1970 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister
• * Harold Wilson
• * Edward Heath
• Parliament
• * 44th
• * 45th

  Events

January

• 1 January
• * The age of majority for most legal purposes was reduced from 21 to 18 under terms of the Family Law Reform Act 1969.
• * The half crown coin ceased to be legal tender.
• * The National Westminster Bank began trading following merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank.
• * Control of London Transport passed from the London Transport Board to the London Transport Executive of the Greater London Council, except for country area buses which passed to London Country Bus Services, a subsidiary of the National Bus Company.
• 18 January – The grave of Karl Marx at Highgate Cemetery in London was vandalised.
• 21 January – Fraserburgh life-boat Duchess of Kent, on service to the Danish fishing vessel Opal, capsized with the loss of five of the six crew.
• 22 January – A Boeing 747 landed at Heathrow Airport, the first jumbo jet to land in Britain.
• 26 January – Rolling Stone frontman Mick Jagger was fined £200 for possession of cannabis.

  February

• February – Chrysler UK launched its new Hillman Avenger small family car, which would be built at the Ryton plant near Coventry and compete with the likes of the Ford Escort and Vauxhall Viva.
• 13 February
• * Garden House riot, Cambridge: a demonstration at the Garden House Hotel by Cambridge University students against the Greek military junta led to police intervention; eight students subsequently received custodial sentences for their part in the affair.
• * English band Black Sabbath released their self titled debut album in the UK, credited as the first major album in the heavy metal genre.
• 19 February – The Prince of Wales joined the Royal Navy.
• 23 February – Rolls Royce asked the government for £50,000,000 towards the development of the RB 211-50 Airbus jet engine.
• 27 February – 1 March – First National Women's Liberation Conference held, at Ruskin College, Oxford.

  March

• 2 March – Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith declared Rhodesia a republic, breaking all ties with the British Crown; four years after the declaration of independence. The Government refused to recognise the new state as long as the Rhodesian Government opposed majority rule.
• 6 March – The importation of pets was banned after an outbreak of rabies in Newmarket, Suffolk.
• 12 March – The quarantine period for cats and dogs was increased to one year as part of the government's anti-rabies measures.
• 13 March – The Bridgwater by-election became the first election in which eighteen-year-olds were entitled to vote. Tom King of the Conservative Party was elected.
• 17 March – Martin Peters, who scored for England in their 1966 World Cup final win, became the nation's first £200,000 footballer in his transfer from West Ham United to Tottenham Hotspur.
• 23 March – Eighteen victims of thalidomide were awarded a total of nearly £370,000 in compensation.

  April

• 1 April – Everton won the Football League First Division title.
• 10 April
• * Paul McCartney publicly announced that he had left The Beatles in a press release, written in mock-interview style, included in promotional copies of his first solo album and headlined in the Daily Mirror newspaper.
• * The Elton John album is released, the second album by Elton John, but the first to be released in the United States.
• 11 April – Chelsea and Leeds United drew 2–2 in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium, forcing a replay.
• 16 April – Dr. Ian Paisley entered the Parliament of Northern Ireland after winning the Bannside By-election.
• 18 April – British Leyland announces that the Morris Minor, its longest-running model which had been in production since 1948, would be discontinued at the start of next year and be replaced with a new larger car available as a four-door saloon and three-door fastback coupe, and possibly a five-door estate by 1975.
• 21 April – The moderate Alliance Party was formed in Northern Ireland, which was initially a platform for liberal Unionists and pro-O'Neill voters. From the outset though, it declared as neither Unionist nor Nationalist, instead declaring as 'Other'.
• 29 April – David Webb scored the winning goal as Chelsea defeated Leeds United 2-1 in the FA Cup final replay at Old Trafford, gaining them the trophy for the very first time. Last year's winners Manchester City clinched the European Cup Winners' Cup with a 2–1 win over Górnik Zabrze of Poland in Vienna, Austria.

