Events from the year 1970 in the United Kingdom.
May
- 19 May – The Government makes a £20,000,000 loan available to help save the financially troubled luxury car and aircraft engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce.
- 22 May – A tour of England by the South African cricket team is called off after several African and Asian countries threaten to boycott the Commonwealth Games.[19]
- 23 May – A fire occurs in the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Strait near Bangor, Caernarfonshire, Wales, causing its partial destruction and amounting to approximately £1,000,000 worth of fire damage.[20]
- 27 May – A British expedition climbs the south face of Annapurna I.
- 28 May – Bobby Moore, captain of the England national football team, is arrested and released on bail in Bogotá, Colombia, on suspicion of stealing a bracelet in the Bogotá Bracelet incident.
- 29 May – Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act abolishes actions for breach of promise and the right of a husband to claim damages for adultery with his wife.[21]
June
- 1 June – Prime Minister Harold Wilson is hit in the face with an egg thrown by Richard Ware, a Young Conservative demonstrator.[22]
- 2 June – Cleddau Bridge, in Pembrokeshire, collapses during erection, killing four, leading to introduction of new standards for box girder bridges.[23][24]
- 4 June – Tonga becomes independent from the UK.[2]
- 10 June – Just a few months after the Conservatives had enjoyed opinion poll leads of more than 20 points, the polls are showing Labour several points ahead of the Conservatives with eight days to go before the general election. If Labour were to win the election, it would be a record third consecutive win for them and would probably result in the end of Edward Heath's five-year reign as Conservative leader.[25]
- 13 June
- 14 June – The England national football team's defence of the FIFA World Cup ends when they lose 3–2 to West Germany at the quarter-final in Mexico.
- 17 June
- 18 June – 1970 general election: the Conservative Party wins and Edward Heath becomes Prime Minister, ousting the Labour government of Harold Wilson after nearly six years in power. The election result is something of a surprise, as most of the opinion polls had predicted a third successive Labour win.[29] This is the first general election in which eighteen-year-olds are entitled to vote. Among the new Members of Parliament are future Labour party leaders Neil Kinnock and John Smith; and Kenneth Clarke, Kenneth Baker, Norman Fowler and Geoffrey Howe for the Conservatives.[30]
- 21 June – British golfer Tony Jacklin wins the U.S. Open.[2]
- 22 June – The Methodist Church allows women to become full ministers for the first time.
- 26 June – Riots break out in Derry over the arrest of Mid-Ulster MP Bernadette Devlin.[31]
- 29 June – Caroline Thorpe, 32-year-old wife of Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe and mother of their two-year-old son Rupert, dies in a car crash.
August
- 9 August – Police battle with rioters in Notting Hill, London.
- 20 August – England national football team captain Bobby Moore is cleared of stealing a bracelet while on World Cup duty in Colombia.[36]
- 21 August – The moderate Social Democratic and Labour Party is established in Northern Ireland.[37]
- 26–31 August – The Isle of Wight Festival 1970 begins on East Afton Farm. Some 600,000 people attend the largest rock festival of all time. Artists include Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Doors, Chicago, Richie Havens, John Sebastian, Joan Baez, Ten Years After, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, The Moody Blues and Jethro Tull.[38]
- 27 August – The Royal Shakespeare Company's revolutionary production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Peter Brook, opens at Stratford.[39]
October
- 3 October – Tony Densham, driving the "Commuter" dragster, sets a British land speed record at Elvington, Yorkshire, averaging 207.6 mph over the flying kilometre course.[41]
- 5 October – BBC Radio 4 first broadcasts consumer affairs magazine programme You and Yours; it will still be running over fifty years later.
- 10 October – Fiji becomes independent from the United Kingdom.[42]
- 12 October – After a failed launch only eighteen months previously, British Leyland announce a much improved Austin Maxi featuring a new gearchange, increased engine size and much improved trim, answering many of the critical points raised by the motoring press at the car's original launch.
- 15 October
- 19 October – BP discovers a large oil field in the North Sea.[45]
- 23 October – The Mark III Ford Cortina goes on sale.[46] At launch a full range of models is offered including two-door and estate variants. Unlike previous models, this Cortina has been developed as a Ford Europe model sharing the floor-pan with the similar German Ford Taunus.
- 25 October – Canonization of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales by Pope Paul VI takes place.
