1991 in the United Kingdom


Events from the year 1991 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Events

January

  • January – Tax-exempt special savings accounts are introduced as a government concession to promote personal savings.
  • 3 January – The UK expels all Iraqi diplomats from the country due to the Iraqi government's illegal annexation of Kuwait five months earlier.
  • 5 January – 27 people die as a result of gale-force winds across Britain.
  • 8 January – A train crash at Cannon Street station in London kills one person and injures over 500.
  • 11 January – As the recession deepens, 335 employees at the Peugeot car factory in Coventry are made redundant, while Ford is looking for up to 1,000 voluntary redundancies at its British factories. Thousands of jobs in the financial services sector are reportedly at threat, as the total UK unemployment figure is currently standing at nearly 1,800,000, but is expected to rise to well over 2,000,000 by the end of the year.
  • 14 January – Donald Coleman, Labour MP for Neath in South Wales, dies aged 65.
  • 16 January – The final phase of the M40 motorway through Oxfordshire is opened, giving the West Midlands conurbation its first direct motorway link with London.
  • 17 January – The Gulf War begins, as the Royal Air Force joins Allied aircraft in bombing raids on Iraq.
  • 18 January – In spite of the deepening recession, the Conservatives have climbed back to the top of the opinion polls, a MORI poll placing them five points ahead of Labour on 46%.
  • 19 January – It is announced that unemployment has reached more than 1.8 million, and experts warn that the figure will exceed 2 million later this year.
  • 29 January – John Major resists calls from the Labour Party for interest rates to be cut, in a bid to combat the recession.

February

March

  • 3 March – An Ipsos MORI poll shows that John Major is more popular with his voters than his Conservative government.
  • 8 March – Ribble Valley, the tenth safest Conservative constituency in Britain, is won by the Liberal Democrats in a by-election.
  • 10 March – The UK reportedly has the fastest pace in rising unemployment of all the European Community countries.
  • 14 March – The Birmingham Six are freed after the Court of Appeal quashes their convictions over the 1974 pub bombings in Birmingham which killed 21 people and injured more than 160 others.
  • 15 March – Unemployment is now above 2,000,000 for the first time in two years. The number of British workers employed in the manufacturing industry has fallen below 5,000,000 for the first time since records began.
  • 19 March – Norman Lamont predicts 2% economic contraction for this year.
  • 21 March – Education Secretary Kenneth Clarke announces plans to remove further education and sixth form colleges from local authority control.
  • 23 March
  • * The Government launches its Citizen's Charter campaign.
  • * John Major announces the abolition of the Community Charge.
  • 28 March – An inquest in Sheffield into the Hillsborough disaster records a verdict of accidental death on the 95 people who died as a result of the tragedy in 1989. Many of the victims' families criticise the verdict in open court, as many of them had been hoping for a verdict of unlawful killing, or an open verdict, and for criminal charges to be brought against the police officers who patrolled the game.
  • 29 March – Sir John Stradling Thomas, Conservative MP for Monmouth, dies aged 65.

