1982 in the United Kingdom

1982 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1980 | 1981 | 1982 (1982) | 1983 | 1984

Individual countries of the United Kingdom

England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales

Sport, Television and music

1982 British Grand Prix 1982 English cricket season Football: England | Scotland 1982 in British television 1982 in British music 1982 in British radio UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 1982

Events from the year 1982 in the United Kingdom. The year was dominated by the Falklands War.

Incumbents

• Monarch - Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister - Margaret Thatcher, Conservative

Events

• 1 January - ITV launches three regional TV stations - Central, TV South and TV South West.
• 2 January - The Welsh Army of Workers claims responsibility for a bomb explosion at the Birmingham headquarters of Severn Trent Water.
• 10 January - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C is recorded at Braemar, in Aberdeenshire. This equals the record set in the same place in 1895, and the record will be equalled again at Altnaharra in 1995.
• 11 January - Mark Thatcher, son of the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, disappears in the Sahara during Paris-Dakar rally.
• 14 January - Mark Thatcher is found safe and well in the Sahara Desert, six days after going missing.
• 21 January - Miners vote against strike action and accept the National Coal Board offer of a 9.3% pay rise.
• 26 January - Unemployment in the United Kingdom is recorded at over 3,000,000 for the first time since the 1930s.
• 30 January - Rioting breaks out in St Pauls, Bristol.
• 1 February - Sales of tabloid newspapers are reported^{[citation needed]} to have been boosted substantially since last summer by the introduction of bingo. The Sun has reportedly enjoyed the biggest rise in sales, now selling more than 4,000,000 copies per day on a regular basis.
• 5 February - Laker Airways collapses, leaving 6,000 passengers stranded, with debts of £270 million.
• 12 February - Opening of first Next clothing store, a rebranding of the merged Joseph Hepworth and Kendall chains masterminded by George Davies.
• 19 February - The DeLorean Car factory in Belfast is put into receivership.
• 23 February - The Glasgow-registered coal ship St. Bedan is bombed and sunk by an IRA unit driving a hijacked pilot boat in Lough Foyle.
• 25 February - The European Court of Justice rules that schools in Britain cannot allow corporal punishment against the wishes of parents.
• 27 February - The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company gives its last performance at the end of a final London season, having been in near-continuous existence since 1875.
• 3 March - The Queen opens the Barbican Centre.
• 18 March
  • A legal case brought by Mary Whitehouse against the National Theatre concerning alleged obscenity in the play The Romans in Britain ends after the Attorney General intervenes.
  • An Argentine scrap metal dealer raises the Argentine flag in South Georgia, Falkland Islands - a British colony.
• 19 March - Argentines land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war.
• 25 March - Roy Jenkins wins the Hillhead by-election in Glasgow for the Social Democratic Party, whose dream of an electoral breakthrough looks strong as they still head most of the opinion polls.
• 26 March - The first test tube twins are born in Cambridge.
• 29 March - Royal Assent in London to the Canada Act 1982 sets the stage for the repatriation of the Canadian Constitution (see April 17 below).
• 1 April - A 12-year-old unnamed Birmingham boy becomes one of the youngest people in England and Wales to be convincted of murder after he admits murdering an eight-year-old boy, and is sentenced to be detained indefinitely.
• 2 April - Falklands War begins as Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.
• 4 April - Falklands War: The British Falkland Islands government surrenders, placing the islands in Argentine control.
• 5 April - Falklands War: Royal Navy task force sets sail to the Falklands from Portsmouth.
• 7 April - Britain draws up a 200-mile "exclusion zone" around the Falklands.
• 17 April - By Proclamation of the Queen of Canada on Parliament Hill, Canada repatriates its constitution, granting full political independence from the United Kingdom; included is the country's first entrenched bill of rights.
• 21 April - Walsall F.C.'s hopes of becoming the first Football League club to ground-share are dashed when officials condemn their plans to sell their Fellows Park stadium and become tenants at the Molineux (home of Wolverhampton Wanderers).
• 24 April
  • Eurovision Song Contest is held in Harrogate, Yorkshire.
  • The first British serviceman dies in the Falklands conflict, when his Sea King helicopter crashes.
• 25 April - Falklands War: Royal Marines recapture South Georgia.
• 30 April - The Conservatives have returned to the top of the opinion polls for the first time since late 1979, with the latest MORI poll showing that they have 43% of the vote, ahead of the Alliance.
• 1 May - Falklands War: Operation Black Buck- A Royal Air Force Vulcan bomber takes off from Ascension Island and bombs Port Stanley Airport.

The ARA General Belgrano sinks following attack by Royal Navy submarine HMS Conqueror.

