15 January – Sir Winston Churchill is reported to be seriously ill after suffering a stroke.
24 January – Sir Winston Churchill dies aged 90 at his home, 28 Hyde Park Gate in London.
30 January – Thousands attend Winston Churchill's state funeral in London. During the three days of lying-in-state, 321,000 people have filed past the catafalque in Westminster Hall, and the funeral procession travels from here to the service at St Paul's Cathedral, attended by Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Harold Wilson and representatives of 112 countries.[2] He is buried privately at Bladon near his family's ancestral home in Oxfordshire.
31 January – National Health Service prescription charges end.
1 February – The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh arrive in Ethiopia on a state visit.
6 February – Stanley Matthews plays his final First Division game, at the record age of 50 years and 5 days. He became the first footballer to be awarded a knighthood in the New Year's honours list.
12 February – Civil rights leader Malcolm X visits Smethwick in Birmingham, UK, following the racially charged 1964 general election campaign here.[4]
16 February – The British Railways Board (chairman: Richard Beeching) publishes The Development of the Major Trunk Routes proposing which lines should receive investment (and, by implication, which should not).[5]
18 February – The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.[6]
3 March – The remains of Roger Casement, from Pentonville Prison, are reburied in Dublin.
6 April – The Government publicly announces cancellation of the BAC TSR-2nuclear bomber aircraft project.[9] The prototype broke the sound barrier on 22 February.
23 April – The Pennine Way long-distance footpath officially opens.[6]
24 September – The British governor of Aden cancels the Aden constitution and takes direct control of the protectorate, due to the bad security situation.
7 October – Ian Brady, a 27-year-old stock clerk from Hyde in Cheshire, is charged with the murder of 17-year-old apprentice electrician Edward Evans at a house on the Hattersley overspill housing estate last night.
15 October – 150 police officers are drafted in to search Saddleworth Moor for the bodies of up to 11 missing people, mostly children or teenagers, who are believed to be buried there. The suspect in the murders is Ian Brady, charged with the murder of 17-year-old Edward Evans eight days ago. His 23-year-old girlfriend Myra Hindley has also since been charged with the murder, having been arrested on 11 October.[29]
20 October – It is reported in the regional and national media that suspected mass murderer Ian Brady tortured his victims and tape-recorded the attacks on them. Detectives in Brady's native Scotland are also reportedly investigating the disappearance of 12-year-old Moira Anderson in Lanarkshire eight years ago as a possible link to Brady.[31]
21 October – Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are charged with the murder of Lesley Ann Downey and remanded in custody.[32][33]
22 October – African countries demand that the United Kingdom use force to prevent Rhodesia from declaring unilateral independence.
Police find the decomposed body of a boy buried on Saddleworth Moor. The body is identified as that of 12-year-old John Kilbride, who disappeared from Ashton-under-Lyne in November 1963.
29 October – Moors murders: Ian Brady and Myra Hindley appear in court, charged with the murders of Edward Evans (17), Lesley Ann Downey (10), and John Kilbride (12) from Manchester.
31 October – The police search of Saddleworth Moor concludes after 16 days, although media reports suggest that police suspect that bodies may be buried there. Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are expected to be tried for three murders next Spring.
5 November – Martial law is announced in Rhodesia. The UN General Assembly accepts British intent to use force against Rhodesia if necessary by a vote of 82–9.
The Race Relations Act[3] makes it a civil offence to discriminate in serving people in "places of public resort" on the grounds of colour, race, ethnicity or nationality and creates the offence of "incitement to racial hatred" (Act does not apply in Northern Ireland).
A new Rent Act introduces regulated tenancies with fair rents set by independent regional assessors and protection from eviction without a court order.
30 December – President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia announces that Zambia and the United Kingdom have agreed to a deadline before which the Rhodesian white minority-rule government should be ousted.
The motorway network continues to expand with the Preston-Lancaster section of the M6 opening in January, the M4 being expanded from Slough to London in March, a motorway section of the A1 opening in County Durham in May, the M1 being expanded from Rugby to Kegworth (Leicestershire) in November, along with a four-mile stretch of the M5 west of Birmingham, as well as the first phase of motorway in Scotland with the M8 as well as the expansion of the M2 through Kent.[43]
German carmaker Audi begins importing cars to Britain, with its F103 range of family saloon cars.[44]
Toyota, the Japanese industrial giant, begins importing passenger cars to the United Kingdom when its Corona family saloon – similar in size to the Ford Cortina – is launched.[45]
The first hatchback production car, the French built Renault 16, goes on sale in Britain.[46]
^"1965: Krays in custody over menace charge". BBC News. 7 January 1965. Archived from the original on 26 December 2007. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
^"Last farewell to Churchill". BBC News. 30 January 1965. Archived from the original on 3 January 2008. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
^ abcdPalmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 423–424. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
^"Malcolm X's visit to Smethwick". BBC. 12 February 2015.
