Timeline Great Britain 1972-1997
Return to home
1972 Jan 22,
Britain, Denmark, Ireland and Norway joined the European Economic
Community.
(AP, 1/22/02)
1972 Jan 30, In Londonderry
(Derry), Northern Ireland, British troops fired on a civil rights march
in the Bloody Sunday massacre. 13-14 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.
(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)
1972 Feb 2, The play "Jumpers" by
Tom Stoppard (b.1937) was first performed at the Old Vic Theatre,
London, England.
(SFEM, 1/2/00,
p.6)(www.complete-review.com/reviews/stoppt/jumpers.htm)
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 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 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.
(AP, 10/1/02)(AP, 11/29/05)
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, 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 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 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."
(SSFC, 1/6/02, p.M2)(SSFC, 8/7/05,
p.C1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Berger)
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 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.
(WSJ, 12/4/97,
p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_European_Union)
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 were
among nine 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.
(AP, 11/17/09)(http://tinyurl.com/yfzl7th)
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.
(SC, 3/4/02)(SFC, 7/18/05, p.B6)
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 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 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.
(SSFC, 2/18/01, BR p.3)(AP, 9/8/03)
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 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 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 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 the
British referendum reveals that 67.2% of voters are in favor of the
United Kingdom remaining a member of the Community.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1975/index_en.htm)
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 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 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 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 29, Britain under PM
Callaghan applied to the IMF for a loan of $3.9 billion.
(http://tinyurl.com/tfu9t)
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.
(WSJ, 7/26/99, p.A21)
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 The Seychelles gained
independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)
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 marked
her Silver Jubilee.
(HN, 2/6/99)
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.
(AP, 5/20/08)
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 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 Iris Murdoch published "The
Sea, The Sea." It won the Booker Prize.
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A20)
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 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 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 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 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.
(www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=133)(SFC,
4/29/98, p.E1)
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 won the Booker Prize for her novel "Offshore."
(WSJ, 4/8/97, p.A20)
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 Controls on capital
movement across borders were abandoned by the U.K. and Japan.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-44)
1979 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.
(WSJ, 1/22/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(SSFC,
4/21/02, p.C22)
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. Nineteen hostages were rescued; two others had already been
killed by their captors; four of the five hostage-takers also were
killed.
(AP, 5/5/00)
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 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 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 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 gained
independence from Britain and joined the UN under protests from
Guatemala.
(www.belizenet.com/bzeguat/chap10.html)
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.
(WSJ, 2/21/97,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Jenkins)
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 more than 350 men. Some 600 Argentine
sailors were killed when the Belgrano was sunk. Lord Terence Thornton
Lewin (d.1999 at 78), British military commander, was regarded as the
one who persuaded Margaret Thatcher to order the sinking.
(SFC, 1/25/99, p.A20)(http://tinyurl.com/gbplz)
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. 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)
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 20, Irish Republican Army
bombs exploded in two London parks, killing eight British soldiers,
along with seven horses belonging to the Queen’s Household Cavalry.
(AP, 7/20/00)
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 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 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, M. Thatcher's
Conservative Party won the British parliamentary election.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_1983)
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 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://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/26/newsid_2529000/2529235.stm)
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 pound
coin.
(WSJ, 7/24/98, p.W11)
1983 Britain introduced its Youth
Training Scheme.
(Econ, 10/3/09, SR
p.16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_Training_Scheme)
1983 English driver Richard Noble
set the land speed record at 633 mph.
(SFC, 6/16/96, p.B1)
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 11, Mohammad Maqbool
Bhat, founder of the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation
Front (JKLF), was hanged in New Delhi's Tihar jail for the murder of a
policeman. Ravindra Mhatre, India's deputy high commissioner in
Britain, had been murdered in Birmingham, England. 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. The Indian government hanged Maqbool
Bhat, a leading Kashmiri dissident it had been holding in jail. In 2004
Mohammed Aslam (49) was charged with the kidnap, false imprisonment and
murder of Mhatre.
