1992 in the United Kingdom

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Events from the year 1992 in the United Kingdom.

This year is notable for a fourth-term general election victory for the Conservative Party; "Black Wednesday" (16 September), the suspension of the UK's membership of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism; and an annus horribilis for the Royal Family.

Incumbents

Events

January

  • January – Statistics show that economic growth returned during the final quarter of 1991 after five successive quarters of contraction.[1]
  • 9 January
    • Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown proposes a £3billion package which would create 400,000 jobs in 12 months.
    • Alison Halford, the UK's most senior policewoman, is suspended from duty for a second time following a police authority meeting.[2]
  • 10 January – The first full week of 1992 sees some 4,000 jobs lost across the UK, as the nation's recession continues. Almost 20% of those job cuts have been by GEC, the UK's leading telecommunications manufacturer, where 750 redundancies are announced today.
  • 14 January – The Bank of Credit and Commerce International goes into liquidation.
  • 17 January
    • Eight people are killed in the Teebane bombing.
    • The first MORI poll of 1992 shows the Conservatives three points ahead of Labour on 42%, while the Liberal Democrats have their best showing yet with 16% of the vote.[3]
  • 18 January – John Major announces that the general election will be held on 9 April.
  • 29 January – The Department of Health reveals that AIDS cases among heterosexuals increased by 50% between 1990 and 1991.
  • 30 January – John Major agrees a weapons control deal with new Russian premier Boris Yeltsin at 10 Downing Street.

February

  • 2 February – Neil Kinnock, Labour leader, denies reports that he had a "Kremlin connection" during the 1980s.
  • 6 February – The Queen commemorates her Ruby Jubilee.
  • 7 February – Signature of the Maastricht Treaty.[4]
  • 8 February – 23 February: Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, but do not win any medals.
  • 9 February – Prime Minister John Major speaks of his hopes that the recession will soon be over as the economy is now showing signs of recovery.
  • 15 February – Neil Kinnock, Labour Party leader, speaks of his belief that the Conservative government's failure to halt the current recession will win his party the forthcoming general election.
  • 18 February – David Stevens, head of community relations, blames the recession for the recent rise in crime across the UK – Most of all in deprived areas.
  • 20 February – Hopes of an end to the recession are dashed by government figures which reveal that GDP fell by 0.3% in the final quarter of 1991.
  • 23 February – The London Business School predicts an economic growth rate of 1.2% for this year, sparking hopes that the recession is nearing its end.

March

April

  • April – Statistics show that the first quarter of this year saw the economy grow for the second quarter running, the sequel to five successive quarters of detraction, though the growth is still too narrow for the recession to be declared over.
  • 1 April – The latest opinion polls show a narrow lead for Labour, which would force a hung parliament in the election next week.
  • 4 April – Party Politics becomes the tallest horse to win the Grand National.
  • 5 April – At his pre-election speech, Neil Kinnock promises a strong economic recovery if he leads the Labour party to election victory on Thursday.
  • 6 April – Women's Royal Army Corps disbanded, its members being fully absorbed into the regular British Army.
  • 7 April – The final MORI poll before the general election shows Labour one point ahead of the Conservatives on 39%, while the Liberal Democrats continue to enjoy a surge in popularity with 20% of the vote. Most opinion polls show a similar situation, hinting at either a narrow Labour majority or a hung parliament.[3]
  • 9 April – General election: the Conservative Party are re-elected for a fourth successive term, in their first election under John Major's leadership. Their majority is reduced to 21 seats but they have attracted more than 14,000,000 votes – the highest number of votes ever attracted in a general election. Notable retirements from parliament at this election include Margaret Thatcher (Conservative prime minister for over eleven years until her resignation seventeen months ago) and the former Labour Party leader Michael Foot.[4]
  • 10 April
    • Three people are killed in the Baltic Exchange bombing.
    • With the government's victory in the election confirmed, John Major assures the public that he will lead the country out of recession that has blighted it for nearly two years.
  • 11 April – Publication of The Sun newspaper's iconic front-page headline 'It's The Sun Wot Won It', as the tabloid newspaper claims it won the general election for the Conservatives with its anti-Kinnock front-page headline on election day.
  • 13 April
    • Neil Kinnock resigns as leader of the Labour Party following the defeat of his party in the General Election.[13] he had led the party for eight-and-a-half years since October 1983, and is the longest serving opposition leader in British political history.[14]
    • The Princess Royal announces her divorce from Capt Mark Phillips after 18 years of marriage, having separated in 1989.
  • 16 April – Unemployment has now risen 23 months in succession, but the March rise in unemployment is the smallest monthly rise so far.
  • 17–20 April: Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall first opened to the public.[15]
  • 27 April – Betty Boothroyd, 62-year-old Labour MP for West Bromwich West in the West Midlands, is elected as Speaker of the House of Commons, the first woman to hold the position.[4]

