2002 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 2002 in the United Kingdom. This year was the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. It was the year 2002.

2002 in the United Kingdom
Other years
2000 | 2001 | 2002 (2002) | 2003 | 2004
Constituent countries of the United Kingdom
England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales
Popular culture

Incumbents

Events

January

  • 1 January – Ford unveils their all-new Fiesta supermini, which is due on sale in March.
  • 7 January – It is announced that a record of 2,450,000 new cars were sold during 2001, breaking the previous record set in 1989. The Ford Focus was Britain's best-selling car for the third year in a row.[1]
  • 14 January – The foot and mouth crisis is declared over after eleven months.[2]

February

March

  • March – Vauxhall unveils the all-new Vectra family car, which is due on sale in the summer.
  • 11 March – BBC 6 Music, the first new BBC Radio station in decades, is launched.
  • 21 March – 13-year-old Amanda Dowler goes missing on her way home from school in Surrey.
  • 22 March – a woman known as "Miss B", who was left quadriplegic last year as a result of a burst blood vessel in her neck, is granted the right to die by the High Court.[8]
  • 29 March – coal mining in Scotland, which has a history stretching back more than 800 years,[9] comes to an end with the closure of Longannet coal mine in Fife after it floods and the owners go into liquidation, putting more than 500 people out of work.[10]
  • 30 March – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, dies aged 101 at Royal Lodge, Windsor.[11]

April

May

June

July

August

  • 2 August – 2002 Barrow-in-Furness legionellosis outbreak: First fatality in an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Barrow-in-Furness which results in seven deaths and 172 cases throughout the month, ranking it as the worst in the UK's history and fifth-worst worldwide.
  • 4 August – 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman go missing in Soham, Cambridgeshire.[33]
  • 5 August – Police and volunteers in the Soham area begin the search for Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.[34]
  • 7 August – Police investigating the case of the two missing Soham girls seize a white van in nearby Wentworth and admit they are now looking at the case as a possible abduction.[34]
  • 12 August – A possible sighting of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman is reported by a local taxi driver who claims to have seen the driver of a green car struggling with two children and driving recklessly along the A142 into Newmarket on the evening the girls went missing.[34]
  • 13 August – Two mounds of disturbed earth are found at Warren Hill, near Newmarket, in the same area where screams were reported on the night that Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman went missing. It is initially feared that the mounds of earth were the graves of the two girls, but a police examination fails to uncover any link to the girls.[34]
  • 16 August – Ian Huntley, caretaker of Soham Village College, and his girlfriend Maxine Carr, are questioned in connection with the disappearance of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, but are released after seven hours in custody.[34]
  • 17 August – Following the recovery of items of major interest to the police investigation, Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr are arrested again on suspicion of murder, as police admit for the first time that they fear the missing girls are now dead. Several hours later, two "severely decomposed and partially skeletonised" bodies are found in the Lakenheath area; they have not been identified but police say that they are likely to be those of the two missing girls.[34]
  • 21 August – 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 perverting the course of justice. Both are remanded in custody.[17] Meanwhile, police confirm that the two bodies found at Lakenheath are those of the two girls.[35]

September

  • 20 September – Police confirm that human remains found in woodland in north Hampshire are those of Amanda Dowler, who went missing in Surrey six months ago. A murder investigation is launched.
  • 22 September – An earthquake in Dudley is felt throughout England and Wales.[36]

October

November

  • 1 November – Diana, Princess of Wales' former butler, Paul Burrell, is cleared of stealing from the late princess' estate after it was revealed that he had told The Queen that he was keeping some of her possessions.
  • 13 November – firefighter's strike begins.
  • 15 November – Moors murderer Myra Hindley dies in West Suffolk Hospital at the age of 60 after being hospitalised with a heart attack. She was in the 37th year of her life sentence and had spent the last decade attempting to gain parole, having been told by no less than four Home Secretaries that she would have to spend the rest of her life in prison, having previously increased her minimum term from 25 to 30 years during the 1980s, and then to a whole life tariff in 1990. Media sources report that the Home Office will soon be stripped of its power to set minimum terms for life sentence prisoners, and Hindley had been widely expected to gain parole in the near future as a result.[39]
  • 20 November
  • 23 November – The Miss World beauty competition is held in London after rioting in the Nigerian capital Lagos prevented it from being hosted there.[31]
  • 24 November – Home Secretary David Blunkett rules that four convicted child murderers should spend 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.
  • 26 November – 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 rule 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.
  • 30 November – Girl band Girls Aloud are formed from the five female contestants who win the ITV talent show Popstars The Rivals.[41]

December

Undated

  • BedZED (Beddington Zero Energy Development), the country's first large-scale zero energy housing development, of 99 homes in Beddington, London, designed by Bill Dunster, is completed.
  • The mobile network BT Cellnet changes its name to O2.
  • Over 50% of the UK population (well over 30,000,000 people) now have internet access.
  • Car sales in Britain reach a record level for the second year running, now exceeding 2,500,000 for the first time ever. The Ford Focus is Britain's best-selling car for the fourth year in a row, and Ford Motor Company retains its lead of the manufacturers for British sales, which it has held since 1975. Ford has a total of four model ranges among Britain's top 10 selling cars, for the first time since 1989. Vauxhall, Peugeot, Renault and Volkswagen also enjoy strong sales.

