1975 in the United Kingdom

1975 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1973 | 1974 | 1975 (1975) | 1976 | 1977

Sport and Music

1975 English cricket season Football England | Scotland 1975 in British music

Events from the year 1975 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

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

Events

• 6 January - Brian Clough, former manager of Derby County and more recently Leeds United, is appointed manager of Football League Second Division strugglers Nottingham Forest.^[1]
• 14 January - Heiress Lesley Whittle (17), the daughter of late bus operator George Whittle (1905–1967), is kidnapped from her home near Bridgnorth in Shropshire by Donald Neilson.^[2]
• 24 January - Donald Coggan enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury.^[3]
• 6 February - Jensen, the luxury car maker, makes 700 workers redundant - cutting its workforce by two thirds.^[4]
• 11 February - Margaret Thatcher defeats Edward Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become the party's first female leader. Mrs Thatcher, 49, was Education Secretary in Mr Heath's government from 1970 to 1974.^[5]
• 13 February - Britain's coal miners accept a 35% pay rise offer from the government.^[6]
• 26 February - A fleeing IRA member shoots and kills off-duty Metropolitan Police officer Stephen Tibble, 22, as he gives chase.^[7]
• 28 February - A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London, kills 43 people.^[8]
• 1 March - Aston Villa, chasing promotion from the Football League Second Division, win the Football League Cup with the only goal of the Wembley final against Norwich City being scored by Ray Graydon.^[9]
• 4 March - Actor Charlie Chaplin, 85, is knighted by the Queen.^[10]
• 7 March - The body of teenage heiress Lesley Whittle, who disappeared from her Shropshire home in January, is discovered in Staffordshire. She had been strangled on a ledge in drains below Bathpool Park near Kidsgrove.^[11]
• 25 March - A large National Front rally in London protests against European integration.^[12]
• 26 March - British Leyland release their new family saloon, the Morris 18-22 wedge styled by Harris Mann to replace the ageing Austin 1800 Landcrab range. There are Austin,Morris and the luxury Wolseley versions at launch, However, in less than six months the entire range is rebranded as the Leyland Princess and the marque Wolseley is consigned to history.
• 3 April - Release of comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
• 5 April - Manchester United clinch promotion back to the First Division one season after relegation.^[13]
• 13 April - A 22-year-old woman is raped at her bedsit in Cambridge. Cambridgeshire Police believe that she is the sixth victim of a rapist who has been operating across the city since October last year. In June, Cambridgeshire Police arrest 47-year-old Peter Cook for the rapes; he is sentenced to life imprisonment in October.^[14]
• 24 April - Unemployment exceeds 1,000,000 for March 1975.^[4]
• 26 April
  • A conference of Labour Party members votes against continued membership of the EEC.^[15]
  • Derby County win the Football League First Division title for the second time in four seasons.^[16]
• May - Led Zeppelin return to the UK to play five sold-out shows at Earls Court in London.
• 1 May - General Motors launches the Vauxhall Chevette, Britain's first production small hatchback, which is similar in concept to the Italian Fiat 127 and French Renault 5.^[17]
• 3 May - West Ham United win the second FA Cup of their history by defeating Fulham 2-0 in the Wembley final. Alan Taylor scores both goals.
• 27 May - Dibbles Bridge coach crash: a tour coach runs away following brake failure and falls off a bridge near Hebden, North Yorkshire, en route to Grassington, killing the driver and 31 women pensioners on board, the highest ever toll in a UK road accident.^[18]
• 28 May - Leeds United are beaten 2-0 by Bayern Munich of West Germany in the European Cup final in Paris, France. Peter Lorimer has a goal for Leeds disallowed and this sparks a riot by angry supporters, who invade the pitch and tear seats away from the stands.^[19]
• 31 May - Establishment of the European Space Agency, the UK being one of the ten founding members.^[20][21]
• 5 June - 67% of voters support continued membership of the EEC in a referendum.^[22]
• 9 June - Proceedings in Parliament broadcast on radio for the first time.^[23]
• 13 June - UEFA places a three-year ban on Leeds United from European competitions for the actions of their fans at last month's European Cup final.
• 14 June - Ambulance crews in the West Midlands stage a ban on non-emergency calls in a dispute over pay and hours.^[24]
• 17 June - Leeds United lodge an appeal against their ban from European competitions.^[25]
