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Events from the year 1996 in the United Kingdom.
[edit] Incumbents
[edit] Events
- January 18- Six major environmental organisations add their support to the campaign over the Newbury By-pass in Berkshire.
- February 5- the first genetically modified food products go on sale in the UK.
- February 9- a large bomb explodes in the London Docklands area, near to South Quay DLR station, killing two people and injuring up to 40. The bomb was the responsibility of the IRA, and marks the end of a 17-month ceasefire.
- February 9- The Parole Board goes public with its recommendation that Moors Murderer Myra Hindley should be moved to an open prison. Hindley, 53 and in her 30th year of imprisonment, is currently being held at Durham Prison, but if Home Secretary Michael Howard backs the Parole Board's recommendation, Hindley could soon be transferred to a prison with a more relaxed regime.
- February 18- a bomb explodes on a London bus in Central London, killing the IRA bomber transporting the device, and injuring several people.
- March 13- The Dunblane massacre - A gunman kills 16 children, their teacher and himself at a primary school in Dunblane, Stirling. The killer, who wounded 13 other children and another teacher, is quickly identified as 43-year-old former scout leader Thomas Hamilton.
- May 2- The Football Association confirms that Glenn Hoddle will be appointed as coach of the England national football team after the upcoming European Championships.
- May- The Duke and Duchess of York complete their divorce proceedings.
- June 8- The 1996 European Football Championship, hosted by England begins. The first match, England vs Switzerland takes place at Wembley Stadium, London. It ends in a 1-1 draw.
- June 13- Guernsey legalises abortion, 86 years after it was criminalised on the island.
- June 15- A massive bomb explodes in Manchester city centre, devastating the city's commercial district.
- July 5- Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born at the Roslin Institute in Scotland,
- July 8
- July 10- Police find the bodies of 45-year-old Lin Russell and her six-year-old daughter Megan near village of Nonington in Kent. Lin's other daughter, nine-year-old Josie, survived the attack with massive head injuries. The killer is believed to have performed the attack with a hammer.
- July 15 - Horrett Campbell, 33, is arrested on seven counts of attempted murder following last week's machete attack at a Wolverhampton nursery school.
- August 28- The Prince and Princess of Wales complete their divorce proceedings. The Princess of Wales loses her style of Royal Highness and assumes the style, Diana, Princess of Wales.
- September - Ford launches its revolutionary new Ka city car, which makes use of a shortened Fiesta chassis.
- October 16- The Government announces plans to ban handguns in the UK, following the Dunblane massacre.
- November 18 - Channel Tunnel fire.
- December 1 - Lee Harvey, a 25-year-old Alvechurch man, is stabbed to death in a reported road rage attack on a country lane near Redditch in Worcestershire.
- December 9 - A jury at Stafford Crown Court finds Horrett Campbell guilty on all seven counts of attempted murder relating to the Wolverhampton nursery machete attack five months ago.
- December 19 - Lee Harvey's girlfriend Tracie Andrews is charged with his murder, less than three weeks after his death was reported as the result of a "road rage" attack. She is freed on bail.
[edit] Unknown dates
[edit] Births
[edit] Deaths
- 11 February - Cyril Poole, cricketer (b. 1921)
- 14 February - Bob Paisley, footballer and football manager (b. 1919)
- 27 February - Pat Smythe, show jumper (b. 1928)
- 25 March - John Snagge, radio personality (b. 1904)
- 20 April - Christopher Robin Milne, author and bookseller (b. 1920)
- 20 May - Jon Pertwee, actor (b. 1919)
- 2 June - Leon Garfield, children's author (b. 1921)
- 4 August - Geoff Hamilton, television presenter (b. 1936)
- 16 October - Eric Malpass, novelist (b. 1910)
- 26 November - Michael Bentine, comedian and comic actor (b. 1922)
- 9 December - Mary Leakey, archaeologist (b. 1913)
- 11 December - Willie Rushton, comedian, actor, and cartoonist (b. 1937)
- 11 December - W. G. G. Duncan Smith, World War II pilot (b. 1914)
- 16 December - Quentin Bell, biographer and art historian (b. 1910)
[edit] References
