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1973 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976

Sport and Music

British and Irish current events

1974 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

1974 in British music

Events from the year 1974 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister

• 1 January - 3 March - Edward Heath, Conservative Party
• 4 March - 31 December - Harold Wilson, Labour Party

Events

• 1 January - Northern Ireland Power-sharing Executive set up in Belfast.^[1]
• 7 January–7 March - Three-Day Week introduced by the Conservative Government as a measure to conserve electricity during a period of industrial action by coal miners.^[2]
• 3 February - The second Bathurst Gaol riots; prisoners destroy much of the facility with petrol bombs.
• 4 February - M62 coach bombing: 11 people are killed in a bomb explosion on a coach on the M62 motorway in West Yorkshire. Eight of the dead were off-duty soldiers, and two were children. 12 other people have been injured.^[3]
• 7 February
  • Prime Minister Edward Heath calls a general election in an attempt to end the dispute over the miners' strike.^[4]
  • Grenada becomes independent of the United Kingdom.^[5]
• 8 February - The M62 motorway bombing death toll reaches 12 with the death in hospital of an 18-year-old soldier who had been seriously injured in the bombing.
• 28 February - The general election results in the first hung parliament since 1929, with the Tory government having 297 seats - four fewer than Labour, who have 301 - and the largest number of votes. Prime minister Ted Heath is hoping to form a coalition with the Liberals in order to remain in power.[1]
• 4 March - Ted Heath fails to convince the Liberals to form a coalition and announces his resignation as prime minister, paving the way for Harold Wilson to become prime minister for the second time as Labour forms a minority government. [2]
• 6 March - the miners' strike comes to an end due an improved pay offer by the new Labour government.^[6]
• 10 March - Ten miners die in a methane gas explosion at Golborne Colliery near Wigan, Lancashire.
• 11 March - convicted armed robbers Kenneth Littlejohn and his brother Keith, who claimed to be British spies in the Republic of Ireland, escape from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin.^[7]
• 15 March - Architect John Poulson jailed for five years for corruption.^[8]
• 18 March - Oil embargo crisis: Most OPEC nations end a 5-month oil embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan.
• 20 March - Ian Ball fails in his attempt to kidnap Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips in The Mall, outside Buckingham Palace.
• 29 March - Government re-established direct rule over Northern Ireland after declaring a state of emergency.^[1]
• 1 April - The Local Government Act 1972 comes into effect in England and Wales, creating six new metropolitan counties and comprehensively redrawing the administrative map. Newport and Monmouthshire are legally transferred from England to Wales.
• 17 May - the Loyalist paramilitary group Ulster Volunteer Force carries out the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in the Republic of Ireland.^[9]
• 28 May - power-sharing in the Northern Ireland Assembly collapses following a strike by unionists.^[10]
• 1 June - Flixborough disaster: An explosion at a chemical plant in Flixborough, UK, kills 28 people.
• 15 June - The Red Lion Square disorders: Members of the fascist National Front clash with leftist counter-protesters in London's West End; one student is killed.^[11]
• 17 June - A bomb explodes at the Houses of Parliament in London, damaging Westminster Hall. The Irish Republican Army claims responsibility for planting the bomb.^[5]
• 24 June - The government admits testing a nuclear weapon in the United States causing a rift in the Labour Party.^[12]
• 17 July - A bomb planted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) explodes in the White Tower at the Tower of London, killing one person and injuring 41. Another bomb explodes outside a government building in South London.^[13]
• 21 July - 10,000 Greek-Cypriots protest in London against the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.^[14]
• 23 September - Ceefax is started by the BBC - one of the first public service information systems.^[5]
• 5 October - The Guildford pub bombings at The Horse and Groom and The Seven Stars kill five people.^[15]
• 10 October - The second general election of the year results in a narrow victory for Harold Wilson, giving Labour a majority of three seats.^[16]
• 16 October - rioting prisoners set fire to the Maze Prison in Belfast.^[17]
• 22 October - the Provisional IRA bomb Brooks's club in London.^[18]
• 28 October - the wife and son of Sports Ministers Denis Howell survive a PIRA bomb attack on their car.^[19]
• 4 November - Judith Ward sentenced to life imprisonment for the M62 coach bombing.^[20]
• 7 November
  • Lord Lucan disappears after the murder of children's nanny.^[21]
  • A PIRA bomb explodes at the Kings Arms, Woolwich.
• 11 November - Opening of the New Covent Garden Market in Nine Elms.^[22]
• 21 November - Birmingham pub bombings: In Birmingham, two pubs are bombed, killing 21 people and injuring many others.^[23]
• 24 November - the Birmingham Six charged for the Birmingham pub bombings.^[24]
• 25 November - Home Secretary Roy Jenkins announces the government's intention to outlaw the IRA in the UK.^[5]
• 27 November - The Prevention of Terrorism Act is passed.
• 5 December - Party Political Broadcast, the final episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, is broadcast on BBC 2.
• 10 December
  • Friedrich Hayek shares the 1974 Nobel Prize in Economics with ideological rival Gunnar Myrdal "for their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena."^[25].
  • Martin Ryle and Antony Hewish win the Nobel Prize in Physics "for their pioneering research in radio astrophysics: Ryle for his observations and inventions, in particular of the aperture synthesis technique, and Hewish for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars".^[26]
• 15 December - new speed limits introduced on Britain's roads in an attempt to save fuel at a time of Arab fuel embargoes following the Yom Kippur War.^[27]
• 18 December - the government pays £42,00 to families of vicitims of Bloody Sunday riots in Northern Ireland.^[28]
• 22 December - The London home of Conservative Party leader and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Edward Heath is bombed in a suspected PIRA attack. Mr Heath had been away from home when the bomb exploded, but returned just 10 minutes afterwards.^[29]
• 24 December - former government minister John Stonehouse found living in Australia having faked his own death.^[30]