(AP, 11/4/04)(AFP, 2/11/07)
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, 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.
(SFC, 7/8/99, p.A8)(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.C12)(AP,
4/7/04)(AFP, 10/26/09)
1984 May 20, Peter Bull (72),
British actor (Dr Doolittle), died of a heart attack.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0119988/)
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 Prime
Minister 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 and permit it to
retain its capitalist system for 50 years.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.A14)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A8)
1984 Ian Hibell (d.2008 at 74),
long-distance British cyclist, authored “Into Remote Places.”
(Econ, 9/13/08, p.96)
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.
(WSJ, 12/1/99, p.A24)
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 Brunei gained independence
from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)
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, National Union of Mine
Workers in Britain 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)
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. 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.
(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)
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 28, There was a race riot
in the London area of Brixton.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brixton_riot_(1985))
1985 Nov 15, Britain and Ireland
signed an accord giving Dublin an official consultative role in
governing Northern Ireland.
(AP, 11/15/97)
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).
(WSJ, 12/8/07, p.W18)
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 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)
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 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 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 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 Standard Chartered PLC
divested its South African holdings.
(www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Standard-Chartered-plc-Company-History.html)
1987 Kuwait’s sovereign investment
fund bought over 20% of British Petroleum, but the deal was
opposed by PM Margaret Thatcher. This forced the Kuwaitis so sell over
half their stake.
(Econ, 1/19/08, p.80)
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 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
suspects 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.
(SFC, 2/12/99, p.A3)(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A12)(AP,
4/17/03)
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.
(AP, 4/15/08)(Econ, 4/18/09, p.61)
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.”
(AP, 7/11/99)(SSFC, 11/13/05, p.M6)(Econ, 10/15/05,
p.92)
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.
(http://tinyurl.com/7dyb2)(Econ, 8/2/08, p.88)
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 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 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)
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 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, Alan J.P. Taylor,
British historian (Origins of WW II), died.
(http://tinyurl.com/qkf67)
1990 Nov 14, British commentator
Malcolm Muggeridge died in Sussex, England, at age 87.
(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 (74),
British short story author (Sweet Mystery of Life), died.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1990 Nov 27, Britain's
conservatives chose John Major to succeed Margaret Thatcher.
(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 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)
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 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 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 Britain established a War
Crimes Act which permitted prosecution for crimes committed outside the
country.
(SFC, 2/11/00, p.D2)
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 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 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, Britain under John
Major devalued the pound and the economy soared. 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.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A1)(Econ, 3/25/06,
p.62)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Wednesday)
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 Russian intelligence
archivist Vasili Mitrokhin defected to British intelligence. He brought
along 6 trunkfuls of KGB files.
(SFEC, 9/12/99, p.A16)
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 Britain’s Midland Bank was
acquired by HSBC.
(Econ, 5/15/10, SR p.12)
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 Angela Carter, 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."
(SFEC, 2/14/99, BR p.5)
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 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.
(SFC, 4/18/96, p.a-12)(SFC, 12/17/99, p.D5)(SFC,
6/23/01, p.A8)(AP, 2/12/03)
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. A 1999 report
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.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Lawrence)(SFC,
2/23/99, p.A8)(SFC, 3/23/00, p.D2)(Econ, 9/20/08, p.72)
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)
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)
1983 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.
1993 Alan Clark (d.1999 at 71),
Conservative Party legislator, published his political diaries.
(SFC, 9/8/99, p.B2)
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 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.
(AP, 5/6/04)
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
(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 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 Gordon Brown became
chancellor of Britain.
(Econ, 12/13/03, p.53)
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 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 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 William Hague became leader
of the British Conservative Party. He lost the leadership in 2001.
(WSJ, 2/9/05, p.D10)
1997 Richard Tomlinson, a former
secret intelligence officer, was jailed for 6 months after he showed
the synopsis of a book on his career to an Australian publisher. He
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.
(SFC, 5/13/99, p.C5)
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)
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