1987 in the United Kingdom

The major political event of this year is the re-election of Margaret Thatcher in June's general election, making her the longest continuously-serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since Lord Liverpool in the early 19th century. The year is also marked by a number of disasters: the sinking of the ferry MS Herald of Free Enterprise, the Hungerford massacre, the "Great Storm", the Glanrhyd Bridge collapse, the Remembrance Day Bombing and the King's Cross fire.

1987 in the United Kingdom
Other years
1985 | 1986 | 1987 (1987) | 1988 | 1989
Individual countries of the United Kingdom
England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales
Popular culture

Events from the year 1987 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Events

January
  • January – 1987 United Kingdom and Ireland cold wave: Most of Britain is affected by heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures.
  • 1 January – Personal equity plans permitting tax-free investments in shares are introduced.
  • 2 January – Golliwogs in Enid Blyton books are replaced by the publisher with gnomes following complaints that golliwogs are offensive to Black people.[1]
  • 4 January – Economists predict that unemployment will fall below the 3,000,000 mark by the end of this year.
  • 5 January – Harold Macmillan, Lord Stockton, former Prime Minister, is buried in the village of Horsted Keynes, having died on 29 December at the age of 92.
  • 7 January – Telford, the new town created in Shropshire some 20 years ago, is reported to have the highest unemployment rate in the West Midlands region, eclipsing the unemployment levels seen in the city of Birmingham and nearby towns including Wolverhampton, Brierley Hill, Wednesbury and Bilston, which have lost a large percentage of traditional heavy industry since the late-1970s, although Brierley Hill's unemployment crisis is beginning to ease with the ongoing development of the Merry Hill Shopping Centre, which already includes two retail parks and a large shopping mall and is set to expand even further by the end of the decade.
  • 13 January – Prince Edward leaves the Royal Marines just three months after joining.
  • 14 January – 1987 United Kingdom and Ireland cold wave: Heavy snow falls across Britain leaving houses, towns, roads, railways and motor vehicles stranded and blocked.
  • 15 January – Unemployment is reported to have fallen in December 1986 for the fifth month in succession.
  • 20 January
    • Terry Waite, the special envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury in Lebanon, disappears in Beirut whilst negotiating for the release of hostages;[2] he will himself remain a hostage until 1991.
    • Police arrest 26 suspected football hooligans across Britain after a mass operation.
  • 30 January – The flotation of British Airways on the stock market begins.

February

March

April
  • 1 April – MPs vote against the restoration of the death penalty by 342–230.
  • 3 April – The jewellery of the late Duchess of Windsor is sold at auction for £31,000,000 six times the expected value.[2]
  • 5 April – Arsenal win the Football League Cup for the first time in their history with a 2–1 win over Liverpool, earning them their first major trophy since 1979. Charlie Nicholas scores both of Arsenal's goals.
  • 16 April – Conservative MP Harvey Proctor appears in court charged with gross indecency.[8]
  • 22 April – Former Prime Minister James Callaghan is appointed to the Order of the Garter. He will be retiring from Parliament at this year's general election.
  • 29 April – Chancellor Nigel Lawson promises that the UK will soon have an income tax rate of 25p in the pound.
  • 30 April – The House of Lords acting in a judicial capacity approves the sterilisation of a "mentally subnormal" 17-year-old female.

May
  • 4 May – Everton win the Football League First Division title for the ninth time in their history.
  • 8 May – Loughgall ambush: Soldiers of the SAS kill eight members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army at Loughgall, County Antrim.[9]
  • 10 May – The church of St Mary-at-Hill in the City of London is damaged in a fire.[10]
  • 11 May
    • Margaret Thatcher calls a general election for Thursday, 11 June; with most of the opinion polls pointing towards her securing a third successive election victory for the Conservatives, with the Labour opposition expected to increase its share of votes and seat tally at its first general election under the leadership of Neil Kinnock.
    • British Rail renames Second class travel as Standard class.
  • 14 May – Unemployment has fallen to 3,107,128.
  • 15 May – Family Law Reform Act removes remaining legal distinctions between children born to married and unmarried parents.[11]
  • 16 May – Coventry City F.C. win the FA Cup for the first time in their history with a 3–2 win in the final over Tottenham Hotspur, who have won all of their previous seven FA Cup finals.[12]
  • 25 May – Aldershot F.C. become the first team to win promotion through the new Football League playoffs, winning promotion from the Fourth Division with a 3–0 aggregate win over Wolverhampton Wanderers (who have a total of eight major trophies to their name, the most recent seven years ago). The Hampshire club have already condemned another side, Bolton Wanderers (four times FA Cup winners) to relegation to the Fourth Division for the first time in their history.

