Britain and the World 2002

BRITAIN AND THE WORLD SINCE 1953

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2002

Jan1	The Euro is introduced replacing the national currencies of twelve EEC countries. Only Denmark, Sweden and the UK retain their currency and fail to adopt the Euro
Feb9	After years of ill-health the Queens younger sister Princess Margaret dies. In an unusual break with precedent she is cremated at Slough Crematorium
Feb21	"The Remorseful Day"- the actor John Thaw "Inspector Morse" dies from throat cancer at his Wiltshire home. His funeral was on 25th February
Feb22	Andrew Aston is found guity of murdering 87-year-old war veteran George Dale and 80-year-old Francis Hobley from Stechford, Birmingham at Birmingham Crown Court as well as 24 more violent robberies of elderly people. Mr Justice Butterfield gives Aston 26 life sentences the longest sentence ever given in a British Court
Feb27	Spike Milligan dies at the age of 83 of kidney failure. He was a founder member of The Goons and probably the most infuential comedian in post war Britain
Mar13	Briton Tracy Housel was executed by lethal injection in Georgia USA (Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison ) for the 1986 murder of Jeanne Drew.
Mar30	The Queen Mother dies in her sleep at the Royal Lodge at Windsor. She was 101 years old. The ceremonial funeral took place in London on Tuesday 9th April at Westminster Abbey London
Apr2	National Hunt champion jockey Tony McCoy did what many people thought impossible. At Warwick races when Valfonic crossed the line one length ahead of Tasbok, McCoy had finally ridden his 270th winner of the season, which is more than any jockey, Flat or jumps, has managed in the 250-year history of the British turf. The previous record of 269 winners in a season was set by Gordon Richards, a Flat jockey, in 1947. He finished the season (April27) with a record 289 winners
Apr21	In the first round of the French Presidential elections, the French socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin is defeated by the neo-fascist Jean-Marie Le Pen. Jacques Chirac wins the second round on 5th May and heavily defeats Le Pen.
Apr25	South African Mark Shuttleworth blasts off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to become the first African citizen in orbit. To secure a place on the mission Shuttleworth had to pay the sum of £15million
	Two teenage brothers were cleared at the trial into the murder of a ten year old schoolboy Damilola Taylor in Peckham South London
Apr26	Sixteen people were murdered at the Gutenburg Gymnasium in Erfurt Germany when Robert Steinhauser opened fire on his former teachers and fellow students. He later killed himself.
Apr27	The eleventh Duke of Devonshire publically apologises for the actions of his grandfather during the Great Trespass of 1932 (April24). The actions undertaken and the subsequent imprisonment of the protesters had brought shame to the family
May1	ITV Digital the terrestial digital TV provider are put into receivership after incurring losses of one billion pounds
May2	In the worst rioting for over a decade in London, over 100 police were injured after the Division One play-off match between Millwall and Birmingham City.
May6	Dutch Far Right leader Pim Fortuyn is shot to death ouside a radio station in Hilversum. In the subsequent general election his party make significant gains
May10	Another seven people die and over seventy are injured and over 70 are injured after the WAGN 1245 service from London to Kings Lynn crashed at Potters Bar in Hertfordshire. Three of the four carriages derailed and one ploughed along the platform and smashed into a bridge. Once again the probable cause is poor maintenance
May11	Diane Pretty 43 who campaigned for the right to die after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease died at a hospice near Luton.
May16	Alec Campbell, soldier, builder, carpenter and economist: born Launceston, Tasmania 26 February 1899; twice married (nine children); died Hobart, Tasmania .He was the last survivor of the 1915 Gallipoli campaign, a campaign that marked the birth of Australia as a nation. In keeping with the great traditions of that country, he was given a state funeral at St Davids Cathedral on 24th May. The whole country observed a minutes silence in respect of those that did not return home
May20	A Catholic Priest Father Michael O'Kelly, the former dean of Reading was jailed for nine months at Reading Crown Court after he was found to possess over 18,000 photographs-computer images of children involved in sexually depraved acts.
May24	Mario Curnis a 66 year old Italian became the oldest man to climb to the summit of Mount Everest
