1962 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

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

  Events

• 2 January – BBC Television broadcasts the first episode of Z-Cars, noted as a realistic portrayal of the police.
• 5 January – the first album on which The Beatles play, My Bonnie, credited to "Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers", is released by Polydor.
• 18 January – Union-Castle Line ship RMS Transvaal Castle makes her maiden voyage Southampton–Durban, perhaps the last major British ship built to enter the regular passenger ocean liner trade.
• 22 January – James Hanratty goes on trial for the A6 murder. He denies the murder of 36-year-old Michael Gregsten and the attempted murder of Mr Gregsten's mistress Valerie Storie, who is paralysed by a gunshot wound.
• 4 February – The Sunday Times becomes the first newspaper to print a colour supplement.
• 10 February – end of the Queen's 10th regnal year. From this year, Acts of Parliament are dated by calendar year.
• 21 February – Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev first dance together, in a Royal Ballet performance of Giselle.
• 23 February – twelve European countries form the European Space Agency.
• 26 February – the Irish Republican Army officially calls off its Border Campaign in Northern Ireland.
• 1 March – British nuclear testing in the United States begins with "Pampas", Britain's first underground test, at the Nevada Test Site, the first of 24 critical tests up to 1991.
• 6 March – Accrington Stanley, members of the Football League Fourth Division, resign from the Football League due to huge debts.
• 7 March
• *National Economic Development Council first meets.
• *an outlier of the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 destroys the Cornish community of Wherrytown near Penzance.
• 13 March – a by-election is held in Blackpool North.
• 14 March – a by-election is held in Middlesbrough East.
• 15 March – Orpington by-election, often described as the start of the Liberal Party revival in the UK, has Liberal Eric Lubbock upsetting the expected winner, Conservative candidate Peter Goldman for the seat in Orpington.
• 2 April – panda crossings are introduced but their complex sequences of pulsating and flashing lights cause confusion amongst drivers and pedestrians.
• 4 April – James Hanratty is hanged at Bedford Prison for the A6 murder, despite protestations from many people who believe he is innocent, and the late introduction of witnesses who claim to have seen him in Rhyl, North Wales, on the day of the murder.
• 18 April – Commonwealth Immigrants Act in the United Kingdom removes free immigration from the citizens of member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, requiring proof of employment in the UK. This comes into effect on 1 July.
• 27 April – opinion polls show that less than half of voters now approve of Harold Macmillan as Prime Minister.
• 28 April – Ipswich Town win the Football League First Division title in their first season at that level.
• 5 May – Tottenham Hotspur retain the FA Cup with a 3-1 win over Burnley at Wembley Stadium, with goals from Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Smith and captain Danny Blanchflower.
• 8 May – the last trolleybuses in London run.
• 25 May – the new Coventry Cathedral is consecrated.
• 31 May
• *The Northern Ireland general election again produces a large majority for the Ulster Unionist Party, winning 34 out of 51 seats, though the Nationalist Party gains two seats for a total of 9.
• *The British West Indies Federation collapses and is officially wound up due to internal power struggles.
• 2 June
• * Britain's first legal casino opens in Brighton, Sussex.
• * Oxford United F.C., champions of the Southern League, are elected to The Football League in place of bankrupt Accrington Stanley.
• 6 June – The Beatles play their first session at Abbey Road Studios.
• 14 June – BBC Television broadcasts the first episode of the sitcom Steptoe and Son, written by Galton and Simpson.
• 1 July – another heavy smog develops over London.
• 3 July – opening of Chichester Festival Theatre, Britain's first large modern theatre with a thrust stage. Laurence Olivier is the first artistic director.
• 11 July – live television broadcast from the US to Britain for the first time, via the Telstar communications satellite and Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station.
• 12 July – the Rolling Stones make their debut at London's Marquee Club, Number 165 Oxford Street, opening for Long John Baldry.
• 13 July – in what the press dubs "the Night of the Long Knives", the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismisses one-third of his Cabinet.
