From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1959 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1957 | 1958 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961

Sport and Music

British and Irish current events

1959 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

1959 in British music

Events from the year 1959 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister - Harold Macmillan, Conservative Party

Events

• 29 January - Dense fog brings chaos to Britain.^[1]
• 19 February - The United Kingdom grants Cyprus its independence.
• 23 February - Prime Minister Harold Macmillan holds talks with the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev on a visit to the USSR.^[2]
• 7 March - Independence movement leader Kanyama Chiume, wanted in the British territory of Nyasaland, flees to London and goes into hiding.^[3]
• 30 March - 20,000 demonstrators attend a CND rally in Trafalgar Square.
• 22 April - Ballerina Margot Fonteyn is released from prison in Panama on suspicion of planning a coup against the government of president Ernesto de la Guardia.^[4]
• 30 April - Icelandic gunboat fires on British trawlers in the Cod Wars.
• May - First Ten Tors event held in Dartmoor.
• 2 May - the Chapelcross nuclear power station in Scotland opens.^[5]
• 24 May - British Empire Day becomes Commonwealth Day.
• 28 May - Mermaid Theatre opens in the City of London.
• late May / early June - import tariffs lifted in the United Kingdom.
• 3 June - Singapore is granted self-governing status.
• 11 June - Christopher Cockerell's invention the Hovercraft officially launched.^[6]
• 22 June - Harrods enters talks with Debenhams over a possible £34 million merger.
• 23 June - Klaus Fuchs released from Wakefield prison having served over nine years for giving British nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union.^[5]
• 29 June - Obscene Publications Act becomes law.
• 28 July - UK postcodes introduced.^[5]
• 24 August - House of Fraser wins the bidding war for Harrods in a £37million deal.^[7]
• 26 August - The first Mini goes on sale.^[5]
• 31 August - Harold Macmillan and United States president Dwight Eisenhower make a joint television broadcast from Downing Street.^[8]
• 7 October - 300 people need to be rescued when a fire breaks out on Southend Pier.^[9]
• 8 October - General Election results in a Conservative victory, with Macmillan increasing his majority.^[10]
• 12 October - Large scale diamond robbery in London.
• 21 October - Mau Mau leader Dedan Kimathi is arrested in Nyeri, Kenya.
• 2 November - The first section of the M1 motorway is opened^[5] between Watford and Rugby. It is set to be extended over the next few years, southwards to Edgware and northwards to Leeds.
• 5 November - Philip John Noel-Baker wins the Nobel Peace Prize.^[11]
• 20 November - Britain becomes a founder member of the European Free Trade Association.
• November - The nuclear Dounreay Fast Reactor comes on line.^[12]

Publications

• Agatha Christie - Cat Among the Pigeons
• Ian Fleming - Goldfinger
• Colin MacInnes - Absolute Beginners
• Mervyn Peake - Titus Alone
• Alan Sillitoe - The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

Births

January - February

• 7 January - Angela Evans Smith, British Labour Co-operative politician and MP for Basildon
• 16 January - Sade Adu, Nigerian-born British singer, composer, songwriter and record producer
• 30 January - Alex Hyde-White, English actor
• 3 February - Lol Tolhurst, cofounder and former drummer/keyboardist of The Cure
• 23 February - Richard Dodds, British field hockey player
• 27 February - Simon Critchley, British philosopher

March - April

• 1 March - Nick Griffin, British politician and chairman of the British National Party (BNP)
• 9 March - Mark Carwardine, British zoologist
• 15 March - Ben Okri,Nigerian-born poet and novelist.
• 20 March - Steve McFadden, British actor
• 21 March - Colin Jones, Welsh boxer
• 5 April - Ian Pearson,British Labour politician and MP for Dudley South
• 15 April - Emma Thompson, English actress, comedian, and screenwriter.
• 16 April - Alison Ramsay, Scottish field hockey player
• 21 April - Robert Smith, British musician (The Cure)
• 25 April - Adrian Sanders, British Liberal Democrat politician and MP for Torbay
• 27 April - Sheena Easton, Scottish singer

