Events from the year 1952 in the United Kingdom. This year sees a change of monarch. Incumbents Monarch - George VI (until 6 February), Elizabeth II (starting 6 February) Prime Minister – Winston Churchill (Conservative) Parliament – 40th Events 5 January – Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in the United States for an official visit and talks with President Harry S. Truman. 10 January – An Aer Lingus Douglas DC-3 aircraft on a London–Dublin flight crashes in Wales due to vertical draft in the mountains of Snowdonia, killing twenty passengers and the three crew. 16 January – Sooty, Harry Corbett's glove puppet bear, first appears on BBC Television. 30 January – British troops remain in Korea, where they have spent the last eighteen months, after a breakdown of talks that were aimed at ending the Korean War. 1 February – The first TV detector van is commissioned in the UK, as the beginning of a clampdown on the estimated 150,000 British households that watch television illegally without a licence. 6 February – King George VI dies at Sandringham House aged 56 early this morning. It is revealed that he had been suffering from lung cancer. He is succeeded by his 25-year-old daughter, Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, who ascends to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II. The new Queen is on a visit to Kenya at the time of her father's death and returns to London the following day. She will be the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch, with a reign of 70 years. 8 February – Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland at St James's Palace. 14 February–25 February – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Winter Olympics in Oslo and win one gold medal. 15 February – The funeral of King George VI takes place at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. His body has been lying in state in Westminster Hall since 11 February. 21 February – Compulsory identity cards, issued during World War II, are abolished. 26 February – Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that the United Kingdom has an atomic bomb. 7 March – NME goes on sale for the first time in the United Kingdom. 31 March – Computer scientist Alan Turing is convicted of "gross indecency" after admitting to a consensual homosexual relationship in Regina v. Turing and Murray. He consents to undergo