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1981 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1981 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Events

January

February

  • 2 February – The report on the Brixton prison escape is released and the Governor is transferred to an administrative post.
  • 4 February – Margaret Thatcher announces that the Government will sell half of its shares in British Aerospace.
  • 5 February – Actor Lord Laurence Olivier, cancer researcher Sir Peter Medawar and humanitarian Leonard Cheshire are admitted into the Order of Merit as announced in the New Year Honours list.
  • 6 February
  • The Liverpool-registered coal ship Nellie M is bombed and sunk by an IRA unit driving a hijacked pilot boat in Lough Foyle.
  • The Government drops two controversial clauses of the Nationality Bill.
  • The Canadian Minister warns British MPs against delaying changes in the Canadian constitution.
  • 9 February – Shirley Williams resigns from Labour's national executive committee.
  • 11 February – Closure of the Talbot car plant in Linwood, Scotland, is announced.
  • 12 February
  • Purchase of The Times and The Sunday Times from The Thomson Corporation by Rupert Murdoch's News International is confirmed. Murdoch also announces that an agreement with the unions has been reached about manning levels and new technology.
  • Ian Paisley is suspended from the House of Commons for four days after calling the Northern Ireland Secretary a liar.
  • The National Union of Students calls off a 5-week strike.
  • 13 February – The National Coal Board announces widespread pit closures.
  • 15 February – The first Sunday games of the Football League take place.
  • 16 February – Two are jailed in connection with the death of industrialist Thomas Niedermayer.
  • 17 February – Princess Anne is elected Chancellor of London University.
  • 18 February
  • The Government withdraws plans to close 23 mines after negotiations with the National Union of Mineworkers.
  • Harold Evans is appointed editor of The Times.
  • 20 February
  • Four more MPs announce their intention to leave the Labour Party.
  • Peter Sutcliffe is charged with the murder of thirteen women in the north of England.
  • 21 February – 30,000 people march in an unemployment protest in Glasgow.
  • 24 February – The engagement of the 32-year-old Prince of Wales (now Charles III), and 19-year-old Lady Diana Spencer is officially announced.
  • 25 February
  • Margaret Thatcher arrives in Washington, D.C., for a four-day visit with U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
  • The Observer is taken over by "Tiny" Rowland, head of Lonrho.
  • 26 February
  • The English cricket team withdraws from the Second Test after the Guyanese government serves a deportation order on Robin Jackman.
  • El Salvador dominates the first day of talks between Thatcher and Reagan.
  • 27 February
  • Three British missionaries released from Iran land in Athens.
  • Sir Harold Wilson, former Prime Minister (1964–70, 1974–76) announces his retirement from Parliament at the next general election.
  • The Archbishop of Canterbury advises the church to see homosexuality as a handicap not a sin.
  • The Observer takeover is referred to the Monopolies Commission.

March

April

  • 2 April – The effects of the recession continue to claim jobs as Midland Red, the iconic Birmingham-based bus operator, closes down its headquarters in the city with the loss of some 170 jobs.
  • 4 April
  • Bucks Fizz representing the United Kingdom win the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Making Your Mind Up.
  • Susan Brown, a 23-year-old Biology student at Oxford University, becomes the first female cox in a winning Boat Race crew.
  • Bob Champion, a 32-year-old cancer survivor, is the popular winner of the Grand National with his horse Aldaniti.
  • 5 April – The 1981 UK Census is conducted.
  • 10 April – Bobby Sands, an IRA member on hunger strike in the Maze prison, Northern Ireland, is elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone in a by election.
  • 11 April – More than 300 people (most of them police officers) are injured and extensive damage is caused to property in the Brixton riot.
  • 13 April
  • Home Secretary William Whitelaw announces a public inquiry, to be conducted by Lord Scarman, into the disturbances in Brixton.
  • Enoch Powell warns that Britain "has seen nothing yet" with regards to racial unrest.
  • Further rioting breaks out in Brixton.
  • 20 April
  • 23-year-old Steve Davis wins the World Snooker Championship for the first time.
  • More than 100 people are arrested and 15 police officers are injured in clashes with black youths in the Finsbury Park, Forest Green and Ealing areas of London.
  • 21 April – The county administrative headquarters of Northumberland move from Newcastle upon Tyne to Morpeth.
  • 23 April – Unemployment passes the 2,500,000 mark for the first time in nearly 50 years.
  • 29 April – Peter Sutcliffe admits to the manslaughter of 13 women on the grounds of diminished responsibility, but the judge rules that a jury should rule on Sutcliffe's state of mind before deciding whether to accept his plea or find him guilty of murder.

