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1975 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1975 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister - Harold Wilson, Labour Party

Events

• 14 January - Heiress Lesley Whittle (17), the daughter of late bus operator George Whittle (1905-1967), is kidnapped from her home near Bridgnorth in Shropshire. Her mother and brother have received a letter demanding a £50,000 ransom.^[1]
• 24 January - Donald Coggan enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury.^[2]
• 11 February - Margaret Thatcher defeats Edward Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election.^[3]
• 26 February - A fleeing IRA terrorist shoots and kills off-duty London police officer Stephen Tibble, 22, as he gives chase.^[4]
• 28 February - A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London kills 43 people.^[5]
• 4 March - Charlie Chaplin is knighted by the Queen.^[6]
• 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.^[7]
• 25 March - A large National Front rally in London protests against European integration.^[8]
• April - Carmaker Vauxhall launches the entry-level Chevette, a small three-door hatchback which has rear-wheel drive and from next year will also be available as a saloon and an estate.
• 13 April - A 22-year-old woman is raped at her bedsit in Cambridge. Cambridgeshire Police believe that she is the sixth victim of a mystery rapist who has been operating across the city since October last year. In June, Cambridgeshire Police arrest 47-year-old Peter Cook in connection with the rapes; he is sentenced to life imprisonment in October.^[9]
• 26 April - A conference of members of the Labour Party vote against continued membership of the EEC.^[10]
• 5 June - 67% of voters support continued membership of the EEC in a referendum.^[11]
• 9 June - Proceedings in Parliament broadcast on radio for the first time.^[12]
• 19 June - Lord Lucan is found guilty in absentia of the murder of nanny Sandra Rivett.^[13]
• 14 August Hampstead enters the UK Weather Records with the Highest 155-min total rainfall at 169 mm. As of July 2006 this record remains.
• 19 August - Headingley cricket ground vandalised by supporters of the armed robber George Davis campaigning for his release from prison. A scehduled test match between England and Australia due to take place there had to be abandoned.^[14]
• 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 Vauxhall Cavalier rear-wheel drive saloons. The new car is also built in France as the Simca 1307.^[15]
• 5 September - The London Hilton hotel bombed by the IRA killing two people and injuring 63 others.^[16]
• 19 September - the first episode of the popular sitcom Fawlty Towers broadcast.^[17]
• 24 September - Dougal Haston and Doug Scott become the first British people to climb Mount Everest.^[18]
• 28 September–3 October - The Spaghetti House siege, in which nine people were taken as hostages, takes place in London.^[19]
• October - Vauxhall announces its second new model launch of the year - the Cavalier, which replaces the Victor and is based on the German Opel Ascona, is a direct competitor for the big-selling Ford Cortina.
• 9 October - An IRA bomb explosion outside Green Park tube station near Piccadilly in London kills one and injures 20.^[20]
• 10 October - West Yorkshire Police launch a murder investigation after 28-year-old prostitute Wilma McCann is found dead in Leeds.
• 3 November - The first petroleum pipeline in the UK is formally opened by the Queen, running from Cruden Bay to Grangemouth in Scotland.^[21]
• 6 November - First public performance by punk rock band the Sex Pistols.^[17]
• 12 November - Employment Protection Act establishes ACAS to arbitrate industrial disputes, and legislates against unfair dismissal.^[2]
• 27 November - Ross McWhirter, the co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records, is shot dead by the Provisional Irish Republican Army for offering reward money to informers.^[22]
• 29 November - Former racing driver Graham Hill, 46, dies in an air crash in Hertfordshire.^[23]
• December - Donald Neilson, 39, is arrested in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, on suspicion of being the "Black Panther" murderer who is believed to have carried out five murders in the last two years.^[1]
• 5 December - Government ends Internment of suspected terrorists in Northern Ireland.^[2]
• 6 December–12 December - Balcombe Street Siege: IRA members on the run from police break into a London flat taking the residents hostage. The siege ended after six days with the gunmen giving themselves up to the police.^[24][25]
• 11 December - British and Icelandic ships clash marking the beginning of the third Cod War.^[26]
• 29 December - two new laws, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Equal Pay Act 1970, came into force aiming to end unequal pay of men and women in the workplace.^[27]

Publications

• Malcolm Bradbury's novel The History Man.
• Agatha Christie's final Hercule Poirot novel Curtain.
• Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's novel Heat and Dust.
• Paul Scott's novel A Division of the Spoils, the final part of the Raj Quartet.

Births

• 13 January - Shazia Mirza, comedienne
• 15 January - Edith Bowman, Radio DJ
• 18 February
  • Keith Gillespie, footballer
  • Gary Neville, footballer
• 21 March - Mark Williams, snooker player
• 9 April - Robbie Fowler, footballer
• 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, singer
• 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 - Simon Hirst, DJ
• 22 August - Sheree Murphy, actress
• 18 September - Richard Appleby, football player
• 23 September - Chris Hawkins, radio personality
• 25 September - Declan Donnelly, TV presenter and one half of Ant and Dec
• 5 October - Kate Winslet, actress
• 27 October - Zadie Smith, novelist
• 18 November - Anthony McPartlin, TV presenter and one half of Ant and Dec
• 5 December - Ronnie O'Sullivan, snooker player

Deaths

• 8 February - Robert Robinson, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1886)
• 14 February
  • Julian Huxley, biologist (born 1887)
  • P. G. Wodehouse, writer (born 1881)
• 26 February - Stephen Tibble, London police officer (shot) (born 1953)
• 3 March - T. H. Parry-Williams, poet (born 1887)
• 23 April - William Hartnell, actor (born 1908)
• 24 April - Peter Ham, musician (born 1947)
• 20 May - Barbara Hepworth, sculptor (born 1903)
• 21 May - A. H. Dodd, historian (born 1891)
• 7 August - Jim Griffiths, politician (born 1890)
• 10 September - George Paget Thomson, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1892)
• 25 November - Moyna Macgill, actress (born 1895)
• 27 November - Ross McWhirter, co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (born 1925)
• 29 November
  • Tony Brise, racing driver (born 1952)
  • Graham Hill, race car driver (born 1929)

References

See also