1965 in the United Kingdom

Events of the year 1965 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

*Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
*Prime Minister - Harold Wilson, Labour

Events

*7 January - Identical twin brothers Ronnie and Reggie Kray, 31, are arrested on suspicion of running a protection racket in London. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/7/newsid_3325000/3325399.stm|title="1965: Krays in custody over menace charge", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-15]
*14 January - The Prime Ministers of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years.
*24 January - Winston Churchill dies at the age of 90, as the result of a stroke he suffered on January 15. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/24/newsid_2506000/2506493.stm|title="Winston Churchill dies" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-15]
*30 January - Thousands attend Winston Churchill's state funeral. During the three days of lying-in-state, 321,000 people file past the catafalque, and the funeral procession travels from Westminster Hall to the service at St Paul's Cathedral, attended by the Queen, Prime Minister Harold Wilson, and representatives of 112 countries. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/30/newsid_2505000/2505981.stm|title="Last farewell to Churchill" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-15]
*4 February - Confederation of British Industry founded.cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alan & Veronica |year=1992 |title= The Chronology of British History|publisher= Century Ltd|location=London|pages= 423-424|isbn= 0-7126-5616-2]
*6 February - Sir Stanley Matthews plays his final First Division game, at the record age of 50 years and 5 days.
*16 February - Richard Beeching outlines plans for railway closures which became known as the "Beeching Axe". [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/16/newsid_2545000/2545597.stm|title="Beeching plans for 'bloated' railways"|accessdate=2008-01-15]
*18 February - The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]
*10 March - Goldie, a London Zoo golden eagle, is recaptured after 13 days of freedom. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/7/newsid_2516000/2516021.stm|title="Goldie the eagle evades capture again" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-15]
*1 April - The Greater London Council is created, replacing the London County Council and greatly expanding the metropolitan area of the city.
*23 April - The Pennine Way officially opens.
*18 June - The government announces plans for the introduction of a blood alcohol limit for drivers in its clampdown on drink-driving. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/18/newsid_2562000/2562711.stm|title="1965: Drink-drive limit to be introduced", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-15]
*8 July - Great Train Robber Ronald Biggs escapes from Wandsworth Prison. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/8/newsid_2706000/2706659.stm|title="Ronald Biggs escapes from jail", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-15]
*22 July - Sir Alec Douglas-Home suddenly resigns as a head of the British Conservative Party. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/22/newsid_2784000/2784465.stm|title="Sir Alec steps down from top of Tory tree", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-15]
*24 July - Freddie Mills, former British boxing champion, is found shot in his car in Soho.
*27 July - Edward Heath becomes leader of the British Conservative Party following a leadership election. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/27/newsid_2956000/2956082.stm|title="Heath is new Tory leader", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-15]
*29 July - The Beatles film "Help!" debuts in London.
*1 August - Cigarette advertising is banned on British television.
*24 September - The British governor of Aden cancels the Aden constitution and takes direct control of the protectorate, due to the bad security situation.
*6 October - Ian Brady, a 27-year-old stock clerk from Hyde in Cheshire, is arrested for allegedly hacking 17-year-old apprentice electrician Edward Evans to death at a house on the Hattersley housing estate.
*8 October - The Post Office Tower opens in London.
*16 October - Police find a girl's body on Saddleworth Moor near Oldham in Lancashire. The body is quickly identified as that of Lesley Ann Downey, who disappeared on Boxing Day last year from a fairground in the Ancoats area of Manchester, at the age of 10. Ian Brady, arrested last week for the murder of a 17-year-old man in nearby Hattersley, is charged with murdering Lesley, as is his 23-year-old girlfriend Myra Hindley.
*22 October - African countries demand that the United Kingdom use force to prevent Rhodesia from declaring unilateral independence.
*24 October
** Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Arthur Bottomley travel to Rhodesia for negotiations.
** Police find the decomposed body of a boy on Saddleworth Moor. The body is identified as that of John Kilbride, who was last seen alive in Ashton-under-Lyne on 23 November 1963, at the age of 12.
*29 October - Ian Brady and Myra Hindley appear in court, charged with the murders of Edward Evans (17), Lesley Ann Downey (10) and John Kilbride (12).
*5 November - Martial law is announced in Rhodesia. The UN General Assembly accepts British intent to use force against Rhodesia if necessary by a vote of 82-9.
*8 November
** The British Indian Ocean Territory is created, consisting of Chagos Archipelago, Aldabra, Farquhar and Des Roches islands (on June 23, 1976 Aldabra, Farquhar and Des Roches are returned to Seychelles).
** The death penalty is abolished for murder.
** The Race Relations Act outlaws public racial discrimination.
*11 November - In Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe), the white minority regime of Ian Smith unilaterally declares independence. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/11/newsid_2658000/2658445.stm|title="Rhodesia breaks from UK", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-15]
*13 November - The word "fuck" is spoken for the first time on British television by the theatre critic Kenneth Tynan.
*20 November - The UN Security Council recommends that all states stop trading with Rhodesia.
*29 November - Mary Whitehouse founds the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association.
*3 December - The first British aid flight arrives in Lusaka; Zambia had asked for British help against Rhodesia.
*15 December - Tanzania and Guinea sever diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom.
*17 December - The British government begins an oil embargo against Rhodesia; the United States joins the effort.
*22 December - A 70 mph speed limit is imposed on British roads.
*24 December - A meteorite shower falls on Barwell, Leicestershire.
*27 December - The British oil platform "Sea Gem" collapses in the North Sea. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/27/newsid_4630000/4630741.stm|title="Sea Gem oil rig collapses", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-15]
*30 December - President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia announces that Zambia and the United Kingdom have agreed to a deadline before which the Rhodesian white government should be ousted.