  May

• 19 May – The government made a £20,000,000 loan available to help save the financially troubled luxury car and aircraft engine manufacturer Rolls Royce.
• 22 May – A tour by the South African cricket team was called off after several African and Asian countries threaten to boycott the Commonwealth Games.
• 24 May – The Britannia Bridge, carrying the railway across the Menai Strait, was badly damaged by fire.
• 28 May – Bobby Moore, captain of the England national football team, was arrested and released on bail in Bogotá, Colombia, on suspicion of stealing a bracelet in the Bogotá Bracelet incident.
• 29 May – Law Reform Act abolished actions for breach of promise and the right of a husband to claim damages for adultery with his wife.

  June

• 1 June – Prime Minister Harold Wilson is hit in the face with an egg thrown by Richard Ware, a Young Conservative demonstrator.
• 2 June – Cleddau Bridge, in Pembrokeshire, collapsed during erection, killing four, leading to introduction of new standards for box girder bridges.
• 4 June – Tonga became independent from the UK.
• 10 June – Just a few months after the Conservatives had enjoyed opinion poll leads of more than 20 points, opinion polls were showing Labour several points ahead of the Conservatives with eight days to go before the general election. If Labour won the election, it would be a record third consecutive general election win for the party and would probably result in the end of Edward Heath's five-year reign as Conservative leader.
• 13 June – Actor Laurence Olivier was made a life peer in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. He was the first actor to be made a lord.
• 14 June – England's defence of the FIFA World Cup ended when they lost 3–2 to West Germany at the quarter final in Mexico.
• 17 June
• * The bodies of two children were found buried in shallow graves in woodland at Waltham Abbey, Essex. They were believed to be those of Susan Blatchford and Gary Hanlon, who were last seen alive near their homes in North London on 31 March this year. This became known as the "Babes in the wood" case
• * British Leyland created a niche in the four-wheel drive market by launching its luxury Range Rover, which was to be marketed as a more upmarket and urban alternative to the utilitarian Land Rover that had been in production since 1948.
• * David Storey's Home premiered at the Royal Court Theatre.
• 18 June – The 1970 general election is held, the first in which eighteen-year-olds were entitled to vote. Opinion polls point towards a third consecutive victory for the Labour Government led by Harold Wilson.
• 19 June – The general election results are announced and Edward Heath's Conservative Party wins with a majority of 30 seats, a major surprise as most of the opinion polls had shown that Harold Wilson's Labour were likely to stay in power. Among the new Members of Parliament are: future party leaders Neil Kinnock and John Smith for Labour, and Kenneth Clarke, Kenneth Baker, Norman Fowler and Geoffrey Howe for the Conservatives.
• 21 June – British golfer Tony Jacklin won the U.S. Open.
• 22 June – The Methodist Church allowed women to become full ministers for the first time.
• 26 June – Riots broke out in Derry over the arrest of Mid-Ulster MP Bernadette Devlin.
• 29 June – Caroline Thorpe, 32-year-old wife of Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe and mother of their two-year-old son Rupert, dies in a car crash.

  July

• 3 July
• * Three civilians were killed and 10 troops injured when British Army soldiers battled with IRA troops in Belfast.
• * Dan-Air Flight 1903: 112 were killed when a Manchester to Barcelona flight crashed in the mountains of Northern Spain, with no survivors.
• 8 July – Roy Jenkins became Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.
• 12 July – Jack Nicklaus won the Open Golf Championship at St Andrews, defeating fellow American Doug Sanders in an eighteen-hole play-off.
• 14 July – 5 speedway riders die in Lokeren, Belgium when a minibus carrying members of the West Ham speedway team crashed into a petrol tanker after a brief tour. One of those killed was Phil Bishop, a founding member of the West Ham speedway team from before WW2.
• 15 July – Dockers voted to strike leading to the docks strike of 1970.
• 16 July – A state of emergency was declared to deal with the dockers' strike.
• 16–25 July – The British Commonwealth Games were held in Edinburgh.
• 17 July – Lord Pearson proposed settlement of docks strike.
• 23 July
• * Two "tear gas" canisters were thrown into the House of Commons chamber.
• * 1970 Omani coup d'état with covert British support.
• 30 July – The docks strike was settled.
• 31 July – The last issue of grog in the Royal Navy was distributed.

