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1992 in the United Kingdom:

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Sport and Music

British and Irish current events

1992 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

1992 in British music

Events from the year 1992 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister - John Major, Conservative

Events

• 9 January - Alison Halford, Britain's most senior policewoman, is suspended from duty for a second time following a police authority meeting.^[1]
• 10 January - The first full week of 1992 sees some 4,000 jobs lost across Britain, as the nation's recession continues. Almost 20% of those job cuts have been by GEC, Britain's leading telecommunications manufacturer, where 750 redundancies were announced today.
• 14 January - The Bank of Credit and Commerce International goes into liquidation.
• 17 January -
  • - The IRA makes its worst terrorist attack in four years when a van is bombed near Omagh, killing seven construction workers and injuring seven others.
    • - The first MORI poll of 1992 shows the Tories three points ahead of Labour on 42%, while the Liberal Democrats have their best showing yet with 16% of the vote. [1]
• 29 January - The Department of Health reveals that AIDS cases among heterosexuals increased by 50% between 1990 and 1991.
• 30 January - John Major agrees a weapons control deal with new Russian premier Boris Yeltsin at 10 Downing Street.
• 2 February - Neil Kinnock, Labour Party leader, denies reports that he had a "Kremlin connection" during the 1980s.
• 5 February - Kevin Keegan, the former Liverpool F.C. and England striker, is appointed manager of Newcastle United.
• 6 February - The Queen celebrates her Ruby Jubilee.
• 7 February - signature of the Maastricht Treaty.^[2]
• 8 February–23 February - Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, but do not win any medals.
• 9 February - Prime Minister John Major speaks of his hopes that the recession will soon be over as the economy is now showing signs of recovery.
• 15 February - Neil Kinnock, Labour Party leader, speaks of his belief that the Tory government's failure to halt the current recession will win his party the forthcoming general election.
• 18 February - David Stevens, head of community relations, blames the recession for the recent rise in crime across Britain - most of all in deprived areas.
• 20 February -
  • - The Football Association launches the new Premier League which will begin in August, at the start of the next football season. Its founder members will be the teams finishing in the top 19 of this season's Football League First Division as well as the Second Division champions, runners-up and playoff winners.^[2]
    • - Hopes of an end to the recession are dashed by government figures which reveal that GDP fell by 0.3% in the final quarter of 1991.
• 23 February - The London Business School predicts an economic growth rate of 1.2% for this year, sparking hopes that the recession is nearing its end.
• 6 March - Parliament passes the Further and Higher Education Act 1992.
• 11 March - Shadow Chancellor John Smith condemns the recent Budget as a "missed opportunity" by the Tories, saying that they did "nothing" for jobs, training, skills, construction or economic recovery, while John Major announces that the election will be held on 9 April.
• 13 March - The first ecumenical church in Britain, the Christ the Cornerstone Church in Milton Keynes is opened.^[3]
• 17 March - Shadow chancellor John Smith announces that there will be no tax reductions this year if Labour win the election.
• 19 March - Buckingham Palace announces that Duke and Duchess of York are to separate after six years of marriage.^[4] Unemployment has reached 2,647,300 - 9.4% of the British workforce, which is the highest level since late 1987.
• 24 March - The editors of Punch, Britain's oldest satirical magazine, announce that the magazine will be discontinued due to massive losses. It has been in circulation since 1841.^[5]
• 25 March - Aldershot Football Club, bottom of the Football League, go out of business after a two-year financial crisis that saw them unable to pay off hundreds of thousands of pounds of debts. The club was founded in 1926 and had been members of the Football League since 1932.
• 26 March - Television entertainer Roy Castle (59), who currently presents Record Breakers, announces that he is suffering from lung cancer.
• 1 April - The latest opinion polls show a narrow lead for Labour, which would force a hung parliament in the election next week.
• 3 April - Gary Lineker, who is due to leave Tottenham Hotspur at the end of this season and join Grampus Eight of Japan, is voted FWA Player of the Year.
• 5 April - At his pre-election speech, Neil Kinnock promises a strong economic recovery if he leads the Labour party to election victory on Thursday.
• 7 April - The final MORI poll before the general election shows Labour one point ahead of the Tories on 39%, while the Liberal Democrats continue to enjoy a surge in popularity with 20% of the vote. [2]
• 9 April - United Kingdom general election, 1992: The Conservative Party (UK) are re-elected for a fourth term, in their first election under John Major's leadership.^[2]
• 10 April - Provisional Irish Republican Army detonates two bombs at the Baltic Exchange in central London, killing three.^[3] With the Tory government's victory in the election confirmed, John Major assures the British public that he will lead the country out of recession that has blighted it for nearly two years.
• 11 April - Publication of The Sun newspaper's iconic front page headline It's The Sun Wot Won It, as the tabloid newspaper claims it won the general election for the Tories with its anti-Kinnock front page headline on election day.
