1956 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

Monarch – Elizabeth II

Prime Minister – Anthony Eden (Conservative)

Events

1 January – Possession of heroin becomes fully criminalised.

4 January – Eight months after winning the general election and barely a year after becoming prime minister, Anthony Eden's position is looking under threat as opinion polls show Labour (now led by Hugh Gaitskell) in the lead.

24 January – Plans are announced for the construction of thousands of new homes in the Barbican area of London, devastated by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War.

26 January–5 February – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, but do not win any medals.

February – Release of Shirley Bassey's first single, Burn My Candle (At Both Ends).

5 February – First showing of documentary films by the Free Cinema movement, at the National Film Theatre, London.

8 February – The first AEC Routemaster bus in London starts public service, on route 2.

11 February – Two of the "Cambridge spies", Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean appear in Moscow after vanishing as diplomats in mysterious circumstances in 1951.

12 February – Double yellow lines to prohibit parking introduced in Slough.

23 February – A fire at Eastwood Mills, Keighley, West Yorkshire, kills eight employees.

9 March – Archbishop Makarios is deported from Cyprus to the Seychelles by the British authorities.

14 March – A memorial to Karl Marx is unveiled at the new site of his grave in Highgate Cemetery, London, by Harry Pollitt, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

24 March – In the Grand National, Devon Loch, owned by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and ridden by Dick Francis, is in a clear lead when he inexplicably collapses 50 yards (45 m) from the finish, giving victory to E.S.B. at 100/7, ridden by Dave Dick and trained by Fred Rimell. Stan Mellor is the second placed jockey.

7 April – Manchester United, with an average team age of just 24, win the Football League First Division title.

17 April

In his Budget speech, Chancellor of the Exchequer Harold Macmillan announces the launch of Premium Bonds, which will go on sale on 1 November, with a £1,000 prize available from the first draw in June next year.

Chew Valley Lake (1,200 acres (4.9 km²)) in Somerset is inaugurated as a reservoir for the Bristol area by the Queen.

19 April – Diver Lionel Crabb (working for MI6) dives into Portsmouth Harbour to investigate visiting Soviet cruiser Ordzhonikidze and vanishes during a state visit by Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin. On 9 May Anthony Eden, who had refused permission for the operation, makes a statement refusing to reveal any details surrounding the mystery of his disappearance.

20 April – Humphrey Lyttelton and his band record his trad jazz composition Bad Penny Blues in London with sound engineer Joe Meek. This will be the first British jazz record to get into the Top Twenty.

27 April - Doubts about the future of Anthony Eden as prime minister continue as his personal ratings in opinion polls remain low.

3 May – Granada Television launched with a base in Manchester.

5 May – Manchester City win the FA Cup with a 3-1 win over Birmingham City at Wembley Stadium. German-born goalkeeper Bert Trautmann plays through the game despite an injury 15 minutes from time diagnosed on 9 May as a broken neck.

7 May – Minister of Health Robin Turton, rejects a call for the government to lead an anti-smoking campaign arguing that no ill-effects has yet been proven.

8 May – First performance of John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger by the newly formed English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre. Alan Bates has his first major role as Cliff. The theatre's press release describes the dramatist as among the angry young men of the time.

9 May – The Gower Peninsula of Wales becomes the first area in the British Isles to be designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

1 June – Elsie Stephenson becomes founding Director of the Nurse Teaching Unit, University of Edinburgh, the first nurse teaching unit within a British university.

3 June

Third class accommodation on British Railways trains redesignated as Second class (also applies on Great Northern Railway in Northern Ireland).

Prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru of India and Sidney Holland of New Zealand are made Freemen of the City of London.

4 July – The National Library of Scotland's first purpose-built premises are opened on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh.

5 July – Parliament passes the Clean Air Act in response to the Great Smog of 1952.

9 July – Mettoy introduce Corgi Toys model cars, manufactured in South Wales.

22 July – The first UK Albums Chart is published, in Record Mirror (Frank Sinatra's Songs for Swingin' Lovers! tops it for the first two weeks.)

26 July – Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser announces the nationalisation of the Suez Canal triggering the Suez Crisis.

27 July – First Berni Inn steakhouse opens in Bristol.

9 August–9 September – Art exhibition This Is Tomorrow, featuring principally the interdisciplinary ICA Independent Group, at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. Among the exhibits is Richard Hamilton's collage Just What Is It that Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?, considered to be one of the earliest works of pop art.

17 August – Scotland Yard are called to Eastbourne to investigate the activities of society doctor John Bodkin Adams. The case is reported around the world and press reports claim up to 400 patients may have been murdered.

10 September – Guy Mollet visits London and proposes a merger of France and the United Kingdom. However, the idea is rejected by Anthony Eden.

12 September - Manchester United become the first English team to compete in the European Cup, a competition for the champions of domestic leagues across Europe, when they play the first leg of the preliminary round in Belgium and beat R.S.C. Anderlecht 2-0.

25 September – The TAT-1 transatlantic telephone cable between the UK and North America inaugurated.

26 September – Manchester United qualify for the first round of the European Cup in style with a 10-0 win over R.S.C. Anderlecht at Maine Road in the second leg of the preliminary round.

