1969 in the United Kingdom

1969 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1967 | 1968 | 1969 (1969) | 1970 | 1971

Individual countries of the United Kingdom

England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales

Sport, Television and music

1969 British Grand Prix 1969 English cricket season Football: England | Scotland 1969 in British television 1969 in British music 1969 in British radio UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 1969

Events from the year 1969 in the United Kingdom. The year is dominated by the beginnings of The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister – Harold Wilson (Labour)

Events

January

• • Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity Barbara Castle published a White Paper In Place of Strife proposing powers of intervention in advance of industrial action. This proved unacceptable to the Trades Union Congress.^[1][2][3]
  • The Space hopper toy was introduced to Britain.^[4]
• 2 January – Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch purchased the largest selling British Sunday newspaper The News of the World.^[5]
• 4 January – Guitarist Jimi Hendrix caused complaints of arrogance from television producers after playing an impromptu version of "Sunshine of your Love" past his allotted timeslot on the BBC1 show Happening for Lulu.
• 5 January – Derry Riots left over 100 people injured.
• 10 January – Protestors in Northern Ireland defied police orders to abandon a planned march.^[6]
• 14 January – Sir Matt Busby, hugely successful manager of Manchester United F.C. for the last 24 years, announced his retirement as manager. He would become a director at the end of the season, and hand over first-team duties to current first team trainer and former player Wilf McGuinness.^[7]
• 18 January – Pete Best won his defamation lawsuit against the Beatles. He had originally sought $8 million, but is awarded much less.
• 24 January –
  • Violent protests by students closed the London School of Economics, which did not re-open for three weeks.^[8]
  • Ford launched the Capri, a four-seater sporting coupe designed to compete with the likes of the MG B.^[9]
• 27 January
  • London School of Economics students occupied the University of London Union building in Malet Street in protest at the closure of the LSE.^[10]
  • Reverend Ian Paisley, the hard line Protestant leader in Northern Ireland, was jailed for 3 months for illegal assembly.
• 30 January – The Beatles gave their last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records.^[11] The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.

February

• 18 February – Pop star Lulu, 20, married Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees.^[12]

March

• March – The first B&Q DIY superstore was set up in Southampton by Richard Block and David Quayle.^[13][14]
• 2 March – The maiden flight of Concorde took place.^[11]
• 4 March – The Kray twins were both found guilty of murder: Ronnie of murdering George Cornell; Reggie of murdering Jack "the Hat" McVitie.^[15]
• 5 March – The Kray twins are sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum of 30 years by Mr Justice Melford Stevenson.^[16]
• 7 March – The London Underground Victoria line was opened by The Queen.^[11]
• 12 March – Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman.^[11]
• 17 March – The Longhope lifeboat in Scotland was lost; the entire crew of 8 died.
• 19 March
  • British paratroopers and Marines landed on the island of Anguilla.
  • The 385 metre tall Emley Moor transmitting station television mast in West Yorkshire collapsed because of icing.
• 25 March – John Lennon and Yoko Ono married in Gibraltar.
• 27 March – First ordination of a woman in the Church of Scotland, Catherine McConnachie by the Presbytery of Aberdeen.^[17]
• 29 March – The UK shared first place in the Eurovision Song Contest, with a four-way tie with France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Lulu represents the UK, singing Boom bang-a-bang.

April

• 1 April – The Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.1 V/STOL "Jump Jet" fighter entered service with the RAF.

• 9 April – Sikh busmen in Wolverhampton won the right to wear turbans on duty.^[18]
• 17 April
  • Representation of the People Act lowered the voting age from 21 to 18^[11] with effect from February 1970. It also permitted candidates to have a party label included on the ballot paper, and removed the right (theoretically restored in 1967) of convicted prisoners to vote in Parliamentary elections.
  • Bernadette Devlin won the Mid Ulster by-election and became the youngest ever female MP at 21 years old.^[11]
• 20 April – British troops arrived in Northern Ireland to reinforce the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
• 22 April – Robin Knox-Johnston became the first person to sail around the world solo without stopping.
• 24 April
  • British Leyland Motor Corporation launched Britain's first production hatchback car, the Austin Maxi, designed to compete with family saloons like the Ford Cortina and following a new European design concept started in 1965 by French car maker Renault's R16 range.^[19]
  • The final episode of the long-running BBC Radio serial drama Mrs Dale's Diary was broadcast.^[11]
• 26 April – Manchester City F.C. won the FA Cup with a 1-0 win over Leicester City in the Wembley final.^[20]
• 28 April – Leeds United won the Football League First Division title for the first time in their history.^[21]

May

• 2 May – The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departed from Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York.^[11]
• 23 May – The Who released the concept album Tommy.

