Events from the year 1967 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents Monarch – Elizabeth II Prime Minister – Harold Wilson (Labour)
Events
January 1 January – England's 1966 World Cup winning manager Alf Ramsey receives a knighthood and Captain Bobby Moore receives an OBE in the New Year Honours. 2 January – Veteran actor Charlie Chaplin opens his last film, A Countess From Hong Kong, in the UK. 3 January – The stop motion children's television series Trumpton, first of the Trumptonshire trilogy, is first shown, on BBC1. 4 January – Racing driver and motorboat racer Donald Campbell's final attempt to break his own speed record ends in his death in a crash on Coniston Water in the Lake District. 7 January–1 July – The 26-part television series The Forsyte Saga is first shown, on BBC2. 15 January – The United Kingdom enters the first round of negotiations for European Economic Community membership in Rome; on 16 January Italy announces support for the UK's application. 18 January – Jeremy Thorpe becomes Leader of the Liberal Party. 23 January – Milton Keynes, a village situated in northern Buckinghamshire, is formally designated as a new town by the government, incorporating nearby towns and villages including Bletchley and Newport Pagnell. Intended to accommodate the overspill population from London – some fifty miles away – it will become the United Kingdom's largest new town, with the area's population multiplying during the 1970s and 1980s. 26 January – Parliament decides to nationalise 90% of the British steel industry. 27 January – The UK, Soviet Union and United States sign the Outer Space Treaty. 29 January – Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association is founded in Belfast. January – The London-set film Blowup is released in the UK.
February 6 February – Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin arrives in the UK for an eight-day visit, meeting the Queen on 9 February. 7 February – The British National Front is founded by A. K. Chesterton (by an amalgamation of the British National Party and League of Empire Loyalists). 12 February – Police raid "Redlands", the Sussex home of Rolling Stones musician Keith Richards, following a tip-off from the News of the World. No immediate arrests were made, but Richards, fellow band member Mick Jagger and art dealer Robert Fraser are later charged with possession of drugs. 25 February – The United Kingdom's second Polaris nuclear submarine, HMS Renown, is launched at Birkenhead. 26 February – Non-league footballer Tony Allden dies after being struck by lightning on the pitch when playing for Birmingham-based side Highgate United in an FA Amateur Cup tie. Three others players are also struck but survive. 27 February – The Dutch government announces support for British EEC membership.
March 1 March – The Queen Elizabeth Hall is opened in London as a concert venue. 4 March The first North Sea gas is pumped ashore at Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire. Queens Park Rangers become the first Football League Third Division side to win the League Cup at Wembley Stadium defeating West Bromwich Albion 3–2. It is also the first year of a one-match final in the competition, the previous six finals having been two-legged affairs. 5 March – Journalist Polly Toynbee reveals the existence of the "Harry" letters that allege the secret funding of Amnesty International by the British government. 13 March – A student sit-in at the London School of Economics begins in protest at the suspension of a student. 15 March – Manny Shinwell, 82, resigns as Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party. 18 March – Torrey Canyon oil spill: The supertanker runs aground between Land's End and the Scilly Isles. 29–30 March – RAF and Fleet Air Arm planes bomb the grounded Torrey Canyon and sink it. 29 March – Alan Ayckbourn's first major success, Relatively Speaking, has its West End opening at the Duke of York's Theatre with Richard Briers, Michael Hordern and Celia Johnson. 31 March – At the Astoria Theatre, Finsbury Park, London, Jimi Hendrix sets fire to his guitar on stage for the first time. He is taken to hospital suffering burns to his hands.
April 2 April – A United Nations delegation arrives in the State of Aden because of its approaching independence. They leave five days later, accusing British authorities of a lack of cooperation. The British say the delegation did not contact them. 3 April – Anguillan-born Norwell Roberts becomes the first black officer in London's Metropolitan Police. 8 April 1967 Grand National is won by 100-1 outsider Foinavon. "Puppet on a String", performed barefoot by Sandie Shaw (music and lyrics by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter), wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1967 for the UK in Vienna, becoming the first English-language song to win the contest. 11 April – Tom Stoppard's tragicomedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead receives its Old Vic premiere in London. 13 April Conservatives win the Greater London Council elections. Casino Royale, the first of two unofficial James Bond films not produced by Eon Productions, is released. A parody, it is the only film to star David Niven as James Bond.
