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Jeremy Thorpe

Jeremy Thorpe

The Right Honourable John Jeremy Thorpe (born April 29, 1929) is a British politician, former leader of the Liberal Party (1967-1976). He is best remembered for being forced to resign his party post as a result of a complicated gay sex and alleged attempted murder scandal.

Politics

The son and grandson of Conservative MPs, he was educated at Eton College and then at Trinity College, Oxford, where he was President of the Union. He was called to the bar in 1954, working back-to-back as a TV interviewer, and entered parliament in 1959 as Liberal MP for North Devon. In 1965 he became Liberal Party Treasurer. In 1967, he was elected party leader by 6 of the 12 Liberal MPs after the resignation of Jo Grimond. Thorpe's style, in contrast to Grimond's intellectualism, was youthful and dynamic, and was sometimes ridiculed as too gimmicky. A colourful character, Thorpe was renowned for his assortment of Edwardian suits, silk waistcoats and trilby hats, as well as being a noted raconteur and impressionist. Critics argued that he was little more than a political lightweight, but Thorpe was undoubtedly a popular figure. When he became Liberal leader, his party commanded 8.5% of the vote. By February 1974, it commanded 19% of the vote, with some opinion polls even placing it as high as 30%. The 1970 general election was a disaster for Thorpe's Liberals, as their number of MPs more than halved from 13 to 6 (with 3, Thorpe included, only surviving on tiny majorities), which led to opponents' jibes that the entire parliamentary party could fit in one taxi -- a joke which was expanded to two taxis after the election of the extremely corpulent Cyril Smith as MP for Rochdale. But between 1972 and 1974, Thorpe led the Liberals to an impressive string of byelection victories, at Rochdale, Sutton and Cheam, Ripon, the Isle of Ely, and Berwick. In the two general elections of 1974, the Liberals gained 14 and 13 MPs respectively. In the hung parliament of 1974, Thorpe was offered a seat in the Cabinet as Home Secretary by Prime Minister Edward Heath, as part of a coalition deal, but declined when it was clear the Liberal Party and many who had voted for it were not enthusiastic about keeping Heath in power.

Private Life

Following the death in 1970 of his first wife Caroline (who he had married in 1968) in a car crash, Thorpe married (in 1973) Marion, a former concert pianist and the former wife of the 7th Earl of Harewood. It had been an open secret in some circles that he was bisexual; in his constituency of North Devon it had been common knowledge for years beforehand. In 1976, Thorpe was forced to resign the Liberal party leadership after being accused of having had a homosexual relationship with Norman Scott, a former male model to whom he had written a letter including the memorable line "Bunnies can and will go to France". Scott claimed that Thorpe had tried to murder him after the end of their affair. It was not disputed that at one point, while walking a friend's female Great Dane (called "Rinka") on Exmoor, Scott was confronted by Andrew Newton, a former airline pilot, who was armed with a gun. Newton shot and killed the dog, which had been loaned to Scott for protection, then pointed the gun at Scott, but it apparently failed to go off. The name 'Rinkagate' was subsequently given to the scandal. One of those with inside knowledge of the affair was former Liberal MP and failed businessman Peter Bessell, who had been party to some discussions within the Liberal Party. According to Bessell, poison had been rejected as a method of assassinating Scott because 'it would raise too many questions if he fell dead off a barstool'. One alleged plan had been to shoot Scott in Cornwall and dispose of the body down a disused tinmine. Thorpe was subsequently one of four defendants in a court case, accused of conspiracy to murder Scott, because Scott had apparently been persistently trying to blackmail Thorpe. They were all eventually acquitted - after a summing up by the judge (Mr Justice Cantley) that was widely felt to show a nakedly pro-establishment bias (and was at once mercilessly satirised by Peter Cook). In the opinion of some commentators, there had indeed been a conspiracy, but it had simply been a conspiracy to frighten Scott rather than kill him. His political career could not withstand the scandal, and he lost his parliamentary seat at the general election of 1979, which came just a week before his trial. The election is remembered for the unsuccessful candidacy of Auberon Waugh, representing the "Dog Lovers' Party". Not long after the end of the trial, Thorpe was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and retired from public life. For the past twenty years, it has been at an extremely advanced stage. In 2002, questions were asked about Jack Straw's involvement in "Rinkagate", after a tape-recording surfaced of Harold Wilson including comments such as: "Look, I saw Jack Straw, he's very worried if he were mentioned in this context, he thinks he'll be finished [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/archive/2333595.stm]." Straw remains silent on the matter.

Notes

Bessell's allegations are contained in a book by journalists Roger Courtiour and Barrie Penrose, entitled The Pencourt File. Thorpe, Jeremy Thorpe, Jeremy Thorpe, John Jeremy Thorpe, John Jeremy Thorpe, Jeremy Thorpe, Jeremy Thorpe, Jeremy Thorpe, Jeremy

The Right Honourable

The Right Honourable (abbreviated "The Rt Hon." or "The Right Hon.") is an honorific prefix which is traditionally applied to certain classes of people in the United Kingdom, Canada, and other Commonwealth Realms.

Entitlement

People entitled to the prefix in a personal capacity are:
- Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and the Privy Council of Northern Ireland
- This includes all current and former members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, which is a committee of the Privy Council;
- Barons, viscounts and earls (marquesses are "The Most Honourable" and dukes are "The Most Noble" or "His Grace", and, if Privy Councillors, retain these higher styles); and
- The holders of certain offices of state in some Commonwealth realms (e.g. in Canada, the Governor General, Prime Minister and Chief Justice). In order to differentiate peers who are Privy Counsellors from those who are not, sometimes the suffix PC is added to the title. In addition some people are entitled to the prefix in an official capacity, i.e. the prefix is added to the name of the office, but not the name of the person:
- The Lord Mayors of London, Dublin, Cardiff, Belfast, York and Bristol; and of Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Hobart; and
- The Lord Provosts of Edinburgh and Glasgow. All other Lord Mayors and Lord Provosts are "The Right Worshipful".

Corporate entities

The prefix is also added to the name of various corporate entities, e.g.:
- The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal (of the United Kingdom &c.) in Parliament Assembled (the House of Lords);
- The Right Honourable the Knights, Citizens and Burgesses (now usually the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom &c.) in Parliament Assembled (the House of Commons); and
- The Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty (the Board of Admiralty)
- The Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of all matters relating to Trade and Foreign Plantations (the Board of Trade) See also the corporate use of "Most Honourable," as in "The Lords of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council" (the Privy Council).