June

• 21 June –
  • The showing of television documentary The Royal Family, attracted more than 30.6 million viewers, an all-time British record for a non-current event programme.^[22][23]
  • Patrick Troughton made his final appearance as the second Doctor in Doctor Who in the final episode of The War Games which was also the last episode to be recorded only in black and white.
• 24 June – After a referendum in Rhodesia decided in favour of becoming a Republic, the Governor of Southern Rhodesia Sir Humphrey Gibbs left Government House, severing the last diplomatic links with the United Kingdom.
• 30 June – Two members of the Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Movement for the Defence of Wales) were killed whilst placing a bomb outside government offices in Abergele in an attempt to disrupt the following day's events.^[24]

July

• 1 July –
  • Charles, Prince of Wales, was invested with his title at Caernarfon.^[11]
  • John Lennon, Yoko Ono and their children were hospitalised at Golspie in Scotland following a car accident while on holiday.^[25]
• 3 July – Swansea was granted city status.
• 10 July – The trimaran Teignmouth Electron of Donald Crowhurst was found drifting and unoccupied in Mid-Atlantic. It is discovered that Crowhurst had been falsifying his position in a Round the World yacht race and presumed that he committed suicide.^[26]
• 12 July – Golfer Tony Jacklin won The Open Championship.^[11]
• 23 July – BBC Two television first aired the Pot Black snooker tournament.
• 24 July – British lecturer Gerald Brooke was freed from a Soviet prison in exchange for the spies Morris and Lona Cohen.^[27]

August

• 1 August – The pre-decimal halfpenny ceased to be legal tender.^[11]
• 12 August – Rioting broke out in Derry, Northern Ireland in the Battle of the Bogside, the first major confrontation of The Troubles.
• 13 – 17 August - Sectarian rioting in Northern Ireland.
• 13 August – The Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, Jack Lynch, made a speech on Teilifís Éireann saying that his government "can no longer stand by" and requesting a United Nations peacekeeping force for Northern Ireland.^[28]
• 14 August – British troops were deployed in Northern Ireland to restore law and order.^[29]
• 30 – 31 August - The second Isle of Wight Festival attracted 150,000 pop music fans, with the appearance of Bob Dylan a major draw.^[30]

September

• 11 September – The housing charity Shelter released a report claiming that there are up to 3 million people in need of rehousing due to poor living conditions.^[31]
• 16 September – Iconic 1960s fashion store Biba reopened on Kensington High Street.^[11]
• 21 September – Police evicted squatters from the London Street Commune.^[32]
• 26 September – The Beatles released what would be their final album (Abbey Road) recorded together.
• 28 September – The National Trust acquired ownership of the island of Lundy.

October

• 1 October – The Post Office became a Statutory corporation.
• 5 October – Monty Python's Flying Circus aired its first episode on the BBC.^[11]
• 10 October – The government accepted the recommendations of Lord Hunt's report on policing in Northern Ireland including the abolition of the Ulster Special Constabulary.^[33]
• 14 October
  • The new seven-sided 50p coin was introduced as replacement for the 10-shilling note, to a mixed reception from the British public, with many people complaining that it is easily confused with the 10p coin.^[34]
  • With a general election due within the next 18 months, opinion polls showed that the Tories were comfortably ahead of Labour, by up to 24 points.^[35]
• 16 October – Peter Nichols' black comedy The National Health was premiered by the National Theatre at the Old Vic in London.^[36]

November

• November – Ken Loach's film Kes was released at the London Film Festival.
• 15 November – Regular colour television broadcasts began on BBC1 and ITV.^[37]
• 16 November – BBC1 first aired the children's television series Clangers, made by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin's Smallfilms in stop motion animation.
• 17 November – The Sun newspaper was relaunched as a tabloid under the ownership of Rupert Murdoch.
• 25 November – John Lennon returned his MBE to protest against the British government's involvement in Biafra and support of the U.S. war in Vietnam.^[11]

