The 1980s
3 Jan 1980 - Half of Britain's married women now work, the highest proportion of any Common Market country, a survey reveals
July 1980 - Redundancies rise to 40,000 a month as recession begins to bite
4 Feb 1981 - Government announces it will sell half the shares in British Aerospace - and begins the privatisation plan for nationalised industries by Mrs Thatcher's Conservative Government
26 January 1982 - Unemployment reaches three million in the UK - for the first time since the 1930s
February 1983 - Unemployment at a record 3.22 million
22 February 1985 - Pound falls to record low against dollar of $1.0765
27 October 1986 - Big Bang gets off to shaky start when the computer system fails for an hour because of the huge demand
December 1986 - Four million people apply for British Gas shares on privatisation December 1986 - Department of Trade launches probe into Guinness relating to takeover bid for Distillers
1 January 1987 - Peps introduced
19 October 1987 - Black Monday £50bn or 10% is wiped off the value of publicly-quoted companies in a tidal wave of selling
1988 - Bank of England announces decision that no more £1 notes to be issued and a coin to be used instead
April 1988 - Budget announces the end of double mortgage tax relief
1 July 1988 - Introduction of personal pensions
August 1988 - Doctors in row after insurance companies begin insisting that they carry out secret Aids tests
1 October 1989 - First Direct - the first phone bank opens its lines to the public for the first time. More than 1,000 calls were taken in the first 24 hours
26 October 1989 - Chancellor Nigel Lawson resigns in a policy row with the prime minister

The 1990s
1990 - Independent taxation for husbands and wives
14 February 1990 - Mortgage rates rise to 15.4%
31 March 1990 - Huge demonstration which ends in riot over Poll Tax. The tax is later dropped by the Tory government
1 January 1991 - Tessa introduced
12 August 1991 - Every job being chased by 22 people according to a survey as unemployment hits 2.35 million and increase of 45% in a year
16 September 1992 - Sterling leaves European Exchange Rate Mechanism and interest rates are raised twice in one day
3 February 1993 - According to Legal & General the value of a wife has amlmost double to £349 in the past 12 years - based on the value of a wife's work in the home
3 February 1993 - Plans outlined for the privatisation of British Rail
11 February 1993 - The Queen agrees to pay tax
1 February 1994 - Rover, the last British-owned car maker is sold to BMW of Germany
29th August 1994 - Larger shops allowed to open for six hours on a Sunday
19 November 1994 - National Lottery launched. The £15.8m jackpot is shared between seven punters
2 March 1995 - Nick Leeson, whose gambles in the derivatives market bankrupt Barings Bank, is arrested at Frankfurt airport
30 September 1995 - Fixed book prices are ended in Britain
April 1996 - Self Assessment introduced for the tax year 1996-97
1997 - £35bn building society demutualisation windfalls
May 1997 - Independence for Bank of England
May 1997 - The Nationwide Building Society's Online Banking website is launched - the first major financial institution to offer a web-based banking service in the UK
June 1997 - The first bank to offer current account services over the internet was Royal Bank of Scotland
2 July 1997 - Abolition of dividend tax credit
1999 - Miras (mortgage relief) abolished
25 February 1999 - Three directors leave Marks & Spencer after company issues profits warning
6 April 1999 - Isas introduced

The 2000s
15 June 2000 - C&A announces that it is closing all 109 UK stores
6 April 2001 - Stakeholder pensions introduced
1 January 2002 - euro becomes legal tender in the Eurozone countries