2003 in the United Kingdom

2003 in the United Kingdom
Other years
2001 | 2002 | 2003 (2003) | 2004 | 2005
Constituent countries of the United Kingdom
England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales
Popular culture

Events from the year 2003 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Events

January
  • January – Toyota launches an all-new Avensis to be built at TMUK.
  • 10 January – Ian Carr, a 27-year-old banned from driving with a total of 89 previous convictions (including causing death by dangerous driving), admits causing the death by dangerous driving of a six-year-old girl in Ashington, Northumberland – a crime which sparks widespread public and media outrage across Britain.[1]
  • 14 January – Anti-terrorism detective Stephen Oake is murdered in Crumpsall, Manchester by Islamic terrorist Kamel Bourgass after being stabbed eight times while attempting his arrest.[2]
  • 25 January – Central line underground train crashes into the tunnel wall at Chancery Lane tube station in London, injuring 34 people.
  • 29 January – Sally Clark, a 38-year-old former solicitor from Cheshire, is released from prison after the Court of Appeal clears her of murdering her two sons, who are believed to have suffered sudden infant death syndrome.[3]
  • 30 January – Richard Colvin Reid, the so-called "shoe bomber", is sentenced to life imprisonment by a United States court.[4]
  • 31 January – one of the longest prison sentences ever issued in a British court for a motoring offence is given to killer driver Ian Carr, who receives a nine-and-a-half-year sentence for causing death by dangerous driving – his second conviction for the crime in twelve years.[5]

February

March
  • 12 March – Iraq disarmament crisis: UK Prime Minister Tony Blair proposes an amendment to the possible 18th U.N. resolution, which would call for Iraq to meet certain benchmarks to prove that it was disarming. The amendment is immediately rejected by France, who promises to veto any new resolution.
  • 20 March – 2003 Iraq war: Land troops from United Kingdom join troops from the United States, Australia and Poland in the invasion of Iraq.
  • 22 March – Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from Royal Navy submarines take part in a massive air and missile strike on military targets in Baghdad.

April
  • 6 April – British forces capture the city of Basra during the invasion of Iraq.
  • 9 April – the Iraq war effort is given a major boost when a statue of Saddam Hussein is toppled in Baghdad and it is confirmed that Hussein's rule has ended after twenty-four years in power.[7]
  • 29 April – Tony Blair holds a one-day summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin mocks Britain and America's failure to locate weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.[6]

May

June

July
  • 2 July – Chelsea F.C. are bought by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich for a sum of £150,000,000 from current chairman Ken Bates, twenty-one years after he bought the club for £1.[12]
  • 15 July – David Kelly appears before the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, to answer questions over the information he had given to Andrew Gilligan.
  • 18 July – David Kelly is found dead near his home in Oxfordshire – police suspect that he committed suicide.[13]
  • 20 July – the BBC confirms that Dr. David Kelly, found dead from a suspected suicide two days earlier, was the main source for a controversial report that sparked a deep rift with the government.[14]

August
  • 1 August – the Hutton Inquiry into the recent death of weapons expert Dr. David Kelly, chaired by judge Lord Hutton, opens,[15] beginning to take evidence on 11 August.[13]
  • 3 August – police use the taser for the first time.[10]
  • 10 August – Brogdale, near Faversham, enters the UK Weather Records for the highest ever recorded temperature of 38.5 °C, a record which holds until July 2019. The 2003 European heat wave makes this Britain's hottest summer for thirteen years.[16]

September

October
  • 24 October – supersonic aircraft Concorde makes its final commercial flights after twenty-seven years.[18]
  • 29 October – Iain Duncan-Smith resigns after serving just two years as Leader of the Conservative Party.[19]

November
  • 4 November – Channel 4's soap opera Brookside, on air since the station was launched in 1982, ends after 21 years.
  • 8 November – Sophie, Countess of Wessex gives birth to her and Prince Edward's first child, a baby girl.[20]
  • 16 November – David Davis, the new Shadow Home Secretary, calls for a return of the death penalty for murderers found guilty of the most horrific murders; citing Moors murderer Ian Brady and Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe as criminals whose crimes would meet the criteria.[21]
  • 18 November
    • United States President George W. Bush makes a state visit to London in the midst of massive protests.[22]
    • Passage of the Local Government Act 2003 including the repeal in England, Northern Ireland and Wales of controversial Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 which prevented local authorities from "promoting homosexuality". Section 28 had already been repealed in Scotland since 2000.
  • 20 November – several bombs explode in Istanbul, Turkey at several British targets. The Turkish head office of HSBC and the British consulate are destroyed and the British Consul-General, Roger Short is killed.[23]
  • 22 November – England are rugby world champions after defeating Australia 20-17 after extra time.[24]
  • 24 November – the High Court in Glasgow imposes a minimum sentence of 27 years for Al Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
  • 26 November – the final Concorde flight touches down in Filton, Bristol where it is welcomed by the Duke of York.

