1960 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

Monarch – Elizabeth II

Prime Minister – Harold Macmillan (Conservative)

Events

January – State of emergency is lifted in Kenya – the Mau Mau Uprising is officially over.

5 January – Closure of the Swansea and Mumbles Railway (opened to passengers in 1807 and by this date operated by double-deck electric trams).

10 January – British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan makes the "Wind of Change" speech for the first time, to little publicity, in Accra, Gold Coast – now Ghana.

28 January – The comic ballet La fille mal gardée, in a version newly choreographed by Frederick Ashton to a score adapted by John Lanchbery, is premiered by The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House in London, rapidly becoming a classic of the repertoire.

3 February – Macmillan makes the "Wind of Change" speech to the South African Parliament in Cape Town, where it attracts attention. (It was drafted by David Hunt.)

18 February–28 February – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, Placer County, California but do not win any medals.

19 February – The Queen gives birth to her third child and second son.

March

Manchester City F.C. sign 20-year-old forward Denis Law for a national record fee of £55,000 from Huddersfield Town.

The 18th century Naval dockyard at Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent is closed. A total of 2,500 jobs have gradually been shed at the site since its closure was first announced by the government in February 1958.

14 March – Jodrell Bank Observatory makes contact with the American Pioneer 5 over a record-breaking distance of 407,000 miles.

26 March – The Grand National is televised for the first time. The winner is Merryman II.

28 March – Cheapside Street Whisky Bond Fire in Glasgow; 19 firemen killed in the UK's worst peacetime fire services disaster.

1 April – Bill Griggs of Northampton first markets the Dr. Martens 'AirWair' style 1460 boots.

8 April – The seven-week-old son of The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh is christened Andrew Albert Christian Edward (he later becomes Prince Andrew, Duke of York).

13 April – Cancellation of the Blue Streak missile.

16 April – The Times of London abandons use of the term "Imperial and Foreign News", replacing it with "Overseas News", and changes its house style from "to-day" to "today".

17 April - American rock and roll singer Eddie Cochran, 21, is killed in a car crash in Wiltshire.

18 April – 60,000 protestors stage a demonstration in London against nuclear weapons.

27 April – First production of Harold Pinter's play The Caretaker at the Arts Theatre in London.

3 May – Burnley F.C. win the Football League First Division title with a 2-1 win over Manchester City at Maine Road. Burnley's title win means that Wolverhampton Wanderers, the FA Cup finalists, have lost out on the chance of becoming the first team this century to win the double of the league title and FA Cup.

6 May – The Princess Margaret marries photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey in the first televised Royal marriage.

7 May – Wolverhampton Wanderers are FA Cup winners for the fourth time, beating Blackburn Rovers 3-0 at Wembley Stadium.

24 June – Avro 748 makes its first flight at Woodford.

26 June – British Somaliland gains independence from the United Kingdom; five days later it unites with the former Italian Somaliland to create the modern Somali Republic.

28 June – 38 miners killed in an explosion at Six Bells Colliery in Monmouthshire.

July – The Shadows' instrumental Apache is released.

21 July – Francis Chichester, English navigator and yachtsman, arrives in New York aboard Gypsy Moth II having made a record solo Atlantic crossing in 40 days.

27 July – In a Cabinet reshuffle, Selwyn Lloyd is appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer and Lord Home becomes Foreign Secretary.

30 July – "Battle of Beaulieu": At a jazz festival at Beaulieu, Hampshire, fans of trad jazz come to blows with progressives.

7 August – The Bluebell Railway in Sussex begins regular operation as the first standard gauge steam-operated passenger heritage railway in the world.

16 August – Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom. The Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia remain as British Overseas Territories.

17 August – The Beatles, a five-strong male band from Liverpool, perform their first concert under this name in Hamburg, West Germany.

22 August – First performance of the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe (in Edinburgh).

25 August–11 September – Great Britain and Northern Ireland competes at the Olympics in Rome and win 2 gold, 6 silver and 12 bronze medals.

