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The government froze its plans to reform the NHS. Police arrested two journalists over allegations of phone hacking at the News of the World. Prince William was created Duke of Cambridge on the morning of his wedding to Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey. Mr and Mrs David Beckham were invited; the Duchess of York was not. A million cheered the couple in the streets. Rebel forces made slow progress in Libya. Moussa Koussa, the foreign minister of Libya, fled to Britain then quietly flew to Qatar. Protestors in Syria were shot dead. The last Maharajah of Jaipur died, aged 79. French police fined a woman in Mureaux, north-west of Paris, £132 under a law banning the full Islamic veil.
The Queen visited Ireland. President Barack Obama visited Britain. The Liberal Democrats did very badly in local elections. Sir Henry Cooper, the boxer, died, aged 76. Osama bin Laden was shot dead in his house in Abbottabad by US Navy Seals. Tornadoes ripped through five American states. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the IMF, was charged in New York with attempted rape. Greece sank into an economic crisis. Nato bombed government positions in Tripoli. Syrian government tanks shelled Homs. Seve Ballesteros, the golfer, died, aged 54. Pope John Paul II was beatified in Rome before 1.5 million people.
Southern Cross, which ran homes for 31,000 old people, disintegrated. Teachers struck for a day. Ed Miliband, the leader of the opposition, married Justine Thornton, the mother of his two children. Wayne Rooney, the 25-year-old footballer, had a hair transplant. Nato forces completed their 100th day of warfare against the Libyan regime. Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb commander accused of genocide, was arrested after a 16-year search. Spain angrily denied that its cucumbers had killed 35 in Germany by food poisoning, and dirty German bean sprouts became the prime suspect.
The News of the World was closed by its owners in response to revelations of phone hacking. Rupert Murdoch appeared before a Commons select committee. Andy Coulson was arrested and released on bail. Sir Paul Stephenson resigned as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Lucian Freud, the painter, died, aged 88. Francis King, the novelist, died, aged 88. Amy Winehouse, the singer, died, aged 27. In Norway, 77 died when Anders Behring Breivik set off a bomb in Oslo and then spent an hour and a half shooting people at a youth camp. Dominique Strauss-Kahn was freed by a New York judge after doubts arose about evidence against him. Eurozone countries tried to bail out Greece, but Spain and Portugal became enmired in the debt crisis. Famine struck Somalia.
Rioting spread across London and to other cities. It began in Tottenham, with buildings burnt. On the next night looting hit Enfield and Brixton. On the third day, Peckham, Hackney, Clapham, Croydon, Woolwich, Ealing, Enfield, Lewisham, Harlesden, Islington and Catford saw looting, as did Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Leicester and Nottingham. Three men guarding their road died in Birmingham when a car hit them. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, returned from holiday. It was said that 16,000 police would be on duty in London. There were 2,772 arrests within a week. Parliament was recalled for a day. Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, had an NHS operation on a deviated septum. Opposition forces moved suddenly into Tripoli, met by jubilation. The Syrian government shelled Hama and Latakia. The Mayor of New York ordered the evacuation of 370,000 people in the path of tropical storm Irene. Standard & Poor’s downgraded America’s debt from AAA to AA+. The price of gold rose.
The Independent Commission on banking, headed by Sir John Vickers, recommended insulation of high street banking from investment banking. President Barack Obama of the United States criticised the EU’s failure to deal with its debt crisis. Wildfires in Texas destroyed more than 1,000 houses. King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia announced plans to grant women the vote in municipal elections; a woman convicted of driving a car was sentenced to ten lashes.
Liam Fox resigned as Defence Secretary. George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, remarked: ‘We’re not going to save the planet by putting our country out of business.’ Edmundo Ros, the bandleader, died, aged 100. The temperature at Gravesend reached 85.8°F, the hottest October day recorded. The euro currency crisis deepened. Colonel Gaddafi, the deposed ruler of Libya, was captured alive in Sirte, but shortly afterwards shot dead. The Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was released from five years’ captivity by Hamas in return for 477 Palestinian prisoners.
St Paul’s Cathedral decided not to go to law to evict anti-capitalist demonstrators who for weeks kept 200 tents pitched outside. The dean of St Paul’s resigned. The government sold the ‘good’ bit of Northern Rock to Virgin Money for £747 million, a loss of at least £400 million. Sixteen countries of which the Queen is head of state agreed to change the law to allow future first-born daughters to succeed to the throne ahead of their brothers. Italy joined Greece in debt travails, and after much pressure, Silvio Berlusconi resigned as Prime Minister, to be replaced by a government of unelected technocrats, as did the Prime Minister of Greece. Joe Frazier, the heavyweight champion, died, aged 67. New York police cleared an Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti Park by night.
David Cameron vetoed a scheme hatched by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany to govern the borrowing of EU members by treaty. Nick Clegg said he was ‘bitterly disappoint
ed’; the rest of the EU moved towards a ‘fiscal compact’, and the eurozone debt crisis continued. Belgium formed a government after 594 days. Two giant pandas, Tian Tian and Yang Guang, set up home in Edinburgh Zoo. The Muslim Brotherhood won 36 per cent of votes in the Egyptian elections, and Salafists 24 per cent. Syria shot more demonstrators. President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen agreed to step down. Mikhail Prokhorov, a billionaire, is to stand for the Russian presidency against Vladimir Putin. Eighty cargo ships ran aground in the drought-affected Danube. A missing episode of Doctor Who from 1965, starring William Hartnell, was found.
CSH
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