1975 in the United Kingdom

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1975 in the United Kingdom
Other years
1973 | 1974 | 1975 (1975) | 1976 | 1977
Constituent countries of the United Kingdom
| Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales
Popular culture

Events from the year 1975 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents[]

  • Monarch – Elizabeth II
  • Prime Minister – Harold Wilson (Labour)
  • Parliament – 47th

Events[]

January[]

  • 6 January – Brian Clough, the former manager of Derby County and more recently Leeds United, is appointed manager of Football League Second Division strugglers Nottingham Forest.[1]
  • 14 January – Seventeen-year-old heiress Lesley Whittle, daughter of the late bus operator George Whittle (1905–1967), is kidnapped from her home near Bridgnorth in Shropshire by Donald Neilson.[2]
  • 24 January – Donald Coggan is enthroned as the Archbishop of Canterbury.[3]

February[]

  • 6 February – Jensen, the luxury carmaker, makes 700 of its employees redundant – cutting its workforce by two-thirds.[4]
  • 11 February – Margaret Thatcher defeats Edward Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election, becoming the party's first female leader. Thatcher, 49, was Education Secretary in Edward Heath's government from 1970 to 1974.[5]
  • 13 February – Britain's coal miners accept a 35% pay rise offer from the government.[6]
  • 26 February – A fleeing Provisional Irish Republican Army member shoots and kills an off-duty Metropolitan Police officer, Stephen Tibble, 22, as he gave chase.[7]
  • 28 February – The Moorgate tube crash; 43 people are killed.

March[]

  • 1 March – Aston Villa, chasing promotion from the Football League Second Division, wins the Football League Cup with the only goal of the Wembley final against Norwich City being scored by Ray Graydon.[4]
  • 4 March – Actor Charlie Chaplin, 85, is knighted by the Queen.[8]
  • 7 March – The body of teenage heiress Lesley Whittle, who disappeared from her Shropshire home in January, is discovered in Staffordshire. She had been strangled on a ledge in drains below Bathpool Park near Kidsgrove.[9]
  • 25 March – A large National Front rally is held in London, in protest against European integration.[10]
  • 26 March – British Leyland releases their new family saloon, the Morris 18-22 wedge styled by Harris Mann to replace the ageing Austin 1800 Landcrab range. There are Austin, Morris and the luxury Wolseley versions at launch. However, in less than six months, the entire range is rebranded as the Princess and the marque "Wolseley" is abandoned.

April[]

  • 5 April – Manchester United clinches promotion back to the First Division one season after relegation.[11]
  • 9 April – The comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail is released.
  • 13 April – A 22-year-old woman is raped at her bedsit in Cambridge. Cambridgeshire Police believe that she was the sixth victim of a rapist who had been operating across the city since October last year. In June, the police arrest 47-year-old Peter Cook for the rapes; he is sentenced to life imprisonment in October.[12]
  • 24 April – Unemployment exceeds the 1,000,000 mark for March 1975.[4]
  • 26 April

May[]

  • May – Led Zeppelin return to the UK to play five sold-out shows at Earls Court in London.
  • 1 May – Vauxhall launches the Chevette, Britain's first production small hatchback, which is similar in concept to the Italian Fiat 127 and French Renault 5.[15]
  • 3 May – West Ham United win the second FA Cup of their history by defeating Fulham 2–0 in the Wembley final. Alan Taylor scores both goals.
  • 16 May – Major reorganisation of local government in Scotland under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.
  • 27 May – Dibbles Bridge coach crash: a tour coach runs away following brake failure and falls off a bridge near Hebden, North Yorkshire, en route to Grassington, killing the driver and 31 female pensioners on board, the highest ever toll in a UK road accident.[16]
  • 28 May – Leeds United are beaten 2–0 by Bayern Munich of West Germany in the European Cup final in Paris, France. Peter Lorimer had a goal for Leeds disallowed and this sparks a riot by angry supporters, who invade the pitch and tear seats away from the stands.[17]
  • 31 May
    • The European Space Agency is established, with the UK being one of the ten founding members.[18][19]
    • Jim'll Fix It, presented by Jimmy Savile, is first broadcast on BBC1 television.

