1999 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister – Tony Blair
• Parliament – 52nd

  Events

January

• January – Vauxhall launches a facelifted Vectra to improve its disappointing ride and build quality.
• 1 January – The Euro currency is launched, but Britain's Labour government reportedly has no plans to introduce the currency here, preferring to stick to pound sterling instead.
• 13 January – Unemployment has fallen to just over 1,300,000 – the lowest for 20 years.
• 30 January – England national football team manager Glenn Hoddle gives an interview to The Times newspaper in which he suggests that people born with disabilities are paying for sins in a previous life.

  February

• 2 February – The Football Association dismisses Glenn Hoddle as England manager due to the controversy sparked by his comments about disabled people.
• 12 February – Scientists at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen reinforce warnings that genetically modified food may be damaging to the human body.
• 22 February – Harold Shipman, the Hyde GP accused of murdering eight female patients last September, is charged with a further seven murders.
• 24 February – The report of the murder of black London teenager Stephen Lawrence, who was stabbed to death in 1993, condemns London's police force as "institutionally racist", as well as condemning its officers for "fundamental errors".

  March

• 2 March – Singer Dusty Springfield, who received an OBE last month, dies aged 59 at Henley-on-Thames after a five-year battle against breast cancer.
• 7 March – American-born film director Stanley Kubrick dies at his home in St Albans, Hertfordshire, of a heart attack aged 70, five days after completing his final film Eyes Wide Shut, which is released in July.
• 21 March – Comedian Ernie Wise, who formed one-half of the Morecambe and Wise comedy double from 1941 to 1984, dies of a heart attack aged 73 at Wexham, Buckinghamshire.
• 24 March – Ross Kemp, who has achieved TV stardom with his role as Grant Mitchell in EastEnders, signs a £1million deal with ITV, meaning that he will leave EastEnders this autumn after nearly 10 years.
• 26 March – A total £2billion in compensation is paid to 100,000 former miners who are suffering from lung disease after years of working in British coalfields.
• 29 March – The family of James Hanratty, one of the last men to be executed in Britain, are given the right to appeal against his conviction by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

  April

• April – Vauxhall launches its Zafira, a compact MPV which makes use of the Astra hatchback's chassis.
• 1 April
• * A minimum wage is introduced throughout the UK – set at £3.60 an hour for workers over 21, and £3 for workers under 21.
• * Anthony Sawoniuk, 78, becomes the first person convicted of Second World War crimes in a British court when he is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of 18 Jews in his native Belarus. He has lived in Britain since 1947.
• 14 April – Edgar Pearce, the so-called "Mardi Gra bomber", convicted for a series of bombings and sentenced to 21 years in jail.
• 17 April – A bomb explodes in Brixton, South London, and injures 45 people.
• 24 April – A second bomb explosion in Brick Lane, east London injures 13 people.
• 26 April – TV presenter Jill Dando, 37, dies after being shot on the doorstep of her Fulham home.
• 30 April – A third bomb in London explodes in the Admiral Duncan pub, in Old Compton Street, Soho, London – the centre of the London gay scene – killing two people and injuring over thirty. David Copeland, a 23-year-old Farnborough man, is arrested hours later in connection with the three explosions.

  May

• 3 May – David Copeland appears in court charged with the recent bombings in London.
• 6 May
• * 1999 Scottish Parliament election – The first elections to the Scottish Parliament.
• * 1999 National Assembly for Wales election – The first elections to the Welsh Assembly.
• 7 May – The Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats form a coalition government in Scotland, with Donald Dewar as the First Minister of Scotland.
• 12 May – The Scottish Parliament meets in Edinburgh for its first session.
• 19 May – Probably the last colliery horse to work underground in a British coal mine is retired, 'Robbie' at Pant y Gasseg drift mine, near Pontypool.
• 21 May – Jill Dando is buried in her hometown of Weston-super-Mare.
• 26 May – Manchester United come back to beat Bayern Munich in the final to become the first team in English history to win the Treble
• 26 May – The National Assembly for Wales meets in Cardiff for its first session.
• 31 May – The Princess Royal opens the new Midland Metro tram service in the West Midlands, which runs on a 15-mile route mostly consisting of former railway lines between Birmingham and Wolverhampton.

