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1998 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1998 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister - Tony Blair, Labour Party

Events

• 1 January - The UK takes over the Presidency of the EC's Council of Ministers until 30 June.^[1]
• 16 January - two 10-year-olds go on trial, the youngest ever to be accused of rape.^[2]
• 7 February–22 February - Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and win one bronze medal.
• 31 March - Rolls-Royce Motors acquired by the German car manufacturer BMW.^[3]
• April - Vauxhall launches its fourth generation Astra small family car range. The initial range consists of hatchbacks and estates, with coupe and saloons due next year and a cabriolet in two years.
• 10 April - The Good Friday Agreement, an agreement between the UK and Irish governments, and the main political parties in Northern Ireland is signed.^[4]
• 9 May - Eurovision Song Contest 1998 held in Birmingham at the National Indoor Arena.
• 23 May - A referendum on the Good Friday Agreement is held in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland with 95% and 71% support respectively.^[5]
• 12 July - three young children are killed in a loyalist arson attack in Ballymoney, Northern Ireland.^[6]
• 31 July - The government announces a total ban on the use of landmines by the British military.^[7]
• 10 August - Manchester United TV begins broadcasting making Manchester United F.C. the world's first soccer team to have its own television channel.^[3]
• 15 August - A car bomb explodes in the Northern Irish market town of Omagh, killing 29 people - the worst terrorist atrocity in the history of the Northern Ireland troubles.^[8]
• 24 August - First RFID human implantation tested in the United Kingdom by Kevin Warwick at the University of Reading.
• September - Ford launches its new Focus range of family hatchbacks, saloons and estates, which will eventually replace the long-running Escort.
• 8 September - the Real IRA announces a ceasefire.^[9]
• 9 September - An East London coroner records a verdict of suicide on former footballer Justin Fashanu, who was found hanged in a lock-up garage four months ago.
• 10 September - In Northern Ireland, David Trimble of the Ulster Unionist Party meets Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin — the first such meeting between Republicans and Loyalists since 1922.^[3]
• 16 September - The Union Jack dress worn by the Spice Girl Geri Halliwell is sold at Sotheby's for £41,320.^[3]
• November - Peugeot launches the 206 supermini, which is being built at the Ryton plant near Coventry.
• 16 October - Police place General Augusto Pinochet, the 83-year-old former dictator of Chile, into house arrest during his medical treatment in Britain at the request of Spain.
• 5 November - Moors Murderer Myra Hindley loses a second High Court appeal (the first was rejected on 19 December 1997) against the whole life tariff which has been imposed upon her by the three most recent Home Secretaries.
• 9 November - Human Rights Act 1998 receives Royal Assent.
• 24 November - The Queen's Speech is interrupted by MPs and peers, when the Queen began to outlay the government's plan to abolish the rights of 700 hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords.^[10]
• 26 November - Tony Blair becomes the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to address the Oireachtas (Irish parliament).^[3]
• December
  • The Ford Focus is voted European Car of the Year.
  • Killing of British tourists in Yemen: Three British tourists are shot in Yemen.^[11]
• 10 December
  • John Pople wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry".^[12]
  • John Hume and David Trimble, Baron Trimble win the Nobel Peace Prize.^[13]

Undated

• Mathematicians Richard Borcherds and William Timothy Gowers win Fields Medal.^[14]

Publications

• Beryl Bainbridge's novel Master Georgie.
• Iain M. Banks' novel Inversions.
• Julian Barnes's novel England, England.
• Ted Hughes's poetry collection Birthday Letters.
• Ian McEwan's novel Amsterdam.
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels The Last Continent and Carpe Jugulum.
• J. K. Rowling's novel Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Births

Deaths

• 8 February - Enoch Powell, politician (born 1912)
• 24 February - Henny Youngman, comedian (born 1906)
• 16 March - Derek Harold Richard Barton, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1918)
• 11 April - Francis Durbridge, playwright and author (born 1912)
• 16 April - Fred Davis, snooker and billiards player (born 1913)
• 10 June - Hammond Innes, author (born 1914)
• 11 June - Catherine Cookson, author (born 1906)
• 13 June - Reg Smythe, cartoonist (born 1917)
• 18 July - Betty Marsden, comedy actress (born 1919)
• 2 September - Jackie Blanchflower, footballer (born 1933)
• 3 October - Roddy McDowall, actor (born 1928)
• 17 October - Joan Hickson, actress (born 1906)
• 22 October - Eric Ambler, novelist and playwright (born 1909)
• 28 October - Ted Hughes, poet and children's writer (born 1930)
• December - Brian Stonehouse, painter and World War II secret agent (born 1918)
• 7 December - Michael Craze, actor (born 1942)
• 13 December - Lew Grade, showbusiness impresario and television company executive (born 1906, Ukraine)
• 20 December - Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (born 1914)

References

See also