1979 in the United Kingdom

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Years in the United Kingdom:	1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982
Centuries:	19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
Years:	1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982

Image:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg 1979 in the United Kingdom: Image:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
British and Irish current events
Sport and Music
1979 British Grand Prix
1979 English cricket season
Football Image:Flag of England.svg England \| Image:Flag of Scotland.svg Scotland
1979 in British music
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979

Events from the year 1979 in the United Kingdom.

1 Incumbents
2 Events
- 2.1 Unknown dates
3 Births
4 Deaths
5 References

[edit] Incumbents

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

[edit] Events

January 10 - 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]
January 22 - tens of thousands of public-workers strike in the beginning of what became known as the Winter of Discontent. ^[2]
February 9 - Trevor Francis signs for Nottingham Forest in British football's first £1 million deal. ^[3]
February 22 - Saint Lucia becomes independent of the United Kingdom. ^[4]
March 1
- 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
March 18 - An explosion at the Golborne colliery in Golborne, Greater Manchester, kills three men. ^[5]
March 22 - Sir Richard Sykes, ambassador to the Netherlands, shot dead by Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in The Hague. ^[6]
March 28 - James Callaghan's government loses a motion of confidence by one vote, forcing a general election. ^[7]
March 30 - 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 parking lot. ^[8]
March 31 - The Royal Navy withdraws from Malta.
April 23 - 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]
May 4 - Conservatives win the general election; Margaret Thatcher becomes the new Prime Minister. ^[10]
May 25 - price of milk increases more than 10% to 15 pence a pint. ^[11]
June 22 - former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe cleared in court of the allegations of attempted murder which ruined his career. ^[12]
July 5 - The Queen attends the 1000th annual sitting of the Isle of Man's Parliament, the Tynwald. ^[13]
August 9 - The first British nudist beach is established in Brighton. ^[14]
August 14 - A storm in the Irish Sea hits the Fastnet yacht race. Three lives and dozens of yachts are lost. ^[15]
August 14 - disgraced MP John Stonehouse released from jail. ^[16]
August 27 - Lord Mountbatten 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. ^[17]
August 27- Warrenpoint ambush: eighteen British soldiers killed in Northern Ireland by IRA. ^[18]
September 2 - Police discover twelfth victim of Yorkshire Ripper. ^[19]
September 5 - The Queen leads the mourning at the funeral of Lord Mountbatten.^[20]
September 21 - a Royal Air Force Harrier jet crashes into a house in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire killing two men and a boy. ^[21]
October 27 - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains independence. ^[22]
October 28 - Chairman Hua Guofeng becomes the first Chinese leader to visit Britain. ^[23]
November 9 - 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.
November 13 - The Times published for the first time in nearly a year after a dispute between management and unions over staffing levels and new technology. ^[24]
November 14 - 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.
November 16 - Anthony Blunt named as the fourth man in the Cambridge Spy Ring. ^[25]
November 23 - In Dublin, Ireland, Irish Republican Army member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten.
December 4 - 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.
December 7 - Lord Soames appointed as the transitional governor of Rhodesia to oversee its move to independence.^[26]
December 10 - Daredevil Eddie Kidd performs an 80ft jump on a motorcycle. ^[27]
December 20 - Thatcher government publishes Housing Bill which would give Council House tenants the right to buy their homes from next year. ^[28]

[edit] Unknown dates

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" ^[29]
Godfrey Hounsfield wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Allan McLeod Cormack "for the development of computer assisted tomography". ^[30]