List of major crimes in the United Kingdom
Terrorism
Table:
Date

Name

No. of
Deaths

Location

Details

1867
The Clerkenwell explosion
12
Clerkenwell, London
A bomb planted by Fenians at New Prison in Clerkenwell exploded, killing twelve passers-by and more than 120 injuries.

1972
The 1972 Aldershot bombing
7
Aldershot, England
A bomb attack by the Northern Ireland-based Official Irish Republican Army, the first of its kind on the mainland, targeted a British Army base in Aldershot. Seven civilian staff were killed.

1973
The 1973 Old Bailey bombing
1
London, England
The first attack in England by the Provisional IRA. Four car bombs were planted at significant targets in London including Scotland Yard & the Ministry of Defence. Two bombs were defused but two bombs exploded, the worst damage was caused by the bomb at the Old Bailey were over 200 people were injured & one man died of a heart attack. The attack caused outrage in England & got extensive media coverage.

1973
The Bombings of King's Cross and Euston stations
-
London, England
Two 2 to 3 pounds (0.9 to 1.4 kg) bombs at mainline stations injured 13 people and brought chaos to central London. The first explosion at King's Cross station – which injured five people – occurred without any warning at 1224 BST, seconds after a witness saw a youth throw a bag into a booking hall. Fifty minutes later a second blast rocked a snack bar at Euston station, injuring a further eight people.

1973
The 1973 Westminster bombing
-
London, England
A bomb exploded in Thorney Street, which leads off Horseferry Road. The bomb was planted in a car which was known to have been stolen in London, and was parked outside Horseferry House, a building occupied by the Home Office, and opposite Thames House, which is mainly occupied by the Department of Trade and Industry. Both these buildings, and others nearby, were extensively damaged. At least 40 people were injured.

1974
The M62 coach bombing
12
M62 motorway, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
A bomb attack on a coach killed nine British Army soldiers and three civilians. The attack was carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

1974
The 1974 Houses of Parliament bombing
-
London, England
A bomb exploded at the Houses of Parliament in London, causing extensive damage and injuring 11 people.

1974
The 1974 Tower of London bombing
1
London, England
An explosion in the Tower of London left one person dead and 41 injured. This was the second bomb in London on this day. At 0430 BST there was an explosion at government buildings in Balham, South London. Nobody was injured in the morning blast but there was substantial damage to surrounding buildings.

1974
The Guildford pub bombings
5
Guildford, England
Two bombs at a pub in Guildford cause the deaths of four soldiers and a civilian. IRA terrorists were responsible.

1974
The Brook's Club bomb attack
-
Brook's, St James's Street, London
A 5-pound (2.3 kg) bomb exploded in the Brooks Club, London, injuring three members of staff.

1974
The Harrow School bombing
-
Harrow, England
The Harrow School bombing happened on 24 October 1974, when the Provisional IRA's Balcombe Street Gang bombed Peterborough Cottage, a three-storey former caretaker's house in the grounds of Harrow School. A warning was given and there were no deaths or injuries.

1974
The Birmingham pub bombings
21
Birmingham, England
21 people were killed when bombs went off in two pubs in central Birmingham. Six men were wrongly convicted and spent 16 years in prison before being released in 1991.

1974
The 1974 London pillar box bombings
-
London, England
Provisional IRA exploded bombs inside pillar boxes in various places around London, injuring 40 people.

1974
The Oxford Street bombing
-
London, England
The IRA carried out a bomb attack on Selfridge's department store in Oxford Street, London. A time bomb had been placed in a car which was then parked outside the store. Three telephone warnings were given and the area was evacuated. The explosion was later estimated to have caused £1.5 million worth of damage.

1982
The Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings
11
London, England
Bomb attacks against a military ceremony in London killed eleven soldiers.

1983
The Harrods bombing
6
London, England
Six people were killed when a bomb detonated near the Harrods department store in London.

1984
The 1984 Heathrow Airport bombing
-
Heathrow Airport, England
On 20 April 1984, a bomb exploded in the baggage area of Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport. The bomb exploded at 7:55 pm, as 60 people were inside the baggage area. The blast injured 22, one seriously. The Angry Brigade, an anarchist group, claimed responsibility for the bombing. British officials dismissed the claim, and instead pointed their fingers at "Libyan-related Arab groups". coming just three days after the murder of Yvonne Fletcher.

1984
The Brighton hotel bombing
5
Brighton, England
A bomb attack targeting members of the government killed five people. The then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, narrowly escaped injury.

1988
The Lockerbie Disaster
270
Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
In one of the worst terrorist attacks in the UK, London-New York commercial flight Pan Am Flight 103 crashed near Lockerbie, Scotland as the result of a bomb having been planted in the forward cargo hold. A joint investigation by the Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the (U.S.) Federal Bureau of Investigation linked the bombing to Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer and the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines. He was jailed for life in January 2001 with a recommended minimum of 20 years (later increased to 27 years), but was released on compassionate grounds due to terminal cancer in August 2009, and returned to his native Libya, where he died in 2012.

1989
The Deal barracks bombing
11
Deal, England
Eleven soldiers died after the IRA bombed a military facility in Deal.

By analysing the accompanying table and the textual context listed.

