1976 in the United Kingdom

January

• January – UK market launch of 1976

We 076 the Chrysler Alpine, the British-badged version of the French built Simca 1307, which was voted European Car of the Year before Christmas. British production of the large five-door family hatchback is planned to commence at the Ryton plant near Coventry later this year.^[1]

• 2 January – Hurricane-force winds of up to 105 mph kill 22 people across Britain and cause millions of pounds worth of damage to buildings and vehicles.^[2]
• 5 January – Ten Protestant men are killed in the Kingsmill massacre at South Armagh, Northern Ireland, by members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, using the alias "South Armagh Republican Action Force".^[3]

Concorde

• 7 January – Cod War: British and Icelandic ships clash at sea.^[4]
• 18 January – The Scottish Labour Party is formed.
• 20 January – 42-year-old married woman Emily Jackson is stabbed to death in Leeds; it is revealed that she was a part-time prostitute. Police believe she may have been killed by the same man who murdered Wilma McCann in the city three months ago.^[5]
• 21 January – The first commercial Concorde flight takes off.^[6]
• 29 January – Twelve Provisional Irish Republican Army bombs explode in London's West End.^[7]

February

• 2 February – The Queen opens the new National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, situated near the city's airport.^[2]
• 4–15 February – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, and win one gold medal.
• 11 February – John Curry becomes Britain's first gold medalist in skating at the Winter Olympics.^[6]
• 19 February – Iceland breaks off diplomatic relations with the UK over the Cod War.^[6]

March

• March – Production of the Hillman Imp ends after thirteen years.^[8] It is due to be replaced next year by a three-door hatchback based on a shortened Avenger floorpan.^[9]
• 1 March – Merlyn Rees ends Special Category Status for those sentenced for crimes relating to the civil violence in Northern Ireland.
• 2 March – Opening of Brent Cross Shopping Centre in London.
• 4 March
  • The Maguire Seven are found guilty of the offence of possessing explosives and subsequently jailed for fourteen years.^[10]
  • The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention is formally dissolved in Northern Ireland resulting in direct rule of Northern Ireland from London via the British parliament.
• 16 March – Harold Wilson announces his resignation as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,^[11] to take effect on 5 April.
• 19 March – Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon announce that they are to separate after 16 years of marriage.^[12]
• 26 March – Anita Roddick opens the first branch of The Body Shop in Brighton.^[13]

April

• April – Anne Warburton becomes the first female British ambassador to take up her post (to Denmark).
• 3 April – The United Kingdom wins the Eurovision Song Contest for the third time with the song "Save Your Kisses for Me", sung by Brotherhood of Man. It remains one of the biggest-selling Eurovision songs ever.
• 5 April – James Callaghan becomes Prime Minister upon the resignation of Harold Wilson,^[14] defeating Roy Jenkins and Michael Foot in the leadership contest. Callaghan, 64, was previously Foreign Secretary and had served as a chancellor and later Home Secretary under Wilson in government from 1964 until 1970.^[15]
• 9 April – Young Liberals president Peter Hain is cleared of stealing £490 from a branch of Barclays Bank.^[16]
• 26 April – Comedy actor and Carry On star Sid James dies on stage at the Sunderland Empire Theatre having suffered a fatal heart attack. It was initially mistaken by many in the audience that his heart attack was a part of the show.

May

• 1 May – Southampton F.C. win the first major trophy of their 91-year history when a goal from Bobby Stokes gives the Football League Second Division club a surprise 1–0 win over Manchester United in the FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium.
• 4 May – Liverpool F.C. clinch their ninth Football League title with a 3–1 away win over relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers, fighting off a close challenge from underdogs Queen's Park Rangers.^[17]
• 6 May – Local council elections produce disappointing results for the Labour Party, who win just 15 seats and lose 829 that they had held, compared to the Conservatives who win 1,044 new seats and lose a mere 22. This setback comes despite the party enjoying a narrow lead in the opinion polls under new leader James Callaghan.^[18]
• 9 May – 20-year-old Leeds prostitute Marcella Claxton is badly injured in a hammer attack.^[19]
• 10 May – Jeremy Thorpe resigns as leader of the Liberal party.^[20]
• 19 May – Liverpool win the UEFA Cup for the second time by completing a 4-3 aggregate victory over the Belgian side Club Brugge K.V..^[21]
• 19 May – A royal charter is granted to the Chartered Society of Designers
• 27 May – Harold Wilson's Resignation Honours List is published. It controversially awards honours to many wealthy businessmen, and comes to be known satirically as the "Lavender List".

