1966 in the United Kingdom
Appearance
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1964 | 1965| 1966 | 1967 | 1968 |
Sport and Music |
British and Irish current events |
1966 English cricket season |
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1966 in British music |
Events
- January 31 - United Kingdom ceases all trade with Rhodesia
- February 19 - Naval minister, Christopher Mayhew, resigns
- March 4 - The Beatles: In an interview published in The Evening Standard, John Lennon comments, "We're more popular than Jesus now,"
- March 8 - Ronald Kray, one of the Kray twins, shoots rival gangster George Cornell; the incidents leads to brother's incarceration
- March 23 - Pope Paul VI and Arthur Michael Ramsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, meet in Rome — the first official meeting for 400 years between the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches
- March 31 - The Labour Party under Harold Wilson win the British General Election
- April 7 - The United Kingdom asks the UN Security Council authority to use force to stop oil tankers that violate oil embargo against Rhodesia. Authority is given April 10
- April 9 - Norwich City FC captain Barry Butler is killed in a car accident
- April 21 - The opening of Parliament of the United Kingdom is televised for the first time
- April 30 - regular hovercraft service begins over the English Channel (discontinued 2000 due to Channel Tunnel)
- May 3 - Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio commence broadcasting on AM with a combined potential 100,000 watts from the same ship anchored off the south coast of England in international waters
- May 6 - The Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley sentenced for life imprisonment
- May 12 - African members of the UN Security Council say that British army should blockage Rhodesia
- May 16–July 1 - Seamen's strike in Britain
- June 29 - Sailors' strike, organised by the National Union of Seamen ends
- July 12 - Zambia threatens to leave the Commonwealth of Nations because of British peace overtures to Rhodesia
- July 14 - Gwynfor Evans becomes member of Parliament for Carmarthen, the first ever Plaid Cymru MP
- July 16 - Prime Minister Harold Wilson flies to Moscow to try to start peace negotiations about Vietnam War — Soviet Government refutes his ideas
- July 26 - Lord Gardiner issues the Practice Statement in the House of Lords stating that the House is not bound to follow its own previous precedent
- July 30 - England beat West Germany 4-2 to win the 1966 World Cup at Wembley
- August 2 - Spanish government forbids overflights of British military aircraft
- August 5 - The Beatles released Revolver (album) .[1]
- August 29 - The Beatles play their very last concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California
- September 19 - Scotland Yard arrests Ronald Edwards suspected of being involved of the great train robbery
- September 30 - Botswana achieves independence
- October 4 - Basutoland becomes independent and takes the name Lesotho
- October 21 - Aberfan disaster in South Wales
- October 22 - British spy George Blake escapes from Wormwood Scrubs prison; he is next seen in Moscow
- October 22 - Spain demands that United Kingdom stop military flights to Gibraltar — Britain says no the next day
- October 25 - Spain closes its Gibraltar border against non-pedestrian traffic
- November 5 - 38 African states demand that the United Kingdom use force against Rhodesian government
- November 15 - Harry Maurice Roberts, who had killed three policemen in August, is caught near London
- November 30 - Barbados achieves independence
- December 1 - Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Rhodesian Prime minister Ian Smith negotiate on HMS Tiger in Mediterranean
- December 20 - Harold Wilson withdraws all his previous offers to Rhodesian government and announces that he agrees to the independence only after the founding of black majority government
- December 22 - Rhodesian Prime minister Ian Smith declares that he considers that Rhodesia is already a republic
- December 31 - Thieves steal millions worth of paintings from Dulwich Art Gallery in London