6 February – the British and French governments agree a deal for the construction of a Channel Tunnel. The twin-tunneled rail link is expected to take five years to build.[4]
11 February – Southampton is granted city status, the first such designation of the current reign.[5]
10 March – the Queen gives birth to her fourth child and third son, whose name is registered on 20 April as Edward.
19 March
Power dispute talks break down and it is feared that supply disruptions will follow industrial action.[6]
The government announces plans to build three new towns in South East England to act as overspill for overpopulated London.[7] One of these is centred on the village of Milton Keynes in north Buckinghamshire.[8]
26 March – verdicts are passed on ten men for their role in the Great Train Robbery after one of the longest criminal trials and longest jury retirals in English legal history.
10 April – Runcorn, a small town in north Cheshire, is designated as a new town by Alec Douglas-Home's government. Extensive house building and industrial and commercial developments are predicted to inflate the town's population to around 70,000 by 1981.[13]
20 April – the scheduled opening night of BBC Two, the UK's third television channel, is disrupted by power cuts in London, and all that can be screened is announcer Gerald Priestland delivering apologies from Alexandra Palace. On the same day, the BBC Television Service is renamed BBC One.[16]
21 April – BBC Two begins scheduled broadcasting; its first programme is Play School.[9]
29 April – all schools in Aberdeen are closed following 136 cases of typhoid being reported.
1 May – Princess Margaret gives birth to a baby girl.
29 May – official opening of the UK's first undercover shopping centre, at the Bull Ring, Birmingham.[21]
17 June – a missing persons investigation is launched in Fallowfield, Manchester, as police search for 12-year-old Keith Bennett, who was last seen on his way to his grandmother's house yesterday evening; he is a victim of the Moors murders.
10 July – more than 300 people are injured in Liverpool when a crowd of some 150,000 people welcome the Beatles back to their home city.
15 July – the Post Office Tower in London is completed, although it does not begin operation until October 1965.[11]
27 July – former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill is present in the House of Commons for the last time at the age of 89, having been an MP for 63 of the last 65 years; the following day he receives a Parliamentary resolution recording his service to the House and nation and marking his retirement.[25]
21 September – Malta obtains independence from the UK.[23]
29 September – announcement that American car manufacturer Chrysler is taking a substantial share in the British Rootes Group combine, which includes the Hillman, Singer and Sunbeam marques.[27]
October – Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (the first British woman to win a Nobel) "for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances".[28]
10–24 October – Great Britain competes at the Olympics in Tokyo and wins 4 gold, 12 silver and 2 bronze medals.
15 October – 1964 United Kingdom general election. The Labour Party defeats the Conservatives and Harold Wilson becomes Prime Minister, having gained a majority of five seats. The election result spells the end of 13 years of Conservative government, although the Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home had entered office only 12 months ago. A surprise casualty as MP is Patrick Gordon Walker who was widely expected to become the Foreign Secretary in a future Labour government, but who loses his Smethwick seat to the Conservatives following a controversial racially motivated campaign by the opposing party's supporters.[29]
24 October – Northern Rhodesia, a former British protectorate, becomes the independent Republic of Zambia, ending 73 years of British rule.[23]
2 November – ITV soap opera Crossroads airs for the first time.[9]
9 November – House of Commons votes to abolish the death penalty for murder in Britain. The last execution took place in August and the death penalty is set to be officially abolished before the end of next year, with the number of executions having gradually fallen during the last decade.
27 November – power unions announce that they will start balloting for a strike.[30]
30 November – power dispute settled and strike action called off.[31]
16 December – Government, Trades Union Congress and employers produce a joint Statement of Intent on Productivity, Prices and Incomes.
21 December – MPs vote 355 to 170 for the abolition of the death penalty, with the abolition likely to be confirmed before the end of next year. The death penalty has gradually fallen out of use over the last twenty years, with the two most recent executions having taken place in August this year.
