January • January – The
Space hopper toy is introduced to the United Kingdom. • 2 January •
People's Democracy begins a march from
Belfast to
Derry City,
Northern Ireland to gain publicity and to promote its cause. • Australian media mogul
Rupert Murdoch purchases the best-selling UK Sunday newspaper
The News of the World. • 4 January – Guitarist
Jimi Hendrix causes complaints of arrogance from television producers after playing an impromptu version of "Sunshine Of Your Love" past his allotted timeslot on the BBC1 programme
Happening for Lulu. • 5 January –
Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to
Gatwick Airport, killing 50 of the 62 people on board and two of the home's occupants. • 10 January – Protesters in
Northern Ireland defy police orders to abandon a planned march. • 14 January –
Sir Matt Busby, hugely successful manager of
Manchester United F.C. for the last twenty-four years, announces his retirement as manager. He will become a director at the end of the season, and hand over first-team duties to current first team trainer and former player
Wilf McGuinness. • 17 January –
Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity Barbara Castle publishes a
White Paper In Place of Strife proposing powers of intervention in advance of industrial action. This proves unacceptable to the
Trades Union Congress. • 18 January –
Pete Best wins his defamation lawsuit against
The Beatles. He had originally sought $8,000,000 but is awarded considerably less. • 24 January • Violent protests by students about the installation of steel security gates close the
London School of Economics, which does not reopen for three weeks. • Launch of the
Ford Capri, a four-seater sporting coupe designed to compete with the likes of the
MG B and which
Ford expects to become a top 10 seller in the United Kingdom. • 27 January • London School of Economics students occupy the
University of London Union building in
Malet Street in protest at the temporary closure of the LSE. • Reverend
Ian Paisley, the hard line
Protestant leader in
Northern Ireland, is jailed for three months for illegal assembly. • 30 January –
The Beatles' rooftop concert:
The Beatles perform together in public for the final time, on the rooftop of
Apple Records in London; the impromptu concert is broken up by the police.
February • 18 February – Pop star
Lulu, 20, marries
Maurice Gibb of the
Bee Gees at
St James Church, Gerrards Cross.
March • 4 March – The
Kray twins are both found guilty of
murder: Ronnie of murdering
George Cornell; Reggie of murdering
Jack "the Hat" McVitie. On 5 March, they are sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum of thirty years by Mr Justice
Melford Stevenson. • 5 March – The first
B&Q DIY superstore is set up in
Southampton by Richard Block and
David Quayle. • 7 March – The
London Underground Victoria line is opened by
The Queen. • 29 March –
Lulu, representing the UK with the song "
Boom Bang-a-Bang", shares first place in the
Eurovision Song Contest in a four-way tie with
France, the
Netherlands and the host country,
Spain.
April • April – The
Raleigh Chopper children's
wheelie bike is launched. • 1 April – The
Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.1
V/STOL "
jump jet"
fighter enters service with the
Royal Air Force. • 9 April • The British prototype
Concorde airliner makes its first flight, from
Bristol Filton Airport (the first French flight was on 2 March). • 15 April -
Roy Jenkins,
Chancellor of the Exchequer, ends tax relief on loan interest except for business loans and home loans. • 17 April •
Representation of the People Act lowers the voting age from 21 to 18 •
Bernadette Devlin wins the
Mid Ulster by-election and becomes the youngest female MP (until 2015) at 21 years old. • The final episode of the long-running
BBC Radio serial drama ''
Mrs Dale's Diary'' is broadcast. • 28 April –
Leeds United win the
Football League First Division title for the first time in their history.
May • 2 May –
Ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs from
Southampton on her maiden voyage to
New York.
June • 7 June – Rock supergroup
Blind Faith plays its first gig in front of 100,000 people in London's
Hyde Park. • 14 June – The black horse
Burmese, ridden by the
Queen, makes her first appearance at
Trooping the Colour; the horse will continue in this role until 1986. • 21 June • The showing of
television documentary The Royal Family, attracted more than 30,600,000 viewers, more than half of the entire UK population at the time, an all-time British record for a non-current event programme. •
Patrick Troughton makes his final appearance as the
Second Doctor in
Doctor Who in the final episode of
The War Games which is also the last episode to be recorded in black and white. • 24 June – After the
1969 Rhodesian constitutional referendum votes in favour of becoming a
Republic, the
Governor of Southern Rhodesia Sir
Humphrey Gibbs leaves Government House, severing
Rhodesia's last diplomatic relationship with the United Kingdom. • 30 June – Two members of the
Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Movement for the Defence of Wales) are killed when a bomb they are planting outside government offices in
Abergele in an attempt to disrupt the following day's events explodes prematurely.
