Events from the year 1996 in the United Kingdom. This year is noted for the Dunblane Massacre, the divorces of the Duke and Duchess of York and of the Prince and Princess of Wales and the birth of Dolly the sheep. Incumbents Monarch – Elizabeth II Prime Minister – John Major (Conservative) Parliament – 51st Events January 10 January – 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. 13 January – NUM leader Arthur Scargill announces that he is defecting from the Labour Party to set up his own Socialist Labour Party. 19 January The first MORI poll of 1996 shows Labour still comfortably ahead of the Conservatives with a showing of 55% and a lead of 26 points. Ian and Kevin Maxwell, sons of the late media mogul Robert Maxwell, are cleared of fraud at the Old Bailey after a trial lasting eleven days. 23–26 January – Much of Britain is struck with sub-zero temperatures and snowstorms. Schools and transport are disrupted. February 4 February – First two passenger train operating companies begin operation of their service franchises as part of the privatisation of British Rail: South West Trains (part of the Stagecoach Group) and Great Western Trains (management buyout). 5 February – The first genetically modified food products go on sale in the UK. 9 February The Provisional Irish Republican Army carry out the Docklands bombing in London, a truck bomb which kills two men (whose bodies are discovered the following day) and injures 39 people. This incident ends the 17-month ceasefire in Northern Ireland. The Parole Board announces that Moors Murderer Myra Hindley could soon be transferred to an open prison. Hindley, 53 and in her thirtieth year of imprisonment, is currently being held at Durham Prison, but if Home Secretary Michael Howard backs the Parole Board's recommendation, Hindley could soon be transferred to a prison with a more relaxed regime. 13 February – Take That, the most successful British band of the 1990s, announce that they are splitting up. 15 February – A report on the Arms-to-Iraq affair is critical of government ministers. 18 February – An IRA bomb explodes on a bus in Central London, killing the transporter, Edward O'Brien, and injuring eight other people, including the driver. 19–20 February – Approximately 1,000 passengers are trapped in