Events from the year 2006 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents Monarch – Elizabeth II Prime Minister – Tony Blair (Labour)
Events
January 7 January – Charles Kennedy resigns as leader of the Liberal Democrats after admitting that he has a drinking problem. 20 January – River Thames whale: a whale is discovered swimming in the River Thames in London. 24 January – Sven-Göran Eriksson announces that he will retire as manager of the England national football team after this summer's World Cup in Germany. Eriksson, 57, has been in charge of the England team for five years and, as a Swede, is the first non-English manager of the England team.
February 3 February – Islamist demonstration outside Danish Embassy in London in response to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. 9 February Dunfermline and West Fife by-election: Willie Rennie of the Liberal Democrats wins the seat from Labour. The Government announces that the Child Support Agency is to be abolished. 10–26 February – Great Britain competes at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, and wins one silver medal (Shelley Rudman for women's skeleton). 16 February – The Brit Awards take place. 19 February – The BAFTA awards take place in London. 22 February Securitas depot robbery: around £53 million (US$92 million) is stolen from a Securitas depot at Tonbridge, Kent, in the largest cash robbery in British crime history. The Prince of Wales's court case continues in the High Court against The Mail on Sunday as he tries to prevent the publication of his journals. Various revelations have been made such as that he considers himself to be a dissident, and his opinion of government officials in the People's Republic of China whom he described as "appalling old waxworks". 27 February – Writers Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh sue Random House in the High Court of Justice, claiming that the best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown contains ideas stolen from their 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.
March 1 March – The Senedd, debating chamber of the National Assembly for Wales on Cardiff Bay, designed by Richard Rogers, is opened by the Queen. 2 March Sir Menzies Campbell is elected leader of the Liberal Democrats following an members' election caused by the resignation of previous leader, Charles Kennedy. Four people are injured in an explosion in a GlaxoSmithKline factory in Irvine, North Ayrshire. 7 March – The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, makes a state visit to the UK. 9 March – The notorious former politician John Profumo dies aged 91 of a stroke at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. 13 March – Six men taking part in a clinical trial for a new anti-inflammatory drug TGN1412 are placed in intensive care, some in a life-threatening condition, after suffering adverse side effects. 19 March – The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall begin a two-week foreign tour to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and India. 20 March – The British Press Awards are held at The Dorchester, Park Lane, London, but boycotted by some national newspapers. 21 March – Labour's hopes of a fourth successive term in office at the next general election (by which time Tony Blair says he will have resigned as prime minister) are given a boost when an Ipsos MORI opinion poll puts them eleven points ahead of the Conservatives on 42%. 23 March – 2005-2006 Christian Peacemaker hostage crisis: British peacemaker Norman Kember and three Canadians are rescued by SAS troops. 26 March – A smoking ban comes into effect in all enclosed public places in Scotland. 28 March Council workers across the UK strike over pension rights. Royal Regiment of Scotland created. 30 March – Identity Cards Act passed, providing for a national scheme of registration of individuals and issue of identity documents. It is never fully implemented and is repealed in 2011.
April
5 April – Discovery of a swan with avian influenza in Scotland. 7 April – Mr Justice Peter Smith delivers judgment in the copyright case over The Da Vinci Code finding that Dan Brown had not breached the copyright of Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh. The judgment itself contains a coded message on the whim of the judge. 12 April – Prince Harry passes out as a commissioned officer during the Sovereign's Parade at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. 18 April – Peugeot announces plans to close the 60-year-old car factory at Ryton near Coventry, which it bought from Chrysler in 1979, within the next year. 21 April – Elizabeth II celebrates her 80th birthday at Windsor. The Prince of Wales makes a televised address in tribute. 25 April – The BBC announces that Grandstand, its flagship sports TV programme, will end within the next year after nearly 50 years on air.BBC NEWS Entertainment Grandstand axed in BBC facelift 26 April – The Duke of Edinburgh visits the Republic of Ireland. 27 April – By-election in the Moray constituency of the Scottish Parliament. Richard Lochhead holds the seat for the Scottish National Party. 30 April – The last astronomy show is held at the London Planetarium before it is absorbed by neighbouring Madame Tussauds.
May 4 May Local government elections take place in some areas of England. Steve McClaren, manager of Middlesbrough Football Club, agrees to become the next manager of the England national football team after the World Cup. 5 May – Tony Blair reshuffles his cabinet. Charles Clarke is dismissed as Home Secretary. Jack Straw is replaced as the Foreign Secretary by Margaret Beckett. John Prescott remains as Deputy Prime Minister, but loses responsibility for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. 18 May – Kiyan Prince, a 15-year-old boy and talented footballer, is stabbed to death in Edgware, London, while trying to break up a fight. His murderer, Hannad Hasan, will be sentenced at the Old Bailey in 2007. 20 May – Campaigners "Fathers 4 Justice" invade the set of the National Lottery. 30 May – An Ipsos MORI opinion poll shows the Conservatives back in the lead with 36% of the vote, two points ahead of Labour.
