1. Incumbents

2. Events
    January – March  April – June  July – September  October – December  Undated 

3. Publications

4. Births
    January – April  May – August  September – December  Unknown dates 

5. Deaths

6. See also

7. References

8. External links

Events from the year 1961 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister – Harold Macmillan (Conservative)
• Parliament – 42nd

Events

January – March

• 1 January
  • The farthing coin, used since the thirteenth century, ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom.
  • The Conservative Monday Club is established.^[1][2][3][4]
  • Betting and Gaming Act 1960 comes into force, permitting operation of commercial bingo halls.
• 7 January – The Avengers television series first screened on ITV.
• 9 January – British authorities announce that they have discovered a large Soviet spy ring in London.
• 5 February – The Sunday Telegraph newspaper first published.^[5]
• 19 February – Police break up a demonstration outside the Belgian embassy in London, protesting about the murder of the ex-Congolese Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba.^[6]
• 8 March – Edwin Bush is arrested in London for the capital stabbing of Mrs. Elsie May Batten. He is the first British criminal identified by the Identikit facial composite system.
• 9 March – "Water towers" speech: The Minister of Health, Enoch Powell, in a speech to a Conservative Party conference, proposes closing down of large, traditional psychiatric hospitals in favour of more community-based care.^[7]
• 13 March
  • The five members of the Portland Spy Ring go on trial at the Old Bailey accused of passing nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union.^[8]
  • Black and white £5 notes cease to be legal tender.^[5]
• 20 March – Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, becomes the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and it's company the Royal Shakespeare Company (Peter Hall (director)).^[9]
• 21 March – The Beatles perform at the legendary Cavern Club in Liverpool for the first time.

April – June

• 3 April – The Jaguar E-Type, a sports car capable of reaching speeds of 150mph, is launched as a two-seater roadster or 2+2 coupé.^[10]
• 17 April – Tottenham Hotspur win the Football League First Division for the second time, with a 2–1 win over Sheffield Wednesday. They have not won the contest since.^[11]
• 27 April – Sierra Leone gains independence from the UK.^[12]
• 1 May
  • Betting shops become legal under terms of the Betting and Gaming Act 1960.^[13]
  • A fire at the Top Storey Club in Bolton results in nineteen deaths.^[14] A new Licensing Act is rapidly passed to improve fire safety.
• 2 May – The United Kingdom becomes a member of the OECD.^[15]
• 6 May – Tottenham Hotspur becomes the first English football team this century, and only the third in history, to win the double of the league title and FA Cup, with a 2–0 victory over Leicester City in the FA Cup Final.^[16] (The last previous team to achieve this were Aston Villa in 1897.)
• 8 May – George Blake is sentenced to 42 years imprisonment for spying, having been found guilty of being a double agent in the pay of the Soviet Union.
• 17 May – consecration of Guildford Cathedral.^[17]
• 28 May – Peter Benenson's article "The Forgotten Prisoners" is published in several internationally read newspapers. This will later be thought of as the founding of the human rights organisation Amnesty International.
• 8 June – Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, marries Katharine Worsley at York Minster.
• 14 June – The Government unveils new "panda" crossings with push button controls for pedestrians, due to concerns about the increasing volume of traffic. The new crossings first appeare on British streets in April 1962.^[18]
• 19 June – The British protectorate ends in Kuwait and it becomes an emirate.^[5]
• 27 June
  • Michael Ramsey enthroned as the hundredth Archbishop of Canterbury, in succession to Geoffrey Fisher.^[5]
  • Kuwait requests help from the UK, and British troops are sent.