July • 1 July • Prince Charles (the future
Charles III), is invested as
Prince of Wales at
Caernarfon. •
John Lennon,
Yoko Ono and their children are hospitalised at
Golspie in
Scotland following a car accident while on holiday. • 3 July –
Swansea is granted
city status. • 5 July –
The Rolling Stones performs at the free festival
The Stones in the Park outdoors in
Hyde Park, London, in front of at least a quarter of a million fans, two days after the death of founder
Brian Jones. • 10 July –
Donald Crowhurst's sailing
trimaran Teignmouth Electron is found drifting and unoccupied in mid-Atlantic; it is presumed that Crowhurst committed suicide (or fell overboard) at sea earlier in the month, having falsified his progress in the solo
Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. • 12 July – Golfer
Tony Jacklin wins
The Open Championship, • 23 July –
BBC2 television first airs the
Pot Black snooker tournament. • 24 July – British lecturer
Gerald Brooke is freed from a
Soviet prison in exchange for the spies
Morris and
Lona Cohen. • 25 July – The
Family Law Reform Act 1969 receives royal assent and comes partly into effect in England and Wales. It reduces the
age of majority from 21 to 18 (with effect from 1 January 1970); allows a
bastard child to inherit on the
intestacy of a parent; and allows competent 16- and 17-year-olds to consent to medical treatment.
August • 1 August – The pre-decimal
halfpenny ceases to be
legal tender. • 14 August – British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland to restore law and order. • 30–31 August – The second
Isle of Wight Festival attracts 150,000 pop music fans, paying £10 2s for a 3-day ticket, with the appearance of
Bob Dylan a major draw.
September • 11 September – The housing charity
Shelter releases a report claiming that there are up to 3,000,000 people in need of rehousing due to poor living conditions. • 16 September – Iconic 1960s fashion store
Biba reopens on
Kensington High Street. • 26 September –
The Beatles release their
Abbey Road album which is an enormous commercial success and, although receiving mixed reviews at this time, comes to be viewed by many as the group's best. • 28 September – The
National Trust acquires ownership of the island of
Lundy.
October • 1 October – The
Post Office becomes a
statutory corporation. • 5 October – The first episode of surreal sketch comedy series ''
Monty Python's Flying Circus'' is broadcast on
BBC Television. • 13 October –
An unofficial strike amongst British mineworkers begins, over the working hours of surface workers. • 14 October • The new seven-sided
fifty pence coin is introduced as replacement for the ten-shilling note, to a mixed reception from the British public, with many people complaining that it is easily confused with the 10p coin. • With a general election due within the next eighteen months, opinion polls show the Conservatives comfortably ahead of Labour, by up to 24 points. • 16 October –
Peter Nichols'
black comedy The National Health is premiered by the
National Theatre at the
Old Vic in London. • 21 October –
Led Zeppelin release
Led Zeppelin II to critical acclaim and commercial success. • 27 October – A mass wildlife cull takes place in
Surrey after 2 people are bitten by a
rabid dog.
November • 15 November – Regular colour television broadcasts begin on
BBC1 and
ITV. • 16 November – BBC One first broadcasts the
children's television series
Clangers, made by
Oliver Postgate and
Peter Firmin's
Smallfilms in
stop motion animation. • 17 November –
The Sun newspaper is relaunched as a
tabloid under the ownership of
Rupert Murdoch. • 19 November –
Ken Loach's film
Kes is released at the
London Film Festival. • 25 November –
John Lennon returns his
MBE to protest against the British Government's involvement in
Biafra and support of the U.S. war in Vietnam. • 15 December –
Martins Bank is purchased by
Barclays. • 17 December –
Constitutional law case of
Anisminic Ltd v Foreign Compensation Commission decided in the House of Lords establishes in
English administrative law the "
collateral fact doctrine", that any
error of law made by a public body will make its decision a nullity and that a statutory exclusion clause does not deprive the courts from their jurisdiction in
judicial review unless it expressly states this. • 18 December • The
abolition of the death penalty for murder is made permanent by Parliament. • 26 December – A fire at the Rose and Crown Hotel,
Saffron Walden, kills eleven. • 30 December – The
Linwood bank robbery in Scotland leaves two police officers dead.
Undated •
Golden eagles are found to be nesting in England for the first time in modern history, at
Haweswater in the
Lake District. • Completion of the
Castle Vale estate in
Birmingham, the largest postwar housing estate in the United Kingdom. The new estate predominantly consists of
council housing, including 34 tower blocks – the largest number on any single British housing estate. The first residents moved onto Castle Vale in 1964 when the first houses and flats were completed. == Publications ==