1969 in the United Kingdom

1969 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

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

Sport and Music

1969 English cricket season Football England | Scotland 1969 in British music

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

• 2 January - Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch purchases the largest selling British Sunday newspaper The News of the World.^[1]
• 4 January - Guitarist Jimi Hendrix causes 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 leave over 100 people injured.
• 10 January - Protestors in Northern Ireland defy police orders to abandon a planned march.^[2]
• 14 January - Sir Matt Busby, hugely successful manager of Manchester United F.C. for the last 24 years, announces his retirement as manager. He will 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.^[3]
• 18 January - Pete Best wins his defamation lawsuit against the Beatles. He had originally sought $8 million, but is awarded much less.
• 24 January - Violent protests by students close the London School of Economics, which does not re-open for three weeks.^[4]
• 27 January
  • London School of Economics students occupy the University of London Union building in Malet Street in protest at the closure of the LSE.^[5]
  • Reverend Ian Paisley, hardline Protestant leader in Northern Ireland, is jailed for 3 months for illegal assembly.
• 30 January - The Beatles give their last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records.^[6] The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.
• January
  • Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity Barbara Castle publishes a White Paper In Place of Strife proposing powers of intervention in advance of industrial action. This proves unacceptable to the Trades Union Congress.^[7][8][9]
  • Space hopper toy introduced to Britain.^[10]
• 18 February - Pop star Lulu, 20, marries Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees.^[11]
• March - The first B&Q DIY superstore is set up in Southampton by Richard Block and David Quayle.^[12][13]
• 2 March - Maiden flight of Concorde.^[6]
• 4 March - The Kray twins are both found guilty of murder: Ronnie of murdering George Cornell; Reggie of murdering Jack "the Hat" McVitie.^[14]
• 5 March - The Kray twins are sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum of 30 years by Mr Justice Melford Stevenson.^[15]
• 7 March - Opening of the London Underground Victoria Line by The Queen.^[6]
• 12 March - Paul McCartney marries Linda Eastman.^[6]
• 17 March - The Longhope lifeboat in Scotland is lost; the entire crew of 8 die.
• 19 March
  • British paratroopers and Marines land on the island of Anguilla.
  • A 385 metre tall TV-mast at Emley Moor collapses because of icing.
• 25 March - John Lennon and Yoko Ono marry in Gibraltar.
• 29 March - The UK shares the win of the Eurovision Song Contest, in a four-way tie with France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Lulu represents the UK, singing Boom bang-a-bang.
• 1 April - The Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.1 V/STOL "Jump Jet" fighter enters service with the RAF.
• 9 April - Sikh busmen in Wolverhampton win the right to wear turbans on duty.^[16]
• 17 April
  • Representation of the People Act lowers the voting age from 21 to 18.^[6]
  • Bernadette Devlin wins the Mid Ulster by-election and becomes the youngest ever female MP at 21 years old.^[6]
• 20 April - British troops arrive in Northern Ireland to reinforce the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
• 22 April - Robin Knox-Johnston becomes the first person to sail around the world solo without stopping.
• 24 April
  • British Leyland Motor Corporation launches 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 carmaker Renault's R16 range.^[17]
  • Broadcast of the final episode of the long-running BBC Radio serial drama Mrs Dale's Diary.^[6]
• 26 April - Manchester City F.C. win the FA Cup with a 1-0 win over Leicester City in the Wembley final.^[18]
• 28 April - Leeds United win the Football League First Division title for the first time in their history.^[19]
• 2 May - The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York.^[6]
• 23 May - The Who release the concept album Tommy.
• 21 June - Showing of television documentary The Royal Family, which attracts more than 30.6 million viewers, an all-time British record for a non-current event programme.^[20][21]
• 24 June - After a referendum in Rhodesia decides in favour of becoming a Republic, the Governor of Southern Rhodesia Sir Humphrey Gibbs leaves 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) are killed whilst placing a bomb outside government offices in Abergele to disrupt the following day's events.^[22]
• 1 July - Charles, Prince of Wales, is invested with his title at Caernarfon.^[6]
