1986 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister – Margaret Thatcher
• Parliament – 49th

  Events

January

• January – The Vauxhall Belmont compact saloon goes on sale, giving buyers a traditional saloon alternative to the Astra hatchback and estate models.
• 7 January – The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders announces that a record of more than 1.8 million new cars were sold in Britain during 1985, beating the previous record set in 1983. The Ford Escort was Britain's most popular new car, and all of the 10 top selling new cars were produced by Ford, Vauxhall or Austin Rover. Continental and Japanese manufacturers enjoyed a good sized percentage of the new car market though, with Fiat, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault, Volkswagen and Volvo all doing well.
• 9 January
• *Michael Heseltine resigns as Defence Secretary over the Westland affair.
• *After three successive monthly falls in unemployment, the jobless count for December 1985 increased by nearly 15,000 to 3,181,300.
• 12 January – Game show Catchphrase begins on ITV hosted by Roy Walker along with the computer generated character Mr. Chips. It concludes in 2002 but revived in 2013.
• 14 January – The Salafi jihadist group al-Muhajiroun begins to operate in the U.K.
• 20 January – The United Kingdom and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel, which they hope to open by the early 1990s.
• 24 January – Leon Brittan resigns as Trade and Industry Secretary over the Westland affair.
• 31 January – Unemployment for this month has increased to 3,204,900 – a postwar high which accounts for 14.4% of the workforce.

  February

• February –
• *Heavy snow and sub zero temperatures affected most of Britain during the month.
• *The British-built Peugeot 309 goes on sale in Britain, four months after its continental launch. It is build at the former Rootes/Chrysler factory at Ryton, near Coventry, which is also set to produce a larger Peugeot saloon model from next year.
• 6 February – The government scraps plans to sell Austin Rover to Ford.
• 12 February – The Franco-British Channel Fixed Link Treaty is signed at Canterbury as the Channel Tunnel plans move forward.
• 15 February – In the Wapping dispute, fifty-eight people are arrested by police at a demonstration.
• 17 February – The UK signs the Single European Act.

  March

• 4 March – The national tabloid newspaper Today launches from Wapping. It pioneers the use of computer photo typesetting and full-colour offset printing at a time when British national newspapers are still using Linotype machines and letterpress.
• 5 March – The High Court disqualifies and fines 81 Labour councillors for failing to set a rate.
• 13 March – The Sun newspaper alleges that comedian Freddie Starr ate a live hamster.
• 18 March – Inheritance tax replaces Capital Transfer Tax.
• 19 March – Buckingham Palace announces the engagement of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson; they will be married later this year.
• 23 March – Chelsea F.C. are the first winners of the Football League's new Full Members Cup, beating Manchester City 5–4 in the final at Wembley, although Manchester City clawed the deficit to a single goal in the last five minutes after being 5–1 down.
• 29 March – The first high-speed catamaran ferry is introduced into service in the British Isles, HSC Our Lady Patricia on Sealink British Ferries' Portsmouth–Ryde passage.
• 31 March
• * The Greater London Council is abolished, as are the metropolitan county councils of West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Tyne and Wear, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire.
• * A fire causes extensive damage at Hampton Court Palace in Surrey.
• * The Haig Pit, Whitehaven, Cumbria closes.

  April

• April – Hanson Trust concludes its takeover of the Imperial Group for £2.5 billion.
• 1 April – The Prince and Princess of Wales open the extension of London Underground's Piccadilly line to Heathrow Terminal 4. Trains do not stop at the station until 12 April.
• 7 April – Clive Sinclair sells rights to ZX Spectrum and other inventions to Amstrad.
• 15 April – The Shops Bill 1986, which would have liberalised Sunday shopping, is defeated in the House of Commons on its second reading: the Thatcher government's only defeat in the Commons.
• 17 April
• * Journalist John McCarthy is kidnapped in Beirut, where three other hostages are found dead. The Revolutionary Cells claims responsibility as revenge for the recent American bombing of Libya.
• * A treaty is signed, ending the supposed Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly.
• 20 April – Oxford United F.C., who joined the Football League only in 1962 and are in the First Division for the first time, win the Football League Cup with a 3–0 win over Queens Park Rangers at Wembley.
• 24 April - Wallis, Duchess of Windsor dies in her home in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris, aged 89, outliving her husband by 14 years.
• 28 April – The first phase of the MetroCentre, Europe's largest indoor shopping centre, in Gateshead, is opened. The remainder of the centre is set to open this autumn.
• 29 April – The Duchess of Windsor is buried at Frogmore.
• 30 April – Rioting erupts overnight in prisons across Britain. Dozens of prisoners escape, while prisoners at Stafford Prison set the prison canteen alight by smashing windows and dumping a burning mattress onto the roof. The worst disturbances come at Northeye Prison in Sussex, where a 70-strong mob of prisoners takes over the jail and sets fire to the canteen, hospital wing and sports hall.

