1979 in the United Kingdom

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1979 in the United Kingdom
Other years
1977 | 1978 | 1979 (1979) | 1980 | 1981
Constituent countries of the United Kingdom
England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales
Popular culture

Events from the year 1979 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Events

January

  • 1 January – French carmaker Peugeot completes its takeover of the European division of financially troubled American carmaker Chrysler, which was agreed last year and includes the British operations of the former Rootes Group and the French Simca brand. The company’s cars continue to be sold under these brands, but are expected to be rebranded in the near future.
  • 5 January – Lorry drivers go on strike, causing new shortages of heating oil and fresh food.
  • 10 January – Prime Minister James Callaghan returns from an international summit to a Britain in a state of industrial unrest. The Sun newspaper reports his comments with a famous headline: "Crisis? What Crisis?"[1]
  • 15 January – Rail workers begin a 24-hour strike.
  • 22 January – Tens of thousands of public-workers strike in the beginning of what becomes known as the "Winter of Discontent".[2]

February

March

April

  • April – Statistics show that the economy shrank by 0.8% in the first quarter of the year, largely due to the Winter of Discontent, sparking fears that Britain could soon be faced with its second recession in four years.
  • 4 April – Josephine Whitaker, a 19-year-old bank worker, is murdered in
    Yorkshire Ripper
    .
  • 7 April – The last RT type buses run in London, on route 62.
  • 23 April – Anti-Nazi League protester Blair Peach is fatally injured after being struck on the head probably by a member of the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group.[12]

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

  • 4 December – The Hastie Fire in Hull leads to the deaths of 3 boys and begins the hunt for Bruce George Peter Lee, the UK's most prolific killer.
  • 7 December – Lord Soames appointed as the transitional governor of Rhodesia to oversee its move to independence.[47]
  • 10 December
    • Nobel Prize in Economics with Theodore Schultz "for their pioneering research into economic development research with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries".[48]
    • Stunt performer Eddie Kidd performs an 80 ft jump on a motorcycle.[49]
  • 14 December
    • Doubts are raised over the convictions of the four men in the Carl Bridgewater case after Hubert Vincent Spencer is charged with murdering 70-year-old farmer Hubert Wilkes at a farmhouse less than half a mile away from the one where Carl Bridgewater was murdered.[7]
    • The Clash release post-punk album London Calling.
  • 20 December – The government publishes the
    right to buy their homes from the following year. More than 5 million households in the United Kingdom currently occupy council houses.[50]
  • 21 December – Lancaster House Agreement, an independent agreement for Rhodesia is signed in London.[51]

Undated

Publications

Births

Deaths

  • 16 January – Peter Butterworth, actor and comedian (born 1919)
  • 23 January – Frank Owen, journalist and politician (born 1905)
  • 2 February – Sid Vicious (real name John Simon Ritchie), musician (Sex Pistols) (drug overdose in the United States) (born 1957)
  • 14 February – Reginald Maudling, politician (born 1917)
  • 19 February – Wee Georgie Wood, actor and comedian (born 1895)
  • 19 March – Richard Beckinsale, actor (born 1947)
  • 23 March –
    Ted Anderson
    , footballer (born 1911)
  • 24 March – Sir Jack Cohen, founder of the Tesco retail chain (born 1898)
  • 30 March – Airey Neave, politician (assassinated) (born 1916)
  • 11 May – Bernard Kettlewell, geneticist and lepidopterist (born 1907)
  • 8 June – Norman Hartnell, fashion designer (born 1901)
  • 12 July – Olive Morris, social activist (born 1952 in Jamaica)
  • 16 July – Alfred Deller, countertenor (born 1912)
  • 8 August – Nicholas Monsarrat, novelist (born 1910)
  • 9 August – Cecil Jackson-Cole, humanitarian (born 1901)
  • 11 August – J. G. Farrell, novelist (born 1935)
  • 12 August – Ernst Chain, biochemist, discoverer of penicillin with Fleming and Florey (born 1899, German Empire)
  • 23 August – Richard Hearne ("Mr Pastry"), comic performer (born 1908)
  • 27 August –
    Viceroy of India
    (victim of IRA bombing) (born 1900)
  • 28 August – Doreen Knatchbull, Baroness Brabourne, aristocrat and socialite (victim of IRA bombing) (born 1896)
  • 29 August – Ivon Hitchens, painter (born 1893)
  • 26 September – Leslie Frise, aerospace engineer and aircraft designer (born 1895)
  • 27 September
  • 10 October –
    Dr Christopher Evans
    , psychologist and computer scientist (born 1931)
  • 13 October –
    Rebecca Helferich Clarke
    , composer and violist (born 1886)
  • 15 October – Leslie Grade, theatrical talent agent (born 1916)
  • 30 October – Sir Barnes Wallis, aeronautical engineer (born 1887)
  • 8 November – Edward Ardizzone, painter, printmaker and author (born 1900)
  • 23 November – Merle Oberon, actress (born 1911)
  • 30 November – Joyce Grenfell, actress, comedian and singer-songwriter (born 1910)
  • 9 December – Jack Solomons, boxing promoter (born 1902)

