Events from 1994 in
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
Incumbent
Events
January
* 19 January –
Privatisation
Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...
of
London Buses
London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus s ...
begins with the first sale of a bus operating subsidiary, Westlink (Stanwell Buses Ltd), in a
management buyout
A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...
.
* 28 January –
The Football Association
The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...
's two-month search for a new
England national football team
The England national football team have represented England in international Association football, football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by the Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in Eng ...
manager ends with the appointment of former
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...
manager
Terry Venables
Terence Frederick Venables (6 January 1943 – 25 November 2023), often referred to as El Tel, was an English football player and manager who played for clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers and won two caps for E ...
as national coach.
* 29 January –
Graeme Souness
Graeme James Souness (; born 6 May 1953) is a Scottish former professional football player, manager and television pundit.
A midfielder, Souness achieved his greatest period of success as an integral part of the Liverpool team of the late 19 ...
resigns after nearly three years as manager of
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founded in ...
to be replaced by club coach
Roy Evans
Roy Quentin Echlin Evans (born 4 October 1948) is an English former footballer who played as a defender for Liverpool, where he also had a spell as manager. Aside from his time at Liverpool, he had a short spell in the United States; and also ...
.
February
* 7 February –
Stephen Milligan
Stephen David Wyatt Milligan (12 May 1948 – 7 February 1994) was a British Conservative politician and journalist. He held a number of senior journalistic posts until his election to serve as Member of Parliament (MP) for Eastleigh in 1992. ...
,
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
MP for
Eastleigh
Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the United Kingdom 2011 census, 2011 census.
The town ...
in
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...
, is found dead at his home in
Chiswick
Chiswick ( ) is a district in West London, split between the London Borough of Hounslow, London Boroughs of Hounslow and London Borough of Ealing, Ealing. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist Wi ...
,
West London
West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary.
The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: Central London, N ...
. Police describe his death as "suspicious"
* 10 February – Three men are jailed in connection with the
IRA bombings of Warrington gasworks 11 months ago. Pairic MacFhloinn is jailed for 35 years, Denis Kinsella for 25 years and John Kinsella for 20 years.
* 11 February – Forensic tests reveal that MP Stephen Milligan died of asphyxiation and that his death was probably the result of an auto-erotic sex practice.
* 24 February – Police in
Gloucester
Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...
begin excavations at 25 Cromwell Street, the home of 52-year-old builder
Fred West
Frederick Walter Stephen West (29 September 1941 – 1 January 1995) was an English serial killer, who committed at least twelve murders between 1967 and 1987 in Gloucestershire, England—the majority with his second wife, Rose West.
The vi ...
.
March
* 1 March – Fred West is charged with the murders of three women who remains were found buried at his house. One of the bodies is believed to be that of his daughter Heather, who was last seen alive in 1987 at the age of 16.
* 8, 10 and 13 March – The IRA launch three successive mortar attacks on
Heathrow Airport
Heathrow Airport , also colloquially known as London Heathrow Airport and named ''London Airport'' until 1966, is the primary and largest international airport serving London, the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdo ...
.
* 10 March – Following the recovery of further bodies at 25 Cromwell Street, Fred West is charged on eight counts of murder.
* 12 March – The
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
ordains its
first women priests,
Angela Berners-Wilson
Angela Veronica Isabel Berners-Wilson (born 1954) is a Church of England priest and chaplain. She is considered to be the first woman to be ordained as a priest in the Church of England. She was chaplain at the University of Bath from 2004 to 201 ...
being the first of all.
* 27 March –
Aston Villa
Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...
are
Football League Cup
The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England.
Orga ...
winners for a record fifth time when they beat Manchester United 3–1 in the final at
Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...
. It comes just three years after their manager
Ron Atkinson
Ronald Frederick Atkinson (born 18 March 1939) is an English former football player and manager. Nicknamed "Big Ron", he was regarded as one of Britain's best-known football pundits in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Nicknamed "The Tank" during his ...
achieved another final win in the competition over his old club with Manchester United, the previous one being while he was in charge of
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system.
Formed in 1867 as an off ...
.
* 28 March – A masked man breaks into Hall Garth School,
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...
, and stabs one pupil to death and wounds two others before being overpowered by teachers until the police arrive to arrest him. The dead girl is identified as 12-year-old Nikki Conroy. The man arrested is Stephen Wilkinson, a 29-year-old former pupil of the school.