Undated

• China gives two Giant Pandas, Ching-Ching and Chia-Chia, to Britain.^[31]
• Inflation has soared to a 34-year high of 17.2%. [3]

Publications

• Philip Larkin's poetry collection High Windows.
• John le Carré's novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
• Stanley Middleton's novel Holiday.

Births

• 12 January - Melanie Chisholm, singer
• 16 January - Kate Moss, English model
• 30 January - Christian Bale, Welsh actor
• 31 January - Ian Huntley, English murderer
• 13 February - Robbie Williams, English singer
• 14 February - Lynden David Hall, British singer (died 2006)
• 22 February
  • James Blunt, British musician
  • Chris Moyles, British disc jockey
• 28 March
  • Mark King, English snooker player
  • Scott Mills, British radio disc jockey
• 17 April - Victoria Beckham, English singer (Spice Girls)
• 24 April - Dave Vitty, aka Comedy Dave, British television host
• 21 June - Natasha Desborough, British radio personality
• 14 July - David Mitchell, comedian and actor
• 31 July - Emilia Fox, English actress
• 23 August - Ray Park, Scottish actor
• 2 September - Lisa Snowdon, English television presenter
• 6 September - Tim Henman, English tennis player
• September 13 - Adam Ruckwood, English backstroke swimmer
• 18 September - Sol Campbell, English footballer
• 17 October - Matthew Macfadyen, English actor
• 29 October - Michael Vaughan, English cricketer
• November 2 — David W. Smith, English hammer thrower
• 4 November - Louise Redknapp, English singer
• 13 December
  • Nicholas McCarthy, English-born guitarist (Franz Ferdinand)
  • Sara Cox, English TV and radio presenter
• 29 December - Jenny Barker, British radio presenter

Deaths

• 12 January - Princess Patricia of Connaught (born 1886)
• 29 January - H. E. Bates, novelist (born 1905)
• 4 July - Georgette Heyer, English novelist (born 1902)
• 13 July - Patrick Blackett, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1897)
• 24 July - James Chadwick, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1891)
• 1 August - James Henry Govier, British artist (born 1910)
• 22 August - Jacob Bronowski, Polish-born mathematician, and television presenter (born 1908)
• 29 August - Judith Furse, actress (born 1912)
• 24 November - Nick Drake, British musician (born 1948)

References

See also