Timeline Great Britain (I) 1998-2006

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1998        Jan 8, Sir Michael Tippett, British composer, died at age 93. His work included 5 opera, 4 symphonies, 5 string quartets, 4 piano sonatas, and many choral, instrumental and orchestral works.
    (SFC, 1/10/98, p.E8)

1998        Jan 27, Poet laureate Ted Hughes won the $33,000 Whitbread Book of the Year award for his "Tales of Ovid."
    (SFC, 1/28/98, p.E6)

1998        Feb 14, Lord Granville of Eye, the oldest member of the British Parliament, died at age 102. He fought in WW I at Gallipoli and entered Parliament in 1929.
    (SFC, 2/18/98, p.A18)

1998        Feb 16, The 66-foot “Angel of the North” sculpture by Antony Gormley was completed in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England.
    (Econ, 6/6/15, p.46)

1998        Feb 27, With the approval of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's House of Lords agreed to end 1,000 years of male preference by giving a monarch's first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as any first-born son.
    (AP, 2/27/99)

1998        Feb, British educational reform led to a decree that authorized teachers to use "reasonable force" against unruly students in state schools.
    (SFC, 4/22/98, p.A10)

1998        Mar 30, In Britain the Rolls-Royce company of Vickers PLC was sold to BMW of Germany for $570 million. However, BMW was later successfully outbid by Volkswagen AG
    (SFC, 3/31/98, p.B4)(AP, 3/30/08)

1998        Apr 5, In Leeds, England, environment chiefs from the world's top eight industrialized nations announced plans to curb the smuggling of hazardous waste, endangered species and substances that damage the ozone layer.
    (AP, 4/5/99)

1998        Apr 19, Linda McCartney (56), wife of former Beatle Paul McCartney, died in Santa Barbara, Ca. Santa Barbara claimed no record and it was later determined that she died in Arizona.
    (SFC, 4/20/98, p.A1)(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A1)(SFC, 4/24/98, p.A1)

1998        Apr 21, It was reported that the US and Britain had begun a secretive removal of nuclear materials near Tbilisi. Britain volunteered to accept the material and had already taken 270 pounds. The unused highly enriched uranium was to be processed by a Scottish plant.
    (SFC, 4/21/98, p.A18)(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A16)

1998        Apr 29, It was reported that Nicholas van Hoogstraten was building the largest and most expensive house of the century in Sussex, named Hamilton Place at a cost of $50 million. The palace was to include a gallery for his French furniture and a mausoleum for his future.
    (WSJ, 4/29/98, p.A20)

1998        May 7, In England Londoners voted overwhelmingly to elect their own mayor for the first time in history. Ken Livingston was elected in May 2000.
    (AP, 5/7/03)(Econ, 6/5/04, p.53)

1998        May 9, In Britain the Israeli transsexual, Dana International, won the annual Eurovision Song Prize with the song "Diva.".
    (SFC, 5/11/98, p.D5)

1998        May 12, Britain offered Northern Ireland a $500 million package of financing and tax breaks for roads, railways and the reduction of unemployment.
    (SFC, 5/13/98, p.A11)

1998        May 15, Leaders of eight countries, including the US, opened a three-day summit in Birmingham, England.
    (AP, 5/15/08)

1998        Jun 4, In Britain the House of Commons decided to get rid of its collapsible top hats, a tradition that dated from 19th century.
    (SFC, 6/5/98, p.D4)

1998        Jun 5, Volkswagen won the bid for Rolls Royce for $703 million.
    (SFC, 6/6/98, p.D1)

1998        Jun 13, In London Reg Smythe, creator of the Andy Capp comic strip, died at age 81.
    (SFC, 6/16/98, p.A22)

1998        Jun 21, In England the Druids were allowed to celebrate the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge.
    (SFC, 6/22/98, p.A10)

1998        Jun 22, In Britain legislators voted to lower the age of consent for homosexual acts to 16, the norm in the EU.
    (SFC, 6/23/98, p.A10)

1998        Jun, In England Dr. Harold F. Shipman came under suspicion of murder when former Preston Mayor Kathleen Grundy (81) was found dead and toxicologists later found that she'd been given a large dose of heroin. Her revised will arrived at a law firm on the same day with her $640,000 estate willed to Shipman. 14 other female patients were also suspected to have been murdered by Shipman. Shipman was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to 15 life sentences. In 2001 Shipman was suspected of having injected hundreds of elderly women with diamorphine over his 24-year career. In 2002 an investigation reported that Shipman had killed at least 215 people over 23 years.
    (SFC, 12/9/99, p.C8)(SFC, 1/6/01, p.A1)(SFC, 7/20/02, p.A8)

1998        Jul 1, In England the memorial museum to Princess Diana opened on what would have been her 37th birthday at Althorp House, Great Brington.
    (SFC, 7/2/98, p.A18)

1998        Jul 7, Britain sent more troops to Northern Ireland to help quell the rioting.
    (SFC, 7/8/98, p.A10)

1998        Jul 10, Police in England and Ireland arrested 9 people and thwarted a plot to bomb central London. The arrested were members of the 32 County Sovereignty Committee, a hard-line dissident Catholic group opposed to the peace settlement that was led by Bernadette Sands.
    (SFC, 7/11/98, p.A1)(SFC, 8/18/98, p.A8)

1998        Jul 31, Britain's National Minimum Wage Act came into force.
    (https://tinyurl.com/y6lrymdm)(Econ., 8/15/20, p.61)
1998        Jul 31, The British government banned the manufacture, sale and use of land mines by its military.
    (SFC, 8/1/98, p.A11)

1998        Aug 5, In London leaders of the Anglican Church approved a resolution that said homosexual activity is "incompatible with Scripture."
    (SFC, 8/6/93, p.A12)

1998        Aug 11, British Petroleum PLC under John Browne announced a merger with Amoco Corp. in a purchase valued at $49 billion. The deal vaulted BP into the top ranks.
    (SFC, 8/12/98, p.A1)(AP, 8/11/99)(Econ, 1/20/07, p.17)

1998        Aug 15, It was reported that 6,000 mink from a fur farm in Ringworm had been released by animal rights activists. The released mink caused a wildlife disaster as they preyed on all wildlife.
    (SFC, 8/15/98, p.A5)

1998        Aug 24, The United States and Britain agreed to allow two Libyan suspects in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 to be tried by a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands. A former Libyan intelligence agent was later convicted of murder; the other suspect was acquitted.
    (AP, 8/24/08)

1998        Aug 28, The Marylebone Cricket Club, an exclusively male organization for 211 years, decided to admit women.
    (SFC, 9/30/98, p.A11)

1998         Aug 29, In new type of mosquito was reported to be breeding in the underground Tube with a taste for the rats and mice that lived there.
    (SFC, 8/28/98, p.A5)

1998        Sep 2, Vere Harmsworth, 3rd Viscount Rothermere, died. He turned the Daily Mail from a broadsheet into a tabloid in 1971 and expanded its circulation. His son, Jonathan Harmsworth took over operations. In 2006 the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) was dropped from the FTSE 100 index of Britain’s leading companies.
    (http://thepeerage.com/p7348.htm)(Econ, 6/10/06, p.66)

1998        Oct 1, Gordon and Betty Moore, announced a $35 million contribution to Conservation Int’l., an environmental group for biodiversity. The funds would be used for a new Washington DC Center for Applied Biodiversity Science. Moore was a co-founder and former chairman of Intel Corp. He donated $12.5 million to Cambridge Univ. for the most advanced science and technology library in Europe.
    (SFC, 10/2/98, p.B6,D1)

1998        Oct 7, Ted Hughes, poet laureate, won the $16,930 Forward Prize for best poetry collection for his "Birthday Letters."
    (SFC, 10/8/98, p.E3)

1998        Oct 9, The weekly Der Spiegel reported that spinach grown near the nuclear reprocessing plant in Sellafield, England, had doses of technetium-99 that was 7 times above EU food standards. Greenpeace in April had demonstrated that game pigeons in the area were irradiated.
    (SFC, 10/10/98, p.A9)

1998        Oct 16, After receiving a Spanish extradition warrant, British police arrested former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London for questioning about allegations that he had murdered Spanish citizens during his years in power. Pinochet was held for 16 months as courts decided whether he could be extradited to Spain; he was allowed in 2000 to return to Chile, where a court later held that he could not face charges because of his deteriorating health and mental condition.
    (AP, 10/16/03)

1998        Oct 17, Chilean officials lodged a formal complaint to Britain over the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who arrested in a London medical clinic following a request from Spain for his extradition.
    (SFEC, 10/18/98, p.A1)

1998        Oct 24-25, Weekend storms struck Britain and at least 11 people were killed.
    (SFC, 10/31/98, p.A8)

1998        Oct 27, In England Ian McEwan was awarded the $34,000 Booker prize for his novel "Amsterdam." A funeral brings together the former lovers of a dead woman, two of whom gang up on a third. The work includes a detailed look at the workings of professional music and journalism.
    (SFC, 10/28/98, p.E3)(WSJ, 10/23/98, p.W12)

1998        Oct 28, Britain’s High Court ruled that Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet could not be tried in England for anything he did in Chile. Pinochet was still held pending an appeal. The House of Lords later overturned the decision, saying Pinochet's arrest could stand. Pinochet was eventually allowed to return to Chile, where a court later held that he could not face charges because of his deteriorating health and mental condition
    (SFC, 10/29/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/28/03)

1998        Oct 28, Ted Hughes, British poet, died at age 68. His work included 35 books of poems, 3 works of prose, 2 opera libretti, and 4 stage plays. In 2007 Christopher Reid edited “Letters of Ted Hughes.” In 2015 Jonathan Bate authored “Ted Hughes: The Unauthorized Life.”
    (SFC, 10/30/98, p.A17)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.90)

1998        Oct 30, Spanish judges ruled that Spain has the legal right to bring criminal charges against Augusto Pinochet and to seek his extradition from Britain.
    (SFC, 10/31/98, p.A12)

1998        Oct, In Britain the Jenkins commission on electoral reform proposed an alternative, proportional system for general elections.
    (AP, 5/5/11)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/255179.stm)

1998        Nov 9, The Human Rights Act 1998, an Act of the Westminster Parliament, made the European Convention on Human Rights part of the law of all parts of the UK. It did not come fully into effect until 2 October 2000.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Act_1998)(Econ, 10/16/10, p.70)

1998        Nov 17, The Scotland Act of this year, introduced by the Labour government, was passed by the UK Parliament and received royal assent two days later. It established the devolved Scottish Parliament.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_Act_1998)

1998        Nov 23, The European Union lifted a worldwide export ban on British beef. The ban was imposed after experts announced a possible link between "mad cow" disease and a fatal disease in humans.
    (AP, 11/23/02)

1998        Nov 24, In Britain Queen Elizabeth announced plans by the Blair government to make the House of Lords more democratic by stripping aristocrats of their right to sit in it.
    (WSJ, 11/25/98, p.A1)

1998        Nov 25, In Britain 5 members of the House of Lords voted 3 to 2 to reject former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s claim of immunity from extradition. The rejection came one day before Pinochet’s 83rd birthday. The final decision rested with Home Sec. Jack Straw.
    (SFC, 11/26/98, p.A1,B2)(SFC, 11/27/98, p.A1)

1998        Nov 30, Britain along with Lesotho, Burkino Faso, the Ivory Coast and Tajikistan signed a global treaty for an Int’l. Criminal Court to try war crimes. The accord was approved in July at conference in Rome and 61 countries had signed on. The court required 60 countries to pass legislation for ratification.
    (SFC, 12/1/98, p.A11)

1998        Dec 4, Britain and France signed an agreement for greater cooperation in crises management and military operations. At the Anglo-French summit in St Malo, the leaders of the UK and France decided on the need for a "capacity for autonomous action, backed up by credible military forces." This led to the establishment of the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP).
    (www.heritage.org/Research/Europe/bg2053.cfm)(SFC, 12/5/98, p.A10)

1998        Dec 9, Britain’s Home Secretary, Jack Straw, turned down Gen’l. Augusto Pinochet’s plea to be set free. The decision for extradition moved to the courts.
    (SFC, 12/10/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/10/98, p.A1)

1998        Dec 9, In Hyde, England, authorities exhumed a 12th body killed by Dr. Harold Shipman (52). The family doctor was accused of killing female patients for their money from 1994 to Jun 1998.
    (SFC, 12/10/98, p.C7)

1998        Dec 16, Pres. Clinton ordered missile strikes against Iraq. Iraqi envoy Nizar Hamdoon accused UN weapons inspector Richard Butler of producing a biased report on weapons inspections. The US and British strike came one before scheduled vote on Clinton’s impeachment by the House of Representatives and days before the beginning of Ramadan. Some 200 missiles fell on Iraq in the first 24 hours of the attack and initial reports indicated two people killed and 30 injured. The House Republicans postponed impeachment by at least 24 hours.
    (SFC, 12/17/98, p.A1,8)

1998        Dec 17, US and British forces launched more missiles on the 2nd day of attacks against Iraq. The strikes included some 100 cruise missiles with 2,000 pound warheads.
    (SFC, 12/18/98, p.A1)
1998        Dec 17, In Britain the high court set aside its ruling against Gen’l Pinochet because one member failed to disclose close ties with Amnesty Int’l. A new panel will rehear Pinochet’s claim of immunity.
    (SFC, 12/18/98, p.A18)
1998        The 14th annual Turner Prize in art was awarded to Chris Ofili.
    (WSJ, 12/1/99, p.A24)

1998        David Cannadine authored "The Rise and Fall of Class in Britain."
    (WSJ, 12/29/98, p.A11)
1998        Philip Gould, party pollster authored “The Unfinished Revolution: How the Modernisers Saved the Labour Party.”
    (Econ, 3/27/10, p.61)
1998        The new British National Library, designed by Colin St. John Wilson, was scheduled to open in 1997 but was delayed. A partial opening was scheduled for 1998 and full opening in 1999.
    (WSJ, 8/28/97, p.A12)
1998        Britain’s Financial Services Authority took over bank supervision from the Bank of England.
    (Econ, 2/19/11, p.78)
1998        The BBC under John Birt launched Internet online operations.
    (Econ, 6/18/05, Survey p.52)
1998        A 246 acre site at Sutton Hoo was donated to Britain’s National Trust. It contained the burial site of an Anglo-Saxon king believed to be Raedwald (d.625).
    (Arch, 7/02, p.61)
1998        Divine Chocolate was founded in Britain. The chocolate was made in Germany and in 2007 45% of shares were owned by Kuapa Kokoo, Ghana’s largest cocoa bean cooperative.
    (Econ, 4/7/07, p.65)

1999        Jan, Tulay Goren (15), a London schoolgirl, disappeared. In 2009 her father Mehmet Goren (49), a Turkish Kurd, was found guilty of murdering his daughter, in what prosecutors said was an honor killing. Her body had not yet been found.
    (AFP, 12/17/09)

1999        Feb 10, US and British jets again hit Iraqi air defense sites. It was reported that Saddam Hussein has offered $14,000 to air defense troops who shoot down a US or British plane.
    (SFC, 2/11/99, p.A15)

1999        Feb 24, A government report that found London's police force to be "riven with pernicious and institutionalized racism" was made public. The report was born out of the 1993 killing of Stephen Lawrence and a subsequent trial.
    (SFC, 2/23/99, p.A8)

1999        Feb, London Records released the first non-soundtrack album of composer John Barry. He wrote over 100 film scores that included 10 James Bond movies, "Born Free" and "Out of Africa."
    (WSJ, 3/5/99, p.W10)

1999        Mar 2, In England Dusty Springfield (59), pop-soul singer, died from breast cancer. Her hits included ""You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself" and "Son of a Preacher Man."
    (SFC, 3/4/99, p.D2)

1999        Mar 8, Britain and Ireland signed 4 treaties for the Northern Ireland peace accord. Formation of a new government was postponed.
    (WSJ, 3/9/99, p.A1)

1999        Mar 15, In Northern Ireland Rosemary Nelson (40), a Catholic human rights lawyer, was killed by a car bomb in Lurgan. In 2000 William Thompson, a former British soldier, was arraigned on terrorist charges following an inquiry into Nelson's death.
    (SFC, 3/16/99, p.A8)(SFC, 3/17/00, p.D4)

1999        Mar 20, Patrick Heron, Britain's foremost abstract painter, died. He was a principal member of the St. Ives group of artists.
    (SFEC, 3/21/99, p.D8)

1999        Mar 24, In Britain the high court rejected the claim of Pinochet for immunity from prosecution, but reduced the charges that could be brought against him to offenses after Sep 29, 1988. 27 of the 30 charges in the Spanish warrant were thrown out.
    (SFC, 3/25/99, p.A3)

1999        Mar 31, In England the House of Lords passed a bill that stripped aristocrats with inherited seats from voting in the upper chamber of Parliament.
    (SFC, 4/1/99, p.C2)

1999        Mar, PM Tony Blair spoke at Toynbee Hall in east London and pledged to end child poverty within 20 years.
    (Econ, 6/17/06, p.61)

1999        Apr 1, Britain’s pay rate for workers aged 22 or over was set at  ₤3.60 per hour. Workers 18-21 had a lower rate set at ₤3.00. In 2006 the minimum wage rose to ₤5.35 an hour.
    (Econ, 10/7/06, p.65)
1999        Apr 1, In Belfast, Northern Ireland, Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair called for the rival paramilitary groups to surrender their weapons on a new all-Ireland holiday, a "day of reconciliation" devoted to peace.
    (SFC, 4/2/99, p.D2)

1999        Apr 3, Lionel Bart, born as Lionel Beglieter, died at age 68 in London. He wrote and composed the 1960 musical "Oliver" based on the Dickens novel "Oliver Twist."
    (SFEC, 4/4/99, p.B12)

1999        Apr 14, Anthony Newley, singer, playwright, composer and lyricist, died at age 67. His work included cowriting with Leslie Bricusse the 1961 musical "Stop the World - I Want to Get Off," which included the hit songs "What Kind of Fool Am I" and "Gonna Build a Mountain."
    (SFC, 4/15/99, p.C4)

1999        Apr 17, In London, England, [39] 48 people were injured by a nail bomb in a racially mixed neighborhood near Brixton Rd. and Electric Ave. This was the first of three bombs to explode in London within a two-week period. David Copeland (24) was convicted for the bombing in 2000.
    (SFEC, 4/18/99, p.A18)(SFC, 4/29/99, p.D3)(AP, 4/17/00)(SFC, 7/1/00, p.A14)

1999        Apr 22, British PM Tony Blair, speaking before the Chicago Economic Club, unveiled his "Doctrine of the International Community" (Chicago Doctrine). Among other things, the doctrine outlines circumstances that warrant the international community to intervene in the affairs of other nations.
    (www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/international/jan-june99/blair_doctrine4-23.html)

1999        Apr 24, A 2nd nail bomb exploded in London’s Brick Lane, one week following a blast that injured 39 people. Police attributed the bombs to a splinter group of Combat 18 (named from the position of Hitler's initials in the alphabet) called White Wolves. David Copeland (24) was convicted for the bombing in 2000.
    (SFC, 4/29/99, p.D3)(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.A25)(SFC, 7/1/00, p.A14)

1999        Apr 26, In London, England, Jill Dando (37), a BBC anchorwoman and host of a crime-fighting program, was shot dead on the steps of her home in Fulham. Police arrested and charged Barry Michael George (Barry Bulsara) for the murder 13 months later. George was convicted in 2001 and sentenced to life in prison. In 2008 Barry George was cleared in a retrial.
    (SFC,4/27/99,p.A10)(AP,4/26/00)(SFC,5/26/00,p.A18)(SFC,5/29/00,p.A14)(SFC, 7/3/01, p.A10)
    (AFP, 8/1/08)

1999        Apr 30, In London a bomb exploded at the Admiral Duncan pub, a gay bar in Soho. Three people were killed and over 70 wounded. David Copeland (24) was convicted for the bombing in 2000.
    (SFC, 5/1/99, p.A1)(AP, 4/30/00)(SFC, 7/1/00, p.A14)(Econ, 12/24/16, p.103)

1999        May 1, In London police arrested David Copeland (22) for the recent nail bombings.
    (SFC, 5/3/99, p.A12)

1999        May 8, Sir Dirk Bogarde, actor, died at age 78. He starred in over 70 films that included "Death in Venice" and "A Tale of Two Cities."
    (SFEC, 5/9/99, p.C8)

1999        May 18, Britain and Iran agreed to exchange ambassadors for the 1st time in 20 years.
    (SFC, 5/19/99, p.A12)

1999        May 19, Andrew Motion (47) was chosen as Britain's new Poet Laureate with an annual salary of $8,100 and a term of 10 years.
    (SFC, 5/20/99, p.E3)

1999        May 20, James Blades, percussionist and author, died at age 97. He was the composer of the Morse Code ditty used by the BBC to encourage resistance during WW II.
    (SFC, 5/25/99, p.B2)

1999        May 21, Sir Robert Rhodes James, historian and former member of Parliament, died at age 66.
    (SFC, 5/25/99, p.B2)

1999        Jun 13, The Conservative Party under William Hague won 36 seats while the Labor Party won 29 for the European Parliament.
    (SFC, 6/16/99, p.B2)

1999        Jun 16, Screaming Lord Sutch, leader of Britain's Official Monster Raving Loony Party, was found dead at age 58. His party campaigned under the slogan: "Vote for Insanity, You Know It Makes Sense." Before entering fringe politics he ran a rock band called the Savages that featured Noel Redding (Jimi Hendrix Experience), Keith Moon (the Who) and Jeff Beck.
    (SFC, 6/17/99, p.C4)

1999        Jun 18, In London some 4,000 protestors rampaged through the financial district as part of the "Carnival Against Capitalism."
    (SFC, 6/19/99, p.A11)

1999        Jun 19, In London Prince Edward (35) wed Sophie Rhys-Jones (34).
    (SFEC, 6/20/99, p.A2)

1999        Jun 22, A new 20 pound note was scheduled to begin circulating featuring the image of Sir Edward Elgar.
    (WSJ, 6/14/99, p.B1)

1999        Jun 30, Lord Whitelaw, prominent Conservative politician, died at age 81.
    (SFC, 7/2/99, p.D6)

1999        Jul 6, Britain began selling gold and dumped 50,250 pounds, 3.5% of the UK's 1.6 million-pound reserve. Gold dropped to $257.80 per ounce.
    (SFC, 7/7/99, p.B1)

1999        Jul 7, Britain and Libya announced a resumption of diplomatic relations.
    (SFC, 7/8/99, p.A8)

1999        Jul 14, The EU agreed to resume British beef exports on Aug 1, ending a 3-year ban due to mad cow disease.
    (WSJ, 7/15/99, p.A13)

1999        Jul 17, The body of Canadian singer Fatima Kama (28) was found when a member of the public spotted a black suitcase abandoned on the third floor of a Heathrow Airport parking lot. Youssef Ahmed Wahid, a former Kuwait Airways steward, was arrested within days of the discovery at his hometown of Ramadiyeh in southern Lebanon. He reportedly denied having anything to do with the killing, and was eventually released and then went on the run. In 2010 authorities in Bahrain arrested Wahid as a suspect in the case. On Oct 3, 2011, Wahid was sentenced to at least 24 years in prison.
    (AP, 8/24/10)(AP, 10/3/11)

1999        Jul 18, British ambassador Nick Browne presented his credentials to Pres. Khatami of Iran following a decade-long break in relations.
    (SFC, 7/19/99, p.A12)(SFC, 2/9/02, p.A9)

1999        Jul, Britain launched the $35.9 million Vinopolis, the first theme park devoted to wine, between Southwark Cathedral and the re-created Globe Theater in London.
    (SFEC, 7/18/99, p.T3)

1999        Aug 1, The EU cleared British beef for export. A ban had followed the 1996 mad cow crises.
    (SFC, 8/3/99, p.A9)

1998        Aug 9, In London, England, the 13th Anglican Lambeth Conference, which had opened on July 18, closed. The 749 bishops present declared that homosexual acts were incompatible with scripture, but that gays were loved by God.
    (Econ, 3/29/08, p.50)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambeth_Conferences)

1999        Aug 11, A total eclipse of the sun by the moon is expected to center over Cornwall, England, and last 2 minutes and 6 sec.
    (SFEC, 10/13/96, p.A18)(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A1)

1999        Aug 20, In Britain Tony Martin (54), a Norfolk farmer, killed burglar Fred Barras (16), who had broken into his home, nicknamed Bleak House. Martin was convicted of murder, but in 2001 this was reduced to manslaughter. In 2003 Martin was released from custody.
    (Econ, 2/13/10, p.62)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/norfolk/3087003.stm)

1999        Sep 1, Doreen Valiente, self-styled witch, died at age 77. Her several books included the 1989 work "The Rebirth of Witchcraft."
    (SFC, 10/5/99, p.A26)

1999        Sep 5, Alan Clark (b.1928), diarist and a conservative member of British Parliament, died. His several books of military history, included “The Donkeys” (1961), which became the musical satire, “Oh, What a Lovely War!” In 2009 Ion Trewin authored “Alan Clark: The Biography.”
    (Econ, 10/3/09, p.106)

1999        Sep 8, The Bank of England raised short-term interest rates to 5.25%.
    (WSJ, 9/9/99, p.A18)

1999        Sep 28, Sir Nigel Broackes, former chairman of the Trafalgar House engineering conglomerate, died at age 65.
    (SFC, 10/12/99, p.C2)

1999        Oct 5, In London 2 morning commuter trains collided near Paddington Station and 31 people were killed. At least 70 people were later feared dead and some estimates reached over 100. It was later confirmed that one train ran a red light. 64 people remained unaccounted for.
    (SFC, 10/6/99, p.A10)(SFC, 10/7/99, p.A15)(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A10)(AP, 10/5/04)

1999        Oct 8, In London a court ruled that Gen'l. Pinochet can be extradited to Spain for trial on torture and conspiracy charges.
    (SFC, 10/9/99, p.A1)

1999        Oct 10, John Hadfield, author and publisher, died at age 92. His work included numerous anthologies and the 1959 novel "Love on a Branch Line."
    (SFC, 11/9/99, p.A23)

1999        Oct 19, Penelope Mortimer, writer, died at age 81. Her stories explored the emotional impact of failing marriages among the British upper classes. Her 1962 novel "The Pumpkin Eater" was made into a film with James Mason and Anne Bancroft.
    (SFC, 10/23/99, p.A21)

1999        Oct 26, In Britain the upper house of Parliament agreed to abolish the right of over 700 hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords. By 2006 the total number of Lords had fallen from 1,300 to 700.
    (SFC, 10/27/99, p.A12)(Econ, 2/11/06, p.51)

1999        Oct 29, A EU Commission ruled that British beef was safe to eat despite French arguments for a ban to guard against mad cow disease.
    (SFC, 10/30/99, p.A12)

1999        Nov 11, In Britain the House of Lords voted to strip hereditary peers of their 700-year-old right to sit in Parliament's Upper House. 92 peers still kept seats under a compromise.
    (WSJ, 11/12/99, p.A1)

1999        Nov 21, Quentin Crisp (born as Denis Pratt), writer, performer and raconteur, died in Manchester, England, at age 90. His books included "The Naked Civil Servant," "How to Become a Virgin" and "New York Diaries."
    (SFC, 11/22/99, p.C4)

1999        Nov 24, In Britain authorities intercepted Scud missile components labeled as auto parts originating in Taiwan and destined for Libya.
    (SFC, 1/10/00, p.A10)

1999        Nov 26, Ashley Montegu, British-born anthropologist and author, died in New Jersey at age 95. His over 60 books included "Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race" and "The Natural Superiority of Women."
    (SFC, 11/29/99, p.A26)

1999        Nov 28 In Britain a naked man, Eden Strang (26), with a sword maimed 10 people in St. Andrew's church at Thornton Heath, a suburb of London, before he was subdued. Strang was charged with attempted murder.
    (SFC, 11/29/99, p.A12)(SFC, 11/30/99, p.D3)

