1934 in the United Kingdom
 1934 in the United Kingdom: |
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| Sport, Television and music |
Events from the year 1934 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
- Monarch - George V
- Prime Minister - Ramsay MacDonald, national coalition
Events
- 1 January - Establishment of The National Council for Civil Liberties by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith.[1]
- 21 January - Ten thousand people attend a British Union of Fascists rally in Birmingham, organised by Oswald Mosley.[2]
- 27 March - The Betting and Lotteries Act is passed, prohibiting the sale of lottery tickets, primarily directed against the Irish Free State Hospitals' Sweepstake.[3][4]
- April
- Meccano Ltd introduce the first Dinky Toys.
- David Low's cartoon character Colonel Blimp first appears in the London Evening Standard.[5]
- 3 April - Percy Shaw patents the cat's eye road-safety device.[6]
- 6 April - Rudyard Kipling and William Butler Yeats are awarded the Gothenburg Prize for Poetry.
- 21 April - The "surgeon's photograph" of the Loch Ness Monster, much later admitted to be a hoax, is published in the Daily Mail.[7]
- 4 May - Fifty-four-year-old grandmother Mrs G. E. Alington becomes the first woman in Britain to complete a parachute jump, skydiving from 1500 feet over Brooklands Aerodrome.
- 28 May - Opening of first Glyndebourne Festival Opera season.
- 29 May - First regular domestic airmail service, inaugurated by Highland Airways between Inverness and Kirkwall.[8]
- 18 July - Opening of the Queensway Tunnel beneath the River Mersey by King George V.[9]
- 19 July - 41 squadrons added to the Royal Air Force as part of a new air defence program.[2]
- 4–11 August - British Empire Games held in London.
- 10 September - The British Graham Land Expedition sets out to explore Graham Land in Antarctica.
- 22 September - Gresford Disaster: A gas explosion takes place at Gresford Colliery in Wrexham, north-east Wales, which leads to the death of 266 miners and rescuers,[9] one of the worst tragedies in Welsh mining history.
- 26 September - Launching of the liner RMS Queen Mary[9] at Clydebank.
- 29 September - Stanley Matthews makes his debut for the England national football team, beginning a record 23-year international career.
- 29 November - Marriage of Prince George, Duke of Kent, to Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, the first this century, and last, foreign-born princess to marry into the British royal family; the wedding is the first to be broadcast live on radio.[9]
- 10 December - Arthur Henderson wins the Nobel Peace Prize.[10]
Undated
- Petroleum (Production) Act vests ownership of all U.K. subterranean oil and natural gas in the Crown.
- Special Areas Act provides grants from central government funds to assist regions with high unemployment.[11]
- The "British Committee for Relations with Other Countries", which will become the British Council, is set up to foster cultural relations.[12]
- The London Zoo penguin pool, designed by Berthold Lubetkin's Tecton Architectural Group with Ove Arup, one of the most significant examples of modern architecture in Britain.[13]
- EKCO introduces its distinctive round bakelite radio cabinets.
Publications
- John Betjeman's guidebook Cornwall, first of the Shell Guides.
- Agatha Christie's novels Murder on the Orient Express (featuring Hercule Poirot) and Why Didn't They Ask Evans?.
- Robert Graves' novel I, Claudius.
- James Hilton's novel Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
- George Orwell's memoir Burmese Days.
- J. B. Priestley's travelogue English Journey.[14]
- Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey novel The Nine Tailors.
- Dylan Thomas' first collection 18 Poems, including "The Force that Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower".
- Evelyn Waugh's novel A Handful of Dust.
- P. G. Wodehouse's Thank You, Jeeves and Right Ho, Jeeves, the first Jeeves stories written as full-length novels.
- V. M. Yeates' war novel Winged Victory.
