Events from the year 1969 in the United Kingdom. The year is dominated by the beginnings of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Incumbents Monarch – Elizabeth II Prime Minister – Harold Wilson (Labour)
Events
January January – The Space hopper toy is introduced to the United Kingdom. 2 January People's Democracy begins a march from Belfast to Derry City, Northern Ireland to gain publicity and to promote its cause. Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch purchases the best-selling UK Sunday newspaper The News of the World. 4 January – Guitarist Jimi Hendrix causes complaints of arrogance from television producers after playing an impromptu version of "Sunshine Of Your Love" past his allotted timeslot on the BBC1 programme Happening for Lulu. 5 January – Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to Gatwick Airport, killing 50 of the 62 people on board and two of the home's occupants. 10 January – Protesters in Northern Ireland defy police orders to abandon a planned march. 14 January – Sir Matt Busby, hugely successful manager of Manchester United F.C. for the last twenty-four years, announces his retirement as manager. He will become a director at the end of the season, and hand over first-team duties to current first team trainer and former player Wilf McGuinness. 17 January – Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity Barbara Castle publishes a White Paper In Place of Strife proposing powers of intervention in advance of industrial action. This proves unacceptable to the Trades Union Congress. 18 January – Pete Best wins his defamation lawsuit against The Beatles. He had originally sought $8,000,000 but is awarded considerably less. 24 January Violent protests by students about the installation of steel security gates close the London School of Economics, which does not reopen for three weeks. Launch of the Ford Capri, a four-seater sporting coupe designed to compete with the likes of the MG B and which Ford expects to become a top 10 seller in the United Kingdom. 27 January London School of Economics students occupy the University of London Union building in Malet Street in protest at the temporary closure of the LSE. Reverend Ian Paisley, the hard line Protestant leader in Northern Ireland, is jailed for three months for illegal assembly. 30 January – The Beatles' rooftop concert: The Beatles perform together in public for the final time, on the rooftop of Apple Records in London; the impromptu concert is broken up by the police.
February 18 February – Pop star Lulu, 20, marries Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees at St James Church, Gerrards Cross.
March 4 March – The Kray twins are both found guilty of murder: Ronnie of murdering George Cornell; Reggie of murdering Jack "the Hat" McVitie. On 5 March, they are sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum of thirty years by Mr Justice Melford Stevenson. 5 March – The first B&Q DIY superstore is set up in Southampton by Richard Block and David Quayle. 7 March – The London Underground Victoria line is opened by The Queen. 12 March – Paul McCartney marries Linda Eastman at Marylebone register office in London. 17 March – The Longhope life-boat from Orkney is lost; all eight crew members on board perish. 19 March British paratroopers and Marines land on the island of Anguilla, ending its unrecognized independence. The 385-metre tall Emley Moor transmitting station television mast in West Yorkshire collapses because of ice. 20 March – John Lennon marries Japanese artist Yoko Ono in Gibraltar. 27 March – First ordination of a woman in the Church of Scotland takes place, that of Catherine McConnachie by the Presbytery of Aberdeen. 29 March – Lulu, representing the UK with the song "Boom Bang-a-Bang", shares first place in the Eurovision Song Contest in a four-way tie with France, the Netherlands and the host country, Spain.
April April – The Raleigh Chopper children's wheelie bike is launched. 1 April – The Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.1 V/STOL "jump jet" fighter enters service with the Royal Air Force. 9 April The British prototype Concorde airliner makes its first flight, from Bristol Filton Airport (the first French flight was on 2 March). Sikh busmen in Wolverhampton win the right to wear their turbans whilst on duty. 15 April - Roy Jenkins, Chancellor of the Exchequer, ends tax relief on loan interest except for business loans and home loans. 17 April Representation of the People Act lowers the voting age from 21 to 18 with effect from February 1970. It also permits candidates to have a party label included on the ballot paper; removes the right (theoretically restored in 1967) of convicted prisoners to vote in Parliamentary elections; and in local government elections abolishes plural voting by owners of business premises (except in the City of London). Bernadette Devlin wins the Mid Ulster by-election and becomes the youngest female MP (until 2015) at 21 years old. 20 April – British troops arrive in Northern Ireland to reinforce the Royal Ulster Constabulary. 22 April – Robin Knox-Johnston becomes the first person to make a solo non-stop global circumnavigation under sail, returning to Falmouth, Cornwall. 24 April British Leyland Motor Corporation launches the United Kingdom's first production hatchback car, the Austin Maxi, designed to compete with family saloons like the Ford Cortina and following a new European design concept started in 1965 by French carmaker Renault's R16 range.AROnline . The final episode of the long-running BBC Radio serial drama Mrs Dale's Diary is broadcast. 26 April – Manchester City F.C. win the FA Cup with a 1-0 win over Leicester City in the Wembley final. 28 April – Leeds United win the Football League First Division title for the first time in their history.
