BRITAIN AND THE WORLD SINCE 1953
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| Jan2 | Erica Roe runs across the pitch at Twickenham during a Rugby Union match between England and Australia |
| Jan9 | The famous London department store Swan and Edgar in Piccadilly closed. It had been in business since the early nineteenth century |
| Jan10 | The temperature fell to -26.1 °C, the lowest ever recorded in England, at Newport in Shropshire. At Braemar in Scotland the temperature reaches -27.2C which equals the lowest temperature ever recorded in Great Britain |
| Jan11 | Mark Thatcher, son of the British Prime Minister, disappeared in the Sahara while on the Paris-Dakar rally. He was later spotted by a search plane and rescued (14 Jan) |
| Jan13 | 77 people died in an air crash in the Potomac River, in Washington, D.C. |
| Jan19 | The new Billingsgate Fish Market at west India Dock Tower Hamlets opens for business at 05.30a.m. |
| "Mad" Mike Hoare and four mercenaries are charged in South Africa with hijacking an aircraft after an abortive coup attempt in the Seychelles | |
| Jan21 | Lands End in Cornwall is sold for £1.75 million |
| Jan26 | Unemployment reached 3 million in Britain (1 in 8 of working population) |
| Jan26 | Mauno Koivisto is elected the President of Finland |
| Jan30 | Serious public disturbances break out in the St Pauls district of Bristol |
| Feb5 | Laker Airways collapses leaving 6000 passengers stranded and debts of £270 million |
| Feb6 | Thirtieth anniversary of Queen Elizabeths accession to the throne |
| Feb10 | Royal Mint introduce the new 20p and £1 coins that become legal tender today |
| Feb15 | 84 men were killed when a huge oil-drilling rig, the "Ocean Ranger," sank off the coast of Newfoundland during a fierce storm. |
| Feb19 | The De Lorean Car factory in Belfast is put into receivership. It eventually closes in October with the loss of 1500 jobs |
| Mar4 | The Conservative government gives official sanction for satellite television |
| Mar18 | An Argentinian scrap metal dealer raises the Argentinian flag in South Georgia |
| Apr2 | Argentina invades Falkland (Malvinas) Islands. A task force leaves Portsmouth three days later |
| Apr3 | Grittar ridden by Dick Saunders wins the Grand National at Aintree. Geraldine Rees becomes the first woman to complete the National course on a horse called Cheers |
| May2 | British submarine sank the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano with the loss of more than 350 lives. Two days later the HMS Sheffield is sunk |
| May 9 | The second London Marathon is run with 15,758 people completing the course |
| May12 | Spanish priest Juan Hernandes tries to stab the Pope with a bayonet during the latters pilgrimage to the Fatima shrine |
| May26 | Kielder Water in Northumbria is officially opened by the Queen. It is the largest man made lake in Britain. |
| May28 | Pope John Paul II arrived in Britain on the first Papal visit there since 1531. During the tour which lasted until 2 June he addressed crowds of 350,00 at Coventry,300,000 at Bellahouston Park (Glasgow) and 200,000 at Speke in Liverpool |
| May29 | The Battle of Goose Green - 1400 Argentinian prisoners are taken |
| May30 | Spain becomes a member of NATO |
| Jun2 | At the University of Berkeley in California Professor Diogenes Angelokos is seriously injured by a bomb. The FBI begin their hunt for the person they term the "Unabomber" |
| Jun9 | The 20p (84% copper 16%Nickel) coin goes into circulation with 300 million being minted |
| Jun13 | In Alberta, Canada 15 members of the Black Leopards Karate Club demolish a house with their bare hands and feet. The owner consented to the destruction |
| Jun14 | Ceasefire in the Falkland Islands |
| Jun19 | The Italian banker Roberto Calvi is found hung from Blackfriars Bridge The following month a Coroners jury return a suicide verdict |
| Jun21 | Birth of Prince William of Wales (9.03 p.m.) at St Marys Hospital Paddington. |
| Jun30 | An extra leap second is added to the end of the day to bring the clock into alignment with solar time. It was the eleventh adjustment since 1972 |
| July3 | Martina Navratilova wins the Women's Singles title at Wimbledon beating Chris Evert Lloyd in the Final. A day later Jimmy Connors beats John McEnroe over five sets to win the Men's Title. It is the first time the final was played on a Sunday |
| July9 | An intruder Michael Fagan visits the Queen in her bedroom for a chat |
| A Boeing 727 crashes into a residential area near New Orleans killing over 150 people | |
| July11 | Italy beat West Germany 3-1 in the World Cup Final held in Madrid |
| Jul20 | Ten soldiers were killed in IRA bomb explosions in London's Hyde Park and Regents Park |
| Aug12 | A JAL passenger plans crashes near Tokyo killing 520 passengers |
| Aug29 | The actress Ingrid Bergman dies of cancer in London |
| Sep5 | The Second World War fighter pilot Douglas Bader dies |
| Sep10 | Pablo Picasso's "Guernica" is returned to Spain after 40 years' custodianship in the USA |
| Sep15 | Princess Grace of Monaco dies from injuries sustained in a car crash the previous day. |
| Sep18 | Lebanese Christian Militia massacre hundreds in the Palestinian Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in West Beruit |
| Sept25 | 400,000 march in Israel demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Menachem Begin |
| Oct1 | Helmut Kohl is elected Chancellor of West Germany |
| Oct2 | The UK Inland Telegram service is ended |
| Oct11 | The Mary Rose Henry V111's flagship is raised from The Solent (sank 1545) |
| Oct19 | John Z DeLorean is arrested for drug trafficking in Los Angeles. The operation was proved to be an entrapment operation set up by the F.B.I. |
| Oct28 | The Socialist Party win the election in Spain - Felipe Gonzales is elected Prime Minister |
| Nov2 | Channel 4 goes on air with the first editions of Brookside and Countdown |
| Nov4 | Lorries up to 38 tonnes allowed on Britain's roads |
| Nov7 | The first public demonstration of the Thames Flood Barrier. The barrier took 8 years to construct and cost £435 million |
| Nov12 | Ex-KGB Head Yuri Andropov was elected First Secretary of the Soviet Communist party following the death of Leonid Brezhnev. |
| Dec7 | Charles Brooks Jnr, a prisoner at Fort Worth, is executed by lethal injection, the first to die by this method in the USA. |
| Dec12 | Women's peace protest at Greenham Common (Cruise missiles arrived 14 Nov 1983). 30,000 women hold hands and form a human chain around the 14.5 km perimeter fence |
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Last Updated 08/10/03 10:59