24 December – The Beatles gain the Christmas number one for the second year running with "I Feel Fine", which has topped the singles charts for the third week running. The Beatles have now had six number one singles in the United Kingdom alone.[33]
26 December – police launch a missing persons investigation after ten-year-old Lesley Ann Downey goes missing from a fairground near her home in Ancoats, Manchester; she is a victim of the Moors murders.
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^"Announcement of the christening of Lady Louise Windsor". The British Monarchy. 8 April 2004. Archived from the original on 31 December 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
^Banham, Martin (1995). The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge University Press. p. 827. ISBN 978-0-521-43437-9.
^"Both Sides To Blame in Power Dispute "Bury Past, Build For Future" Report Says". The Times. 16 May 1964. p. 5, col.A.
^"Radio Sutch & City in Pictures & Audio Part 1". Bob Le-Roi. 31 March 2010. Archived from the original on 20 May 2013. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
^Kennedy, Liam, ed. (2004). Remaking Birmingham: The Visual Culture of Urban Regeneration. Routledge Ltd. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-0-415-28839-2.
^"Special events in the development of women's equality". Catherine of Siena Virtual College. Archived from the original on 19 March 2012. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
^ abcThe Hutchinson Factfinder. Helicon. 1999. p. 502. ISBN 978-1-85986-000-7.
^Soames, Mary (1998). Speaking for Themselves: The Personal Letters of Winston and Clementine Churchill. London: Doubleday. p. 647. ISBN 978-03-85406-91-8.
^"Last executions in the UK". Stephen-stratford.com. Archived from the original on 9 September 2010. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
^Bullock, John (1993). The Rootes Brothers: story of a motoring empire. Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 228. ISBN 978-1-85260-454-7.
^"The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1964". Archived from the original on 10 October 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2008.
^"1964 General election results summary". UK Political Info. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
^"Power Dispute Talks Fail Strike Threat Draws Near, Union Ballot To Start On Monday". The Times. 28 November 1964. p. 8, col.C.
^"Power Stations Overtime Ban Called Off – Payments Claim Settled". The Times. 1 December 1964. p. 10, col.C.
^"1964: Beeching to leave British Railways". BBC News. 23 December 1964. Archived from the original on 18 December 2007. Retrieved 10 January 2008.
^"The Beatles U.K. Singles Chart Number Ones". JPGR. 2009. Archived from the original on 25 July 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
^"Our history". Hanson. Archived from the original on 28 September 2010. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
^Jack Galusha, "Daihatsu Sirion 1.0 S", Autocar, archived from the original on 3 April 2012, retrieved 13 April 2013
^Lambert, Tim. "Britain Since 1948". Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
^Editors of Chase's (24 September 2019). Chase's Calendar of Events 2020: The Ultimate Go-to Guide for Special Days, Weeks and Months. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-64143-316-7.
^Salewicz, Chris. "Diane Charlemagne: Vocalist who rose to fame with Urban Cookie Collective before helping Goldie to change the face of drum'n'bass". The Independent. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
^"Diane Holl". The Henry Ford. pp. 1–2. Archived from the original on 10 July 2020. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
^G. L. Hough (1989). Chambers Dates. Chambers. p. 123. ISBN 978-0-550-11831-8.
^Upshall, Emma (22 November 2019). "Costa Coffee appoints Jill McDonald as new CEO". FoodBev Media. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
^Katie Shimmon (17 May 2005), "College days [Ben Daniels]", The Guardian (EducationGuardian)
^"Paul McStay". Scottish FA. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
^Patricia Romanowski Bashe; Patricia Romanowski; Holly George-Warren; Jon Pareles (1995). The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll. Fireside. p. 1981. ISBN 978-0-684-81044-7.
^Clark Layman Bruccoli; Gale Cengage (1996). British Children's Writers, 1914-1960. Gale Research. p. 314. ISBN 978-0-8103-9355-4.
^Asian Folklore Studies. Nanzan University Institute of Anthropology. 1964. p. 212.