May

  • 5 May – UEFA awards the 1996 European Football Championships to England.
  • 6 May – John Major promises British voters improved services and more money to spend.
  • 12 May – Plans are unveiled for a fifth terminal at Heathrow Airport, which is now the busiest airport in the world.
  • 17 May – Nigel Mansell gains the 26th Grand Prix win of his racing career at Imola, San Marino. He is now the most successful British driver in Grand Prix races, and the fourth worldwide.
  • 22 May – Twenty-two "Maastricht Rebels" vote against the government on the second reading of the European Communities (Amendment) Bill.
  • 22–29 May – A week-long rave festival in Castlemorton Common in the Malvern Hills is held, causing media outrage due to drug-use and noise complaints from neighbours.

June

  • June – Cones Hotline introduced enabling members of the public to complain about traffic cones being deployed on a road for no apparent reason.
  • 7 June – A controversial new biography of Diana, Princess of Wales, Diana: Her True Story, written by Andrew Morton, is published, revealing that she has made five suicide attempts following her discovery that The Prince of Wales had resumed an affair with his previous girlfriend Mrs Parker-Bowles shortly after Prince William's birth in 1982.[16]
  • 17 June – Almost 2,700,000 people are now out of work as unemployment continues to rise.
  • 24 June – Ravenscraig steelworks, the largest hot strip steel mill in Western Europe, closes,[17] ending steelmaking in Scotland.
  • 25 June – GDP is reported to have fallen by 0.5% in the first quarter of this year as the recession continues.
  • 30 June – Margaret Thatcher takes her place in the House of Lords as Baroness Thatcher, nineteen months after resigning as Prime Minister.[18]

July

  • July – Statistics show that the economy contracted during the second quarter of this year.
  • 2 July – The IRA admits to murdering three men whose bodies were found by the army at various locations around Armagh last night. The men are believed to have been informers employed by MI5.[19]
  • 10 July – One of the first major signs of economic recovery is shown as inflation falls from 4.3% to 3.9%.
  • 17 July
  • 21 July – British Airways announces a takeover of USAir.
  • 23 July – Three months after losing the general election, Labour finish four points ahead of the Conservatives in a MORI poll, with 43% of the vote.[3]
  • 25 July – 9 August: Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Olympics in Barcelona and win 5 gold, 3 silver and 12 bronze medals.
  • 27 July – Alan Shearer becomes England's most expensive footballer in a £3.6 million transfer from Southampton to Blackburn Rovers. Shearer, who turns 22 next month, was a member of England's Euro 92 national squad, having scored on his debut in a friendly international against France earlier this year.[20]

August

September

  • 5 September – Italian supercar manufacturer Ferrari announces that its Formula One division will be designing and manufacturing cars in the UK.
  • 13 September – Nigel Mansell announces his retirement from Formula One racing.
  • 16 September – "Black Wednesday" sees the government suspending the UK's membership of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism following a wave of speculation against the Pound.[24]
  • 17 September – There is more bad news for the economy as unemployment is at a five-year high of 2,845,508, and experts warn that it will soon hit 3,000,000 for the first time since early 1987.
  • 18 September – The latest MORI poll shows the Labour Party four points ahead of the Conservatives at 43%, following the events of Black Wednesday two days earlier.
  • 24 September – David Mellor resigns as Heritage Minister amid tabloid press speculation that he had been conducting an adulterous affair with actress Antonia de Sancha.[25]
  • 30 September – The Royal Mint introduces a new 10-pence coin which is lighter and smaller than the previous coin.

