1996
News
- The first genetically modified food products go on sale in the UK.
- The Princess of Wales agrees to give The Prince of Wales a divorce, more than three years after separating.
- The European Union prohibits exports of British beef as a result of the BSE crisis.
- The Duke and Duchess of York are divorced after ten years of marriage and four years after their separation.
- A bombing takes place in Manchester.
- Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born at the Roslin Institute.
Entertainment
- BBC Two shows the first episode of lifestyle reality television show Changing Rooms.
- BBC Two Airs The Simpsons For The First Time With There’s No Disgrace Like Home Being The First episode.
Music
- Take That, the most successful British band of the 1990s, announce that they are splitting up.
- The Spice Girls’ debut single Wannabe is released.
- The Fugees had the biggest selling single of the year, with a cover of Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly With His Song”. It sold over a million copies.
- Oasis smashed the record for most weeks in the singles chart (previously held by Adam and the Ants in 1981) with 134 weeks, thanks to mass waves of re-entries of songs from their back catalogue throughout the year.
Number #1 Hits of 1996
| Artist | Title |
| George Michael | Jesus To A Child |
| Babylon Zoo | Spaceman |
| Oasis | Don’t Look Back In Anger |
| Take That | How Deep Is Your Love |
| The Prodigy | Firestarter |
| Mark Morrison | Return Of The Mack |
| George Michael | Fastlove |
| Gina G | Ooh Aah… Just A Little Bit |
| Baddiel & Skinner & The Lightning Seeds | Three Lions |
| The Fugees | Killing Me Softly |
| Gary Barlow | Forever Love |
| Spice Girls | Wannabe |
| Peter Andre | Flava |
| The Fugees | Ready Or Not |
| Deep Blue Something | Breakfast At Tiffanny’s |
| The Chemical Brothers | Setting Sun |
| Boyzone | Words |
| Spice Girls | Say You’ll Be There |
| Robson & Jerome | What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted |
| The Prodigy | Breathe |
| Peter Andre | I Feel You |
| Boyzone | A Different Beat |
| Dunblane | Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door |
| Spice Girls | 2 Become 1 |
Sport
- Terry Venables announces that he will resign as manager of the England national football team after this summer’s European Championships, which will be hosted in England.
- Manchester United win the FA Premier League title for the third time in four seasons.
- Manchester United win the FA Cup for a record ninth time by beating Liverpool 1–0 and also become the first team to win the double of the league title and FA Cup twice.
- Germany wins the European Championship final with a 2–1 victory over the Czech Republic at Wembley.
- Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and win 1 Gold, 8 Silver and 6 Bronze medals. The only gold medal is won by Matthew Pinsent and Steve Redgrave in rowing (men’s coxless pair).
- Alan Shearer becomes the most expensive footballer in the world in a £15,000,000 transfer from Blackburn Rovers to Newcastle United F.C.
- Racing driver Damon Hill wins the Japanese Grand Prix thus clinching the Drivers’ World Championship.