• 20 July – the world's first regular passenger hovercraft service introduced between Rhyl in North Wales and Wallasey.
• 22 July – Advertising Standards Authority set up.
• 23 July – first live public television broadcasts of full-length programmes, via the Telstar satellite.
• 28 July – race riots break out in Dudley, West Midlands.
• 31 July – a crowd assaults the rally of the right-wing Union Movement of Sir Oswald Mosley in London.
• 4 August – Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, the Welsh Language Society, is founded.
• 6 August – Jamaica becomes independent.
• 12 August-- BMC Launch the Morris1100, the become the best selling car of the 1960s
• 17 August – The Tornados' recording of Joe Meek's "Telstar" is released.
• 18 August – The Beatles play their first live engagement with the line-up of John, Paul, George and Ringo, at Hulme Hall, Port Sunlight.
• 23 August – John Lennon marries Cynthia Powell in an unpublicised register office ceremony at Mount Pleasant, Liverpool.
• 31 August
• *Trinidad and Tobago gains its independence.
• * Mountaineers Chris Bonington and Ian Clough becomes the first Britons to climb the north face of the Eiger.
• 1 September – Channel Television, the ITV franchise for the Channel Islands, goes on air.
• 2 September – Glasgow Corporation Tramways runs its last cars in normal service, leaving the Blackpool tramway as the only remaining one in Britain.
• 6 September – archaeologist Peter Marsden discovers the first of a set of Roman shipwrecks at Blackfriars in London, known as the Blackfriars Ships.
• 8–11 September – last Gentlemen v Players cricket match played, at Scarborough.
• 14 September – Wales West and North Television goes on air to the North and West Wales region, extending ITV to the whole of the United Kingdom.
• 20 September – Ford launches the Cortina, a family saloon costing £573 and similar in size to the Vauxhall Victor, Hillman Minx and Morris Oxford Farina.
• 21 September – first broadcast of the long-running television quiz programme University Challenge, made by Granada Television with Bamber Gascoigne as quizmaster.
• 1 October – Elizabeth Lane takes her seat as the first female county court judge.
• 5 October
• * Dr No, the first James Bond film, is premiered at the London Pavilion, with 32-year-old Edinburgh-born Sean Connery playing the lead, a British Secret Service agent.
• * The Beatles' first single in their own right, Love Me Do, is released by Parlophone. This version was recorded on 4 September at Abbey Road Studios in London with Ringo Starr as drummer.
• 9 October – Uganda gains its independence.
• 17 October – The Beatles make their first televised appearance on People and Places.
• 24 October – GCHQ's interception station at Scarborough is the first to detect that Soviet merchant ships implicated in the Cuban Missile Crisis are returning to their bases.
• 31 October – the UN General Assembly asks the United Kingdom to suspend enforcement of the new constitution in Southern Rhodesia, but the constitution comes into 'seffect on 1 November.
• November – John Charnley makes the world's first successful whole hip replacement operation at Wrightington Hospital, Wigan.
• 17 November – Seaham life-boat George Elmy capsizes entering harbour after service to coble Economy: all five crew and four of the five survivors are killed.
• 22 November – a by-election is held in Chippenham, Wiltshire, where the Conservatives are narrowly re-elected ahead of the Liberals.
• 24 November – the first episode of influential satire show That Was the Week That Was is broadcast on BBC Television.
• 29 November – an agreement is signed between Britain and France to develop the Concorde supersonic airliner.
• 2–7 December – severe smog in London causes numerous deaths.
• 6 December – the last permanent inhabitants leave the Island of Stroma.
• 9 December – Tanganyika becomes a republic within the Commonwealth, with Julius Nyerere as president.
• 10 December
• * British molecular biologists Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, along with American James D. Watson, win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material".
• * British biochemists Max Perutz and John Cowdery Kendrew win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work in investigating the structure of haem-containing proteins.
• * David Lean's film Lawrence of Arabia released.
• 19 December – Britain acknowledges the right of Nyasaland to secede from the Central African Federation.
• 21 December – Nassau Agreement: Britain agrees to buy the Polaris missile system from the United States.
• 22 December – "Big Freeze" in Britain: no frost-free nights until 5 March 1963.
• 30 December – United Nations troops occupy the last rebel positions in Katanga; Moise Tshombe moves to Southern Rhodesia.

