1957 in the United Kingdom
Encyclopedia
Events from the year 1957 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

Incumbents

  • Monarch – Elizabeth II
  • Prime Minister – Anthony Eden
    Anthony Eden
    Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...

     and Harold Macmillan
    Harold Macmillan
    Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....

    , Conservative Party
    Conservative Party (UK)
    The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...


Events

  • 9 January – Resignation of Anthony Eden
    Anthony Eden
    Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...

     as Prime Minister due to ill-health.
  • 10 January – Harold Macmillan
    Harold Macmillan
    Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....

     succeeds Eden as Prime Minister.
  • 16 January
    • Royal Ballet
      Royal Ballet, London
      The Royal Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the four major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in 1931 by Dame Ninette de Valois, it became the resident ballet...

       granted a Royal Charter
      Royal Charter
      A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...

      .
    • Cavern Club opens in Liverpool
      Liverpool
      Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

      .
  • January – National Trust for Scotland
    National Trust for Scotland
    The National Trust for Scotland for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, commonly known as the National Trust for Scotland describes itself as the conservation charity that protects and promotes Scotland's natural and cultural heritage for present and future generations to...

     agrees to accept the bequest
    Bequest
    A bequest is the act of giving property by will. Strictly, "bequest" is used of personal property, and "devise" of real property. In legal terminology, "bequeath" is a verb form meaning "to make a bequest."...

     of the islands of St Kilda
    St Kilda, Scotland
    St Kilda is an isolated archipelago west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic Ocean. It contains the westernmost islands of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The largest island is Hirta, whose sea cliffs are the highest in the United Kingdom and three other islands , were also used for...

    .
  • 11 February – East Midlands
    East Midlands
    The East Midlands is one of the regions of England, consisting of most of the eastern half of the traditional region of the Midlands. It encompasses the combined area of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and most of Lincolnshire...

     earthquake
    Earthquake
    An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...

    .
  • 16 February – The "Toddlers' Truce
    Toddlers' Truce
    The Toddlers' Truce was a piece of early British television scheduling policy that required transmissions to terminate for an hour each weekday between 6pm and 7pm. This was from the end of Children's TV to the start of the evening schedule, so that young children could be put to bed.-Background:It...

    " (an arrangement whereby there were no television broadcasts between 6 PM and 7 PM to allow parents to put their children to bed) is abolished.
  • 6 March – Ghana
    Ghana
    Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

     becomes independent of the United Kingdom.
  • 1 April – The BBC
    BBC
    The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

     broadcasts a spoof documentary showing spaghetti being harvested
    Spaghetti tree
    The spaghetti tree hoax is a famous 3-minute hoax report broadcast on April Fools' Day 1957 by the BBC current affairs programme Panorama. It told a tale of a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from the fictitious spaghetti tree, broadcast at a time when this Italian dish was not...

     in Switzerland
    Switzerland
    Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

    , believed to be the first April Fool's Day joke on television.
  • 10 April – Royal Court Theatre
    Royal Court Theatre
    The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...

     (London
    London
    London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

    ) premieres John Osborne
    John Osborne
    John James Osborne was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and critic of the Establishment. The success of his 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre....

    ’s The Entertainer
    The Entertainer (play)
    The Entertainer is a three act play by John Osborne, first produced in 1957. His first play, Look Back in Anger, had attracted mixed notices but a great deal of publicity. Having depicted an "angry young man" in the earlier play, Osborne wrote, at Laurence Olivier's request,about an angry middle...

    with Laurence Olivier
    Laurence Olivier
    Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...

     in the title role.
  • 11 April – The British Government agrees to allow Singapore
    Singapore
    Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

     its independence.
  • 15 April – Suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams
    John Bodkin Adams
    John Bodkin Adams was an Irish-born British general practitioner, convicted fraudster and suspected serial killer. Between the years 1946 and 1956, more than 160 of his patients died in suspicious circumstances. Of these, 132 left him money or items in their will. He was tried and acquitted for...

     is controversially found not guilty at the Old Bailey
    Old Bailey
    The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...

     after Britain's longest murder trial. Political interference is suspected.
  • 20 April – Manchester United
    Manchester United F.C.
    Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...

     retain the Football League First Division
    Football League First Division
    The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....

     title with a 4-0 win over Sunderland
    Sunderland A.F.C.
    Sunderland Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear who currently play in the Premier League...

