Events from the year 1987 in the United Kingdom.
The major political event of this year is the re-election of Margaret Thatcher in June's general election, making her the longest continuously serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since Lord Liverpool in the early 19th century. The year is also marked by six disasters: the 1987 United Kingdom and Ireland cold wave, the sinking of the ferry , the Hungerford massacre, the "Great Storm", the Remembrance Day bombing and the King's Cross fire.
Incumbents Monarch – Elizabeth II Prime Minister – Margaret Thatcher (Conservative)
Events January January – 1987 United Kingdom and Ireland cold wave: Most of Britain is affected by heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures. 1 January Personal equity plans permitting tax-free investments in shares are introduced. Release of cult black comedy film Withnail and I. 2 January – Golliwogs in Enid Blyton books are replaced by the publisher with gnomes following complaints that golliwogs are offensive to Black people. 4 January – Economists predict that unemployment will fall below the 3,000,000 mark by the end of this year. 5 January – Harold Macmillan, Lord Stockton, former Prime Minister, is buried in the village of Horsted Keynes, having died on 29 December at the age of 92. 7 January – Telford, the new town created in Shropshire some 20 years ago, is reported to have the highest unemployment rate in the West Midlands region, eclipsing the unemployment levels seen in the city of Birmingham and nearby towns including Wolverhampton, Brierley Hill, Wednesbury and Bilston, which have lost a large percentage of traditional heavy industry since the late-1970s, although Brierley Hill's unemployment crisis is beginning to ease with the ongoing development of the Merry Hill Shopping Centre, which already includes two retail parks and a large shopping mall and is set to expand even further by the end of the decade. 13 January – Prince Edward leaves the Royal Marines just three months after joining. 14 January – 1987 United Kingdom and Ireland cold wave: Heavy snow falls across Britain leaving houses, towns, roads, railways and motor vehicles stranded and blocked. 15 January – Unemployment is reported to have fallen in December 1986 for the fifth month in succession. 20 January Terry Waite, the special envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury in Lebanon, disappears in Beirut whilst negotiating for the release of hostages; he will himself remain a hostage until 1991. Police arrest 26 suspected football hooligans across Britain after a mass operation. 30 January – The flotation of British Airways on the stock market begins.
February February – Ford launches a facelifted Sierra range which now includes a saloon model called the Sapphire. 11 February British Airways is privatised and listed on the London Stock Exchange. Cynthia Payne is acquitted of controlling prostitutes in her London home. 12 February – Edwina Currie sparks controversy by stating that "good Christians won't get AIDS". 24 February – It is alleged that six Nazi war criminals are living in the UK. 26 February Church of England's General Synod votes to allow the ordination of women. Rosie Barnes wins the Greenwich parliamentary seat for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) from Labour at a by-election, caused by the death of the Labour MP Guy Barnett on Christmas Eve the previous year.
March 3 March – National Health Service prescription charges are increased from £2.20 to £2.40. 6 March British Channel ferry capsizes while leaving the harbour of Zeebrugge, Belgium, killing 193 on board. The value of the pound is at a five-year high. 13 March – 25-year-old Matthew Taylor retains Truro for the Liberals at the by-election caused by the death of David Penhaligon in a car accident three months ago. 19 March – Winston Silcott is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of PC Keith Blakelock in the Tottenham riots 17 months ago. 23 March – 31 people are injured when a suspected Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb explodes at a British army barracks in Rheindahlen, West Germany. 27 March – Leader of the Opposition Neil Kinnock meets U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C. 28 March – Former Doctor Who actor Patrick Troughton dies of a heart attack at a hotel in Columbus, Georgia, aged 67. 29 March – Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visits Moscow. 30 March – Christie's auction house in London sells one of Vincent van Gogh's iconic Sunflowers paintings for £24,750,000.
April 1 April – MPs vote against the restoration of the death penalty by 342–230. 3 April – The jewellery of the late Duchess of Windsor is sold at auction for £31,000,000 six times the expected value. 5 April – Arsenal win the Football League Cup for the first time in their history with a 2–1 win over Liverpool, earning them their first major trophy since 1979. Charlie Nicholas scores both of Arsenal's goals. 9 April – The Broderip Ward, the first hospital ward dedicated to the treatment of people with HIV/AIDS in the United Kingdom is opened by Diana, Princess of Wales at the Middlesex Hospital in London. 16 April – Conservative MP Harvey Proctor appears in court charged with gross indecency. 22 April – Former Prime Minister James Callaghan is appointed to the Order of the Garter. He will be retiring from Parliament at this year's general election. 29 April – Chancellor Nigel Lawson promises that the UK will soon have an income tax rate of 25p in the pound. 30 April – The House of Lords acting in a judicial capacity approves the sterilisation of a "mentally subnormal" 17-year-old female.