• 12 April - Manchester United win the Football League Cup for the first time in their history with a 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest at Wembley Stadium in which Brian McClair scores the only goal of the game.
• 13 April -
  • - Neil Kinnock resigns as leader of the Labour Party following the defeat of his party in the General Election.^[6]
    • - Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, announces her divorce from Mark Phillips after 18 years of marriage, having separated in 1989.
• 26 April - Leeds United are confirmed champions of the Football League First Division (which becomes the FA Premier League next season) as they defeat Sheffield United 3-2, while their nearest rivals Manchester United lose 2-0 at Liverpool, who will also collect silverware for this season if they win the FA Cup final on 9 May.
• 27 April - Betty Boothroyd is elected as Speaker of the House of Commons, the first woman to hold the position.^[2]
• 6 May - John Major promises British voters improved services and more money to spend.
• 9 May - Liverpool F.C. win the FA Cup for the fifth time with a 2-0 win over Sunderland in the final at Wembley Stadium. Ian Rush scores his fifth goal in an FA Cup final for Liverpool (having scored twice in the 1986 and 1989 finals) and the other goal comes from Michael Thomas. It is their first major trophy under the management of Graeme Souness, who was appointed just over a year ago.
• 12 May - Plans are unveiled for a fifth terminal at Heathrow Airport, which is now the busiest airport in the world.
• May - 22 "Maastricht Rebels" vote against the government the second reading of the European Communities (Amendment) Bill.
• 17 May - Nigel Mansell gains the 26th Grand Prix win of his racing career at Imola, San Marino. He is now the most successful British driver in Grand Prix races, and the fourth worldwide.
• 22 May - Stephen Owen is cleared of attempted murder at Maidstone Crown Court, six months after shooting Kevin Taylor, the lorry driver who had caused his son's death while under the influence of alcohol in 1988.
• 25 May - Blackburn Rovers, owned by steel baron Jack Walker and managed by the Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish, defeat Leicester City 1-0 in the Second Division playoff final at Wembley Stadium to seal a place in the new FA Premier League and end a 26-year exile from the top division of English football.
• 28 May - David Platt, the England midfielder who joined Bari from Aston Villa last year, becomes the most expensive British player when an £8million move sees him join Juventus.
• 7 June - A biography of Princess Diana, written by Andrew Morton, is published, revealing that she has made five suicide attempts in desperation over the uncaring attitude of Prince Charles.
• 11 June - The England national football team begin their European Championships campaign in Sweden with a goalless draw against Denmark in Malmo.
• 14 June - England draw 0-0 with France in Malmo, meaning that they have to defeat host nation Sweden in their final group game if they are to qualify for the semi finals.
• 16 June - Diana: Her True Story, a controversial new book about the Princess of Wales is published. Revelations in the book include Diana's five suicide attempts in the last 10 years, which followed her discovery that Prince Charles had resumed an affair with his former girlfriend Camilla Parker-Bowles shortly after Prince William's birth in 1982.^[7]
• 17 June - Almost 2,700,000 people are now out of work as unemployment continues to rise. There is disappointment for the England football team whose 2-1 defeat against Sweden ends their hopes of reaching the semi finals of the European Championships. It is the last international appearance for Gary Lineker, the 31-year-old England striker who has scored 48 goals in his career - one short of the record set by Bobby Charlton more than 20 years ago.
• 25 June - GDP is reported to have fallen by 0.5% in the first quartr of this year as the recession continues.
• 26 June - Despite England's dismal performance at the European Championships, there is joy for an English based footballer at the final of the competition as Denmark triumph 2-0 against Germany with Manchester United's Peter Schmeichel in goal. Also in the line-up is former Manchester United defender John Sivebaek (now playing France), while one of Denmark's goals was scored by midfielder John Jensen who is reportedly a transfer target for English club Arsenal.
• 30 June - Margaret Thatcher takes her place in the House of Lords as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven, 19 months after resigning as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.^[8]
• 2 July - The IRA admits to murdering three men whose bodies were found by the army at various locations around Armagh last night. The men are believed to have been informers employed by MI5.^[9]
• 10 July - One of the first major signs of economic recovery is shown as inflation falls from 4.3% to 3.9%.
• 17 July - John Smith is elected leader of the Labour Party.
• 21 July - British Airways announces a takeover of USAir.
• 23 July -
  • - 62 people are arrested in connection with rioting in Blackburn, Burnley and Huddersfield.
    • - Three months after the general election, Labour finish four points ahead of the Tories in a MORI poll with 43% of the vote. [3]
• 25 July–9 August - Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and win 5 gold, 3 silver and 12 bronze medals.
• 27 July - Alan Shearer becomes Britain's most expensive footballer in a £3.6million transfer from Southampton to Blackburn Rovers. Shearer, who turns 22 next month, was a member of England's Euro 92 national squad, having scored on his debut in a friendly international against France earlier this year.^[10]