  August

• 9 August – Police battled with black rioters in Notting Hill, London.
• 20 August – England national football team captain Bobby Moore was cleared of stealing a bracelet while on World Cup duty in Colombia.
• 21 August – The moderate Social Democratic and Labour Party was established in Northern Ireland.
• 26–31 August – Third Isle of Wight Festival attracted over 500,000 pop music fans, with appearances by Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Doors and Joan Baez.
• 27 August – The Royal Shakespeare Company's revolutionary production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Peter Brook, opened at Stratford.

  September

• 9 September – BOAC Flight 775 was hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine after taking off from Bahrain—the first time a British plane had been hijacked.
• 18 September – American rock star Jimi Hendrix, 27, died in London from a suspected drug-induced heart attack.
• 19 September – The first Glastonbury Festival was held, as the Worthy Farm Pop Festival. Tyrannosaurus Rex headlined and about 1500 attended.
• September – The album musical Jesus Christ Superstar, by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, was released.

  October

• 3 October – Tony Densham, driving the "Commuter" dragster, set a British land speed record at Elvington, Yorkshire, averaging 207.6 mph over the flying kilometre course.
• 5 October – BBC Radio 4 first broadcast consumer affairs magazine programme You and Yours; it would still be running forty years later.
• 12 October – After a debacled launch only eighteen months previously, British Leyland announce a much improved Austin Maxi featuring a new gearchange, increased engine size and much improved trim, answering many of the critical points raised by the motoring press at the car's original launch.
• 15 October
• * The government created the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of the Environment.
• * Thames sailing barge Cambria, the last vessel trading under sail alone in British waters, loaded her last freight, at Tilbury.
• * The last narrowboats to carry long-distance freight commercially on the canals of the United Kingdom arrived with their last load, coal from Atherstone for a West London jam factory.
• 19 October – British Petroleum discovered a large oil field in the North Sea.
• 23 October – The Mark III Ford Cortina went on sale. At launch a full range of models are offered including two-door and estate variants. Unlike previous models, this Cortina was developed as a Ford Europe model sharing the floor-pan with the similar German Ford Taurus
• 25 October – The Canonization of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales by Pope Paul VI took place.

  November

• 17 November – The first Page Three girl appeared in The Sun.
• 20 November – The ten shilling note ceased to be legal tender.
• 27 November – The Gay Liberation Front organised its first march in London.

  December

• 10 December – Bernard Katz won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Ulf von Euler and Julius Axelrod "for their discoveries concerning the humoral transmittors in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation".
• 26 December – Athlete Lillian Board, 22, died in Munich, West Germany, after a three-month battle against cancer.
• 31 December – Paul McCartney filed a lawsuit against the other members of The Beatles to dissolve their partnership, effectively ending the band.

  Undated

• Richard Branson started the Virgin Group with discounted mail-order sales of popular records.
• The last forced child migration to Australia took place.
• Nijinsky became the first horse for 35 years to win the English Triple Crown by finishing first in the Epsom Derby, 2,000 Guineas and St Leger.
• Mathematician Alan Baker won a Fields Medal.
• Trade union membership now accounts for nearly 50% of the workforce.

  Publications

• Agatha Christie's novel Passenger to Frankfurt.
• Len Deighton's 1943-set novel Bomber.
• Lawrence Durrell's novel Nunquam, second in The Revolt of Aphrodite pair.
• J. G. Farrell's novel Troubles.
• Germaine Greer's book The Female Eunuch.
• Ted Hughes' poetry collection Crow.
• Bernice Rubens' novel The Elected Member.
• Mary Wilson's Selected Poems.
• The complete New English Bible.
• The Ecologist magazine founded by Edward Goldsmith.

