1994 in the United Kingdom

UK related events during the year of 1994

Events from the year 1994 in the United Kingdom.

8, 10 and 13 March – The IRA launch three successive mortar attacks on Heathrow Airport. 8 March – Police in Gloucester confirm that they have now found the bodies of eight people buried at 25 Cromwell Street. 12 March – The first women are ordained as priests in the Church of England, at Bristol Cathedral, the very first being Angela Berners Wilson. 19 March – Europe's first inverted roller coaster, Nemesis, opens at Alton Towers.

April – Economic growth for the first quarter of this year exceeded 1% – the highest for five years. 1 April – Women's Royal Air Force fully merged into Royal Air Force. 10 April – Human remains are found at Kempley, Gloucestershire, by police working on the Gloucester mass murder case. The body is believed to be that of Catherine "Rena" Costello, Fred West's first wife, who was last seen alive in 1971. 12 April – Bob Cryer, the Labour MP for Bradford South in West Yorkshire, is accidentally killed after his car overturns on the M1 near Watford, Hertfordshire, aged 59. 20 April – Unemployment has fallen to just over 2.5 million – the lowest level in two years – as the economy continues to make a good recovery from the recession that ended a year ago. 28 April – Rosemary West, 40 year old wife of suspected serial killer Fred West, is charged with three of the murders her husband stands accused of. Rosemary West was first arrested seven days ago, two months after her husband was first taken into custody. 29 April – An opinion poll shows that Conservative support has fallen to 26% – their worst showing in any major opinion poll since coming to power 15 years ago.

September – Lidl, a German discount food supermarket chain, opens its first 10 stores in Britain. 2 September – Television entertainer Roy Castle, who became best known to British viewers as the long running presenter of the BBC children's series Record Breakers, dies from lung cancer at the age of 62. 2–4 September – The first Whitby Goth Weekend takes place in Whitby, North Yorkshire, featuring Inkubus Sukkubus, 13 Candles, Nightmoves, All Living Fear. 30 September – Aldwych, North Weald and Ongar railway stations on the London Underground close permanently after the last trains run.

October – Rover Group launches the Rover 100 – a facelifted version of the Metro. 10 October – With the economic recovery continuing at a strong rate, unemployment is now falling at twice the rate in Conservative constituencies than in Labour ones, giving the Conservatives hope that they could win the next general election (which has to be held by May 1997) despite Labour having led the way in the opinion polls for virtually all of the two and a half years since the last election. 12 October – John Blackburn, the Conservative MP for Dudley West in the West Midlands, dies suddenly of a heart attack aged 61. 20 October – Cash for questions affair: The Guardian newspaper reports that two Conservative MPs, Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith, took bribes from Harrods chief Mohamed Al Fayed to ask questions in the House of Commons. 30 October – Korean industrial giant Daewoo announces that it will start selling cars in Britain next year, selling directly to customers through its own sales organisation rather than a traditional dealer network. 31 October – The Duke of Edinburgh attends a ceremony in Israel where his late mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, is honoured as "Righteous among the Nations" for sheltering Jewish families from the Nazis in Athens, during World War II.

3 November – Criminal Justice and Public Order Act receives Royal Assent. This changes the right to silence of an accused person, allowing for inferences to be drawn from their silence; increases police powers of "Stop and search" and gives them greater rights to take and retain intimate body samples; changes the law relating to collective trespass to land, criminalising some previously civil offences; tightens the law in some areas relating to obscenity, pornography and sexual offences; and lowers the age of consent for male homosexual acts from twenty one years to eighteen, while setting the age for female acts at sixteen, for the first time in English law recognising the existence of lesbianism. 10 November – BBC One broadcasts the first episode of sitcom The Vicar of Dibley, created by Richard Curtis for Dawn French, who plays the title role. 15 November – The Daily Telegraph becomes the first national newspaper in Britain to launch an online edition, the Electronic Telegraph. Some 600,000 people in Britain now have access to the internet at home. 16 November – Unemployment falls to under 2.5 million for the first time since the end of 1991. 19 November – The first UK National Lottery draw takes place. 28 December – Tony Blair claims that 40% of the workforce have been unemployed at some time since 1989, although there has never been more than 10.6% of the workforce out of work at the same time since then.

Deregulation of the British milk market following the abolition of most functions of the Milk Marketing Board under terms of the Agriculture Act 1993. All Saints Church in Dewsbury is raised to the dignity of Dewsbury Minster, the first such modern elevation in the Church of England.

Iain M. Banks' novel Feersum Endjinn. Edwina Currie's novel A Parliamentary Affair. Simon Hopkinson's cookbook Roast Chicken and Other Stories. James Kelman's novel How Late It Was, How Late. Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels Soul Music and Interesting Times. Sexual Behaviour in Britain: the national survey of sexual attitudes and lifestyles by Kaye Wellings et al.