April
* 6 April – The Football Association cancels England's friendly with
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
in Berlin on 20 April, as it coincides with what would have been
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
's 105th birthday.
* 7 April –
Paul Gascoigne
Paul John Gascoigne (, born 27 May 1967), nicknamed Gazza, is an English former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Regarded as one of the best playmakers of his generation and one of the best English footballers of ...
, the England midfielder, breaks his leg while training for his club
Lazio
Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...
in Italy, and is set to be out action until at least this autumn.
* 10 April –
Eric Cantona
Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona (; ; born 24 May 1966) is a French former professional footballer who is currently an actor. In his football career Eric Cantona was a physically strong, hard-working and tenacious player. He combined technical skill a ...
, the Manchester United and
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
striker, becomes the first foreign player to win the
PFA Player of the Year award. His team draws 1–1 with
Oldham Athletic
Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional association football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. As of the 2025–26 EFL League Two, 2025–26 season, the team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the Eng ...
in this afternoon's
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...
semi-final at Wembley Stadium, but he misses the match as he is serving a five-match suspension after being sent off twice in successive games last month.
29 April Roland Ratzenbuger is killed during qualification for the San Marino Grand Prix
30 April Former world champion Ayrton Senna is killed after a 200mph crash whilst leading the San Marino Grand Prix
May
* 1 May –
Manchester United
Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...
retain the
Premier League
The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...
football title with a 2–1 away win over
Ipswich Town
Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. The club currently competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football.
Ipswich Town were founded in 1878 but did not turn ...
putting them beyond the reach of their last remaining challengers
Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...
.
* 14 May – Manchester United become only the sixth English football club (and the fourth this century) to have won the league title and
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...
double
Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to:
Mathematics and computing
* Multiplication by 2
* Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length
* A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1
* A ...
as they triumph 4–0 over
Chelsea in the FA Cup final.
June
* 10 June –
Bobby Charlton
Sir Robert Charlton (11 October 1937 – 21 October 2023) was an English professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder, left winger or centre-forward. Widely considered one of the greatest players of all time, he was a member ...
, who scored a record 49 goals for the England team and won a
European Cup
The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...
with Manchester United, receives a knighthood.
* 13 June – The Conservatives suffer their worst election results this century, winning a mere 18 out of 87 of the nation's seats in the European parliament elections. The resurgent Labour Party, still without a leader as the search for a successor to the late John Smith continues, wins 62 seats.
* 14 June – In the heaviest penalty ever imposed on any English football club, Tottenham Hotspur are fined £600,000, deducted 12 league points from the start of next season, and banned from the FA Cup for a year due to financial irregularities which took place during the late 1980s.
July
* 4 July – Anthony Armstrong, 32, is charged with the murder of three-year-old
Rosie Palmer, whose body was found today in a
Hartlepool
Hartlepool ( ) is a seaside resort, seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is governed by a unitary authority borough Borough of Hartlepool, named after the town. The borough is part of the devolved Tees Valley area with an estimat ...
flat near where she went missing four days ago.
* 13 July –
Chris Sutton
Christopher Roy Sutton (born 10 March 1973) is an English former professional football player and manager. He later became a pundit, commentator and presenter of football coverage on television and radio.
Sutton played from 1991 to 2007 for No ...
, 21-year-old
Norwich City
Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...
striker, becomes Britain's most expensive footballer in a £5million move to
Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...
.
* 16 July – Abbie Humphries is recovered from a house near the
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...
hospital from where she was snatched by a bogus nurse sixteen days ago when only four hours old. A 22-year-old woman is charged with abduction.
* 29 July – Tottenham Hotspur sign the Germany national football team striker
Jürgen Klinsmann
Jürgen Klinsmann (; born 30 July 1964) is a German professional Association football, football manager and former player. He played for several prominent clubs in Europe including VfB Stuttgart, Inter Milan, AS Monaco FC, Monaco, Tottenham Hot ...
from French side
AS Monaco
Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club, commonly referred to as AS Monaco (), is a professional football club based in Fontvieille, Monaco. Although not in France, they are a member of the French Football Federation (FFF) and currently ...
for £2 million.
* 1 August –
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...
Central Library is destroyed in a fire.
August
* 2 August –
Dick Best is dismissed as manager of the
England national rugby team England national rugby team may refer to:
Rugby union
* England national rugby union team, administered by the Rugby Football Union
* England women's national rugby union team, administered by the Rugby Football Union
* England national rugby seven ...
and succeeded by
Jack Rowell.
