3 January – Children's ITV is launched as a new branding for the late afternoon programming block on the ITV network.
5 January – Two policemen and a policewoman drown at Blackpool after going into the sea to rescue a man who entered the sea to save his dog (both of whom also drown).[1]
6 January – Danish fishermen defy the British government's prohibition on non-UK boats fishing in its coastal waters.
14 January – Shooting of Stephen Waldorf: Armed policemen shoot and severely injure an innocent car passenger in London, believing him to be escaped prisoner David Martin.
17 January – The first British breakfast television programme, Breakfast Time, is launched on BBC One at 6:30AM.
19 January – The two policemen who wounded Stephen Waldorf are charged with attempted murder and released on bail; they are suspended from duty pending further investigation.
3 February – Unemployment stands at a record high of 3,224,715 – though the previous high reached in the Great Depression of the early 1930s accounted for a higher percentage of the workforce.
10 February – Dismembered sets of human remains are found at a block of flats in Muswell Hill, North London. 37-year-old civil servant Dennis Nilsen is arrested on suspicion of murder.
11 February – Dennis Nilsen is charged with the murder of 20-year-old Stephen Sinclair, who was last seen alive in January. Police are working to identify the other sets of human remains found at Nilsen's flat, in order to press further murder charges against Nilsen; his trial will open in October.
14 February – Roger Hargreaves' Little Miss TV series was first broadcast on BBC1, The Mr. Men Series was also broadcast on BBC1 for reruns, however, only 13 episodes were broadcast due to the first 13 Little Miss books were released.
15 February – The Austin Metro is now Britain's best selling car, having outsold every other new car registered in the UK during January.
26 February – Pat Jennings, 37-year-old Arsenal and Northern Ireland goalkeeper, becomes the first player in the English game to appear in 1,000 senior football matches.
1 March – British Leyland launches the Austin Maestro, a five-door family hatchback with front-wheel drive which replaces the recently discontinued Maxi and Allegro. The Maestro also forms the basis of a new range of saloons and estates which are set to go into production early next year.
8 March – The notable composer Sir William Walton dies aged 80 at La Mortella, his home on the Italian island of Ischia.
15 March – The Budget raises tax allowances, and cuts taxes by £2 billion.
April – Vauxhall launches the Nova supermini with a range of three-door hatchbacks and two-door saloons. It is the first Vauxhall to be built outside the United Kingdom, being assembled at the Zaragoza plant in Spain where it was launched seven months ago as the Opel Corsa, but plans to launch it on the British market had been attacked by trade unions who were angry at the fact that it would not be built in Britain. Its launch is expected to result in the end of Vauxhall Chevette production in Britain.[11]
1 April
Thousands of protesters form a 14-mile human chain in reaction to the siting of American nuclear weapons in British military bases.[12]
The government expels three Russians named as KGB agents by a Soviet defector.
4 April – The biggest cash haul in British history sees gunmen escape with £7 million from a Security Express van in East London.
9 May – Margaret Thatcher calls a general election for 9 June. Opinion polls show her on course for victory with the Tories 8–12 points ahead of Labour, and they are widely expected to form a significant overall majority due to the split in left-wing votes caused by the Alliance, who are now aiming to take Labour's place in opposition.[13]
11 May - Aberdeen F.C. beat Real Madrid 2–1 (after extra time) to win the European Cup Winner's Cup. They are currently (as of 2023) the last team to beat Real Madrid in a European Final.
Manchester United defeat Brighton & Hove Albion 4–0 in the FA Cup final replay at Wembley Stadium. Bryan Robson scores two of the goals, with the other two coming from Arnold Muhren and 18-year-old Norman Whiteside.[14]
Opinion polls suggest that the Conservatives are looking set to be re-elected with a landslide. A MORI poll puts them on 51%, 22 points ahead of Labour.[15]
12 June – Michael Foot resigns as leader of the Labour Party. Neil Kinnock, shadow spokesman for education and MP for Islwyn in South Wales, is tipped to succeed him; however, the successor will not be confirmed until this autumn.
14 June – Roy Jenkins resigns as leader of the Social Democratic Party and is succeeded by David Owen. Although the SDP gained 25% (around 7 million) of the votes and fell just short of Labour in terms of votes, they attained only a fraction of the number of seats won by Labour.[10]
21 July – Former prime minister Harold Wilson is one of 17 life peerages announced today, having stood down from parliament last month after 38 years as MP for Huyton, near Liverpool.
22 July – Production of the Ford Orion four-door saloon begins. The Orion is the saloon version of the Escort, but is also aimed at buyers of larger family saloon cars like the recently discontinued Cortina. It goes on sale this Autumn and is produced at the Halewood plant in Liverpool as well as the Valencia plant in Spain which also produces the smaller Fiesta.