• 19 June - A coroner's court jury returns a verdict of wilful murder, naming Lord Lucan as the murderer, in the inquest about Sandra Rivett, the nanny who was found dead at his wife's London home seven months previously.^[26]
• 30 June - UEFA reduces Leeds United's ban from European competitions to one season on appeal.^[27]
• July - The Government and Trades Union Congress agree a one-year cash limit on pay rises.
• 5 July - 36-year-old Keighley woman Ann Rogulskyj is badly injured in a hammer attack in an alleyway in the West Yorkshire town.^[28]
• 1 August - Government anti-inflation policy comes into full effect. During the year, inflation reaches 24.2% - the second highest since records began in 1750 and the highest since 1800.^[29] A summary of the White Paper Attack on Inflation is delivered to all households.
• 14 August Hampstead enters the UK Weather Records with the Highest 155-min total rainfall at 169 mm.
• 15 August - 46-year-old Halifax woman Olive Smelt is severely injured in a hammer attack in an alleyway in the town.^[30]
• 16 August - Football hooliganism strikes on the opening day of the English league season, with hundreds of fans being arrested at games across the country - the total number of arrests exceeds seventy at the stadiums of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leicester City.^[31]
• 19 August - Headingley cricket ground vandalised by campaigners for release from prison of the armed robber George Davis. A scheduled test match between England and Australia due to take place there has to be abandoned. This is the climax to a campaign in which the slogan George Davis is Innocent has been widely sprayed throughout London.^[32]
• 21 August - 1.25 milion are jobless
• 27 August - 14-year-old Tracy Browne is badly injured in a hammer attack in a country lane at Silsden, near Keighley.^[33]
• September - Chrysler UK launches its new Alpine five-door family hatchback, a modern front-wheel drive car to compete with the conventional Ford Cortina, Morris Marina and Vauxhall Cavalier rear-wheel drive saloons. The new car is also built in France as the Simca 1307.^[34]
• 5 September - The London Hilton hotel bombed by the IRA killing two people and injuring 63 others.^[35]
• 19 September - The first episode of the popular sitcom Fawlty Towers is broadcast on BBC2 television.^[36]
• 24 September - Dougal Haston and Doug Scott become the first British people to climb Mount Everest.^[37]
• 27 September - National Railway Museum is opened in York, the first national museum outside London.
• 28 September–3 October - The Spaghetti House siege, in which nine people are taken as hostages, takes place in London.^[38]
• October - Vauxhall announces its second new model launch of the year - the Cavalier, which replaces the Victor and is based on the German Opel Ascona, is a direct competitor for the big-selling Ford Cortina.
• 9 October - An IRA bomb explosion outside Green Park tube station near Piccadilly in London kills one and injures 20.^[39]
• 10 October - Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody is released.
• 13 October - Norton Villiers, the Wolverhampton based motorcycle producer, closes down with the loss of 1,600 jobs after being declared bankrupt.^[4]
• 30 October - West Yorkshire Police launch a murder investigation after 28-year-old prostitute Wilma McCann is found dead in Leeds.^[40]
• 3 November - Petroleum pipeline from Cruden Bay to Grangemouth across Scotland is formally opened by the Queen.^[41]
• 6 November - First public performance by punk rock band the Sex Pistols.^[36]
• 12 November - Employment Protection Act establishes ACAS to arbitrate industrial disputes, and legislates against unfair dismissal.^[3]
• 16 November - British and Icelandic ships clash marking the beginning of the third Cod War.
• 27 November - Ross McWhirter, co-founder with his twin of the Guinness Book of Records, is shot dead by the Provisional Irish Republican Army for offering reward money to informers.^[42]
• 29 November - Former racing driver Graham Hill, 46, dies in an air crash in Hertfordshire.^[43]
• December - Donald Neilson, 39, is arrested in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, on suspicion of being the "Black Panther" murderer who is believed to have carried out five murders in the last two years.^[2]
• 5 December - Government ends Internment of suspected terrorists in Northern Ireland.^[3]
• 6 December–12 December - Balcombe Street Siege: IRA members on the run from police break into a London flat taking the residents hostage. The siege ended after six days with the gunmen giving themselves up to the police.^[44][45]
• 29 December - Two new laws, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Equal Pay Act 1970, come into force aiming to end unequal pay of men and women in the workplace.^[46]

