Prime Date Politics Economy Social Foreign
Minister
1951 General election Festival of Britain
Bevanite quarrel Emergence of Teddy Boys
Manifesto promising to build
300,000 houses a year
Churchill 1952 Equal pay for teachers ‘Cathy come home’ Start of Mau-Mau rebellion in
Kenya
1953 Churchill suffers major stroke Korean War finishes
1954 Equal pay for civil servants End of rationing
Britain’s first nuclear test
1955 Eden becomes PM Tax and interest cuts by Butler Launch of ITV
General election Teddy boys replaced by Rockers
Atlee resigns as Labour leader and Mods
Eden 1956 Britain pulls out from Aswan Dam Suez crisis Beginning of ‘angry young men’ USA threatens to deprive Britain
Clean Air Act of oil if it doesn’t withdraw from
Housing and Factory Act Suez
Frank Cousins becomes leader of
TGWU
1957 Macmillan becomes PM Balance of payment crisis EEC formed by Treaty of Rome
Homicide Act (restricting death Independance to Ghana
penalty)
Crisis and divisions in the gov
Britain’s H bomb tested
1958 Formation of Campaign for Nuclear March in Aldermaston UK-US mutual defence treaty
Disarmament ‘Nigger hunts’ in Nottingham and
Notting Hill
‘A Taste of honey’
1959 General election Tax and interest cuts by Butler March in Aldermaston Formation of European Free
High inflation Thandomile disaster begins Trade Association
Macmillan
1960 Labour Scarborough conference – Boys no longer have to take part in ‘Winds of change’ speech
Gaitskell's emotional speech National Service Independence to Nigeria and
Failure of Blue Streak Missile Hugh Green becomes Director- Cyprus
programme General of BBC
Death of Bevan
1961 Introduction of ‘pay-pause’ Magazine ‘Private Eye’ established EEC application
, Loan from International South Africa leaves
Monetary Fund Commonwealth
National Economic Development
Council set up
1962 ‘The Night of the Long Knives’ National Incomes Commission set ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ Cuban Missile Crisis
Commonwealth Immigration Act up Thandomile disaster stops
‘Silent Spring’
1963 Home becomes PM Taxes and interests lowered Second wave feminism (‘The Britain’s EEC application rejected
Profumo Affair Feminine Mistique’) Independence to Kenya
Introduction of elections for Cons Partial Test Ban Treaty with the
Home leadership USA
Beeching report (railway cuts)
Death of Gaitskell; Wilson elected
as Labour leader
General election
1964 Wilson becomes PM BP deficit 800 million Fighting between Rockers and Vietnam War escalation
Frank Cousins – Minister of Department of Economic Affairs Mods on Brighton beach Independence to Zambia and
technology launched with Brown BBC2 launched Malawi
End of prescription charges IMF loan 1 billion ‘Pirate station’ Radio Caroline
National Plan -> Ministry of launched
Technology; co-operation The Sun launched
between gov, employers and Britannia Airways founded
trade unions Notting Hill Carnival becomes
annual
1965 Circular 10/65 requesting Local National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Southern Rhodesia declaration of
Educational Authorities to convert Association by Mary Whitehouse Independence
to comprehensive schools by Tonny
Crossland
Race Relations Act and Race
Relations Board
1966 General election Prices and incomes policies Society for the Protection of the EEC application
Strike by National Union of Seamen Sterling crisis Unborn Child Wilson-Smith talks (Southern
Rhodesia)
1967 Majority verdicts instead of Devaluation crisis BBC2 first to show colour War in the Middle East
unanimity Department of Economic Affairs programmes EEC application vetoed by de
The Abortion Act and National Plan abandoned Radio One launched Gaulle
Sexual Offences Act ‘Here We Go Round the Mulberry Timetable for withdrawal from
Bush’ east of Suez
Minister
1951 General election Festival of Britain
Bevanite quarrel Emergence of Teddy Boys
Manifesto promising to build
300,000 houses a year
Churchill 1952 Equal pay for teachers ‘Cathy come home’ Start of Mau-Mau rebellion in
Kenya
1953 Churchill suffers major stroke Korean War finishes
1954 Equal pay for civil servants End of rationing
Britain’s first nuclear test
1955 Eden becomes PM Tax and interest cuts by Butler Launch of ITV
General election Teddy boys replaced by Rockers
Atlee resigns as Labour leader and Mods
Eden 1956 Britain pulls out from Aswan Dam Suez crisis Beginning of ‘angry young men’ USA threatens to deprive Britain
Clean Air Act of oil if it doesn’t withdraw from
Housing and Factory Act Suez
Frank Cousins becomes leader of
TGWU
1957 Macmillan becomes PM Balance of payment crisis EEC formed by Treaty of Rome
Homicide Act (restricting death Independance to Ghana
penalty)
Crisis and divisions in the gov
Britain’s H bomb tested
1958 Formation of Campaign for Nuclear March in Aldermaston UK-US mutual defence treaty
Disarmament ‘Nigger hunts’ in Nottingham and
Notting Hill
‘A Taste of honey’
1959 General election Tax and interest cuts by Butler March in Aldermaston Formation of European Free
High inflation Thandomile disaster begins Trade Association
Macmillan
1960 Labour Scarborough conference – Boys no longer have to take part in ‘Winds of change’ speech
Gaitskell's emotional speech National Service Independence to Nigeria and
Failure of Blue Streak Missile Hugh Green becomes Director- Cyprus
programme General of BBC
Death of Bevan
1961 Introduction of ‘pay-pause’ Magazine ‘Private Eye’ established EEC application
, Loan from International South Africa leaves
Monetary Fund Commonwealth
National Economic Development
Council set up
1962 ‘The Night of the Long Knives’ National Incomes Commission set ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ Cuban Missile Crisis
Commonwealth Immigration Act up Thandomile disaster stops
‘Silent Spring’
1963 Home becomes PM Taxes and interests lowered Second wave feminism (‘The Britain’s EEC application rejected
Profumo Affair Feminine Mistique’) Independence to Kenya
Introduction of elections for Cons Partial Test Ban Treaty with the
Home leadership USA
Beeching report (railway cuts)
Death of Gaitskell; Wilson elected
as Labour leader
General election
1964 Wilson becomes PM BP deficit 800 million Fighting between Rockers and Vietnam War escalation
Frank Cousins – Minister of Department of Economic Affairs Mods on Brighton beach Independence to Zambia and
technology launched with Brown BBC2 launched Malawi
End of prescription charges IMF loan 1 billion ‘Pirate station’ Radio Caroline
National Plan -> Ministry of launched
Technology; co-operation The Sun launched
between gov, employers and Britannia Airways founded
trade unions Notting Hill Carnival becomes
annual
1965 Circular 10/65 requesting Local National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Southern Rhodesia declaration of
Educational Authorities to convert Association by Mary Whitehouse Independence
to comprehensive schools by Tonny
Crossland
Race Relations Act and Race
Relations Board
1966 General election Prices and incomes policies Society for the Protection of the EEC application
Strike by National Union of Seamen Sterling crisis Unborn Child Wilson-Smith talks (Southern
Rhodesia)
1967 Majority verdicts instead of Devaluation crisis BBC2 first to show colour War in the Middle East
unanimity Department of Economic Affairs programmes EEC application vetoed by de
The Abortion Act and National Plan abandoned Radio One launched Gaulle
Sexual Offences Act ‘Here We Go Round the Mulberry Timetable for withdrawal from
Bush’ east of Suez
