full commercial business application, for the bakers J. Lyons and Co. 1 December – Benjamin Britten's opera Billy Budd is premiered at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. 10 December – John Cockcroft wins the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Ernest Walton "for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles". 25 December – King George VI makes the Christmas Speech to the Commonwealth, but it has been pre-recorded as he is still struggling to recover from his operation three months ago. 31 December – Prime Minister Winston Churchill sets off to the United States for talks with President Harry S. Truman. Undated Trade union membership reaches an all-time peak, with 9,300,000 members. GCE Ordinary Level examinations introduced, together with Advanced Levels replacing the Higher School Certificate. First residential tower block in Britain, a 10-storey point block, The Lawn, in Harlow New Town in Essex, is constructed to the design of Sir Frederick Gibberd. Performance of medieval mystery plays revived at York and Chester. George Perry-Smith opens the innovative Hole in the Wall restaurant in Bath. Publications Agatha Christie's novel They Came to Baghdad. Graham Greene's novel The End of the Affair. C. S. Lewis' novel Prince Caspian. Nicholas Monsarrat's novel The Cruel Sea. Iona and Peter Opie's reference work The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes. Nikolaus Pevsner's guidebooks Cornwall, Nottinghamshire and Middlesex, first in the Buildings of England series. Anthony Powell's novel A Question of Upbringing, first in the 12-volume cycle A Dance to the Music of Time. Ronald Ridout's First English Workbook, a textbook which sells five million copies. John Wyndham's post-apocalyptic novel The Day of the Triffids. First edition of The Good Food Guide edited by Raymond Postgate. Births 2 January – Piers Merchant, politician (died 2009) 5 January – Steve Arnold, footballer 7 January – Helen Worth, soap actress 9 January – Andy Qunta, singer-songwriter, composer and musician 15 January – Biff Byford, rock singer (Saxon) 19 January Graham James, bishop Arthur Taxier, Scottish-American actor 20 January – Ian Hill, rock bassist (Judas Priest) 26 January – Anne Mills, English economist and academic 30 January – Phil Collins, musician and producer 1 February – Andrew Smith, politician, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 2 February – Ken Bruce, radio broadcaster 12 February – Howard Davies, economist 14 February – Kevin Keegan, footballer and football manager 15 February –