Use of the honorific

The honorific is normally only used on the front of envelopes and other written documents: for example, The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP is otherwise referred to simply as "Mr Blair". In the House of Commons, members refer to each other as "the honourable member for ..." or "the right honourable member for ..." depending upon whether or not they are Privy Counsellors. However the title "the honourable member" is only a parliamentary term and is not used outside the House. When a married woman holds this style, she uses her own given name in her style. So, when Mrs. Denis Thatcher was made a Privy Counsellor, she didn't become The Right Honourable Mrs. Denis Thatcher or The Right Honourable Mrs Thatcher, but became The Right Honourable Margaret Thatcher.

Outside the United Kingdom

Generally within the Commonwealth, ministers and judges are The Honourable unless they are appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, in which case they are The Right Honourable. Such persons generally include Prime Ministers and judges of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand, and several other Commonwealth prime ministers.

Australia

In Australia some Premiers of the Australian colonies in the 19th century were appointed members of the UK Privy Council and were thus entitled to be called The Right Honourable. After Federation in 1901, the Governor-General, the Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, the Prime Minister and some other senior ministers held the title. There has never been an Australian Privy Council. In 1972 Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam declined appointment to the Privy Council, but the practice was resumed by Malcolm Fraser in 1975. In 1983 Bob Hawke declined the appointment, and the appointment of Australians to the Privy Council was abolished shortly thereafter. The last Governor-General to be entitled to the style was Ninian Stephen. The last politician to be entitled to the style was Ian Sinclair, who retired in 1998. The only living Australians holding the title The Right Honourable for life are:
- Doug Anthony, former Deputy Prime Minister
- Sir Zelman Cowen, former Governor-General
- Malcolm Fraser, former Prime Minister
- Ian Sinclair, former Leader of the National Party and Speaker of the House of Representatives
- Sir Ninian Stephen, former Governor-General
- Reginald Withers, former Senator, Minister, and Lord Mayor of Perth. The Lord Mayors of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Hobart are styled The Right Honourable, but the style (which has no connection with the Privy Council) attaches to the title of Lord Mayor, and not to their names, and is relinquished upon leaving office.

Canada

In Canada, members of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada receive the honorific The Honourable, with only the occupants of the most senior public offices being made The Right Honourable, as they used to be appointed to the British Privy Council. L'Honorable and le Très Honorable are used in French by the federal government, but the Office québécois de la langue française (the Quebec government body setting standards for the French language) considers them improper loan expressions and advises the use of Monsieur and Madame (Mr. and Ms.) instead. Although appointments of Canadians to the British Privy Council have ceased, the following public servants are domestically awarded the style The Right Honourable for life:
- the Governor General of Canada
- the Prime Minister of Canada
- the Chief Justice of Canada. (Governors General also use the style His/Her Excellency during their term of office.) Several prominent Canadians (mostly politicians) have become members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and have thus been entitled to use the title Right Honourable, either because of their services in Britain (e.g. serving as envoys to London) or as members of the Imperial War Cabinet, or due to their prominence in the Canadian Cabinet. These include:
- Sir John A. Macdonald (1879)1
- Sir John Rose (1886)
- Sir John Sparrow David Thompson (1894)1
- Sir Samuel Henry Strong (1897)4
- Sir Wilfrid Laurier (1897)1
- Sir Richard John Cartwright (1902)
- Sir Henri Elzéar Taschereau (1904)4
- Sir Charles Tupper (1907)1
- Sir Charles Fitzpatrick (1908)4
- Sir Robert Laird Borden (1912)1
- Sir George Eulas Foster (1916)
- Sir Louis Henry Davies (1919)4
- Lyman Poore Duff (1919)6
- Arthur Lewis Sifton (1920)
- Arthur Meighen (1920)1
- Charles Doherty (1920)
- Sir William Thomas White (1920)
- William Lyon Mackenzie King (1922)1
- William Stevens Fielding (1923)
- Francis Alexander Anglin (1925)4
- Sir William Mulock (1925)
- George Perry Graham (1925)
- R.B. Bennett (1930)1
- Sir George Halsey Perley (1931)
- Ernest Lapointe (1937)
- Vincent Massey (1941)3
- Raoul Dandurand (1941)
- Louis St. Laurent (1946)2
- James Lorimer Ilsley (1946)
- Clarence Decatur Howe (1946)
- Ian Alistair Mackenzie (1947)
- James Garfield Gardiner (1947)
- Thibaudeau Rinfret (1947)4
- John George Diefenbaker (1957)1
- Georges-Philéas Vanier (1963)5
- Lester Bowles Pearson (1963)1 1 - As Prime Minister. 2 - Tupper was appointed when he was no longer Prime Minister and St. Laurent was appointed when he was a cabinet minister under Mackenzie King. 3 - Massey became Governor General over a decade later. He was made "Right Honourable" while serving as Canada's High Commissioner to London. 4 - As Chief Justice of Canada 5 - As Governor General of Canada. 6 - Duff did not become Chief Justice until 1933. Canadian appointments to the British Privy Council were ended by the government of Lester Pearson. Since then, the style may only be granted for life by the Governor General to eminent Canadians who have not held any of the offices that would otherwise entitle them to the style. It has been granted to the following individuals:
- Paul Joseph James Martin (1992)
- Martial Asselin (1992)
- Ellen Fairclough (1992)
- Jean-Luc Pépin (1992)
- Alvin Hamilton (1992)
- Don Mazankowski (1992)
- Jack Pickersgill (1992)
- Robert Stanfield (1992)
- Herb Gray (2002)

Ireland

The Irish Privy Council was abolished with the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922; nevertheless the Lord Mayor of Dublin, like his counterparts in the United Kingdom, retains the usage of the honorific; the Lord Mayor of Cork has never been entitled to the title. The remaining members of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland are entitled to be styled The Right Honourable.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, the Prime Minister is customarily appointed to the British Privy Council and is styled The Right Honourable. However, the current Prime Minister, Helen Clark, has not recommended any new Privy Counsellors. The Governor-General is also usually a Privy Counsellor, but the current Governor-General, Dame Silvia Cartwright, is not. In any case the Governor-General as a plenipotentiary representative is entitled to the style "Excellency". At present there are only two Privy Counsellors in the New Zealand Parliament, both appointed by previous Prime Ministers: Helen Clark (appointed by Jim Bolger upon becoming Leader of the Opposition in 1993) and Winston Peters, leader of New Zealand First (appointed by Jim Bolger upon becoming Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer in 1996). Privy Counsellors recently retired include the former Speaker of the House, Jonathan Hunt (appointed by Geoffrey Palmer in recognition of long service in 1989), who retired from Parliament in 2005 to become New Zealand's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, and former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley (appointed upon becoming Prime Minister in 1997), who stepped down from Parliament at the 2002 election.

