1995 in the United Kingdom

UK-related events during the year of 1995

1995 in the United Kingdom
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1995 British Grand Prix
1995 English cricket season
Football: England | Scotland
1995 in British television
1995 in British music
1995 in British radio
UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 1995

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 to have hanged himself 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 football transfer fee record is broken when Manchester United sign striker Andy Cole from Newcastle United in a deal valued at £7million.
  • 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 – Footballer 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 fine Eric Cantona £20,000 and announce that he will not play for the first team for the rest of the current football season. Cantona also faces assault charges, with a police investigation pending.

February

  • 1 February – New domestic electrical appliances must be supplied with an appropriately fused pre-wired plug.[3]
  • 2 February – Tennis legend Fred Perry dies aged 85 in hospital in Melbourne, Australia, following a fall.
  • 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 2.5 million – it has not been below this level for more than three years.
    • 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 announces the new MGF sports car which will go on sale in September this year.
  • 19 February – Sir Nicholas Fairbairn, the Conservative MP for Perth and Kinross, dies in office aged 61.
  • 21 February – George Graham, who has won six major trophies including two league titles since becoming manager of Arsenal F.C. in 1986, 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, and fine him £10,000.
  • 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 – Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, 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 this is unsuccessful he will be the first footballer to be jailed in Britain for an on-field offence. 39-year-old former Scotland winger Davie Cooper dies aged 39 after suffering a brain haemorrhage.
  • 31 March – Eric Cantona wins his appeal against his prison sentence, which is reduced to a 120-hour community service order.

April

May

June

July

  • 3 July – The British football transfer record fee is broken for the third time this year when Liverpool sign striker Stan Collymore from Nottingham Forest for £8.5million.
  • 4 July – John Major wins the Conservative Party leadership election, gaining 218 votes to John Redwood's 89.[13]
  • 13 July – A memorial service is held for Harold Wilson in Westminster Abbey, attended by Prince Charles, John Major, and three other living former Prime Ministers.
  • 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.[14]
  • 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.
  • 30 July – A murder investigation is launched after two teenage boys, Robbie Gee and Paul Barker, are found dead near a lake in rural Cheshire. Police in North Wales begin a murder hunt after the body of seven-year-old Sophie Hook is found washed up on a beach near the Llandudno home of her uncle, shortly after she disappeared while sleeping in a tent in the garden.

August

  • 3 August – 30-year-old Colwyn Bay man Howard Hughes is charged with the murder of Sophie Hook, and remanded in custody.
  • 6 August – Pubs in England are permitted to remain open throughout Sunday afternoon for the first time.[15]
  • 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.[16]
  • 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 1920s.[17]

September

October

  • 2 October – Manchester band Oasis release their 2nd studio album (What's the Story) Morning Glory? which proves to be one of the most successful of all time.
  • 7 October – Conservative MP Alan Howarth defects to Labour, cutting the government's majority to seven seats.[18]
  • 9 October – Former Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home dies aged 92 at his home in Coldstream in the Scottish Borders.
  • 16 October – Julie Goodyear, who joined the ITV soap opera Coronation Street as iconic character Bet Lynch in 1966 and had been a regular cast member since 1970, departs from the show.
  • 18 October – Unemployment drops below 2.3 million for the first time since 1991.
  • 20 October – Vauxhall unveils its new Vectra range of large family hatchbacks and saloons. The Vectra, which replaces the long-running Cavalier, will be built in Luton and from next year will also be sold as an estate.
  • 22 October – Brilliant!, an exhibition by the Young British Artists group (who also feature heavily in this year's British Art Show), opens at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA.[19][20]
  • 25 October – Singer Cliff Richard receives a knighthood.[4]
  • 31 October – The Duke of Northumberland dies aged 42 of a heart attack caused by drug abuse. He is succeeded by the current holder of the title, his younger brother.