* 13 August – Fifteen-year-old
Richard Everitt is stabbed to death in London by a gang of British Bangladeshis in a racially motivated murder.
* 26 August –
Papworth Hospital
Royal Papworth Hospital is a specialist heart and lung hospital, located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridgeshire, England. The Hospital is run by Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
The hospital is a world-leading cardio ...
in
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...
carries out a pioneering operation to give a man a battery-operated
heart
The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels. The heart and blood vessels together make the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrie ...
.
* 28 August – Sunday trading becomes legal in
England and Wales
England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...
for the first time.
September
* 3 September –
Billy Wright, former captain of
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...
and the England football team, dies of cancer aged 70.
* 21 September –
Gary Lineker
Gary Winston Lineker ( ; born 30 November 1960) is an English Sports broadcasting, sports broadcaster and former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Lineker is the only player t ...
, 33, announces that he will retire from playing at the end of this year. Lineker, who scored 48 goals for the England team (one goal short of Bobby Charlton's record), has played for
Nagoya Grampus Eight
; formerly known as is a Japanese association football club that plays in the J1 League, and have for all but one season since the inauguration of the league, following promotion from the J2 League in 2017.
Based in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture an ...
since leaving Tottenham Hotspur in May 1992. He will then return to England as a football pundit for the BBC.
October
* 21 October – A partially constructed tunnel carrying the
Heathrow Express
Heathrow Express is a high-frequency airport rail link operating between London Heathrow Airport and . Opened in 1998, trains run non-stop, with a journey time of 15 minutes. The service is operated jointly by Great Western Railway (train operat ...
railway line into the
Heathrow Airport
Heathrow Airport , also colloquially known as London Heathrow Airport and named ''London Airport'' until 1966, is the primary and largest international airport serving London, the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdo ...
terminal complex collapses.
December
* 13 December –
Fred West
Frederick Walter Stephen West (29 September 1941 – 1 January 1995) was an English serial killer, who committed at least twelve murders between 1967 and 1987 in Gloucestershire, England—the majority with his second wife, Rose West.
The vi ...
is charged with the murders of twelve people who are believed to have died between 1967 and 1987, including his daughter Heather. His wife Rose is charged with ten of the murders, including that of Heather and her stepdaughter Charmaine, who is believed to have died in June 1971 at the age of eight.
* 14 December –
Moors Murderer Myra Hindley
The Moors murders were a series of child killings committed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in and around Manchester, England, between July 1963 and October 1965. The victims were five children—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesl ...
receives a letter from the
Home Office
The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...
that informs her of former
Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...
David Waddington
David Charles Waddington, Baron Waddington, (2 August 1929 – 23 February 2017) was a British politician and barrister.
A member of the Conservative Party, he served as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons from 1968 to 1974 ...
's decision (taken four years earlier) that she will spend the rest of her life in prison. Hindley, 52, was involving in the torture and murder of five children during the 1960s with her lover
Ian Brady
The Moors murders were a series of child killings committed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in and around Manchester, England, between July 1963 and October 1965. The victims were five children—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesl ...
. She was convicted of murdering two children at her 1966 trial as well as being an accessory to the murder of a third, but admitted two more murders in 1986 and subsequently helped police uncover the body of her fourth victim. On the same day, Brady is also informed that he will remain incarcerated for the rest of his natural life.
Deaths
* 26 February –
Olive Hirst, English advertising agent (b. 1912)
* 16 September –
Harry Gilberg, English professional footballer (b. 1923)
See also
*
1994 in Northern Ireland
Events during the year 1994 in Northern Ireland.
Incumbents
* Secretary of State - Patrick Mayhew
Events
*2 June - 1994 Scotland RAF Chinook crash: A Royal Air Force Chinook helicopter carrying almost all the United Kingdom's senior Northern ...
*
1994 in Scotland
Events from the year 1994 in Scotland.
Incumbents
* Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Ian Lang
Law officers
* Lord Advocate – Lord Rodger of Earlsferry
* Solicitor General for Scotland – Thomas Dawso ...
*
1994 in Wales
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1994 to Wales and its people.
Incumbents
*Secretary of State for Wales – John Redwood
*Archbishop of Wales – Alwyn Rice Jones, Bishop of St Asaph
*Archdruid of the National Ei ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:1994 In England
*England
Years of the 20th century in England
1990s in England
1994 in Europe