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The Clerkenwell explosion , also known as the Clerkenwell Outrage , was a bombing in London on 13 December 1867 . The Irish Republican Brotherhood , nicknamed the Fenians , exploded a bomb to try to free one of their members being held on remand at Clerkenwell Prison . The explosion damaged nearby houses , killed 12 people and caused 120 injuries . None of the prisoners escaped . The event was described by The Times the following day as a crime of unexampled atrocity , and compared to the infernal machines used in Paris in 1800 and 1835 and the Gunpowder Treason of 1605 . The bombing was later described as the most infamous action carried out by the Fenians in Britain in the 19th century . It enraged the public , causing a backlash of hostility in Britain which undermined efforts to establish home rule or independence for Ireland .
The word Fenian ( /ˈfiːniən/ ) served as an umbrella term for the Fenian Brotherhood and the Irish Republican Brotherhood ( IRB ) , fraternal organisations dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic in the 19th and early 20th centuries . The name originated with the Fianna in Irish mythology - groups of legendary warrior-bands associated with Fionn mac Cumhail . Mythological tales of the Fianna became known as the Fenian Cycle . The term Fenian today occurs as a derogatory sectarian term in Ireland , referring to Irish nationalists and/or Catholics , particularly in Northern Ireland , though the term is commonly not viewed as negative by the community receiving the term . The term has been used similarly in Scotland as a religious slur to refer to Scottish Catholics or to Scots with Irish ancestry .
The 1972 Aldershot bombing was a car bomb attack by the Official Irish Republican Army ( Official IRA ) on 22 February 1972 in Aldershot , England . The bomb targeted the headquarters of the British Army 's 16th Parachute Brigade and was claimed as a revenge attack for Bloody Sunday . Seven civilian staff ( mostly female cleaners ) were killed and 19 were wounded . It was the Official IRA 's largest attack in Britain during the Troubles and one of its last major actions before it declared a permanent ceasefire in May 1972 . Official IRA member Noel Jenkinson was convicted and imprisoned for his part in the bombing .
Aldershot ( /ˈɔːldərʃɒt/ ) is a town in the Rushmoor district of Hampshire , England . It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county , about 31.8 mi ( 51.2 km ) southwest of London . The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council . The town has a population of 36,321 , while the Aldershot Urban Area , a loose conurbation ( which also includes other towns such as Camberley , Farnborough , and Farnham ) has a population of 243,344 , making it the thirtieth-largest urban area in the UK . Aldershot is known as the Home of the British Army , a connection which led to its rapid growth from a small village to a Victorian town . Aldershot is twinned with Sulechów in Poland , Meudon in France and Oberursel in Germany .
The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA ( OIRA ; Irish : Óglaigh na hÉireann ) was an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a workers ' republic encompassing all of Ireland . It emerged in December 1969 , shortly after the beginning of the Troubles , when the Irish Republican Army split into two factions . The other was the Provisional IRA . Each continued to call itself simply the IRA and rejected the other 's legitimacy . Unlike the Provisionals , the Officials did n't think that Ireland could be unified until the Protestant majority of Northern Ireland and Catholic minority of Northern Ireland were at peace with each other . The Officials were Marxist and worked to form a united front with other Irish communist groups , named the Irish National Liberation Front ( NLF ) . The Officials were called the NLF by the Provisionals and were sometimes nicknamed the Red IRA by others . It waged a limited campaign against the British Army , mainly involving shooting and bombing attacks on troops in urban working-class neighbourhoods . Most notably , it was involved in the 1970 Falls Curfew and carried out the 1972 Aldershot bombing . In May 1972 , it declared a ceasefire and vowed to limit its actions to defence and retaliation . By this time , the Provisional IRA had become the larger and more active faction . Following the ceasefire , the OIRA began to be referred to as Group B within the Official movement .
The 1973 Old Bailey bombing was a car bomb attack carried out by the Provisional IRA ( IRA ) which took place outside the Old Bailey Courthouse on 8 March 1973 . The attack was carried out by an 11-person ASU from the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade . The unit also exploded a second bomb which went off outside the Ministry of Agriculture near Whitehall in London at around the same time the bomb at the Old Bailey went off . This was the Provisional IRA 's first major attack in England since the Troubles began back in 1969 . One British civilian died of a heart attack attributed to the bombing , estimates of the injured range from 180-220 from the two bombings . Two additional bombs were found and defused . Nine people from Belfast were convicted six months later for the bombing , one person managed to escape and one was acquitted for providing information to the police .
London is the capital and largest city of England and of the United Kingdom . Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England , at the head of its 50-mile ( 80 km ) estuary leading to the North Sea , London has been a major settlement for two millennia . Londinium was founded by the Romans . The City of London , London 's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles ( 2.9 km2 ) and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that closely follow its medieval limits . [ note 1 ] The City of Westminster is also an Inner London borough holding city status . Greater London is governed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly . [ note 2 ] London is considered to be one of the world 's most important global cities and has been termed the world 's most powerful , most desirable , most influential , most visited , most expensive , innovative , sustainable , most investment friendly , and most popular for work city . London exerts a considerable impact upon the arts , commerce , education , entertainment , fashion , finance , healthcare , media , professional services , research and development , tourism and transportation . London ranks 26th out of 300 major cities for economic performance . It is one of the largest financial centres and has either the fifth or the sixth largest metropolitan area GDP . [ note 3 ] It is the most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the busiest city airport system as measured by passenger traffic . It is the leading investment destination , hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city .
