Timeline Great Britain (H) 1972-1997
Return to home
1972 Jan 30,
In Londonderry (Derry), Northern Ireland, British troops fired on a
civil rights march in the Bloody Sunday massacre. 13 people were
killed by soldiers of the First Parachute Regiment, six of whom were
only 17. The British embassy in Dublin was burned down. One man who
was photographed being arrested and taken into a British army
Saracen was later found shot dead. The march, which was called to
protest internment, was "illegal" according to British government
authorities. Internment without trial was introduced by the British
government on August 9, 1971. The British government-appointed
Widgery Tribunal found soldiers were not guilty of killing the 13
marchers. The 1997 book “Eyewitness Bloody Sunday” by Don Mullan
included 113 accounts by participants and bystanders. In 1998 an
independent commission said that the identities of the soldiers
would not be protected. In 2001 Martin McGuinness admitted that he
was 2nd in command of the IRA at the time of the massacre. The
Saville Inquiry heard its last oral testimony in 2004. A report in
2010, 12 years in the making, blamed British soldiers for the
killings. In 2019 a former British soldier was charged for the
killings of James Wray and William McKinney.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1p.7)(SFC, 1/30/97,
p.A18)(SFEM, 1/18/98, p.11)(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D4)(SFC, 5/1/01,
p.A8)(Econ, 2/14/04, p.51)(SFC, 6/16/10, p.A2)(SFC, 3/15/19, p.A5)
1972 Feb 2, The play "Jumpers"
by Tom Stoppard (b.1937) was first performed at the Old Vic Theatre,
London, England.
(www.complete-review.com/reviews/stoppt/jumpers.htm)(SFEM, 1/2/00,
p.6)
1972 Feb 25, Wings released
"Give Ireland Back to the Irish." Paul and Linda McCartney wrote the
song in response to the events of Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland
on January 30, 1972. It was soon banned by the BBC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_Ireland_Back_to_the_Irish)
1972 Mar 12, The U.K. and China
agreed to establish a full diplomatic relationship. China, newly
admitted to the UN, said it wanted Hong Kong back.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.A14)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A8)(HN,
3/12/98)
1972 Mar 24, Great Britain
imposed direct rule over Northern Ireland. The province’s parliament
was suspended at the height of sectarian violence.
(HN, 3/24/98)(SFC, 4/11/98, p.A1)
1972 Mar 29, J. Arthur Rank
(b.1888), 1st Baron Rank, British industrialist and film producer,
died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Arthur_Rank)
1972 May 22, Dame Margaret
Rutherford (b.1892), Academy Award-winning English character
actress, died. Her numerous films included “Murder at the Gallop”
(1963).
(WSJ, 3/4/06, p.P2)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0751983/)
1972 May 28, Edward VIII, the
Duke of Windsor (b.1894), died of throat cancer in Paris. He had
abdicated the English throne (1936) to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson
(1937).
(AP,
5/28/97)(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/edward_viii_king.shtml)
1972 Jun 1, Iraq nationalized
the Iraq Petroleum Company controlled by British, American, Dutch
and French oil companies.
(SFC, 9/24/02,
p.A10)(www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/5873nation.htm)
1972 Jun 6, David Bowie,
English rock musician, released his album "The Rise and Fall of
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars."
(SFC, 8/20/98,
p.E3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziggy_Stardust)
1972 Jun 18, A BEA Trident,
Flight BE548, crashed after takeoff from Heathrow killing 118
people.
(http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19720618-0&lang=de)
1972 Jun, The London Convention
was called for by the UN Conference on the Human Environment in
Stockholm. The treaty was drafted at the Intergovernmental
Conference on the Convention on the Dumping of Wastes at Sea on Nov
13, 1972, in London and it was opened for signature on Dec 29, 1972.
(http://tinyurl.com/lczas5o)
1972 Jul 29, A national dock
strike occurred.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A2)
1972 Jul 31, The British army
launched "Operation Motorman" to regain control of Catholic parts of
Belfast and Londonderry that had been closed off by IRA road
barricades since 1971. An IRA attack followed in Claudy,
Northern Ireland, and 3 car bombs killed 9 people. In 2002 a court
case was reopened following allegations that Rev. Jim Chesney
(d.1980), a deceased Roman Catholic priest, had led the Claudy
attack. In 2010 a new report said the British government and the
Roman Catholic church colluded to cover up the involvement of Rev.
Jim Chesney.
(AP, 10/1/02)(AP, 11/29/05)(AP, 8/24/10)(Econ,
8/28/10, p.46)
1972 Aug 21, Donald A. Cameron,
British aeronaut, made the 1st hot air balloon flight over the Alps.
(www.ballong.org/peter/jesper/cia/report17.php)
1972 Aug 26, Sir Francis
Chichester (b.1901), English adventurer, died. In 1966-67 he sailed
around the world alone in his 53-foot yacht, Gypsy Moth IV.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Chichester)
1972 Aug 28, Prince William of
Gloucester was killed in an air race near Wolverhampton in the west
Midlands.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/28/newsid_2536000/2536275.stm)
1972 Sep 19, A Black September
letter bomb killed Ami Shehori (Shachori), Israeli attache at the
embassy in London.
(www.nytimes.com/2004/10/08/international/middleeast/08chrono.html)
1972 Oct 1, Louis Leakey
(b.1903), Kenyan archeologist and naturalist, died in London. He was
flown home and interred at Limuru, Kenya, near the graves of his
parents.
(SFC, 12/10/96,
p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Leakey)
1972 Oct 17, The European
Communities Act, an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom,
legislated for the accession of the United Kingdom to the European
Communities (EC).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Communities_Act_1972_%28UK%29)
1972 Dec 10, Amnesty
International, founded in London in 1961, launched its first
worldwide campaign for the abolition of torture on Human Rights Day,
with the aim to make torture "as unthinkable as slavery."
(http://archive.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGACT400051997?open&of=ENG-390)
1972 Dec 10, Kenneth Arrow
(1921-2017) of Stanford Univ. shared the Nobel Prize in economics
with John R. Hicks (1904-1989) of Oxford, England.
(http://economics.about.com/cs/nobelwinners/l/blnobel.htm)(SFC,
2/22/17, p.A12)
1972 John Berger (b.1926),
English art critic and novelist, authored his Booker Prize-winning
novel “G.” Berger won the Booker Prize for his novel "G." He later
authored "A Seventh Man."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Berger)(SSFC,
1/6/02, p.M2)(SSFC, 8/7/05, p.C1)
1972 Alex Comfort (1920-2000),
British author, published his "Joy of Sex." The book sold 12 million
copies worldwide.
(SFC, 3/28/00, p.E1)
1972 David Bowie released his
album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From
Mars."
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.E3)
1972 Britain launched its
Schools History Project (SHP), a review of teaching methods.
(Econ, 4/13/13, p.61)
1972 In Britain environmental
activists founded WWOOF, Weekend Workers on Organic Farms. Weekend
was later replaced by Willing.
(SFEC, 8/15/99, p.T9)
1972 The Access credit cards
were introduced in Great Britain.
(www.cardsense.co.uk/credit-card-history.html)
1972 Sydney Brenner, a
biologist at Cambridge Univ., began working out the connections of
every cell in the nervous system of a nematode worm called C.
elegans. Over 14 years he and his team mapped the worms complete
nervous system, for which he won a Nobel Prize (2002).
(Econ, 4/11/09, p.82)
1972 L.P. Hartley (b.1895),
British author, died. "The past is a foreign country; they do things
differently there."
(AP, 7/1/00)
1973 Jan 1, The European
Economic Community (EEC), the forerunner to the EU, admitted
Britain, Ireland and Denmark even though they made chocolate
containing a small percentage of vegetable fat. Members as required
handed away control of trade-deal negotiation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_European_Union)(WSJ,
12/4/97, p.A22)(Econ, 7/16/16, p.47)
1973 Jan 1, New Zealand’s
preferential access to British markets ended with Britain’s
accession to the European Economic Community (EEC).
(Econ, 2/11/17, p.60)
1973 Mar 8, In London a bomb
inside a parked car exploded in front of the Old Bailey near
Trafalgar Square. It hurled nearby vehicles into the air, wrecked a
pub and smashed hundreds of windows. Marian Price and her sister
Dolores (d.2013) were among 9 people convicted over the bombing,
which killed one person and left almost 200 others injured. Jerry
Kelly was convicted of causing explosions and conspiracy to cause
explosions after he planted four car bombs in London in March 1973.
Dolores received early parole in 1980. She alleged that Gerry Adams
was her IRA commander in Belfast in the early 1970s and was involved
in ordering several Catholic civilians to be abducted, executed and
buried in secret.
(AP, 11/17/09)(http://tinyurl.com/yfzl7th)(AP,
1/24/13)
1973 Mar 17, Queen Elizabeth II
opened the new London Bridge.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge)
1973 Mar 26, Ten newly elected
lady members entered the London Stock Exchange on the first working
day since their election took place. The decision to break a
time-honored tradition and introduce equality was announced on 1
February and ended years of campaigning by women in the financial
sector.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/26/newsid_2531000/2531145.stm)
1973 Mar 26, Noel Coward
(b.1899), English gay playwright, died. He was called "The Master"
and his work included "The Vortex," "Hay Fever," "Private Lives,"
"Brief Encounter" and "Blithe Spirit." In 1970 he was given
knighthood. "Noel Coward: A Biography" by Philip Hoare was published
in 1996. Another biography, "A Talent to Amuse" by Sheridan Morley,
published in 1974, was recommended. In 2007 Barry Day edited “The
Letters of Noel Coward.”
(WSJ, 8/15/96, p.A10)(SFEC, 8/25/96, BR p.9)(WSJ,
11/10/07, p.W8)
1973 Apr 26, "Two Gentlemen of
Verona," musical opened in London.
(www.nodanw.com/shows_t/two_gentlemen.htm)
1973 May 25, George Harrison
released "Give Me Love" in UK.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_Me_Love_(Give_Me_Peace_on_Earth))
1973 Jun 9, John Creasey
(b.1908), British mystery writer, died. He authored at least 600
mystery novels under 28 pseudonyms. His novel Gideon’s Day was
turned into the film “Gideon of Scotland Yard” (1959).
(WSJ, 1/31/09,
p.W8)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/creasey.htm)
1973 Jun 19, The stage
production of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" opened in London.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocky_Horror_Show)
1973 Jul 4, Alan Ayckbourne's
"Absurd Person Singular," premiered in London.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurd_Person_Singular)
1973 Jul 18, Jack Hawkins
(b.1910), English actor, died in London. His films included “Ben
Hur” and “Bridge Over River Kwai.” His autobiography, “Anything For
a Quiet Life,” was published after his death.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Hawkins)
1973 Jul 26, Peter Shaffer's
"Equus," premiered in London.
(www.bookrags.com/criticism/peter-shaffer-1926_2/)
1973 Aug 3, A flash fire killed
51 at amusement park on the Isle of Man, UK.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1973 Aug 28, Princess Anne
became the first member of the British royal family to visit the
Soviet Union when she arrived in Kiev for an equestrian event.
(www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/this_day_in_history/this_day_August_28.php)
1973 Sep 2, John R. R. Tolkien,
British story writer, died of ulcer at 81. His work included "The
Hobbit" and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. In 2007 his son
Christopher Tolkien edited “The Children of Hurin,” compiled from
notes and material left by his father.
(WSJ, 7/15/96, p.B1)(Econ, 4/21/07, p.94)
1973 Sep 8, The first Whitbread
Round the World Race for yachts began at Portsmouth, England.
(WSJ, 9/19/97,
p.A20)(www.solarnavigator.net/history/whitbread_round_the_world_race.htm)
1973 Oct 19, Peter Townshend
and The Who, an English rock group, released the rock opera album
"Quadrophenia."
(WSJ, 7/12/96, p.A9)
1973 Nov 13, Brian Stanley
Johnson (b.1933), British avant-garde novelist, died by suicide. In
2005 Jonathan Coe authored “Like a Fiery Elephant: The story of B.S.
Johnson.”
(SFC, 7/7/05,
p.E1)(www.geocities.com/SoHo/9145/johnson.htm)
1973 Nov 14, Britain's Princess
Anne married Capt. Mark Phillips in Westminster Abbey. However, they
divorced in 1992, and Anne re-married.
(AP, 11/14/97)
1973 Nov 22, Britain announced
a plan for moderate Protestants and Catholics to share power in
Northern Ireland.
(HN, 11/22/98)
1973 Dec 7, Paul McCartney and
Wings released the album "Band on the Run."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band_on_the_Run)
1973 Dec 13, Britain cut the
work week to three days to save energy supply.
(HN, 12/13/98)
1973 Dec 30, British
millionaire Edward Sieff, whose family owns Marks and Spencers
stores in London, was wounded. The attack was attributed to Carlos
the Jackal, aka Ilich Ramirez Sanchez.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.C2)(http://tinyurl.com/59cvcn)
1973 Dilys Powell, film critic
for the London Times, authored "The Villa Ariadne," a history and
travel memoir of Crete. It was published in the US in 2002.
(WSJ, 2/8/02, p.W9)
1973 Alan Ayckbourn (b.1939),
English playwright, created his 3-part play “The Norman Conquests.”
(WSJ, 1/4/07,
p.W7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Norman_Conquests)
1973 Iris Murdoch published her
novel "The Black Prince."
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A20)
1973 The Whitbread Book awards
were established for residents of Britain and the Republic of
Ireland.
(SFC, 1/30/03, p.E3)
1973 A British law said the
yardstick for judging business behavior was the “public interest.”
(Econ, 2/17/07, p.78)
1973 Lord Lambton (1922-2006),
British undersecretary of defense for the Royal Air Force, resigned
after he was photographed smoking marijuana in bed with two
prostitutes.
(AP, 1/2/07)
1973 Hans Gruneberg
(1907-1982), British geneticist, began paying attention to a bundle
of nerve cells in mammalian noses that came to be called the
Gruneberg ganglion. In 2009 Swiss scientists said research had shown
that the bundle in mice was used to detect alarm pheromones in other
mice.
(SSFC, 3/8/09, Par
p.12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Gr%C3%BCneberg)
1973-1974 Britain experienced a secondary-banking
crises after too much lending to property developers helped cause
London’s worst year of the 20th century.
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.83)
1974 Jan 1 In Britain a 3-day
work week went into effect following a power shortage caused by
striking miners.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.59)(http://tinyurl.com/y76xjwe)
1974 Feb 7, The island nation
of Grenada won independence from Britain. This included the northern
islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(AP, 2/7/97)(SSFC, 12/11/05,
p.F4)
1974 Feb 28, Britain’s Labor
Party won the parliamentary election. No party had an overall
majority resulting in a hung parliament. This lasted until elections
in October.
(www.enotes.com/peoples-chronology/year-1974)(Econ, 4/24/10, p.14)
1974 Mar 4, The play "Knuckle"
by David Hare (b.1947) premiered in London.
(www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00052/hrc-00052.html)(SC, 3/4/02)
1974 Mar 4, Harold Wilson, head
of the Labor Party, replaced resigning Edward Heath as British
premier. Wilson called elections for October and the Labor Party
defeated the Conservatives, after which Margaret Thatcher replaced
Heath as party leader (1975).
(SC, 3/4/02)(SFC, 7/18/05, p.B6)
1974 Mar 5, In Britain Roy
Jenkins (1920-2003) began serving as Home Secretary under PM Harold
Wilson. In his 23 months on the job he enacted reforms that included
legalizing homosexuality and abortion, legislating for no-fault
divorce, banning racial discrimination and abolishing censorship in
the theater.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Jenkins)(Econ,
9/12/15, p.53)
1974 Apr 4, In England an armed
payroll robbery took place at the London Electricity Board (LEB).
George Davis (b.1941) was arrested for the robbery and his wife,
Rose Davis (d.2009, campaigned for his release. In 1976 the
conviction was overturned as unsafe. In Sep 1977 George was again
arrested for a bank robbery and Rose promptly divorced him. In 2009
she authored “The Wars of Rosie: Hard Knocks, Endurance and the
'George Davis Is Innocent' Campaign.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Davis_(armed_robber))(Econ,
2/14/09, p.98)
1974 May 29, Northern Ireland
was brought under direct rule from Westminster.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1974 Jul 29, Cass Elliot
(b.1941), singer (Mamas and Papas), was found dead in London from an
apparent heart attack.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cass_Elliot)
1974 Jul 30, The prime
ministers of Greece and Turkey and the British Foreign Secretary
signed a peace agreement to settle the Cyprus crisis.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/low/dates/stories/july/30/newsid_2492000/2492515.stm)
1974 Aug 22, Jacob Bronowski
(b.1908), British mathematician, cultural historian, died in East
Hampton, NY.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Bronowski)
1974 Oct 5, An IRA bombing at a
pub in Guilford, near London, killed 5 people. Four people including
Gerry Conlon were convicted and sentenced to life in prison. In 1989
the so-called Guildford Four were freed after a top judge ruled that
police had fabricated hand-written interrogation notes used to
convict all four. In 2019 a British coroner ruled that the inquest
into the 1974 pub bombings in Guildford, at the heart of the film
"In The Name Of The Father" will be resumed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guildford_pub_bombings)(AP,
6/21/14)(AP, 1/31/19)
1974 Oct 5, Eugene McQuaid, a
Catholic civilian, was killed near a British army checkpoint on
Northern Ireland's border on the main Belfast-Dublin road. In 2006
the IRA leadership offered its sincere apologies to the McQuaid
family for the death of Eugene and for the heartache and trauma that
the IRA actions caused.
(AP, 4/14/06)
1974 Oct 28, David Jones,
English artist and modernist poet, died In Middlesex. In 2017 Thomas
Dilworth authored “David Jones: Engraver, Soldier, Painter, Poet.”
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Jones_(artist-poet))(Econ,
4/1/17, p.77)
1974 Nov 7, Richard John
Bingham (39), the Seventh Earl of Lucan, disappeared after nanny
Sandra Rivett was battered to death in the family's home in London's
wealthy Belgravia district. Lady Lucan (d.2017) escaped with severe
head wounds. In 2001 Muriel spark authored "Aiding and Abetting," a
novel based on Lucan’s imagined reappearance. In 2003 former
policeman Duncan MacLaughlin claimed in the book, "Dead Lucky," that
Lucan lived in India under the name Barry Halpin in India from 1975
until his death in 1996. In 2016 Britain's High Court granted a
death certificate at the request of George Bingham, allowing him to
become the Eight Earl of Lucan.
(SSFC, 2/18/01, BR p.3)(AP, 9/8/03)(AP,
2/3/16)(AP, 9/27/17)
1974 Nov 25, Irish Republican
Army was outlawed in Britain following deaths of 21. IRA bombs in
British pubs killed 28 and wounded over 200 in the last 2 months.
{Northern Ireland, Britain}
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevention_of_Terrorism_Act_(Northern_Ireland))(WSJ,
3/12/04, p.A11)
1974 Nov 25, Nick Drake
(b.1948), English musician and composer, died from an overdose of
prescription drugs. His albums included "Five Leaves Left" (1969),
"Bryter Layter," and "Pink Moon" (1971). Paul Humphries in 1997
authored the biography "Nick Drake: A Biography."
(WSJ, 2/10/99,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Drake)
1974 Dec 5, The TV show "Monty
Python's Flying Circus" was last shown on BBC. It had premiered on
Oct 5, 1969.
(www.museum.tv/archives/etv/M/htmlM/montypython/montypython.htm)
1974 Dec 27, Ned Mandrell
(b.~1878), the last native speaker of Manx, died. The Goidelic
language, similar to Irish and Scots Gaelic, was once spoken on the
Isle of Man.
(Econ, 10/25/08,
p.72)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manx_language)
1974 British novelist John le
Carre authored his cold war thriller “Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy.”
In 1979 it was adopted by the BBC for television.
(Econ, 9/17/11,
p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker,_Tailor,_Soldier,_Spy)
1974 The British Monty Python
film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" was produced.
(SFC, 6/3/98, p.E3)
1974 John Whelan, button
accordionist, recorded his first solo album in England: "Pride of
Wexford."
(WSJ, 3/17/97, p.A16)
1974 British Labor Party
legislator John Stonehouse, a former communications minister who
also acted as an informant to the Czechs through the 1960s, faked a
suicide, leaving a bundle of his clothes on a beach in Miami. He was
discovered less than a month later hiding out in Melbourne,
Australia. Papers released in 2010 by the National Archives showed
that, after he had been exposed, Britain's government covered up his
activities as there was too little evidence to put him on trial.
(AP, 6/28/12)
1974 England and France agreed
to build 16 Concorde airplanes.
(WSJ, 7/26/00, p.A26)
1974-1976 Harold Wilson served a 2nd term as the
prime minister of Britain.
(SFC, 9/6.96, p.A23)
1974-1979 Ian Hamilton edited the "New Review"
literary magazine.
(WSJ, 10/12/00, p.A24)
1975 Jan 14, Donald Neilson
(1936-1911) kidnapped heiress Lesley Whittle (17) from her bedroom
in Highley, Shropshire. Her body was found on 7 March 1975, hanging
from a wire at the bottom of a drainage shaft following failed
attempts at ransom. Neilson received five life sentences in July
1976 for the murder of Whittle.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Neilson)
1975 Feb 8, Martyn Green
(b.1899), English actor (Gilbert & Sullivan, Mikado), died.
(http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/whowaswho/G/GreenMartyn.htm)
1975 Feb 11, Margaret Thatcher
was elected leader of the Tory Party, the first woman to lead the
British Conservative Party. in England. She later became Prime
Minister and held office from 1979-1990. Her second volume of
memoirs is titled The Path to Power, (Harper-Collins, 1995) and
documents her rise to power.