November

December

  • 2 December – "Rogue trader" Nick Leeson is jailed for six-and-a-half years in Singapore on a double fraud charge relating to the recent financial collapse of Barings Bank.[27]
  • 8 December – Head teacher Philip Lawrence dies after being stabbed at the entrance of his school in Maida Vale, North London, where he was defending a pupil from a local teenage gang.
  • 10 December – Joseph Rotblat wins the Nobel Peace Prize.[28]
  • 13 December – A riot takes place in Brixton, London.
  • 20 December – The Queen writes to the Prince and Princess of Wales (Charles and Diana) three years after their separation, urging them to divorce as soon as possible.[29]
  • 29 December – The Conservative majority now stands at a mere five seats following the defection of MP Emma Nicholson to the Liberal Democrats.[30]
  • 30 December – Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands matches the lowest temperature UK Weather Record at −27.2 °C (−17.0 °F).

Undated

Publications

Births

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Full date unknown

Deaths

January

Peter Cook
Gerald Durrell

February

Fred Perry

March

Marguerite Kelsey
Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat and his wife

April

  • 1 April – Lucie Rie, ceramicist (born 1902, Austria-Hungary)
  • 3 April – David Herbert, socialite and writer (born 1908)
  • 4 April
  • 6 April – Trevor Park, lecturer and politician (born 1927)
  • 7 April
    • Peter Brinson, writer and lecturer on dance (born 1920)
    • Nicholas Ingram, first British citizen to be executed by the electric chair in the United States (born c. 1964)
  • 10 April – Glyn Jones, Welsh writer (born 1905)
  • 12 April – Chris Pyne, jazz trombonist, brother of Mick Pyne (born 1939)
  • 14 April – Michael Fordham, psychologist (born 1909)
  • 16 April – Arthur English, actor and comedian (born 1919)
  • 19 April – Neil Paterson, author (born 1915)
  • 20 April – Bob Wyatt, former cricketer (born 1901)
  • 21 April – Tessie O'Shea, singer and actress (born 1913)
  • 26 April
  • 27 April – Albert Brown, cricketer and snooker player (born 1911)
  • 28 April – Walter Tracy, type designer, typographer and writer (born 1914)
  • 30 April – Michael Graham Cox, actor (born 1938)

May

Sir Anthony Wagner
Harold Wilson

June

Peter Townsend
  • 1 June – Colin Ronan, author and science historian (born 1920)
  • 3 June – Dilys Powell, film critic and travel writer (born 1901)
  • 9 June – Frank Chacksfield, musician and orchestral conductor (born 1914)
  • 10 June – Bruno Lawrence, British-born New Zealand actor (born 1941)
  • 15 June – Charles Bennett, screenwriter (born 1899)
  • 17 June – David Ennals, Baron Ennals, politician and human rights activist (born 1922)
  • 18 June – Arthur Howard, actor (born 1910)
  • 19 June
  • 21 June – Tristan Jones, sailor and author (born 1929)
  • 26 June – Edgar Williams, Army officer and historian (born 1912)
  • 28 June – Donald Sinclair, veterinary surgeon (born 1911); suicide
  • 29 June – Noel Dyson, actress (born 1916)

