1991 in the United Kingdom

1991 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1989 | 1990 | 1991 (1991) | 1992 | 1993

Individual countries of the United Kingdom

England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales

Sport, Television and music

1991 British Grand Prix 1991 English cricket season Football: England | Scotland 1991 in British television 1991 in British music 1991 in British radio UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 1991

Events from the year 1991 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister – John Major (Conservative)

Events

January

• January – Tax-Exempt Special Savings Accounts introduced as a government concession to promote personal savings.
• 3 January – The UK expels all Iraqi diplomats from the country due to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait five months ago.^[1]
• 5 January – 27 people die as a result of gale force winds across Britain.^[2]
• 8 January – A train crash at Cannon Street station in London kills one person and injures over 500.^[3]
• 11 January – As the recession deepens, 335 workers at the Peugeot car factory in Coventry are made redundant while Ford is looking for up to 1,000 voluntary redundancies at its British factories. Thousands of jobs in the financial services factor are reportedly at threat, as the total UK unemployment is currently standing at nearly 1,800,000 but is expected to rise to well over 2,000,000 by the end of the year.
• 14 January – Donald Coleman, Labour MP for Neath in South Wales, dies aged 65.
• 16 January – The final phase of the M40 motorway through Oxfordshire is opened, giving the West Midlands conurbation its first direct motorway link with London.^[4]
• 17 January – The Gulf War begins, as the Royal Air Force joins Allied aircraft in bombing raids on Iraq.^[5]
• 18 January – In spite of the deepening recession, the Conservatives have climbed back to the top of the opinion polls, a MORI poll placing them five points ahead of Labour on 46%.^[6]
• 19 January – It is announced that 1,844,000 people are now unemployed in the United Kingdom, and experts warn that the figure will exceed 2,000,000 before the end of the year.
• 29 January – John Major resists calls from the Labour Party for interest rates to be cut in a bid to combat the recession.

February

• 7 February – The Provisional Irish Republican Army launch a mortar attack against 10 Downing Street, blowing in all the windows of the cabinet room, during a session of the War Cabinet, but there are no injuries.^[7]
• 8 February – Heavy snow disrupts the country for a second time during the winter 1990–1991 season as Britain experiences a prolonged cold snap.
• 17 February – Barclays Bank is reported to be on the verge of axing more than 13,000 workers.
• 18 February – The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at both Paddington station and Victoria station in London.
• 25 February – Alan Green, Director of Public Prosecution, announces that the Birmingham Six could soon be free from prison after 17 years as their convictions for terrorism and mass murder are no longer considered safe and satisfactory.^[8]
• 26 February – British scientist Tim Berners-Lee introduces WorldWideWeb, the first web browser, while working at CERN in Geneva, where on 6 August the first website goes online.
• 27 February – The National Institute of Economic and Social Research predicts that the recession will end this summer.
• 28 February – Iraq accepts a provisional ceasefire, and British troops halt their advance on Baghdad.^[9]

March

• 3 March – An Ipsos MORI poll shows that John Major is more popular with his voters than his Conservative government.
• 8 March – Ribble Valley, the tenth safest Conservative seat in Britain, is won by the Liberal Democrats in a by-election.
• 10 March – The UK reportedly has the fastest pace in rising unemployment than any other European Community country.
• 14 March – The Birmingham Six are freed after the Court of Appeal quashes their convictions over the 1974 pub bombings in Birmingham which killed 21 people and injured more than 160 others.^[10]
• 15 March – Unemployment is now above 2,000,000 for the first time in two years. The number of British workers employed in the manufacturing industry has fallen below 5,000,000 for the first time since records began.
• 19 March – Norman Lamont predicts 2% economic contraction for this year.
• 21 March – Education Secretary Kenneth Clarke announces plans to remove further education and sixth form colleges from local authority control.
• 23 March
  • The Government launches its Citizen's Charter campaign.^[11]
  • John Major announces the abolition of the Community Charge.
• 28 March – An inquest in Sheffield into the Hillsborough disaster records a verdict of accidental death on the 95 people who died as a result of the tragedy in 1989. Many of the victims' families criticise the verdict in open court, as many of them had been hoping for a verdict of unlawful killing, or an open verdict, and for criminal charges to be brought against the police officers who patrolled the game.^[12]
• 29 March – Sir John Stradling Thomas, Conservative MP for Monmouth, dies aged 65.