• 3 July - Swansea granted city status.
• 10 July - The trimaran Teignmouth Electron of Donald Crowhurst is found drifting and unoccupied in Mid-Atlantic. It is discovered that Crowhurst has been falsifying his position in a Round the World yacht race and presumed that he committed suicide.^[23]
• 12 July - Golfer Tony Jacklin wins The Open Championship.^[6]
• 21 July - The first moon landing by man - "A small step for man, a giant leap for mankind".
• 23 July - BBC Two television first airs the Pot Black snooker tournament.
• 24 July - British lecturer Gerald Brooke freed from a Soviet prison in exchange for the spies Morris and Lona Cohen.^[24]
• 1 August - The pre-decimal halfpenny ceases to be legal tender.^[6]
• 12 August - Rioting breaks out in Derry, Northern Ireland in the Battle of the Bogside, the first major confrontation of The Troubles.
• 13 August–17 August - Sectarian rioting in Northern Ireland.
• 13 August - The Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, Jack Lynch, makes a speech on Teilifís Éireann saying that his government "can no longer stand by" and requesting a United Nations peacekeeping force for Northern Ireland.^[25]
• 14 August - British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland to restore law and order.^[26]
• 30–31 August - Second Isle of Wight Festival attracts 150,000 pop music fans, with the appearance of Bob Dylan a major draw.^[27]
• 11 September - Housing charity Shelter releases a report claiming that there are up to 3 million people in need of rehousing due to poor living conditions.^[28]
• 16 September - Iconic 1960s fashion store Biba reopens on Kensington High Street.^[6]
• 21 September - Police evict squatters from the London Street Commune.^[29]
• 26 September - The Beatles release what will be their final album (Abbey Road) recorded together.
• 28 September - The National Trust acquires ownership of the island of Lundy.
• 1 October - The Post Office becomes a Statutory corporation.
• 5 October - Monty Python's Flying Circus airs its first episode on the BBC.^[6]
• 10 October - The government accepts the recommendations of Lord Hunt's report on policing in Northern Ireland including the abolition of the Ulster Special Constabulary.^[30]
• 14 October - The new seven-sided 50p coin is 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.^[31]
• 16 October - Peter Nichols' black comedy The National Health is premiered by the National Theatre at the Old Vic in London.^[32]
• November - Ken Loach's film Kes is released at the London Film Festival.
• 15 November - Regular colour television broadcasts begin on BBC1 and ITV.^[33]
• 16 November - BBC1 first airs the children's television series Clangers, made by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin's Smallfilms in stop motion animation.
• 17 November - The Sun newspaper is relaunched as a tabloid.
• 25 November - John Lennon returns his OBE to protest against the British government's involvement in Biafra and support of the U.S. war in Vietnam.^[6]
• 10 December - Derek Harold Richard Barton wins 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".^[34]
• 18 December
  • The abolition of the death penalty for murder is made permanent by Parliament.^[6]
  • The sixth James Bond film - On Her Majesty's Secret Service - is 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.^[35]
• 26 December - A fire at the Rose and Crown Hotel, Saffron Walden, kills eleven.^[36]

Undated

• Chancellor of the Exchequer Roy Jenkins introduces Mortgage Interest Relief at Source (MIRAS) to encourage home ownership; it allows borrowers tax relief for interest payments on their mortgage.^[37]
• First ordination of a woman in the Church of Scotland, Catherine McConnachie by the Presbytery of Aberdeen.^[38]
• Golden eagles nest in England for the first time in modern history, at Haweswater in the Lake District.^[39]

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

• 12 January - David Mitchell, author
• 13 January - Stephen Hendry, British 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)
• 6 May - Jim Magilton, Northern Irish footballer
• 21 May - Martin Harris, English backstroke swimmer
• 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
• 13 November - Gerard Butler, Scottish actor
• 18 December - Irvin Duguid, Scottish keyboard player (Stiltskin)
• 19 December - Richard Hammond, British TV presenter
• 24 December - Ed Miliband, politician
• 30 December - Jay Kay, English singer (Jamiroquai)

Deaths

• 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)
• 25 January - Irene Castle, English dancer (born 1893)
• 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)
• 4 May - Osbert Sitwell, English writer (born 1892)
• 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)
• 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