  May

• May – The last Talbot badged passenger cars are built in Britain and France by Peugeot, who will continue making their own cars at the former Rootes Group plant near Coventry and the former Simca production facilities in France. Peugeot is to continue the Talbot brand for commercial vehicles, and production of the Horizon range will continue in Spain and Finland until next year.
• 5 May – Liverpool win the Football League First Division title for a record 16th time after winning 1–0 at Chelsea. Kenny Dalglish, in his first season as the club's player-manager, scores the goal which gives Liverpool the title.
• 8 May – Labour makes large gains in local council elections, collecting 37% of the votes nationally compared to the Conservatives on 34% and the Alliance on 26%. These are the first national elections to be held since the recent abolition of the metropolitan councils.
• 10 May – The first all-Merseyside FA Cup final ends in a 3–1 win for Liverpool over Everton, who become only the third team this century to win the double, having already secured the Football League First Division title.
• 20 May – The Marriage Act revises the prohibited degree of kinship for marriage.
• 21 May – The Harrison Birtwistle opera The Mask of Orpheus premiers in London.

  June

• 10 June – Patrick Joseph Magee is found guilty of the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing and sentenced to life imprisonment.
• 12 June
• * Derek Hatton, leader of Liverpool council, is expelled from the Labour Party for belonging to the entryist Militant group.
• * Austin Rover is renamed the Rover Group four years after the name change from British Leyland.
• 14 June – The Queen rides to Trooping the Colour on horseback for the last time.
• 23 June – Patrick Magee is jailed for life for the Brighton bombing of October 1984 as well as other IRA bombings.
• 24 June – Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party stage protest at dissolution of Northern Ireland Assembly.
• 29 June
• * Richard Branson beats the speed record for a transatlantic crossing by boat in Virgin Atlantic Challenger II but is denied the Blue Riband award.
• * The World Cup ends in Mexico with Argentina as winners and West Germany runners-up, but England's Gary Lineker wins the Golden Boot, having finished as the competition's leading scorer with six goals. Lineker, who has been at Everton for the last year and is the First Division's top scorer, is reported to be on the verge of a transfer to FC Barcelona of Spain.

  July

• July – Nissan begins production of the Bluebird at its landmark factory near Sunderland.
• 1 July – Gary Lineker becomes the most expensive British footballer ever in a £2.75 million move from Everton to FC Barcelona.
• 2 July – 24 hours after Gary Lineker's transfer, Ian Rush sets a new transfer record for a British footballer when he agrees a £3.2 million move from Liverpool to Juventus of Italy, but is loaned back to Liverpool for a season and will not play his first game for Juventus until at least August 1987.
• 4 July – A policeman is cleared of the manslaughter of five-year-old John Shorthouse, who was killed in an armed raid on a house in Birmingham in August last year.
• 10 July – Austin Rover launches its new Honda-based Rover 800 executive car, which replaces the decade-old Rover SD1 and is part of a joint venture with Japanese carmaker Honda. The car will also be sold in America under the Sterling marque. The Honda version will be badged as the Honda Legend.
• 12 July – Rioting breaks out at Portadown in Northern Ireland between Protestants and Catholics.
• 17 July – It is announced that unemployment rose to 3,220,400 in June. It has now exceeded 3 million for nearly five years.
• 21 July – A report finds that 20% of British children are now born out of wedlock.
• 23 July – Prince Andrew, Duke of York, marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in London.
• 24 July – 2 August – The Commonwealth Games are held in Edinburgh.
• 28 July – Estate agent Suzy Lamplugh vanishes after a meeting in London.
• 30 July – A MORI poll shows that Labour are now nine points ahead of the Conservatives with 41% of the vote, with Liberal/SDP Alliance support now at 25%.

  August

• 8 August – Rival gangs of Manchester United and West Ham United fans clash on a Sealink ferry bound for Amsterdam where the two clubs are playing pre-season friendlies. The UEFA ban on English clubs in European competitions is continuing for a second season, and there are now fears that English clubs may not even be able to play friendlies overseas.
• 13 August – The Eurotunnel Group is formed to operate the Channel Tunnel.
• 15 August – The latest MORI poll shows that the Conservatives have eliminated Labour's nine-point lead and drawn level with them by gaining 37% in the latest opinion poll, in the space of just over two weeks.
• 16 August – Figures released by the government reveal that a record of nearly 3,100,000 people claimed unemployment benefit last month, although the official total of unemployed people in Britain is still short of the record of nearly 3,300,000 which was set two years ago.
• 19 August – The privatisation of the National Bus Company begins with the first sale of a bus operating subsidiary, Devon General, in a management buyout.
• 22 August – John Stalker, deputy chief constable of Greater Manchester police, is cleared of misconduct over allegations of associating with criminals.
• 25 August – Economists warn that a global recession is imminent, barely five years after the previous recession.
• 29 August – Britain's oldest twins, May and Marjorie Chavasse, celebrate their 100th birthday.
• c. August – The millionth council house in the United Kingdom is sold to its tenants in Scotland, seven years after the right to buy scheme was launched.

