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| 1999, March 24–June 12 |
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| British diplomatic and military power played a crucial role in the NATO intervention in Kosovo, Yugoslavia. Negotiated by British forces, a peace agreement was signed on June 3; NATO peacekeeping troops began entering Kosovo on June 12. | 1 |
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| May 6 |
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| After separate parliaments had been formed in Scotland and Wales, mostly due to constitutional reforms by Prime Minister Tony Blair, Scotland elected its parliament for the first time since 1707. The Scottish National Party (SNP) was effectively defeated by the Labour Party in elections. In its first year, the new legislature experienced mixed results, but many Scottish citizens hoped that giving the Parliament even more autonomy would improve its overall performance. Queen Elizabeth opened the new parliament on July 2. | 2 |
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| July 1 |
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| Though holding fewer powers than their Scottish counterparts, delegates in Wales opened its National Assembly, which was planned to have a limited jurisdiction over local affairs in the Welsh region. A small step toward greater political autonomy, this was the first real self-government enjoyed by Wales in over 600 years. | 3 |
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| July 14 |
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| The EC ended its three-year ban on British beef, which had been linked to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease. This reinstatement of British beef into European markets was fraught with controversy, and key nations such as France refused to purchase British beef. As a result, economic relations between Britain and France were strained. | 4 |
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| Dec. 2 |
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| Through hard-fought compromise between Protestant and Catholic leaders, Britain's parliament was able to officially pass political authority over Northern Ireland to the new provincial government, establishing Northern Irish home rule for the first time in several decades. | 5 |
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