1996 in the United Kingdom

1996 in the United Kingdom

Other years

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

Constituent countries of the United Kingdom

England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales

Popular culture

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.

This year is noted for the Dunblane Massacre, the divorces of the Duke and Duchess of York and of the Prince and Princess of Wales and the birth of Dolly the sheep.

Incumbents[]

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister – John Major (Conservative)
• Parliament – 51st

Events[]

January[]

• 10 January – Terry Venables announces that he will resign as manager of the England national football team after this summer's European Championships, which will be hosted in England.
• 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 a trial lasting eleven days.
• 23–26 January – Much of Britain is struck with sub-zero temperatures and snowstorms. Schools and transport are disrupted.

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
  • The Provisional Irish Republican Army carry out the Docklands bombing in London, a truck bomb which kills two men (whose bodies are discovered the following day) and injures 39 people. This incident ends the 17-month ceasefire in Northern Ireland.
  • The Parole Board announces that Moors Murderer Myra Hindley could soon be transferred to an open prison. Hindley, 53 and in her thirtieth 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.
• 13 February – Take That, the most successful British band of the 1990s, announce that they are splitting up.
• 15 February – A report on the Arms-to-Iraq affair is critical of government ministers.^[4]
• 18 February – An IRA bomb explodes on a bus in Central London, killing the transporter, Edward O'Brien, and injuring eight other people, including the driver.^[5]
• 19–20 February – Approximately 1,000 passengers are trapped in the Channel Tunnel when two Eurostar trains break down due to electronic failures caused by snow and ice.^[6]
• 22 February – Conservative MP Peter Thurnham announces his resignation from the House of Commons, reducing the Conservative Government's majority to just two seats. Resignations and by-election defeats have cost the Conservatives nineteen 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.^[7]
  • 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 – A gunman kills sixteen children, a teacher and himself in the Dunblane massacre. The killer is quickly identified as 43-year-old former scout leader Thomas Hamilton. It is the worst killing spree in the United Kingdom since the Hungerford massacre in 1987.
• 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 drug dealers 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%.
  • United Kingdom BSE outbreak: Secretary of State for Health Stephen Dorrell announces a link between the potentially-fatal variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease and the eating of beef infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy.^[8]
• 22 March – The European Union prohibits exports of British beef because of the BSE crisis.
• 29 March – Three British soldiers 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.

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 Conservative Party at a by-election, cutting the Conservative Government's majority to just 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 and four years after their separation.

May[]

• 2 May
  • The Conservatives lose 578 seats in local council elections, while Labour increases its total number of councillors nationally to almost 11,000.^[10]
  • The Football Association announces that Glenn Hoddle, the current Chelsea manager, will succeed Terry Venables as manager of the England national football team after next month's European Championships, which England is hosting for the first time.
• 5 May – Manchester United win the FA Premier League title for the third time in four seasons.
• 11 May – Manchester United win the FA Cup for a record ninth time by beating Liverpool 1–0 and become the first team to win the double of the league title and FA Cup twice.
• 17 May – Timothy Morss and Brett Tyler are found guilty of the murder of Daniel Handley, who disappeared near his London home in October 1994 and whose body was found near Bristol five months later. The Old Bailey trial judge sentences them to life imprisonment and recommends that neither of them is ever released.
• 30 May
  • the Duke and Duchess of York complete their divorce proceedings.^[11] The former Duchess loses the title 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 husband Malcolm the previous year, is released from prison after the Court of Appeal reduces her conviction to manslaughter.

June[]

• 8 June – The European Football Championships begin in England, with the host nation drawing 1–1 with Switzerland in the opening game.
• 13 June – The parliament of Guernsey, Channel Islands, votes to legalise abortion 86 years after it was outlawed.
• 15 June – A bombing takes place in Manchester.
• 16 June – Launch of The Planet on Sunday, a new Sunday tabloid focusing on environmental issues. Publication of the newspaper ceases after one edition because the owner is unhappy with its content.^[12][13]
• 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 the next general election is due to be held.^[1]
• 26 June – England's hopes of being European champions of football for the first time are ended with a penalty shootout defeat to Germany after a 1–1 draw in the semi-final.
• 30 June – Germany wins the European Championship final with a 2–1 victory over the 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.
• 8 July – The Spice Girls' debut single Wannabe is released.
• 12 July – South African President Nelson Mandela visits the UK.
• 18 July – Howard Hughes, 31, is found guilty of the murder of Sophie Hook in Llandudno, North Wales, twelve months ago. He is sentenced to life imprisonment at Chester Crown Court and the trial judge Mr Justice Curtis recommends that he is never released.
• 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. The only gold medal is won by Matthew Pinsent and Steve Redgrave in rowing (men's coxless pair).
• 30 July – Alan Shearer becomes the most expensive footballer in the world in a £15,000,000 transfer from Blackburn Rovers to Newcastle United F.C.