The Irish Republican Army ( IRA ; Irish : Óglaigh na hÉireann ) , also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army ( Provisional IRA or Provos ) , was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland , facilitate Irish reunification and bring about an independent republic encompassing all of Ireland . It was the most active republican paramilitary group during the Troubles . It saw itself as the sole legitimate successor to the original IRA from the Irish War of Independence , and accordingly referred to itself simply as the Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) , or Óglaigh na hÉireann in Irish . It was designated a terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom and an illegal organisation in the Republic of Ireland . The Provisional IRA emerged in December 1969 , following a split within the previous incarnation of the IRA and the broader Irish republican movement . It was the minority faction in the split , while the majority continued as the Official IRA . The term provisional was chosen to mirror the 1916 Provisional Government of the Irish Republic , and also to designate it as temporary pending reorganisation of the movement . Although this reorganisation eventually happened in 1970 , the name stuck . The Troubles had begun shortly before when a largely Catholic , nonviolent civil rights campaign was met with violence from both Ulster loyalists and the Royal Ulster Constabulary ( RUC ) , culminating in the August 1969 riots and deployment of British troops . The IRA initially focused on defence of Catholic areas , but it began an offensive campaign in 1971 ( see timeline ) . The IRA 's primary goal was to force the United Kingdom to negotiate a withdrawal from Northern Ireland . It used guerrilla tactics against the British Army and RUC in both rural and urban areas .
A car bomb , lorry bomb , or truck bomb , also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device ( VBIED ) , is an improvised explosive device designed to be placed and detonated in an automobile or other vehicles . Car bombs can be roughly divided into two main categories : those used primarily to kill the occupants of the vehicle ( often as an assassination ) and those used as a means to kill , injure or damage people and buildings outside the vehicle . The latter type may be either parked ( the vehicle disguising the bomb and allowing the bomber to get away ) or the vehicle might be used to deliver the bomb ( often as part of a suicide bombing ) . It is commonly used as a weapon of terrorism or guerrilla warfare to kill people near the blast site or to damage buildings or other property . Car bombs act as their own delivery mechanisms and can carry a relatively large amount of explosives without attracting suspicion ; in larger vehicles and trucks , weights of around 7,000 pounds ( 3,200 kg ) or more have been used , for example , in the Oklahoma City bombing . Car bombs are activated in a variety of ways , including opening the vehicle 's doors , starting the engine , depressing the accelerator or brake pedals or simply lighting a fuse or setting a timing device . The gasoline in the vehicle 's fuel tank may make the explosion of the bomb more powerful by dispersing and igniting the fuel .
The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales ( commonly called the Old Bailey , after the street on which it stands ) is a court in London and one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court . Part of the present building stands on the site of the medieval Newgate gaol , on a road named Old Bailey that follows the line of the City of London 's fortified wall ( or bailey ) , which runs from Ludgate Hill to the junction of Newgate Street and Holborn Viaduct . The Old Bailey has been housed in several structures near this location since the sixteenth century , and its present building dates from 1902 , designed by Edward William Mountford . The Crown Court sitting at the Central Criminal Court deals with major criminal cases from within Greater London and in exceptional cases , from other parts of England and Wales . Trials at the Old Bailey , as at other courts , are open to the public ; however , they are subject to stringent security procedures .
The King 's Cross station and Euston station bombings were two bombing attacks on 10 September 1973 by the Provisional Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) that targeted two mainline railway stations in central London . The blasts wounded 13 civilians , some of whom were seriously injured , and also caused large-scale but superficial damage . This was a second wave of bombing attacks launched by the IRA in England in 1973 after the Old Bailey car bombing earlier in the year which had killed one and injured around 200 civilians .
The 1973 Westminster bombing was a car bomb that exploded on Thorney Street , off Horseferry Road , in Millbank , London on 18 December 1973 . The explosion injured up to 60 people . The bomb was planted in a car that was stolen , and it was parked in front of the Home Office building when it exploded on Tuesday morning . Two telephone warnings were given within half an hour before the blast . The Provisional Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) was responsible for the attack , and was assumed to have been in retaliation to the jailing of the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade members who bombed the Old Bailey earlier in the year . A day earlier , the IRA sent two parcel bombs that targeted two politicians .
The M62 coach bombing occurred on 4 February 1974 on the M62 motorway in northern England , when a Provisional Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) bomb exploded in a coach carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel and their family members . Twelve people ( nine soldiers , three civilians ) were killed by the bomb , which consisted of 25 pounds ( 11 kg ) of high explosive hidden in a luggage locker on the coach . Later in 1974 Judith Ward was convicted of the crime , but 18 years later the conviction was judged as wrongful and she was released from prison .
