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1981 - 19901981 January 25: Launch of SDP by 'Gang of Four' March 29: First London marathon run April 5: Census day in Britain April 12: US Space Shuttle (Columbia) launched April 25: Worst April blizzards this century in Britain July 29: Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer The IBM PC 1982 January 26: Unemployment reached 3 million in Britain (1 in 8 of working
population) March 18: Argentineans raised flag in South Georgia April 2: Argentina invades Falkland (Malvinas) Islands April 5: Royal Navy fleet sails from Portsmouth for Falklands June 14: Ceasefire in Falklands June 21: Birth of Prince William October 11: Mary Rose raised (sank 1545) October 31: Thames Barrier raised for first time November 4: Lorries up to 38 tonnes allowed on Britain's roads December 12: Women's peace protest at Greenham Common (Cruise missiles
arrived 14 November 1983) 1983 January 17: Start of breakfast TV in Britain January 31: Seat belt law came into force "Clunk Click Every
Trip" April 21: £1 coin into circulation in Britain October 7: Plans to abolish GLC announced 1984 January 9: FTSE index exceeded 800 June 22: Inaugural flight of Virgin Atlantic October 12: Bomb explodes at Tory conference hotel in Brighton – 4
killed October 24: High Court orders sequestration of NUM assets December 3: British Telecom privatised – shares make massive gains on
first day's trading 1985 March 3: Miners agree to call off strike March 11: Al Fayed buys Harrods July 13: Live Aid pop concert raises over £50M for famine relief September: Wreck of Titanic found (sank 1912) 1986 March 31: GLC and 6 metropolitan councils abolished April 28: Chernobyl nuclear accident May 7: Mannie Shinwell, veteran politician, dies aged 101 1987 Terry Waite kidnapped in Beirut (released November 1991) Car ferry "Herald of Free Enterprise" capsizes off Zeebrugge
– 188 die Order of the Garter opened to women October: The 'Hurricane' sweeps southern England October: 'Black Monday' in the City of London – Stock Market crash 1988 Copyright Act December 21: Lockerbie disaster – Pan Am flight 103 blows up over
Scotland 1989 Poll Tax implemented in Scotland House of Commons proceedings first televised Berlin Wall torn down 1990 Margaret Thatcher resigns as Conservative party leader (and Prime
Minister) Poll Tax implemented in England & Wales – riots Aug 2: Iraq invades Kuwait Channel Tunnel excavation teams meet in the middle Nelson Mandela released in S Africa October 1990 Germany, which had been divided in 1945 among the victors of World War II, was reunited as one country. East Germany dissolved and its citizens became citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany. Reunification came after the Communist system disintegrated in eastern Europe in the late 1980s. The event that symbolised reunification had occurred in 1989, when the people of East and West Germany dismantled the Berlin Wall—for 30 years a symbol of the divided Germany—after the East German government lifted travel and emigration restrictions between the two countries. The first all-German election was held in December 1990, and the newly elected government chose Berlin as the capital of the reunified Germany. The new Federal Republic of Germany faced many problems; the most important was the different standards of living between East and West. The area that had been East Germany suffered from unemployment, business failures, and housing shortages.
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