1988 in the United Kingdom

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Template:Use British English Template:Year in United Kingdom

Events from the year 1988 in the United Kingdom. The year saw the merger in March of the SDP and the Liberals to form the Liberal Democrats. There were also two notable disasters this year: the Piper Alpha oil rig explosion and the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

Incumbents

Events

January

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 BBC Red 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 has never been found.
  • 13 – 28 February – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, but do not win any medals.
  • 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.
  • 26 February – Multiple rapist and murderer John Duffy is sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he should never be released.

March

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.
  • 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

June

  • 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 Championships ended when they finished bottom of their group having lost all three games.
  • 21 June – The Poole explosion of 1988 causes 3,500 people to be evacuated from Poole town centre in the biggest peacetime evacuation in the United Kingdom since World War II.[13]
  • 23 June – Three gay rights activists invade the BBC television studios during the six o'clock bulletin of the BBC News.

July

August

September

October

  • 9 October – Labour MP and Shadow Chancellor John Smith, 50, is hospitalised due to a heart attack in Edinburgh.
  • 12 October – As Pope John Paul II addresses the European Parliament, Ian Paisley heckles and denounces him as the Antichrist.
  • 13 October – The Law Lords rule that extracts from the book Spycatcher, banned in England and Wales, 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.
  • 20 October – Nikola Štedul, a Croatian nationalist from Yugoslavia, is shot in Kirkcaldy but survives. The shooter, Vinko Sindičić, also a Yugoslav, is later arrested at Heathrow Airport.
  • 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

December

  • 3 December – Salmonella-in-eggs controversy: Health Minister Edwina Currie provokes outrage among suppliers by stating that most of Britain's egg production is infected with the salmonella bacteria, causing an immediate and lasting 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.
  • 10 December – James W. Black wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Gertrude B. Elion and George H. Hitchings "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment".[27]
  • 12 December – 35 people are killed in the Clapham Junction rail crash.[28]
  • 15 December
  • 16 December
    • Edwina Currie resigns as Health Minister.[2]
    • A series of burglaries take place and a man is murdered during the early hours around the M25 motorway, leading to conviction, subsequently ruled unsafe, of the 'M25 Three'.
  • 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.
  • 20 December – The three-month-old daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York is christened Beatrice Elizabeth Mary.[29]
  • 21 December – Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over the town of Lockerbie due to a Libyan terrorist bomb, killing a total of 270 people – all 259 on board and 11 on the ground.[30]

Undated

Publications

Births

January

File:FKA twigs (16231835467) (cropped2).jpg
FKA Twigs
File:Mia Rose (Singer).jpg
Mia Rose

February

File:Astonjls.jpg
Aston Merrygold

March

File:2024 UEC Track Elite European Championships 069 (cropped).jpg
Jason Kenny
File:Holliday Grainger, Tell It To Th Bees (cropped).jpg
Holliday Grainger

April

File:Fabrice Muamba warmup Arsenal vs Bolton, 2011.jpg
Fabrice Muamba
File:Ed Speleers Photo Op GalaxyCon San Jose 2024.jpg
Ed Speleers
File:Vanessa Kirby at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival 08 (Cropped).jpg
Vanessa Kirby

May

File:Adam Lallana in Bangkok (19721313015).jpg
Adam Lallana

June

File:Mark Haskins at Smash.jpg
Mark Haskins
File:SamandaApril08.jpg
Samanda

July

File:Shazad Latif by Gage Skidmore.jpg
Shazad Latif
File:Tulisa Contostavlos 2014.jpg
Tulisa
File:Pbw 2022 1.jpg
Pippa Bennett-Warner

August

File:Princess Beatrice Elizabeth Mary of York 2018 (01).jpg
Princess Beatrice
File:Tyson Fury at Place Bell, Laval Quebec, Canada - Dec 16 2017 (cropped).jpg
Tyson Fury
File:RupertGrint2018.jpg
Rupert Grint
File:Official portrait of Tom Hunt MP crop 2.jpg
Tom Hunt

September

File:Max George 2012.jpg
Max George
File:John Bradley by Gage Skidmore 2.jpg
John Bradley
File:Michael Cooper.jpg
Michael Cooper

October

File:Rund um Köln 2019 022.jpg
Alex Dowsett
File:2018-05-21 Calum Scott-9258 (cropped).jpg
Calum Scott
File:Official portrait of Stephen Flynn MP crop 2, 2024.jpg
Stephen Flynn
File:Rylan Clark 2024 (cropped).jpg
Rylan Clark

November

File:Tinie Tempah January 2014.jpg
Tinie Tempah
File:Ricky Norwood 2022.jpg
Ricky Norwood
File:Joe Cole-68453.jpg
Joe Cole

December

File:Stuttgart 2023 -Comic Con Germany- Alfred Enoch- by-RaBoe 004 kor.jpg
Alfred Enoch
File:Anna Popplewell 2013.jpg
Anna Popplewell
File:Rallye Deutschland 2017 (Evans-0664).jpg
Elfyn Evans
File:Florrie - Live at La Maroquinerie, Paris (2011)-2.jpg
Florrie

Full Date Unknown

File:Jovan Adepo FENCES Interview.jpg
Jovan Adepo
File:Calvert 00.png
Claire Calvert

Deaths

January

File:Trevor Howard Allan Warren.jpg
Trevor Howard

February

March

File:Christianna brand upload.jpg
Christianna Brand

April

File:Baroness Felicity Lane Fox, photographed by Ken Stewart at Waterside House, Netley Abbey.jpg
Felicity Lane-Fox, Baroness Lane-Fox

May

File:Kim Philby 1955.jpg
Kim Philby
File:5th Marquess of Dufferin & Ava (cropped).jpg
Sheridan Dufferin

June

July

File:Jimmy Edwards at CHRIS SHAW's Book Launch.jpg
Jimmy Edwards

August

File:Allan Adair (1984).jpg
Allan Adair
File:Kenneth Leighton, 1981.jpg
Kenneth Leighton

September

October

File:Sacheverell Sitwell in 1927.png
Sacheverell Sitwell
File:Thinktank Birmingham - Issigonis A.jpg
Alec Issigonis

November

December

File:Steenlegging door generaal Urquhart van de Engelse Airborne troepen te Oosterbee, Bestanddeelnr 900-8318 (cropped) (cropped).jpg
Roy Urquhart

See also

References

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

  1. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  5. a b c d e Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  8. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  15. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  17. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  18. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  19. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  20. a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  21. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  22. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  23. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  24. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  25. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  26. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  27. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  28. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  29. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  30. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  31. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  32. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  33. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  34. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  35. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  36. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  37. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  38. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  39. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  40. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  41. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  42. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  43. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  44. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  45. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  46. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". Template:Open access
  47. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  48. Script error: No such module "template wrapper". Template:Link note
  49. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  50. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  51. The Daily Telegraph, Obituary: John Loder, 29 December 1988

Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".

Template:UK year nav Template:Year in Europe