1986 in the United Kingdom

UK-related events during the year of 1986

1986 in the United Kingdom
Other years
1984 | 1985 | 1986 (1986) | 1987 | 1988
Constituent countries of the United Kingdom
England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales
Popular culture

1986 British Grand Prix
1986 English cricket season
Football: England | Scotland
1986 in British television
1986 in British music
1986 in British radio
UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 1986

Events from the year 1986 in the United Kingdom. It is particularly noted for the "Big Bang" deregulation of the financial markets.

Incumbents

Events

January

  • January – The Vauxhall Belmont compact saloon goes on sale, giving buyers a traditional saloon alternative to the Astra hatchback and estate models. The car would remain in production until September 1991.
  • 9 January – Michael Heseltine resigns as Defence Secretary over the Westland affair.[1]
  • 12 January – The game show Catchphrase begins on ITV hosted by Roy Walker along with the computer generated character Mr. Chips. It concludes in 2002, but is revived in 2013.
  • 14 January – The Salafi jihadist group al-Muhajiroun begins to operate in the UK.
  • 20 January – The United Kingdom and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel, which they hope to open by the early-1990s.
  • 24 January – Leon Brittan resigns as Trade and Industry Secretary over the Westland affair.[2]
  • 31 January – Unemployment for this month has increased to 3,204,900 – a postwar high which accounts for 14.4% of the workforce.

February

March

April

May

  • May – The last Talbot badged passenger cars are built in Britain and France by Peugeot who will continue making their own cars at the former Rootes Group plant near Coventry and the former Simca production facilities in France. Peugeot is to continue the Talbot brand for commercial vehicles and production of the Horizon range will continue in Spain and Finland until next year.
  • 5 May – Liverpool win the Football League First Division title for a record 16th time after winning 1–0 at Chelsea. Kenny Dalglish, in his first season as the club's player-manager, scores the goal which gives Liverpool the title.
  • 8 May
    • Labour makes large gains in local council elections, collecting 37% of the votes nationally compared to the Conservatives on 34% and the Alliance on 26%. These are the first national elections to be held since the recent abolition of the metropolitan councils.
    • Former Labour MP and life peer Manny Shinwell, Baron Shinwell dies at the age of 101, making him the second longest-lived British MP until 2008.
  • 10 May – The first all-Merseyside FA Cup final ends in a 3–1 win for Liverpool over Everton, who become only the third team this century to win the double, having already secured the Football League First Division title.[16]
  • 20 May – The Marriage (Prohibited Degrees of Relationship) Act revises the prohibited degree of kinship for marriage.
  • 21 May – The Harrison Birtwistle opera The Mask of Orpheus premieres in London.[17][18]

June

July

  • July – Nissan begins production of the Bluebird at its landmark factory near Sunderland.
  • 1 July – Gary Lineker becomes the most expensive British footballer ever in a £2.75 million move from Everton to FC Barcelona.[25]
  • 2 July – 24 hours after Gary Lineker's transfer, Ian Rush sets a new transfer record for a British footballer when he agrees a £3.2 million move from Liverpool to Juventus of Italy, but is loaned back to Liverpool for a season and will not play his first game for Juventus until at least August 1987.[26]
  • 4 July – A policeman is cleared of the manslaughter of five-year-old John Shorthouse, who was killed in an armed raid on a house in Birmingham in August last year.
  • 10 July – Austin Rover launches its new Honda-based Rover 800 executive car, which replaces the decade-old Rover SD1 and is part of a joint venture with Japanese carmaker Honda. The car will also be sold in the United States under the Sterling marque. The Honda version will be badged as the Honda Legend.[27]
  • 12 July – Rioting breaks out at Portadown in Northern Ireland between Protestants and Catholics.[28]
  • 17 July – It is announced that unemployment rose to 3,220,400 in June. It has now exceeded 3 million for nearly five years.
  • 23 July – Prince Andrew, Duke of York, marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in London.[29]
  • 24 July–2 August – The Commonwealth Games are held in Edinburgh.
  • 25 July
  • 28 July – Estate agent Suzy Lamplugh vanishes after a meeting in London. She is declared legally dead in 1994, but as of 2021, her body will still not have been found and no-one will have been formally charged with her murder.[30]
  • 30 July – A MORI poll shows that Labour are now nine points ahead of the Conservatives with 41% of the vote, with Liberal/SDP Alliance support now at 25%.[31]

August

  • 4 August – Mathematician Simon Donaldson is awarded a Fields Medal.[17]
  • 8 August – Rival gangs of Manchester United and West Ham United fans clash on a Sealink ferry bound for Amsterdam where the two clubs are playing pre-season friendlies. The UEFA ban on English clubs in European competitions is continuing for a second season, and there are now fears that English clubs may not even be able to play friendlies overseas.
  • 13 August – The Eurotunnel Group is formed to operate the Channel Tunnel.[3]
  • 15 August – The latest MORI poll shows that the Conservatives have eliminated Labour's nine-point lead and drawn level with them by gaining 37% in the latest opinion poll, in the space of just over two weeks.[31]
  • 16 August – Figures released by the government reveal that a record of nearly 3,100,000 people claimed Unemployment Benefit last month, although the official total of unemployed people in Britain is still short of the record of nearly 3,300,000 which was set two years ago.[32]
  • 19 August – The privatisation of the National Bus Company begins with the first sale of a bus operating subsidiary, Devon General, in a management buyout.
  • 22 August – John Stalker, deputy chief constable of Greater Manchester police, is cleared of misconduct over allegations of associating with criminals.[33]
  • 24–25 August – The inaugural Birmingham Superprix, the first street race to be held in mainland Britain, takes place in Birmingham city centre. It will run annually on August Bank Holiday weekend until 1990.[34][35]
  • 25 August – Economists warn that a global recession is imminent, barely five years after the previous recession.
  • 29 August
    • Britain's oldest twins, May and Marjorie Chavasse, celebrate their one-hundredth birthday.[36]
    • Highest national average 24-hour total rainfall until 2020.[37]
  • c. August – The one-millionth council house in the United Kingdom is sold to its tenants in Scotland, seven years after the Right To Buy scheme was launched.[38]

September

  • September – GCSE examination courses replace both GCE 'O' Level and CSE courses for 14-year-olds.[39]
  • 6 September – First episode of medical drama serial Casualty airs on BBC One. It will still be running on television more than thirty years later.
  • 8 September – Margaret Thatcher officially opens the first phase of the Nissan car factory at Sunderland, which has been in use for two months. It is the first car factory to be built in Europe by a Japanese carmaker.[40]
  • 13 September – Motorcyclist Neil Robinson, 24, dies after his motorcycle crashes on the Oliver's Mount racing circuit in Scarborough during a practice session.
  • 14 September – Fears of another recession in Britain are eased by economists at Liverpool University predicting 3.1% economic growth next year.
  • 18 September – It is announced that unemployment rose to 3,280,106 in July.
  • 19 September – A man is killed in the Colwich rail crash.
  • 24 September – The flotation of the Trustee Savings Banks attracts a record of more than 4 million applications for shares.

October

  • 7 October – The first edition of The Independent national morning newspaper is published in London.[41]
  • 9 October
    • "Babes in the Wood" murders: two girls, Nicola Fellows (aged nine) and Karen Hadaway (aged 10), are reported missing in Moulsecoomb, Brighton.
    • Musical The Phantom of the Opera opens at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.
  • 10 October – "Babes in the Wood" murders: two bodies found in Wild Park, Brighton, are identified as those of the two girls reported missing yesterday and a murder investigation is launched.[42]
  • 12 October – Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit the People's Republic of China, the first ever visit to the country by a British monarch.[41]
  • 14 October – The MetroCentre, a shopping complex built on the Tyneside Enterprise Zone, is opened. It is similar in concept to the Merry Hill Shopping Centre that is being developed near Dudley in the West Midlands. The MetroCentre is officially the largest shopping complex in Europe.[43] Among the MetroCentre's tenants is Marks & Spencer, whose department store there is its first out of town outlet.[citation needed]
  • 24 October – The UK breaks off diplomatic relations with Syria over links to the Hindawi affair.[44]
  • 26 October
    • Bus deregulation begins in the United Kingdom, except Greater London and Northern Ireland.
    • Jeffrey Archer resigns as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party over allegations concerning prostitutes.[45]
  • 27 October
  • 28 October – Jeremy Bamber is found guilty of the 1985 "White House Farm murders" of his parents, sister and twin nephews in Essex, and is sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum of 25 years[47] and as of 2021 will still be in prison.
  • 29 October – Margaret Thatcher opens the completed M25 London Orbital Motorway, the first section of which opened in 1975. It covers a distance of 122 miles and features 31 junctions, although there are no service stations yet.[48]
  • 30 October – Children and young people's telephone counselling charity Childline begins taking calls.[49]

November

December

  • December – The first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy is diagnosed in British cattle.
  • 1 December – The government launches an inquiry into financial irregularities at Guinness.[52]
  • 3 December – 4 million people apply for shares in British Gas in anticipation of flotation next week.
  • 4 December – 20-year-old roofer Russell Bishop is charged with the "Babes in the Wood" murders in Brighton two months ago but will not be convicted until a second trial in 2018.[42]
  • 8 December – British Gas shares are floated on the Stock Exchange. The initial public offering of 135p per share values the company at £9 billion, the highest equity offering ever at this time.[53]
  • 17 December – The world's first heart, lung and liver transplant is carried out at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire.[41]
  • 18 December – It is announced that unemployment fell to a four-year low of less than 3,100,000 in November.[54] On 15 January 1987 it is announced that unemployment has fallen in December 1986 for the fifth month in succession.
  • 22 December – David Penhaligon, a leading Liberal Party MP, dies in a car crash near Truro in his Cornwall constituency at the age of 42.[55]
  • 25 December – The highest audience of all time for a British television drama is attracted by the Christmas Day episode of EastEnders, the BBC 1 soap opera, in which Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) serves the divorce papers on his wife Angie (Anita Dobson) after discovering that she had feigned a terminal illness to try to stop him from leaving her in an episode aired in October this year. More than 30 million viewers tune in for the episode of the TV series which first went on air in February 1985.[56]
  • 29 December – Harold Macmillan, Earl of Stockton and former Prime Minister, dies at his home, Birch Grove in East Sussex, aged 92, the oldest former Prime Minister until 2005.

Undated

  • Inflation reaches a 19-year low of 3.4%.[57]

Publications

Births

January

Colin Morgan
Emika
Kieron Richardson
Mischa Barton

February

Gemma Arterton
Charlotte Church

March

Charlie Mulgrew
Danny Jones
Jamie Bell
Sylvan Ebanks-Blake

April

Brett Ferres
Daniel Sharman
Jenna Coleman

May

Robert Pattinson
Charlie Fink
Charlie Casely-Hayford

June

Oona Chaplin
Richard Madden
Sam Claflin

July

Dan Smith
Charlie Clemmow
  • 1 July – Sonoya Mizuno, Japanese-born actress, model, and ballerina
  • 3 July – Chris Bush, playwright and artistic director
  • 4 July
  • 10 July
  • 11 July
  • 14 July – Dan Smith, singer
  • 16 July – James Drury, English-born Virgin Islands footballer
  • 17 July – William Easton, footballer
  • 21 July
    • Michael Collins, rugby player
    • Rebecca Ferguson, soul singer/songwriter
  • 22 July – Robert Campbell, footballer
  • 24 July – Alissa Firsova, Russian-born classical composer, pianist, and conductor
  • 25 July
  • 26 July – Mathew Birley, footballer
  • 29 July – FuntCase, DJ and dubstep producer
  • 31 July – Charlie Clemmow, actress

August

Teddy Sinclair
Zuby
PAC
Florence Welch

September

Jodie Turner-Smith
Alfie Allen

October

Sam Foley
Emilia Clarke
John Ruddy

November

Nick Aldis
Oliver Sykes
Sam Palladio

December

Sean Edwards
Kit Harington
Ellie Goulding
Faye Marsay

Date Unknown

Caroline Bird
Floating Points

Deaths

January

Christopher Isherwood
Phil Lynott

February

  • 1 February – Dick James, singer and record producer (born 1920)
  • 4 February – Herbert Smith, film producer (born 1901)
  • 6 February – Frederick Coutts, Salvation Army officer (born 1899)
  • 7 February – Dick Southwood, Olympic rower (born 1906)
  • 10 February – Brian Aherne, actor (born 1902)
  • 14 February – Edmund Rubbra, composer (born 1901)
  • 15 February – Harry Hall, botanist (born 1906)
  • 17 February – Nesta Wells, first woman police surgeon in the United Kingdom (born 1892)
  • 21 February – Margaret Hunter, Scottish communist (born 1922)
  • 22 February
    • Tom Bradshaw, Scottish footballer (born 1904)
    • Anthony Rawlinson, civil servant (born 1926)
  • 23 February – Beatrix Thomson, actress (born 1900)
  • 26 February – Charles Gibson Connell, Scottish ornithologist (born 1899)
  • 27 February – Nancy Brysson Morrison, author (born 1903)
  • 28 February – Sir Thomas Williams, Labour politician (born 1915)

March

Tommy Farr
John Bagot Glubb
  • 1 March – Tommy Farr, Welsh boxer (born 1913)
  • 4 March
    • Edward MacLysaght, British-born Irish geneaologist (born 1887)
    • John Spence, Conservative politician (born 1920)
  • 5 March – Basil McFarland, Northern Irish politician and businessman (born 1898)
  • 6 March – Robert Bateson, RAF air marshal (born 1912)
  • 10 March
  • 12 March – James Maurice Scott, explorer and writer (born 1906)
  • 14 March
  • 15 March – Martin Cooper, musicologist (born 1910)
  • 16 March
  • 17 March – Sir John Bagot Glubb, general and author, leader of the Arab Legion (1939–1956) (born 1897)
  • 19 March
    • Elisabeth Barker, journalist and civil servant (born 1910)
    • Phil Rees, greyhound trainer (born 1914)
  • 22 March – Jimmy Jones, tennis player (born 1912)
  • 21 March – Derek Farr, actor (born 1912)
  • 23 March – Sir Walter Merton, RAF air marshal (born 1905)
  • 26 March – Andrew Freeth, artist (born 1912)
  • 29 March – Elizabeth Williams, educationist (born 1895)
  • 30 March – Beatrice White, scholar (born 1902)
  • 31 March – Christopher Lloyd, naval historian (born 1906)

April

May

Manny Shinwell, Baron Shinwell

June

Anna Neagle
Lady Diana Cooper

July

Robert Boothby, Baron Boothby

August

Beryl Markham
Henry Moore

September

Neil Robinson

October

Mary Cholmondeley, Lady Delamere

November

Hugh Stockwell

December

Elsa Lanchester
Harold Macmillan

See also

References

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  2. ^ "1986: Leon Brittan quits over Westland". BBC News. 24 January 1986. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  3. ^ a b "Our history". Eurotunnel. Archived from the original on 3 January 2010. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  4. ^ a b Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 452–453. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
  5. ^ "1986: Printers and police clash in Wapping". BBC News. 15 February 1986. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  6. ^ "Sun Headlines". Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  7. ^ "1986: Greater London Council abolished". BBC News. 31 March 1986. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  8. ^ "History – The Hanson years". Imperial Tobacco. 2010. Archived from the original on 2 September 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
  9. ^ Tedmanson, Sophie (3 November 2004). "Lord Hanson". The Times. London. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
  10. ^ Green, Oliver (1988). The London Underground – An Illustrated History. Ian Allan. p. 63. ISBN 0-7110-1720-4.
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  12. ^ "Guide to Parliament". BBC News. 11 October 2007. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  13. ^ "metrocentre". Retrieved 15 March 2013.
  14. ^ "1986: Simple funeral rites for Duchess". BBC News. 29 April 1986. Archived from the original on 30 December 2007. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  15. ^ "Jail action called off after riots", Express & Star, Wolverhampton, 1 May 1986, retrieved 15 March 2013
  16. ^ "FA Cup Final 1986". Archived from the original on 25 May 2009. Retrieved 30 May 2009.
  17. ^ a b The Hutchinson Factfinder. Helicon. 1999. ISBN 1-85986-000-1.
  18. ^ "The Mask of Orpheus". What's on Stage. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 6 July 2010.
  19. ^ "1986: Magee convicted of Brighton bombing". BBC News. 10 June 1986. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  20. ^ "1986: Labour expels Militant Hatton". BBC News. 12 June 1986. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  21. ^ "1986: Ian Paisley's battle cry condemned". BBC News. 24 June 1986. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  22. ^ "1986: Branson on course for Blue Riband", BBC News". 26 June 1986. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  23. ^ "1986: Branson beats Atlantic speed record". BBC News. 29 June 1986. Archived from the original on 4 January 2008. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  24. ^ a b c "1986". Express & Star. Wolverhampton. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
  25. ^ TV and Radio (12 June 2002). "A career of two-halves". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
  26. ^ "Ian Rush | Football Stats | No Club | Age 51 | 1979–1999". Soccer Base. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
  27. ^ "Maggie's Pat on Head for Rover". Evening Times. Glasgow. 10 July 1986. p. 15. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
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  29. ^ "1986: Prince Andrew weds Sarah Ferguson". BBC News. 23 July 1986. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  30. ^ "1986: Parents appeal for missing agent". BBC News. 30 July 1986. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  31. ^ a b c "Poll tracker: Interactive guide to the opinion polls". BBC News. 1 January 1970. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
  32. ^ Ashley Seager (16 August 2006). "20 years ago the dole queue hit 3 million – today it is the workforce that's a record | Business". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
  33. ^ "1986: Police chief cleared of misconduct". BBC News. 22 August 1986. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  34. ^ "Birmingham Superprix". Britain By Car. 12 December 2014. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  35. ^ Fair, Thomas (1 April 2022). "When race cars tore through central Birmingham". Birmingham Live. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  36. ^ "1986: UK's oldest twins turn 100". BBC News. 29 August 1986. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  37. ^ McGrath, Matt (16 October 2020). "Extreme weather: October downpour sees UK's wettest day on record". BBC News. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  38. ^ Thatcher, Margaret (10 October 1986). "Speech to Conservative Party Conference". Margaret Thatcher Foundation. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  39. ^ "1984: O-Levels to be replaced by GCSEs". BBC News. 20 June 1984. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 29 January 2008.
  40. ^ "Nissan Sunderland". Qashqai Club. Archived from the original on 11 May 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
  41. ^ a b c Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
  42. ^ a b "Russell Bishop: Paedophile guilty of 1986 Babes in Wood murders". BBC News. 10 December 2018. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  43. ^ "Metro Centre". Thechaiseguesthouse.com. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
  44. ^ "1986: UK cuts links with Syria over bomb plot". BBC News. 24 October 1986. Archived from the original on 26 October 2007. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  45. ^ "1986: Archer quits over prostitute allegations". BBC News. 26 October 1986. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  46. ^ Leadbeater, Chris (18 March 2015). "Neighbours 30th anniversary - on the trail of the soap in Melbourne". Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 18 March 2015. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  47. ^ "1986: 'Evil' Bamber jailed for family murders". BBC News. 28 October 1986. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  48. ^ "The M25: We're on the road to nowhere – Features – Motoring". The Independent. London. 17 October 2006. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
  49. ^ "ChildLine marks 25 years of helping children". BBC News. 28 October 2011. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  50. ^ "Education (No. 2) Act 1986". Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  51. ^ "1986: Police renew hunt for Moors victims". BBC News. 20 November 1986. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  52. ^ "1986: Surprise inquiry into Guinness affairs". BBC News. 1 December 1986. Archived from the original on 4 December 2007. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  53. ^ Marr, Andrew (2007). A History of Modern Britain. London: Macmillan. p. 431. ISBN 978-1-4050-0538-8.
  54. ^ [1][permanent dead link]
  55. ^ Polsson, Ken. "This Day in History – 22 December". Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  56. ^ Lawson, Mark (15 June 2018). "Dirty Den: how the EastEnders bad boy became the biggest soap star of them all". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  57. ^ Twigger, Robert (23 February 1999). "Inflation: the Value of the Pound 1750–1998" (PDF). Research Paper 99/20. House of Commons Library. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 February 2006. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  58. ^ "Mairin Mitchell : A memory of Ambleside". www.francisfrith.com. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
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