28 September – Eden considers allowing France to join the Commonwealth of Nations, but this idea is also rejected.

15 October – The RAF retires its last Lancaster bomber.

17 October – The Queen opens the world's first commercial nuclear power station at Calder Hall.

24 October – Protocol of Sèvres, a secret agreement between the UK, France and Israel allowing the latter to invade Sinai with the support of the two former governments. Eden subsequently denies existence of an agreement.

5 November – Long-running television programme What the Papers Say airs for the first time.

6 November – British and French forces seize control of two major ports in the Suez Canal in Egypt before declaring a ceasefire.

9 November – At the Lord Mayor's Show in London, the first AEC Routemaster forms part of the procession, advertised as "London's Bus Of The Future".

15 November - The Manchester Guardian calls for the resignation of Anthony Eden as prime minister, despite his improvement in opinion poll showings.

22 November–8 December – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, and win 6 gold, 7 silver and 11 bronze medals.

29 November – Petrol rationing introduced because of petrol blockades from the Middle East due to the Suez Crisis.

10 December – Cyril Norman Hinshelwood wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Nikolay Semyonov "for their researches into the mechanism of chemical reactions".

12 December – The Irish Republican Army launches its Border Campaign in Northern Ireland with co-ordinated attacks on official premises.

19 December

Six people die and several more are injured in car crashes caused by heavy fog in northern England.

Eastbourne GP Dr John Bodkin Adams is arrested for the murder of patient Edith Alice Morrell.

21 December – The Government of Northern Ireland under Basil Brooke uses the Special Powers Act to intern several hundred republican suspects without trial.

23 December – British and French troops withdraw from Suez under United Nations and United States pressure.

25 December – PG Tips launches its long-running ITV advertising campaign using a chimpanzees' tea party (with voices provided by Peter Sellers).

31 December – The Flanders and Swann revue At the Drop of a Hat opens in London.

Undated

No capital punishment is carried out in the U.K. this year.

Opening of the first Welsh-medium secondary school in Wales – Ysgol Glan Clwyd, Rhyl.

Opening of the first Jewish seminary for Liberal and Reform Judaism in England – Leo Baeck College, as the Jewish Theological College of London at West London Synagogue; its first two students are Lionel Blue and Michael Leigh.

Pietro Annigoni's portrait of the Queen is unveiled.

Tesco opens its first self-service stores in St Albans and Maldon.

DIDO heavy water enriched uranium nuclear reactor begins operation at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, Oxfordshire.

The Collared dove first breeds in the UK.

Publications

Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novel Dead Man's Folly.

Anthony Crosland's book The Future of Socialism.

Gerald Durrell's memoir My Family and Other Animals.

Ian Fleming's James Bond novel Diamonds Are Forever.

William Golding's novel Pincher Martin.

C. S. Lewis' novel The Last Battle.

Rose Macaulay's novel The Towers of Trebizond.

Nancy Mitford's book Noblesse Oblige: an Enquiry Into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy, illustrated by Osbert Lancaster.

Samuel Selvon's novel The Lonely Londoners.

Dodie Smith's children's novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians.

Angus Wilson's novel Anglo-Saxon Attitudes.

Colin Wilson's study The Outsider.

The Movement's poetry anthology New Lines edited by Robert Conquest.

Births

4 January – Bernard Sumner, guitarist (Joy Division and New Order)

6 January

Angus Deayton, actor and television presenter

Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

9 January – Imelda Staunton, actress

17 January – Paul Young, musician

29 January – Anton Otulakowski, footballer

31 January – Johnny Rotten, singer (Sex Pistols)

13 February – Peter Hook, bass guitar player (Joy Division and New Order)

22 February – Stuart Peach, Air Chief Marshal

25 February – Davie Cooper, Scottish footballer (died 1995)

11 March – Helen Rollason, née Grindley, television sports presenter (died 1999)

12 March – Steve Harris, bass player, founding member of Iron Maiden

20 March – Catherine Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, politician

19 April – Sue Barker, tennis player and television presenter

25 April – Greg Richards, decathlete

26 April – Koo Stark, actress

14 May – Hazel Blears, politician

15 May – Kjartan Poskitt, author

18 May – John Godber, dramatist

15 July – Ian Curtis, musician (Joy Division) (died 1980)

14 September – Ray Wilkins, footballer and coach

29 September – Sebastian Coe, athlete, co-ordinator of London 2012 Olympic Games

27 October – Hazell Dean, singer

30 October – Juliet Stevenson, actress

28 November – Lucy Gutteridge, actress

23 December – Dave Murray, guitarist

28 December – Nigel Kennedy, violinist

Deaths

31 January – A. A. Milne, author (born 1882)

25 March – Robert Newton, film actor (born 1905)

30 March – Edmund Clerihew Bentley, writer (born 1875)

17 May – Austin Osman Spare, magician (born 1886)

18 May – Maurice Tate, cricketer (born 1895)

20 May – Max Beerbohm, theatre critic (born 1872)

22 June – Walter de la Mare, poet, short story writer and novelist (born 1873)

20 August – Bernard William Griffin, English Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church; Archbishop of Westminster from 1943 until his death (born 1873)

22 September – Frederick Soddy, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1877)

24 November – Sir Lionel Whitby, haematologist, clinical pathologist, pharmacologist and army officer (born 1895)

16 December – Nina Hamnett, artist (born 1890)