April

May

  • 5 May – Hopes for a quick end to the recession are boosted by CBI predictions that a sharp recovery in business profits will begin shortly.
  • 6 May – Arsenal are crowned champions of the Football League.
  • 15 May – Manchester United win the European Cup Winners' Cup with a 2–1 win over FC Barcelona of Spain in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Mark Hughes scores both of their goals to give English clubs a winning return to European competitions after their five-year ban was lifted last year.
  • 16 May
  • *Unemployment is now at 2,175,000 – the highest figure since late-1988. It is also above the European average for the first time since 1987.
  • *The Monmouth by-election in Wales, caused by the death of the sitting Conservative MP, Sir John Stradling Thomas on 29 March, is held; the Conservatives are defeated once again, and Labour gains the seat.
  • 18 May
  • * Helen Sharman becomes the first British person in space, flying with the Soyuz TM-12 mission.
  • * Tottenham Hotspur win the FA Cup for a record eighth time with a 2–1 win over Nottingham Forest. Midfielder Paul Gascoigne, a multimillion-pound transfer target for Italian side Lazio, suffers cruciate knee ligament damage early in the game and is not expected to play again in 1991.
  • 21 May – South Wales, which has some of the worst unemployment rates in Britain, receives a boost when the go-ahead is given for Japanese electrical company Sony to build a new factory in Bridgend that will create 1,400 jobs when it opens in 1993.
  • 22 May – Nearly six months after the breakthrough in the Channel Tunnel service tunnel, the breakthrough in the North rail tunnel is achieved. On the same day, road links to the British terminal are improved when the final section of the M20 motorway is opened between Maidstone and Ashford, meaning that the tunnel's unbroken motorway link with London has already been completed an estimated three years before the first trains move between Britain and France.
  • 24 May
  • * Labour tops a MORI poll for the first time this year, as they stand six points ahead of the Conservatives on 43%.
  • * Sutton Manor Colliery at Bold in the Lancashire Coalfield closes, the last in Britain to use a steam winding engine.
  • 27 May – Eric Heffer, Labour MP for Liverpool Walton, dies after a long battle against cancer.
  • 29 May – Economists warn that the economy is still in an "exceptionally steep" recession and that it could be another year before the first real signs of recovery become visible.

June

July

  • July
  • *South African-produced cars are imported to Britain for the first time, with the launch of the Sao Penza, a rebadged version of the Mazda 323. However, the brand and the car is not a success and imports end just 2 years later.
  • *Production of the Vauxhall Belmont compact saloon ends ahead of the launch of the third generation Astra range of hatchbacks and estates which goes on sale in the Autumn with saloon and convertible models arriving later.
  • 3 July – Michael Shorey is convicted at the Old Bailey of the July 1990 murders of Elaine Forsyth and Patricia Morrison, two estate agents with whom he shared a basement flat in north London. He is sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment. The former EastEnders actress Sandy Ratcliff, who provided Shorey with an alibi on the night of the murders, is subsequently convicted of perjury.
  • 4 July – The Liverpool Walton by election, caused by the death of the sitting Labour MP Eric Heffer on 27 May, is held; Labour holds the seat, with new MP Peter Kilfoyle gaining more than half of the vote.
  • 5 July – The Bank of England closes down the Bank of Credit and Commerce International amid fraud allegations. Several local authorities in the UK lose millions of pounds in investments held with the bank.
  • 8 July – Two suspected IRA terrorists shoot their way out of Brixton Prison in London.
  • 11 July – Labour MP Terry Fields joins the list of people jailed for refusal to pay the poll tax after he receives a sixty-day prison sentence. He is the first MP to be jailed for refusing to pay the controversial tax which was introduced early last year.
  • 15 July – 17th G7 summit held in London.
  • 16 July – A government survey of children's school reading reveals that Roald Dahl, who died eight months earlier, has now overtaken Enid Blyton as the most popular author of children's books.
  • 17 July – The Ultimate steel roller coaster, Europe's longest, opens at Lightwater Valley theme park in North Yorkshire.
  • 18 July – Economists warn that unemployment will reach 3,000,000 people by the end of next year.
  • 19 July – Dean Saunders becomes the most expensive footballer to be signed by an English club when he joins Liverpool in a £2.9million transfer from Derby County.
  • 21 July – Motor racing driver Paul Warwick, 21, is killed when his car crashes into a barrier during the fifth Formula 3000 race at Oulton Park.
  • 23 July – The Ministry of Defence proposes the merger of 22 army regiments as part of a general reform programme.
  • 24 July – Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont assures the House of Commons that the economic recovery will begin before the end of this year.

August

  • 8 August – John McCarthy, a British hostage held in Lebanon for over five years, is freed.
  • 12 August – The Times reports that every job vacancy is being chased by 22 applicants.
  • 16 August – The Bank of England declares that the worst of the current recession is now over.
  • 23 August – Growing confidence over economic recovery has helped boost the Conservative government's popularity, as they return to the top of the MORI poll with a two-point lead over Labour putting them on 42%.
  • 30 August
  • * Scottish runner Liz McColgan becomes the first British gold medalist at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan.
  • * Rioting breaks out on the Ely council estate in Cardiff.