Jun7	A week after the start of the World Cup in Japan-South Korea England soundly beat Argentina 1 - 0 in Group F. England were eventually knocked out in the quarter finals by Brazil
Jun9	Heavyweight World Champion Lenox Lewis defends his title by beating former champion Mike Tyson in eight rounds in Memphis.
Jun21	Jockey Pat Eddery won his 4,494th race to move ahead of Lester Piggott on the list of winning jockeys in Britain. Only Sir Gordon Richards now lies in front of Eddery on 4,870 wins. His win came at Goodwood on the Alan Jarvis-trained Lady Pahia, the 2-1 favourite in the Mortarmill Organic Dairy Fillies' Stakes.
Jun27	John Entwhistle bass player with The Who dies from a heart attack in a Las Vegas hotel room. He was 57
Jun30	In the seventeenth World Cup Final Brazil beat Germany 2 - 0 to win the Cup for an unprecedented fifth time. Ronaldo scores both of the Brazilian goals
Jul1	72 people were killed - mostly Russian children - in a mid - air collision between a Russian passenger jet and a cargo plane over the town of Uberlingen in Southern Germany.
July7	Lleyton Hewitt wins the Mens Singles Title at Wimbledon beating Richard Nalbandian in straight sets. He is the first Australian to win the title since Pat Cash in 1987
July8	Parcel Delivery driver John Taylor, 46, from Cockshott Drive, Bramley Leeds was given two life sentences at Leeds Crown Court after admitting the kidnap and murder of Leanne Tiernan in November 2000. Leanne was just 16 years old
July19	An enquiry under Dame Janet Smith concludes that Dr Harold Shipman murdered 215 of his patients over a period of 23 years. It also intimates that 45 other deaths are suspicious.
July21	In moving from Leeds United to Manchester United for £30 million Rio Ferdinand breaks the British transfer record. What would Alf Common have thought? (Alf Common became the world's first £1,000 player when he transfered from Sunderland to Middlesbrough in 1905).
	After a five hole play-off Ernie Els win the British Open Golf Championship at Muirfield
July31	After a lifetime in the UK mining industry Arthur Scargill retires as President of the NUM. As Tony Benn said "He was the most villified man I have ever known..."..people who are villified often turn out to be right."
Aug4	Two girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman vanish from their village of Soham in Cambs. After a massive police search their bodies were discovered near an isolated track in Wangford, Suffolk, on August 17. They had been murdered. Police eventually arrest the college caretaker Ian Huntley and his girlfriend Maxine Carr and charge the former with murder. At his trial in December 2003 he is found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Aug27	NH jockey Tony McCoy breaks Richard Dunwoody's all-time winners record on Mighty Montefalco at Uttoxeter.The win took him to 1,700 career wins after he earlier equalled Dunwoody's record of 1,699 on Dream With Me in the opening race of the meeting.
Sep14	Tim Montgomery of USA sets a new 100m world record of 9.78 at IAAF Grand Prix Final in Paris. He beat the previous record held by Maurice Green by one hundredth of a second
	In the 226th running of the St Leger at Doncaster (the Worlds oldest Classic horserace) Bollin Eric wins - the first Yorkshire-trained Leger winner since the Bill Elsey-trained Peleid in 1973
Sep18	Former French Cabinet Minister and Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon is released from his ten year jail sentence that was imposed for his complicity in the murder of 1690 jews from Bordeaux during the period 1942 - 1944. He managed to serve just thirty months in jail
Sep21	The filly Broomy Bank wins a 12f race at Warwick at odds of 200 - 1 and is the longest-priced winner on the Flat since Theodore's win at the same odds in the 1822 St Leger. Equinoctial’s win at 250-1 in a novices' handicap hurdle at Kelso in November 1990 was the last NH winner to mirror those odds
Sep23	The largest earthquake to effect Britain for more than ten years occurred at 12.53a.m. Centred on Brick Kiln Lane in Gornal Wood - west of Dudley town centre, the earthquake measured 4.8 on the Richter scale
Oct12	A massive bomb, in the resort of Kuta in Bali (Indonesia) destroys the Sari Club, a crowded nightspot, and many of the 190 victims - mostly foreign tourists, including many Australians - are burned beyond recognition.
Nov15	Myra Hindley - "the Moors Murderer" dies at the age of 60 from respiratory failure in Bury St Edmonds West Suffolk hospital. She had served 36 years of a life sentence.
Nov19	The oil tanker "Prestige" on route from Latvia to Gibraltar finally sinks of the North West Coast of Spain and Portugal. She sinks with 70000 tons of heavy fuel oil aboard and is the cause of a major marine and environmental disaster.

Last Updated 09/01/04 12:41

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