• 2 May - Falklands War: The nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano.
• 4 May - Falklands War: HMS Sheffield badly damaged by an Exocet missile. It sinks on 10 May.
• 21 May
  • Falklands War: Royal Marines and paratroopers from the British Task Force land at San Carlos Bay on the Falkland Islands and raise the Union Jack.
  • The Haçienda nightclub opens in Manchester.
• 22 May - FA Cup holders Tottenham Hotspur draw 1-1 with Queen's Park Rangers in the Wembley final, forcing a replay.
• 23 May - Falklands War: HMS Antelope of the Royal Navy explodes.
• 26 May - Official opening of Kielder Water, a reservoir in Northumberland. It is the largest artificial lake in the UK by capacity (200bn litres) and is surrounded by Kielder Forest, the largest planted woodland in Europe.
• 27 May - Tottenham Hotspur win the FA Cup beating QPR 1-0 in a replay. A sixth-minute penalty from Glenn Hoddle is the only goal of the game.
• 28 May
  • Falklands War: British troops reach Darwin, Falkland Islands.
  • Tottenham Hotspur equal Aston Villa's record of seven FA Cup triumphs by beating QPR 1-0 in the final replay.
• 29 May
  • Pope John Paul II visits Canterbury, the first time a pontiff has visited Britain.
  • Falklands War: In the Battle of Goose Green, British paratroopers defeat a larger force of Argentine troops in the first land battle of the war.
• 31 May - Falklands War: The Battle of Stanley is fought.
• June - All restrictions on hire purchase lifted.
• 3 June - Israeli ambassador to the UK, Shlomo Argov, shot outside the Dorchester Hotel.
• 8 June
  • U.S. President Ronald Reagan becomes the first American chief executive to address a joint session of Parliament.
  • Falklands War: 48 UK servicemen are killed when two supply ships are bombed by Argentine air strikes off Bluff Cove.
• 14 June - Falklands War ends as British forces reach the outskirts of Stanley after "yomping" across East Falkland from San Carlos Bay. They arrive to find the Argentine forces flying white flags of surrender. A formal surrender is agreed that day.
• 16 June - Welsh miners go on strike to support health workers demanding a 12% pay rise.
• 19 June - The body of "God's Banker", Roberto Calvi, chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, is found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London.
• 21 June - The first child of The Prince and Princess of Wales is born at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington.
• 22 June - A British Airways Boeing 747 suffers a temporary four-engine flameout and damage to the exterior of the plane, after flying through the otherwise undetected ash plume from Indonesia's Galunggung.
• 23 June - Support for the Conservative government continues to rise, mainly due to the success of the Falklands campaign, with an MORI opinion poll showing that they have a 51% approval rate.
• 2 July - Roy Jenkins is elected leader of the SDP.
• 5 July - England draw 0-0 with hosts Spain and are eliminated from the World Cup in the second group stage. Ron Greenwood retires as England manager after five years and is succeeded by Ipswich Town manager Bobby Robson.
• 9 July - Michael Fagan breaks into Buckingham Palace and spends 10 minutes talking to the Queen until he is apprehended.
• 20 July - Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings: The Provisional IRA detonates two bombs in central London, killing 8 soldiers, wounding 47 people, and leading to the deaths of 7 horses.
• 21 July - HMS Hermes, the Royal Navy flagship during the Falklands War, returns home to Portsmouth to a hero's welcome.
• 22 July
  • Production of the Ford Cortina ends after 20 years and five incarnations (the final two of which were virtually identical). The Cortina's successor, the Sierra, will be built at Dagenham and in Belgium, though in slightly lower volumes as the smaller Escort is now Ford's strongest-selling car.
  • Exclusion zone around the Falklands is lifted.
  • Margaret Thatcher rejects calls in parliament for a return of the death penalty for terrorist murder.
• 1 August - The government creates Britoil, successor organisation to the British National Oil Company.
• 4 August - The child of The Prince and Princess of Wales is christened William Arthur Philip Louis.
• 29 August - 65-year-old American Ashby Harper becomes the oldest person to swim the English Channel.
• 30 August - St David's Hall opens in Cardiff as the National Concert Hall and Conference Centre of Wales.
• 7 September - Margaret Thatcher expresses her concern at the growing number of children living in single parent families, but says that she is not opposed to divorce.
• 22 September - An estimated 14% of the workforce is now reported to be unemployed.
• 23 September - Nigel Lawson announces that no industry should remain in state ownership unless there is an "overwhelming" case.
• 28 September - General Motors launches the Spanish built Opel Corsa, which will be sold in Britain from April next year as the Vauxhall Nova. The new front-wheel drive range of small hatchbacks and saloons will effectively replace the Chevette. However, the transport workers union has thrown the future of the new car, which is expected to sell around 50,000 units a year, into jeopardy by blocking imports to Britain.
• 30 September - Lord Denning delivers his last judgement as Master of the Rolls.
• October - Government statistics for unemployment are now based on those claiming benefit rather than those registered unemployed.^{[citation needed]}
• 8 October - With the economy now climbing out of recession after more than two years, Margaret Thatcher vows to stick to her economic policies, and blames previous governments for the decline that she inherited when taking power more than three years ago.
• 11 October - The Mary Rose, flagship of Henry VIII of England that sank in 1545, is raised.
• 12 October - A victory parade is held in London to mark the end of the Falklands war.
• 15 October - The Ford Sierra is launched as replacement for the long-running Cortina, and its ultra-modern aerodynamic styling causes controversy among potential buyers who for years had been drawn to the conventional Cortina.
• 21 October - Sinn Féin win first seats on Northern Ireland Assembly, with Gerry Adams winning the Belfast West seat.
• 27 October - Three RUC officers killed by an IRA bomb near Lurgan in Northern Ireland.
• 1 November
  • The Welsh language television station, S4C, launches in Wales.
  • Opinion polls show the Conservatives still firmly in the lead, suggesting that a general election will be held by next summer.
• 2 November - The fourth terrestrial television channel, Channel 4, begins broadcasting, the first programme broadcast being the game show Countdown, hosted by Richard Whiteley. Another flagship programme is the Liverpool based soap opera Brookside.
• 7 November - The Thames Barrier is first publicly demonstrated.
• 12 November - Express Lift Tower in Northampton officially opened.
• 15 November - Unemployment remains in excess of 3,000,000 - 13.8% of the workforce.
• 30 November - A letter bomb sent by Animal rights activists explodes in 10 Downing Street, with packages sent to the leaders of the other political parties. One member of Downing Street staff is burnt.
• 3 December - UK release of film Gandhi. This will win eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Richard Attenborough) and Best Actor (Ben Kingsley) (11 April 1983).
• 10 December
  • British chemist Aaron Klug wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes".
  • John Robert Vane wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Sune Bergström and Bengt I. Samuelsson "for their discoveries concerning prostaglandins and related biologically active substances".
• 12 December - Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp: 30,000 women hold hands and form a human chain around the 14.5 km (9 mi) perimeter fence.
• 15 December - The British colony of Gibraltar gains a pedestrian link to Spain, as the gates which separated the two states are re-opened by the Spanish government after 13 years.
• 23 December - More than 1,200 jobs are lost in the West Midlands when the Round Oak Steelworks closes after 125 years.