(WSJ, 7/6/95, p. A-7)(HN, 2/11/99)
1975 Feb 14, Julian S. Huxley
(b.1887), English biologist, died. He served as the first
Director-General of UNESCO (1946-1948).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Huxley)
1975 Feb 14, Pelham Graham (PG)
Wodehouse (b.1881), English, US writer (Piccadilly Jim), died at age
93. 58 Penguin editions of his books were done by artist Jos
Armitage (d.1998 at 84), who also contributed to "Punch." In 2004
Robert McCrum authored “Wodehouse.”
(SFC, 2/7/98, p.21)(SFC, 11/19/04, p.W16)
1975 Feb 28, A London subway
train smashed into the end of a tunnel at Moorgate Underground
station and 43 people were killed.
(AP, 1/23/06)
1975 Mar 4, Charlie Chaplin
(1889-1977), British-born American film comedian, was knighted by
Queen Elizabeth.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Chaplin)
1975 Mar 26, The film "Tommy"
premiered in London.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0073812/combined)
1975 Mar 27, Arthur Bliss
(b.1891), English composer, conductor (Checkmate), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Bliss)
1975 Apr 23, Harold Pinter's
"No Man's Land," premiered in London.
(www.thehomecomingonbroadway.com/haroldPinter.php)
1975 May 29, Melanie Janine
Brown "Scary Spice", British vocalist (Spice Girls), was born in
Leeds.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanie_Brown)
1975 Jun 5, The outcome of a
British referendum revealed that 67.2% of voters were in favor of
the United Kingdom remaining a member of the Community. The Labor
Party under PM Harold Wilson had renegotiated Britain’s terms of EU
membership. The changes were largely cosmetic, but this allowed him
to persuade the electorate that Britain’s position was profoundly
improved.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1975/index_en.htm)(Econ., 3/28/15,
p.62)(Econ., 4/4/15, p.78)
1975 Jun 5, The Scottish
National Party (SNP) wanted to leave the European project in a
referendum as Britain voted to stay.
(Econ, 3/18/17, p.60)
1975 Sep 29, Peter Sutcliffe,
who became known as the Yorkshire Ripper, killed his 1st victim.
(www.essortment.com/all/petersutcliffe_rnyb.htm)
1975 Oct 7, US decided John
Lennon won't be deported due to UK pot conviction.
(http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=618)
1975 Oct 22, Arnold Toynbee
(b.1889), English historian (A Study of History) and cultural
sociologist, died. He held that civilizations proceed from bondage
to spiritual faith, then to courage, then to liberty, then to
abundance, then to selfishness, then to apathy, then to dependency
and then back to bondage.
(AP, 3/24/98)(http://tinyurl.com/yoserm)(Econ,
3/31/07, p.63)
1975 Nov 3, Queen Elizabeth
formally began the operation of the UK's first North Sea oil
pipeline at a ceremony in Scotland.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/3/newsid_2538000/2538155.stm)
1975 Nov 15, The first Summit
of 6 leading industrialist nations, G-6, met in Rambouillet, France,
for discussions on currency and oil prices. The Group of Six
included leaders from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the
United States. They were joined a year later by Canada making the
"G7". The group was originally established as a vehicle for leading
industrialized democracies to discuss the global economy. It later
expanded its scope to issues such as peace, the environment and
terrorism. Russia, which attended the summit as a guest in 1992, was
in 1998 allowed for the first time to attend all summit meetings.
The grouping was officially renamed the "G8". In 2014 Vladimir
Putin's Russia was suspended from the G8 after it annexed Ukraine's
Crimea peninsula and sanctions were imposed on Moscow.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_G6_summit)(SFC,
6/20/97, p.A16)(AFP, 6/9/18)
1975 Nov 19, Elizabeth Taylor
(b.1912), English writer, died of cancer. Her work included 12
novels and 5 short story collections.
(SFC, 7/25/06,
p.E3)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0852331/)
1975 Michael Oakshott
(1901-1990), British philosopher, authored “On Human Conduct.”
(Econ, 6/14/14, p.18)
1975 Anthony Powell, author,
published "Hearing Secret Harmonies," the last of his 12-volume "A
Dance to the Music of Time," a chronicle of English upper-middle
class morals from the 1920s to the 1970s.
(SFC, 3/30/00, p.C5)
1975 V.S. Pritchett
(1900-1997), writer, was knighted for his services to literature. He
was noted for his brilliant portraits of people.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A21)
1975 John Cleese created the
sitcom "Fawlty Towers." Six episodes aired in this year and 6 more
in 1979. PBS brought the show to America in 1980.
(WSJ, 3/8/99, p.A16)
1975 Britain’s Sex
Discrimination Act was passed. The Act of the Parliament of the
United Kingdom was designed to protect men, women and transgendered
people from discrimination on the grounds of gender. The Act is
mainly in relation to employment, training, education, the provision
of goods and services and in the disposal of premises.
(AP,
2/6/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_Discrimination_Act_1975)
1976 Jan 12, Dame Agatha
Christie (b.1890) (Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan),
English mystery writer, died in Wallingford, England. She also wrote
romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but is remembered for her
66 mystery novels. Her work with mystery novels, particularly
featuring detectives Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, have given her
the title the “Queen of Crime” and made her one of the most
important and innovative writers in the development of the mystery
novel. Two of her most famous novels might be Murder on the Orient
Express (1934) and Death on the Nile (1937).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_Christie)(SFC,12/26/97,
p.C22)(AP, 1/12/98)
1976 Jan 13, Argentina ousted a
British envoy in dispute over the Falkland Islands War.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1976 Jan 21, The supersonic
Concorde jet was put into service by Britain and France.
(AP, 1/21/98)
1976 Feb 19, Britain slashed
welfare spending.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1976 Mar 5, The British pound
fell below the equivalent of $2 for the first time.
(AP, 3/5/98)
1976 Mar 5, Britain gave up on
the Ulster talks and decided to retain rule in Northern Ireland
indefinitely.
(HN, 3/5/98)
1976 Mar 16, British PM Harold
Wilson announced his resignation in London. He was succeeded by home
secretary James Callaghan (1912-2005).
(SFC, 5/4/02, p.A21)(Econ, 3/18/06, p.11)
1976 Mar 19, Buckingham Palace
announced the separation of Princess Margaret and her husband, the
Earl of Snowdon, after 16 years of marriage.
(AP, 3/19/97)
1976 Mar 24, Bernard Law
Montgomery (b.1887), British general, defeated Rommel, died.
(HC,
10/10/98)(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/montgomery_bernard.shtml)
1976 Apr 5, Tom Stoppard's
"Dirty Linen," premiered in London.
(www.donshewey.com/theater_reviews/dirty_linen.html)
1976 Apr 5, James Callaghan
became PM of England. He served until May 4, 1979.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Callaghan)
1976 May 24, Britain and France
opened trans-Atlantic Concorde service to Washington. This was the
1st commercial supersonic transport (SST).
(AP, 5/24/97)
1976 Jun 2, Great-Britain
& Iceland terminated their codfish war. It was agreed that only
24 British vessels would be allowed in the 200 mile zone and four
conservation areas would be completely closed to the British.
(www.kwintessential.co.uk/articles/article/Iceland/Cod-War-in-Iceland/527)
1976 Jun 3, Britain presented
to the US the oldest known copy of the Magna Carta.
(www.magnacharta.org/enews82000.htm)
1976 Jun 29, The Seychelles
gained independence after 165 years under British rule.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(SSFC, 6/1/14, p.P3)
1976 Jul 4, The Ramones, a US
punk rock group managed by Danny Fields and Linda Stein (1945-2007),
held a concert in England that sparked the young British punk scene.
(SFC, 11/2/07, p.E2)
1976 Sep 21, Benjamin Graham
(b.1894), London-born economist and professional investor, died. He
is known as the father of value investing and founder of modern
security analysis. His books included “Security Analysis” written
with David Dodd (1934), and “The Intelligent Investor” (1949).
Warren Buffett studied under him at Columbia Univ. In 2012 Joe
Carlen authored “The Einstein of Money: The Life and Timeless
Financial Wisdom of Benjamin Graham.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Graham)(Econ, 10/22/11,
p.90)(Econ, 7/7/12, p.79)
1976 Sep 29, Britain became the
first advanced country to go to the IMF for a loan. PM Callaghan and
Chancellor Denis Healey (1917-2015) applied to the IMF for a loan of
$3.9 billion after markets began to abandon sterling.
(http://tinyurl.com/tfu9t)(Econ, 10/10/15,
p.94)(Econ 6/3/17, p.19)
1976 Oct 5, Researcher Alan
Dickinson warned the British Medical Research council that their
human growth hormone program was susceptible to contamination from
infected pituitary glands.
(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.A14)
1976 Nov 22, Britain adopted
the Race Relations Act with sweeping anti-racial laws, but the laws
did not extend to Northern Ireland. The Commission for Racial
Equality (CRE) was formed to enforce the new laws banning racial
discrimination.
(SFC, 6/30/96, A11)(Econ, 5/15/04, p.57)(Econ,
12/2/06, p.59)
1976 Dec 4, Benjamin Britten
(b.1913), English composer, died. Paul Kildea later authored
“Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century” (2013). Neil
Powell authored Benjamin Britten: A Life for Music” (2013).
(WSJ, 7/26/99, p.A21)(Econ, 3/2/13, p.79)
1976 In Britain the Society of
West End Theater Awards were founded. They were renamed to the
Lawrence Olivier Awards in 1984.
(SFC,2/17/97, p.D6)
1976 Britain began offering tax
breaks to owners of important works of art. Inheritance taxes were
spared in exchange for periodic viewing.
(WSJ, 9/16/99, p.A28)
1976-1979 James Callahan served as Prime Minister.
His 1st act was to dismiss Barbara Anne Castle (d.2002) from the
Labor Cabinet.
(SFC, 12/7/96, p.A8)
1977 Feb 6, Queen Elizabeth
(b.1926) marked her Silver Jubilee. It culminated in June with the
official "Jubilee Days," held to coincide with the Queen's 1953
coronation.
(HN,
2/6/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_II)
1977 Mar 10, E. Power Biggs
(b.1906), English organist and composer (CBS), died in, Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Power_Biggs)
1977 Apr 1, Richard Booth
proclaimed Hay-on-Wye, Wales, an independent kingdom with himself as
king and his horse as prime minister. The Oxford graduate had
purchased the 80-year-old Hay Castle and opened a 2nd hand bookstore
in the town in 1961.
(SSFC, 5/25/03, p.C8)(Econ, 12/24/05, p.84)(SFC,
5/10/07, p.E3)
1977 May 14, Capt. Robert
Nairac (29), an underground British soldier, was abducted from a
border pub by an IRA gang, taken across the border into a Republic
of Ireland forest, and shot through the head. In 2008 the Police
Service of Northern Ireland press office confirmed the arrest of
Kevin Crilly (57), an IRA veteran, on suspicion of involvement in
Nairac's killing. On April 1, 2011, Crilly was acquitted of all
charges against him.
(AP, 5/20/08)(AP, 4/1/11)
1977 Jul 7, Sir Michael Tippett
(1905-1998), British composer, premiered his 4th opera "The Ice
Break," which featured a race riot and a psychedelic sequence.
(www.michael-tippett.com/operaintroibreng.htm)
1977 Sep 13, Leopold Stokowski
(b.1882), conductor, died in Hampshire, England. He was the founder
of the New York City Symphony and The American Symphony Orchestra.
He conducted the music for and appeared in Disney’s Fantasia.
(WSJ, 8/6/97, p.A12)(AP,
9/13/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Stokowski)
1977 Sep 26, Sir Freddie Laker
began his cut-rate "Skytrain" service from London to NY. Laker
airways collapsed into bankruptcy in 1982.
(SSFC, 2/12/06,
p.B8)(www.cnn.com/almanac/9709/26/)
1977 Nov 17, The "Elephant
Man," by Bernard Pomerance (b.1940), premiered in London.
(www.answers.com/topic/1977)
1977 Nov 21, The 1st commercial
flight of the Anglo-French Concorde jet was from London to Bahrain.
(www.britishairways.com/concorde/faq.html#4)
1977 Nov 22, Regular passenger
service between New York and Europe on the supersonic Concorde began
on a trial basis. [see Nov 21]
(AP, 11/22/97)
1977 Nov 28, "Elvis", the stage
musical, starring P.J. Proby, Shakin' Stevens, and Timothy Whitnall
playing The King at three different stages of his life, opened in
London.
(http://web.ukonline.co.uk/forevershakin/concerts/1977-79ElvisMusical/)
1977 Nov 30, Terence Rattigan
(b.1911), English playwright, died. In 1997 Geoffrey Wansell wrote
his biography.
(SFC, 6/23/97,
p.E3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_Rattigan)
1977 In England the Yorkshire
Sculpture Park (YSP) was founded.
(Econ, 6/25/16, p.77)
1977 James Blades published his
autobiography "Drum Roll." A 2nd shorter autobiography was published
in 1991: These I Have Met."
(SFC, 5/25/99, p.B2)
1977 Penelope Fitzgerald
authored "The Knox Brothers," a group portrait of the 4 Knox
brothers, sons of the bishop of Manchester.
(WSJ, 9/26/00, p.A24)
1977 The BBC began showing "All
Creatures Great and Small."
(WSJ, 1/13/00, p.A19)
1977 The British punk group
Clash released its 1st single "White Riot."
(SFC, 12/24/02, p.A2)
1977 Sir John Traverner,
composer, converted to the Greek Orthodox faith. This marked a
turning toward simplicity and serenity in his music.
(WSJ, 3/28/02, p.A18)
1977 Tam Dalyell, British MP
for the Scottish constituency of Linlithgow, posed the so-called
West Lothian question during the debate on Scottish and Welsh
devolution.
(Econ, 7/8/06,
p.52)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Lothian_question)
1977 Britain designated MDMA,
the main ingredient in ecstasy, a Class A drug.
(Econ, 8/5/06, p.50)
1978 Jan 4, Said Hammami, the
PLO representative in London, was assassinated. It was initially
believed to be the work of Abu Nidal but was later reported to have
been organized by Yasser Arafat.
(WSJ, 1/10/02,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attacks_attributed_to_Abu_Nidal)
1978 Feb 8, The BBC TV show
Grange Hill, a children’s drama created by Phil Redmond, made its
debut.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grange_Hill)
1978 Feb 28, Louise Woodward,
the nanny who allegedly killed Matthew Eappen (1997) in Cambridge,
Mass., was born in Elton, England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Woodward)
1978 Apr 26, A version of Mark
Twain’s "The Prince and the Pauper" appeared on TV with former
Beatle, Ringo Star.
(www.guba.com/watch/2000907534)(440 Int’l.,
4/26/97, p.3)
1978 May 10 Britain's Princess
Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon announced they were divorcing after
18 years of marriage.
(AP, 5/10/97)
1978 May 21, The Unification
Church of Sun Myung Moon wed 118 couples in England.
(www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Topics/U-Stuff/BLSS-HST.htm)
1978 Jun 9, Gutenberg Bible (1
of 21) sold for $2.4 million in London.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1978 Jun 21, The musical play
"Evita" by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice had its first stage
performance in London’s West End. It featured Elaine Page as Evita.
(SFC, 9/1/96, DB p.42)(Hem., 1/97, p.106)(AP,
6/21/98)
1978 Jul 7, The Solomon Islands
gained independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97,
p.A9)(www.worldstatesmen.org/Solomon_Islands.html)
1978 Jul 11, Christa Tybus of
London set a 24 hrs hula-hoop record.
(www.recordholders.org/en/list/hulahoop.html)
1978 Jul 15, Bob Dylan
performed before some 200,000 fans at Blackbushe Airport, England,
in the largest open-air concert audience at the time (for a single
artist).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbushe_Airport)
1978 Jul 25, Louise Joy Brown,
the first test-tube baby, was born in Oldham, England; she'd been
conceived through in-vitro fertilization. In 2004 Robin Marantz
Henig authored "Pandora's Baby: How the First Test Tube Babies
sparked the Reproductive Revolution.
(TL, 1988, p.119)(AP, 7/25/97)(SSFC, 2/22/04,
p.M6)
1978 Jul 30, To celebrate the
80th birthday of sculptor Henry Moore (1898-1986), an exhibition of
his work was held in London’s Hyde Park.
(TL, 1988,
p.119)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Moore)
1978 Aug 20, In London gunmen
opened fire on an Israeli El Al Airline bus. 2 people died and 9
were injured.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/20/newsid_2546000/2546593.stm)
1978 Aug 28, Robert Shaw
(b.1927), English-born film and stage actor, died of heart attack in
Ireland. He received a "Best Supporting Actor" Oscar nomination for
his portrayal of Henry VIII in “A Man for All Seasons” (1966).
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6524588)
1978 Sep 6, Bulgarian defector
Georgi Markov, living in London, was stabbed in the leg by a man
carrying an umbrella; Markov died four days later, an apparent
victim of the Bulgarian secret police using a ricin-coated pellet.
The assassin was later identified as Francesco Gullino (Guillino,
Giullino), code name Piccadilly, an Italian-born Dane, operating
under instructions from Vasil Kotsev, Bulgaria’s top spymaster.
(AP, 9/7/08)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.61)
1978 Sep 7, Keith Moon
(b.1946), English drummer for "The Who" rock group, died of drug OD
at 31.
(SFC, 10/17/96,
E3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Moon)
1978 Sep 11, Georgi Markov, a
Bulgarian defector, died at a British hospital four days after being
stabbed by a man wielding a poisoned umbrella tip. British
investigative reporter Peter Earle (d.1997 at 71) revealed that
Markov was jabbed by an East German agent with a poison tipped
umbrella on Waterloo Bridge. The original report stated that Markov
died of a heart attack. In 1993 Danish authorities charged a Dane of
Italian origin, Francesco Guillino, with killing Markov. Guillino,
who reportedly had worked for the Bulgarian secret services since
1972, denied any wrongdoing and eventually was freed. In 2005
journalist Hristo Hristov authored “Kill Vagabond,” in which he
presented new evidence confirming that the hit was planned and
carried out by Bulgaria's communist-era secret service.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.B8)(AP, 9/11/98)(AP,
6/16/05)(SFC, 6/17/05, p.W5)
1978 Sep 26, British unions,
fed up with wage restraints, launched their “winter of discontent,”
to the humiliation of James Callaghan’s government.
(http://web.onetel.net.uk/~davewalton/archive/local/winterofdiscontent.html)(SSFC,
3/27/05, p.A21)(Econ, 9/15/07, p.69)
1978 Oct 1, The Pacific island
of Tuvalu gained independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97,
p.A9)(www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/tv.html)
1978 Oct 22, Laugh-in's Judy
Carne was arrested at Gatwick Airport for drug possession.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Carne)
1978 Nov 3, Dominica gained
independence from Britain.
(PCh, 1992, p.1065)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)
1978 Shirley Conran (b.1932),
British journalist, authored her best seller “Superwoman.”
(www.amazon.com/Superwoman-Shirley-Conran/dp/0517533367)
1978 Iris Murdoch published
"The Sea, The Sea." It won the Booker Prize.
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A20)
1978 William Waldegrave
(b.1946), English politician, authored “The Binding of Leviathan:
Conservatism and the Future.”
(Econ, 3/19/11, SR p.18)
1978 The British TV series “All
Creatures Great and Small,” based on the 1972 book by James Herriot,
began and continued to 1990.
(SSFC, 8/6/17, p.C12)
1978 The British film "Monty
Python’s Life of Brian" with Michael Palin was produced.
(SFC, 6/3/98, p.E3)
1978 Sir Robert Sainsbury
(d.2000 at 93), founder of the Sainsbury Center for the Visual Arts
at the Univ. of East Anglia, donated his entire art collection to
the center.
(SFC, 4/4/00, p.A20)
1978 The Barnett Formula,
devised by Joel Barnett, was introduced as mechanism used by The
Treasury in the UK to adjust the amounts of public expenditure
allocated to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales automatically to
reflect changes in spending levels allocated to public services in
England, England and Wales or Great Britain, as appropriate.
(Econ, 10/26/13,
p.65)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnett_formula)
1978 The baths in Bath,
England, were shut down after a girl died from a meningitis-related
disease after bathing there. The contamination was later found to be
in the soil and not in the springs.
(SSFC, 8/10/03, p.C6)
1978-1983 Scottish-born Dennis Nilsen (b.1945),
British serial killer, murdered 15 men during this period. In 1983
Nilsen was sentenced to life in prison after admitting the murders.
(AP,
1/13/04)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Nilsen)
1979 Mar 30, Northern Ireland
spokesman Airey Neave, a leading member of the British parliament,
was killed by a bomb planted by the Irish National Liberation Army
(INLA) in the House of Commons car park in London.
(AP, 3/30/99)(AP, 2/8/10)
1979 Mar, A referendum in
Scotland failed to produce clear support for the devolution of power
from London to a Scottish assembly.
(Reuters, 2/16/12)
1979 Apr 23, In Britain Blair
Peach (b.1946), a New Zealand-born teacher, died. A day earlier he
was taking part in a protest against the far-right National Front in
west London when he was hit on the head with what is thought to have
been a lead-filled cosh or a police radio. Details of a long-secret
report were made public in 2010 but the name of an officer under
"grave suspicion" over the killing were blacked out.
(AFP,
4/27/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blair_Peach)
1979 May 3, Britain held
general elections. Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher was
chosen to become Britain's first female prime minister as the Tories
ousted the incumbent Labor government in parliamentary elections. In
2008 Claire Berlinski authored “There Is No Alternative: Why
Margaret Thatcher Matters.”
(AP, 5/3/97)(HN, 5/3/98)(WSJ, 11/18/08, p.A19)
1979 May 4, Margaret Thatcher
(b.1925), leader of the Conservative Party, was sworn in as
Britain's first female prime minister. She continued in office for 3
terms until 1990.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/thatcher_margaret.shtml)
1979 May 20, Helen Smith
(b.1956), a British nurse, died after reportedly fall from a balcony
in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The bodies of Helen and Johannes Otten
(35), a Dutch tugboat captain, were found in the street 70 feet
below a sixth floor balcony. Helen was found lying in the road fully
clothed and Johannes, whose underpants were around his thighs, was
impaled upon the spiked railings surrounding the apartment block.