August[]

• 14 August – Unemployment has fallen to 2,126,200 – its lowest level since the summer of 1991.
• 28 August – The Prince and Princess of Wales complete their divorce proceedings after fifteen years of marriage. Their separation was first announced nearly four years ago.^[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. A revamped Mondeo goes on sale next month.
  • Launch of the second generation Nissan Primera, built at Nissan's Sunderland factory.
  • BBC Two shows the first episode of lifestyle reality television show Changing Rooms.
• 5 September – Matthew Harding, vice-chairman of Chelsea FC, makes a £1,000,000 donation to the Labour Party – the largest donation made to the party by any individual.
• 20 September – Jockey Willie Carson is injured by a horse at Newbury, Berkshire.

October[]

• 2 October – Lawyer and politician John Taylor is made a Life Peer as Baron Taylor of Warwick,^[14] the first black Conservative peer.
• 7 October – The Thiepval barracks bombing in Lisburn (Northern Ireland) injures many people, including a soldier who later dies from his injuries.
• 12 October – The Conservative government's majority has dwindled to a single seat following 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]
  • The Queen opens Durham's new Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street, the first new purpose-built first-class county cricket ground in the UK for over 100 years.^[15]
• 16 October – The government announces plans to make possession of handguns illegal in the UK, following the Dunblane massacre.^[16]

November[]

• 3 November – Barry Porter, Conservative MP for Wirral South, dies of cancer aged 57.^[17]
• 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 in opposition, 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.^[18]
• 13 November – The Stone of Scone is taken away from King Edward's Chair in Westminster Abbey, its location since 1296, and returned to Scotland.
• 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.
• 24 November – BBC Two airs The Simpsons for the first time with There's No Disgrace Like Home being the first episode.
• 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, resigns the party whip, leaving the Conservative 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".^[19]
  • Harold Kroto wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley "for their discovery of fullerenes".^[20]
• 18 December – Unemployment has fallen below 2,000,000 for the first time in almost six years, four years since it peaked at nearly 3,000,000 during the recession. Despite the strong economic recovery and falling unemployment, the Conservatives are still trailing behind Labour in the opinion polls, a stark contrast to their performance at the last election, where they retained power despite Britain being in recession.

Undated[]

• Remaining provincial branches of the Bank of England, at Leeds, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol, are closed.^[21]
• More than 4% of the UK population (some 2,500,000 people) now have internet access.
• New car sales in the United Kingdom are above 2,000,000 for this year, a level last seen in 1990.

Publications[]

• Iain M. Banks's 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[]

January[]

• 3 January – Florence Pugh, actress
• 4 January – Jade Jones, athlete
• 5 January – Maxim Baldry, English actor
• 8 January – Hiram Boateng, footballer
• 10 January – Lauren McCrostie, actress
• 11 January – Charlie Coulson, footballer
• 17 January – Kirsty Hickey, actor, singer and dancer
• 21 January – Kyle Lander, footballer
• 23 January – Ruben Loftus-Cheek, footballer
• 26 January – Tyger Drew-Honey, actor
• 29 January – Megan Jossa, actress

February[]

• 1 February
  • Josh Bates, motorcycle speedway rider
  • Dionne Bromfield, singer-songwriter and television presenter
• 7 February – Nathan Curtis, footballer
• 14 February – Bethany Firth, swimmer
• 20 February – Patrick Brough, footballer
• 21 February – Sophie Turner, actress

March[]

• 12 March – Byron Lawrence, footballer
• 16 March – Ivan Toney, footballer
• 17 March – Lydia Lloyd-Henry, actress
• 19 March – Kaiya Jones, Scottish-born Australian actress
• 20 March – Charley Hull, golfer
• 21 March – Adam Ellis, French-born grasstrack and speedway rider
• 22 March
  • Jonathan Mason, actor
  • Izzy Meikle-Small, actress
• 31 March – Barney Gibson, cricketer

April[]

• 3 April – Anna Jobarteh, actress
• 5 April – Lowri Shone, ballerina
• 8 April – Lorna Fitzgerald, actress
• 11 April – Dele Alli, footballer
• 12 April – Georgia Hall, golfer
• 17 April – Lorna Fitzgerald, actress
• 23 April – Charlie Rowe, actor
• 25 April
  • Bryn Morris, footballer
  • Brad Walker, footballer