May 2 May – Ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs from Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York. 22 May – Chichester by-election, Christopher Chataway, who had lost his previous seat in the 1966 election, holds the seat for the Conservative Party. 23 May – The Who release the concept album Tommy. (On 14 December they perform it as a rock opera on stage at the London Coliseum.) 29 May – Carry On Camping is released, becoming the year's most popular film at the UK box office.
June 7 June – Rock supergroup Blind Faith plays its first gig in front of 100,000 people in London's Hyde Park. 14 June – The black horse Burmese, ridden by the Queen, makes her first appearance at Trooping the Colour; the horse will continue in this role until 1986. 21 June The showing of television documentary The Royal Family, attracted more than 30,600,000 viewers, more than half of the entire UK population at the time, an all-time British record for a non-current event programme. Patrick Troughton makes his final appearance as the Second Doctor in Doctor Who in the final episode of The War Games which is also the last episode to be recorded in black and white. 24 June – After the 1969 Rhodesian constitutional referendum votes in favour of becoming a Republic, the Governor of Southern Rhodesia Sir Humphrey Gibbs leaves Government House, severing Rhodesia's last diplomatic relationship with the United Kingdom. 30 June – Two members of the Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Movement for the Defence of Wales) are killed when a bomb they are planting outside government offices in Abergele in an attempt to disrupt the following day's events explodes prematurely.
July 1 July Prince Charles (the future Charles III), is invested as Prince of Wales at Caernarfon. John Lennon, Yoko Ono and their children are hospitalised at Golspie in Scotland following a car accident while on holiday. 3 July – Swansea is granted city status. 5 July – The Rolling Stones performs at the free festival The Stones in the Park outdoors in Hyde Park, London, in front of at least a quarter of a million fans, two days after the death of founder Brian Jones. 10 July – Donald Crowhurst's sailing trimaran Teignmouth Electron is found drifting and unoccupied in mid-Atlantic; it is presumed that Crowhurst committed suicide (or fell overboard) at sea earlier in the month, having falsified his progress in the solo Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. 12 July – Golfer Tony Jacklin wins The Open Championship, the first British player to do so since 1951. 20–21 July – BBC Television continues broadcasting overnight to provide coverage of the Apollo 11 Moon landing; Neil Armstrong's first steps on the surface take place at 03:56 British Summer Time on 21 July. Television coverage to Europe is transmitted via Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station in Cornwall. 23 July – BBC2 television first airs the Pot Black snooker tournament. 24 July – British lecturer Gerald Brooke is freed from a Soviet prison in exchange for the spies Morris and Lona Cohen. 25 July – The Family Law Reform Act 1969 receives royal assent and comes partly into effect in England and Wales. It reduces the age of majority from 21 to 18 (with effect from 1 January 1970); allows a bastard child to inherit on the intestacy of a parent; and allows competent 16- and 17-year-olds to consent to medical treatment.
August 1 August – The pre-decimal halfpenny ceases to be legal tender. 8 August – The Beatles at 11:30 have photographer Iain Macmillan take their photo on a zebra crossing on Abbey Road, London. 12 August – The Troubles: Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside, and four days of sectarian violence elsewhere in Northern Ireland. 13 August – The Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, Jack Lynch, makes a speech on Teilifís Éireann saying that his government "can no longer stand by" and requesting a United Nations peacekeeping force for Northern Ireland. 14 August – British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland to restore law and order. 30–31 August – The second Isle of Wight Festival attracts 150,000 pop music fans, paying £10 2s for a 3-day ticket, with the appearance of Bob Dylan a major draw.
September 11 September – The housing charity Shelter releases a report claiming that there are up to 3,000,000 people in need of rehousing due to poor living conditions. 16 September – Iconic 1960s fashion store Biba reopens on Kensington High Street. 21 September – Police evicts squatters of the London Street Commune from 144 Piccadilly. 26 September – The Beatles release their Abbey Road album which is an enormous commercial success and, although receiving mixed reviews at this time, comes to be viewed by many as the group's best. 28 September – The National Trust acquires ownership of the island of Lundy.
October 1 October – The Post Office becomes a statutory corporation. 5 October – The first episode of surreal sketch comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus is broadcast on BBC Television. 10 October – The Government accepts the recommendations of Lord Hunt's report on policing in Northern Ireland, including the abolition of the Ulster Special Constabulary. 13 October – An unofficial strike amongst British mineworkers begins, over the working hours of surface workers. 14 October The new seven-sided fifty pence coin is introduced as replacement for the ten-shilling note, to a mixed reception from the British public, with many people complaining that it is easily confused with the 10p coin. With a general election due within the next eighteen months, opinion polls show the Conservatives comfortably ahead of Labour, by up to 24 points. 16 October – Peter Nichols' black comedy The National Health is premiered by the National Theatre at the Old Vic in London. 21 October – Led Zeppelin release Led Zeppelin II to critical acclaim and commercial success. 27 October – A mass wildlife cull takes place in Surrey after 2 people are bitten by a rabid dog.
November