The M62 is a 107-mile-long ( 172 km ) west-east trans-Pennine motorway in Northern England , connecting Liverpool and Hull via Manchester and Leeds ; 7 miles ( 11 km ) of the route is shared with the M60 orbital motorway around Manchester . The road is part of the unsigned Euroroutes E20 ( Shannon to Saint Petersburg ) and E22 ( Holyhead to Ishim ) . The motorway , which was first proposed in the 1930s , and conceived as two separate routes , was opened in stages between 1971 and 1976 , with construction beginning at Pole Moor and finishing at that time in Tarbock on the outskirts of Liverpool . The motorway absorbed the northern end of the Stretford-Eccles bypass , which was built between 1957 and 1960 . Adjusted for inflation to 2007 , its construction cost approximately £765 million . The motorway has an average daily traffic flow of 144,000 vehicles in West Yorkshire , and has several areas prone to gridlock , in particular , between Leeds and Huddersfield and the M60 section around Eccles . The M62 coach bombing of 1974 and the Great Heck rail crash of 2001 are the largest incidents to have occurred on the M62 . Stott Hall Farm , situated between the carriageways on the Pennine section , has become one of the best-known sights on the motorway . The M62 has no junctions numbered 1 , 2 or 3 , or even an officially numbered 4 , because it was intended to start in Liverpool proper , not in its outskirts . Between Liverpool and Manchester , and east of Leeds , the terrain along which the road passes is relatively flat . Between Manchester and Leeds it traverses the Pennines and its foothills , rising to 1,221 feet ( 372 m ) above sea level slightly east of junction 22 in Calderdale , not far from the boundary between Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire .
The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of the three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire , England . From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county , County of York , West Riding ( abbreviated : County of York ( WR ) ) ( the area under the control of West Riding County Council ) , was based closely on the historic boundaries . The lieutenancy at that time included the City of York and as such was named West Riding of the County of York and the County of the City of York . Its boundaries roughly correspond to the present ceremonial counties of West Yorkshire , South Yorkshire and the Craven , Harrogate and Selby districts of North Yorkshire , along with smaller parts in Lancashire ( for example , the parishes of Bracewell , Brogden and Salterforth became part of the Pendle district of Lancashire and the parishes of Great Mitton , Newsholme and Bowland Forest Low became part of the Ribble Valley district also in Lancashire ) , Cumbria , Greater Manchester and , since 1996 , the unitary East Riding of Yorkshire .
The Irish Republican Army ( IRA ; Irish : Óglaigh na hÉireann ) , also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army ( Provisional IRA or Provos ) , was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland , facilitate Irish reunification and bring about an independent republic encompassing all of Ireland . It was the most active republican paramilitary group during the Troubles . It saw itself as the sole legitimate successor to the original IRA from the Irish War of Independence , and accordingly referred to itself simply as the Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) , or Óglaigh na hÉireann in Irish . It was designated a terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom and an illegal organisation in the Republic of Ireland . The Provisional IRA emerged in December 1969 , following a split within the previous incarnation of the IRA and the broader Irish republican movement . It was the minority faction in the split , while the majority continued as the Official IRA . The term provisional was chosen to mirror the 1916 Provisional Government of the Irish Republic , and also to designate it as temporary pending reorganisation of the movement . Although this reorganisation eventually happened in 1970 , the name stuck . The Troubles had begun shortly before when a largely Catholic , nonviolent civil rights campaign was met with violence from both Ulster loyalists and the Royal Ulster Constabulary ( RUC ) , culminating in the August 1969 riots and deployment of British troops . The IRA initially focused on defence of Catholic areas , but it began an offensive campaign in 1971 ( see timeline ) . The IRA 's primary goal was to force the United Kingdom to negotiate a withdrawal from Northern Ireland . It used guerrilla tactics against the British Army and RUC in both rural and urban areas .
On 17 June 1974 the Provisional IRA bombed the British Houses of Parliament causing extensive damage and injuring eleven people .
The 1974 Tower of London bombing happened on 17 July 1974 with the explosion of a 10-14 lb bomb in the White Tower of the Tower of London . The blast left one person dead and injured 41 people , with many having lost limbs and suffering severe face injuries . The victim who lost her life was Dorothy Household . At the time the Tower was busy with tourists . A dozen of the injuries were children . A scaffolding company working on the tower at the time were able to act immediately to form the evacuation , ensuring the wounded were taken out of the building to safety and could gain urgent medical attention . The bomb was placed along a wooden carriage of an 18th-century bronze cannon inside the Mortar Room . The gun carriage was destroyed . Nobody ever claimed responsibility for the attack , but it was widely believed the Provisional Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) was behind it . A month before the bomb , the IRA bombed the Houses of Parliament .
The Guildford pub bombings occurred on 5 October 1974 when a subgroup of the Provisional Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) detonated two 6-pound gelignite bombs at two pubs in Guildford , Surrey , England . The pubs were targeted because they were popular with British Army personnel stationed at Pirbright barracks . Four soldiers and one civilian were killed . Sixty-five people were wounded . The bomb in the Horse and Groom detonated at 8:30 pm . It killed Paul Craig ( a 22-year-old plasterer ) , two members of the Scots Guards and two members of the Women 's Royal Army Corps . The Seven Stars was evacuated after the first blast causing no serious injuries to any customers when the second bomb exploded at 9:00 pm . However the owner of the Seven Stars pub Owen O'Brien and his wife looked for a second device in their pub . When the second explosion occurred O'Brien sustained a fractured skull and his wife a broken leg . Five members of staff and one customer who had just stepped outside when the blast happened received less serious injuries . These attacks were the first in a year-long campaign by an IRA Active Service Unit who became known as the Balcombe Street Gang - who police arrested in December 1975 after the Balcombe Street siege leading to their trial and conviction for other murders and offences . A similar bomb to those used in Guildford , with the addition of shrapnel , was thrown into the Kings Arms pub in Woolwich on 7 November 1974 .
