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1979 in the United Kingdom:

British and Irish current events

Sport and Music

1979 British Grand Prix

1979 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

1979 in British music

United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979

Events from the year 1979 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister - James Callaghan, Labour (until 4 May), Margaret Thatcher, Conservative

Events

• 10 January - Prime Minister James Callaghan returns from an international summit to a Britain in a state of industrial unrest. The Sun newspaper reported his comments with a famous headline: "Crisis? What Crisis?"^[1]
• 22 January - tens of thousands of public-workers strike in the beginning of what became known as the Winter of Discontent.^[2]
• 9 February - Trevor Francis signs for Nottingham Forest in British football's first £1 million deal.^[3]
• 22 February - Saint Lucia becomes independent of the United Kingdom.^[4]
• 1 March
  • Scottish devolution referendum: Scotland votes narrowly for home rule, which is not implemented due to a condition that at last 40% of the electorate must support the proposal.
  • Welsh devolution referendum: Wales votes against devolution.
  • Conservative candidate David Waddington wins the Clitheroe by-election.
• 18 March - An explosion at the Golborne colliery in Golborne, Greater Manchester, kills three men.^[5]
• 22 March - Sir Richard Sykes, ambassador to the Netherlands, shot dead by Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in The Hague.^[6]
• 28 March - James Callaghan's government loses a motion of confidence by one vote, forcing a general election.^[7]
• 30 March - Airey Neave, World War Two veteran and Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, is killed by an Irish National Liberation Army bomb in the House of Commons car park.^[8]
• 31 March - The Royal Navy withdraws from Malta.
• 23 April - Fighting in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group results in the death of protestor Blair Peach.^[9]
• 1 May - The London Underground Jubilee line inaugurated.^[10]
• 4 May - Conservatives win the general election and Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of Britain.^[11]
• 15 May - Government abolishes the Prices Commission.^[12]
• 25 May - price of milk increases more than 10% to 15 pence a pint.^[13]
• 7 June - First election for the European Parliament.^[12]
• 22 June - former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe cleared in court of the allegations of attempted murder which ruined his career.^[14]
• 5 July - The Queen attends the 1000th annual sitting of the Isle of Man's Parliament, Tynwald.^[15]
• 12 July - Kiribati (formerly Gilbert Islands) becomes independent of the United Kingdom.^[4]
• 17 July - Athlete Sebastian Coe sets a record time for running a mile, completing it in 3 minutes 48.95 seconds.^[4]
• 9 August - The first British nudist beach is established in Brighton.^[16]
• 14 August
  • A storm in the Irish Sea hits the Fastnet yacht race. Three lives and dozens of yachts are lost.^[17]
  • disgraced MP John Stonehouse released from jail.^[18]
• 27 August
  • Lord Mountbatten of Burma and three others are assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). He was an admiral, statesman and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.^[19]
  • Warrenpoint ambush: eighteen British soldiers killed in Northern Ireland by IRA.^[20]
• 2 September - Police discover a woman's body in an alleyway near Bradford city centre. The woman, 20-year-old student Barbara Leach, is believed to be the 12th victim of the mysterious Yorkshire Ripper mass murderer.^[21]
• 5 September - The Queen leads the mourning at the funeral of Lord Mountbatten of Burma.^[22]
• 21 September - a Royal Air Force Harrier jet crashes into a house in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire killing two men and a boy.^[23]
• 11 October - Godfrey Hounsfield wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Allan McLeod Cormack "for the development of computer assisted tomography".^[24]
• 27 October - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains independence.^[25]
• 28 October - Chairman Hua Guofeng becomes the first Chinese leader to visit Britain.^[26]
• 9 November - Four men are found guilty over the killing of paperboy Carl Bridgewater, who was shot dead at a farmhouse in the Staffordshire countryside 14 months ago. James Robinson and Vincent Hickey receive life sentences with a recommended minimum of 25 years for murder, Michael Hickey (also guilty of murder) receives an indefinite custodial sentence, while Patrick Molloy is guilty of manslaughter and jailed for 12 years.
• 13 November - The Times published for the first time in nearly a year after a dispute between management and unions over staffing levels and new technology.^[27]
• 14 November - Vauxhall launches its first-ever front-wheel drive car - the Astra range of hatchbacks and estates - to compete in the growing family hatchback sector. It replaces the traditional rear-wheel drive Viva saloon, which had been produced in three incarnations since 1963. Initial production of the Astra will take place at the Opel factory in West Germany, with production set to be transferred to Britain by 1981.
• 16 November - Anthony Blunt named as the fourth man in the Cambridge Spy Ring.^[28]
• 23 November - In Dublin, Ireland, Irish Republican Army member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten.
• 4 December - The Hastie Fire in Hull leads to the deaths of 3 boys and begins the hunt for Bruce George Peter Lee, the UK's most prolific killer.
• 7 December - Lord Soames appointed as the transitional governor of Rhodesia to oversee its move to independence.^[29]
• 10 December
  • William Arthur Lewis wins the Nobel Prize in Economics with Theodore Schultz "for their pioneering research into economic development research with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries".^[30]
  • Daredevil Eddie Kidd performs an 80 ft jump on a motorcycle.^[31]
• 20 December - Thatcher government publishes Housing Bill which would give Council House tenants the right to buy their homes from next year.^[32]