Undated

• Unemployment exceeds 3 million for the first time since the 1930s.
• Inflation has fallen to a 10-year low of 8.6%, although some 1,500,000 jobs have reportedly been lost largely due to Government policy in attaining this end.
• British National Oil Corporation privatised as Britoil.

Publications

• 7 October - Sue Townsend's novel The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾.
• Douglas Adams' novel Life, the Universe and Everything.
• William Boyd's novel An Ice-Cream War.
• Bruce Chatwin's novel On the Black Hill.
• Caryl Churchill's play Top Girls.
• Richard Dawkins' book The Extended Phenotype.

Births

• 4 January — Richard Logan, footballer
• 16 January – Samuel Preston, singer
• 25 February — Chris Baird, footballer
• 9 March — Paul Ballard, television presenter
• 5 April — Hayley Atwell, actress
• 24 April — Laura Hamilton, children's television presenter
• 10 May — Adebayo Akinfenwa, footballer
• 15 May — Douglas Simpson, Scottish field hockey forward
• 19 May — Kevin Amankwaah, footballer
• 7 June — Amy Nuttall, actress and opera singer
• 21 June — Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, prince
• 13 July — Simon Clist, footballer
• 3 September — Fearne Cotton, television presenter
• 22 September — Billie Piper, singer and actress
• 30 September — Michelle Marsh, model
• 8 October — Glenn Kirkham, English field hockey player
• 21 October — David Mansouri, Scottish field hockey defender
• 28 October — Matt Smith, actor
• 12 December — Louise Carroll, Scottish field hockey defender

Deaths

• 4 February - Alex Harvey, musician (born 1935)
• 21 March Harry H. Corbett , actor {born 1925}
• 31 March - Dave Clement, footballer (born 1948)
• 15 April - Arthur Lowe, actor (born 1915)
• 25 April - Celia Johnson, actress (born 1908)
• 1 May - William Primrose, violist (born 1903)
• 28 May - Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert Jones, Falklands War casualty and posthumous recipient of Victoria Cross (born 1940)
• 12 June - Ian McKay, Falklands War casualty and posthumous recipient of Victoria Cross (born 1953)
• 4 July - Terry Higgins, early British casualty of AIDS
• 12 July - Kenneth More, actor (born 1914)
• 5 September - Douglas Bader, World War II fighter pilot (born 1910)
• 20 October - Jimmy McGrory, former footballer (born 1904)
• 8 November - Jimmy Dickinson, former footballer (born 1925)
• 16 November - Arthur Askey, comedian (born 1900)
• 2 December - Marty Feldman, comedian and actor (born 1934)
• 16 December - Colin Chapman, automotive engineer (born 1928)