John Surtees born in Tatsfield, Surrey.
The son of a south London motorcycle dealer, in 1950 at the age of 16 he began an apprenticeship at the Vincent works. He began riding for Norton in 1955.
John Surtees
Gene Vincent born in Norfolk, Virginia. In 1955 whilst riding his Triumph Tiger T110 he collided with a car which had run a red light. The following year he wrote "Be Bop A Lula", which ranks at No. 103 on the Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Songs list.
Be Bop A Lula
Robert O'Toole, University of Warwick in Coventry, UK, writes: "One of the best accounts of a motorcycle ride, by a great writer and diarist: T.E. Lawrence, from his RAF journals, The Mint."
The story, in eloquent prose, tells of his blasts through the English countryside in the 1930s on his Brough Superior (which cost the equivalent then of a small cottage) and includes an account of his race with an aeroplane.
The Mint by T.E. Lawrence