June
  • 3 June – The last MORI poll before the general election shows the Conservatives 11 points ahead of Labour with 43% of the vote, while the Liberal/SDP Alliance's support stands at 24% and their hopes of building on their result at the last general election look exceedingly slim.[13]
  • 7 June – Chessington Zoo is renamed Chessington World of Adventures and made into a theme park by owner Madame Tussaud's.
  • 11 June – The 1987 general election sees Margaret Thatcher secure her third term in office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Her parliamentary majority is reduced to 102 compared to the 144-seat majority gained at the election four years earlier,[14] but will still not be exceeded by the Conservative Party as of 2019. High-profile casualties of the election include: the former SDP leader Roy Jenkins (once a Labour Home Secretary) and the Ulster Unionist Party's 75-year-old Enoch Powell (a former Conservative MP). Four ethnic minority candidates are successful: Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng, Bernie Grant and Keith Vaz. Among the MPs retiring from parliament is 75-year-old James Callaghan, the former Prime Minister.
  • 18 June – Unemployment has fallen below the 3,000,000 mark for the first time since 1981, after the biggest monthly fall in unemployment since records began in 1948; seeing more than 100,000 of the unemployed find work in May.
  • 19 June – Howard Kendall, manager of Football League champions Everton, resigns to take over of Athletic Club Bilbao in Spain. His successor at Everton is the club's assistant manager Colin Harvey.
  • 22 June – A riot takes place in Chapeltown, Leeds.
  • 25 June – A MORI poll shows support for the Conservative Party stands at almost 50% – the highest during Margaret Thatcher's time as leader.[13]
  • 27 June – 25 years after the first James Bond film was released, the fifteenth, The Living Daylights, premieres in London, with the spy now being played by Timothy Dalton.
  • 30 June – Footballer Peter Beardsley, the 26-year-old England striker, becomes the most expensive player transferred between British clubs when he completes a £1,900,000 move from Newcastle United to Liverpool.[15]

July

August

September

October
  • October – Construction work begins on the extension to the M40 motorway between Oxford and Birmingham. It is hoped that the motorway, providing an alternative route to the M6 and M1 from the Midlands to London as well as improving road links with the Midlands and the South Coast ports, will be fully operational by 1990.[34]
  • 1 October – Swedish home product retailer IKEA opens its first British store at Warrington in Cheshire.[35]
  • 9 October – Margaret Thatcher tells the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool that she wants to continue as Prime Minister until 1994 and the age of 69, which would make her Britain's oldest Prime Minister since Harold Macmillan in 1963. She is already three months away from becoming Britain's longest-serving Prime Minister this century, exceeding the previous record set by H. H. Asquith of the Liberal Party more than 70 years ago, but will be forced by her party to resign in 1990.
  • 11 October – £1,000,000 Operation Deepscan in Loch Ness fails to locate the legendary Loch Ness Monster.[36]
  • 15–16 October – Great storm: Hurricane force winds batter much of south-east England, killing 23 people and causing extensive damage to property.[37] Two days after the end of the storm, some 250,000 homes in the region will still be without electricity.
  • 19 October
    • Black Monday: Wall Street crash leads to £50,000,000,000 being wiped of the value of shares on the London stock exchange.[38]
    • Glanrhyd Bridge collapse: A train runs off the end of a bridge that has collapsed into the River Towy in Wales due to flooding, killing four people.
  • 23 October – Retired English jockey Lester Piggott is jailed for three years after being convicted of tax evasion.[39]
  • 25 October – Peugeot begins production of its second car – the 405 four-door saloon – at the Ryton plant near Coventry. The first customers are set to take delivery of their cars after Christmas. A French-built estate version will be launched next year.

