Timeline: Alex MILLS: Mills/Rushton Family History

1987 - (37 years)

	Date	Event(s)
1	1987	1987: World population crossed the 5 billion mark 2 Feb 1987: Terry Waite kidnapped in Beirut (released 17 Nov 1991) 6 Mar 1987: Car ferry "Herald of Free Enterprise" capsizes off Zeebrugge – 188 die 1 Jul 1987: Excavation begins on the Channel Tunnel 19 Aug 1987: Hungerford Massacre – Michael Ryan kills sixteen people with a rifle 16 Oct 1987: The 'Hurricane' sweeps southern England 19 Oct 1987: 'Black Monday' in the City of London – Stock Market crash 8 Nov 1987: Enniskillen bombing at a Remembrance Day ceremony 18 Nov 1987: King's Cross fire in London – 31 people die
2	1988	5 Feb 1988: First 'Red Nose Day' in UK, raising money for charity 6 Jul 1988: Piper Alpha disaster – North Sea oil platform destroyed by explosion and fire killing 167 men 15 Nov 1988: Copyright, Designs and Patents Act – reformulated the statutory basis of copyright law (including performing rights) in the UK 12 Dec 1988: Clapham Junction rail crash kills 35 and injures hundreds after two collisions of three commuter trains 21 Dec 1988: Lockerbie disaster – Pan Am flight 103 explodes over Scotland
3	1989	1989: Poll Tax implemented in Scotland 14 Feb 1989: The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System is placed into orbit 2 Mar 1989: EU decision to ban production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century 9 Nov 1989: Berlin Wall torn down 21 Nov 1989: Proceedings of House of Commons first televised live
4	1990	11 Feb 1990: Nelson Mandela released in South Africa 31 Mar 1990: Riots in London against Poll Tax which had been implemented in England & Wales 25 Apr 1990: Hubble space telescope launched 22 Nov 1990: Margaret Thatcher resigns as Conservative party leader (and Prime Minister) 1 Dec 1990: Channel Tunnel excavation teams meet in the middle
5	1991	1991: Poll Tax replaced (by Council Tax) 1991: The 'Internet' comes into existence 18 May 1991: Helen Sharman is first British Astronaut in Space Aug 1991: Collapse of the Soviet Union 6 Sep 1991: Leningrad renamed St Petersburg 5 Nov 1991: Robert Maxwell drowns at sea
6	1992	7 Feb 1992: European Union formed by The Maastricht Treaty 22 Apr 1992: Betty Boothroyd elected as first female Speaker of the House of Commons 15 Aug 1992: Football Premier League kicks off in England 16 Sep 1992: 'Black Wednesday' as Pound leaves the ERM 20 Nov 1992: Fire breaks out in Windsor Castle causing over £50 million worth of damage 24 Nov 1992: The Queen describes this year as an 'Annus Horribilis'
7	1993	1993: Betty Boothroyd first woman Speaker of the House of Commons (to 2000) 1993: Elizabeth II becomes first British Monarch to pay Income Tax Jul 1993: Ratification of Maastricht Treaty, established the European Union (EU)
8	1994	1994: 15 million people now connected to the Internet 12 Mar 1994: Church of England ordains its first female priests 6 May 1994: Channel Tunnel open to traffic 19 Nov 1994: National Lottery starts
9	1995	26 Feb 1995: Nick Leeson brings down Barings Bank 15 Jul 1995: First item sold on Amazon.com 16 Nov 1995: The Queen Mother has a hip replacement operation at 95 years old 22 Nov 1995: "Toy Story" released – first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery
10	1996	9 Feb 1996: IRA bomb explodes in London Docklands – ends 17 month ceasefire 13 Mar 1996: Dunblane massacre 15 Jun 1996: IRA bomb explodes in Manchester 5 Jul 1996: Scientists in Scotland clone a sheep (Dolly) 28 Aug 1996: Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales are divorced
11	1997	30 Mar 1997: Channel 5 TV begins in UK (launched by the Spice Girls) 1 May 1997: 'New' Labour landslide victory in Britain (Tony Blair replaces John Major as Prime Minister) 6 May 1997: Announcement that Bank of England to be made independent of Government control 11 May 1997: First time a computer beats a master at chess (IBM's Deep Blue v Garry Kasparov) 1 Jul 1997: Hong Kong returned to China 19 Jul 1997: IRA declares a ceasefire 31 Aug 1997: Diana, Princess of Wales killed in car crash in Paris 25 Sep 1997: Land speed record breaks sound barrier for first time
12	1998	10 Apr 1998: Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland – effectively implemented in May 2007 14 Aug 1998: Car bomb explodes in Omagh killing 29 people 27 Sep 1998: 'Google' search engine founded
13	1999	1999: World population reaches 6 billion 1 Jan 1999: European Monetary Union begins – UK opts out – by the end of the year the Euro has approximately the same value as the US Dollar 1 Jul 1999: The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth – powers are officially transferred from the Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh 11 Aug 1999: Total eclipse of the sun visible in Devon and Cornwall 11 Nov 1999: Hereditary Peers no longer have right to sit in House of Lords