  September

• September – GCSE examination courses replace both GCE 'O' Level and CSE courses for 14-year-olds.
• 6 September – First episode of medical drama serial Casualty airs on BBC One. It will still be running on television more than thirty years later.
• 8 September – Margaret Thatcher officially opens the first phase of the Nissan car factory at Sunderland, which has been in use for two months. It is the first car factory to be built in Europe by a Japanese car maker.
• 14 September – Fears of another recession in Britain are eased by economists at Liverpool University predicting 3.1% economic growth next year.
• 18 September – It is announced that unemployment rose to 3,280,106 in July.
• 19 September – A man is killed in the Colwich rail crash.
• 24 September – The flotation of the Trustee Savings Banks attracts a record of more than 4 million applications for shares.

  October

• 7 October – The first edition of The Independent national morning newspaper is published in London.
• 9 October
• *"Babes in the Wood" murders: two girls, Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway, are reported missing in Moulsecoomb, Brighton.
• *Musical The Phantom of the Opera opens at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.
• 10 October – "Babes in the Wood" murders: two bodies found in Wild Park, Brighton, are identified as those of the two girls reported missing yesterday and a murder investigation is launched; a conviction is not obtained until 2018.
• 12 October – Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh visit the People's Republic of China, the first ever visit to that country by a British monarch.
• 14 October – The MetroCentre, a shopping complex built on the Tyneside Enterprise Zone, is opened. It is similar in concept to the Merry Hill Shopping Centre that is being developed near Dudley in the West Midlands. The MetroCentre is officially the largest shopping complex in Europe. Among the MetroCentre's tenants is Marks & Spencer, whose department store there is its first out of town outlet.
• 24 October – The UK breaks off diplomatic relations with Syria over links to the Hindawi Affair.
• 26 October
• *Bus deregulation begins in the United Kingdom, except Greater London and Northern Ireland.
• *Jeffrey Archer resigns as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party over allegations concerning prostitutes.
• 27 October
• *"Big Bang Day": London Stock Exchange is computerised, and opens to foreign companies.
• *The Australian TV soap Neighbours is launched on BBC1, more than a year after debuting in its native country.
• 28 October – Jeremy Bamber is found guilty of the "White House Farm murders" of his parents, sister and twin nephews, and is sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum of 25 years and as of 2013 will still be in prison.
• 29 October – Margaret Thatcher opens the completed M25 London Orbital Motorway, the first section of which opened in 1975. It covers a distance of 122 miles and features 31 junctions, although there are no service stations yet.

  November

• November
• *First UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the U.K. designated: Giant's Causeway and the Causeway Coast ; Durham Castle and Cathedral; Ironbridge Gorge; Studley Royal Park ; Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites; and Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd.
• * Launch of the second generation Vauxhall Carlton, largest model in the Vauxhall range. It will be sold as the Opel Omega on the continent, and all European versions of the car will be built in West Germany.
• 3 November – The Conservatives top a MORI poll for the first time this year, coming one point ahead of Labour with 40% of the vote. Liberal/SDP Alliance support has slumped to 18%.
• 6 November
• * 45 people are killed in the 1986 British International Helicopters Chinook crash.
• * Chancellor Nigel Lawson announces a £4.6 billion rise in public spending.
• * Alex Ferguson is appointed manager of Manchester United football club following the dismissal of Ron Atkinson after more than five years in charge. United won two FA Cups under the management of Atkinson but have not won the league title since 1967 and are now second from bottom in the Football League First Division.
• 7 November – Sir James Goldsmith's £5 billion bid for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company is rejected.
• 13 November – It is announced that unemployment fell by 96,000 in October.
• 18 November – Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, who are both still in prison 20 years after their Moors Murders convictions, confess to the murders of two missing children - Pauline Reade, who vanished in July 1963 at the age of 16, and Keith Bennett, who was last seen in June 1964 at the age of 12.
• 20 November – Greater Manchester Police begin their search for the two newly identified Moors Murders victims.
• 21 November – The government launches a £20 million campaign to warn members of the public about the dangers of AIDS.

