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2001 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003

News by month

Jan - Feb - Mar - Apr - May - Jun Jul - Aug - Sep - Oct - Nov - Dec

Sport and Music

British and Irish current events

2001 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

2001 in British television

2001 in British music

2001 in British radio

Events from the year 2001 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister - Tony Blair, Labour Party

Events

• 5 January - A report by the Department of Health suggests that Dr Harold Shipman may have killed more than 300 patients since the 1970s.
• 8 January - The High Court rules that the identities and whereabouts of the two killers of James Bulger are to be kept secret for the rest of their lives. Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both now aged 19, are expected to be released from custody later this year.^[1]
• 9 January - Sven-Göran Eriksson begins his job as manager of the England football team six months ahead of schedule, having resigned from his previous job as Lazio manager. He had signed a five-year contract with the Football Association on 30 October 2000 to succeed Kevin Keegan.
• 12 January - Marie Therese Kouao and Carl Manning are sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of their niece Victoria Climbie, who died last year after suffering horrific abuse and neglect at the hands of the couple in their London home. Victoria (aged eight) had been living with the pair since her parents sent her to England in order to receive a good education.^[2]
• 24 January - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Mandelson resigns from the cabinet for the second time.^[3]
• 25 January - After briefly slipping behind the Tories in an opinion poll four months ago, Labour are looking all set for victory in the forthcoming general election as they score 49% in the latest MORI poll and open up a 20-point lead over the Tories. [1]
• 31 January - The Scottish Court in the Netherlands convicts a Libyan and acquits another for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which crashed in Lockerbie in 1988.
• 19 February - 2001 UK foot and mouth crisis begins.^[4]
• 24-27 February - Patient Tony Collins spends 77 hours and 30 minutes on a hospital trolley outside the toilets in the Princess Margaret Hospital, Swindon.
• 25 February - Liverpool beat Birmingham City on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the Football League Cup final - the first cup final to be played at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, since Wembley closed for redevelopment.
• 28 February - The rail crash near Selby kills 10 people.^[5]
• 8 March - The wreckage of Donald Campbell's speedboat Bluebird is raised from the bottom of Coniston Water in Cumbria, 34 years after Campbell was killed in an attempt to break the world water speed record.
• 15 March - Donald Campbell's body is recovered from Lake Coniston, 34 years after he died in an attempt to break the land water speed record.
• 23 April - Jane Andrews, a former personal assistant to the Duchess of York, goes on trial accused of murdering her fiancee Thomas Cressman.
• 29 April - Census of population in the United Kingdom.
• 1 May - an anti-capitalist demonstration in London, part of worldwide protests, turns violent.^[6]
• 16 May -
  • Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott punches a protester who threw an egg at him in Rhyl.^[7]
  • Jane Andrews is sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of murdering Thomas Cressman.^[8]
• 7 June - General Election: Labour Party attains a second successive General Election victory.^[6]
• 8 June - William Hague announces his resignation as Conservative Party leader after four years.
• 17 June - Cardinal Winning, head of the Roman Catholic church in Scotland, dies of a heart attack aged 76.^[9]
• 25 June - A race riot breaks out in Burnley.^[10]
• 29 June - The government announces plans to build a £3million fountain in memory of Princess Diana at Hyde Park, London.^[11]
• July - MG Rover launches a new range of MG-badged performance variants of its Rover family cars.
• 2 July - Barry George is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of the television presenter Jill Dando.^[12]
• 7 July - Two people are stabbed in race riots in Bradford, West Yorkshire.^[13]
• 16 July - The Labour government suffers its first parliamentary defeat over the sacking of Gwyneth Dunwoody and Donald Anderson as chairs of select committees on transport and foreign affairs.^[14]
• 19 July - Politician and novelist Jeffrey Archer is sentenced to four years in prison for perjury and perverting the course of justice.^[2]
• 29 July - A victim support group condemns a reported £11,000 payout by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority to the parents of murdered Sarah Payne as "derisory".
• 7 August - The government takes an unprecedented step with the £27million nationalisation of a private hospital near Harley Street in London.^[15]
• 10 August - Former Conservative Party MP Neil Hamilton and his wife Christine are arrested on suspicion of sexual assault.^[16]
• 16 August - Royal butler Paul Burrell charged with the theft of items belonging to Diana, Princess of Wales.^[17]
• 31 August - Neil and Christine Hamilton are cleared in connection with the sexual assault allegations.
• 5 September - Peter Bray completes the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a kayak.^[18]
• 7 September - One million children in over 3,000 schools participate in an experiment to see if it is possible to create earthquakes by all jumping off chairs.^[19]
• 10 September - The Bank of Scotland and the Halifax merge to form HBOS plc.
• 11 September
  • September 11 terrorist attacks: 67 UK nationals perish in the attacks, which was the second largest loss of life of any nation only behind the United States itself.
  • One Canada Square, the UK's tallest building, and the London Stock Exchange are evacuated following the attacks in the United States.
  • Prime Minister Tony Blair cancels a speech he was due to give to the TUC, and pledges to "stand shoulder to shoulder" with the United States.
• 13 September
  • The Queen orders the Changing of the Guard ceremony to be paused for a two minute silence, followed by the playing of the American national anthem, in tribute to the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
  • Ian Duncan Smith becomes leader of the Conservative Party after winning the leadership election.^[20]
• 14 September - National memorial service held at St Paul's Cathedral for the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
• 7 October - The United States invades Afghanistan. Royal Navy submarines participate using Tomahawk cruise missiles.^[21]
• 23 October - Provisional Irish Republican Army announces that it has begun to decommission its weapons.^[22]
• 25 October - The British Crime Survey reveals that crime rates are at their lowest levels since 1981.
• 9 November - Debut of the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in London.^[18]
• 12 November - Greek authorities hold 12 British plane-spotters on charges of spying.^[23]
• 22 November - The Labour government's upturn in popularity continues as the latest MORI poll puts them 31 points ahead of the Tories on 56%. [2]
• 10 December
  • V. S. Naipaul wins the Nobel Prize in Literature "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories".^[24]
  • Tim Hunt and Paul Nurse win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Leland H. Hartwell "for their discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle".^[25]
• 11 December - The Post Office announces that up to 30,000 postal workers could be made redundant over the next 18 months as part of a £1.2billion cost-cutting package.^[26]
• 12 December - Roy Whiting is found guilty at Lewes Crown Court of the murder of Sarah Payne, who was found dead near Pulborough, West Sussex, in July last year. It is then revealed that Whiting already had a conviction for abducting and molesting an eight-year-old girl in 1995. The trial judge sentences Whiting, a 42-year-old former mechanic, to life imprisonment and says that it is a rare case in which he would recommend to the appropriate authorities that life should mean life. It is only the 24th time that such a recommendation has been made in British legal history.^[2]
• 21 December - The Metropolitan Police storm a cargo ship in the English Channel fearing that it may contain terrorist material.^[27]
• 22 December - British born terrorist, Richard Reid, attempts to blow up American Airlines Flight 63 going from Paris' Charles De Gaulle International Airport to Miami International Airport, using explosives hidden in his shoes.