Undated

• The Willis Building (Ipswich) is completed, a key early example of Foster Associates' 'high-tech' architectural style.^[47]
• British National Oil Corporation set up.
• White-tailed Sea Eagle reintroduced to the UK, on the Isle of Rum.^[48]

Publications

• Malcolm Bradbury's novel The History Man.
• Agatha Christie's final Hercule Poirot novel Curtain.
• Colin Dexter's first Inspector Morse novel Last Bus to Woodstock.
• Richard Crossman's The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister (posthumous), after a legal battle with the Government which wished to suppress publication.
• Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's novel Heat and Dust.
• David Lodge’s novel Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses.
• Paul Scott's novel A Division of the Spoils, the final part of the Raj Quartet.

Births

• 13 January - Shazia Mirza, comedienne
• 15 January - Edith Bowman, Radio DJ
• 18 February
  • Keith Gillespie, footballer
  • Gary Neville, footballer
• 21 March - Mark Williams, snooker player
• 9 April - Robbie Fowler, footballer
• 2 May - David Beckham, footballer
• 18 May - John Higgins, snooker player
• 22 May - Kelly Morgan, badminton player
• 27 May - Jamie Oliver, chef and television personality
• 29 May - Melanie Brown, singer
• 4 June - Russell Brand, comedian and actor
• 19 June - Ed Coode, rower
• 12 July - Hannah Waterman, actress
• 15 July - Jill Halfpenny, actress
• 17 July - Konnie Huq, television presenter
• 30 July - Graham Nicholls, artist
• 31 July - Simon Hirst, DJ
• 22 August - Sheree Murphy, actress
• 18 September - Richard Appleby, football player
• 23 September - Chris Hawkins, radio personality
• 25 September - Declan Donnelly, TV presenter and one half of Ant and Dec
• 5 October - Kate Winslet, actress
• 9 October - Joe McFadden, actor
• 27 October - Zadie Smith, novelist
• 18 November - Anthony McPartlin, TV presenter and one half of Ant and Dec
• 5 December - Ronnie O'Sullivan, snooker player

Deaths

• 8 February - Robert Robinson, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1886)
• 14 February
  • Julian Huxley, biologist (born 1887)
  • P. G. Wodehouse, writer (born 1881)
• 26 February - Stephen Tibble, London police officer (shot) (born 1953)
• 3 March - T. H. Parry-Williams, poet (born 1887)
• 23 April - William Hartnell, actor (born 1908)
• 24 April - Pete Ham, musician (born 1947)
• 20 May - Barbara Hepworth, sculptor (born 1903)
• 21 May - A. H. Dodd, historian (born 1891)
• 7 August - Jim Griffiths, politician (born 1890)
• 10 September - George Paget Thomson, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1892)
• 25 November - Moyna Macgill, actress (born 1895)
• 27 November - Ross McWhirter, co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (born 1925)
• 29 November
  • Tony Brise, racing driver (born 1952)
  • Graham Hill, race car driver (born 1929)

References

See also