    .
  • 24 April – First broadcast of BBC Television
    BBC Television
    BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...

     astronomy series The Sky at Night
    The Sky at Night
    The Sky at Night is a monthly documentary television programme on astronomy produced by the BBC. The show has had the same permanent presenter, Sir Patrick Moore, from its first airing on 24 April 1957, making it the longest-running programme with the same presenter in television history.The...

    presented by Patrick Moore
    Patrick Moore
    Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore, CBE, FRS, FRAS is a British amateur astronomer who has attained prominent status in astronomy as a writer, researcher, radio commentator and television presenter of the subject, and who is credited as having done more than any other person to raise the profile of...

    . This will still be running with the same presenter more than fifty years later
  • 2 May – Hammer Film Productions
    Hammer Film Productions
    Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...

    ' The Curse of Frankenstein released.
  • 4 May – Aston Villa
    Aston Villa F.C.
    Aston Villa Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Witton, Birmingham. The club was founded in 1874 and have played at their current home ground, Villa Park, since 1897. Aston Villa were founder members of The Football League in 1888. They were also founder...

     win the FA Cup
    FA Cup
    The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...

     for a record seventh time with a 2-1 win over Football League First Division
    Football League First Division
    The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....

     champions Manchester United
    Manchester United F.C.
    Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...

     at Wembley Stadium
    Wembley Stadium
    The original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007...

    . Peter McParland
    Peter McParland
    Peter James McParland, MBE is a former professional footballer.-Dundalk & Aston Villa:...

     scores both of Villa's goals, with United's consolation goal coming from Tommy Taylor
    Tommy Taylor
    Thomas "Tommy" Taylor was an English footballer, who was known for his aerial ability. He was one of the eight Manchester United players who lost their lives in the Munich air disaster....

    . The result ends Manchester United's hopes of becoming the first team this century to win the double
    The Double
    The Double is a term in association football which refers to winning a country's top tier division and its primary cup competition in the same season...

     of the league title and FA Cup.
  • 14 May – End of petrol rationing following the Suez Crisis
    Suez Crisis
    The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...

    .
  • 15 May – Operation Grapple
    Operation Grapple
    Operation Grapple, and operations Grapple X, Grapple Y and Grapple Z, were the names of British nuclear tests of the hydrogen bomb. They were held 1956—1958 at Malden Island and Christmas Island in the central Pacific Ocean. Nine nuclear detonations took place during the trials, resulting in...

    : Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb, at Maiden Island
    Maiden Island
    Maiden Island is a small uninhabited island at the mouth of Oban Bay on the west coast of Scotland.-Geography:Maiden Island lies just off the coast of mainland Scotland, west of Dunollie Castle and Camas Bàn. It is to the north of the narrow entrance to Oban Bay and about miles north of the much...

     in the Pacific
    Pacific Ocean
    The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

    .
  • 1 June – The first Premium Bond
    Premium Bond
    A Premium Bond is a lottery bond issued by the United Kingdom government's National Savings and Investments scheme. The government promises to buy back the bond, on request, for its original price. They were introduced by Harold Macmillan in his 1956 budget....

     winners selected by the computer ERNIE
    Ernie
    Ernie is a fictional character, a Muppet on the Public Broadcasting Service's long-running children's television show, Sesame Street. He and his roommate Bert form a comic duo that is one of the program's centerpieces, with Ernie acting the role of the naïve troublemaker and Bert the world-weary foil...

    .
  • 3 June – Actor and playwright Noel Coward
    Noël Coward
    Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...

     returns to Britain from the West Indies amid criticism that he is living abroad to avoid having to pay tax.http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/3/newsid_4433000/4433359.stm
  • 27 June – A report by the Medical Research Council
    Medical Research Council (UK)
    The Medical Research Council is a publicly-funded agency responsible for co-ordinating and funding medical research in the United Kingdom. It is one of seven Research Councils in the UK and is answerable to, although politically independent from, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...

     reveals that there is evidence to support a link between tobacco smoking
    Tobacco smoking
    Tobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the resulting smoke is inhaled. The practice may have begun as early as 5000–3000 BCE. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 16th century where it followed common trade routes...

     and lung cancer
    Lung cancer
    Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...

    .
  • 20 July – Prime minister Harold Macmillan makes an optimistic speech to his fellow party members at Bedford
    Bedford
    Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. It is a large town and the administrative centre for the wider Borough of Bedford. According to the former Bedfordshire County Council's estimates, the town had a population of 79,190 in mid 2005, with 19,720 in the adjacent town...