May

  • May – Peugeot closes the Talbot car plant at Linwood, Scotland which was opened by the Rootes Group 18 years ago as Scotland's only car factory. The closure of the factory also results in the end of the last remaining Rootes-developed product, the Avenger, after 11 years, as well as the four-year-old Sunbeam supermini. There are no plans to replace the Avenger, but a French-built small car based on the Peugeot 104 will replace the Sunbeam in the next few months.
  • 5 May
  • Bobby Sands, a 27-year-old republican, dies in Northern Ireland's Maze Prison after a 66-day hunger strike.
  • The trial of Peter Sutcliffe begins at the Old Bailey; he stands charged with 13 murders and seven attempted murders dating back to 1975.
  • 7 May – Ken Livingstone becomes leader of the GLC after Labour wins the GLC elections.
  • 9 May – The 100th FA Cup final ends with a 1–1 draw between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley Stadium.
  • 11 May – The first performance of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats takes place at the New London Theatre.
  • 12 May – Francis Hughes (aged 25) becomes the second IRA hunger striker to die in Northern Ireland.
  • 13 May – An inquest returns an open verdict on the thirteen people who died as a result of their injuries in the New Cross fire.
  • 14 May – Tottenham Hotspur win the FA Cup for the sixth time in their history with a 3–2 win over Manchester City in the final replay at Wembley.
  • 15 May
  • The inquiry into the Brixton riots opens.
  • the Queen's second grandchild, a girl, is born to Princess Anne and her husband Capt Mark Phillips.
  • 19 May – Peter Sutcliffe is found guilty of being the Yorkshire Ripper after admitting 13 charges of murder and a further seven of attempted murder. He will be sentenced later this week.
  • 21 May – The IRA hunger strike death toll reaches four with the deaths of Raymond McCreesh and Patrick O'Hara.
  • 22 May – Peter Sutcliffe is sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he should serve at least 30 years before parole can be considered.
  • 27 May – Liverpool F.C. win the European Cup for the third time by defeating Real Madrid of Spain 1–0 in the final at Parc des Princes in Paris. Alan Kennedy scores the only goal of the game. Although they have yet to equal Spanish side Real Madrid's record of six European Cups, they are the first British side to win the trophy three times.
  • 30 May – More than 100,000 people from across Britain march to Trafalgar Square in London for the TUC's March For Jobs.

June

July

August

  • Unknown date – Japanese carmaker Suzuki follows up the British success of its motorcycles by importing passenger cars to Britain for the first time, with first imported model being the Suzuki Alto, a small hatchback available with three or five doors and marketed as a competitor for the Mini and Citroen 2CV.
  • 1 August – Kevin Lynch becomes the seventh IRA hunger striker to die.
  • 2 August – Within 24 hours of Kevin Lynch's death, Kieran Doherty becomes the eighth IRA hunger striker to die.
  • 8 August – The IRA hunger strike claims its ninth hunger striker so far (and its third in a week) with the death of Thomas McElwee.
  • 9 August – Broadmoor Hospital falls under heavy criticism after the escape of a second prisoner in three weeks. The latest absconder is 32-year-old Alan Reeve, a convicted double murderer.
  • 17 August – An inquiry opens in the Moss Side riots.
  • 20 August
  • The tenth IRA hunger striker, Michael Devine, dies in prison.
  • Inflation has fallen to 10.9% – the lowest under this government.
  • Minimum Lending Rate ceases to be set by the Bank of England.
  • 24 August – Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for killing John Lennon.
  • 25 August – Britain's largest Enterprise Zone is launched on deindustrialised land on Tyneside.
  • 26 August – Vauxhall launches the second generation Cavalier, built on General Motors J-Car platform, available for the first time with front-wheel drive and a hatchback.
  • 27 August – Moira Stuart, 31, is appointed the BBC's first black newsreader.

September

  • September – Little Miss Bossy, the first book in the Little Miss series (the female counterpart to the Mr. Men series) is first published.
  • 1 September – Filling stations start selling motor fuel by the litre.
  • 8 September
  • Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp set up by women who have walked from Cardiff to RAF Greenham Common to protest at plans to site US nuclear missiles there.
  • Sixteen Islington Labour councillors join the SDP following the defection of Labour MP Michael O'Halloran.
  • The first episode of the long-running and iconic sitcom Only Fools and Horses is broadcast on BBC1.
  • 10 September – Another Enterprise Zone is launched, the latest being in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
  • 14 September – Cecil Parkinson is appointed chairman of the Conservative Party.
  • 16 September – The children's series Postman Pat is first broadcast on BBC1.
  • 17 September – A team of divers begins removing gold ingots worth £40 million from the wreck of HMS Edinburgh, sunk off the coast of Norway in 1942.
  • 18 September – David Steel tells delegates at the Liberal Party conference to "go back to your constituencies and prepare for government", hopes of which are boosted by the fact that most opinion polls now show the SDP-Liberal Alliance in the lead.
  • 21 September – Belize is granted independence
  • 23 September – Vauxhall launch their successful replacement for the Cavalier Mk1 the Cavalier Mk2.
  • 25 September – Ford announces that its best-selling Cortina will be discontinued next year and its replacement will be called the Sierra.
  • 29 September – Football mourns the legendary former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, who dies that day at the age of 68 after suffering a heart attack.

