1978 in the United Kingdom

yearbox
in?= in the United Kingdom
cp=19th century
c=20th century
cf=21st century

yp1=1975
yp2=1976
yp3=1977
year=1978
ya1=1979
ya2=1980
ya3=1981

dp3=1940s
dp2=1950s
dp1=1960s
d=1970s
dn1=1980s
dn2=1990s
dn3=2000s
Events from the year 1978 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

* Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
* Prime Minister - James Callaghan, Labour

Events

* 18 January - The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture.
* 13 February - Anna Ford becomes the first female newsreader on ITN. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/13/newsid_4151000/4151459.stm|title="1978: Ford makes her ITN debut", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-27]
* 18 February - 20 suspects arrested in connection with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombing of the La Mon restaurant in County Down which had killed 12 people and injured 30. [cite web|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/18/newsid_2550000/2550869.stm|title="1978: Belfast bomb suspects rounded up"", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-27]
* 8 March - "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" first broadcast by BBC Radio 4.cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]
* 30 March - Conservative Party recruit Saatchi & Saatchi to revamp their image. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/30/newsid_2530000/2530933.stm|title="1978: Tories recruit advertisers to win votes", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-27]
* 8 April - Regular broadcasts of proceedings in the Parliament of the United Kingdom start.
* 1 May - May Day becomes a bank holiday for the first time.
* 8 June - Naomi James becomes the first woman to sail around the world single-handedly.
* 19 June - Cricketer Ian Botham becomes the first man in the history of the game to score a century and take eight wickets in one innings of a Test match. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/19/newsid_2940000/2940656.stm|title="1978: Botham bowls into cricket history", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-27]
* 21 June
** An outbreak of shooting between Provisional IRA members and the British Army leaves one civilian and three IRA men dead. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/21/newsid_2518000/2518375.stm|title="1978: Four dead in post office shootings", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-27]
** The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Evita" opens at the Prince Edward Theatre in London.
* 6 July - Taunton train fire: eleven people killed in worst rail accident since Hither Green rail crash in 1967. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/6/newsid_2495000/2495703.stm|title="1978: Eleven die in sleeper train inferno"", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-27]
* 7 July - The Solomon Islands become independent from the United Kingdom.
* 25 July
** Louise Brown becomes the world's first human born from in vitro fertilization. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/25/newsid_2499000/2499411.stm|title="1978: First 'test tube baby' born", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-27]
** Motability, a charity which provides cars to disabled people, founded. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/25/newsid_2500000/2500373.stm|title="1978: Motability gets moving in the UK", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-27]
* 20 August - Gunmen open fire on an Israeli El Al airline bus in London.
* 25 August - U.S. Army Sergeant Walter Robinson "walks" across the English Channel in 11 hours 30 minutes, using homemade water shoes.
* 11 September - Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov dies after having been stabbed with a poison-tipped umbrella in London. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/11/newsid_2514000/2514187.stm|title="1978: Umbrella stab victim dies", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-27]
* 15 September - German terrorist Astrid Proll arrested in London. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/15/newsid_2518000/2518649.stm|title="1978: German terror suspect arrested in UK", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-27]
* 19 September - British Police launch a massive murder hunt, following the discovery of the dead body of newspaper boy Carl Bridgewater (13) at a farmhouse near Kingswinford in the West Midlands. Carl is believed to have been shot dead after disturbing a burglary at the property. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/20/newsid_2524000/2524697.stm|title="1978: Police hunt Bridgewater killers", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-27]
* 17 October - A cull of Grey seals in the Orkney and Western Islands reduced after a public outcry. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/17/newsid_2491000/2491329.stm|title="1978: Grey seal cull dramatically reduced", BBC On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-27]
* 3 November - Dominica gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
* 5 November - Rioters sack the British Embassy in Tehran.
* 23 November - Pollyanna's nightclub in Birmingham is forced to lift its ban on black and Chinese revellers, after a one-year investigation by the Commission for Racial Equality concludes that the nightclub's entry policy was racist.
* 30 November - An industrial dispute closes down "The Times" newspaper.cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alan & Veronica |year=1992 |title= The Chronology of British History|publisher= Century Ltd|location=London|pages= 441-442|isbn= 0-7126-5616-2]
* 10 December - Peter D. Mitchell wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his contribution to the understanding of biological energy transfer through the formulation of the chemiosmotic theory". [cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1978/|title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1978|accessdate=2008-01-27]

Undated

* Liverpool Cathedral completed.

Publications

* James Gordon Farrell's novel "The Singapore Grip".
* Graham Greene's novel "The Human Factor".
* Ian McEwan's novel "The Cement Garden".
* Iris Murdoch's novel "The Sea, the Sea".

Births

* 1 January - Alex Leigh, model
* 1 January - Phillip Mulryne, footballer
* 17 January - Warren Feeney, footballer
* 20 February - Jakki Degg, model
* 24 February - Janine Machin, radio presenter
* 31 March - Stephen Clemence, footballer
* 9 April - Rachel Stevens, singer
* 22 May - Jordan, model
* 6 June - Carl Barât, singer and guitarist (The Libertines)
* 9 June - Matthew Bellamy, lead singer of the band Muse
* 22 June - Dan Wheldon, race car driver
* 23 July - Stuart Elliott, footballer
* 19 August - Callum Blue, actor
* 25 September - Jodie Kidd, model
* 25 October - Russell Anderson, footballer
* 26 October - Jimmy Aggrey, footballer
* 18 November - Damien Johnson, footballer

Deaths

* 14 January - Harold Abrahams, athlete (born 1899)
* 18 January - Walter H. Thompson, Scotland Yard detective, bodyguard of Winston Churchill (b. 1890)
* 22 January - Herbert Sutcliffe, cricketer (born 1894)
* 1 March - Paul Scott, novelist, playwright and poet (born 1920)
* 4 April - Sir Morien Morgan, aeronautics engineer (born 1912)
* 9 April - Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, architect (born 1883)
* 21 April - Sandy Denny, singer (born 1947)
* 18 May - Selwyn Lloyd, politician (born 1904)
* 7 June - Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1897)
* 30 July - John Mackintosh, politician (born 1929)
* 14 August - Nicolas Bentley, writer and illustrator (born 1907)
* 7 September - Keith Moon, drummer (The Who) (drug overdose) (born 1946)
* 9 September - Hugh MacDiarmid, Scottish poet (born 1892)

References

ee also