1975 in the United Kingdom

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Image:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg 1975 in the United Kingdom: Image:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
Other years
1973 \| 1974 \| 1975 \| 1976 \| 1977
British and Irish current events
Sport and Music
1975 English cricket season
Football Image:Flag of England.svg England \| Image:Flag of Scotland.svg Scotland
1975 in British music

Events from the year 1975 in the United Kingdom.

1 Incumbents
2 Events
3 Births
4 Deaths
5 References

[edit] Incumbents

Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
Prime Minister - Harold Wilson, Labour Party

[edit] Events

January 14 - Seventeen-year-old heiress Lesley Whittle is kidnapped from her home near Bridgnorth in Shropshire. Her mother and brother have received a letter demanding a £50,000 ransom.^[1]
February 11 - Margaret Thatcher defeats Edward Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election.^[2]
February 26 - A fleeing IRA terrorist shoots and kills off-duty London police officer Stephen Tibble, 22, as he gives chase.^[3]
February 28 - A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London kills 43 people.^[4]
March 4 - Charlie Chaplin is knighted by the Queen. ^[5]
March 7 - The body of teenage heiress Lesley Whittle, who disappeared from her Shropshire home in January, is discovered in Staffordshire. She had been strangled on a ledge in drains below Bathpool Park near Kidsgrove.^[6]
March 25 - A large National Front rally in London protests against European integration. ^[7]
April - Carmaker Vauxhall launches the entry-level Chevette, a small three-door hatchback which has rear-wheel drive and from next year will also be available as a saloon and an estate.
April 13 - A 22-year-old woman is raped at her bedsit in Cambridge. Cambridgeshire Police believe that she is the sixth victim of a mystery rapist who has been operating across the city since October last year. [1]
April 26 - A conference of members of the Labour Party vote against continued membership of the EEC. ^[8]
May - Cambridgeshire Police arrest 47-year-old Peter Cook in connection with six rapes which have recently taken place in Cambridge. [2]
June 5 - 67% of voters support continued membership of the EEC in a referendum.^[9]
June 9 - Proceedings in Parliament televised for the first time. ^[10]
June 19 - Lord Lucan is found guilty in absentia of the murder of nanny Sandra Rivett.^[11]
August 19 - Headingley cricket ground vandalised by supporters of the armed robber George Davis campaigning for his release from prison. A scehduled test match between England and Australia due to take place there had to be abandoned. ^[12]
September 5 - The London Hilton hotel bombed by the IRA killing two people and injuring 63 others.^[13]
September 24 - Dougal Haston and Doug Scott become the first British people to climb Mount Everest. ^[14]
September 28–October 3 - The Spaghetti House siege, in which nine people were taken as hostages, takes place in London. ^[15]
October - Vauxhall announces its second new model launch of the year - the Cavalier, which replaces the Victor and is based on the German Opel Ascona, is a direct competitor for the big-selling Ford Cortina.
- - Peter Cook is sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of raping six women in Cambridge. [3]
October 9 - An IRA bomb explosion outside Green Park tube station near Piccadilly in London kills one and injures 20. ^[16]
October 10 - West Yorkshire Police launch a murder investigation after 28-year-old prostitute Wilma McCann is found dead in Leeds.
November 3 - The first petroleum pipeline in the UK is formally opened by the Queen, running from Cruden Bay to Grangemouth in Scotland. ^[17]
November 27 - Ross McWhirter, the co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records, is shot dead by the Provisional Irish Republican Army for offering reward money to informers.^[18]
November 29 - Former racing driver Graham Hill, 46, dies in an air crash in Hertfordshire. [4]
December 6–December 12 - Balcombe Street Siege: IRA members on the run from police break into a London flat taking the residents hostage. The siege ended after six days with the gunmen giving themselves up to the police. ^[19]^[20]
December 11 - British and Icelandic ships clash marking the beginning of the third Cod War. ^[21]
December 29 - two new laws, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Equal Pay Act 1970, came into force aiming to end unequal pay of men and women in the workplace. ^[22]