  June

• 8 June – Former cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken is sentenced to 18 months prison for perjury.
• 10 June – The European parliament elections are held. The Conservatives enjoy their best performance in any election since the 1992 general election by gaining 36 seats compared to Labour's 29 – a stark contrast to the previous European elections five years ago where they had a mere 18 MEP's compared to Labour's 62.
• 10 June – At the Leeds Central by-election, Hilary Benn holds the seat for the Labour Party.
• 12 June – The Queen's Birthday Honours are announced. They include a knighthood for the Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson and the ITV newsreader Trevor McDonald.
• 14 June – Conservative leader William Hague hails his party's strong European election results as vindication of his party's opposition to the single European currency.
• 16 June – David Sutch, the founder of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, is found hanged at his home in Harrow. He was 58.
• 17 June – Cardinal Basil Hume, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, dies of cancer aged 76 barely two months after the illness was diagnosed.
• 18 June – Police clash with protesters at a demonstration against capitalism in London.
• 19 June – The marriage of The Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones takes place at St George's Chapel, Windsor. Prior to the marriage, the Queen creates Prince Edward, her third and youngest son, Earl of Wessex and Viscount Severn.
• 22 June – Patrick Magee is released from prison under the Good Friday Agreement, 14 years into his life sentence for the Provisional Irish Republican Army bombing at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, which killed five people during the Conservative Party conference on 12 October 1984.
• 23 June
• * Fears about the future of the Rover Group's Longbridge plant in Birmingham are calmed by the news that owner BMW is to invest £2.5billion in the plant.
• * Construction of the Millennium Dome is finished.
• 26 June – The Millennium Stadium, national sports stadium for Wales, is opened in Cardiff.
• 30 June – Manchester United announce that they will not compete in the FA Cup in the forthcoming football season so they can concentrate on their participation in the FIFA World Club Championship in Brazil at the start of the next year. Their decision is seen as a major boost to England's hopes of hosting the 2006 World Cup.

  July

• 1 July – William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw, deputy prime minister under Margaret Thatcher, dies at the age of 81 in Penrith.
• 4 July – Rogue trader Nick Leeson returns home to England from Singapore, nearly four years after he was jailed there after his illegal dealings led to the collapse of Barings Bank with losses of £850million.
• 5 July – Chelsea pay a club record of £10million for the Blackburn Rovers striker Chris Sutton.
• 9 July – Neil Kinnock, who was Labour Party leader from 1983 to 1992 while they were in opposition, is appointed vice-president of the European Commission.
• 22 July – At the Eddisbury by-election, Stephen O'Brien holds the seat for the Conservative Party.

  August

• 4 August –
• * George Robertson appointed as Secretary General of NATO.
• * The JJB Stadium opens in Wigan, to serve the town's football and rugby teams.
• 9 August – Charles Kennedy elected as Leader of the Liberal Democrats.
• 11 August – The solar eclipse attracts the attention of 350,000,000 people across Europe, with Cornwall being the only region of Britain to experience totality.
• 20 August – A MORI poll shows Labour support at 49%, giving them a 22-point lead over the Conservatives. However, it is the first time since their election win over two years ago that they have polled at less than 50% in the poll by the leading market research company.
• 22 August – Norfolk farmer Tony Martin, 54, is charged with the murder of a sixteen-year-old burglar who was shot dead at his home two days ago. He is also charged with wounding a 29-year-old man who was also present at the time of the burglary.

  September

• September – Rover launches the 25 and 45. Nissan launches a facelifted Primera to be built by Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK.
• 5 September – Bobby Robson, the 66-year-old former England manager, is appointed as Newcastle United's new manager. He is nearly 30 years older than his predecessor Ruud Gullit.
• 9 September – Chris Patten's report recommends reform of Royal Ulster Constabulary.
• 23 September – At the Hamilton South by-election, Bill Tynan holds the seat for the Labour Party.
• 23 September – At the Wigan by-election, Neil Turner holds the seat for the Labour Party.
• 24 September – The Royal Bank of Scotland launches a hostile takeover bid for the NatWest Bank.
• 27 September – The Midland Bank adopts the name of its owner HSBC, marking an end of the Midland Bank name after 163 years.
• 27 September – The Kosovo Train for Life aid train arrives in Kosovo after 4,500-kilometre journey from the United Kingdom

  October

• 1 October – The Rugby World Cup begins in the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff.
• 5 October
• * The Ladbroke Grove rail crash claims the lives of 31 people when two trains collide at Ladbroke Grove Junction, 2 miles west of Paddington station, London. Many more people are being treated in hospital for injuries.
• * Harold Shipman goes on trial at Preston Crown Court accused of murdering 15 female patients who died in the Greater Manchester area between 1995 and 1998.
• 10 October – The London Eye begins to be lifted into position on the South Bank in London.
• 16 October – 26 players are sent off in Premier League and Football League matches on the same day – the most dismissals on the same day in 111 years of league football in England.
• 19 October – Tracey Emin exhibits My Bed at the Tate Gallery as one of the shortlisted works for the Turner Prize.
• 20 October – Sales of Rover cars are reported to have fallen by 30% this year.

  November

• 11 November – House of Lords Act 1999 removes most hereditary peers from the House of Lords. Those no longer sitting in the Lords are now eligible to vote in elections for the House of Commons.
• 12 November – Former glam rock singer Gary Glitter, 54, is jailed for four months at Bristol Crown Court for downloading child pornography. He is cleared at this hearing of having unlawful sex with a teenage fan 20 years ago, but will subsequently be charged in several countries for sexual offences involving minors, culminating in 2015 with a 16-year sentence imposed in the UK.
• 17 November – England qualify for the UEFA Euro 2000 football championship with a 2–1 aggregate win over Scotland in the qualifying playoff round.
• 25 November – At the Kensington and Chelsea by-election, Michael Portillo holds the seat for the Consevative Party.
• 30 November – BAE Systems formed by merger of British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems.

