1923 in the United Kingdom
 1923 in the United Kingdom: |
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Events from the year 1923 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
- Monarch – George V
- Prime Minister – Bonar Law (Conservative; until 22 May), Stanley Baldwin (Conservative)
Events
- 1 January - Grouping of virtually all British railway companies into four larger companies.
- 8 January - First outside broadcast by the British Broadcasting Company, a British National Opera Company production of The Magic Flute from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
- 18 January - The Postmaster General grants the BBC a licence to broadcast.
- 13 February - First BBC broadcast from Cardiff (station 5WA).
- 16 February - Archaeologist Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Tutankhamun, a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt.[1]
- 6 March - First BBC broadcast from Glasgow (station 5SC).
- 21 April - The first of a series of innovative modern dress productions of Shakespeare plays, Cymbeline, directed by H. K. Ayliff, opens at Barry Jackson's Birmingham Repertory Theatre.[2]
- 26 April - Wedding of The Prince Albert, Duke of York (later George VI) and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother) in Westminster Abbey.[1]
- 28 April - The Empire Stadium, Wembley, is opened to the public for the first time and holds the FA Cup Final between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United football clubs. Crowds are cleared from the pitch by mounted police, including one on a white horse.[3]
- 22 May - Bonar Law resigns as Prime Minister due to ill-health.
- 23 May - Stanley Baldwin becomes Prime Minister.
- 18 July - Matrimonial Causes Act establishes equal rights in divorce for men and women, making it possible for wives to divorce husbands for adultery.[4]
- 31 July - Liquor Act makes it illegal to sell alcoholic beverages to under-18s.[4]
- 25 August - Maine Road football stadium, one of the largest sports stadiums in Britain, opens in Moss Side, Manchester, as the new home of Manchester City. They win 2-1 against Sheffield United in their first game there, on the opening day of the 1923–24 Football League First Division campaign.[5]
- 28 September - First publication of the Radio Times listings magazine.[1]
- 10 October - First BBC broadcast from Aberdeen (station 2BD).
- 17 October - First BBC broadcast from Bournemouth (station 6BM).
- 12 November - Her Highness Princess Maud of Fife marries Captain Charles Alexander Carnegie in Wellington Barracks, London.
- 16 November - First BBC broadcast from Sheffield (station 2FL).
- 6 December - General election is won by the Conservative Party under Stanley Baldwin but without enough seats to form a majority.[3] Among the new members of parliament is 26-year-old Anthony Eden, the Conservative MP for Warwick and Leamington.[6]
- 10 December - John James Richard Macleod wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Frederick Banting "for the discovery of insulin".[7]
- 31 December - The BBC broadcasts the chimes of Big Ben for the first time.[1]
Undated
- Littlewoods Pools is formed by 27-year-old Liverpool businessman John Moores.[8]
- State registration of nurses under the Nurses Registration Act 1919 begins; campaigner Ethel Gordon Fenwick is first on the register.
Publications
- Barbara Cartland's first novel Jigsaw.
- Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novel The Murder on the Links.
- Philip Gibbs' novel The Middle of the Road.[9]
- Aldous Huxley's novel Antic Hay.
- H. J. Massingham's book Untrodden Ways: Adventures of English Coasts, Heaths and Marshes and also Among the Works of Hudson, Crabbe and Other Country Writers.
- Dorothy L. Sayers' novel Whose Body?, the first to feature Lord Peter Wimsey.
- P. G. Wodehouse's short story collection The Inimitable Jeeves.
Births
- 8 January - Johnny Wardle, cricketer (died 1985)
- 15 January - Ivor Cutler, poet, songwriter and humorist (died 2006)
- 4 March - Patrick Moore, astronomer and broadcaster (died 2012)
- 2 April - G. Spencer-Brown, mathematician
- 22 April - Geoffrey Hattersley-Smith, geologist and glaciologist (died 2012)
- 4 May - Eric Sykes, comedic writer and actor (died 2012)
- 5 May - Richard Wollheim, philosopher (died 2003)
- 15 May - John Lanchbery, composer (died 2003)
- 23 July - Hugh Kelly, footballer (Blackpool) (died 2009)
- 21 August - Larry Grayson, comedian and game show host (died 1995)
- 29 August
- Richard Attenborough, actor and director (died 2014)
- Marmaduke Hussey, Baron Hussey of North Bradley, Chairman of the BBC (died 2006)
- 7 September - Madeleine Dring, composer and actress (died 1977)
- 22 September - Dannie Abse, poet (died 2014)
- 5 October - Glynis Johns, actress
- 9 October - Donald Sinden, actor (died 2014)
- 23 October - Sir Robin Day, political broadcaster (died 2000)
- 24 October - Denise Levertov, British-born American poet (died 1997)
- 3 November - Tomás Ó Fiaich, cardinal (died 1990)
- 6 November - Donald Houston, actor (died 1991)
- 26 November - Pat Phoenix, actress (died 1986)
- 15 December - Freeman Dyson, physicist
- 19 December - Gordon Jackson, actor (died 1990)
Deaths
- 9 January - Katherine Mansfield, British novelist (born 1888)
- 27 March - Sir James Dewar, chemist (born 1842)
- 4 April - John Venn, mathematician (born 1834)
- 5 April - George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, English financier of Egyptian excavations (born 1866)
- 9 June - Princess Helena of the United Kingdom (born 1846)
- 30 October - Andrew Bonar Law, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1858)
- 10 December - Thomas George Bonney, geologist (born 1833)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
- ↑ Morris, Sylvia (13 January 2012). "Innovating in Birmingham: Barry Jackson and modern dress Shakespeare". The Shakespeare blog. Retrieved 2012-03-21.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 493–495. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 365–366. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- ↑ "Retro Football Shirts". Retrieved 2011-08-01.
- ↑ "Anthony Eden (1897-1977)". History. BBC. Retrieved 2012-03-21.
- ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1923". Retrieved 2008-02-02.
- ↑ ""Jobs to go as Index stores close", BBC News". 19 April 2005. Retrieved 2011-08-01.
- ↑ Leavis, Q.D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (rev. ed.). London: Chatto & Windus.