1945 in the United Kingdom
Other years
1943 | 1944 | 1945 (1945) | 1946 | 1947
Constituent countries of the United Kingdom
England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales
Popular culture

Events from the year 1945 in the United Kingdom. This year sees the end of World War II and a landslide general election victory for the Labour Party.

Incumbents

Events

Churchill waves to the crowds on VE Day
  • 8 May – eight days after the suicide of Adolf Hitler in Berlin and the collapse of Nazi rule in Europe, V-E Day is celebrated throughout the UK. Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes a victory speech and appears on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with George VI, Queen Elizabeth and Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. Street parties take place throughout the country.[6]
  • 9 May – German forces in the Channel Islands, the only occupied part of the British Isles, surrender.[7]
  • 23 May – Churchill forms a "caretaker" Conservative Party administration, pending an election, officially ending the wartime Coalition government.[7]
  • 28 May – American-born Irish-raised William Joyce, known as "Lord Haw-Haw" is captured on the German border. He is later charged with high treason in London for his English-language wartime propaganda broadcasts on German radio. He is hanged in January 1946.
  • 1 June – the UK takes over administration of Lebanon and Syria.
  • 4 June – Churchill, in a broadcast election speech, claims that a future socialist government "would have to fall back on some form of Gestapo".
  • 7 June – Benjamin Britten opera Peter Grimes is first performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London with Peter Pears in the title role.[8]
  • 13 June – Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts renamed Arts Council of Great Britain.
  • 15 June – Parliament passes the Family Allowances Act to provide payments to families with children.
  • 18 June – the demobilisation of the wartime armed forces begins.
  • 5 July – polling day for the first general election to be held since 1935; a few constituencies delay polling due to local Wakes weeks and the vote count is not made for another three weeks (see below) so that votes from the servicemen overseas can be added to the total.[7]
  • 17 July – Potsdam Conference – the three main Allied leaders begin their final summit of the war. The meeting will end on 2 August.
Attlee with King George VI after Labour's landslide election victory

Publications

Births

Deaths

See also

References

  1. Postan, M. M. (1967). An Economic History of Western Europe, 1945–1964. London: Methuen. p. 122.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
  3. "Hull Blitz's last victims remembered 70 years on". BBC News. 17 March 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  4. "Hughes Mansions, Stepney". Flying Bombs and Rockets. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
  5. Foster, Vicki (2 April 2010). "65th anniversary of the V2 rocket landing in Orpington". News Shopper. Orpington. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "The Lost Decade Timeline". BBC. Archived from the original on 21 August 2006. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  7. 1 2 3 Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 394–395. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
  8. The Hutchinson Factfinder. Helicon. 1999. ISBN 1-85986-000-1.
  9. "Harold Wilson". Number10. London: Prime Minister's Office. Archived from the original on 25 August 2008. Retrieved 18 August 2008.
  10. "Harold Macmillan (1894–1986)". History – Historic Figures. London: BBC. 2014. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  11. Blain, Max (3 March 2006). "Cartoon collection scoops originals from the hilarious world of Giles: Laughter Box". Canterbury Adscene. pp. 6–7.
  12. The Times, 14 August 1945, p. 4.
  13. Grove, Valerie (29 August 2015). "How JB Priestley's Inspector first called on the USSR". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  14. "Mr Harold Macmillan". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Retrieved 8 March 2012.
  15. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1945
  16. Marr, Andrew (2007). A History of Modern Britain. London: Macmillan. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-4050-0538-8.
  17. Lovell, Bernard (1968). Story of Jodrell Bank. Oxford University Press. p. 3. ISBN 0-19-217619-6.
  18. Gilliland, Ben (16 January 2009). "Science & Discovery". Metro.
  19. "Liverpool and its Chinese Seamen". Archived from the original on 2 October 2011. Retrieved 24 March 2011.
  20. Berry, George (1970). Discovering Schools. Tring: Shire Publications. ISBN 0-85263-091-3.
  21. Ruggieri, Melissa. "Procol Harum singer Gary Brooker, the voice of 'A Whiter Shade of Pale,' dies at 76". USA TODAY. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  22. "Obituary: John McAfee, antivirus software designer, dies aged 75". The Times. 24 June 2021. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  23. Ferguson, Donna (24 September 2016). "My parents at war: Jacqueline Wilson opens up about unhappy early life". The Observer. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  24. "Smethwick". The House of Commons Constituencies. Archived from the original on 10 August 2009. Retrieved 8 March 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
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