1980 in the United Kingdom

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Image:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg 1980 in the United Kingdom: Image:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
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Sport and Music
British and Irish current events
1980 English cricket season
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1980 in British music

Events from the year 1980 in the United Kingdom.

1 Incumbents
2 Events
3 Births
4 Deaths
5 References

[edit] Incumbents

Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
Prime Minister - Margaret Thatcher, Conservative

[edit] Events

January 2- Workers at British Steel go on a nationwide strike over pay. ^[1]
February 25- first episode of the popular political sitcom Yes Minister broadcast by the BBC.
20 March - Radio Caroline, the pirate radio station, forced to cease transmission when the ship on which it was based sank. ^[2]
25 March
- The British Olympic Association vote to defy the government, and send athletes to the Olympic Games to be held in Moscow, USSR in the summer of 1980. ^[3]
- Robert Runcie appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury. ^[2]
April 10- The UK reaches agreement with Spain to re-open the Spain-Gibraltar border.
April 30- The Iranian Embassy Siege begins. A six-man terrorist team calling itself the "Democratic Revolutionary Movement for the Liberation of Arabistan" (DRMLA) captures the Embassy of Iran in Prince's Gate, Knightsbridge, central London, taking 26 hostages.
May 5- The SAS storm the Iranian Embassy building, kill 5 out of the 6 terrorists and free all the hostages. ^[4]
May 27- Inquest into the death of Blair Peach returns a verdict of misadventure, sparking a public outcry. ^[5]
June - British Leyland launches its Morris Ital range of family saloons and estates, which are a reworking of the nine-year-old Marina that was one of Britain's most popular cars during the 1970s.
June 17- Secretary of State for Defence, Francis Pym reveals to the House of Commons that US nuclear cruise missiles would be located at RAF Greenham Common, Berkshire, and the disused RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire. ^[6]
June 19- Gunmen attack the British embassy in Iraq, three unknown attackers shot dead by Iraqi security forces. ^[7]
July - Alexandra Palace in London destroyed by fire. ^[8]
September 1 - Ford launches one of the most important new cars of the year - the mark 3 Escort, which is a technological innovation in the small family car market, spelling the end of the traditional rear-wheel drive saloon in favour of the front-wheel drive hatchback. An estate version is also available.
September 11- The Marlborough diamond is stolen in London. ^[9]
September 13- Hercules the bear who had gone missing on a Scottish island filming a Kleenex advert is found. ^[10]
October 8 - British Leyland launches the Austin Metro, a small hatchback which uses the much of the Mini's mechanical design but an entirely different body which offers more space and practicality. Production of the 21-year-old Mini, however, is set to continue for the foreseeable future.
October 10- Margaret Thatcher makes her famous "The lady's not for turning" speech to the Conservative Party conference. ^[11]
October 17- Queen Elizabeth II makes history by becoming the first British monarch to make a state visit to the Vatican. ^[12]
November 10- Michael Foot is elected Leader of the Labour Party. ^[13]
December 8- John Lennon is shot dead in New York. ^[14]
December 28- The Independent Broadcasting Authority award contracts for commercial broadcasting on ITV. TV-am is awarded the first ever breakfast TV contract, and is set to go on air by 1983. ^[15]

Frederick Sanger wins his second Nobel Prize in Chemistry, jointly with Walter Gilbert, "for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids". ^[16]