1988 in the United Kingdom

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Image:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg 1988 in the United Kingdom: Image:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
Other years
1986 \| 1987 \| 1988 \| 1989 \| 1990
Sport and Music
British and Irish current events
1988 English cricket season
Football Image:Flag of England.svg England \| Image:Flag of Scotland.svg Scotland
1988 in British music

Events from the year 1988 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

Image:PA103cockpit4.png

21 December — Wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103

19 January - Quadriplegic Dublin-born writer Christopher Nolan, 21, attains the Whitbread Book of the Year award for his autobiography Under the Clock.
3 February - Nurses throughout the UK strike for higher pay and more cash for the National Health Service.^[1]
5 February - The first Red Nose Day raises £15 million for charity.^[2]
6 March - The SAS shoot dead 3 unarmed Provisional Irish Republican Army members in Gibraltar.^[3]
10 March - The Prince of Wales narrowly avoids death in an avalanche while on a ski-ing holiday in Switzerland. Major Hugh Lindsay, former equerry to the Queen, is killed.^[4]
16 March - Milltown Cemetery attack: An Ulster Freedom Fighters terrorist, Michael Stone attacks and kills six mourners at the funeral of the three IRA members who died in Gibraltar.^[5]
19 March - Two British Army Corporals are killed by a mob after accidentally driving into a funeral cortege for the victims of the March 16 terrorist attack.^[6]
6 May - Graeme Hick makes English cricket history by scoring 405 runs in a county championship match.^[7]
14 May - Wimbledon F.C., who have been Football League members for just 11 seasons and First Division members for two, win the FA Cup with a 1-0 win over league champions Liverpool at Wembley. Lawrie Sanchez scored the winning goal in the second half, while Liverpool's John Aldridge missed a penalty in the first half.
6 July- Piper Alpha disaster oil rig in the North Sea explodes and results in the death of 167 workers.^[8]
6 July- A contractor's relief driver pours 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate into the wrong tank at a water treatment plant near Camelford in Cornwall, causing extensive pollution to the local water supply.
28 July - Paddy Ashdown is elected as leader of the Liberal Democrats.^[9]
30 September - A Gibraltar jury decides that the 3 IRA members killed on March 6 were killed "lawfully".^[10]
October - Vauxhall launches the third generation of its popular Cavalier family saloon.
12 October - As Pope John Paul II addresses the European Parliament, Ian Paisley heckles and denounces him as the Antichrist.
13 October - the House of Lords rules that extracts of the banned book Spycatcher can be published in the media. ^[11]
3 December - Health minister Edwina Currie provokes outrage by stating that most of Britain's egg production is infected with the salmonella bacteria, causing an immediate nationwide fall in egg sales.^[12]
12 December - 35 people are killed in a collision between three trains at Clapham in London.^[13]
21 December - Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway and kills a total of 270 people - including all 259 who were on board. It is believed that the cause of the explosion was a terrorist bomb.^[14]