Information about 2002 In The United Kingdom

:

Other years

2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004

News by month

Jan - Feb - Mar - Apr - May - Jun Jul - Aug - Sep - Oct - Nov - Dec

Sport and Music

British and Irish current events

2002 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

2002 in British music

Incumbents

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

Events

• January - Ford unveils its all-new Fiesta supermini, which is due on sale over the next few weeks.
• January 14 - While Britain is in the grip of one of its most prolific flu outbreaks in modern times, the end of the Foot and Mouth crisis is declared after 11 months.
• February 9 - Princess Margaret dies at the age of 71 after suffering a stroke.
• February 15- Funeral of Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon takes place at St. George's Chapel, Windsor.
• Ryanair Flight 296 catches fire at London Stansted Airport.
• March 11- BBC 6 Music, the first new BBC Radio station in decades, is launched.
• March 21- Amanda Dowler, 13, goes missing on her way home from school in Surrey.
• March 30- The Queen Mother dies in her sleep at the Royal Lodge, Windsor.
• April 4- The Queen Mother's funeral procession from the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace to Westminster Hall to lie in state.
• April 9- Funeral of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother takes place at Westminster Abbey, London. The burial takes place at St. George's Chapel, Windsor.
• April 25- Two 16-year-old twin brothers are cleared of murdering 10-year-old Damilola Taylor, who was stabbed to death in South London 17 months ago.
• May 10- Potters Bar rail crash in Hertfordshire kills 7 people.
• May 28- Stephen Byers resigns as Secretary of State for Transport.

Concorde leads the Red Arrows over London in a fly past for Queen Elizabeth II on her Golden Jubilee

• June 3 - The "Party in the Palace" takes place at Buckingham Palace, London for The Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations.
• June 4 - The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh ride in the gold state coach from Buckingham Palace to St Paul's Cathedral for a special service marking the Queen's 50 years on the throne. In New York, the Empire State Building is lit in purple for her honour.
• July 25- The 2002 Commonwealth Games, hosted by Manchester are opened by the Queen
• August 4- 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman go missing in Soham, Cambridgeshire.
• August 17- The bodies of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman are found in a ditch near Thetford.
• August 21- Ian Huntley, detained under the Mental Health Act, is charged with the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. His girlfriend Maxine Carr is charged with peverting the course of justice. Both are remanded in custody.
• September 20- Police confirm that human remains found in woodland in north Hampshire are those of Amanda Dowler, who went missing in Surrey six months. A murder investigation is launched.
• October 9- A judge decides that Ian Huntley is fit to face prosecution for the Soham Murders.
• October 23- Estelle Morris resigns as Secretary of State for Education.
• October 25- Memorial service held at St Paul's Cathedral for the victims of the Bali bombing, which killed 26 UK citizens.
• November 1- Diana, Princess of Wales' former butler, Paul Burrell, is cleared of stealing from the princess' estate after it was revealed that he had told the Queen that he was keeping some of her possessions.
• November 13- Firefighter's strike begins.
• November 24- Home Secretary David Blunkett rules that four convicted child murderers should spent at least 50 years in prison before being considered for parole. This ruling means that Roy Whiting, Howard Hughes, Timothy Morss and Brett Tyler are likely to remain behind bars until at least the ages of 92, 80, 79 and 81 respectively.
• November 26- Politicians in England and Wales lose their power to set minimum terms on life sentence prisoners after the European Court of Human Rights and the High Court both ruled in favour of a legal challenge by convicted double murderer Anthony Anderson. Anderson had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 1988 and the trial judge recommended that he should serve a minimum of 15 years before being considered for parole, but the Home Secretary later decided on a 20-year minimum term.
• December 10- Cherie Blair apologises for the embarrassment she caused in buying flats with the help of convicted fraudster Peter Foster.
• December 15- On the Record, the BBC's flagship political programme, finishes after 14 years on air.
• Sydney Brenner and John E. Sulston win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with H. Robert Horvitz "for their discoveries concerning 'genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death'". ^[1]

Births

Deaths

• February 9- Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, sister of the Queen (b. 1930)
• February 16 - Walter Winterbottom, football manager (b. 1913)
• February 21 - John Thaw, actor (b. 1942)
• February 27 - Spike Milligan, comedian, writer, and poet (b. 1918)
• March 4 - Claire Davenport, actress (b. 1933)
• March 4 - Eric Flynn, actor and singer (b. 1939)
• March 21? - Amanda Dowler, abducted and murdered schoolgirl (b. 1988)
• March 27 - Dudley Moore, comedian, and actor (b. 1935)
• March 30 - Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, consort of King George VI (b. 1900)
• 31 March - Barry Took, comedian, writer and television presenter (b. 1928)
• June 27 - John Entwistle, bassist (The Who) (b. 1944)
• July 28 - Archer John Porter Martin, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
• August 4 - Carmen Silvera, actress (b. 1922)
• August 31 - George Porter, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1920)
• September 23 - Vernon Corea, broadcaster (b. 1927)
• November 2 - Charles Sheffield, author and physicist (b. 1935)
• November 3 - Lonnie Donegan, musician (King of Skiffle; b. 1931)
• November 15 - Myra Hindley, murderer (b. 1942)
• December 22 - Joe Strummer, musician and singer (The Clash) (b. 1952)

References