istoryworld
Events relating to england
A Question of Upbringing begins Antony Powell's 'A Dance to the Music of Time'
British art historian Nikolaus Pevsner undertakes a massive task, a county-by-county description of The Buildings of England
Labour loses the general election and Winston Churchill returns to Downing Street as prime minister
George VI dies and is succeeded by his elder daughter as Elizabeth II
X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin, working at King's College in London, photographs DNA
The UK car manufacturers Morris and Austin merge to become the British Motor Corporation
British scholar Michael Ventris deciphers Linear B, the script of Mycenae, proving it to be an early form of Greek
Evelyn Waugh publishes Men at Arms, the first novel in the Sword of Honour trilogy based on his wartime experiences
British choreographer Kenneth MacMillan creates his first ballet, Somnambulism, to music by Stan Kenton
English author L.P. Hartley sets his novel The Go-Between in the summer of 1900
James Bond, agent 007, has a licence to kill in Ian Fleming's first novel, Casino Royale
English composer William Walton writes Orb and Sceptre for the coronation of Elizabeth II
The new queen of the United Kingdom, Elizabeth II, is crowned like all her predecessors since 1066 in Westminster Abbey
Anglican vicar Chad Varah, using the crypt of a London church, sets up the first branch of what becomes the Samaritans
Improved methods of testing prove conclusively that Piltdown Man was constructed by Charles Dawson from a human skull and the jaw of an ape
Molecular biologists Francis Crick and James Watson announce their discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA
Churchill moves Harold Macmillan to a new department, as minister of defence
Dylan Thomas's 'play for voices', Under Milk Wood, is broadcast on BBC radio, with Richard Burton as narrator
A painting by Graham Sutherland, commissioned for Winston Churchill's 80th birthday, does not meet with the full approval of the sitter or his wife
Politician and author Winston Churchill completes his six-volume history The Second World War
Oxford medical student Roger Bannister runs the first four-minute mile, at the Iffley Road track
Anglo-Irish novelist Iris Murdoch publishes her first novel, Under the Net
18-year-old English jockey Lester Piggott wins the first of a record nine Derbys
Seventeen-year-old English footballer Bobby Charlton begins a 19-year career playing for Manchester United
William Walton's opera Troilus and Cressida has its premiere at Covent Garden
