1953 in the United Kingdom

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1953 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1951 | 1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955

Sport and Music

British and Irish current events

1955 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

1953 in British music

Events from the year 1953 in the United Kingdom.

[edit] Incumbents

• Monarch - Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
• Prime Minister - Winston Churchill Conservative Party

[edit] Events

• 28 January - Derek Bentley is executed at Wandsworth Prison in London for his part in the murder of PC Sidney Miles.^[1]
• 31 January - The car ferry, MV Princess Victoria sailing from Stranraer, Scotland to Larne, Northern Ireland, sinks in the Irish Sea killing 133 people onboard. Among the dead included Northern Ireland Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Major Maynard Sinclair, and Sir Walter Smiles, the Ulster Unionist MP for North Down.^[2]
• 31 January/1 February - The North Sea flood of 1953 kills hundreds of people on the east coast of Britain.^[3]
• 5 February - The rationing of sweets, introduced during World War II, ends.^[4]
• 28 February - James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce that they have discovered the structure of the DNA molecule.
• 6 March - Tommy Taylor, 21-year-old centre forward, becomes Britain's most expensive footballer in a £29,999 transfer from Barnsley to Manchester United.
• 16 March - Josip Tito, the Communist leader of Yugoslavia visits the UK, the first Communist leader to do so.^[5]
• 24 March
  • Queen Mary, the consort of the late King George V dies in her sleep at Marlborough House.^[6]
  • The 10 Rillington Place murders are uncovered.^[7]
• 31 March - The funeral of Queen Mary takes place at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.^[8]
• 13 April - Ian Fleming publishes his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale.^[9]
• 15 April - Britain awards the George Medal to 22-year-old American airman Reis Leming who rescued 27 people in last winter's floods in East Anglia.^[10]
• 16 April - The Queen launches the Royal Yacht Britannia at the John Brown & Company shipbuilders on the Clyde.^[11]
• 24 April - Winston Churchill receives a knighthood from the Queen.^[7]
• 25 April - Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish their description of the double helix structure of DNA in the paper Molecular structure of Nucleic Acids.^[12][13]
• 2 June - The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II takes place at Westminster Abbey.^[14]
• 25 June - John Christie, a 54-year-old London man, is sentenced to death for the murder of his wife Ethel Christie. A total of eight bodies were found at Christie's home, 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill, including those of the wife and daughter of Timothy Evans who was hanged in 1950 for their murder.^[15]
• 26 June - Eskdalemuir enters the UK Weather Records for the highest rainfall in a 30 minute period with 80mm. As of July 2006 this record remains.
• 15 July - John Christie is hanged at Pentonville Prison, where a crowd of some 200 people stand to wait for the notice of execution to be posted.^[15]
• 19 August - the England cricket team defeat Australia to win The Ashes for the first time in 19 years.^[7]
• 26 September - End of post-War sugar rationing.^[16]
• 6 October - Government sends troops to the colony of British Guiana blaming communists for causing unrest.^[17]
• 11 November - Long running current affairs television series Panorama first airs.^[7]
• 17 November - An Italian steamer collides with a French motor vessel in the English Channel, killing 20 people.^[18]
• 21 November - The Piltdown Man, which was discovered in 1912 and thought to be the fossilised remains of a hitherto unknown form of early human, exposed as a hoax.^[7]
• 26 November - The House of Lords votes in favour of the government's proposals for commercial television.^[19]
• 10 December
  • Winston Churchill wins the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values".^[20]
  • Hans Adolf Krebs wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his discovery of the citric acid cycle".^[21]

[edit] Undated

• Michael Ventris deciphers the Minoan language Linear B.^[22]

[edit] Publications

• Agatha Christie's novels After the Funeral (Hercule Poirot) and A Pocket Full of Rye (Miss Marple).
• Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, Casino Royale.
• L. P. Hartley's novel The Go-Between.
• C. S. Lewis' novel The Silver Chair.
• Evelyn Waugh's novel Love Among the Ruins. A Romance of the Near Future.
• John Wyndham's novel The Kraken Wakes.

[edit] Births

• 17 February - Norman Pace, British actor and comedian
• 11 April - Andrew Wiles, mathematician known for proving Fermat's Last Theorem
• 13 April - Stephen Byers, politician
• 20 April - Sebastian Faulks, English novelist
• 6 May - Tony Blair, Prime Minister
• 15 May - Mike Oldfield, musician
• 19 May - Victoria Wood, British comic actress
• 24 May - Alfred Molina, English actor
• 26 May - Michael Portillo, English politician
• 15 July - John Yorke Denham, politician
• 21 July - David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (died 2007)
• 8 August - Nigel Mansell, racing driver
• 18 August - Patrick Cowdell, English boxer
• 21 October - Peter Mandelson, politician
• 27 October - Peter Firth, British actor
• 7 November - Lucinda Green, equestrian
• 16 November - Griff Rhys Jones, comedian, actor and writer
• 26 November - Hilary Benn, politician
• 28 November - Alistair Darling, politician
• 6 December - Geoff Hoon, politician
• Christopher Fowler, thriller writer

[edit] Deaths

• 28 January - Derek Bentley, murderer (born 1933) (hanged)
• 29 January - Norman MacEwen, RAF commander
• 24 March - Queen Mary, consort of King George V, and grandmother of the Queen (born 1867)
• 6 April - Idris Davies, poet
• 1 June - Alex James, footballer (born 1901)
• 8 October - Kathleen Ferrier, contralto (born 1912)
• 27 October - Thomas Wass, cricketer (born 1873)
• 9 November - Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet and author (born 1914)

[edit] References

[edit] See also