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1986 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1986 in the United Kingdom. It is particularly noted for the "Big Bang" deregulation of the financial markets.

Incumbents

Events

January

  • January – The Vauxhall Belmont compact saloon goes on sale, giving buyers a traditional saloon alternative to the Astra hatchback and estate models. The car would remain in production until September 1991.
  • 9 January – Michael Heseltine resigns as Defence Secretary over the Westland affair.
  • 12 January – The game show Catchphrase begins on ITV hosted by Roy Walker along with the computer generated character Mr. Chips. It concludes in 2002, but is revived in 2013.
  • 14 January – The Salafi jihadist group al-Muhajiroun begins to operate in the UK.
  • 20 January – The United Kingdom and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel, which they hope to open by the early-1990s.
  • 24 January – Leon Brittan resigns as Trade and Industry Secretary over the Westland affair.
  • 31 January – Unemployment for this month has increased to 3,204,900 – a postwar high which accounts for 14.4% of the workforce.

February

  • February
  • Heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures affect most of Britain during the month.
  • The British-built Peugeot 309 goes on sale in Britain, four months after its continental launch. It is built at the former Rootes/Chrysler factory at Ryton, near Coventry which is also set to produce a larger Peugeot saloon model from next year.
  • 6 February – The UK Government scraps plans to sell Austin Rover to Ford.
  • 12 February – The Franco-British Channel Fixed Link Treaty is signed at Canterbury as the Channel Tunnel plans move forward.
  • 15 February – In the Wapping dispute, fifty-eight people are arrested by police at a demonstration.
  • 17 February – The UK signs the Single European Act.

March

April

May

  • May – The last Talbot badged passenger cars are built in Britain and France by Peugeot who will continue making their own cars at the former Rootes Group plant near Coventry and the former Simca production facilities in France. Peugeot is to continue the Talbot brand for commercial vehicles and production of the Horizon range will continue in Spain and Finland until next year.
  • 5 May – Liverpool win the Football League First Division title for a record 16th time after winning 1–0 at Chelsea. Kenny Dalglish, in his first season as the club's player-manager, scores the goal which gives Liverpool the title.
  • 8 May
  • Labour makes large gains in local council elections, collecting 37% of the votes nationally compared to the Conservatives on 34% and the Alliance on 26%. These are the first national elections to be held since the recent abolition of the metropolitan councils.
  • By-elections are held in West Derbyshire and Ryedale, caused by the resignation of Matthew Parris and the death of John Spence, both Conservative MPs, respectively. The Conservatives hold West Derbyshire under Patrick McLoughlin but lose Ryedale to the Liberals.
  • Former Labour MP and life peer Manny Shinwell, Baron Shinwell dies at the age of 101, making him the second longest-lived British MP until 2008.
  • 10 May – The first all-Merseyside FA Cup final ends in a 3–1 win for Liverpool over Everton, who become only the third team this century to win the double, having already secured the Football League First Division title.
  • 20 May – The Marriage (Prohibited Degrees of Relationship) Act revises the prohibited degree of kinship for marriage.
  • 21 May – The Harrison Birtwistle opera The Mask of Orpheus premieres in London.

June

July

  • July – Nissan begins production of the Bluebird at its landmark factory near Sunderland.
  • 1 July – Gary Lineker becomes the most expensive British footballer ever in a £2.75 million move from Everton to FC Barcelona.
  • 2 July – 24 hours after Gary Lineker's transfer, Ian Rush sets a new transfer record for a British footballer when he agrees a £3.2 million move from Liverpool to Juventus of Italy, but is loaned back to Liverpool for a season and will not play his first game for Juventus until at least August 1987.
  • 4 July – A policeman is cleared of the manslaughter of five-year-old John Shorthouse, who was killed in an armed raid on a house in Birmingham in August last year.
  • 10 July – Austin Rover launches its new Honda-based Rover 800 executive car, which replaces the decade-old Rover SD1 and is part of a joint venture with Japanese carmaker Honda. The car will also be sold in the United States under the Sterling marque. The Honda version will be badged as the Honda Legend.
  • 12 July – Rioting breaks out at Portadown in Northern Ireland between Protestants and Catholics.
  • 17 July
  • It is announced that unemployment rose to 3,220,400 in June. It has now exceeded 3 million for nearly five years.
  • The Newcastle-under-Lyme by-election, caused by the resignation of the sitting Labour MP John Golding on 24 June, is held. His wife Llin Golding is elected the new Labour MP.
  • 23 July – Prince Andrew, Duke of York, marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in London.
  • 24 July–2 August – The Commonwealth Games are held in Edinburgh.
  • 25 July
  • Building Societies Act allows building societies to offer the same personal finance services as banks. The Bank of England withdraws its guidance on mortgage loans.
  • Social Security Act introduces Family Credit, a tax credit for low-paid workers with children.
  • 26 July – A passenger train collides with a van in the Lockington rail accident in East Yorkshire; nine people are killed, eight on the train and one in the van.
  • 28 July – Estate agent Suzy Lamplugh vanishes after a viewing in London. She is declared legally dead in 1994, but what happened will remain unknown, her body will still not have been found and no-one will have been formally charged with her murder.
  • 30 July – A MORI poll shows that Labour are now nine points ahead of the Conservatives with 41% of the vote, with Liberal/SDP Alliance support now at 25%.