May 4 May – Everton win the Football League First Division title for the ninth time in their history. 8 May – Loughgall ambush: Soldiers of the SAS kill eight members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army at Loughgall, County Antrim. 10 May – The church of St Mary-at-Hill in the City of London is damaged in a fire. 11 May Margaret Thatcher calls a general election for Thursday, 11 June; with most of the opinion polls pointing towards her securing a third successive election victory for the Conservatives, with the Labour opposition expected to increase its share of votes and seat tally at its first general election under the leadership of Neil Kinnock. British Rail renames Second class travel as Standard class. 14 May – Unemployment has fallen to 3,107,128. 15 May – Family Law Reform Act removes remaining legal distinctions between children born to married and unmarried parents. 16 May – Coventry City F.C. win the FA Cup for the first time in their history with a 3–2 win in the final over Tottenham Hotspur, who have won all of their previous seven FA Cup finals. 25 May – Aldershot F.C. become the first team to win promotion through the new Football League playoffs, winning promotion from the Fourth Division with a 3–0 aggregate win over Wolverhampton Wanderers (who have a total of eight major trophies to their name, the most recent seven years ago). The Hampshire club have already condemned another side, Bolton Wanderers (four times FA Cup winners) to relegation to the Fourth Division for the first time in their history.
June 3 June – The last MORI poll before the general election shows the Conservatives 11 points ahead of Labour with 43% of the vote, while the Liberal/SDP Alliance's support stands at 24% and their hopes of building on their result at the last general election look exceedingly slim. 7 June – Chessington Zoo is renamed Chessington World of Adventures and made into a theme park by owner Madame Tussaud's. 11 June – The 1987 general election sees Margaret Thatcher secure her third term in office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Her parliamentary majority is reduced to 102 compared to the 144-seat majority gained at the election four years earlier, but will still not be exceeded by the Conservative Party as of 2019. High-profile casualties of the election include: the former SDP leader Roy Jenkins (once a Labour home secretary) and the Ulster Unionist Party's 75-year-old Enoch Powell (a former Conservative MP). Four ethnic minority candidates are successful: Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng, Bernie Grant and Keith Vaz. Among the MPs retiring from parliament is 75-year-old James Callaghan, the former prime minister. 13 June The Queen attends Trooping the Colour for the first time in a carriage, and the first time not in uniform, which she will do for the remainder of her reign. The Queen grants the title of Princess Royal to her daughter Anne, 22 years after the death of the previous holder. 18 June – Unemployment has fallen below the 3,000,000 mark for the first time since 1981, after the biggest monthly fall in unemployment since records began in 1948; seeing more than 100,000 of the unemployed find work in May. 19 June – Howard Kendall, manager of Football League champions Everton, resigns to take over of Athletic Club Bilbao in Spain. His successor at Everton is the club's assistant manager Colin Harvey. 22 June – A riot takes place in Chapeltown, Leeds. 25 June – A MORI poll shows support for the Conservative Party stands at almost 50% – the highest during Margaret Thatcher's time as leader. 27 June – 25 years after the first James Bond film was released, the fifteenth, The Living Daylights, premieres in London, with the spy now being played by Timothy Dalton. 30 June – Footballer Peter Beardsley, the 26-year-old England striker, becomes the most expensive player transferred between British clubs when he completes a £1,900,000 move from Newcastle United to Liverpool.
July 12 July – £60,000,000 is stolen during the Knightsbridge Security Deposit robbery. 16 July British Airways and British Caledonian agree a £237,000,000 merger. Unemployment is reported to be down to just over 2,900,000. 22 July – Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali is shot in London; his condition is described as "critical". 24 July – Novelist and former Conservative MP Jeffrey Archer wins a libel case against the Daily Star newspaper over allegations that he was involved in a vice ring. In 2001 he will be convicted and imprisoned for perjury in connection with this case. 27 July – Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" is released, the first of eight of his singles to reach the Top 10 in the UK. 29 July – The Channel Tunnel is given the go-ahead after Margaret Thatcher and François Mitterrand ratify the Treaty of Canterbury. It is expected to be open within six years and in fact opens in 1994. 30 July – The Docklands Light Railway in London, the first driverless railway in Great Britain, is opened by The Queen; passenger service will begin a month later. 31 July – The Attorney General institutes legal proceedings against The Daily Telegraph to prevent it publishing details from the book Spycatcher on security grounds.
August 4 August – Just months after confessing to a further two murders, the Moors Murderer Ian Brady claims that he committed a further five murders. 6 August – Dr. David Owen resigns as Leader of the Social Democratic Party after its members vote to merge with the Liberals. 10 August – One person a day in Britain is now reported to be dying of AIDS. 13 August First building of post-war design to be Listed: Bracken House in the City of London, designed by Sir Albert Richardson as the Financial Times headquarters (1955–9). Unemployment continues to fall, with the twelfth successive monthly fall bringing the national total to less than 2,900,000. 19 August Hungerford massacre: Michael Ryan shoots dead fourteen people in the Berkshire town of Hungerford (with weapons including semi-automatic rifles) before taking his own life. 16 people are injured, some of them seriously. On 21 August the death toll rises to 16 when two more victims die in hospital from their injuries. The Order of the Garter is opened to women.