Helen’s father, Ron Smith, did not allow her burial because he did
not believe official Saudi and British reports that the death was an
accident. He believed his daughter was murdered and that her body
could provide forensic evidence to expose a cover up. In 2009 Smith
and his ex-wife decided to cremate their daughter before they both
died.
(AP,
11/9/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Smith_%28nurse%29)
1979 Jun 1, Paul McCartney and
Wings released "Old Siam, Sir” on its Back to the Egg album.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Siam,_Sir)
1979 Jun 12, Cyclist Bryan
Allen (26) flew the manpowered Gossamer Albatross across the English
Channel. This was the first man powered craft to fly across the
English Channel. The bicycle plane was designed by Paul MacCready
(1925-2007).
(Hem, Nov.'95, p.138)(AP, 6/12/97)(WSJ, 9/1/07,
p.A4)
1979 Jul 3, Helen Van Slyke,
English writer, died. She left a manuscript that was completed by
James Elward (1929-1996) titled "Public Smiles, Private Tears" that
became a best-seller. It was about a woman’s rise in the world of
retail fashion.
(SFC, 9/2/96, p.A20)(http://tinyurl.com/3bzrf3)
1979 Jul 12, The Gilbert
Islands gained independence from Britain and became a nation, the
Archipelago of Kiribati. It is a chain of 35 islands that sprawls
1,860 miles from east to west. Fanning Island was renamed to
Tabuaeran. Kiribati began using the Australia dollar for its
currency.
(www.worldstatesmen.org/Kiribati.htm)(SFC,
7/1/97, p.A9)(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.C22)(Econ, 9/13/14, p.84)
1979 Aug 27, British war hero
Lord Louis Mountbatten was killed off the coast of Ireland in his
29-foot sail boat in Sligo, Ireland; the Irish Republican Army
claimed responsibility. Also killed were his 14-year-old grandson
Nicholas, 83-year-old Lady Brabourne, and 15-year-old John Maxwell.
Thomas McMahon (31) was the bombmaker and was jailed at Dublin’s
Mountjoy prison. He was released in 1998 as part of the Northern
Ireland peace agreement. Richard Hough (d.1999) later authored the
biography "Mountbatten: Hero of Our Time."
(AP, 8/27/97)(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A13)(HN, 8/27/98)
1979 Aug 27, In Northern
Ireland 18 British militia died in ambush and bomb attack at
Warrenpoint, South Down.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/27/newsid_3891000/3891055.stm)
1979 Sep 2, Charles Burton
(1942-2002) led a small group down the Thames on a 3-year journey to
follow the meridian line connecting Greenwich to the North and South
Poles. Sir Ranulph Fiennes (b.1944) and his wife Ginnie also took
part. Burton and Fiennes returned to Greenwich Aug 29, 1982.
(SFC, 7/18/02,
p.A26)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranulph_Fiennes)
1979 Nov 2, Peter Shaffer's
play "Amadeus," premiered in London.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0086879/trivia)
1979 Nov 9, Robert Taylor
(d.2002), British forester, allegedly encountered a UFO in the woods
of Dechmont Law. He took police to the scene 2 days later and
evidence was gathered that gave some support to his claims.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.95)
1979 Nov 15, The British
government publicly identified Sir Anthony Blunt (d.1983), art
historian, as the "fourth man" of a Soviet spy ring that included
Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean and Kim Philby. Blunt’s work included
"Art and Architecture in France 1500-1700." In 2001 Miranda Carter
authored "Anthony blunt: His Lives."
(AP, 11/15/99)(WSJ, 12/28/01, p.W8)
1979 Dec 3, Christie's in
Switzerland auctioned a thimble for a record sum. A London dealer
bid $18,000 for a Meissen porcelain thimble that dated to about
1740.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thimble)
1979 Dec 5, Teresa De Simone
(22) was found strangled in her car outside the pub where she worked
in Southampton, 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest of London. Sean
Hodgson initially confessed to the killing, but he later recanted
and pleaded not guilty. His lawyers argued he was a pathological
liar and any confession he made was false. In 2009 Hodgson was
released from prison based on DNA evidence.
(AP, 3/18/09)(http://tinyurl.com/c5jz3y)
1979 Dec 14, The British punk
group Clash released its “London Calling” album.
{Pop&Rock, Britain}
(WSJ, 12/21/04,
p.D8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Calling)
1979 Dec 21, The Lancaster
House Agreement was signed in London. It ended biracial rule in
Zimbabwe Rhodesia following negotiations between representatives of
the Patriotic Front (PF), consisting of ZAPU ( Zimbabwe African
Peoples Union) and ZANU ( Zimbabwe African National Union) and the
Zimbabwe Rhodesia government, represented by Bishop Abel Muzorewa
and Ian Smith.
(www.reference.com/browse/Lancaster_House_Agreement)
1979 Harmony Books published
“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams. In the book
the British writer described the Babel fish, a live fish placed in
the ear that translates any form of language. “Deep Thought”
was the name of a computer in the book.
(www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=133)(SFC, 4/29/98,
p.E1)(Econ, 4/28/12, p.60)
1979 The play "Bent" was
written by Martin Sherman and first performed in London. It’s
Broadway debut was in 1980. It was about a gay love story set in a
Nazi concentration camp and was made into a film in 1997 that
starred Clive Owen, Mick Jagger and Lothaire Bluteau.
(SFEC,11/23/97, DB p.43)(SFC,11/26/97, p.E8)
1979 English writer Penelope
Fitzgerald (1916-2000) won the Booker Prize for her novel
"Offshore."
(WSJ, 4/8/97,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penelope_Fitzgerald)
1979 Penelope Mortimer
(1918-1999) won the Whitbread Prize for her memoir "About Time." The
2nd part of her autobiography was published in 1993.
(http://facstaff.unca.edu/moseley/whitbread.html)
1979 V.A. Pritchett (1900-1997)
published his collection of short stories "On the Edge of the
Cliff."
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A21)
1979 Tom Wolfe wrote his book
"The Right Stuff." It was about US astronauts.
(WSJ, 11/7/97, p.A1)
1979 George Harrison’s Handmade
Films produced "The Life of Brian."
(SFC, 12/1/01, p.D1)
1979 Frank Tovey (d.2002 at
46), musician, became the 1st artist to sign with the independent
label Mute. He recorded electronic and industrial music and released
4 labels under the name Fad Gadget.
(SFC, 4/16/02, p.A18)
1979 Tim Martin opened the
first branch of his pub chain, named JD Wetherspoon after a teacher,
in London. The teacher had told Martin that he would never amount to
anything.
(Econ, 12/24/16, p.82)
1979 Controls on capital
movement across borders were abandoned by the U.K. and Japan.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-44)
1979 In Britain Departmental
Select Committees were formed to scrutinize the government.
(http://tinyurl.com/m2rfk4q)(Econ, 11/23/13,
p.60)
1979 In Britain Jeremy Thorpe
(1929-2014), a member of Parliament and former head of the Liberal
Party, was acquitted on charges of incitement to murder and
conspiracy to murder Norman Scott, a stable boy and former male
model who claimed to have had an affair with him in the 1960s.
(Econ, 12/13/14, p.92)
1979 St. Lucia gained
independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)
1979 St. Vincent and the
Grenadines gained independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)
1979 Vickers PLC acquired the
Rolls-Royce company. By this time the "Spirit of Ecstasy" statuette
atop the Parthenon-style metal grill was an established status
symbol.
(WSJ, 10/28/97, p.B1)
1979-1981 James Lees-Milne (1908-1997), English
biographer, kept diaries during this period that were published in
2001 as "Deep Romantic Chasm: Diaries 1979-1981."
(SSFC, 8/12/01, DB p.63)
1980 Jan 16, Paul McCartney was
arrested in Tokyo for marijuana possession. He was released and
deported on Jan 25.
(www.taima.org/en/hemplib3.htm#mccartney)
1980 Jan 18, Cecil Beaton
(b.1904)), British fashion photographer, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Beaton)
1980 Apr 29, Alfred Joseph
Hitchcock (b.1899), British director (Psycho, Birds), died in Los
Angeles.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock)
1980 Apr 30, Terrorists seized
the Iranian Embassy in London. Only after the incident was over did
it become known that Iraq had trained and armed the gunmen in order
to try to embarrass Iran.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Embassy_Siege)
1980 May 5, A siege at the
Iranian embassy in London ended as British commandos and police
stormed the building. 19 hostages were rescued; two others had
already been killed by their captors; four of the five
hostage-takers also were killed. John McAleese (d.2022), special
forces soldier, led the dramatic raid. The only gunman to survive
served 27 years in jail.
(AP, 5/5/00)(AP, 8/28/11)
1980 May 18, Ian Curtis
(b.1956), English rock vocalist (Joy Division), committed suicide.
His death was later ruled as accidental.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Curtis)
1980 Jul 1, Charles Percy Snow
(b.1905), British writer (Friends & Associates), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._P._Snow)
1980 Jul 24, Peter Sellers
(b.1925), British actor, died in London of a heart attack. His films
included the Pink Panther series, “The Mouse that Roared” (1959) and
“Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the
Bomb” (1964).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sellers)
1980 Jul 26, Kenneth Tynan
(53), dramaturge for Britain’s National Theater, died in California
from emphysema. In 2001 John Lahr edited essays from his last 10
years: "The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan."
(WSJ, 11/23/01,
p.W8)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0878985/bio)
1980 Aug 19, Willy Russell's
"Educating Rita," premiered in London.
(www.thisistheatre.com/shows/piccadilly105.html)
1980 Sep 11, Chicago mobsters
Arthur "The Brain" Rachel and Joseph "The Monk" Scalise staged a
daring daytime theft of the Marlborough Diamond. Both men were
convicted in Britain of threatening to use a hand grenade while
robbing London's posh Graff Jewelers of $3.6 million worth of goods,
including the diamond. They began serving 15-year prison terms in
1984 and were released in 1993.
(AP,
6/7/12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Scalise)
1980 Sep 22, John Lennon signed
with Geffen Records. The Lennon LP, "Double Fantasy", was released
on Geffen. Lennon was assassinated on December 8, 1980.
(www.jpgr.co.uk/k99131.html)
1980 Oct 8, British Leyland
started selling the Mini Metro.
(www.austin-rover.co.uk/index.htm?lc8storyf.htm)
1980 Dec 15, Charles Burton
(d.2002) and his party arrived at the South Pole on their 3-year
journey to follow the meridian line connecting Greenwich to the
North and South Poles.
(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A26)
1980 Dec 18, IRA's Sean McKenna
became critically ill and ended his hunger strike.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1980 Penelope Fitzgerald
published "Human Voices," the story of the BBC's Broadcasting House.
(WSJ, 5/28/99, p.W6)
1980 “Yes, Minister,” a
satirical British sitcom written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn,
was first transmitted by BBC television and radio. The sequel, “Yes,
Prime Minister,” ran from 1986 to 1988.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_Minister)
1980 The British government
sent out a pamphlet to the public titled “Protect and Survive.” It
contained advice in the event of nuclear war.
(Econ, 7/31/04, p.48)
1980 Tower 42, the tallest
building in London, England, was first occupied.
(WSJ, 2/27/08, p.B1)
1980 The Bank of England
licensed the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. BCCI
imploded in 1991 under the weight of fraud.
(Econ, 7/10/04, p.64)
1980 The huge British Steel
plant at Corby, central England, closed and the site was
redeveloped. In 2009 a British court ruled in favor of a group of
young people who said pollution from the former steelworks
contributed to their birth defects, which included missing fingers
and deformed hands and feet.
(AP, 7/29/09)
1980 Asil Nadir, a Turkish
Cypriot businessman, took control of the ailing British textile
company Polly Peck and used the firm as his stock market vehicle for
expansion. The company's stock price multiplied as Nadir went on an
acquisitions binge, snapping up Del Monte's fresh fruit operations
and Japan's Sansui Electric Co. His company filed for bankruptcy
protection in late 1990, hundreds of millions of pounds (dollars) in
debt.
(AP, 8/26/10)
1980 British bus operator
Stagecoach Group began operations with two buses. It was started by
Ann Gloag and her brother Sir Brian Souter.
(Econ, 9/7/13, p.59)
1980 In Wales the Big Pit Mine
(Pwll Mawr) in Blaenafon was closed.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.T5)
1980 The Pacific island of
Vanuatu gained independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)
1980 Zimbabwe in southern
Africa gained independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)
1981 Jan 2, "Yorkshire Ripper"
Peter Sutcliffe (b.1946), murderer of 13 women, was arrested on a
traffic violation. On Jan 4 he declared he was the ripper and
charges were filed on Jan 6. Stuart Kind (d.2003), a leading
forensic biologist, helped British police crack the "Yorkshire
Ripper" serial murder case. Sutcliffe was convicted on May 22 on 13
counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 2003 Michael
Bilton authored “Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire
Ripper.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sutcliffe)(AP, 4/30/03)
1981 Feb 24, Buckingham Palace
announced the engagement of Britain's Prince Charles to Lady Diana
Spencer.
(AP, 2/24/98)
1981 Feb 26, Three British
Anglican missionaries, detained in Iran since August 1980, were
released.
(www.cedmagic.com/museum/press/ced-timeline.html#02-1981)
1981 Feb, John King
(1917-2005), at the behest of PM Margaret Thatcher, became chairman
of British Airways with a brief to clean the company up for
privatization. Over the next 12 years he steered the company to
profitability.
(Econ, 7/16/05, p.54)(http://tinyurl.com/3xl527)
1981 Mar 29, The first London
26.2 mile marathon was run with nearly 7,500 participants.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Marathon)
1981 Apr 10, Imprisoned IRA
hunger striker Bobby Sands was declared the winner of a by-election
to the British Parliament.
(AP, 4/10/07)
1981 Apr 11, A race riot
erupted in London area of Brixton. More than 300 people were injured
and 28 buildings were set ablaze. Lord Scarman (1911-2004) was later
appointed to investigate and report his findings.
(www.urban75.org/brixton/history/riot1.html)
1981 Apr 29, Truck driver Peter
Sutcliffe (b.1946) admitted in a London court to being the
"Yorkshire Ripper," the killer of 13 women in northern England
during a five-year period. He was convicted on May 22 and sentenced
to serve a minimum of 30 years.
(AP, 4/29/00)(AP, 1/13/04)
1981 May 5, Irish Republican
Army hunger-striker Bobby Sands, an elected member of the Irish
Parliament, died at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland on his 66th
day without food.
(SFC, 11/15/96, p.B2)(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.6)(AP,
5/5/97)
1981 May 11, The Andrew Lloyd
Webber musical "Cats," based on TS Eliot poems, premiered in
London.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cats_(musical))
1981 Jun 5, George Harrison's
"Somewhere in England" album was released.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somewhere_in_England)
1981 Jun 13, A scare occurred
during a parade in London when a teenager fired six blank shots at
Queen Elizabeth II.
(AP, 6/13/97)
1981 Jun 24, In England the
Humber Bridge, the longest single-span suspension bridge in the
world, opened to traffic over Humber (the estuary formed by the
rivers Trent and Ouse).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humber_Bridge)
1981 Jul 7, The 1st
solar-powered aircraft, Solar Challenger, crossed the English
Channel flying 163 miles from Paris to Canterbury. It was created by
Dupont and Paul MacCready.
(www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-054-DFRC.html)(Econ,
9/8/07, p.88)
1981 Jul 13, Simon Gray's
"Quartermaine's Terms," premiered in London.
(www.haroldpinter.org/directing/directing_quartermaine.shtml)
1981 Jul 29, Britain's Prince
Charles married Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul's Cathedral in
London. They were divorced in 1996.
(TMC, 1994, p.1981)(AP, 7/29/99)
1981 Sep 21, Belize under
leader George Price (1919-2011) gained independence from Britain and
joined the UN under protests from Guatemala. As head of the centrist
People's United Party, Price served two terms as prime minister,
1981-84 and 1989-1993.
(www.belizenet.com/bzeguat/chap10.html)(AP,
9/19/11)
1981 Nov 1, Antigua and Barbuda
gained independence from Britain.
(http://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Antigua/antigua-barbuda.html)
1981 V.A. Pritchett (1900-1997)
edited the "Oxford Book of Short Stories."
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A21)
1981 Salman Rushdie (b.1947)
won the Booker Prize for his novel "Midnight’s Children. The BBC
began a movie for TV version in 1997.
(SFC,10/31/97, p.C7)
1981 Roy Jenkins (1920-2003)
helped found Britain’s Social Democratic Party. Rebels had left
Michael Foote’s Labour Party to form the Social Democrats, a party
that later disappeared.
(WSJ, 2/21/97,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Jenkins)(Econ, 7/16/16,
p.46)
1981 The London Docklands
Development corp. was established in England to regenerate 2,150
hectares of the city’s rundown docks. It ceased operations in 1998.
(Econ, 4/2/05, p.62)
1981 In Britain there was an
outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. The last major outbreak was in
1967 when 442,000 animals were slaughtered.
(SFC, 2/21/01, p.A12)(http://tinyurl.com/3apbyk)
1981 St. Kits and Nevis gained
independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)
1981 In South Africa Col.
Eugene de Kock testified in 1998 that he blew up a building
belonging to the African National Congress in London in 1981 and
received a Star of Excellence medal approved by Pres. Botha.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A12)
1981-1991 Lord Robert Runcie was the Archbishop of
Canterbury. In an interview on 5/15/96 he acknowledged that he had
knowingly ordained practicing homosexuals as priests in the Church
of England.
(SFC, 5/17/96, p.A-16)
1981-1994 Archbishop Trevor Huddleston (d.1998 at
84) served as the president of the Anti-Apartheid Movement of
Britain. He was made Bishop of Masasi, Tanzania, in 1960 and spent 8
years there. In the 1950s he published "Naught for Your Comfort," a
work based on his experiences in the townships of South Africa.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A26)
1982 Feb 5, Laker Airways,
founded in 1966 by Sir Freddie Laker, collapsed owing $351M.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laker_Airways)
1982 Feb 23, Michael Frayn's
"Noises Off," premiered in London.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1982 Mar 14, South African
police bombed the London offices of the African National Congress.
Gen'l. Johann Coetzee commander of apartheid police and 8 officers
received amnesty in 1999. Col. Eugene de Kock testified in 1998 that
he blew up a building belonging to the African National Congress in
London and received a Star of Excellence medal approved by Pres.
Botha.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A12)(SFC, 10/16/99,
p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_in_South_Africa)
1982 Apr 2,
Several thousand troops from Argentina seized the disputed Falkland
Islands, located in the south Atlantic, from Britain but Lady
Thatcher had Britain take them back the following June. Britain
fought with Argentina in the Falkland Islands War, also known as the
Falklands War, the Malvinas War and the South Atlantic War. The
short, undeclared war between the two nations was fought over claims
to the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and neighboring islands.
Argentina had laid claims to the territories since the 19th century,
but spurred by a related dispute on South Georgia island and
political expediency, the military government of Argentina invaded
the Falkland Islands. A British naval task force was assembled and
headed towards the war zone by late April. British forces
established a beachhead on the Falklands in late May. With the
surrender of the Argentine garrison at Stanley on June 14, the
conflict was essentially over.
(TMC, 1994, p.1982)(WSJ, 12/12/95, p.A-15)(AP,
4/2/99)(HNQ, 1/10/01)
1982 Apr 3, Britain dispatched
a naval task force to the south Atlantic to reclaim the disputed
Falkland Islands from Argentina. The UN Security Council demanded
Argentina withdraw from Falkland Islands.
(AP, 4/3/02)
1982 Apr 5, Lord Carrington
(b.1919) resigned as Britain’s foreign secretary.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Carington,_6th_Baron_Carrington)
1982 May 2, In the Falklands
War the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was sunk by the British
submarine Conqueror, killing 323 men. Lord Terence Thornton Lewin
(d.1999 at 78), British military commander, was regarded as the one
who persuaded Margaret Thatcher to order the sinking.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARA_General_Belgrano)(SFC, 1/25/99,
p.A20)
1982 May 4, The British
destroyer HMS Sheffield was hit by Exocet rocket off the Falkland
Islands. 20 men died and a further 24 were injured in the sinking of
the Sheffield, the first British warship to be lost in 37 years.
(http://tinyurl.com/htt3d)
1982 May 21, During the
Falklands War, British amphibious forces landed on the beach at San
Carlos Bay.
(AP, 5/21/07)
1982 May 23, The British HMS
Antelope was attacked. It sank the next day after an unexploded bomb
detonates. Ten Argentine aircraft were destroyed.
(www.yendor.com/vanished/falklands-war.html)
1982 May 28, Pope John Paul II
became the 1st Pontiff to visit Britain.
(www.popejohnpaulii.org.uk/)
1982 Jun 3, Israel's ambassador
to Britain, Shlomo Argov (1929-2003), was shot and critically
wounded outside a London hotel. Israel's invasion of Lebanon
followed the assassination attempt. The attack was blamed on Abu
Nidal’s Palestinian Fatah group.
(WSJ, 8/20/02, p.A18)(NYT, 10/8/04, p.A12)(AP,
6/3/07)
1982 Jun 7, Pres. Reagan met
with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican and later with Queen Elizabeth
in England.
(www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/trvl/pres/12800.htm)
1982 Jun 8, President Reagan
became the first American chief executive to address a joint session
of the British Parliament.
(AP, 6/8/97)
1982 Jun 14, Argentine forces
surrendered to British troops on the disputed Falkland Islands. 970
people were killed including 255 British soldiers. Argentine
dictator Leopaldo Galtieri led the initial attack in the 72-day war.
The dead in the ten-week war included 712 Argentines, 255 Britons
and 3 islanders. In 2003 it was revealed that some British ships
carried nuclear depth charges. In 2005 Lawrence Freedman authored
“The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, Volumes I and II.
