January – The
Vauxhall Belmont compact saloon goes on sale, giving buyers a traditional saloon alternative to the
Astra hatchback and estate models. The car would remain in production until September 1991.
12 January – The game show Catchphrase begins on
ITV hosted by
Roy Walker along with the computer generated character Mr. Chips. It concludes in 2002, but is revived in 2013.
31 January – Unemployment for this month has increased to 3,204,900 – a postwar high which accounts for 14.4% of the workforce.
February
February
Heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures affect most of Britain during the month.
The British-built
Peugeot 309 goes on sale in Britain, four months after its continental launch. It is built at the former
Rootes/
Chrysler factory at
Ryton, near
Coventry which is also set to produce a larger Peugeot saloon model from next year.
6 February – The UK Government scraps plans to sell
Austin Rover to
Ford.
23 March –
Chelsea F.C. are the first winners of the
Football League's new
Full Members Cup, beating
Manchester City 5–4 in the final at Wembley, although Manchester City clawed the deficit to a single goal in the last five minutes after being 5–1 down.
Journalist
John McCarthy is kidnapped in
Beirut, where three other hostages are found dead. The
Revolutionary Cells (RZ) claims responsibility as revenge for the recent American bombing of
Libya. McCarthy will be held for more than 5 years.
28 April – The first phase of the
MetroCentre, Europe's largest indoor shopping centre, in
Gateshead, is opened. The remainder of the centre is set to open this autumn.[13]
30 April –
Rioting erupts overnight in prisons across Britain. Dozens of prisoners escape, while prisoners at
Stafford Prison set the prison canteen alight by smashing windows and dumping a burning
mattress onto the roof. The worst disturbances come at Northeye Prison in
Sussex, where a 70-strong mob of prisoners takes over the jail and sets fire to the canteen, hospital wing and sports hall.[15]
May
May – The last
Talbot badged passenger cars are built in Britain and France by
Peugeot who will continue making their own cars at the former
Rootes Group plant near
Coventry and the former
Simca production facilities in
France. Peugeot is to continue the Talbot brand for commercial vehicles and production of the
Horizon range will continue in
Spain and
Finland until next year.
5 May – Liverpool win the Football League First Division title for a record 16th time after winning 1–0 at Chelsea.
Kenny Dalglish, in his first season as the club's player-manager, scores the goal which gives Liverpool the title.
8 May
Labour makes large gains in local council elections, collecting 37% of the votes nationally compared to the Conservatives on 34% and the Alliance on 26%. These are the first national elections to be held since the recent abolition of the metropolitan councils.
Former Labour MP and life peer
Manny Shinwell, Baron Shinwell dies at the age of 101, making him the second longest-lived British MP until 2008.
The Association football World Cup ends in
Mexico with Argentina as winners and
West Germany runners-up, but England's
Gary Lineker wins the Golden Boot, having finished as the competition's leading scorer with six goals. Lineker, who has been at Everton for the last year and is the First Division's top scorer, is reported to be on the verge of a transfer to FC Barcelona of Spain.[24]
1 July –
Gary Lineker becomes the most expensive British footballer ever in a £2.75 million move from Everton to
FC Barcelona.[25]
2 July – 24 hours after Gary Lineker's transfer,
Ian Rush sets a new transfer record for a British footballer when he agrees a £3.2 million move from
Liverpool to
Juventus of
Italy, but is loaned back to Liverpool for a season and will not play his first game for Juventus until at least August 1987.[26]
4 July – A policeman is cleared of the manslaughter of five-year-old John Shorthouse, who was killed in an armed raid on a house in
Birmingham in August last year.
Social Security Act introduces
Family Credit, a
tax credit for low-paid workers with children.
28 July – Estate agent
Suzy Lamplugh vanishes after a meeting in London. She is declared legally dead in 1994, but as of 2021, her body will still not have been found and no-one will have been formally charged with her murder.[30]
30 July – A MORI poll shows that Labour are now nine points ahead of the Conservatives with 41% of the vote, with Liberal/SDP Alliance support now at 25%.[31]
8 August – Rival gangs of
Manchester United and
West Ham United fans clash on a
Sealink ferry bound for
Amsterdam where the two clubs are playing pre-season friendlies. The
UEFA ban on English clubs in European competitions is continuing for a second season, and there are now fears that English clubs may not even be able to play friendlies overseas.
13 August – The
Eurotunnel Group is formed to operate the Channel Tunnel.[3]
15 August – The latest MORI poll shows that the Conservatives have eliminated Labour's nine-point lead and drawn level with them by gaining 37% in the latest opinion poll, in the space of just over two weeks.[31]
16 August – Figures released by the government reveal that a record of nearly 3,100,000 people claimed Unemployment Benefit last month, although the official total of unemployed people in Britain is still short of the record of nearly 3,300,000 which was set two years ago.[32]
22 August –
John Stalker, deputy chief constable of Greater Manchester police, is cleared of misconduct over allegations of associating with criminals.[33]
24–25 August – The inaugural
Birmingham Superprix, the first street race to be held in mainland Britain, takes place in
Birmingham city centre. It will run annually on August Bank Holiday weekend until 1990.[34][35]
25 August – Economists warn that a global recession is imminent, barely five years after the previous recession.
29 August
Britain's oldest twins, May and Marjorie Chavasse, celebrate their one-hundredth birthday.[36]
Highest national average 24-hour total rainfall until 2020.[37]
c. August – The one-millionth council house in the United Kingdom is sold to its tenants in
Scotland, seven years after the Right To Buy scheme was launched.[38]
September
September –
GCSE examination courses replace both
GCE 'O' Level and
CSE courses for 14-year-olds.[39]
6 September – First episode of medical drama serial Casualty airs on
BBC One. It will still be running on television almost forty years later.
8 September –
Margaret Thatcher officially opens the first phase of the
Nissancar factory at
Sunderland, which has been in use for two months. It is the first car factory to be built in Europe by a Japanese carmaker.[40]
13 September – Motorcyclist
Neil Robinson, 24, dies after his motorcycle crashes on the
Oliver's Mount racing circuit in Scarborough during a practice session.
14 September – Fears of another recession in Britain are eased by economists at
Liverpool University predicting 3.1% economic growth next year.
18 September – It is announced that unemployment rose to 3,280,106 in July.
10 October – "Babes in the Wood" murders: two bodies found in
Wild Park, Brighton, are identified as those of the two girls reported missing yesterday and a murder investigation is launched.[42]
28 October –
Jeremy Bamber is found guilty of the 1985 "
White House Farm murders" of his parents, sister and twin nephews in Essex, and is sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum of 25 years[47] and as of 2021 will still be in prison.
29 October –
Margaret Thatcher opens the completed
M25 London Orbital Motorway, the first section of which opened in 1975. It covers a distance of 122 miles and features 31 junctions, although there are no service stations yet.[48]
30 October – Children and young people's telephone counselling charity
Childline begins taking calls.[49]
Launch of the second generation
Vauxhall Carlton, largest model in the
Vauxhall range. It will be sold as the
Opel Omega on the continent, and all European versions of the car will be built in
West Germany.
3 November – The Conservatives top a
MORI poll for the first time this year, coming one point ahead of Labour with 40% of the vote. Liberal/SDP Alliance support has slumped to 18%.[31]
Chancellor
Nigel Lawson announces a £4.6 billion rise in public spending.
Alex Ferguson is appointed manager of
Manchester United football club following the dismissal of
Ron Atkinson after more than five years in charge. United won two
FA Cups under the management of Atkinson but have not won the league title since 1967 and are now second from bottom in the
Football League First Division. Ferguson will hold the post for 26 years.
13 November – It is announced that unemployment fell by 96,000 in October.
18 November –
Ian Brady and
Myra Hindley, who are both still in prison 20 years after their
Moors Murders convictions, confess to the murders of two missing children – Pauline Reade, who vanished in July 1963 at the age of 16, and Keith Bennett, who was last seen in June 1964 at the age of 12.
1 December – The government launches an inquiry into financial irregularities at
Guinness.[52]
3 December – 4 million people apply for shares in
British Gas in anticipation of flotation next week.
4 December – 20-year-old roofer
Russell Bishop is charged with the
"Babes in the Wood" murders in Brighton two months ago but will not be convicted until a second trial in 2018.[42]
8 December –
British Gas shares are floated on the Stock Exchange. The initial public offering of 135p per share values the company at £9 billion, the highest equity offering ever at this time.[53]
17 December – The world's first heart, lung and liver transplant is carried out at
Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire.[41]
18 December – It is announced that unemployment fell to a four-year low of less than 3,100,000 in November.[54] On 15 January 1987 it is announced that unemployment has fallen in December 1986 for the fifth month in succession.
25 December – The highest audience of all time for a British television drama is attracted by the Christmas Day episode of EastEnders, the
BBC 1 soap opera, in which
Den Watts (
Leslie Grantham) serves the divorce papers on his wife
Angie (
Anita Dobson) after discovering that she had feigned a terminal illness to try to stop him from leaving her in an episode aired in October this year. More than 30 million viewers tune in for the episode of the TV series which first went on air in February 1985.[56]
29 December –
Harold Macmillan,
Earl of Stockton and former Prime Minister, dies at his home,
Birch Grove in East Sussex, aged 92, the oldest former Prime Minister until 2005.
January – The
Vauxhall Belmont compact saloon goes on sale, giving buyers a traditional saloon alternative to the
Astra hatchback and estate models. The car would remain in production until September 1991.
12 January – The game show Catchphrase begins on
ITV hosted by
Roy Walker along with the computer generated character Mr. Chips. It concludes in 2002, but is revived in 2013.
31 January – Unemployment for this month has increased to 3,204,900 – a postwar high which accounts for 14.4% of the workforce.
February
February
Heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures affect most of Britain during the month.
The British-built
Peugeot 309 goes on sale in Britain, four months after its continental launch. It is built at the former
Rootes/
Chrysler factory at
Ryton, near
Coventry which is also set to produce a larger Peugeot saloon model from next year.
6 February – The UK Government scraps plans to sell
Austin Rover to
Ford.
23 March –
Chelsea F.C. are the first winners of the
Football League's new
Full Members Cup, beating
Manchester City 5–4 in the final at Wembley, although Manchester City clawed the deficit to a single goal in the last five minutes after being 5–1 down.
Journalist
John McCarthy is kidnapped in
Beirut, where three other hostages are found dead. The
Revolutionary Cells (RZ) claims responsibility as revenge for the recent American bombing of
Libya. McCarthy will be held for more than 5 years.
28 April – The first phase of the
MetroCentre, Europe's largest indoor shopping centre, in
Gateshead, is opened. The remainder of the centre is set to open this autumn.[13]
30 April –
Rioting erupts overnight in prisons across Britain. Dozens of prisoners escape, while prisoners at
Stafford Prison set the prison canteen alight by smashing windows and dumping a burning
mattress onto the roof. The worst disturbances come at Northeye Prison in
Sussex, where a 70-strong mob of prisoners takes over the jail and sets fire to the canteen, hospital wing and sports hall.[15]
May
May – The last
Talbot badged passenger cars are built in Britain and France by
Peugeot who will continue making their own cars at the former
Rootes Group plant near
Coventry and the former
Simca production facilities in
France. Peugeot is to continue the Talbot brand for commercial vehicles and production of the
Horizon range will continue in
Spain and
Finland until next year.
5 May – Liverpool win the Football League First Division title for a record 16th time after winning 1–0 at Chelsea.
Kenny Dalglish, in his first season as the club's player-manager, scores the goal which gives Liverpool the title.
8 May
Labour makes large gains in local council elections, collecting 37% of the votes nationally compared to the Conservatives on 34% and the Alliance on 26%. These are the first national elections to be held since the recent abolition of the metropolitan councils.
Former Labour MP and life peer
Manny Shinwell, Baron Shinwell dies at the age of 101, making him the second longest-lived British MP until 2008.
The Association football World Cup ends in
Mexico with Argentina as winners and
West Germany runners-up, but England's
Gary Lineker wins the Golden Boot, having finished as the competition's leading scorer with six goals. Lineker, who has been at Everton for the last year and is the First Division's top scorer, is reported to be on the verge of a transfer to FC Barcelona of Spain.[24]
1 July –
Gary Lineker becomes the most expensive British footballer ever in a £2.75 million move from Everton to
FC Barcelona.[25]
2 July – 24 hours after Gary Lineker's transfer,
Ian Rush sets a new transfer record for a British footballer when he agrees a £3.2 million move from
Liverpool to
Juventus of
Italy, but is loaned back to Liverpool for a season and will not play his first game for Juventus until at least August 1987.[26]
4 July – A policeman is cleared of the manslaughter of five-year-old John Shorthouse, who was killed in an armed raid on a house in
Birmingham in August last year.
Social Security Act introduces
Family Credit, a
tax credit for low-paid workers with children.
28 July – Estate agent
Suzy Lamplugh vanishes after a meeting in London. She is declared legally dead in 1994, but as of 2021, her body will still not have been found and no-one will have been formally charged with her murder.[30]
30 July – A MORI poll shows that Labour are now nine points ahead of the Conservatives with 41% of the vote, with Liberal/SDP Alliance support now at 25%.[31]
8 August – Rival gangs of
Manchester United and
West Ham United fans clash on a
Sealink ferry bound for
Amsterdam where the two clubs are playing pre-season friendlies. The
UEFA ban on English clubs in European competitions is continuing for a second season, and there are now fears that English clubs may not even be able to play friendlies overseas.
13 August – The
Eurotunnel Group is formed to operate the Channel Tunnel.[3]
15 August – The latest MORI poll shows that the Conservatives have eliminated Labour's nine-point lead and drawn level with them by gaining 37% in the latest opinion poll, in the space of just over two weeks.[31]
16 August – Figures released by the government reveal that a record of nearly 3,100,000 people claimed Unemployment Benefit last month, although the official total of unemployed people in Britain is still short of the record of nearly 3,300,000 which was set two years ago.[32]
22 August –
John Stalker, deputy chief constable of Greater Manchester police, is cleared of misconduct over allegations of associating with criminals.[33]
24–25 August – The inaugural
Birmingham Superprix, the first street race to be held in mainland Britain, takes place in
Birmingham city centre. It will run annually on August Bank Holiday weekend until 1990.[34][35]
25 August – Economists warn that a global recession is imminent, barely five years after the previous recession.
29 August
Britain's oldest twins, May and Marjorie Chavasse, celebrate their one-hundredth birthday.[36]
Highest national average 24-hour total rainfall until 2020.[37]
c. August – The one-millionth council house in the United Kingdom is sold to its tenants in
Scotland, seven years after the Right To Buy scheme was launched.[38]
September
September –
GCSE examination courses replace both
GCE 'O' Level and
CSE courses for 14-year-olds.[39]
6 September – First episode of medical drama serial Casualty airs on
BBC One. It will still be running on television almost forty years later.
8 September –
Margaret Thatcher officially opens the first phase of the
Nissancar factory at
Sunderland, which has been in use for two months. It is the first car factory to be built in Europe by a Japanese carmaker.[40]
13 September – Motorcyclist
Neil Robinson, 24, dies after his motorcycle crashes on the
Oliver's Mount racing circuit in Scarborough during a practice session.
14 September – Fears of another recession in Britain are eased by economists at
Liverpool University predicting 3.1% economic growth next year.
18 September – It is announced that unemployment rose to 3,280,106 in July.
10 October – "Babes in the Wood" murders: two bodies found in
Wild Park, Brighton, are identified as those of the two girls reported missing yesterday and a murder investigation is launched.[42]
28 October –
Jeremy Bamber is found guilty of the 1985 "
White House Farm murders" of his parents, sister and twin nephews in Essex, and is sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum of 25 years[47] and as of 2021 will still be in prison.
29 October –
Margaret Thatcher opens the completed
M25 London Orbital Motorway, the first section of which opened in 1975. It covers a distance of 122 miles and features 31 junctions, although there are no service stations yet.[48]
30 October – Children and young people's telephone counselling charity
Childline begins taking calls.[49]
Launch of the second generation
Vauxhall Carlton, largest model in the
Vauxhall range. It will be sold as the
Opel Omega on the continent, and all European versions of the car will be built in
West Germany.
3 November – The Conservatives top a
MORI poll for the first time this year, coming one point ahead of Labour with 40% of the vote. Liberal/SDP Alliance support has slumped to 18%.[31]
Chancellor
Nigel Lawson announces a £4.6 billion rise in public spending.
Alex Ferguson is appointed manager of
Manchester United football club following the dismissal of
Ron Atkinson after more than five years in charge. United won two
FA Cups under the management of Atkinson but have not won the league title since 1967 and are now second from bottom in the
Football League First Division. Ferguson will hold the post for 26 years.
13 November – It is announced that unemployment fell by 96,000 in October.
18 November –
Ian Brady and
Myra Hindley, who are both still in prison 20 years after their
Moors Murders convictions, confess to the murders of two missing children – Pauline Reade, who vanished in July 1963 at the age of 16, and Keith Bennett, who was last seen in June 1964 at the age of 12.
1 December – The government launches an inquiry into financial irregularities at
Guinness.[52]
3 December – 4 million people apply for shares in
British Gas in anticipation of flotation next week.
4 December – 20-year-old roofer
Russell Bishop is charged with the
"Babes in the Wood" murders in Brighton two months ago but will not be convicted until a second trial in 2018.[42]
8 December –
British Gas shares are floated on the Stock Exchange. The initial public offering of 135p per share values the company at £9 billion, the highest equity offering ever at this time.[53]
17 December – The world's first heart, lung and liver transplant is carried out at
Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire.[41]
18 December – It is announced that unemployment fell to a four-year low of less than 3,100,000 in November.[54] On 15 January 1987 it is announced that unemployment has fallen in December 1986 for the fifth month in succession.
25 December – The highest audience of all time for a British television drama is attracted by the Christmas Day episode of EastEnders, the
BBC 1 soap opera, in which
Den Watts (
Leslie Grantham) serves the divorce papers on his wife
Angie (
Anita Dobson) after discovering that she had feigned a terminal illness to try to stop him from leaving her in an episode aired in October this year. More than 30 million viewers tune in for the episode of the TV series which first went on air in February 1985.[56]
29 December –
Harold Macmillan,
Earl of Stockton and former Prime Minister, dies at his home,
Birch Grove in East Sussex, aged 92, the oldest former Prime Minister until 2005.