June[]

  • 2 June – Snow showers occur across as the country even as far south as London which last happened in 1761.
  • 5 June – 67% of voters support continuing membership of the EEC in a referendum.[20]
  • 9 June – Proceedings in Parliament are broadcast on radio for the first time.[21]
  • 13 June – UEFA places a three-year ban on Leeds United from European competitions due to the behaviour of their fans at last month's European Cup final.
  • 14 June – Ambulance crews in the West Midlands stage a ban on non-emergency calls in a dispute over pay and hours.[4]
  • 17 June – Leeds United lodge an appeal against their ban from European competitions.[22]
  • 19 June – A coroner's court jury returns a verdict of wilful murder, naming Lord Lucan as the murderer, in the inquest on Sandra Rivett, the nanny who was found dead at his wife's London home seven months previously.[23]
  • 30 June – UEFA reduces Leeds United's ban from European competitions to one season on appeal.[24]

July[]

  • July – The Government and Trades Union Congress agree to a one-year cash limit on pay rises.
  • 5 July – A 36-year-old Keighley woman, Ann Rogulskyj, is badly injured in a hammer attack in an alleyway in the West Yorkshire town.[25]
  • 19 July – Hatton Cross tube station is opened, completing the first phase of the extension of London Underground's Piccadilly line to Heathrow Airport.[26]

August[]

  • 1 August – The Government's anti-inflation policy comes into full effect. During the year, inflation reaches 24.2% - the second-highest recorded level since records began in 1750, and the highest since 1800.[27] A summary of the White Paper Attack on Inflation is delivered to all households.
  • 14 August – Hampstead enters the UK Weather Records with the Highest 155-min total rainfall at 169mm.
  • 15 August – A 46-year-old Halifax woman, Olive Smelt, is severely injured in a hammer attack in an alleyway in the town.[28]
  • 16 August – Football hooliganism strikes on the opening day of the English league season, with hundreds of fans being arrested at games across the country - the total number of arrests exceeds seventy at the stadiums of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leicester City.[29]
  • 19 August – Headingley cricket ground is vandalised by people campaigning for release from prison of the armed robber George Davis. A scheduled test match between England and Australia which was meant to take place there has to be abandoned. This is the climax to a campaign in which the slogan George Davis is Innocent was widely sprayed throughout London.[30]
  • 21 August – The unemployment rate reaches the 1,250,000 mark.
  • 27 August – A 14-year-old, Tracy Browne, is badly injured in a hammer attack in a country lane at Silsden, near Keighley.[31]
  • 31 August – Cavalcade of steam locomotives from Shildon, County Durham, to Darlington, County Durham, to mark the 150th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

September[]

  • September – Chrysler UK launches its new Alpine five-door family hatchback, a modern front-wheel drive car to compete with the conventional Ford Cortina, Morris Marina and upcoming Vauxhall Cavalier rear-wheel drive saloons. The new car is also built in France as the Simca 1307.[32]
  • 5 September – The London Hilton hotel is bombed by the IRA, killing two people and injuring 63 others.[33]
  • 19 September – The first episode of the popular sitcom Fawlty Towers is broadcast on BBC Two.[34]
  • 24 September – Dougal Haston and Doug Scott become the first British people to climb Mount Everest.[35]
  • 27 September – The National Railway Museum is opened in York, becoming the first national museum outside London.
  • 28 September–3 October – The Spaghetti House siege, in which nine people are taken as hostages, takes place in London.[36]

October[]

  • October
    • Vauxhall announces its second new model launch of the year - the Cavalier, which replaces the Victor, is based on the German Opel Ascona, and is a direct competitor for the big-selling Ford Cortina.
    • Statistics show that Britain is in a double-dip recession, as the economy contracted for the second and third quarters of the year.[37]
  • 9 October – An IRA bomb explosion outside Green Park tube station near Piccadilly in London kills one person and injures twenty other people.[38]
  • 13 October – Norton Villiers, the Wolverhampton-based motorcycle producer, closes down with the loss of 1,600 jobs after being declared bankrupt.[4]
  • 23 October – Oncologist Gordon Hamilton Fairley is killed in London by an IRA bomb intended for Sir Hugh Fraser.
  • 30 October – West Yorkshire Police launch a murder investigation after 28-year-old prostitute Wilma McCann is found dead in Leeds. She later becomes known as Peter Sutcliffe's first murder victim.[39]
  • 31 October – Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" is released.