Publications

Births

Deaths

See also

References

  1. "UK car sales hit record". BBC. 7 January 2002. Retrieved 10 April 2011.
  2. "2002: UK declared free of foot-and-mouth". BBC News. 14 January 2002. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2008.
  3. "Princess Margaret dies". BBC. 9 February 2002. Retrieved 8 May 2010.
  4. "Labour holds Ogmore with cut majority". BBC News. 15 February 2002. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  5. "Dagenham: End of the line". BBC. 19 February 2002. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  6. "Killer gets 26 life sentences". BBC. 20 February 2002. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
  7. "Sins of the father". BBC. 3 July 2003. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
  8. "2002: Woman granted 'right to die'". BBC News. 22 March 2002. Archived from the original on 1 February 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2009.
  9. "Introduction to Coalmining". www.scan.org.uk.
  10. "Grim future for deep coal mine". BBC. 29 March 2002. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
  11. "2002: Queen Mother dies". BBC News. 30 March 2002. Retrieved 18 March 2009.
  12. "Amanda family's anguish goes on". 24 April 2002 via news.bbc.co.uk.
  13. "2002: Brothers cleared of Damilola murder". BBC News. 25 April 2002. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2008.
  14. "Queen dines with her prime ministers". BBC News. 29 April 2002. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
  15. "End for Airdrie". BBC News. 1 May 2002. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  16. "Arsenal clinch Double". 8 May 2002 via news.bbc.co.uk.
  17. McGuinness, Ross (16 March 2009). "Metro". p. 30.
  18. "Footballer jailed over stolen car". BBC News. 10 May 2002. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
  19. Alex Todorovic (27 May 2002). "Ashdown takes over in Bosnia". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 15 April 2008.
  20. "Sweden hold drab England". BBC. 2 June 2010. Archived from the original on 27 January 2011. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
  21. "England's sweet revenge". BBC News. 7 June 2002. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
  22. "England labour to last 16". BBC News. 12 June 2002. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
  23. "England brush Danes aside". BBC News. 15 June 2002. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
  24. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 6 March 2011. Retrieved 18 September 2010.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  25. "Brazil end England's dream". BBC News. 21 June 2002. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
  26. "Police shoot gunman dead". 25 June 2002 via news.bbc.co.uk.
  27. White, Michael (4 July 2002). "Thatcher statue decapitated". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 12 December 2011.
  28. "Leanne killer jailed for life". 8 July 2002 via news.bbc.co.uk.
  29. "Airdrie buy Bankies". BBC News. 9 July 2002. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  30. "Football photographic encyclopedia, footballer, world cup, champions league, football championship, olympic games & hero images by sporting-heroes.net". www.sporting-heroes.net.
  31. Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
  32. "Walkers Stadium Leicester City - England Midlands United Kingdom". www.visitleicester.co.uk.
  33. "2002: Police 'concerned' for missing girls". BBC News. 4 August 2002. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2008.
  34. "Timeline of events". 18 August 2002 via news.bbc.co.uk.
  35. "Bodies confirmed as Holly and Jessica". 21 August 2002 via news.bbc.co.uk.
  36. "Dudley Earthquake Macroseismic". Archived from the original on 10 October 2007. Retrieved 23 May 2008.
  37. "National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002". The National Archives. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
  38. Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 652–653. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
  39. "Moors murderer Hindley dies". 16 November 2002 via news.bbc.co.uk.
  40. "Finding the Best Unsecured Loans In The Market - Micash.co.uk". micash.
  41. Patterson, Sylvia (5 October 2008). "Girls uninterrupted". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 19 September 2010. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
  42. "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2002". Retrieved 13 February 2008.
  43. "Poll tracker: Interactive guide to the opinion polls". 29 September 2009 via news.bbc.co.uk.
  44. "Three guilty of teenager's murder". BBC News. 19 December 2002. Retrieved 21 April 2010.
  45. "Danielle's uncle jailed for murder". BBC News. 19 December 2002. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
  46. Branigan, Tania (23 December 2002). "Girls Aloud hit number one for Christmas". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
  47. "Barry Baggley". Fleetwood Town F.C. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  48. "Maya Le Tissier". Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. Archived from the original on 27 April 2019. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  49. "Joe Gelhardt". Wigan Athletic F.C. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  50. "Haydon Roberts". Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
  51. "Nathan Wood". Middlesbrough F.C. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  52. "Morgan Rogers". West Bromwich Albion F.C. Archived from the original on 27 April 2019. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  53. "Finn Ecrepont". Scottish FA. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  54. UEFA.com. "Katie Robinson – England – WU17 EURO". UEFA.com. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  55. "Luke Matheson". Rochdale A.F.C. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
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