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 opening night of BBC2, 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 BBC1.[16]
21 April – BBC2 begins its scheduled broadcasting, its first programme is the children's series Play School which would run until 1988.[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 – The 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 operations 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. On 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 – An announcement is made 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]
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 loses his Smethwick seat to the Conservatives following a controversial racially motivated campaign by the opposing party's supporters.[28]
24 October – Northern Rhodesia, a former British protectorate, becomes the independent Republic of Zambia, ending 73 years of British rule.[23]
29 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".[29] The Daily Mail headlines this as "Oxford Housewife Wins Nobel".
2 November – The ITV soap opera Crossroads airs for the first time. It will run until 1988 and be revived in 2001, ending again in 2003.[9]
9 November – The 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 – The power dispute is 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.
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. They 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.
^Soames, Mary (1998). Speaking for Themselves: The Personal Letters of Winston and Clementine Churchill. London: Doubleday. p. 647. ISBN978-03-85406-91-8.
