21 December 1996 – Russell Christie, younger brother of former Olympic Champion, Linford Christie, is tragically stabbed to death in London.

20 December 2019- Bashir Maan CBE  who in 1970  became the first Muslim to be elected to a representative office in the United Kingdom, serving as a Labour Party councillor for the Kingston ward of the City of Glasgow Corporation, dies.

19 December 2002 - Shaied Nazir, Ahmed Ali Awan and Sarfraz Ali (pctured) all convicted of the racist murder of Ross Parker in Peterborough in 2001

18 December 2017-   Crystal Palace footballer, Midfielder Jason Puncheon, is charged with carrying a weapon after a fight near a Surrey nightclub in Reigate. The 31-year-old was arrested in the early hours of Sunday.He was later charged with possession of an offensive weapon, common assault, and a public order offence of causing fear or provocation of violence. He was  released on bail to appear at Guildford Magistrates' Court on 5 January 2018.

17 December 2013 -  English Heritage unveil a Blue Plaque for  Britain’s first black peer, Sir Learie Constantine at Lexham Gardens. He  was a cricketer, statesman and advocate of racial equality. It was while living at 101 Lexham Gardens in Earls Court that he wrote his most important work, Colour Bar (1954).

16 December 2022 - Leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed will become the youngest man to play Test cricket for England after being handed a debut in the third Test against Pakistan.

The 18-year-old breaks the record of legendary Yorkshire batter Brian Close, which has stood since 1949.

Ahmed and wicketkeeper Ben Foakes come into the side in Karachi in place of pace bowler James Anderson and all-rounder Will Jacks.

England have already won the series and are looking for a 3-0 clean sweep.

No visiting team has ever beaten Pakistan 3-0 in their country, while England have only ever earned three previous clean sweeps in away Test series of three matches or more.

Leicestershire's Ahmed will be aged 18 years and 126 days when the Test begins on Saturday. Former captain Close was 18 years and 149 days when he played against New Zealand at Old Trafford 73 years ago.

Thanks to The BBC for the above information .

15 December 1996 - Frank Bruno wins the 1996 BBC Sports Personality Lifetime Achievements Award " For his contributions to boxing which include winning the  WBC heavyweight title"

14 December  1962 -John Arthur Alexander "Johnny" Edgecombe  a British jazz promoter, begins an  involvement with Christine Keeler who inadvertently alerted authorities to the Profumo Affair. Click on link for more on this infamous story that led to the downfall of the Conservative Government.

 Edgecombe took a taxi to the Marylebone flat of osteopath Stephen Ward, where Keeler was in hiding. When she refused to come out, he fired several shots at the door. His subsequent arrest set in motion the unravelling of Keeler's relationship with Secretary of State for War John Profumo and Russian naval attaché Yevgeny Ivanov, with Keeler's non-appearance at his trial at the Old Bailey in March 1963 finally giving the British press the excuse it needed to publish the story.

Edgecombe was acquitted of assaulting "Lucky" Gordon, but jailed for seven years for possession of a firearm with the intent to endanger life. He served five years.

Photograph: Daily Mail.

13 December 2001 - Lynette Lithgow, 51-year-old former BBC newsreader, is found murdered with her mother and brother at the family home in Trinidad. Lynette Pearson (1950 - c. 11 December 2001), known professionally as Lynette Lithgow), was a Trinidad-born, British-based newsreader and journalist who is best remembered for her career as a newsreader for BBC News.

12 December 2004 - Double Olympic Champion at 800m & 1500m,Kelly Holmes wins the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. 

11 December 1938 - CLR James publishes arguably his most famous work ".The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution" , a history of the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1804

10 December 2016 - Britain's Kal Yafai wins  the WBA super-flyweight title with a unanimous decision over Luis Concepcion.

The 27-year-old dominated from the start, flooring his opponent in the 10th round and winning 120-108, 119-108 and 117-110 on the judges' scorecards.

The belt could only be won by Yafai after the Panamanian was stripped of it when he failed to make the weight.

