1985 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1985 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

*Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
*Prime Minister - Margaret Thatcher, Conservative

Events

* 1 January - The first British mobile phone call is made (by Ernie Wise to Vodafone). [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4138449.stm|title="Mobiles rack up 20 years of use", BBC News|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 10 January
** launch of Sinclair C5, which was designed by the British inventor Clive Sinclair.cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006] [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/10/newsid_2518000/2518693.stm|title="Safety concerns over electronic trike" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
** Eight people are killed by a gas explosion in Putney. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/10/newsid_4045000/4045495.stm|title="Gas blast kills eight in Putney" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 17 January - British Telecom announces it is going to phase out its famous red telephone boxes.
* 23 January - A debate in the House of Lords is televised for the first time.
* 29 January - Margaret Thatcher became the first post-war Prime Minister to be refused an honorary degree by Oxford University. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/29/newsid_2506000/2506019.stm|title="Thatcher snubbed by Oxford dons" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 16 February - Clive Ponting resigns from the Ministry of Defence after his acquittal of breaching the Official Secrets Act concerning the leaking of documents relating to the sinking of the "ARA General Belgrano" during the Falklands War. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/16/newsid_2545000/2545907.stm|title="Falklands' row civil servant resigns" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 19 February - "EastEnders", the BBC1 soap opera, goes on air.
* March - Ford introduces the third generation of its top-of-the-range Granada, which is the world's first high volume production car to feature anti-lock brakes as standard throughout the range. All versions will be built at Cologne in West Germany.
* 3 March - The miners' strike ends after one year. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/3/newsid_2515000/2515019.stm|title="Miners call off year-long strike" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 11 March - Mohammed Al Fayed buys the London-based department store company Harrods.
* 11 May - Bradford fire: Fire engulfs a wooden stand in the Valley Parade stadium in Bradford during a football match, killing 56 people and injuring more than 200 others. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/11/newsid_2523000/2523561.stm|title="Fans killed in Bradford stadium fire" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 16 May
** Two South Wales miners are sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of taxi driver David Wilkie. Dean Hancock and Russell Shankland, both 21, dropped a concrete block on Mr Wilkie's taxi from a road overbridge in November last year.
** Scientists of the British Antarctic Survey discover the ozone hole.
* 29 May - In the Heysel Stadium disaster at the European Cup final in Brussels, 39 football fans die and hundreds are injured. Despite the tragedy, the match is played and Juventus beat Liverpool 1-0.
* 31 May - In response to the Heysel Disaster, the latest result of Hooliganism that has plagued English football for at least a decade, UEFA places an indefinite ban on all English clubs in European competitions. The current terms of the ban also state the Liverpool should serve an additional three years whenever all other English teams have the ban lifted. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/31/newsid_2481000/2481723.stm|title="English teams banned after Heysel" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29] [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/2/newsid_2494000/2494963.stm|title="Uefa bans English clubs from Europe" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 1 June - Battle of the Beanfield, end of Stonehenge Free Festivals. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/1/newsid_2493000/2493267.stm|title="Hippies clash with police at Stonehenge" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 25 June - Police arrest 13 suspects in connection with the Brighton hotel bombing of 1984. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/25/newsid_2519000/2519673.stm|title="Police hunt IRA resort bombs" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 4 July - 13-year-old Ruth Lawrence achieves a first in Mathematics at Oxford University, by becoming the youngest British person ever to earn a first-class degree and the youngest known graduate of Oxford University. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/4/newsid_2492000/2492853.stm|title="Teenage genius gets a first" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 13 July - Live Aid pop concerts in Philadelphia and London raise over £50 million for famine relief in Ethiopia. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/13/newsid_2502000/2502735.stm |title="Live Aid makes millions for Africa" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 13 August
** First ever heart-lung transplant carried out at the Harefield Hospital in Middlesex. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/13/newsid_2495000/2495213.stm|title="Heart-lung transplant makes history" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
** The Sinclair C5 ceases production after just seven months and less than 17,000 units.
* 22 August - 55 people killed in the Manchester air disaster at Manchester International Airport when a British Airtours Boeing 737 burst into flames after the pilot aborts the takeoff.
* 1 September - A joint American-French expedition locates the wreck of the RMS "Titanic".
* 28 September - A riot in Brixton erupts after an accidental shooting of a woman by police. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/28/newsid_2540000/2540397.stm|title="Riots in Brixton after police shooting" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 1 October - Riots in Toxteth and Peckham; Lord Scarman's report blamed the riots on economic deprivation and racial discrimination. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/1/newsid_2486000/2486315.stm|title="Riots erupt in Toxteth and Peckham" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 6 October - PC Keith Blakelock is killed during the Broadwater Farm Riot in Tottenham, London. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/6/newsid_4094000/4094928.stm|title="Policeman killed in Tottenham riots" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 28 October - Production of the Peugeot 309 begins at the Ryton car factory near Coventry. The 309, a small family hatchback, is the first "foreign" car to be built in the UK. It was originally going to be badged as the Talbot Arizona, but Peugeot has decided that the Talbot badge will be discontinued on passenger cars after next year and that the Ryton plant will then be used for the production of its own products, including a larger four-door saloon (similar in size to the Ford Sierra) which is due in two years.
* 15 November - Anglo-Irish Agreement signed at Hillsborough Castle. Treasury Minister Ian Gow resigns in protest at the deal. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/15/newsid_2539000/2539849.stm|title="Anglo-Irish agreement signed" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 28 November - Gerard Hoarau, exiled political leader from the Seychelles, assassinated in London.
* 29 November - a gas explosion kills four people in Glasgow. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/29/newsid_2527000/2527321.stm|title="'Gas blast' kills five in Glasgow" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* December - Builders Alfred McAlpine complete the construction of Nissan's new car factory at Sunderland. Nissan can now install machinery and factory components, and are expected to produce the factory's first cars over the next few months.
* 26 December - Rock star Phil Lynott, formerly of Thin Lizzy, is rushed to hospital after collapsing from a suspected heroin overdose at his home in Berkshire.

