8 February – Former Conservative Cabinet Minister Enoch Powell dies in hospital in London aged 85.
12 February – Mohamed Al Fayed, the father of Dodi Fayed, says that he is "99.9% certain" that his son's death in the car crash that also claimed the life ofDiana, Princess of Wales on 31 August 1997 was a conspiracy to kill rather than an accident. He also claims that his son had purchased an engagement ring just before the crash and had been preparing to propose marriage to Diana. A lawyer in Mr Al Fayed's native Egypt was planning to sue the Queen and UK Prime MinisterTony Blair on the grounds that they had conspired to kill Diana because her love for a Muslim would embarrass the country.[2]
24 February – The conviction of Somali sailor Mahmood Mattan, hanged in 1952 at Cardiff Prison for the murder of pawnbroker Lily Volpert, is overturned by the Court of Appeal, with Mr Justice Rose describing the original conviction as "demonstrably flawed". The Mattan case is the first to be referred by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.[3]
April – Vauxhall launches its fourth generation Astra small family car range. The initial range consists of hatchbacks, saloons and estates, with coupe and cabriolet models arriving in two years.
27 April – Kevin Lloyd, who was best known for playing the character of Tosh Lines in The Bill, is dismissed from the role after ten years by ITV due to his alcoholism. He dies, the following week, aged 49.[9]
May
2 May – Police in Maryland, United States, reveal that they have arrested and bailed former English footballer Justin Fashanu over an allegation of sexual assault against a seventeen-year-old male, and they believe he has now breached his bail conditions and fled the country;[10] he commits suicide in London.
20 May – Nurses Deborah Parry and Lucille McLauchlan, who had been convicted in Saudi Arabia for the murder of Yvonne Gilford the previous year, have their sentences commuted by the order of King Fahd and are returned to the UK.
June – The DVD format is released onto the UK market for the first time. Among the first set of titles released on the new format is Jumanji. The format will sell just over 6,000 discs by the end of the year.[12]
Crime and Disorder Act receives Royal Assent. It introduces Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, Sex Offender Orders, Parenting Orders, and 'racially aggravated' offences. It makes it possible for a young person between ten and fourteen to be presumed capable of committing an offence and formally abolishes capital punishment for treason and piracy, the last civilian offences for which the death penalty remained theoretically available.
The UK Government announces a total ban on the use of land mines by the British military.[16]
August
10 August – Manchester United TV begins broadcasting, making Manchester United F.C. the world's second football team to have its own television channel, the first being Middlesbrough (Boro TV) in 1997.[6]
15 August – Omagh bombing: A car bomb explodes in the Northern Irish market town of Omagh, County Tyrone, killing 29 people – the worst terrorist atrocity in the history of The Troubles in Northern Ireland.[17] It has been planted by the Real Irish Republican Army.
The Netherlands is selected as the venue for the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial of two Libyans who are charged with causing the explosion of an aircraft at Lockerbie that killed 270 people in December 1988.
October – Ford launches its new Focus range of small family hatchbacks, saloons and estates which will eventually replace the long-running Escort although that model would continue until the year 2000 and the van model lasting until 2002.
17 October – Actress Joan Hickson dies aged 92 of a stroke in a hospital at Colchester, Essex, six years after her final television appearance as Miss Marple.
27 October – Ron Davies resigns as Secretary of State for Wales, citing "an error of judgement" in agreeing to go for what he said was a meal with a man he had met while walking on Clapham Common in London, which is a well known gay meeting place, and subsequently being mugged.
24 November – The Queen's Speech announces the government plan to abolish the rights of 700 hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords; unprecedentedly this is met with audible "hear hears".[21]
26 December – Great Boxing Day Storm: severe gale-force winds hit Ireland, southern Scotland and northern England. Roads, railways and electricity are disrupted.
29 December – Three British tourists are among those shot during a gun battle to free them from kidnappers in Yemen.[24]
^Flaherty, D. K. (October 2011). "The vaccine-autism connection: a public health crisis caused by unethical medical practices and fraudulent science". Annals of Pharmacotherapy. 45 (10): 1302–4. doi:10.1345/aph.1Q318. PMID21917556. S2CID39479569.
^Delves, Philip (7 March 1998). "The end of hope as last tin mine in Europe closes". The Times. London.
^ abcdPenguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. p. 92. ISBN0-14-102715-0.
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