January – March
- 1 January – Stephen Kinnock, politician
- 6 January – Courtney Eaton, actress
- 7 January – Andy Burnham, politician
- 8 January – Nick Miller, weather forecaster
- 19 January – Tim Foster, rower
- 20 January – Mitch Benn, comedian and songwriter
- 24 January – Maria Balshaw, art curator
- 31 January – Minnie Driver, actress
- 3 February – Warwick Davis, actor and television presenter
- 4 February – Gabrielle Anwar, actress
- 10 February – Rob Shearman, television and radio scriptwriter
- 14 February – Simon Pegg, comedian, writer and actor
- 17 February – Thomas Heatherwick, designer
- 21 February – Jay Blades, furniture restorer and television presenter
- 25 February – Ian Walker, sailboat racer
- 26 February – Mark Harper, politician
- 1 March – Tina Cullen, field hockey player
- 2 March – James Purnell, politician
- 7 March
- 9 March – Simon Monjack, screenwriter, film director (died 2010)[59]
- 10 March – Peter Wright, darts player[60]
- 11 March – Jane Slavin, actress and author
- 12 March – Wayne McGregor, choreographer
April – June
- 14 April – Matt Allwright, television presenter and journalist
- 19 April – Kelly Holmes, athlete
- 27 April – Kylie Travis, actress and model
- 6 May – Chris Adams, cricketer
- 15 May
- 17 May – Jeremy Browne, politician, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs
- 20 May – Louis Theroux, television personality and author
- 21 May – Jason Lee, field hockey player and coach
- 22 May – Naomi Campbell, model and actress
- 26 May – Alex Garland, writer and filmmaker
- 27 May – Joseph Fiennes, actor
- 5 June – John Marquez, actor and cinematographer
- 6 June – Angad Paul, businessman and film producer (died 2015)
- 7 June – Helen Baxendale, actress
- 18 June – Katie Derham, TV and radio presenter
- 19 June – MJ Hibbett, singer-songwriter
- 20 June – Russell Garcia, field hockey player
- 22 June – Christine Cook, field hockey player
- 24 June – David May, footballer
- 25 June – Lucy Benjamin, actress
- 27 June – Jo Frost, nanny and television host
- 29 June – Marcus Wareing, chef
July – September
- 2 July – Steve Morrow, footballer
- 4 July – Doddie Weir, rugby union player (died 2022)
- 5 July – Toby Whithouse, actor, screenwriter and playwright
- 6 July
- 7 July – Wayne McCullough, boxer
- 10 July
- 11 July – Sajjad Karim, politician
- 12 July – Conrad Coates, English-Canadian actor and teacher
- 13 July – Sharon Horgan, actress and screenwriter
- 14 July – Seb Fontaine, electronic music producer & DJ[61]
- 16 July – Matt Healy, actor
- 19 July – Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish politician
- 25 July – Julien Fountain, English cricket coach
- 29 July – Andi Peters, television presenter and producer
- 30 July – Christopher Nolan, film director
- 31 July – Ben Chaplin, actor
- 1 August – David James, footballer
- 13 August – Alan Shearer, footballer
- 27 August – Peter Ebdon, snooker player
- 5 September – Johnny Vegas, entertainer
- 8 September – Michael Matheson, Scottish politician
- 18 September – Darren Gough, cricketer
- 21 September – Samantha Power, United States Ambassador to the United Nations
- 29 September – Emily Lloyd, actress
- 30 September – Mark Smith, actor and bodybuilder
October – December
- 4 October
- 5 October – Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, SNP politician and Member of Parliament[62]
- 8 October
- 10 October – Sir Matthew Pinsent, Olympic winning rower
- 11 October – Andy Marriott, footballer
- 21 October – Tony Mortimer, singer
- 29 October – Toby Smith, musician (died 2017)
- 2 November – Matthew Syed, journalist
- 7 November – Neil Hannon, chamber pop musician (The Divine Comedy)
- 12 November – Harvey Spencer Stephens, child actor
- 13 November – Verity Snook-Larby, race walker
- 22 November – Stel Pavlou, novelist and screenwriter[63]
- 23 November – Zoe Ball, television and radio presenter
- 28 November – Richard Osman, television presenter and writer
- 6 December – Lewis MacLeod, Scottish actor and voice actor
- 7 December – Andrew Gilding, darts player
- 10 December – Susanna Reid, television presenter and journalist
- 11 December – Matthew Strachan, composer and singer-songwriter (died 2021)
- 13 December – Jesse Armstrong, screenwriter
- 17 December – Stella Tennant, model (died 2020)
- 20 December – Alister McRae, Scottish rally driver
- 29 December – Aled Jones, singer and television presenter
- 31 December – Louise Rickard, Welsh rugby union player
January – March
- 7 January – Allan Wilkie, Shakespearean actor noted for his career in Australia (born 1878)
- 13 January – Jimmy Hanley, actor (born 1918)
- 23 January – Ifan ab Owen Edwards, Welsh youth worker, founder of the Urdd (born 1895)
- 26 January
- 29 January – Basil Liddell Hart, military historian (born 1895)
- 30 January – Malcolm Keen, actor (born 1887)
- 2 February – Bertrand Russell, logician and philosopher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (born 1872)[64]
- 14 February – Herbert Strudwick, cricketer (born 1880)
- 15 February – Hugh Dowding, commander of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain (born 1882)
- 28 February – Arthur Henry Knighton-Hammond, painter (born 1875)[65]
- 15 March – David Horne, actor (born 1898)
- 29 March – Vera Brittain, writer (born 1893)
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