1979 in the United Kingdom

1979 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1977 | 1978 | 1979 (1979) | 1980 | 1981

Sport and Music

1979 English cricket season Football England | Scotland 1979 in British music

Events from the year 1979 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister – James Callaghan (until 4 May; Labour), Margaret Thatcher (Conservative)

Events

January

• 5 January - Lorry drivers go on strike, causing new shortages of heating oil and fresh food.
• 10 January - Prime Minister James Callaghan returns from an international summit to a Britain in a state of industrial unrest. The Sun newspaper reports his comments with a famous headline: "Crisis? What Crisis?"^[1]
• 15 January - Rail workers begin a 24-hour strike.
• 22 January - Tens of thousands of public-workers strike in the beginning of what becomes known as the "Winter of Discontent".^[2]

February

• 1 February - Grave-diggers call off a strike in Liverpool which has already delayed dozens of burials.
• 2 February - Sid Vicious, the former Sex Pistols guitarist, is found dead in New York after apparently suffocating on his own vomit as a result of a heroin overdose. 21-year-old Vicious (real name John Simon Ritchie) was on bail for the second degree murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, who was found stabbed to death in a hotel room on 12 October last year.
• 9 February - Trevor Francis signs for Nottingham Forest in British football's first £1 million deal.^[3]
• 12 February - Over 1,000 schools close due to the heating oil shortage caused by the lorry drivers' strike.
• 14 February - "Saint Valentine's Day Concordat" between Trades Union Congress and Government, The Economy, the Government, and Trade Union Responsibilities, marks an end to the "Winter of Discontent".^[4]
• 22 February - Saint Lucia becomes independent of the United Kingdom.^[5]

March

• 1 March
  • Scottish devolution referendum: Scotland voted by a majority of 77,437 for a Scottish Assembly, which is not implemented due to a condition that at last 40% of the electorate must support the proposal.
  • Welsh devolution referendum: Wales voted against devolution.
  • Conservative candidate David Waddington won the Clitheroe by-election.
  • National Health Service workers in the West Midlands threatened to go on strike in their bid to win a nine per cent pay rise.[8]
• 17 March - Nottingham Forest beat Southampton 3-2 at Wembley Stadium to win the Football League Cup for the second year running.
• 18 March - An explosion at the Golborne colliery in Golborne, Greater Manchester, killed three men.^[6]
• 22 March - Sir Richard Sykes, ambassador to the Netherlands, was shot dead by Provisional Irish Republican Army in The Hague.^[7]
• 28 March - James Callaghan's government lost a motion of confidence by one vote, forcing a general election.^[8]
• 29 March - James Callaghan announced that the general election would be held on 3 May. All of the major opinion polls point towards a Conservative win which would make Margaret Thatcher the first female prime minister of Britain.
• 30 March - Airey Neave, World War Two veteran and Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, is killed by an Irish National Liberation Army bomb in the House of Commons car park.^[9]
• 31 March - The Royal Navy withdraws from Malta.

April

• 4 April - Josephine Whitaker, a 19-year-old bank worker, was murdered in Halifax; police believe that she is the 11th woman to be murdered by the Yorkshire Ripper.
• 23 April - Fighting in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group resulted in the death of protestor Blair Peach.^[10]

May

• 1 May - The London Underground Jubilee line was inaugurated.^[11]
• 4 May - The Conservatives won the general election by a 43-seat majority and Margaret Thatcher become the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe is the most notable MP to lose his seat in the election. Despite losing the first general election he has contested, James Callaghan is expected to stay on as leader of a Labour Party now in opposition after five years in government.^[12] Among the new members of parliament is John Major, 36-year-old MP for Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire.^[13]
• 8 May - Jeremy Thorpe went on trial at the Old Bailey.
• 9 May - Liverpool win the Football League First Division title for the 12th time.^[14]
• 12 May - Arsenal defeat Manchester United 3-2 in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium, with Alan Sunderland scoring a last gasp winner in response to two United goals inside the last five minutes which had seen the scores level at 2-2.^[15]
• 15 May - Government abolishes the Prices Commission.^[16]
• 21 May
  • Elton John becomes the first musician from the west to perform live in the Soviet Union.[9]
  • Conservative MPs back Margaret Thatcher's proposals to sell off parts of nationalised industries. During the year, the Government will begin to sell its stake in British Petroleum.
• 25 May - Price of milk increases more than 10% to 15 pence a pint.^[17]
• 30 May - Nottingham Forest defeat Malmo FF, the Swedish league champions, 1-0 in the European Cup final at Olympiastadion, Munich. The only goal of the game is scored by Trevor Francis.

