5 January – Closure of the Swansea and Mumbles Railway which opened to passengers in 1807 and by this date was operated by double-decker electric trams.[1]
3 February – Harold Macmillan makes the "Wind of Change" speech to the South African Parliament in Cape Town where it attracts attention. (It was drafted by David Hunt.) At home, it leads to formation of the Conservative Monday Club.[4]
The 18th century Naval dockyard at Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent is closed. A total of 2,500 jobs have gradually been shed at the site since its closure was first announced by the government in February 1958.[6]
8 April – The seven-week-old son of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh is christened Andrew Albert Christian Edward, he later becomes Prince Andrew, Duke of York.[11]
13 April – The cancellation of the Blue Streak missile as a military project.[12]
16 April – The Times of London abandons use of the term "Imperial and Foreign News", replacing it with "Overseas News" and changes its house style from "to-day" to "today".
21 July – Francis Chichester, English navigator and yachtsman, arrives in New York aboard Gypsy Moth III, having made a record solo Atlantic crossing in 40 days.
30 July – "Battle of Beaulieu": At a jazz festival at Beaulieu, Hampshire, fans of trad jazz come to blows with progressives.[24][25]
7 August – The Bluebell Railway in Sussex begins regular operations as the first standard gauge steam-operated passenger heritage railway in the world.[26]
Formal conclusion of agreement for the supply from the United States of Skybolt nuclear missiles (later abandoned) to equip Vulcan bombers in exchange for permitting establishment of a U.S. Navy base on Holy Loch in Scotland for Polaris-equipped nuclear ballistic missile submarines.[12]
30 September–4 December – Severe flooding occurs in the valley of the River Exe, surrounding areas of Devon, and elsewhere in southern England, following heavy rainfall.[29][30]
1 October – Nigeria gains its independence from the United Kingdom.[31]
7 October – The second notable flood occurs in Horncastle, Lincolnshire. The town enters the UK Weather Records with the highest 180-min total rainfall at 178 mm. As of October 2010, this record remains.
25 October – Barges collide with one of the columns of the Severn Railway Bridge in heavy fog, causing two spans of the twenty-two span steel and cast iron bridge to collapse. It is never repaired.
^ abcdefPenguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
^"La Fille mal gardée (1960)". Royal Opera House Collections On Line. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
^Simpson, Jane (2010). "La Fille mal Gardee". ballet.contexts. Archived from the original on 1 July 2010. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
^Messina, Anthony (1989). Race and Party Competition in Britain. Oxford University Press.
^Law, Denis; Harris, Bob (2003). The King. Bantam Press. ISBN 0-593-05140-8.
^"1958: Historic Sheerness docks to close". BBC News. 20 February 1958. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
^"Radio telescope makes space history". On This Day. BBC. 14 March 1960. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 11 February 2008.
^"Broadcasting of the Grand National". Aintree.co.uk. Archived from the original on 20 March 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
^"Chronology of Scottish History". A Timeline of Scottish History. Rampant Scotland. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
^Challoner, Jack, ed. (2009). 1001 Inventions That Changed the World. London: Cassell. pp. 676–7. ISBN 978-1-84403-611-0.
^"Announcement of the christening of Lady Louise Windsor". The official website of The British Monarchy. The Royal Household. 8 April 2004. Archived from the original on 31 December 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
^ abHorne, Alistair (1989). Macmillan 1957–1986. London: Macmillan. pp. 275–7. ISBN 0333496213.
^"Thousands protest against H-bomb". On This Day. BBC. 18 April 1960. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 11 February 2008.
^The Hutchinson Factfinder. Helicon. 1999. ISBN 1-85986-000-1.
^"Welsh pit blast kills 37 miners". On This Day. BBC. 28 June 1960. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 11 February 2008.
^ abcPalmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
^McKay, George (2005). "New Orleans jazz, protest (Aldermaston) and carnival (Beaulieu)". Circular Breathing: the Cultural Politics of Jazz in Britain. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-3560-3.
^"The day when traditional jazz caused a riot". The Observer. London. 29 July 2012. p. 6 (The New Review).
^Cole, T. C. (1970). Bluebell Railway – Steaming On!. Sheffield Park: Bluebell Railway.
^Brierley, John (1964). "Flooding in the Exe Valley, 1960". Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 28 (2): 151–170. doi:10.1680/iicep.1964.10110.[permanent dead link]
^Devon Flood Story 1960. Dawlish: David & Charles. 1960.
^"Lady Chatterley's Lover sold out". On This Day. BBC. 10 November 1960. Retrieved 11 February 2008.
^"The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1960". Retrieved 11 February 2008.
^The intended last day was 17 November. Vinen, Richard (2014). National Service: Conscription in Britain, 1945–1963. London: Allen Lane. p. 361. ISBN 978-1-846-14387-8.
^"A History of the Little Houses Improvement Scheme". National Trust for Scotland. Retrieved 12 October 2011.
^MyParliament - Biography for Margaret Ferrier[dead link]
^"OBE for broadcaster Jonathan Ross". BBC News. 10 June 2005. Retrieved 30 October 2008.
^Grasso, John (2011). Historical Dictionary of Tennis. Scarecrow Press. p. 85. ISBN 9780810872370.
^Roberts, Frank C. (1 January 1979). Obituaries from the Times, 1951–1960: Including an Index to All Obituaries and Tributes Appearing in the Times During the Years 1951–1960. Newspaper Archive Developments. ISBN 9780903713962 – via Google Books.