August

  • 4 August – Mathematician Simon Donaldson is awarded a Fields Medal.
  • 8 August – Rival gangs of Manchester United and West Ham United fans clash on a Sealink ferry bound for Amsterdam where the two clubs are playing pre-season friendlies. The UEFA ban on English clubs in European competitions is continuing for a second season, and there are now fears that English clubs may not even be able to play friendlies overseas.
  • 13 August – The Eurotunnel Group is formed to operate the Channel Tunnel.
  • 15 August – The latest MORI poll shows that the Conservatives have eliminated Labour's nine-point lead and drawn level with them by gaining 37% in the latest opinion poll, in the space of just over two weeks.
  • 16 August – Figures released by the government reveal that a record of nearly 3,100,000 people claimed Unemployment Benefit last month, although the official total of unemployed people in Britain is still short of the record of nearly 3,300,000 which was set two years ago.
  • 19 August – The privatisation of the National Bus Company begins with the first sale of a bus operating subsidiary, Devon General, in a management buyout.
  • 22 August – John Stalker, deputy chief constable of Greater Manchester police, is cleared of misconduct over allegations of associating with criminals.
  • 24–25 August – The inaugural Birmingham Superprix, the first street race to be held in mainland Britain, takes place in Birmingham city centre. It will run annually on August Bank Holiday weekend until 1990.
  • 25 August – Economists warn that a global recession is imminent, barely five years after the previous recession.
  • 29 August
  • Britain's oldest twins, May and Marjorie Chavasse, celebrate their one-hundredth birthday.
  • Highest national average 24-hour total rainfall until 2020.
  • c. August – The one-millionth council house in the United Kingdom is sold to its tenants in Scotland, seven years after the Right To Buy scheme was launched.

September

  • September – GCSE examination courses replace both GCE 'O' Level and CSE courses for 14-year-olds.
  • 6 September – First episode of medical drama serial Casualty airs on BBC One. It will still be running on television almost forty years later.
  • 8 September – Margaret Thatcher officially opens the first phase of the Nissan car factory at Sunderland, which has been in use for two months. It is the first car factory to be built in Europe by a Japanese carmaker.
  • 13 September – Motorcyclist Neil Robinson, 24, dies after his motorcycle crashes on the Oliver's Mount racing circuit in Scarborough during a practice session.
  • 14 September – Fears of another recession in Britain are eased by economists at Liverpool University predicting 3.1% economic growth next year.
  • 18 September – It is announced that unemployment rose to 3,280,106 in July.
  • 19 September – One man, a train driver, is killed and 79 people are injured in the Colwich railway accident.
  • 24 September – The flotation of the Trustee Savings Banks attracts a record of more than 4 million applications for shares.

October

November

December

  • December – The first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy is diagnosed in British cattle.
  • 1 December – The government launches an inquiry into financial irregularities at Guinness.
  • 3 December – 4 million people apply for shares in British Gas in anticipation of flotation next week.
  • 4 December – 20-year-old roofer Russell Bishop is charged with the "Babes in the Wood" murders in Brighton two months ago but will not be convicted until a second trial in 2018.
  • 8 December – British Gas shares are floated on the Stock Exchange. The initial public offering of 135p per share values the company at £9 billion, the highest equity offering ever at this time.
  • 17 December – The world's first heart, lung and liver transplant is carried out at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire.
  • 18 December – It is announced that unemployment fell to a four-year low of less than 3,100,000 in November. On 15 January 1987 it is announced that unemployment has fallen in December 1986 for the fifth month in succession.
  • 22 December – David Penhaligon, a leading Liberal Party MP, dies in a car crash near Truro in his Cornwall constituency at the age of 42.
  • 25 December – The highest audience of all time for a British television drama is attracted by the Christmas Day episode of EastEnders, the BBC 1 soap opera, in which Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) serves the divorce papers on his wife Angie (Anita Dobson) after discovering that she had feigned a terminal illness to try to stop him from leaving her in an episode aired in October this year. More than 30 million viewers tune in for the episode of the TV series which first went on air in February 1985.
  • 29 December – Harold Macmillan, Earl of Stockton and former Prime Minister, dies at his home, Birch Grove in East Sussex, aged 92, the oldest former Prime Minister until 2005.

Undated

  • Inflation reaches a 19-year low of 3.4%.

Publications

Births

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Date Unknown

Deaths

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Date Unknown

See also

References