See also

References

  1. ^ "'No chaos here' declares Callaghan". BBC News. 10 January 1979. Archived from the original on 5 March 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  2. ^ "Public sector strike paralyses country". BBC News. 22 January 1979. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  3. ^ "Forest break football transfer record". BBC News. 9 February 1979. Archived from the original on 29 January 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  4. .
  5. ^ Barker, Geoffrey (27 February 1979). "PM desperate to save Labour". The Age. Melbourne. p. 7. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  6. ^ .
  7. ^ a b c Those were the days
  8. ^ "Three die in Golborne mine blast". BBC News. 18 March 1979. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  9. ^ "British ambassador assassinated in Holland". BBC News. 22 March 1979. Archived from the original on 4 January 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  10. ^ "Early election as Callaghan defeated". BBC News. 28 March 1979. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  11. ^ "Car bomb kills Airey Neave". BBC News. 30 March 1979. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  12. ^ "Blair Peach killed by police at 1979 protest, Met report finds". The Guardian. 27 April 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  13. ^ "Jubilee line facts, Transport for London website". Archived from the original on 12 February 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  14. ^ "Election victory for Margaret Thatcher". BBC News. 4 May 1979. Archived from the original on 19 December 2007. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  15. ^ "John Major". John Major. Archived from the original on 16 February 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  16. ^ "Liverpool's 11th title". The Sydney Morning Herald. 11 May 1979. p. 24. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  17. ^ "1979 FA Cup Final". BBC Sport. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  18. ^ .
  19. ^ "Price of milk shoots up". BBC News. 25 May 1979. Archived from the original on 19 January 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  20. ^ "European Parliament elections: 1979 to 1994" (PDF). House of Commons. 2 June 1999. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  21. ^ "Thorpe cleared of murder charges". BBC News. 22 June 1979. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  22. ^ "Queen oversees Manx millennium". BBC News. 5 July 1979. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  23. ^ Gillard, Derek (2018). "Education in England: a history". HDA. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  24. ^ "The world car that wasn't". Rootes-Chrysler.co.uk. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  25. ^ "Brighton bares all". BBC News. 9 August 1979. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  26. ^ "Freak storm hits yacht race". BBC News. 14 August 1979. Archived from the original on 1 January 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  27. ^ "Disgraced ex-MP released from jail". BBC News. 14 August 1979. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  28. Evening Times
    . Glasgow. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
  29. ^ "IRA bomb kills Lord Mountbatten". BBC News. 27 August 1979. Archived from the original on 21 January 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  30. ^ "Soldiers die in Warrenpoint massacre". BBC News. 27 August 1979. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  31. ^ "Ripper suspected of 12th murder". BBC News. 2 September 1979. Archived from the original on 1 January 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  32. ^ "Mountbatten buried after final parade". BBC News. 5 September 1979. Archived from the original on 1 January 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  33. ^ "Buchanan signs on for a Danish manager". The Herald. Glasgow. 8 September 1979. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
  34. ^ "Harrier crash kills three". BBC News. 21 September 1979. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  35. ^ "The architectural secrets of Milton Keynes". How We Built Britain. BBC Beds Herts & Bucks. June 2007. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  36. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1979". Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  37. ^ "CIA Factbook entry for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines". Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  38. ^ "Chairman Hua arrives in London". BBC News. 28 October 1979. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  39. ^ Our Century 1976–2000
  40. ^ "Paperboy's killers convicted". BBC News. 9 November 1979. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  41. ^ "Britain's Most Watched TV – The 1980s". British Film Institute. 4 September 2006. Archived from the original on 6 January 2007. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  42. ^ "Times returns after year-long dispute". BBC News. 13 November 1979. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  43. ^ "Changes in Bank Rate" (PDF). Bank of England. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 January 2011. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
  44. ^ Tendler, Stewart; Bradley, Ian (16 November 1979). "Professor Blunt named as spy". The Times. No. 60476. London. p. 1.
  45. ^ Mr. Anthony Blunt. Hansard HC Deb (21 November 1979) 974/402-520.
  46. ^ "Voting Intention in Great Britain: 1976–present". Ipsos MORI. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  47. ^ "Lord Soames to govern Rhodesia". BBC News. 7 December 1979. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  48. ^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1979". Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  49. ^ "Daredevil Kidd's 80ft river jump". BBC News. 10 December 1979. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  50. ^ "Council tenants will have 'right to buy'". BBC News. 20 December 1979. Archived from the original on 23 December 2007. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  51. ^ "Lancaster House Agreement". Fashion Forum (in Danish). 25 September 2021.
  52. ^ "Inflation Great Britain 1979". Inflation.eu. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  53. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/60885. Retrieved 3 February 2011. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  54. ^ "Refurb for Tim Martin's first outlet". Property News. Morning Advertiser. Archived from the original on 4 August 2012. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
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