    , telling them that "most of our people have never had it so good".http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/20/newsid_3728000/3728225.stm
  • 20–28 July – Transport and General Workers' Union
    Transport and General Workers' Union
    The Transport and General Workers' Union, also known as the TGWU and the T&G, was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland - where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union - with 900,000 members...

     stages national strike by provincial (non-municipal) bus crews; some violence against non-strikers is reported.
  • 31 July – The Tryweryn Bill, permitting Liverpool City Council to build a reservoir which will drown the village of Capel Celyn
    Capel Celyn
    Capel Celyn was a rural community to the north west of Bala in Gwynedd, north Wales, in the Afon Tryweryn valley. The village and other parts of the valley were flooded to create a reservoir, Llyn Celyn, in order to supply Liverpool and The Wirral with water for industry...

    , becomes law.
  • 5 August – The cartoon
    Cartoon
    A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...

     character Andy Capp
    Andy Capp
    Andy Capp is a British comic strip created by cartoonist Reg Smythe , seen in The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Mirror newspapers since 5 August 1957. Originally a single-panel cartoon, Smyth later expanded it to four panels....

     first appears in northern editions of the Daily Mirror.
  • 31 August – The Federation of Malaya
    Federation of Malaya
    The Federation of Malaya is the name given to a federation of 11 states that existed from 31 January 1948 until 16 September 1963. The Federation became independent on 31 August 1957...

     becomes independent from Britain.
  • August – ZETA fusion reactor begins operation at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment
    Atomic Energy Research Establishment
    The Atomic Energy Research Establishment near Harwell, Oxfordshire, was the main centre for atomic energy research and development in the United Kingdom from the 1940s to the 1990s.-Founding:...

    , Harwell, Oxfordshire
    Harwell, Oxfordshire
    Harwell is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse west of Didcot. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire.-Amenities:...

    .
  • 4 September – Publication of the Wolfenden report
    Wolfenden report
    The Report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution was published in Britain on 4 September 1957 after a succession of well-known men, including Lord Montagu, Michael Pitt-Rivers and Peter Wildeblood, were convicted of homosexual offences.-The committee:The...

     recommending "homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence".
  • October – The Consumers' Association
    Consumers' Association
    The Consumers' Association is the umbrella organisation that houses the trading arm Which? Ltd. The Consumers' Association is a charity, registered in England and Wales No 296072. Which? Ltd is its wholly owned trading subsidiary....

     begins publishing Which?
    Which?
    Which? is a product-testing and consumer campaigning charity with a magazine, website and various other services run by Which? Ltd ....

    magazine.
  • 1 October – Britain introduces a vaccine against Asian Flu
    Asian flu
    Asian Flu may refer to:* The Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, or* Asian Flu, the H2N2 virus...

    , which has already killed thousands of people worldwide.http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/1/newsid_3086000/3086843.stm
  • 2 October – David Lean
    David Lean
    Sir David Lean CBE was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best remembered for big-screen epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai , Lawrence of Arabia ,...

    's Academy Award-winning film The Bridge on the River Kwai
    The Bridge on the River Kwai
    The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 British World War II film by David Lean based on The Bridge over the River Kwai by French writer Pierre Boulle. The film is a work of fiction but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–43 for its historical setting. It stars William...

    is released.
  • 10 October – The graphite core of the nuclear reactor at Windscale
    Sellafield
    Sellafield is a nuclear reprocessing site, close to the village of Seascale on the coast of the Irish Sea in Cumbria, England. The site is served by Sellafield railway station. Sellafield is an off-shoot from the original nuclear reactor site at Windscale which is currently undergoing...

    , Cumbria
    Cumbria
    Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...

    , catches fire, releasing substantial amounts of radioactive contamination into the surrounding area.
  • 11 October – Jodrell Bank Observatory
    Timeline of Jodrell Bank Observatory
    - 1930s :* 1939 — Jodrell Bank site purchased by the University of Manchester as a botany field station.- 1940s :* 1945, December — Bernard Lovell arrives at Jodrell Bank with several trailers of radar equipment from World War II....

     becomes operational.
  • 30 October – The government unveils plans which will allow women to join the House of Lords
    House of Lords
    The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

     for the first time.http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/30/newsid_3116000/3116144.stm
  • 8 November – An inquiry into last month's fire at Windscale nuclear power plant blames the accident on a combination of human error, poor management and faulty instruments.http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/8/newsid_3181000/3181342.stm
  • 4 December – The Lewisham rail crash
    Lewisham rail crash
    The Lewisham rail crash on the British railway system occurred on 4 December 1957 just outside St Johns railway station in Lewisham, south London...