June

• 7 June - The first election wass held for the European Parliament, but the turnout in Britain was low at 32%.^[16] The Tories have the most MEPs at 60, while Labour only have 17 MEPs. The Liberals gain a 12.6% share of the vote but not a single MEP, while the Scottish National Party, Democratic Unionist Party, Social Democratic and Labour Party and Official Ulster Unionist Party all gain an MEP each.^[18]
• 12 June - The new Conservative government's first budget sees chancellor Geoffrey Howe cut the standard tax rate by 3p and slashes the top rate from 83% to 60%.
• 18 June - Neil Kinnock, 37-year-old Labour MP for Islwyn in South Wales, becomes shadow education spokesman.
• 22 June - Former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe cleared in court of the allegations of attempted murder which ruined his career.^[19]

July

• 5 July - The Queen attended the 1000th annual sitting of the Isle of Man's Parliament, Tynwald.^[20]
• 12 July - Kiribati (formerly Gilbert Islands) becomes independent of the United Kingdom.^[5]
• 17 July - The athlete Sebastian Coe set a record time for running a mile, completing it in 3 minutes 48.95 seconds.^[5]
• 23 July - The government announces £4 billion worth of public spending cuts.

August

• 1 August - Following the recent takeover of Chrysler's European division by French carmaker Peugeot, the historic Talbot marque was revived for the range of cars previously sold in Britain as Chryslers, also taking over from the Simca brand in France.^[21]
• 9 August - A nudist beach was established in Brighton.^[22]
• 10 August–23 October - The entire ITV network in the UK was shut down by a technicians' strike.
• 14 August
  • A storm in the Irish Sea hits the Fastnet yacht race. Fifteen lives and dozens of yachts are lost.^[23]
  • Disgraced MP John Stonehouse released from jail after serving four years of his seven-year sentence for faking his own death.^[24]
• 24 August - The Ford Cortina receives a major facelift.^[25]
• 27 August
  • Lord Mountbatten of Burma, his nephew and a boatboy are assassinated by a Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb while holidaying in the Republic of Ireland, the Dowager Lady Brabourne dying the following day in hospital of injuries received. He was an admiral, statesman and an uncle of The Duke of Edinburgh.^[26]
  • Warrenpoint ambush: eighteen British soldiers killed in Northern Ireland by IRA bombs.^[27]
• 30 August - Two men are arrested in Dublin and charged with the murder of Lord Mountbatten and the three other victims of the bombing.

September

• 2 September - Police discovered a woman's body in an alleyway near Bradford city centre. The woman, 20-year-old student Barbara Leach, is believed to be the 12th victim of the mysterious Yorkshire Ripper mass murderer.^[28]
• 5 September
  • The Queen leads the mourning at the funeral of Lord Mountbatten of Burma.^[29]
  • Manchester City F.C. pay a British club record fee of £1,450,000 for Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Steve Daley.
• 8 September - Wolverhampton Wanderers set a new national transfer record by paying just under £1,500,000 for Aston Villa and Scotland striker Andy Gray.^[30]
• 10 September - British Leyland announces that production of MG cars will finish in the autumn of next year, in a move which will see the Abingdon plant closed.
• 14 September - The government announces plans to regenerate the London docklands with housing and commercial developments.
• 21 September - A Royal Air Force Harrier jet crashes into a house in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire killing two men and a boy.^[31]
• 25 September - Margaret Thatcher opens the new Central Milton Keynes Shopping Centre, the largest indoor shopping centre in Britain, after its final phase is completed six years after development of the huge complex first began.^[32]

October

• 11 October - Godfrey Hounsfield wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Allan McLeod Cormack "for the development of computer assisted tomography".^[33]
• 23 October - All remaining foreign exchange controls abolished.
• 27 October - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains independence.^[34]
• 28 October - Chairman Hua Guofeng becomes the first Chinese leader to visit Britain.^[35]
• 30 October - Martin Webster of the National Front is found guilty of inciting racial hatred.
• November - British Leyland chief executive Michael Edwardes wins the overwhelming backing of more than 100,000 of the carmaker's employees for his restructuring plans, which over the next few years will result in the closure of several plants and the loss of some 25,000 jobs.^[36]

November

• 1 November - The government announced £3.5 billion in public spending cuts and an increase in prescription charges.
• 5 November - The two men accused of murdering Lord Mountbatten and three others go on trial in Dublin.
• 9 November - Four men are found guilty over the killing of paperboy Carl Bridgewater, who was shot dead at a farmhouse in the Staffordshire countryside 14 months ago. James Robinson and Vincent Hickey receive life sentences with a recommended minimum of 25 years for murder, Michael Hickey (also guilty of murder) receives an indefinite custodial sentence, while Patrick Molloy is guilty of manslaughter and jailed for 12 years.
• 11 November - Last episode of first series of sitcom To the Manor Born on BBC1 Television receives 23.95 million viewers, the all-time highest figure for a recorded programme in the UK.^[37]
• 13 November
  • The Times published for the first time in nearly a year after a dispute between management and unions over staffing levels and new technology.^[38]
  • Miners reject a 20% pay increase and threaten to go on strike until they get their desired pay rise of 65%.
• 14 November - Vauxhall launches its first-ever front-wheel drive car - the Astra range of hatchbacks and estates - to compete in the growing family hatchback sector. It replaces the traditional rear-wheel drive Viva saloon, which had been produced in three incarnations since 1963. Initial production of the Astra will take place at the Opel factory in West Germany, with production set to be transferred to Britain by 1981.
• 15 November - Minimum Lending Rate reaches an all-time high of 17%.^[39]
• 16 November - Anthony Blunt named as the fourth man in the Cambridge Spy Ring.^[40]
• 21 November - Six months after winning the general election, the Conservatives are five points behind Labour (who have a 45% share of the vote) in an MORI opinion poll.[10]
• 21 November - The Keeper of the Queen's picture, Sir Antony Blunt is revealed as a Soviet spy
• 23 November - In Dublin, Ireland, Irish Republican Army member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten.