Publications

• 29 October - Roger Hargreaves' children's book Mr. Cheeky celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Mr. Men series.^[18]
• Ian McEwan's novel Atonement.
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels Thief of Time, The Last Hero and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents. The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents wins the Carnegie Medal.

Births

Deaths

• 11 January - Michael Williams, actor (born 1935)
• 30 January - Johnnie Johnson, pilot (born 1915)
• 23 February - Marcus Sieff, Baron Sieff of Brimpton, businessman (born 1913)
• 27 February - Stan Cullis, footballer and football manager (born 1915)
• 10 March - Michael Woodruff, surgeon and scientist (born 1911)
• 31 March - David Rocastle, footballer (born 1967)
• 11 April - Harry Secombe, entertainer (born 1921)
• 26 April - Bryon Butler, sports journalist (born 1934)
• 12 May - Simon Raven, novelist (born 1927)
• 17 June - Thomas Winning, Archbishop of Glasgow, (born 1925)
• 28 June - Joan Sims, actress (born 1930)
• 5 August - Aaron Flahavan, footballer (born 1975)
• 6 August - Dorothy Tutin, actress (born 1930)
• 19 August - Les Sealey, footballer (born 1957)
• 20 August - Fred Hoyle, astronomer (born 1915)
• 12 October - Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, politician (born 1907)
• 15 October - Jamie Cann, politician (born 1946)
• 5 November - Roy Boulting, film director and producer (born 1913)
• 14 November - Charlotte Coleman, actress (born 1968)
• 23 November - Mary Whitehouse, TV campaigner (born 1910)
• 29 November - George Harrison, musician and film producer (born 1943)
• 7 December - David Astor, newspaper publisher (born 1912)
• 26 December - Nigel Hawthorne, actor (born 1929)

References

See also