June 9–11 June – The British Grand Prix is held at the Silverstone Circuit and is won by reigning world champion Fernando Alonso, ahead of Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen, while local hero Jenson Button retires earlier in the race with an engine oil leak. 10 June – The England football team's World Cup campaign begins with a 1–0 win over Paraguay. 15 June – England beat Trinidad and Tobago 2–0 in their second World Cup group game. 20 June – England go through to the knockout stages of the World Cup with a 2–2 draw against Sweden in their final group game. 25 June Children's Party at the Palace held in honour of The Queen's 80th birthday. The Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, rejects calls from families of murder victims for all convicted murderers to be sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in prison. England advance to the World Cup quarter-finals for the second tournament in succession by beating Ecuador 1–0 with a goal from captain David Beckham. 29 June Blaenau Gwent by-elections: independent candidates Dai Davies and Trish Law defeat Labour Party in parliamentary and Welsh Assembly by-elections. The elections were called following the death of incumbent Peter Law.BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | Double election defeat for Labour Bromley and Chislehurst by-election: Bob Neill holds the seat for the Conservative Party. 30 June – Three men are convicted of plotting the execution-style murders of a middle-aged couple, John and Joan Stirland, at their home in Trusthorpe, Lincolnshire, in 2004. The killings were in revenge for a murder committed by Joan Stirland's son in Nottingham in 2003. Five other men were cleared of conspiracy to murder following the trial at Birmingham Crown Court.
July July – The European heat wave affects the UK, resulting in July 1983's record for the hottest month in the CET series being beaten with a mean monthly CET of .Hadley Centre Ranked Central England temperature 1 July – England's World Cup campaign ends in the quarter-finals when they lose on penalties to Portugal after a goalless draw. 4 July – Sheridan v News Group Newspapers Ltd: Scottish Socialist Party MSP Tommy Sheridan begins an action for defamation against the News of the World at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. Sheridan's case is upheld but he is later prosecuted for perjury. 7 July – The United Kingdom commemorates the first anniversary of the 7/7 London terrorist bombings. 17 July – George W. Bush greets Tony Blair with the phrase "Yo, Blair". 18 July – 180 British citizens evacuated from the Lebanon due to growing crisis between Hizbollah militants and Israel. 20 July – HMS Bulwark prepares to evacuate British nationals from the Lebanon. 22 July – Arsenal Football Club move into the Emirates Stadium, named after the airline company as part of a 15-year sponsorship deal, after 93 years at nearby Highbury. The 60,000-seat stadium is the largest club stadium to have been built in English football since Maine Road, which was home of Manchester City from 1923 to 2003.
August 1 August – Steve McClaren is officially appointed as manager of the England national football team. 9–10 August – Police make many arrests in relation to a transatlantic aircraft plot, and tight security measures are instigated at airports. August – The first modern solely Gaelic-medium school to offer secondary education, Sgoil Ghàidhlig Ghlaschu, is opened at Woodside in Glasgow.
September 2 September – Royal Air Force Nimrod crash in Afghanistan: fourteen personnel are killed in Britain's worst single military loss since the Falklands War. 9 September – Helen Mirren is awarded best actress at the Venice Film Festival for her role in The Queen, portraying Elizabeth II following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. 11 September – First person convicted of murder after a prior acquittal for the same crime, following the 2003 change to the law on double jeopardy after a campaign by Ann Ming (Billy Dunlop, who pleads guilty to the 1989 murder of Julie Hogg in Billingham). 20 September – Television presenter Richard Hammond suffers a serious brain injury when he crashes a jet-powered car whilst filming for Top Gear. 25 September – Copmanthorpe rail crash: One man dies when the 14:25 from Plymouth to Edinburgh operated by Virgin CrossCountry hits a car at about 20:55.
October 1 October – Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 comes into effect, requiring a Fire Risk Assessment for all non-domestic premises in England and Wales. 5 October – Rt. Hon. Elish Angiolini, QC, appointed as Lord Advocate in Scotland. She is the first woman and the first solicitor to be appointed to the post. 9 October – Opening of the Beetham Tower, Manchester, a landmark 168-metre 47-storey skyscraper with oversailing upper floors designed by Ian Simpson of SimpsonHaugh and Partners, the tallest building in the UK outside London, and with its penthouse apartments (above the Hilton Hotel) being the highest residential addresses in the country. 13 October: European Home Retail plc and its subsidiary Farepak go into administration, leaving tens of thousands of people out of pocket for Christmas 2006. 26 October – The Duke of Edinburgh officially opens Arsenal's new stadium.Emirates Stadium, Ashburton Grove, London – Design Build Network 30 October – The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change is published by the UK government.
November 2 November – Volunteers from the Royal British Legion's Lloyd's of London Branch organise the first London Poppy Day to raise funds for the Poppy Appeal. 5 November – 53-year-old Ronald Castree is arrested in connection with the murder of 11-year-old Lesley Molseed in 1975. Stefan Kiszko had spent 16 years in jail for the crime before his conviction was quashed in 1992. Castree would be convicted of the crime in November 2007.