In 2007 Hugh McManners authored “Forgotten Voices of the Falklands:
The Real Story of the Falklands War in the Words of Those Who Were
There.”
(AP, 6/14/97)(WSJ, 12/8/03, p.A1)(Econ, 7/16/05,
p.81)(Econ, 5/19/07, p.88)
1982 Jun 18, The body of
Roberto Calvi (1920–1982), an Italian banker, was found hanging from
scaffolding beneath Blackfriars Bridge in the financial district of
London. Calvi, director of Banco Ambrosiano, allegedly hanged
himself following the fraudulent bankruptcy of the bank. Calvi's
clothing was stuffed with building bricks, and he was carrying
around $15,000 of cash in three different currencies. Calvi, dubbed
by the press as "God's Banker" due to his close association with the
Vatican, had gone missing on June 10. The Holy See was the main
shareholder in the bank, which had been accused of laundering money
for the Sicilian mafia. In 1992 Carlo De Benedetti, the chairman of
Olivetti SpA, was convicted for contributing to the bankruptcy of
Banco Ambrosiano. In 1996 courts upheld his conviction and that of
30 others. In 2003 RAI state television said prosecutors believed
the Mafia killed Roberto Calvi because he lost their money and knew
too much about their operations. In 2005 a trial began for 5 people
in the murder of Calvi. In 2007 a jury acquitted all 5 defendants
charged with the murder of Calvi.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Calvi)(WSJ,
6/11/96, p.A10)(AP, 7/24/03)(AP, 10/6/05)(AP, 6/6/07)(AP, 11/2/18)
1982 Jun 21, Prince William,
eldest son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_William_of_Wales)
1982 Jul 9, Michael Fagan
(b.1951) broke into the Buckingham Palace bedroom of Queen Elizabeth
II. Fagan was initially charged with the theft of some wine from the
palace but the charges were dropped.
(AFP,
2/24/12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Fagan_incident)
1982 Jul 20, Irish Republican
Army bombs exploded in two London parks, killing 11 British
soldiers, along with seven horses belonging to the Queen’s Household
Cavalry. On May 22, 2013, British police charged John Downey (61)
from County Donegal in Ireland, over one of the bombings that killed
four soldiers and 7 horses in Hyde Park.
(AP, 7/20/00)(AP, 5/22/13)
1982 Sep 24, British PM
Margaret Thatcher visited Beijing. Deng refused her request for
continued British administration of Hong Kong after 1997, but agreed
to open negotiations on handover.
(www.china.org.cn/english/China/213898.htm)
1982 Sep 24, Sarah Churchill
(b.1914), actress (Royal Wedding, Spring Meeting), died. She was the
2nd daughter of Winston Churchill and Clementine Churchill: the
third of the couple's five children.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Churchill_(actress))
1982 Sep 30, The London
International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE) opened
for trading. It provided a range of products designed to help manage
equity investment risk. In 2002 Euronext, a Paris-based exchange,
took over LIFFE.
(www.futuresindustry.org/fi-magazine-home.asp?a=607)
1982 Oct 11, The Mary Rose,
English Tudor flagship of Henry VIII, was raised at Portsmouth,
England. It had sank after launching in 1545.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rose)
1982 Oct 22, Siegmund Warburg
(b.1902), German-born British financier, died. In 2010 Niall
Ferguson authored “High Financier: The Lives and Time of Siegmund
Warburg.”
(Econ, 6/26/10,
p.87)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegmund_George_Warburg)
1982 Nov 16, Tom Stoppard's
"Real Thing," premiered in London.
(www.sondheimguide.com/Stoppard/chronology.html)
1982 Oxford University Press
began its series “The Oxford History of the United States.”
(Econ, 8/26/17, p.67)
1982 Ann Barr (1930-2015),
British features editor at Harpers & Queen, and Peter York
co-authored “The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook.”
(Econ, 5/23/15, p.78)
1982 Patrick Rance (d.1999)
authored "The Great British Cheese Book."
(SFC, 8/30/99, p.A24)
1982 Sue Grafton published in
England her first alphabetical mystery: "A is for Alibi."
(WSJ, 4/24/98, p.W14)
1982 British writer Sue
Townsend (1946-2014) authored "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged
13 ¾". It sold 20 million copies worldwide. She continued the series
through the 1990s and 2000s, following Mole as he became a father,
ran a book shop and overcame prostate cancer.
(AP, 4/11/14)
1982 The play "Rita, Sue and
Bob Too" by Andrea Dunbar, later considered a landmark of British
theater, was first produced. It is about two working-class English
teenagers and their relationship with an older married man. It was
made into a 1987 film.
(AP, 12/13/17)
1982 The Barbican Centre for
the performing arts opened in London.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbican_Centre)
1982 Major Adrian Coles
(d.2017) founded the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.
(https://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/)(Econ,
4/15/17, p.82)
1982 The far right British
National Party (BNP) emerged from the National Front.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.55)
1982 Sir Oliver Franks, former
British diplomat, led a public inquiry into the Falklands war.
(Econ, 11/12/05, p.78)
1982 Stephenson Bros. was
founded and produced reproductions of Victorian rocking horses.
(SFC,12/24/97, Z1 p.6)
1982 China and Britain began
negotiations on Hong Kong’s future.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfer_of_the_sovereignty_of_Hong_Kong)
1983 Jan 25, The Infrared
Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) space probe, sponsored by the United
Kingdom, the US, and the Netherlands, was launched. It studied
infrared radiation from across the cosmos and exposed stars as they
were born from clouds of gas and dust.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1983 Feb 9, In a dramatic
reversal from 50 years earlier, the Oxford Union Society at Oxford
University rejected, 416 to 187, a motion "that this House would not
fight for Queen and Country."
(AP, 2/9/00)
1983 Feb 23, Adrian Boult
(b.1889), British conductor, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Boult)
1983 Mar 3, Arthur Koestler
(b.1905), Hungarian-British writer (Dialogue With Death), died in a
double suicide with his wife. His novels included "Darkness at Noon"
(1940). In 1998 David Cesarani authored the biography "Arthur
Koestler: The Homeless Mind."
(SFEC, 1/2/00, BR p.5)(SC, 3/3/02)
1983 Mar 8, William T. Walton
(b.1902), English composer (Belhazzar's feast), died.
(www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Walton-William.htm)
1983 Mar 15, Rebecca West (born
in 1892 as Cicily Fairfield), British writer, died. Her books
included "The Return of the Soldier" and "Black Lamb and Grey
Falcon," which was written following a trip through Yugoslavia. She
had a relationship with H.G. Wells that led to the birth of a son,
Anthony. In 1996 Carl Rollyson wrote her biography: "Rebecca West: A
Life." Her pen name came from a character in Ibsen’s play
"Rosmersholm." In 2000 the "Selected Letters of Rebecca West" was
edited by Bonnie Kime Scott. In 2003 Bernard Schweitzer edited and
introduced her work "Survivors in Mexico"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_West).
(WSJ, 11/21/96, p.A20)(WSJ, 3/6/00, p.A28)(SSFC,
6/8/03, p.M3)
1983 Mar 26, Anthony Blunt
(b.1907), art historian and one of Britain's most notorious Cold War
spies, died in London. In a memoir published in 2009 he admitted
that spying for Russia was "the biggest mistake of my life." He had
written his memoirs, with the stipulation they should not published
until a quarter of a century after his death.
(AFP,
7/23/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Blunt)
1983 Apr 1, Tens of thousands
of anti-nuke demonstrators linked arms in 14-mile human chain
spanning three defense installations in rural England, including the
Greenham Common US Air Base.
(AP, 4/1/03)
1983 Jun 9, Margaret Thatcher's
Conservative Party won the British parliamentary election. The
Labour Party under Michael Foot won just 209 seats.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_1983)(Econ,
4/22/17, p.49)
1983 Aug 18, Samantha Druce
earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest
person to swim the English Channel. She completed the crossing in 15
hours 26 minutes at the age of 12 years 118 days.
(http://tinyurl.com/6kgow4)
1983 Aug 18, Nikolaus Pevsner
(b.1902, German-born British architectural researcher, died. His
work included the 46 volume series “The Buildings of England”
(1951-1974).
(Econ, 11/5/11,
p.103)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolaus_Pevsner)
1983 Sep 19, St. Kitts and
Nevis became a single nation, but Nevis retained the right to
secede. St Kitts and Nevis declared independence from the UK.
(SFC,10/15/97,
p.C4)(www.worldstatesmen.org/Saint_Kitts_and_Nevis.html)
1983 Oct 14, Cecil Parkinson,
British Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, resigned
following a highly publicized extra-marital affair.
(Econ, 10/22/05, p.62)(http://tinyurl.com/bfvue)
1983 Nov 4, Dennis Nilsen
(b.1945), serial killer, was sentenced in England to life
imprisonment. He had killed at least 15 men over a 5 year period
(1978-1983). All his victims were students or homeless men whom he
picked up in bars and brought to his house either for sex or just
for company. In 1993 Brian Masters authored “Killing for Company.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Nilsen)(WSJ,
6/9/07, p.P8)
1983 Nov 26, Over £25m worth of
gold bullion bound for the Far East was stolen from the Brinks Mat
warehouse, about one mile (1.6km) outside the airport perimeter, in
Heathrow, England. At least 6 men stole of 6,800 gold bars worth
$38.7 million.
(http://tinyurl.com/5fy2ep)
1983 Geoffrey Pearson authored
“Hooligan: A History of Respectable Fears.” It became a classic of
English criminology.
(Econ, 8/20/11, p.54)
1983 The London Encyclopedia
was first published by Macmillan.
(Econ, 6/30/12, p.84)
1983 The film "Monty Python’s
the Meaning of Life" with Eric Idle and Michael Palin was produced.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.E1)(SFC, 6/3/98, p.E3)
1983 Shane MacGowan formed the
punk group Pogues in London. He left the group in 1992.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, DB p.39)
1983 Britain’s Labor Party
issued an election manifesto that was later dubbed “the longest
suicide note in history.” This was later said to have mark the
demise of Socialism in Britain.
(Econ, 12/13/08, p.63)
1983 Britain introduced the
one-pound coin.
(WSJ, 7/24/98, p.W11)
1983 Britain introduced its
Youth Training Scheme.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_Training_Scheme)(Econ, 10/3/09,
SR p.16)
1983 English driver Richard
Noble set the land speed record at 633 mph.
(SFC, 6/16/96, p.B1)
1983 The British Social
Attitudes survey began. In 1987 it began asking people if they
thought the gap between rich and poor was too wide.
(Econ, 8/21/10,
p.46)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Social_Attitudes_Survey)
1983-1989 Nigel Lawson served as Britain's Tory
finance minister.
(Econ, 3/20/04, p.13)
1984 Feb 22-1984 Mar 16, Iran’s
offensive Operation Kheibar captured the Iraqi Majnoon Islands in
the Haur al-Hawizeh marshes. Britain and the US sent warships to the
Persian Gulf following an Iranian offensive against Iraq.
(HN,
2/22/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Iraq_War)
1984 Feb 3, Ravindra Mhatre,
India's deputy high commissioner in Britain, was kidnapped in
Birmingham, England. His body was found on Feb 5. A group calling
itself the Kashmir Liberation Army claimed responsibility and
demanded a ransom of 1 million pounds ($1.84 million) and the
release of political prisoners in India.
(AP, 11/4/04)(http://tinyurl.com/az5uudh)
1984 Feb 11, Mohammad Maqbool
Butt, founder of the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation
Front (JKLF), was hanged in New Delhi's Tihar jail for the murder of
intelligence officer Ravindra Hareshwa Mhatre. In 2004 Mohammed
Aslam (49) was charged with the kidnap, false imprisonment and
murder of Mhatre.
(AP, 11/4/04)(AFP, 2/11/07)(AP, 2/11/13)
1984 Mar 27, "Starlight
Express," a techno musical, roller-skating venture by Andrew Lloyd
Weber and Richard Stilgoe, premiered at the Apollo Victoria Theatre,
London.
(SFC, 12/31/99,
p.C6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlight_Express)
1984 Apr 5, Arthur Travers
("Bomber") Harris (b.1892), marshal of British RAF, died.
(www.ihr.org/jhr/v05/v05p431_Lutton.html)
1984 Apr 17, Yvonne Fletcher
(25), a British police officer, was killed from rifle shots fired
from a window of the Libyan embassy in London during a demonstration
against Moammar Khadafy. Diplomatic relations were soon severed and
not restored until 1999. Libya later gave Fletcher’s family some
compensation. In 2004 a joint British-Libyan investigation into the
murder was launched. In 2009 Moamer Kadhafi officially
apologized for the shooting. In 2011 it was reported that a witness
had identified Abdulmagid Salah Ameri, a junior diplomat working in
the administrative section, as firing a gun from an embassy window.
On Nov 19, 2015, a Libyan was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy in
the Fletcher case.
(SFC, 7/8/99, p.A8)(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.C12)(AP,
4/7/04)(AFP, 10/26/09)(AFP, 8/26/11)(SFC, 11/20/15, p.A5)
1984 May 8, The Thames Barrier
was officially opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Total
construction cost was around £534 m (£1.3 billion at 2001 prices)
with an additional £100 m for river defenses. It was the world's
largest movable flood barrier until Netherlands completed the
Oosterscheldekering in 1986.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Barrier)
1984 May 20, Peter Bull (72),
British actor (Dr Doolittle), died of a heart attack.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0119988/)
1984 Jun 6, In India government
forces stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar in an effort to crush
Sikh extremists. At least 1,000 Sikhs and 200 soldiers were killed.
On Feb 4, 2014, Britain acknowledged that it had played an advisory
role to India’s government in the attack.
(AP, 6/6/04)(AP, 2/4/14)
1984 Jun 25-1984 Jun 26, A
European Council is held in Fontainebleau, France. The Ten reach an
agreement on the amount of compensation to be granted to the United
Kingdom to reduce its contribution to the Community budget.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1984/index_en.htm)
1984 Jul 9, A fire destroyed
the roof in the south transept of the 12th century York Minster.
Around £2.5 million was spent on repairs. Restoration work was
completed in 1988, and included new roof bosses to designs which had
won a competition organized by BBC Television's Blue Peter program.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York_Minster)(http://tinyurl.com/353gfq)
1984 Jul 30, Holly Roffey (11
days old) received a heart transplant in England. She died on Aug
17.
(www.camelotintl.com/365_days/july.html)
1984 Jul 30, The British tanker
Alvenus spilled 2.8 million gallons of oil at Cameron, La.
(http://ceprofs.tamu.edu/rhann/links/case.asp)
1984 Sep 10, British scientist
Alec Jeffreys and colleagues discovered that x-ray images of bits of
DNA showed patterns unique to individuals. Jeffries, a geneticist at
Leicester Univ., and his research team found that DNA sequences,
specific to individuals, could be identified as visible bands. He
dubbed his findings DNA fingerprinting. This led to the use of DNA
to solve thousands of crimes.
(Econ, 3/13/04, TQ p.34)(SSFC, 9/13/09, p.A17,20)
1984 Sep 15, Henry Charles
Albert David, Prince of Wales, 3rd in British succession, was born.
(www.princeofwales.gov.uk)
1984 Sep 19, Britain and China
completed a draft agreement on transferring Hong Kong from British
to Chinese rule by 1997.
(AP, 9/19/99)
1984 Oct 12, The IRA bombed the
hotel where PM Margaret Thatcher was staying in Brighton. Thatcher
escaped but five people were killed. Patrick McGee was sentenced to
8 life sentences for his role in the bombing. McGee was freed in
1999 as part of the Northern Ireland peace accord.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.7)(SFC, 6/23/99,
p.A10)(http://tinyurl.com/bxt64)
1984 Oct, Richard Stone of
Great Britain, won the Nobel Prize in Economics for contributions to
the development of systems of national accounts.
(AP, 10/11/09)
1984 Dec 19, British PM
Margaret Thatcher and Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang signed an accord
to return Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty on Jul 1, 1997. China
pledged to grant Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy in everything
but foreign affairs and national defense and permit it to retain its
capitalist system for 50 years. This laid the ground for Hong Kong’s
Basic Law.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.A14)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A8)(Econ,
7/19/14, p.11)(Econ, 10/10/15, p.42)
1984 Ian Hibell (d.2008 at 74),
long-distance British cyclist, authored “Into Remote Places.”
(Econ, 9/13/08, p.96)
1984 British historian Maurice
H. Keen (1933-2012) authored “Chivalry.” The book redefined medieval
court life
(NYT, 9/27/12, p.a23)
1984 The Turner Prize in art
was initiated by the Tate Gallery's Patrons of New Art. The members
included Charles Saatchi. Malcolm Morley was the first winner. It
established in honor of 19th-century J. M. W. Turner, who had long
wished to set up an award for younger artists.
(WSJ, 12/1/99, p.A24)(AFP, 12/3/13)
1984 Ted Hughes was appointed
Poet Laureate.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)
1984 Britain enacted the Video
Recordings Act (VRA), which regulated the pornography industry, but
later failed to notify the European Commission of the existence of
the act.
(Reuters,
8/25/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Recordings_Act_1984)
1984 Britain’s Lord Carrington
(b.1919) began serving as Secretary-General of NATO and continued to
1988.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Carington,_6th_Baron_Carrington)
1984 British coal miners lost a
bitter strike against pit closings.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1984 Britain’s Johnson Matthey
Bankers was purchased by the Bank of England for one million pounds
as regulators judged it too big to allow to go bust.
(Econ, 3/22/08,
p.88)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7250668.stm)
1984 Glen Renfrew (d.2006 at
age 71) led Reuters to an IPO on the London Stock Exchange. Renfrew
served as CEO from 1981 to 1991. Born the son of a coal miner in
Aberdare, Australia, Renfrew attended the University of Sydney
before moving to England in the 1950s.
(AP, 7/4/06)
1984 British Telecom was
privatized under PM Thatcher.
(WSJ, 10/14/99,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_Group)
1984 In Britain a preserved
male body was found in a peat bog in Cheshire. Analysis revealed
that the “Lindow Man” was about 25 when he died about 2,000 years
ago.
(Econ, 12/14/13, p.89)
1984 Brunei gained independence
from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)
1984-1985 Britain’s PM Thatcher’s clashes with
miner’s union leader Arthur Scargill, during the miner’s strike over
this period, established a turning point in British industrial
relations.
(Econ, 7/2/11, p.49)
1985 Jan 23, A debate in
Britain's House of Lords was carried live on TV for the first time.
(AP, 1/23/00)
1985 Mar 3, Britain’s National
Union of Mine Workers (NUM), led by Arthur Scargill, voted to end a
51 week strike that proved to be the longest and most violent
walkout in British history.
(SC, 3/3/02)(AP, 3/3/05)(Econ, 4/13/13, p.27)
1985 Mar 21, Michael Redgrave
(b.1908), English actor, died. His films included Alfred Hitchcock's
“The Lady Vanishes” (1938), “The Stars Look Down” (1939) and the
film of Robert Ardrey's play “Thunder Rock” (1943).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Redgrave)
1985 Mar 23, Joshua Silver,
Oxford physicist, began contemplating the development of self
adjusting eyeglasses. By 2009 some 30,000 of Silver's specs had been
distributed to the poor in 15 countries; his eventual target is 100
million pairs.
(SSFC, 1/11/09, p.A6)(http://tinyurl.com/96buv9)
1985 Mar 25, British journalist
Alec Collett (64) was abducted in Beirut as he covered Lebanon’s
civil war. His remains were found in 2009 in the eastern Bekaa
Valley. The following year a group belonging to Palestinian
guerrilla leader Abu Nidal said it killed him in retaliation for US
air raids on Libya.
(www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-3752719.html)(Reuters, 11/23/09)
1985 Apr 25, Richard Haydn
(b.1905), British actor, died of a heart attack in Los Angeles.
(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0370821/)
1985 May 30, The play "Woman in
Mind" by Alan Ayckbourn (b.1936) was first staged in Scarborough at
the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman_In_Mind)
1985 May 11, 56 people died
when a flash fire swept a jam-packed soccer stadium in Bradford,
England.
(AP, 5/11/07)
1985 May 27, In a brief
ceremony in Beijing, representatives of Britain and China exchanged
instruments of ratification on the pact returning Hong Kong to the
Chinese in 1997.
(AP, 5/27/97)
1985 May 29, At Heysel Stadium
rioting erupted between British and Italian spectators at the
European Cup soccer final in Brussels, Belgium. 39 people were
killed when rioting broke out and a wall separating British and
Italian soccer fans collapsed. This led to a 5-year ban on English
clubs playing on the Continent.
(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.A28)(AP, 5/29/08)
1985 Jun 1, The first phone
call was made on Vodafone United Kingdom's analogue network. This
event was staged, due to a network failure; the first calls were
actually being made the next day. Sir Christopher Gent founded
Vodaphone, a British mobile phone operator. The company name was
coined from a combination of voice and data.
(Econ, 6/3/06,
p.57)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodaphone#History)
1985 Jun 23, All 329 people
aboard an Air India Boeing 747 were killed when Flight 182 from
Montreal to London crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland,
apparently because of a bomb. An hour earlier, a bomb in baggage
intended for another Air India flight exploded in a Tokyo airport,
killing two baggage handlers. In 2000 Canadian police arrested 2 men
of Sikh origin for the bombing. In 2001 Canadian prosecutors filed
murder charges against Inderjit Singh Reyat. In 2003 Reyat was
sentenced to 5 years for his role in making the bomb. Reyat spent 10
years in prison for building the bomb that exploded at the Narita
airport, and another five years for helping make the Flight 182
bomb. In 2005 a Canadian judge acquitted 2 men who had been accused
of conspiring in the case. Talwinder Parmar (1944-1992) was later
assumed to have been the mastermind behind the attacks. In 2010
Reyat was found guilty of perjury. In 2011 he was sentenced to an
additional 9 years in prison.