December

Undated
  • Sales of the DVD home video format take the largest share of the UK home video market for the first time. The format, first launched in the UK in June 1998, accounts for more than 70% of home video sales this year as the VHS format's popularity falls and many new titles are not being released on it.[33]
  • New car sales reach a record high this year of nearly 2,600,000, with the Ford Focus enjoying its fifth successive year as Britain's best-selling new car. BMW sales also reach a record high, with the BMW 3 Series managing well over 60,000 sales as Britain's ninth best-selling car. Sales of Vauxhall, Peugeot, Renault and Volkswagen cars remain strong as well, while Nissan also enjoys an increase in sales largely due to the popularity of its new version of the Micra.

Publications

Births

Deaths

See also

References
  1. "Killer driver's 89 convictions". BBC News. 10 January 2003. Retrieved 23 March 2013.
  2. Bunyan, By Nigel (13 April 2005). "The bungled raid that left a policeman face to face with an al-Qa'eda assassin". www.telegraph.co.uk.
  3. "2003: Solicitor cleared of killing sons". BBC News. 29 January 2003. Archived from the original on 1 February 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2008.
  4. "2003: 'Shoe bomber' jailed for life". BBC News. 30 January 2003. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2008.
  5. "Driver who killed girl after life ban is jailed for nine years". The Independent. London. 31 January 2003.
  6. Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 653–656. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
  7. "2003: Saddam statue topples with regime". BBC News. 9 April 2003.
  8. "Charles Clarke Welcomes Margaret Hodge as Minister for Children" (Press release). Department for Children, Schools and Families. 13 June 2003. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
  9. "Matches Played 13 June 2003". Cricinfo. 2009. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
  10. Penguin Pocket on This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
  11. "Poll tracker". BBC. 2010. Archived from the original on 1 February 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
  12. "Russian businessman buys Chelsea". BBC News. 2 July 2003. Archived from the original on 24 January 2009. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
  13. "2003: Missing Iraq expert – body found". BBC News. 18 July 2003. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2008.
  14. "BBC admits Kelly was 'main source'". BBC News. 20 July 2003. Retrieved 6 January 2008.
  15. "Hutton inquiry begins". BBC News. 1 August 2003. Retrieved 6 January 2008.
  16. "2003: Britain swelters in record heat". BBC News. 10 August 2003. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2008.
  17. McGuinness, Ross (16 March 2009). "Metro". p. 30.
  18. "2003: End of an era for Concorde". BBC News. 24 October 2003. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2008.
  19. "2003: Tory Party leader resigns". BBC News. 29 October 2003. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2008.
  20. "2003: Royal baby born prematurely". BBC News. 8 November 2003. Retrieved 18 March 2009.
  21. "Tories' Davis backs death penalty". BBC News. 16 November 2003. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  22. "2003: High security as Bush visits UK". BBC News. 18 November 2003. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2008.
  23. "2003: British targets bombed in Istanbul". BBC News. 20 November 2003. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2008.
  24. "2003: England win Rugby World Cup". BBC News. 22 November 2003. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2008.
  25. "M6 Toll road opens". BBC News. 9 December 2003.
  26. "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2003". Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  27. "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2003". Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  28. "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2003". Retrieved 27 January 2008.
  29. "2003: Mother cleared of murdering babies". BBC News. 10 December 2003. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2008.
  30. "Finding CPR/HICP Date". Office for National Statistics. 2010. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
  31. "2003: Ian Huntley guilty of Soham murders". BBC News. 17 December 2003. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2008.
  32. "Blunkett launches Huntley inquiry". BBC News. 17 December 2003. Retrieved 18 March 2009.
  33. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 31 December 2013. Retrieved 29 December 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

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