  Undated

• Britain's motorway network expands with the completion of the first phases of the M5 between Birmingham and north Gloucestershire and the M6 bypassing Stafford.
• Mirror class introduced for dinghy sailing.
• Golden Wonder introduce flavoured crisps to the UK market.

  Publications

• The anthology The New Poetry edited by Al Alvarez.
• Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange.
• Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side.
• Len Deighton's first novel The IPCRESS File.
• Ian Fleming's James Bond novel The Spy Who Loved Me.
• Dick Francis' first novel Dead Cert.
• Eric Hobsbawm's book .
• Aldous Huxley's novel Island.
• P. D. James' first novel Cover Her Face.
• Doris Lessing's novel The Golden Notebook.
• David Lodge’s novel Ginger You're Barmy.
• Anthony Sampson's study Anatomy of Britain.
• Peter Townsend's report The Last Refuge: a survey of residential institutions and homes for the aged in England and Wales.

  Births

January – April

• 4 January – Robin Guthrie, Scottish guitarist and producer
• 25 January – Emma Freud, English broadcaster and cultural commentator
• 7 February – Eddie Izzard, British actor and comedian
• 8 February
• *Malorie Blackman, British author
• *Daniel Levy, English businessman
• 12 February – Jimmy Kirkwood, field hockey player
• 13 February – Hugh Dennis, British actor, comedian and writer
• 17 February – Sarah Wollaston, physician and politician
• 21 February
• *Vanessa Feltz, British television presenter
• *Randy Lerner, American entrepreneur and owner of Aston Villa F.C.
• 25 February – John Lanchester, British journalist and novelist
• 4 March – Simon Bisley, British comic book artist
• 9 March
• *Richard Quest, English television anchor and presenter
• *Pete Wishart, Scottish singer and politician
• 12 March – Graham Stuart, British Conservative politician and MP for Beverley and Holderness
• 17 March – Clare Grogan, Scottish actress and singer
• 23 March – Steve Redgrave, English rower
• 26 March – Sarah Mullally, Chief Nursing Officer for England
• 27 March – John O'Farrell, British author and broadcaster
• 1 April – Phillip Schofield, British television presenter
• 9 April – Imran Sherwani, British field hockey player
• 22 April – Ann McKechin, Scottish Labour politician and MP for Glasgow North
• 23 April – John Hannah, Scottish actor
• 24 April – Roald Bradstock, English javelin thrower
• 26 April – Colin Anderson, English footballer
• 29 April – Polly Samson, English journalist and writer

  May – August

• 2 May – Jimmy White, British snooker player
• 6 May – Tom Brake, British Liberal Democrat politician and MP for Carshalton and Wallington
• 9 May – David Gahan, English singer
• 12 May – Gregory H. Johnson, American astronaut
• 14 May – Ian Astbury, British singer
• 17 May
• *Craig Ferguson, Scottish actor and television presenter
• *Alan Johnston, journalist
• 6 June – Mark Bright, English footballer, radio presenter and TV pundit
• 8 June – Nick Rhodes, English musician
• 25 June – Phill Jupitus, comedian and broadcaster
• 27 June – Michael Ball, singer
• 29 June – Amanda Donohoe, English actress
• 4 July – Neil Morrissey, English actor
• 1 August – Robert Clift, British field hockey player
• 11 August – John Micklethwait, English journalist and editor-in-chief of The Economist magazine
• 20 August – Sophie Aldred, British actress and television presenter
• 30 August – Alexander Litvinenko, British citizen, ex-KGB colonel and ex-FSB lieutenant-colonel

  September – December

• 5 September – Peter Wingfield, Welsh actor
• 8 September – Daljit Dhaliwal, British newsreader and television presenter
• 15 September – Steve Punt, British actor, comedian and writer
• 24 September
• *Jack Dee, British comedian
• *Ally McCoist, Scottish footballer and TV pundit and A Question of Sport team captain
• *Mike Phelan, English footballer and football coach
• 26 September – Tracey Thorn, British singer
• October – Micky Flanagan, comedian
• 5 October – Caron Keating, TV presenter
• 11 October – Nicola Bryant, actress
• 18 October – Naive John, Stuckist artist and figurative painter
• 20 October – Boothby Graffoe, born James Rogers, comedian, singer, songwriter and playwright
• 25 October – Nick Hancock, British actor and television presenter
• 26 October – Cary Elwes, British actor
• 3 November
• *Marilyn, born Peter Robinson, Jamaican-born pop singer
• *Jacqui Smith, English Labour politician
• 12 November – Mariella Frostrup, journalist and television presenter
• 15 November – Maggie O'Neill, actress
• 21 November – Alan Smith, footballer
• 24 November – John Kovalic, Anglo-American cartoonist
• 27 November – Samantha Bond, actress
• 2 December – Steve Huison, actor
• 3 December – Richard Bacon, British Conservative politician and MP for South Norfolk
• 6 December
• *Colin Salmon, actor
• *Ben Watt, musician, singer, DJ
• 17 December – Paul Dobson, English footballer
• 22 December – Ralph Fiennes, English actor
• 31 December – Heather McCartney, born Heather See, adopted daughter of Sir Paul McCartney

  Unknown dates

• Jacqueline de Rojas, born Yu, tech entrepreneur
• Richard Leonard, English-born Scottish Labour Party leader
• Alan Yau, Hong Kong-born restaurateur

  Deaths

• 16 January – R. H. Tawney, English historian and social critic
• 26 January – George Jeffreys, Welsh Pentecostalist
• 23 March – Clement Davies, Welsh Liberal politician
• 10 April – Stuart Sutcliffe, English artist and musician
• 19 April – Sir Harold Yarrow, 2nd Baronet, industrialist
• 21 April – Sir Frederick Handley Page, English aircraft manufacturer
• 5 May – Ernest Tyldesley, English cricketer
• 2 June – Vita Sackville-West, English writer and landscape gardener
• 12 June – John Ireland, English composer
• 13 June – Sir Eugene Goossens, English composer
• 21 July – G. M. Trevelyan, English historian
• 27 July – Richard Aldington, English poet
• 15 August – Bob McIntyre, Scottish motorcycle racer
• 7 September – Graham Walker, English motorcycle racer
• 23 September
• *Louis de Soissons, Canadian-born architect
• *Patrick Hamilton, English dramatist
• 21 October – Hugh Franklin, English activist for women's suffrage
• 5 November – Percy Cudlipp, Welsh-born journalist
• 15 December – Charles Laughton, English actor and director
• 21 December – Gary Hocking, Welsh motorcycle racer