1983 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1983 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

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

Events

* 6 January - Danish fishermen invade British waters after the government bans non-British boats entering UK coastal waters. The ban was lifted on January 23 when the European Economic Community's Common Fisheries Policy came into effect. [cite web
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/6/newsid_2477000/2477785.stm
title="1983: Danes raid British fishing grounds", On This Day, 6 January 1983|accessdate=2007-11-25]
* 17 January - First British breakfast time television programme, "Good Morning Britain", broadcast.cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]
* 26 January - Red rain falls in the UK, caused by sand from the Sahara Desert in the droplets.
* 31 January - Seatbelt use for drivers and front seat passengers becomes mandatory.
* 1 February - First broadcast of TV-am.
* 10 February - After discovering several sets of human remains at a property in Muswell Hill, North London, police begin the search for serial killer Dennis Nilsen.
* 1 March - Austin Rover, the successor organisation to British carmaking combine British Leyland, launches the Austin Maestro. The Maestro is a medium-sized five-door hatchback with front-wheel drive. It replaces the ageing Allegro and provides the firm with a modern and practical competitor to the likes of the Ford Escort, Vauxhall Astra and Volkswagen Golf. The Maestro's chassis will also form the base of a larger four-door saloon which goes on sale next year to replace the outdated Morris Ital.
* 28 March - Ian MacGregor appointed as head of the National Coal Board.cite book|last=Williams|first=Hywel|title=Cassell's Chronology of World History|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2005|isbn=0-304-35730-8|pages=605–607]
* 1 April - Thousands form a 14-mile human chain in protest the citing of American nuclear weapons in British military bases. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/1/newsid_2520000/2520753.stm|title="1983: Human chain links nuclear sites", BBC News|accessdate=2007-11-29]
* 11 April - Richard Attenborough's film "Gandhi" wins eight Academy Awards.
* 21 April - The one pound coin introduced in England and Wales.
* 16 May - Wheel clamps first used to combat illegal parking in London.cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alan & Veronica |year=1992 |title= The Chronology of British History|publisher= Century Ltd|location=London|pages= 448-449|isbn= 0-7126-5616-2]
* 1 June - jockey Lester Pigott rides Teenoso to victory at the Epsom Derby, Pigott's ninth win.
* 9 June - Margaret Thatcher, Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 1979, wins a landslide victory (42% of the popular vote) over Michael Foot, who led a highly-divided and weakened Labour Party which earned only 28% of the vote.
* 14 June - Roy Jenkins resigns as leader of the Social Democratic Party as is succeeded by David Owen.
* 16 June - National Media Museum (then known as the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television) opens in Bradford. [cite book |title= The Hutchinson Factfinder |publisher= Helicon |year= 1999 |isbn= 1-85986-000-1 ]
* 26 July - a mother of ten, Victoria Gillick, loses a case in the High Court of Justice against the DHSS. Her application sought to prevent the distribution of contraceptives to children under the age of 16 without parental consent. The case went to the House of Lords in 1985 when it was decided that it was legal for Doctors to prescribe contraceptives to under-16s without parental consent in exceptional circumstances. [cite web
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/26/newsid_2499000/2499583.stm
title="1983: Mother loses contraception test case", On This Day, 26 July 1983|accessdate=2007-11-25] (See Gillick competence.)
* 5 August - 22 IRA members receive sentences totalling over 4,000 years from a Belfast Court.
* 22 September - Docklands redevelopment in east London begins with the opening of an Enterprise Zone on the Isle of Dogs.
* 23 September - Maze Prison escape: 38 prisoners hijack a lorry and escape from HM Prison Maze in County Antrim, Northern Ireland; one guard dies of a heart attack and twenty others are injured. Nineteen of the prisoners are later apprehended. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/25/newsid_2538000/2538295.stm|title= "1983: Dozens escape in Maze break-out", BBC News|accessdate=2007-11-25] cite web | title = The great escape | author = David McKittrick | url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20030917/ai_n12714916 | publisher = "The Independent" | date = 17 September 2003 | accessdate = 2007-08-29]
* 2 October - Neil Kinnock is elected leader of the Labour Party. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/2/newsid_2486000/2486483.stm|title="1983: 'Dream ticket' wins Labour leadership", BBC News|accessdate=2007-11-25]
* 7 October - A plan to abolish the Greater London Council is announced.
* 22 October - over a million people demonstrate against nuclear weapons at a CND march in London. [ cite web
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/22/newsid_2489000/2489209.stm
title="1983: CND march attracts biggest ever crowd", On This Day, 22 October 1983|accessdate=2007-11-25]
* 24 October
** Arthur Hutchinson kills three members of Laitner family and rapes their daughter in the Sheffield suburb of Dore.
** Dennis Nilsen goes on trial at the Central Criminal Court accused of six murders and two attempted murders. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/24/newsid_3184000/3184987.stm|title="1983: Nilsen 'strangled and mutilated' victims", BBC News|accessdate=2007-11-25]
* 13 November - The first US cruise missiles arrive at RAF Greenham Common amid protests from peace campaigners at the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp.
* 24 November - Fifteen-year-old Lynda Mann is found raped and strangled in the village of Narborough.
* 26 November - Brinks Mat robbery: In London, 6,800 gold bars worth nearly UK£26 million are taken from the Brinks Mat vault at Heathrow Airport. Only a fraction of the gold is ever recovered, and only two men are convicted of the crime. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/26/newsid_2529000/2529235.stm|title="1983: £25m gold heist at Heathrow", BBC News|accessdate=2007-11-25]
* 4 December - an SAS undercover operation ends in the shooting and killing of two IRA gunmen, a third is injured. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/4/newsid_2520000/2520939.stm|title="1983: IRA gunmen shot dead in SAS ambush", BBC News|accessdate=2007-11-25]
* 6 December - first heart and lung transplant carried out in Britain at Harefield. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/6/newsid_2535000/2535149.stm|title="1983: Transplant makes British medical history", BBC News|accessdate=2007-11-25]
* 8 December - the House of Lords votes to allow television broadcast of its proceedings. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/8/newsid_2536000/2536517.stm|title= "1983: Television cameras allowed into Lords", BBC News|accessdate=2007-11-25]
* 10 December - William Golding wins the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today". [ [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1983/ The Nobel Prize in Literature 1983] ]
* 17 December - A Provisional Irish Republican Army car bomb kills six, three police and three members of the public, and injures 90 outside Harrods in London. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/17/newsid_2538000/2538147.stm|title="1983: Harrods bomb blast kills six", BBC News|accessdate=2007-11-25]

Undated

* Compact discs first marketed in Britain.
* Gerry Adams elected leader of Sinn Féin.

Publications

* Terry Pratchett's first Discworld novel "The Colour of Magic".
* Salman Rushdie's novel "Shame".
* Graham Swift's novel "Waterland".

Births

* 15 March - Sean Biggerstaff, actor
* 21 March - Bruno Langley, actor
* 28 March - Ryan Ashington, footballer
* 14 April - Simon Burnett, swimmer
* 13 May - Natalie Cassidy, actress
* 30 May - Jennifer Ellison, actress
* 17 June - Lee Ryan, singer
* 30 June - Cheryl Tweedy, singer
* 20 July - Rory Jennings, actor
* 5 August - Sam Stacey, model
* 21 August - Chantelle Houghton, reality TV star
* 24 August - Christopher Parker, actor
* 17 November - Harry Lloyd, actor
* 20 December - Lucy Pinder, model

Deaths

* 23 January - Fred Bakewell, cricketer (born 1908)
* 28 January - Billy Fury, singer songwriter (born 1940)
* 22 February - Sir Adrian Boult, conductor (born 1889)
* 8 March - William Walton, composer (born 1902)
* 15 March - Rebecca West, writer (born 1892)
* 21 May - Kenneth Clark, art historian (born 1903)
* 4 July - John Bodkin Adams, suspected serial killer (born 1899)
* 29 July - David Niven, actor (born 1910)
* 10 October - Ralph Richardson, actor (born 1902)
* 15 November - John Le Mesurier, actor (born 1912)
* 25 November - Anton Dolin, dancer and choreographer (born 1904)
* 30 November - Richard Llewellyn, novelist (born 1906)
* 11 December - Sir Neil Ritchie, general (born 1897)
* 13 December - Mary Renault, novelist (born 1905)
* 23 December - Colin Middleton, artist (born 1910)

References

ee also