External links

- [http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp/pe/titre_e.cfm Current list of Canadian notables possessing some form of honorific] (incl. Rt. Hon.) Category:Titles

April 29

April 29 is the 119th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (120th in leap years). There are 246 days remaining.

Events

- 1429 - Battle of Orléans: French troops led by Joan of Arc lifted the English siege of Orléans, a turning point in the Hundred Years' War.
- 1672 - Franco-Dutch War: Louis XIV of France invades the Netherlands.
- 1770 - James Cook arrives at and names Botany Bay, Australia.
- 1854 - The Ashmun Institute is officially chartered, becoming the first college for African American students.
- 1861 - American Civil War: Maryland's House of Delegates votes not to secede from the Union
- 1862 - American Civil War: New Orleans falls to Union forces under Admiral David Farragut.
- 1903 - A 30 million cubic-metre landslide kills 70 in Frank, Alberta, Canada.
- 1910 - Andrew Fisher becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the second time.
- 1916 - Easter Rebellion: Martial law in Ireland is lifted and the rebellion is officially over with the surrender of Irish nationalists to British authorities in Dublin.
- 1944 - "Dancing Romeo," the last Our Gang film, premiers.
- 1945 - World War II: The German Army in Italy unconditionally surrenders to the Allies.
- 1945 - World War II: Start of Operation Manna.
- 1945 - Adolf Hitler marries his long-time partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor.
- 1945 - Holocaust: The Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops.
- 1946 - Former Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo and 28 former Japanese leaders are indicted for war crimes.
- 1967 - After refusing induction into the United States Army the day before (citing religious reasons), Muhammad Ali is stripped of his boxing title.
- 1969 - Jazz musician Duke Ellington receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- 1970 - Vietnam War: United States and South Vietnamese forces invade Cambodia to hunt Viet Cong.
- 1974 - Watergate Scandal: President Richard Nixon announces the release of edited transcripts of White House tape recordings related to the scandal.
- 1975 - Vietnam War: Operation Frequent Wind – The last U.S. citizens begin evacuation from Saigon prior to an expected North Vietnamese takeover. United States involvement in the war comes to an end.
- 1992 - 1992 Los Angeles riots: Riots in Los Angeles, California, follow the acquittal of police officers charged with excessive force in the beating of Rodney King. Over the next three days 54 people are killed and hundreds of buildings are destroyed.
- 1997 - The Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 enters into force, outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons among its signatories.
- 2002 - The United States is re-elected to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, one year after losing the seat it had held for 50 years.
- 2004 - Richard Cheney and George W. Bush testify before the 9/11 Commission in a closed, unrecorded hearing in the Oval Office.
- 2005 - Apple Computer releases Mac OS X v10.4.
- 2009 - The Big Shell incident occurs in the outer New York City Harbor in the fictional video game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

Births

- 1665 - James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, Irish statesman and soldier (d. 1745)
- 1667 - John Arbuthnot, English physician and satirist (d. 1735)
- 1686 - Peregrine Bertie, 2nd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English statesman (d. 1742)
- 1727 - Jean-Georges Noverre, French dancer and ballet master (d. 1810)
- 1762 - Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, French marshal (d. 1833)
- 1780 - Charles Nodier, French writer (d. 1844)
- 1837 - Georges Boulanger, French general and politician (d. 1891)
- 1854 - Henri Poincaré, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1912)
- 1863 - William Randolph Hearst, American publisher (d. 1951)
- 1876 - Empress Zauditu of Ethiopia (d. 1930)
- 1879 - Sir Thomas Beecham, English conductor (d. 1961)
- 1885 - Egon Erwin Kisch, Czech journalist and author (d. 1948)
- 1893 - Harold Urey, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
- 1895 - Malcolm Sargent, English conductor (d. 1967)
- 1899 - Duke Ellington, American jazz pianist and bandleader (d. 1974)
- 1901 - Hirohito, Emperor of Japan (d. 1989)
- 1907 - Fred Zinnemann, Austrian-born American film director (d. 1997)
- 1909 - Tom Ewell, American actor (d. 1994)
- 1917 - Celeste Holm, American actress
- 1918 - George Allen, American football player and coach (d. 1990)
- 1920 - Harold Shapero, American composer
- 1925 - Ned Austin, American character actor
- 1929 - Walter Kempowski, German author
- 1929 - Peter Sculthorpe, Australian composer
- 1930 - Jean Rochefort, French actor
- 1931 - Frank Auerbach, German-born British painter
- 1931 - Lonnie Donegan, Scottish musician (d. 2002)
- 1933 - Mark Eyskens, Prime Minister of Belgium
- 1933 - Rod McKuen, American poet and composer
- 1934 - Luis Aparicio, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
- 1934 - Otis Rush, American musician
- 1936 - Zubin Mehta, Indian-born American conductor
- 1937 - Jill Paton Walsh, English writer
- 1938 - Fred Dibnah, English television personality (d.2004)
- 1942 - Klaus Voormann, German illustrator and musician
- 1944 - Richard Kline, American actor and television director
- 1945 - Tammi Terrell, American singer (d. 1970)
- 1946 - John Waters, American film director and writer
- 1947 - Olavo de Carvalho, Brazilian philosopher
- 1947 - Tommy James, American musician
- 1947 - Jim Ryun, American athlete and politician
- 1951 - Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver (d. 2001)
- 1952 - Nora Dunn, American actress
- 1952 - David Icke, British writer
- 1954 - Jerry Seinfeld, American comedian
- 1955 - Kate Mulgrew, American actress
- 1957 - Daniel Day-Lewis, Irish actor
- 1958 - Michelle Pfeiffer, American actress
- 1958 - Eve Plumb, American actress
- 1960 - Robert J. Sawyer, Canadian writer
- 1964 - Federico Castelluccio, Italian-American actor
- 1966 - Phil Tufnell, English cricketer
- 1967 - Curtis Joseph, Canadian hockey player
- 1967 - Master P, American rapper, composer, actor, athlete, and sports agent
- 1968 - Carnie Wilson, American singer
- 1970 - Andre Agassi, American tennis player
- 1970 - Uma Thurman, American actress
- 1974 - Pascal Cygan, French footballer
- 1975 - Eric Koston, Thai-born skateboarder
- 1977 - Claus Jensen, Danish footballer
- 1980 - Kian Egan, Irish musician (Westlife)

