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

A report funded by The Department of Health in England finds that the convicted serial killer, former GP Harold Shipman, may have killed in excess of 300 of his patients.

As a result of the energy crisis, daylight saving time is introduced early in the United States.

Disgraced former Cabinet Minister Jonathan Aitken is released from jail after serving less than half of his 18 month sentence.

Aitken had been convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice after his libel case against the Guardian Newspaper and Granda Television collapsed.

Voting in the Palestinian Presidential Elections draws to a close. Early exit polls indicate that Mahmoud Abbas has won a significant majority.

As part of an arrangement to decrease Cold War tensions and end a brutal war in Angola, Cuban troops begin their withdrawal from the African nation.

In Italy, Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II, is released from prison. He served nearly 20 years in jail.

San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, is hit by a huge earthquake, leaving over 1,000 people feared dead.

After losing his seat at the 1983 British General Election, Tony Benn wins Labour's nomination for the Chesterfield by-election. Benn subsequently won the by-election and retained his seat until he retired from the House of Commons in 2001.

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.

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.

Reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan. He is subsequently murdered.

In Britain, Trade and Industry Secretary Leon Brittan becomes the second cabinet minister to resign over the Westland affair, after Michael Hesiltine’s earlier resignation.

An Earthquake in Columbia leaves three hundred people dead, and roughly a thousand injured.

A massive earthquake hits western India and parts of Pakistan. Thousands of people are killed.

Mike Tyson goes on trial charged with raping an 18 year old contender in the 1991 Miss Black America contest.

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.

'Bloody Sunday': British troops shoot dead 13 people during a demonstration in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The troops argued that they opened fire in response to shots from gunmen in a nearby block of flats.

British Airways and Air France cancel five flights to Washington DC and Miami in America, due to fears that terrorists are targeting the flights.

In Britain, the Court of Appeal rules that Diane Blood is allowed to be artificially inseminated with her dead husband’s sperm. 

South Korean scientists announce they have successfully cloned the world's first human embryo. However, in 2006 it emerges that the results had been faked.

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

In England, jurors at the inquest into the death of Stephen Lawrence rule that the black teenager was killed in an unprovoked racist attack.

The search for the missing British trawler, the Gaul, in the Arctic Ocean is called off.

In Cambodia, former Khmer Rouge commander Chhouk Rin loses a final appeal against his conviction in connection with the 1994 murder of three Western tourists.

A ceasefire is signed between Peru and Ecuador in the Cenepa War.

Writer Gerd Heidemann meets in secret with the directors of German publishing conglomerate Gruner + Jahr, to sell them what Heidemann claims are Adolph Hitler's diaries. The dairies are later proved to be fakes and Hediemann is sentenced to four years in jail.

The Rolling Stones play to an audience of over a million people on the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In a national referendum Spain votes in favour of endorsing the European Union Constitution.

The European Green Party is formed.

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

Uganda holds its first multi-party parliamentary and presidential elections for the first time in twenty five years.

The Conservative Home Secretary, Reginald Maudling announces the government’s intention to restrict the automatic right of Commonwealth citizens to remain in Britain.

Weeks after Israeli and Palestinian leaders declared a truce, four Israelis are killed and at least 30 people injured in a bomb blast outside a night club in Tel Aviv, Islamic Jihad claim responsibility.

In Jamaica, Portia Simpson Miller is elected leader of the governing People's National Party. She becomes the countries first female leader.

In the High Court of Justice in London the authors of the 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, sue Random House, publishers of the Dan Brown novel The Da Vinci Code, claiming that Brown’s book contains ideas stolen from them.

In North Hollywood, U.S.A bank robbers Larry Eugene Phillips Jr, and Emil Dechebal Matasareanu start a mass shootout with Los Angeles Police after robbing a bank. Both robbers are killed.

The European Parliament votes to allow Bulgaria and Romania to join the European Union in 2007.

Bulgaria and Romania sign accession treaties to the European Union, which they join in 2007.

In a court case in South Africa, former deputy president Jacob Zuma is cleared of rape.

In a referendum the People of Northern Ireland vote in favour of accepting the Good Friday peace agreement.

The Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev claims responsibility for organised the Beslan school siege in which at least 320 hostages were killed.

In Northern Ireland, General John de Chastelain, the head of the arms decommissioning body, announces that the IRA has put all of its weapons beyond use.

Cambodia’s parliament passes legalisation to enable the creation of a UN supported tribunal to put on trial former leaders of the Khmer Rouge.

Ariane 1, the first European-built rocket, is launched into space.

Having first appeared in 1950, the last daily Peanuts comic strip is published as Charles Schulz retires. The comic strip followed the exploits of Charlie Brown and friends and his dog Snoopy.