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Events from the year 1990 in the United Kingdom.
[edit] Incumbents
[edit] Events
- January - Vauxhall enters the coupe segment of the car market with the launch of its Cavalier-based Calibra, which is the first coupe built by General Motors in Europe since the demise of the Opel Manta in 1988.
- January 25 - Recent hurricanes are reported to have killed 39 people in England and Wales.
- February 15 - The UK and Argentina restore diplomatic links after 8 years. Diplomatic ties were broken off links in response to Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982.
- March 15 - Iraq hangs British journalist Farzad Bazoft for spying. Daphne Parish, a British nurse, is sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment as an accomplice
- March 31 - 200,000 protesters in Poll Tax Riots in London
- April 1 - Riot at Strangeways Prison in Manchester, lasting for over 4 weeks
- April 11 - Customs and Excise officers seize parts of an Iraqi supergun in Middlesbrough.
- May - Rover Group launches a heavily facelifted version of its Metro, which has been the best-selling car of the combine previously known as British Leyland and more recently Austin Rover since its 1980 launch.
- May 19 - British agriculture Minister John Gummer feeds a hamburger to his 5-year-old daughter to counter rumours about the spread of Mad cow disease and its transmission to humans.
- May 24 - Bobby Robson announces that he will be leaving his job as England national football team manager after this summer's World Cup to take charge of the Dutch club PSV Eindhoven.
- July 4 - England's chances of winning the World Cup are ended by a penalty shoot-out defeats at the hand of West Germany in the semi-finals.
- July 15 - The Football Association names Graham Taylor as the new England manager. Taylor, 46, recently took Aston Villa to second place in the English league, and also reached an FA Cup final with his previous club Watford.
- July 20 - An IRA bomb explodes at Stock Exchange Tower, the base of the London Stock Exchange.
- July 30 - IRA car bomb kills British MP Ian Gow, a staunch unionist.
- August 1 - British Airways Flight 149 is seized by the Iraqi Army at Kuwait International Airport following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
- August 23 - British hostages in Iraq are paraded on TV.
- September - Ford launches the MK4 Escort and Orion, while Nissan launches the NMUK-built Primera.
- September 19 - The IRA try to assassinate Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Terry at his home near Stafford, England. Hit by at least nine bullets, the former Governor of Gibraltar survives.
- October 8 - Pound Sterling joins the Exchange Rate Mechanism
- October 18 - Eastbourne by-election won by the Liberal Democrat David Bellotti
- November - British Sky Broadcasting founded as a merger between Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting. [1]
- November 1 - Geoffrey Howe, Deputy Prime Minister resigns over the government's European policy.
- November 13 - Geoffrey Howe makes a dramatic resignation speech in the House of Commons, attacking the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher's hostility towards the EC.
- November 20 - Margaret Thatcher fails to win outright victory in a leadership contest for the Conservative Party.
- November 22 - Margaret Thatcher announces she will resign as Leader of the Conservative Party and therefore as Prime Minister.
- November 28 - Margaret Thatcher resigns as Prime Minister. John Major is elected Leader of the Conservative Party, defeating Douglas Hurd and Michael Heseltine, and is appointed Prime Minister by the Queen.
- December 1 - Channel Tunnel workers from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 meters beneath the English Channel seabed, establishing the first ground connection between the United Kingdom and the mainland of Europe since the last ice age
- December 11 - The first British hostages in Iraq released by Saddam Hussein arrive back in the UK.
- December 13 - Russell Bishop is sentenced to life imprisonment (with a recommended minimum of 15 years) for the abduction, indecent assault and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl in Brighton earlier this year. Bishop, 24, was cleared of murdering two other girls in 1987.
- December 19 - Tony Adams, the Arsenal captain and England defender, is sentenced to four months in prison for a drink-driving offence committed in Southend-on-Sea on 6 May this year.
[edit] Births
[edit] Deaths
- Victor Cavendish-Bentinck, 9th Duke of Portland
- 7 January - Robert McAlpine, Baron McAlpine of Moffat
- 8 January - Terry-Thomas, actor (b. 1911)
- 14 January - Gordon Jackson, actor (b. 1923)
- 2 February - Kathleen Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn- the Mistress of the Robes to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
- 20 March - Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild
- 8 May - Tomás Cardinal Ó Fiaich, clergyman (b. 1923)
- 30 July - Ian Gow, MP for Eastbourne
- 6 September - Len Hutton, cricketer (b. 1916)
- 5 October - Peter Taylor, football manager (b. 1928)
- 5 November - Erich Heller, essayist (b. 1911)
- 7 November - Lawrence Durrell, writer (b. 1912)
- 23 November - Roald Dahl, author
[edit] References