July – September

• 3 July – Suicide Act 1961 decriminalises acts of, or attempts at suicide in England and Wales.
• 4 July – Barclays open their "No. 1 Computer Centre" in Drummond Street, London, with an EMI mainframe computer, Britain’s first bank with an in-house computing centre.^[19][20]
• 8 July – At an all-British women's final to The Championships, Wimbledon in tennis, Angela Mortimer beats Christine Truman.^[21]
• 21 July – The Runcorn Widnes Bridge (later known as the Silver Jubilee Bridge) over the River Mersey opened by Princess Alexandra.^[5]
• 25 July
  • The Government calls for a voluntary "pay pause" in wage increases (continuing to April 1962).
  • The Lancashire-set film Whistle Down the Wind, starring Hayley Mills and Alan Bates, opens.
• 10 August – The UK applies for membership of the EEC.
• 16 August – The play Lady Chatterley by John Harte – based on D. H. Lawrence's novel – opens at the Arts Theatre in London and is well-reviewed by West End theatre critic, Harold Hobson.
• 19–20 August – Race riots in Middlesbrough.^[22]
• 23 August – Police launch a manhunt for the perpetrator of the A6 murder, who shot dead 36-year-old Michael Gregsten and paralysed his mistress Valerie Storie.^[23]
• 25 August – Murder of Jacqueline Thomas: Police in Birmingham launch a murder inquiry after the body of a missing teenager is found on an allotment in the Alum Rock area of the city.^[24]
• 31 August – Premiere of the film Victim, notable as the first in English to use the word "homosexual".^[25]
• September – First Mothercare shop opens, as Mother-and-Child Centre in Kingston upon Thames.^[26]
• 4 September – James Pitman's Initial Teaching Alphabet is tested in a number of schools.^[5]
• 14 September – Film A Taste of Honey, including themes of interracial relationship, unmarried pregnancy and homosexuality, is released.
• 16 September – Three people die and 35 are injured when a stand collapses during a Glasgow Rangers football match at Ibrox Park.^[27]
• 17 September – Police arrest over 1,300 protesters in Trafalgar Square during a CND rally.^[13]

October – December

• October – Acker Bilk's Stranger on the Shore released.
• 1 October – Religious programme Songs of Praise first broadcast on BBC Television; it will still be running fifty years later.
• 9 October – Skelmersdale, a small Lancashire town fifteen miles north-east of Liverpool, is designated as a new town and its population will expand over the coming years, bolstered by large council housing developments to rehouse families from inner city slums on Merseyside.^[28]
• 10 October – A volcanic eruption on the South Atlantic British overseas territory of Tristan da Cunha causes the island's entire population to be evacuated to Surrey, where they will remain until 1963.^[5]
• 25 October – The first edition of Private Eye, the satirical magazine, is published in London.^[5]
• 8 November – In a referendum on Sunday opening of public houses in Wales, the counties of Anglesey, Cardiganshire, Caernarfonshire, Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire, Merionethshire, Montgomeryshire and Pembrokeshire all vote to stay "dry", that is, opposed to the Sunday sale of alcohol.
• 9 November – At the Lyceum Theatre, London, Miss United Kingdom, Welsh-born Rosemarie Frankland, becomes the first British winner of the Miss World beauty pageant.
• 27 November – The RAF participates in air drops of food to flood victims in Somalia.^[29]
• 4 December – Birth control pills become available on the NHS after their availability is backed by Health Minister Enoch Powell.^[30]
• 9 December – Tanganyika gains independence from the United Kingdom.^[31]

Undated

• Park Hill Flats, Sheffield, opened.^[32]
• Release of short documentary film Seawards the Great Ships, which will be the first Scottish film to win an Academy Award.

Publications

• Agatha Christie's novel The Pale Horse.
• Ian Fleming's James Bond novel Thunderball.
• Richard Hughes' novel The Fox in the Attic.
• John le Carré's first novel Call for the Dead, introducing the character George Smiley.
• Iris Murdoch's novel A Severed Head.
• Muriel Spark's short novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
• Evelyn Waugh's novel Unconditional Surrender, last of the Sword of Honour trilogy.
• Parker Morris Committee's report Homes for Today and Tomorrow.
• Raymond Williams's The Long Revolution sets out the importance of cultural change.

Births

January – April

• 1 January
  • Fiona Phillips, journalist and TV presenter
  • Mark Wingett, British actor
• 12 January – Simon Russell Beale, British actor
• 13 January – Suggs, British singer (Madness)
• 18 January – Peter Beardsley, English footballer and football coach
• 19 January – Wayne Hemingway, English designer
• 31 January – Lloyd Cole, British singer and songwriter
• 14 February – Alison Saunders, Director of Public Prosecutions (England and Wales)
• 16 February – Andy Taylor, British musician (Duran Duran)
• 17 February
  • Angela Eagle, politician, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
  • Maria Eagle, politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
• 19 February – Justin Fashanu, black British footballer (suicide 1998)
• 20 February – Imogen Stubbs, British actress
• 24 February – John Grogan, British Labour politician
• 3 March – Fatima Whitbread, British javelin thrower and Olympic medallist
• 12 March – Betty Sworowski, English racewalker
• 26 March – William Hague, British statesman
• 27 March – Ellery Hanley, English rugby league footballer and coach
• 29 March – Michael Winterbottom, British filmmaker
• 14 April – Robert Carlyle, Scottish actor
• 17 April – Bella Freud, British fashion designer and columnist
• 18 April – Jane Leeves, English actress
• 20 April – Nicholas Lyndhurst, actor