July

Sir Hugh Dundas
Harold Larwood

August

Ida Lupino
Harry Broadhurst

September

Jeremy Brett
  • 3 September – Mary Adshead, painter, illustrator and designer (born 1904)
  • 5 September – Francis Showering, brewer, founder of Babycham (born 1912)
  • 8 September – Peter Baxandall, audio engineer and electronics engineer (born 1921)
  • 9 September – Ida Carroll, musician and composer (born 1905)
  • 10 September – Derek Meddings, special effects designer (born 1931)
  • 11 September – Kieth O'dor, motor racing driver (born 1962); killed while racing
  • 12 September
  • 14 September – A. E. Wilder-Smith, organic chemist (born 1915)
  • 16 September – Michael Balfour, historian and civil servant (born 1908)
  • 17 September – Catherine Cobb, jeweller (born 1903)
  • 18 September – Donald Davie, poet and literary critic (born 1922)
  • 19 September – Sir Rudolf Peierls, physicist (born 1907, German Empire)
  • 20 September – Monica Maurice, industrialist (born 1908)
  • 21 September – William Murray, educationist (born 1912)
  • 25 September – Dave Bowen, footballer and football manager (born 1928)
  • 26 September – Lynette Roberts, poet and novelist (born 1909)
  • 28 September – Albert Johanneson, South African born, British based footballer (born 1940)
  • 29 September
  • 30 September – Frederick Warner, diplomat (born 1918)

October

Alec Douglas-Home
Edith Pargeter
Alan Bush

November

Peter Grant

December

James Meade
Patric Knowles

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. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Meikle, James (27 October 2000). "Sad and painful decline of a daughter". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  8. ^ "1995: First man jailed for male rape". BBC News. 9 June 1995. Archived from the original on 7 January 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  9. ^ "First woman chief constable is appointed". The Independent. 15 June 1995. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022.
  10. ^ "Voting Intention in Great Britain: 1976–present". Ipsos MORI. 21 June 2010. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  11. ^ Hadley Center Ranked EWP.
  12. ^ "Hadley ranked Central England temperature".
  13. ^ "1995: Major wins Conservative leadership". BBC News. 4 July 1995. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  14. ^ "1995: British forces sent to Sarajevo". BBC News. 23 July 1995. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  15. ^ Brace, Matthew; Roberts, Lucy (7 August 1995). "Pubs enjoy taste of all-day Sunday opening". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  16. ^ Hardy, Adam (November 1995). "Spirit of suburbia". Perspectives on Architecture. 2 (19): 42–47.
  17. ^ "Middlesbrough FC news, Boro transfer rumours, fixtures and more". TeessideLive.
  18. ^ "How the Government's Majority Disappeared". politics97. BBC News. 1997. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  19. ^ Lyall, Sarah (12 November 1995). "Is it art or is it just dead meat?". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
  20. ^ Smith, Roberta (23 November 1995). "Some British moderns seeking to shock". The New York Times.
  21. ^ "1995: Queen mum hip op 'successful'". BBC News. 16 November 1995. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  22. ^ Gilliland, Ben (16 January 2009). "Science & Discovery". Metro.
  23. ^ "1995: Diana admits adultery in TV interview". BBC News. 20 November 1995. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  24. ^ "Top 10 Programmes – 1995". BARB. Archived from the original on 27 March 2012. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  25. ^ "GoldenEye (1995)". MI6. Archived from the original on 16 November 2008. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
  26. ^ "1995: Clinton kindles hope in Northern Ireland". BBC News. 30 November 1995. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  27. ^ "1995: Rogue trader jailed for six years". BBC News. 2 December 1995. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  28. ^ "The Nobel Peace Prize 1995". Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  29. ^ "1995: 'Divorce': Queen to Charles and Diana". BBC News. 20 December 1995. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  30. ^ "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.
  31. ^ Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 (section 58).
  32. ^ Eros Vlahos [@Eros_V] (13 January 2013). "Yay, happy 18th birthday me!" (Tweet). Retrieved 9 February 2013 – via Twitter.
  33. ^ "Profile of Mimi-Isabella Cesar". Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation. 2018. Archived from the original on 9 December 2020. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
  34. ^ Siobhan Cattigan: Scottish rugby player dies aged 26
  35. ^ "Who are they?". Telegraph. 11 October 2006. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
  36. ^ "Miracle 'Lineker baby' Alex becomes domestic abuse ambassador". www.bedfordtoday.co.uk.
  37. ^ "Fred West: Who was he and what did he do?". BBC News. 19 May 2021. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  38. ^ Granger, Derek (12 August 1995). "Obituary: Dursley McLinden". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
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