April

• 4 April
  • Social services in the Orkney Islands are criticised for their handling of more than 100 children who have returned to their families after being taken away over allegations of child abuse.^[13]
  • Labour retains the Neath seat in a by-election with new MP Peter Hain gaining more than half of the vote.
• 8 April – The Football Association announces plans for a new "super league" of 18 clubs to replace the Football League First Division as the highest division of English football. The move is attacked by smaller Football League clubs, who fear that they could go out of business if TV revenue was confined to the proposed super league.
• 18 April – Despite the continuing recession, the Conservatives are still top of the opinion polls as the latest MORI poll puts them two points ahead of Labour on 42%. The Liberal Democrats have trebled their showing in the last 15 months, now gaining 15% of the vote.^[6]
• 19 April – George Carey enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury.^[9]
• 23 April – Government confirms that the unpopular Community Charge is to be replaced by a new Council Tax in 1993.^[9]

May

• 5 May – Hopes for a quick end to the recession are boosted by CBI predictions that a sharp recovery in business profits will begin shortly.
• 15 May – Manchester United win the European Cup Winners' Cup with a 2–1 win over FC Barcelona of Spain in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Mark Hughes scores both of their goals to give English clubs a winning return to European competitions after their five-year ban was lifted last year.^[14]
• 16 May – Unemployment is now at 2,175,000 – the highest since late 1988. It is also above the European average for the first time since 1987.
• 17 May – The Conservatives lose another by-election when Labour gain their Monmouth seat in Wales.
• 18 May –
  • Helen Sharman becomes the first British person in space, flying with the Soyuz TM-12 mission.^[15]
  • Tottenham Hotspur win the FA Cup for a record eighth time with a 2-1 win over Nottingham Forest. Midfielder Paul Gascoigne, a multimillion-pound transfer target for Italian side Lazio, suffers cruciate knee ligament damage early in the game and is not expected to play again in 1991.
• 21 May – South Wales, one of the regions hardest hit by unemployment, receives a boost when the go-ahead is given for Japanese electrical company Sony to build a new factory in Bridgend that will create 1,400 jobs when it opens in 1993.
• 22 May – Nearly six months after the breakthrough in the Channel Tunnel service tunnel, the breakthrough in the North rail tunnel is achieved. On the same day, road links to the British terminal are improved when the final section of the M20 motorway is opened between Maidstone and Ashford, meaning that the Chunnel's unbroken motorway link with London has already been completed an estimated three years before the first trains move between Britain and France.^[16][17]
• 24 May
  • Labour tops a MORI poll for the first time this year as they stand six points ahead of the Conservatives on 43%.^[6]
  • Sutton Manor Colliery at Bold in the Lancashire Coalfield closes,^[18] the last in Britain to use a steam winding engine.
• 27 May – Eric Heffer, Labour MP for Liverpool Walton, dies after an 18-month battle against cancer.
• 29 May – Economists warn that the economy is still in an "exceptionally steep" recession and that it could be another year before the first real signs of recovery become visible.

June

• June – Kia, the Korean carmaker, begins importing cars to the United Kingdom for the first time; initially it will only import the Pride (a rebadged version of the Japanese Mazda 121), but at least one further model is expected to join it by 1994.^[19]
• 3 June – The British Army kill three IRA gunmen in Northern Ireland.^[20]
• 6 June – Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock condemns John Major for high interest rates, as much as 17%, being charged on small businesses by banks.
• 10 June – The National Gallery (London) opens its new Sainsbury Wing to the public.^[9]
• 13 June – Unemployment is reported to have risen to 2,250,000, the lowest monthly rise reported this year.
• 14 June – Julie Ann Gibson becomes the first woman to qualify as a pilot with the Royal Air Force.^[21]
• 19 June – Secretary of State for Employment Michael Howard announces a £230million plan to tackle rising unemployment.
• 25 June – Nissan, the Japanese carmaker with a plant at Sunderland, starts "price wars" by reducing the cost of its cars in order to boost flagging sales brought on by the recession.
• 28 June
  • Seven months after her resignation as prime minister, Margaret Thatcher announces that she will stand down as a Member of Parliament at the general election, which has to be held within the next 12 months.^[22]
  • The final breakthrough in the Channel Tunnel is achieved when the last section of clay in the South rail tunnel is bored away.^[17]

