What happened in 1962? - UK
We look at events, new products, films and music from 1962.
In the news
- 4 February - The Sunday Times Colour Section, Britain's first Sunday newspaper colour supplement, was launched. The cover featured Jean Shrimpton and there was a review of Ian Fleming's latest book, 'The Living Daylights'
- 18 April - The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 restricted (the previously unlimited) right of Commonwealth citizens to live and work in the UK
- 8 May - the last trolley buses ran in London
- 25 May - the new Coventry Cathedral, designed by Sir Basil Spence, was consecrated in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
- 10 July - the communications satellite, Telstar, was launched into orbit. The first public transatlantic broadcast was on 23 July 1962, hosted by Walter Cronkite and Chet Huntley in New York and Richard Dimbleby in Brussels
- 17 July - the Blackburn Buccaneer fighter aircraft entered service with the Royal Navy
- 12 August - BMC launched the Morris 1100
- 20 September - Ford launched the Cortina
- 5 October - The Beatles' first hit 'Love Me Do' was released in the UK. It peaked at number 17
- 24 November - The first episode of the satirical show 'That was the Week That Was' was broadcast
Facts
- The population of the UK in 1962 was 53,500,000
- Britain's Prime Minister was Harold Macmillan (Conservative)
- Britain's best-selling cigarette was Player's Medium
- In 1962 77% of households had a television set, but only 33% had a refrigerator
- The UK's most common bird was the chaffinch
Photo © Clive Warneford (cc-by-sa/2.0)
For more information see How much did things cost in 1962?
Films
Some of the most popular films in 1962 were:
- The Guns of Navarone (war film)
- Dr No (The first James Bond movie)
- The Young Ones (musical with Cliff Richard)
- Only Two Can Play (comedy with Peter Sellers)
- The Road to Hong Kong (musical with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope)
- Spartacus (Roman epic)
- The Comancheros (Western)
- Blue Hawaii (musical with Elvis Presley)
- HMS Defiant (drama about a naval mutiny)
- Pirates of Blood River
Source: '7 British films in top 10' published in The Times, 10 December 1962
Television
Children's TV
Children's TV programmes which started in 1962 included:
- Animal Magic
- Hergé's Adventures of Tintin
Music
The best selling-singles in the UK in 1962 were:
- Wonderful Land - The Shadows
- I Remember You - Frank Ifield
- The Young Ones - Cliff Richard and The Shadows
- Good Luck Charm - Elvis Presley
- Lovesick Blues - Frank Ifield
- Telstar - The Tornados
- Rock-A-Hula/Can't Help Falling In Love - Elvis Presley
- She's Not You - Elvis Presley
- Return To Sender - Elvis Presley
- I Can't Stop Loving You - Ray Charles
Source: UK Top 100 Singles by Paul Gambaccini, Tim Rice and Jonathan Rice, published by Guinness in 1993
Sport
Tottenham Hotspur beat Burnley 3-1 to win the 1962 FA Cup
Ipswich Town topped the Football League for the 1961-2 season
Kilmore, ridden by Fred Winter and trained by Ryan Price, won the 1962 Grand National. Frenchman's Cove, ridden by Stan Mellor, started favourite, but was brought down
Larkspur, ridden by Neville Sellwood, won the Derby at Epsom
Cambridge won the 1962 Boat Race, although Oxford started ahead
Cars
New models launched for the UK market in 1962 were:
- Austin-Healey Sprite Mk II
- Ford Cortina
- Ford Zephyr/Zodiac Mk III
- MGB
- MG 1100
- Morgan Plus 4
- Morris 1100
- Morris Minor 1000
- Morris Traveller 1000
- Reliant Sabre 6
- Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III
- Rover 95
- Rover 110
- Triumph Spitfire
- Triumph Vitesse
- Vauxhall Velox and Cresta PB
- Wolseley 16/60
Source: 'British Cars of the Sixties', by Doug Nye, published by the Nelson in 1970
More on the 1960s
By Steven Braggs, June 2022
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