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1960 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1958 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962

Sport and Music

British and Irish current events

1960 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

1960 in British music

Events of the year 1960 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch :

HM Queen Elizabeth II

• Prime Minister

Harold Macmillan, Conservative Party

Events

• January - The state of emergency is lifted in Kenya — the Mau Mau Uprising is officially over.
• 5 January - closure of the Swansea and Mumbles Railway.^[1]
• 10 January - British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan makes the Wind of Change speech for the first time (see February 3).
• 3 February - Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Harold Macmillan makes the Wind of Change speech to the South African Parliament in Cape Town (although he had first made the speech, to little publicity, in Accra, Gold Coast - now Ghana - on January 10 the same year).
• 18 February–28 February - Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, Placer County, California but do not win any medals.
• March - Manchester City F.C. sign 20-year-old forward Denis Law for a national record fee of £55,000 from Huddersfield Town. [1]
• 14 March - Jodrell Bank Observatory makes contact with the American Pioneer 5 over a record-breaking distance of 407,000 miles.^[2]
• 13 April - cancellation of the Blue Streak missile.
• 16 April - The Times of London abandons use of the term "Imperial and Foreign News", replacing it with "Overseas News", and changes its house style from "to-day" to "today".
• 18 April - 60,000 protestors stage a demonstration in London against nuclear weapons.^[3]
• 27 April - first production of Harold Pinter's play The Caretaker at the Arts Theatre in London.^[4]
• 6 May - Princess Margaret marries Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon in the first televised Royal marriage.^[5]
• 7 May - Wolverhampton Wanderers are FA Cup winners for the third time, beating Blackburn Rovers 3-0 at Wembley Stadium.
• 24 June - Avro 748 makes its first flight at Woodford.
• 26 June — British Somaliland gains independence from the United Kingdom; 5 days later it unites with the former Italian Somaliland to create the modern Somali Republic.^[6]
• 28 June - 38 miners killed at a pit explosion in Monmouthshire.^[7]
• 21 July — Francis Chichester, English navigator and yachtsman, arrives in New York aboard Gypsy Moth II — he has made a record solo Atlantic crossing in 40 days.
• 27 July - In a Cabinet reshuffle, Selwyn Lloyd is appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer and Lord Home becomes Foreign Secretary.^[8]
• 16 August - Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom.^[9]
• 25 August–11 September - Great Britain and Northern Ireland competes at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and win 2 gold, 6 silver and 12 bronze medals.
• 10 September - ITV broadcasts the first live Football League match to be shown on television, and the last for 23 years.^[1]
• 15 September - The first traffic wardens deployed in London.^[1]
• 1 October - Nigeria gained its independence from the United Kingdom.^[10]
• 7 October — The second notable flood occurs in Horncastle, Lincolnshire. The town enters the UK Weather Records with the Highest 180-min total rainfall at 178 mm. As of July 2006 this record remains.
• 21 October - The Queen launches Britain's first nuclear submarine, the HMS Dreadnought.^[8]

Damage to the Severn Railway Bridge

• 25 October - Barges carrying collided with one of the columns of the Severn Railway Bridge in heavy fog, causing two spans of the twenty-two span steel and cast iron bridge to collapse.
• 30 October — Michael Woodruff performs the first successful kidney transplant in the United Kingdom, at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
• 2 November — Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case.^[1]
• 10 November - Lady Chatterley's Lover sells 200,000 copies in one day following its publication since being banned since 1928.^[11]
• 9 December - The first episode of soap opera Coronation Street is aired on ITV.^[1]
• 10 December - Sir Peter Brian Medawar and Australian Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance".^[12]
• 31 December
  • The Farthing, a British coin first minted in England in the 13th century, ceases to be legal tender.^[1]
  • The last man is called up for National Service, as Conscription ends.^[8]

Undated

• The Royal Shakespeare Company formed under the director Peter Hall.^[13]

Publications

• Kingsley Amis's novel Take a Girl Like You.
• Ian Fleming's James Bond short story collection For Your Eyes Only.
• Alan Garner's children's novel The Weirdstone of Brisingamen.
• John Wyndham's novel Trouble with Lichen.

