Shoulder pads, Cold War, Thatcherism, the Falklands, Privatization, and Hip Hop. These things are just some of what has defined the 1980s for the United Kingdom, but there are many more. From a wedding to a final straw, the 1980s were a tumultuous time for Britain, and we have written down ten of the most important events that took place during the decade by year. This is by no means a complete list of events, so if there’s something you think we left out, you can share that with us in the comments.
1981 – Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana
Watching on television, the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer would have seemed like a fairytale to most. Certainly, the biggest event of the year, Charles and Diana’s marriage, would provide drama for years to come until their divorce in 1996. The events that took place before, during, and after continue to shape the monarchy to this day.
1982 – Falklands War
The defining military conflict for Britain in the 1980s, the Falklands War, began when Argentina occupied the British dependent territories of the Falkland Islands as well as South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands. Hostilities lasted ten weeks, and the British military response resulted in Argentina’s surrender. Interestingly, the war helped to improve life for both the islanders and Argentinians, the former having their British citizenship restored and economy boosted, while the latter saw the military government’s image crumble and democracy restored the next year.
1983 – Thatcher Wins Landslide
Another outcome of the Falklands War for Britain was the boost in popularity that Margaret Thatcher received for the successful outcome. Favorable opinion polls for the Conservative Party left Labour and Liberal/Social Democratic Party Alliance far behind. Consequently, the Tories gained 58 seats in the 1983 General Election and secured another term as Prime Minister for Thatcher.
1984 – Miners’ Strike
Beginning March 6, 1984, the Miners’ Strike was a walkout in protest of coalmine (also known as colliery) closures in the UK by Thatcher’s Conservative government. The National Union of Mineworkers held out for a year until many returned to work after union pay ran out. This severely reduced the power of the union to negotiate with the government and arguably made the economic situation of the miners worse as customers switched to gas or found other providers.
1985 – Live Aid
Founded by musicians and philanthropists Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, Live Aid was a benefit concert for famine relief in Ethiopia held simultaneously at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia and Wembley Stadium in London. Acts in London included Adam Ant, Sting, Phil Collins, U2, Dire Straits, David Bowie, The Who, and Queen, amongst others. The concert raised over $127 million for famine relief.
1986 – Major Industries Privatized
A major goal of the Thatcher government was to privatize many industries that had been nationalized in the early 20th Century. Amongst the industries that went private within a couple of years of 1986 included British Gas, British Airways, the National Bus Company, Rolls-Royce, Council houses, and many more. The privatization was pushed aggressively by the Tories, who relied on their overwhelming majority to accomplish their political goals. Pushback from the public and a weakened Conservative government led to a slowing of these efforts.
1987 – Thatcher Wins Third General Election for Conservatives
In perhaps what might have been a reality check to some of the Tories’ more aggressive policies since the landslide in 1983, the Conservative Party lost 21 seats in Parliament after the 1987 General Election. While still enough to give Margaret Thatcher another go at Prime Minister, nothing was really the same. Pushback against privatization led Conservatives to pursue other issues and sometimes individual agendas and was arguably the beginning of the end for Thatcher’s premiership.
1988 – Liberal Democratic Party Forms
The previously-mentioned alliance between the Liberal Party and the Socialist Democratic Party had been around since the 1970s but in ten years had failed to achieve its goal of supplanting Labour as the UK’s other major political party. In response to the 1987 General Election, in 1988, the two merged to become the Social and Liberal Democratic Party, eventually known as simply the Liberal Democratic Party (or Lib Dems).
1989 – Tim Berners-Lee Invents the World Wide Web
Arguably the most significant technological advance of the 20th Century, the world wide web (or the Web as we know it today), was the creation of Sir Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. It was the product of Berners-Lee’s merger of hypertext with the internet to create an information-sharing network amongst researchers. The first public web pages appeared only four years later and has revolutionized our world.
1990 – Poll Tax and Tacher’s Resignation
Margaret Thatcher’s government introduced the “Community Charge,” more commonly known as the Poll Tax, in 1990 as a flat-rate per-capita tax on every adult in the UK to fund local government. To say that the poll tax proved unpopular would be a massive understatement. The unpopularity brought the first serious challenge to Thatcher’s leadership of the Conservatives, and she opted to resign, effectively ending her tenure as Prime Minister.
