1937 in The United Kingdom - Events

Events

• 25 February – UK première of the historical film Fire Over England, providing the first pairing of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.
• 8 March – The Prince Edward, the abdicated King Edward VIII, is created Duke of Windsor
• 12 May – Coronation of George VI and Queen Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother) takes place at Westminster Abbey, London. The BBC makes its first outside broadcast covering the event.
• 27 May – George VI passes letters patent denying the style of Royal Highness to the wife and descendants of the Duke of Windsor.
• 28 May – Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister after Baldwin's retirement.
• 3 June – The Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson in the Château de Candé.
• 1 July – The 999 emergency telephone number is introduced.
• 2 July – Holditch Colliery Disaster, a coal mining accident in Chesterton, Staffordshire, in which thirty men die following a fire and explosions.
• 7 July – Peel Commission proposes partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states.
• 23 July – Matrimonial Causes Act adds insanity and desertion to infidelity as legitimate grounds for divorce.
• 28 July – Assassination attempt on King George VI in Belfast by the Irish Republican Army.
• 4 August – Return of the British Graham Land Expedition from Antarctica.
• 27 August – Benjamin Britten's string orchestral work Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10, receives its concert première at the Salzburg Festival, bringing the composer to international attention.
• 6 October – The fictional character 'Mrs. Miniver' first appears in the column on domestic life written by 'Jan Struther' for The Times.
• 4 December – The first issue of children's comic The Dandy, including the character Desperate Dan, is published.
• 10 December
  • Lord Robert Cecil wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
  • George Thomson wins the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Clinton Davisson "for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals".
  • Walter Haworth wins half of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his investigations on carbohydrates and vitamin C".
• 16 December – The musical Me and My Girl opens in the West End Victoria Palace Theatre; the dance number "The Lambeth Walk" becomes popular.
• December – The Hawker Hurricane enters service with the Royal Air Force as its first monoplane fighter aircraft (with No. 111 Squadron at Northolt).