Deaths

- 1380 - Catherine of Siena, Italian saint (b. 1347)
- 1594 - Thomas Cooper, English bishop, lexicographer, and writer
- 1630 - Agrippa d'Aubigné, French poet (b. 1552)
- 1658 - John Cleveland, English poet (b. 1613)
- 1676 - Michiel de Ruyter, Dutch admiral (b. 1607)
- 1688 - Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg (b. 1620)
- 1698 - Charles Cornwallis, 3rd Baron Cornwallis, First Lord of the British Admiralty (b. 1655)
- 1707 - George Farquhar, Irish dramatist (b. 1678)
- 1743 - Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, French writer (b. 1658)
- 1768 - Georg Brandt, Swedish chemist and minerologist (b. 1694)
- 1776 - Edward Wortley Montagu, English traveler and writer (b. 1713)
- 1793 - Yechezkel Landau, Polish rabbi and Talmudist (b. 1713)
- 1793 - John Michell, English scientist (b. 1724)
- 1798 - Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus, German entomologist (b. 1723)
- 1854 - Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, English general (b. 1768)
- 1933 - Constantine P. Cavafy, Greek poet (b. 1863)
- 1937 - William Gillette, American actor (b. 1853)
- 1944 - Bernardino Machado, President of Portugal (b. 1851)
- 1951 - Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-born philosopher (b. 1889)
- 1966 - William Eccles, English physicist and radio pioneer (b. 1875)
- 1980 - Alfred Hitchcock, English film director (b. 1899)
- 1988 - James McCracken, American tenor (b. 1926)
- 1993 - Mick Ronson, British musician (b. 1946)
- 1997 - Mike Royko, American columnist (b. 1932)
- 2005 - William J. Bell, television writer and producer (b. 1927)

Holidays and observances

- Roman Catholic feast days:
- Saint Catherine of Siena
- Saint Robert
- Wilfred the Younger
- Peter of Verona
- Hugh of Cluny
- International Dance Day
- Japan - Greenery Day (public holiday, traditionally the start of the Golden Week holiday period)
- Roman Empire - second day of the Floralia in honor of Flora

Other

"April 29th 1992 (Miami)" is the title of a song by Sublime on their self-titled album.

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/29 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/4/29 Today in History: April 29] ---- April 28 - April 30 - March 29 - May 29 – listing of all days ko:4월 29일 ms:29 April ja:4月29日 simple:April 29 th:29 เมษายน

Politician

A politician is an individual involved in politics to the extent of holding or running for public office. In Western democracies, the term is generally restricted to those officials who attain their position through election campaigns, rather than all members of the state bureaucracy. Such a distinction is less clear in non-democratic forms of government. In a state, individual politicians compose the executive branch of government and the office of Head of State (unless the head of state is a non-political figure, such as a king) as well as the legislative branch, and regional and local levels of government. Other organs of government such as the judicial branch, law enforcement, and the military are not usually regarded as being composed of politicians, despite the fact that the men and women involved do government work. Sometimes political scientists are also refered to as politicians. The Australian slang term for politicians is pollies. Some common offices for politicians can include:
- Alderman
- Congressman
- Councillor
- Governor
- Mayor
- Member of Parliament
- Minister
- Premier
- President
- Prime Minister
- School board member
- Senator

External link

- [http://politicalgraveyard.com/chrono/index.html List of American Politicians by Year Born or Died] Politicians Politician
- ja:政治家

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the early 19th century until the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party (the SDP) to form a new party which would become known as the Liberal Democrats. (nb. Some members of the Liberal Party - as with the SDP - disagreed with the merger, and formed the current Liberal Party, a minor party which claims to be a continuation of the old Liberal Party.)

Origins

Liberal Party The Liberal Party grew out of the Whig Party, which had its origins as an aristocratic faction in the reign of Charles II. The Whigs were in favour of reducing the power of the Crown and increasing the power of the Parliament, and although their motives in this were originally to gain more power for themselves, the more idealistic Whigs gradually came to support an expansion of democracy for its own sake. The great figures of reforming Whiggery were Charles James Fox (died 1806) and his disciple and successor Earl Grey. After decades in opposition the Whigs came to power under Grey in 1830, and carried the First Reform Act in 1832. The Reform Act was the climax of Whiggery, but also brought about the Whigs' demise. The admission of the middle classes to the franchise and to the House of Commons led eventually to the development of a systematic middle class liberalism and the end of Whiggery, although for many years reforming aristocrats held senior positions in the party. In the years after Grey's retirement the party was led first by Lord Melbourne, a fairly traditional Whig, and then by Lord John Russell, the son of a Duke but a crusading radical, and Lord Palmerston, a renegade Irish Tory and essentially a conservative, although capable of radical gestures. As early as 1839 Russell had adopted the name Liberal Party, but in reality the party was a loose coalition of Whigs in the House of Lords and Radicals in the Commons. The leading Radicals were John Bright and Richard Cobden, who represented the manufacturing towns which had gained representation under the Reform Act. They favoured social reform, personal liberty, reducing the powers of the Crown and the Church of England (many of them were Nonconformists), avoidance of war and foreign alliances (which were bad for business), and above all free trade. For a century free trade was the one cause which could unite all Liberals. In 1841 the Liberals lost office to the Conservatives under Sir Robert Peel, but their period in opposition was short, because the Conservatives split over the repeal of the Corn Laws, a free trade issue, and a faction known as the Peelites (but not Peel himself, who died soon after), defected to the Liberal side. This allowed ministries led by Russell, Palmerston and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen to hold office for most of the 1850s and 1860s. The leading Peelite was William Ewart Gladstone, who was a zealous reforming Chancellor of the Exchequer in most of these governments. The formal foundation of the Liberal party is traditionally traced to 1859 and the formation of Palmerston's second government. The Whig-Radical amalgam could not become a true modern political party, however, while it was dominated by aristocrats, and it was not until the departure of the "Two Terrible Old Men", Russell and Palmerston, that Gladstone could become the first leader of the modern Liberal Party. This was brought about by Palmerston's death in 1865 and Russell's retirement in 1868. After a brief Conservative interlude (during which the Second Reform Act was passed by agreement between the parties), Gladstone won a huge victory at the 1868 election and formed the first Liberal government. The establishment of the party as a national membership organisation came with the foundation of the National Liberal Federation in 1877.

