Britain, Battle of

British Prime Minister Edward Heath presides over Britain’s full entry into the European Economic Community.

In Britain, Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch takes control of the News of the World newspaper group.

In Britain, Peter Sutcliffe, the 'Yorkshire Ripper', who killed 13 women in four years, is formally charged in court.

The Ministry of Defence claims that a British naval frigate, HMS Andromeda, has been deliberately rammed into by an Icelandic gunboat in the Atlantic. The ‘attack’ was one of several incidents between Britain and Iceland with regard to disputed fishing territory.

In Britain, the High Court rules that the identities of the two boys who murdered toddler James Bulger in 1993 are to be permanently kept secret.

After three months of unsuccessful negotiations, Britain’s coal miners go on strike for the first time in almost fifty years.

In Britain, the first students of the Open University receive their graduation certificates.

In Britain, two bombs explode at the Hertfordshire home of the Employment Secretary, Robert Carr. Nobody is injured in the attack, which is thought to relate to a new controversial industrial relations bill Mr Carr is proposing.

World War II: The Unites States and Great Britain agree to form a combined Chiefs of Staff.

In Britain, Christopher Nolan wins the Whitbread Book of the Year competition for, ‘Under the Clock.’ Nolan is disabled and cannot move or speak, he writes using a stick attached to his head which he uses to punch the keys of keyboard.

Plans to construct the Channel Tunnel, linking Britain to France, are announced.

In Britain, the author, George Orwell, dies from tuberculosis.

In Britain, the government launches a three million pound campaign to convince parents to immunise their children with the MMR jab - measles, mumps and rubella – amid fears that the job could trigger autism in some children.

In Singapore, the Commonwealth Conference compromises over the wording of the Declaration of Commonwealth principles, thus allowing Britain to sell arms to South Africa.

In Britain, Peter Mandelson, the Northern Ireland Secretary, resigns from the cabinet over a row concerning a passport application from an Indian billionaire. It the second time Mandelson has had to reign from the Cabinet.

Hurricane strength winds hit Britain, with at least 30 people killed as a result of the bad weather.

Unemployment in Britain exceeds three million.

In Britain, the Hutton Report – an enquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly – is published.

In Britain, solicitor Sally Clark is cleared by the Court of Appeal of murdering her two sons. Clark had already served more than three years of a life sentence.

In Britain, the House of Lords rejects Irish Home Rule Bill.

In Britain, GP Harold Shipman is jailed for life after murdering fifteen of his patients.

In Britain, The Atomic Energy Authority is created, to oversee the regulation of the production of atomic energy.

In Britain, Anna Ford has become the first female newsreader on Independent Television News.

In Britain, the two year old child James Bulger is found dead near a railway station in Merseyside.

In Britain, the Arms-to-Iraq report is published.

Throughout Britain electricity is in short supply as miners go on strike.

A group of Tamils from Sri Lanka seeking asylum in Britain protest at Heathrow airport by removing their clothes as they are about to be deported.

Gambia gains independence from Britain.

In Britain, a high court settlement provides for significant compensation from the drug company The Distillers Company Ltd to mothers who took the drug thalidomide during pregnancy, and whose children were subsequently born with deformities.

Britain and France announce plans to build a Channel Tunnel.

In light of the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain, the European Commission bans all British milk, meat and livestock exports.

Thieves break into a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent stealing £53 million, in Britain’s largest every robbery.

In Britain, Prince Charles announces his engagement to Lady Diana Spencer.

In Britain, the Director of Public Prosecution, Alan Green, announces that the convictions of the "Birmingham Six" can not be considered safe and satisfactory.

Barings Bank, Britain’s oldest investment bank, collapse after "rouge trader" Nick Leeson loses over a billion pounds of the bank's money.

The Labour Representation Committee is formed in Britain by the Independent Labour Party, the Fabian Society, the Social Democratic Federation and trade unions at a conference in London.