November[]

  • 3 November – A petroleum pipeline from Cruden Bay to Grangemouth across Scotland is formally opened by HM The Queen.[40]
  • 6 November – The first public performance by punk rock band the Sex Pistols, takes place.[34]
  • 12 November – The Employment Protection Act establishes Acas to arbitrate industrial disputes, extends jurisdiction of employment tribunals, establishes a Maternity Pay Fund to provide for paid maternity leave and legislates against unfair dismissal.[3]
  • 16 November – British and Icelandic ships clash, marking the beginning of the third Cod War.
  • 27 November – Ross McWhirter, co-founder with his twin of the Guinness Book of Records, is shot dead by the Provisional Irish Republican Army for offering reward money to informers.[41]
  • 29 November – Former racing driver Graham Hill, 46, dies in an air crash in Hertfordshire.[42]

December[]

  • December – Donald Neilson, 39, is arrested in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, on suspicion of being the "Black Panther" murderer who was believed to have carried out five murders in the last two years.[2]
  • 5 December – The Government ends Internment of suspected terrorists in Northern Ireland.[3]
  • 6–12 December – Balcombe Street Siege: IRA members on the run from police break into a London flat, taking the residents hostage. The siege ends after six days with the gunmen giving themselves up to the police.[43][44]
  • 29 December – Two new laws, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Equal Pay Act 1970, come into force aiming to end unequal pay of men and women in the workplace.[45]

Undated[]

  • The Willis Building (Ipswich) is completed, a key early example of Foster Associates' 'high-tech' architectural style.[46]
  • The British National Oil Corporation is set up.
  • First annual payment of Short Money made to the Official Opposition in the House of Commons to help with its costs for Parliamentary business (named after Edward Short, Leader of the House).
  • Jackie Tabick becomes the first female rabbi in the British Isles.[47]
  • The white-tailed sea eagle is re-introduced to the UK, on the Isle of Rum.[48]

Publications[]

  • Malcolm Bradbury's campus novel The History Man.
  • Agatha Christie's final Hercule Poirot novel Curtain.
  • Shirley Conran's guide Superwoman.
  • Richard Crossman's The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister (posthumous), after a legal battle with the Government which wished to suppress publication.
  • Colin Dexter's first Inspector Morse novel Last Bus to Woodstock.
  • Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's novel Heat and Dust.
  • David Lodge's campus novel Changing Places.
  • Paul Scott's novel A Division of the Spoils, the final part of the Raj Quartet.
  • Gerald Seymour's thriller Harry's Game.

Births[]