10 September – ITV broadcasts the first live Football League match to be shown on television, and the last for 23 years.

15 September – The first traffic wardens deployed in London.

30 September–4 December – Severe flooding in the valley of the River Exe and surrounding areas of Devon following heavy rainfall.

1 October – Nigeria gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

7 October – The second notable flood occurs in Horncastle, Lincolnshire. The town enters the UK Weather Records with the Highest 180-min total rainfall at 178 mm. As of October 2010 this record remains.

8 October – Closure of the Sheffield Tramway, leaving Blackpool as the only place in England with electric trams.

17 October – The daily News Chronicle ceases publication, being absorbed into the Daily Mail.

21 October (Trafalgar Day) – The Queen launches Britain's first nuclear submarine, HMS Dreadnought, at Barrow-in-Furness.

25 October – Barges collide with one of the columns of the Severn Railway Bridge in heavy fog, causing two spans of the twenty-two span steel and cast iron bridge to collapse. It is never repaired.

27 October – Film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning released, first of the British social-realist wave.

30 October – Michael Woodruff performs the first successful kidney transplantation in the UK, at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

2 November – Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case.

10 November – Lady Chatterley's Lover sells 200,000 copies in one day following its publication since being banned since 1928.

2 December – The Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, talks with Pope John XXIII in the Vatican, the first ever meeting between the leader of the Anglican Church and the Pope.

9 December – The first episode of soap opera Coronation Street, made by Granada Television in Manchester, is aired on ITV. It will still be running past its 55th anniversary. Characters introduced in the first episode include Ken Barlow (William Roache), Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix) and Ena Sharples (Violet Carson).

10 December – Sir Peter Brian Medawar and Australian Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance".

31 December

Last day on which the farthing, a coin first minted in England in the 13th century, is legal tender.

The last man is called up for National Service, as Conscription ends.

Undated

Fairy brand of washing-up liquid introduced by Procter & Gamble.

Black plastic bin bags first introduced for waste collection, in Hitchin.

Little Houses Improvement Scheme launched by the National Trust for Scotland to promote conservation of vernacular architecture.

Vic Wilson is appointed as Yorkshire County Cricket Club's first professional captain since 1883, leading the club to the County Championship.

Publications

Jean and Gareth Adamson's first Topsy and Tim children's book.

Kingsley Amis's novel Take a Girl Like You.

Lynne Reid Banks' novel The L-Shaped Room.

Stan Barstow's novel A Kind of Loving.

Lawrence Durrell's novel Clea, last of The Alexandria Quartet.

Ian Fleming's James Bond short story collection For Your Eyes Only.

Alan Garner's children's novel The Weirdstone of Brisingamen.

Audrey Harvey's March Fabian Society pamphlet Casualties of the Welfare State.

David Lodge’s first novel The Picturegoers.

Muriel Spark's novel The Ballad of Peckham Rye.

David Storey's first novel This Sporting Life.

Raymond Williams' novel Border Country.

John Wyndham's novel Trouble with Lichen.

January – February

4 January – Jane Halton, English-Australian public servant

6 January – Nigella Lawson, British chef and writer

13 January – Matthew Bourne, English choreographer

18 January – Mark Rylance, English actor and theatre director

23 January – Paul Blagg, English racewalker

29 January – Sean Kerly, British field hockey player

19 February

Prince Andrew, Duke of York

Helen Fielding, English novelist

20 February – Siobhain McDonagh, British Labour politician and MP for Mitcham and Morden

March – April

9 March – Louise Miller, high jumper

10 March – Anne MacKenzie, Scottish broadcaster

16 March – Jenny Eclair, born Jenny Clare Hargreaves, comedian

23 March – Nicol Stephen, Scottish politician

24 March – Grayson Perry, visual artist

29 March – Marina Sirtis, actress

2 April – Linford Christie, Jamaican-born athlete

4 April – Jane Eaglen, soprano

11 April – Jeremy Clarkson, journalist and television show host

13 April – Lyn Carol Brown, Labour politician and MP for West Ham

22 April – Gary Rhodes, restaurateur and celebrity chef

26 April – Roger Taylor, drummer (Duran Duran)

28 April – Ian Rankin, Scottish crime novelist

29 April – Phil King, bassist

30 April – Colonel Tim Collins, Northern Irish-born British Commander in Iraq

May – June

6 May – Roma Downey, Northern Irish actress and producer

24 May

Guy Fletcher, English keyboardist (Dire Straits)