     kills ninety people and injures 173.
  • 10 December – Alexander R. Todd, Baron Todd
    Alexander R. Todd, Baron Todd
    Alexander Robertus Todd, Baron Todd, OM, PRS FRSE was a Scottish biochemist whose research on the structure and synthesis of nucleotides, nucleosides, and nucleotide coenzymes gained him the 1957 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.Todd was born near Glasgow, attended Allan Glen's School and graduated from...

     wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry
    The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...

     "for his work on nucleotides and nucleotide co-enzymes".
  • 12 December – Wales gets its own minister of state in the Westminster government for the first time.
  • 25 December – The Royal Christmas Message
    Royal Christmas Message
    The Queen's Christmas Message is a broadcast made by the sovereign of the Commonwealth realms to the Commonwealth of Nations each Christmas. The tradition began in 1932 with a radio broadcast by George V on the British Broadcasting Corporation Empire Service...

     is broadcast on television for the first time.
  • 28 December – A case of foot-and-mouth disease
    Foot-and-mouth disease
    Foot-and-mouth disease or hoof-and-mouth disease is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids...

     is found at an abattoir in Liverpool
    Liverpool
    Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

    .

Publications

  • John Braine
    John Braine
    John Gerard Braine was an English novelist. Braine is usually associated with the Angry Young Men movement.-Biography:...

    's novel Room at the Top
    Room at the Top (novel)
    Room at the Top , by John Braine, tells the rise of an ambitious young man of humble origin, and the socio-economic struggles undergone in realising his social ambitions in post-war Britain...

    .
  • B²FH
    B²FH
    The B2FH paper, named after the initials of Margaret Burbidge, Geoffrey Burbidge, William Fowler and Fred Hoyle, is a landmark paper of stellar physics published in Reviews of Modern Physics in 1957...

    , an astrophysics paper by the British astronomers Geoffrey Burbidge
    Geoffrey Burbidge
    Geoffrey Ronald Burbidge FRS was an English astronomy professor, most recently at the University of California, San Diego. He was married to astrophysicist Dr. Margaret Burbidge.-Education:...

    , Margaret Burbidge
    Margaret Burbidge
    Eleanor Margaret Burbidge, née Peachey, FRS is a British-born American astrophysicist, noted for original research and holding many administrative posts, including director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory....

     and Fred Hoyle
    Fred Hoyle
    Sir Fred Hoyle FRS was an English astronomer and mathematician noted primarily for his contribution to the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and his often controversial stance on other cosmological and scientific matters—in particular his rejection of the "Big Bang" theory, a term originally...

     and the American astronomer William Fowler
    William Alfred Fowler
    William Alfred "Willy" Fowler was an American astrophysicist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1983. He should not be confused with the British astronomer Alfred Fowler....

     describes the synnthesis of the lightest elements through nuclear processes in stars
    Stellar nucleosynthesis
    Stellar nucleosynthesis is the collective term for the nuclear reactions taking place in stars to build the nuclei of the elements heavier than hydrogen. Some small quantity of these reactions also occur on the stellar surface under various circumstances...

    .
  • Agatha Christie
    Agatha Christie
    Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...

    's Miss Marple
    Miss Marple
    Jane Marple, usually referred to as Miss Marple, is a fictional character appearing in twelve of Agatha Christie's crime novels and in twenty short stories. Miss Marple is an elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur detective. She is one of the most famous...

     novel 4.50 From Paddington
    4.50 From Paddington
    4.50 from PaddingtonThe article time reads: Four-fifty from Paddington. In the United Kingdom's time notation, hours and minutes may be separated by a dot rather than a colon sign...

    .
  • Lawrence Durrell
    Lawrence Durrell
    Lawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer, though he resisted affiliation with Britain and preferred to be considered cosmopolitan...

    's novel Justine
    Justine (novel)
    Justine, published in 1957, is the first volume in Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet. Justine is one of four interlocking novels which each tell various aspects of a complex story of passion and deception from various points of view...

    , first of The Alexandria Quartet
    The Alexandria Quartet
    The Alexandria Quartet is a tetralogy of novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, published between 1957 and 1960. A critical and commercial success, the books present four perspectives on a single set of events and characters in Alexandria, Egypt, before and during World War II.As Durrell...

