Peter Sutcliffe, a 34-year-old lorry driver from Bradford arrested on 2 January in Sheffield, is charged with being the notorious serial killer known as the "Yorkshire Ripper", who is believed to have murdered thirteen women and attacked seven others across northern England since 1975.[2]
Two divers trapped below the North Sea are brought to safety to the surface.
22 January – Australian newspaper owner Rupert Murdoch agrees to buy The Times provided an agreement can be reached with the unions.
24 January – A Labour Party conference at Wembley votes for election of the party leader by electoral college with 40% votes for unions, 30% Labour MPs and 30% constituencies.
22 March – It is reported that a minority of Conservative MPs are planning to challenge the leadership of Margaret Thatcher in an attempt to reverse the party's declining popularity and fight off the challenge from Labour and the SDP.[14]
2 April – The effects of the recession continue to claim jobs as Midland Red, the iconic Birmingham-based bus operator, closes down its headquarters in the city with the loss of some 170 jobs.[20]
10 April – Bobby Sands, an IRA member on hunger strike in the Maze prison, Northern Ireland, is elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone in a by election.[21]
11 April – More than 300 people (most of them police officers) are injured and extensive damage is caused to property in the Brixton riot.[22]
More than 100 people are arrested and 15 police officers are injured in clashes with black youths in the Finsbury Park, Forest Green and Ealing areas of London.
23 April – Unemployment passes the 2,500,000 mark for the first time in nearly 50 years.[citation needed]
29 April – Peter Sutcliffe admits to the manslaughter of 13 women on the grounds of diminished responsibility, but the judge rules that a jury should rule on Sutcliffe's state of mind before deciding whether to accept his plea or find him guilty of murder.[citation needed]
May
May – Peugeot closes the Talbot car plant at Linwood, Scotland which was opened by the Rootes Group 18 years ago as Scotland's only car factory. The closure of the factory also results in the end of the last remaining Rootes-developed product, the Avenger, after 11 years, as well as the four-year-old Sunbeam supermini. There are no plans to replace the Avenger, but a French-built small car based on the Peugeot 104 will replace the Sunbeam in the next few months.[24]
19 May – Peter Sutcliffe is found guilty of being the Yorkshire Ripper after admitting 13 charges of murder and a further seven of attempted murder. He will be sentenced later this week.
22 May – Peter Sutcliffe is sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he should serve at least 30 years before parole can be considered.[20]
27 May – Liverpool F.C. win the European Cup for the third time by defeating Real Madrid of Spain 1–0 in the final at Parc des Princes in Paris. Alan Kennedy scores the only goal of the game.[28] Although they have yet to equal Spanish side Real Madrid's record of six European Cups, they are the first British side to win the trophy three times.[29]
30 May – More than 100,000 people from across Britain march to Trafalgar Square in London for the TUC's March For Jobs.[28]
13–14 June – More than 80 arrests are made during clashes between white power skinheads and black people in Coventry, where the National Front is planning a march later this month, on the same day as an anti-racist concert by The Specials.[28]
15 June – Lord Scarman opens an enquiry into the Brixton riots.[28]
2 July – Four members of an Asian Muslim family (three of them children) are killed by arson at their home in Walthamstow, London; the attack is believed to have been racially motivated.[34]
3 July – Hundreds of Asians and skinheads riot in Southall, London, following disturbances at the Hamborough Tavern public house, which is severely damaged by fire.[28]
7 July – 43 people are charged with theft and violent disorder following a riot in Wood Green, North London.[28]
8 July
Joe McDonnell becomes the fifth IRA hunger striker to die.
Inner-city rioting continues when a riot inMoss Side, Manchester, sees more than 1,000 people besiege the local police station. However, the worst rioting in Toxteth has now ended.
Two days of rioting in Moss Side, Manchester, draw to a close, during which there has been extensive looting of shops. Princess Road, the main road through the area, will be closed for several days while adjacent buildings and gas mains damaged by rioting and arson are made safe.
11 July – A further wave of rioting breaks out in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
13 July
The IRA hunger strike death toll reaches six when Martin Hurson dies.
Margaret Thatcher announces that police will be able to use rubber bullets, water cannons and armoured vehicles against urban rioters. Labour leader Michael Foot blames the recent wave of rioting on the Conservative government's economic policies,[citation needed] which have seen unemployment rise by more than 70% in the last two years.
15 July – Police clash with black youths in Brixton once again, this time after police raid properties in search of petrol bombs which are never found.
16 July – Labour narrowly hang on to the Warrington seat in a by-election, fighting off a strong challenge from Roy Jenkins for the Social Democratic Party.[38]
17 July – Official opening of the Humber Bridge by the Queen.[2]
20 July – Michael Heseltine tours Merseyside to examine the problems in the area, which has been particularly badly hit by the current recession.
Unknown date – Japanese carmaker Suzuki follows up the British success of its motorcycles by importing passenger cars to Britain for the first time, with first imported model being the Suzuki Alto, a small hatchback available with three or five doors and marketed as a competitor for the Mini and Citroen 2CV.[41]
1 August – Kevin Lynch becomes the seventh IRA hunger striker to die.
2 August – Within 24 hours of Kevin Lynch's death, Kieran Doherty becomes the eighth IRA hunger striker to die.
8 August – The IRA hunger strike claims its ninth hunger striker so far (and its third in a week) with the death of Thomas McElwee.
9 August – Broadmoor Hospital falls under heavy criticism after the escape of a second prisoner in three weeks. The latest absconder is 32-year-old Alan Reeve, a convicted double murderer.
17 August – An inquiry opens in the Moss Side riots.
20 August
The tenth IRA hunger striker, Michael Devine, dies in prison.