1999        Nov 30, The 15th annual Turner Prize in art was awarded to Steve McQueen. The winner was selected among British artists under 50 who had a show in the last year.
    (WSJ, 12/1/99, p.A24)

1999        Dec 1, Queen Elizabeth approved a law that granted semi autonomy to Northern Ireland and a midnight power passed formally from London to Belfast.
    (SFC, 12/2/99, p.A24)
1999        Dec 1, Belinda Debruin was killed in a London suburb. Her throat was slit and she was stabbed over 100 times with a screwdriver and knives. Her husband (35) was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to life in prison. Entries in his Psion personal organizer helped police convict the debt-ridden salesman.
    (SFC, 7/15/00, p.A14)

1999        Dec 19, Actor Desmond Llewelyn (85), who’d starred as the eccentric gadget expert Q in a string of James Bond films, was killed in a car crash in East Sussex, England.
    (AP, 12/19/00)

1999        Dec 20, Singapore Airlines agreed to buy a 49% stake in Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic.
    (www.iht.com/articles/1999/12/21/virgin.2.t.php)

1999        Dec 22, In Britain a Korean Air 747 cargo plane crashed near London and all 4 people aboard were killed.
    (SFC, 12/23/99, p.C7)

1999        Dec 30, In England George Harrison was stabbed in his home in Henley-on-Thames after Michael Abram (33), a mentally ill former heroin addict, broke in.
    (SFC, 12/31/99, p.A1,18)

1999        Dec, The 1858 Covent Garden Royal Opera House in London was scheduled in 1997 for a $361 million refurbishment and slated to reopen in Dec, 1999.
    (SFC, 7/14/97, p.E3)

1999        Louise Bourgeois (87), French-born English artist, created his nine meter (30 feet) high and wide spider. It was made of bronze, stainless steel and marble and named Maman in tribute to the artist's mother. It initially went on display at the Tate Modern art gallery.
    (Reuters, 10/3/07)
1999        Leo Marks (d.2001 at 80), cryptographer, authored "Between Silk and Cyanide" a memoir of his experiences creating codes during WW II.
    (SFC, 1/26/01, p.A20)
1999        Marion Shoard of Univ. College London, published "A Right to Roam."
    (SFC, 6/21/99, p.A10)
1999        Elizabeth Sparrow authored “Secret Service: British Agents in France: 1792-1815.”
    (WSJ, 12/9/06, p.P12)
1999        The 106th edition of Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, a standard reference for Britain's aristocracy, was published. It was the 1st revised edition in 29 years.
    (WSJ, 8/16/99, p.A13)
1999        The British comedy film "Still Crazy" starred Stephen Rea, Juliet Aubrey, Bill Nighy and was directed by Brian Gibson.
    (SFC, 1/22/99, p.D1)(WSJ, 2/2/99, p.A20)
1999        The musical "Mamma Mia!" opened in London based on the music by the Swedish pop group Abba. The songs were written by founders Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus.
    (WSJ, 10/24/01, p.A20)

1999        Martin Griffiths, a British diplomat and former UN assistant secretary-general, founded the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, a non-governmental conflict resolution organization.
    (Econ, 7/2/11, p.50)
1999        The Greater London Authority Act 1999 is the Act of Parliament that established the Greater London Authority, the London Assembly and the Mayor of London. Transport for London (TfL) as the authority behind London’s networks.
    (http://tinyurl.com/m8yt6w2)(Econ, 10/19/13, p.61)
1999        England introduced antisocial social behavior orders (ASBO) to counter “loutish and unruly conduct.” In October 2004 the government launched an Antisocial Behavior Action Plan, vowing to tackle everyday incivilities from “nuisance neighbors” to begging to graffiti.
    (www.peace.ca/bigbrother2002.htm)(Econ, 2/5/05, p.53)
1999        Charles Kennedy took over as leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrats.
    (Econ, 4/2/05, p.49)
1999        British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), a state-owned firm, bought Westinghouse, an American builder of nuclear reactors. In 2006 BNFL announced the sale of Westinghouse to Toshiba.
    (Econ, 1/28/06, p.54)
1999        Wal-Mart agreed to pay $10.6 billion for Asda, Britain's 3rd largest supermarket chain with 229 stores.
    (WSJ, 10/6/99, p.A1)(Econ, 9/11/04, p.62)
1999        British North Sea oil production peaked at 4.5 million barrels per day with Britain as the world’s 6th biggest producer of oil and gas. By 2007 Britain dropped to 12th biggest.
    (Econ, 7/14/07, p.59)(Econ, 3/8/08, p.65)
1999        Advanced RISC Machines Ltd, a British chip manufacturer, changed its name to ARM Ltd. The company was founded in 1990 as Advanced RISC Machines, ARM, a joint venture between Acorn Computers, Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) and VLSI Technology.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_Holdings)

1999-2005    England imposed some 6,500 ASBOs (Anti-Social Behavior Orders) during this period.
    (Econ, 1/14/06, p.57)

2000        Jan 1, The $1.25 billion ($400 million) Millennium Dome at Greenwich, designed by Lord Richard Rogers, was built to inaugurate the millennium and provide an exhibition space for one year. The monograph "Richard Rogers; Complete Works, Volume One" was published in late 1999. The cable-stayed dome was suspended from 12 projecting masts. It failed expectations, but was reincarnated in 2007 as The O2, an all-purpose entertainment center.
    (SFC, 2/1/99, p.A6,8)(SFEM, 1/2/00, p.12)(Econ, 6/23/07, p.64)
2000        Jan 1, In England the Cezanne painting "Auvers-Sur-Oise," valued at $4.8 million, was stolen from the Ashmoleum Museum in Oxford.
    (SFEC, 1/2/00, p.A2)
2000        Jan 1, In Wellington Jason McGowan (20), a black man, was found hanged with his belt around his neck. His uncle was found hanged 6 months earlier. Police initially claimed suicide.
    (SFC, 3/16/00, p.D12)

2000        Jan 2, Patrick O'Brian, (born in England as Richard Patrick Russ), celebrated novelist, died at age 85 in Ireland while writing his 21st novel set during the Napoleonic wars. His 1st Aubrey and Maturin novel was "Master and Commander," begun in 1969. His first novel was "The Golden Ocean" written in 1956.
    (SFC, 1/8/00, p.A19)

2000        Jan 11, Britain and Iran signed a joint declaration to fight terrorism and drug trafficking, promote trade and strengthen ties.
    (SFC, 1/12/00, p.A11)

2000        Jan 12, Forced to act by a European court ruling, the British government ended its ban on gay men and women serving in the armed forces.
    (SFC, 1/13/00, p.A1)(AP, 1/12/01)

2000        Jan 17, In Britain Glaxo Welcome announced a merger with rival SmithKline Beecham valued at $186 billion.
    (SFC, 1/17/00, p.A1)

2000        Feb 1, In Britain the 443-foot high Millennium Wheel, the world's largest Ferris wheel, began operating after a month long delay. It was officially called the British Airways London Eye and opened to the public in March.
    (SFC, 2/2/00, p.B8)(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.T4)

2000        Feb 3, Vodafone AirTouch PLC of Britain took over Mannesmann AG of Germany for a record $170 billion in stock.
    (SFC, 2/4/00, p.A1)
2000        Feb 3, The British government announced that it would resume control over Northern Ireland within days if the IRA did not take steps to disarm.
    (SFC, 2/4/00, p.A10)

2000        Feb 6, In Afghanistan an Ariana Airlines Boeing 727 was hijacked. It flew from Kabul to Uzbekistan, Kazakstan and Russia before landing in Stansted near London the next day with 179 hostages.
    (SFC, 2/7/00, p.A12)

2000        Feb 7, In England Afghan hijackers at Stansted released 8 passengers with 157 still trapped on the plane.
    (SFC, 2/8/00, p.A12)

2000        Feb 8, At Stansted, England, 4 men escaped from the Afghan hijacked airline as negotiations continued.
    (SFC, 2/9/00, p.A10)

2000        Feb 9, In Britain the House of Commons passed a bill to suspend home-rule in Northern Ireland.
    (WSJ, 2/10/00, p.A1)

2000        Feb 10, At Stansted, England, 9 hijackers surrendered and released all hostages of the Afghan jetliner. Police arrested 21 people and recovered arms.
    (SFC, 2/10/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/11/00, p.A1)

2000        Feb 11, Britain suspended the 10-week old power-sharing government of Northern Ireland. An independent panel reported progress on the question of disarmament by the IRA.
    (SFC, 2/12/00, p.A1)

2000        Mar 1, In Britain Home Sec. Jack Straw ruled that Gen. Pinochet should not be extradited to Spain.
    (SFC, 3/2/00, p.A11)

2000        Mar 7, William Donald Hamilton, an English evolutionary biologist, died. In 2013 Ullica Segerstrale authored “Nature’s Oracle: The Life and Work of W.D. Hamilton.”
    (Econ, 3/16/13, p.85)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._D._Hamilton)

2000        Mar 26, Dr. Alex Comfort, British author of the 1972 "Joy of Sex," died at age 80 in Oxfordshire. Comfort wrote some 50 books that included novels, poetry, criticism, scientific texts and works on Eastern philosophy.
    (SFC, 3/28/00, p.E1)

2000        Mar 28, Anthony Powell, author, died at age 94. His work included the 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)(WSJ, 4/7/00, p.W17)

2000        Apr 28, English writer Penelope Fitzgerald (b.1916) died. In 2012, The Observer named her final novel, The Blue Flower (1995), as one of "the ten best historical novels." In 2013 Hermione Lee authored “Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life.”
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penelope_Fitzgerald)(Econ, 11/2/13, p.91)

2000        Apr, In Britain Jason Ricketts, a convicted burglar serving a five-year sentence at Cardiff Prison, strangled Colin Bloomfield (35) to death in their cell, cut him open and removed his liver, spleen and one eye. In 2006 a British court awarded six prison officers damages and legal costs reported to be in excess of 1 million pounds (US$1.75 million, euro1.45 million) for "walking into the scene of gothic horror."
    (AP, 3/16/06)

2000        May 4, Ken Livingston (54), a socialist member of parliament, was elected mayor of London, England.
    (SFC, 5/5/00, p.A14)

2000        May 21, In Britain Dame Barbara Cartland (98), author of 723 romance novels, died.
    (SFC, 5/22/00, p.A14)

2000        May 25 Sir Arthur Gilbert, born as Arthur Bernstein (b.1913), donated his Gilbert Collection to the Queen Mother. The art collection was installed at Somerset House.
    (WSJ, 6/15/00, p.A24)

2000        May, Britain’s Tate Modern opened at the former Bankside Power Station in London. It was dedicated to international modern and contemporary art.
    (http://www.tate.org.uk/about/who-we-are/history-of-tate)

2000        Jun 8, In Greece Brigadier Stephen Saunders (53), a British diplomat, was assassinated in Athens. The November 17 terrorist group claimed responsibility, saying it killed Saunders because of his role in NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia. In 2002 Iraklis Kostaris was charged with participating in the murder and Vassilis Xiros confessed to the assassination.
    (SFC, 6/9/00, p.A14)(AP, 6/8/01)(SFC, 7/22/02, p.A3)

2000        Jun 9, It was reported that some 5 dozen intravenous drug users in Scotland, Ireland and England had died since April from a mysterious illness. Heroin was later found to be contaminated with Clostridium novyi Type A.
    (SFC, 6/9/00, p.D3)(SFC, 6/15/00, p.A19)(WSJ, 6/16/00, p.A1)

2000        Jun 10, In London the new $25 million Millennium Bridge, a 1,090 foot pedestrian suspension bridge over the Thames, opened. It soon closed due to a problem of excessive swaying. It was designed by Sir Norman Foster, sculptor Anthony Caro and the Arup engineering company. It reopened in 2002.
    (SFEC, 6/11/00, p.A17)(SFC, 6/13/00, p.A11)(SSFC, 3/31/02, p.C2)

2000        Jun 18, In England officials found 58 bodies in the back of a truck carrying tomatoes at Dover. The truck had arrived from Zeebrugge under 86-degree heat and 54 male and 4 female Chinese immigrants from Fujian province appeared to have suffocated. There were 2 survivors. The chief suspect was arrested in Rotterdam in 2001. In 2001 Dutch driver Perry Wacker (32) was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Ying Guo (30) was convicted of conspiracy and was sentenced to 6 years in prison.
    (SFC, 6/19/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/20/00, p.A1)(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A12)(SFC, 1/23/01, p.C14)(SFC, 4/6/01, p.D6)

2000        Jun 24, Vera Atkins (b.1908), British intelligence officer during WW II, died in Sussex, England. In 2005 Sarah Helm authored “A Life in Secrets: The Story of Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE.”
    (Econ, 3/17/07, p.90)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Atkins)

2000        June 29, John Aspinall, millionaire gambling tycoon and animal park owner, died in London at age 74.
    (SFC, 6/30/00, p.D7)

2000        Jul 1, Sarah Payne (8) disappeared in southern England. Her naked body was found 2 weeks later.
    (SFC, 8/7/00, p.C16)
2000        Jul 1, Lucie Blackman (21), a British citizen working in Tokyo, became the 8th Western woman to disappear in the last 5 years. In 2001 police found her remains encased in concrete near the residence of Joji Obara, a wealthy businessman and prime suspect. Obara was formally accused Apr 6, 2001. Some 4,800 tapes were found that linked Obara to some 400 rapes over 25 years [see April 24, 2007]. On Dec 16, 2008, Obara was convicted for the abduction and dismemberment of Blackman, but acquitted of her murder. The court also upheld an earlier conviction for the rapes of 9 other women. In 2011 Richard Lloyd Parry authored “People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman.”
    (SFC, 10/17/00, p.A13)(SFC, 2/10/01, p.A11)(SSFC, 2/11/01, p.C2)(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A11)(SFC, 4/9/01, p.A7)(AP, 12/16/08)(Econ, 2/26/11, p.90)

2000        Jul 8, At the Wimbledon tennis title Venus Williams beat Lindsay Davenport in straight sets.
    (WSJ, 7/10/00, p.A1)

2000        Jul 9, At the Wimbledon tennis title Pete Sampras beat Patrick Rafter 3-1.
    (WSJ, 7/10/00, p.A1)

2000        Jul 11, Lord Runcie, former Anglican leader, died at age 78.
    (SFC, 7/13/00, p.C7)

2000        Jul 20, Britain’s Terrorism Act 2000 was the first of a number of general Terrorism Acts passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It superseded and repealed the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1989 and the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1996.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_Act_2000)(Econ, 8/24/13, p.53)

2000        Aug 2, Patricia Moyes, mystery writer, died at age 77 at her home in the Virgin Islands. Her 19 books included "Dead men Don’t Ski" (1959).
    (SFC, 8/12/00, p.A22)

2000        Aug 4, In England the Queen Mum celebrated her 100th birthday.
    (SFC, 8/4/00, p.A18)

2000        Aug 5, Sir Alec Guinness (86), English film actor, died at a southern England hospital. In 2004 Piers Paul Read authored "Alec Guinness: The Authorised Biography."
    (SFC, 8/7/00, p.A1)(AP, 8/5/01)(Econ, 1/24/04, p.76)

2000        Aug 8, Siamese twins were born in Manchester. They were joined at the abdomen and expected to die within 6 months unless separated, after which only one would survive. The operation was performed Nov 7. Jodie was in critical condition as Mary died.
    (SFC, 9/14/00, p.C3)(SFC, 11/8/00, p.A25)

2000        Aug 15, British Airways grounded the Concorde airplanes due to safety concerns.
    (SFC, 8/16/00, p.A17)

2000        Sep 10, In Sierra Leone British troops stormed the jungle base of the West Side Boys and freed 7 hostages. 25 rebels were killed along with 1 British soldier. 18 rebels were taken prisoner including leader Foday Kallay. SAS troopers eradicated the West Side Boys led by Commanders Mega-Rapist, Slaughter and others.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Barras)(SFC, 9/11/00, p.A8)(Econ, 10/22/05, p.61)

2000        Sep 11, British farmers and others protested fuel prices and blockades at refineries caused shortages and panic buying. Prime Minister Blair refused to make concessions.
    (SFC, 9/11/00, p.A13)(WSJ, 9/13/00, p.A1)

2000        Sep 18, The body of Tom Cressman (39) a successful businessman, was found at his London home. Police later arrested girlfriend Jane Andrews (33), a former personal assistant to the Duchess of York, for the murder.
    (SFC, 9/21/00, p.C4)

2000        Sep 20, In London a small missile hit the M16 intelligence agency at Vauxhall Cross and exploded on the 8th floor with minor damage. A rocket-propelled grenade launcher was later found near the scene.
    (SFC, 9/21/00, p.A12)(SFC, 9/22/00, p.A18)

2000        Oct 2, Britain’s 1st bill of rights went into effect.
    (SFC, 10/2/00, p.A13)

2000        Oct 17, The 12:10 London to Leeds train derailed and 4 people were killed with 34 injured.
    (SFC, 10/18/00, p.A14)

2000        Nov 16, Russ Conway, known as "Prince Charming of Pop," died at age 75. He had 17 consecutive hits in the 1950s and 1960s that included "Roulette," "Sidesaddle," "China Tea" and "snow Coach."
    (SFC, 11/18/00, p.A24)

2000        Oct 17, In Britain the London to Leeds train derailed at Hatfield and 4 people were killed with 70 injured.
    (SFC, 10/18/00, p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfield_rail_crash)

2000        Nov 1, Steven Runciman (b.1903), English historian, died in Radway, Warwickshire, while visiting friends. His books included the three-volume “A History of the Crusades” (1951-54).
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Runciman)

2000        Nov 23, Bernard Vorhaus, American born film director, died at about age 95 in London. He was a mentor to David Lean and made over 30 films in England between 1932 and 1952.
    (SFC, 11/30/00, p.C8)

2000        Nov 27, In London, England, Damilola Taylor (10), a Nigerian immigrant, bled to death on a stairwell after being stabbed by members of The Young Peckham Boys. In 2001 murder charges were sought against 4 boys (14-16). In 2006 two brothers were acquitted of assault with intent to rob. On Aug 9, 2006, Danny Preddie (18) and Ricky Preddie (19) from Peckham, south London, were convicted of the manslaughter of Taylor. The 2 teenage brothers were sentenced to eight years in youth custody.
    (AP, 4/4/06)(Reuters, 8/9/06)(AFP, 10/9/06)

2000        Nov 29, Wolfgang Tillmans (32), a German photographer, won the Turner Prize. It was the 1st time the art prize went to a photographer.
    (SFC, 11/30/00, p.E7)

2000        Nov 30, The Labor government passed legislation that lowered the age of consent for gays and lesbians from 18 to 16.
    (SFC, 12/1/00, p.A21)
2000        Nov 30, The British Freedom of Information Act of 2000 received Royal Assent. It gave a general right of access to all types of recorded information held by public authorities and places obligations on public authorities to disclose information, subject to a range of exemptions. In common with other public bodies, the Library was required to implement the Act fully from January 2005.
    (Econ, 12/23/06, p.84)(www.bl.uk/about/policies/freedom.html)

2000        Dec 6, The Queen Elizabeth II Great Court at the British Museum, designed by Norman Foster, opened under its 1857 dome.
    (SFC, 12/7/00, p.A24)

2000        Dec 31, In London the Millennium dome opened for its last day.
    (SFC, 12/30/00, p.A8)

2000        The al-Qaida manual “Declaration of Jihad Against the Country’s Tyrants” was found in Manchester, England.
    (Econ, 1/16/16, p.86)
2000        Margaret Atwood won the 2000 Booker Prize for fiction for her book "The Blind Assassin."
    (WSJ, 11/8/00, p.A24)
2000        Amanda Foreman authored "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire." Georgiana was one of the few 18th century female geologists.
    (WSJ, 8/17/01, p.W6)
2000        India’s Tata Tea took over Britain’s Tetley Group for $450 million.
    (Econ, 3/5/11, p.75)

2001        Jan 8, It was reported that Britain was culling 20-30 thousand older cows per week in the mad cow crises and that it would take 3 years to catch up with the backlog for rendering their remains to powder.
    (WSJ, 1/08/01, p.A1)

2001        Jan 17, The House of Commons voted 387 to 174 to ban fox hunting.
    (SFC, 1/18/01, p.A16)

2001        Feb 19, In Britain an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease was found in 27 pigs at an slaughterhouse in Essex. The last outbreak was in 1981. The outbreak was 1st identified in pigs at Heddon-on-the-Wall.
    (SFC, 2/21/01, p.A12)(SFC, 3/31/01, p.D8)

2001        Feb 23, Pres. Bush opened a two-day summit with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at Camp David. They endorsed a European rapid-action force as long as it is secondary to NATO.
    (SFC, 2/24/01, p.A3)(AP, 2/23/02)

2001        Feb 25, In Northumberland, England, over 800 pigs were destroyed and burned due to foot-and-mouth disease. New cases appeared at a cattle and sheep ranch in the southwest.
    (SFC, 2/26/01, p.A10)

2001        Feb 28, Officials in Northern Ireland confirmed hoof-and-mouth disease in sheep imported from England. 8 more cases were confirmed in England and Wales.
    (SFC, 3/1/01, p.A10)
2001        Feb 28, A train crash in North Yorkshire killed 13 people and injured 70.
    (SFC, 3/1/01, p.A8)

2001        Mar 1, The UK banned the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
    (WSJ, 12/8/08, p.A6)

2001        Mar 4, A bomb exploded in London outside the BBC studios. It was the work of the Real IRA and one person was injured.
    (SFC, 3/5/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 3/5/01, p.A1)

2001        Mar 8, Rev. Arthur Peacocke, a scientist and Church of England priest, won the annual Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. His writings included "Paths from Science Towards God."
    (SFC, 3/9/01, p.D6)
2001        Mar 8, Dame Ninette de Valois (born as Edris Stannis), founder of the Royal Ballet, died at age 92.
    (SFC, 3/9/01, p.D5)

2001        Mar 15, Britain announced plans to slaughter up to 100,000 more animals due to possible contacts with foot-and-mouth disease virus.
    (SFC, 3/16/01, p.A15)

2001        Mar 20, Britain reported 46 new confirmed cases of foot-and-mouth disease, the largest daily number to date.
    (SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)

2001        Mar 23, PM Blair ordered the creation of 2-square-mile killing zones around every farm infected with hoof-and-mouth disease as the number of daily cases escalated.
    (SFC, 3/24/01, p.A10)

2001        Apr 5, Dutch driver Perry Wacker was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 14 years in prison in the deaths of 58 Chinese immigrants who suffocated in his truck in Dover, England.
    (AP, 4/5/02)

2001        May 26, Riots broke out in Oldham between whites and residents of East Indian origin.
    (SFC, 5/28/01, p.B12)

2001        Jun 7, Britain held elections. PM Tony Blair’s labor Party won the elections and a 2nd term with 44% of the popular vote. Labor had promised to achieve full employment in every region.
    (SFC, 6/8/01, p.A16)(Econ, 3/10/07, p.52)

2001        Jun 22, The British government announced that Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, two teen-agers who were 10 years old when they kidnapped and killed a toddler (1993), had been granted parole.
    (AP, 6/22/06)

2001        Jul 7, In Bradford, England, 80 police officers were injured in race riots, later known as the “Bradford riots.” They began after a rally by the far-right National Front was banned. Asian and white youths ran amok in the streets armed with firebombs and baseball bats. The Manningham Labor Club was firebombed.
    (SSFC, 7/8/01, p.A16)(AP, 7/6/02)(Econ, 3/5/11, p.63)

2001        Jul 8, Race rioting continued in Bradford with injured police rising to a total of 120.
    (SFC, 7/9/01, p.A8)

2001        Jul 10, Police confronted white and South Asian gangs in a 3rd night of racial violence in Bradford.
    (SFC, 7/11/01, p.A8)

2001        Jul 20, The London Stock Exchange, founded in 1571, went public.
    (https://tinyurl.com/yycejov3)(Econ., 8/29/20, p.57)

2001        Aug 4, Thousands of admirers turned out in London to celebrate the 101st birthday of Britain's Queen Mother Elizabeth in what would be the last such celebration. The Queen Mother died March 30, 2002.
    (AP, 8/4/02)

2001        Aug 10, Britain stepped in to save Northern Ireland's power-sharing government by taking away its powers for a day, a legal maneuver that removed a deadline to elect a new leader of the Catholic-Protestant government.
    (SFC, 8/11/01, p.A8)(AP, 8/10/02)

2001        Aug 11, Britain restored power-sharing in Northern Ireland after a 1-day suspension in order. The move allowed a 6-week postponement of whether or not to call new elections.
    (SSFC, 8/12/01, p.A1)

2001         Aug 16,  Paul Burrell, trusted butler of Princess Diana for many years, was charged with the theft of hundreds of royal family items, a charge he denied. He was tried for theft in 2002 but the trial collapsed after evidence was given that Queen Elizabeth II had spoken with him regarding the disputed events. In 2003 he released his book, “A Royal Duty,” which talks about his time as butler to Diana.
    (AP, 8/16/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Burrell)

2001        Aug 20, Fred Hoyle (86), astro-physicist, died in Bournemouth, England. He was a proponent of the cosmological theory (1948) which holds that the universe has no beginning and has always existed in a steady state. He coined the term "Big Bang" but never accepted that theory for the origin of the universe His science fiction books included "The Black Cloud" (1957) and "Ossian’s Ride" (1958).
    (SFC, 8/23/01, p.C2)(SSFC, 8/26/01, p.C4)(AP, 8/20/02)

2001        Sep 6, Britain announced that it would wrap up its mission in Sierra Leone by the end of the month.
    (SFC, 9/7/01, p.A16)

2001        Sep 21, Terrorist suspects were arrested in Britain (4), France (7), Germany (2 warrants), Peru (3 detained) and Yemen (20 detained). Lofti Raissi, an Algerian pilot arrested in Britain, was later described as the "lead instructor" to 4 of the hijackers. Raissi was released Feb 12, 2002, for lack of evidence.
    (SFC, 9/22/01, p.A3)(SFC, 9/29/01, p.A1)(SFC, 2/13/02, p.A16)

2001        Sep 27, US and British warplanes struck 2 artillery sites in Iraq’s southern no-fly zone.
    (SFC, 9/28/01, p.D6)

2001        Oct 12, The British government officially announced that 3 Protestant paramilitary forces in Northern Ireland had ended a 7-year cease fire.
    (SFC, 10/13/01, p.C1)

2001        Oct 15, Britain’s PM Tony Blair said his country favors "a viable Palestinian state, as part of a negotiated and agreed settlement" during a news conference with visiting Yasser Arafat.
    (SFC, 10/16/01, p.A8)

2001        Oct 24, Britain began tearing down 4 military installations in Northern Ireland in response to the IRA’s decision to disarm.
    (WSJ, 10/25/01, p.A1)

2001        Oct 30, Yasser al-Siri, an Egyptian activist, was charged in London in connection with the assassination in Afghanistan of Ahmed Shah Massood, a Northern Alliance leader. [see Egypt, Nov 25, 1993]
    (SFC, 10/31/01, p.A4)

2001        Oct, New galleries opened at the Tate Britain Museum.
    (WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A19)
2001        Oct, Britain abolished a tax on betting turnover. The tax, begun in 1966, was replaced with a tax on the gross profits of bookmakers. Betting firms, which had been moving rapidly offshore, began to move back.
    (Econ, 9/29/07, p.59)(http://tinyurl.com/39lgqm)

2001        Nov 3, E.H. Gombrich (b.1909), art historian, died in London. His work included "The Story of Art." In 2002 his work "The Preference for the Primitive" was published. In 2005 his 1935 book “A Little History of the World," originally in German, was published in English.
    (WSJ, 11/26/02, p.D8)(AP, 9/16/05)

2001        Nov 5, Roy Boulting (87), who with his twin brother, John, produced some of postwar Britain's most enduring films, died in Eynsham, England.
    (AP, 11/5/02)

2001        Nov 6, Playwright Anthony Shaffer, who'd written the thriller "Sleuth," died in London at age 75.
    (AP, 11/6/02)