(AP, 6/23/97)(SFC, 10/28/00, p.A13)(SFC, 6/6/01,
p.C3)(AP, 2/11/03)(AP, 3/17/05)(Econ, 6/16/07, p.47)(Reuters,
9/18/10)(Reuters, 1/7/11)
1985 Jul 7, Boris Becker of
Germany shook up the tennis world at Wimbledon when, as an unseeded
player, he became the then youngest-ever male Grand Slam champion at
the age of 17, defending the trophy the following year.
(http://tinyurl.com/ycc7tyvn)(AFP, 6/19/18)
1985 Jul 19, British agents
helped Oleg Gordievsky (b.1938) escape from Moscow to Finland. He
was the highest ranking KGB defector in its history.
(AP,
11/25/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleg_Gordievsky)
1985 Aug 22, A fire broke out
aboard a British Airtours charter jet on a runway at Manchester
Airport in England and 55 people died.
(AP, 8/22/05)
1985 Sep 9, In Birmingham,
England, race riots took place and continued thru Sep 11.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handsworth_riots)
1985 Sep 26, The defence
ministers of the UK and Saudi Arabia sign a Memorandum of
Understanding in London for 48 Tornado IDSs, 24 Tornado ADVs, 30
Hawk training aircraft, 30 Pilatus PC-9 trainers, a range of
weapons, radar, spares and a pilot-training program. British
Aerospace, later known as BAE Systems, a London-based defense
firm, closed its first “al-Yamaha” arms deal with Saudi Arabia,
saving the firm in a difficult business environment.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Yamamah_arms_deal)(Econ, 11/12/16,
p.59)
1985 Sep 28, There was a race
riot in the London area of Brixton.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brixton_riot_(1985))
1985 Oct 6, British Police
Constable Keith Blakelock (b.1945) was hacked to death at Broadwater
Farm a 1960s public housing estate in Tottenham in some of the worst
urban rioting in Britain in the past 30 years.
(AP,
8/7/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Keith_Blakelock)
1985 Nov 15, British PM
Margaret Thatcher and the Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald signed
the Anglo-Irish Agreement giving Dublin an official consultative
role in governing Northern Ireland.
(AP,
11/15/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Irish_Agreement)
1985 Nov 27, The British House
of Commons approved the Anglo-Irish accord giving Dublin a
consultative role in the governing of British-ruled Northern
Ireland.
(AP, 11/27/97)
1985 Dec 2, Philip Larkin
(b.1922), English poet, died of esophageal cancer. He had received
the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1965. His books included “High
Windows” (1974). In 2012 “The Complete Poems of Philip Larkin,”
edited by Archie Burnett, was published.
(WSJ, 12/8/07, p.W18)(Econ, 1/21/12, p.94)(Econ,
1/21/12, p.94)
1985 George Barnard and Robert
Plackett authored “Statistics in the United Kingdom, 1939-45.” The
authors were both alumni of SR 17, a group set up to train industry
and munitions factories in quality control techniques.
(Econ, 12/20/14, p.99)
1985 The TV series "Inspector
Morse" began and ran for 33 two-hr. episodes with John Thaw (d.2002
at 60).
(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A18)
1985 The 2nd annual Turner
Prize in art was awarded to Howard Hodgkin.
(WSJ, 12/1/99, p.A24)
1985 Britain under PM Thatcher
signed an $80 billion contract with Saudi Arabia to provide 120
fighter jets and other military equipment over a period of 20 years.
Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US,
helped negotiate the deal.
(SFC, 6/8/07, p.A16)
1985 Female genital mutilation,
intentionally altering or injuring female genital organs for
non-medical reasons, was made a crime in England and Wales. The law
was extended in 2003 to make it an offence for British nationals or
permanent residents to carry out FGM abroad or seek FGM abroad, even
where it is legal.
(AFP, 3/21/14)
1985 In the Battle of the
Beanfield Wilshire police clashed with rioting pagans at Stonehenge.
(SSFC, 12/24/00, p.T5)
1985 John Drewe, a British con
man, persuaded painter John Myatt, to copy modern paintings, which
were then marketed with forged provenance papers to respected
museums. In 2009 Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo authored
“Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of
Modern Art.”
(SSFC, 7/26/09, Books p.F4)
1985 AstraZeneca introduced the
fake meat Quorn, a processed mycoprotein, into a variety of food
products. It was made from a fungus discovered in the 1960s. it
reached US markets in 2002.
(SSFC, 3/3/02, p.A2)
1985 London’s Dorchester Hotel
was purchased by the Sultan of Brunei.
(http://tinyurl.com/zf7fo)
1985 BAE Systems, Britain’s
largest defense contractor, went private.
(Econ, 10/28/06, p.66)
1985 David Deutsch (b.1953) of
the Univ. of Oxford authored a paper that founded the quantum theory
of computation.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Deutsch)(Econ, 3/11/17, TQ p.9)
1986 Jan 3, The British
Banker’s Association started publishing the London inter-bank
offered rates (LIBOR), a measure of interest rates banks pay
when they borrow from one another. The rate is subjective by design
and not a statistical measure.
(http://mortgage-x.com/general/indexes/wsj_libor_history.asp?y=1986)(Econ,
3/10/12, p.84)
1986 Jan 20, Britain and France
announced plans to build the Channel Tunnel.
(AP, 1/20/98)
1986 Mar 6, Ken Ludwig's "Lend
me a Tenor," premiered in London.
(www.thisistheatre.com/shows/gielgud123.html)
1986 Mar 18, Buckingham Palace
announced the engagement of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1986 Mar 31, The state-owned
car company BL P.L.C., formerly British Leyland, said that it was
pursuing two offers for its Land Rover division after negotiations
with the General Motors Corporation collapsed. Range Rover of North
America, Inc. soon established its headquarters in Lanham, Maryland
with Charles R. Hughes as President and CEO. Just before Christmas
1985 Range Rover of North America (later changed to Land Rover North
America), was established to pave the way for a US launch in 1987.
(http://tinyurl.com/j2do5)(http://tinyurl.com/f8xgo)
1986 Mar 31, English Hampton
Court palace was destroyed by fire and 1 person died.
(http://tinyurl.com/l6fxl)
1986 Apr 3, Peter Pears
(b.1910), English tenor (Death in Venice), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pears)
1986 Apr 17, At London's
Heathrow Airport, a bomb was discovered in a bag carried by an Irish
woman about to board an El Al jetliner; she had been tricked into
carrying the bomb by her Jordanian boyfriend.
(AP, 4/17/06)
1986 Apr 24, Bessie Wallis
Warfield Simpson (b.6/19/1896), the Duchess of Windsor, for whom
King Edward VIII gave up the British throne, died in Paris at age
89. Wallis Simpson was King Edward VIII's wife. In the early 1950s
Simpson engaged in an affair with playboy Jimmy Donahue. In 2000
Christopher Wilson authored "Dancing with the Devil: The Windsors
and Jimmy Donahue."
(AP, 4/24/97)(SFC, 2/28/98, p.A5)(SFC, 1/4/01,
p.D10)
1986 Apr 29, Seamus McElwaine
(25), Irish IRA-terrorist, was killed by undercover members of the
British Army.
(http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1986.html)
1986 Jul 23, Britain's Prince
Andrew married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in London with
the appellation Duke and Duchess of York. The couple divorced in
1996.
(AP, 7/23/98)
1986 Aug 31, Henry Moore
(b.1898), English sculptor and cartoonist, died. In 1998 John
Hedgecoe published "A Monumental Vision: The Sculpture of Henry
Moore."
(SFEC, 7/19/98, BR p.9)(MC, 8/31/01)
1986 Oct 9, The musical
"Phantom of the Opera" premiered in London.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_of_the_Opera_(1986_musical))
1986 Oct 27, Reforms
transformed the closed shop London stock exchange. New ways of
trading shares came into effect and the day became remembered as the
“Big Bang.”
(Econ, 10/21/06, p.83)
1986 Nov, The European
Commission decided on GSM as the first digital standard. Vodophone
soon looked outside Britain for partners.
(Econ, 2/3/07, SR p.8)
1986 Dec 29, Former PM Harold
Macmillan of Britain (1957-1963), died at his home in Sussex,
England, at age 92.
(AP, 12/29/97)
1986 The 3rd annual Turner
Prize in art was awarded to Gilbert and George.
(WSJ, 12/1/99, p.A24)
1986 Kingsley Amis won the
Booker Prize with his novel "The Old Devils."
(SFEC, 7/19/98, BR p.7)
1986 Penelope Mortimer (d.1999)
authored the biography: "Queen Elizabeth: The Life of the Queen
Mother." This was followed in 1995 with "The Queen Mother: An
Alternative Portrait of Her Life and Times."
(SFC, 10/23/99, p.A21)
1986 In Britain the DV8
Physical Theater, a dance-theater ensemble led by Lloyd Newson of
Australia, was founded.
(SFEC,11/2/97, DB p.38)
1986 Lady Thatcher abolished
the Greater London Council, and left the city with no central
municipal government.
(WSJ, 12/30/99, p.A10)
1986 The Conservative
government enacted a personal pension program that was put into
effect in 1988. Higher income workers were allowed to opt out of a
government pension plan and manage their own contributions.
(WSJ, 8/10/98, p.A1)
1986 Parliament outlawed
corporal punishment in public schools. The practice was banned in
private schools in 1998.
(SFC, 1/19/00, p.A12)
1986 Mad Cow Disease, bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), was first confirmed.
(WSJ, 11/25/98, p.A1)
1986 UNESCO declared Stonehenge
and Avebury as World Heritage Sites.
(SSFC, 12/24/00, p.T4)
1987 Jan 20, Anglican Church
envoy Terry Waite disappeared in Beirut, Lebanon, while attempting
to negotiate the release of Western hostages. He was freed in
November 1991.
(AP, 1/20/98)
1987 Feb 26, British stores
released the 1st Beatles compact discs.
(www.guardian.co.uk/thebeatles/story/0,,606496,00.html)
1987 Feb, Britain’s PM Margaret
Thatcher privatized BAA (British Airports Authority). From a
lethargic government bureaucracy it grew to become a major airport
operator.
(http://labhist.tripod.com/b12.htm)(WSJ, 9/24/96,
p.A1)
1987 Mar 6, The British ferry
Herald of Free Enterprise capsized in the Channel off the coast of
Belgium after water rushed through the open bow doors. 189 people
died when the ferry capsized off the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.
(HN, 3/6/98)(AP, 3/6/98)
1987 Mar 10, Daniel Morgan
(37), a private detective, was murdered with an ax in his head
outside a London pub. At the time of his death, it is believed
Morgan was about to expose a south London drug network, possibly
involving corrupt police officers. In 2008 6 men wee arrested
for involvement in the killing of Morgan.
(AP,
4/22/08)(www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/apr/22/ukcrime)
1987 Mar 13, Gerald Moore
(b.1899), pianist, died in England. The book: “Am I Too Loud?,
Memoirs of Gerald Moore” was published in 1962.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Moore)
1987 Apr 3, Duchess of
Windsor's jewels were auctioned for 31,380,197 pounds ($50 million).
(http://tinyurl.com/l4o9h)
1987 May 30, A Beastie Boy
concert in Liverpool, England, turned into a riot. Adam Horowitz was
charged with assaulting a fan.
(www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?id=847)
1987 Jun 11, Margaret Thatcher
became the first British prime minister in 160 years to win a third
consecutive term of office as her Conservatives held onto a reduced
majority in Parliament.
(TMC, 1994, p.1987)(AP, 6/11/97)
1987 Aug 11, Britain and
France ordered minesweepers to the Persian Gulf, but said they would
not be used in combined operations with the United States as it
escorted reflagged Kuwaiti ships.
(AP, 8/11/97)
1987 Aug 19, In Britain Michael
Ryan (27) shot 16 people dead in Hungerford, Berkshire. He wounded
another 15 before turning the gun on himself.
(Econ, 6/5/10,
p.63)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungerford_massacre)
1987 Aug 29, In London
Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali died after being shot in the
right temple on July 22. He has been described as the greatest
Palestinian cartoonist and probably the best-known cartoonist in the
Arab world.
(Econ 7/22/17, p.37)
1987 Oct 16, 175-kph winds
caused a blackout in London and much of southern England. At least
13 people died.
(http://tinyurl.com/h29j)
1987 Oct 19, Jacqueline du Pre
(42), British cellist, died of multiple sclerosis.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_du_Pr%C3%A9)
1987 Oct, The British
government sold the last of its shares in British Petroleum,
allowing the company to finally be completely privatized for the
first time in 73 years. The Kuwaiti government bought 22% of British
Petroleum’s total shares while the price was low, but the deal was
opposed by PM Margaret Thatcher. This forced the Kuwaitis so sell
over half their stake. Eventually British Petroleum bought back
nearly 400 million of the Kuwaiti shares and cancelled them.
(http://www.conservapedia.com/BP)(Econ, 1/19/08,
p.80)
1987 Nov 1, Ibrahim Hussein of
Kenya won the New York City Marathon in two hours, 11 minutes and
one second; Priscilla Welch of Britain led the women in two hours,
30 minutes and 16 seconds.
(AP, 11/1/97)
1987 Nov 18, Thirty-one people
died in a fire at King's Cross, London's busiest subway station.
(AP, 11/18/97)
1987 Dec 1, Digging of the
Eurotunnel began on the English side to link England and France,
under co-chairman Alastair Morton (d.2004).
(www.scripophily.net/eurotunnel.html)(Econ,
9/11/04, p.82)
1987 Dec 25, Antoni Imiela
pounced on Sheila Jankowitz near her home in Forest Hill, southeast
London. The attack preceded a series of rapes across south-east
England in 2001 and 2002 for which the ex-railway worker was given
seven life sentences in 2004. In 2012 the 'M25 Rapist' was sentenced
12 years more for raping Jankowitz.
(AFP, 3/22/12)
1987 The 4th annual Turner
Prize in art was awarded to Richard Deacon.
(WSJ, 12/1/99, p.A24)
1987 "Moon Tiger," a novel by
Penelope Lively won the Booker Prize.
(WSJ, 9/20/96, p.A12)
1987 Jeffrey Archer, novelist
and politician, won an $800,000 libel judgement from the Daily Star
by arguing that he had made a $3,500 payment to prostitute Monica
Coghlin, but had not slept with her. In 1999 it was reported that
his friend Ted Francis had lied to support his argument.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A28)
1987 Margaret Thatcher
privatized Rolls Royce.
(Econ, 7/16/05, p.63)
1987 Britain’s Range Rover was
introduced in the US. It was designed in the late 1960s by Charles
Spencer King (1925-2010).
(SSFC, 7/4/10, p.C9)
1987 Britain passed legislation
governing animal experiments.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.A20)
1987 A group of black and Asian
politicians were the first non-whites elected to the House of
Commons in 65 years.
(SFEC, 4/10/00, p.A27)
1987 Dr. Stephen Wolfram
(b.1959), a British scientist, set up Wolfram Research with funds
from a MacArthur “genius” award that he received in 1981. The
company’s first product was Mathematic, a piece of software that
automates mathematical processes.
(Econ, 6/4/11, p.30)
1987 Standard Chartered PLC
divested its South African holdings.
(www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Standard-Chartered-plc-Company-History.html)
1988 Jan 3, Margaret Thatcher
(b.1925) became the longest serving British PM this century.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_3)
1988 Mar 6, British SAS
officers killed 3 IRA suspects in Gibraltar.
(http://tinyurl.com/2xbne)
1988 Mar 10, Pop singer Andy
Gibb died in Oxford, England, at age 30 of heart inflammation.
(AP, 3/10/98)
1988 Mar 16, Three people were
killed when Michael Stone, a pro British paramilitary member, armed
with guns and grenades attacked an IRA graveside service in Belfast,
Northern Ireland. Stone was also responsible for killing 3
Catholics in the mid 1980s. In 2000 Stone was released from prison
as part of a peace accord.
(AP, 3/17/98)(SFC, 7/25/00, p.A12)
1988 Mar 19, Two British
soldiers were shot to death after they were dragged from a car and
beaten by mourners attending an Irish Republican Army funeral in
Belfast, Northern Ireland.
(AP, 3/19/98)
1988 Apr 23, Archbishop Michael
Ramsey (b.1904), the one hundredth Archbishop of Canterbury
(1961-1974), died. In 2009 amateur divers found valuable coins and
medallions belonging to the former archbishop in the River Wear,
near Durham Cathedral.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ramsey)(AP,
10/23/09)
1988 May 11, Master spy Harold
"Kim" Philby, the notorious "Third Man" of a British espionage ring,
died in the Soviet Union at age 76. In 2014 Ben Macintyre authored
“A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal” and Tim
Milne authored “Kim Philby: The Unknown Story of the KGB’s Master
Spy.”
(AP, 5/11/98)(Econ, 4/19/14, p.76)
1988 Jun 11, Nelson Mandela
spoke at Wembley Stadium, London, for the Freedomfest.
(www.geetarz.org/reviews/misc/mandela-laser.htm)
1988 Aug 20, Eight British
soldiers were killed by an Irish Republican Army land mine that
destroyed a military bus near Omagh, County Tyrone, in Northern
Ireland.
(AP, 8/20/98)
1988 Sep 29, Britain signed the
International Convention Against Torture.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A3)
1988 Oct 15, Shapurji Sorabji
(b.1892), British composer (Leon Dudley Sorabji), died. His work
included "Opus clavicembalisticum" (1930), an elaboration of
Ferrucio Busoni’s 1921 "Fantasia conatrappuntistica," itself a
metamorphosis and completion of Bach’s "The Art of Fugue."
(WSJ, 12/12/00,
p.A24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaikhosru_Shapurji_Sorabji)
1988 Oct 19, Britain banned
broadcast interviews with IRA members. Douglas Hurd introduced a
notice under clause 13(4) of the BBC License and Agreement and
section 29(3) of the Broadcasting Act 1981 prohibiting the broadcast
of direct statements by representatives or supporters of eleven
Irish political and military organizations.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988)(http://tinyurl.com/f857x)
1988 Oct 20, Britain ended a
suspect’s right to remain silent in crackdown on IRA.
(http://tinyurl.com/gghzx)
1988 Dec 12, In the Clapham
rail disaster 35 people were killed in a triple train collision
during morning rush-hour in south London.
(AP, 12/12/98)(Econ, 2/14/04, p.51)
1988 Dec 28, British
authorities investigating the explosion that destroyed Pan Am Flight
103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, concluded that a bomb caused the blast
aboard the jumbo jet.
(HN, 12/28/98)
1988 The 5th annual Turner
Prize in art was awarded to Tony Cragg.
(WSJ, 12/1/99, p.A24)
1988 Britain introduced a
national curriculum for education.
(Econ, 12/13/08, p.64)
1988 Anthony Powell, author,
was appointed a Companion of Honor, a prestigious order headed by
Queen Elizabeth II and limited to 65 men and women for conspicuous
national service.
(SFC, 3/30/00, p.C5)
1988 Britain set its top income
tax rate at 40%.
(Econ, 11/29/08, p.13)
1988 Frederic Ashton, the
father of English Ballet, died at 88. In 1997 Julie Kavanaugh
published "Secret Muses: The Life of Frederic Ashton."
(WSJ, 5/15/97, p.A21)
1888-1965 T.S. Eliot, American-Anglo poet and
critic: "Those who say they give the public what it wants begin by
underestimating public taste and end by debauching it."
(AP, 3/28/99)
1988-1994 In Liverpool, England,
Dr. Dick van Velzen, a Dutch pathologist, cut thousands of parts
from children who died during this period for research without the
knowledge of their parents.
(Econ, 10/11/08, p.80)
1989 Jan 1, British PM Margaret
Thatcher distanced herself from US vows to punish whoever bombed Pam
Am Flight 103, saying in a TV interview that revenge "can affect
innocent people."
(AP, 1/1/99)
1989 Jan 8, Forty-seven people
were killed when a British Midland Boeing 737-400 carrying 126
passengers crashed in central England. The pilots shut down the good
engine and tried to land with a bad one.
(AP, 1/8/99)(WSJ, 10/3/01, p.A20)
1989 Feb 12, In Belfast Pat
Finucane, a lawyer active in the defense of IRA suspects, was shot
and killed by a lone gunman as he sat down to dinner with his family
at home. The Ulster Defense Association claimed responsibility but
nobody was ever charged. In 1999 a report asserted that the British
army was linked to the slaying. A suspect (48) was arrested in 1999.
In 2003 a London police report said the British Army and police were
involved in the murder. In 2004 Ken Barrett (41), former Protestant
paramilitary and police informer in Northern Ireland, was sentenced
to 22 years in prison for the murder of Finucane. In Oct 12, 2011,
Britain offered an official apology for its forces' role in the 1989
killing of a Northern Ireland lawyer and pledged to publish a public
report into the extent of police and army collusion in the attack.
The report in December 2012 found shocking levels of state
collusion.
(SFC, 2/12/99, p.A3)(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A12)(AP,
4/17/03)(AP, 9/16/04)(AP, 10/12/11)(AP, 12/12/12)
1989 Mar 6, Harry Andrews
(b.1911), English actor, died in Sussex, England. His films included
“Helen of Troy” (1956) and “Equus” (1977).
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0028674/)
1989 Mar 7, Britain dropped
diplomatic relations with Iran over Salmon Rushdie's book.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Satanic_Verses_(novel))
1989 Apr 6, Soviet leader
Mikhail S. Gorbachev met with British PM Margaret Thatcher in
London, holding daylong talks that were characterized as
argumentative, but friendly.
(AP, 4/6/99)
1989 Apr 15, In Sheffield,
England, 96 people died in a crush of soccer fans at Hillsborough
Stadium after police allowed spectators to pour onto a crowded
terrace. On Sep 12, 2012, secret documents were released that said
British police tried to blame soccer fans to cover up mistakes that
contributed to the deaths of those who were crushed at a stadium.
