This week's UK news: 27 April 2016
j0314269
27 April 2016


The Queen turns 90, UK scientists have theory about dinosaur extinction, London marathon run in space and comedian dies.

Every week, we summarise the UK news to help you understand what is happening in Britain, and what people are talking about.

Queen celebrates birthday

The Queen was 90 this week and there has been lots about her birthday in the news. Photos were taken of her and her family by celebrity photographer Annie Leibowitz. There was also another photo, taken of the Queen and the three people expected to become King after her. This one was more unusual because it was taken for postage stamps - and the two-year-old Prince George had to stand on a pile of books to be at the right height.

Barack Obama, the US President, flew in to have a birthday lunch with The Queen too. There will be more celebrations in June, when the Queen has her "official" birthday.

London Marathon run in space

The London Marathon is one of the world's biggest sporting events and it got bigger this week. Thousands of runners took to the streets of London, and the woman's race was run by a woman who had fallen over and hit her head but stood up and got going again. 

The Marathon was also run by Tim Peake, the UK astronaut who is currently on the Space Station. He did the run on a treadmill with a special app so he could join runners on Earth. He had to be tied to the treadmill or he would have floated away, and he had to be very careful not to injure himself. He said the hardest thing about training was getting used to the harness which stops him floating. It can rub the skin on his shoulders and hips.

Dinosaurs doomed before asteroid hit earth

UK scientists have found that dinosaurs were dying out before a six-mile wide asteroid hit Earth 66m years ago.

New research from Reading and Bristol Universities looked at the rise and fall of three major groups of dinosaurs (the families of T Rex, Stegosaurus and Diplodocus). They found that 24m years before the asteroid hit, species of dinosaur were dying out faster than new ones arrived. Scientists think this could have made dinosaurs weaker when the asteroid hit Earth, and that they were dying out already.

One of the authors of the new research thinks dinosaurs might have died out anyway even if the asteroid had not hit. But not everybody agrees. Others think that the research is good but that dinosaurs would still be on Earth if the asteroid had not hit.

Well-known comedian dies

Victoria Wood was a very well-known comedian and performer, and there was a lot of shock and sadness when she died this week. She was 62 and people had not known she was ill.

Ms Wood first appeared on a TV talent show in the 1970s and later had her own shows which she wrote and starred in. She was unusual because she was a woman and lots of her jokes were about the North of England, where she came from. 


previous entry << >> next entry