1995 in the United Kingdom

1995 in the United Kingdom
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Constituent countries of the United Kingdom
England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales
Popular culture

Events from the year 1995 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Events

January

  • 1 January –
    • Fred West, the 53-year-old Gloucester builder charged with killing twelve women and children (including two of his own daughters), is found hanged in his cell at Winson Green Prison, Birmingham. He was due to go on trial this year, along with his 41-year-old wife Rosemary, who is charged with ten murders.
    • South Korean industrial giant Daewoo announces plans to build a new car factory in the United Kingdom within the next few years, costing up to £350,000,000 and creating new jobs.[1]
  • 10 January – The British transfer fee record is broken when Manchester United sign striker Andy Cole from Newcastle United in a deal valued at £7,000,000.
  • 20 January – The first MORI poll of 1995 shows that the Conservative Party have cut Labour's lead in the polls from 39 points to 29.[2]
  • 25 January – Eric Cantona, the French international forward, assaults a spectator after being sent off while playing for Manchester United against Crystal Palace in the FA Premier League.
  • 27 January – Manchester United confirm that Eric Cantona will not play for the first team for the rest of the current football season.

February

  • 1 February – New domestic electrical appliances must be supplied with an appropriately fused pre-wired plug.[3]
  • 7 February – Rumbelows, the electrical goods retailer and former sponsors of the Football League Cup, closes its 311 stores with the loss of more than 3,000 jobs.
  • 14 February – Sizewell B nuclear power station, the UK's only commercial pressurised water reactor power station, is first synchronised with the National Grid.
  • 15 February –
    • The manufacturing sector has reported its biggest rise in employment since the Conservatives first came to power sixteen years earlier, although the national unemployment rate rose slightly in January, still being in excess 2,500,000 – it has not been below this mark since late-1991.
    • The England football team's friendly match against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin is abandoned due to the behaviour of a small number of English fans, believed to be members of far-right activist groups.
  • 16 February – Neil Kinnock, former Leader of the Labour Party, resigns from Parliament after twenty-five years to take up a new role as a European Commissioner, sparking a by-election in his Islwyn constituency in South Wales. Don Touhig retains the seat for Labour, with nearly 70% of the vote.
  • 17 February – The famous MG sports car brand, not seen on a volume sports car since 1980, is revived when the Rover Group unveils the new MGF sports car which will go on sale this autumn.
  • 21 February – George Graham, who has won six major trophies including two league titles in nearly a decade as manager of Arsenal F.C., is sacked over allegations that he accepted illegal payments from an agent when signing two players in 1992.
  • 24 February – The Football Association bans Eric Cantona from football for eight months, meaning that he will not be able to play competitively until after 30 September.
  • 26 February – Barings Bank, the UK's oldest merchant bank collapses following $1,400,000,000 of losses by rogue trader, Nick Leeson.
  • 28 February – The Diary of Bridget Jones column first published in The Independent.[4]

March

  • 9 March – The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visit Northern Ireland for the first time since the IRA and Loyalist ceasefire which came into force last year.[5]
  • 20 March – The Queen arrives in Cape Town for the first royal visit to South Africa in nearly fifty years.
  • 23 March – Eric Cantona is sentenced to fourteen days imprisonment at Croydon Crown Court for his assault on a Crystal Palace fan two months ago. He remains free on bail, pending an appeal against his sentence, but if his appeal is unsuccessful he will be the first footballer to be jailed in Britain for an on-field offence. Davie Cooper, footballing genius, tragically dies as he collapses while training.
  • 31 March – Eric Cantona wins his appeal against his prison sentence, which is reduced to a 120-hour community service order.

April

  • 1 April – Daewoo begins selling cars in the United Kingdom. It offers a two-model range; the Nexia and Espero – updated versions of the 1984 Vauxhall Astra and 1981 Vauxhall Cavalier respectively.[6]
  • 8 April – British-born American national Nicholas Ingram, 31, is executed in Georgia for a murder committed in 1983.
  • 16 April – PhONEday changes all telephone area dialing codes UK-wide.

May

  • 4 May – The Conservative government's fortunes continue to decline as the local council elections see them in control of a mere eight councils, while Labour control 155 councils and the Liberal Democrats control 45. The Conservatives now have control of no councils in Wales or Scotland.
  • 8 May – The fiftieth anniversary of VE Day is celebrated across Britain.
  • 14 May – Blackburn Rovers become FA Premier League champions, earning them their first top division league title since 1914.
  • 20 May – Everton win the FA Cup with a 1–0 win over Manchester United at Wembley Stadium.
  • 25 May – Roseanna Cunningham wins the Perth by-election for the Scottish National Party, three months after the seat became vacant upon the death of the Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Fairbairn. The Conservative majority has now fallen from 21 seats to 11, in the space of three years since the last general election.

June

July

  • 3 July – The British football transfer record fee is broken for the third time in six months when Liverpool sign striker Stan Collymore from Nottingham Forest for £8,400,000.
  • 4 July – John Major wins the Conservative Party leadership election, gaining 218 votes to John Redwood's 89.[10]
  • 19 July
    • Pensions Act 1995 receives Royal Assent, proposing to phase in a state pension age for women at 65 (equalising it with that for men) over a ten-year period and introducing measures intended to safeguard occupational pension schemes.
    • Unemployment is reported to be on the rise again, though the government denies that it is pointing towards another recession.
  • 23 July – War in Bosnia and Herzegovina: British forces sent to Sarajevo to help relieve the Siege of Sarajevo.[11]
  • 27 July – The Conservative government's majority is slashed further, to nine seats, as the Liberal Democrats win the Littleborough and Saddleworth seat in Lancashire, two months after it was left vacant by the death of Conservative MP Geoffrey Dickens.