Guildford ( /ˈɡɪlfərd/ ( listen ) ) is a large town in Surrey , England , 27 miles ( 43 km ) southwest of London on the A3 trunk road midway between the capital and Portsmouth . The town has a population of about 80,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford which had an estimated 146,100 inhabitants in 2015 . Guildford has Saxon roots and historians attribute its location to the existence of a gap in the North Downs where the River Wey was forded by the Harrow Way . [ n 1 ] By AD 978 it was home to an early English Royal Mint . The building of the Wey Navigation and the Basingstoke Canal in the 17th and 18th centuries , respectively , connected Guildford to a network of waterways that aided its prosperity . In the 20th century , the University of Surrey and Guildford Cathedral , an Anglican cathedral , were added . Due to recent development running north from Guildford , and linking to the Woking area , Guildford now officially forms the southwestern tip of the Greater London Built-up Area , as defined by the Office for National Statistics .
The Brook 's Club bomb attack occurred on 22 October 1974 on St James 's Street in London . The Provisional Irish Republican Army 's ( IRA ) Active Service Unit nicknamed the Balcombe Street Gang threw a 5 lb ( 2.27 kg ) bomb into an empty dining room causing extensive damage and injuring three members of staff of the Brook 's gentlemans club . The attacks occurred just two weeks after the ASU began its bombing campaign with the Guildford pub bombings which killed 5 , 1 civilian and 4 soldiers and injured over 60 others .
The Harrow School bombing happened on 24 October 1974 , when the Provisional IRA 's Balcombe Street Gang bombed Peterborough Cottage , a three-storey former caretaker 's house in the grounds of Harrow School . A warning was given and there were no deaths or injuries .
The Birmingham pub bombings were carried out on 21 November 1974 , when bombs exploded in two public houses in Birmingham , England , killing 21 people and injuring 182 others . The Provisional Irish Republican Army has never officially admitted responsibility for the Birmingham pub bombings , although a former senior officer of the organisation confessed to their involvement in 2014 . In 2017 , one of the alleged perpetrators , Michael Hayes , also claimed that the intention of the bombings had not been to harm civilians , and that their deaths had been caused by an unintentional delay in delivering an advance telephone warning to security services . Six Irishmen were arrested within hours of the blasts , and in 1975 sentenced to life imprisonment for the bombings . The men - who became known as the Birmingham Six - maintained their innocence and insisted police had coerced them into signing false confessions through severe physical and psychological abuse . After 16 years in prison , and a lengthy campaign , their convictions were declared unsafe and unsatisfactory , and quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1991 . The episode is seen as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British legal history . The Birmingham pub bombings were one of the deadliest acts of the Troubles , and the deadliest act of terrorism to occur in England between the Second World War and the 2005 London bombings .
Birmingham ( /ˈbɜːmɪŋəm/ ( listen ) BUR-ming-əm ) is a major city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands , England . It is the second-largest city and metropolitan area in England and the United Kingdom , [ b ] with roughly 1.1 million inhabitants within the city area and 3.8 million inhabitants within the metropolitan area . Birmingham is commonly referred to as the second city of the United Kingdom . Located in the West Midlands county and region in England , approximately 100 miles ( 160 km ) from Central London , Birmingham , as one of the United Kingdom 's major cities , is considered to be the social , cultural , financial , and commercial centre of both the East and West Midlands . Distinctively , Birmingham only has small rivers flowing through it , mainly the River Tame and its tributaries River Rea and River Cole - one of the closest main rivers is the Severn , approximately 20 miles ( 32 km ) west of the city centre . Birmingham 's urban area is the second-largest in the United Kingdom , with its most recently estimated population in 2017 being 2,897,303 , and it also lies within the most populated English district . A market town in the medieval period , Birmingham grew in the 18th-century Midlands Enlightenment and subsequent Industrial Revolution , which saw advances in science , technology , and economic development , producing a series of innovations that laid many of the foundations of modern industrial society . By 1791 it was being hailed as the first manufacturing town in the world . Birmingham 's distinctive economic profile , with thousands of small workshops practising a wide variety of specialised and highly skilled trades , encouraged exceptional levels of creativity and innovation and provided an economic base for prosperity that was to last into the final quarter of the 20th century . The Watt steam engine was invented in Birmingham . The resulting high level of social mobility also fostered a culture of political radicalism which , under leaders from Thomas Attwood to Joseph Chamberlain , was to give it a political influence unparalleled in Britain outside London , and a pivotal role in the development of British democracy . From the summer of 1940 to the spring of 1943 , Birmingham was bombed heavily by the German Luftwaffe in what is known as the Birmingham Blitz .
On 25 and 27 November 1974 a London-based Provisional IRA unit placed several bombs in pillar boxes and one in a hedge behind a pillar box . This was a new tactic used by the IRA in England , although a similar tactic had been used in Northern Ireland during The Troubles several times previously . 40 people were wounded from five explosions in several districts .
On the 19 December 1974 the Provisional IRA exploded a car bomb which was parked opposite to Selfridge 's department store on Oxford Street in London . The bomb attack was carried out by an IRA active service unit ( ASU ) known as the Balcombe Street Gang who carried out some 40 attacks in England between October 1974 - December 1975 . Oxford Street was targeted in IRA bombings many other times during the Troubles .
The Hyde Park and Regent 's Park bombings were carried out on 20 July 1982 in London , England . Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) detonated two bombs during British military ceremonies in Hyde Park and Regent 's Park , both in central London . The explosions killed 11 military personnel : four soldiers of the Blues & Royals at Hyde Park , and seven bandsmen of the Royal Green Jackets at Regent 's Park . Seven of the Blues & Royals ' horses also died in the attack . One seriously injured horse , Sefton , survived and was subsequently featured on television programmes and was awarded Horse of the Year . In 1987 , Gilbert Danny McNamee was convicted of making the Hyde Park bomb and jailed for 25 years . He served 12 years before being released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement ; his conviction was later quashed . In 2013 , John Downey was charged with four counts of murder in relation to the Hyde Park attack ; his trial began in January 2014 but collapsed the following month after a ruling upon a letter sent to him by police assuring him that he would not be prosecuted over the attack . On 18 December 2019 the High Court ruled , in a civil case , that John Downey was an active participant in the bombing . No one has ever been charged in connection with the Regent 's Park bombing .
