January – Britain enters its first post-war recession after statistics show that the economy contracted during the third and fourth quarters of last year. [1]
1 January–7 March – The Three-Day Week is introduced by the Conservative Government as a measure to conserve electricity during the period of industrial action by coal miners.[2]
25 January – The travel writer and royal biographer James Pope-Hennessy, 57, is murdered at his flat in Ladbroke Grove, London, by a gang of young men.[3]
February
4 February – M62 coach bombing: A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb planted on a coach carrying off-duty soldiers and their families kills 11.[4] On 8 February the toll reaches 12 with the death in hospital of an 18-year-old soldier seriously injured in the bombing.
Opinion polls show the Conservative government in the lead.[10]
27 February – Enoch Powell, the controversial Conservative MP who was dismissed from the shadow cabinet in 1968 for his "Rivers of Blood" speech opposing mass immigration, announces his resignation from the Conservative Party in protest against Edward Heath's decision to take Britain into the EEC.[11]
28 February – The general election results in the first hung parliament since 1929, with the Conservative government having 297 seats – four fewer than Labour, who have 301 – and the largest number of votes. Prime Minister Edward Heath hopes to form a coalition with the Liberal Party in order to remain in power.[12]
March
3 March – 180 Britons are among the dead when Turkish Airlines Flight 981 travelling from Paris to London crashes in a wood near Paris, killing all 346 passengers and crew on board.
4 March – Heath fails to convince the Liberals to form a coalition and announces his resignation as Prime Minister, paving the way for Harold Wilson to become Prime Minister for the second time as Labour forms a minority government.[2]
6 March – The miners' strike comes to an end due an improved pay offer by the new Labour government.[13]
April – The Soviet car maker Lada, founded four years ago as a result of an enterprise by Italian automotive giant Fiat, begins selling cars in the United Kingdom: its 1200 four-door saloon is based on the Fiat 124 and retails for £999 (equivalent to £7,648.51 in 2022). They would be sold in Britain until 1997.[17]
6 April – The 19th Eurovision Song Contest is held at the Dome in Brighton, produced and transmitted by the BBC. Katie Boyle hosts the event for the fourth time. Sweden wins the contest with the song "Waterloo", performed by ABBA, who become the first group to win the contest and go on to achieve huge international success.
15 June – The Red Lion Square disorders see the National Front clash with counter-protesters in London's West End; 21-year-old Kevin Gateley, a university student, is killed.[26]
3 July – Don Revie, the manager of Football League champions Leeds United since 1961, accepts the Football Association's £200,000-a-year deal to become the new England manager.[28]
12 July – Bill Shankly, manager of FA Cup holders Liverpool, stuns the club by announcing his retirement after 15 years as manager. Shankly, 62, had arrived at Liverpool when they were in the Football League Second Division and transformed them into one of the world's top club sides with three top division titles, two FA Cups and a UEFA Cup triumph.[29]
17 July – A bomb planted by the IRA explodes in the Tower of London's White Tower, killing one person and injuring 41. Another bomb explodes outside a government building in South London.[30]
12 September – Brian Clough is dismissed after 44 days as manager of defending league champions Leeds United following a disappointing start to the Football Leagueseason.[37]
18 September – Harold Wilson confirms that a second general election for the year will be held on 10 October.
23 September – Ceefax is started by the BBC – one of the first public service information systems.[6]
30 September – With the year's second general election 10 days away, opinion polls show Labour in the lead with Harold Wilson well placed to gain the overall majority that no party achieved in the election held seven months earlier.[38]
5 October – Guildford pub bombings: Bombs planted by the IRA at pubs patronised by off-duty soldiers, The Horse and Groom and The Seven Stars, kill five people.[40]
10 October – The second general election of the year results in a narrow victory for Harold Wilson, giving Labour a majority of three seats. It is widely expected that Edward Heath's leadership of the Conservative Party will soon be at an end, as he has now lost three of the four General Elections that he has contested in almost a decade as leader.[41] The Scottish National Party secures its highest Westminster party representation to date with 11 seats. Enoch Powell is returned to Parliament standing for the Ulster Unionist Party in Northern Ireland.[42] Powell, who was dismissed from the Conservative Shadow Cabinet in April 1968 following his controversial Rivers of Blood speech on immigration, had left the Conservative Party at the general election on 28 February and recently rejected an offer to stand as a candidate for the National Front.[43]
19 October – Keith Joseph makes a speech in Edgbaston on the cycle of deprivation; the controversy it provokes has the effect of ruling him out of high office in the Conservative Party.
Martin Ryle and Antony Hewish win the Nobel Prize in Physics "for their pioneering research in radio astrophysics: Ryle for his observations and inventions, in particular of the aperture synthesis technique, and Hewish for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars".[54]
15 December – New speed limits are introduced on Britain's roads in an attempt to save fuel at a time of Arab fuel embargoes following the Yom Kippur War.[55]
22 December – The London home of Conservative Party leader and former Prime Minister Edward Heath is bombed in a suspected Provisional IRA attack. He is away from home when the bomb explodes, but returns just 10 minutes afterwards.[57]
24 December – Former Cabinet Minister John Stonehouse is found living in Australia having faked his own death in Miami. He is quickly arrested by Australian police, who initially believe that he is Lord Lucan.[58]
Japanese carmaker Mitsubishi begins importing cars to Britain under the Colt brand, bringing the number of Japanese carmakers selling cars in Britain to five.[62]