August

  • 6 August – Pubs in England are permitted to remain open throughout Sunday afternoon for the first time.[12]
  • 16 August – Unemployment is now at 2,315,300 – one of the lowest figures recorded in the last four years.
  • 20 August – BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir London, Europe's first traditional-style purpose-built Hindu temple (and England's largest), is inaugurated in Neasden.[13]
  • 26 August – Middlesbrough F.C. move into their new 30,000-seat Riverside Stadium, to replace Ayresome Park which had been their home since 1903. Their new stadium is the largest club stadium to be built in England since the interwar years.[14]

September

October

November

  • 16 November –
    • Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother has a hip replacement operation. At ninety-five years of age, she is believed to be the oldest patient to undergo such surgery.[18]
    • Essex teenager Leah Betts dies in hospital four days after slipping into a coma due to taking an ecstasy tablet, sparking a media crusade, backed by Leah's father and stepmother, against the drug and those supplying it.
  • 17 November
  • 20 November – Diana, Princess of Wales gives a revealing television interview to Martin Bashir on the Panorama programme on BBC One. She discusses her adultery, depression and bulimia, her children, the media and the future of the monarchy in candid detail.[20] An estimated 22.78 million watch the broadcast,[21] the all-time record for a UK current affairs programme.
  • 22 November – Rose West is found guilty of murdering ten women and children, including her 16-year-old daughter Heather and seven-year-old stepdaughter Charmaine, after a trial at Winchester Crown Court. She is sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that she is never released.
  • 24 November – The spy James Bond returns to U.K. cinemas six years after the last film was made, for the seventeenth film GoldenEye, with Irish actor Pierce Brosnan playing the part of Bond,[22] filmed at the newly-created Leavesden Studios.
  • 28 November – Budget: Chancellor Ken Clarke cuts the basic level of income tax to 24p in the pound.
  • 30 November – President of the United States, Bill Clinton visits Northern Ireland.[23]

December

Undated

Publications

Births

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Full date unknown

  • Ashleigh Butler, dog trainer
  • Tex Jacks, actor
  • Joshua Pascoe, actor

Deaths

See also

References

  1. Kraar, Louis (13 May 1996). "Daewoo's Daring Drive into Europe A Korean Conglomerate And Its Charismatic Boss Are Betting Billions of Dollars That A Late-Arriving And Little-Known Car Can Succeed in a Crowded Auto Market". Fortune Magazine.
  2. "Poll tracker". BBC News. 2010. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  3. "Faded Memories". Light Straw. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
  4. Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
  5. "1995: Queen marks peace in Belfast". BBC News. 9 March 1995. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  6. Piercy, Nigel. "Daewoo Cars Case". Scribd. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  7. "1995: First man jailed for male rape". BBC News. 9 June 1995. Archived from the original on 7 January 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  8. "First woman chief constable is appointed". The Independent. 15 June 1995.
  9. "Voting Intention in Great Britain: 1976–present". Ipsos MORI. 21 June 2010. Archived from the original on 21 February 2011. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  10. "1995: Major wins Conservative leadership". BBC News. 4 July 1995. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  11. "1995: British forces sent to Sarajevo". BBC News. 23 July 1995. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  12. Brace, Matthew; Roberts, Lucy (7 August 1995). "Pubs enjoy taste of all-day Sunday opening". The Independent. London. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  13. Hardy, Adam (November 1995). "Spirit of suburbia". Perspectives on Architecture. 2 (19): 42–47.
  14. "Middlesbrough FC news, Boro transfer rumours, fixtures and more". TeessideLive.
  15. "How the Government's Majority Disappeared". politics97. BBC News. 1997. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  16. Lyall, Sarah (12 November 1995). "Is it art or is it just dead meat?". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
  17. Smith, Roberta (23 November 1995). "Some British moderns seeking to shock". The New York Times.
  18. "1995: Queen mum hip op 'successful'". BBC News. 16 November 1995. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  19. Gilliland, Ben (16 January 2009). "Science & Discovery". Metro.
  20. "1995: Diana admits adultery in TV interview". BBC News. 20 November 1995. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  21. "Top 10 Programmes – 1995". BARB. Archived from the original on 27 March 2012. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  22. "GoldenEye (1995)". MI6. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
  23. "1995: Clinton kindles hope in Northern Ireland". BBC News. 30 November 1995. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  24. "1995: Rogue trader jailed for six years". BBC News. 2 December 1995. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  25. "The Nobel Peace Prize 1995". Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  26. "1995: 'Divorce': Queen to Charles and Diana". BBC News. 20 December 1995. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  27. "British Election Panel Study, 1992–97". Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends. Archived from the original on 16 February 2001. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  28. Hadley Center Ranked EWP.
  29. "Hadley ranked Central England temperature".
  30. Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 (section 58).
  31. Eros Vlahos [@Eros_V] (13 January 2013). "Yay, happy 18th birthday me!" (Tweet). Retrieved 9 February 2013 via Twitter.
  32. "Who are they?". Telegraph. 11 October 2006. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
  33. "Miracle 'Lineker baby' Alex becomes domestic abuse ambassador". www.bedfordtoday.co.uk.
  34. Granger, Derek (12 August 1995). "Obituary: Dursley McLinden". The Independent. London. Retrieved 16 January 2011.

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