  Births

January – March

• 7 January – Andy Burnham, politician
• 8 January – Nick Miller, weather forecaster
• 19 January – Tim Foster, rower
• 20 January – Mitch Benn, comedian and songwriter
• 24 January – Maria Balshaw, art curator
• 31 January – Minnie Driver, actress
• 10 February – Rob Shearman, television and radio scriptwriter
• 14 February – Simon Pegg, comedian, writer and actor
• 25 February – Ian Walker, sailboat racer
• 1 March – Tina Cullen, field hockey player
• 2 March – James Purnell, politician

  April – June

• 27 April – Kylie Travis, actress and model
• 6 May – Chris Adams, cricketer
• 20 May – Louis Theroux, television personality and author
• 21 May – Jason Lee, field hockey player and coach
• 22 May – Naomi Campbell, model and actress
• 27 May – Joseph Fiennes, actor
• 19 June – MJ Hibbett, singer-songwriter
• 20 June – Russell Garcia, field hockey player
• 22 June – Christine Cook, field hockey player
• 24 June – David May, footballer
• 25 June – Lucy Benjamin, actress

  July – September

• 2 July – Steve Morrow, footballer
• 6 July – Martin Smith, singer and songwriter
• 7 July – Wayne McCullough, boxer
• 10 July
• * Jason Orange, singer
• * John Simm, actor
• 11 July – Saj Karim, politician
• 29 July – Andi Peters, television presenter and producer
• 30 July – Christopher Nolan, writer and director
• 31 July – Ben Chaplin, actor
• 13 August – Alan Shearer, footballer
• 27 August – Peter Ebdon, snooker player
• 18 September – Darren Gough, cricketer
• 29 September – Emily Lloyd, actress

  October – December

• 4 October
• * Jason Cousins, footballer
• * Richard Hancox, footballer
• 5 October – Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, SNP politician and Member of Parliament
• 8 October – Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London
• 10 October – Sir Matthew Pinsent, Olympic winning rower
• 11 October – Andy Marriott, footballer
• 7 November – Neil Hannon, chamber pop musician
• 12 November – Harvey Spencer Stephens, child actor
• 13 November – Verity Snook-Larby, race walker
• 22 November – Stel Pavlou, novelist and screenwriter
• 23 November – Zoe Ball, television and radio presenter
• 29 December – Aled Jones, singer and television presenter
• 31 December – Louise Rickard, Welsh rugby union player

  Undated

• Helen Cammock, artist

  Deaths

January – March

• 7 January – Allan Wilkie. English Shakespearean actor of Scottish descent noted for his career in Australia
• 13 January – Jimmy Hanley, actor
• 23 January – Ifan ab Owen Edwards, founder of the Urdd
• 26 January – Albert Evans-Jones, poet
• 29 January – Basil Liddell Hart, military historian
• 2 February – Bertrand Russell, logician and philosopher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature
• 14 February – Herbert Strudwick, cricketer
• 15 February – Hugh Dowding, commander of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain
• 28 February – Arthur Henry Knighton-Hammond, painter

  April – June

• 20 April – Thomas Iorwerth Ellis, academic
• 7 May – Jack Jones, novelist
• 17 May – Jeremy Browne, politician, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs
• 7 June – E. M. Forster, novelist
• 15 June – Robert Morrison MacIver, Scottish-born sociologist
• 27 June – Edwin La Dell, artist
• 30 June – Githa Sowerby, dramatist

  July – September

• 7 July – Allen Lane, publisher
• 20 July – Iain Macleod, politician
• 29 July – John Barbirolli, conductor
• 5 September – Jesse Pennington, footballer

  October – December

• 8 November – Alasdair Mackenzie, Liberal MP
• 13 November – Bessie Braddock, Labour MP
• 14 December – William Slim, Field Marshal
• 26 December
• * Lillian Board, Olympic athlete
• *Henry Montgomery Campbell, former Bishop of London
• 31 December – Cyril Scott, composer and writer