Japanese carmaker Nissan adds a third model to its factory near Sunderland: the new generation of the Almera hatchback and saloon which goes on sale in March.[1]
1 January – Millennium celebrations take place throughout the UK. The Millennium Dome in London is officially opened by HM The Queen.
10 January – Tony Blair's wife, Cherie, is fined for not having a valid train ticket with her on a journey from Blackfriars to Luton. She claims to have had only Portuguese currency with her at the time and to have been unable to find a machine where she could use her credit card.[3]
12 January – Indictment and arrest of Augusto Pinochet: It is announced that former Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet, is to be deported after the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, accepts "unequivocal and unanimous" medical evidence that Pinochet is unfit to stand trial in Spain on charges of torture.[5]
28 January – The Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham, Nigel Jones, is attacked at his constituency surgery by a madman with a samurai sword. Andrew Pennington, a councillor, comes to Jones's defence but is stabbed nine times and dies later aged 39.[6]
31 January – Dr. Harold Shipman is sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of murdering fifteen patients in Greater Manchester between 1995 and 1998. He is also sentenced to four years in prison, to run concurrently, for forging the will of one of his victims.[7] The subsequent enquiry considers him to have killed at least 215.[8]
A group of hijackers hijacked an Ariana plane and forced the plane to travel overseas, to the United Kingdom. The plane landed at London Stansted airport and the hijackers surrendered to authorities there.[10]
25 February – Murder of Victoria Climbié (aged 8) in London after torture and neglect by her guardians, her aunt Marie Therese Kouao and Kouao's partner Carl Manning; local authority social services departments will be severely criticised for their shortcomings in the case.
April – The Ministry of Defence publishes a booklet Soldiering – The Military Covenant which introduces the term into public discourse referring to the mutual obligations between the nation and its armed forces.[17]
3 April – The Immigration and Asylum Act means that all asylum seekers in England and Wales will now receive vouchers to cover the cost of food and clothing.
19 April – Tony Martin is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a sixteen-year-old burglar, Fred Barras, he shot dead at his Norfolk farmhouse eight months ago; he is also convicted of the attempted murder of Brendon Fearon, the burglar wounded when Martin opened fire.[11]
BMW sells the bulk of the Rover Group (the Rover and MG marques) to the Phoenix Consortium, while it retains the rights to the Mini marque and sells Land Rover to Ford.
7 June – Tony Blair receives a hostile reception during a speech at the Women's Institute, where he is heckled and slow hand-clapped by furious members.
21 June – Repeal in Scotland of controversial Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 which prevented local authorities from "promoting homosexuality". Section 28 is not repealed in the rest of the UK until 2003.
30 June – David Copeland is found guilty of causing the three nail bomb attacks in London last year. He is sentenced to life imprisonment and the trial judge recommends that he should serve at least thirty years before being considered for parole, meaning that he is likely to remain in prison until at least 2029 and the age of 54.[11]
July
July – Vauxhall launches the all-new Agila city car.
Production of the Ford Escort, one of Britain's most successful and iconic motoring nameplates, finishes after 32 years, although remaining stocks of the model would continue to be sold be sold until early 2001 while the van model would continue to be produced until 2002.
Rioting breaks out in Brixton (south London) following the fatal shooting of Derek Bennett, a 29-year-old black man, by armed police in the area. 27 people are arrested and three police officers are injured.[32]
3 August – Rioting erupts on the Paulsgrove estate in Portsmouth after more than 100 people besiege a block of flats allegedly housing a convicted child sex offender, the latest vigilante violence against suspected sex offenders since the beginning of the "naming and shaming" campaign by the News of the World.
Ford unveils its all-new second generation Mondeo large family car, which is due for sale towards the end of this year.
8 September – UK fuel protests: Protesters block the entrances to oil refineries in protest against high fuel prices. Panic buying by motorists, leads to nationwide petrol shortages, with between 75 and 90% of all UK petrol stations closing due to low supplies in the following week.
