbon |
May30 | Biafara declares independence from Nigeria |
May28 | Francis Chichester arrives in Plymouth after solo nonstop circumnavigation (knighted 7 Jul) |
Jun4 | Donald Campbell dies on Coniston Water during an attempt on the world water speed record |
Jun5 | Six Day War between Israel and Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon began. |
Jun16 | Monterey, California: Monterey Pop Festival opens with the Association, the Paupers, Beverly, Lou Rawls, Eric Burdon and the New Animals, and Simon and Garfunkel |
Jul1 | First Colour TV transmission in Britain |
Jul13 | Public Record Act-records now closed for only 30 years (but census still closed for 100 years) |
Jul15 | Roberto DeVicenzo of Argentina wins golf's British Open |
Jul18 | Withdrawal from East of Suez by mid 1970s announced |
Jul23 -
Jul30 |
After a police raid on an illegal bar, a devastating riot occurs in Detroit. 45 people are killed, 7,000 arrested with 2,500 stores burned to the ground amid widescale looting. Governor George Romney sent 8,000 National Guardsmen to the city to restore order Many white Detroiters say the race riots compelled them to abandon the city for good The flight to the suburbs meant that Detroit has never really recovered. In every sense, the riot really did destroy a city. |
Aug8 | ASEAN founded with the founder members being Indonesia, Malaysia,Singapore, Philippines and thailand |
Aug15 | A Bill is passed by the Labour Government banning pirate radio stations in Britain |
Aug25 | Leader of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell, was shot dead. |
Aug26 | The death of Brian Epstein the Beatles manager from an drug overdose |
Sep3 | Sweden changes the rule of road to drive on right |
Sep20 | QE2 launched on Clydebank |
Sep27 | Queen Mary arrives Southampton at end of her last transatlantic voyage |
Sep30 | Radio 1 starts broadcasing the first record being The Move's "Flowers In The Rain" |
Oct5 | Introduction of majority verdicts in English courts |
Oct9 | Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara is shot and killed by in Bolivia by regular soldiers |
Oct21 | Tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters marched inWashington. |
Oct25 | Abortion Bill is passed by Parliament |
Nov5 | One of the worst British Rail crashes occurs at Hither Green when 49 people were killed and 78 hurt |
Nov9 | John Wenner launches the Rolling Stone magazine in San Francisco |
Nov15 | BBC Radio Sheffield comes on air on 88.6 Sheffield 95.05 Rotherham |
Nov18 | UK devaluation against the dollar to $2.40 - Wilson, fresh from predicting an early end to the Vietnam War (Feb14) now states that the devaluation "will not affect the pound in your pocket" |
Nov27 | French President Charles de Gaulle vetos British entry into the Common Market |
Dec3 | First human heart transplant is performed in Groote Schurr Hospital Capetown South Africa by Dr Christain Barnard. The patient Louis Washansky received the heart of a young girl (Davall) who had died earlier that day in a road accident. Unforunately the patient only lived a further 18 days |
Dec5 | Apple clothing store opens at 94 Baker Street London |
Dec9 | Nicolea Ceausescu becomes President (dictator) of Romania |
Dec17 | Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared while swimming at Cheviot Beach near Portsea, Victoria. His body was never recovered. Without determining the cause of Holt's death, a joint report by Commonwealth and Victoria Police, submitted in January 1968, concluded that, ‘...there has been no indication that the disappearance of the late Mr Holt was anything other than accidental’. |
Dec26 | BBC broadcast the Beatles film "The Magical Mystery Tour" to a "mixed response" |
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Last Updated 24/02/03 09:38