Britain timeline
Lynn Seymour creates the first of many roles for MacMillan, dancing the Adolescent in The Burrow
Irish dramatist Brendan Behan's play The Hostage is produced in Dublin
Chicken Soup with Barley begins a trilogy by English playwright Arnold Wesker
English author Alan Sillitoe publishes his first novel, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
18-year-old British pop singer Cliff Richard has his first hit single with Move It
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is launched in Britain with Bertrand Russell as president
Harold Pinter's first play in London's West End, The Birthday Party, closes in less than a week
Australian soprano Joan Sutherland becomes a star overnight with her performance at Covent Garden in Lucia di Lammermoor
The Mini is launched, designed by Alec Issigonis, and becomes the best-selling British car of all time
The first prototype of the Hovercraft, designed by British engineer Christopher Cockerell, crosses the English Channel
Keith Waterhouse has a wide success with his second novel, Billy Liar
Harold Pinter's second play in London's West End, The Caretaker, immediately brings him an international reputation
British author Laurie Lee remembers a Cotswold boyhood in Cider with Rosie
Billy Wright becomes the first football player to win 100 caps for England
A Liverpool group of musicians call themselves Long John & the Silver Beatles – a name soon shortened to something more memorable
English poet John Betjeman publishes his long autobiographical poem Summoned by Bells
The English revue Beyond the Fringe has its premiere at the Edinburgh Festival
Paul Scofield plays Thomas More in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons
British artist Anthony Caro begins welding and painting abstract metal sculpture
Penguin Books are prosecuted for obscenity for publishing D.H. Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's Lover, and are acquitted
British artist Bridget Riley creates patterns that produce unexpected optical effects, in a style that becomes known as op art
British author Roald Dahl publishes a novel for children, James and the Giant Peach
British novelist Muriel Spark publishes The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, set in an Edinburgh school in the 1930s
Sean Connery creates on screen the role of 007 in the first James Bond film, Dr No
The Rolling Stones, led by Mick Jagger, give their first performance as a group, in London's Marquee Club