2001        Nov 14, Britain pledged 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan in addition to 4,500 already in the war zone.
    (SFC, 11/15/01, p.A9)

2001        Nov 18, In London some 15,000 people of the Stop the War coalition demonstrated against US-led bombing in Afghanistan.
    (SFC, 11/19/01, p.A4)

2001        Nov 22, The remodeled Victoria & Albert Museum opened with re-introduced free admission.
    (WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A19)

2001        Nov 23, In Birmingham PM Blair endorsed British adoption of the Euro.
    (SFC, 11/24/01, p.A11)

2001        Nov 24, British actress Rachel Gurney (81), who played Lady Marjorie Bellamy on the popular television series "Upstairs Downstairs," died.
    (AP, 11/24/02)

2001        Dec 1, In London, England, the Financial Service Authority (FSA) replaced a plethora of financial regulators.
    (Econ, 9/15/07, SR p.9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Services_Authority)

2001        Dec 7, David Astor (b.1912), English newspaper publisher and member of the Astor family, died. Astor had edited the Observer, Britain’s principal source of information from 1948 to 1975. His father had purchased the paper in 1911. In 2016 Jeremy Lewis authored the biography “David Astor.”
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Astor)(Econ, 2/27/15, p.74)

2001        Dec 14, W.G. Sebald (57), German-born author and academic, died in a traffic accident at Norwich. His books included "Austerlitz."
    (SFC, 12/17/01, p.A21)

2001        Dec 20, In Afghanistan the 1st int’l. peacekeeping forces arrived from Britain as the UN Security Council authorized a multinational force for Afghanistan. A grenade attack in Mazar-e-Sharif market wounded some 35-100 people. US air strikes at Asmani and Pokharai killed about 50 civilians.
    (SFC, 12/21/01, p.A24)(WSJ, 12/21/01, p.A1)(AP, 12/20/02)

2001        Dec 26, Actor Sir Nigel Hawthorne (72) died in Hertfordshire, England.
    (AP, 12/25/02)1111

2001        Dec, William Stobie, former British soldier and police informer, was shot dead in Belfast. He was the only man charged in connection with the 1989 murder of Patrick Finucane.
    (SFC, 4/18/03, p.A3)

2001        Lucian Freud (79) completed a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II that was considered very unflattering.
    (WSJ, 12/31/01, p.A7)
2001        Christopher Woodhouse, soldier, diplomat and professor, died at age 83. In 1976 he authored "The Struggle for Greece: 1941-1949."
    (SFC, 2/17/01, p.A23)
2001        Peter Ackroyd authored "London: The Biography," a history of the city from the time of Caesar.
    (WSJ, 11/2/01, p.W11)(SSFC, 12/23/01, p.M2)
2001        David Sinclair authored "The Pound: A Biography."
    (WSJ, 1/15/01, p.A21)
2001        The old Reading Room of the British Library was scheduled to re-open as a library connected to the British Museum with its vast space cut in half by a glass screen.
    (SFC,10/23/97, p.A17)
2001        Elton John composed his opera "Aida" with lyrics by Tim Rice.
    (SFC, 8/14/01, p.E1)
2001        Britain’s Liberal Democrats under Charles Kennedy won 52 seats with an 18% share of the vote.
    (Econ, 4/2/05, p.49)
2001        Britain committed $2 billion to help develop America’s $256 billion Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). 9 countries were involved in the project.
    (Econ, 1/28/06, p.53)
2001        Britain’s 2001 anti-terrorism act explicitly banned the bribing of foreign officials by British citizens and companies no matter where the offense took place.
    (Econ, 12/23/06, p.83)
2001        Bonhams bought the UK operations of the Phillips auction house and merged them into the Bonhams name. Some smaller departments were acquired by Simon de Pury and Daniella Luxembourg, who traded under the name Phillips de Pury & Company. In 2002 Simon de Pury acquired majority control of the firm. In 2008 the company was purchased by the Russia-based Mercury Group.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_%28auctioneers%29)
2001        At Washington’s request the UN Security Council ordered that the assets of Yassin Qadi, a Saudi businessman and multimillionaire, be frozen soon after the Sep 11 attacks in NYC. He was alleged to be a financier of Islamic terrorism with close links to al-Qaida. The EU froze the assets of Yasin al-Qadi, a Saudi businessman, and the Al-Barakaat International Foundation, a Sweden-based charity suspected of funding al-Qaida terror groups. In 2008 the EU's highest court overturned the decision saying the order failed to offer those on a terror blacklist any legal rights to a judicial review under European law. Also frozen were the assets of Omar Mohammed Othman, also known as Abu Qatada, an extremist Muslim preacher from Jordan. In 2009 an EU court voided the freeze on Othman due to lack of proper judicial review. Othman has lived in Britain since 1993, has been arrested several times there under anti-terrorist legislation and currently faced deportation to Jordan.
    (WSJ, 8/29/07, p.A1)(AP, 9/3/08)(AP, 6/11/09)

2002        Jan 4, In England a twin-engine Bombardier Challenger plane crashed at Birmingham International Airport. Pilots Thomas Boydston (51) Robert Norton (58) and Timothy Vandevort (41) were killed along with John Shumejda (56) the president and chief executive of agricultural giant AGCO, and Ed Swingle (60), the company's senior VP for sales and marketing. A 2004 report said that the crash was caused by the crew's failure to de-ice the wings before takeoff.
    (AP, 8/19/04)

2002        Jan 17, In Leicester, England, police arrested 2 Algerian men allegedly involved in a plot to bomb the US Embassy in Paris. Another 8 men were arrested north of London under the Terrorism Act.
    (SFC, 1/18/02, p.A16)

2002        Feb 6, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II reached a bittersweet milestone, somberly marking 50 years as monarch on the anniversary of the death of her father, King George VI.
    (AP, 2/6/03)
2002        Feb 6, Max Perutz (b.1914), Austrian-born molecular biologist, died in England. He won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1962 for his work on the structure of hemoglobin. In 2007 Georgina Ferry authored “Max Perutz and the Secret of Life.”
    (Econ, 8/25/07, p.77)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Perutz)

2002        Feb 9, Princess Margaret Rose (71) of York (b.1930) died in London.
    (SFC, 2/9/02, p.A12)

2002        Feb 15, Asylum seekers rioted at the Yalr’s Wood institution near Bedford and 20 escaped. 10 were soon captured.
    (SFC, 2/16/02, p.A13)

2002        Feb 22, In London the Millennium Bridge reopened to the public.
    (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1829053.stm)

2002        Feb 27, Spike Milligan (born in 1918 as Terence Alan Patrick Sean Milligan), comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright and actor, died in Rye, England. “Money can’t buy you happiness, but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.”
    (AP, 2/27/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Milligan)

2002        Mar 4, Roy Porter (b.1946), British historian, died. He had recently published "Madness: A Brief History." His other books included “The Greatest Benefit to Mankind” (1997), a survey of the history of medicine.
    (www.guardian.co.uk/news/2002/mar/05/guardianobituaries.obituaries)(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.M3)(WSJ, 10/4/08, p.W8)

2002        Mar 18, Britain planned to send 1,700 troops to Afghanistan to join the 6,300 US forces.
    (WSJ, 3/19/02, p.A1)
2002        Mar 18, The House of Commons again voted to ban fox hunting along with the hunting of stags and hares with packs of hounds.
    (SFC, 3/19/02, p.A7)

2002        Mar 19, The House of Lords voted for restrictions on hunting with hounds (366-59).
    (SFC, 3/20/02, p.A10)

2002        Mar 21, In Britain schoolgirl Milly Dowler (13) was kidnapped in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. Her body was found 6 months later in nearby woods. As police pursued leads in the case the British tabloid News of the World hacked into Dowler’s cell phone, listened to messages, and deleted some to make room for more. In 2010 Levi Bellfield (41), a former nightclub bouncer, appeared in court accused of kidnapping and murdering the teenager. On June 23, 2011, Bellfield was convicted and jailed for life.
    (AFP, 4/13/10)(http://tinyurl.com/ykyb7la)(SFC, 7/6/11, p.A5)

2002        Mar 27, Dudley Moore (66), British actor and musician, died. His films included "10" and "Arthur."
    (SFC, 3/28/02, p.A1)

2002        Mar 30, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth (b.1900), the Queen Mother, died at age 101 in her sleep at Royal Lodge, Windsor. In 2009 William Shawcross authored “Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother: The Official Biography.”
    (SSFC, 3/31/02, p.A3)(AP, 3/30/04)(Econ, 9/19/09, p.97)

2002        Mar 31, Barry Took (73), comedian and comic writer, died. He helped produce "Monty Python’s Flying Circus." His autobiography was titled "A Point of View."
    (SFC, 4/1/02, p.B5)

2002        Apr 7, Pres. Bush ended weekend talks with Britain’s PM Tony Blair in Texas. Blair said he would back a US military action against Iraq.
    (SFC, 4/8/02, p.A9)

2002        Apr 29, Britain decided to treat al Qaeda and Taliban fighters as prisoners of war and turn them over to the interim Afghan government.
    (SFC, 4/30/02, p.A15)

2002        May 3, Baroness Barbara Anne Castle (91), former labor Cabinet minister, died.
    (SFC, 5/4/02, p.A21)

2002        May 10, A high-speed British train jumped tracks at Potters Bar north of London and 7 people were killed. In 2010 a jury in Letchworth concluded that the poor maintenance of a set of points had contributed to the derailment. In November criminal proceedings were started against Network Rail and maintenance company Jarvis Rail.
    (SFC, 5/11/02, p.A12)(AFP, 7/30/10)(AFP, 11/10/10)

2002        May 27, It was reported that Britain  was considering a confidential "action plan" proposed to deliver a "radical reduction" in the influx of asylum seekers.
    (SFC, 5/27/02, p.A1)

2002        May 29, PM Tony Blair appointed Paul Boateng (50), as the nation’s 1st black Cabinet Minister and named him deputy treasury secretary.
    (SFC, 5/30/02, p.A12)

2002        Jun 2, A fire broke out at Buckingham Palace, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people and marring the four-day celebration of Queen Elizabeth's 50 years on the throne.
    (AP, 6/2/03)

2002        Jun 3, A rock concert at Buckingham Palace celebrated Queen Elizabeth II's 50 years on the throne.
    (AP, 6/3/07)

2002        Jun 15, In Britain Mick Jagger was knighted for his service to music and became Sir Michael Philip Jagger.
    (SFC, 6/15/02, p.A2)

2002        Jun 18, In London it was reported that sparrows numbers had declined steeply for no known reason.
    (AP, 6/18/02)

2002        Jun 20, In Saudi Arabia John Veness, a British employee at Al Bank al Saudi al Fransi, was killed in a car bomb explosion in Riyadh.
    {Saudi Arabia, Britain}
    (WSJ, 6/21/02, p.A7)

2002        Jul 10, It was reported that Britain planned to downgrade marijuana possession to a Class C crime.
    (SFC, 7/10/02, p.A12)

2002        Jul 17, In Britain, a one-day strike by 750,000 municipal employees closed schools, libraries and recreation centers in their first national walkout in more than two decades.
    (AP, 7/17/03)

2002        Jul 19, Britain's government said it would pay $7 million in compensation to more than 220 Kenyans who say they are victims of unexploded ammunition left behind by British troops.
    (AP, 7/20/02)
2002        Jul 19,  In Britain authorities reported that family doctor Harold Shipman, Britain's worst serial killer, murdered 215 of his patients in 23 years as a trusted small-town practitioner. [see Jun, 1998]
    (AP, 7/19/02)(SFC, 7/20/02, p.A8)
2002        Jul 19, US and British warplanes destroyed a military communications facility in southern Iraq. Iraq said the strike killed 5 people including a couple and their children.
    (SFC, 7/20/02, p.A11)

2002        Jul 23, A memo from 10 Downing St. described an earlier meeting of Sir Richard Dearlove, head of British Intelligence, with US officials in Washington in which he noted a shift in attitude in the Bush administration, which saw military action as inevitable in Iraq and that it would be justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. The memo became public in 2005.
    (SFC, 7/4/05, p.B6)
2002        Jul 23, Leo McKern (82), Australian actor, died in Bath, England. He played the barrister in the TV show "Rumpole of the Bailey."
    (SFC, 7/24/02, p.A1)

2002        Jul 25, The Spanish government welcomed a British proposal to turn its military base in Gibraltar into a NATO facility, a move that would open it to all alliance members including Spain. Spain and Britain came up with the idea of sharing sovereignty over the Rock. This was rejected resoundingly in a nonbinding referendum in Gibraltar.
    (AP, 7/25/02)(AP, 9/19/06)

2002        Aug 4, Britain's Queen Elizabeth closed Manchester's hugely successful Commonwealth Games after 11 days of sport and ceremony.
    (Reuters, 8/4/02)
2002        Aug 4, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman vanished while walking near their homes in Soham, 12 miles northeast of Cambridge, England. [see Aug 16] On August 17, 2002 a game warden found their partially burned bodies in a six-foot-deep ditch close to the RAF Lakenheath airbase in Suffolk.
    (AP, 8/9/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Huntley)

2002        Aug 5, Winifred Watson (95), a popular writer of the 1930s who found a new readership in the 21st century, died in England. His work included the humorous and risque novel "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day" (1938).
    (AP, 8/14/02)

2002        Aug 7, The first British Cabinet minister to visit this country in two decades met with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, saying Libya was making a serious attempt to move away from its international pariah status.
    (AP, 8/7/02)

2002        Aug 14, Terry Jupp (46) died during weapons tests on a remote island used as a military facility off England's eastern coast. Investigations later established that part of his team's work involved attempts to construct bombs from widely available ingredients including hydrogen peroxide. Similar bombs were later used in the 2005 suicide attacks on London mass transit, which killed 52 commuters.
    (AP, 8/3/10)

2002        Aug 16, In Soham, Cambridgeshire, England, police arrested two people on suspicion of murdering a pair of 10-year-old girls, Holly Wells (b. 10-4-1991) and Jessica Chapman (b. 9-1-1991), who vanished from a rural village on August 4th. On December 17, 2003 Ian Huntley (28), a caretaker at the local secondary school, was convicted by two eleven-to-one majority jury verdicts, and on that day began serving two concurrent life sentences. On September 29, 2005, the High Court announced that Huntley must remain in prison until he has served at least 40 years, a minimum term which will not allow him to be released until at least 2042, by which time he will be 68 years old. His girlfriend Maxine Carr (25), a classroom assistant, was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice. She was given three-and-a-half years for conspiring to pervert the course of justice but cleared of two counts of assisting an offender. She was freed and electronically tagged within 30 days, because she had already spent 16 months in jail.
    (AP, 8/17/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soham_murders)

2002        Aug 18, In Britain detectives announced that two bodies found in a nature reserve almost certainly belong to a pair of missing 10-year-olds. Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman had been missing since August 4.
    (AP, 8/19/02)(www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/ian_huntley/index.html)

2002        Aug 25, In England Investigators said they had found items of clothing they believed were worn by two slain girls the day they disappeared from their rural village.
    (AP, 8/25/02)
2002        Aug 25, Iraq said US and British bombing killed 8 people near Basra. A U.S.-British air raid in southern Iraq destroyed a major military surveillance site that monitors American troops in the Persian Gulf
    (WSJ, 8/26/02, p.A1)(AP, 8/27/02)

2002        Sep 7, Pres. Bush met with British PM Tony Blair at Camp David, Md., to work out a strategy for taking action against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.
    (SSFC, 9/8/02, p.A3)

2002        Sep 15, Thousands of Muslims gathered at a radical Islamic conference in London to confront what organizers said was a choice between accepting life under a "colonialist world view" or being labeled terrorists.
    (AP, 9/15/02)

2002        Sep 15, U.S. and British warplanes bombed Iraqi installations in the southern no-fly zone. Major air defense sites were being targeted.
    (AP, 9/15/02)(SFC, 9/17/02, p.A12)

2002        Sep 24, British Prime Minister Tony Blair asserted that Iraq had a growing arsenal of chemical and biological weapons and planned to use them, as he unveiled an intelligence dossier to a special session of Parliament.
    (AP, 9/24/03)

2002        Sep 26, A new edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary was published and contained such new words as: Jedi, Klingons, Grinches, gearheads, bunny-huggers and bunny-boilers.
    (AP, 9/26/02)

2002        Oct 14, Britain suspended Northern Ireland's power-sharing government after a spying row threw the fledgling peace process into its worst political crisis since the Good Friday peace accord was signed in 1998.
    (AP, 10/14/02)

2002        Oct 23, Lady Antonia Fraser (96), the Countess of Longford, a historian who wrote biographies of Queen Victoria and the Duke of Wellington, died. She was born as Elizabeth Harman and wrote under the name Elizabeth Longford.
    (AP, 10/23/02)(SFC, 10/28/02, p.A17)

2002        Oct 30, Freeview TV, jointly owned by the BBC, Crown Castle International and BSkyB, was launched in the UK as an alternative to PayTV.
    (www.answers.com/topic/freeview)

2002        Nov 3, Lonnie Donegan (71), British musician, died. His hits included "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose its Flavor on the Bed Post Overnight" and "Rock Island Line" which inspired John Lennon and George Harrison.
    (SFC, 11/6/02, p.A34)

2002        Nov 9, In London Rabah Chehaj-Bias (21), Karim Kadouri (33) Rabah Kadre (35) were arrested and charged under the Terrorism Act with possessing materials for the "preparation, instigation or commission" of terrorism.
    (AP, 11/18/02)

2002        Nov 14, The British government hardened its position against firefighters who walked off their jobs and left the country to rely on soldiers answering alarms in antiquated military trucks. Three elderly people died in house fires on the first night of the strike.
    (AP, 11/14/02)

2002        Nov 20, A German doctor conducted Britain's first public autopsy in more than 170 years, an event denounced by the British Medical Association's Head of Ethics as "degrading and disrespectful."
    (AP, 11/20/03)

2002        Nov 22, A senior UN official from Britain was shot and killed during an exchange of fire between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin.
    (AP, 11/22/02)
2002        Nov 22, Firefighters across Britain launched an eight-day strike after their union accused the government of wrecking a last-minute pay deal.
    (AP, 11/22/02)

2002        Nov 23, At Loughborough, England, 4 people were charged with murdering Adam Morrell (14), whose body parts were found scattered around the town. The suspects included three men and a girl. On December 17, 2002 the following sentences were handed down: Matthew Welsh (19), the dominant figure in a gang, was sentenced to at least 20 years in prison. His girl friend Sarah Morris (17), was found guilty of deliberately assaulting the youngster but cleared of his murder. Nathan Barnett (27) was ordered to be detained indefinitely in secure accommodation under the Mental Health Act after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Daniel Biggs (19) was cleared of murder and inflicting grievous bodily harm, but sentenced to two and a half years in custody for conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
    (AP, 11/23/02)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/3255720.stm)
2002        Nov 23, Miss World organizers moved the beauty pageant from Nigeria to London after three days of Muslim-Christian bloodletting killed 215 people. The violence was triggered by a newspaper's suggestion that the Islamic prophet Muhammad would have liked the event.
    (AP, 11/23/02)(AP, 11/24/02)

2002        Nov 25, Karel Reisz (b.1926), Czech-born film director, died in London. He fled Nazi occupation in 1938. His film career began in Britain and moved on to Hollywood where his work included "The French Lieutenant’s Woman."
    (SFC, 11/28/02, p.A30)

2002        Dec 7, In London Azra Akin, Miss Turkey, won the Miss World Pageant bringing to a close the pageant that had incited deadly rioting in Nigeria, the original site of the event.
    (AP, 12/7/02)

2002        Dec 8, Painter and sculptor Keith Tyson, whose playful artwork is inspired by scientific theories and often ponders the role of computers in the modern world, won Britain's prestigious Turner Prize.
    (AP, 12/9/02)

2002        Dec 22, Joe Strummer (50), lead singer of the legendary British punk band The Clash, died in Broomfield, England.
    (SFC, 12/24/02, p.A2)(AP, 12/22/03)

2002        Dec 30, British and US warplanes flying multiple missions attacked Iraq air defense facilities after an Iraqi fighter jet penetrated the southern no-fly zone.
    (AP, 12/31/02)
2002        Dec 30, In England Mary Wesley (90), who published her first novel when she was 70 and went on to produce a string of slightly racy best sellers, died. Her books included "The Camomile Lawn" and "A Sensible Life." In 2006 Patrick Marnham authored “Wild Mary: The Life of Mary Wesley.”
    (AP, 12/31/02)(Econ, 6/10/06, p.87)

2002        Theodore Dalrymple (pseudonym of psychiatrist Anthony Daniels) authored "Life at the Bottom," encounters with the British underclass.
    (WSJ, 2/21/02, p.A16)
2002        Joyce Lee Malcolm authored "Guns and Violence: The English Experience."
    (WSJ, 8/6/02, p.D6)
2002        Britain’s ruling Labour government introduced citizenship tests.
    (Econ, 5/21/16, p.51)
2002        The British Overseas Territories Act granted British citizenship to resettled Chagossians born between 1969 and 1982. But the 13-year window has left some families divided.
    (BBC, 10/19/20)
2002        The Baltic Center for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, England, opened at a cost of £50 million.
    (Econ, 6/15/13, p.59)
2002        Gary McKinnon was caught in London and after breaking into 97 US military and NASA computers, while allegedly searching for UFO’s. His hacking from 2001-2002 caused an estimated $700,000 of damage. In 2008 McKinnon (42) was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. He also lost an appeal against being extradited to the US to face charges. In 2009 he offered to plead guilty to a criminal charge in Britain to avoid extradition to the United States.
    (SFC, 7/31/08, p.A14)(AP, 1/12/09)(Econ, 8/8/09, p.51)

2003        Jan 5, British anti-terrorism police arrested 6 men of North African origin after finding small quantities of ricin, a lethal poison, in a London apartment.
    (SFC, 1/8/03, p.A10)
2003        Jan 5, Roy Jenkins (82), British politician, liberal reformer and biographer, died after collapsing at his home in East Hendred.
    (WSJ, 1/14/03, p.D6)

2003        Jan 9, Peter Tinniswood (66), British author of plays for TV, radio and stage, died from cancer.
    (AP, 1/10/03)

2003        Jan 13, Rock musician Pete Townshend was arrested in London on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children. Townshend acknowledged using an Internet Web site advertising child pornography, but said he was not a pedophile and was only doing research for an autobiography dealing with his own suspected childhood sexual abuse; he was eventually cleared of possessing pornographic images of children.
    (AP, 1/13/08)

2003        Jan 14, In England Constable Stephen Oake was stabbed to death during a raid on a Manchester apartment associated with terror suspects and the poison ricin.
    (SFC, 1/17/03, p.A12)

2003        Jan 21, Thousands of British firefighters walked off the job for the third time in less than three months after failing to resolve a wage dispute with the government.
    (AP, 1/21/03)

2003        Jan 26, In England historian Hugh Trevor-Roper (b.1914) died. His books included "The Last Days of Hitler" (1947), "The Rise of Christian Europe" (1965), and "The European Witch Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries." His final work “The Invention of Scotland” was published posthumously in 2008. In 2010 Adam Sisman authored “Hugh Trevor-Roper: The Biography.”
    (SFC, 1/27/03, p.B4)(WSJ, 7/26/08, p.W8)(Econ, 7/24/10, p.81)

2003        Jan 31, President Bush and British PM Tony Blair met at the White House; Bush said he would welcome a second UN resolution on Iraq but only if it led to the prompt disarming of Saddam Hussein. Pushing for a new resolution, Blair called confronting Iraq "a test of the international community." In 2006 British author Phillippe Sands said in a new edition of his 2005 ”Lawless World” that Pres. Bush commented during the 2003 meeting with Blair that the US intended to go to war even if inspectors failed to find evidence of a banned weapons program.
    (AP, 1/31/04)(AP, 2/3/06)

2003        Feb 1, British firefighters walked off the job for the fifth time in three months, starting a 48-hour strike in their bitter dispute over pay.
    (AP, 2/1/03)

2003        Feb 3, It was reported that the US and Britain had mapped out a strategy to limit arms inspections in Iraq to no more than 6 more weeks.
    (SFC, 2/3/03, p.A1)
2003        Feb 3, In England Margaret Muller, an American artist, was stabbed to death as she ran in London’s Victoria Park. In 2009 The Metropolitan Police said that a 36-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of the murder and was in custody north of London.
    (AP, 2/4/09)

2003        Feb 4, France and the UK concluded the Treaty of Le Touquet (formally known as the Treaty between the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the French Republic concerning the implementation of frontier controls at sea ports of both countries on the Channel and North Sea). The treaty put British border controls in Calais.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juxtaposed_controls)(Econ, 4/8/17, p.49)

2003        Feb 6, Lord Aberconway (89), a shipbuilding magnate born as Charles Melville McLaren, died in London. He secretly met with Adolf Hitler's aide Hermann Goering weeks before the German invasion of Poland. He inherited his title and the chairmanship of the shipbuilding giant John Brown and the mining company English China Clays when his father died in 1953.
    (AP, 2/8/03)

2003          Feb 17, London began charging motorists $8 a day to drive in its center.
    (SFC, 2/17/03, A2)

2003          Feb 24, Historian Christopher Hill (91), a Marxist whose reinterpretation of the 17th century changed the way Britons regard the English revolution, died. His books included "The World Turned Upside Down" (1972).
    (AP, 2/26/03)(SFC, 2/27/03, A20)

2003        Feb, In England Indian-born millionaire businessman Amarjit Chohan and his family vanished. His body was found 2 months later. In 2005 Kenneth Regan, 55, and William Horncy, 52, were found guilty of the murders of Chohan and three generations of his family in an Old Bailey murder trial which cost up to 10 million pounds ($18 million).
    (AP, 7/1/05)

2003          Mar 5, Sir Hardy Amies (93), Savile Row designer and self-described snob, died.
    (SFC, 3/6/03, p.A19)

2003          Mar 6, Britain offered to compromise on a US-backed resolution by giving Saddam Hussein a short deadline to prove he has eliminated all banned weapons or face an attack.
    (AP, 3/6/03)

2003        Mar 12, Britain proposed compromise language giving Saddam Hussein until Mar 17 to take 6 concrete disarmament steps.
    (WSJ, 3/13/03, p.A1)

2003        Mar 14, Hannah Foster (17) was raped and murdered near Southampton, England. Maninder Pal Singh Kohli fled Britain days after being named as a suspect. In 2007 a New Delhi court ruled that Kohli (39) should face trial in Britain for the 2003 rape and murder, in a long-awaited verdict on the drawn-out extradition wrangle.
    (AP, 6/8/07)(www.nriinternet.com/NRI_Murdered/UK/Kohli/kohliIndex.htm)

2003        Mar 21, A CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter crashed in Kuwait and killed 12 British and 4 US soldiers. US Marines captured the strategic port in the southern Iraqi city of Umm Qasr.
    (AP, 3/21/03)

2003        Mar 22, Two British Royal Navy helicopters collided over the Persian Gulf, killing all 7 on board including a US Navy officer.
    (AP, 3/22/03)

2003        Mar 23, A British Royal Air Force Tornado jet was shot down by a U.S. Patriot missile in the first reported incident of "friendly" fire in Iraq.
    (AP, 3/23/03)

2003        Mar 24, British police arrested Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky at the request of Russian authorities. A charge alleged that between Jan. 1, 1994, and Dec. 31, 1995, he defrauded the Administration of Samara Region of 60 billion rubles whilst being director of Logovaz.
    (AP, 3/25/03)

2003        Mar 28, In the 10th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom the biggest bombs dropped on Baghdad so far, two 4,700-pound "bunker busters," struck a communications tower. In the south, Iraqi fighters defending the besieged city of Basra fired on hundreds of civilians trying to flee. The British supply ship Sir Galahad docked at the port of Umm Qasr. The Bush administration said fighting might not be over for months. At least 58 people were killed in a crowded market in northwest Baghdad by what local officials called a coalition bombing. A US pilot was heard saying "I'm going to be sick," then "we're in jail, dude," after firing on the British convoy in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Lance Corporal of Horse Matty Hull was killed by American pilots.
    (AP, 3/28/03)(SFC, 3/29/03, p.W1)(AP, 2/6/07)(Econ, 2/10/07, p.58)