October

  • 1 October – Bryan Robson, 24-year-old midfielder, becomes Britain's most expensive footballer in a £1.5million move from West Bromwich Albion to Manchester United.
  • 3 October – Hunger strikes at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland end after seven months. The final six hunger strikers have been without food for between 13 and 55 days.
  • 5 October – Depeche Mode release their debut album Speak & Spell.
  • 7 October – British Leyland launches the Triumph Acclaim, a four-door small family saloon built in collaboration with Japanese car and motorcycle giant Honda at the Cowley plant in Oxford. It is based on the Japanese Honda Ballade (not available in Britain), has front-wheel drive, is powered by a 1.3-litre 70 bhp petrol engine and is between the Ford Escort and Ford Cortina in terms of size.
  • 10 October – Chelsea Barracks bombed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army, killing two people.
  • 12 October – British Leyland announces the closure of three factories – a move which will cost nearly 3,000 people their jobs.
  • 12 October – 22 December – Original run of Granada Television serial Brideshead Revisited.
  • 13 October – Opinion polls show that Margaret Thatcher is still unpopular as Conservative leader due to her anti-inflationary economic measures, which have now come under fire from her predecessor Edward Heath.
  • 15 October – Norman Tebbit tells fellow Conservative MPs: "I grew up in the thirties with an unemployed father. He didn't riot. He got on his bike and looked for work and he kept looking until he found it".
  • 19 October
  • British Telecom announces that the telegram will be discontinued next year after 139 years in use.
  • Scottish Celtic footballer Johnny Doyle, 30, is accidentally electrocuted while building his new home.
  • 22 October
  • The case of Dudgeon v United Kingdom is decided by the European Court of Human Rights, which rules that the continued existence of laws in Northern Ireland criminalising consensual gay sex is in contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights.
  • The Croydon North West by-election takes place following the death of the sitting Conservative MP Robert Taylor on 18 June; the Liberal candidate Bill Pitt wins with a large majority.
  • 23 October – The Liberal-SDP Alliance tops a MORI poll on 40%, putting them ahead of Labour on 31% and the Conservatives on 27%.
  • 24 October – CND anti-nuclear march in London attracts over 250,000 people.
  • 26 October – Rock band Queen release their Greatest Hits compilation album; it becomes the all-time best-selling album in the United Kingdom.
  • 29 October – A patient dies of pneumocystis pneumonia at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London. He is the first person (patient zero) in the UK to die of an AIDS related illness. An investigation by ITN in 2021 will identify him as John Eaddie of Bournemouth.
  • 30 October – Nicholas Reed, chief of the Euthanasia charity Exit, is jailed for years for aiding and abetting suicides.

November

  • 1 November
  • The West Indian island nation of Antigua and Barbuda becomes independent of the United Kingdom.
  • British Leyland's 58,000-strong workforce begins a strike over pay.
  • 2 November – The TV licence increases in price from £34 to £46 for a colour TV, and £12 to £15 for black and white.
  • 13 November – The Queen opens the final phase of the Telford Shopping Centre, nearly a decade after development began on the first phase of what is now one of the largest indoor shopping centres in Europe in the Shropshire new town.
  • 16 November – Production of the Vauxhall Astra commences in Britain at the Ellesmere Port plant in Cheshire. The Astra was launched a year ago but until now has been produced solely at the Opel plant in West Germany.
  • 18 November – The England national football team beats Hungary 1–0 at Wembley Stadium to qualify for the World Cup in Spain next summer, with the only goal being scored by Ipswich Town striker Paul Mariner. It is the first time they have qualified for the tournament since 1970.
  • 23 November – 1981 United Kingdom tornado outbreak, the largest recorded tornado outbreak in European history.
  • 25 November – A report into the Brixton Riots, which scarred inner-city London earlier this year, points the finger of blame at the social and economic problems which have been plaguing Brixton and many other inner-city areas across England.
  • 26 November – The Crosby by-election, caused by the death of the sitting MP Graham Page on 1 October, is held; Shirley Williams wins the seat for the SDP, overturning a Conservative majority of nearly 20,000 votes.

December

  • 8 December
  • Severe snow storms hit the UK as temperatures plummet to the lowest in any December on record since 1874 and the heaviest snow falls since 1878. The snow storms continue in waves until 26/27 December.
  • Arthur Scargill becomes leader of the National Union of Mineworkers.
  • 9 December – Michael Heseltine announces a £95 million aid package for the inner cities.
  • 11 December – Seer Green rail crash: a train crash in Seer Green near Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire kills four people and seriously injures five others. The crash was caused by a combination of the severe blizzards and human error.
  • 12 December – The first case of AIDS in the UK is diagnosed.
  • 19 December – An opinion poll shows that Margaret Thatcher is now the most unpopular postwar British prime minister and that the SDP-Liberal Alliance has the support of up to 50% of the electorate.
  • 19 December – Penlee lifeboat disaster: The crew of the MV Union Star and the life-boat Solomon Browne sent to rescue them are all killed in heavy seas off Cornwall; some of the bodies are never found.

Undated

Publications

Births

Deaths

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

See also

References