July

• July –
  • South African produced cars are imported to Britain for the first time, with the launch of the Sao Penza, a rebadged version of the Mazda 323.^[23]
  • Production of the Vauxhall Belmont compact saloon ends and a newer Astra range of hatchbacks and estates begins with saloon and convertible models arriving later.
• 4 July – Labour retains the Walton seat in a by-election, with new MP Peter Kilfoyle gaining more than half of the vote.
• 5 July – The Bank of England closes down the Bank of Credit and Commerce International amid fraud allegations. Several local authorities in the UK lose millions of pounds in investments held with the bank.^[24]
• 8 July – Two suspected IRA terrorists shoot their way out of Brixton Prison in London.
• 11 July – Labour Party MP, Terry Fields, joins the list of people jailed for refusal to pay the poll tax after he receives a 60-day prison sentence. He is the first MP to be jailed for refusing to pay the controversial tax which was introduced early last year.^[25]
• 15 July – 17th G7 summit held in London.
• 16 July – A government survey of children's school reading reveals that Roald Dahl, who died eight months ago, has now overtaken Enid Blyton as the most popular author of children's books.
• 18 July – Economists warn that unemployment will reach 3,000,000 (a level not seen since early 1987) by the end of next year.
• 23 July – The Ministry of Defence proposes the merge of 22 army regiments as part of a general reform programme.^[9]
• 24 July – Chancellor Norman Lamont assures the House of Commons that the economic recovery will begin before the end of this year.

August

• 8 August – John McCarthy, a British hostage held in Lebanon for over 5 years is freed.^[26]
• 12 August – The Times reports that every job vacancy is being chased by 22 applicants.
• 16 August – The Bank of England declares that the worst of the current recession is now over.
• 23 August – Growing confidence over economic recovery has helped boost the Conservative government's popularity, as they return to the top of the MORI poll with a two-point lead over Labour putting them on 42%.^[6]
• 29 August
  • Rioting breaks out in Leeds and Cardiff.
  • Princess Diana attends the funeral of Adrian Ward-Jackson, her friend who died of AIDS earlier this month.
  • Alick Buchanan-Smith, Conservative MP for Kincardine and Deeside, dies aged 59.
• 30 August – Scottish runner Liz McColgan becomes the first British gold medalist at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan.

September

• 3 September – Following the recent outbreaks of violence in Leeds and Cardiff, rioting breaks out at Handsworth in Birmingham, Kates Hill in Dudley and Blackbird Leys in Oxford.
• 12 September – Unemployment has hit 2,400,000 – the highest level since the spring of 1988 – completing a 50% rise in just over a year. However, the rate of rising unemployment is slowing down and retail sales are improving.
• 13 September – Further rioting breaks out in Tyneside.
• 14 September – George Buckley, Labour MP for Hemsworth in West Yorkshire, dies aged 56.
• 15 September – A poll shows that Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock is a liability to his party, who are now behind John Major's Conservative Party in the opinion polls.
• 17 September – Neil Kinnock hits out at claims that he is to blame for his party falling behind in the opinion polls, sparking speculation that John Major will call a general election within the next two months.
• 19 September – Robin Leigh-Pemberton, governor of the Bank of England, says that he is confident that the recession is now over in Britain.
• 20 September – Richard Holt, Conservative MP for Langbaurgh in Cleveland, dies suddenly at the age of 60.
• 25 September – Kidnappers in Beirut release hostage Jackie Mann after over 2 years in captivity.^[9]