May 2 May – Harold Wilson announces that the United Kingdom has decided to apply for EEC membership 5 May The British-designed satellite Ariel 3, the first to be developed outside the Soviet Union or United States, is launched from the US. The first motorway project of the year is completed when the elevated motorway section of the A57 road is officially opened (by Prime Minister Harold Wilson) to form a bypass around the south of Manchester city area. The M1 is also being expanded this month from both termini, meaning that there will now be an unbroken motorway link between North London and South Yorkshire. 6 May – Manchester United win the Football League First Division title. 9 May – Peter Nichols' play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg premieres at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow. 11 May – The United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland officially apply for European Economic Community membership. 12 May – The Poet Laureate John Masefield dies aged 88 at his home in Abingdon, Berkshire. 14 May – The Roman Catholic Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King is consecrated. 20 May – In the first all-London FA Cup final, Tottenham Hotspur defeat Chelsea 2–1 at Wembley Stadium.FA Cup Final 1967 24 May – The Royal Navy frigate is launched at Portsmouth Dockyard, the last ship to be built there. 25 May Celtic F.C. become the first British and Northern European team to reach a European Cup final and also to win it, beating Inter Milan 2–1 in normal time with the winning goal being scored by Steve Chalmers in Lisbon, Portugal. Shadow Cabinet Conservative MP Enoch Powell describes the United Kingdom as the "sick man of Europe" in his latest verbal attack on the Labour government. 26 May – The Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is rush released in the UK as mono and stereo LPs ahead of the scheduled June 1 release date. "The closest Western Civilization has come to unity since the Congress of Vienna in 1815 was the week the Sgt. Pepper album was released."Langdon Winner, Rolling Stone. 28 May – Sir Francis Chichester arrives in Plymouth after completing his single-handed sailing voyage around the world in his yacht, Gipsy Moth IV, in nine months and one day. 29 May The first Spring Bank Holiday occurs on a fixed date of the last Monday in May, replacing the former Whitsun holiday in England and Wales. 'Barbeque 67', a music festival, at the Tulip Bulb Auction Hall, Spalding, features Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Pink Floyd and Zoot Money.
June 4 June – Stockport Air Disaster: British Midland flight G-ALHG crashes in Hopes Carr, Stockport, killing 72 passengers and crew. 5 June – The General Post Office introduces the Machin series of definitive stamps. The Arnold Machin design will be one of the most reproduced works of art in history with approximately 320 billion copies produced. 12 June – You Only Live Twice, the fifth main James Bond film, premieres in London. 27 June – The first automatic cash machine (voucher-based) is installed in the office of Barclays Bank in Enfield. 28 June Murder of Louisa Dunne: a 75-year-old woman is found murdered at her home in Bristol; no-one is charged with the crime until 2024. National Health Service (Family Planning) Act enables local health authorities to provide family planning advice more widely, including to the unmarried. 29 June – Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones is jailed for a year for possession of illegal drugs. His bandmate Mick Jagger is sentenced to three months for the same offence. On appeal, Richards' conviction is overturned and Jagger is given a conditional discharge.
July 1 July – The first scheduled colour television broadcasts from six transmitters covering the main population centres in England begin on BBC2 for certain programmes, the first being live coverage from the Wimbledon Championships. A full colour service (other than news programmes) begins on BBC2 on 2 December. 3 July – News at Ten premieres on ITV, airing for half an hour. 4 July – Parliament decriminalises private acts of consensual adult male homosexuality in England and Wales with the Sexual Offences Act. 7 July – In the last amateur Wimbledon tennis tournament, Australian John Newcombe beats German Wilhelm P. Bungert to win the Gentlemen's Singles championship. The next day, American Billie Jean King beats Briton Ann Haydon Jones to win the Ladies' Singles championship. 13 July – English road racing cyclist Tom Simpson dies of exhaustion on the slopes of Mont Ventoux during the 13th stage of the Tour de France. 16 July – A rally for legalisation of cannabis in the United Kingdom attracts over 5,000 peaceful demonstrators to Hyde Park, London. 18 July – The UK government announces the closing of British military bases in Malaysia and Singapore. 21 July – Criminal Law Act 1967 is passed, making major changes with effect from 1968. It formally repeals the Profane Oaths Act 1745 and decriminalises certain obsolete offences such as eavesdropping and being a common scold. 27 July – The Welsh Language Act allows the use of Welsh in legal proceedings and official documents in Wales. 28 July – The British steel industry is nationalised. July – Astronomers Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish become the first to observe a pulsar.
August 3 August – The inquiry into the Aberfan disaster blames the National Coal Board for the collapse of a colliery spoil tip which claimed the lives of 116 children and 28 adults in South Wales in October last year. 5 August – Pink Floyd release their debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. 8 August – Dunsop Valley enters the UK Weather Records with the Highest 90-min total rainfall at 117mm. As of August 2010, this record remains. 9 August – Playwright Joe Orton is battered to death by his lover Kenneth Halliwell (who then commits suicide) at their North London home.Determined on 4 September by an inquest. 14 August – The Marine Broadcasting Offences Act 1967 declares participation in offshore pirate radio in the United Kingdom illegal. Wonderful Radio London shuts down at 3:00 PM in anticipation of the Act. Many fans greet the staff upon their return to London that evening with placards reading "Freedom died with Radio London". 17 August – Jimmy Hill, manager of the Coventry City team who have been promoted to the Football League First Division for the first time in their history, announces that he is leaving management to concentrate on a television career. 27 August – The Beatles manager Brian Epstein dies of an accidental overdose in London. 28 August The first Late Summer Holiday occurs on a fixed date of the last Monday in August, replacing the former August Bank Holiday on the first Monday in England and Wales. Herbert Bowden is appointed chairman of the Independent Television Authority.