It was introduced in the UK in 1961 but was initially for married women only. Nowadays there are more than 30 types of contraceptive pill on the market taken by well over 3 million women in the UK aged between 16 and 49. Worldwide, now over 100 million women are regularly take the pill as an effective form of contracepion...............and very good it is too!!
Interestingly, the pill was invented by a devout catholic, John Rock. It duplicated the hormones found naturally in the body and therefore allowed the "rhythm method" (which was approved by the Pope) to be used all the time. Read more here
http://www.gladwell.com/2000/2000_03_10_a_rock.htm