A Brief History of Churchill Dry Cleaners

What did it all cost?

What was making headlines?

• 1 January – The farthing coin, used since the thirteenth century, ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom.
• 1 January – Betting and Gaming Act 1960 comes into force, permitting operation of commercial bingo halls.
• 7 January – The Avengers television series first screened on ITV.
• 9 January – British authorities announce that they have discovered a large Soviet spy ring in London.
• 5 February – The Sunday Telegraph newspaper first published.
• 13 March – Black and white £5 notes cease to be legal tender.

• 21 March – The Beatles perform at the legendary Cavern Club in Liverpool for the first time.
• 3 April – The Jaguar E-Type, a sports car capable of reaching speeds of 150mph, is launched.
• 17 April – Tottenham Hotspur win the Football League First Division for the second time, with a 2–1 win over Sheffield Wednesday.
• 27 April – Sierra Leone gains independence from the UK.
• 1 May – Betting shops become legal under terms of the Betting and Gaming Act 1960.
• 6 May – Tottenham Hotspur becomes the first English football team this century, and only the third in history, to win the double of the league title and FA Cup, with a 2–0 victory over Leicester City in the FA Cup Final.

• 8 May – George Blake is sentenced to 42 years imprisonment for spying, having been found guilty of being a double agent in the pay of the Soviet Union.
• 28 May – Peter Benenson’s article “The Forgotten Prisoners” is published in several internationally read newspapers. This will later be thought of as the founding of the human rights organisation Amnesty International.
• 8 June – Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, marries Katharine Worsley at York Minster.
• 14 June – The Government unveils new “panda” crossings with push button controls for pedestrians, due to concerns about the increasing volume of traffic.
• 19 June – The British protectorate ends in Kuwait and it becomes an emirate.

• 3 July – Suicide Act 1961 decriminalises acts of, or attempts at suicide in England and Wales.
• 4 July – Barclays open their “No. 1 Computer Centre” in Drummond Street, London, with an EMI mainframe computer, Britain’s first bank with an in-house computing centre.
• 10 August – The UK applies for membership of the EEC.
• 31 August – Premiere of the film Victim, notable as the first in English to use the word “homosexual”.
• 1 September – First Mothercare shop opens, as Mother-and-Child Centre in Kingston upon Thames.

• 4 September – James Pitman’s Initial Teaching Alphabet is tested in a number of schools.
• 14 September – Film A Taste of Honey, including themes of interracial relationship, unmarried pregnancy and homosexuality, is released.
• 16 September – Three people die and 35 are injured when a stand collapses during a Glasgow Rangers football match at Ibrox Park.
• 1 October – Acker Bilk’s Stranger on the Shore released.
• 1 October – Religious programme Songs of Praise first broadcast on BBC Television; it will still be running fifty years later.
• 10 October – A volcanic eruption on the South Atlantic British overseas territory of Tristan da Cunha causes the island’s entire population to be evacuated to Surrey, where they will remain until 1963.

• 25 October – The first edition of Private Eye, the satirical magazine, is published in London.
• 8 November – In a referendum on Sunday opening of public houses in Wales, the counties of Anglesey, Cardiganshire, Caernarfonshire, Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire, Merionethshire, Montgomeryshire and Pembrokeshire all vote to stay “dry”, that is, opposed to the Sunday sale of alcohol.
• 9 November – At the Lyceum Theatre, London, Miss United Kingdom, Welsh-born Rosemarie Frankland, becomes the first British winner of the Miss World beauty pageant.
• 4 December – Birth control pills become available on the NHS after their availability is backed by Health Minister Enoch Powell.