November
  • November – The first acid house raves are reported in the United Kingdom, many of them being in derelict buildings.
  • 1 November – British Rail establishes a world speed record for diesel traction, 148.4 mph (238.9 km/h) with a test InterCity 125 formation between Darlington and York.[40]
  • 2 November – Peter Brooke succeeds Norman Tebbit as Chairman of the Conservative Party.
  • 3 November – It is announced that unemployment in Britain fell quicker during October than in any other European country.
  • 5 November – London City Airport opens.[9]
  • 8 November – Enniskillen bombing: Eleven people are killed by a Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb at a Remembrance Day service in Enniskillen.[41]
  • 11 November – Customs officers in Southampton seize more than £50,000,000 worth of cocaine – the most expensive haul of the drug ever found in the UK.
  • 12 November – Unemployment has fallen to 2,700,000 (just under 10% of the workforce), the lowest level of unemployment recorded in Britain for over six years.
  • 17 November – The Government announces that the Poll tax (community charge) to fund local government will be introduced in England and Wales in April 1990.
  • 18 November – King's Cross fire: An fire on an escalator at King's Cross station on the London Underground kills 31 people.[42]
  • 19 November – Conservative support has reached 50% in a MORI poll for the first time.[13]
  • 24 November – The Government announces that eye tests will no longer be provided free of charge by the National Health Service.

December
  • December – The British-built Peugeot 405 wins the European Car of the Year award, the first Peugeot to be given the title for nearly 20 years. British sales begin in the new year, several months after it was launched in France.
  • 9 December – The England cricket team's tour of Pakistan is nearly brought to a premature end when captain Mike Gatting and umpire Shakoor Rana row during a Test Match.[2]
  • 15 December – Channel Tunnel construction is initiated, and it is expected to open in 1993 or early-1994[43] (in the event, it will be mid to late 1994).
  • 17 December – A year that has seen an excellent performance for the British economy ends with unemployment reported to have fallen below the 2,700,000 mark; having started the year in excess of 3,000,000.
  • 25 December – ITV enjoys a record breaking audience when more than 26,000,000 viewers tune in for the Christmas Day episode of Coronation Street, in which Hilda Ogden (Jean Alexander) makes her final appearance on the show after 23 years.
  • 29 December – The Kylie Minogue single "I Should Be So Lucky" is released by PWL. Australian Minogue, 19, of maternal Welsh heritage, is already hugely popular with British audiences for her role in the TV soap Neighbours which debuted on the BBC fourteen months ago.
  • 31 December – 31 British and Belgian people are recognised in the New Year Honours for heroism shown in the rescue operation at the Zeebrugge Disaster earlier in the year.[44]

Undated
  • Inflation remains low for the sixth year running, standing at 4.2% for 1987.[45]
  • Largest ever deficit to date on UK balance of payments.
  • With overall unemployment falling below 3,000,000, youth unemployment is now below the 1,000,000 mark.[46]
  • Overall economy growth for the year reaches 5.5% – the highest since 1963.[47]

