Events
- 1 January
- the English Folk Dance and Song Society holds its first festival under this name following merger of the Folk-Song Society and the English Folk Dance Society.
- the King gives the title of Princess Royal to his only daughter, Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood, a year after the death of the previous holder.
- 8 January — the Archbishop of Canterbury forbids church remarriage of divorcees.
- 24 January — inmates at Dartmoor Prison mutiny. [1]
- 26 January — British submarine HMS M2 sinks off the Dorset coast with all sixty hands.
- 1-29 February — with an average precipitation of 9.5 millimetres or 0.37 inches, this period constitutes the driest calendar month over the United Kingdom as a whole since records began in 1836. [2]
- 4-15 February — Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete in the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York, but do not win any medals.
- 1 March — Import Duties Act re-establishes protective trade tariffs. [3]
- 15 March — first BBC radio broadcast from the new Broadcasting House in London; [3] all programmes transfer from 15 May.
- 6 April – Ministry of Health encourages local councils to engage in widespread slum clearance. [3]
- 13 April — mass trespass of Kinder Scout, a wilful trespass by ramblers at Kinder Scout, in the Peak District of England, to protest against lack of free public access to open country. [4]
- 14 April – John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton, at the Cavendish Laboratory in the University of Cambridge, focus a proton beam on lithium and split its nucleus ("splitting the atom"). [5]
- 23 April — new Shakespeare Memorial Theatre opens in Stratford-upon-Avon; [6] designed by Elisabeth Scott, it is the country's first important work by a woman architect. [7]
- 1 May — protestors clash with police in Hyde Park, London, during a May day protest against Japan's attitude towards China when they try to march on the Japanese Embassy.
- 10 May — James Chadwick, working at the Cavendish Laboratory in the University of Cambridge, reports the existence of the neutron. [8]
- 26 May — the Scots law case of Donoghue v Stevenson is decided in the House of Lords, establishing the modern concept of a duty of care in cases of negligence. [9]
- 25 June – India plays its first Test cricket match with England at Lord's.
- 2 July — the exiled former king of Portugal, Manuel II, dies at Fulwell in Middlesex; his body is later returned to Portugal for burial.
- 4 July — George Carwardine patents the Anglepoise lamp.
- 12 July — Hedley Verity of Yorkshire establishes a new first-class cricket record by taking all ten wickets for only ten runs against Nottinghamshire on a pitch affected by a storm.
- 19 July — King George V opens the replacement Lambeth Bridge across the Thames in London.
- 30 July-14 August — Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Olympics in Los Angeles, California and win 4 gold, 7 silver and 5 bronze.
- 1 August — Forrest Mars produces the first Mars bar in his Slough factory. [10]
- 22 August — first experimental television broadcast by the BBC. [6]
- 20 September — Methodist Union: the Methodist Church is formed in Britain by merger of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, the Primitive Methodists and the United Methodist Church.
- 26 September — first contingent of the National Hunger March leaves Glasgow. [11]
- October
- Oswald Mosley founds the British Union of Fascists. [3]
- Anglo-Irish Trade War begins.
- 3 October — The Times newspaper first appears set in the Times New Roman typeface devised by Stanley Morison. [12]
- 7 October — Thomas Beecham establishes the London Philharmonic Orchestra. [3]
- 10 October — a mine cage accident at Bickershaw Colliery in the Lancashire Coalfield drowns 19. [13]
- 13 October — Britain grants independence to the kingdom of Iraq, ending the British mandate there in exchange for a restrictive long-term military alliance.
- 25 October – George Lansbury becomes the leader of the opposition Labour Party. [14] v
- 27 October — arrival of the Hunger March in London leads to several violent clashes with police. [15]
- 14 November — book tokens go on sale in the UK. [6]
- 30 November — the BBC begins a series of radio broadcasts to mark the 75th birthday of Sir Edward Elgar.
- 2 December — English cricket team in Australia in 1932–33: opening of the “bodyline” series.
- 5 December — the comic strip character Jane first appears in the Daily Mirror .
- 10 December
- John Galsworthy wins the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his distinguished art of narration which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga ". [16]
- Charles Scott Sherrington and Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian, win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries regarding the functions of neurons". [17]
- 19 December — the BBC Empire Service, later known as the BBC World Service, begins broadcasting [6] using a shortwave radio facility at its Daventry transmitting station. [18]
- 25 December — King George V delivers the first Royal Christmas Message [3] on the BBC Empire Service from Sandringham House; the text has been written by Rudyard Kipling.
Undated
- Opening of the Hoover Building on the Western Avenue in Perivale, Middlesex, a noted example of Art Deco architecture, designed by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners for The Hoover Company. [19]
- Production of Fordson tractors in the U.K. begins at Dagenham in Essex.
- Production of Weetabix breakfast cereal in the U.K. begins at Burton Latimer in Northamptonshire.