(AP, 4/15/08)(Econ, 4/18/09, p.61)(AP, 9/12/12)
1989 Apr 19, Daphne Du Maurier
(b.1907), English writer, died. Her books included “Jamaica Inn”
(1936) and “Rebecca” (1938).
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/dumaurie.htm)
1989 Jul 11, Laurence Olivier
(b.1907), British actor, director and producer, died in West Sussex,
UK. In 1991 Donald Spoto authored the biography “Laurence Olivier.”
In 2005 Terry Coleman authored the biography “Olivier.” In 2013
Philip Ziegler authored the biography “Olivier.”
(AP, 7/11/99)(SSFC, 11/13/05, p.M6)(Econ,
10/15/05, p.92)(Econ, 9/7/13, p.82)
1989 Aug 20, British
conservationist George Adamson (83) was shot and killed by bandits
in Kenya. The husband of Joy Adamson was slaughtered at his Kora
wilderness preserve. In 2000 the TV documentary “To Walk with Lions”
dramatized his final days.
(AP, 8/20/99)(WSJ, 9/8/00, p.W4)
1989 Aug 24, British brewery
Bass bought the Holiday Inn hotel chain.
(www.worldofquotes.com/history/8_24/7/index.html)
1989 Aug 31, Britain's Princess
Anne and husband Mark Phillips announced they were separating.
(AP, 8/31/99)
1989 Sep 20, The musical "Miss
Saigon," premiered in London.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Boublil)
1989 Sep 22, An IRA-bomb killed
10 British marines in Kent.
(http://tinyurl.com/lsjdw)
1989 Oct 19, The Guildford
Four, cleared from earlier conviction for the 1975 IRA bombings of
public houses in Guildford and Woolwich, England, were cleared of
all charges after 14 years in prison. Sarah Conlon (1926-2008)
struggled for years to clear her son, Gerry Conlon, imprisoned as
one of the Guildford Four. Conlon's autobiography, "Proved Innocent"
(1990), became the basis for the 1993 film, "In the Name of the
Father," starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Conlon.
(http://tinyurl.com/7dyb2)(Econ, 8/2/08,
p.88)(AP, 6/21/14)
1989 Oct, Britain’s chancellor
Nigel Lawson resigned, infuriated that PM Margaret Thatcher was
trying to undermine his policy of shadowing the Deutschmark.
(Econ, 4/13/13, p.28)
1989 Nov 21, The proceedings of
Britain's House of Commons were televised live for the first time.
(AP, 11/21/99)
1989 Dec 12, Amid international
criticism, Britain forcibly removed 51 Vietnamese from Hong Kong and
returned them to their homeland.
(AP, 12/12/99)
1989 Martin Amis authored his
novel “London Fields,” a black comedy about lust and low-lifes that
fizzed with a rare energy.
(Econ, 6/30/12, p.85)
1989 The 6th annual Turner
Prize in art was awarded to Richard Long.
(WSJ, 12/1/99, p.A24)
1989 In Britain Channel Four
began its "Out on Tuesday" series, the first regular gay and lesbian
programming.
(SFC, 5/21/97, p.D3)
1989 Sir Michael Tippett (84),
British composer, composed his 5th opera, "New Year." It premiered
in Houston, Texas.
(SFC, 1/10/98, p.A19)(http://tinyurl.com/gpbwl)
1989 At Stonehenge fences were
erected to reduce visitor impact.
(SSFC, 12/24/00, p.T5)
1989 British PM Margaret
Thatcher's government introduces the hugely unpopular poll tax in
Scotland a year before England. The tax was abolished across Britain
in 1993.
(Reuters, 2/16/12)
1989 Britain’s economics began
a current account reversal. British property values dropped after a
decade-long rise. Prices did not recover for almost a decade.
(Econ, 8/19/06, p.64)(Econ, 11/4/06, p.66)
1989 Thames Water was
privatized by Margaret Thatcher.
(Econ, 8/28/04, p.57)
1989 Michal Porulski (74), a
Polish Catholic artist and Holocaust survivor, died in St. Mary's
Hospital near Hereford, England, of pneumonia and tuberculosis. He
spent time in Dachau and left behind ink and watercolor drawings of
his experiences there.
(AP, 9/16/07)
1989 Egypt signed a treaty with
the British that ostensibly allowed it to block any big projects
upstream of the Aswan Dam.
(Econ., 3/14/15, p.50)
1990 Jan 8, Terry Thomas (78),
English comic (Heroes), died of Parkinson's disease.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1990 Feb 19, Michael Powell
(84), English director (Life & Death of Col Blimp), died.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1990 Mar 28, British customs
officials announced they had foiled an attempt to supply Iraq with
40 American-made devices for triggering nuclear weapons, following
an 18-month investigation by U.S. and British authorities.
(AP, 3/28/00)
1990 Mar 31, Hundreds of people
were injured in rioting in London over Britain's so-called "poll
tax." The poll-tax disturbance helped to bring down PM Margaret
Thatcher.
(AP, 3/31/00)(Econ, 3/8/08, p.66)
1990 Jul 7, Martina Navratilova
captured a record-breaking ninth women’s title at Wimbledon,
outplaying Zina Garrison, 6-4, 6-1.
(AP, 7/7/00)
1990 Jul 8, Sweden’s Stefan
Edberg beat Boris Becker of West Germany to capture his second men’s
tennis championship at Wimbledon.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1990 Jul 22, Raymond Mawby
(b.1922), a British ex-Conservative Party lawmaker, died. He had
briefly served as a junior minister in the mid-1960s and had
allegedly provided intelligence to spies working for Czechoslovakia,
then a communist state, for a decade from around 1961 to 1971. In
2012 the British government said it would investigate claims that he
had sold information to communist spies for a decade during the Cold
War.
(AFP,
6/28/12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Mawby)
1990 Jul 30, British
Conservative Party lawmaker Ian Gow was killed in a bombing claimed
by the Irish Republican Army.
(AP, 7/30/00)
1990 Sep 7, A.J.P. Taylor
(b.1906), English historian, died in London. He specialized in 19th-
and 20th-century European diplomacy. His work included the
best-selling biography of Bismarck, titled “Bismarck: The Man and
the Statesman” (1955) and “The Origins of the Second World War”
(1961). His book: "From the Boer War to the Cold War: Essays on
Twentieth Century Europe," was published in 1995 and reviewed by Max
Boot.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._J._P._Taylor)(WSJ, 10/30/95,
p.A-16)
1990 Oct 30, Britain’s PM
Margaret Thatcher addressed the House of Commons and strongly
rejected the European Commission’s federal ambitions to integration.
(Econ, 3/5/15, p.54)
1990 Nov 14, British journalist
commentator Malcolm Muggeridge (b.1903) died in Sussex, England.
Richard Ingrams authored: "Muggeridge: The Biography" (1996).
(WSJ, 4/17/96, p.A-18) (AP,
11/14/00)
1990 Nov 22, Three term British
PM Margaret Thatcher, having failed to win re-election of the
Conservative Party leadership on the first ballot, announced her
resignation. In 2009 Richard Vinen authored “Thatcher’s Britain: The
Politics and Social Upheaval of the Thatcher Era.”
(AP, 11/22/97)(Econ, 5/2/09, p.84)
1990 Nov 23, Roald Dahl
(b.1916), British short story author (Sweet Mystery of Life), died.
Dahl became widely know for “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and
“James and Giant Peach.” From 1953 to 1983 he was married to actress
Patricia Neal (1926-2010). In 2010 Donald Sturrock authored
“Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl.”
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rdahl.htm)(SFC, 8/9/10,
p.A6)(SSFC, 10/3/10, p.F4)
1990 Nov 27, Britain's
conservatives chose John Major (47) to succeed Margaret Thatcher as
prime minister.
(http://tinyurl.com/jhpbu)
1990 Nov 28, Margaret Thatcher
resigned as prime minister of Britain during an audience with Queen
Elizabeth II, who conferred the premiership on John Major.
(AP, 11/28/97)
1990 Nov, British Cabinet
member Geoffrey Howe resigned as deputy prime minister over PM
margaret Thatcher’s refusal to agree on a timetable to join a single
European currency.
(Econ, 4/13/13, p.28)
1990 Dec 1, British and French
workers digging the Channel Tunnel between their countries finally
met after knocking out a passage in a service tunnel.
(AP, 12/1/97)
1990 Sir Vivian Fuchs (d.1999
at 91) published his autobiography "A Time to Speak." Fuchs had led
an expedition across Antarctica in 1958.
(SFC, 11/13/99, p.A22)
1990 Hugh Loebner agreed with
The Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies to underwrite a contest
designed to implement the Turing Test. Dr. Loebner pledged a Grand
Prize of $100,000 and a Gold Medal for the first computer whose
responses were indistinguishable from a human's. Robert Epstein
co-founded the prize with Hugh Loebner. The first competition was
held in November, 1991.
(http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/loebner-prize.html)(Econ, 5/7/11,
p.92)
1990 ARM Holdings PLC, a
multinational semiconductor and software company, was founded. It is
headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom. The acronym ARM, first
used in 1983, originally stood for "Acorn RISC Machine." However,
when the company was incorporated in 1990, the acronym was changed
to stand for "Advanced RISC Machines" in the company name "Advanced
RISC Machines Holdings." Then, at the time of the IPO in 1998, the
company name was changed to "ARM Holdings"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_Holdings)
1990 A British prisoner riot in
Strangeways in Manchester lasted 25 days and left one prisoner dead.
In the wake of the riot a British Conservative white paper
concluded: “We know that prison ‘is an expensive way of making bad
people worse’.” That report also argued that there should be a range
of community-based sentences, which would be cheaper and more
effective alternatives to prison.
(AP, 12/17/16)(http://tinyurl.com/ybgteel6)
1991 Feb 18, The Irish
Republican Army claimed responsibility for a bomb that exploded in a
London rail station, killing a commuter.
(AP, 2/18/01)
1991 Feb 21, Dame Margot
Fonteyn (71), ballerina (1st lady of British Ballet), died in Panama
City, Fl.
(AP, 2/21/01)(MC, 2/21/02)
1991 Mar 14, The "Birmingham
Six," imprisoned for 16 years for their alleged part in an IRA pub
bombing, were set free after a court agrees that the police
fabricated evidence.
(HN, 3/14/99)
1991 Mar 26, Marc Camoletti's
"Don't Dress for Dinner" premiered in London.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1991 Mar, Sir Mervyn King
(b.1948) began serving as the chief economist at the Bank of
England. King left his office as the Governor of the Bank of England
on June 30, 2013, and was replaced by Mark Carney.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mervyn_King_%28economist%29)(Econ,
6/15/13, p.57)
1991 Apr 3, English novelist
Graham Greene died at age 86. His wife, Vivien Dayrell-Browning,
died in 2003 at age 98. Greene had told his wife that he had had 32
other women. His books included “The Quiet American” (1955). In his
so-called “Catholic” novels he challenged the idea that God is a
cruel, unstinting Rules Keeper.
(AP, 4/3/01)(SFC, 8/25/03, p.B4)(SFC, 10/2/04,
p.E2)
1991 May 6, Wilfrid Hyde-White
(87), British actor (Peyton Place/140+ films), died.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0405035/)
1991 May 16 Queen Elizabeth II
became the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.
(AP, 5/16/97)
1991 May 18, Helen Sharman
became the first Briton to rocket into space as she flew aboard a
Soviet Soyuz spacecraft.
(AP, 5/18/97)
1991 May 23, Peter T. Thwaites,
British brig-gen, playwright (Love or money), died.
(www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=723&inst_id=21)
1991 Jun 14, Dame Peggy
Ashcroft (83), film and stage, Actress died in London.
(AP,
6/14/01)(www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/457078/index.html)
1991 Jul 7, IRA members Pearse
McAuley (b.1965) and Nessan Quinliven escaped from an English jail,
shot a Canadian tourist and took his car during their getaway. They
had been awaiting trial on charges relating to a suspected plot to
assassinate former brewery company chairman, Sir Charles Tidbury.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearse_McAuley)(SSFC, 2/26/17, DB
p.50)
1991 Jul 14, Leaders of the
Group of Seven nations began gathering in London for their annual
economic summit.
(AP, 7/14/01)
1991 Jul 15, Group of Seven
leaders opened their 17th annual economic summit in London, plunging
into debate over aid to the Soviet Union.
(AP, 7/15/01)
1991 Jul 16, Leaders of the
Group of Seven nations holding their economic summit in London
issued a communique calling for a "new spirit of cooperation" in the
international community.
(AP, 7/16/01)
1991 Sep 22, The London
newspaper The Mail published an interview with former intelligence
agent John Cairncross, who admitted being the "fifth man" in the
Soviet Union's notorious British spy ring.
(AP, 9/22/01)
1991 Oct, The Nobel Prize in
economics was awarded to Ronald H. Coase of Britain for "the
discovery and clarification of the significance of transaction costs
and property rights for the institutional structure and functioning
of the economy."
(WSJ, 10/11/95, p. A-1)(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A2)
1991 Nov 5, Robert Maxwell
(68), media tycoon, was found floating dead near his yacht off the
Canary Islands. He was born in Czechoslovakia as Jan Hoch (Abraham
Leib) and lost his whole family in the Holocaust. He escaped at 16
through the French Underground and got out of a British prison camp
by volunteering for the British army, who changed his name to Robert
Maxwell. He founded the Pergamon Press and went on to build a media
empire. He served in Parliament from 1964-1970. In the 1970s Israel
recruited him as a spy. He covertly sold Israeli computer software
to the governments of Russia, China, India and Egypt that contained
secret trapdoors. After his death he was found to have
misappropriated hundreds of millions of dollars from company
pensions funds. In 2003 Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon authored
Robert Maxwell, Israel’s Superspy: The Life and Murder of a Media
Mogul." In 2006 London police said Maxwell was being investigated at
the time of his death for allegedly committing a war crime as a
British soldier by killing an unarmed German civilian during World
War II.
(Wired, 2/99, p.86)(AP, 11/5/01)(SSFC, 2/2/03,
p.M4)(AP, 3/10/06)
1991 Nov 14, Tony Richardson
(63), British director (Tom Jones), died of AIDS.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0724798/)
1991 Nov 24, Freddie Mercury
(45), Zanzibar-born rock singer, died in London of pneumonia brought
on by AIDS. Mercury and the rock group Queen made the 1975 hit
"Bohemian Rhapsody."
(AP, 11/24/01)(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.A2)
1991 Catherine Cookson
published her novel "The Wingless Bird." It was the intersecting
stories of 3 families on 3 levels of English society beginning in
1913. It was adopted for TV in 1998.
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A20)
1991 Jon Savage (b.1953)
authored “England’s Dreaming,” a history of the Sex Pistols.
(SFC, 4/9/10,
p.C7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Savage)
1991 British historian Alan
Sked (b.1947) founded the Anti-Federalist League (AFL) at the London
School of Economics. In 1993 the AFL changed its name to the UK
Independence Party (UKIP).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Sked)(Econ,
12/3/16, p.47)
1991 Britain established a War
Crimes Act which permitted prosecution for crimes committed outside
the country.
(SFC, 2/11/00, p.D2)
1991 Britain banned the
ownership of pit bull terriers following a spate of attacks by the
dangerous dogs.
(AFP, 3/22/12)
1991 The British Communist
Party folded.
(SSFC, 8/10/03, p.M4)
1991 Britain’s Human
Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA), a statutory body, was
created under the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act (1990).
This was the world’s first regulator in the new field of assisted
reproduction.
(http://212.49.193.187/cps/rde/xchg/hfea/hs.xsl/272.html)
1991 Britain’s newspapers set
up the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), a self-regulating body to
enforce a code of conduct of its own devising.
(Econ, 7/16/11, p.12)
1991 Robert Runcie (d.2000),
Archbishop of Canterbury, retired as spiritual leader of the
Anglicans. He then became Lord Runcie as PM John Majors
elevated him to life peer.
(SFC, 7/13/00, p.C7)
1991 Imperial Chemical
Industries (ICI) of Britain split into two parts, ICI, a chemicals
company, and Zeneca, a bioscience and drug company.
(Hem., 1/97, p.27)
1991 Britain's Helen Sharman
flew to Russia's Mir Space Station as a tourist as part of a lottery
system called Project Juno.
(AP, 9/18/06)
1992 Feb 16, Angela Carter
(b.1940), English writer, died. Her collected writings "Shaking A
Leg" was published in 1999 by Penguin. This was the 3rd of a series
that included "Nothing Sacred" and "Expletives Deleted." In 2016
Edmond Gordon authored “The Invention of Angela Carter: A
Biography.”
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Carter)(SFEC, 2/14/99, BR
p.5)(Econ, 11/12/16, p.76)
1992 Feb 20, The Premier
League, an English professional league for men's association
football clubs, was founded.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_League)
1992 Feb 28, Twenty-eight
people were injured when an IRA bomb exploded at London Bridge train
station.
(AP, 2/28/02)
1992 Mar 19, British Prince
Andrew and Princess Sarah Ferguson announced separation.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/19/newsid_2543000/2543667.stm)
1992 Mar 23, Friedrich A. von
Hayek (92), British economist, Nobel winner (1974), died. His books
included Road to Serfdom (1944) and “The Constitution of Liberty”
(1960). In 2004 Bruce Caldwell authored “Hayek’s Challenge: An
Intellectual biography of F.A. Hayek.”
(SS, 3/23/02)(Econ, 3/6/04, p.74)
1992 Mar 29, Earl Spencer (68),
father of Lady Diana, died.
(http://freespace.virgin.net/owston.tj/spencer.htm)
1992 Apr 8, Britain's "Punch
Magazine" ran its final issue after 151 years.
(http://tinyurl.com/c3n3a)
1992
Apr 9, Britain's Conservatives came from behind to become the first
British political party to win four straight elections this century.
John Major (C) was elected PM of England.
(AP, 4/9/97)
1992 Apr 10, The IRA bombed the
London financial district killing 3 with 91 injured.
(WSJ, 3/12/04, p.A11)
1992 Jul 12, Albert Pierrepont,
last British hangman (433 men and 17 women), died.
(www.inthe90s.com/generated/obit1992.shtml)
1992 Apr 14, British Sgt.
Michael Newman was killed outside an army recruiting office in
Derby. Three men were allegedly involved in the attack. In 2010
Declan Duffy (36), an Irish republican who had confessed to being
involved in the killing, was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 7/22/10)
1992 Jul 18, Britain's
opposition Labor Party chose John Smith as its leader, replacing
Neil Kinnock (b.1942). Kinnock had led the opposition since 1983.
(AP,
7/18/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Kinnock)
1992 Aug 26, The United States,
Britain and France imposed a 2nd no-fly zone south of the 32nd
parallel, the southern one-third of Iraq aimed at protecting Iraqi
Shiite Muslims.
(AP, 8/26/97)(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A11)
1992 Aug 29, Mary Norton
(88), children’s book author (Borrowers), died in England.
(www.sfsite.com/09b/bor41.htm)
1992 Sep 16, Black Wednesday
occurred in the United Kingdom when John Major's Conservative
government was forced to withdraw the pound sterling from the
European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) after it was unable to keep
the pound above its agreed lower limit in the ERM. The day became
known as “Black Wednesday.” George Soros pocketed $2 billion on his
short sale of $10 billion. The event is documented in Robert
Slater's Soros: "The Life, Times and Trading Secrets of the World's
Greatest Investor." Britain’s Conservative government was forced to
withdraw the Pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM)
due to pressure by currency speculators.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Wednesday)(WSJ, 10/16/98,
p.A1)(Econ, 3/25/06, p.62)
1992 Oct 27, Friends of Queen
Elizabeth II staged an elaborate celebration for the 40th
anniversary of her ascension to the British throne.
(AP, 10/27/97)
1992 Nov 9, Visiting London,
Russian President Boris Yeltsin appealed for help in rescheduling
his country's debt, and urged British businesses to invest.
(AP, 11/9/97)
1992 Nov 9, Charles
Fraser-Smith, English inventor, died. He was the gadget-designing
genius on whom the character "Q" in the James Bond novels and movies
was modeled.
(http://tinyurl.com/9aukm)
1992 Nov 11, The Anglican
Church and the Church of England voted to ordain women as priests.
(AP, 11/11/97)
1992 Nov 20, The Windsor
Castle, favorite weekend home of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II,
caught on fire when curtains ignited due to a high intensity
spotlight. It was the 45th wedding anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II
and Prince Philip. Nine main rooms were destroyed and another 100
damaged. The restoration cost $63 million and took 5 years.
(SFC,11/18/97, p.B1)(AP, 11/20/97)
1992 Nov 26, The British
government announced that Queen Elizabeth II had volunteered to
start paying taxes on her personal income, and would take her
children off the public payroll.
(AP, 11/26/97)
1992 Dec 9, Britain's Prince
Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation. Their divorce
became final Aug. 28, 1996.
(AP, 12/9/97)
1992 Prince Charles founded the
London-based Institute of Architecture.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.A17)
1992 The "English Patient" by
Michael Ondaatje, born in Sri Lanka, became the first Canadian novel
to win the Booker Prize.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C15)
1992 Barry Unsworth, writer,
won the British Booker prize for his novel: "Sacred Hunger," a
narrative based on the slave trade. Other of his novels include
"Stone Virgin" (1985), "The Rage of the Vulture" (1982), and a new
novel "Morality Play" in (1995).
(WSJ, 12/5/95, p.A-16)
1992 Glenda Jackson, actress,
was elected to Parliament. Under Tony Blair in 1997 she was promoted
to junior transport minister.
(SFC, 8/3/98, p.A8)
1992 In Hong Kong Christopher
Patten became the 28th British governor. He began electoral reforms
that were denounced by China. He served to 1997 and in 1998
published "East and West: China, Power and the Future of Asia."
