1997 in England


Events from '''1997 in England'''

Events

January

February

  • 3 February – Miles Evans, a 23-year-old soldier from Warminster in Wiltshire, is charged with the murder of his nine-year-old stepdaughter Zoe, who was reported missing on 9 January. Her body has not been found, but police are convinced that she is dead because they have found bloodstained clothing in the search for her.
  • 6 February – The Court of Appeal rules that Mrs Diane Blood of Leeds can be inseminated with her dead husband's sperm. Mrs Blood had been challenging for the right to use the sperm of her husband Stephen since just after his death two years ago.
  • 10 February – Louise Woodward, an 18-year-old au pair from Elton in Cheshire, is charged with the murder of nine-month-old Matthew Eappen, a baby in her care who died yesterday four days after being admitted to hospital in the United States.
  • 14 February- Jurors at the inquest into the death of Stephen Lawrence rule that the black teenager was unlawfully killed "in a completely unprovoked racist attack by five white youths".
  • 15 February – 13-year-old Billie-Jo Jenkins is found dead after being battered at her foster father's home in Hastings, East Sussex.
  • 21 February – Three men who have spent 18 years in prison after being convicted of murdering 13-year-old Carl Bridgewater in 1978 have their convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal.
  • 22 February – Scientists at the Roslin Institute announce the birth of a cloned sheep named Dolly seven months after the fact.
  • 25 February
  • * John Major promises to privatise the London Underground by the year 2000 if the Conservatives are re-elected this year.
  • * A girl's body found in the River Dee near Chester today is identified as that of nine-year-old Kayleigh Ward, who went missing in the Blacon area of the city on 19 December last year.
  • 26 February – John O'Shaughnessy, 30, is charged with the rape and murder of Kayleigh Ward.
  • 27 February – The government loses its Commons majority again after the Labour victory at the Wirral South by-election.

March

April

May

June

July

August

  • 3 August – Manchester United win the FA Charity Shield on penalties after drawing 1–1 with Chelsea at Wembley.
  • 18 August – An 11-year-old Bedfordshire boy is due to become Britain's youngest father, as his 15-year-old girlfriend is expecting a baby.

September

October

  • 1 October – The final LTI FX4 London cab is produced after 39 years.
  • 11 October – England qualify for the Football World Cup with a 0–0 draw against Italy in Rome.
  • 15 October – Andy Green driving the ThrustSSC sets a new land speed record of 763.035 mph, the first time the sound barrier is broken on land.
  • 20 October – Michael Stone, 37, is charged with the murder of Lin Russell and her six-year-old daughter Megan, who were found bludgeoned to death in Chillenden, Kent, 15 months ago. He is also charged with the attempted murder of Mrs Russell's other daughter Josie, who was nine at the time.
  • 24 October – WPC Nina Mackay, 25, is stabbed to death in Stratford, London, when entering a flat to arrest a Somali asylum seeker who was due to be deported.
  • 29 October – Lawrence Dallaglio is appointed captain of the England rugby team.
  • 31 October – Au pair Louise Woodward found guilty of the second degree murder of an eight-month-old child in her care in the US. She is jailed for life with a minimum of 20 years.

November

December

Births

Deaths