What major political events happened the same year that an English humanitarian and author was kidnapped and held hostage for four years?
1987 in the United Kingdom Events from the year 1987 in the United Kingdom. At the beginning of the year, the Archbishop of Canterbury's envoy Terry Waite was kidnapped in Lebanon and remained a hostage until 1991. The major political event of this year was the re-election of Margaret Thatcher in June, making her the longest continuously serving Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in the early 19th century. The year was also marked by a number of disasters — the sinking of the ferry MS "Herald of Free Enterprise", the Hungerford massacre, the "Great Storm", the Remembrance Day Bombing and the King's Cross fire.
John Otway Percy Bland John Otway Percy Bland (1863–1945), a British writer and journalist, who wrote under the name J.O.P. Bland, was born on 15 November 1863 in Malta, the second son of the ten children of Major-General Edward Loftus Bland (1829–1923) and Emma Frances Franks (d. 1894). Best known as the author of a number of books on Chinese politics and history, he lived in China for most of the period 1883–1910. A planned career in law was curtailed while he was still at university, and his father arranged for him to be considered for an appointment in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service.