1984 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1984 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

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

Events

* 15 January - Left-wing rebel Tony Benn wins the Labour Party's nomination for the Chesterfield by-election, eight months after losing his seat as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bristol South in the General Election. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/15/newsid_2530000/2530573.stm|title=" 1984: Benn back on road to Westminster", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 25 January - Government bans GCHQ staff from belonging to any trade union.cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alan & Veronica |year=1992 |title= The Chronology of British History|publisher= Century Ltd|location=London|pages= 449-450|isbn= 0-7126-5616-2]
* February - Japanese carmaker Nissan signs an agreement with the British government to build a car factory in Britain. This landmark deal means that "foreign" cars will be built in Britain for the first time.
* 7 February–19 February - Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, and win one gold medal.
* 14 February - Torvill and Dean win a gold medal for ice skating at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/14/newsid_4156000/4156053.stm|title="1984: British ice couple score Olympic gold", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* March - Nissan chooses a greenfield site near Sunderland as the location of its new car factory, and hopes to have the factory ready within two years.
* 12 March - Beginning of the miners' strike which was to pit the National Union of Mineworkers against Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government intent on free market reform of the nationalised industries. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/12/newsid_2540000/2540175.stm|title="1984: Miners strike over threatened pit closures", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 14 March - Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams and three others are seriously injured in a gun attack by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/14/newsid_2543000/2543503.stm|title="1984: Sinn Féin leader shot in street attack", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 21 March - European Economic Community summit breaks down over disagreement over Britain's budget rebate with Margaret Thatcher threatening to veto any expansion of spending plans. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/21/newsid_2546000/2546127.stm|title="1984: EEC summit collapses over rebate row", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 27 March - "Starlight Express" opened at Apollo Victoria Theatre in London.
* 4 April - peace protesters evicted from the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/4/newsid_2458000/2458653.stm|title="1984: Greenham Common women evicted", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 9 April - More than 100 pickets are arrested in violent clashes at the Creswell colliery in Derbyshire and the Babbington colliery in Nottinghamshire. It is estimated that 46 out of 176 British coalmines are currently active as miners fight government plans to close 20 coalmines across Britain. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/9/newsid_2903000/2903651.stm|title="1984: Dozens arrested in picket line violence" BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 12 April - Arthur Scargill, leader of the National Union of Mineworkers, rules out a national ballot of miners on whether to continue their strike, which has already lasted five weeks. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/12/newsid_2843000/2843003.stm|title="1984: Scargill vetoes national ballot on strike", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 17 April - WPC Yvonne Fletcher is shot and killed by a secluded gunman during a siege outside the Libyan Embassy in London in the event known as the 1984 Libyan Embassy Siege. 11 other people are also shot but survive. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/17/newsid_2488000/2488369.stm|title="1984: Libyan embassy shots kill policewoman", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 22 April - In the wake of Yvonne Fletcher's death, Britain severs diplomatic relations with Libya and serves warning on its seven remaining Libyan diplomats to return to their homeland.
* 25 April - Austin Rover launches its new Montego four-door saloon, which replaces the outdated Morris Ital and competes head-to-head with the Ford Sierra and Vauxhall Cavalier. The demise of the Ital coincides with the demise of the 72-year-old Morris marque, as the restructuring of Austin Rover will result in the discontinuation of several less popular marques as well as a less extensive model range.
* 2 May - The Liverpool International Garden Festival opens in Liverpool.
* 8 May - The official opening of the Thames Barrier to prevent London from being flooded.
* 29 May - Fighting at Orgreave colliery between police and striking miners leaves 64 injured.
* 20 June - The biggest exam shake-up in the education system in over 10 years is announced with O-level and CSE exams to be replaced by a new exam, the GCSE. The first GCSE courses will begin in September 1986 and will be completed in the summer of 1988. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/20/newsid_2516000/2516847.stm|title="1984: O-Levels to be replaced by GCSEs", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 22 June - Inaugural flight of Virgin Atlantic.cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]
* 6 July - David Jenkins consecrated as Bishop of Durham, despite strong objections from conservative Christians.
* 9 July - A bolt of lightning strikes York Minster and causes extensive fire damage which is expected cost millions of pounds to repair. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/9/newsid_2498000/2498525.stm|title="1984: Historic York Minster engulfed by flames", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 19 July - A magnitude 5.4 earthquake with an epicentre in the Llŷn Peninsula, North Wales is felt throughout the United Kingdom. [cite web|url=http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/macroseismics/lleynpeninsula_macro.htm|title=Llŷn Peninsula Earthquake Macroseismic|accessdate=2008-05-23]
* 23 July - Austin Rover announces its second new car launch of the year - the Rover 200, a four-door saloon which replaces the Triumph Acclaim and is the combine's second product from its venture with Japanese carmaker Honda. As a result, the Triumph marque is the second marque to be discontinued by Austin Rover this year.
* 26 July - Trade Union Act prohibits unions from striking without a ballot.
* 28 July–12 August - Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, and win 5 gold, 11 silver and 21 bronze medals.
* 2 August - a Surrey business man wins a case in the European Court of Human Rights over illegal phone tapping by the police. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/2/newsid_2526000/2526957.stm|title="1984: Euro Court condemns phone-tapping", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 11 August - Zola Budd collides with Mary Decker in the 3000 meters at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/11/newsid_3561000/3561846.stm|title="1984: Zola Budd in race trip controversy", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 4 September - The "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends" television series is first broadcast on ITV.
* 10 September - Geneticist Alec Jeffreys discovers DNA fingerprinting.
* 26 September - United Kingdom and People's Republic of China sign the initial agreement to return Hong Kong to China in 1997. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/26/newsid_2538000/2538843.stm|title="1984: UK and China agree Hong Kong handover", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 5 October - Police in Essex make the largest cannabis seizure in British criminal history when a multi-million pound stash of the drug is found on a schooner that was moored on the River Crouch near North Fambridge village. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/5/newsid_2492000/2492785.stm|title="1984: Essex police make record drugs haul", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 12 October - The Provisional Irish Republican Army attempts to assassinate the British Cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escapes injury, but Norman Tebbit is trapped among the rubble and his wife is paralysed. Five people, including one Member of Parliament, are killed. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/12/newsid_2531000/2531583.stm|title="1984: Tory Cabinet in Brighton bomb blast", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 13 October - Darts player John Lowe achieves the first televised nine dart finish.
* 23 October - BBC News newsreader Michael Buerk gives powerful commentary of the famine in Ethiopia which has already claimed thousands of lives and reportedly has the potential to kill as many as 7million people. Numerous British charities including Oxfam and Save the Children begin collection work to aid the famine victims, who are mostly encamped near the town of Korem.
* 12 November - The English one pound note withdrawn after 150 years in circulation. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/12/newsid_2518000/2518637.stm|title="1984: Quid notes out - pound coins in", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 15 November - General Synod of the Church of England support the ordination of women as deacons, but not as full priests.
* 23 November - The Oxford Circus fire traps around 1,000 passengers on the London Underground but no-one is killed. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/23/newsid_2547000/2547639.stm|title="1984: London tube fire traps hundreds", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 25 November - 36 of Britain and Ireland's top pop musicians gather in a Notting Hill studio to form "Band Aid" and recorded the song "Do They Know It's Christmas" in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
* 30 November - Tension in the miners' strike increases when two South Wales are charged with the murder of taxi driver David Wilkie, 35, who died when a concrete block was dropped on his car from a road overbridge. The passenger in his car, who escaped with minor injuries, was a miner who had defied the strike and continued going to work.
* 3 December - British Telecom is privatised.
* 10 December
** Richard Stone wins the Nobel Prize in Economics "for having made fundamental contributions to the development of systems of national accounts and hence greatly improved the basis for empirical economic analysis". [cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1984/|title=The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1984|accessdate=2008-01-29]
** César Milstein wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Niels Kaj Jerne and Georges J. F. Köhler "for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies". [cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1984/|title=The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1984|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 16 December - Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union visits Britain. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/16/newsid_2560000/2560125.stm|title="1984: Gorbachev visit to Britain a 'success'", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]
* 18 December - Ted Hughes appointed as Poet Laureate.
* 19 December - The People's Republic of China and United Kingdom sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration which will see Hong Kong returning to Chinese control in 13 years. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/19/newsid_2538000/2538857.stm|title="1984: Britain signs over Hong Kong to China", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-29]

Undated

* Chatham Dockyard in Medway, England closed after being used a shipbuilding yard for over 400 years since the reign of King Henry VIII.
* The Morris and Triumph car brands are discontinued. The last Morris car, the Ital, is replaced by the more modern Austin Montego. The Triumph Acclaim's successor is the Rover 200.
* Vauxhall had a successful year in the motor industry. It reported that its market share has doubled since 1981, and the year ended on an even bigger high when its MK2 Astra range was elected European Car of the Year.

Publications

* Douglas Adams' novel "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish".
* J. G. Ballard's novel "Empire of the Sun".
* Iain Banks's novel "The Wasp Factory".
* Julian Barnes's novel "Flaubert's Parrot".
* Anita Brookner's novel "Hotel du Lac".
* Angela Carter's novel "Nights at the Circus".
* Mary Wesley's novel "The Camomile Lawn".

Births

* 28 March - Nikki Sanderson, actress
* 22 April - Michelle Ryan, actress
* 25 June - Amrita Hunjan, singer
* 12 July - Gareth Gates, singer
* 15 September - Prince Harry of Wales, prince
* 28 September - Helen Oyeyemi, novelist
* 27 October - Kelly Osbourne, singer
* 14 December - Chris Brunt, footballer

Deaths

* 1 January - Alexis Korner, musician (born 1928)
* 12 March - Arnold Ridley, playwright and actor (born 1896)
* 21 March - Sir Michael Redgrave, actor (born 1908)
* 5 April - Arthur Travers Harris, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of RAF Bomber Command during World War 2 (born 1892)
* 15 April
** Tommy Cooper, comedian and magician (born 1921)
** Alexander Trocchi, writer (born 1925)
* 4 May - Diana Dors, actress (born 1931)
* 19 May - John Betjeman, poet (born 1906)
* 28 May - Eric Morecambe, comedian (born 1926)
* 7 July - Flora Robson, actress (born 1902)
* 27 July - James Mason, actor (born 1909)
* 5 August - Richard Burton, actor (born 1925)
* 14 August - J. B. Priestley, writer and broadcaster (born 1894)
* 5 October - Leonard Rossiter, actor (born 1926)
* 12 October - Anthony Berry, Member of Parliament (killed in the Brighton hotel bombing) (born 1925)
* 14 October - Martin Ryle, radio astronomer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (born 1918)
* 20 October - Paul Dirac, physicist and Nobel Prize laureate (born 1902)

References

ee also