BRITAIN AND THE WORLD SINCE 1953
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| Jan2 | The publishers of Enid Blyton's Noddy books bowed to pressure groups over racism claims and stopped using the gollywog character |
| Jan20 | Terry Waite, the Archbishop of Canterbury's special envoy in Lebanon, was kidnapped just before 7.00p.m. in Beiruit. He was not released until November 1991. |
| Jan29 | William J Casey, ends his term as 13th director of CIA |
| Feb16 | John
Demjanjuk went on trial in Jerusalem, accused of being
"Ivan the Terrible," a guard at the Treblinka
Nazi concentration camp. (Demjanjuk was convicted, but the conviction ended up being overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court.) |
| Mar6 | The Herald of Free Enterprise Ferry capsizes off of Zeebrugge, Belgium, killing 189 people. |
| May17 | An Iraqi F-I Mirage fighter fired two Exocet missiles at the USS Stark while patrolling the Gulf, killing 37 sailors, wounding 62 others |
| May28 | A 19-year-old West German,
Mathias Rust, flew a plane from Helsinki to Moscow,
passing through Soviet airspace unchallenged and eventually landing on Red Square. |
| Jun11 | Margaret Thatcher becomes the first British Prime Minister in 160 years to win a third consecutive term |
| Jul4 | Nazi Klaus Barbie, "Butcher of Lyon" convicted by a French court |
| Aug17 | Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's former deputy was found hanging by an electric cord in his cell in Spandau Prison. |
| Aug 19 | The Hungerford Massacre |
| Order of the Garter opened to women | |
| Oct16 | 19 people were killed as winds
gusting up to 110 mph -- the worst since records began
--lashed southern Britain, demolishing buildings, blacking out London and paralyzing the transport system. |
| Oct19 | The London Stock Market crashed on what came to be known as "Black Monday." Stocks dropped a record 508 points, topping the drops on October 28 and 29 in 1929 which ushered in the Great Depression. |
| Oct19 | Thomas Hearns wins unprecedented fourth different weight Boxing Title |
| Oct23 | The jockey Lester Piggott is jailed for three years for tax evasion and non disclosure |
| Nov8 | Eleven innocent people die as a bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army exploded at Ulster Remembrance Day Service in Eniskillin |
| Nov9 | The Conservative Government announces the abolition of free dental checks and free sight tests. |
| Nov11 | Van Gogh's "Irises" sells for record $53.6 million at auction |
| Nov18 | Thirty one people die in a fire at King's Cross, London's busiest subway station |
| Dec1 | Digging commences to link England and France under the English Channel |
| Dec8 | Occupied Palestinians start the "Intefadeh" (uprising) against Israel |
| Dec20 | Worst peacetime shipping disaster, Dona Paz collides with Vector 1,749 confirmed deaths (probably closer to 3,000) |
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Last Updated 19/09/02 10:34