    , and his memoir Bitter Lemons
    Bitter Lemons
    Bitter Lemons is an autobiographical work by writer Lawrence Durrell, describing the three years he spent on the island of Cyprus...

    .
  • Ian Fleming
    Ian Fleming
    Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...

    's James Bond
    James Bond
    James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

     novel From Russia with Love.
  • Stevie Smith
    Stevie Smith
    Florence Margaret Smith, known as Stevie Smith was an English poet and novelist.-Life:Stevie Smith, born Florence Margaret Smith in Kingston upon Hull, was the second daughter of Ethel and Charles Smith. Contemporary Women Poets...

    's poem Not Waving but Drowning
    Not Waving but Drowning
    "Not Waving but Drowning" is a poem by British poet Stevie Smith published in 1957 as part of a collection of the same title. The work, the most famous of Smith's poems, describes a man whose distressed thrashing in the sea causes onlookers to believe that he is waving to them...

    .
  • Evelyn Waugh
    Evelyn Waugh
    Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...

    's novel The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold
    The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold
    The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold is a novel first published in 1957 by English writer Evelyn Waugh. Strong parallels may be drawn between events in the novel overtaking the eponymous protagonist, Gilbert Pinfold, and episodes in the author's own life...

    .
  • John Wyndham
    John Wyndham
    John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was an English science fiction writer who usually used the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names, such as John Beynon and Lucas Parkes...

    's novel The Midwich Cuckoos
    The Midwich Cuckoos
    The Midwich Cuckoos is a science fiction novel written by English author John Wyndham, published in 1957. It has been filmed twice as Village of the Damned in 1960 and 1995.-Plot summary:...

    .

Births

  • 6 January – Michael Foale
    Michael Foale
    Colin Michael Foale, CBE, PhD is a British-American astrophysicist with dual citizenship and a NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of six space shuttle missions and extended stays on both Mir and the International Space Station...

    , astronaut
  • 15 January – Patrick Dixon
    Patrick Dixon
    Dr Patrick Dixon is an author and business consultant, often described as a futurist. In 2005 he was ranked as one of the 20 most influential business thinkers alive according to the Thinkers 50...

    , business guru and author
  • 24 January – Adrian Edmondson
    Adrian Edmondson
    Adrian Charles "Ade" Edmondson is an English comedian. He is probably best known for his comedic roles in the television series The Young Ones and Bottom , for which he also wrote together with his long-time collaboration partner Rik Mayall.-Early life:Edmondson, the second of four children, was...

    , comedian
  • 9 February – Gordon Strachan
    Gordon Strachan
    Gordon David Strachan OBE is a Scottish football manager and former player. He is currently without a club, having last managed Middlesbrough. Strachan played for Dundee, Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds United and Coventry City, as well as the Scotland national team. Prior to Middlesbrough,...

    , footballer and manager
  • 22 February – Robert Bathurst
    Robert Bathurst
    Robert Guy Bathurst is an English actor. Bathurst was born in the Gold Coast in 1957, where his father was working as a management consultant. His family moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 1959 and Bathurst was enrolled at an Anglican boarding school...

    , actor
  • 12 March – Steve Harris
    Steve Harris (musician)
    Stephen Percy "Steve" Harris is an English musician and songwriter, known as the bassist, occasional keyboardist, backing vocalist and primary songwriter of the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden, which he founded in 1975...

    , bassist (Iron Maiden
    Iron Maiden
    Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from Leyton in east London, formed in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. Since their inception, the band's discography has grown to include a total of thirty-six albums: fifteen studio albums; eleven live albums; four EPs; and six...

    )
  • 17 March – Mal Donaghy
    Mal Donaghy
    Malachy Martin "Mal" Donaghy is a former Northern Ireland international footballer who played for Luton Town.-Club career:...

    , footballer
  • March 25 – Christina Boxer
    Christina Boxer
    Christina Tracy Boxer-Cahill is a retired female middle distance athlete from England. She competed in three consecutive Summer Olympics for Great Britain, starting in 1980. Boxer claimed the gold medal in the women's 1500 m event at the 1982 Commonwealth Games.In 1984, Boxer finished 6th in the...

    , English middle distance runner
  • 1 April – David Gower
    David Gower
    David Ivon Gower OBE is a former English cricketer who became a commentator for Sky Sports. Although he eventually rose to the captaincy of the England cricket team during the 1980s, he is best known for being one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of the modern era. Gower played 117 Test...

