DATE

UNITED KINGDOM

REST OF THE WORLD

DUDLEY

AGE

OF

ST JOHN’S

CHURCH

ST JOHN’S CHURCH

1977

·          Queen Elizabeth II silver jubilee

·          Charlie Chaplin dies

·          Punk music era starts

·          Firemen first ever strike

·          Marc Bolan killed in car crash

·          Elvis Presley dies, USA

·          Neutron bomb developed, kills people but leaves buildings intact, USA

·          Star Wars, film

·          Bing Crosby dies

137 years old

1978

·          Jeremy Thorpe, former leader of the Liberal Party charged with conspiracy to murder Norman Scott. Later cleared.

·          First test tube baby

·          Spain becomes a democracy after 40 years of dictatorship

·          Grease, film

·          Karol Wojtyla becomes first non Italian Pope in 456 years

138 years old

1979

·          Margaret Thatcher becomes first woman Prime Minister

·          Earl Mountbatten killed by the IRA

·          Sir Anthony Blunt exposed as a one time Soviet spy

·          First CD, Dutch/Japanese

·          Whites in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) vote to ratify new constitution which extends the franchise to the black community

139 years old

1980

·          John Lennon shot dead in New York, 8th Dec

·          Sir William ‘Billy’ Butlin, founder of Butlins, dies

·          Radio Caroline ceases transmission after ship sinks

British Steel national strike

·          Robert Mugabe becomes president of Zimbabwe

·          World Health Organisation announces that smallpox has been eradicated

·          Ronald Reagan becomes President, USA

140 years old

1981

·          Prince of Wales marries Lady Diana Spencer

·          Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper found guilty of murdering 13 women and attempted murder of 7 others

·          Steve Davies wins first world title, snooker

·          Race riots, Brixton and other areas

·          World population reaches 4.5 billion

·          Airbags invented, Daimler Benz

·          First clones (three baby mice), Swiss

·          Elizabeth Canham, become first British woman to become a priest, USA

·          AIDS identified, quickly spreads wordlwide

·          IBM launch Personal Computer (PC)

141 years old

1982

·          Falklands War, after Argentine forces seize South Georgia

·          Pope John Paul II visits Britain, first ever Pope to visit

·          Henry VIII’s warship Mary Rose, sunk in 1545 raised in the Solent

·          Disease kills 20 million elm trees

·          Princess Grace of Monaco dies in car crash

·          Film, Schindlers List

·          Israeli troops invade Lebanon, besiege Beirut

142 years old

1983

·          Neil Kinnock elected leader of the Labour Party

·          Danish fishermen invade British waters

·          First breakfast time TV, Good Morning

·          Seatbelt use becomes mandatory

·          Over a million people protest against nuclear weapons, CND march, London

·          8mm Camcorders invented

·          President Reagan calls the USSR ‘an evil empire’.

·          An American Boeing 747 carrying 269 passengers strays into Soviet air space and is shot down - no survivors

143 years old

1984

·          National Union of Mineworkers strike

·          York Minster badly damaged by fire caused by lightning

·          Richard Burton dies

·          500 people killed after toxic gas leak, Bhopal, India

·          Macintosh computer with mouse is launched

144 years old

1985

·          Coal strike ends after almost a year

·          British scientists report a huge hole in the ozone layer over Antartica, stimulating concern that industrialisation may need to be limited

·          Live Aid concert to help famine victims in Ethiopia raises $60million

·          First CCTV camera, Bournemouth

·          Windows launched by Microsoft

·          Ronald Reagan elected to second term as President, USA

·          Mikhail Gorbachev becomes president, Russia

·          French secret agents sink Greenpeace ship in New Zealand

145 years old

1986

·          UK and France announce plans to build channel tunnel

·          Prince Andrew marries Sarah Ferguson

·          Harold Macmillam dies aged 92

·          Bus deregulation except in Greater London and Northern Ireland

·          World oil prices collapse, world recession on the way

·          US national debt exceeds 2 trillion dollars

·          Chernobyl nuclear power station explodes

146 years old