Undated

• Inflation has risen to 13.4%. [1]

Publications

• Douglas Adams' novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
• J. G. Ballard's novel The Unlimited Dream Company.
• Penelope Fitzgerald's novel Offshore.
• William Golding's novel Darkness Visible.
• V. S. Naipaul's novel A Bend in the River.

Births

• 27 January — Rosamund Pike, actress
• 12 March — Pete Doherty, singer and guitarist (The Libertines and Babyshambles)
• 10 April — Sophie Ellis-Bextor, singer
• May 15 — Rachel Walker, field hockey player
• 25 May — Jonny Wilkinson, rugby union player
• 25 July — Allister Carter, snooker player
• 26 July — Johnson Beharry, war hero
• 30 July — Graeme McDowell, professional golfer
• 5 August — David Healy, footballer
• 20 August — Jamie Cullum, singer
• 14 September — Stuart Fielden, rugby league player
• 8 November — Aaron Hughes, footballer
• 29 November — Simon Amstell, comedian and television presenter
• December 1 — Lisa Wooding, field-hockey player
• 3 December — Daniel Bedingfield, pop singer and songwriter
• 14 December — Michael Owen, footballer
• December 24 — Lucilla Wright, field-hockey player

Deaths

• 2 February - Sid Vicious, musician (Sex Pistols) (drug overdose) (born 1957)
• 14 February - Reginald Maudling, politician (born 1917)
• 19 March - Richard Beckinsale, actor (born 1947)
• 23 March - Ted Anderson, footballer (born 1911)
• 30 March - Airey Neave, politician (assassinated) (born 1916)
• 8 June - Norman Hartnell, fashion designer (born 1901)
• 16 July - Alfred Deller, countertenor (born 1912)
• August - Ivon Hitchens, painter (born 1893)
• 8 August - Nicholas Monsarrat, novelist (born 1910)
• 11 August - James Gordon Farrell, novelist (born 1935)
• 27 August - Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, last Viceroy of India (assassinated) (born 1900)
• 27 September - Gracie Fields, singer and comedian (born 1898)
• 10 October - Dr Christopher Evans, psychologist and computer scientist (born 1931)
• 13 October - Rebecca Helferich Clarke, composer and violist (born 1886)
• 30 October - Barnes Wallis, aeronautical engineer (born 1887)
• 23 November - Merle Oberon, actress (born 1911)
• 30 November - Joyce Grenfell, actress, comedian and singer-songwriter (born 1910)

References

See also