2003        Mar 31, Britain and the US signed a new Extradition Treaty.
    (http://tinyurl.com/hbdpj)(http://eurealitshome.com/blog/?p=1086)

2003        Apr 8, In the 19th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom George W. Bush and Tony Blair met in Northern Ireland and endorsed a "vital role" for the United Nations when fighting ends in Iraq.
    (AP, 4/8/03)

2003        Apr 11, Israeli troops critically wounded Thomas Hurndall (21), a British peace activist, as he tried to remove 2 children from a line of fire outside the Rafah refugee camp. Hurndall died after 9 months in a vegetative state.
    (SFC, 4/12/03, p.A6)(AP, 1/14/04)

2003        Apr 17, Sir J. Paul Getty Jr. (70), reclusive American-born billionaire philanthropist and art lover who became a British citizen late in life, died in London.
    (AP, 4/17/03)
2003        Apr 17, Graham Stuart Thomas (94), who reintroduced many forgotten plants to British and American gardens, died. His books included "Old Shrub Roses" and the meticulously illustrated "The Garden Through the Year."
    (AP, 4/28/03)

2003        May 1, The British Joint Terrorism Analysis Center (JTAC) began operations.
    (Econ, 3/19/05, p.33)

2003        May 2, James Miller (34), a British journalist filming a documentary in the southern Palestinian city of Rafah, was shot and killed during an exchange of fire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians. In 2006 a British jury ruled that the shooting was an act of murder. In 2009 Israel agreed to pay about $2 million to the family Miller.
    (AP, 5/2/04)(AP, 4/6/06)(AP, 2/1/09)

2003        May 12, A British government doctor reported that the brains of at least 20,000 people, many of them depressed or mentally ill when they died, were removed without their families' consent from 1970-1999.
    (AP, 5/12/03)(USAT, 5/13/03, p.10A)

2003        May 14, Dame Wendy Harris (b.1912), English film actress, died. Her films included "Pygmalion" (1938). In 1975 Queen Elizabeth named her dame of the British Empire.
    (SFC, 5/17/03, p.A16)

2003        May 22, The UN Security Council overwhelmingly approved an end to 13-year-old sanctions against Iraq and gave the United States and Britain extraordinary powers to run the country and its lucrative oil industry. Security Council Resolution 1483 identified the US and Britain as “occupying powers” in Iraq.
    (AP, 5/22/03)(Econ, 4/19/08, p.102)

2003        May 29, The BBC, aired a radio piece by journalist Andrew Gilligan quoting an anonymous official accusing the government of inflating claims about Iraqi weapons. David Kelly was later identified as the source and committed suicide Jul 17.
    (AP, 7/23/03)(Econ, 1/31/04, p.54)

2003        May, Alleged British mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners took place at an aid camp near Basra, Iraq. Photographs of prisoner abuse were made public in 2004. In 2005 court martial proceedings began. In 2006 3 British soldiers were cleared of manslaughter charges in the death of Ahmad Jabbar Kareem (15), who drowned in the Shatt al-Basra canal in Basra.
    (Econ, 1/22/05, p.51)(AP, 6/6/06)

2003        Jun 10, Bernard Williams (73), moral philosopher, died in Oxford. His books included: "Utilitarianism: For and Against" (1973), "Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy" (1985), "Shame and Necessity" (1993), and "Truth and Truthfulness" (2002). He coined the term "moral luck."
    (SSFC, 6/15/03, p.A27)(Econ, 6/28/03, p.83)

2003        Jun 16, In England Steve Gough began a naked 847-mile trek Land's End to John 0'Groats at Scotland's north end.
    (SFC, 8/19/03, p.A11)

2003        Jun 17, English soccer star David Beckham was sold to Real Madrid by Manchester United for a $41 million transfer fee.
    (AP, 6/17/04)
2003        Jun 17, The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) was formed at a conference in London as a global standard for dealings in oil, gas and mining. By 2015 the EITI Standard was implemented in 48 countries.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extractive_Industries_Transparency_Initiative)(Econ, 10/24/15, p.63)

2003        Jun 24, In Majar al-Kabir, Iraq, British troops in the Shiite south killed 4 Iraqis in a gunbattle. In response a 400-strong Iraqi mob descended on the police station and murdered 6 British troops. 8 suspects were later detained. One was released in 2009 and cases against 5 were dropped in 2010. Two suspects were held for trial. On Oct 10, 2010, a Baghdad court cleared two Iraqi men accused of taking part in the mob slaying.
    (WSJ, 6/25/03, p.A1)(BS, 6/26/03, 12A)(AP, 8/15/10)(AP, 10/10/10)
2003        Jun 24, Pres. Vladimir Putin flew to London to be feted as the guest of Queen Elizabeth II in the first state visit by a Russian leader to Britain since Czar Alexander II in 1874.
    (AP, 6/24/03)

2003        Jul 1, Roman Abramovich, Russian billionaire and governor of Chukotka, bought England’s Chelsea football club in a deal worth £140m ($233m).
    (WSJ, 1/10/07, p.A14)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3036838.stm)

2003        Jul 2, A group of 650 Kenyan women won the right to sue the British Ministry of Defense for rapes by British soldiers that took place over a 26 year period beginning in 1977.
    (SFC, 7/3/03, p.A14)

2003        Jul 3, London's Trafalgar Square reopened to the public after a $42 million facelift.
    (AP, 7/3/03)

2003        Jul 10, Lord Shawcross (101), Britain's chief prosecutor at the Nazi war crimes trials in Nuremberg, died in Cowbeech, England.
    (AP, 7/10/04)

2003        Jul 17, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair forcefully defended their decision to topple Saddam Hussein during a joint White House news conference. In a speech to the U.S. Congress, Blair said even if they were proven wrong about Iraq's weapons capabilities, "We will have destroyed a threat that at its least is responsible for inhuman carnage and suffering."
    (SFC, 7/18/03, p.A1)(AP, 7/17/04)
2003        Jul 17, David Kelly (59), the British Ministry of Defense adviser, was reported missing. He was a possible source for news that claimed the government had doctored intelligence on Iraqi weapons to strengthen the case for war. His body was found the next day. Weapons expert David Kelly apparently committed suicide by slashing his left wrist. In 2010 the British government released a formerly secret autopsy report in an attempt to end speculation that Kelly’s was not a suicide.
    (AP, 7/18/03)(AP, 7/19/03)(AP, 10/22/10)

2003        Jul 18, The body of British scientist David Kelly, a weapons expert at the center of a storm over British intelligence on Iraq, was found a day after he'd committed suicide.
    (AP, 7/18/08)

2003        Jul 25, Britain’s Communications Act came into effect. It allowed the government to prosecute people for “grossly offensive” postings on the Internet.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Act_2003)(Econ, 6/25/16, p.16)

2003        Aug 10, Britain sweltered through its hottest day on record and Alpine glaciers melted as the heat wave that has baked much of Europe for days sizzled relentlessly on. Britain topped 100 degrees for the first time in recorded history.
    (AP, 8/11/03)(AP, 8/10/08)

2003        Aug 13, In Iraq British Private Jason Smith (32) died of heat stroke as the local temperature passed the limits of available thermometers. An inquest in 2007 ruled that troops were not adequately advised on how to cope with high temperatures. In 2009 the British Ministry of Defense upheld an earlier judgment that the military had breached Smith’s right to life.
    (Econ, 5/23/09, p.58)(www.operations.mod.uk/telic/smith.htm)

2003        Aug 23, In Iraq a guerrilla attack killed 3 British soldiers and seriously wounded one in the southern port city of Basra.
    (AP, 8/23/03)(SSFC, 8/24/03, p.A6)

2003        Aug 24, Sir Wilfred Thesiger (93), writer, explorer and chronicler of the world's vanishing ways of life, died. Thesiger's most famous books were "Arabian Sands," about his travels with the Bedu people across the Empty Quarter of southern Arabia in the 1940s, and "The Marsh Arabs," the story of the Shiite marsh dwellers of southern Iraq.
    (AP, 8/26/03)

2003        Aug 28, A 40-minute blackout in London, England, stranded hundreds of thousands of commuters.
    (AP, 8/29/03)(WSJ, 8/29/03, p.A1)

2003        Aug, British regulators disconnected the 47-year-old 192 directory assistance number in a bid to increase competition. Some 57 six-digit phone numbers for national assistance followed with complex charges and numerous errors.
    (WSJ, 10/24/03, p.A1)
2003        Aug, British Petroleum bought half of Russia’s Tyumen Oil Co. for $6.75 billion. TNK-BP was originally formed from the assets of TNK (Tyumen Oil Co), Onako, Sidanco and the majority of BP’s Russian assets.
    (Econ, 5/22/04, Survey p.11)(http://tinyurl.com/4lfczjv)

2003        Sep 4, British and Colombian authorities said they had seized nearly $7 billion in securities in London from an international drug and money-laundering ring. Authorities arrested 14 alleged members of the ring, 10 in England, two in Colombia and two in Ecuador.
    (AP, 9/4/03)

2003        Sep 11, In Britain Alesha Ahmed (15) watched her parents, Iftikhar and Farzana, suffocate her sister Shafilea (17) on to the sofa in their house in Warrington, Cheshire. She had been missing for a week before her teachers informed the police. In 2012 Alesh testified against her parents at their murder trial. The Pakistani couple allegedly felt that Shafilea was bringing shame on their family with her "Westernized" conduct. On Aug 3, 2012, a court found the Pakistani-born couple guilty of murdering their teenage daughter.
    (AFP, 5/24/12)(http://tinyurl.com/7vbhzek)(AFP, 8/3/12)

2003        Sep 16, Baha Mousa (26), an Iraqi hotel receptionist, died after being beaten at a British military camp in Basra. An autopsy said he died of asphyxia, caused by a stress position that soldiers forced him to maintain. He was arrested, along with nine other Iraqis, at the Haitham Hotel in Basra 2 days earlier by members of the 1st Battalion The Queen's Lancashire Regiment (QLR). In 2006 Corp. Donald Payne pleaded guilty to a charge of inhumane treatment of Iraqi civilians, but denied manslaughter. Payne, who became Britain's first convicted war criminal, was dismissed by the army and jailed for a year over the killing. In 2008 the British Ministry of Defense agreed to pay just under $6 million to the family of Mousa and 9 others who suffered injuries while in the custody of British forces. In 2009 Britain opened a public inquiry into the case and Britain's military apologized for its treatment of Mousa. On Sep 8, 2011, an inquiry concluded that British soldiers beat Mousa to death in an act of unjustified violence that left a "very great stain" on Britain's armed forces.
    (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8143982.stm)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.66)(AP, 7/10/08)(AP, 7/13/09)(AP, 9/21/09)(Reuters, 9/8/11)

2003        Sep 18, A law against "promotion" of homosexuality was removed from the British statute books, after more than a decade of gay-rights protests.
    (AP, 9/18/03)

2003        Sep 22, Hugo Young (b.1938), British political columnist for the Sunday Times and the Guardian, died. In 2008 Ion Trewin edited “The Hugo Young Papers: Thirty Years of British Politics – Off the Record.”
    (Econ, 11/29/08, p.86)

2003        Sep 23, Scientists reported that human bone fragments found in a cave from Aveline's Hole in the Mendip Hills of southwest England date from 10,200-10,400BCE.
    (AP, 9/23/03)

2003        Oct 1, Thousands of postal workers in London began a 24-hour strike that was expected to cause huge disruption to mail deliveries.
    (AP, 10/1/03)

2003        Oct 4, In London James Forlong (44), a former Sky News television correspondent who resigned after he admitted faking parts of a report on the war in Iraq, was found dead at his home in a possible suicide.
    (AP, 10/6/03)

2003         Oct 7, A £4 billion deal to create a single company to run ITV, Britain's only fully commercial national TV network, was given the go-ahead by the government, heralding a new era in commercial television.
    (http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1057710,00.html)

2003         Oct 9, A British judge ruled that former residents of the Chagos archipelago have no right to return home or get compensation. Britain had leased Diego Garcia, the main island, to the US in the late 1960s and barred anyone from entering the archipelago except by permit.
    (AP, 10/9/03)

2003        Oct 12, British wartime hero Patrick Dalzel-Job, whose exploits made him a model for James Bond, died in Plockton, Scotland, at age 90.
    (AP, 10/12/04)

2003        Oct 19, New York magician David Blaine left his clear plastic box and began recovering from 44 days dangling near the River Thames.
    (AP, 10/20/03)(SFC, 10/20/03, p.A2)

2003        Oct 24, British Airways retired the Concorde. 3 Concordes swooped into Heathrow Airport, joining in a spectacular finale to the era of luxury supersonic jet travel.
    (WSJ, 10/2/03, p.A1)(AP, 10/24/03)

2003        Oct, The first Frieze Art Fair was launched in London and attracted over 27,000 visitors. It grew to become the city’s biggest contemporary art show.
    (WSJ, 10/10/08, p.W1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frieze_Art_Fair)

2003        Nov 3, Spanish authorities closed the border with the British colony of Gibraltar before the arrival of a virus-stricken cruise ship carrying some 2,000 passengers. More than 400 passengers on the ship fell ill with a norovirus after the ship left Southampton, England, for a Mediterranean voyage on Oct. 20.
    (AP, 11/3/03)

2003        Nov 4, In eastern England Luke Walmsley (14) died from a single stab wound to the heart at Birkbeck School in the village of North Somercotes, near Louth. Police charged a 15-year-old boy with murder after the fatal stabbing.
    (AP, 11/6/03)

2003        Nov 11, The British government said it wants to introduce compulsory identity cards to protect against illegal immigration, welfare fraud and terrorism. Implementation is years away.
    (AP, 11/11/03)

2003        Nov 19, In London, Pres. Bush urged Europe to put aside bitter war disagreements with the US and work to build democracy in Iraq or risk turning the nation over to terrorists.
    (AP, 11/19/04)

2003        Nov 20, Britain’s Criminal Justice Act of 2003 received royal Assent. The reforms included an allowance for a re-trial for certain crimes in the light of new and compelling evidence, which amended the common-law principle of double jeopardy.
    (www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/en2003/2003en44.htm)
2003        Nov 20, Tens of thousands of demonstrators in London burned an effigy of President Bush to show their anger over the Iraq war.
    (AP, 11/20/04)

2003        Nov 24, British PM Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac confronted the sensitive issue of European defense and in a show of unity announced plans for a small rapid-reaction force of EU peacekeepers.
    (AP, 11/24/03)

2003        Nov 29, A Chechen leader wanted in Russia on charges of terrorism and murder has been granted refugee status in Britain. A British judge had rejected a Russian government request to extradite Akhmed Zakayev earlier this month.
    (AP, 11/29/03)

2003        Dec 2, British authorities arrested Babar Ahmad (29), a computer specialist and British citizen. He was accused by the US of running websites used to raise money for terrorists and for supplying them with gas masks and night vision goggles. The Metropolitan Police paid out £60,000 in compensation to Ahmad, following civil court action in 2009. In 2010 four British officers faced criminal charges for assaulting Ahmad during his arrest. On June 3, 2011, constables Roderick James-Bowen, Mark Jones, Nigel Cowley, and John Donohue were acquitted of claims that they assaulted Babar Ahmad. 
    (SFC, 8/13/10, p.A2)(www.freebabarahmad.com/thestory.php)(AFP, 6/3/11)
2003        Dec 2, Alan Davidson (79), a career diplomat who shared his knowledge of exotic cuisines in a series of best-selling books, died in London. His books included: "Mediterranean Seafood" (1972), "Seafood of South East Asia" and "North Atlantic Seafood" (1979).
    (AP, 12/5/03)

2003        Dec 3, It was reported that England planned to spend $17 billion to transform its health care system with information technology to make all medical records available in a secure central database.
    (WSJ, 12/3/03, p.B1)

2003        Dec 5, In Nigeria in the opening session of the summit of Britain and its former colonies British PM Tony Blair urged African leaders not to lift Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth.
    (AP, 12/5/03)

2003        Dec 7, Zimbabwe pulled out of the Commonwealth rather than endure a suspension after members in Nigeria decided to extend the southern African country's suspension from the organization of Britain and its former colonies.
    (AP, 12/7/03)

2003        Dec 12, In London, England, Mick Jagger (b.1943) of the Rolling Stones was knighted.
    (SFC, 12/13/03, p.A2)

2003        Dec 14, In southwestern England 2 dozen people suffered burns to their faces, hands and arms in a suspected acid attack at a pub in Bristol.
    (AP, 12/15/03)

2003        Dec 17, In Britain Ian Huntley, a former school caretaker, was convicted of murdering two 10-year-old girls in 2002. He had previously been investigated for sex crimes. Huntley was sentenced to two life terms.
    (AP, 12/17/03)(Econ, 1/21/06, p.53)

2003        Dec 25, The British Beagle 2 spacecraft landed on Mars. The 73-pound lander was launched by the European Space Agency June 2. Contact with the Charles Darwin probe was lost on Dec 26 after it separated from its European Space Agency Mars Express mother ship on Dec 19. The mother ship went into orbit for a planned 2 years of photography. In 2015 scientists found the probe on the surface of Mars.
    (SFC, 12/25/03, p.A1)(SFC, 12/26/03, p.A2)(SFC, 12/27/03, p.A2)(AFP, 1/16/15)

2003        Dec 27, Alan Bates (69), British stage and film actor, died. His films included "Zorba the Greek" and "Georgy Girl."
    (SFC, 12/29/03, p.A12)

2003        Dec, The 40-story London building at 30 St. Mary Axe, designed by Norman Foster, opened. Its peculiar shaped was frequently compared to a gherkin.
    (WSJ, 7/13/04, p.D8)(Econ, 12/4/04, TQ p.17)

2003        Peter Ackroyd authored "Albion," an examination of Englishness in language, culture and myth.
    (WSJ, 10/22/03, p.D12)
2003        Monica Ali authored “Brick Lane,” a novel that evokes Bangladeshi community of London, England.
    (Econ, 6/30/12, p.85)
2003        Rachel Ehrenfeld authored “Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It.” The book sold 23 copies in Britain, over the Internet. She later lost a libel case concerning the book brought in the English High Court of Justice by Saudi businessman Khalid bin Mahfouz, who was awarded ₤100,000 ($160,000).
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funding_Evil)(Econ, 1/2/10, p.42)
2003        Amy Winehouse (b.1983), British pop singer, released her first album, “Frank.” Her 2nd album, “Back to Black,” came out in 2006.
    (Econ, 7/30/11, p.53)
2003        A public-private partnership (PPP) took over the London Underground Railway.
    (Econ, 3/27/04, p.57)
2003        Renzo Piano’s “Shard of Glass”, a skyscraper to be built near London Bridge, won planning consent. It rivaled the proposed 63-storey Bishopsgate Tower named Helter-Skelter.
    (Econ, 11/19/05, p.61)
2003        Twenty20, a short form of cricket designed for television, was introduced in England. The new 3-hour version rivaled the traditional version which lasted a maximum a 5 days.
    (Econ, 9/22/07, p.82)
2003        Britain and the US negotiated a secret extradition treaty to make prosecuting terrorists easier.
    (Econ, 2/25/06, p.61)
2003        Britain merged its communications and broadcasting watchdogs into a single body called Ofcom.
    (Econ, 10/14/06, Survey p.17)
2003        Britain established the Beacon Prize to celebrate philanthropists.
    (Econ, 2/25/06, Survey p.7)
2003        Britain introduced its Teach First program. It was modeled after the Teach for American program (1990), which invites graduates from top universities to spend the 1st 2 years of their careers teaching children from low-income families.
    (Econ, 8/1/09, p.49)
2003        PSA Peugeot Citroen, Europe’s 2nd biggest carmaker, decided to make the successor of its 206 model in Trnava, Slovakia. The car had been manufactured in the Ryton factory near Coventry, England.
    (Econ, 4/22/06, p.55)

2004        Jan 5, Norman Heatley (92), a scientist whose pioneering work on penicillin production helped save countless lives, died in Oxford, England. It was Heatley and his Oxford University colleagues who produced enough for the first clinical tests on humans.
    (AP, 1/17/04)(SFC, 1/19/04, p.B4)

2004        Jan 8, Queen Elizabeth II christened the world's largest ocean liner, the Queen Mary 2.
    (AP, 1/8/04)

2004        Jan 13, In northern England Dr. Harold Shipman was found hanged in his Wakefield prison cell one day before his 58th birthday. He was convicted in 2000 of killing 15 patients and later was found to have murdered at least 200 more, mostly by lethal injection. He always maintained his innocence.
    (AP, 1/13/04)

2004        Jan 28, British PM Tony Blair won vindication when a judge said the BBC was wrong to report the government had “sexed up” intelligence to justify war in Iraq.
    (AP, 1/28/05)

2004        Jan 29, M.M. Kaye (95), British author, died in Lavenham, England.
    (AP, 1/29/05)

2004        Feb 5, At least 21 shellfish hunters, all apparently Chinese nationals, died when they were trapped by fast-rising tides in treacherous Morecambe Bay in northern England. In 2006 Lin Liang Ren (29) was found guilty in the deaths of the shellfish pickers at Warton Sands. Lin's girlfriend, Zhao Xiao Qing (21) and cousin Lin Mu Yong (31) were also convicted of facilitating the deaths. Liangren was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Xiaoqing was sentenced to 2 years and 9 months. Muyong was sentenced to 4 years and 9 months.
    (AP, 2/6/04)(AP, 3/24/06)(AFP, 3/28/06)

2004        Feb 6, Robbers handcuffed 15 workers at a cargo shed on the grounds of London's Heathrow Airport and stole some $3.2 million in British pound notes.
    (AP, 2/7/04)

2004        Feb 12, A union representing almost 50,000 university teachers in Britain voted to strike over pay.
    (AP, 2/12/04)

2004        Feb 26, It was reported that dentists were departing Britain's publicly funded National Health Service in large numbers, leaving a growing number of Britons without access to affordable care.
    (AP, 2/26/04)

2004        Mar 3, Sumantra Ghoshal (55), business academic, died of a stroke in London. His 12 books included “Managing Across Borders” (1989). In 2005 Julian Birkinshaw and Gita Piramal authored “Sumantra Ghoshal on Management: A Force for Good.”
    (Econ, 6/11/05, p.82)

2004        Mar 8, Keith Hopkins (69), a historian who brought an innovative sociological approach to the study of ancient Rome, died in Cambridge, England. His books included "Conquerors and Slaves" and "Death and Renewal."
    (AP, 3/15/04)(SFC, 3/16/04, p.B7)

2004        Mar 9, Britain ended a 3-year review and agreed to allow farmers to grow one variety genetically modified "GM" corn.
    (WSJ, 3/10/04, p.A14)

2004        Mar 19, Scientists reported that Earth may be in the middle its 6th big extinction event, which began some 50,000 years ago. A recent survey indicated population extinctions in all the main ecosystems of Britain.
    (SFC, 3/19/04, p.A5)

2004        Mar 25, British PM Tony Blair and Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi greeted each other with smiles and handshakes in a meeting that marked a major step back into the international mainstream for the North African state.
    (AP, 3/25/04)

2004        Mar 30, British police raids in London led to the arrest of 8 men and the seizure of half a ton of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer compound used in the Oklahoma City bombing.
    (AP, 3/30/04)

2004        Mar, The US CIA worked closely with Moammar Gadhafi's intelligence services in the rendition of terror suspects to Libya for interrogation as revealed by documents uncovered in 2011. The documents appear to be American correspondence to Libyan officials to arrange for the rendition of Abdel-Hakim Belhaj (nom de guerre, Abdullah al-Sadiq), a leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) with links to al-Qaida. Belhadj later claimed to have been tortured by CIA agents at a secret prison, then returned to Libya. Belhaj was detained in Thailand and transferred to Tripoli, where he spent years in prison. In 2013 he sued the British government over its alleged role in his detention and rendition offered to settle for 3 pounds ($4.50) and an apology.
    (AP, 9/3/11)(Econ, 9/10/11, p.62)(AP, 3/4/13)

2004        Apr 11, The British Sunday Times reported that an Indian steel tycoon paid $128 million for a mansion in London, breaking the world record for the most expensive house purchase.
    (AP, 4/12/04)

2004        Apr 16, Pres. Bush said he is handing over the lead role in the Iraqi political transition to the UN's top envoy. Pres. Bush and British PM Tony Blair, meeting in Washington, endorsed giving the UN broad control over Iraq's political future.
    (SFC, 4/17/04, p.A1)(AP, 4/16/05)
2004        Apr 16, On Nov 22, 2005, London’s Daily Mirror reported that Pres. Bush spoke of targeting Al-Jazeera's headquarters in Doha, Qatar, when he met PM Blair at the White House on April 16, 2004. A civil servant was charged under Britain's Official Secrets Act for allegedly leaking a government memo that described the meeting.
    (AP, 11/22/05)   

2004        Apr 19, John Maynard (1920-2004), a leading British evolutionary biologist widely credited with taking the radical step of applying game theory to the subject, died in Lewes, England. His books included "The Theory of Evolution" (1958) and "The Evolution of Sex" (1978).
    (SSFC, 4/25/04, p.B7)(AP, 4/29/04)
2004        Apr 19, Norris McWhirter (78), co-creator of the Guinness Book of Records, died in England of a heart attack.
    (WSJ, 4/21/04, p.A1)

2004        Apr 20, British PM Tony Blair said he would put a new European Union constitution to a nationwide vote. No date was set.
    (AP, 4/20/04)

2004        Apr 22, The Queen Mary 2 arrived in NYC on its maiden transatlantic voyage. A crew of 1,250 and 2,600 passengers made the 6-day crossing from Southampton, England.
    (SFC, 4/23/04, p.A3)

2004        Apr, David Blunkett, British home secretary, launched a plan for a national identity card.
    (Econ, 5/1/04, p.62)

2004        May 3, Andrew Cavendish (84), the 11th Duke of Devonshire, died.
    (Econ, 5/15/04, p.83)

2004        May 5, British-based SABMiller launched an unsolicited HK$4.3 billion ($550m) bid for Harbin Brewery, China’s 4th largest brewer.
    (Econ, 5/8/04, p.61)

2004        May 6, The Bank of England raised interest rates a quarter point to 4.25%.
    (Econ, 5/8/04, p.53)

2004        May 14, Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper published a front-page apology after photographs purportedly showing British forces abusing Iraqi prisoners turned out to be fake.
    (AP, 5/14/05)
2004        May 14, In Iraq British troops engaged in a battle near the town of at Al Majar Al Kabir. In 2008 lawyers released evidence that they said shows British soldiers may have tortured and executed up to 20 Iraqis after the battle of Danny Boy. On Feb 4, 2013, Britain’s Al-Sweady Inquiry began oral hearings in the case.
    (AP, 2/22/08)(AP, 3/4/13)

2004        May 19, Britain opened the world’s 1st stem cell bank.
    (WSJ, 5/20/04, p.A1)

2004        May 23, Rod Hall (53), British literary agent, was found dead in his London home. An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be multiple stab wounds to the chest and abdomen. On May 29 Usman Durrani, 20, a student from east London, was charged with the murder.
    (AP, 5/30/04)

2004        May 24, A fire in London hit an art storage warehouse and is believed to have destroyed works by some 100 contemporary Young British artists (YBAs) worth millions of dollars, including part of a collection owned by former advertising guru Charles Saatchi.
    (AP, 5/26/04)(Econ, 5/29/04, p.58)

2004        May 27, London police arrested Abu Hamza al-Masri, a radical Muslim cleric suspected of helping the deadly 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole. The US sought his extradition on terrorism charges. He was accused of trying to build a terrorist training camp in Oregon.
    (AP, 5/27/04)(WSJ, 5/28/04, p.A1)

2004        Jun 8, Britain planned to give an extra 15 million pounds (27 million dollars) in relief aid to Sudan's crisis-hit Darfur region.
    (AFP, 6/8/04)

