6 February – the British and French governments agree a deal for the construction of a
Channel Tunnel. The twin-tunneled rail link is expected to take five years to build.[4]
11 February –
Southampton is granted
city status, the first such designation of the current reign.[5]
10 March –
the Queen gives birth to her fourth child and third son, whose name is registered on 20 April as
Edward.
19 March
Power dispute talks break down and it is feared that supply disruptions will follow industrial action.[6]
The government announces plans to build three new towns in
South East England to act as overspill for overpopulated London.[7] One of these is centred on the village of
Milton Keynes in north
Buckinghamshire.[8]
26 March – verdicts are passed on ten men for their role in the
Great Train Robbery after one of the longest criminal trials and longest jury retirals in English legal history.
10 April –
Runcorn, a small town in north
Cheshire, is designated as a
new town by Alec Douglas-Home's government. Extensive house building and industrial and commercial developments are predicted to inflate the town's population to around 70,000 by 1981.[13]
20 April – the scheduled opening night of
BBC Two, the UK's third television channel, is disrupted by power cuts in London, and all that can be screened is announcer
Gerald Priestland delivering apologies from
Alexandra Palace. On the same day, the BBC Television Service is renamed BBC One.[16]
21 April – BBC Two begins scheduled broadcasting; its first programme is Play School.[9]
29 April – all schools in
Aberdeen are closed following 136 cases of
typhoid being reported.
1 May – Princess Margaret gives birth to a baby girl.
29 May – official opening of the UK's first undercover shopping centre, at the
Bull Ring, Birmingham.[21]
17 June – a missing persons investigation is launched in
Fallowfield, Manchester, as police search for 12-year-old Keith Bennett, who was last seen on his way to his grandmother's house yesterday evening; he is a victim of the
Moors murders.
10 July – more than 300 people are injured in
Liverpool when a crowd of some 150,000 people welcome the
Beatles back to their home city.
15 July – the
Post Office Tower in London is completed, although it does not begin operation until October 1965.[11]
27 July – former Prime Minister Sir
Winston Churchill is present in the
House of Commons for the last time at the age of 89, having been an MP for 63 of the last 65 years; the following day he receives a Parliamentary resolution recording his service to the House and nation and marking his retirement.[25]
21 September –
Malta obtains independence from the UK.[23]
29 September – announcement that American car manufacturer
Chrysler is taking a substantial share in the British
Rootes Group combine, which includes the
Hillman, Singer and
Sunbeam marques.[27]
October –
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin wins the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (the first British woman to win a Nobel) "for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances".[28]
10–24 October –
Great Britain competes at the
Olympics in Tokyo and wins 4 gold, 12 silver and 2 bronze medals.
15 October –
1964 United Kingdom general election. The
Labour Party defeats the
Conservatives and
Harold Wilson becomes Prime Minister, having gained a majority of five seats. The election result spells the end of 13 years of Conservative government, although the Prime Minister
Alec Douglas-Home had entered office only 12 months ago. A surprise casualty as MP is
Patrick Gordon Walker who was widely expected to become the Foreign Secretary in a future Labour government, but who loses his
Smethwick seat to the Conservatives following a controversial racially motivated campaign by the opposing party's supporters.[29]
24 October – Northern
Rhodesia, a former British protectorate, becomes the independent Republic of
Zambia, ending 73 years of British rule.[23]
2 November – ITV soap opera Crossroads airs for the first time.[9]
9 November –
House of Commons votes to abolish the death penalty for murder in Britain. The last execution took place in August and the death penalty is set to be officially abolished before the end of
next year, with the number of executions having gradually fallen during the last decade.
27 November – power unions announce that they will start
balloting for a
strike.[30]
30 November – power dispute settled and strike action called off.[31]
16 December – Government,
Trades Union Congress and employers produce a joint Statement of Intent on Productivity, Prices and Incomes.
21 December – MPs vote 355 to 170 for the abolition of the death penalty, with the abolition likely to be confirmed before the end of next year. The death penalty has gradually fallen out of use over the last twenty years, with the two most recent executions having taken place in August this year.
24 December –
The Beatles gain the Christmas number one for the second year running with "
I Feel Fine", which has topped the singles charts for the third week running. The Beatles have now had six number one singles in the United Kingdom alone.[33]
26 December – police launch a missing persons investigation after ten-year-old Lesley Ann Downey goes missing from a fairground near her home in
Ancoats, Manchester; she is a victim of the
Moors murders.
^Soames, Mary (1998). Speaking for Themselves: The Personal Letters of Winston and Clementine Churchill. London: Doubleday. p. 647.
ISBN978-03-85406-91-8.