1996 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1996 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

*Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
*Prime Minister - John Major, Conservative

Events

* 18 January - Six major environmental organisations add their support to the campaign over the Newbury By-pass in Berkshire. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/18/newsid_2530000/2530307.stm|title="1996: Green groups join bypass battle", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-02-03]
* 5 February - the first genetically modified food products go on sale in the UK. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/5/newsid_4647000/4647390.stm|title="1996: First GM food goes on sale in UK", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-02-03]
* 9 February
** a large bomb explodes in the London Docklands area, near to South Quay DLR station, killing two people and injuring up to 40. The bomb was the responsibility of the IRA, and marks the end of a 17-month ceasefire. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/10/newsid_2539000/2539265.stm|title="1996: Docklands bomb ends IRA ceasefire", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-02-03]
** 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.
* 15 February - A report on the Arms-to-Iraq affair is critical of government ministers. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/15/newsid_2544000/2544355.stm|title="1996: Arms-to-Iraq report published", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-02-03]
* 18 February - a bomb explodes on a London bus in Central London, killing the IRA bomber transporting the device, and injuring several people. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/18/newsid_4165000/4165719.stm|title="1996: Bomb blast destroys London bus", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-02-03]
* 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. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/13/newsid_2543000/2543277.stm|title="1996: Massacre in Dunblane school gym", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-02-03]
* 2 May - The Football Association confirms that Glenn Hoddle will be appointed as coach of the England national football team after the upcoming European Championships.
* 27 May - The reconstruction of William Shakespeare's Globe Theatre opens in London.cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]
* 30 May - The Duke and Duchess of York complete their divorce proceedings.
* 8 June - The UEFA Euro 1996, hosted by England begins. The first match, England vs Switzerland takes place at Wembley Stadium, London. It ends in a 1-1 draw.
* 13 June - Guernsey legalises abortion, 86 years after it was criminalised on the island.
* 15 June - A massive IRA bomb explodes in Manchester city centre, devastating the city's commercial district. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/15/newsid_2527000/2527009.stm|title="1996: Huge explosion rocks central Manchester", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-02-03]
* 30 June - Germany wins the European Championship final with a 2-1 victory over Czech Republic at Wembley.
* 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
** Three young children and four adults are attacked by a man with a machete at a nursery school in the Blakenhall area of Wolverhampton. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/8/newsid_2496000/2496685.stm|title="1996: Seven slashed in school machete attack", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-02-03]
** The Spice Girls first single "Wannabe" is released.
* 10 July - Police find the bodies of 45-year-old Lin Russell and her six-year-old daughter Megan near village of Nonington in Kent. Lin's other daughter, nine-year-old Josie, survived the attack with massive head injuries. The killer is believed to have performed the attack with a hammer. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/10/newsid_2499000/2499209.stm|title="1996: Girl survives murder of mother and sister", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-02-03]
* 15 July - Horrett Campbell, 33, is arrested on seven counts of attempted murder following last week's machete attack at a Wolverhampton nursery school.
* 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.
* 29 July - Alan Shearer becomes the world's most expensive footballer when Newcastle United F.C. pay £15 million for him.
* 28 August - The Prince and Princess of Wales complete their divorce proceedings. The Princess of Wales loses her style of "Royal Highness" and assumes the style, Diana, Princess of Wales.
* September - Ford launches its revolutionary new Ka city car, which makes use of a shortened Fiesta chassis.
* 13 October - Racing driver Damon Hill wins the Japanese Grand Prix thus clinching the Drivers' World Championship.
* 16 October - The Government announces plans to ban handguns in the UK, following the Dunblane massacre. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/16/newsid_3110000/3110949.stm|title="1996: Handguns to be banned in the UK", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-02-03]
* 18 November - Channel Tunnel fire.
* 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.
* 1 December - Lee Harvey, a 25-year-old Alvechurch man, is stabbed to death in a reported road rage attack on a country lane near Redditch in Worcestershire.
* 9 December - A jury at Stafford Crown Court finds Horrett Campbell guilty on all seven counts of attempted murder relating to the Wolverhampton nursery machete attack five months previously. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/9/newsid_2543000/2543755.stm|title="1996: Guilty verdict on school machete attacker", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-02-03]
* 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". [cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1996/index.html|title=The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1996|accessdate=2008-02-03]
** Harold Kroto wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley "for their discovery of fullerenes". [cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1996/|title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1996|accessdate=2008-02-03]
* 19 December - Lee Harvey's girlfriend Tracie Andrews is charged with his murder, less than three weeks after his death was reported as the result of a "road rage" attack. She is freed on bail.

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".

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

* 11 February - Cyril Poole, cricketer (born 1921)
* 14 February - Bob Paisley, footballer and football manager (born 1919)
* 27 February - Pat Smythe, show jumper (born 1928)
* 25 March - John Snagge, radio personality (born 1904)
* 20 April - Christopher Robin Milne, author and bookseller (born 1920)
* 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)
* 13 October - Beryl Reid, actress (born 1919)
* 16 October - Eric Malpass, novelist (born 1910)
* 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

ee also