The Gladstonian era

1877 For the next thirty years Gladstone and Liberalism were synonymous. The "Grand Old Man", as he became known, was Prime Minister four times and the powerful flow of his rhetoric dominated British politics even when he was out of office. His rivalry with the Conservative leader Benjamin Disraeli became legendary. Gladstone was a High Church Anglican and enjoyed the company of aristocrats, but he grew more and more radical as he grew older: he was, as one wit put it, "a Tory in all but essentials". Queen Victoria, who had grown up as a Whig under the tutelage of Melbourne, became a Tory in reaction against Gladstone's moralising Liberalism. Gladstone's great achievements in office were his reforms to education, land reform (particularly in Ireland, where he ended centuries of landlord oppression), the disestablishment of the (Protestant) Church of Ireland, the introduction of democratic local government, the abolition of patronage in the civil service and the army, and the Third Reform Act which greatly extended democracy by giving the vote to almost all adult males. In foreign policy Gladstone was an anti-imperialist and an avoider of foreign entanglements, but even he found it hard to resist the imperialist ideology of Victorian Britain. In 1874 Gladstone was defeated by the Tories under Disraeli, mainly because of a sharp recession. He formally resigned as Liberal leader and was succeeded by the Marquess of Hartington, but he soon changed his mind and returned to active politics. He was appalled by Disraeli's pro-Ottoman foreign policy and during 1880 he conducted the first modern outdoor mass election campaign in Britain, known as the Midlothian campaign. In 1880 the Liberals won a huge election victory, and Hartington had no choice but to stand aside and allow Gladstone to resume office. Among the consequences of the Third Reform Act was giving the vote to the Catholic peasant masses of Ireland, and the consequent creation of an Irish Nationalist Party led by Charles Stewart Parnell. In 1885 this party won the balance of power in the House of Commons, and demanded Irish Home Rule (that is, the status of a self-governing Dominion for Ireland) as the price of support for a continued Gladstone ministry. Gladstone personally supported Home Rule, but a strong Liberal Unionist faction led by Joseph Chamberlain and the last of the Whig grandees, Hartington, bitterly opposed it. The result was a catastrophic split in the Liberal Party, and heavy defeat in the 1886 election at the hands of Lord Salisbury. There was a final weak Gladstone ministry in 1892, but it also was dependent on Irish support and broke up on the rocks of Irish Home Rule. Gladstone finally retired in 1894, and his ineffectual successor, Lord Rosebery, led the party to another heavy defeat in 1895. Gladstone had dominated the Liberal Party for so long that it was lost without him.

The Liberal Zenith

1895 The Liberals languished in opposition for a decade, while the coalition of Salisbury and Chamberlain held power and presided over the high noon of British imperialism. In 1900, led by Henry Campbell-Bannerman, they bravely opposed British policy in the Second Boer War, handing Salisbury a huge victory in the original "Khaki election". But with Salisbury's retirement in 1902 the Conservatives went into decline, and then split over the issue of free trade. In 1906 Campbell-Bannerman, rallying the party on a platform of free trade and land reform, led the Liberals to the greatest election victory in their history (this was the last time the Liberals won a majority in their own right). Campbell-Bannerman's ministry was one of the most brilliant in British history, although he himself was regarded as decent but rather dull. He was overshadowed by Herbert Henry Asquith at the Exchequer, Edward Grey at the Foreign Office, Richard Burdon Haldane at the War Office and David Lloyd George at the Board of Trade. In 1908 Campbell-Bannerman retired due to failing health and he was succeeded by Asquith, who stepped up the government's radicalism. Lloyd George succeeded Asquith at the Exchequer, and was in turn succeeded at the Board of Trade by Winston Churchill, a recent defector from the Conservatives. Between them they provided much of the government's drive. The Liberals pushed through numerous pioneering social reforms, such as regulation of working hours, national insurance and welfare, as well as the reform of the House of Lords. This latter issue led to a titanic struggle with the Lords, including two general elections in 1910, at which the Liberals retained power but lost their overall majority, being left once again dependent on the Irish Nationalists. As a result Asquith was forced to introduce a new Home Rule bill in 1912. Since the House of Lords no longer had the power to block the bill, the Unionists, led by Sir Edward Carson, launched a campaign of opposition that included the threat of armed resistance in Ulster, and by 1914 threatened to lead to a mutiny by army officers in Ireland (see Ulster crisis). In their threats of violent resistance to Home Rule the Ulster Protestants had the full support of the Conservatives, now led by an Ulsterman, Andrew Bonar Law. The country seemed to be on the brink of civil war when World War I broke out in August 1914. The war struck at the heart of everything British Liberals believed in. Several Cabinet ministers resigned, and Asquith, the master of domestic politics, proved a poor war leader. Lloyd George and Churchill, however, were zealous supporters of the war, and gradually forced the old pacifist Liberals out. The poor British performance in the early months of the war forced Asquith to invite the Conservatives into a coalition (on May 17, 1915). This marked the end of the last all-Liberal government. This coalition fell apart at the end of 1916, when the Conservatives refused to support Asquith any longer and gave their support instead to Lloyd George, who became Prime Minister at the head of a coalition government largely made up of Conservatives. Asquith and his followers moved to the opposition benches in Parliament and the Liberal Party was once again split.