Births
- 8 January - Roy Kinnear, actor (died 1988)
- 14 January - Richard Briers, actor (died 2013)
- 18 January - Raymond Briggs, writer and illustrator
- 20 January - Tom Baker, actor
- 11 February - Mary Quant, fashion designer
- 11 February - John Surtees, race car driver
- 17 February - Stanley William Allen, Engineer
- 17 February - Alan Bates, actor (died 2003)
- 1 March - Evelyn Burrows, Secretary
- 28 March - Laurie Taitt, Olympic sprint hurdler (died 2006)
- 2 April - Brian Glover, actor and wrestler (died 1997)
- 3 April - Jane Goodall, zoologist
- 7 April - Ian Richardson, actor (died 2007)
- 3 May - Henry Cooper, boxer (died 2011)
- 9 May - Alan Bennett, actor and writer
- 15 May - George Roper, comedian (died 2003)
- 24 May - Barry Rose, choir director and organist
- 26 May - Mike Rawson, track and field athlete (died 2000)
- 21 June - Ken Matthews, race walker
- 26 June - Jeremy Wolfenden, journalist (died 1965)
- 1 July - Jean Marsh, actress
- 5 July - Philip Madoc, actor (died 2012)
- 8 July - Marty Feldman, writer, comedian and actor (died 1982)
- 14 July - John Tyndall, politician (died 2005)
- 15 July - Harrison Birtwistle, composer
- 6 August - Chris Bonington, mountaineer
- 19 August - Ronald Jones, track and field athlete
- 4 September - Clive Granger, economist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2009)
- 8 September - Peter Maxwell Davies, composer
- 19 September - Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles (died 1967)
- 24 September - Tommy Anderson, footballer
- 20 October - Timothy West, actor
- 9 December - Judi Dench, actress
- 28 December
- Alasdair Gray, writer and artist
- Maggie Smith, actress
Deaths
- 6 January - Herbert Chapman, football manager (born 1878)
- 23 January - Charles McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway, politician and jurist (born 1850)
- 23 February - Edward Elgar, composer (born 1857)
- 11 April - John Collier, writer and painter (born 1850)
- 25 May - Gustav Holst, composer (born 1874)
- 10 June - Frederick Delius, composer (born 1862)
- 10 September - George Henschel, musician (born 1850)
- 16 November - Alice Hargreaves, who, as Alice Liddell, was the inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (born 1852)
References
- ↑ Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organisations. Retrieved 15 September 2010.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 378–379. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- ↑ Coleman, Marie (2005). ""A terrible danger to the morals of the country": The Irish hospitals' sweepstake in Great Britain, 1930–87". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Section C 105 (5). Retrieved 2010-07-08.
- ↑ Coleman, Marie (2009). The Irish Sweep — A History of the Irish Hospitals Sweepstake, 1930-87. University College Dublin Press. ISBN 978-1-906359-41-6.
- ↑ "David Low". British Cartoon Archive. Retrieved 2012-06-29.
- ↑ Challoner, Jack, ed. (2009). 1001 Inventions That Changed the World. London: Cassell. pp. 634–5. ISBN 978-1-84403-611-0.
- ↑ Martin, David; Boyd, Alastair (1999). Nessie – the Surgeon's Photograph Exposed. East Barnet: authors. ISBN 0-9535708-0-0.
- ↑ Blake, Richard. The Book of Postal Dates, 1635-1985. Caterham: Marden. p. 29.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
- ↑ "The Nobel Peace Prize 1934". Archived from the original on 27 January 2007. Retrieved 6 February 2007.
- ↑ The History Today Companion to British History. London: Collins & Brown. 1995. p. 709. ISBN 1-85585-178-4.
- ↑ "1930s and 1940s". British Council. Retrieved 2011-02-17.
- ↑ "Berthold Lubetkin". Design Museum. Archived from the original on 25 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
- ↑ Marr, Andrew (2008). A History of Modern Britain. Macmillan. p. xxii. ISBN 978-0-330-43983-1.