5 January – Music retailerHMV announces the closure of 60 stores following disappointing Christmas sales – a move which would see the firm lose 10% of its stores and could cost up to 900 people their jobs.[4]
22 January – Police charge 32-year-oldDutch national Vincent Tabak with the murder of 25-year-oldBristol womanJoanna Yeates, who was found dead on Christmas Day after going missing on 17 December. Tabak was first arrested in connection with the murder two days ago.[7]
9 February – Former head teacherJean Else has her Damehood revoked by the Queen, having previously being found guilty of misconduct. She is the first person to have the honour revoked.[8][9]
18 March – FormerBritish Airways software engineer Rajib Karim, ofNewcastle upon Tyne is jailed for 30 years after he was earlier convicted of plotting to blow up a plane.[10]
24 March – Police find the body of 22-year-oldSian O'Callaghan inOxfordshire, five days after she went missing inSwindon,Wiltshire. A 47-year-old man is arrested on suspicion of murder and police are also searching for the body of an unnamed missing woman who is feared to have been murdered.[11]
25 March –Delroy Grant, a 53-year-oldLondon taxi driver who was found guilty on a total of 29 charges including indecent assault, burglary and rape committed against 10 elderly people between 1992 and 2009, is sentenced tolife imprisonment atWoolwich Crown Court with a recommendation that he should serve at least 27 years in prison beforeparole can even be considered.[12]
5 April – Police investigating themurder of Sian O'Callaghan have identified human remains found at a second site as those ofSwindon woman Becky Godden-Edwards,[16] who was last seen alive in 2002 at the age of 20.
13 April – 53-year-old actorBrian Regan, most famous for his role asTerry Sullivan in the formerChannel 4 TV soapBrookside, is charged – along with another man – with the murder of a man who was fatally shot inAigburth,Merseyside, on 24 February this year.[17]
22 April – Nine people are arrested and eight police officers are injured during riots inBristol amid a protest against the opening of a newTesco superstore in the Stokes Croft area of the city.[19]
5 September – The first wave of independent state-funded schools in England, known asFree Schools, open their doors as the new academic year begins.[27]
21 September – An energy firm which has been test drilling for controversial "shale gas" inLancashire has said it has found vast gas resources underground.[29]
A new record is set for the highest temperature recorded in October – at 29.9 °C (85.8 °F).[32]
5 October – The world's largest solar bridge project gets underway in London.[33]
13 October – Uefa's disciplinary panel decide that England strikerWayne Rooney will miss the Euro 2012 group stage after being banned for three matches for his sending off against Montenegro for an incident the panel described as an "assault".[34]
10 November –Hinchingbrooke Hospital inCambridgeshire becomes the firstNHS hospital to be run by a private firm. Healthcare partnership Circle has been awarded a ten-year contract, and will take over administration of the hospital – which has heavy financial debts – in February 2012.[38]
16 December – TheLabour Party'sSeema Malhotra retains the Feltham and Heston seat in south-west London for the party in aby-election sparked by the death of the previous MP.[41]
27 December – The government plans to allow NHS hospitals to use up to 49% of their hospital beds and theatre time for private patients.[42]
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