2004        Jun 13, Author and academic Stuart Hampshire, a former chairman of the department of philosophy at Princeton University who argued that philosophy must be studied within the context of other disciplines, died in Oxford, England. His books included "The Freedom of the Individual."
    (AP, 6/16/04)

2004        Jun 21, Iran confiscated three British military vessels and arrested eight armed crew members.
    (AP, 6/21/04)

2004        Jul 20, Britain's government backed long-standing plans to build a railway network linking east and west London at a cost of around 10 billion pounds.
    (AFP, 7/20/04)

2004        Jul 21, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon announced Britain is to slash around 19,000 posts from its armed forces over the next four years as part of an overhaul of military priorities.
    (AFP, 7/21/04)
2004        Jun 21, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, known as Pasdaran, confiscated three British military vessels and arrested eight armed crew members in the Shatt al-Arab waterway. The men were released 2 days later.
    (AP, 6/21/04)(SFC, 6/24/04, p.A12)(Econ, 4/7/07, p.24)

2004        Jul 25, The Warwick agreement came about  as a compromise between Britain’s Labour Government and trade unions at the Labour Party's National Policy forum.
    (www.unionstogether.org.uk/articles/employment.html)

2004         Jul 26, Banco Santander Central Hispano of Spain, with the help of Royal Bank of Scotland, announced a deal to acquire Abbey National Bank in the UK. The $16 billion deal created the tenth largest bank in the world.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_(bank))

2004        Jul, The Diana memorial fountain opened in Hyde Park. It was designed by Kathryn Gustafson, American architect, and soon closed due to numerous problems.
    (Econ, 7/31/04, p.49)

2004        Aug 3, In London 13 Asian men were arrested. One known as Moussa (or al-Hindi) was later said to be the head of al-Qaeda in Britain.
    (Econ, 8/7/04, p.46)

2004        Aug 8, Traces of the anti-depressant Prozac have been found in Britain's drinking water supply, setting off alarm bells with environmentalists concerned about potentially toxic effects. In the decade up to 2001, overall prescriptions of antidepressants in Britain rose from 9 million to 24 million a year.
    (AP, 8/8/04)

2004        Aug 11, Britain granted its 1st license for human embryonic cloning research.
    (WSJ, 8/12/04, p.A1)

2004        Aug 17, Britain brought terrorism charges against 8 al Qaeda suspects tied to recent alerts about US financial sites. They were charged with conspiring to commit murder and use radioactive materials, toxic gases, chemicals or explosives to cause "fear or injury."
    (WSJ, 8/18/04, p.A1)(AP, 8/17/05)

2004        Aug 19, Amelie Delegrange (22), from Hanvoile, north of Paris, was battered to death in the southwest London neighborhood of Twickenham Green after a night out in a wine bar. In 2006 Levi Bellfield, former nightclub bouncer, faced trial for her murder and the February, 2003, murder of student Marsha McDonnell (19). Bellfield was convicted on February 25, 2008 of the two murders. The following day, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he should never be released.
    (AFP, 6/9/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Bellfield)

2004        Aug 25, In South Africa Mark Thatcher, the son of former British PM Margaret Thatcher, was arrested and charged with helping to finance a foiled coup attempt in oil rich Equatorial Guinea. In 2008 Equatorial Guinea issued an international arrest warrant against Mark Thatcher, accusing him of being an instigator of the abortive coup plot.
    (AP, 8/25/04)(AFP, 3/29/08)

2004        Aug 28, London’s Notting Hill Carnival began with more than a million revelers expected to turn out to celebrate the 3-day event's 40th year.
    (AP, 8/29/04)

2004        Aug, The British government sent out a pamphlet to the public titled “Preparing for Emergencies: What You Need to Know.”
    (Econ, 7/31/04, p.48)
2004        Aug, Dhiren Barot, a British national who spent time training with Lashkar-e-Taiba, was arrested. In 2006 he was convicted of planning a bombing in London.
    (WSJ, 12/8/08, p.A6)

2004        Sep 5, London’s Sunday Times reported that John Knight, a millionaire British arms dealer, is reportedly fuelling a bloody civil war in Sudan by arranging to supply its government with tanks, rocket launchers and a cruise missile.
    (AP, 9/5/04)

2004        Sep 9, A military Lynx helicopter crashed near the city of Brno in the Czech Republic, killing six British soldiers.
    (AP, 9/9/04)

2004        Sep 15, In England the number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell by 6,100 to 830,200, the lowest level since July 1975.
    (AFP, 9/15/04)

2004        Sep 19, British commoners gained the right to stroll over an additional 153,000 hectares of private land.
    (Econ, 9/18/04, p.62)

2004        Sep 23, Nigel Nicolson (87), English writer and publisher, died. His mother was Vita Sackville-West.
    (Econ, 10/2/04, p.87)

2004        Sep 26, Gordon Brown, Britain’s chancellor of the Exchequer, repeated his proposal that the IMF should revalue its gold reserves and use proceeds to cancel some Third World debt.
    (SSFC, 9/26/04, p.A12)

2004        Oct 1, British PM Tony Blair reportedly underwent a procedure to correct an irregular heartbeat.
    (AP, 10/1/04)

2004        Oct 5, Britain pulled the license of a Liverpool factory responsible for manufacturing half of Chiron Corp.’s US flu vaccine supply.
    (SFC, 10/6/04, p.A1)

2004        Oct 7, In Ethiopia British PM Tony Blair spoke before the Africa Commission and warned that poverty and instability in Africa is providing a fertile breeding ground for terror and criminal organizations.
    (AP, 10/7/04)

2004        Oct 8, In Iraq kidnappers displayed a video of the beheading of British hostage Kenneth Bigley (62) following an unsuccessful escape attempt.
    (AP, 10/8/04)(SFC, 10/9/04, p.A1)

2004        Oct 9, Queen Elizabeth opened Scotland's new parliament building in the HolyRood section of Edinburgh. It was finished late and cost 430 million pounds ($845 million), 10 times over budget.
    (Reuters, 2/16/12)(Econ, 5/20/06, p.27)(Econ, 7/27/19, p.52)
2004        Oct 9, In Nottingham, central England, a teenage girl who was gunned down near her home in an apparently random attack. Danielle Beccan (14) was shot as many as six times from a passing car while walking back from a funfair with friends.
    (AP, 10/10/04)

2004        Oct 15, Craig Murray, Britain's former ambassador to Uzbekistan, said he is a "victim of conscience" for having dared to speak out against human rights outrages. Murray had highlighted the allegedly systematic use of torture, including the alleged boiling to death of two prisoners, by Uzbek authorities.
    (AP, 10/15/04)

2004        Oct 19, Britain’s Man Booker Prize and a $90,000 check was awarded to Alan Hollinghurst for his novel “The Line of Beauty.”
    (SFC, 10/20/04, p.E2)
2004        Oct 19, British prosecutors charged radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri with incitement to murder for allegedly urging followers to kill Jews and other non-Muslims. The indictment pre-empted a U.S. bid to extradite him on terror charges.
    (AP, 10/19/04)

2004        Oct 22, Figures approved for public release by the British House of Commons, showed its 659 members claimed an average of 118,437 pounds in 2003, on top of their basic salary of 57,000 pounds.
    (AP, 10/22/04)
2004        Oct 22, A videotape of Margaret Hassan, the kidnapped director of CARE International in Iraq, appeared on Al-Jazeera, weeping and pleading with British PM Tony Blair to withdraw troops from Iraq "and not bring them to Baghdad" because "this might be my last hours."
    (AP, 10/22/04)

2004        Nov 1, James Edward, Baron Hanson (b.1922), English conservative industrialist, died at his Berkshire home. He built his businesses through the process of leveraged buyouts through Hanson PLC.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hanson,_Baron_Hanson)(Econ, 11/6/04, p.68)

2004        Nov 4, Three British soldiers of the Black Watch regiment, recently moved northward, were killed in a suicide bombing.
    (SFC, 11/5/04, p.A3)

2004        Nov 6, In England 7 people were killed and 150 injured when a Eurostar high-speed train crashed into a vehicle that was stopped on a level crossing near Ufton Nervet in Berkshire. A motorist's suicide was suspected.
    (AP, 11/8/04)

2004        Nov 13, The new Lord Mayor of London, Michael Savory, paraded through the streets of the British capital in a traditional pomp-filled pageant. The mayor's one-year term consists mainly of acting as an ambassador for Europe's dominant financial centre.
    (AP, 11/13/04)

2004        Nov 18, Britain outlawed fox hunting in England and Wales as elected legislators used the 1949 Parliament Act to win a dramatic standoff with the House of Lords to ban the popular country sport.
    (AP, 11/18/04)(SFC, 11/19/04, p.A2)

2004        Dec 2, Dame Alicia Markova (b.1910 as Alice Marks), eminent ballerina and founder of the English National Ballet, died.
    (SFC, 12/3/04, p.B6)(Econ, 12/11/04, p.85)

2004        Dec 8, British and Irish leaders published a detailed plan for reviving a Catholic-Protestant administration in Northern Ireland.
    (AP, 12/8/04)
2004        Dec 8, Lord Scarman (93), English lawyer and judge, died. He investigated the 1981 Brixton riots and provided a report with ground breaking recommendations.
    (Econ, 1/1/05, p.68)

2004        Dec 16, Britain's highest court dealt a huge blow to the government's anti-terrorism policy by ruling that it cannot detain foreign suspects indefinitely without trial.
    (AP, 12/16/04)

2004        Dec 21, British PM Tony Blair made a surprise visit to Baghdad, urging Iraqis to support national elections and describing violence here as a "battle between democracy and terror."
    (AP, 12/21/04)

2004        Dec 26, The Independent reported that British PM Tony Blair has ordered the military to prepare to deploy up to 3,000 soldiers to the conflict-torn Sudanese region of Darfur.
    (AP, 12/26/04)

2004        Arthur Herman authored “To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World.”
    (SSFC, 1/2/05, p.E3)
2004        The British government decided that pluralism requires all schools to include some instruction on atheism.
    (WSJ, 2/20/09, p.W11)
2004        In Britain Senior Lord of Appeal Tom Bingham (1933-2010) ruled that 9 foreign men, held at Belmarsh prison in London, had been detained illegally.
    (Econ, 9/18/10, p.107)(http://tinyurl.com/2b6j66v)
2004        In England Ali Parsa, a former banker at Goldman Sachs, formed Circle Healthcare, and shared ownership with its employees. The hospital treated a mixture of National health Service and private patients.
    (Econ, 5/21/11, p.63)
2004        University of Manchester professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov used Scotch tape to isolate graphene, a form of carbon only one atom thick but more than 100 times stronger than steel, and showed it has exceptional properties, the strongest and thinnest material known to mankind.
    (AP, 10/5/10)(Econ, 12/5/15, TQ p.9)

2005        Jan 1, The United Kingdom was forecast for 2.3% annual GDP growth with a population at 60.7 million and GDP per head at $38,670.
    (Econ, 1/8/05, p.90)
2005        Jan 1, The British Freedom of Information Act of 2000 went into effect. It gave a general right of access to all types of recorded information held by public authorities and places obligations on public authorities to disclose information, subject to a range of exemptions.
    (Econ, 12/23/06, p.84)(www.bl.uk/about/policies/freedom.html)

2005        Jan 8, Hurricane-force winds swept across northern Europe, leaving at least 13 dead including 3 in Carlisle, England, 4 in Denmark and 6 in Sweden.
    (AP, 1/9/05)

2005        Jan 12, Britain’s Prince Harry apologized after a newspaper published a photograph of the young royal wearing a Nazi uniform to a costume party.
    (AP, 1/12/06)

2005        Jan 14, Brian Blackburn( 62), a retired British policeman who killed his terminally-ill wife in a suicide pact, walked free with a suspended jail sentence after the court called him a "loving husband."
    (AP, 1/14/05)

2005        Jan 15, Visiting Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown revealed that Britain has decided to cancel Mozambique's total debt to it of 150 million dollars (114 million euros) to help the southern African country combat poverty. He said: "We've also agreed to pay 10 percent of Mozambique's multilateral debt."
    (AP, 1/15/05)

2005        Jan 17, British Treasury chief Gordon Brown called on wealthy nations and international institutions to write off Africa's debt, saying debts incurred by past generations are keeping the continent poor.
    (AP, 1/17/05)

2005        Jan 19, PM Tony Blair said the military would not tolerate any abuse of Iraqi prisoners as new graphic photos depicting alleged mistreatment of detainees blared across the front pages of British newspapers.
    (AP, 1/19/05)

2005        Jan 31, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, Iraq's interim leader, called on his countrymen to set aside their differences, while local precincts finished a first-phase count of millions of ballots from the weekend election.
    (AP, 1/31/05)

2005        Feb 5, In London Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said that finance ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations had for the first time expressed firm willingness to provide as much as 100 percent debt relief for the world's poorest countries. The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) is a joint initiative of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund that offers debt relief to the world's most impoverished nations which agree to undertake economic reform.
    (AP, 2/5/05)

2005        Feb 7, In England and Wales new laws came into effect that allow pubs, clubs and other drinking venues to apply to stay open 24 hours a day.
    (AP, 2/7/05)
2005        Feb 7, Ellen MacArthur (28) of Britain completed her solo sail around the world in just over 71 days and 14 hours, shaving 32 hours off the previous record.
    (AP, 2/8/05)

2005        Feb 8, Ian Wilmut, the scientist who created Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal, has been given a license to clone human embryos for medical research. Therapeutic cloning research has been legal in Great Britain since 2001.
    (AP, 2/8/05)

2005        Feb 18, Britain faced the threat of mass strikes in the public sector ahead of an upcoming election as teachers, nurses and civil servants protested against a plan to raise their retirement age and cut pensions.
    (AFP, 2/18/05)
2005        Feb 18, A British ban on hunting with dogs became effective.
    (AP, 2/19/05)

2005        Feb 19, About half a million hunters and supporters rallied across England and Wales in a massive display of force against a new fox hunting ban.
    (AP, 2/19/05)

2005        Feb 21, The British government said same-sex partners will be able to enter into civil unions from December, joining gays in parts of Europe and the United States in obtaining many of the rights enjoyed by married people.
    (AP, 2/21/05)

2005        Feb 22, Britain said it will impose new penalties on Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Army-linked party, as punishment for the IRA's alleged robbery of a Belfast bank.
    (AP, 2/22/05)

2005        Feb 23, A military jury convicted two British servicemen on charges of involvement in abusing Iraqi civilians.
    (AP, 2/23/05)

2005        Feb 24, Anglican leaders forced a suspension of the US Episcopal Church and Canadian adherents due to same sex marriages and ordaining gay clergy.
    (WSJ, 2/25/05, p.A1)

2005        Feb 28, In Britain the Duchess of Northumberland opened her new Poison Garden, dedicated to the world’s most venomous and hallucinogenic plants. It was a part of Alnwick Garden opened in 2002.
    (SFC, 10/29/05, p.F7)(www.alnwickgarden.com/media/in_the_press.asp)

2005        Mar 2, Queen Elizabeth II dubbed Bill Gates (49) an honorary noble.
    (SFC, 3/3/05, p.A2)

2005        Mar 7, United Defense Industries, maker of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, agreed to merge with British defense firm BAE Systems in a $4 billion deal.
    (SFC, 3/8/05, p.D1)

2005        Mar 12, Britain's governing Labour Party claimed victory for pushing through its contentious anti-terrorism law after an acrimonious two-day debate in Parliament.
    (AP, 3/12/05)

2005        Mar 21, The BBC announced plans to cut almost 4,000 jobs to save hundreds of millions of pounds, as the world's biggest public broadcaster undergoes a major shake-up.
    (AP, 3/21/05)

2005        Mar 26, James Callaghan, former British prime minister (1976-1979), died on the eve of his 93rd birthday.
    (SSFC, 3/27/05, p.A21)(Econ, 4/2/05, p.80)

2005        Apr 9, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles were married in a modest civil ceremony at the 17th century Guildhall, and the second marriage for each was blessed by the Church of England.
    (AP, 4/9/05)

2005        Apr 11, Britain imposed a year-long ban on delivering first-time visas to Nigerians aged 18 to 30, citing a backlog of applications, most of which are rejected.
    (AP, 4/11/05)

2005        Apr 13, In England Kamel Bourgass (31) of Algeria, captured in Jan 2003, was sentenced to 17 years in jail for planning attacks using ricin, cyanide and other poisons. He is already serving a life sentence for the murder of policeman Stephen Oake. 8 others arrested in the case were acquitted or not brought to trial.
    (AP, 4/14/05)(SFC, 4/14/05, p.A3)
2005        Apr 13, Britain and India agreed to more than double the number of flights between the two nations, opening up dozens of lucrative new routes for airlines.
    (AP, 4/13/05)

2005        Apr 15, Administrators for Britain’s MG Rover Group said they intend to break up the company, laying off 5,000 workers, in a bid to find buyers for different units after the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. made clear it was not interested in a joint venture.
    (AP, 4/15/05)

2005        Apr 19, Britain's GW Pharmaceuticals announced its multiple sclerosis (MS) pain relief drug Sativex, the world's first containing cannabis, has been approved for use in Canada.
    (AP, 4/19/05)

2005        Apr 22, Eduardo Paolozzi (b.1924), sculptor and printmaker, died. In 1952 he helped form an association of British artists called The Independent Group. Paolozzi, born in Scotland of Italian parents, became known as a key contributor to British pop art.
    (SSFC, 5/1/05, p.A23)(Econ, 4/30/05, p.82)

2005        Apr 23, British actor Sir John Mills (97) died at his home in Denham. His over 100 films included “Great Expectations” (1946) and  “Ryan’s Daughter” (1970).
    (SSFC, 4/24/05, p.A2)

2005        Apr 25, Alex Trotman (71), retired Ford Motor Co. Chairman (1993-1998), died at his home in England. He spearheaded a $5 billion restructuring to restore the automaker to profitability in the 1990s.
    (AP, 4/25/05)(Econ, 4/30/05, p.63)

2005        Apr, The decomposing body of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, the Earl of Shaftesbury, was found in a ravine in the French Riviera, five months after he disappeared from his home in Cannes. In 2007 his mistress testified that he had been strangled to death by Mohamed M'Barek, the brother of his wife, Jamila M'Barek.
    (AFP, 5/23/07)

2005        May 5, Tony Blair was elected to a historic third term as Britain's prime minister. Conservatives, Michael Howard, announced that he would step down after a stinging election defeat at the hands of PM Tony Blair's Labor Party.
    (AP, 5/6/05)

2005        May 6, British Prime Minister Tony Blair unveiled his Cabinet, changing leadership in defense and health but keeping mostly familiar faces after a third term victory dampened by a reduced majority in Parliament.
    (AP, 5/6/06)

2005        May 17, PM Tony Blair unveiled plans to shake up Britain's welfare state, tackle terrorism and introduce Britain's first national ID card since WW II in a challenging third term agenda that could spark revolt in his restive Labour Party and test his waning authority.
    (AP, 5/18/05)

2005        May 19, British researchers reported the creation of the country's first, and the world's second (South Korea), cloned human embryo.
    (AP, 5/20/05)

2005        May 23, Thousands of British Broadcasting Corp. journalists and technicians began a 24-hour strike over proposed job cuts, severely disrupting radio and TV programs.
    (AP, 5/23/05)

2005        May 24, The British government approved the extradition of three British bankers the United States is seeking to prosecute on fraud charges involving Enron Corp.
    (AP, 5/24/05)

2005        May 27, Thousands of HSBC staff belonging to the Amicus trade union staged the biggest walk-out for more than eight years against a leading British bank when they went on strike in a bitter pay dispute.
    (AFP, 5/27/05)

2005        Jun 2, Melita Norwood (93), former Soviet Union spy in Britain (1937-1972), died.
    (Econ, 7/2/05, p.52)(http://tinyurl.com/8f3yy)

2005        Jun 3, Gordon Brown, Britain's treasury chief, proposed canceling all debt to Africa's poorest countries, eliminating all trade barriers and selling gold reserves as part of a "modern Marshall plan" for the giant continent.
    (AP, 6/3/05)
2005        Jun 3, Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare (b.1936) won the first international version of Britain's prestigious Man Booker literary prize. Kadare became famous in his homeland with the 1963 publication of his first novel, "The General of the Dead Army" (1963). His other works include "The Concert" (1988) and "The Palace of Dreams" (1981). David Bellos won the accompanying translator’s prize.
    (AP, 6/3/05)(Econ, 9/10/11, p.96)

2005        Jun 11, Finance ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations meting in London agreed to a historic deal canceling at least $40 billion worth of debt owed by 18 of the world's poorest nations. These included: Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
    (AP, 6/11/05)

2005        Jun 23, G8 foreign ministers met in London. The Middle East peace process, Iran's nuclear program and tackling opium production in Afghanistan topped the agenda.
    (AP, 6/23/05)

2005        Jun 24, A flash flood hit Britain's famous Glastonbury rock festival and left some 120,000 people trying to dry out after parts of the site soaked under neck-deep water.
    (AP, 6/25/05)

2005        Jun 27, PM Tony Blair defended Britain's deportation of failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers, a policy that has triggered a refugee hunger strike.
    (AP, 6/27/05)

2005        Jun 30, The income of Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, rose by 11% in 2004 to more than $23 million, according to an annual financial report released by his household.
    (AP, 6/30/05)
2005        Jun 30, Christopher Fry, English playwright, died at age 97. Fry was England’s last successful playwright to write in verse. His work included “Look Back in Anger” (1956).
    (Econ, 7/16/05, p.83)

2005        Jul 4, A British court upheld the government's ban on adoptions of Cambodian children. Six couples had gone to court to challenge the ban, which was imposed in June of last year.
    (AP, 7/4/05)

2005        Jul 6, London was awarded the 2012 Olympics, upsetting European rival Paris in the final round of voting to take the games back to the British capital for the first time since 1948. Costs for the 2112 Olympics were originally estimated at £2.4 billion. By 2006 the costs rose to £4.7 billion.
    (AP, 7/6/05)(Econ, 11/25/06, p.57)

2005        Jul 7, Four blasts rocked the London subway and tore open a packed double-decker bus during the morning rush hour, sending bloodied victims fleeing. 52 were killed in the subway blasts, including 13 on the bus, and London hospitals reported more than 700 wounded. A group calling itself "The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe" posted a claim of responsibility, saying they were in retaliation for Britain's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2007 British police arrested 3 suspects. [see ref URL for CNN timeline on the bombing] In 2008 a jury failed to convict 3 Britons accused of helping the suicide bombers. In 2009 three men were found not guilty of helping to plan the suicide bombings, although two were convicted on lesser charges.
    (AP, 7/7-8/05)(http://tinyurl.com/dxvlb)(AP, 7/11/05)(WSJ, 3/23/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/2/08, p.A6)(AFP, 4/28/09)(AFP, 1/19/15)

2005        Jul 8, Police said that the bombs used in London's terrorist attacks held less than 10 pounds of explosives each.
    (AP, 7/8/05)

2005        Jul 10, In Britain a Pakistani man was killed in a suspected racial attack in the central city of Nottingham.
    (AP, 7/12/05)

2005        Jul 11, British investigators found the images of 4 young men carrying backpacks in King's Cross station at about 8:30 a.m., 20 minutes before the Jul 7 subway explosions.
    (AP, 7/13/05)(AP, 7/14/05)

2005        Jul 12, British police closed Luton's train station and carried out 9 controlled explosions on a parked car, which the BBC reported contained explosives. At least 3 Britons from Leeds of Pakistani descent were suspected of carrying out the July 7 attacks that killed 54 and injured 700. Surveillance cameras captured the men as they arrived in the capital 20 minutes before the explosions began.
    (AP, 7/13/05)
2005        Jul 12, BP said it has sent teams to fix its 'Thunder Horse' oil platform, which has been listing since Hurricane Dennis hit the Gulf of Mexico. The platform, located 150 miles (250 kilometers) southeast of New Orleans, was slipping by around 20-30 degrees following the passing of the storm, but no injuries or leaks were reported.
    (AP, 7/13/05)

2005        Jul 13, British police identified 3 of the July 7 bombers as Shahzad Tanweer (22), Mohammed Sidique Khan (30), and Hasib Hussain (19), the bomber on the N0. 30 bus. The 4th suicide bomber was identified the next day as Lindsey Germaine (19), a Jamaican-born Briton.
    (SFC, 7/30/05, p.A11)

2005        Jul 15, An official said police in Egypt said they had arrested Magdy el-Nashar (33), an Egyptian biochemist, sought in the probe of the London bombings. He was taken into custody upon his arrival in Cairo from abroad.
    (AP, 7/15/05)

2005        Jul 16, The death toll from the July 7 bombings in London rose to 55 as a badly wounded young architect succumbed 9 days after being rescued. British PM Tony Blair warned that an "evil ideology" of Islamic extremism was bent on spreading terror through the West.
    (SSFC, 7/17/05, p.A17)(AP, 7/16/06)
2005        Jul 16, Pakistani security officials said 3 of the 4 London suicide bombers recently visited Pakistan. Investigators probed whether they met with Al-Qaeda-linked militant groups.
    (AP, 7/16/05)

2005        Jul 17, Sir Edward Heath (b.1916), PM of England (1970-1974), died. He led England into what is now the EU but lost the Conservative Party leadership to Margaret Thatcher.  In 2017 police said he would have been interviewed under caution over seven allegations of sexual assault dating between 1961 and 1992, relating to five boys and two adult men.
    (AP, 7/17/05)(SFC, 7/18/05, p.B6)(Econ, 7/23/05, p.80)(AFP, 10/5/17)
2005        Jul 17, Egypt demanded that institutions in Britain and Belgium return two pharaonic reliefs it says were chipped off tombs and stolen 30 years ago, threatening to end their archaeological work here if they refuse.
    (AP, 7/17/05)

2005        Jul 18, A British jury convicted Faryadi Sarwar Zardad, a former Afghan warlord, of torture and hostage-taking (1991-1996). It was the first trial in Britain of a foreigner for crimes committed in his homeland. The next day Zardad was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
    (AP, 7/19/05)(AP, 7/20/05)

2005        Jul 19, British firm SABMiller announced a $7.8 billion purchase of Grupo Empresarial Bavaria, South America’s 2nd largest brewer.
    (Econ, 7/23/05, p.61)
2005        Jul 19, Egypt said that Magdy el-Nashar, the detained chemist wanted by Britain for questioning about the London bombings, had no links to the July 7 attacks or to al-Qaida.
    (AP, 7/19/05)

2005        Jul 21, Explosions struck 3 London Underground stations and a bus at midday in a chilling but less deadly replay of the suicide bombings that killed 56 people two weeks ago. One person was seriously wounded. In 2007 a British prosecutor told a jury that 6 men plotted to kill London subway and bus passengers with bombs made from hydrogen peroxide and flour on July 21, 2005, two weeks after suicide bombers killed 52 commuters in the city. The devices failed to explode. In 2007 a jury convicted Muktar Said Ibrahim (29), Yassin Omar (26), Ramzi Mohammed (25), and Hussain Osman (28) for conspiracy to murder. The jury failed to reach a verdict for Manfo Kwaku Asiedu (34) and Adel Yahya (24). The 4 convicted men were sentenced to life in prison. In 2007 Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, who was born in Ghana, admitted a charge of conspiracy to cause explosions over the failed bombings. Asiedu was supposed to be carrying a fifth bomb on the day but ended up dumping the rucksack with his device in a park in north London. Asiedu was sentenced to 33 years in prison. In 2008 Siraj Ali (33), Muhedin Ali (29), Ismail Abdurahman (25), Wahbi Mohammed (25) and Abdul Sherif (30), were convicted on 22 charges of failing to disclose information about terrorism and assisting an offender. They included the brothers of two of the July 21, 2005 bombers.
    (AP, 7/21/05)(AP, 1/15/07)(AP, 7/11/07)(Reuters, 11/9/07)(AP, 11/20/07)(AFP, 2/4/08)