Unbeaten in 21 professional fights, Yafai previously.

With thanks to The BBC for the above information.

9 December 2017 - James deGale loses his  IBF super-middleweight World Title  to American Caleb Truax in a shock defeat at London's Copper Box Arena.

DeGale lost his IBF world super-middleweight title as Truax won 114-114 115-112 116-112 on the cards. The Briton was as short as 1-100 with some bookmakers as he fought for the first time since January.

8 December 1985 - Labour Party black sections activist, Diane Abbott, becomes  the first black woman to be selected to fight  a seat at the next general election when she secured the nomination for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, a safe Labour seat in north London. Abbott, a trade union official and a member of the black sections national committee, defeated the sitting MP, Ernie Roberts, who had had a majority of over 8,000 at the previous general election.

With thanks to The Runnymede Trust for the above information

7 December 1994 - Covert video shot over several days in Dobson's flat captures him and Norris using strong racist and violent language. Neil Acourt and Luke Knight are also caught on camera using violent and racist language.

6 December 1994 - Mohan Singh Kullar, sixty years old, was the victim of racially motivated harassment and attacks over a period of weeks in his shop in Neath, South Wales. On November 27, 1994, Mr. Kullar was attacked by a gang of three white youths. They lured him outside his store, smashed his head with a brick, and beat him until he was unconscious. He died in the hospital on December 6. Grant Watkins sentenced to life for murder, Stephen May 8 years for manslaughter, Ian Thomas 3.5 years for violent disorder. 2 others acquitted.

With thanks to Human Rights Watch and The Guardian for the above information

5 December 2009 - Amir Khan retains his  World Boxing Association World Super Lightweight Title at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle. Due to Khan being a practising Muslim and Salita being an Orthodox Jew, the fight was hyped as a religious clash by the media, referring to it as a "battle of faiths" or "holy war", though Khan and Salita both denied such claims.

Khan defeated Salita in 76 seconds, winning by TKO in the first round. Salita was knocked down three times, the first time just 10 seconds into the fight. It was the first loss of Salita's career.

4 December 2011 -Frank Gilbert Crichlow, 1932 - 2010, human rights campaigner, community organiser and restauranteur. is honoured with a Blue Plaque again organised by Jak Beula's Nubian Jak Community Trust.

3 December 1970 - Jennifer Josephine Hosten of the former British Conoly, Grenada winsthe title of Miss World at the inaugural pageant. held in London, England. Pearl Jansen of South Africa claimed second place; it would be the first time two Black women had taken top honors at a major international pageant. The long standing controversial event was accussed of fixing the results.

2 December 2012- Jatinderpal Singh Bhullar, a  Sikh soldier, becomes the first to guard Buckingham Palace without a bearskin and is allowed to wear his turban instead. It breaks over 180 years of tradition and the Ministry of Defence backed the change that was not supported by all his Army colleagues. 

1 December 1998 – Artist, Chris Ofili, wins the coveted £20,000 Turner Prize for his lively paintings which include resin coated elephant dung. In doing so he became the first Artist to win the prize since 1985. 

30 November 2005 - Anthony Walkers Murderers given life sentences in Liverpool. During the pair’s sentencing, Mr Justice Leveson said: “This was a racist attack of a type poisonous to any civilised society.”

29 November 1977 - Claudine Eccleston is appointed by Camden Council to become London's first female plummer.

28 November 1970 - Death of Cecil Belfield Clarke(1893-1970). A doctor who practised in the London Borough of Southwark for nearly fifty years from the 1920s to the1960s. Also an activist, he supported the work of the West African Students Union and, in 1931, was a founder member of the League of Coloured Peoples.

See Hall of Fame for Biography

27 November 2003 - Poet Benjamin Zephaniah is  offered appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, but publicly rejects it. 

In a subsequent article for The Guardian he elaborated upon his reaction to learning about being considered for the award and his reasons for rejecting it: "Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought. I get angry when I hear that word 'empire'; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised...Benjamin Zephaniah OBE – no way Mr Blair, no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire."