11 January – The government announces that inflammable foam furniture will be banned from March next year.
14 January – Unemployment figures are released for the end of 1987, showing the eighteenth-successive monthly decrease. Just over 2,600,000 people are now unemployed in the United Kingdom – the lowest figure for seven years. More than 500,000 of those unemployed, found jobs in 1987.
Peugeot's British-built
405 saloon, winner of the
European Car of the Year award, goes on sale in Britain. A five-door estate model is due later this year.[3]
24 January –
Arthur Scargill is re-elected as Leader of the National Union of Mineworkers by a narrow majority.
28 January – The
Birmingham Six lose an appeal against their convictions.
February
1 February – Victor Miller, a 33-year-old warehouse worker from
Wolverhampton, confesses to the murder of 14-year-old Stuart Gough, who was found dead in
Worcestershire last month.
3 February – Nurses throughout the UK strike for higher pay and more funding for the
National Health Service.[4]
4 February – Nearly 7,000 ferry workers go on strike in Britain, paralysing the nation's seaports.
5 February – The first
BBCRed Nose Day raises £15,000,000 for charity.[5]
7 February – It is reported that more than 50% of men and 80% of women working full-time in London, are earning less than the lowest sum needed to buy the cheapest houses in the capital.
9 February -
Helen McCourt, a 22-year-old insurance clerk from
Lancashire (now
Merseyside) disappeared after getting off a bus less than 500 yards from her home in the village of
Billinge. Her body was never found.
15 February –
Norman Fowler, Secretary of State for Employment, announces plans for a new training scheme which the government hopes will give jobs to up to 600,000 people who are currently unemployed.
16 February – Thousands of nurses and co-workers form picket lines outside British hospitals as they go on strike in protest against what they see as inadequate NHS funding.
7 March –
Margaret Thatcher announces a £3,000,000,000 regeneration scheme to improve a series of inner city areas by the year 2000.
9 March – It is revealed that the average price of a house in Britain reached £60,000 at the end of last year, compared to £47,000 in December 1986.
10 March – The Prince of Wales (now
Charles III) narrowly avoids death in an avalanche while on a skiing holiday in
Switzerland. Major
Hugh Lindsay, former equerry to the Queen, is killed.[8]
15 March – In the
1988 budget, Chancellor
Nigel Lawson announces that the standard rate of income tax will be cut to 25p in the pound, while the maximum rate of income tax will be cut to 40p from 60p in the pound.
17 March – The fall in unemployment continues, with just over 2,500,000 people now registered as unemployed in the UK. However, there is a blow for the city of
Dundee, when
Ford Motor Company scraps plans to build a new electronics plant in the city – a move which ends hopes of 1,000 new jobs being created for this city which has high unemployment.
29 March – Plans are unveiled for Europe's tallest skyscraper to be built at
Canary Wharf. The office complex will cost around £3,000,000,000 to build, and is set to open in 1992.
April
9 April – The house price boom is reported to have boosted wealth in London and the South-East by £39,000,000,000 over the last four years, compared with an £18,000,000,000 slump in Scotland and the North-West of England.
10 April – Golfer
Sandy Lyle becomes the first British winner of the
US Masters.
15 April – Comedian and actor
Kenneth Williams, 62, dies of an overdose of barbiturates at his flat in London.
21 April – The government announces that nurses will receive a 15% pay rise, at a cost of £794,000,000 which will be funded by the Treasury.
24 April – Luton Town FC beat Arsenal in the Littlewoods Cup final at Wembley 3–2. The match was won in the 92nd minute with a goal by Brian Stein after Luton had come back from being 2–1 down and goalkeeper Andy Dibble saving a penalty in the 79th minute. Luton scorers Brian Stein (2) and Danny Wilson. 96,000 fans were in attendance.
May
May – The first group of sixteen-year-olds sit
General Certificate of Secondary Education examinations, replacing both the
O-level and
CSE. The new qualifications are marked against objective standards rather than relatively.[11]
2 May – Three off-duty British servicemen are killed in the
Netherlands by the
IRA.
6 May –
Graeme Hick makes English
cricket history by scoring 405 runs in a county championship match.[12]
7 May – The proposed
Poll tax (referred to by the Government as the Community Charge), which is expected to come into force next year, will see the average house rise in value by around 20%, according to a study.[citation needed]
2 June – U.S. President
Ronald Reagan makes a visit to the UK.
11 June – Some 80,000 people attend a
concert at
Wembley Stadium in honour of
Nelson Mandela, the South African anti-apartheid campaigner who has been imprisoned since 1964.
15 June – Six British soldiers are killed by the IRA in
Lisburn.
16 June – More than one hundred English football fans are arrested in
West Germany in connection with incidents of football hooliganism during the
European Championships.
18 June – England's participation in the European Football Champions ended when they finished bottom of their group having lost all three games.
A contractor's relief driver pours twenty tonnes of
aluminium sulphate into the wrong tank at a water treatment plant near
Camelford in Cornwall, causing extensive pollution to the local water supply.
8 July – The final large
stationary steam engine in use in a British factory, is shut down at a tannery in
Otley.
18 August –
Ian Rush becomes the most expensive player to join a British club when he returns to
Liverpool F.C. for £2,700,000 after a year at
Juventus in Italy.[19]
20 August –
Ballygawley bus bombing: Six British soldiers are killed by an IRA bomb near
Belfast; twenty-eight others are injured.
22 August
New licensing laws allow
pubs to stay open all day in England and Wales.[5]
31 August – Postal workers walk out on
strike over a dispute concerning bonuses paid to recruit new workers in London and the South East.[20]
September
3 September – Economic experts warn that the recent economic upturn for most of the developed world is almost over, and that these countries – including Britain – face a
recession in the near future.
9 September – The
England cricket team's tour to India is cancelled after Captain
Graham Gooch and seven other players are refused visas because of involvement in South African cricket during the
apartheid boycott.[5]
10 September – Teenager
Lee Boxell disappears in South London whilst out shopping with a friend and is never found.
19 September – Actor
Roy Kinnear, 54, is seriously injured after falling off his horse during filming in Spain. He dies of his injuries the following day.
13 October – The
House of Lords rules that extracts of the banned book Spycatcher can be published in the media.[23]
14 October –
Vauxhall launches the third and final generation of its popular
Cavalier hatchback and saloon which will be built by
General Motors in
European factories including the
Luton plant and sold outside the UK as the
Opel Vectra. A Cavalier-based
coupe will be launched next year.
18 October –
Jaguar unveils its new
Jaguar XJ220 supercar at the
Motor Show. It is set to go into production in 1990, costing £350,000 and being the world's fastest production car with a top speed of 220mph.
19 October – The United Kingdom
bans broadcast interviews with
IRA members. The
BBC gets around this stricture through the use of professional actors.
27 October – Three IRA supporters are found guilty of conspiracy to murder in connection with a plot to kill Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Tom King.
28 October –
British Rail announces a 21% increase in the cost of long distance season tickets.[24]
November
2 November – Victor Miller is sentenced to
life imprisonment for the murder of 14-year-old Stuart Gough in
Worcestershire earlier this year, with a recommendation by the trial judge that he is not considered for parole for at least thirty years.
4 November – Margaret Thatcher presses for freedom for the people of
Poland on her visit to
Gdańsk.
9 November – The government unveils plans for a new
identity card scheme in an attempt to clamp down on football hooliganism.
A government report reveals that up to 50,000 people in Britain may be HIV positive, and that by the end of 1992, up to 17,000 people may have died from AIDS.
A bronze statue of former Labour Prime Minister
Clement Attlee (1883–1967) is unveiled outside
Limehouse Library in London by another former Labour Prime Minister,
Harold Wilson.[25]
Botanical artist and environmental campaigner
Margaret Mee, 79, is killed in a car accident at
Seagrave, Leicestershire.
December
3 December – Health Minister
Edwina Currie provokes outrage by stating that most of Britain's egg production is infected with the
salmonella bacteria, causing an immediate nationwide decrease in egg sales.[26]
6 December – The last shipbuilding facilities on
Wearside, once the largest shipbuilding area in the world, are to close with the loss of 2,400 jobs.
M25 Three: a series of burglaries take place, and a man is murdered during the early hours around the
M25 motorway.
19 December
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors publishes its house price survey, revealing a deep recession in the housing market.
PC Gavin Carlton, 29, is shot dead in
Coventry in a siege by two armed bank robbers. His colleague
DC Leonard Jakeman is also shot but survives. One of the gunmen gives himself up to police, while the other shoots himself dead.
21 December –
Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over the town of
Lockerbie, killing a total of 270 people – 11 on the ground and all 259 who were on board.[30]
Undated
Inflation remains low for the seventh year running, now standing at 4.9%.[31]
Diggers of the foundations of the new Art Gallery at the
Guildhall in the
City of London accidentally discover the remains of a Roman
amphitheatre, now on public display.[32]
11 January – The government announces that inflammable foam furniture will be banned from March next year.
14 January – Unemployment figures are released for the end of 1987, showing the eighteenth-successive monthly decrease. Just over 2,600,000 people are now unemployed in the United Kingdom – the lowest figure for seven years. More than 500,000 of those unemployed, found jobs in 1987.
Peugeot's British-built
405 saloon, winner of the
European Car of the Year award, goes on sale in Britain. A five-door estate model is due later this year.[3]
24 January –
Arthur Scargill is re-elected as Leader of the National Union of Mineworkers by a narrow majority.
28 January – The
Birmingham Six lose an appeal against their convictions.
February
1 February – Victor Miller, a 33-year-old warehouse worker from
Wolverhampton, confesses to the murder of 14-year-old Stuart Gough, who was found dead in
Worcestershire last month.
3 February – Nurses throughout the UK strike for higher pay and more funding for the
National Health Service.[4]
4 February – Nearly 7,000 ferry workers go on strike in Britain, paralysing the nation's seaports.
5 February – The first
BBCRed Nose Day raises £15,000,000 for charity.[5]
7 February – It is reported that more than 50% of men and 80% of women working full-time in London, are earning less than the lowest sum needed to buy the cheapest houses in the capital.
9 February -
Helen McCourt, a 22-year-old insurance clerk from
Lancashire (now
Merseyside) disappeared after getting off a bus less than 500 yards from her home in the village of
Billinge. Her body was never found.
15 February –
Norman Fowler, Secretary of State for Employment, announces plans for a new training scheme which the government hopes will give jobs to up to 600,000 people who are currently unemployed.
16 February – Thousands of nurses and co-workers form picket lines outside British hospitals as they go on strike in protest against what they see as inadequate NHS funding.
7 March –
Margaret Thatcher announces a £3,000,000,000 regeneration scheme to improve a series of inner city areas by the year 2000.
9 March – It is revealed that the average price of a house in Britain reached £60,000 at the end of last year, compared to £47,000 in December 1986.
10 March – The Prince of Wales (now
Charles III) narrowly avoids death in an avalanche while on a skiing holiday in
Switzerland. Major
Hugh Lindsay, former equerry to the Queen, is killed.[8]
15 March – In the
1988 budget, Chancellor
Nigel Lawson announces that the standard rate of income tax will be cut to 25p in the pound, while the maximum rate of income tax will be cut to 40p from 60p in the pound.
17 March – The fall in unemployment continues, with just over 2,500,000 people now registered as unemployed in the UK. However, there is a blow for the city of
Dundee, when
Ford Motor Company scraps plans to build a new electronics plant in the city – a move which ends hopes of 1,000 new jobs being created for this city which has high unemployment.
29 March – Plans are unveiled for Europe's tallest skyscraper to be built at
Canary Wharf. The office complex will cost around £3,000,000,000 to build, and is set to open in 1992.
April
9 April – The house price boom is reported to have boosted wealth in London and the South-East by £39,000,000,000 over the last four years, compared with an £18,000,000,000 slump in Scotland and the North-West of England.
10 April – Golfer
Sandy Lyle becomes the first British winner of the
US Masters.
15 April – Comedian and actor
Kenneth Williams, 62, dies of an overdose of barbiturates at his flat in London.
21 April – The government announces that nurses will receive a 15% pay rise, at a cost of £794,000,000 which will be funded by the Treasury.
24 April – Luton Town FC beat Arsenal in the Littlewoods Cup final at Wembley 3–2. The match was won in the 92nd minute with a goal by Brian Stein after Luton had come back from being 2–1 down and goalkeeper Andy Dibble saving a penalty in the 79th minute. Luton scorers Brian Stein (2) and Danny Wilson. 96,000 fans were in attendance.
May
May – The first group of sixteen-year-olds sit
General Certificate of Secondary Education examinations, replacing both the
O-level and
CSE. The new qualifications are marked against objective standards rather than relatively.[11]
2 May – Three off-duty British servicemen are killed in the
Netherlands by the
IRA.
6 May –
Graeme Hick makes English
cricket history by scoring 405 runs in a county championship match.[12]
7 May – The proposed
Poll tax (referred to by the Government as the Community Charge), which is expected to come into force next year, will see the average house rise in value by around 20%, according to a study.[citation needed]
2 June – U.S. President
Ronald Reagan makes a visit to the UK.
11 June – Some 80,000 people attend a
concert at
Wembley Stadium in honour of
Nelson Mandela, the South African anti-apartheid campaigner who has been imprisoned since 1964.