2005        Jul 22, In London a man, who appeared to be South Asian, was slain by officers at the Stockwell subway station. Police said the man was challenged and refused to obey instructions. The next day police identified the man as Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian electrician, and said he was not related the bombings and expressed regret for his death. Menezes was shot in the head 7 times. In 2009 the Metropolitan police agreed to a compensation deal with the family of de Menezes. On March 30 a European court ruled that British authorities were right not to prosecute police over the killing of Menezes.
    (AP, 7/22/05)(AP, 7/23/05)(Econ, 7/22/06, p.18)(AFP, 11/23/09)(SFC, 3/31/16, p.A2)

2005        Jul 23, The man shot at the Stockwell subway station on July 22 was identified as Jean Charles de Menezes (27) of Brazil. London police acknowledged that Menezes had nothing to do with recent bombings on the city’s transit system. Brazil's government demanded an explanation for the fatal police shooting of a Brazilian citizen on a London subway car.
    (AP, 7/24/05)

2005        Jul 24, Sir Richard Doll (92), the British scientist who first established a link between smoking and lung cancer, died in Oxford, England.
    (AP, 7/24/06)

2005        Jul 25, British police identified 2 suspects in the July 21 bombings: Muktar Said Ibrahim (27) and Yasin Hassan Omar (24)
    (SFC, 7/30/05, p.A11)

2005        Jul 26, Pernod Ricard SA said it has completed its takeover of British rival Allied Domecq PLC to become the world's second-largest wines and spirits maker.
    (AP, 7/26/05)

2005        Jul 27, British police arrested 4 men in raids in Birmingham including Yasin Hassan Omar, who was suspected of being a member of the gang that carried out botched bombings last week in London. 3 women were also arrested.
    (Reuters, 7/27/05)(SFC, 7/30/05, p.A11)

2005        Jul 28, Anti-terrorist officers arrested nine men in dawn raids in connection with the botched July 21 attacks on London's transit system, bringing to 20 the number of people police have in custody, including one of the alleged bombers.
    (AP, 7/28/05)
2005        Jul 28, An official reported anonymously that Haroon Rashid Aswat (31) has been arrested in the border town of Livingstone, having crossed into Zambia from Zimbabwe. Aswat was sought in connection with the July 7 attacks in London that killed 56 people.
    (AP, 7/29/05)

2005        Jul 29, London police raided 2 apartments in West London and arrested three people connected to the failed July 21 transit bombings.
    (AP, 7/29/05)
2005        Jul 29, The British army began closing or demolishing military installations in the Irish Republican Army's rural heartland in a rapid response to the IRA's declaration to renounce violence and disarm.
    (AP, 7/29/05)
2005        Jul 29, Osman Hussain (27), a Briton with Ethiopian citizenship, was arrested in Rome after investigators traced his cell phone calls across Europe. He is accused of trying to attack the Shepherd's Bush subway station in west London.
    (AP, 7/30/05)

2005        Jul 30, Anthony Walker (18), a black teenager who was followed through a park by a group of men shouting racist taunts, died after an attacker embedded an ax in his skull.
    (AP, 7/31/05)
2005        Jul 30, In southern Iraq 2 British contractors guarding a consulate convoy were killed by a roadside bomb. A car bomb exploded near the National Theater in Baghdad, killing 5 people, including 3 policemen. Assailants in military garb tried to assassinate a prominent Sunni Arab leader. 5 US soldiers were killed by roadside bombs in two separate incidents in Baghdad.
    (AP, 7/30/05)(AP, 7/31/05)

2005        Jul 31, Police arrested seven people during a raid on an apartment in southern England, bringing to 21 the number in custody in the relentless hunt for accomplices in the failed July 21 transit bombings in London.
    (AP, 7/31/06)
2005        Jul 31, Jeong Jang shot a 3-under 69 to win the Women's British Open by four strokes.
    (AP, 7/31/06)

2005        Jul, Britain banned Kenya’s minister Chris Murungaru from visiting Britain. No reason was given but allegations of corruption in Kenya were believed to be a major factor.
    (Econ, 8/13/05, p.38)

2005        Aug 1, Britain revealed a two-year plan for slashing its army garrison and base network to peacetime levels in Northern Ireland in a dramatic, detailed response to Irish Republican Army peace moves.
    (AP, 8/1/05)

2005        Aug 2, France, Britain and Germany hardened their tone toward Iran, warning that Tehran risked triggering an international crisis and could face U.N. sanctions if it follows through with a threat to resume its nuclear program.
    (AP, 8/2/05)

2005        Aug 3, British police charged Ismael Abdurahman (23) of South London, arrested on July 28, on an offense relating to terrorism.
    (SFC, 8/4/05, p.A10)

2005        Aug 4, The Bank of England cut official interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to 4.5 percent, noting the risk that already sluggish household spending and investment growth in Britain could slow further.
    (AP, 8/4/05)

2005        Aug 5, PM Tony Blair announced strict new measures that would allow Britain to deport foreigners who preach hatred, sponsor violence or belong to extremist groups.
    (AP, 8/5/05)

2005        Aug 6, Robin Cook (59), former British Foreign Secretary, who quit Prime Minister Tony Blair's Cabinet in 2003 to protest the Iraq war, died after collapsing on a Scottish mountain while walking with his wife.
    (AP, 8/6/05)(Econ, 8/13/05, p.75)

2005        Aug 7, A British remote-controlled vehicle cut away undersea cables that snarled a Russian mini-submarine in deep waters off the Kamchatka Peninsula allowing it to surface. 7 people trapped for nearly 3 days on the mini-sub were rescued.
    (AP, 8/7/05)
2005        Aug 7, Zambia deported Haroon Rashid Aswat (31), a Briton who has been questioned in connection with the July 7 London transit bombings and is suspected of links to al-Qaida.
    (AP, 8/7/05)

2005        Aug 10, The castaway television thriller "Lost" debuted as the most watched U.S. import on British television since soap opera "Dallas" captivated fans more than 20 years ago.
    (AP, 8/11/05)

2005        Aug 11, A one-day strike by British Airways baggage handlers and other ground staff forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights to and from Heathrow Airport.
    (AP, 8/11/06)
2005        Aug 11, Lebanese police arrested Omar Bakri, the Islamic cleric who is being investigated in Britain for his remarks on the London bombings.
    (AP, 8/11/05)

2005        Aug 12, At least 70,000 travelers were left stranded as British Airways canceled all flights to and from Heathrow Airport after catering staff, baggage handlers and other ground crew walked off the job in wildcat strikes at the height of the summer tourism season.
    (AP, 8/12/05)

2005        Aug 13, Britain's tax-funded National Health Service is unsustainable and should be scrapped, the country's most senior doctor said, but the country's largest health union warned that any change to the NHS' founding principles would lead to a "public outcry".
    (AP, 8/13/05)
2005        Aug 16, In Britain an official investigation contradicted the police account of the July 21 killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, an electrician from Brazil.
    (SFC, 8/17/05, p.A12)

2005        Aug 18, British bank Royal Bank of Scotland (RBoS) announced that it would lead a consortium to buy a 10-percent stake in Bank of China for 3.1 billion dollars (2.5 billion euros).
    (AP, 8/18/05)

2005        Aug 19, Mo Mowlam (55), British politician, died after hitting her head in a fall in Canterbury, England. Her no-nonsense negotiating as Northern Ireland secretary helped forge the province's landmark peace accord.
    (AP, 8/19/05)(AP, 8/19/06)

2005        Aug 23, A British woman who can only move her head, eyes and mouth sailed across the English Channel and into the record books on board a modified boat she controlled by sucking or blowing into straws.
    (AFP, 8/23/05)

2005        Aug 24, Jack Slipper (81), Scotland Yard detective, died. He pursued one of the fugitives from Britain's "Great Train Robbery" across many years and two continents.
    (AP, 8/24/05)

2005        Aug 30, Britain announced plans, the first by any Western country, to ban the downloading and possession of violent sexual images.
    (AP, 8/30/05)

2005        Aug 31, Joseph Rotblat (b.1908), Polish-born British physicist and Nobel Peace Prize winner (1995), died in London. In 1957 he helped found the Pugwash Conference on science and world affairs. His work on nuclear fallout was a major contribution to the agreement of the Partial Test Ban Treaty (1963). In 2012 Andrew Brown authored “Keeper of the Nuclear Conscience: The Life and Work of Joseph Rotblat.”
    (SFC, 9/2/05, p.B5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Rotblat)(Econ, 3/31/12, p.94)

2005        Sep 11, A British serviceman was killed and three injured in a late-morning bomb attack in Iraq's southern Basra province.
    (AP, 9/11/05)

2005        Sep 12, Protestant extremists attacked Northern Ireland police and British troops into a third day, littering streets with rubble and burned-out vehicles in violence sparked by anger over a restricted parade.
    (AP, 9/12/05)

2005        Sep 14, Britain declared that the Ulster Volunteer Force, a major outlawed Protestant group in Northern Ireland, has abandoned its 11-year-old truce and is an enemy of the peace once again.
    (AP, 9/14/05)

2005        Sep 15, British police arrested Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, leader of the oil-rich southern Nigerian state of Bayelsa, as part of a money laundering investigation.
    (AP, 9/16/05)

2005        Sep 19, Iraqi police detained two British soldiers in the southern port city of Basra, following a shooting incident. British forces smashed jail walls to free 2 British commandos detained earlier in the day by Iraqi police. Iraqi officials said at least 2 civilians were killed.
    (AP, 9/19/05)(SFC, 9/20/05, p.A1)

2005        Sep 22, In Scotland a judge sentenced a British lord to 16 months in prison for causing a fire at a hotel. Lord Mike Watson (56) admitted to setting fire to a curtain after having several drinks at the Scottish Politician of the Year awards ceremony in Edinburgh on Nov. 12.
    (AP, 9/22/05)
2005        Sep 22, British troops in the city of Basra greatly reduced their presence in the streets, apparently responding to a provincial governor's call to sever cooperation until London apologized for storming a police station to free two of its soldiers.
    (AP, 9/22/05)
2005        Sep 22, In Britain 8 Zimbabwean soccer players and two officials deserted their teams after a tour, joining thousands of fellow citizens who have sought refuge abroad over a serious political and economic crisis at home.
    (AP, 9/24/05)

2005        Sep 23, A British convert to Islam was jailed for 15 years after being convicted in London on two charges of possessing of articles for use in terrorism. Andrew Rowe (34), arrested in Oct, 2003, was found guilty of having a book containing notes on how to fire a mortar bomb, plus details of a secret communication code. He was jailed for 7½Â  years for each charge.
    (AP, 9/23/05)

2005        Sep 24, Thousands of people marched through central London demanding that British PM Tony Blair withdraw British troops from Iraq. Marches also took place in the US and Europe.
    (AP, 9/24/05)

2005        Sep 25, In Britain Rochelle Holness (15) vanished after she let home to call her boyfriend from a telephone box. Her mutilated body was later found in five black plastic bin bags near a rubbish chute in Catford, south London. In 2006 John McGrady (48), a convicted rapist and former butcher, was sentenced to life in prison for the killing.
    (AFP, 5/16/06)
2005        Sep 25, The partially-clothed body of Sally Anne Bowman (18), whose was found lying in the driveway of her home in Croydon, south London. In 2008 a jury at London's Central Criminal Court found Mark Dixie (37) guilty of killing the aspiring model. A judge recommended he serve at least 34 years.
    (www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/22/ukcrime3)

2005        Oct 4, In London Russia’s Pres. Putin met with EU leaders for talks on expanding cooperation in the fight against crime, including terrorism, and strengthening trade ties.
    (AP, 10/4/05)

2005        Oct 7, Reckitt Benckiser PLC announced it has agreed to buy the consumer healthcare division of Boots Group PLC for 1.9 billion pounds ($3.4 billion).
    (AP, 10/7/05)

2005        Oct 9, In southern Afghanistan a suicide attacker rammed a car laden with explosives into an armored vehicle carrying British government officials, wounding four of them.
    (AP, 10/9/05)

2005        Oct 11, Irish author John Banville beat higher profile favorites to become the surprise winner of Britain's prestigious Booker Prize for fiction. His novel "The Sea" was described by the judges as "a masterly study of grief, memory and love recollected".
    (AP, 10/11/05)

2005        Oct 11, The British government said it will pay unspecified compensation for injuries and damage caused when its army stormed a police station in the southern Iraqi city of Basra last month to release two soldiers.
    (AP, 10/11/05)
2005        Oct 11, British police arrested 19 people on human smuggling charges. Authorities said the multi-national organization had illegally brought tens of thousands of Turkish Kurds into Britain in recent years.
    (SFC, 10/12/05, p.A3)
2005        Oct 11, Arthur Seldon (89), British intellectual architect of Blairism and Thatcherism, died. Antony Fisher, founder of the Institute of Economic Affairs, hired Seldon as editorial director in 1958.
    (Econ, 10/22/05, p.90)

2005        Oct 12, The British government unveiled sweeping anti-terrorism legislation designed to crack down on Islamic extremism, raising concerns from Muslim leaders, opposition parties and legal experts about the potential for infringing on civil liberties.
    (AP, 10/12/05)

2005        Oct 13, British playwright Harold Pinter, who juxtaposed the brutal and the banal in such works as "The Caretaker" and "The Birthday Party" and made an art form out of spare language and unbearable silence, won the 2005 Nobel Prize in literature.
    (AP, 10/13/05)

2005        Oct 16, Britain’s Sunday Telegraph said satellite broadcaster BSkyB will muscle in on the lucrative Internet broadband market by announcing next week the takeover of Easynet, the London-listed telecoms company.
    (AP, 10/16/05)

2005        Oct 17, The British government announced that smoking will be banned at all workplaces as well as pubs and restaurants in Northern Ireland from April 2007.
    (AP, 10/17/05)

2005        Oct 19, Rory Carroll, 33, an Irish citizen who is the London Guardian's Baghdad correspondent, was kidnapped while on assignment. Carroll was released the next day.
    (AP, 10/19/05)(AP, 10/20/05)
2005        Oct 19, Police in Bosnia arrested a cyber-jihadist who called himself Maximus. Mirsad Bektasevic, a Swedish teenager of Bosnian extraction, was sentenced to jail along with 3 others for plotting attacks to take place in Bosnia or other European countries. On his computer police found contacts with other jihadists in Europe including Younis Tsouli (Irhabi007), whom British police arrested 2 days later.
    (Econ, 7/14/07, p.28)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irhabi_007)

2005        Oct 21, Britain and Croatia confirmed cases of bird flu as countries around the world scrambled to put in place measures to prevent the spread of the virus. British officials said a parrot that had been imported from South America died of bird flu in quarantine.
    (AP, 10/22/05)

2005        Oct 22, In Britain one man was stabbed to death and several other people hurt in Birmingham when riots erupted over allegations a black girl was raped, though police said there is nothing to substantiate the claim. Members of the ethnic Afro-Caribbean and Pakistani communities clashed violently with each other after a week of tension over rumors that a 14-year-old Jamaican girl was raped at a South Asian-run shop.
    (AFP, 10/23/05)(AFP, 10/29/05)

2005        Oct 26, The EU said the dangerous H5N1 strain of bird flu has been found in Croatia. Authorities said a 2nd parrot that died in quarantine in Britain was also infected with the virus.
    (AP, 10/26/05)

2005        Oct 29, In Afghanistan a US paratrooper was killed after his patrol came under fire in a volatile province near the eastern border with Pakistan and a British soldier was shot to death in northern Afghanistan. Officials said at least 21 other people were killed in fighting last week.
    (AP, 10/29/05)

2005        Oct, British defense contractor BAE Systems began to the Autonomous learning Agents for Decentralized Data and Information Systems (ALADDIN) together with the universities of Bristol, Oxford, Southampton and Imperial College, London.
    (Econ, 11/27/10, p.89)

2005        Nov 1, Britain's Competition Commission (CC) gave approval to proposed takeovers of the London Stock Exchange by the German Deutsche Boerse or the pan-European market Euronext, but attached conditions.
    (AFP, 11/1/05)

2005        Nov 2, In Britain Cabinet minister David Blunkett resigned. He acknowledged that his business dealings had breached ministerial guidelines and that his position as work and pensions secretary had become untenable.
    (AP, 11/2/05)

2005        Nov 4, In Oxford restaurant waiter Chomir Ali (44) was jailed for life for ordering his sons to kill Arash Ghorbani-Zarin (19), a Muslim university student of Iranian descent. The conviction of a Bangladeshi-origin man along with his two teenage sons for murdering the student who made his daughter pregnant illustrates the growing prevalence in Britain of so-called "honor crimes." Ghorbani-Zarin was stabbed 46 times.
    (AFP, 11/5/05)

2005        Nov 5, John Fowles (b.1926), English novelist, died at his home in Lyme Regis, Dorset. His books included "The Collector" (1963), “The Magus” (1965) and “The French Lieutenant's Woman” (1969). Volume I of his journals (1949-1965) was published in May. Volume II (1966-1990) was published in 2006.
    (SFC, 11/8/05, p.B5)(Econ, 11/19/05, p.92)(SSFC, 10/29/06, p.M1)

2005        Nov 8, Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Britain for a 3-day state visit that will include a banquet dinner with Queen Elizabeth II and trade talks with PM Tony Blair. Jintao faced protests from human rights campaigners upon his arrival in London.
    (AP, 11/8/05)

2005        Nov 9, Britain’s House of Commons defeated a crucial provision of the government’s latest anti-terrorism bill, handing PM Tony Blair his 1st Commons defeat since he came to power.
    (SFC, 11/10/05, p.A12)
2005        Nov 9, Chinese President Hu Jintao met Prime Minister Tony Blair as business leaders signed $1.3 billion in contracts and human rights protesters demonstrated outside Blair's office.
    (AP, 11/9/05)

2005        Nov 10, A Boeing Co. jet arrived in London from Hong Kong, breaking the record for the longest nonstop flight by a commercial jet.
    (AP, 11/10/05)

2005        Nov 16, Home Secretary Charles Clarke ordered that British citizen Babar Ahmad be extradited to the United States to face terrorism charges under controversial new rules allowing countries to seek extradition without producing evidence of a crime.
    (AP, 11/16/05)
2005        Nov 16, Britain’s National Statistics office said the number of people claiming jobless benefits increased by a higher-than-expected 12,100 from September to a total of 890,100 people at the end of October.
    (AP, 11/16/05)

2005        Nov 17, Austria’s Interior Ministry said British historian David Irving has been arrested on a warrant accusing him of denying the Holocaust. On Dec 20, 2006, a court ruled to release Irving (68) and allow him to serve the rest of his 3 year sentence on probation.
    (AP, 11/17/05)(SFC, 12/21/06, p.A18)

2005        Nov 18, In Bradford, England, a gang of men shot and killed Sharon Beshenivsky (38), an unarmed policewoman, and wounded another. Police arrested six people in connection with the crime. In October 2006 Muzzaker Imtiaz Shah (25), one of 5 men due to be tried, admitted the killing. In 2007 Mustaf Jama (27) was arrested in Somalia and flown back to Britain to face charges related to the murder. Five people were already convicted in connection with Beshenivsky's death.
    (AP, 11/19/05)(AFP, 10/11/06)(AFP, 11/2/07)

2005        Nov 20, British military said a British soldier was killed and four wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq's southern city of Basra. A total of 98 British soldiers have been killed in Iraq, including 65 in hostile action, since the US-led invasion in March 2003.
    (AFP, 11/20/05)

2005        Nov 21, British authorities said Diepreye Alamieyeseigha (1953), the governor of Nigeria’s oil-rich state Bayelsa, has skipped bail and returned home. He had been arrested and charged in Britain for laundering millions.
    (AP, 11/21/05)

2005        Nov 23, In Britain and Wales the early pub closing times, that had governed drinking in Britain since their introduction during World War I, were set to end at midnight. The laws had required most pubs to close at 11 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 10:30 p.m. on Sundays. New rules allowed pubs, bars, shops, restaurants and clubs to apply to open any hours they like, although each license must be approved by local authorities.
    (AP, 11/23/05)

2005        Nov 25, George Best (59), one of the most dazzling players in soccer history who also reveled in a hard-drinking, playboy lifestyle, died in London after decades of alcohol abuse.
    (AP, 11/25/05)
2005        Nov 25, In Vietnam former British glam rocker Gary Glitter was charged with committing "obscene acts with children" and could face more serious charges that carry the death penalty.
    (AP, 11/25/05)

2005        Oct 28, UK telecommunications company Vodafone Group PLC said it has bought a 10% stake in India's largest wireless operator Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd. for $1.5 billion in cash.
    (www.cellular-news.com/story/14603.php)(Econ, 11/12/05, p.70)

2005        Nov 30, In London Uganda-born John Sentamu was enthroned as the first black archbishop in the Church of England.
    (AP, 11/30/05)

2005        Nov, The Future of Humanity Institute was founded as part of the Faculty of Philosophy and the Oxford Martin School. Nick Bostrom, Swedish-born philosopher at the University of Oxford, established the Institute to investigate big-picture questions about humanity and its prospects.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_Humanity_Institute)

2005        Dec 2, The G-7 finance ministers and central bankers discussed interest rates, high energy prices, inflation and trade imbalances for the final time under Britain's leadership. The meeting was Alan Greenspan's last G-7 appearance as Federal Reserve chairman.
    (AP, 12/02/05)

2005        Dec 3, Economic officials from the world's richest countries resumed their pressure on China to adopt a more flexible exchange rate as they concluded a meeting in London.
    (AP, 12/3/06)
2005        Dec 3, British girls Olivia Bazlinton (14) and Charlotte Thompson (13) died when they were hit by an express train in Elsenham. In 2011 the rail regulator said Network Rail will be prosecuted over the deaths of the two young girls killed at a level crossing.
    (AFP, 11/25/11)(http://olivia-renee-bazlinton.gonetoosoon.org/)

2005        Dec 5, Gay couples in Britain began registering for civil partnerships as a law took effect giving them many of the same legal rights as married heterosexuals.
    (AP, 12/05/05)

2005        Dec 6, Britain's Conservative Party crowned David Cameron (39) as its new leader, hoping to end an election losing streak as PM Tony Blair's power and popularity sag.
    (AP, 12/06/05)

2005        Dec 8, Britain's highest court ruled that evidence obtained in other countries through torture may not be used in British courts.
    (AP, 12/08/05)
2005        Dec 8, After half a century, London's red Routemaster buses rattled into retirement. Thousands of fans said farewell to the hop-on, hop-off buses, this last full day of regular service for the icon.
    (AP, 12/08/05)

2005        Dec 9-2005 Dec 11, Fidel Ramos, former president of the Philippines, chaired the 1st annual meeting of the Emerging Markets Forum at Templeton College, Oxford, England.
    (Econ, 12/17/05, p.76)

2005        Dec 11, In Britain a huge inferno followed explosions at the Buncefield oil depot. 43 people were injured. In 2009 a court said French oil giant Total must pay bills valued at more than 750 million pounds for people whose homes and businesses were damaged in the fire. In 2010 five companies were ordered to pay fines and costs of more than £9 million (13.8 million dollars, 10.6 million euros).
    (http://tinyurl.com/chwzwb)(AFP, 3/20/09)(AFP, 7/16/10)

2005        Dec 13, Britain's Vodafone Group PLC offered the highest bid, $4.55 billion, in an auction to buy Telsim, Turkey's 2nd-largest cell-phone company, from the Turkish government.
    (AP, 12/13/05)

2005        Dec 14, In London 4 youths were convicted of manslaughter for beating to death a man who had survived the fatal nail-bombing of a British gay pub six years ago. Barman David Morley (37) was beaten to death by a gang of youths in central London in October 2004.
    (AP, 12/15/05)
2005        Dec 14, Ancient tools found in Britain show that humans lived in northern Europe 200,000 years earlier than previously thought, at a time when the climate was warm enough for lions, elephants and saber tooth tigers to also roam what is now England.
    (AP, 12/14/05)

2005        Dec 19, The United Kingdom's first gay couple to win legal recognition under a new civil partnership law drove past protesters to make their vows inside Belfast City Hall.
    (AP, 12/19/05)

2005        Dec 21, Hallam Tennyson (85), the great-grandson of poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, was found stabbed to death at his London apartment.
    (AP, 12/24/05)

2005        Dec 23, A British judge ruled that Alexander Temerko (39), a former executive of Russian oil producer OAO Yukos, may not be extradited to Russia because the case is politically motivated and he would not receive a fair trial.
    (AP, 12/23/05)
2005        Dec 23, US fashion company Tommy Hilfiger Corp., whose all-American designs have struggled in its home market, was taken over for 1.6 billion dollars by British private equity group Apax Partners.
    (AP, 12/23/05)

2005        Dec 24, It was reported that bovine TB was rising 18% a year on British farms and that the disease was being transmitted by badgers.
    (Econ, 12/24/05, p.79)

2005        Dec 29, A British opposition legislator called for an investigation into claims that British security officers were involved in abducting and mistreating terrorist suspects in Greece. 28 Pakistanis claim they were abducted from their homes in Athens and other parts of Greece in mid-July, shortly after deadly transit bombings in London.
    (AP, 12/30/05)

2005        Dec 31, British subway workers in London walked out in a 24-hour strike timed to cripple the subway system on a night when tens of thousands of revelers were planning to celebrate New Year in the city.
    (AP, 12/31/05)
2005        Dec 31, A British aid worker and her parents were whisked out of Gaza after being released by Palestinian gunmen who had abducted them two days earlier.
    (AP, 12/31/05)

2005        Journalist Geoffrey Wheatcroft authored “The Strange Death of Tory England.”
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strange_Death_of_Tory_England)
2005        In Britain the Labor government brought in Control Orders, allowing suspects to be kept under curfew for up to 16 hours a day. In 2010 the British government lost a court battle on against two former terrorism suspects trying to win damages for being held without charge under security laws designed to combat militants.
    (AP, 7/28/10)
2005        Britain’s Gambling Act of 2005 came into force.
    (Econ, 6/11/05, p.54)
2005        British billionaire Michael Brown donated about 2.4 million pounds to fund the national election campaign of Britain's Liberal Democrats, the third ranked party's largest ever donation. In 2008 Brown was convicted of fraud and sentenced in his absence to 7 years in jail.
    (AP, 1/6/12)
2005         Oak processionary moths were accidentally introduced to Britain on plants imported from continental Europe. Its pre-moth white-haired caterpillars can cause rashes, vomiting and asthma attacks.
    (AP, 4/29/18)
2005        Mark Davies, a British dotcom tycoon, went to Ghana and started TradeNet, a software company that later developed a simple sort of eBay for agricultural products.
    (Econ, 1/27/07, p.48)

2006        Jan 1, Ketamine, an anesthetic and niche club drug, was labeled a Class C drug in the United Kingdom. It was developed by Parke-Davis in 1962 as part of an effort to find a safer anesthetic alternative to phencyclidine (PCP), which was likely to cause hallucinations, neurotoxicity and seizures.
    (Eon, 11/19/11, p.59)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketamine)
2006        Jan 1, The Royal Mail's 350-year-long monopoly of the letter-delivery business in Britain ended, as new rules kicked in to allow rival operators to win a slice of the market.
    (AP, 6/29/07)

2007        Jan 6, David Whelan (60) and his son Andrew (35) trawled through a farmer's field near Harrogate, in northern England, when their metal detector squealed. The pair discovered a Viking trove of coins and jewelry was buried more than 1,000 years ago, a collection of items from Ireland, France, Russia and Scandinavia that testified to the raiders' international reach.
    (AP, 7/1907)

2006        Jan 11, British PM Tony Blair said that Western countries were likely to seek economic sanctions against Iran after Tehran restarted its nuclear program, but a powerful cleric said it would not curtail its research.
    (AP, 1/11/06)

2006        Jan 21, A lost whale that strayed up the Thames in central London was gently lifted onto a barge as crowds lined the river banks to watch a unique rescue operation. Wally, a young bottle-nosed whale, died while being returned to the sea.
    (AFP, 1/22/06)