Liberal decline

1916 In the 1918 general election Lloyd George, "the Man who Won the War", led his coalition into another khaki election, and won a sweeping victory over the Asquithian Liberals and the newly-emerging Labour Party. Lloyd George and the Conservative leader Andrew Bonar Law wrote a joint letter of support to candidates to indicate they were considered the official Coalition candidates - this "coupon" as it became known was issued against many sitting Liberal MPs, often to devastating effect, though not against Asquith himself. Asquith and most of his colleagues lost their seats. Lloyd George still claimed to be leading a Liberal government, but he was increasingly a prisoner of the Conservatives. In 1922 the Conservative backbenchers rebelled against the continuation of the coalition in general, citing in particular the Chanak Crisis over Turkey and Lloyd George's corrupt sale of honours amongst other grievances, and Lloyd George was forced to resign. The Conservatives came back to power under Bonar Law and then Stanley Baldwin. At the 1922 and 1923 elections the Liberals won barely a third of the vote and a quarter of the seats in the House of Commons as many radical voters abandoned the divided Liberals and went over to Labour. In 1922 Labour became the official opposition. A reunion of the two warring factions took place in 1923 when the new Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin committed his party to protective tariffs, causing the Liberals to reunite in support of free trade. The party gained ground in the 1923 general election but ominously made most of its gains from Conservatives whilst losing ground to Labour - a sign of the party's direction for many years to come. The party remained the third largest in the House of Commons but the Conservatives had lost their majority. There was much speculation and fear about the prospect of a Labour government, but comparatively little about a Liberal government, even though it could have plausibly presented an experienced team of ministers compared to Labour's almost complete lack of experience as well as offering a middle ground that could get support from both Conservatives and Labour in crucial Commons divisions. But instead of trying to force the opportunity to form a Liberal government, Asquith decided instead to allow Labour the chance of office in the belief that they would prove incompetent and this would set the stage for a revival of Liberal fortunes at Labour's expenses. It was a fatal error. Labour was determined to destroy the Liberals and become the sole party of the left. When Ramsay MacDonald was forced into a snap election in 1924, and although his government was defeated, he achieved his objective of virtually wiping the Liberals out as many more radical voters now moved to Labour whilst moderate middle-class Liberal voters concerned about socialism moved to the Conservatives. The Liberals were reduced to a mere forty seats in Parliament, only seven of which had been won against candidates from both parties and none of these formed a coherent area of Liberal survival. The party seemed finished and during this period some Liberals, such as Churchill, went over to the Conservatives, while others went over to Labour. (Several Labour ministers of later generations, such as Michael Foot and Tony Benn, were the sons of Liberal MPs). Asquith died in 1926 and the enigmatic figure of Lloyd George returned to the leadership and began a drive to produce coherent policies on many key issues of the day. In the 1929 general election he made a final bid to return the Liberals to the political mainstream, with an ambitious programme of state stimulation of the economy called We Can Conquer Unemployment!, largely written for him by the Liberal economist John Maynard Keynes. The Liberals gained ground, but once again it was at the Conservatives' expense whilst also losing seats to Labour. Indeed the urban areas of the country suffering heavily from unemployment, which might have been expected to respond the most to the radical economic policies of the Liberals instead gave the party its worst results. By contrast most of the party's seats were won either due to the absence of a candidate from one of the other parties or in rural areas on the "Celtic fringe", where local evidence suggests that economic ideas were at best peripheral to the electorate's concerns. The Liberals now found themselves with 59 members holding the balance of power in a Parliament where Labour was the largest party but lacked an overall majority. Lloyd George offered a degree of support to the Labour government in the hope of winning concessions, including a degree of electoral reform to introduce the alternative vote, but this support was to prove bitterly divisive as the Liberals increasingly divided between those seeking to gain what Liberal goals they could achieve, those who preferred a Conservative government to a Labour one and vice-versa. In 1931 MacDonald's government fell apart under the impact of the Great Depression, and the Liberals agreed to join his National Government, which was dominated by the Conservatives. Lloyd George however was ill and did not join himself. Soon, however, the Liberals faced another divisive crisis when it was proposed to fight the 1931 general election as a National Government and seek a mandate for tariffs. From outside the government Lloyd George called for the party to abandon the government completely in defence of free trade, but only a few MPs and candidates followed him, most of them related to him. Another group under Sir John Simon emerged who were prepared to continue their support for the government and take the Liberal places in the Cabinet if there were resignations. The third group under Sir Herbert Samuel pressed for the parties in government to fight the election on separate platforms. In doing so the bulk of Liberals remained supporting the government, but two distinct Liberal groups had emerged within this bulk - the National Liberals led by Simon, also known as "Simonites", and the "Samuelites" or "official Liberals" led by Samuel who remained as the official party. Both groups secured about 35 MPs but proceeded to diverge even further after the election, with the National Liberals remaining supporters of the government throughout its life. There were to be a succession of discussions about them rejoining the Liberals but these usually foundered on the issues of free trade and continued support for the National Government and came to little (though in 1946 the Liberal and National Liberal party organisations in London did merge). The official Liberals found themselves a tiny minority within a government committed to protectionism. Slowly they found this issue to be one they could not support in any way. In early 1932 it was agreed to suspend the principle of collective responsibility to allow the Liberals to oppose the introduction of tariffs. Later in 1932 the Liberals resigned their ministerial posts over the introduction of the Ottawa Agreement on Imperial Preference. However they remained sitting on the government benches supporting it in Parliament, though in the country local Liberal activists bitterly opposed the government. Finally in late 1933 the Liberals crossed the floor of the House of Commons and went into complete opposition. By this point their number of MPs was severely depleted. In the 1935 general election, just 17 Liberal MPs were elected, along with Lloyd George and three followers as "independent Liberals". Immediately after the election the two groups reunited, though Lloyd George declined to play much of a formal role in his old party. However over the next ten years there would be further defections as MPs deserted to either the National Liberals or Labour. There were however a few recruits, such as Clement Davies, who had deserted to the National Liberals in 1931 but now returned to the party during the Second World War and who would lead it after the war. Samuel had lost his seat in the 1935 election and the leadership of the party fell to Sir Archibald Sinclair. With many traditional domestic Liberal policies now regarded as irrelevant, he focused the part on opposition to both the rise of Fascism in Europe and the appeasement foreign policy of the British government, arguing that intervention was needed, in contrast to the Labour calls for pacifism. Despite the party's weaknesses, Sinclair gained a high profile as he sought to recall the Midlothian Campaign and once more revitalise the Liberals as the party of a strong foreign policy. In 1940 they joined Churchill's wartime coalition government, with Sinclair serving as Secretary of State for Air, the last British Liberal to hold Cabinet rank office. However it was a sign of the party's lack of importance that they were not included in the War Cabinet. At the 1945 general election, however, Sinclair and many of his colleagues lost their seats to both Conservatives and Labour. By 1951 there were only six MPs, all but one of them were aided by the Conservatives not putting up a candidate. In 1957 this total fell to five when one of their MPs died and the subsequent by-election was lost to the Labour Party, who fielded the former Liberal Deputy Leader Lady Megan Lloyd George as their candidate. The Liberal Party seemed close to extinction. During this low period, it was often joked that Liberal MP's could hold meetings in the back of one taxi.