(SFEC, 11/10/96, Parade p.14)(SFC, 7/1/97,
p.A8)(WSJ, 9/16/98, p.A20)
1992 KGB archivist Vasili
Mitrokhin walked into the British embassy in Riga with copies of
intelligence files he had smuggled out of Russia. Mitrokhin defected
to British intelligence and brought along 6 trunkfuls of KGB files.
The pages of the “Mitrokhin Archive” were published in 1999.
(SFEC, 9/12/99, p.A16)(Econ, 11/12/16, SR p.3)
1992 The Earth Liberation Front
(ELF) emerged in Brighton through Earth Firsters who did not want to
abandon the option of criminal acts to further their environmental
goals.
(SFC, 3/6/01, p.A2)
1992 Two bombs were exploded in
Manchester, England that wounded 60 people.
(SFC, 6/16/96, p.A15)
1992 A British top level
National Crime Intelligence Service was created to combat organized
crime, int’l. drug dealing, money laundering, immigration fraud and
counterfeiting.
(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.A28)
1992 The Hong Kong and Shanghai
Banking Corporation (HSBC) bought Britain’s Midland Bank as part of
a strategy of global expansion.
(Econ, 12/4/10, p.71)
1992 SmithKline Beecham, later
know as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), introduced Paxil, an antidepressant,
and recommended it for depressed children. In 2003 the British
government concluded that the drug had been misleadingly presented
and that it made some children suicidal.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paroxetine)(Econ,
3/26/15, p.85)
1992 Karl Kehrle, aka Brother
Adam (1898-1996), ended his bee research at the Buckfast Abbey
southwest of London. The monastery insisted that the abbey’s
apiaries were to be used for honey production and not research. He
had developed the Buckfast Superbee, a breed widely regarded as the
healthiest and most prolific honey producer. He also developed a
breed resistant to acarine disease which had badly damaged honey
production in the US.
(SFC, 9/5/96, p.C2)
1992 Francis Bacon (b.1909),
British artist, died. In 1997 his biography was written by Michael
Peppiatt: Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma. Bacon’s studio was
later dismantled and replicated in Dublin. In 2001 John Edwards,
Bacon’s companion, wrote a brief memoir accompanied by photos of the
studio: "7 Reece Mews: Francis Bacon’s Studio."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, BR p.6)(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.R6)
1992 Robert Thompson (b.1916),
British military officer and counter-insurgency expert, died. His
books included “War in Peace: An Analysis of Warfare Since 1945”
(1981).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Grainger_Ker_Thompson)
1993 Jan 17, Albert Hourani
(b.1915), British academic of Lebanese origin, died. His books
included “A History of the Arab Peoples” (1991).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Hourani)
1993 Jan, Edward John Maher, a
British armored car driver, disappeared after driving off with $1.5
million. He was arrested on Feb 8, 2012, in the small town of Ozark,
Missouri. On May 11 he agreed to be deported to Britain. On Feb 5,
2013, he was sentenced in London to five years in jail.
(SFC, 2/10/12, p.A8)(AFP, 5/12/12)(AP, 3/5/13)
1993 Feb 12, In a crime that
shocked Britons, two 10-year-old boys, Jon Venables and Robert
Thompson, lured 2-year-old James Bulger from his mother at a
shopping mall in Liverpool, England, then beat him to death and left
his battered body on a railway track. The 2 boys were later
sentenced to serve 8 years in prison. The sentence was later
increased to 10 years and then 15 years. After 8 years in a
reformatory, Thompson and Venables were released in 2001, after a
parole board found they no longer posed a danger to the public.
Venables returned to jail in 2010 after pleading guilty to
downloading and distributing child pornography, only to be returned
again in November 2017 after allegedly being caught with child abuse
images.
(SFC, 4/18/96, p.A-12)(SFC, 12/17/99, p.D5)(SFC,
6/23/01, p.A8)(AP, 2/12/03)(AFP, 1/5/18)
1993 Feb 14, The body of James
Bulger, a 2-year-old boy who had been lured away from his mother in
a Liverpool, England, shopping mall two days earlier, was found
along a stretch of railroad track. Two boys (10), Robert Thompson
and Jon Venables, were later convicted of murdering James; they
spent eight years in detention before being paroled.
(AP, 2/14/03)
1993 Feb 20, Police in
Liverpool, England, charged two 10-year-old boys with the abduction
and slaying of toddler James Bulger, a crime that shocked the
country and terrified parents. Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were
later convicted.
(AP, 2/20/98)
1993 Mar 10, C. Northcote
Parkinson (b.1909), historian and sociologist, died in Canterbury,
England. He authored Parkinson's Law: "Work expands so as to fill
the time available for its completion."
(AP,
3/10/98)(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9058517)
1993 Mar 20, An Irish
Republican Army bomb exploded in Warrington, England, killing
3-year-old Jonathan Ball and 12-year-old Tim Parry.
(AP, 3/20/98)
1993 Apr 13, Tom Stoppard's
"Arcadia," premiered in London.
(www.cherwell.oxon.sch.uk/arcadia/outline0.htm)
1993 Apr 15, Leslie Charteris
(85), British mystery writer (Saint), died.
(www.nndb.com/people/820/000104508/)
1993 Apr 22, In London,
England, Stephen Lawrence (b.1974), a black teenager of Jamaican
parentage, was brutally killed by a gang of white youths with a
history of race baiting. 5 youths were identified, but none were
prosecuted. Three of the suspects were acquitted in 1996. In 1999 a
play called "The Color of Justice" was made based on the testimony
of the trial. The 1999 Macpherson inquiry concluded that the police
force’s mishandling of the case betrayed “institutional racism.” In
2000 police arrested 3 men in connection with the killing. In 2002
two of those accused in the Lawrence case, David Norris and Neil
Acourt, were convicted and jailed for a racist attack on a black
police officer. In 2011 Gary Dobson (36) and David Norris (35) both
white men from south London, faced trial for murder. On Jan 3, 2012,
Dobson and Norris were found guilty. On Jan 4 Gary Dobson was
sentenced to a minimum 15 years and two months and David Norris to
14 years and three months for the murder.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Lawrence)(SFC, 3/23/00,
p.D2)(Econ, 9/20/08, p.72)(AFP, 11/15/11)(Reuters, 1/4/12)
1993 Apr 24, The Irish
Republican Army (IRA) exploded a truck bomb in London's financial
district. It killed a photographer and injured 44 people and caused
millions of dollars' worth of damage.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, zone1 p.7)(AP, 4/24/98)
1993 Apr 26, In Britain a woman
named Nora was raped in the town of Bridgewater. In 2006 kinship DNA
evidence led to the arrest of Geoffrey Godfrey, who was sentenced to
6 years.
(WSJ, 2/23/08, p.A1)
1993 Apr 29, Britain's Queen
Elizabeth II announced that, for the first time, Buckingham Palace
would be opened to tourists to help raise money for repairs at
fire-damaged Windsor Castle.
(AP, 4/29/98)
1993 May 9, Penelope Gilliatt
[Conner], British author, died.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9104302)
1993 May 18, Pamela M.
Cunnington (67), English architect, writer, died.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1993 Jun 15, James Hunt,
English motor-racing driver, died.
(HT, 6/15/00)
1993 Jun 19, Sir William
Golding (b.9/19/1911), English Nobel Prize-winning author (1983),
died at his home in Cornwall, England, at age 81. His work included
"Lord of the Flies."
(AP, 6/19/98)(DT, 6/19/97)(MC, 6/19/02)
1993 Jul 3, Steffi Graf of
Germany won her third consecutive Wimbledon title as she defeated
Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic.
(AP, 7/3/98)
1993 Jul 12, Andrew Lloyd
Webber's musical "Sunset Promenade" opened in London.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1993 Jul 23, British Prime
Minister John Major survived a vote of confidence and a reluctant
House of Commons approved a treaty of European union on his terms.
(AP, 7/23/97)
1993 Aug 7, The public got its
first glimpse inside Buckingham Palace as people were given the
opportunity to tour the London home of Queen Elizabeth II. Proceeds
from ticket sales were earmarked to help repair fire damage at
Windsor Castle.
(AP, 8/7/98)
1993 Sep 14, British tourist
Gary Colley was shot and killed, his female companion Margaret
Jagger wounded, at a highway rest stop in Florida. Three young men,
Aundra Aikins, John Crumitie, and Deron Spear, were arrested charged
and convicted. Two suspects later received life sentences; two
others received lesser sentences.
(AP, 9/14/03)(SFC, 8/29/97, p.A8)
1983 Sep 21, The David Mamet
play "Glengarry Glen Ross" was first performed in London. It won a
Pulitzer Prize in 1984 and was made into a film in 1992.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glengarry_Glen_Ross)
1993 Nov 24 Two 11-year-old
boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, were convicted of the
February murder of 2-year-old James Bulger of Liverpool, England.
Shortly after the trial, Lord Taylor of Gosforth, the Lord Chief
Justice, ordered that the two boys should serve a minimum of ten
years behind bars. Thompson and Venables were released on a “life
license” in June 2001, after serving eight years of their life
sentence. An injunction remained in force following their release,
so that details of their new identities and locations could not be
published.
(AP,
11/24/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Bulger)
1993 Nov 25, Anthony Burgess
(b.1917) died in London at age 76. He was a British author of 34
books of fiction and 15 of non-fiction as well as plays, librettos
and a considerable body of serious. His last book, a novel called "A
Dead Man in Deptford," is actually an idiosyncratic biography of
Christopher Marlowe. Burgess is best known today for his novel
"Clockwork Orange." His final book, "Byrne," was a novel in verse of
8-line stanzas (ottova rima) published in 1997. In 2002 Roger Lewis
authored the biography "Anthony Burgess."
(WSJ, 4/28/95, p.A-8)(SFEC, 9/14/97, BR p.3)(HN,
11/25/98)(FT, 12/14/02, p.IV)
1993 Nov 28, The British
government confirmed reports of contacts with the Irish Republican
Army that were aimed at ending the violence in British-ruled
Northern Ireland.
(AP, 11/28/98)
1993 Dec 3, Britain's Princess
Diana, saying she was fed up with media's intrusions, announced she
would be limiting her public appearances.
(AP, 12/3/98)
1993 Dec 25, In London, an
unidentified 59-year-old woman who'd been implanted with donated
eggs gave birth to twins in a case that sparked controversy.
(AP, 12/25/98)
1993 Alan Clark (d.1999 at 71),
Conservative Party legislator, published his political diaries.
(SFC, 9/8/99, p.B2)
1993 Gregory Elliott authored
“Labourism and the English Genius: The Strange Death of Labour
England.”
{Britain, Books}
(http://tinyurl.com/m7xn5f7)
1993 Sir John Hale (d.1999 at
95) published "The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance."
(SFC, 8/23/99, p.A26)
1993 The Booker Prize for
Fiction was won by Roddy Doyle for: "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha."
(WSJ, 10/15/97, p.A21)
1993 The Southern Discomfort
pamphlets were a series of studies by Giles Radice published by the
Fabian Society that examined attitudes towards the Labour Party in
the south of England after the 1992 General Election defeat.
(Econ, 4/20/13, p.28)(http://tinyurl.com/ct782v6)
1993 The Fortean Times, a
British journal of strange and uncanny phenomena, began compiling
its weirdness index based on the number of stories printed in
various categories over the previous year.
(SFEC, 2/15/98, p.A23)
1993 Britain set up the Child
Support Agency (CSA) to calculate and collect maintenance payments
from one parent to another when families split up and support
payments are due. In late 2006 plans were made public for a new
body, the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, to replace
the CSA.
(Econ, 12/3/05, p.53)(Econ, 12/16/06, p.58)
1993 The British Council Tax, a
levy based loosely on house prices, was instituted.
(Econ, 1/24/04, p.51)
1993 The British brothers David
and Frederick Barclay paid $3.5 million for the Brecqhou, and
Channel Island considered as part of the fiefdom of Sark.
(WSJ, 10/11/05, p.A1)
1993 Asil Nadir (52), a Turkish
Cypriot, went to northern Cyprus after being charged with 66 counts
of theft involving 34 million pounds. He ran Polly Peck, one of
Britain's biggest companies with interests in sectors from textiles
to electronics, before its collapse. In 2010 Nadir's lawyers
indicated he would be willing to come back and face trial if he was
granted bail.
(AFP, 7/30/10)
1993 James Dyson, British
former art student turned inventor, set up a plant in Wiltshire to
produce his vacuum cleaners. Production was later transferred to
Malaysia.
(Econ, 2/3/07, SR p.8)
1993 Research by Robin Dunbar,
an Oxford anthropologist, gave rise to Dunbar’s number of 150 as a
natural limit to the human friendship circle.
(WSJ, 11/16/07, p.B1)
1994 Mar 8, The IRA launch the
1st of 3 mortar attacks on London's Heathrow Airport.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army)
1994 Mar 12, The Anglican
Church of England ordained its first (33) women priests.
(AP, 3/12/98)(SFC, 5/19/00, p.D7)
1994 Apr 16, Bosnian Serbs
downed a British Sea Harrier jet near Gorazde; the pilot ejected and
was rescued by Bosnian government troops.
(AP, 4/16/99)
1994 Apr, London-based
Railtrack took over infrastructure responsibilities from British
Rail. Britain completed the privatization of rail operations by
1997.
(www.siteselection.com/ssinsider/snapshot/sf000619.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/scnfa)
1994 May 5, Labour beat the
Conservatives in British local elections.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1994 May 6, Britain's Queen
Elizabeth II and French President Francois Mitterrand formally
opened the Channel Tunnel between their countries. A first dividend
to shareholders, promised in 1995, was paid in 2009.
(AP, 5/6/04)(Econ, 5/10/14, p.68)
1994 May 12, British Labor
Party leader John Smith died unexpectedly at age 55.
(AP, 5/12/99)
1994 Jun 29, In a British TV
documentary, Prince Charles said he was faithful in his marriage to
Princess Diana "until it became irretrievably broken down."
(AP, 6/29/99)
1994 Jul 3, Pete Sampras
defeated Goran Ivanisevic to win the Wimbledon men's championship,
7-6, 7-6, 6-0.
(AP, 7/3/9)
1994 Jul 21, Britain's Labor
Party elected Tony Blair its new leader, succeeding the late John
Smith.
(AP, 7/21/99)
1994 Jul 26-1994 Jul 27, A car
bomb heavily damaged the Israeli embassy in London, injuring 14;
hours later, a second bomb exploded outside a building housing
Jewish organizations in north London.
(AP, 7/26/99)(NYT, 10/8/04, p.A12)
1994 Aug 10, Last British
troops left Hong Kong. They had been there since Sept 1841.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1994 Aug 15, Shepherd Mead
(80), author (How to Succeed at Business), died of stroke In London,
England.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1994 Sep 9, In England six
prisoners escaped from Whitemoor Prison. They included London
Gangster Andy Russell, Paul Magee and other members of the IRA.
(Econ, 5/24/14, p.51)(http://tinyurl.com/lwwbe4x)
1994 Sep 13, In Cyprus 3
British soldiers abducted tour guide Louise Jensen (23). Her body
was found 2 days later. In 1996 they were sentenced to life
imprisonment after being convicted of abducting, conspiring to rape,
and killing Louise Jensen. In 2006 the former soldiers were released
and deported to Britain after serving only 12 years.
(www.hri.org/news/cyprus/cmnews/1998/98-06-17.cmnews.html)(AP,
8/22/06)
1994 Sep 8, The Last US,
British & French troops left West-Berlin.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1994 Nov 1, Syd Dernley (73),
British hangman, died. In 1989 he authored “The Hangman's Tale:
Memoirs of a Public Executioner.”
(http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Obituary/1994/misc.html)(www.smsfx.com/author/Syd-Dernley/)
1994 Nov 14, The 1st trains for
public ran in Channel Tunnel under the English Channel.
(www.eurotunnel.com/ukcP3Main/ukcCorporate/ukcMediaCentre/ukpPressPack.htm)
1994 Nov 19, Julian Symons
(b.1912)), British detective writer (Death's Darkest Face), died.
(http://neptune.spaceports.com/~queen/Whodunit__writers.html)
1994 Nov 28, Ronald "Buster"
Edwards (b.1931), British Great Train Robber (1963), committed
suicide by hanging in Lambeth, London.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buster_Edwards)
1994 Dec 5, President Clinton,
on a whirlwind visit to the Conference on Security and Cooperation
in Budapest, Hungary, urged European leaders to "prevent future
Bosnias." In the so-called Budapest memorandum Britain, Russia and
the US affirmed their commitment to respect the independence,
sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine.
(AP, 12/5/99)(AFP, 3/3/14)
1994 Dec 24, John Osborne
(b.1929), British playwright, died. His plays included “Look Back in
Anger” (1956) and “Inadmissible Evidence” (1964). In 2007 John
Heilpern authored “John Osborn: The Many Lives of the Angry Young
Man.”
(AP, 12/24/99)(WSJ, 1/26/06, p.W6)
1994 James Kelman won the
Booker Prize for his novel "How Late It Was, How Late." He was the
first Scot to be awarded the prize.
(SFEC, 11/10/96, p.C17)
1994 Louis de Berniere authored
"Captain Corelli’s Mandolin."
(WSJ, 10/28/98, p.A20)
1994 The British film "The
Madness of King George" starred Nigel Hawthorne (d.2001 at 72) and
Helen Mirren. It was directed by Nicholas Hytner.
(SFC, 12/27/01, p.A19)(SSFC, 2/3/02, Par
p.14)(Econ 7/1/17, p.76)
1994 Britain’s government
announced that it would not privatize the Forestry Commission.
(SFC, 6/16/96, p.A10)
1994 Britain under PM John
Major established a national lottery. Some of the funds were
dedicated for sports.
(Econ, 8/23/08, p.48)
1994 Lindsay Anderson, British
theater and film director, died. In 2000 his friend Gavin Lambert
authored "Mainly About Lindsay Anderson."
(SFEC, 10/8/00, BR p.6)
1994-1996 The BBC ran an Arabic language satellite
TV service from a Saudi-backed company called Orbit. It ended after
Saudi’s objected to the BBC’s programming.
(Econ, 10/29/05, p.57)
1995 Jan 1,
Fred West hanged himself in his London prison while awaiting trial
in the murders of a dozen girls and women. The victims included his
wife's 16-year-old daughter and 8-year-old stepdaughter and several
young runaways.
(AP, 1/13/04)
1995 Jan 9, Peter Cook (57),
English comic and actor (Bedazzled, Beyond the Fringe, The
Wrong Box), died.
(AP, 1/9/05)
1995 Feb 14, Britain’s Sizewell
B nuclear power plant, near Leiston, Suffolk, started generating
power. Construction had started in 1988.
(www.british-energy.com/pagetemplate.php?pid=96)
1995 Feb 21, Robert Bolt
(b.1924), British playwright (Doctor Zhivago, Man for All Seasons,
Bounty), died.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0004122/)
1995 Feb 26, Barings PLC,
Britain's oldest investment banking firm, was forced into bankruptcy
after an employee in Singapore, Nicholas William Leeson (28),
speculated in derivatives on Tokyo stock prices that resulted in
losses exceeding $1.4 billion.
(WSJ, 2/27/95, p.A-1)(AP, 2/26/00)
1995 Feb 27, Court-appointed
salvagers swarmed into Britain's oldest investment bank to evaluate
the remaining assets of Barings PLC after Nick Leeson, a 28-year-old
trader, ruined the firm by gambling on Tokyo stock prices.
(AP, 2/27/00)
1995 Feb, James Alfred Wight
(b1916), Yorkshire veterinarian and author, died. His penname was
James Herriot and his work included "All Creatures Great and Small,"
which was later made into a BBC TV series. His first book was "If
Only They Could Talk." His home and shop in Thirsk was opened for
visitors in 1999.
(SFC, 7/19/99, p.A22)
1995 Mar 2, British trader Nick
Leeson, blamed for the collapse of Barings PLC, was detained in
Germany.
(AP, 3/2/00)
1995 Mar 3, Camilla Parker
Bowles and her husband Andrew divorced.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1995 Mar 24, For the first time
in 20 years, no British soldiers were patrolling the streets of
Belfast, Northern Ireland.
(AP, 3/24/00)
1995 Mar 24, Joseph Needham
(b.1900), British biochemist and writer, died. His work included the
24-volume “Science and Civilization in China.” In 2008 Simon
Winchester authored “The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of
the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle
Kingdom.”
(WSJ, 5/6/08,
p.D7)(www.iias.nl/iiasn/iiasn5/eastasia/needham.html)
1995 May 10, Britain lifted a
23-year ban on ministerial talks with Sinn Fein, the political wing
of the Irish Republican Army.
(www.cnn.com/almanac/9805/10/)
1995 May 24, Harold Wilson
(79), former British Prime Minister (1964-70, 74-76), died in
London.
(AP, 5/24/00)(MC, 5/24/02)
1995 Jul 4, British Prime
Minister John Major won re-election as Conservative Party leader.
(AP, 7/4/00)
1995 Jul 16, Stephen Spender
(b.1909), English poet and critic, died. In 2004 John Sutherland
authored “Stephen Spender: The Authorized Biography.”
(HN, 2/28/01)(Econ, 6/19/04, p.81)
1995 Sep 12, Jeremy Brett,
English actor (Sherlock Holmes), died at 59.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1995 Oct 22, Sir Kingsley Amis
(73), British writer, died in London. His 25 novels included “Lucky
Jim” (1954) and “The Green Man” (1969). In 2007 Zachary Leader
authored “The Life of Kingsley Amis.”
(AP, 10/22/05)(SSFC, 4/22/07, p.P10)
1995 Nov 20, BBC Television
broadcast an interview with Princess Diana, who admitted being
unfaithful to Prince Charles.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1995 Dec 17, This year's
British Booker Prize in literature was awarded to Pat Barker for
"The Ghost Road," the third novel of a trilogy (1991-1995) that work
focused on psychologist W.H.R. Rivers and poet Siegfried Sassoon
(1886-1967) set during WW I.