May – August

• 2 May – Phil Vickery, celebrity chef
• 4 May – Jay Aston, English singer
• 8 May – Janet McTeer, actress
• 12 May – Billy Duffy, English hard rock guitarist (The Cult)
• 14 May – Tim Roth, English actor
• 30 May – Harry Enfield, English comedian
• 5 June – Rosie Kane, member of Scottish Parliament
• 6 June – George Mountbatten, 4th Marquess of Milford Haven, English polo player and businessman
• 13 June – Bob Crow, trade union leader (died 2014)
• 14 June – Boy George (O'Dowd), English new wave singer-songwriter
• 15 June – Dave McAuley, Northern Irish boxer
• 22 June – Stephen Batchelor, English field hockey player and coach
• 25 June – Ricky Gervais, English Hilarious Comedian
• 27 June – Meera Syal, comedian and writer
• 1 July – Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales (died 1997)
• 5 July – Gareth Jones, Welsh TV presenter
• 17 July – Jeremy Hardy, English comedian and broadcaster (died 2019)
• 3 August – Nick Harvey, English politician
• 7 August
  • Brian Conley, English comedian, television presenter, singer and actor
  • Walter Swinburn, English flat racing jockey and trainer (died 2016)
• 12 August – Lawrence (Hayward), alternative rock musician
• 16 August – Saskia Reeves, English actress
• 22 August – Roland Orzabal, English new wave singer-songwriter (Tears for Fears)

September – December

• 7 September – Kevin Kennedy, British actor
• 13 September – Tom Holt, British author
• 22 September – Liam Fox, British Conservative politician and Shadow Defence Secretary
• 26 September – Will Self, English novelist, reviewer and columnist
• 29 September – Julia Gillard, Welsh-born Prime Minister of Australia
• 9 October – Julian Bailey, Formula 1 driver
• 10 October – Martin Kemp, actor and musician
• 11 October – Neil Buchanan, English TV presenter
• 20 October – Ian Rush, Welsh footballer and football manager
• 25 October – Pat Sharp, English radio DJ
• 3 November – David Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley, chairman of Christie's U.K. auction house
• 4 November – Nigel Worthington, Northern Irish footballer and football manager
• 9 November – Jill Dando, television newsreader (died 1999)
• 16 November – Frank Bruno, British boxer
• 20 November – Dave Watson, English footballer
• 26 November – Karan Bilimoria, Baron Bilimoria, British Asian entrepreneur and university chancellor
• 28 November – Martin Clunes, actor
• 11 December – Marco Pierre White, British chef and restaurateur
• 12 December
  • Philip Parkin, Welsh golfer
  • Sarah Sutton, British actress
• 19 December – Matthew Waterhouse, British actor
• 23 December – Carol Smillie, Scottish TV presenter
• 29 December – Jim Reid, Scottish musician
• 31 December
  • Sharon Gibson, English javelin thrower
  • Jeremy Heywood, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service (died 2018)

Unknown dates

• Sexton Ming, British artist, poet and musician
• Gerard Woodward, British novelist and poet

Deaths

• 26 January – Stan Nichols, English cricketer (born 1900)
• 6 March – George Formby, Lancashire singer, comedian and actor (born 1904)
• 8 March – Thomas Beecham, English conductor (born 1879)
• 7 April – Vanessa Bell, English artist and interior designer (born 1879)
• 28 June – Huw Menai, Welsh poet (born 1886)
• 1 October – Sir William Reid Dick, Scottish sculptor (born 1879)
• 13 October
  • Augustus John, Welsh artist (born 1878)
  • John MacCormick, Scottish lawyer (born 1904)
• 24 December – Charles Hamilton, English children's story writer (born 1876)

See also

• 1961 in British music
• 1961 in British television
• List of British films of 1961

References

External links

• IIMA
• II Maccabees
• IIM Ahmedabad
• II Mare
• IIMB
• IIM Bangalore
• IIM Calcutta
• IIMI
• Iim indore
• IIM Indore
• IIM Kozhikode
• Iimori, Nagasaki
• Iinan, Mie
• Ii Naomasa
• Ii Naomori
• Ii Naosuke
• Iinet
• IiNet
• IINM
• Iino, Fukushima
• IiO
• Iioka, Chiba
• II Olympic Winter Games
• IIOP
• IIP