December

• 10 December – Derek Harold Richard Barton won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Odd Hassel "for their contributions to the development of the concept of conformation and its application in chemistry".^[38]
• 18 December
  • The abolition of the death penalty for murder was made permanent by Parliament.^[11]
  • The sixth James Bond film - On Her Majesty's Secret Service - was released in British cinemas. Bond is now played by George Lazenby after Sean Connery starred in the first five films. Starring alongside him is Yorkshire-born actress Diana Rigg.^[39]
• 26 December – A fire at the Rose and Crown Hotel, Saffron Walden, killed eleven.^[40]

Undated

• The Chancellor of the Exchequer Roy Jenkins introduced Mortgage Interest Relief at Source (MIRAS) to encourage home ownership; it allowed borrowers tax relief for interest payments on their mortgage.^[41]

• Golden eagles were found to be nesting in England for the first time in modern history, at Haweswater in the Lake District.^[42]
• Completion of the Castle Vale estate in Birmingham, one of the largest housing estates in Europe, consisting mostly of council houses and low-rise flats as well as 34 tower blocks, the first of which were occupied in 1964.^[43]

Publications

• Kingsley Amis's novel The Green Man.
• Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novel Hallowe'en Party.
• John Fowles' novel The French Lieutenant's Woman.
• George MacDonald Fraser's novel Flashman.
• P. H. Newby's novel Something to Answer For.
• The anthology Children of Albion: Poetry of the Underground in Britain edited by Michael Horovitz.

Births

January – March

• 4 January - Mary Macleod, lawyer and politician
• 12 January - David Mitchell, author
• 13 January - Stephen Hendry, Scottish snooker player
• 19 February - Stewart Faulkner, English long jumper
• 21 February - James Dean Bradfield, Welsh musician (Manic Street Preachers)
• 1 March - Dafydd Ieuan, Welsh drummer (Super Furry Animals)

April – June

• 4 April - Karren Brady, English business executive
• 27 April - Tess Daly, English television presenter
• 6 May - Jim Magilton, Northern Irish footballer
• 21 May - Martin Harris, English backstroke swimmer
• 22 June – Simon Taylor, artist

July – September

• 26 July - Tanni Grey-Thompson, British Paralympian
• 29 August - Joe Swail, Northern Irish snooker player
• 20 September - Jo Jennings, English high jumper
• 25 September - Catherine Zeta-Jones, Welsh actress
• 26 September - Paul Warhurst, English football player

October – December

• 9 October
  • PJ Harvey, English rock musician
  • Steve McQueen, black British film director
• 15 October - Dominic West, English actor
• 13 November - Gerard Butler, Scottish actor
• 18 December - Irvin Duguid, Scottish keyboard player (Stiltskin)
• 19 December - Richard Hammond, English TV presenter
• 24 December - Ed Miliband, English politician, leader of the Labour Party
• 30 December - Jay Kay, English singer (Jamiroquai)

Deaths

January – March

• 4 January - Violet and Daisy Hilton, English conjoined twin actresses (born 1908)
• 8 January - Albert Hill, British athlete (born 1889)
• 11 January - Richmal Crompton, writer (born 1890)
• 2 February - Boris Karloff, English actor (born 1887)
• 14 February - Kenneth Horne, comedian (born 1907)
• 11 March - John Wyndham, British author (born 1903)
• 25 March - Billy Cotton, British entertainer and bandleader (born 1899)

April – June

• 4 May - Sir Osbert Sitwell, English writer (born 1892)
• 23 May - Sir Owen Williams, civil engineer (born 1890)

July – September

• 3 July - Brian Jones, British musician (The Rolling Stones) (born 1942)
• 9 August - Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1903)
• 27 August - Ivy Compton-Burnett, English novelist (born 1884)

October – December

• 18 November - Ted Heath, bandleader (born 1902)
• 5 December - Princess Alice of Battenberg, wife of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and mother of The Duke of Edinburgh (born 1885)

References

See also