    , cricket player and commentator
  • 3 April – Julia Hills
    Julia Hills
    Julia Hills is a British actress, known for being a member of the cast of the Channel 4 late-night comedy sketch show Who Dares Wins in the 1980s. She also played the character of Rona, the man-hungry neighbour, in eight series of the BBC hit sitcom 2point4 children...

    , actress
  • 17 April – Nick Hornby
    Nick Hornby
    Nick Hornby is an English novelist, essayist and screenwriter. He is best known for the novels High Fidelity, About a Boy, and for the football memoir Fever Pitch. His work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists.-Life and career:Hornby was...

    , novelist
  • 29 April – Daniel Day-Lewis
    Daniel Day-Lewis
    Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is an English actor with both British and Irish citizenship. His portrayals of Christy Brown in My Left Foot and Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood won Academy and BAFTA Awards for Best Actor, and Screen Actors Guild as well as Golden Globe Awards for the latter...

    , actor
  • 3 May – Jo Brand
    Jo Brand
    Josephine Grace "Jo" Brand is a BAFTA winning British comedian, writer, and actor.- Early life :Jo Brand was born 23 July 1957 in Wandsworth, London. Her mother was a social worker. Brand is the middle of three children, with two brothers...

    , comedian
  • 10 May – Sid Vicious
    Sid Vicious
    Sid Vicious was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols...

    , bassist (Sex Pistols
    Sex Pistols
    The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...

    ) (died 1979
    1979 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1979 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:* Monarch - Elizabeth II* Prime Minister - James Callaghan, Labour , Margaret Thatcher, Conservative-Events:...

    )
  • 27 May – Siouxsie Sioux
    Siouxsie Sioux
    Siouxsie Sioux is an English singer-songwriter. She is best known as the lead singer of the critically acclaimed rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees and of its splinter group The Creatures . The Banshees produced eleven studio albums and a string of hit singles including "Hong Kong Garden",...

    , singer (Siouxsie and the Banshees)
  • 9 July
    • Marc Almond
      Marc Almond
      Marc Almond is an English singer-songwriter and musician, who originally found fame as half of the seminal synthpop/New Wave duo Soft Cell...

      , singer
    • Paul Merton
      Paul Merton
      Paul Merton is a British comedian, writer, actor and television presenter. Known for his improvisation skill, his humour is rooted in deadpan, surreal and sometimes dark comedy...

      , actor and comedian
  • 11 July – Peter Murphy, singer (Bauhaus
    Bauhaus (band)
    Bauhaus was an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978. The group consisted of Peter Murphy , Daniel Ash , Kevin Haskins and David J . The band was originally Bauhaus 1919 before they dropped the numerical portion within a year of formation...

    )
  • 17 July – Fern Britton
    Fern Britton
    Fern Britton is an English television presenter, known as the former main co-presenter on the ITV magazine programme This Morning alongside Phillip Schofield. She left the show on 17 July 2009, her 52nd birthday.- Early life :...

    , television presenter
  • 17 August – Robin Cousins
    Robin Cousins
    Robert "Robin" Cousins is a British retired competitive figure skater. He is the 1980 Olympic Champion, the 1980 European champion, a three-time World medalist and four-time British national champion. He later starred in ice shows and also produced his own...

    , figure skater
  • 20 August – Simon Donaldson
    Simon Donaldson
    Simon Kirwan Donaldson FRS , is an English mathematician known for his work on the topology of smooth four-dimensional manifolds. He is now Royal Society research professor in Pure Mathematics and President of the Institute for Mathematical Science at Imperial College London...

    , mathematician
  • 22 August – Steve Davis
    Steve Davis
    Steve Davis, OBE is an English professional snooker player. He has won more professional titles in the sport than any other player, including six World Championships during the 1980s, when he was the world number one for seven years and became the sport's first millionaire...

    , snooker player
  • 24 August – Stephen Fry
    Stephen Fry
    Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...

    , comedian, author and actor
  • 31 August – Glenn Tilbrook
    Glenn Tilbrook
    Glenn Martin Tilbrook is the lead singer and guitarist of the English band Squeeze, a band formed in the mid 1970s who broke through in the new wave era at the decade's end. He generally wrote the melody for Squeeze, while his writing partner, Chris Difford, wrote the lyrics...

