1994 in the United Kingdom

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1994 in the United Kingdom
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Countries of the United Kingdom
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Popular culture

Events from the year 1994 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Events

January

  • 4 January – Following the expulsion of the British ambassador from
    Foreign Office
    orders the Sudanese ambassador to leave Britain.
  • 8 January – Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean win the British ice-dancing championship at the Sheffield Arena.
  • 10 January – Two government ministers resign: Lord Caithness following the suicide of his wife, and Tim Yeo following the revelation that he fathered a child with Conservative councillor Julia Stent.
  • 14 January – The
    Royal Family to convert to Catholicism for more than 300 years.[1]
  • 18 January – The Prince of Wales retires from competitive polo at the age of 45.
  • 20 January
  • 25 January – Jimmy Boyce, the newly elected Labour MP for Rotherham in South Yorkshire, dies suddenly of a heart attack aged 47.
  • 31 January – British Aerospace sells its 80% stake in Rover to BMW, leaving Britain without an independent volume carmaker.[3] It is envisaged that the new Rover Group will produce more than one million cars per year worldwide and will be Europe's seventh largest carmaker.

February

March

April

  • April – Economic growth for the first quarter of this year exceeded 1% – the highest for five years.
  • 1 April – Women's Royal Air Force fully merged into Royal Air Force.
  • 10 April – Human remains are found at Kempley, Gloucestershire, by police working on the Gloucester mass murder case. The body is believed to be that of Catherine "Rena" Costello, Fred West's first wife, who was last seen alive in 1971.
  • 12 April –
    Watford, Hertfordshire
    , aged 59.
  • 20 April – Unemployment has fallen to just over 2.5 million – the lowest level in two years – as the economy continues to make a good recovery from the recession that ended a year ago.
  • 28 April –
    Rosemary West
    , 40-year-old wife of suspected serial killer Fred West, is charged with three of the murders her husband stands accused of. Rosemary West was first arrested seven days ago, two months after her husband was first taken into custody.
  • 29 April – An opinion poll shows that Conservative support has fallen to 26% – their worst showing in any major opinion poll since coming to power 15 years ago.

May

June

  • 2 June –
    Chinook crash on Mull of Kintyre: an RAF Chinook helicopter carrying more than twenty leading intelligence experts crashes on the Mull of Kintyre, killing everyone on board.[15]
  • 7 June
    • Television playwright Dennis Potter, 59, dies of cancer in Ross-on-Wye, a week after his wife Margaret died of the same illness.
    • Police working on the Gloucester mass murder case find and begin the 2-day recovery of human remains from a field at Much Marcle, near Gloucester (a site located by Fred West), which are identified on 30 June to be those of Anne McFall, who was last seen alive in 1967 at the age of 18 and pregnant with West's child.[16]
  • 9 June
  • 13 June – The Conservatives suffer their worst election results this century, winning a mere 18 out of 87 of the nation's seats in the European parliament elections. The resurgent Labour Party, still without a leader as the search for a successor to the late John Smith continues, wins 62 seats.
  • 16 June –
    Sir Norman Fowler
    resigns as chairman of the Conservative Party.
  • 15 June – Britain's railways grind to a virtual standstill with a strike by more than 4,000
    signalling staff
    .
  • 29 June – Jonathan Dimbleby's film on Charles III, Charles: The Private Man, the Public Role is broadcast on ITV.
  • 30 June
    • Magistrates in Gloucester charge Fred West with a total of 11 murders believed to have been committed between 1967 and 1987, while Rose West is charged with nine murders which are believed to have been committed between 1970 and 1987. On 3 July he is charged with a 12th murder, that of Anna McFall.[16]
    • Helen Liddell, a former aide to Robert Maxwell, is elected as the new Labour MP for Monklands East in the by-election caused by the death of John Smith.

July

August

  • 1 August
  • 13 August – Fifteen-year-old Richard Everitt is stabbed to death in London by a gang of British Bangladeshis in a racially motivated murder.[18]
  • 18 August – The first MORI poll since Tony Blair became Labour Party leader gives him a massive boost in his ambition to become prime minister as his party scores at 56% and has a 33-point lead over the Conservatives, who are now just five points ahead of the Liberal Democrats.[2]
  • 20 August –
    Alfred McAlpine Stadium, which has an initial capacity of 16,000 and will rise to 20,000 later this year on the completion of a third stand; a fourth stand is also planned and would take the capacity to around 25,000.[19]
  • 26 August – Sunday Trading Act 1994 (5 July) comes into full effect, permitting retailers to trade on Sundays, though restricting opening times of larger stores to a maximum of six hours, which must be between 10 am and 6 pm. This will have a significant social effect on shopping habits.
  • 31 August – The Provisional Irish Republican Army declares a ceasefire.[20]