October

  • October
    • First Cochrane Centre opens.[26]
    • Statistics show a return to economic growth for the third quarter of this year.[27]
  • 9 October – Two suspected IRA bombs explode in London, but there are no injuries.
  • 13 October – The government announces the closure of a third of Britain's deep coal mines, with the loss of 31,000 jobs.[28]
  • 14 October – The England football team begins its qualification campaign for the 1994 FIFA World Cup with a 1–1 draw against Norway at Wembley Stadium.
  • 15 October – The value of the pound sterling is reported to have dipped further as the recession deepens.
  • 16 October – The government attempts to tackle the recession by cutting the base interest rate to 8% – the lowest since June 1988.
  • 19 October – John Major announces that only ten deep coal mines will be closed.
  • 21 October – Commodore UK release their last budget model Amiga 1200 in the UK before bankruptcy in 1994.
  • 25 October – Around 100,000 people protest in London against the government's pit closure plans.
  • 26 October – British Steel Corporation announces a 20% production cut as a result in falling demand from its worldwide customer base.
  • 30 October – IRA terrorists force a taxi driver to drive to Downing Street at gunpoint and once there they detonate a bomb, but there are no injuries.

November

  • 11 November – The Church of England votes to allow women to become priests.[29]
  • 12 November
    • British Telecom reports a £1.03 billion profit for the half year ending 30 September – a fall of 36.2% on the previous half year figure, as a result of the thousands of redundancies it has made this year due to the recession.
    • Unemployment has continued to climb and is now approaching 2,900,000. It has risen every month since June 1990, when it was below 1,700,000. The current level has not been seen since mid-1987.
  • 16 November – The Hoxne Hoard is discovered by metal detectorist Eric Lawes in Suffolk.
  • 19 November – The High Court rules that doctors can disconnect feeding tubes from Tony Bland, a young man who has been in a coma since the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. Bland, of Liverpool, suffered massive brain damage in the disaster and doctors treating him say that there is no reasonable possibility that he could recover consciousness and in his current condition would be unlikely to survive more than five years.[30]
  • 20 November – A fire breaks out in Windsor Castle, causing over £50 million worth of damage.[31]
  • 23 November – Ford unveils the new Mondeo, which succeeds the long-running Sierra and goes on sale in March 1993.
  • 24 November – The Queen describes this year as an Annus Horribilis (horrible year) due to various scandals damaging the image of the Royal Family, as well as the Windsor Castle fire.
  • 26 November
  • 29 November – Ethnic minorities now account for more than 3,000,000 (over 5%) of the British population.

December

  • 1 December – The first episode of the children's series The Animals of Farthing Wood.
  • 3 December – 1992 Manchester bombing: 65 people are injured by an IRA bomb in Manchester city centre but there are no fatalities.[34]
  • 9 December – The separation of Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales is announced following months of speculation about their marriage, but there are no plans for a divorce and prime minister John Major announces that Diana could still become Queen.[4]
  • 11 December – The last MORI poll of 1992 shows Labour thirteen points ahead of the Conservatives on 47%, just three months after several polls had shown a Conservative lead. Black Wednesday, which has damaged much of the government's reputation for monetary excellence, is largely blamed for the fall in Conservative support.[3]
  • 12 December – The marriage of Anne, Princess Royal, and Timothy Laurence takes place.[4]
  • 16 December
  • 17 December
    • The national unemployment level has risen to more than 2,900,000, with the unemployment rate in the south-east of England now above 10% for the first time.
    • Jonathan Zito is stabbed to death by Christopher Clunis, a partially treated schizophrenic patient.
  • 23 December – The Queen's Royal Christmas Message is leaked in The Sun newspaper, 48 hours ahead of its traditional Christmas Day broadcast on television.[36]
  • 31 December
    • Thames Television and TVS broadcast for the last time. The ORACLE teletext service is discontinued on ITV and Channel 4 to be replaced by a new service operated by the Teletext Ltd. consortium, having been launched on ITV in 1974 and used by Channel 4 since its inception in 1982.
    • The economy has grown in the final quarter of this year – the second successive quarter of economic growth – but the recovery is still too weak for the end of the recession to be declared.[37]