  December

• December – The first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy is diagnosed in British cattle.
• 1 December – The government launches an inquiry into financial irregularities at Guinness.
• 3 December – 4 million people apply for shares in British Gas in anticipation of flotation next week.
• 4 December – 20-year-old roofer Russell Bishop is charged with the "Babes in the Wood" murders in Brighton two months ago but will not be convicted until a second trial in 2018.
• 8 December – British Gas shares are floated on the Stock Exchange. The initial public offering of 135p per share values the company at £9 billion, the highest equity offering ever at this time.
• 17 December – The world's first heart, lung and liver transplant is carried out at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire.
• 18 December – It is announced that unemployment fell to a four-year low of less than 3,100,000 in November. On 15 January 1987 it is announced that unemployment has fallen in December 1986 for the fifth month in succession.
• 22 December – David Penhaligon, a leading Liberal Party MP, dies in a car crash near Truro in Cornwall at the age of 42.
• 25 December – The highest audience of all time for a British television drama is attracted by the Christmas Day episode of EastEnders, the BBC 1 soap opera, in which Den Watts serves the divorce papers on his wife Angie after discovering that she had feigned a terminal illness to try to stop him from leaving her in an episode aired in October this year. More than 30 million viewers tune in for the episode of the TV series which first went on air in February 1985.
• 29 December – Harold Macmillan, Earl of Stockton and former Prime Minister, dies at the age of 92 at his home, Birch Grove in East Sussex.

  Undated

• Inflation reaches a 19-year low of 3.4%.
• Introduction of Family credit, a tax credit for poorer families.
• Bank of England withdraws its guidance on mortgage lending.
• Establishment of National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside group of institutions, funded through national government.
• Mathematician Simon Donaldson wins a Fields Medal.

  Publications

• Janet and Allan Ahlberg's children's book The Jolly Postman.
• Kingsley Amis's novel The Old Devils.
• Iain Banks' novel The Bridge.
• John le Carré's novel A Perfect Spy.
• Richard Dawkins' book The Blind Watchmaker.
• Brian Jacques' children's fantasy novel Redwall, first in the eponymous series.
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel The Light Fantastic.

  Births

• 1 January – Colin Morgan, actor
• 4 January - James Milner, footballer
• 6 January – Alex Turner, musician
• 11 January – Rachel Riley, television presenter
• 12 January – Kieron Richardson, actor
• 24 January – Mischa Barton, British-born American actress
• 29 January – Mark Howard, footballer
• 2 February – Gemma Arterton, actress
• 11 February – Bim Afolami, politician
• 21 February – Charlotte Church, soprano
• 12 March – Danny Jones, musician and singer
• 14 March – Jamie Bell, actor
• 28 March – Jay Curtis, television & radio broadcaster and actor
• 08 April - Ryan Bisetty, Music Producer & Business Director
• 10 April – Sam Attwater, actor
• 27 April – Jenna Coleman, actress
• 13 May – Robert Pattinson, actor
• 17 May – Jodie Taylor, footballer
• 17 June – Helen Glover, rower
• 24 June – Stuart Broad, cricketer
• 20 August - Andrew Surman, footballer
• 7 September - Charlie Daniels, footballer
• 16 September – Hasib Hussain, Islamic terrorist, murders 13 people during 7 July 2005 London bombings
• 18 September – Keeley Hazell, model
• 23 October – Emilia Clarke, actress
• 8 December – Amir Khan, boxer
• 20 December – Benjamin Brierley, English-German rugby player
• 30 December – Ellie Goulding, singer

  Deaths

• 3 January – Dustin Gee, comedian
• 4 January
• *Christopher Isherwood, novelist
• *Phil Lynott, Irish singer, Thin Lizzy frontman
• 1 February – Dick James, singer and record producer
• 10 February – Brian Aherne, actor
• 14 February – Edmund Rubbra, composer
• 28 February – Sir Thomas Williams, Labour MP
• 10 March – Ray Milland, actor
• 17 March – John Bagot Glubb, general and author, leader of the Arab Legion
• 3 April – Peter Pears, tenor
• 29 April – Wallis, Duchess of Windsor
• 23 April – Jim Laker, cricketer
• 1 May – Hylda Baker, actress
• 8 May – Manny Shinwell, Baron Shinwell, trade union official and Labour MP
• 3 June – Dame Anna Neagle, actress
• 23 June
• *Sir Moses Finley, classical scholar
• *Nigel Stock, actor
• 25 June – Laurie Fishlock, cricketer and footballer
• 16 July – Robert Boothby, Baron Boothby, Conservative MP
• 18 July – Sir Stanley Rous, president of FIFA and former secretary of the Football Association
• 27 July – Osbert Lancaster, cartoonist
• 31 August – Henry Moore, sculptor
• 18 September – Pat Phoenix, actress
• 5 October – James H. Wilkinson, mathematician
• 16 October – Ted Sagar, footballer
• 28 October
• *John Braine, novelist
• *Ian Marter, actor and writer
• 29 November – Cary Grant, actor
• 22 December – David Penhaligon, Liberal MP
• 29 December – Harold Macmillan, former Prime Minister
• 31 December – Geoffrey John Audley Miles, senior Royal Navy admiral and veteran of both world wars