Last week we held the British Engines Annual Awards 2020/2021 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Each year, the awards night celebrates our long serving employees, who have been a part of the group for 25 and 50 years, as well as the achievements of apprentices in their 2nd, 3rd and 4th years.
Our long service employees received a watch of their choice and the apprentices were presented with an engraved award for their hard work.
To mark the occasion, we’ve taken a look back at what happened in 1996 when some of our long serving employees were just starting their careers with the British Engines Group…
3rd January 1996: The first flip mobile phone goes on sale with over 60 million units sold
13th February 1996: Hearts break across the nation as boyband Take That officially split up
16th March 1996: Mike Tyson knocks out Frank Bruno, gaining the Heavyweight title
23rd April 1996: Sotheby’s hold an auction of Jackie Onassis’ belongings, making over $34.5 million
11th May 1996: Manchester United wins the FA Premier League for the third time in four seasons
20th May 1996: The Fresh Prince of Bel Air airs its final episode
28th May 1996: Madonna becomes a mother for the first time
25th June 1996: Independence Day, starring Will Smith, premieres in California, going on to become the most popular film release of the year
5th July 1996: Dolly the sheep becomes the first mammal to successfully be cloned from an adult cell
8th July 1996: Iconic girl band, The Spice Girls, release their debut single, Wannabe
1st August 1996: Google starts indexing the web, but won’t get its own domain until 1997
28th August 1996: Princess Diana and Prince Charles officially divorce after fifteen years of marriage
1st September 1996: American actress, Zendaya, is born
11th September 1996: Ford launches the revolutionary new Ka city car
7th October 1996: Scottish singer-songwriter, Lewis Capaldi, is born
24th November 1996: The BBC airs The Simpsons for the first time in the UK
1st December 1996: AOL is named the most popular website of the year, however, only 20 million people have access to the Internet. Today, that number is estimated at 4.48 billion people, which is around 58% of the global population!
4th December 1996: NASA launches a mission to Mars to take high-resolution photos of the planet for the first time
A special mention goes to our two longest serving employees, Joe Madden and Mick Welsh, who started working at the group in 1970. It was during this year that the first ever Glastonbury was held with only 1,500 people in attendance, and legendary footballer Alan Shearer was born. The Beatles also released their final album, Let It Be, before Paul McCartney announced his exit from the band, and Concorde took its first ever supersonic flight, reaching speeds of 700mph!
Congratulations to everybody who received an award. We were delighted to join you and your families in celebrating your hard work and incredible achievements!