September

  • September – Gordon Roddick and A. John Bird launch The Big Issue, a then-monthly magazine to be sold by homeless people in response to growing number of rough sleepers on the streets of London.
  • 3 September
  • * Following the recent outbreaks of violence in Leeds and Cardiff, rioting breaks out at Handsworth in Birmingham, Kates Hill in Dudley and Blackbird Leys in Oxford.
  • * Premiere of the BBC One television comedy 2point4 Children which stars Belinda Lang and Gary Olsen.
  • 9 September – Rioting breaks out on the Meadow Well council estate on Tyneside, with local youths attacking police officers following the recent death of two local teenagers in a police pursuit. Racially motivated attacks on Asian owned shops also involve looting and arson.
  • 12 September – Unemployment has hit 2,400,000 – the highest level since the spring of 1988 – completing a 50% rise in just over a year. However, the rate of rising unemployment is slowing down and retail sales are improving.
  • 13 September – Further rioting breaks out in Tyneside.
  • 14 September – George Buckley, Labour MP for Hemsworth in West Yorkshire, dies aged 56.
  • 15 September – A poll shows that Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock is a liability to his party, who are now behind John Major's Conservative Party in the opinion polls.
  • 17 September – Neil Kinnock hits out at claims that he is to blame for his party falling behind in the opinion polls, sparking speculation that John Major will call a general election within the next two months.
  • 19 September – Robin Leigh-Pemberton, governor of the Bank of England, says that he is confident the recession is now over in Britain.
  • 20 September – Richard Holt, Conservative MP for Langbaurgh in Cleveland, dies suddenly aged 60.
  • 25 September – Kidnappers in Beirut release elderly hostage Jackie Mann after over two years in captivity.

October

  • October – Vauxhall launches the third generation of its popular Astra with hatchback and estate models with the saloon and convertible models arriving later.
  • 2 October – Just over two weeks after Neil Kinnock was damned by a poll as a "liability" to the Labour Party, the leader and his MPs are celebrating after they overtake the Conservatives by two points in the opinion polls.
  • 9 October – A Sumo tournament is hosted at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
  • 11 October – John Major outlines his vision of a "classless" Britain at a Conservative Party conference at Blackpool, where his predecessor Margaret Thatcher voices her support for him.
  • 16 October – The ITV franchise auction results are announced and many notable names will go off the air, including Thames Television, TVS, TSW, TV-am and ORACLE Teletext. The changes will take effect at midnight on 1 January 1993.
  • 17 October – The smallest monthly rise in unemployment since last November is cited by the government as an "unmistakable" sign that the recession is drawing to a close.
  • 18 October – Labour's hopes of election success are boosted by the latest MORI poll, which shows them six points ahead of the Conservatives on 45%.
  • 19 October – Canadian singer Bryan Adams makes history when his hit single "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", which features in the film Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves enters its fifteenth successive week at #1 in the UK singles charts.
  • 22 October – Leonora Knatchbull, the five-year-old daughter of Norton Knatchbull, 8th Baron Brabourne and his wife Penelope, dies after a one-year battle with kidney cancer. She was also a great-grandchild of Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was murdered by the IRA in 1979. She is buried at Romsey Abbey on 26 October.
  • 23 October – In the legal case of R v R decided on appeal, the Law Lords unanimously decide that spousal rape is a crime in England and Wales, overturning the principle established by Chief Justice Hale in 1736.
  • 27 October – "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You", the power ballad performed by Canadian singer Bryan Adams, loses its position at #1 on the singles charts after a record sixteen consecutive weeks, displaced by U2's "The Fly".
  • 29 October – Hopes that the recession is drawing to a close are boosted by CBI findings, which show that manufacturers are now more optimistic than at any time in the past three years.

