PORTRAIT OF THE YEAR
JANUARY. The Queen and the Prime Minis- ter held hands in the Millennium Dome to welcoMe the New Year. Mr George Harri- son was stabbed by a madman. Mr Vladimir Putin, the new President of Rus- sia, continued war against Chechnya. Zeljko Raznatovic, known as Arkan, a Yugoslav war criminal, was shot dead. Patrick O'Brian, the maritime novelist, died, aged 85. The last known specimen of a kind of Pyrenaean goat, Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica, was found dead, crushed by a fallen tree.
FEBRUARY. Floods affected many thousands in Mozambique; a mother, and her baby born in a tree, were rescued by helicopter. A hijacked Afghan jet landed at Stansted with 150 aboard, half claiming asylum. Stanley Matthews, the football player, died, aged 85. Ernest Lough, who in 1927 sang '0, for the Wings of a Dove', died, aged 88. Charles Schultz, who drew Peanuts, died, aged 77. A tree-dwelling rodent the size of a cat, related to the extinct Inca Tomb Rat, was discovered near Cuzco, Peru.
MARCH. General Augusto Pinochet flew home to Chile. Harold Shipman, a GP, was jailed for the murder of 15 women. Black squatters, encouraged by Mr Robert Mugabe, the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, occupied white-owned farms. The Pope visited the Holy Land, leaving prayers in a cleft in the Western Wall. Anthony Powell, the author of A Dance to the Music of Time, died, aged 94. Ian Dury, known for 'Billericay Dickie', died, aged 57.
APRIL. Mr David Irving, the historian, lost a libel case against Professor Deborah Lip- stadt after the judge called him an 'active Holocaust denier'. The Queen bestowed the George Cross on the Royal Ulster Con- stabulary. Hansie Cronje was sacked by the United Cricket Board of South Africa after admitting taking payments. Two white fanners in Zimbabwe were murdered by mobs. A Texan court sentenced a man to 16 years in jail for stealing a chocolate bar worth $1.
MAY. Mr Ken Livingstone was elected mayor of London. Anarchists rioted in Whitehall. A man was beheaded in public in Saudi Arabia for smuggling cannabis. Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon. The Northern Ireland Executive was resur- rected. There was an anti-Indian coup in Fiji. Mrs Cherie Blair gave birth to a baby, Leo. Sir John Gielgud, the actor, died, aged 98. Dame Barbara Cartland, the busy romantic novelist, died, aged 98. Egon Krentz, the former leader of East Germany serving six years in jail, was let out daily to sell false legs.
JUNE. Fifty-eight Chinese people were found suffocated in a sealed lorry at Dover. Mr Blair was heckled by the Women's Institute. The new Millennium Bridge across the Thames was closed when it wobbled. C&A closed all its stores in Britain. Mike Tyson beat Lou Savarese in Glasgow after 38 seconds. In Spain, mur- ders by Euzkadi to Azkatasuna, the Basque terrorist group, continued. President Hafez Al-Assad of Syria died, aged 69. Mr Bola Ige, the justice minister of Nigeria, told women, 'All you girls, if any member of a cult attempts to rape you, chop off his prick.'
JULY. A memorandum by Mr Blair was leaked suggesting 'two or three eye-catch- ing initiatives'. Mr Blair told theologians in Tibingen, Germany, that police should march drunks to cashpoint machines to pay fines. Euan Blair, aged 16, was found drunk and incapable in Leicester Square. An Air France Concorde crashed on takeoff in Paris, killing 113. A mountain of rubbish outside Manila collapsed, killing 100 scav- engers. Lord Runcie, 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury, died, aged 78. About 19,000 Jackass penguins were evacuated from Robben Island off South Africa as an oil slick approached.
AUGUST. The Queen Mother was 100. A Russian nuclear submarine, the Kursk, became stuck 350ft beneath the Barents Sea, and all 116 aboard eventually died. The News of the World published names of paedophiles; mobs began harassing them, and in their ignorance daubed the house of a paediatrician. Sir Alec Guinness, the actor, died, aged 86. Sir Robin Day, the broadcaster, died, aged 76. Swine fever broke out in East Anglia; 10,000 pigs were slaughtered. Roofs in Great Yarmouth were covered with little silver fishes during a storm.
SEPTEMBER. British lorry drivers and farm- ers blockaded oil depots, and motorists bought all the petrol there was. At the Labour party conference, Mr Blair said, am listening. I hear. And I will act.' R.S. Thomas, the poet, died, aged 87. Sir Julian Critchley, the Tory MP, died, aged 69. Congo continued to be used as a bat- tleground by neighbouring countries. Among Britain's golds at the Olympic Games was the fifth won by Steve Red- grave, the rower. A woman picked up a bunch of bananas in Biggleswade and was stung by a scorpion.
OCTOBER. Fighting broke out between Palestinians and Israeli forces: it went on for the rest of the year. Crowds stormed Parliament in Belgrade, getting rid of Presi- dent Slobodan Milosevic. Four people were killed when a train was derailed near Hat- field, Hertfordshire. Many places in East Sussex and Kent were badly flooded. The Maze prison closed. Reginald Kray, the gangster, died, aged 66. The Queen visited Italy and the Pope gave a rosary to her and Mrs Robin Cook. Eight members of the shadow Cabinet said they had smoked cannabis.
NOVEMBER. The United States tried to elect a president. Railtrack tested miles of track, imposing huge delays daily; Mr Gerald Corbett, its chief executive, stayed, then resigned. Storms and floods hit the country. The government promised 12,500 troops to a new European Union force. The Dutch legalised euthanasia. In Britain, Maltese parents of Siamese twins were prevented by the courts from stopping surgeons cutting them apart, with the immediate death of one. Russ Conway, the nine-fingered pianist, died, aged 75. The Queen Mother broke her collarbone. Frisky, the cat on the opening credits of Coronation Street, died, aged 14. DECEMBER. After recounts in Florida and court hearings, Mr Bush was declared the next American President. A new voting system was devised at a summit in Nice for the EU when it expands. The government authorised the sale of the 'morning-after pill' in chemists' without prescriptions. Spain arrested more than 10,000 immi- grants trying to cross the Straits of Gibral- tar, twice the figure for 1999. The post slowed for Christmas mostly because of the railway chaos. General Motors cut 5,000 jobs in Continental Europe and another 2,000 by closing Vauxhall's plant at Luton. Sudan continued to bomb villages in the south of the country. Lord Cowdrey of Tonbridge, the cricketer Colin Cowdrey, died, aged 67. Anopheles mosquitoes, which can carry malaria, were found to be breeding on the Isle of Sheppey.
Previous page
