1960 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister – Harold Macmillan
• Parliament – 42nd

  Events

• January – state of emergency is lifted in Kenya – the Mau Mau Uprising is officially over.
• 5 January – closure of the Swansea and Mumbles Railway.
• 10 January – British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan makes the "Wind of Change" speech for the first time, to little publicity, in Accra, Gold Coast.
• 28 January – the comic ballet La fille mal gardée, in a version newly choreographed by Frederick Ashton to a score adapted by John Lanchbery, is premiered by The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House in London, rapidly becoming a classic of the repertoire.
• 3 February – Macmillan makes the "Wind of Change" speech to the South African Parliament in Cape Town, where it attracts attention.
• 18–28 February – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, Placer County, California but do not win any medals.
• 19 February – the Queen gives birth to her third child and second son, the first child born to a reigning British monarch since 1857.
• March
• * Manchester City F.C. sign 20-year-old forward Denis Law for a national record fee of £55,000 from Huddersfield Town.
• * The 18th century Naval dockyard at Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent is closed. A total of 2,500 jobs have gradually been shed at the site since its closure was first announced by the government in February 1958.
• 14 March – Jodrell Bank Observatory makes contact with the American Pioneer 5 over a record-breaking distance of 407,000 miles.
• 26 March – the Grand National is televised for the first time. The winner is Merryman II.
• 28 March – Cheapside Street Whisky Bond Fire in Glasgow; 19 firemen killed in the UK's worst peacetime fire services disaster.
• 1 April – Bill Griggs of Northampton first markets the Dr. Martens 'AirWair' style 1460 boots.
• 8 April – the seven-week-old son of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh is christened Andrew Albert Christian Edward.
• 13 April – cancellation of the Blue Streak missile.
• 16 April – The Times of London abandons use of the term "Imperial and Foreign News", replacing it with "Overseas News", and changes its house style from "to-day" to "today".
• 17 April – American rock and roll singer Eddie Cochran, 21, is killed in a car crash in Wiltshire.
• 18 April – 60,000 protestors stage a demonstration in London against nuclear weapons.
• 27 April – first production of Harold Pinter's play The Caretaker at the Arts Theatre in London.
• 30 April – Yorkshire County Cricket Club opens its first season since 1883 under a professional captain, Vic Wilson, who leads the club to the County Championship.
• 3 May – Burnley F.C. win the Football League First Division title with a 2–1 win over Manchester City at Maine Road. Burnley's title win means that Wolverhampton Wanderers, the FA Cup finalists, have lost out on the chance of becoming the first team this century to win the double of the league title and FA Cup.
• 6 May – Princess Margaret marries photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey in the first televised Royal marriage.
• 7 May – Wolverhampton Wanderers are FA Cup winners for the fourth time, beating Blackburn Rovers 3–0 at Wembley Stadium.
• 24 June – Avro 748 makes its first flight at Woodford.
• 26 June – British Somaliland gains independence from the United Kingdom; five days later it unites with the former Italian Somaliland to create the modern Somali Republic.
• 28 June – 38 miners killed in an explosion at Six Bells Colliery in Monmouthshire.
• July – The Shadows' instrumental Apache is released.
• 21 July – Francis Chichester, English navigator and yachtsman, arrives in New York aboard Gypsy Moth II having made a record solo Atlantic crossing in 40 days.
• 27 July – in a Cabinet reshuffle, Selwyn Lloyd is appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer and Lord Home becomes Foreign Secretary.
• 30 July – "Battle of Beaulieu": At a jazz festival at Beaulieu, Hampshire, fans of trad jazz come to blows with progressives.
• 7 August – the Bluebell Railway in Sussex begins regular operation as the first standard gauge steam-operated passenger heritage railway in the world.
• 16 August – Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom. The Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia remain as British Overseas Territories.
• 17 August – The Beatles, a five-strong male band from Liverpool, perform their first concert under this name in Hamburg, West Germany.
• 22 August – first performance of the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe.
• 25 August – 11 September – Great Britain and Northern Ireland competes at the Olympics in Rome and win 2 gold, 6 silver and 12 bronze medals.
• September – first Ten Tors expedition on Dartmoor.
• 10 September – ITV broadcasts the first live Football League match to be shown on television, and the last for 23 years.
• 15 September – the first traffic wardens deployed in London.
• 30 September – 4 December – severe flooding in the valley of the River Exe and surrounding areas of Devon following heavy rainfall.
• 1 October – Nigeria gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
• 7 October – the second notable flood occurs in Horncastle, Lincolnshire. The town enters the UK Weather Records with the highest 180-min total rainfall at 178 mm. As of October 2010 this record remains.
• 8 October – closure of the original Sheffield Tramway, leaving Blackpool as the only place in England with electric trams.
• 17 October – the News Chronicle ceases publication, being absorbed into the Daily Mail.
• 21 October – the Queen launches Britain's first nuclear submarine, HMS Dreadnought, at Barrow-in-Furness.
• 25 October – barges collide with one of the columns of the Severn Railway Bridge in heavy fog, causing two spans of the twenty-two span steel and cast iron bridge to collapse. It is never repaired.
• 27 October – film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning released, first of the British social-realist wave.
• 30 October – Michael Woodruff performs the first successful kidney transplantation in the UK, at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
• 2 November – Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case.
• 10 November – Lady Chatterley's Lover sells 200,000 copies in one day following its publication since being banned since 1928.
• 2 December – the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, talks with Pope John XXIII in the Vatican, the first ever meeting between the leader of the Anglican Church and the Pope.
• 9 December – the first episode of soap opera Coronation Street, made by Granada Television in Manchester, is aired on ITV. It will still be running past its 10,000th episode in its 60th anniversary year. Characters introduced in the first episode include Ken Barlow, Ena Sharples, Elsie Tanner and Annie Walker.
• 10 December – Sir Peter Brian Medawar and Australian Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance".
• 31 December
• * Last day on which the farthing, a coin first minted in England in the 13th century, is legal tender.
• * The last man is called up for National Service, as Conscription ends.

