1996 in the United Kingdom

1996 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1994 | 1995 | 1996 (1996) | 1997 | 1998

Individual countries of the United Kingdom

England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales

Sport, Television and music

1996 British Grand Prix 1996 English cricket season Football: England | Scotland 1996 in British television 1996 in British music 1996 in British radio UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 1996

Events from the year 1996 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister – John Major (Conservative)

Events

January

• 13 January - NUM leader Arthur Scargill announces that he is defecting from the Labour Party to set up his own Socialist Labour Party.
• 19 January
  • The first MORI poll of 1996 shows Labour still comfortably ahead of the Conservatives with a showing of 55% and a lead of 26 points.^[1]
  • Ian and Kevin Maxwell, sons of the late media mogul Robert Maxwell, are cleared of fraud at the Old Bailey after an 11-day trial.

February

• 4 February - First two passenger train operating companies begin operation of their service franchises as part of the privatisation of British Rail: South West Trains (part of the Stagecoach Group) and Great Western Trains (management buyout).^[2]
• 5 February - The first genetically modified food products go on sale in the UK.^[3]
• 9 February
  • A large bomb explodes in the London Docklands area, near to South Quay DLR station, injures around 40 people. The bomb was the responsibility of the IRA, and marks the end of a 17-month ceasefire.^[4]
  • The Parole Board goes public with its recommendation that Moors Murderer Myra Hindley should be moved to an open prison. Hindley, 53 and in her 30th year of imprisonment, is currently being held at Durham Prison, but if Home Secretary Michael Howard backs the Parole Board's recommendation, Hindley could soon be transferred to a prison with a more relaxed regime.
• 10 February - The bodies of two men are discovered at Canary Wharf, the only dead among the IRA bombing - of which it was initially believed there were no fatalities.
• 13 February - Take That, the most successful British band so far this decade, announce that they are splitting up.
• 15 February - A report on the Arms-to-Iraq affair is critical of government ministers.^[5]
• 18 February - A bomb explodes on a bus in Central London, killing the IRA bomber transporting the device, and injuring several people.^[6]
• 19/20 February - Approximately 1000 passengers are trapped in the Channel Tunnel when two Eurostar trains break down due to electronic failures caused by snow and ice.^[7]
• 22 February - Conservative MP Peter Thurnham announces his resignation from Parliament, reducing the party's majority to just 2 seats. Resignations and by-election defeats have cost the Conservatives 19 seats since the general election just under four years ago.
• 28 February
  • The Princess of Wales agrees to give The Prince of Wales a divorce, more than three years after separating.
  • Sandra Gregory, a British teacher, is sentenced to 25 years in prison in Thailand for drug smuggling, three years after her arrest at Bangkok airport. Her co-accused, Robert Lock, is cleared of the same charge and returns home.

March

• 13 March - The Dunblane massacre - A gunman kills 16 children, their teacher and himself at a primary school in Dunblane, Stirling. The killer, who wounded 13 other children and another teacher, is quickly identified as 43-year-old former scout leader Thomas Hamilton.^[8]
• 20 March - Home Secretary Michael Howard unveils plans to give courts the power to hand down heavier prison sentences, including sending burglars to prison for at least three years after a third offence and all drugs to prison for at least six years. The plans spark controversy, with some critics pointing out that it will increase the prison population by at least 20%.
• 22 March - The European Union prohibits exports of British beef as a result of the BSE crisis.
• 29 March - Three British soldiers, all in their twenties, are sentenced to life imprisonment in Cyprus for the abduction, attempted rape and manslaughter of Danish woman Louise Jensen. The three soldiers are Allan Ford from Birmingham, Justin Fowler from Falmouth and Jeffrey Pernell from Oldbury^{[disambiguation needed ]}.

April

• 1 April - The Local Government etc. (Scotland) and Local Government (Wales) Acts of 1994 come into effect, creating new unitary authorities.
• 16 April - South East Staffordshire by-election: In a 22-point swing, Labour wins the Staffordshire South East seat from the Conservatives in a by-election, cutting the government's majority to three seats almost exactly four years after they began the current term of parliament with a 21-seat majority.^[9]
• 17 April - The Duke and Duchess of York are divorced after ten years of marriage, four years after their separation.

May

• 2 May - The Conservatives lose 578 seats in local council elections.^[10]
• 30 May
  • The Duke and Duchess of York complete their divorce proceedings.^[11] The former Duchess loses the style HRH and becomes Sarah, Duchess of York.
  • Sara Thornton, a Warwickshire woman who was jailed for life in 1990 for the murder of her abusive alcoholic husband Malcolm the previous year, is released from prison after the Court of Appeal reduces her conviction to manslaughter.

June

• 15 June - A massive IRA bomb explodes in Manchester city centre, devastating the city's commercial district.^[12]
• 19 June - The government selects the Greenwich Peninsula site on the banks of the River Thames as the location for the Millennium Dome exhibition which is set to open for the year 2000.
• 21 June - The latest MORI poll shows the Conservatives on 31%, their best showing for three years, but they are still 21 points behind Labour with just under a year to go before an election has to be held.^[1]
• 30 June - Germany wins the European Championship final with a 2-1 victory over Czech Republic at Wembley.