26 July – A Catholic mother of ten, Victoria Gillick, loses a case in the High Court of Justice against the DHSS. Her application sought to prevent the distribution of contraceptives to children under the age of 16 without parental consent. The case goes to the House of Lords in 1985 when it is decided that it is legal for doctors to prescribe contraceptives to under-16s without parental consent in exceptional circumstances ("Gillick competence").[22]
29 July – Actor and novelist David Niven dies aged 73 at his home in Château d'Œx, Switzerland.
1 to 31 July – The two hundredth anniversary of the previous hottest month in the CET series sees a new record for heat with a monthly mean CET of 19.5°C or 67.1°F – 0.7°C or 1.3°F hotter than July 1783.[23]
August
1 August – The new A-prefix car registration plates are launched, helping spur on the recovery in car sales following the slump at the start of the decade caused by the recession.
18 August – Architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner dies aged 81 at his home in Hampstead, London.
19 August – Temperatures reach 30°C in London, as hot weather embraces the United Kingdom.
29 August – ITV launches Blockbusters, a gameshow hosted by Bob Holness and featuring sixth formers as its contestants.
September
8 September – The National Health Service privatises cleaning, catering and laundering services in a move which Social Services Secretary Norman Fowler predicts will save between £90 million and £180 million a year.
11 September – The SDP Conference voted against a merger with the Liberals until at least 1988.
19 September – The West Indian island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis becomes independent of the United Kingdom.
22 September – Docklands redevelopment in East London begins with the opening of an Enterprise Zone on the Isle of Dogs.[8]
25 September – Maze Prison escape: 38 IRA prisoners armed with six guns hijack a lorry and escape from HM Prison Maze in County Antrim, Northern Ireland; one guard dies of a heart attack and 20 others are injured in the attempt to foil the escape,[24] the largest prison escape since World War II and in British history. 19 escapees are later apprehended.
September – Ford launches two new models, the second generation Fiesta supermini and the Orion, the saloon version of the big-selling Escort.
October
2 October – Neil Kinnock is elected leader of the Labour Party following the retirement of Michael Foot. Kinnock attracts more than 70% of the votes, and names Roy Hattersley (who came second with nearly 20%) as his deputy.[25]
4 October – Richard Noble, driving the British turbojet-powered car Thrust2, takes the land speed record to 634.051mph (1020.406km/h) over 1km (633.47mph (1019.47km/h) over 1 mile) at Black Rock Desert in the United States, an increase of 40mph over the previous kilometre record.[26]
14 October – Cecil Parkinson resigns as Trade and Industry Secretary following revelations about his extramarital relationship with his secretary Sara Keays.
19 October – Shooting of Stephen Waldorf: The two Metropolitan policemen who mistakenly shot and wounded Stephen Waldorf in January are cleared of attempted murder.
22 October – Between 200,000 and a million people demonstrate against nuclear weapons at a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament march in London.[27]
16 November – England beat Luxembourg 4–0 in their final Euro 84 qualifying game but still fail to qualify for next summer's tournament in France as Denmark also win their final qualifying game. After the game, more than 20 England fans are arrested after going on a violent rampage in Luxembourg.[29]
18 November – Walton sextuplets: 31-year-old Liverpool woman Janet Walton gives birth to female sextuplets following fertility treatment, the world's first all-female surviving sextuplets.
24 November – Fifteen-year-old Lynda Mann is found raped and strangled in the village of Narborough, Leicestershire, for which Colin Pitchfork will eventually be convicted.
26 November – Brink's-Mat robbery: In London, 6,800 gold bars worth nearly £26 million are taken from the Brink's-Mat vault at Heathrow Airport. Only a fraction of the gold is ever recovered, and only two men are convicted of the crime.[30]
December
4 December – An SAS undercover operation ends in the shooting and killing of two IRA gunmen, a third is injured.[31]
6 December – First heart and lung transplant carried out in Britain at Harefield Hospital.[32]
8 December – The House of Lords votes to allow television broadcast of its proceedings.[33]
10 December – William Golding wins the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today".[34]
Despite unemployment remaining in excess of 3 million, the battle against inflation which has largely contributed to mass unemployment is being won as inflation falls to 4.6% – the lowest level since 1966.[37]
The economic recovery continues with 4.7% overall growth for the year, the highest since 1973. The year also sees unbroken growth for the first time since 1978.
Japanese carmaker Nissan, which plans to open a factory in Britain by 1986, drops the Datsun marque on British registered cars after nearly two decades and adopts the Nissan brand in its place.