Liberal revival

Through the 1950s and into the 1960s the Liberals survived only because a handful of constituencies in rural Scotland and Wales clung to their Liberal traditions, whilst in two English towns, Bolton and Huddersfield local Liberals and Conservatives agreed to each contest only one of the town's two seats. Jo Grimond, for example, who became Liberal leader in 1956, was MP for the remote Orkney and Shetland islands. Under his leadership a Liberal revival began, marked by the famous Orpington by-election of March 1962 which was won by Eric Lubbock, in which the Liberals won a seat in the London suburbs for the first time since 1935. The Liberals became the first of the major British political parties to advocate British membership of the European Economic Community. Grimond also sought an intellectual revival of the party, seeking to position it as a non-socialist radical alternative to the Conservative government of the day. In particular he appealed to the new university students and graduates in the post-war world, appealing to younger voters in a way that many of his recent predecessors had failed to do so, asserting a new strand of Liberalism for the post war world. The postwar middle class suburban generation began to find the Liberals' policies attractive again, and under Grimond and his successor, Jeremy Thorpe, the Liberals regained the status of a serious third force in British politics, polling up to 20% of the vote but unable to break the duopoly of Labour and Conservative and win more than fourteen seats in the Commons. An additional problem was competition in the Liberal heartlands in Scotland and Wales from the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru who both grew as electoral forces from the 1960s onwards. In the February 1974 general election the Conservative government of Edward Heath lost its overall majority. The Liberals now held the balance of power in the Commons. Heath offered Thorpe the Home Office if he would join a coalition government with Heath. Thorpe was personally in favour, but the party insisted on a clear government commitment to introducing proportional representation and a change of Prime Minister. The former was unacceptable to Heath's Cabinet and the latter to Heath personally and so the talks collapsed. Instead a minority Labour government was formed under Harold Wilson but with no formal support from Thorpe. In the October 1974 general election the Liberals slipped back slightly and the Labour government won a very slender majority. Thorpe was subsequently forced to resign in a sordid sex scandal. The party's new leader, David Steel negotiated the Lib-Lab Pact with the new Prime Minister, Jim Callaghan, whereby the Liberals would support the government in crucial votes in exchange for some influence over policy. This pact lasted from 1977-1978 but proved relatively fruitless as the Liberals' key demand of proportional representation was anathema to most Labour MPs whilst the contacts between Liberal spokespersons and Labour ministers often proved detrimental, such as between finance spokesperson John Pardoe and Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey who did not get on at all. When the Labour government fell in 1979, the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher won a landslide victory which pushed the Liberals back into the margins. In 1981 defectors from the moderate wing of the Labour Party, led by former Cabinet ministers Roy Jenkins, David Owen and Shirley Williams, founded the Social Democratic Party. The two parties fought the 1983 and 1987 general elections jointly as the SDP-Liberal Alliance. During 1982 and 1983, at the depths of Labour's fortunes under Michael Foot, there was much talk of the Alliance becoming the dominant party of the left and even of Jenkins becoming Prime Minister. In fact, while the Alliance won over 20% of the vote each time, it never made the hoped-for breakthrough in terms of parliamentary seats. In 1988 the two parties merged to create (after a number of name changes) the Liberal Democrats. Over two-thirds of the members, and all the serving MPs, of the Liberal Party joined this party, led first by Steel and later by Paddy Ashdown and Charles Kennedy. With the fading away of the ex-Labour element after 1992, this party is seen by many continuation of the old Liberal Party under a new name, and some of its MPs and many of its rank-and-file continue to refer to themselves simply as Liberals. However others argue that the Liberal Democrats do not always follow traditional Liberal policies, whilst in terms of personalities they argue that both Paddy Ashdown (who was closer to the SDP than the Liberals on several matters) and Charles Kennedy (who was an SDP not a Liberal MP) are not old-style Liberals. Although the Liberal Democrats retain both the ethos and policies of the old Liberals in local and regional government and continue to be seen as centrists, in Parliament they are seen as to the left of the Labour Party. This is primarily due to Labour's move to the right under Tony Blair, but is also the result of the Lib Dems under Charles Kennedy more strongly supporting the public sector against privatisation, and maintaining traditional Liberal opposition to militarism in the face of Labour and Conservative support for the War in Iraq.

The post 1988 Liberal Party

A group of Liberal opponents of the merger, including Michael Meadowcroft formerly Liberal MP for Leeds West and Dr Paul Wiggin who served on Peterborough City Council as a Liberal, continued under the old name of "the Liberal Party"; this was legally a new organisation (the headquarters, records, assets and debts of the old party were inherited by the Liberal Democrats), but its constitution asserts it to be the same party as that which had previously existed. (Ironically, they also gave help to the rump Jack Holmes led SDP after its official disbandment in 1990) It has a handful of local councillors, though its annual assembly scarcely attracts more than a hundred members, and it has never been a serious contender to win seats in the House of Commons. That said, the fact the party lives on is testament to one of the greatest strengths of the Liberal tradition as a whole in the UK - its ability to produce an active membership to make up for a lack of resources. In the West Country (ie Devon & Cornwall) and in Liverpool the Liberal Party can still stand a near full slate of candidates at elections, whilst in other areas such as Peterborough, Slough & Wyre Forest (Worcestershire), the party has returned three councillors regularly for over a decade. The party's current HQ is in Liverpool, though its major base of operations remains its West Country stronghold (a traditional stronghold of Liberalism, whether Liberal or Liberal Democrat).

Liberal leaders 1859-1988

Liberal Leaders in the House of Lords, 1859-1916
- Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville 1859-1865
- John Russell, 1st Earl Russell 1865-1868
- Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville 1868-1891
- John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley 1891-1894
- Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery 1894-1896
- John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley 1896-1902
- George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon 1902-1908
- Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe 1908-1916 Liberal Leaders in the House of Commons, 1859-1916
- Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston 1859-1865
- William Ewart Gladstone 1865-1875
- Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington 1875-1880
- William Ewart Gladstone 1880-1894
- Sir William Vernon Harcourt 1894-1899
- Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman 1899-1908
- Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (1925) 1908-1916 Leaders of the Liberal Party, 1916-1988
- Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (1925) 1916-1926
- Donald Maclean, Acting Leader 1919-1922
- David Lloyd George 1926-1931
- Sir Herbert Samuel 1931-1935
- Sir Archibald Sinclair 1935-1945
- Clement Davies 1945-1956
- Jo Grimond 1956-1967
- Jeremy Thorpe 1967-1976
- Jo Grimond 1976
- David Steel 1976-1988

External links

- [http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/ Liberal Democrat History Group]

References

Chris Cook, A Short History of the Liberal Party, 1900-2001 (6th edition). Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002. ISBN 0-333-91838-X. Jonathan Parry, The Rise and Fall of Liberal Government in Victorian Britain. Yale, 1993.ISBN 0-300-06718-6. Category:Defunct political parties in the United Kingdom United Kingdom 1860s

1967

1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January

- January 4 - Algerian revolutionary Mohammed Khider is shot in Madrid.
- January 6 - Vietnam War: USMC and ARVN troops launch "Operation Deckhouse Five" in the Mekong River delta.
- January 10 - Segregationist Lester Maddox inaugurated as governor of Georgia.
- January 13 - Military coup in Togo under the leadership of Etienne Eyadema.
- January 14 - The New York Times reports that the US Army is conducting secret germ warfare experiments.
- January 15 - Louis Leakey announces that he has found prehuman fossils from Kenya - he names the species Kenyapitchecus Africanus.
- January 15 - United Kingdom enters the first round of negotiations for EEC membership in Rome.
- January 16 - Italy announces support for United Kingdom's EEC membership.
- January 18 - Albert DeSalvo, the "Boston Strangler," is convicted of numerous crimes and is sentenced to life in prison.
- January 18 - Jeremy Thorpe becomes leader of the Liberal Party
- January 23 - In Munich, trial begins against Wilhelm Harster, accused of murder of 82,856 Jews (including Anne Frank) when he led German security police during the German occupation of Netherlands. He is eventually sentenced to 15 years in prison.
- January 26 - Parliament of the United Kingdom decides to nationalize 90% of British steel industry.
- January 27 - Apollo 1: US astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee are killed when fire erupts in their Apollo spacecraft during a test on the launch pad.
- January 27 - USA, Soviet Union and UK sign the Outer Space Treaty.
- January 31 - West Germany and Romania form diplomatic relations.