July

• 5 July - Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born at the Roslin Institute in Scotland.
• 8 July - The Spice Girls first single Wannabe is released.
• 12 July - South African prime minister Nelson Mandela visits Britain.
• 19 July–9 August - Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and win 1 gold, 8 silver and 6 bronze medals.

August

• 14 August - Unemployment has fallen to 2,126,200 - its lowest level in more than five years.
• 28 August - The Prince and Princess of Wales complete their divorce proceedings.^[11] The former Princess of Wales loses her style of Royal Highness and assumes the style, Diana, Princess of Wales.

September

• September
  • Ford launches its revolutionary new Ka city car, which makes use of a shortened Fiesta chassis. Next month it launches the revamped Mondeo.
  • New Nissan Primera P11 is built at NMUK
  • BBC Two shows first episode of lifestyle reality television show Changing Rooms.
• 5 September - Matthew Harding, vice-chairman of Chelsea football club, makes a £1million donation to the Labour Party - the largest donation made to the party by any individual.
• 20 September - 53-year-old jockey Willie Carson is badly injured after being kicked by a horse at Newbury, Berkshire.

October

• 12 October - The Conservative government's majority has dwindled to a single seat with the defection of Peter Thurnham to the Liberal Democrats.
• 13 October - Racing driver Damon Hill wins the Japanese Grand Prix thus clinching the Drivers' World Championship.^[11]
• 16 October - The Government announces plans to make possession of handguns illegal in the UK, following the Dunblane massacre.^[13]

November

• 3 November - Barry Porter, Conservative MP for Wirral South, dies of cancer aged 57.^[14]
• 8 November - With the next general election no more than six months away, Labour still look set for a return to power after eighteen years, but the Conservatives have cut their lead to seventeen points in the latest MORI opinion poll - one of the narrowest gaps seen between the two leading parties in any opinion poll over the last three years.^[15]
• 18 November - Channel Tunnel fire - the Channel Tunnel is closed when a truck on a transporter wagon catches fire, disrupting Eurotunnel Shuttle and Eurostar services.
• 30 November - The Stone of Scone is installed in Edinburgh Castle 700 years after it was removed from Scotland by King Edward I of England.^[11]

December

• 7 December - Sir John Gorst, 68-year-old Conservative MP for Hendon North in London, announces his resignation, leaving his party without a majority in the House of Commons.
• 10 December
  • James Mirrlees wins the Nobel Prize in Economics jointly with William Vickrey "for their fundamental contributions to the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information".^[16]
  • Harold Kroto wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley "for their discovery of fullerenes".^[17]
• 18 December - Unemployment has fallen below 2,000,000 for the first time since early 1991, less than four years after it touched 3,000,000. Despite the strong economic recovery and falling unemployment, the Conservatives are still trailing behind Labour in the opinion polls.

Undated

• Lawyer and politician John Taylor is made a Life Peer as Baron Taylor of Warwick,^[18] the first black Conservative peer.

Publications

• Iain M. Banks' novel Excession.
• Seamus Deane's novel Reading in the Dark.
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels Feet of Clay and Hogfather; and his Johnny Maxwell novel Johnny and the Bomb.
• Graham Swift's novel Last Orders.
• Meera Syal's semi-autobiographical novel Anita and Me.

Births

• Samuel Chatto, son of Lady Sarah Chatto and Daniel Chatto
• Cassius Taylor, son of Lady Helen Taylor
• Alexander Ogilvy, son of James Ogilvy

Deaths

• 8 January - Norrie McCathie, footballer (born 1961)^[19]
• 16 January - Harry Potts, former footballer and football manager (born 1920)
• 11 February - Cyril Poole, former cricketer (born 1921)
• 14 February - Bob Paisley, former footballer and football manager (born 1919)
• 27 February - Pat Smythe, show jumper (born 1928)
• 25 March - John Snagge, radio personality (born 1904)
• 6 April - Greer Garson, actress (born 1904)
• 20 April - Christopher Robin Milne, author and bookseller (born 1920)
• 2 May - Peter Swales, businessman and former football chairman (born 1932)
• 20 May - Jon Pertwee, actor (born 1919)
• 2 June - Leon Garfield, children's author (born 1921)
• 4 August - Geoff Hamilton, television presenter (born 1936)
• 9 August - Frank Whittle, RAF officer and inventor (born 1907)
• 11 October - Terry Patchett, Labour Member of Parliament (born 1940)
• 13 October - Beryl Reid, actress (born 1919)
• 16 October - Eric Malpass, novelist (born 1910)
• 22 October - Matthew Harding, businessman (born 1953)
• 6 November - Tommy Lawton, footballer (born 1919)^[20]
• 24 November - Sorley MacLean, Scottish Gaelic poet (born 1911)
• 26 November - Michael Bentine, comedian and comic actor (born 1922)
• 9 December - Mary Leakey, archaeologist (born 1913)
• 11 December - Willie Rushton, comedian, actor, and cartoonist (born 1937)
• 11 December - W. G. G. Duncan Smith, World War II pilot (born 1914)
• 16 December - Quentin Bell, biographer and art historian (born 1910)

References

See also