November

  • November
  • * Computer retailer PC World opens its first branch, in Croydon.
  • * Alan Sked forms the Anti-Federalist League, a political party aiming to field election candidates opposed to the Maastricht Treaty.
  • 5 November – Robert Maxwell, owner of numerous business interests including the Daily Mirror newspaper, is found dead off the coast of Tenerife; his cause of death is unconfirmed, but reports suggest that he has committed suicide.
  • 7 November – By-elections are held in [1991 Hemsworth (UK Parliament constituency)|Hemsworth by-election|Hemsworth], [1991 1991 Kincardine and Deeside by-election|Kincardine and Deeside by-election|Kincardine and Deeside] and [1991 1991 Langbaurgh by-election|Langbaurgh by-election|Langbaurgh], caused by the deaths of their respective MPs George Buckley of Labour, and Conservatives Alick Buchanan-Smith and Richard Holt. Labour holds Hemsworth under Derek Enright, while the Liberal Democrats gain Kincardine and Deeside from the Conservatives. The Conservatives also lose the Langbaurgh constituency to Labour, with 35-year-old Indian-born candidate Ashok Kumar becoming the new MP.
  • 9 November – First ever controlled and substantial production of fusion energy achieved at the Joint European Torus in Oxfordshire.
  • 15 November – Britain's hopes of economic recovery are dealt with a major blow when shares on the Wall Street Stock Exchange fall by 120 points.
  • 16 November – Two IRA bombers die in St Albans, Hertfordshire, when a bomb explodes prematurely.
  • 18 November – Terry Waite, a British hostage held in Lebanon, is freed after four-and-a-half years in captivity.
  • 22–23 November – The Communist Party of Great Britain votes to abandon its Marxist–Leninist constitution and reform itself as Democratic Left.
  • 23 November – Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of rock band Queen, announces that he is suffering from AIDS, following lengthy media speculation about his health.
  • 24 November – Freddie Mercury dies aged 45 at his home in London, just 24 hours after going public with the news that he was suffering from AIDS.
  • 25 November – The Court of Appeal quashes the convictions of Winston Silcott, Engin Raghip and Mark Braithwaite for the murder of PC Keith Blakelock in the Broadwater Farm riot at Tottenham, North London, six years ago. Raghip and Braithwaite are released from prison, but Silcott remains imprisoned for a separate murder.
  • 26 November – Julin Bristol, the last UK nuclear test, takes place at the Nevada Test Site.
  • 27 November
  • * Freddie Mercury is cremated after a funeral service held at West London Crematorium.
  • * The government announces that joyriders who are found guilty should face a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment as well as unlimited fines and unlimited automatic driving bans. Joyriding has recently surged across Britain, with almost all of those involved being children and teenagers.
  • 28 November – First performance of Alan Bennett's play The Madness of George III in London.

December

  • 1 December – Thousands of British shops, including retail giants Asda and Tesco, defy trading laws, and open their doors on a Sunday in a bid to boost trade that has been badly hit by the ongoing recession.
  • 5 December – The Robert Maxwell business empire goes into receivership with debts in excess of £1,000,000,000, exactly one month after Robert Maxwell's death. The Daily Mirror reports that Maxwell had wrongly removed £350,000,000 from its pension fund shortly before he died.
  • 6 December – At Birmingham Crown Court, John Tanner is convicted of the murder of Rachel McLean and sentenced to life imprisonment.
  • 10 December – Ronald Coase wins the Nobel Prize in Economics "for his discovery and clarification of the significance of transaction costs and property rights for the institutional structure and functioning of the economy".
  • 12–15 December – Concentration of vehicle exhausts in London causes an estimated 160 deaths.
  • 16 December – Stella Rimington is announced as the first female director general of MI5.
  • 19 December – Unemployment is now above 2,500,000 for the first time since early-1988.
  • 23 December – Following the death of Freddie Mercury, Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" returns to the top of the British singles charts after sixteen years, with the proceeds from the rerelease being donated to the Terence Higgins Trust.
  • 27 December – The last MORI poll of 1991 shows that Labour are six points ahead of the Conservatives with 44% of the vote.
  • 29 December – A quarterly opinion poll shows that Neil Kinnock and Labour are three points ahead of John Major and the Conservatives, sparking hope for Labour that they will win the next general election or at least the election will result in a hung parliament for the first time since 1974.

Undated

Publications

Births

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Full date unknown

  • Sheila Atim, Ugandan-born actress, singer, composer, and playwright

Deaths

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December