  December

• 10 December – Launch of the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton satellite. Information from the satellite is processed at the University of Leicester.
• 30 December – Former Beatle George Harrison, 56, suffers minor stab wounds after being attacked by an intruder at Friar Park, his mansion near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.
• 31 December – Millennium celebrations are held across the country including the official opening of the Millennium Dome and the unveiling of the London Eye in London.

  Undated

• Main construction work on Cardiff Bay Barrage completed.
• More than 20% of the UK population now have internet access.

  Publications

• Iain Banks' novel The Business.
• Lauren Child's children's book Clarice Bean, That's Me, first in the Clarice Bean series.
• Julia Donaldson's children's book The Gruffalo.
• Jamie Oliver's television tie-in cookbook The Naked Chef.
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel The Fifth Elephant.
• J. K. Rowling's children's fantasy novel Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

  Births

• 2 January
• *Dennis Adeniran, footballer
• *Aidan Wilson, footballer
• 10 January – Mason Mount, footballer
• 20 January – Flynn Downes, footballer
• 24 January – Jamie Barjonas, footballer
• 31 January – Alice Tai, swimmer
• 2 February – Marcus McGuane, footballer
• 5 February – Arthur Chatto, son of Lady Sarah Chatto and Daniel Chatto
• 8 February – Morgan Feeney, footballer
• 9 February – Adrianna Bertola, actress
• 15 February – George Hirst, footballer
• 19 February – Georgia Coates, swimmer
• 22 February – Harry Brook, cricketer
• 1 March – Ryan Porteous, footballer
• 4 March – Brooklyn Beckham, footballer
• 22 March – Marcus Tavernier, footballer
• 4 April – Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cellist
• 9 April – Isaac Hempstead-Wright, actor
• 12 April – Akai Osei, street dancer
• 18 April
• *Ben Brereton, footballer
• *Liam Trevaskis, cricketer
• 24 April – Jonathan Leko, footballer
• 2 May – Andre Dozzell, footballer
• 7 May – Fraser Murray, footballer
• 22 May – Josh Tymon, footballer
• 26 May – Kerry Ingram, actress
• 30 May – Edward Nketiah, footballer
• 2 June – Felix Organ, Australian-born English cricketer
• 3 June – Liam Banks, cricketer
• 23 June – Noah Marullo, actor
• 1 July – Charles Armstrong-Jones, son of Viscount Linley and Viscountess Linley
• 20 July – Ellie Downie, gymnast
• 20 August – Joe Willock, footballer
• 21 August – Henry Brookes, cricketer
• 24 August – Lewis Ferguson, footballer
• 27 August – Jack Plom, cricketer
• 28 August – Kyle Taylor, footballer
• 4 September – Ellie Darcey-Alden, actress
• 13 September – Fraser Hornby, footballer
• 14 October – Daniel Roche, actor
• 15 October – Ben Woodburn, footballer
• 20 October – Connor Marsh, actor
• 24 October – Dujon Sterling, footballer
• 4 November – Ben Wilmot, footballer
• 6 November – Tristan Nydam, footballer
• 13 November – Lando Norris, racing driver
• 14 November
• * Ellis Hollins, actor
• * Jude Wright, actor
• 10 December – Reiss Nelson, footballer
• Undated – Freya Wilson, actress

  Deaths

• 3 February – Arthur Mann, footballer and coach
• 8 February – Iris Murdoch, novelist and philosopher
• 9 February
• * Bryan Mosley, actor
• * Ann West, media campaigner
• 20 February – Sarah Kane, playwright
• 2 March – Dusty Springfield, singer
• 6 March – Dennis Viollet, footballer ; died in the United States
• 7 March – Stanley Kubrick, film director
• 17 March – Rod Hull, entertainer
• 21 March – Ernie Wise, comedian
• 4 April – Bob Peck, actor
• 14 April – Anthony Newley, actor, singer and songwriter
• 26 April – Jill Dando, journalist and television presenter
• 28 April – Sir Alf Ramsey, footballer and manager
• 2 May – Oliver Reed, actor
• 6 May – Johnny Morris, television presenter
• 8 May – Dirk Bogarde, actor and author
• 19 May – James Blades, orchestral percussionist
• 1 June – Christopher Cockerell, inventor
• 8 June – Christina Foyle, bookshop owner
• 16 June – David Sutch, musician and founder of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party
• 12 July – Bill Owen, actor
• 9 August – Helen Rollason, television sports presenter
• 10 August – Jennifer Paterson, television chef, one half of the Two Fat Ladies
• 5 September – Alan Clark, Conservative Member of Parliament and former government minister
• 14 September – Charles Crichton, film director and film editor
• 7 October – Deryck Guyler, actor
• 15 October – Josef Locke, tenor ; died in Ireland
• 3 November – Ian Bannen, actor
• 11 November – Vivian Fuchs, explorer
• 21 November – Quentin Crisp, writer and raconteur
• 24 November – Hilary Minster, actor
• 7 December – Kenny Baker, jazz trumpeter
• 8 December – Rupert Hart-Davis, publisher
• 19 December – Desmond Llewelyn, actor