1963 in the United Kingdom:

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1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965

Sport and Music

British and Irish current events

1963 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

1963 in British music

Events of the year 1963 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister - Harold Macmillan, Conservative Party (until 19 October), Alec Douglas-Home, Conservative

Events

• January–April - Winter of 1963: Britain has the worst winter since 1948. Low temperatures keep lying snow around until early April in some areas.
• 23 January - Double Agent Kim Philby disappears having defected to the Soviet Union.^[1]
• 18 January - Hugh Gaitskell dies suddenly, causing a leadership election in the Labour Party.^[2]
• 29 January - Charles De Gaulle vetos United Kingdom's entry into the EEC.
• 14 February - The Labour Party elects Harold Wilson as its new leader, and Leader of the Opposition.^[2]
• 22 March - The Beatles release the album Please Please Me.
• 27 March - Chairmen of British Railways Dr Richard Beeching issues a report calling for huge cuts to the UK's rail network.^[3]
• 15 April - 70,000 marchers arrive in London from Aldermarston, to demonstrate against nuclear weapons.
• 24 April- Princess Alexandra of Kent marries Angus Ogilvy at Westminster Abbey.
• 5 June - Profumo Affair: John Profumo, Secretary of State for War resigns over affair with Christine Keeler.^[4]
• 8 June - Profumo Affair: Stephen Ward charged with living on immoral earnings.^[5]
• 1 July - Kim Philby named as the 'Third Man' in the Burgess and Maclean spy ring.^[2]
• 12 July - Pauline Reade, 16, is reported missing on her way to a dance in Gorton, Manchester.
• 5 August - The United States, United Kingdom and Soviet Union sign a nuclear test ban treaty.^[1]
• 8 August - The Great Train Robbery takes place in Buckinghamshire.^[6]
• 5 September - Christine Keeler is arrested for perjury. On December 6 she is sentenced to 9 months in prison.
• 18 September – Rioters burn down British embassy in Jakarta to protest formation of Malaysia.
• 25 September - The Denning Report on the Profumo affair is published.
• 10 October - Prime Minister Harold Macmillan announces his resignation on the grounds of ill health.^[2]
• 17 October - In Stockholm, two Britons (Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Fielding Huxley) and an Australian (John Carew Eccles) are announced as winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of the nerve cell membrane".^[7]
• 18 October - Macmillan resigns.^[1]
• 19 October - Alec Douglas Home replaces Macmillan as Prime Minister.^[2]
• 22 October - The National Theatre Company gives its first performance, with Peter O'Toole as Hamlet.^[2]
• 18 November - The Dartford Tunnel opens.^[1]
• 23 November
  • First episode of long-running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who is broadcast.^[1]
  • Police in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, begin a missing persons investigation following the disappearance of 12-year-old John Kilbride.
• 25 November - John F. Kennedy assassination: The Duke of Edinburgh, Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home and Leader of the Opposition Harold Wilson attend the funeral of the late U.S. President John F Kennedy in Washington DC, United States.
• 12 December - Kenya gains its independence.^[8]

Undated

• The divorce case of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll takes place.
• Geophysicists Fred Vine and Drummond Matthews find proof of seafloor spreading on the Atlantic Ocean floor.^[9]
• The National Theatre Company, now known as the Royal National Theatre, is formed under Laurence Olivier.^[10]
• Vauxhall launches its Viva small family saloon, and BMC's new Rover P6 luxury saloon is the first winner of the prestigious European Car of the Year award.

Publications

• Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novel The Clocks.
• Ian Fleming's James Bond novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
• John Fowles' novel The Collector.
• John le Carré's novel The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.
• C. P. Snow's novel Corridors of Power.

Births

January - April

• 3 January - Matthew Taylor, Liberal Democrat politician and MP for Truro and St Austell
• 16 January - James May, English motoring journalist and television show host
• 18 January - Ian Crook, English footballer
• 19 January
  • John Bercow, English Conservative politician and MP for Buckingham
  • Martin Bashir, British television journalist
• 22 January - Huw Irranca-Davies, Welsh Labour politician and MP forOgmore
• 26 January - Andrew Ridgely, English musician
• 27 January - George Monbiot, British journalist and weekly columnist for The Guardian
• 10 February - Philip Glenister, actor
• 17 February - Alison Hargreaves, British mountain climber (died 1995)
• 19 February - Seal, singer
• 14 March - Michael John Foster, English Labour politician and MP for Worcester
• 16 March - Jerome Flynn, British actor
• 20 March - David Thewlis, English actor
• 6 April - Andrew Weatherall, English disc jockey
• 7 April - Nick Herbert, British Conservative politician and MP for Arundel and South Downs
• 8 April - Julian Lennon, musician son of John Lennon

May - August

• 9 May - Barry Douglas Lamb,musician, author, and preacher
• 11 May - Natasha Richardson, actress
• 6 June - Jason Isaacs, actor
• 23 June - Colin Montgomerie, Scottish golfer
• 25 June - George Michael, singer
• 27 June - Meera Syal, comedian, writer, singer, and actress
• 3 July - Tracey Emin, British artist
• 6 July - Stuart Garrard, English guitarist
• 25 July - Julian Hodgson, English chess grandmaster
• 31 July - Fatboy Slim (born Quentin Leo Cook), English musician
• 3 August - Tasmin Archer, English singer
• 4 August - Gary King, British DJ
• 30 August
  • Paul Oakenfold, disc jockey
  • Phil Mills, British race car driver

September - December

• 18 September - Rob Brettle, British historian
• 19 September
  • Jarvis Cocker, English musician (Pulp)
  • David Seaman, English footballer
• 23 September - Jackie Pearcey, English politician
• 26 September - Lysette Anthony, English actress
• 12 October - Alan McDonald, Northern Irish footballer
• 1 November - Rick Allen, British musician (Def Leppard)
• 4 November - Lena Zavaroni, Scottish entertainer (died 1999)
• 10 November - Hugh Bonneville, actor
• 19 November - Jon Potter, British field hockey player
• 20 November - William Timothy Gowers, British mathematician
• 21 November - Nicolette Sheridan, English actress
• 26 November - Joe Lydon, English international Rugby League player
• 5 December - Eddie 'the Eagle' Edwards, English ski jumper
• 7 December - Mark Bowen, Welsh footballer
• 22 December - Bryan Gunn, Scottish footballer
• 24 December - Caroline Aherne, actress and writer
• 29 December - Dave McKean, English artist and filmmaker

Unknown dates

• Fergus Henderson, English chef
• Mark Kermode, British film critic

Deaths

• 18 January
  • Edward Charles Titchmarsh, mathematician (born 1899)
  • Hugh Gaitskell, British Labour politician (born 1906)
• 16 March - William Beveridge, economist and social reformer (born 1879)
• 17 June - John Cowper Powys, British writer, lecturer, and philosopher (born 1872)
• 22 August - William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield, philanthropist and founder of the Morris Motor Company (born 1877)
• 30 August - Guy Burgess, British double agent (born 1911)
• 3 September - Louis MacNeice, poet and playwright (born 1907)
• 20 September - Peter Craven, English motorcycle racer (born 1934)
• 22 November
  • Aldous Huxley, novelist (born 1894)
  • C.S. Lewis, Irish-born British writer (born 1898)
• December - Andy Kennedy, Northern Irish footballer (born 1897)

See also

• UK No.1 Hits of 1963

References

See also