Undated

* The Council for National Academic Awards is established.
*American car manufacturer Chrysler takes over the British Rootes Group combine, which includes the Hillman, Singer and Sunbeam marques.

Publications

*Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel "At Bertram's Hotel".
*Ian Fleming's James Bond novel "The Man with the Golden Gun".
*John Fowles's novel "The Magus".

Births

*4 January
**Julia Ormond, British actress
**Beth Gibbons, English singer (Portishead)
*5 January - Vinnie Jones, British footballer and actor
*9 January - Joely Richardson, British actress
*14 January
**Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, English chef
**Slick Rick, British-American rapper
*15 January - James Nesbitt, Northern Irish actor
*20 January - Sophie, Countess of Wessex
*27 January - Alan Cumming, Scottish actor
*2 February - Carl Airey, English footballer
*5 February - Martha Fiennes, British film director
*26 February - Alison Armitage, English model and actress
*28 February - Norman Smiley, British professional wrestler
*4 March
**Andrew Collins, British radio DJ, and journalist
**Paul W.S. Anderson, British filmmaker, producer and screenwriter
*11 March - Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen, British television presenter
*March 14 - Caroline Foot, British butterfly swimmer
*15 March - Michael Watson, British boxer
*26 March - Kerry McCarthy, British Labour politician and MP for Bristol East
*30 March - Piers Morgan, British tabloid journalist
*1 April - Robert Steadman, English composer
*4 April - Sean Wilson, British actor
*27 April - Anna Chancellor, British actress
*1 May - Alice Beer, British television presenter
*3 May - Michael Marshall Smith, novelist, screenwriter and short story writer
*10 May - Darren Matthews, English professional wrestler
*17 May - Jeremy Vine, British BBC radio and television presenter
*31 May - Steve White, English drummer (The Style Council)
*1 June - Nigel Short, English chess player
*7 June - Damien Hirst, English artist
*10 June - Elizabeth Hurley, English model and actress
*19 June - Sadie Frost, English fashion designer and actress
*4 July - Jo Whiley, British Radio DJ
*15 July - David Miliband, British Labour politician
*31 July - J. K. Rowling, English author
*1 August - Sam Mendes, English stage and film director
*4 August - Adam Afriyie, British Conservative politician and MP for Windsor
*28 August - Paul Brummell, British diplomat and Ambassador to Kazakhstan
*2 September - Lennox Lewis, British boxer
*29 September - Phylis Smith, British athlete and Olympic medallist
*14 October - Steve Coogan, British comedian and actor
*15 October - Stephen Tompkinson, British actor
*16 October - Steve Lamacq, British Radio DJ
*22 October - John Wesley Harding (born Wesley Stace), British singer-songwriter
*30 October - Gavin Rossdale, English musician
*4 November - Shaun Williamson, British actor
*10 November
**Sean Hughes, comedian
**Eddie Irvine, Northern Irish racecar driver
*12 November - Eddie Mair, British BBC radio and television presenter
*21 November - Alexander Siddig, Sudanese-born actor
*9 December - Paul Jenkins, British comic book writer
*25 December - Edward Davey, British Liberal Democrat politician, Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, and MP for Kingston and Surbiton

Deaths

*4 January - T. S. Eliot, American-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1888)
*24 January - Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (born 1874)
*28 January - Tich Freeman, English cricketer (born 1888)
*23 February - Stan Laurel, British actor (born 1890)
*28 March
**Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood, 6th Princess Royal (born 1897)
**Richard Beesly, British Olympic gold medal rower. (born 1907)
*21 April - Edward Victor Appleton, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1892)
*3 May - Howard Spring, novelist (born 1889)
*21 May - Geoffrey de Havilland, aircraft designer (born 1882)
*8 June - Cecil L'Estrange Malone, British politician and Britain's first communist Member of Parliament (born 1890)
*1 July - Wally Hammond, English cricketer (born 1903)
*25 July - Freddie Mills, English boxer (born 1919)
*2 September - Harry Hylton-Foster, Speaker of the British House of Commons (born 1905)
*14 September - J.W. Hearne English cricketer (born 1891)
*25 September - Major-General Sir Henry Hugh Tudor, British soldier (born 1871)
*22 October - William Williams, Victoria Cross recipient (born 1890)
*4 November - Ifor Williams, academic (born 1881)
*8 November - George Henry Hall, politician (born 1881)
*25 November - Dame Myra Hess, English pianist (born 1890)
*16 December - W. Somerset Maugham, English writer (born 1874)
*22 December - Richard Dimbleby, journalist and broadcaster (born 1913)
*26 December - Llewelyn Alberic Emilius Price-Davies, Victoria Cross recipient (born 1878)
*28 December - Jeremy Wolfenden, journalist and spy (born 1934)

References

ee also