May[]

• 3 May – Danielle Alakija, athlete
• 15 May – Birdy, musician
• 16 May – Jermaine Anderson, footballer

June[]

• 1 June – Tom Holland, actor and dancer
• 4 June – Ruby Harrold, gymnast
• 11 June – Hakeeb Adelakun, footballer
• 23 June – Charlie Jones, actor
• 24 June – Harris Dickinson, actor, writer, and director
• 27 June – James Forde, actor
• 28 June – William Miller, actor
• 30 June – Gregor Ramsay, racing driver

July[]

• 9 July – Scott McMann, footballer
• 15 July – Mason Bennett, footballer
• 16 July – Daniel Pearson, actor and presenter
• 20 July – Martin James Bartlett, pianist
• 24 July – Jordan McGhee, footballer
• 26 July – Olivia Breen, athlete
• 28 July
  • Anya Chalotra, actress
  • Samuel Chatto, son of Lady Sarah Chatto and Daniel Chatto

August[]

• 2 August – Robert Madge, actor
• 5 August – Hannah Russell, paralympic swimmer
• 9 August – Céline Buckens, Belgian-born actress
• 20 August – Sophie Kamlish, paralympic
• 22 August
  • Jessica-Jane Applegate, swimmer
  • Shannon Flynn, actress

September[]

• 2 September – Hannah Jones, snooker player
• 17 September – Ella Purnell, actress
• 20 September – Jerome Sinclair, footballer
• 25 September
  • Jake Pratt, actor
  • John Souttar, footballer
• 28 September – Aiden Moffat, racing driver

October[]

• 7 October – Lewis Capaldi, Scottish singer-songwriter
• 11 October – Hollie Doyle, flat racing jockey
• 16 October – Sam Thornton, diver
• 17 October – Princess Marie-Caroline of Liechtenstein
• 19 October
  • Daniel Goodfellow, diver
  • Samuel Honywood, actor
• 21 October – Alicia Blagg, diver
• 25 October – Georgia Lock, actress and presenter
• 26 October – Rebecca Tunney, gymnast
• 31 October – Connor Wilkinson, actor

November[]

• 11 November – Ryan Kent, footballer
• 12 November – Alexander Ogilvy, son of James Ogilvy
• 28 November – Peter Moore, trombonist

December[]

• 18 December – Devaanshi Mehta, started the Asian Donor Campaign (ADC) (died 2012)
• 26 December – Cassius Taylor, son of Lady Helen Taylor

Full date unknown[]

• Maz Totterdell, singer and songwriter
• Nadia Whittome, Labour Member of Parliament

Deaths[]

• 8 January – Norrie McCathie, footballer (born 1961)^[22]
• 16 January – Harry Potts, footballer and manager (born 1920)
• 11 February – Cyril Poole, cricketer (born 1921)
• 14 February – Bob Paisley, footballer and manager (born 1919)
• 27 February – Pat Smythe, show jumper (born 1928)
• 8 March – Jack Churchill, British Army officer (born 1906 in Hong Kong)
• 18 March – Jacquetta Hawkes, prehistoric archaeologist (born 1910)
• 25 March – John Snagge, radio personality (born 1904)
• 6 April – Greer Garson, actress (born 1904)
• 8 April – Donald Adams, actor and opera singer (born 1928)
• 20 April – Christopher Robin Milne, author and bookseller (born 1920)
• 2 May – Peter Swales, businessman and football chairman (born 1932)
• 20 May – Jon Pertwee, actor (born 1919)
• 2 June – Leon Garfield, children's author (born 1921)
• 7 June – Percy Edwards, animal impersonator (born 1908)
• 15 June – Allenby Chilton, former footballer and football manager (born 1918)
• 19 June – Vivian Ellis, composer and lyricist (born 1903)
• 17 July – Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, landscape architect (born 1900)
• 4 August – Geoff Hamilton, television presenter (born 1936)
• 6 August – Ossie Clark, fashion designer (born 1942; murdered)
• 9 August – Frank Whittle, RAF officer and inventor (born 1907)
• 27 August – Abram Games, graphic designer (born 1914)
• 29 September – Leslie Crowther, comedian and TV presenter (born 1933)
• 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)^[23]
• 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)
• 23 December – Ronnie Scott, jazz musician and club owner (born 1927)

See also[]

• List of British films of 1996

References[]