December

• 4 December - The Hastie Fire in Hull leads to the deaths of 3 boys and begins the hunt for Bruce George Peter Lee, the UK's most prolific killer.
• 7 December - Lord Soames appointed as the transitional governor of Rhodesia to oversee its move to independence.^[41]
• 10 December
  • William Arthur Lewis wins the Nobel Prize in Economics with Theodore Schultz "for their pioneering research into economic development research with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries".^[42]
  • Daredevil Eddie Kidd performs an 80 ft jump on a motorcycle.^[43]
• 14 December - Doubts were raised over the convictions of the four men in the Carl Bridgewater case after Mr Hubert Vincent Spencer was charged with murdering 70-year-old farmer Hubert Wilkes at a farmhouse less than half a mile away from the one where Carl Bridgewater was murdered.[11]
• 20 December - The government publishes Housing Bill which would give Council House tenants the right to buy their homes from the following year. Council houses currently consist of more than 5 million households in the United Kingdom.^[44]

Undated

• Inflation rose to 13.4%.[12]
• The largest number of working days lost through strike action since 1926.
• Dame Josephine Barnes becomes first woman president of the British Medical Association.^[45]
• The first J D Wetherspoon pub was established by Tim Martin in the London Borough of Haringey.^[46]
• The band Spandau Ballet began to play under this name.
• Scottish Gaelic service Radio nan Eilean established in Stornoway.
• New plant species, Senecio eboracensis, the York groundsel, was discovered.^[47][48]

Publications

• Douglas Adams' novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
• J. G. Ballard's novel The Unlimited Dream Company.
• Penelope Fitzgerald's novel Offshore.
• William Golding's novel Darkness Visible.
• V. S. Naipaul's novel A Bend in the River.
• 27 October - First issue (dated December 1979) of Viz comic published in Newcastle upon Tyne.^[49]

Births

• 27 January — Rosamund Pike, actress
• 12 March — Pete Doherty, singer and guitarist (The Libertines and Babyshambles)
• 10 April — Sophie Ellis-Bextor, singer
• 15 May — Rachel Walker, field hockey player
• 25 May — Jonny Wilkinson, rugby union player
• 12 June — Jamie Harding, actor
• 25 July — Allister Carter, snooker player
• 26 July — Johnson Beharry, war hero
• 30 July — Graeme McDowell, professional golfer
• 5 August — David Healy, footballer
• 20 August — Jamie Cullum, singer
• 14 September — Stuart Fielden, rugby league player
• 4 October — Stefan Booth, actor
• 8 November — Aaron Hughes, footballer
• 29 November — Simon Amstell, comedian and television presenter
• 1 December — Lisa Wooding, field-hockey player
• 3 December — Daniel Bedingfield, pop singer and songwriter
• 14 December — Michael Owen, footballer
• 24 December — Lucilla Wright, field-hockey player

Deaths

• 2 February - Sid Vicious, musician (Sex Pistols) (drug overdose) (born 1957)
• 14 February - Reginald Maudling, politician (born 1917)
• 19 March - Richard Beckinsale, actor (born 1947)
• 23 March - Ted Anderson, footballer (born 1911)
• 30 March - Airey Neave, politician (assassinated) (born 1916)
• 8 June - Norman Hartnell, fashion designer (born 1901)
• 16 July - Alfred Deller, countertenor (born 1912)
• August - Ivon Hitchens, painter (born 1893)
• 8 August - Nicholas Monsarrat, novelist (born 1910)
• 11 August - James Gordon Farrell, novelist (born 1935)
• 27 August - Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, last Viceroy of India (assassinated) (born 1900)
• 27 September - Gracie Fields, singer and comedian (born 1898)
• 10 October - Dr Christopher Evans, psychologist and computer scientist (born 1931)
• 13 October - Rebecca Helferich Clarke, composer and violist (born 1886)
• 30 October - Barnes Wallis, aeronautical engineer (born 1887)
• 23 November - Merle Oberon, actress (born 1911)
• 30 November - Joyce Grenfell, actress, comedian and singer-songwriter (born 1910)

References

See also