15 June – Six British soldiers are killed by the IRA in
Lisburn.
16 June – More than one hundred English football fans are arrested in
West Germany in connection with incidents of football hooliganism during the
European Championships.
18 June – England's participation in the European Football Champions ended when they finished bottom of their group having lost all three games.
A contractor's relief driver pours twenty tonnes of
aluminium sulphate into the wrong tank at a water treatment plant near
Camelford in Cornwall, causing extensive pollution to the local water supply.
8 July – The final large
stationary steam engine in use in a British factory, is shut down at a tannery in
Otley.
18 August –
Ian Rush becomes the most expensive player to join a British club when he returns to
Liverpool F.C. for £2,700,000 after a year at
Juventus in Italy.[19]
20 August –
Ballygawley bus bombing: Six British soldiers are killed by an IRA bomb near
Belfast; twenty-eight others are injured.
22 August
New licensing laws allow
pubs to stay open all day in England and Wales.[5]
31 August – Postal workers walk out on
strike over a dispute concerning bonuses paid to recruit new workers in London and the South East.[20]
September
3 September – Economic experts warn that the recent economic upturn for most of the developed world is almost over, and that these countries – including Britain – face a
recession in the near future.
9 September – The
England cricket team's tour to India is cancelled after Captain
Graham Gooch and seven other players are refused visas because of involvement in South African cricket during the
apartheid boycott.[5]
10 September – Teenager
Lee Boxell disappears in South London whilst out shopping with a friend and is never found.
19 September – Actor
Roy Kinnear, 54, is seriously injured after falling off his horse during filming in Spain. He dies of his injuries the following day.
13 October – The
House of Lords rules that extracts of the banned book Spycatcher can be published in the media.[23]
14 October –
Vauxhall launches the third and final generation of its popular
Cavalier hatchback and saloon which will be built by
General Motors in
European factories including the
Luton plant and sold outside the UK as the
Opel Vectra. A Cavalier-based
coupe will be launched next year.
18 October –
Jaguar unveils its new
Jaguar XJ220 supercar at the
Motor Show. It is set to go into production in 1990, costing £350,000 and being the world's fastest production car with a top speed of 220mph.
19 October – The United Kingdom
bans broadcast interviews with
IRA members. The
BBC gets around this stricture through the use of professional actors.
27 October – Three IRA supporters are found guilty of conspiracy to murder in connection with a plot to kill Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Tom King.
28 October –
British Rail announces a 21% increase in the cost of long distance season tickets.[24]
November
2 November – Victor Miller is sentenced to
life imprisonment for the murder of 14-year-old Stuart Gough in
Worcestershire earlier this year, with a recommendation by the trial judge that he is not considered for parole for at least thirty years.
4 November – Margaret Thatcher presses for freedom for the people of
Poland on her visit to
Gdańsk.
9 November – The government unveils plans for a new
identity card scheme in an attempt to clamp down on football hooliganism.
A government report reveals that up to 50,000 people in Britain may be HIV positive, and that by the end of 1992, up to 17,000 people may have died from AIDS.
A bronze statue of former Labour Prime Minister
Clement Attlee (1883–1967) is unveiled outside
Limehouse Library in London by another former Labour Prime Minister,
Harold Wilson.[25]
Botanical artist and environmental campaigner
Margaret Mee, 79, is killed in a car accident at
Seagrave, Leicestershire.
December
3 December – Health Minister
Edwina Currie provokes outrage by stating that most of Britain's egg production is infected with the
salmonella bacteria, causing an immediate nationwide decrease in egg sales.[26]
6 December – The last shipbuilding facilities on
Wearside, once the largest shipbuilding area in the world, are to close with the loss of 2,400 jobs.
M25 Three: a series of burglaries take place, and a man is murdered during the early hours around the
M25 motorway.
19 December
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors publishes its house price survey, revealing a deep recession in the housing market.
PC Gavin Carlton, 29, is shot dead in
Coventry in a siege by two armed bank robbers. His colleague
DC Leonard Jakeman is also shot but survives. One of the gunmen gives himself up to police, while the other shoots himself dead.
21 December –
Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over the town of
Lockerbie, killing a total of 270 people – 11 on the ground and all 259 who were on board.[30]
Undated
Inflation remains low for the seventh year running, now standing at 4.9%.[31]
Diggers of the foundations of the new Art Gallery at the
Guildhall in the
City of London accidentally discover the remains of a Roman
amphitheatre, now on public display.[32]