2006        Jan 23, Russia's main intelligence agency said it had uncovered spying by four British diplomats, using electronic equipment inside a fake rock. The FSB then alleged that Britain was making covert payments to pro-democracy and human rights groups. In 2012 Jonathan Powell, a former Downing Street official, admitted for the first time that Britain was responsible for the James Bond-style spy plot involving the fake rock.
    (AP, 1/23/06)(AFP, 1/19/12)

2006        Jan 24, The British government unveiled a plan to put one million of the 2.7 million people on incapacity benefits back to work within the next decade, saving huge sums of taxpayers' money.
    (AFP, 1/24/06)
2006        Jan 24, Banaz Mahmod (20) was raped, beaten, strangled, stuffed in a suitcase and buried in a back garden in Birmingham, England, on her father's orders for becoming involved with a man of whom he did not approve. Mahmod's father was given a life sentence in 2007 for ordering the killing. In 2010 two of her Kurdish cousins were jailed for life by a London court for murdering Mahmod because her family disapproved of her boyfriend.
    (www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article5263475.ece)(AP, 11/10/10)

2006        Jan 26, Britain said it will send at least another 4,000 troops, four times its current deployment, to Afghanistan in coming months as a NATO mission expands into a dangerous region rife with Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents.
    (AP, 1/26/06)
2006        Jan 26, British port and ferries group P&O said it has accepted a takeover bid from Singapore's PSA International worth 3.545 billion pounds (5.2 billion euros, 6.4 billion dollars).
    (AP, 1/26/06)

2006        Jan 27, British port operator Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. switched prospective suitors for the second time after Dubai Ports World raised its offer for the company to almost $7 billion, trumping an offer from Singapore's PSA International Ltd.
    (AP, 1/27/06)
2006        Jan 27, Christopher Lloyd (84), iconoclastic English gardener, died.
    (Econ, 2/4/06, p.78)

2006        Jan 30, Music retailers said the Rock band Arctic Monkeys have smashed the British record for the fastest-selling debut album of all time.
    (AFP, 1/30/06)

2006        Jan 31, British lawmakers watered down a bill banning religious hate speech, then narrowly voted it into law.
    (AP, 1/31/06)(Econ, 2/4/06, p.52)
2006        Jan 31, A British soldier was killed in a roadside bombing, the second member of the country's armed forces to die in Iraq in as many days and the 100th fatality since the conflict began nearly three years ago.
    (AP, 1/31/06)

2006        Jan, Faisal Wangita (25), son of former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, was part of a 40-strong gang that attacked Somali teenager Mahir Osman (18), in a busy street in north London. Osman was stabbed 20 times, attacked with baseball bats, bottles and hammers, punched and kicked and died within a minute. In 2007 13 people were convicted over the attack at two trials that ended in April, including three men found guilty of murder. Wangita was acquitted of murder but was then jailed for five years for conspiracy to wound and violent disorder for apparently kicking Osman when he was on the ground.
    (AP, 8/3/07)

2006        Feb 1, A joint British and Irish report said the Irish Republican Army has halted violence but is still gathering intelligence on enemies and remains deeply involved in organized crime.
    (AP, 2/1/06)
2006        Feb 1, In southern England thieves driving Jeeps forced entry to the Ramsbury Manor, a property tycoon Harry Hyams, stealing around 300 museum-grade artifacts. The value of the stolen art was later put at $142 million.
    (AP, 4/24/06)(http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=171132006)

2006        Feb 3, British author Phillippe Sands said in a new edition of his 2005 ”Lawless World” that Pres. Bush commented in a White House meeting with Tony Blair on Jan. 31, 2003, that the US intended to go to war even if inspectors failed to find evidence of a banned weapons program. Sands cited a memo of the meeting as saying Bush also told Blair that military intervention was scheduled for March 2003 even without UN backing.
    (AP, 2/3/06)

2006        Feb 7, A British jury convicted firebrand Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri of inciting followers to kill non-Muslims in speeches at his London mosque, which has been linked to Sept. 11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui and "shoe bomber" Richard Reid.
    (AP, 2/7/06)

2006        Feb 9, Neil Entwistle (27), a British man, whose wife and daughter were found shot dead in their Massachusetts home, was arrested in Britain and charged with murder.
    (AFP, 2/9/06)
2006        Feb 9, Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer and the world's third-biggest retailer, said it is preparing to take on number-one Wal-Mart on its own turf after unveiling plans to set up shop in the US next year.
    (AP, 2/9/06)

2006        Feb 12, Video images of British soldiers allegedly beating Iraqi youths with batons and fists aired throughout the Middle East and Britain, outraging locals and prompting British Prime Minister Tony Blair to vow a full investigation.
    (AP, 2/12/06)

2006        Feb 13, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and his Moroccan counterpart, Mohamed Benaissa, agreed to boost economic ties between the two countries and hold an annual business forum to this end.
    (AFP, 2/13/06)
2006        Feb 13, DP World, a ports operator owned by the government of Dubai (UAR), paid $6.8 billion to acquire P&O, a British firm which runs a global network of maritime terminals including 6 American ports.
    (Econ, 2/25/06, p.33)

2006        Feb 14, Britain's lower house of Parliament voted to ban smoking in all public places in England, including pubs, both public and private.
    (AP, 2/14/06)

2006        Feb 15, British lawmakers voted to ban glorifying terrorism, giving PM Tony Blair a badly needed victory on a measure he said was key to preventing future attacks.
    (AP, 2/15/06)
2006        Feb 15, The beheaded bodies of two Afghan intelligence agents were found dumped in western Afghanistan as the first of thousands of British troop reinforcements arrived in the south. The intelligence agents had been captured in Farah province two days ago by suspected remnants of the Taliban.
    (AFP, 2/15/06)

2006        Feb 18, More than 10,000 angry people protested in central London against the Prophet Muhammad cartoons that have infuriated many in the Muslim world.
    (AP, 2/18/06)

2006        Feb 22, In England thieves impersonated police officers and robbed the equivalent of up to $85 million from Securitas Cash Management Ltd., a cash center at Tonbridge in Kent county, in one of the largest heists in British history. In 2008 five men were convicted over country's biggest cash robbery, which saw some 53 million pounds stolen in southeast England. In 2009 Paul Allen (31) was sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the robbery. Allen had fled to Morocco after the robbery and was extradited last year. In 2010 Ibrahim Lee Murray (32), believed to be the mastermind of the robbery, was sentenced in Morocco to 10 years in jail on various charges including membership of a criminal gang, theft with an armed weapon, wearing an illegal uniform and kidnapping.
    (Reuters, 2/23/06)(AP, 2/27/06)(AP, 1/28/08)(AP, 10/5/09)(AP, 6/3/10)

2006        Feb 24, London Mayor Ken Livingstone was suspended from office for four weeks for bringing his office into disrepute. In Feb 2005 Livingstone compared Oliver Finegold, a Jewish reporter from the Evening Standard to a Nazi concentration camp guard: “You are just doing it because you’re paid to, aren’t you?”
    (AP, 2/24/06)(SFC, 2/25/06, p.A3)
2006        Feb 24, Detectives investigating what could the biggest cash robbery in British history recovered a "significant amount" of the money from a van just miles from the heist site in Tonbridge in Kent.
    (AP, 2/24/06)

2006        Feb 25, British police said two men were arrested near Maidstone in Kent in southeast England in connection with what may be Britain's biggest bank robbery.
    (AFP, 2/25/06)

2006        Feb 26, British police searching for thieves who got away with around $87 million from a security company said they found weapons and $2.3 million in a van they believe the gang used.
    (AP, 2/26/06)

2006        Feb 27, Dan Brown, author of "The Da Vinci Code," was accused in Britain's High Court of taking material for his blockbuster conspiracy thriller from a 1982 book about the Holy Grail. The court ruled in favor of Brown's publisher, Random House, the actual target of the breach-of-copyright lawsuit.
    (AP, 2/27/07)
2006        Feb 27, Britain’s Women and Work Commission published a report on the gender pay gap, currently measured at 17% less per hour than men.
    (Econ, 3/4/06, p.51)
2006        Feb 27, British utility National Grid PLC said it agreed to buy New York-based electricity and natural-gas distributor KeySpan Corp. for $7.3 billion in a deal that would create the third-largest energy delivery utility in the United States.
    (AP, 2/27/06)

2006        Feb 28, A car bomb targeted a British patrol in Amarah, 180 miles from Baghdad, and 2 British soldiers were killed. The deaths raised the British toll in the Iraq conflict to 103.
    (AP, 2/28/06)

2006        Mar 1, British police charged three suspects in the $92 million robbery at a cash depot in southeastern England, the world's largest known peacetime theft.
    (AP, 3/1/06)

2006        Mar 3, Detectives investigating Britain's largest robbery discovered several million pounds in cash at a warehouse in southeast London.
    (AP, 3/3/06)

2006        Mar 4, Detectives investigating Britain's largest cash robbery arrested a 28-year-old man on suspicion of the Feb 22 robbery in south London. Five people have been charged so far in the case.
    (AP, 3/4/06)

2006        Mar 7, Britain unveiled a new system for screening immigrants. Entry would depend on points accumulated in any one of 5 proposed tiers.
    (Econ, 3/11/06, p.52)

2006        Mar 8, Britain issued new rules for diplomats to stop the publishing of tell-all memoirs such as a recent portrayal of Prime Minister Tony Blair as starstruck and senior ministers as "political pygmies."
    (AP, 3/8/06)

2006        Mar 9, John Profumo (91), a former British Cabinet minister, died. His 1963 liaison with a prostitute nearly brought down a government after revelations that the call girl was also involved with a Soviet spy. Profumo was Britain's secretary of state for war when he was involved with Christine Keeler at the same time she was seeing a Soviet naval attache and intelligence agent.
    (AP, 3/10/06)
2006        Mar 9, More than 300 police backed by British and Irish troops mounted dawn raids on the home turf of Thomas "Slab" Murphy, reputedly the Irish Republican Army's veteran chief of staff and its most lucrative smuggler.
    (AP, 3/9/06)

2006        Mar 12, Queen Elizabeth II arrived in Australia for a five-day state visit that has reignited the simmering debate over whether she should remain the country's head of state.
    (AP, 3/12/06)

2006        Mar 13, Defense Secretary John Reid said Britain will cut its forces in Iraq by 10 percent, a reduction of about 800 troops, by May because Iraqi security forces are becoming more capable of handling security.
    (AP, 3/13/06)
2006        Mar 13, In London 6 men participated in a drug trial and soon became seriously ill. The men had been given does of TGN1412, a monoclonal antibody developed by TeGenero AG of Wuerzburg, Germany, for treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases and leukemia.
    (AP, 3/16/06)(Econ, 4/8/06, p.78)

2006        Mar 15, A British serviceman facing his first day of a court martial contended that the war in Iraq is illegal. Flight Lt. Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a Royal Air Force medic, is the first British officer accused of refusing to serve in Iraq.
    (AP, 3/15/06)

2006        Mar 17, Britain’s PM Tony Blair's Labour Party revealed it had received 24.5 million dollars in loans from individual supporters as a furor over the party's secret funding deepened.
    (AP, 3/17/06)(Econ, 3/25/06, p.65)
2006        Mar 17, Mohammed Ajmal Khan (31), a British man who bought equipment which might have been used in attacks on coalition troops in Afghanistan, was jailed after he admitted being a "terrorist quartermaster." He had been trying to buy night vision and thermal imaging equipment when arrested in 2003 and also worked closely with Masaud Khan and Seifullah Chapman, both given long jail terms in the US in 2004 for terrorism-related offences.
    (AP, 3/17/06)

2006        Mar 20, Save the Children, a British charity, said some 9 million children in Africa have lost a mother to AIDS, calling on donors to sharply increase aid to meet their needs.
    (AP, 3/20/06)

2006        Mar 29, British lawmakers approved a measure requiring Britons applying for passports to get an identity card or be entered into a computer database, paving the way for the country's first national ID since World War II.
    (AP, 3/29/06)

2006        Apr 1, Karl Bushby was briefly detained after walking from Alaska across the icy Bering Straits into Russian territory, a treacherous crossing for which he was joined by Dmitri Kieffer, a French-born US citizen who videotaped the adventure. Authorities confiscated the two men's passports and other belongings, effectively making it impossible for them to move. Bushby was on a quest to trek around the world. Bushby set out on foot from southern Chile on November 1, 1998 with the intention of walking back to his home in the northern English city of Hull, a 36,000-mile (58,000-kilometer) odyssey that he was scheduled to complete by 2010. On April 14 a Russian court ordered the deportation of the British adventurer for illegally crossing into Russia, dealing a potentially fatal blow to his dream of walking around the world.
    (AFP, 4/6/06)(AFP, 4/14/06)

2006        Apr 5, Britain reiterated its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands and rejected Argentina's claims in a letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
    (AP, 4/5/06)
2006        Apr 5, Britain’s Serious Fraud Office began criminal proceedings against nine individuals and five companies it alleges fixed the price of two widely prescribed generic drugs sold to the country's free National Health Service (NHS).
    (AFP, 4/5/06)
2006        Apr 5, Home Secretary Charles Clarke said London would press for Romania to be granted membership of the European Union "as soon as possible" as he praised the country's work against people trafficking.
    (AFP, 4/5/06)

2006        Apr 6, Britain's national farming union said tests have confirmed a dead swan found in Scotland had the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.
    (AP, 4/6/06)

2006        Apr 7, A British judge ruled that author Dan Brown did not steal ideas for "The Da Vinci Code" from a nonfiction work.
    (AP, 4/7/07)
2006        Apr 7, Britain’s BAE Systems announced plans to sell its stake in aircraft maker Airbus to its French-German partner EADS.
    (AFP, 4/8/06)

2006        Apr 12, Britain and the US called for sanctions against four Sudanese who have blocked peace efforts and violated human rights in the conflict-wracked Darfur region.
    (AP, 4/12/06)

2006        Apr 13, A military court convicted a British air force doctor of disobeying orders and sentenced him to eight months in prison after he called the Iraq war illegal and refused to return for a third tour of duty.
    (AP, 4/13/06)
2006        Apr 13, Dame Muriel Spark (b.1918) died in Tuscany, Italy. Her spare and humorous novels made her one of the most admired British writers of the post World War II years. Her work of 23 novels, included the autobiographical "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1961), which was later adapted for a Broadway hit (1966) and a movie. In 2010 Martin Stannard authored “Muriel Spark: The Biography.”
    (AP, 4/15/06)(Econ, 4/22/06, p.83)(SFC, 6/12/10, p.E2)

2006        Apr 22, Two British scientists reported that the long-term effects of the Chernobyl disaster could cause up to 66,000 extra deaths from cancer, 15 times more than UN officials predicted last year. Their report was titled "The Other Report on Chernobyl."
    (AFP, 4/22/06)

2006        Apr 24, A tiny ecological car was launched in Britain after three years of research financed by the EU. The three-wheeled vehicle runs on natural gas and consumes 2.5 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (94 miles per gallon). Known as the Clever, Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport, the car is easy to park and can transport a driver and one passenger, seated in the back.
    (AFP, 4/24/06)

2006        Apr 25, Charles Clarke, Britain’s Home Secretary, said that since 1999 Britain had freed 1,023 foreign prisoners, including murderers, rapists and pedophiles, who should have been considered for deportation at the time of their release.
    (Reuters, 4/25/06)(Econ, 4/29/06, p.59)
2006        Apr 25, The fox population in London was reported to be an estimated 10,000.
    (WSJ, 4/26/06, p.A1)

2006        Apr 26, It was reported that John Prescott (67), Britain’s deputy prime minister, had engaged in a 2-year affair with his much younger secretary, Tracey Temple.
    (Econ, 4/29/06, p.60)

2006        Apr 28, Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne, launched a charity in memory of his late mother Princess Diana to help AIDS orphans in Lesotho.
    (AP, 4/28/06)

2006        Apr 30, British environment ministry officials said work has begun to cull chickens at two more poultry farms in eastern England after the suspected discovery there of the H7 strain of bird flu.
    (AFP, 4/30/06)

2006        May 3, Britain and France introduced a UN Security Council resolution demanding that Iran abandon its uranium enrichment program, possibly setting the stage for sanctions if Tehran does not comply.
    (AP, 5/3/06)
2006        May 3, A decade-old ban on British beef, triggered by the mad cow crisis in the mid-1990s, was officially lifted, allowing cattle farmers to resume exports.
    (AFP, 5/3/06)

2006        May 4, Britain took command of NATO's Afghan peacekeeping force as a tide of violence raised apprehension about the alliance's planned takeover of security duties across the country from US forces.
    (AP, 5/4/06)

2006        May 5, British PM Tony Blair shuffled his Cabinet, replacing Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
    (AP, 5/5/07)

2006        May 6, A British military helicopter crashed in Basra and the 5 people were killed. Flight Lieutenant Sarah Mulvihill died in the crash in the southern city of Basra along with Wing Commander John Coxen, Lieutenant Commander Darren Chapman, Lieutenant David Dobson and Marine Paul Collins. Iraqis hurled stones at British troops and set fire to at least one armored vehicle that rushed to the scene. Four Iraqi adults and a child were reported killed during in the melee when Shiite gunmen exchanged fire with British soldiers. 2 insurgents were killed in Tikrit while they were planting a roadside bomb.
    (AP, 5/6/06)(AP, 5/7/06)(AFP, 5/8/06)

2006        May 13, In Iraq 2 British soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb as they patrolled in an armored vehicle near the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
    (AP, 5/14/06)

2006        May 24, In England 10 people were arrested in a sweep targeting support for terrorism outside Britain. Police served warrants at a number of addresses before dawn in an operation involving about 500 officers.
    (AP, 5/24/06)

2006        May 25, The British government unveiled a major overhaul of the state pensions system, revealing that it will increase the retirement age and link benefits to earnings to avert a looming funding crisis as people live longer and have fewer children.
    (AP, 5/25/06)
2006        May 25, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the two politicians most responsible for beginning a war now highly unpopular with both their publics, acknowledged sour notes during a news conference at the White House.
    (AP, 5/26/06)

2006        May 26, News Corp.'s London-based newspaper The Times announced it will launch a US edition next month as part of a push to make the paper an international brand.
    (AP, 5/26/06)

2006        May 28, The BBC reported that at least 1,000 troops have "deserted" the armed forces since the US-led war was launched in Iraq three years ago.
    (AFP, 5/28/06)

2006        Jun 2, British police raided a house in east London house and arrested two men, shooting and wounding one of them. Police said the raid was a response to a specific threat of attack, refused to comment on news reports that the men were plotting to use a chemical weapon. Mohammed Abdul Kahar (23), who was injured in the dawn swoop, and Abul Koyair (20) were freed June 9 after being held for questioning for a week.
    (AP, 6/3/06)(AFP, 6/10/06)

2006        Jun 3, British PM Tony Blair had a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI, at which the two men focused on the importance of inter-faith dialogue, in particular with "moderate Islam", in achieving peace.
    (AP, 6/3/06)
2006        Jun 3, Doctors reported that a new experimental drug, lapatinib, from British-based GlaxoSmithKline PLC, delayed the growth of advanced breast cancer in women who had stopped responding to the drug Herceptin and were out of treatment options. The company planned to sell the drug under the name Tykerb.
    (AP, 6/3/06)(SSFC, 6/4/06, p.A5)

2006        Jun 6, Britain’s BAA, owners of Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick airports, accepted an $18.8 billion bid from Spain’s Grupo Ferrovial, led by Rafael del Pino.
    (Econ, 6/10/06, p.55)(Econ, 7/7/07, p.67)

2006        Jun 7, Britain’s University and College Union agreed to accept a 13.1% pay rise over the next 3 years.
    (Econ, 6/10/06, p.53)

2006        Jun 15, Britain promised to hold Liberia's Charles Taylor in jail if he is convicted of war crimes, paving the way for Liberia's former president to be tried in The Hague.
    (AP, 6/15/06)

2006        Jun 20, British media reported that PM Tony Blair and Queen Elizabeth II are to get two new dedicated aircraft, dubbed "Blair Force One" and "Blair Force Two."
    (AP, 6/20/06)

2006        Jun 25, In Morocco police reported that 4 men were arrested in Rabat in connection with the February 22 theft of more than 53 million pounds from a Kent cash depot, considered Britain's biggest ever bank robbery.
    (AFP, 6/26/06)

2006        Jun 26, Foundem, a small British shopping comparison site, discovered that all of its obvious comparison shopping keywords no longer applied for the company due to changes made by Google.
    (www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/19/google_hand_of_god/)

2006        Jun 27, Archbishop Rowan Williams, head of the 80 million member Anglican Communion, suggested the communion could break up into a core of constituent churches willing to sign a doctrinal covenant on homosexuality and other thorny issues.
    (Econ, 7/1/06, p.52)

2006        Jun 29, PM Tony Blair said Britain will shut down Northern Ireland's legislature and forge a stronger partnership with the Irish government if the province's Catholic and Protestant politicians fail to reach a power-sharing deal by Nov. 24.
    (AP, 6/29/06)
2006        Jun 29, Delegates to the annual conference of the British Medical Association voted against the legalization of doctor-assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia in Britain.
    (AFP, 6/30/06)
2007        Jun 29, In Scotland a four-wheel-drive Jeep rammed into the main terminal at Glasgow airport and exploded in flames. Police arrested two men for the attack, one of them under guard in the hospital after being engulfed in flames when the Jeep crashed into the airport. The driver was later identified as Kafeel Ahmed (28), an Indian aeronautical engineer.
    (Reuters, 6/30/07)(AP, 7/1/07)(SFC, 7/9/07, p.A8)

2006        Jul 5, Japan, the United States and Britain readied a UN Security Council resolution demanding that nations withhold all funds, goods and technology that could be used for North Korea's missile program.
    (AP, 7/5/06)

2006        Jul 7, Syd Barrett (60), a founding member of the rock group Pink Floyd, died at his home in Cambridge, England. The band’s first album was “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.”
    (Reuters, 7/11/06)(SFC, 7/12/06, p.B7)(Econ, 7/22/06, p.83)

2006        Jul 10, Britain unveiled a $6 million program to replace Belfast's towering paramilitary wall murals in the most hard-line Protestant areas with more positive, less threatening art works.
    (AP, 7/10/06)
2006        Jul 10, Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed more than 40 suspected Taliban militants as a warplane dropped 500-pound bombs on a militant compound in Uruzgan province. Britain announced it would send 900 more soldiers to southern Helmand province.
    (AP, 7/10/06)(SFC, 7/11/06, p.A6)

2006        Jul 12, Tony Blair's top fundraiser, Lord Levy, was arrested in an investigation into whether Labour Party leaders improperly nominated their financial backers for seats in the House of Lords.
    (AP, 7/12/06)

2006        Jul 13, The NatWest British bankers David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby were extradited to the US for a $20 million fraud linked to the collapsed Enron Corp. Many viewed the March, 2003, US and British extradition treaty as imbalanced and favoring US interests.
    (Econ, 7/15/06, p.12, 56)
2006        Jul 13, The Guardian newspaper said PM Tony Blair wants China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa to join the G8 to secure multilateral deals on trade, climate change and Iran.
    (AP, 7/13/06)
2006        Jul 13, British and Afghan forces battled Taliban holdouts after repelling a brazen insurgent attack on a police headquarters a day earlier.
    (AP, 7/13/06)

2006        Jul 16, US federal officials arrested David Carruthers in Texas, the British boss of BetonSports, as he changed planes enroute from London to Costa Rica. He was charged the next day, along with 10 others, with conspiracy and fraud related to online gambling.
    (Econ, 7/22/06, p.61)

2006        Jul 19, Britain faced the hottest day ever recorded in July as a heat wave swept much of Europe. Temperatures hit 96.6 degrees south of London.
    (AP, 7/19/06)

2006        Jul 22, In Preston, England, Shezan Umarji (20), a bank worker and business student, was stabbed in the brawl between around 50 white and South Asian youths. Days later 3 men, one aged 17 and two aged 19, were "jointly charged with murder and violent disorder."
    (AFP, 7/25/06)

2006        Jul 23, In England a gust of wind blew an inflatable art exhibit from its moorings at a park in Durham, killing two people and injuring 12. Up to 30 people were on the "Dreamspace", an inflatable network of multicolored tunnels, when wind blew it 30 feet in the air.
    (AP, 7/23/06)

2006        Jul 24, Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki condemned Israel's bombing of Lebanon's civilian infrastructure and vowed to push for a ceasefire during talks with his British PM Tony Blair.
    (AFP, 7/24/06)

2006        Jul 26, Jessica Gilbert (19), a British chess prodigy, fell from an eighth-floor hotel room window in the Czech Republic where she was competing in an international chess tournament. Her death took place days before the trial of her father, whom she had accused of rape, was to begin. In December Ian Gilbert (48), a director of the Royal Bank of Scotland, was acquitted of 5 counts of raping Jessica, while she was still a child, and 6 sexual offenses against other people.
    (AP, 12/15/06)

2006        Jul 28, A US airman convicted of raping three teenage British girls was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Prosecutors said Staff Sgt. James Gardner took advantage of vulnerable girls who lived in a children's home near the US base at Menwith Hill in northern England.
    (AP, 7/28/06)

2006        Jul 29, The Middle East crisis dominated the first full day of PM Tony Blair's tour of California, forcing his promotion of British business interests here to take a back seat. Blair's former foreign secretary, Jack Straw, condemned Israeli action against Lebanon as "disproportionate" in the first such comment by a senior British government minister. PM Blair said an international agreement, leading to a cease-fire in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, is possible sometime in the next few days.
    (AFP, 7/30/06)(AP, 7/29/06)

2006        Jul 31, Britain’s Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CORWM) published a report on what to do waste from decommissioned nuclear reactors. The study recommended burying the waste in a bunker up to a mile underground.
    (Econ, 8/5/06, p.51)
2006        Jul 31, A lesbian couple lost a legal battle to have their Canadian marriage legally recognized in Britain.
    (Reuters, 7/31/06)

2006        Jul, A mother and her 3 children were murdered in Manchester, England. Rahan Arshad (36), a suspect in the murder, fled to Thailand. He was arrested Sep 1.
    (AP, 9/1/06)   

2006        Aug 1, Britain launched the country's first public terror alert system and said it faces a severe risk of another terrorist attack.
    (AP, 8/1/06)
2006        Aug 1, In southern Afghanistan Taliban militants killed three British soldiers. 18 Taliban militants and one policeman were killed as Afghan forces and coalition aircraft raided an insurgent hide-out near Garmser.
    (AP, 8/1/06)(AP, 8/2/06)

2006        Aug 2, A Paris commercial court granted Eurotunnel protection from creditors, enabling the operator of the Channel Tunnel to freeze payments on its debt mountain of 9.0 billion euros (11.5 billion dollars).
    (AFP, 8/2/06)

2006        Aug 3, A pair of European central banks raised interest rates, increasing expectations on Wall Street that the Federal Reserve would follow suit next week. The European Central Bank hiked rates .25% to 3%, with a similar hike by the Bank of England to 4.75%.
    (AP, 8/3/06)

2006        Aug 5, Thousands marched through London to demand a halt to the Lebanon war as the British government tried to deflect criticism that it has failed to call for an immediate ceasefire.
    (AP, 8/5/06)
2006        Aug 5, Marie Stopes International hosted Europe's first "Masturbate-a-thon" with the HIV/AIDS charity the Terrence Higgins Trust. It expected up to 200 people to attend the sponsored masturbation session in Clerkenwell, central London.
    (Reuters, 8/5/06)

2006        Aug 8, Clive Goodman, royal editor at Britain’s News of the World, and Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator, were arrested for hacking phones between November 2005 and August 2006. Both men were jailed in January, 2007.
    (Econ, 7/16/11, p.26)

2006        Aug 9, Two teenage Britons were finally found guilty of killing 10-year-old Nigerian schoolboy Damilola Taylor following a six-year investigation marred by legal and forensic blunders. Danny Preddie (18) and Ricky Preddie (19) from Peckham, south London, were convicted of the manslaughter of Taylor who died in November, 2000, after being stabbed in the leg with a broken bottle.
    (Reuters, 8/9/06)