14 September – After beginning the year 20 points behind the Labour government in the opinion polls, the Conservative opposition's hopes of winning the next election (due to be held within eighteen months) are boosted when they come two points ahead of Labour on 38% in a MORI opinion poll.[36] This marked the first time the Conservatives had led the Labour Party in national opinion polling since January 1993.
15 September–1 October – Great Britain competes at the Olympics in Sydney and wins 11 Gold, 10 Silver and 7 Bronze medals.
18 September – Survivors of the Southall and Ladbroke Grove rail disasters criticise Railtrack for putting costs ahead of safety and causing a series of blunders which led to the tragedies.
20 September – A missile is fired from a rocket launcher at the MI6 headquarters building in central London, striking the eighth floor. It is the first time this type of weapon has been used on the mainland, with the Real IRA suspected of being behind the attack.[37]
4 October – After 41 years, production of the Mini ends at the Longbridge plant owned by MG Rover in Birmingham. The new model will go into production next Spring at the Cowley plant in Oxford that is owned by German carmaker BMW.[42]
7 October – Wembley Stadium closes after seventy-seven years. It is set to reopen in 2003, following a complete reconstruction that will see its seating capacity raised to 90,000 all-seated. In the final game at the old stadium, the England football team loses 1–0 to Germany in their opening qualifying game for the 2002 World Cup and manager Kevin Keegan resigns after eighteen months in charge.
10 October – Donald Dewar, the first First Minister of Scotland, is taken to hospital following a fall outside Bute House, his official Edinburgh residence; his health rapidly deteriorates and he dies in office the following day, aged 63.[43]
16 October – The BBC's main evening news programme moves to 10pm, early the following year, ITV will move its news programme back to the same time slot and broadcast in direct competition.
After the fuel protests has been resolved, support for the Labour Party has been restored, according to the latest MORI opinion poll which shows them 13 points ahead of the Conservatives with an approval rating of 45%.[45]
26 October – House of Lords delivers judgement in White v White, a landmark case in redistribution of finances and property on divorce.[46]
30 October – Sven-Göran Eriksson, the 52-year-old Swedish coach of Italian side Lazio, accepts an offer from the Football Association to take charge of the England football team for five years commencing next July. Eriksson will be the first foreign manager to take charge of the England national team, but until his arrival, the England team will be jointly managed by interim coaches Peter Taylor and Howard Wilkinson.
November
7 November – The attempted theft of £350,000,000 worth of diamonds from the Millennium Dome is foiled by the police.[14]
16 November – Actor Michael Caine receives a knighthood from the Queen.[14]
21 November – Dennis Canavan MSP for Falkirk West, resigns as the Member of Parliament for Falkirk West, triggering a by-election.
23 November
Double by-election held in Glasgow Anniesland to elect successors to Donald Dewar's seats in both the UK Parliament and the Scottish Parliament. Labour holds both seats with swings to the SNP of 6% and 7%.
27 November – Damilola Taylor, a 10-year-old boy originally from Nigeria, is stabbed to death on his way home from school in Peckham, London.[48] On 2 December two teenagers and a 39-year-old man are released on police bail after being arrested in connection with the murder.[49]
18 December – British pop star Kirsty MacColl, 41, is accidentally killed while diving in Mexico, when a power boat enters the restricted area and collides with her.[51]
21 December – Falkirk West by-election results in Eric Joyce retaining the seat for Labour, though with a majority reduced to just 705 votes in the face of a swing of 16.2% to the SNP.
29 December – Arctic weather conditions blight Britain, with heavy snow and temperatures as low as −13 °C plaguing the country, causing extensive gridlocking on roads and railways.
Sales of the DVD format, first launched in the UK in June 1998, pass the 1 million mark, although the VHS format remains by far the most popular format of home video.[54]
10 March – Ivan Hirst, former British army officer and engineer, best known for his part in the revival of German carmaker Volkswagen after World War II (born 1914)
1 October – Reggie Kray, convicted gangster and murderer, recently released from prison on compassionate grounds after serving more than 30 years of a life sentence (born 1933)
5 October – Keith Roberts, science fiction author (born 1935)
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