  Undated

• Black plastic bin bags first introduced for waste collection, in Hitchin.
• Little Houses Improvement Scheme launched by the National Trust for Scotland to promote conservation of vernacular architecture.

  Publications

• Jean and Gareth Adamson's first Topsy and Tim children's book.
• Kingsley Amis's novel Take a Girl Like You.
• Lynne Reid Banks' novel The L-Shaped Room.
• Stan Barstow's novel A Kind of Loving.
• Lawrence Durrell's novel Clea, last of The Alexandria Quartet.
• Ian Fleming's James Bond short story collection For Your Eyes Only.
• Alan Garner's children's novel The Weirdstone of Brisingamen.
• Audrey Harvey's March Fabian Society pamphlet Casualties of the Welfare State.
• David Lodge's first novel The Picturegoers.
• Muriel Spark's novel The Ballad of Peckham Rye.
• David Storey's first novel This Sporting Life.
• Raymond Williams' novel Border Country.
• John Wyndham's novel Trouble with Lichen.

  Births

January – February

• 1 January – Danny Wilson, footballer and manager
• 4 January – Jane Halton, English-Australian public servant
• 6 January – Nigella Lawson, British chef and writer
• 13 January – Matthew Bourne, English choreographer
• 18 January – Mark Rylance, English actor and theatre director
• 23 January – Paul Blagg, English racewalker
• 29 January – Sean Kerly, British field hockey player
• 31 January – George Benjamin, composer and conductor
• 4 February – Siobhan Dowd, British writer and activist
• 6 February – Harry Thompson, British comedy writer
• 19 February
• * Prince Andrew, Duke of York
• * Helen Fielding, English novelist
• 20 February – Siobhain McDonagh, British Labour politician and MP for Mitcham and Morden
• 21 February – Jane Tomlinson, athlete and cancer activist

  March – April

• 1 March – Benedict Allen, explorer
• 9 March – Louise Miller, high jumper
• 10 March – Anne MacKenzie, Scottish broadcast journalist
• 16 March
• * Jenny Eclair, born Jenny Clare Hargreaves, comedian
• * John Hemming, British Liberal Democrat politician and businessman
• 23 March – Nicol Stephen, Scottish politician
• 24 March – Grayson Perry, visual artist
• 29 March – Marina Sirtis, actress
• 2 April – Linford Christie, Jamaican-born athlete
• 4 April – Jane Eaglen, soprano
• 11 April – Jeremy Clarkson, journalist and television show host
• 13 April – Lyn Carol Brown, Labour politician and MP for West Ham
• 22 April – Gary Rhodes, restaurateur and celebrity chef
• 26 April – Roger Taylor, new wave drummer
• 28 April – Ian Rankin, Scottish crime novelist
• 29 April – Phil King, rock bassist
• 30 April
• * Colonel Tim Collins, Northern Irish-born British Commander in Iraq
• * Geoffrey Cox, Conservative politician, Attorney General for England and Wales