Undated

Publications

Births

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Deaths

See also

References

  1. "1992: Top policewoman suspended from duty". BBC News. 9 January 1992. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Poll tracker: Interactive guide to the opinion polls". BBC News. 29 September 2009. Archived from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 19 December 2009.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
  4. Brooks, Richard (16 January 2005). "Hirst's shark is sold to America". The Sunday Times. London. Retrieved 14 October 2008.
  5. Davies, Serena (8 January 2005). "Why painting is back in the frame". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 15 October 2008.
  6. "Britain Since 1948". Localhistories.org. 1982-06-14. Retrieved 2013-09-04.
  7. "1992: Fergie and Andrew split". BBC News. 19 March 1992. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  8. "1992: Punch ends 150 years of satire". BBC News. 24 March 1992. Archived from the original on 29 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  9. "The 8th Earl Spencer, 68, Dies; Father of the Princess of Wales". The New York Times. 30 March 1992. Retrieved 10 February 2011.
  10. "1992: Labour's Neil Kinnock resigns". BBC News. 13 April 1992. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  11. "A coal miner's son. (British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock) | HighBeam Business: Arrive Prepared". Business.highbeam.com. 1990-05-14. Retrieved 2013-09-04.
  12. "Our Timeline". The Lost Gardens of Heligan. Retrieved 2011-02-12.
  13. "1992: Controversial Diana book published". BBC News. 16 June 1992. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  14. "Documentary maker seeks Ravenscraig workers and their families for film". STV. 2011-07-29. Retrieved 2016-05-22.
  15. "1992: Thatcher takes her place in Lords". BBC News. 30 June 1992. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  16. "1992: IRA murders 'informers'". BBC News. 2 July 1992. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  17. INM (27 July 1992). "Football: Shearer set to sign for Blackburn". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 10 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
  18. Cusick, James (7 August 1992). "Scotland's appeal courts to let in TV cameras". The Independent. Independent Print Ltd. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
  19. "1992: Duchess of York in photos row". BBC News. 20 August 1992. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  20. "1992: UK crashes out of ERM". BBC News. 16 September 1992. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  21. "1992: Mellor resigns over sex scandal". BBC News. 24 September 1992. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  22. "About the Cochrane Library". The Cochrane Library. Archived from the original on 5 January 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
  23. "UK recovery 'to take five years'". BBC News. 22 July 2009. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
  24. "1992: Thousands of miners to lose their jobs". BBC News. 13 October 1992. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  25. "1992: Church of England votes for women priests". BBC News. 11 November 1992. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  26. "1992: Hillsborough victim allowed to die". BBC News. 19 November 1992. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  27. "1992: Blaze rages in Windsor Castle". BBC News. 20 November 1992. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  28. "1992: Queen to be taxed from next year". BBC News. 26 November 1992. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  29. "Pepper (Inspector of Taxes) v Hart [1992] UKHL 3 (26 November 1992)". BAILII. Retrieved 2012-12-12.
  30. "1992: Bomb explosions in Manchester". BBC News. 3 December 1992. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  31. "1992: Queen's Christmas speech leaked". BBC News. 23 December 1992. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  32. Announced in January 1993. "UK recovery 'to take five years'". BBC News. 22 July 2009. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
  33. Hastings, Chris (7 July 2002). "Record sales put vinyl back in the groove". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 10 May 2011.

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