October

• October – Vauxhall launches the third generation of its popular Astra family hatchback and estate, with saloon and cabriolet variants due next year.
• 2 October – Just over two weeks after Neil Kinnock was damned by a poll as a "liability" to the Labour Party, the leader and his MPs are celebrating after they overtake the Conservatives by two points in the opinion polls.
• 9 October – The first Sumo tournmament to be held outside Japan is hosted at the Royal Albert Hall in London.^[27]
• 11 October – John Major outlines his vision of a "classless" Britain in a party conference at Blackpool, where his predecessor Margaret Thatcher voices her support for him.
• 16 October – The ITV franchise auction results are announced and many notable names go off air including Thames Television, TVS, TSW, TV-am and ORACLE Teletext. The changes take effect at midnight GMT on 1 January 1993.
• 17 October – The smallest monthly rise in unemployment since last November is cited by the government as an "unmistakable" sign that the recession is drawing to a close.
• 18 October – Labour's hopes of election success are boosted by the latest MORI poll, which shows them six points ahead of the Conservatives on 45%.^[28]
• 19 October – Canadian singer Bryan Adams makes history when his hit single (Everything I Do) I Do It for You, which features in the film Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves (released on 14 June this year, and starring Kevin Costner) enters its 15th successive week at number one in the UK singles charts.
• 22 October – Leonora Knatchbull, the five-year-old daughter of Norton Knatchbull, 8th Baron Brabourne and his wife Penelope, dies after a one-year battle against a kidney tumour. She was also a great-grandchild of Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was murdered by the IRA in 1979. She is buried at Romsey Abbey on 26 October.^[29]
• 23 October – In the legal case of R v R decided on appeal, the Law Lords unanimously decide that spousal rape is a crime in England and Wales, overturning the principle established by Chief Justice Hale in 1736.^[30]
• 27 October – (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, the power ballad performed by Canadian singer Bryan Adams, loses its number one position at the top of the singles charts after a record 16 consecutive weeks, displaced by U2's The Fly.
• 29 October – Hopes that the recession is drawing to a close are boosted by CBI findings that show that manufacturers are now more optimistic than at any time in the past three years.

November

• November
  • Computer retailer PC World opens its first store in Croydon, Surrey.^[31]
  • Alan Sked forms the Anti-Federalist League, a political party aiming to field election candidates opposed to the Maastricht Treaty.^[32]
• 5 November – Robert Maxwell, owner of numerous business interests including the Daily Mirror newspaper, is found dead off the coast of Tenerife; his cause of death is unconfirmed, but reports suggest that he has committed suicide.^[33]
• 7 November – Labour retains its control of Hemsworth in the by-election, with the new MP being Derek Enright, while the Liberal Democrats gain Kincardine and Deeside from the Conservatives in another by-election. Another by-election sees the Conservatives lose Langbaurgh to Labour, who gain a new MP in 35-year-old Indian born Ashok Kumar.
• 9 November – First ever controlled and substantial production of fusion energy achieved at the Joint European Torus in Oxford.^[34]
• 15 November – Britain's hopes of economy recovery are dealt with a major blow when shares on the Wall Street Stock Exchange fall by 120 points.
• 16 November – Two IRA bombers die in St Albans, Hertfordshire, when a bomb explodes prematurely.
• 18 November – Terry Waite, a British hostage held in Lebanon, is freed after four-and-a-half years in captivity.^[35]
• 23 November – Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of rock band Queen, announces that he is suffering from AIDS, following lengthy media speculation about his health.
• 24 November – Freddie Mercury dies at his home in London, just 24 hours after going public with the news that he was suffering from AIDS.^[36]
• 25 November - The Court of Appeal quashes the convictions of Winston Silcott, Engin Raghip and Mark Braithwaite, for the murder of PC Keith Blakelock in the Broadwater Farm riot at Tottenham, North London, six years ago. Raghip and Braithwaite are released from prison, but Silcott remains imprisoned for a separate murder.
• 26 November – Julin Bristol, the last UK nuclear test, takes place at the Nevada Test Site.^[37]
• 27 November
  • Freddie Mercury is cremated after a funeral service at West London Crematorium.^[38]
  • The government announces that joyriders who are found guilty should face a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment as well as unlimited fines and unlimited automatic driving bans. Joyriding has recently surged across Britain, with almost all of those involved being children and teenagers.^[39]
• 28 November – First performance of Alan Bennett's play The Madness of George III in London.

December

• 1 December – Thousands of British shops, including retail giants Asda and Tesco, defy trading laws and open their doors on a Sunday in a bid to boost trade that has been badly hit by the ongoing recession.
• 5 December – The Robert Maxwell Business Empire goes into receivership with £1billion+ debts, exactly one month after Robert Maxwell's death. The Daily Mirror reports that Maxwell had wrongly removed £350million from its pension fund shortly before he died.^[40]
• 10 December – Ronald Coase wins the Nobel Prize in Economics "for his discovery and clarification of the significance of transaction costs and property rights for the institutional structure and functioning of the economy".^[41]
• 16 December – Stella Rimington announced as the first female director general of MI5.^[42]
• 19 December – Unemployment is now above 2,500,000 for the first time since early 1988.^[43]
• 23 December – Bohemian Rhapsody returns to the top of the British singles charts after 16 years, with the re-release's proceeds being donated to the Terence Higgins Trust.
• 27 December – The last MORI poll of 1991 shows that Labour are six points ahead of the Conservatives with 44% of the vote.^[6]
• 29 December – A quarterly opinion poll shows that Neil Kinnock and Labour are three points ahead of John Major and the Conservatives, sparking hope for Labour that they will win the next election (which has to be held within five months) or at least the election will result in a hung parliament for the first time since 1974.