    , Squeeze singer songwriter
  • September 10 – Mark Naylor
    Mark Naylor
    Mark Naylor is a retired male high jumper from England, who twice represented the United Kingdom at the Summer Olympics: 1980 and 1984. He was a member of Hillingdon Athletic Club during his career. Naylor set his personal best in 1980.-References:...

    , English high jumper
  • 12 September – Rachel Ward
    Rachel Ward
    Rachel Claire Ward, AM is a British actress, columnist, film director, and screenwriter who has primarily pursued her career in Australia.-Early life:...

    , actress
  • 7 October – Jayne Torvill
    Jayne Torvill
    Jayne Torvill, OBE is a British ice dancer. With Christopher Dean, she won a gold medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics and a bronze medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics.-Early life:...

    , ice skater
  • 11 October – Dawn French, comedian
  • 13 November – Stephen Baxter
    Stephen Baxter
    Stephen Baxter is a prolific British hard science fiction author. He has degrees in mathematics and engineering.- Writing style :...

    , science fiction author
  • 30 November – Colin Mochrie
    Colin Mochrie
    Colin Andrew Mochrie is a Scottish Canadian actor and improvisational comedian, most famous for his appearances on the British and US versions of television improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.-Early life:...

    , comedian
  • 8 December – Phil Collen
    Phil Collen
    Philip Kenneth "Phil" Collen is the co-lead guitarist and one of the backing vocalists for English rock band Def Leppard. He joined the band in 1982 following the departure of Pete Willis.-Early years:...

    , singer and guitarist (Def Leppard
    Def Leppard
    Def Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1977 in Sheffield as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. Since 1992, the band have consisted of Joe Elliott , Rick Savage , Rick Allen , Phil Collen , and Vivian Campbell...

    )
  • 20 December – Billy Bragg
    Billy Bragg
    Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...

    , singer
  • Unknown – Jacquie de Creed
    Jacquie de Creed
    Jacqueline Balmer was an English stuntwoman and presenter, and holder of the Long Distance Car Ramp Jump Record. During the 1980s she became famous in the United Kingdom for staging a series of spectacular car stunts...

    , stunt woman (d. 2011
    2011 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 2011 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II *Prime Minister - David Cameron, Conservative Party-January:...

    )

Deaths

  • January – Harry Gordon
    Harry Gordon
    Harry Gordon was a popular Scottish entertainer, comedian and impressionist, touring throughout Scotland and further afield. From the 1920s through the 1950s Gordon also produced a large number of recordings, including several under assumed names...

    , popular entertainer (born 1893
    1893 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1893 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal-Events:...

    )
  • 9 February – John Axon
    John Axon
    John Axon GC was an English train driver from Stockport who died while trying to stop a runaway freight train on a 1 in 58 gradient near Buxton in Derbyshire after a brake failure. The train consisted of an ex-LMS Stanier Class 8F 2-8-0 No...

    , railwayman (born 1900
    1900 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1900 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury, Conservative-Events:...

    )
  • 16 February – Leslie Hore-Belisha, 1st Baron Hore-Belisha
    Leslie Hore-Belisha, 1st Baron Hore-Belisha
    Isaac Leslie Hore-Belisha, 1st Baron Hore-Belisha PC was a British Liberal, then National Liberal Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister. He later joined the Conservative Party...

    , statesman after whom Belisha beacon
    Belisha beacon
    A Belisha beacon is an amber-coloured globe lamp atop a tall black and white pole, marking pedestrian crossings of roads in the United Kingdom, Ireland and in other countries historically influenced by Britain...

    s are named (born 1893
    1893 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1893 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal-Events:...

    )
  • 7 March – Wyndham Lewis
    Wyndham Lewis
    Percy Wyndham Lewis was an English painter and author . He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art, and edited the literary magazine of the Vorticists, BLAST...

    , painter and author (born 1882, Canada)
  • 21 March – Charles Kay Ogden
    Charles Kay Ogden
    Charles Kay Ogden was an English linguist, philosopher, and writer. Described as a polymath but also an eccentric and outsider, he took part in many ventures related to literature, politics, the arts and philosophy, having a broad impact particularly as an editor, translator, and activist on...

    , linguist, philosopher and writer (born 1889
    1889 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1889 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury, Conservative-Events:...

    )
  • 23 March – Patrick Abercrombie
    Patrick Abercrombie
    Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie ) was an English town planner. Educated at Uppingham School, Rutland; brother of Lascelles Abercrombie, poet and literary critic.-Career:...