  May – June

• 6 May – Roma Downey, Northern Irish actress and producer
• 24 May
• * Guy Fletcher, English keyboardist
• * Kristin Scott Thomas, English actress
• 2 June – Shaun Wallace, television personality and barrister
• 4 June – Bradley Walsh, English comedian and actor
• 5 June – Julie Kirkbride, English Conservative politician and MP for Bromsgrove
• 8 June – Mick Hucknall, English singer and songwriter
• 20 June – John Taylor, English bass guitarist
• 30 June – Jack McConnell, First Minister of Scotland

  July – August

• 3 July – Vince Clarke, English songwriter
• 11 July – Caroline Quentin, née Jones, English television comedy actress
• 13 July – Ian Hislop, British broadcaster and editor
• 18 July – Simon Heffer, English journalist
• 22 July – Barbara Cassani, American-born business executive
• 13 August – Phil Taylor, darts player
• 14 August – Sarah Brightman, English soprano singer and actress
• 30 August – Ben Bradshaw, British Labour politician, Minister for Local Environment, Marine and Animal Welfare, and MP for Exeter

  September – October

• 3 September – Nick Gibb, British Conservative politician, Shadow Minister of State for Schools, and MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton
• 9 September – Hugh Grant, English actor
• 10 September – Colin Firth, English actor
• 16 September – Danny John-Jules, English dancer and actor
• 17 September – Damon Hill, English race car driver
• 29 September – Andy Slaughter, British Labour politician and MP for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush and Hammersmith
• 29 October – Finola Hughes, British actress

  November – December

• 5 November – Tilda Swinton, British film actress
• 10 November – Neil Gaiman, English author
• 15 November – Dawn Airey, broadcaster
• 17 November – Jonathan Ross, English television presenter
• 18 November – Kim Wilde, English singer and gardener
• 20 November – Robert Dunlop, Northern Irish motorcycle racer
• 28 November – John Galliano, British fashion designer
• 30 November – Gary Lineker, English footballer and TV presenter
• 2 December – Rick Savage, English bassist
• 10 December – Kenneth Branagh, Northern Irish actor and director
• 11 December – John Lukic, English footballer
• 14 December – Chris Waddle, English footballer, commentator and newspaper columnist
• 24 December – Carol Vorderman, British television presenter
• 26 December – Andrew Graham-Dixon, British art historian and television presenter
• 27 December – Maryam d'Abo, British actress
• 31 December – Steve Bruce, footballer and football manager

  Undated

• Shaun Greenhalgh, English art forger

  Deaths

• 3 January – Constance Spry, English florist
• 7 January – Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers, English tennis player
• 9 January – Elsie J. Oxenham, English children's novelist
• 11 January – Isabel Emslie Hutton, Scottish nurse in Serbia during World War I and psychiatrist
• 12 January – Nevil Shute, English novelist and aeronautical engineer
• 25 January – Rutland Boughton, English composer
• 8 February
• * J. L. Austin, English philosopher of language
• * Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, English architect
• 20 February – Sir Leonard Woolley, English archaeologist
• 29 February – Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, last Vicereine of India
• 5 April – Peter Llewelyn-Davies, British soldier and inspiration for Peter Pan
• 1 May – Charles Holden, architect
• 8 May
• * Sir Hersch Lauterpacht, international lawyer
• * J. H. C. Whitehead, mathematician
• 7 June – Sir Maurice Bonham Carter, English Liberal politician and cricketer
• 27 June
• * Lottie Dod, English sportswoman
• * Harry Pollitt, English communist
• 6 July – Aneurin Bevan, Welsh Labour politician
• 24 August – Sir Harold Bowden, businessman and inventor
• 24 August – Sir Charles Lambe, admiral of the fleet, First Sea Lord
• 22 September
• * Melanie Klein, Austrian-born psychoanalyst
• * Amy Veness, English film actress
• 27 September – Sylvia Pankhurst, English suffragette
• 30 September – St John Philby, British Arabist, explorer and spy
• 16 November – Gilbert Harding, radio and television personality
• 22 December – Sir Ninian Comper, architect