1991 in the United Kingdom

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1991 in the United Kingdom
Other years
1989 | 1990 | 1991 (1991) | 1992 | 1993
Countries of the United Kingdom
England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales
Popular culture

Events from the year 1991 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Events

January

  • January – Tax-exempt special savings accounts (TESSAs) introduced as a government concession to promote personal savings.
  • 3 January – The UK expels all Iraqi diplomats from the country due to the Iraqi government's illegal annexation of Kuwait five months earlier.[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 employees 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 sector are reportedly at threat, as the total UK unemployment figure 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 unemployment has reached more than 1.8 million, and experts warn that the figure will exceed 2 million later this 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.[2]
  • 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 employees.
  • 18 February – A man is killed in the
    Victoria station and Paddington station bombings
    .
  • 21 February – Ballet legend Dame Margot Fonteyn dies of cancer aged 71 in Panama City.
  • 25 February –
    Director of Public Prosecution, announces that the Birmingham Six could soon be free from prison after seventeen years as their convictions for terrorism and mass murder are no longer considered safe and satisfactory.[7]
  • 26 February – British scientist Tim Berners-Lee introduces WorldWideWeb, the first web browser, while working at CERN in Geneva, the first website goes online on 6 August.
  • 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.[8]

March

April

May

June

July

  • July
    • South African-produced cars are imported to Britain for the first time, with the launch of the
      Mazda 323. However, the brand and the car is not a success and imports end just 2 years later.[23]
    • Production of the Vauxhall Belmont compact saloon ends ahead of the launch of the third generation Astra range of hatchbacks and estates which goes the sale in the Autumn with saloon and convertible models arriving later.
  • 3 July – Michael Shorey is convicted at the Old Bailey of the July 1990 murders of Elaine Forsyth and Patricia Morrison, two estate agents with whom he shared a basement flat in north London. He is sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment. The former EastEnders actress Sandy Ratcliff, who provided Shorey with an alibi on the night of the murders, is subsequently convicted of perjury.[24]
  • 4 July – Labour retains the Walton seat at 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.[25]
  • 8 July – Two suspected IRA terrorists shoot their way out of Brixton Prison in London.
  • 11 July – Labour MP, Terry Fields, joins the list of people jailed for refusal to pay the poll tax after he receives a sixty-day prison sentence. He is the first MP to be jailed for refusing to pay the controversial tax which was introduced early last year.[26]
  • 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 earlier, has now overtaken Enid Blyton as the most popular author of children's books.
  • 17 July – The Ultimate steel roller coaster, Europe's longest, opens at Lightwater Valley theme park in North Yorkshire.
  • 18 July – Economists warn that unemployment will reach 3,000,000 people (a level not seen since early-1987) by the end of next year.
  • 19 July –
    Derby County
    .
  • 21 July – Motor racing driver Paul Warwick, 21, is killed when his car crashes into a barrier during the fifth Formula 3000 race at Oulton Park.
  • 23 July – The Ministry of Defence proposes the merge of 22 army regiments as part of a general reform programme.[8]
  • 24 July – Chancellor of the Exchequer 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 five years is freed.[27]
  • 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]
  • 30 August

September

October

November

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 debts in excess of £1,000,000,000, exactly one month after Robert Maxwell's death. The Daily Mirror reports that Maxwell had wrongly removed £350,000,000 from its pension fund shortly before he died.[44]
  • 6 December – At
    Birmingham Crown Court, John Tanner is convicted of the murder of Rachel McLean and sentenced to life imprisonment.[45]
  • 10 December –
    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".[46]
  • 12–15 December – Concentration of vehicle exhausts in London causes an estimated 160 deaths.[47]
  • 16 December – Stella Rimington announced as the first female director general of MI5.[48]
  • 19 December – Unemployment is now above 2,500,000 for the first time since early-1988.[49]
  • 23 December –
    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 general 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.[50]
  • Despite the deepening recession, inflation has been substantially decreased to 5.9%.[51]
  • The National Curriculum assessment ("standard attainment tests" or SATs) is first carried out, at Key Stage 1 in primary schools in England.
  • One Canada Square at Canary Wharf in London becomes the tallest building in the UK.[52]
  • 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),
    Micra.[53]
  • Sea defences at Mappleton in Holderness are built.[54]

Publications

Births

January

Pixie Lott

February

Ed Sheeran

March

Matthew Briggs

April

Frank Dillane

May

Jack Brereton

June

Jesy Nelson
Oliver Stark

July

Diana Vickers

August

Alice Barlow

September

Damson Idris

October

November

Emma Blackery

December

Louis Tomlinson

Full date unknown

Deaths

January

February

Margot Fonteyn

March

Jack Meyer
Sunday Wilshin

April

Graham Greene

May

June

Peggy Ashcroft
Bernard Miles, Baron Miles

July

Bernard Waley-Cohen

August

Vince Taylor

September

October

Andrzej Panufnik

November

Freddie Mercury

December

Gordon Pirie

See also

References

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