The Harrods bombing refers to the car bomb that exploded outside Harrods department store in central London on Saturday 17 December 1983 . Members of the Provisional IRA planted the time bomb and sent a warning 37 minutes before it exploded , but the area was not evacuated . The blast killed three police officers and three civilians , injured 90 people , and caused much damage . The IRA Army Council claimed it had not authorised the attack and expressed regret for the civilian casualties . After the bombing , the IRA shifted its emphasis towards attacks on military targets on the mainland . Harrods had been the target of other IRA bombings . On the 18 August 1973 two fire bombs exploded causing slight damage , again on 21 December 1974 another fire bomb was placed in the north-east corner of the first floor . There was a very short warning and the store was in the process of being cleared when it exploded . The 1974 bomb was the work of the infamous Balcombe Street Gang who also carried out high profile bombings in Knightsbridge , Piccadilly , Oxford Street , Woolwich , and many other locations in London and Surrey . It was also the target of a much smaller IRA bomb almost ten years later , in January 1993 , which injured four people ( see 1993 Harrods bombing ) .
On 20 April 1984 , a bomb exploded in the baggage area of Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport . The bomb exploded at 7:55 pm , as 60 people were inside the baggage area . Commander William Hucklesby , at the time head of Scotland Yard 's anti-terror branch , reported that the detonated device was constructed using two pounds of commercial or military grade explosives . A hospital spokesperson stated that all but five victims were released shortly after being treated for minor scrapes , cuts and bruises . John MacIntyre , a British customs official stationed in Terminal 2 when the detonation occurred said `` There was a bloody big flash , a bang and lots of smoke . I saw a British Airways bloke with blood all over the back of his shirt . There was an Iberian Airways lost-baggage representative as well . He did n't seem to have any blood on him but he was soaking wet . I gathered the central heating unit had blown up or the pipes had burst . The blast injured 22 , one seriously . The Angry Brigade , an anarchist group , claimed responsibility for the bombing . British officials dismissed the claim , and instead pointed their fingers at Libyan-related Arab groups .
Heathrow Airport , also known as London Heathrow ( IATA : LHR , ICAO : EGLL ) , is a major international airport in London , United Kingdom . Heathrow is the second busiest airport in the world by international passenger traffic , as well as the busiest airport in Europe by passenger traffic , and the seventh busiest airport in the world by total passenger traffic . It is one of six international airports serving London region . In 2019 , it handled a record 80.8 million passengers , a 0.9% increase from 2018 as well as 475,861 aircraft movements , a decrease of 1,743 from 2018 . The airport facility is owned and operated by Heathrow Airport Holdings . Heathrow lies 14 miles ( 23 km ) west of Central London , and has two parallel east-west runways along with four operational terminals on a site that covers 12.27 square kilometres ( 4.74 sq mi ) . The airport is the primary hub for British Airways and the primary operating base for Virgin Atlantic . In September 2012 , the Government of the United Kingdom established the Airports Commission , an independent commission chaired by Sir Howard Davies to examine various options for increasing capacity at UK airports . In July 2015 , the commission backed a third runway at Heathrow , which the government approved in October 2016 .
The murder of Yvonne Fletcher , a Metropolitan Police officer , occurred on 17 April 1984 , when she was fatally wounded by a shot fired from the Libyan embassy on St James 's Square , London , by an unknown gunman . Fletcher had been deployed to monitor a demonstration against the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi , and died shortly afterwards . Her death resulted in an eleven-day siege of the embassy , at the end of which those inside were expelled from the country and the United Kingdom severed diplomatic relations with Libya . Between 1980 and 1984 Gaddafi had ordered the deaths of several exiled opponents of his regime ; bombings and shootings , targeted at Libyan dissidents , occurred in Manchester and London . Five Libyans thought to be behind the attacks were deported from the UK . During the anti-Gaddafi protest on 17 April 1984 , two gunmen opened fire from the first floor of the embassy with Sterling submachine guns . In addition to the murder of Fletcher , eleven Libyan demonstrators were wounded . The inquest into Fletcher 's death reached a verdict that she was killed by a bullet coming from one of two windows on the west side of the front on the first floor of the Libyan People 's Bureau . Following the breaking of diplomatic relations , Libya arrested six British nationals , the last four of whom were released after nine months in captivity . Two years after Fletcher 's murder , the event became a factor in the decision by the British prime minister , Margaret Thatcher , to allow the US bombing of Libya from bases in the UK . In 1999 a warming of diplomatic relations between Britain and Libya led to a statement from the Libyan government admitting culpability in Fletcher 's shooting , and the payment of compensation . British police continued their investigation until 2017 .
The Brighton hotel bombing was a Provisional Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) assassination attempt against the top tier of the British government that occurred on 12 October 1984 at the Grand Brighton Hotel in Brighton , England . A long-delay time bomb was planted in the hotel by IRA member Patrick Magee , with the purpose of killing Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet , who were staying at the hotel for the Conservative Party conference . Although Thatcher narrowly escaped the blast , five people connected with the Conservative Party were killed , including a sitting Conservative MP , and 31 were injured .