2006        Aug 10, British authorities said they had thwarted a terrorist plot to simultaneously blow up several aircraft heading to the US using explosives smuggled in carry-on luggage. US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the terrorists planned to use liquid explosives disguised as beverages and other common products and detonators disguised as electronic devices.
    (AP, 8/10/06)

2006        Aug 11, British officials identified 19 of the suspects accused of planning to blow up US-bound aircraft in the biggest terrorist plot to be uncovered since 9/11, while investigators probed their movements, background and finances. In addition, five Pakistanis have been arrested in Pakistan as suspected "facilitators" of the plot, as well as two Britons arrested there about a week ago. A Pakistani intelligence official said 10 Pakistanis were arrested in Bhawalpur district, 300 miles southwest of Islamabad, in connection with the terror plot in Britain.
    (AP, 8/11/06)(AP, 8/12/06)

2006        Aug 12, Rashid Rauf and Tayib Rauf (22), brothers arrested in Pakistan and England, emerged as key figures in the suspected plot to destroy US-bound aircraft during flight. Prominent Muslims in Britain accused the government of encouraging extremism through its foreign policy. In 2007 a court in Rawalpindi ordered the release of Rashid Rauf, a British Muslim of Pakistani origin, after the prosecution withdrew the case against him.
    (AP, 8/12/06)(WSJ, 8/12/06, p.A1)(AP, 11/16/07)

2006        Aug 14, The British government downgraded its terror threat level from critical to severe, saying intelligence suggested an attack was no longer imminent.
    (AP, 8/14/06)

2006        Aug 18, The Financial Times reported that Britain has agreed to a multi-billion-dollar defense deal to supply 72 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft to Saudi Arabia.
    (AP, 8/18/06)

2006        Aug 19, Roger Deakin (b.1943), English writer and film-maker, died. His last book “Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees,” was published posthumously in 2007.
    (Econ, 7/28/07, p.85)(http://books.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,1860073,00.html)

2006        Aug 21, In London, England, 11 people were charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the alleged plot to blow up as many as 10 trans-Atlantic jetliners. One person, a woman, was released without charge. In 2009 Adam Khatib (23) was sentenced for plotting with Abdulla Ahmed Ali, who was convicted of leading the team. Ali was sentenced in September, 2009, to 40 years. Nabeel Hussain (25) received eight years while Mohammed Shamin Uddin (39) was jailed for seven years.
    (AP, 8/21/06)(AP, 12/10/09)

2006        Aug 22, British government figures said Britain has taken in an estimated 427,000 migrants from eight former communist states since they joined the European Union in 2004, far more than an earlier prediction of 13,000 newcomers a year.
    (AP, 8/23/06)

2006        Aug 27, Britain’s National Patient Safety Agency reported that 2,159 patients died between April 2005 and March 2006 as a result of "patient safety incidents" in the National Health Service (NHS).
    (AP, 8/27/06)

2006        Aug, Norman Buckley (44) an assistant at Manchester's Central Library, pleaded guilty to theft charges for stealing more than 450 centuries-old books and documents between January 2005 and March 2006. In October he received a 15-month jail sentence, but it was suspended for two years.
    (AP, 10/26/06)

2006        Sep 2, British police arrested 14 people in overnight raids and said they suspected the men had been involved in training and recruiting for terror attacks. Two others were arrested in an unrelated terror investigation in Manchester.
    (AP, 9/2/06)
2006        Sep 2, A NATO Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing 14 British servicemen. The alliance said there was no indication hostile fire was involved. The Nimrod MR2 exploded after an air-to-air refueling operation. A later investigation said that leaking fuel ignited by a hot pipe was the most likely cause of a fire that destroyed the plane. British patrol NATO and Afghan forces began Operation Medusa in southern Afghanistan. Dozens of insurgents were killed during the fighting.
    (AP, 9/2/06)(AP, 9/3/06)(AP, 12/4/07)

2006        Sep 4, Global press titan Rupert Murdoch launched a new free title: thelondonpaper, a 48-page color paper, dominated by gossip and real-life stories, in the city centre. The first free paper in London was launched seven years ago, in 1999. Metro, a daily morning paper published by Associated Newspapers, has a circulation of around a million copies in the capital and 13 other big towns.
    (AFP, 9/4/06)
2006        Sep 4, In Cyprus 3 British holidaymakers were charged with willful manslaughter over the death of a Cypriot teenager in a hit-and-run accident in the coastal resort of Protaras last month. A rented Opel "repeatedly rammed" the moped in what police described as a revenge attack following a fight outside a Protaras disco in which a friend of the accused was beaten up.
    (AFP, 9/4/06)

2006        Sep 6, Six junior members of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government resigned to protest his refusal to set a date to leave office amid a growing Labour Party revolt.
    (AP, 9/6/06)

2006        Sep 7, Britain’s PM Tony Blair reluctantly promised to resign within a year, hoping that revealing a general time frame for his departure will appease critics who are calling for him to step down.
    (AP, 9/7/06)

2006        Sep 9, British PM Tony Blair arrived in Tel Aviv for talks with his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert and other key players in the region on the stalled Middle East peace process.
    (AFP, 9/9/06)

2006        Sep 11, In Lebanon an angry protester accusing Tony Blair of complicity in the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon disrupted a news conference. Thousands of demonstrators shouted outside as the British prime minister visited Beirut. Blair pledged help in rebuilding war-ravaged Lebanon.
    (AP, 9/11/06)

2006        Sep 18, Britain and Spain reached a historic deal to resolve side issues stemming from their 300-year-old dispute over Gibraltar, but sidestepped the main one, their claims to the Rock's sovereignty.
    (AP, 9/19/06)

2006        Sep 19, A British soldier pleaded guilty to one count of inhumanely treating Iraqi civilians, while he and his comrades denied all other charges in a landmark court-martial.
    (AP, 9/19/06)

2006        Sep 23, In northern England at least 10,000 anti-war demonstrators marched through the city of Manchester, protesting the presence of British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
    (AP, 9/23/06)

2006        Sep 27, British billionaire Richard Branson proposed changes to aircraft movements at busy airports and the way planes land under a plan he said would cut the world's aviation emissions by up to 25%.
    (Reuters, 9/27/06)(Econ, 9/30/06, p.65)

2006        Sep 28, A leaked UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) paper said Pakistan's intelligence service, ISI, indirectly backs terrorism by supporting religious parties in the country.
    (www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=74600)

2006        Oct 1, In Britain sweeping age-discrimination laws went into effect.
    (Econ, 9/30/06, p.66)

2006        Oct 4, British PM Tony Blair said the Irish Republican Army's violent campaign in Northern Ireland is over, following a report into paramilitary activity that raised hopes of reviving self-rule.
    (AP, 10/4/06)
2006        Oct 4, In Britain a Muslim-owned business, which reportedly housed a makeshift mosque, was petrol-bombed following three nights of clashes between white and south Asian youths on the London outskirts.
    (AFP, 10/5/06)

2006        Oct 9, A US court has threatened to shut down the London-based Spamhaus Project, a volunteer-run antispam service, for ignoring an $11.7 million judgement against it.
    (http://tinyurl.com/p3hsm)

2006        Oct 10, Britain’s Man Booker Prize was won by Indian writer Kiran Desai (35) for “The Inheritance of Loss,” a cross-continental saga that moves from the Himalayas to NYC.
    (SFC, 10/11/06, p.A16)

2006        Oct 11, Ruth Kelly, British communities minister said the government will now fund only those Muslim organizations that fight extremism and defend national values as part of a "fundamental" shift toward such groups.
    (AFP, 10/11/06)
2006        Oct 11, India’s PM Manmohan Singh received an honorary law doctorate from the elite University of Cambridge. The doctorate was conferred on him by Prince Philip.
    (AFP, 10/11/06)

2006        Oct 12, Dhiran Barot (32), a British man arrested in August, 2004, pleaded guilty to conspiring to bomb high-profile targets in the US including the International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington and the New York Stock Exchange.
    (AP, 10/12/06)

2006        Oct 13, A British coroner ruled that US forces unlawfully killed Terry Lloyd (50), a veteran reporter for the British television network ITN, in the opening days of the Iraq war. He was shot in the back by Iraqi troops who overtook his car, then died after US fire hit a civilian minivan being used as an ambulance and struck him in the head.
    (AP, 10/13/06)
2006        Oct 13, In Britain the chief of staff to the Democratic Republic of Congo's President Joseph Kabila was assaulted and robbed in northwest London while waiting to appear on a television program. Leonard She Okitundu was attacked by a gang who beat him around the head and body with a baseball bat, stripped him of his clothes, and posted pictures of them on the Internet. Okitundu said his attackers shouted that he was working for the Rwandans, and that they would kill anyone who obstructed Bemba.
    (AFP, 10/13/06)

2006        Oct 16, The biggest underwater gas pipeline in the world, transporting gas from Norway 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) under the North Sea to Britain, was officially opened by PM Tony Blair and PM Jens Stoltenberg. Construction of the pipeline by Norwegian firm Hydro began in 2004. The Langeled pipeline is expected to supply one fifth of Britain's total gas requirements in the coming decades.
    (AP, 10/16/06)
2006        Oct 16, Queen Elizabeth II kicked off her first-ever visit to the Baltic states as Lithuania’s PM Gediminas Kirkilas welcomed the British monarch to the northern European region.
    (AP, 10/16/06)

2006        Oct 18, Expectations of a British interest rate increase next month have been cemented by minutes from the Bank of England's latest policy meeting.
    (AFP, 10/18/06)
2006        Oct 18, Queen Elizabeth II praised Latvians' love of liberty and hailed the long-standing ties between Britain and the Baltic state, where she began the first-ever visit by a British monarch.
    (AFP, 10/18/06)

2006        Oct 19, Queen Elizabeth II arrived in Estonia on the last leg of a landmark trip to the Baltic states, during which the 80-year-old monarch has repeatedly praised the Baltic people for their determined fight for freedom.
    (AFP, 10/19/06)
2006        Oct 19, Ralph Harris (81), British economist and former head of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), died.
    (Econ, 11/4/06, p.96)

2006        Oct 20, Corus, an Anglo-Dutch steel-maker, accepted an $8.1 billion buyout bid from Tata Steel, a smaller Indian firm.
    (Econ, 10/28/06, p.74)
2006        Oct 20, Eric Newby (86), British travel writer, died. His books included "A Short Walk In The Hindu Kush" (1958), the story of his travels from London to Afghanistan.
    (AFP, 10/23/06)(Econ, 10/28/06, p.97)

2006        Oct 24, Britain said Bulgarians and Romanians will have only limited rights to work in Britain for at least a year after their countries join the European Union on January 1.
    (AP, 10/24/06)

2006        Oct 30, Sir Nicholas Stern, head of Britain’s government economic service, issued a report on climate change that said world output could be up to a fifth lower over the next century or two due to climate change.
    (Econ, 11/4/06, p.14)(Econ, 12/16/06, p.80)
2006        Oct 30, In London 6 men from remote Pitcairn Island lost their final appeal against their convictions for a string of sex attacks dating back 40 years.
    (AP, 10/30/06)

2006        Oct 31, Britain unveiled plans to regulate Internet gambling and said it opposed the US government's banning of the industry.
    (AP, 10/31/06)
2006        Oct 31, A joint British and Lebanese initiative in London launched the world's first qualification covering all aspects of Islamic finance. The Islamic Finance Qualification (IFQ) was developed by British industry body the Securities and Investment Institute (SII) and Lebanese business school Ecole Superieure des Affaires.
    (AFP, 10/31/06)

2006        Nov 1, Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent, met with Mario Scaramella, an Italian muckraker, at a Picadilly sushi bar. He also met with 2 or more visiting ex-KGB Russians. On Nov 23 Litvinenko died of poisoning from radioactive element polonium-210.
    (Econ, 12/16/06, p.22)

2006        Nov 3, Ben Bradshaw, Britain’s Fisheries Minister, responded to a major report warning that stocks could be wiped out by 2048 by ruling out a complete ban on cod fishing. Bradshaw said that the UK had already taken action by clamping down on illegal fishing and setting fishing quotas.
    (AFP, 11/3/06)

2006        Nov 4, In Britain thousands of environmental campaigners rallied in London ahead of international talks on climate change in Kenya, demanding that world leaders act to curb global warming.
    (AP, 11/4/06)

2006        Nov 7, Britain's lawmakers granted posthumous pardons for soldiers executed during World War I, ending years of campaigning by the families of men condemned to death for cowardice. Dhiren Barot (34), an al-Qaida operative who planned to blow up landmark London hotels using limos packed with gas tanks, napalm and nails, and plotted to attack the New York Stock Exchange and the World Bank, was sentenced in London to life in prison.
    (AP, 11/7/06)

2006        Nov 17, A British man convicted of what has been described as the country's first "web-rage" attack, was jailed for 2-1/2 years for assaulting a man he had exchanged insults with over the Internet.
    (Reuters, 11/17/06)

2006        Nov 18, British PM Tony Blair arrived in Pakistan for talks with President Pervez Musharraf on how to defeat a resurgent Taliban, pool counter-terrorist intelligence and tackle militancy in Pakistan's religious schools.
    (AP, 11/18/06)
2006        Nov 18, Iraqi and US forces raided a Shiite stronghold in Baghdad, looking for dozens of men abducted from an Iraqi government office. Coalition forces searched for four American security contractors missing in an attack on their convoy in southern Iraq. A Basra provincial official said two American hostages had been rescued in a police raid and that one was found dead. US military killed 11 insurgents and detained 24 suspected ones in raids in and around the Iraqi cities of Tikrit, Baqouba, Hit, Youssifiyah and Baghdad. Ten people were killed, including three policemen shot by insurgents in Diyala province. Police found 23 corpses in Iraq, including 20 in Baghdad. Britain's Treasury chief Gordon Brown, who is expected to replace PM Tony Blair as Britain's leader next year, made an unannounced visit to Iraq to meet with Iraqi officials and British soldiers.
    (AP, 11/18/06)

2006        Nov 19, British PM Tony Blair acknowledged the West had changed strategy in the fight against terrorism, telling Pakistan's president that brokering a broad Mideast peace deal was now as crucial as using force to battle militants.
    (AP, 11/19/06)
2006        Nov 19, Fellow dissidents said Col. Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB and Federal Security Service (FSB) poisoned in Britain and now gravely ill and under guard in the hospital, may have been targeted for his outspoken criticism of former colleagues in Moscow. He accused his country's secret service agency of staging apartment-house bombings in 1999 that killed more than 300 people in Russia and sparked the second war in Chechnya.
    (AP, 11/19/06)

2006        Nov 20, British PM Tony Blair told soldiers fighting a resurgent Taliban that success in Afghanistan would be a step toward global security, and pledged Britain's commitment to the war-torn country "for as long as it takes."
    (AP, 11/20/06)
2006        Nov 20, British Brig. Grismond "Gris" Davies-Scourfield died at age 88. He won a Military Cross for his part in the Allied defense of Calais during World War II and later escaped from the Nazis holding him prisoner in the notorious Colditz Castle.
    (AP, 12/6/06)

2006        Nov 22, Britain's parliament passed legislation allowing the Northern Ireland Assembly to be dissolved in January and an election held weeks later in hopes of reviving a Catholic-Protestant administration.
    (AP, 11/22/06)

2006        Nov 23, Teenagers aged 16 and 17 have voted for the first time in the British Isles, as the Isle of Man held a landmark general election to choose members for its 24 seats in the House of Keys, the main branch of the Isle of Man's bicameral parliament.
    (AP, 11/23/06)
2006        Nov 23, Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent, died in London. The British government said Litvinenko, the former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic, had a toxic radioactive substance in his body. Litvinenko had blamed a "barbaric and ruthless" Russian President Vladimir Putin for his fatal poisoning. The radioactive element polonium-210 was found in Litvinenko's urine. In 2007 it was reported that Litvinenko had been working for British secret intelligence service MI6.
    (AP, 11/24/06)(AP, 10/27/07)

2006        Nov 27, Britain’s PM Tony Blair condemned the African slave trade and expressed deep sorrow for Britain's role, but stopped short of offering an apology or compensation for the descendants of those victimized by it.
    (AP, 11/27/06)

2006        Nov 28, Britain’s Scottish Power PLC said it has agreed to a $22.5 billion buyout offer from the Spanish utility Iberdrola SA that would create one of Europe's biggest utilities.
    (AP, 11/28/06)

2006        Nov 30, British authorities said traces of radiation have been found at a dozen sites in Britain and five jets were being investigated for possible contamination as authorities widened their investigation into the poisoning of a former Russian spy.
    (AP, 11/30/06)

2006        Dec 1, British media reported that an Italian security expert, who met with a former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko the day the ex-spy fell fatally ill with radiation poisoning, has also tested positive for the substance.
    (AP, 12/1/06)

2006        Dec 3, In southern England 2 firefighters were killed in a blaze at a fireworks factory near Lewes that injured a dozen others.
    (AP, 12/4/06)

2006        Dec 4, Tomma Abts (38) became the first female painter in the 22-year history of Britain's $ 49,000 Turner Prize to win the controversial modern art award.
    (AFP, 12/4/06)(SFC, 12/5/06, p.F8)
2006        Dec 4, PM Tony Blair has announced plans for Britain to retain its nuclear deterrent but promised to cut the number of nuclear warheads by 20%. Blair also launched plans for a new multibillion-dollar submarine-based nuclear missile defense system, warning lawmakers the future may hold perilous threats from rogue regimes and state-sponsored terrorists.
    (AP, 12/4/06)
2006        Dec 4, Insurance Australia Group (IAG) announced it will buy British motor insurer Equity Insurance Group for 570 million pounds.
    (AFP, 12/4/06)
2006        Dec 4, Russia gave a frosty welcome to a team of British counter-terror officers probing the poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, and laid down some strict ground rules for their work in Moscow.
    (AFP, 12/5/06)

2006        Dec 5, British PM Tony Blair and Rwandan President Paul Kagame discussed economic reform and how to reconcile the people of the landlocked African state still scarred by the 1994 genocide. They also talked about the conflict in the western Darfur region of Sudan, where Rwanda has troops on the ground as part of the African Union force.
    (AFP, 12/5/06)

2006        Dec 6, Britain’s PM Tony Blair has conceded that US-led forces are not winning the war in Iraq, as he headed for Washington to discuss strategic options in the war-scarred country.
    (AP, 12/6/06)
2006        Dec 6, Andrei Lugovoi, hospitalized in Moscow and being tested for possible polonium contamination, scheduled to be interviewed by British investigators. British officials said traces of the radioactive isotope polonium-210 have been detected at a London stadium that hosted a soccer game attended by Lugovoi. British investigators spoke with Dmitry Kovtun, one of at least two Russians who met Litvinenko in a London hotel on November 1. Litvinenko died on November 23 from radiation poisoning caused by polonium 210.
    (AP, 12/6/06)(Reuters, 12/6/06)

2006        Dec 7, Pres. Bush and Britain’s PM Tony Blair vowed to fight to victory in Iraq and both were skeptical that talks with Iran and Syria would be useful. President Bush gave a chilly response to the Iraq Study Group's proposals for reshaping his policy, objecting to talks with Iran and Syria, refusing to endorse a major troop withdrawal and vowing no retreat from embattled US goals in the Mideast.
    (WSJ, 12/8/06, p.A1)(AP, 12/7/07)

2006        Dec 8, PM Tony Blair stoked a simmering debate over religious tolerance and cultural assimilation, saying it was the duty of all immigrants to integrate into British society.
    (AP, 12/8/06)
2006        Dec 8, The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group announced Fiji is to be immediately suspended from the Commonwealth following a military coup there earlier this week. The Commonwealth of Nations is a successor to the British Empire and brings together some 53 nations, around a third of the world's countries and a quarter of the world's population.
    (AP, 12/8/06)

2006        Dec 9, German police found traces of radiation in two buildings linked to a Russian businessman who met the murdered ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko in London on the day he fell ill. Radiation traces were found overnight in an apartment belonging to Dmitry Kovtun's ex-wife in the northern city of Hamburg. Kovtun is now in hospital.
    (AP, 12/9/06)

2006        Dec 11, In Britain fears mounted that a serial killer could be at large after the naked corpse of a third prostitute was found within weeks near Ipswich, and a fourth sex worker went missing. The first two murdered women went missing in the red light district of Ipswich, near the eastern coast of England, on November 15 and October 30 respectively.
    (AFP, 12/11/06)
2006        Dec 11, Four British soldiers admitted charges relating to an alleged plot to smuggle guns out of Iraq to sell them for cash in Germany, as they appeared at a court martial.
    (AP, 12/11/06)
2006        Dec 11, German investigators confirmed that a car used by Russian businessman Dmitry Kovtun, a contact of fatally poisoned ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko before the two men met, was contaminated with the rare radioactive substance polonium-210.
    (AP, 12/11/06)

2006        Dec 12, British detectives hunting a serial killer who preys on prostitutes discovered two more bodies in Ipswich, bringing the total number of victims to five.
    (AP, 12/12/06)
2006        Dec 12, The Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. formally launched its hostile $5.3 billion takeover bid for the London Stock Exchange Group PLC, which promptly reiterated that the offer is too low and urged its shareholders to take no action on it.
    (AP, 12/12/06)

2006        Dec 14, A British police inquiry concluded that the deaths of Princess Diana and her boyfriend in a 1997 Paris car crash were a "tragic accident" and that allegations of murder are unfounded. Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced that it would be dropping its 2-year inquiry into bribes that may or may not have been paid by BAE Systems to secure contracts in Saudi Arabia.
    (AP, 12/14/06)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.18)

2006        Dec 16, British PM Tony Blair arrived in Egypt for Middle East peace talks, saying the next few days and weeks would be critical in determining whether Israel and the Palestinians can break their cycle of violence.
    (AP, 12/16/06)
2006        Dec 16, Ex-spy Yuri Shvets, who is based in the US, told the BBC that murdered Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was killed because of an eight-page dossier he had compiled on a powerful Russian figure for a British company. The BBC said the report contained damaging personal details about a "very highly placed member of Putin's administration."
    (AP, 12/16/06)
2006        Dec 16, John Rae (b.1931), English novelist and educator, died. In 2009 his diaries were published under the title: “The Old Boys’ Network: A Headmaster’s Diaries 1970-1986.”
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rae_(educator))(Econ, 4/25/09, p.87)

2006        Dec 17, Britain’s PM Blair and his Iraqi counterpart, Nouri al-Maliki, discussed preparations by British military units in Basra, the main city in southern Iraq, to turn over security to Iraqi forces. Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms burst into Red Crescent offices and kidnapped more than two dozen people at the humanitarian organization in the latest sign of the country's growing lawlessness. Others killed in violence included two policeman, an Iraqi soldier and a municipal official in Baghdad; and a police officer in Kut. Former Electricity Minister Ayham al-Samaraie, a dual US-Iraqi citizen and the country's only postwar Cabinet minister to be convicted of corruption, escaped police custody in Baghdad for a second time.
    (AP, 12/17/06)(AP, 12/18/06)

2006        Dec 18, British police arrested a 37-year-old man suspected of murdering five prostitutes in a high-profile serial-killer case that has gripped the nation for weeks.
    (AP, 12/18/06)

2006        Dec 19, Stephen Tame (29) from Suffolk, England, was awarded more than 3 million pounds in damages. The devout Christian said an accident at work boosted his libido and wrecked his marriage as he turned to prostitutes and pornography.
    (Reuters, 12/19/06)
2006        Dec 19, In eastern England Steve Wright (48), who reportedly lives in the red-light district of Ipswich, was arrested as the 2nd suspect in the recent deaths of five prostitutes. The naked bodies of Gemma Adams (25), Tania Nicol (19), Anneli Alderton (24), Paula Clennell (24), and Annette Nicholls (29) were found in the Ipswich area over a 10-day period this month.
    (AP, 12/19/06)(AP, 2/9/08)
 
2006        Dec 21, British police charged Steven Wright, a 48-year-old truck driver who lives in the red-light district of Ipswich, with the murder of five local prostitutes whose naked bodies were found in rural areas around the eastern England town.
    (AP, 12/22/06)
2006        Dec 21, Tens of thousands of passengers were stranded after a thick blanket of freezing fog forced hundreds of flights to be canceled at Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport.
    (AP, 12/21/06)

2006        Dec 22, Thick fog caused the cancellation of flights at London's Heathrow Airport for a 4th day, forcing thousands of passengers to scrap or delay their Christmas travel plans.
    (AP, 12/22/06)

2006        Dec 26, Countryside campaigners said more than 300,000 people took part in traditional Boxing Day (December 26) fox hunts across Britain, claiming it proved a ban on hunting with dogs was not working.
    (AP, 12/26/06)
2006        Dec 26, It was reported that a large study in Britain had found that taking such popular heartburn drugs as Nexium, Prevacid or Prilosec for a year or more can raise the risk of a broken hip markedly in people over 50.
    (AP, 12/26/06)

2006        Dec 27, A helicopter carrying natural gas workers crashed off the northwest English coast, killing six people and leaving the only other person aboard missing.
    (AP, 12/28/06)

2006        Dec 28, Four men accused of organizing and participating in the Rwandan genocide in 1994 were arrested in Britain on warrants issued by the Rwandan government.
    (AP, 12/29/06)

2006        Dec 29, Two American sailors died after falling from a US submarine off the coast of southern England.
    (AP, 12/29/06)

2006        Dec 31, The British Nuclear Group closed two nuclear power stations after 40 years of service. Dungeness A and Sizewell A were the oldest commercial nuclear plants in the world.
    (AP, 12/31/06)(WSJ, 1/2/06, p.A1)

2006        Dec, Britain’s Ministry of Defense revealed that it had already signed contracts with private suppliers worth about $50 billion (£26 billion) over the next 30 years.
    (Econ, 1/13/07, p.51)

2006        Playwright Caryl Churchill wrote “Drunk Enough to Say I Love You.” Here she imagined the asymmetric relationship between America and Britain as a gay romance.
    (Econ, 2/15/14, p.79)
2006        Dubstep was born out of drum'n'bass and the 2-step UK garage movement which propelled Craig David to fame. Pioneering producers Skream and Hatcha helped define the early dubstep sound while working at the Big Apple Records record shop in Croydon. In 2011 it dubstep completed its journey from quirky curiosity to commercial success story earlier when DJ Fresh's "Louder" hit the top of the UK singles chart.
    (AFP, 7/27/11)
2006        British singer Amy Winehouse (1983-2011) shot to fame with the album "Back to Black," whose blend of jazz, soul, rock and classic pop was a global hit. It won five Grammys and made Winehouse, with her black beehive hairdo and old-fashioned sailor tattoos, one of music's most recognizable stars.
    (AP, 7/24/11)
2006        George Benjamin (b.1960), English composer, wrote his opera “Into the Little Hill,’ based on the fairy tale “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” Martin Crimp wrote the libretto.
    (Econ, 6/5/10, p.93)
2006        Britain’s Charity Act of this year, amending a 1993 act, said schools are no longer entitled to tax breaks simply because they provide teaching. They would now have to demonstrate that they are actively benefiting the public.
    (Econ, 7/18/09, p.54)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charities_Act_2006)
2006        Johan Eliasch and Frank Field, a British Labor MP, formed Cool Earth to allow regular citizens to contribute to rain-forest land purchases.
    (WSJ, 4/7/07, p.A5)
2006        British pharmacy Boots UK merged with Alliance UniChem, a European drugs wholesaler and distributor. In 2007 CEO Stefano Pessina and KKR took the company private in a leverage buyout worth $22.2 billion, Europe’s biggest buyout to date.
    (Econ, 6/23/12, p.68)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_UK)
2006        The mineral firm Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation PLC (ENRC) listed for public trading in London. The firm, partly owned by the government of Kazakhstan, was founded by three central Asians who bought ex-Soviet factories at discount prices and quickly became billionaires. ENRC was formed in 1994, listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2006 and delisted after a near six-year spell in November 2013. A secondary listing and subsequent de-listing also took place on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_Natural_Resources_Corporation)(Econ., 10/10/20, p.74)

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