• 15 August - The first Premier League football matches are played. Brian Deane of Sheffield United is the scorer of the first Premier League goal. Meanwhile, financially-troubled Division Three side Maidstone United have their first game of the season cancelled and are given 48 hours to guarantee that they will be able to fulfill this season's fixtures.
• 17 August - Maidstone United resign from the Football League after the club's directors gave up hope of being able to fulfill this season's fixtures. They only joined the Football League three years ago.
• 20 August - Intimate photographs of the Duchess of York and a Texan businessman, John Bryan, are published in the Daily Mirror.^[11]
• 27 August - Hugh McKiben (aged 19) becomes the 3,000th victim of the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland which began in 1969.
• 5 September - Italian supercar manufacturer Ferrari announces that its Formula One division will be designing and manufacturing cars in Britain.
• 13 September - Nigel Mansell announces his retirement from Formula One racing.
• 16 September - "Black Wednesday" sees the government suspending Britain's membership of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism following a wave of speculation against the Pound.^[12]
• 17 September - Unemployment is at a five-year high of 2,845,508, and experts warn that it will soon hit 3,000,000 for the first time since early 1987.
• 24 September - David Mellor resigns as Heritage Minister amid tabloid press speculation that he had been conducting an adulterous affair with actress Antonia de Sancha.^[13]
• 30 September - The British Mint introduces a new 10-pence coin which is lighter and smaller than the previous coin.
• 9 October - Two suspected IRA bombs explode in London, but there are no injuries.
• 13 October - The government announces the closure of a third of Britain's deep coal mines, with the loss of 31,000 jobs.^[14]
• 14 October - The England football team begins its qualification campaign for the 1994 FIFA World Cup with a 1-1 draw against Norway at Wembley Stadium.
• 15 October - The value of the pound sterling is reported to have dipped further as the recession deepens.
• 16 October - The government attempts to tackle the recession by cutting the base interest rate to 8% - the lowest since June 1988.
• 19 October - John Major announces that only 10 deep coal mines will be closed.
• 25 October - Around 100,000 people protest in London against the government's pit closure plans.
• 26 October - British Steel announces a 20% production cut as a result in falling demand from its worldwide customer base.
• 30 October - IRA terrorists force a taxi driver to drive to Downing Street at gunpoint and once there they detonate a bomb, but there are no injuries.
• 11 November - The Church of England votes to allow women to become priests.^[15]
• 12 November - British Telecom reports a £1.03billion profit for the half year ending 30 September - a fall of 36.2% on the previous half year figure, as a result of the thousands of redundancies it has made this year due to the recession. Meanwhile, unemployment has continued to climb and is now approaching 2,900,000. It has risen every month since June 1990, when it was below 1,700,000. The current high level of unemployment has not been seen since mid 1987.
• 17 November - Vinnie Jones, the Wimbledon midfielder, receives a record £20,000 fine and a six-month suspension (the latter suspended for three years) for bringing the game into disrepute following his comments in the video "Soccer's Hard Men".
• 19 November - The High Court rules that doctors can disconnect feeding tubes from Tony Bland, a 21-year-old man who has been in a coma since the Hillsborough disaster on 15 April 1989. Mr Bland, of Liverpool, suffered massive brain damage in the disaster which claimed the lives of 95 people and doctors treating him say that there is no reasonable possibility that he could recover consciousness and in his current condition would be unlikely to survive more than five years.^[16]
• 20 November - Fire breaks out in Windsor Castle, badly damaging the castle and causing over £50 million worth of damage.^[17]
• 24 November - the Queen describes this year as an Annus Horribilis (horrible year) due to various scandals damaging the image of the Royal Family, as well as the Windsor Castle fire.
• 26 November - The Queen is to be taxed from next year, marking the end of almost 60 tax-free years for the British monarchy.^[18]
• 3 December - 65 people are injured by an IRA bomb in Manchester city centre. There are no fatalities.^[19]
• 9 December - The separation of Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales is announced following months of speculation about their marriage, but there are no plans for a divorce and prime minister John Major announces that Diana could still become Queen.^[2]
• 11 December - The last MORI poll of 1992 shows Labour 13 points ahead of the Tories on 47%. [ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8280050.stm]
• 12 December - Marriage of Anne, Princess Royal, and Timothy Laurence.^[2]
• 16 December - Four people are injured by IRA bombs in Oxford Street, London.
• 17 December - The national unemployment level has risen to more than 2,900,000, with the unemployment rate in the south-east of England now above 10% for the first time.
• 23 December - The Queen's Royal Christmas Message is leaked in The Sun newspaper, 48 hours ahead of its traditional Christmas Day broadcast on television.^[20]
• 31 December - The ORACLE teletext service is discontinued on ITV and Channel 4 to be replaced by a new service operated by the Teletext Ltd. consortium. It had been launched on ITV in 1974 and had been used by Channel 4 since its inception in 1982.