Kristin Scott Thomas, English actress

2 June – Shaun Wallace, television personality and barrister

4 June – Bradley Walsh, English comedian and actor

5 June – Julie Kirkbride, English Conservative politician and MP for Bromsgrove

8 June – Mick Hucknall, English singer and songwriter (Simply Red)

20 June – John Taylor, English bass guitarist (Duran Duran)

30 June – Jack McConnell, First Minister of Scotland

July – August

3 July – Vince Clarke, English songwriter (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and Erasure)

13 July – Ian Hislop, British broadcaster and editor

18 July – Simon Heffer, English journalist

22 July – Barbara Cassani, American-born business executive

13 August – Phil Taylor, darts player

14 August – Sarah Brightman, English soprano singer and actress

30 August – Ben Bradshaw, British Labour politician, Minister for Local Environment, Marine and Animal Welfare, and MP for Exeter

September – October

3 September – Nick Gibb, British Conservative politician, Shadow Minister of State for Schools, and MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton

9 September – Hugh Grant, English actor

10 September – Colin Firth, English actor

16 September – Danny John-Jules, English dancer and actor

17 September – Damon Hill, English race car driver

29 September – Andy Slaughter, British Labour politician and MP for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush (2005–10) and Hammersmith (2010-)

29 October – Finola Hughes, British actress

November – December

5 November – Tilda Swinton, British film actress

10 November – Neil Gaiman, English author

15 November – Dawn Airey, broadcaster

17 November – Jonathan Ross, English television presenter

18 November – Kim Wilde, English singer and gardener

28 November – John Galliano, British fashion designer

30 November – Gary Lineker, English footballer and TV presenter

2 December – Rick Savage, English bassist (Def Leppard)

10 December – Kenneth Branagh, Northern Irish actor and director

11 December – John Lukic, English footballer

14 December – Chris Waddle, English footballer, commentator and newspaper columnist

24 December – Carol Vorderman, British television presenter

26 December – Andrew Graham-Dixon, British art historian and television presenter

27 December – Maryam d'Abo, British actress

31 December – Steve Bruce, footballer and football manager

Deaths

7 January – Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers, English tennis player (born 1878)

9 January – Elsie J. Oxenham, English children's novelist (born 1880)

12 January – Nevil Shute, English novelist and aeronautical engineer (born 1899) (died in Australia)

25 January – Rutland Boughton, English composer (born 1878)

8 February

J. L. Austin, English philosopher of language (born 1911) (lung cancer)

Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, English architect (born 1880)

20 February – Leonard Woolley, English archaeologist (born 1880)

29 February – Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, last Vicereine of India (born 1901)

5 April – Peter Llewelyn-Davies, British soldier and inspiration for Peter Pan (born 1897)

1 May – Charles Holden, architect (born 1875)

8 May

Sir Hersch Lauterpacht, international lawyer (born 1897 in Ukraine)

J. H. C. Whitehead, mathematician (born 1904 in Madras) (heart attack at Princeton, NJ)

7 June – Sir Maurice Bonham Carter, English Liberal politician and cricketer (born 1880)

27 June

Lottie Dod, English tennis player (born 1871)

Harry Pollitt, English communist (born 1890)

6 July – Aneurin Bevan, Welsh politician (born 1897)

22 September

Melanie Klein, Austrian-born psychoanalyst (born 1882)

Amy Veness, English film actress (born 1876)

27 September – Sylvia Pankhurst, English suffragette (born 1882)

30 September – St John Philby, British Arabist, explorer and spy (born 1885 in Ceylon) (died in Beirut)

16 November – Gilbert Harding, radio and television personality (born 1907) (asthma attack outside Broadcasting House)

22 December – Sir Ninian Comper, architect (born 1864)