1995 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1995 in the United Kingdom.

1995 in the United Kingdom
Other years
1993 | 1994 | 1995 (1995) | 1996 | 1997
Countries of the United Kingdom
England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales
Popular culture

Incumbents

Events

January

February

  • 1 February – New domestic electrical appliances must be supplied with an appropriately fused pre-wired plug.[3]
  • 2 February – Tennis legend Fred Perry dies aged 85 in hospital in Melbourne, Australia, following a fall.
  • 7 February – Rumbelows, the electrical goods retailer and former sponsors of the Football League Cup, closes its 311 stores with the loss of more than 3,000 jobs.
  • 14 February – Sizewell B nuclear power station, the UK's only commercial pressurised water reactor power station, is first synchronised with the National Grid.
  • 15 February
    • The manufacturing sector has reported its biggest rise in employment since the Conservatives first came to power sixteen years earlier, although the national unemployment rate rose slightly in January, still being in excess 2.5 million – it has not been below this level for more than three years.
    • The England football team's friendly match against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin is abandoned due to the behaviour of a small number of English fans, believed to be members of far-right activist groups.
  • 16 February – Neil Kinnock, former Leader of the Labour Party, resigns from Parliament after twenty-five years to take up a new role as a European Commissioner, sparking a by-election in his Islwyn constituency in South Wales. Don Touhig retains the seat for Labour, with nearly 70% of the vote.
  • 17 February – The famous MG sports car brand, not seen on a volume sports car since 1980, is revived when the Rover Group announces the new MGF sports car which will go on sale in September this year.
  • 19 February – Sir Nicholas Fairbairn, the Conservative MP for Perth and Kinross, dies in office aged 61.
  • 21 February – George Graham, who has won six major trophies including two league titles since becoming manager of Arsenal F.C. in 1986, is sacked over allegations that he accepted illegal payments from an agent when signing two players in 1992.
  • 24 February – The Football Association bans Eric Cantona from football for eight months, meaning that he will not be able to play competitively until after 30 September, and fine him £10,000.
  • 26 February – Barings Bank, the UK's oldest merchant bank, collapses following $1,400,000,000 of losses by rogue trader, Nick Leeson.
  • 28 February – The Diary of Bridget Jones column first published in The Independent.[4]

March

  • 9 March – Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit Northern Ireland for the first time since the IRA and Loyalist ceasefire which came into force last year.[5]
  • 20 March – The Queen arrives in Cape Town for the first royal visit to South Africa in nearly fifty years.
  • 23 March – Eric Cantona is sentenced to fourteen days imprisonment at Croydon Crown Court for his assault on a Crystal Palace fan two months ago. He remains free on bail pending an appeal against his sentence, but if this is unsuccessful he will be the first footballer to be jailed in Britain for an on-field offence. 39-year-old former Scotland winger Davie Cooper dies aged 39 after suffering a brain haemorrhage.
  • 31 March – Eric Cantona wins his appeal against his prison sentence, which is reduced to a 120-hour community service order.

April

May

June

July

  • 3 July – The British football transfer record fee is broken for the third time this year when Liverpool sign striker Stan Collymore from Nottingham Forest for £8.5million.
  • 4 July – John Major wins the Conservative Party leadership election, gaining 218 votes to John Redwood's 89.[13]
  • 13 July – A memorial service is held for Harold Wilson in Westminster Abbey, attended by Prince Charles, John Major, and three other living former Prime Ministers.
  • 19 July
    • Pensions Act 1995 receives Royal Assent, proposing to phase in a state pension age for women at 65 (equalising it with that for men) over a ten-year period and introducing measures intended to safeguard occupational pension schemes.
    • Unemployment is reported to be on the rise again, though the government denies that it is pointing towards another recession.
  • 23 July – War in Bosnia and Herzegovina: British forces sent to Sarajevo to help relieve the Siege of Sarajevo.[14]
  • 27 July – The Conservative government's majority is slashed further, to nine seats, as the Liberal Democrats win the Littleborough and Saddleworth seat in Lancashire, two months after it was left vacant by the death of Conservative MP Geoffrey Dickens.
  • 30 July – A murder investigation is launched after two teenage boys, Robbie Gee and Paul Barker, are found dead near a lake in rural Cheshire. Police in North Wales begin a murder hunt after the body of seven-year-old Sophie Hook is found washed up on a beach near the Llandudno home of her uncle, shortly after she disappeared while sleeping in a tent in the garden.

August

  • 3 August – 30-year-old Colwyn Bay man Howard Hughes is charged with the murder of Sophie Hook, and remanded in custody.
  • 6 August – Pubs in England are permitted to remain open throughout Sunday afternoon for the first time.[15]
  • 16 August – Unemployment is now at 2,315,300 – one of the lowest figures recorded in the last four years.
  • 20 August – BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir London, Europe's first traditional-style purpose-built Hindu temple (and England's largest), is inaugurated in Neasden.[16]
  • 26 August – Middlesbrough F.C. move into their new 30,000-seat Riverside Stadium, to replace Ayresome Park which had been their home since 1903. Their new stadium is the largest club stadium to be built in England since the 1920s.[17]

September

October

November

December

  • 2 December – "Rogue trader" Nick Leeson is jailed for six-and-a-half years in Singapore on a double fraud charge relating to the recent financial collapse of Barings Bank.[27]
  • 8 December – Head teacher Philip Lawrence dies after being stabbed at the entrance of his school in Maida Vale, North London, where he was defending a pupil from a local teenage gang.
  • 10 December – Joseph Rotblat wins the Nobel Peace Prize.[28]
  • 13 December – A riot takes place in Brixton, London.
  • 20 December – The Queen writes to the Prince and Princess of Wales (Charles and Diana) three years after their separation, urging them to divorce as soon as possible.[29]
  • 29 December – The Conservative majority now stands at a mere five seats following the defection of MP Emma Nicholson to the Liberal Democrats.[30]
  • 30 December – Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands matches the lowest temperature UK Weather Record at −27.2 °C (−17.0 °F).

Undated

Publications

Births

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Full date unknown

Deaths

January

Peter Cook
Gerald Durrell

February

Fred Perry

March

Marguerite Kelsey
Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat and his wife

April

May

Sir Anthony Wagner
Harold Wilson

June

Peter Townsend

July

Sir Hugh Dundas
Harold Larwood

August

Ida Lupino
Harry Broadhurst

September

Jeremy Brett

October

Alec Douglas-Home
Edith Pargeter
Alan Bush

November

Peter Grant

December

James Meade
Patric Knowles

See also

References