Publications

* Iain Banks' novel "Walking on Glass".
* Jeanette Winterson's novel "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit".

Births

* 1 January - Steven Davis, footballer
* 1 February - Dean Shiels, footballer
* 3 March - Sam Morrow, footballer
* 26 March - Keira Knightley, actress
* 8 April - Gareth Rees, cricketer
* 2 May - Lily Allen, singer
* 28 May - Carey Mulligan, actress
* 28 June - Phil Bardsley, footballer
* 24 October - Wayne Rooney, footballer
* 8 November - Jack Osbourne, actor
* 23 December - Harry Judd, drummer

Deaths

* 4 January - Sir Brian Horrocks, general (born 1895)
* 26 January - David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Baron Harlech, politician (born 1918)
* 6 February - James Hadley Chase, writer (born 1906)
* 28 February - Ray Ellington, singer, drummer and bandleader (born 1916)
* 21 March - Michael Redgrave, actor (born 1908)
* 4 April - Kate Roberts, author (born 1891)
* 5 May - Donald Bailey, civil engineer (born 1901)
* 9 June - Clifford Evans, actor (born 1912)
* 17 June - John Boulting, film director (born 1913)
* 2 July - David Purley, race car driver (born 1945)
* 8 July - Frank Hampson, illustrator (born 1918)
* 9 July - Jimmy Kinnon, founder of Narcotics Anonymous (born 1911)
* 23 July - Johnny Wardle, cricketer (born 1923)
* 1 September - Saunders Lewis, writer and founder of the Welsh National Party (Plaid Cymru)(born 1893)
* 7 September - Rodney Robert Porter, biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (born 1917)
* 10 September - Jock Stein, footballer and manager of Scotland (born 1922)
* 11 September - William Alwyn, composer (born 1905)
* 17 September - Laura Ashley, designer (born 1925)
* 2 December - Philip Larkin, poet (born 1922)
* 7 December - Robert Graves, writer (born 1895)
* 12 December - Ian Stewart, rock musician (born 1938)

References

ee also