Births

January - February

• 6 January — Nigella Lawson, British chef and writer
• January 23 — Paul Blagg, English racewalker
• 29 January — Sean Kerly, British field hockey player
• 19 February — Prince Andrew, Duke of York
• 20 February — Siobhain McDonagh, British Labour politician and MP for Mitcham and Morden

March - April

• March 9 — Louise Miller, English high jumper
• 10 March - Anne MacKenzie, British broadcaster
• 23 March - Nicol Stephen, Scottish politician
• 29 March - Marina Sirtis, British actress
• 2 April - Linford Christie, British athlete
• 4 April - Jane Eaglin, English soprano
• 11 April - Jeremy Clarkson, English journalist and television show host
• 13 April - Lyn Carol Brown, British Labour politician and MP for West Ham
• 22 April - Gary Rhodes, British restaurateur and celebrity chef
• 26 April - Roger Taylor, English musician (Duran Duran)
• 29 April - Phil King, British bassist
• 30 April - Colonel Tim Collins Northern Irish-born British Commander in Iraq

May - June

• 6 May - Roma Downey, Northern Irish actress and producer
• 4 June - Bradley Walsh, English comedian and actor
• 5 June - Julie Kirkbride, British Conservative politician and MP for Bromsgrove
• 8 June - Mick Hucknall English singer and songwriter (Simply Red)
• 20 June - John Taylor, English musician (Duran Duran)

July - August

• 3 July - Vince Clarke, English songwriter (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and Erasure)
• 13 July - Ian Hislop, British broadcaster and editor
• 18 July - Simon Heffer, English journalist
• 22 July - Barbara Cassani, American-born business executive
• 14 August - Sarah Brightman, English soprano singer and actress
• 30 August - Ben Bradshaw, British Labour politician, the Minister for Local Environment, Marine and Animal Welfare, and MP for Exeter

September - October

• 3 September - Nick Gibb, British Conservative politician, Shadow Minister of State for Schools, and MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton
• 9 September - Hugh Grant, English actor
• 10 September - Colin Firth, English actor
• 16 September - Danny John-Jules, English dancer and actor
• 17 September - Damon Hill, English race car driver
• 29 September - Andrew Slaughter, British Labour politician and MP for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush
• 29 October - Finola Hughes, British actress

November - December

• 10 November - Neil Gaiman, English author
• 17 November - Jonathan Ross, English television presenter
• 18 November - Kim Wilde, English singer and gardener
• 28 November - John Galliano, British fashion designer
• 30 November - Gary Lineker, English footballer
• 2 December - Rick Savage, English bassist (Def Leppard)
• 10 December - Kenneth Branagh, Northern Irish actor and director
• 24 December - Carol Vorderman, British television presenter
• 26 December - Andrew Graham-Dixon, British art historian and television presenter
• 27 December - Maryam d'Abo, British actress

Deaths

• 12 January - Nevil Shute, English writer (born 1899)
• 8 February - J. L. Austin, British philosopher (born 1911)
• 5 April - Peter Llewelyn-Davies, British soldier and inspiration for Peter Pan (born 1897)
• 8 May - J. H. C. Whitehead, British mathematician (born 1904)
• 7 June - Sir Maurice Bonham Carter, English Liberal politician and cricketer (born 1880)
• 27 June
  • Harry Pollitt, British communist (born 1890)
  • Lottie Dod, English athlete (born 1871)
• 27 September - Sylvia Pankhurst, British suffragette (born 1882)
• 30 September - St. John Philby, British explorer and spy (born 1885)
• 16 November - Gilbert Harding, radio and television personality (born 1907)

References

See also