(www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth15)(WSJ, 10/15/97,
p.A21)(WSJ, 12/18/95, p.A12)
1995 Dec 18, Queen Elizabeth
asked Prince Charles and Diana to divorce.
(www.princess-diana.com/diana/curriculumvitae.htm)
1995 Dec 24, British playwright
John Osborne ("Look Back in Anger") died at age 65.
(AP, 12/24/00)
1995 Will Hutton authored “The
State We’re In,” his analysis of British capitalism.
(Econ, 1/15/05, p.63)
1995 David Kynaston (b.1951),
British historian, authored volume one of his 4-volume work “The
City of London: A World of Its Own, 1815–90.” Volume 4 came out in
2002. In 2011 it became available in a shortened single volume.
(Econ, 12/17/11,
p.149)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kynaston)
1995 Iris Murdoch published
"Jackson's Dilemma." It was her last novel.
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A20)
1995 Britain’s conservative
government unveiled plans to reduce the basic income tax rate from
25% to 24%.
(WSJ, 12/29/95, p.A-11)
1995 British Energy was formed
to run Britain’s second generation of nuclear plants.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.64)
1995 The Alternative Investment
Market (AIM) was founded in London. Run by the London Stock Exchange
(LSE) in 2006 it charged $7,319 for its admission and annual fee as
opposed to $100,000 for admission to Nasdaq.
(SFC, 4/28/06, p.D1)(Econ, 10/21/06, p.86)
1995 Britain’s largest
manufacturing concern, General Electric Company PLC, was run by Lord
Weinstock. He retired in autumn 1996 after 33 years in charge.
(WSJ, 11/10/95, p. A-7)
1995 Johan Eliasch (33),
Swedish-born English business executive, acquired the financially
ailing Head NV from the Austrian government for $1 million plus the
assumption of more than $300 million in debt.
(WSJ, 4/7/07, p.A5)
1995 Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou
(b.1967), a Greek-Cypriot-born British entrepreneur, founded
easyJet, a budget airline.
(Econ, 11/22/08,
p.75)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EasyJet)
1995 Lakshmi Mittal (b.1950),
India-born entrepreneur, transferred his steel firm's headquarters
from Indonesia to London, a city Mr Mittal rated as the world's
financial centre.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1820324.stm)
1995 British income per head
overtook the French.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.28)
1996 Feb 9, A massive blast by
the IRA killed two people in London's East End and injured nearly a
100 people.
(WSJ, 2/12/96, p.A-1)
1996 Feb 15, The Sea Empress
grounded off of Wales and spilled 18 million gallons (72,000 tons)
of oil.
(SFC, 11/20/02,
p.A14)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/55393.stm)
1996 Feb 18, A bomb exploded
aboard a bus and may have gone off prematurely killing the bomber.
It was the third IRA bombing in 10 days.
(WSJ, 2/20/96, p.A-1)
1996 Feb 28, Britain’s Princess
Diana agreed to divorce Prince Charles.
(AP, 2/28/01)
1996 Feb, In Libya a plan to
kill Moammar Khadafy failed and several bystanders were killed. In
1998 David Shayler, a former member of the British intelligence
services, revealed the information in France while fighting
extradition to Britain. The British foreign secretary denied the
attack. Shayler returned to London in 2000 to face charges.
(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A9)(SFC, 8/22/00, p.A10)
1996 Mar 1, Plans were approved
allowing traffic cameras at High Harrington and Shap, England.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1996 Mar 20, The British
government said that a rare brain disease that had killed 10 people
was probably linked to so-called "mad cow disease."
(AP, 3/20/97)
1996 Mar, British Prime
Minister John Major visited Hong Kong and said that Britain will
fight for the 1984 treaty to be respected by China.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A8)
1996 Apr 16, Britain's Prince
Andrew and his wife, Sarah, the Duchess of York, announced they were
in the process of getting a divorce.
(AP, 4/16/97)
1996 May 13, Britain’s last
Polaris submarine, the HMS Repulse, came home for good. The Polaris
subs have been replaced by the US Trident nuclear subs.
(SFC, 5/14/96, A-9)
1996 May 30, Sarah Ferguson
divorced Prince Andrew.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, Par p.C2)
1996 Jun 9, The latest
unemployment rate was 8.4%.
(SFC, 6/9/96, Par, p.9)
1996 Jun 15, A bomb exploded in
Manchester, England and wounded 200 people at the Arndale Center
mall.
(SFC, 6/16/96, p.A1)
1996 Jun 16, An investigation
has shown that 2,680 forests, 46% of the total owned by the Forestry
Commission have been sold off.
(SFC, 6/16/96, p.A10)
1996 Jun 26, A running battle
erupted after Germany defeated England on penalties in the European
soccer championships. 70 people were injured and 200 were arrested.
(SFC, 6/28/96, p.A14)
1996 Jul 7, The average cost of
a Big Mac in Great Britain was $2.70.
(SFC, 7/7/96, Par, p.17)
1996 Jul 12, A divorce
settlement between Lady Diana Spencer and Charles, the Prince of
Wales was agreed upon. Diana would be called "Her Royal Highness"
and would receive about $22.5 mil plus an annual $600,000 to
maintain her private office.
(SFC, 7/13/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug 21, The new Globe
theater opened in England.
(HN, 8/21/98)
1996 Sep 23, In London police
killed one man and seized 10 tons of explosives during raids of
suspected IRA hideouts.
(SFC, 9/24/96, p.A12)
1996 Oct 29, Graham Swift won
the Booker Prize for his comic novel "Last Orders."
(SFC, 10/30/96, p.E7)
1996 Nov, Roisin McAliskey, the
daughter of Bernadette Devlin, was arrested for the IRA mortar
attack on the British base at Osnabrueck, Germany.
(SFC, 3/10/98, p.A9)
1996 The BBC teamed Jennifer
Paterson (d.1999 at 71) with Dickson Wright for a cooking program
that became the popular "Two Fat Ladies."
(SFC, 8/11/99, p.C5)
1996 John Galliano, British
designer, became chief designer for Dior. In 1999 he introduced the
saddle bag handbag.
(WSJ, 1/20/03, p.B1)
1996 Tamara Mellon, British
businesswoman, co-founded “Choos” a luxury footwear brand. She
cashed out of Jimmy Choo in 2011 for an estimated £85m. In 2013 she
authored “In My Shoes: A Memoir.”
(Econ, 10/5/13, p.89)
1996 Britain banned exports of
meat and bone meal due to possible risks of "mad-cow" disease.
(WSJ, 1/23/00, p.A1)
1996 The British Commission for
Racial Equality found that the Household Cavalry, the 4-centuries
old monarch’s personal guard, was guilty of institutionalized
racism.
(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A13)
1996 The BBC launched a project
to compile data about Britain and recorded the results on
laserdiscs. A 2.5 year effort to transfer the data to updated
technology was completed in 2005 and made available at
www.domesday1986.com.
(Econ, 9/17/05, TQp.12)
1996 Bernard Ecclestone
(b.1930), a former motorcycle mechanic, paid himself a salary of $80
million. Know as the ‘Ringmaster" he was the foremost figure in the
Formula One car racing scene.
(WSJ, 12/3/98,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Ecclestone)
1996 Michael Lynch, British
software entrepreneur, founded Autonomy as a kind of Google for
corporate data.
(Econ, 2/28/09, p.70)
1997 Jan 7, Beryl Brainbridge
won the British Whitbread award for best novel of 1996 for Every Man
for Himself, a tale of the Titanic disaster. Seamus Heaney won
poetry award for "The Spirit Level."
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.B5)
1997 Jan 23, A new species of a
carnivorous dinosaur from 120 million years ago was found in
southern England. At 26-feet it was larger than a velociraptor but
smaller than a tyrannosaurus rex.
(SFC, 1/24/97, p.A15)
1997 Jan 31, The 412-foot
Britannia was scheduled to be decommissioned at the end of the year.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A8)
1997 Feb 2, Godfrey Baseley,
creator of the Archers, a radio serial based on farming, died at age
92. Dan and Doris Archer and their mythical family at Brookfield
Farm in Ambridge was developed after WW II to help farmers modernize
production.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.A18)
1997 Feb 9, In Newton, Mass.,
an 8-month old baby died while under the care of a 19-year-old
British nanny. Louisa Woodward, pleaded innocent, but was tried and
convicted on 2nd-degree murder charges in Oct.
(SFC,10/31/97,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Woodward)
1997 Feb 17, Adrian Jacobs,
British businessman and writer, died penniless in London. His work
included a children’s book titled “The Adventures of Willy the
Wizard – No. 1 Livid Land” (1987). In 2009 his estate charged that
J.K. Rawlings, author of the popular Harry Potter books, plagiarized
his book.
(SFC, 6/17/09,
p.E12)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0414310/bio)
1997 Feb 27, Legislation
banning most handguns in Britain went into effect.
(AP, 2/27/98)
1997 Mar 7, Oxford Univ.
scientists established a blood tie between the 9,000 year-old
skeleton known as Cheddar Man and an English teacher who lived just
half-a-mile from the cave where the bones were found.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A8)
1997 Mar 26, Irish terrorists
set off 2 bombs in Wilmslow at a railroad crossing.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A14)
1997 Apr 19, The British
drought was now two years old and London was the driest it had been
in 200 years.
(SFC, 4/19/97, p.A10)
1997 Apr 25, The IRA set off
explosions near the M6 highway and caused chaos in Britain’s morning
commute.
(SFC, 4/26/97, p.A10)
1997 May 1, Under the
leadership of Tony Blair Britain’s Labour Party ended its 18 years
in opposition, and won the general election with a landslide
victory, winning 418 seats, the most seats the party has ever held.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_1997)
1997 May 6, British PM Tony
Blair, on the first full working day of the new Labor government,
gave the Bank of England the right to set interest rates. Labor had
won power pledging that it would by the party of welfare reform. The
party had campaigned on the anthem “Things can only get better.” In
October the Bank of England lost its supervisory powers over banks
to the new Financial Services Authority.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.C2)(Econ, 3/25/06, p.63)(Econ,
3/10/07, p.52)(Econ, 6/14/08, p.70)(Econ, 5/1/10, p.27)
1997 May 10, From London
Jennifer Murray and co-pilot Quentin smith began a round-the-world
helicopter trip in an effort to become the first woman to pilot the
globe in a helicopter.
(SFC, 7/23/97, p.A3)
1997 Jun 16, The British
government broke off contacts it had just renewed with Sinn Fein
after the Irish Republican Army killed two Protestant policemen in
Lurgan, Northern Ireland.
(AP, 6/16/98)(SFC, 6/17/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 26, After years of
rejection letters, British author J.K. Rowling finally published the
first volume of the Harry Potter saga. "Harry Potter and the
Philosopher's Stone" was the first of seven novels that spawned an
empire comprising eight movies, a play, theme parks in the United
States and Japan, a sightseeing tour in Scotland and a permanent
exhibition at London's Warner Bros Studios.
(AFP, 6/25/17)
1997 Jun 30, In Hong Kong, the
Union Jack was lowered for the last time over Government House as
Britain prepared to hand the colony back to China after ruling it
for 156 years. The 1st Battalion, The Black Watch (Royal Highland
Regiment) became the last British unit to leave Hong Kong.
(AP,
6/30/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_British_Army#1990-present)
1997 Jun, J.K. Rowling (32)
authored "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." It became the 1st
of a very popular series of children's books.
(SFC, 10/30/99, p.A16)
1997 Jul 1, A new handgun law
took effect as a result of the 1996 massacre at the school in
Dunblane, Scotland.
(SFEC, 6/29/97, p.A13)
1997 Jul 1, Hong Kong reverted
to Chinese rule after 156 years as a British colony. Britain
relinquished Hong Kong as a colonial territory, and China became
master. Many rights were guaranteed for 50 years under a
Sino-British treaty. Tung Chee Hwa (b.1937) began serving as the
first chief executive of Hong Kong.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tung_Chee-hwa)(WSJ, 11/14/94,
p.A9)(SFC, 5/30/96, p.A9)(AP, 7/1/98)
1997 Jul 10, Thousands of rural
people showed up at Hyde Park to defend the sport of fox and deer
hunting. A bill to ban the hunting of foxes, deer, hares and mink
with dogs was being considered.
(SFC, 7/11/97, p.A10)
1997 Jul 22, The labor party
proposed a somewhat independent assembly for Wales.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A10)
1997 Jul 23, In Britain the
government announced that tuition fees would be imposed for the
first time on all college students.
(SFC, 7/24/97, p.A11)
1997 Jul 24, Britain proposed
to the Scots the power to legislate, tax and speak for themselves in
the European Union.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A10)
1997 Aug 29, The government
formally invited Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, to peace
talks next month in Northern Ireland.
(SFC, 8/30/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug. 30, Americans and
others in the Western Hemisphere learned of the deaths of Princess
Diana, her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul, in a
car crash in Paris. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived. (Because
of the time difference, it was the morning of Aug. 31 in Paris when
Diana was pronounced dead.) [see Aug 31]
(AP, 8/30/98)
1997 Aug 31, Prince Charles
brought Princess Diana home for the last time, escorting the body of
his former wife to a Britain that was shocked, grief-stricken and
angered by her death in a Paris traffic accident. Princess Diana
(36) and Egyptian billionaire Dodi al-Fayed (42) were killed along
with the car’s driver in a car crash in Paris while trying to evade
paparazzi photographers. A bodyguard was severely injured but
expected to survive. It was later learned that the driver had 3
times the legal alcohol limit and was driving at about 110 mph.
(SFEC, 8/31/97, p.A1)(SFC, 9/1/97, p.A1)(SFC,
9/2/97, p.A1)(AP, 8/31/98)
1997 Sep 2, In London, a
grieving human tide engulfed St. James's Palace, where Princess
Diana's body lay in a chapel closed to the public, as the British
monarchy and government prepared for her funeral. The White House
announced that first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton would attend on
behalf of the United States.
(AP, 9/2/98)
1997 Sep 5, In England funeral
services for Princess Diana were held in London. Britain's Queen
Elizabeth II broke the royal reticence over Princess Diana's death,
delivering a televised address in which she called her former
daughter-in-law "a remarkable person." The 1973 song “Candle in the
Wind,” an ode to Marilyn Monroe on the album “Goodbye Yellow Brick
Road” by Elton John and lyricist Bernie Taupin, was adopted for the
funeral.
(SFC, 9/6/97, p.A1)(SFC, 9/24/97, p.E1)(AP,
9/5/07)
1997 Sep 19, In his first
public comments since the death of Princess Diana, Princes Charles
told the British people he would always feel the loss of his former
wife, and thanked them for their support.
1997 Sep 19, In England a
passenger train collided with a freight train in west London and 6
people were killed and 170 injured.
(SFC, 9/20/97, p.A10)(AP, 9/19/98)
1997 Sep 22, Elton John
released his Diana tribute "Candle in the Wind 1997."
(MC, 9/22/01)
1997 Sep 25, A British jet car,
Thrust SSC, driven by Andy Green of the Royal Air Force set a land
speed record of 714.144 mph in Nevada. [see Oct 13]
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A1,7)
1997 Sep 18, In Wales voters
narrowly approved a referendum for partial self-government with
50.3% of the vote in which only 50% of the voters took part.
(SFC, 9/19/97, p.A12)
1997 Oct 13, A British jet car,
Thrust SSC, driven by Andy Green of the Royal Air Force set a land
speed record of 764.168 mph in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. The
record was not recorded as official because turn around time went
over an hour due to braking problems. Green officially broke
the record two days later.
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A1,7)(AP, 10/13/98)
1997 Sep, A 13-foot high
painting titled "Myra" by Marcus Harvey was displayed at the Royal
Academy of Arts show "Sensation." It was created from children’s
handprints and based on a mug shot of Myra convicted of murdering
children in 1966. It was part of a show from the collection of
Charles Saatchi of the "Brit Art gang." The show was deemed by many
as very offensive. The show moved to New York City in 1999 and
caused a major stir.
(SFC, 9/18/97, p.E5)(WSJ, 9/29/99, p.A20)
1997 Oct 14, The nominal world
premiere of the symphonic poem "Standing Stone" by Paul McCartney
was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and chorus at Royal
Albert Hall.
(WSJ, 11/18/97, p.A20)
1997 Oct 15, A British
jet-powered car driven by pilot Andy Green broke the land speed
record with an average run of 763.035 mph at Gerlach, Nevada. The
Thrust SSC was powered by two 110,000-horse-power Rolls-Royce Spey
205 engines. The vehicle was 54 feet long, 12 feet wide, and weighed
10.2 tons.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A3)(AP, 10/15/98)
1997 Oct 20, It was reported
that a British firm has proposed a rail tunnel to link Britain and
Ireland. The 56-mile tunnel was estimated to cost $22.6 billion.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.A12)
1997 Oct 20, Harold Albert,
writer, died. He created the character of Helen Cathcart as the
writer of royal biographies between 1962 and 1988 that included:
"Her Majesty, the Queen Herself," and "Charles: Man of Destiny."
(SFC,11/5/97, p.E3)
1997 Oct 27, Britain concluded
a 54-nation Commonwealth meeting.
(WSJ, 10/28/97, p.A1)
1997 Oct 27, British Defense
Sec. George Robertson announced that women soldiers would be allowed
to serve as engineers and gunners under battle conditions.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A10)
1997 Oct 28, In England the
Financial Services Authority (FSA) came into being for the oversight
of financial institutions.
(Econ, 10/20/07, SR
p.31)(http://tinyurl.com/2ryrgx)
1997 Nov 28, The House of
Commons approved a bill, 411-151, to ban wild animals from being
pursued, injured or killed by the use of dogs (i.e. foxhunting). It
was not supported by the labor government.
(SFC, 11/29/97, p.A1)
1997 Dec 2, The US promised to
donate $29 million over the next 3 years to an int’l. fund for
Holocaust survivors at a conference in London on Nazi gold. Congress
would have to approve the contribution. Britain pledged $1.7
million. Some 5.5 tons of gold were still held in New York and
London. Over the last 50 years the Tripartite Gold Commission,
established by the Allies, had returned over 300 tons of gold to ten
countries whose treasuries were sacked.
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A10)(SFC, 12/3/97, p.C3)
1997 Dec 10, The House of
Commons approved a bill to reduce welfare payments to single
parents.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.C2)
1997 Dec 18, Richard Tomlinson
(b.1963), a former British MI6 officer, was jailed for a year for
unlawfully disclosing information about his work. He had joined MI6
in 1991 and was dismissed in 1995, after admitting to passing a
synopsis of a proposed book about his experiences in the Secret
Intelligence Service (SIS) to an Australian publisher. He kept
details of his book in secret files on several computers. He had
served for 4 years as an agent in Moscow and Bosnia. In 1999
Tomlinson posted the names of British intelligence officers on a Web
site. His book “The Big Breach” was published in 2001 in Russia.
(http://tinyurl.com/2cw2sal)(SFC, 5/13/99,
p.C5)(Econ, 12/4/10, p.34)
1997 Dec 25, A gale hit Britain
and Ireland with 100 mph winds and 4 people were killed. A French
fishing vessel was feared to have sunk off Wales.
(WSJ, 12/26/97, p.A1)
1997 Dec 28, James Lees-Milne
(b.1908), British biographer, architectural historian and
watercolorist, died. His work included a biography of British
politician Harold Nicolson. In 2001 Milne’s "Deep Romantic Chasm:
Diaries 1979-1981" was published. The final installment of his
diaries, The Milk of Paradise,” was published in 2006. In 2009
Michael Bloch authored “James Lees-Milne: The Life.”
(SSFC, 8/12/01, DB p.63)(WSJ, 7/1/06, p.P6)(Econ,
11/21/09, p.86)
1997 Prof. Norman Davies of the
Univ. of London wrote "Europe: A History."
(Hem., 5/97, p.99)
1997 The film "Mrs.
Brown" was about the relationship between Queen Victoria and her
servant John Brown over the years 1864-1883.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, Par p.2)
1997 Gordon Brown became
chancellor of Britain. Brown staged an infamous pensions tax “grab”
by eliminating the tax credit on dividend payments.
(Econ, 12/13/03, p.53)(Econ, 12/4/10, p.94)
1997 William Hague became
leader of the British Conservative Party. He lost the leadership in
2001.
(WSJ, 2/9/05, p.D10)
1997 Britain created its
Department for Int’l. Development (DfID). A legally mandated formula
allocated it 0.7% of national income.
(Econ, 4/15/17, p.50)
1997 Britain’s Labour party
said it would cut British 20% off greenhouse gas emissions by 2010
as compared to 1990 levels. Emissions between 1999 and 2005 remained
unchanged.
(Econ, 11/19/05, p.59)
1997 Britain set up the Special
Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) to deal with appeals when the
home secretary had directed that a person be deported on national
security grounds.
(Econ, 11/17/12, p.55)
1997 The Bank of England gave
up its role as manager of public debt as well as its job of
supervising banks. Bank supervision was passed to the FSA.
Legislation in 2012 was expected to restore the Bank of England’s
role in supervising commercial banks in 2013.
(Economist, 9/1/12, p.57)
1997 Neil Monroe Roger (aka
Bunny Roger), a dandy, gay couturier, died at age 86. He maintained
a serious pursuit of ancient, medieval and ecclesiastical history.
His wardrobe was auctioned in 1998 with an estimated value of $2.5
mil.
(SFC, 1/28/98, p.A8)
1997 A fatal train crash led to
a $2.47 million fine for the train operator for dereliction of duty.
(WSJ, 10/6/99, p.A1)
1997-2005 Britain’s spending on state education
rose from 4.7% to 5.5%.
(Econ, 10/22/05, Survey p.59)
1997-2006 Housing prices in Britain rose by 175%,
one of the biggest increases among developed economies.
(Econ, 7/1/06, p.51)
Go to
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Subject = Britain
Go to GB 1998