May - June

• 3 May - Ben Elton, British comedian and writer
• 5 May - Ian McCulloch, English singer (Echo & the Bunnymen)
• 15 May - Andrew Eldritch, British musician (The Sisters of Mercy)
• 16 May - Tracy Hyde, English actress and model
• 17 May - Paul Whitehouse, Welsh comedian and actor
• 22 May - Steven Morrissey, British singer
• 29 May
  • Rupert Everett, English actor
  • Adrian Paul, British actor
• 1 June
  • Martin Brundle, English motor racing and former Formula One driver
  • Peter Skinner, British Labour politician and MEP for South East England
• 11 June - Hugh Laurie , English actor, comedian and writer
• 19 June - Sophie Grigson, British cookery writer and celebrity chef
• 21 June - John Baron, British Conservative politician and MP for Billericay
• 26 June - Lucy Kellaway, British columnist at the Financial Times
• 27 June - Clint Boon, British musician (Inspiral Carpets)
• 29 June - Richard Vranch, British comedian, actor, and TV panel show participant

July - August

• 3 July - Julie Burchill, British journalist
• 13 July - Richard Leman, British field hockey player
• 31 July - Kim Newman, English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer
• 1 August - Joe Elliott, British singer (Def Leppard)
• 5 August - Pete Burns, singer
• 20 August - Andrew Pelling, British Conservative politician and MP for Croydon Central
• 24 August - Meg Munn, British Labour Co-operative politician and MP for Sheffield Heeley
• 27 August - Jeanette Winterson, British novelist

September - October

• 18 September - Ian Arkwright, English footballer
• 7 October - Simon Cowell, English music producer and television talent show judge
• 10 October - Kirsty MacColl, British singer and songwriter (d.2000)
• 15 October - Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York
• 16 October
  • Gary Kemp, English pop artist (Spandau Ballet)
  • John Whittingdale, British Conservative politician and MP for Maldon and Chelmsford East
• 20 October - Niamh Cusack, Irish-born actress
• 26 October - Brian Bovell, British actor

November - December

• 1 November - Susanna Clarke, British writer
• 2 November - Peter Mullan, Scottish actor
• 14 November - Paul McGann, British actor
• 15 November - Tibor Fischer, British novelist and short story writer
• 18 November - Jimmy Quinn, Irish footballer and football manager
• 25 November - Charles Kennedy, British Liberal Democrat politician
• 30 November - Lorraine Kelly, British presenter and journalist
• 2 December - Gwyneth Strong, British actress
• 6 December - Stephen Hepburn, British Labour politician and MP for Jarrow
• 12 December - Jasper Conran, English fashion designer
• 28 December - Andy McNab, British soldier turned novelist
• 29 November - Richard Borcherds, mathematician
• 30 December - Tracey Ullman, English comedian, actress, singer, dancer, screenwriter and author

Unknown dates

• Dilly Braimoh, African-British television presenter and producer
• Amanda Craig, British novelist
• Peter Doig, British painter
• Mick Hume, British journalist and former organiser of the Revolutionary Communist Party
• WPC Yvonne Fletcher, British policewoman shot and killed during a protest outside the Libyan embassy (died 1984)
• Mick Manning, British children's author and illustrator
• Jasper Morrison, English product and furniture designer

Deaths

• 22 January - Mike Hawthorn, English race car driver (born 1929)
• 15 February - Owen Willans Richardson, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1879)
• 21 February - Kathleen Freeman, classical scholar (born 1897)
• 11 July - Charlie Parker, English cricketer (born 1882)
• 5 August - Edgar Guest, English poet (born 1881)
• 19 August
  • Jacob Epstein, American-born British sculptor (born 1880)
  • Claude Grahame White, English aviator (born 1879)
• 6 September - Kay Kendall, English actress (born 1926) (leukaemia)
• 21 September - Agnes Nicholls, operatic soprano (b. 1877)
• 15 November - Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Scottish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1869)
• 26 November - Albert Ketèlbey, pianist, conductor and composer (b. 1875)
• 14 December - Stanley Spencer, painter (born 1891)

References

See also