Brighton ( /ˈbraɪtən/ ) is a seaside resort in the county of East Sussex . It is a constituent part of the city of Brighton and Hove , created from the formerly separate towns of Brighton and Hove . Brighton is located on the south coast of England , positioned 47 miles ( 76 km ) south of London . Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age , Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods . The ancient settlement of Brighthelmstone was documented in the Domesday Book ( 1086 ) . The town 's importance grew in the Middle Ages as the Old Town developed , but it languished in the early modern period , affected by foreign attacks , storms , a suffering economy and a declining population . Brighton began to attract more visitors following improved road transport to London and becoming a boarding point for boats travelling to France . The town also developed in popularity as a health resort for sea bathing as a purported cure for illnesses . In the Georgian era , Brighton developed as a fashionable seaside resort , encouraged by the patronage of the Prince Regent , later King George IV , who spent much time in the town and constructed the Royal Pavilion in the Regency era . Brighton continued to grow as a major centre of tourism following the arrival of the railways in 1841 , becoming a popular destination for day-trippers from London . Many of the major attractions were built in the Victorian era , including the Metropole Hotel ( now Hilton ) Grand Hotel , the West Pier , and the Brighton Palace Pier . The town continued to grow into the 20th century , expanding to incorporate more areas into the town 's boundaries before joining Hove to form the unitary authority of Brighton and Hove in 1997 , which was granted city status in 2000 .
Margaret Hilda Thatcher , Baroness Thatcher , LG , OM , DStJ , PC , FRS , HonFRSC ( née Roberts ; 13 October 1925 - 8 April 2013 ) also known as the Iron Lady , was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990 . She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold that office . A Soviet journalist dubbed her The Iron Lady , a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style . As Prime Minister , she implemented policies known as Thatcherism . Thatcher studied chemistry at Somerville College , Oxford , and worked briefly as a research chemist , before becoming a barrister . She was elected Member of Parliament for Finchley in 1959 . Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970-74 government . In 1975 , she defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become Leader of the Opposition , the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom . On becoming Prime Minister after winning the 1979 general election , she introduced a series of economic policies intended to reverse high unemployment and Britain 's struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an ongoing recession . [ nb 1 ] Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation ( particularly of the financial sector ) , flexible labour markets , the privatisation of state-owned companies , and reducing the power and influence of trade unions . Her popularity in her first years in office waned amid recession and rising unemployment , until victory in the 1982 Falklands War and the recovering economy brought a resurgence of support , resulting in her landslide re-election in 1983 . She survived an assassination attempt by the Provisional IRA in the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing and achieved a political victory against the National Union of Mineworkers in the 1984-85 miners ' strike .
Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via London and New York . On 21 December 1988 , N739PA , the aircraft operating the transatlantic leg of the route was destroyed by a bomb , killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew in what became known as the Lockerbie bombing . Large sections of the aircraft crashed onto a residential street in Lockerbie , Scotland , killing 11 people on the ground . With a total of 270 people killed , it is the deadliest terror attack in the history of the United Kingdom . Following a three-year joint investigation by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) , arrest warrants were issued for two Libyan nationals in November 1991 . In 1999 , Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi handed over the two men for trial at Camp Zeist , Netherlands , after protracted negotiations and UN sanctions . In 2001 , Abdelbaset al-Megrahi , a Libyan intelligence officer , was jailed for life after being found guilty of 270 counts of murder in connection with the bombing . In August 2009 , he was released by the Scottish Government on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with prostate cancer . He died in May 2012 as the only person to be convicted for the attack . In 2003 , Gaddafi accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and paid compensation to the families of the victims , although he maintained that he had never given the order for the attack . Acceptance of responsibility was part of a series of requirements laid out by a UN resolution in order for sanctions against Libya to be lifted . Libya said it had to accept responsibility due to Megrahi 's status as a government employee .
Lockerbie ( /ˈlɒkərbi/ , Scottish Gaelic : Locarbaidh ) is a town in Dumfries and Galloway , south-western Scotland . It lies approximately 75 miles ( 121 kilometres ) from Glasgow , and 20 mi ( 32 km ) from the English border . It had a population of 4,009 at the 2001 census . The town came to international attention in December 1988 when the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 crashed there following a terrorist bomb attack aboard the flight .
Dumfries and Galloway ( Scots : Dumfries an Gallowa ; Scottish Gaelic : Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh ) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands . It comprises the historic counties of Dumfriesshire , Stewartry of Kirkcudbright and Wigtownshire , the latter two of which are collectively known as Galloway . The administrative centre is the town of Dumfries . Following the 1975 reorganisation of local government in Scotland , the three counties were joined to form a single region of Dumfries and Galloway , with four districts within it . Since the Local Government etc . ( Scotland ) Act 1994 , however , it has become a unitary local authority . For lieutenancy purposes , the historic counties are largely maintained with its three lieutenancy areas being Dumfries , Wigtown and the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright . To the north , Dumfries and Galloway borders East Ayrshire , South Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire ; in the east the Borders ; and to the south the county of Cumbria in England and the Solway Firth . To the west lies the Irish Sea .
Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary was the territorial police force responsible for the council area of Dumfries and Galloway , Scotland until 1 April 2013 . The police force was formed in 1948 as an amalgamation of the police forces of Dumfriesshire , Kirkcudbrightshire , and Wigtownshire , and preceded the creation of the former Dumfries and Galloway Regional Council by 27 years . The last Chief Constable was Patrick Shearer QPM . Shearer was appointed on 24 April 2007 , in succession to his predecessor David Strang who was made Chief Constable of Lothian and Borders Police . The Deputy Chief Constable was George Graham , who took over from Robert Ovens QPM on 1 January 2006 . Dumfries and Galloway is one of the safest areas in the UK because of its high rate of crime detection and convictions . The force 's headquarters were located in Dumfries . An Act of the Scottish Parliament , the Police and Fire Reform ( Scotland ) Act 2012 , created a single Police Service of Scotland - known as Police Scotland - on 1 April 2013 . This merged the eight regional police forces in Scotland , together with the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency , into a single service covering the whole of Scotland . Police Scotland 's interim headquarters is at the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan in Fife .
The Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency . Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice , the FBI is also a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and reports to both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence . A leading U.S. counter-terrorism , counterintelligence , and criminal investigative organization , the FBI has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes . Although many of the FBI 's functions are unique , its activities in support of national security are comparable to those of the British MI5 and the Russian FSB . Unlike the Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) , which has no law enforcement authority and is focused on intelligence collection abroad , the FBI is primarily a domestic agency , maintaining 56 field offices in major cities throughout the United States , and more than 400 resident agencies in smaller cities and areas across the nation . At an FBI field office , a senior-level FBI officer concurrently serves as the representative of the Director of National Intelligence . Despite its domestic focus , the FBI also maintains a significant international footprint , operating 60 Legal Attache ( LEGAT ) offices and 15 sub-offices in U.S. embassies and consulates across the globe . These foreign offices exist primarily for the purpose of coordination with foreign security services and do not usually conduct unilateral operations in the host countries . The FBI can and does at times carry out secret activities overseas , just as the CIA has a limited domestic function ; these activities generally require coordination across government agencies . The FBI was established in 1908 as the Bureau of Investigation , the BOI or BI for short . Its name was changed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) in 1935 . The FBI headquarters is the J. Edgar Hoover Building , located in Washington , D.C .
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi ( pronunciation ( help·info ) Arabic : عبد الباسط محمد علي المقرحي , ʿAbdu l-Bāsiṭ Muḥammad ʿAlī al-Maqraḥī ; 1 April 1952 - 20 May 2012 ) was a Libyan who was head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines , director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Tripoli , Libya , and an alleged Libyan intelligence officer . On 31 January 2001 , Megrahi was convicted , by a panel of three Scottish judges sitting in a special court at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands , of 270 counts of murder for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie , Scotland , on 21 December 1988 and was sentenced to life imprisonment . His co-accused , Lamin Khalifah Fhimah , was found not guilty and was acquitted . Megrahi unsuccessfully appealed his conviction in January 2001 . In June 2007 , the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission granted Megrahi leave to appeal against his Lockerbie bombing conviction for a second time . After initially appealing , Megrahi abandoned his second appeal in August 2009 as an ongoing appeal would have prevented him from being moved to Libya under the Prisoner Transfer Scheme which was thought to be a possibility . He decided to drop his appeal two days before he was released on compassionate grounds by the Scottish Government on 20 August 2009 . Doctors reported on 10 August 2009 that he had terminal prostate cancer . On his return to Libya , al-Megrahi was initially hospitalized then allowed to leave on 2 November 2009 , taking up residence in a villa in Tripoli . He died on 20 May 2012 , two years and 9 months after his release . Several legal experts as well as the UN observer at the Lockerbie trial have vehemently challenged the verdict that convicted Megrahi , while Ulrich Lumpert , the Mebo AG engineer who testified to the validity of a key piece of evidence , admitted in an affidavit to lying in court and stealing the object from his employer , after which he gave it to one of the crime investigators .
Libyan Airlines ( Arabic : الخطوط الجوية الليبية ; transliterated : al-Khutut al-Jawiyah al-Libiyah ) , formerly known as Libyan Arab Airlines over several decades , is the flag carrier of Libya . Based in Tripoli , it operates scheduled passenger and cargo services within Libya and to Europe , North Africa and the Middle East , the majority of which leave from Tripoli International Airport . Benina International Airport in Benghazi serves as a secondary base . Libyan Airlines also operates Hajj services . The company is a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization and the International Air Transport Association . It is wholly owned by the government of Libya .
The Deal barracks bombing was an attack by the Provisional Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) on the Royal Marine Depot , Deal , England . It took place at 8:22 am on 22 September 1989 , when the IRA exploded a time bomb at the Royal Marines School of Music building . The building collapsed , killing 11 marines from the Royal Marines Band Service and wounding another 21 .
Deal is a town in Kent , England , which lies on the border of the North Sea and the English Channel , eight miles north-east of Dover and eight miles south of Ramsgate . It is a former fishing , mining and garrison town . Close to Deal is Walmer , a possible location for Julius Caesar 's first arrival in Britain . Deal became a 'limb port ' of the Cinque Ports in 1278 and grew into the busiest port in England ; today it is a seaside resort , its quaint streets and houses are a reminder of its history along with many ancient buildings and monuments . In 1968 , Middle Street was the first Conservation Area in Kent . The coast of France is approximately twenty-five miles from the town and is visible on clear days . The Tudor Deal Castle , commissioned by King Henry VIII , has a rose floor plan .