Undated

• The economy remains rooted in the recession which began last year.^[44]
• Despite the deepening recession, inflation has been substantially decreased to 5.9%.^[45]
• One Canada Square at Canary Wharf in London becomes the tallest building in the UK.
• The Communist Party of Great Britain dissolves.
• Scout Groups may admit girls to all their sections.
• Despite the onset of the recession and a sharp fall in new car sales (with fewer than 1,600,000 new cars being sold in 1991 compared to the record of more than 2,300,000 in 1989), Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK's car plant at Sunderland returns a profit for the first time, making £18.4million this year. It currently only makes the Primera family saloon and hatchbacks there, but from August next year it will be joined by the new version of the smaller Micra.^[46]
• Sea defences at Mappleton in Holderness are built.

Publications

• Martin Amis's novel Time's Arrow.
• Beryl Bainbridge's novel The Birthday Boys.
• Iain M. Banks' short story collection The State of the Art.
• Pat Barker's novel Regeneration.
• Louis de Bernières' novel Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord.
• Brian Keenan's autobiographical account of more than four years as a hostage in Lebanon An Evil Cradling
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels Reaper Man and Witches Abroad.

Births

• 12 January – Pixie Lott, singer
• 31 January – Amy Jackson, model and actress
• 17 February
  • Ed Sheeran, singer, songwriter
  • Bonnie Wright, actress
• 2 March - Alexander Conte, Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield Advocate, HVAC Engineer and vest model.
• 11 March – Jack Rodwell, footballer
• 14 March – Jake Ball, cricketer
• 20 April – Marissa King, gymnast
• 27 April – Rebecca Ryan, actress
• 11 June – Dan Howell, youtuber, radio presenter
• 16 June – Joe McElderry, singer
• 6 July – Ashley Lloyd, English actor and dancer
• 30 July – Diana Vickers, singer
• 5 September – Skandar Keynes, actor
• 11 September – Luke Hubbins, footballer
• 2 October – Gordon Reid, Scottish wheelchair tennis player
• 4 November – Michael Jacobs, footballer
• 19 December – Declan Galbraith, singer
• 24 December – Louis Tomlinson, member of One Direction

Deaths

• 8 January – Steve Clark, guitarist (Def Leppard) (born 1960)
• 11 January – Charles Mozley, artist (born 1914)
• 14 January – Donald Coleman, politician (born 1925)
• 20 January – Alfred Wainwright, author and illustrator (born 1907)
• 21 February – Margot Fonteyn, ballet dancer (born 1919)
• 21 March – George Abecassis, race car driver (born 1913)
• 3 April – Graham Greene, author (born 1904)
• 20 April – Steve Marriott, singer, musician (Small Faces and Humble Pie) (born 1947)
• 24 March – Maudie Edwards, actress and singer (born 1906)
• 16 April – David Lean, film director and producer (born 1908)
• 22 May – Stan Mortensen, former footballer (born 1921)
• 31 May – Angus Wilson, novelist and short story writer (born 1913)
• 14 June
  • Peggy Ashcroft, actress (born 1907)
  • Bernard Miles, actor and director (born 1907)
• 15 June – Arthur Lewis, economist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1915)
• 12 August – Edward George Bowen, CBE, physicist (born 1911)
• 30 August – Cyril Knowles, footballer (born 1944)
• 27 September
  • Roy Fuller, poet (born 1912)
  • Joe Hulme, former footballer and cricketer (born 1904)
• 13 October – Donald Houston, actor (born 1923)
• 27 October –
  • George Barker, poet (born 1913)
  • Andrzej Panufnik, composer and musician (born 1914, Poland)
• 5 November – Robert Maxwell, media proprietor (born 1923, Czechoslovakia)
• 14 November – Tony Richardson, film director (born 1928)
• 24 November – Freddie Mercury, singer (Queen) (born 1946)
• 4 December – Cliff Bastin, former footballer (born 1912)
• 6 December – Richard Stone, economist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1913)
• 14 December – John Arlott, journalist, author and cricket commentator (born 1914)

References

See also

• 1991 in British music
• 1991 in British television
• List of British films of 1991

External links