    , town planner (born 1879
    1879 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1879 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — Benjamin Disraeli, Conservative-Events:* 1 January — Benjamin Henry Blackwell opens the first Blackwell's bookshop in Oxford....

    )
  • 21 April – John Graham Kerr
    John Graham Kerr
    Sir John Graham Kerr was a Scottish embryologist and Unionist Member of Parliament .  He is best known for his studies of the embryology of lungfishes.Born in Hertfordshire to Scottish parents, Kerr was educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh, and at the University of Edinburgh, but...

    , embryologist and politician (born 1869
    1869 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1869 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal-Events:* 6 March — The first international cycle race is held at Crystal Palace, London....

    )
  • 17 June – Dorothy Richardson
    Dorothy Richardson
    Dorothy Miller Richardson was a British author and journalist.-Biography:Richardson was born in Abingdon in 1873. Her family moved to Worthing, West Sussex in 1880 and then Putney, London in 1883...

    , feminist writer (born 1873
    1873 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1873 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal-Events:...

    )
  • 27 June – Malcolm Lowry
    Malcolm Lowry
    Clarence Malcolm Lowry was an English poet and novelist who was best known for his novel Under the Volcano, which was voted No. 11 in the Modern Library 100 Best Novels list.-Biography:...

    , novelist (born 1909
    1909 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1909 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch - King Edward VII*Prime Minister - H. H. Asquith, Liberal-Events:* 1 January - National old age pension scheme comes into force....

    )
  • 19 August – David Bomberg
    David Bomberg
    David Garshen Bomberg was an English painter, and one of the Whitechapel Boys.Bomberg was one of the most audacious of the exceptional generation of artists who studied at the Slade School of Art under Henry Tonks, and which included Mark Gertler, Stanley Spencer, C.R.W. Nevinson and Dora Carrington...

    , painter (born 1890
    1890 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1890 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury, Conservative-Events:...

    )
  • 20 August – Edward Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans
    Edward Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans
    Admiral Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans, KCB, DSO , known as "Teddy" Evans, was a British naval officer and Antarctic explorer...

    , explorer and admiral (born 1880
    1880 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1880 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:* Monarch—Queen Victoria* Prime Minister—Benjamin Disraeli, Conservative , William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal-Events:...

    )
  • 1 September – Dennis Brain
    Dennis Brain
    Dennis Brain was a British virtuoso horn player and was largely credited for popularizing the horn as a solo classical instrument with the post-war British public...

    , French horn player (born 1921
    1921 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1921 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch - King George V*Prime Minister - David Lloyd George, coalition-January to June:* 1 January - Car tax discs introduced....

    )
  • 4 November – William Haywood, architect (born 1876
    1876 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1876 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — Benjamin Disraeli, Conservative-Events:...

    )
  • 9 December – Llewellyn Henry Gwynne
    Llewellyn Henry Gwynne
    Llewellyn Henry Gwynne CMG CBE was the first Anglican Bishop of Egypt and Sudan.- Early life :Gwynne was born in Swansea, Wales, in 1863. While at the Swansea Grammar School, the headmaster encouraged him to follow the example of his beloved brother Charlie by working hard and pursuing his...

    , first bishop of Egypt and Sudan (born 1863
    1863 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1863 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — Viscount Palmerston, Liberal-Events:* 8 January — Yorkshire County Cricket Club is founded at the Adelphi Hotel in Sheffield....

    )
  • 13 December – Michael Sadleir
    Michael Sadleir
    Michael Sadleir was a British novelist and book collector.-Biography:He was born Michael Sadler, though upon beginning to publish novels he altered the spelling of his name to differentiate himself from his father, Michael Ernest Sadler, a historian and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds...

    , novelist (born 1888
    1888 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1888 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury, Conservative-Events:* 26 January — The Lawn Tennis Association is founded....

    )
  • 21 December – Eric Coates
    Eric Coates
    Eric Coates was an English composer of light music and a viola player.-Life:Eric was born in Hucknall in Nottinghamshire to William Harrison Coates , a surgeon, and his wife, Mary Jane Gwynne, hailing from Usk in Monmouthshire...

    , composer (born 1886
    1886 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1886 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury, Conservative , William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal , Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury, Conservative-Events:* 13 January — After six years of campaigning, the...

    )
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK