2002 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 2002 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

* Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
* Prime Minister - Tony Blair, Labour Party

Events

* January - Ford unveils its all-new Fiesta supermini, which is due on sale in March.
* 14 January - The end of the Foot and Mouth crisis is declared after 11 months. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/14/newsid_4121000/4121785.stm|title="2002: UK declared free of foot-and-mouth", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-02-13]
* 8 February–24 February - Great Britain competes at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States and wins 1 gold and 1 bronze medal.
* 15 February - Funeral of Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon takes place at St. George's Chapel, Windsor.
* 27 February - Ryanair Flight 296 catches fire at London Stansted Airport.
* 11 March - BBC 6 Music, the first new BBC Radio station in decades, is launched.
* 21 March - Amanda Dowler, 13, goes missing on her way home from school in Surrey.
* 4 April - The Queen Mother's funeral procession from the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace to Westminster Hall to lie in state.
* 9 April - Funeral of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother takes place at Westminster Abbey, London. The burial takes place at St. George's Chapel, Windsor.
* 25 April - Two 16-year-old twin brothers are cleared of murdering 10-year-old Damilola Taylor, who was stabbed to death in South London 17 months ago. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/25/newsid_2504000/2504075.stm|title="2002: Brothers cleared of Damilola murder", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-02-13]
* 10 May - Potters Bar rail crash in Hertfordshire kills 7 people.
* 27 May - Former leader of the Liberal Democrats Paddy Ashdown appointed as the international community's High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. [cite news |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/05/28/wash28.xml |title=Ashdown takes over in Bosnia |author=Alex Todorovic |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=27 May 2002 |accessdate=2008-04-15]
* 28 May - Stephen Byers resigns as Secretary of State for Transport.
* 3 June - The "Party in the Palace" takes place at Buckingham Palace, London for The Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations.
* 4 June - The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh ride in the gold state coach from Buckingham Palace to St Paul's Cathedral for a special service marking the Queen's 50 years on the throne. In New York, the Empire State Building is lit in purple for her honour.
* 10 June - First direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans carried out by Kevin Warwick in the University of Reading.
* 23 July - Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Wales, elected to be the successor of George Carey as Archbishop of Canterbury.cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]
* 25 July - The 2002 Commonwealth Games, hosted by Manchester are opened by the Queen
* 30 July - Heavy rain overnight results in the 2002 Glasgow floods
* 4 August - 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman go missing in Soham, Cambridgeshire. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/4/newsid_4044000/4044461.stm|title="2002: Police 'concerned' for missing girls", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-02-13]
* 17 August - The bodies of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman are found in a ditch near Thetford.
* 21 August - Ian Huntley, detained under the Mental Health Act, is charged with the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. His girlfriend Maxine Carr is charged with peverting the course of justice. Both are remanded in custody.
* 20 September - Police confirm that human remains found in woodland in north Hampshire are those of Amanda Dowler, who went missing in Surrey six months. A murder investigation is launched.
* 22 September - An earthquake in Dudley. [cite web|url=http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/macroseismics/dudley_macro.htm|title=Dudley Earthquake Macroseismic|accessdate=2008-05-23]
* 9 October - A judge decides that Ian Huntley is fit to face prosecution for the Soham Murders.
* 14 October - The Northern Ireland Assembly is suspended following allegations of spying in "Stormontgate".cite book|last=Williams|first=Hywel|title=Cassell's Chronology of World History|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2005|isbn=0-304-35730-8|pages=652–653]
* 23 October - Estelle Morris resigns as Secretary of State for Education.
* 25 October - Memorial service held at St Paul's Cathedral for the victims of the Bali bombing, which killed 26 UK citizens.
* 1 November - Diana, Princess of Wales' former butler, Paul Burrell, is cleared of stealing from the princess' estate after it was revealed that he had told the Queen that he was keeping some of her possessions.
* 13 November - Firefighter's strike begins.
* 20 November - German anatomist Gunther von Hagens conducts a public autopsy in a London theatre; the first in Britain in more than 170 years.
* 23 November - The Miss World 2002 beauty competition is held in London after rioting in the Nigerian capital Lagos prevent it being hosted there.
* 24 November - Home Secretary David Blunkett rules that four convicted child murderers should spent at least 50 years in prison before being considered for parole. This ruling means that Roy Whiting, Howard Hughes, Timothy Morss and Brett Tyler are likely to remain behind bars until at least the ages of 92, 80, 79 and 81 respectively.
* 26 November - Politicians in England and Wales lose their power to set minimum terms on life sentence prisoners after the European Court of Human Rights and the High Court both ruled in favour of a legal challenge by convicted double murderer Anthony Anderson. Anderson had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 1988 and the trial judge recommended that he should serve a minimum of 15 years before being considered for parole, but the Home Secretary later decided on a 20-year minimum term.
* 10 December
** Sydney Brenner and John E. Sulston win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with H. Robert Horvitz "for their discoveries concerning 'genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death'". [cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2002/|title=The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2002|accessdate=2008-02-13]
** Cherie Blair apologises for the embarrassment she caused in buying flats with the help of convicted fraudster Peter Foster.
* 15 December - "On the Record", the BBC's flagship political programme, finishes after 14 years on air.

Publications

* Iain Banks' novel "Dead Air".
* Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels "Night Watch" which wins the Prometheus Award.

Births

Deaths

* 9 February - Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, sister of the Queen (born 1930)
* 16 February - Walter Winterbottom, footballer and football manager (born 1913)
* 21 February - John Thaw, actor (born 1942)
* 27 February - Spike Milligan, comedian, writer and poet (born 1918)
* 4 March
** Claire Davenport, actress (born 1933)
** Eric Flynn, actor and singer (born 1939)
* c.21 March - Amanda Dowler, murder victim (born 1988)
* 27 March - Dudley Moore, comedian and actor (born 1935)
* 30 March - Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, consort of King George VI (born 1900)
* 31 March - Barry Took, comedian, writer and television presenter (born 1928)
* 27 June - John Entwistle, bassist (The Who) (born 1944)
* 28 July - Archer John Porter Martin, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1910)
* 4 August - Carmen Silvera, actress (born 1922)
* 31 August - George Porter, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1920)
* 23 September - Vernon Corea, broadcaster (born 1927)
* 28 October - Thomas Patrick Russell, judge (born 1926)
* 2 November - Charles Sheffield, author and physicist (born 1935)
* 3 November - Lonnie Donegan, musician (King of Skiffle (born 1931)
* 15 November - Myra Hindley, murderer (born 1942)
* 18 December - Bert Millichip, former Football Association chairman (born 1914)
* 22 December - Joe Strummer, musician and singer (The Clash) (born 1952)
* 30 December - Mary Wesley, novelist (born 1912)

References

ee also