14	2000	1 Jan 2000: The year in Britain started with a 'flu bug rather than a millennium bug Mar 2000: London Eye opens, late but popular 22 Apr 2000: The Big Number Change takes place in the UK – affected telephone dialling codes assigned to Cardiff, Coventry, London, Northern Ireland, Portsmouth and Southampton 4 May 2000: Ken Livingstone elected first Mayor of London (not to be confused with Lord Mayor of London!) 10 Jun 2000: Millennium footbridge over the Thames opens, but wobbles and is quickly declared dangerous and closed – finally reopened Feb 2002 25 Jul 2000: A chartered Air France Concorde crashes on take-off at Paris with the loss of all lives Sep 2000: 'People Power' emerged suddenly as protestors against high Road Fuel Tax used mobile phones and the Internet to co-ordinate blockades on fuel depots – resulted in nationwide panic buying of fuel and service stations running out across the country Oct 2000: Heavy rains cause worst flooding since records began (1850s) in many parts of Britain (Oct-Dec) 17 Oct 2000: Derailment at speed on the main London-North eastern line at Hatfield caused by a broken rail
15	2001	Feb 2001: Outbreak of Foot & Mouth disease in UK – lasted until October – caused postponement of local and general elections from May to June 12 May 2001: FA Cup Final played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff – first time away from Wembley since 1922 7 Jun 2001: General Election – Labour returned again with a large majority, the first time they had succeeded in gaining a second term 1 Sep 2001: New-style number plates on road vehicles in UK [eg. AB 51 ABC] 7 Nov 2001: Concorde flights resume after modifications to tyres and fuel tanks Dec 2001: UK Christmas stamps self-adhesive for the first time (self-adhesive 1st & 2nd class definitives already on sale)
16	2002	1 Jan 2002: Twelve major countries in Europe (Austria, Belgium, Holland, Irish Republic, Italy, Luxembourg, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Portugal) and their dependents start using the Euro instead of their old national currencies; the UK stays out – the Euro worth 62½p at this time 22 Feb 2002: Millennium Bridge over the Thames in London finally opens 30 Mar 2002: The Queen Mother dies, aged 101 years 2 Jul 2002: Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon
17	2003	17 Feb 2003: Start of Congestion Charge for traffic entering central London 10 Aug 2003: Temperatures reach record high of 101 F (38.3 C) in Kent 24 Oct 2003: Last commercial flight of Concorde 22 Nov 2003: England wins Rugby World Cup in nail-biting final in Australia – first northern hemisphere team to do this 13 Dec 2003: Saddam Hussein captured near his home town of Tikrit (executed 30 Dec 2006) 26 Dec 2003: Queen Mary 2 arrives in Southampton from the builder's yard in France 2004
18	2004	29 Mar 2004: Ireland becomes first country in the world to ban smoking in public places 29 Mar 2004: Alistair Cooke dies at the age of 95 – until four weeks previously, and since 1946, he had broadcast his regular 'Letter from America' on BBC radio 1 May 2004: Enlargement of the European Union to include 25 members by the entry of 10 new states: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta, Cyprus
19	2005	16 Feb 2005: Kyoto Protocol on climate change came into force 18 Feb 2005: Ban on hunting with dogs came into force in England & Wales (had already been a similar law for about two years in Scotland) 6 Jul 2005: London chosen as venue for the 2012 Olympic Games 7 Jul 2005: Suicide bombers attack London for the first time 28 Jul 2005: IRA declare an end to their 'armed struggle' 12 Sep 2005: England regain the 'Ashes' after a gripping Test series (but are whitewashed 5-0 in the return series in Australia 2007) 9 Dec 2005: Last Routemaster bus runs on regular service in London 11 Dec 2005: Explosions at the Buncefield Oil Depot in Hemel Hempstead 21 Dec 2005: Same-sex civil partnerships begin – famously, on this day, between Elton John and David Furnish
20	2006	1 Mar 2006: Welsh Assembly Building opened by the Queen 26 Mar 2006: Prohibition of smoking in enclosed public places in Scotland 21 Apr 2006: 80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II 21 Aug 2006: UK postage rates start to be measured by size as well as by weight
21	2007	1 Jan 2007: Further enlargement of the European Union to include Bulgaria and Romania 19 Feb 2007: Extension of Congestion Charge zone for London, westwards 8 May 2007: A Northern Ireland Executive formed under the leadership of Ian Paisley (DUP) and Martin McGuinness (Sinn Fein) 1 Jul 2007: Prohibition of smoking in enclosed public places in England (thus completing cover of the entire UK) 14 Nov 2007: First rail service direct from St Pancras to France (replacing that from Waterloo)