  • 6 January – Jason King, radio and television host
  • 20 January – Zac Goldsmith, environmentalist and politician
  • 21 January – Nicky Butt, footballer
  • 24 January – Lucy Montgomery, comedian, actress and writer
  • 18 February
    • Keith Gillespie, footballer
    • Gary Neville, footballer
  • 25 February – Naga Munchetty, television presenter and journalist
  • 12 March – Amanda Milling, Chairman of the Conservative Party
  • 21 March – Mark Williams, snooker player
  • 9 April – Robbie Fowler, footballer
  • 20 April – Olly Robbins, civil servant
  • 2 May – David Beckham, footballer
  • 18 May – John Higgins, snooker player
  • 22 May – Kelly Morgan, badminton player
  • 27 May – Jamie Oliver, chef and television personality
  • 29 May
    • Melanie Brown, pop singer (Spice Girls)
    • Sarah Millican, born Sarah King, comedian
  • 4 June
  • 19 June – Ed Coode, rower
  • 12 July – Hannah Waterman, actress
  • 15 July – Jill Halfpenny, actress
  • 17 July – Konnie Huq, television presenter
  • 30 July – Graham Nicholls, artist
  • 31 July – Stephanie Hirst, born Simon Hirst, radio DJ
  • 11 August – Asma al-Assad, born Asma Akhras, spouse of President of Syria
  • 22 August – Sheree Murphy, actress
  • 18 September – Richard Appleby, football player
  • 23 September – Chris Hawkins, radio personality
  • 25 September – Declan Donnelly, television presenter and one half of Ant and Dec
  • 5 October – Kate Winslet, actress
  • 9 October – Joe McFadden, actor
  • 27 October – Zadie Smith, born Sadie Smith, novelist
  • 12 November – Katherine Grainger, rower
  • 13 November – Gary Burgess, broadcaster and journalist (died 2022)
  • 18 November – Anthony McPartlin, television presenter and one half of Ant and Dec
  • 5 December – Ronnie O'Sullivan, snooker player
  • 12 December – Jackie Brady, gymnast
  • 20 December – Jacqui Oatley, sports presenter

Deaths[]

  • 31 January – Bernard Fitzalan-Howard, 16th Duke of Norfolk, peer and Earl Marshal (born 1908)
  • 8 February – Robert Robinson, organic chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1886)
  • 12 February – Bernard Knowles, film director and screenwriter (born 1900)
  • 14 February
    • Julian Huxley, biologist (born 1887)
    • P. G. Wodehouse, comic writer (born 1881)
  • 22 February – Lionel Tertis, violist (born 1876)
  • 26 February – Stephen Tibble, London police officer (shot) (born 1953)
  • 28 February – Neville Cardus, writer on cricket and music (born 1888)
  • 3 March
    • Sandy MacPherson, theatre organist (born 1897 in Canada)
    • T. H. Parry-Williams, poet (born 1887)
  • 27 March – Sir Arthur Bliss, composer and conductor (born 1891)
  • 3 April – Mary Ure, actress (born 1933)
  • 14 April – Michael Flanders, actor and songwriter (born 1922)
  • 23 April – William Hartnell, actor (born 1908)
  • 24 April – Pete Ham, musician (born 1947)
  • 20 May – Barbara Hepworth, sculptor (born 1903)
  • 21 May – A. H. Dodd, historian (born 1891)
  • 3 June – Sir Christopher Bonham-Carter, admiral and Treasurer to the Duke of Edinburgh (1959–1970) (born 1907)
  • 5 June – Lester Matthews, actor (born 1900)
  • 27 June – Arthur Salter, 1st Baron Salter, politician and academic (born 1881)
  • 2 July – James Robertson Justice, actor (born 1907)
  • 7 August – Jim Griffiths, politician (born 1890)
  • 10 September – George Paget Thomson, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1892)
  • 22 October – Arnold J. Toynbee, historian (born 1889)
  • 23 October – Gordon Hamilton Fairley, oncologist (murdered) (born 1930 in Australia)
  • 27 October – Frederick Charles Victor Laws, Royal Air Force officer, pioneer of aerial reconnaissance (born 1887)
  • 25 November – Moyna Macgill, actress (born 1895)
  • 27 November – Ross McWhirter, co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (assassinated) (born 1925)
  • 29 November
    • Tony Brise, racing driver (born 1952)
    • Graham Hill, racing driver (born 1929)