February

- February 2 - The American Basketball Association is formed.
- February 3 - Ronald Ryan becomes the last man hanged in Australia, executed for the murder of a prison guard, which he committed while escaping from prison in December 1965
- February 4 - Soviet Union protests the demonstrations before its embassy in Peking
- February 5 - Lunar Orbiter 3 is launched.
- February 5 - Italy's first guided missile cruiser, the Vittorio Veneto (C550), is launched.
- February 5 - General Anastasio Somoza Debayle becomes president of Nicaragua.
- February 6 - Aleksei Kosygin arrives in the UK for an eight-day visit. He meets the Queen on the 9th.
- February 7 - Chinese government announces that it can no longer guarantee safety of Soviet diplomats outside the Soviet embassy building
- February 7 - Serious brush fires in southern Tasmania claim 62 lives
- February 10 - The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified
- February 14 - King Constantine II of Greece flees the country when his coup attempt fails
- February 15 - Soviet Union announces that it has sent troops to near Chinese border
- February 18 - China sends three PLA divisions to Tibet
- February 18 - New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison claims he is going to solve the John F. Kennedy assassination and that it was planned in New Orleans
- February 22 - Suharto takes power from Sukarno in Indonesia.
- February 22 - Donald Sangster becomes the new Prime Minister of Jamaica, succeeding Alexander Bustamante.
- February 23 - Trinidad and Tobago are the first Commonwealth nation to join the OAS.
- February 24 - Moscow forbids its satellite states to form diplomatic relations to West Germany
- February 25 - Chinese government announces that it has ordered the army to help in the spring seeding.
- February 25 - Britain's second Polaris missile submarine, HMS Renown, is launched.
- February 26 - Soviet nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan, Semipalitinsk.
- February 27 - Dutch government supports British EEC membership
- February 27 - Dominica gains independence from the United Kingdom.
- February 27 - The Outer Space Treaty was signed in Washington, London, and Moscow (entered into force October 10, 1967).

March

- March 1 - The city Hatogaya, located in Saitama, Japan is founded
- March 1 - Brazilian police arrest Franc Paul Stangli, ex-commander of Treblinka and Sobibór concentration camps
- March 1 - Red Guards return to schools in China.
- March 1 - The Queen Elizabeth Hall is opened in London.
- March 4 - The first North Sea gas is pumped ashore at Easington Co Durham.
- March 4 - Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, the disposed democratically elected prime minister of Iran, dies while under house arrest.
- March 7 - Jimmy Hoffa begins his 8-year sentence for attempted bribery of jury
- March 9 - Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva defects to USA via the US Delhi Embassy.
- March 12 - Indonesian State Assembly takes all presidential powers from Sukarno and names Suharto as acting president.
- March 13 - Moise Tshombe, ex-prime minister of Congo is sentenced to death in absentia
- March 14 - The body of President John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery
- March 14 - Nine executives of the German pharmaceutical company Grunenthal are charged for breaking German drug laws because of thalidomide
- March 16 - In the Aspida case in Greece, 15 officers are sentenced to 2-18 years in prison accused of treason and intentions of coup
- March 18 - Supertanker Torrey Canyon runs aground in between Land's End and the Scilly Isles
- March 19 - Referendum in French Somaliland favors the connection to France
- March 21 - Military coup takes place in Sierra Leone.
- March 28 - Pope Paul VI issues the encyclical Populorum Progressio.
- March 29 - 13-day TV strike begins in USA.
- March 29-March 30 - RAF planes bomb the Torrey Canyon and sink it
- March 29 - The First French nuclear submrine, Le Redoutable, is launched.
- March 29 - The SEACOM cable system is inaugurated.
- March 31 - President Lyndon Johnson signs the Consular Treaty.

April

- April 2 - UN delegation arrives in Aden due to approaching independence. They leave April 7 and accuse British authorities for lack of cooperation. British say the delegation did not contact them.
- April 4 - Martin Luther King, Jr denounces Vietnam War during a religous service in New York City
- April 6 - Georges Pompidou begins to form the next French government.
- April 7 - Six-Day War: Israeli fighters shoot down seven Syrian MIG-21s.
- April 9 - The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series) takes its maiden flight.
- April 13 - Conservatives win the Greater London Council elections.
- April 14 - 10,000 march against the Vietnam War in San Francisco.
- April 15 - Large demonstrations against the Vietnam War in New York City and San Francisco.
- April 20 - Surveyor 3 probe lands on the Moon.
- April 20 - A Swiss Britannia turboprop crashes at Toronto, Canada, killing 126.
- April 21 - Greece is taken over by military dictatorship led by George Papadopoulos, forcing King Constantine II to flee.
- April 23 - A group of young radicals are expelled from the Nicaraguan Socialist Party (PSN). This group goes on to found the Socialist Workers Party (POS).
- April 24 - Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies during reentry of Soyuz 1 after the spacecraft's parachutes fail to deploy properly.
- April 28 - Boxer Muhammad Ali refuses military service.
- April 28 - Montreal hosts Expo '67; it is to coincide with the centennial of Canadian Confederation.
- April 29 - Fidel Castro announces that all intellectual property belongs to all people and that Cuba intends to translate and publish technical literature without compensation.
- April 30 - Moscow's 537m-tall TV tower is finished.

May

- May 2 - The Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup.
- May 2 - Harold Wilson announces that United Kingdom has decided to apply for EEC membership
- May 3 - Big gold robbery in London.
- May 4 - Lunar Orbiter 4 launched.
- May 6 - Dr Zakir Hussain is the first Muslim to become president of India.
- May 6 - 400 students seize the administration building at Cheyney State College, Pennsylvania
- May 8 - The Philippine province of Davao is split into three: Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, and Davao Oriental.
-