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 1978 in the United Kingdom: |
| British and Irish current events |
| Sport and Music |
| 1978 British Grand Prix |
| 1978 English cricket season |
Football  England |  Scotland |
| 1978 in British music |
| United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 |
Events from the year 1978 in the United Kingdom.
Contents |
Incumbents
- Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
- Prime Minister - James Callaghan, Labour
Events
- 18 January - The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture.
- 13 February - Anna Ford becomes the first female newsreader on ITN.1
- 18 February - 20 suspects arrested in connection with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombing of the La Mon restaurant in County Down which had killed 12 people and injured 30.2
- 8 March - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy first broadcast by BBC Radio 4.3
- 30 March - Conservative Party recruit Saatchi & Saatchi to revamp their image.4
- 8 April - Regular broadcasts of proceedings in the Parliament of the United Kingdom start.
- 1 May - May Day becomes a bank holiday for the first time.3
- 8 June - Naomi James becomes the first woman to sail around the world single-handedly.5
- 19 June - Cricketer Ian Botham becomes the first man in the history of the game to score a century and take eight wickets in one innings of a Test match.6
- 21 June
- An outbreak of shooting between Provisional IRA members and the British Army leaves one civilian and three IRA men dead.7
- The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Evita opens at the Prince Edward Theatre in London.3
- 6 July - Taunton train fire: eleven people killed in worst rail accident since Hither Green rail crash in 1967.8
- 7 July - The Solomon Islands become independent from the United Kingdom.
- 25 July
- Louise Brown becomes the world's first human born from in vitro fertilization.9
- Motability, a charity which provides cars to disabled people, founded.10
- 20 August - Gunmen open fire on an Israeli El Al airline bus in London.
- 25 August - U.S. Army Sergeant Walter Robinson "walks" across the English Channel in 11 hours 30 minutes, using homemade water shoes.
- 11 September - Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov dies after having been stabbed with a poison-tipped umbrella in London.11
- 15 September - German terrorist Astrid Proll arrested in London.12
- 19 September - British Police launch a massive murder hunt, following the discovery of the dead body of newspaper boy Carl Bridgewater (13) at a farmhouse near Kingswinford in the West Midlands. Carl is believed to have been shot dead after disturbing a burglary at the property.13
- 17 October - A cull of Grey seals in the Orkney and Western Islands reduced after a public outcry.14
- 3 November - Dominica gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
- 5 November - Rioters sack the British Embassy in Tehran.
- 23 November - Pollyanna's nightclub in Birmingham is forced to lift its ban on black and Chinese revellers, after a one-year investigation by the Commission for Racial Equality concludes that the nightclub's entry policy was racist.
- 30 November - An industrial dispute closes down The Times newspaper.5
- 10 December - Peter D. Mitchell wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his contribution to the understanding of biological energy transfer through the formulation of the chemiosmotic theory".15
Undated
- Liverpool Cathedral completed.
Publications
- James Gordon Farrell's novel The Singapore Grip.
- Graham Greene's novel The Human Factor.
- Ian McEwan's novel The Cement Garden.
- Iris Murdoch's novel The Sea, the Sea.
Births
- 1 January - Alex Leigh, model
- 1 January - Phillip Mulryne, footballer
- 17 January - Warren Feeney, footballer
- 20 February - Jakki Degg, model
- 24 February - Janine Machin, radio presenter
- 31 March - Stephen Clemence, footballer
- 9 April - Rachel Stevens, singer
- 22 May - Jordan, model
- 6 June - Carl Barât, singer and guitarist (The Libertines)
- 9 June - Matthew Bellamy, lead singer of the band Muse
- 22 June - Dan Wheldon, race car driver
- 23 July - Stuart Elliott, footballer
- 19 August - Callum Blue, actor
- 25 September - Jodie Kidd, model
- 25 October - Russell Anderson, footballer
- 26 October - Jimmy Aggrey, footballer
- 18 November - Damien Johnson, footballer
Deaths
- 14 January - Harold Abrahams, athlete (born 1899)
- 18 January - Walter H. Thompson, Scotland Yard detective, bodyguard of Winston Churchill (b. 1890)
- 22 January - Herbert Sutcliffe, cricketer (born 1894)
- 1 March - Paul Scott, novelist, playwright and poet (born 1920)
- 4 April - Sir Morien Morgan, aeronautics engineer (born 1912)
- 9 April - Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, architect (born 1883)
- 21 April - Sandy Denny, singer (born 1947)
- 18 May - Selwyn Lloyd, politician (born 1904)
- 7 June - Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1897)
- 30 July - John Mackintosh, politician (born 1929)
- 14 August - Nicolas Bentley, writer and illustrator (born 1907)
- 7 September - Keith Moon, drummer (The Who) (drug overdose) (born 1946)
- 9 September - Hugh MacDiarmid, Scottish poet (born 1892)
References
- ^ ""1978: Ford makes her ITN debut", BBC On This Day". Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
- ^ ""1978: Belfast bomb suspects rounded up"", BBC On This Day". Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
- ^ a b c (2006) Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. ISBN 0-141-02715-0.
- ^ ""1978: Tories recruit advertisers to win votes", BBC On This Day". Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
- ^ a b Palmer, Alan & Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd, 441-442. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- ^ ""1978: Botham bowls into cricket history", BBC On This Day". Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
- ^ ""1978: Four dead in post office shootings", BBC On This Day". Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
- ^ ""1978: Eleven die in sleeper train inferno"", BBC On This Day". Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
- ^ ""1978: First 'test tube baby' born", BBC On This Day". Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
- ^ ""1978: Motability gets moving in the UK", BBC On This Day". Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
- ^ ""1978: Umbrella stab victim dies", BBC On This Day". Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
- ^ ""1978: German terror suspect arrested in UK", BBC On This Day". Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
- ^ ""1978: Police hunt Bridgewater killers", BBC On This Day". Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
- ^ ""1978: Grey seal cull dramatically reduced", BBC On This Day". Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
- ^ "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1978". Retrieved on 2008-01-27.