^"Beeching plans for 'bloated' railways". BBC News. 16 February 1965. Archived from the original on 18 February 2008. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
^ abcdefghijPenguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
^"Goldie the eagle evades capture again". BBC News. 7 March 1965. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
^"Peter Boizot". PizzaExpress. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
^Burke, Damien (2010). TSR2: Britain's Lost Bomber. Ramsbury: Crowood. ISBN 978-1-84797-211-8.
^Scott-Elliot, Robin (19 February 2010). "Old Trafford Centenary: 10 games that define 'Theatre of Dreams'". The Independent. London. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
^"FA Cup Final 1965". Archived from the original on 6 October 2007. Retrieved 6 October 2007.
^"Founding Principles". Our History. Asda. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
^Hancock, Ciaran (13 November 2005). "Ireland Asda on the hunt for retail sites in Donegal and Louth". The Times. London. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
^"1965: Huge Rhodesia election win for Smith". BBC News. 7 May 1965. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
^"2M. Appeal To Save Coastline". The Times. No. 56264. London. 8 March 1965. p. 12.
^"National Trust Neptune Coastline Campaign: The Story So Far". National Trust. Archived from the original on 31 December 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
^"Trust Buys Gower Coast Estate". The Times. No. 56208. 1 January 1965. p. 5.
^Moffitt, Dominic (15 August 2021). "The untold story of Preston having the UK's first KFC restaurant". LancsLive. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
^Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. p. 10. ISBN 0-517-57066-1.
^"Comedy Fulfilment of New Writer". The Times. No. 56351. 18 June 1965. p. 15.
^"1965: Drink-drive limit to be introduced". BBC News. 18 June 1965. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
^"Ronald Biggs escapes from jail". BBC News. 8 July 1965. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
^Marr, Andrew (2007). A History of Modern Britain. London: Macmillan. p. 248. ISBN 978-1-4050-0538-8.
^"Sir Alec steps down from top of Tory tree". BBC News. 22 July 1965. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
^"Heath is new Tory leader". BBC News. 27 July 1965. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
^The History Today Companion to British History. London: Collins & Brown. 1995. p. 638. ISBN 1-85585-178-4.
^"1965". Those were the days. Express & Star. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
^"Ian Brady: Lancashire police officer who found the first body on the Moors speaks about his involvement in the cases that shocked the nation". www.lep.co.uk. 16 May 2017.
^"Police Hunt Victims of Mass Killer". The Miami News. 17 October 1965. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
^"2 Charged on Murder of Girl, 10". Evening Independent. St. Petersburg, Florida. 21 October 1965. p. 18. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
^Reporters, Telegraph (16 May 2017). "'I want to see mummy': Ian Brady's chilling audio tape recording of 10-year-old victim's last moments". The Daily Telegraph.
^Ford, David N. (1994). Schlager, Neil (ed.). When Technology Fails: significant technological disasters, accidents, and failures of the twentieth century. Gale Research. pp. 267–270. ISBN 0-8103-8908-8.
^"Rhodesia breaks from UK". BBC News. 11 November 1965. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
^"Mining & The Forest of Dean". Local Heritage Initiative. Forest of Dean Local History Society. 2006. Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
^"Live: Capitol Cinema, Cardiff". The Beatles Bible. 12 December 1965. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
^"Sea Gem oil rig collapses". BBC News. 27 December 1965. Archived from the original on 30 December 2007. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
^"The 60s Mini Skirt Fashion History – Mary Quant". Retrieved 23 June 2010.
^Horton, Ros; Simmons, Sally (2007). Women Who Changed the World. ISBN 9781847240262. Retrieved 23 June 2010.
^Miles, Barry (2009). The British Invasion: the Music, the Times, the Era. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN 9781402769764. Retrieved 23 June 2010.
^"Renault 16 (1965–1979)". Honest John. 19 October 2013. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
^Walker, Peter; Syal, Rajeev (28 September 2020). "Labour suspends MP Claudia Webbe over harassment charge" – via www.theguardian.com.
^"Lennie James". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
^Dale, Iain; Smith, Jacqui (4 September 2018). The Honourable Ladies: Volume I: Profiles of Women MPs 1918–1996. Biteback Publishing. p. 128. ISBN 978-1-78590-449-3.
^Campbell, Margaret (1978). "Farjeon, Eleanor". In Kirkpatrick, D.L. (ed.). Twentieth-century Children's Writers. London: Macmillan. p. 426. ISBN 978-0-33323-414-3.