IT was the year the Beatles performed the first stadium concert in the history of music, while cartoon heroes Tom and Jerry and the puppet-tastic Thunderbirds first aired on TV. Cigarette advertising was banned on British TV, the Sound of Music premiered and Winston Churchill was buried.

Actors Robert Downey Jnr, Dougray Scott and Charlie Sheen, comic Steve Coogan and model Elizabeth Hurley were also born in this year.

As if thatwasn’t momentous enough 1965 was also the year Honda first started trading in the UK.

In fact, ’65 was a pretty damn good year for Honda - it also saw the first Grand Prix win for Honda in the legendary RA272, thanks to Ritchie Ginther at the Mexico Grand Prix.

In the past five decades, Honda has achieved milestone after milestone. Now one of the top 20 biggest brands in the world, the company employs more than 182,000 employees worldwide and has 40 manufacturing facilities making everything from a 25cc leaf blower to a $4m business jet.

Last year, global sales hit 27.3 million units, made up of 17m motorcycles, six million power products and 4.3m cars. The European arm employs 8,000 people and last year sold almost 1.4m products.

In five decades there have been some classics – and one or two clunkers.

Here’s our pick of the classics:

1. NSX: This sleek two-seater rewrote the rule book on supercars. It may not have been the most powerful (the 270bhp engine is outshone by many of today’s hot hatchbacks) or the best looking but it was a peach to drive (thanks to ‘technical’ input from Ayrton Senna). Honda opened a factory just for the NSX and hand-built every one of them. A truly astonishing car.

2. S2000: When the NSX was withdrawn from Europe (a victim of ever-tightening emissions laws) the S2000 stepped forward to fill gap. Front engine, rear wheel drive with a screaming 2.0-litre engine, the S2000 was a veritable blast to drive and was built alongside the NSX for awhile.

The Northern Echo:

3. Integra Type-R: We only got the third generation of this svelte coupe. Unusual bug-eye front headlamps marked out a car of rare character and sublime handling. Sadly, it was considered too niche to survive and was replaced by...

4. Civic Type-R: Honda took its time before joining the hot hatch hoards but when it did the result was a hoot. A roomy body and a raving engine made the Civic one of the best-loved hooligan cars of the late Nineties.

5. Honda CRX: A small coupe rival to the Toyota MR2, the CRX was the car chosen to make the debut of Honda’s variable valve timing technology, V-TECH. Loads of fun for not a lot of lolly.

And the clunkers:

1. Honda Prelude fifth generation: The Prelude was always a classy coupe rather than racy but the fifth generation look crass not class. Sales were so poor the Prelude never returned.

2. Insight: It’s a little known fact that Honda won the race to launch a production hybrid (beating the Toyota Prius) but the two-seat Insight was the ultimate loser. The need for massive batteries compromised the looks, the boot space and the cabin. A false dawn.

This year also sees 30 years of Honda of the UK Manufacturing (HUM). A 370 acre site in Swindon employing 3,200 people, HUM has benefitted from a self-funded total investment of £2.2bn over the years and will become the global production hub for the five door Civic.

The Northern Echo:

The motorcycles division is number one in the UK market with almost 20 per cent market share. With a product range spanning 65 models, last year, Honda sold 19,000 bikes in the UK. The power products range has 225 models and last year sold in excess of 50,000 units. Honda is the number one ATV manufacturer in the UK and the third largest outboard manufacturer.

From a motorsport perspective in the UK, we have the most successful BSB team in the UK and the BTCC team just won the drivers and manufacturers championships for 2015.

Philip Crossman, Managing Director at Honda UK, commented: “This year marks our golden anniversary in the UK with fifty years of rich history in trading bikes, power products and cars. While this year has been significant in refreshing the car range in its entirety and launching several important new bikes, the Japanese way is to take a much longer viewpoint than just 12 months. “Our business has changed radically over since it launched in the swinging sixties, adapting and evolving to suit the demands of riders and drivers over the years. I can well imagine that Honda will be a completely different organisation in 2065 – but still selling quality and trusted cars, bikes and power products.”