September

October

  • October –
    Metro
    .
  • 10 October – With the economic recovery continuing at a strong rate, unemployment is now falling at twice the rate in Conservative constituencies than in Labour ones, giving the Conservatives hope that they could win the next general election (which has to be held by May 1997) despite Labour having led the way in the opinion polls for virtually all of the two-and-a-half years since the last election.
  • 12 October –
    Dudley West
    in the West Midlands, dies suddenly of a heart attack aged 61.
  • 20 October –
    Tim Smith, took bribes from Harrods chief Mohamed Al-Fayed to ask questions in the House of Commons.[24]
  • 30 October – Korean industrial giant Daewoo announces that it will start selling cars in Britain next year, selling directly to customers through its own sales organisation rather than a traditional dealer network.[25]
  • 31 October – The
    Nazis
    in Athens, during World War II.

November

December

Undated

Publications

Births

Deaths

January

Brian Johnston
Matt Busby

February

Gwen Watford

March

Donald Swann

April

Pamela Mitford

May

Lady May Abel Smith

June

July

Dorothy Hodgkin

August

Peter Cushing

September

Billy Wright
Karl Popper

October

Philip Burton Moon

November

George Douglas-Hamilton, 10th Earl of Selkirk

December

Heinz Bernard
Cyril Garnham
Fanny Cradock

See also

References

  1. ^ "Duchess of Kent joins Catholic church". BBC News. 14 January 1994. Archived from the original on 13 January 2008. Retrieved 28 January 2008.
  2. ^ a b c "Poll tracker: Interactive guide to the opinion polls". BBC News. 29 September 2009. Archived from the original on 17 December 2009. Retrieved 19 December 2009.
  3. ^ "MPs condemn sale of Rover". BBC News. 1 February 1994. Archived from the original on 11 January 2008. Retrieved 28 January 2008.
  4. ^ "1994: Police probe MP's suspicious death". BBC News. 8 February 1994. Retrieved 25 May 2007.
  5. ^ Bennett, Will (2 January 1995). "The Bodies: Litany of sadness: the lives of West's twelve female victims". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  6. ^ .
  7. ^ Brown, Andrew (13 March 1994). "'Send down your Holy Spirit upon your servant Angela': History is made as the Church of England ordains its first women priests". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022.
  8. ^ Riccardo, Orizio (13 March 1994). "Le sacerdotesse di Sua Maesta". Corriere della Sera. p. 5.
  9. ^ Darnton, John (13 March 1994). "After 460 Years, The Anglicans Ordain Women". The New York Times.
  10. ^ "A female Archbishop? The contenders". The Guardian. London. 25 July 2002.
  11. ^ Schwarz, Walter (12 March 1994). "Day of reckoning: First women priests embraced as equals". The Guardian. London.
  12. ^ Bennett, Will (22 November 1995). "Step-daughter Charmaine was first to die". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 10 May 2010.
  13. ^ Dadds, Kimberley (19 July 2007). "The UK's longest-running chart toppers". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on 10 November 2010. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
  14. ^ "Camelot wins UK lottery race". BBC News. 25 May 1994. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 28 January 2008.
  15. ^ "MI5 officers killed in helicopter crash". BBC News. 2 June 1994. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 28 January 2008.
  16. ^ a b "House of Horrors timeline: Day-by-day investigation into Cromwell Street killers Fred and Rose West". GloucestershireLive. 22 February 2019. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  17. ^ "Labour chooses Blair". BBC News. 21 July 1994. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 28 January 2008.
  18. ^ McKie, John (1 November 1995). "Gang leader gets life for killing boy". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  19. ^ "Galpharm Stadium – Huddersfield".
  20. ^ "IRA declares 'complete' ceasefire". BBC News. 31 August 1994. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 28 January 2008.
  21. ISSN 2040-3933
    .
  22. ^ "Aldwych station – History". Underground History. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  23. ^ "History". Epping Ongar Railway. Archived from the original on 22 April 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  24. ^ Hencke, David (20 October 1994). "Tory MPs were paid to plant questions says Harrods chief". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 28 January 2008.
  25. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 7 August 2011. Retrieved 10 June 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  26. ^ "How the Government's Majority Disappeared (Dudley West)". BBC News. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
  27. ^ "One Direction | Members, Songs, & Facts | Britannica". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  28. ^ Pepper, Terence (12 May 1994). "Obituary: Lady Victoria Wemyss". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
  29. ^ "Obituary: Mark McManus". The Independent. 6 June 1994. Retrieved 27 November 2022.