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UK Events Happening When Your Car Was Registered

The registration plate archive for UK cars, bikes and vans registered between 1903 and 2001

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What Was Going On When This Vehicle Was New?

The following events happened in the period when this vehicle was registered.

Unemployment has fallen to 2,126,200 – its lowest level in more than five years

Wednesday the 14th of August, 1996

The Prince and Princess of Wales complete their divorce proceedings.[11] The former Princess of Wales loses her style of Royal Highness and assumes the style, Diana, Princess of Wales

Wednesday the 28th of August, 1996

Ford launches its revolutionary new Ka city car, which makes use of a shortened Fiesta chassis. Next month it launches the revamped Mondeo

Wednesday the 11th of September, 1996

Racing driver Damon Hill wins the Japanese Grand Prix thus clinching the Drivers' World Championship

Sunday the 13th of October, 1996

The Government announces plans to make possession of handguns illegal in the UK, following the Dunblane massacre

Wednesday the 16th of October, 1996

The Stone of Scone is installed in Edinburgh Castle 700 years after it was removed from Scotland by King Edward I of England

Saturday the 30th of November, 1996

Diana, Princess of Wales calls for an international ban on landmines

Wednesday the 15th of January, 1997

East 17 singer Brian Harvey is dismissed from the band after publicly commenting that the drug Ecstasy is safe

Friday the 17th of January, 1997

Scientists at the Roslin Institute announce the birth of a cloned sheep named Dolly seven months after the fact

Saturday the 22nd of February, 1997

Channel 5, Britain's fifth terrestrial television channel and its first new one since the launch of Channel 4 in November 1982, is launched

Sunday the 30th of March, 1997

BBC pre-school children's television series Teletubbies first airs

Monday the 31st of March, 1997

The Labour Party under Tony Blair defeat the incumbent Conservatives under Prime Minister John Major to win the election in a landslide result, winning 418 seats

Thursday the 1st of May, 1997

Katrina and the Waves win the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Love Shine a Light, the first time the UK has won the competition since 1981

Saturday the 3rd of May, 1997

The new Labour government announces that it will ban tobacco sponsorship of sporting events

Monday the 19th of May, 1997

An auction of dresses owned by Diana, Princess of Wales, in Manhattan raises more than £2million for charity

Wednesday the 25th of June, 1997

Publication of J. K. Rowling's first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Monday the 30th of June, 1997

The UK transfers sovereignty of Hong Kong, the largest remaining British colony, to the People's Republic of China as the 99 years lease on the territory formally ends

Tuesday the 1st of July, 1997

Russian carmaker Lada announces the end of imports to the United Kingdom after 23 years and some 350,000 sales of its low-priced, low-specification cars, which at their peak sold in excess of 30,000 cars a year, but managed just over 6,000 sales last year

Friday the 4th of July, 1997

The IRA declares a ceasefire

Saturday the 19th of July, 1997


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