June

• June – British Leyland launches its new Rover SD1, a large rear-wheel drive five-door hatchback featuring a 3.5 V8 Chrysler engine. Smaller engined versions are due next year, when the SD1 completely replaces the Rover P6 and Triumph 2000 ranges.
• 1 June – UK and Iceland end the Cod War.^[6]
• 14 June – The trial of murderer Donald Neilson, known as the "Black Panther", begins at Oxford Crown Court.
• 22 June–16 July – heat wave reaches its peak with the temperature attaining 26.7 °C (80 °F) every day of this period. For fifteen consecutive days, 23 June–7 July inclusive, it reaches 32.2 °C (90 °F) somewhere in England; and five days – the first being 26 June – see the temperature exceed 35 °C (95 °F). For the whole meteorological summer (June–August), temperatures will average 21 °C and there will be 669 hours of sunshine. This is contributing to the worst drought in the United Kingdom since the 1720s.^[2]
• 28 June – In the heatwave, the temperature reaches 35.6 °C (96.1 °F) in Southampton, the highest recorded for June in the UK.
• 29 June – The Seychelles become independent of the UK.^[22]

July

• 3 July – The heat wave peaks with temperatures reaching 35.9 °C (96.6 °F) in Cheltenham.
• 7 July – David Steel is elected as the new leader of the Liberal Party.^[20]
• 10 July – Three British and one American mercenaries are shot by firing squad in Angola.
• 14 July – Ford launches a new small three-door hatchback, the Fiesta – its first front-wheel drive transverse engined production model – which is similar in concept to the Vauxhall Chevette and German car maker Volkswagen's new Polo. It will be built in several factories across Europe, including the Dagenham plant in Essex (where 3,000 jobs will be created), and continental sales begin later this year, although it will not go on sale in Britain until January 1977.^[23]
• 17 July – 1 August – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and win 3 gold, 5 silver and 5 bronze medals.
• 21 July – Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the UK ambassador to Ireland, and a civil servant, Judith Cooke, are killed by a landmine at Sandyford, Co. Dublin.
• 22 July – Dangerous Wild Animals Act requires licences for the keeping of certain animals in captivity.
• 27 July – United Kingdom breaks diplomatic relations with Uganda.
• 29 July – A fire destroys the pier head at Southend Pier.^[24]

August

• August
  • Drought at its most severe. Parts of South West England go for 45 days with no rain in July and August.
  • Government and Trades Union Congress agree a more severe Stage II one-year limit on pay rises.
• 5 August – The Great Clock of Westminster (or Big Ben) suffers internal damage and stops running for over nine months.^[6]
• 6 August – The last person to serve as Postmaster General, John Stonehouse, is sentenced to seven years in jail for fraud.
• 14 August – 10,000 Protestant and Catholic women demonstrate for peace in Northern Ireland.
• 30 August – 100 police officers and 60 carnival-goers are injured during riots at the Notting Hill Carnival.^[25]

September

• September – Chrysler Europe abandons the 69-year-old Hillman marque for its British-made cars and adopts the Chrysler name for the entire range.
• 1 September – Drought measures are introduced in Yorkshire.^[26]
• 3 September – Riot at Hull Prison ends.^[27]
• 4 September – Peace March in Derry attracts 25,000 people in a call to end violence in Northern Ireland.^[20]
• 9 September – The Royal Shakespeare Company opens a memorable production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth at The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, with Ian McKellen and Judi Dench in the lead roles, directed by Trevor Nunn.
• 12 September – Portsmouth football club, who were FA Cup winners in 1939 and league champions in 1949 and 1950 but are now in the Football League Third Division, are reported to be on the brink of bankruptcy with huge debts.^[28]
• 23 September – A fire on the destroyer HMS Glasgow while being fitted out at Swan Hunter' yard at Wallsend on Tyne kills eight men.^[29]
• 29 September – The Ford Cortina Mark IV is launched.^[30]

October

InterCity 125

• 4 October – The InterCity 125 high-speed train is introduced into passenger service on British Rail, initially between London Paddington station, Bristol and south Wales;^[31] the units will still be in front-line service 40 years later.
• 15 October – Two members of the Ulster Defence Regiment jailed for 35 years for murder of the members of the Republic of Ireland cabaret performers Miami Showband.^[32]
• 22 October – The Damned release New Rose, the first single marketed as "punk rock".
• 24 October – Racing driver James Hunt becomes Formula One world champion.^[6]
• 25 October – Opening of the Royal National Theatre on the South Bank in London, in premises designed by Sir Denys Lasdun.^[33]
• 29 October – Opening of Selby Coalfield.^[34]

November

• 16 November – The seven perpetrators of an £8,000,000 van robbery at the Bank of America in Mayfair are sentenced to a total of 100 years in jail.^[35]

December

• 1 December – Punk rock band the Sex Pistols achieve public notoriety as they say several swear words live on Bill Grundy's TV show, following the release of their debut single Anarchy in the U.K. on 26 November.
• 10 December – Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan win the Nobel Peace Prize.^[36]
• 15 December – Denis Healey announces to Parliament that he has successfully negotiated a £2,300,000,000 loan for Britain from the International Monetary Fund on condition that £2,500,000,000 is cut from public expenditure: the NHS, education and social benefit sectors are not affected by these cuts.^[37]

Undated

• Inflation stands at 16.5% – lower than last year's level, but still one of the highest since records began in 1750.^[38] However, at one stage during this year inflation exceeded 24%.^[39]
• Opening of Rutland Water, the largest reservoir in England by surface area (1,212 hectares (2,995 acres)).^[40]
• First purpose-built (Thai style) Buddhist temple built in Britain, the Wat Buddhapadipa in Wimbledon, London.^[41]