Undated

• Inflation has fallen to a six-year low to 3.7%. [4]

Publications

• Douglas Adams' novel Mostly Harmless.
• Iain Banks' novel The Crow Road.
• Louis de Bernières' novel The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman.
• Nick Hornby's novel Fever Pitch.
• Ian McEwan's novel Black Dogs.
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels Small Gods and Lords and Ladies; and his Johnny Maxwell novel Only You Can Save Mankind.
• Barry Unsworth's novel Sacred Hunger.

Births

• 14 February - Freddie Highmore, actor
• 16 March - Michael Perham, youngest person to sail the Atlantic Ocean single-handed
• 3 December - Joseph McManners, actor

Deaths

• 2 January - Joyce Butler, Labour Co-operative Member of Parliament (born 1910)
• 9 January - Bill Naughton, playwright (born 1910)
• 11 January - W. G. Hoskins, historian (born 1908)
• 23 January - Freddie Bartholomew, actor (born 1924)
• 16 February - Angela Carter, novelist and journalist (born 1940)
• March - Elfrida Vipont, children's author (born 1902)
• March 1 – Howard Payne, hammer thrower (born 1931)
• 2 March - Jackie Mudie, footballer (born 1930)
• 3 March - G. L. S. Shackle, economist (born 1903)
• 10 April - Peter D. Mitchell, biochemist (born 1920)
• 19 April
  • Benny Hill, comedian and actor (born 1924)
  • Frankie Howerd, comedian and actor (born 1917)
• 4 May - Gregor Mackenzie, Labour Party politician (born 1927)
• 13 May - F. E. McWilliam, sculptor (born 1909)
• 22 May - Elizabeth David, cookery writer (born 1913)
• 24 May
  • Francis Thomas Bacon, engineer (born 1904)
  • Joan Sanderson, actress (born 1912)
• 27 May - Peter Jenkins, journalist (born 1934)
• 3 June - Robert Morley, actor (born 1908)
• 20 June - Charles Groves, conductor (born 1915)
• 25 June - James Stirling, architect (born 1926)
• 29 June - Elie Kedourie, historian (born 1926, Iraq)
• 10 July - Albert Pierrepoint, Chief Executioner (born 1905)
• 23 July - Rosemary Sutcliff, novelist (born 1920)
• 26 July - Richard Martin Bingham, Member of Parliament and judge (born 1915)
• 31 July - Leonard Cheshire, RAF pilot (born 1917)
• 1 August - Leslie Fox, mathematician (born 1918)
• 9 August - Patrick Devlin, Baron Devlin, judge (born 1905)
• 23 August - Donald Stewart, Scottish National Party Member of Parliament (born 1920)
• 29 August - Mary Norton, author (born 1903)
• 5 September - Christopher Trace, actor and television presented (born 1933)
• 19 September - Geraint Evans, baritone (born 1922)
• 28 September - William Douglas-Home, tank officer, writer and dramatist (born 1912)
• October 3 - Ken Wilmshurst, triple jumper (born 1931)
• 6 October - Denholm Elliott, actor (born 1922)
• 19 October - Magnus Pyke, scientist (born 1908)
• 29 October - Kenneth MacMillan, ballet dancer and choreographer (born 1929)
• 22 December - Ted Willis, Baron Willis, television dramatist (born (1914)
• 25 December - Monica Dickens, author and great granddaughter of Charles Dickens (born 1915)
• 26 December - Edmund Davies, Baron Edmund-Davies, judge (born 1906)
• 28 December - Cardew Robinson, comic (born 1917)

References

See also