Inflation has fallen to 10.9% – the lowest under this government.[citation needed]
26 August – Vauxhall launches the second generation Cavalier, built on General Motors J-Car platform, available for the first time with front-wheel drive and a hatchback.[43]
27 August – Moira Stuart, 31, is appointed the BBC's first black newsreader.
September
September – Little Miss Bossy, the first book in the Little Miss series (the female counterpart to the Mr. Men series) is first published.
1 September – Filling stations start selling motor fuel by the litre.[20]
8 September
Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp set up by women who have walked from Cardiff to RAF Greenham Common to protest at plans to site US nuclear missiles there.[44]
The first episode of the long-running and iconic sitcom Only Fools and Horses is broadcast on BBC1.
10 September – Another Enterprise Zone is launched, the latest being in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.[45]
14 September – Cecil Parkinson is appointed chairman of the Conservative Party.
16 September – The children's series Postman Pat is first broadcast on BBC1.
17 September – A team of divers begins removing gold ingots worth £40 million from the wreck of HMS Edinburgh, sunk off the coast of Norway in 1942.[2]
18 September – David Steel tells delegates at the Liberal Party conference to "go back to your constituencies and prepare for government", hopes of which are boosted by the fact that most opinion polls now show the SDP-Liberal Alliance in the lead.
23 September – Vauxhall launch their successful replacement for the Cavalier Mk1 the Cavalier Mk2.
25 September – Ford announces that its best-selling Cortina will be discontinued next year and its replacement will be called the Sierra.
29 September – Football mourns the legendary former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, who dies that day at the age of 68 after suffering a heart attack.[46]
3 October – Hunger strikes at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland end after seven months. The final six hunger strikers have been without food for between 13 and 55 days.[47]
7 October – British Leyland launches the Triumph Acclaim, a four-door small family saloon built in collaboration with Japanese car and motorcycle giant Honda at the Cowley plant in Oxford. It is based on the Japanese Honda Ballade (not available in Britain), has front-wheel drive, is powered by a 1.3-litre 70 bhp petrol engine and is between the Ford Escort and Ford Cortina in terms of size.[49]
13 October – Opinion polls show that Margaret Thatcher is still unpopular as Conservative leader due to her anti-inflationary economic measures, which have now come under fire from her predecessor Edward Heath.[50]
15 October – Norman Tebbit tells fellow Conservative MPs: "I grew up in the thirties with an unemployed father. He didn't riot. He got on his bike and looked for work and he kept looking until he found it".[citation needed]
29 October – A patient dies of pneumocystis pneumonia at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London. He is the first person (patient zero) in the UK to die of an AIDS related illness. An investigation by ITN in 2021 will identify him as John Eaddie of Bournemouth.
30 October – Nicholas Reed, chief of the Euthanasia charity Exit, is jailed for 2+1⁄2 years for aiding and abetting suicides.[55]
November
1 November
The West Indian island nation of Antigua and Barbuda becomes independent of the United Kingdom.
British Leyland's 58,000-strong workforce begins a strike over pay.
2 November – The TV licence increases in price from £34 to £46 for a colour TV, and £12 to £15 for black and white.[citation needed]
13 November – The Queen opens the final phase of the Telford Shopping Centre, nearly a decade after development began on the first phase of what is now one of the largest indoor shopping centres in Europe in the Shropshire new town.[56]
16 November – Production of the Vauxhall Astra commences in Britain at the Ellesmere Port plant in Cheshire. The Astra was launched a year ago but until now has been produced solely at the Opel plant in West Germany.
25 November – A report into the Brixton Riots, which scarred inner-city London earlier this year, points the finger of blame at the social and economic problems which have been plaguing Brixton and many other inner-city areas across England.
26 November – The Crosby by-election, caused by the death of the sitting MP Graham Page on 1 October, is held; Shirley Williams wins the seat for the SDP, overturning a Conservative majority of nearly 20,000 votes.
December
8 December
Severe snow storms hit the UK as temperatures plummet to the lowest in any December on record since 1874 and the heaviest snow falls since 1878. The snow storms continue in waves until 26/27 December.[59][60]
9 December – Michael Heseltine announces a £95 million aid package for the inner cities.
11 December – Seer Green rail crash: a train crash in Seer Green near Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire kills four people and seriously injures five others. The crash was caused by a combination of the severe blizzards and human error.
19 December – An opinion poll shows that Margaret Thatcher is now the most unpopular postwar British prime minister and that the SDP-Liberal Alliance has the support of up to 50% of the electorate.
20 December – Penlee lifeboat disaster: The crew of the MV Union Star and the life-boat Solomon Browne sent to rescue them are all killed in heavy seas off Cornwall; some of the bodies are never found.[62]
Undated
Inflation has fallen to 11.9%, the second lowest annual level since 1973, but has been largely achieved by the mass closure of heavy industry facilities that have contributed to the highest postwar levels of unemployment.[63]
In spite of the continuing rise in employment, the British economy improves from 4% contraction last year to 0.8% overall growth this year.
Suzuki, the Japanese manufacturer famous for producing motorcycles, imports passenger cars to the United Kingdom for the first time. The first model sold in Britain is the entry-level Alto,[66] with the SJ four-wheel drive set to go on sale in 1982.[67]
In spite of the continued rise in unemployment, the British economy improved with 1.8% overall growth for the year compared to 3% overall contraction in 1980.[1]
New car sales in the United Kingdom fall to just over 1.4 million. The Ford Cortina enjoys its 10th year as Britain's best-selling car since 1967, while the new front-wheel drive Ford Escort is close behind in second place. British Leyland's new Metro is Britain's fourth most popular new car with nearly 100,000 sales. The Datsun Cherry, eighth in the sales charts, is the most popular foreign car in Britain this year.