Publications

Births

Deaths

See also

References
  1. "1987". Those were the days. Wolverhampton: Express & Star. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  2. Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
  3. "The History Of The British Airways Museum – 1987". Archived from the original on 26 June 2007. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  4. "Mrs Payne is no brothel Madam". BBC. 11 February 1987. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  5. "Synod says 'yes' to women priests". BBC. 26 February 1987. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  6. "Hundreds trapped as car ferry capsizes". BBC. 6 March 1987. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  7. "1987: 30 hurt as car bomb hits Army base". news.bbc.co.uk. BBC News. 23 March 1987.
  8. "MP on gay sex charges". BBC. 16 April 1987. Archived from the original on 18 July 2007. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  9. Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 453–454. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
  10. Stamp, Gavin (9 September 2016). "The unhappy fate of Christopher Wren's City churches". Apollo. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  11. "Marriage: legitimacy and adoption". Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  12. "FA Cup Final 1987". Archived from the original on 1 June 2009. Retrieved 30 May 2009.
  13. "BBC News – Poll tracker: Interactive guide to the opinion polls". news.bbc.co.uk.
  14. "Thatcher wins record third term". BBC. 11 June 1987. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  15. "Goal.com's Top 50 English Players: Peter Beardsley (31)". Goal.com.
  16. "Flying Squad foils £80m robbery". BBC. 18 May 2004. Retrieved 4 August 2007.
  17. "Great British airline ready for take off". BBC. 16 July 1987. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  18. "Cartoonist shot in London street". BBC. 22 July 1987. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  19. "Archer wins record damages". BBC. 24 July 1987. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  20. "Rick Astley – Overview". allmusic. Retrieved 14 May 2010.
  21. "Biography". Mike Stock Music. Archived from the original on 3 October 2011. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
  22. "Biography". Rickastley.com. Archived from the original on 13 April 2010. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
  23. "Our history". Eurotunnel.
  24. "Docklands Light Railway (D.L.R.)". Exploring 20th Century London. Archived from the original on 15 March 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
  25. "Newspaper caught in Spycatcher row". BBC. 31 July 1987. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  26. Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 614–616. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
  27. Harwood, Elain (2003). England: a Guide to Post-War Listed Buildings (rev. ed.). London: Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-8818-2.
  28. "Gunman kills 14 in Hungerford rampage". BBC. 19 August 1987. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  29. "Massacre toll rises to 16 as two more victims die". The Glasgow Herald. 22 August 1987. p. 3. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  30. "Information about the Order of the Garter, the most senior British order of chivalry". The Official website of the British Monarchy. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  31. "Maclennan replaces Owen in SDP". BBC. 27 August 1987. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  32. "Liverpool fans to stand trial in Belgium". BBC. 9 September 1987. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  33. "Ban lifted on MI5 man's memoirs". BBC. 23 September 1987. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  34. "M40: Waterstock (J8A) to Umberslade (M42–J3A)". The Motorway Archive. Archived from the original on 6 June 2012. Retrieved 17 March 2012.
  35. Everett, Adam (25 October 2017). "Then and Now: IKEA Warrington marks 30 years since 'bedlam' of store's opening day". Warrington Guardian. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  36. "Search ends for Loch Ness monster". BBC. 11 October 1987. Archived from the original on 10 July 2007. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  37. "Hurricane winds batter southern England". BBC. 16 October 1987. Archived from the original on 24 May 2007. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  38. "Shares plunge after Wall Street crash". BBC. 19 October 1987. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  39. "Lester Piggott jailed for three years". BBC. 23 October 1987. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  40. Balkwill, Richard; Marshall, John (1993). The Guinness Book of Railway Facts and Feats (6th ed.). Enfield: Guinness Publishing. ISBN 0-85112-707-X.
  41. "Bomb kills 11 at Enniskillen". BBC. 8 November 1987. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  42. "King's Cross station fire 'kills 27'". BBC. 18 November 1987. Archived from the original on 27 June 2007. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  43. "Our history". Eurotunnel. Archived from the original on 15 July 2007. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
  44. "Zebrugge heroes honoured". BBC On This Day. BBC. 31 December 1987. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
  45. "Inflation: the Value of the Pound 1750–1998" (PDF). House of Commons Library. 1999. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 February 2006. Retrieved 2016-01-08.
  46. Bowater, Donna (16 November 2011). "Youth unemployment reaches 1986 levels". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 16 November 2011.
  47. "UK GDP since 1955". Datablog. The Guardian.
  48. Cutruzzola, Annemarie (30 January 2017). "Happy Birthday, Phil Lester". CelebMix. Archived from the original on 4 February 2017. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  49. "A 'Tudors' tutorial". New York Daily News. 3 April 2009. Retrieved 15 January 2009.
  50. "William Moseley". AllMovie. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  51. "Amy Oliver - Olympic Archery | Great Britain". International Olympic Committee. 25 June 2016. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  52. Adam Welch (July 2010). "Augustus Prew - Interview Magazine". Interview Magazine. Retrieved 16 June 2014.

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