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 18 April 2010. Retrieved 18 May 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ a b "1975: Heiress Lesley Whittle kidnapped". BBC News. 14 January 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  3. ^ a b c Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 437–438. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
  4. ^ a b c d e "1975". Those were the days. Express and Star. Wolverhampton. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  5. ^ "1975: Tories choose first woman leader". BBC News. 11 February 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  6. ^ "1975: Miners set for 35 per cent pay rises". BBC News. 13 February 1975. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  7. ^ "1975: PC murder linked to IRA bomb factory". BBC News. 27 February 1975. Archived from the original on 2 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  8. ^ "1975: Comic genius Chaplin is knighted". BBC News. 4 March 1975. Archived from the original on 22 January 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  9. ^ "1975: Kidnapped heiress found strangled". BBC News. 7 March 1975. Archived from the original on 17 January 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  10. ^ "1975: National Front rallies against Europe". BBC News. 25 March 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  11. ^ "History by Decade". www.manutd.com. Archived from the original on 15 May 2013. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  12. ^ "1975: 'Cambridge rapist' strikes again". BBC News. 13 April 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  13. ^ "1975: Labour votes to leave the EEC". BBC News. 26 April 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  14. ^ "The Windsor Star - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  15. ^ "The Glasgow Herald - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  16. ^ "Dibbles Bridge: 25 years on". Telegraph & Argus. Bradford: Newsquest Media Group. 20 May 2000. Retrieved 16 July 2010.
  17. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 29 September 2013. Retrieved 18 May 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  18. ^ Gilliland, Ben (16 January 2009). "Science & Discovery". Metro.
  19. ^ "ESA turns 30!". ESA. 2005. Retrieved 26 June 2010.
  20. ^ "1975: UK embraces Europe in referendum". BBC News. 6 June 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  21. ^ "1975: First live broadcast of Parliament". BBC News. 9 June 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  22. ^ "The Sydney Morning Herald - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  23. ^ "1975: Missing earl guilty of murder". BBC News. 19 June 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  24. ^ "The Glasgow Herald - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  25. ^ "THE ATTACKS AND MURDERS - ANN ROGULSKYJ". www.execulink.com. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  26. ^ Green, Oliver (1988). The London Underground - An Illustrated History. Ian Allan. p. 62. ISBN 0-7110-1720-4.
  27. ^ Twigger, Robert (1999). "Inflation: the Value of the Pound 1750-1998" (PDF). House of Commons Library. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 February 2006. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
  28. ^ "THE ATTACKS AND MURDERS - OLIVE SMELT". www.execulink.com. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  29. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 18 April 2010. Retrieved 18 May 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  30. ^ "1975: Davis campaigners stop Test match". BBC News. 19 August 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  31. ^ "THE ATTACKS AND MURDERS - TRACY BROWNE". www.execulink.com. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  32. ^ "Development of the Chrysler - Talbot Alpine cars". Retrieved 14 February 2008.
  33. ^ "1975: London Hilton bombed". BBC News. 5 September 1975. Archived from the original on 13 February 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  34. ^ a b Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
  35. ^ "1975: First Britons conquer Everest". BBC News. 24 September 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  36. ^ "1975: London's Spaghetti House siege ends". BBC News. 3 October 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  37. ^ "UK GDP since 1955". DataBlog. London: The Guardian. 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  38. ^ "1975: Man killed in Piccadilly bomb blast". BBC News. 9 October 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  39. ^ "THE ATTACKS AND MURDERS - WILMA McCANN". www.execulink.com. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  40. ^ "1975: North Sea oil begins to flow". BBC News. 3 November 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  41. ^ "1975: TV presenter Ross McWhirter shot dead". BBC News. 27 November 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  42. ^ "1975: Graham Hill killed in air crash". BBC News. 29 November 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  43. ^ "1975: Couple under siege in Balcombe Street". BBC News. 6 December 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  44. ^ "1975: Balcombe Street siege ends". BBC News. 12 December 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  45. ^ "1975: New laws to end battle of the sexes". BBC News. 29 December 1975. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  46. ^ Harwood, Elain (2003). England: a Guide to Post-War Listed Buildings (rev. ed.). London: Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-8818-2.
  47. ^ "Rabbi Jackie Tabick". The Jewish Chronicle. 6 March 2008. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
  48. ^ Snow, D. W.; Perrins, C. M. (1998). The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-854099-X.
  49. ^ Warner, David (2011). The Yorkshire County Cricket Club: 2011 Yearbook (113th ed.). Ilkley, Yorkshire: Great Northern Books. p. 381. ISBN 978-1-905080-85-4.

External links[]

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