21 January 2019 - Hasan Patel, a Muslim  teenager from east London who shares a two-bedroom council flat with his parents and two brothers wins a £76,000 scholarship to study at Eton. He will start at the prestigious school – once attended by the likes of Princes William and Harry – in September 2019.

 The 16-year-old currently lives in Leyton, east London. He is a pupil at George Mitchell School but is planning to study A-levels in history, geography, politics and drama when he gets to Eton.

With thanks to The I News for the above information.

19 January 2000 Former Heavyweight Champion and one of the all time Boxing greats, Mike Tyson visits London much to the acclaim of the adoring fans of the deeply troubled Boxer.

18 January 2019 - Three men who murdered five people when they blew up a shop in a £300,000 insurance scam are jailed for life. 

Aram Kurd, Hawkar Hassan and Arkan Ali caused the explosion in Hinckley Road, Leicester, on 25 February, destroying a supermarket and a flat above.

Leicester Crown Court was told they set alight 26 litres of petrol in the basement of the Polish store.

A mother and her two sons were among those killed in the "bomb-like" blast.

Kurd and Ali must serve a minimum of 38 years, with Hassan given a term of 33 years.

With thanks to the BBC for the above information

18 January 2019 - Three men who murdered five people when they blew up a shop in a £300,000 insurance scam are jailed for life. 

Aram Kurd, Hawkar Hassan and Arkan Ali caused the explosion in Hinckley Road, Leicester, on 25 February, destroying a supermarket and a flat above.

Leicester Crown Court was told they set alight 26 litres of petrol in the basement of the Polish store.

A mother and her two sons were among those killed in the "bomb-like" blast.

Kurd and Ali must serve a minimum of 38 years, with Hassan given a term of 33 years.

With thanks to the BBC for the above information

17 January 2019 -New Research shows that  Black Britons and those of south Asian origin face “shocking” discrimination in the labour market at levels unchanged since the late 1960s.

A study by experts based at the Centre for Social Investigation at Nuffield College, University of Oxford, found applicants from minority ethnic backgrounds had to send 80% more applications to get a positive response from an employer than a white person of British origin.

A linked study by the same researchers, comparing their results with similar field experiments dating back to 1969, found discrimination against black Britons and those of south Asian origin – particularly Pakistanis – unchanged over almost 50 years.

The research, part of a larger cross-national project funded by the European Union and shared exclusively with the Guardian before its official launch, prompted concerns that race relations legislation had failed.

It echoes findings published as part of the Guardian’s Bias in Britain  that  people from minority ethnic backgrounds face discrimination when seeking a room to rent. In a snapshot survey of online flatshare ads the Guardian found that an applicant called Muhammad was significantly less likely to receive a positive response than an applicant called David.

With thanks to The Guardian for the above information

16 January 2014 - Chiwetel Ejiofor is officially nominated for Best Actor for the 86th Academy Awards on 2 March 2014 thus becoming the first ever Black British Actor to be nominated.

15 January 1987 – A policeman is cleared of criminal charges in relation to the shooting of Cherry Groce. The decision sparks a mini riot in Brixton. The shooting happened when Inspector Douglas Lovelock led a police raid on a house in Brixton in September 1985 looking for Michael Groce, a man they had been told could be armed. He was not at home, but in the confusion, his mother, Cherry Groce, was shot in the chest. She is now paralysed from the waist down. Inspector Lovelock told the court it was a "terrible, terrible accident", which he would regret for the rest of his life.

See Timeline 24 April 2011

14 January 2018 - Former Coventry,Aston Villa,West Brom,Wolves, Wycombe, Chester and England International , Cyrille Regis MBE dies suddenly from a heart attack aged 59. See Hall of Fame for full biography.

13 January 2005 - The India-UK JETCO is established to develop the India-UK strategic economic partnership further. India and the UK already enjoy a strong bilateral trading relationship, and both sides take a mutual interest in enhancing the competitiveness of the two economies.

12 January 2018 - Gurtej Singh Randhawa,19,  of Tettenhall, Wolverhampton is  jailed for trying to buy explosives on the dark web in an attempt to kill his father. He was arrested in 2017 after he received a parcel he thought was a remote-controlled explosive. Birmingham Crown Court heard Randhawa, 19, ordered the device after his mother found he was having a relationship with a girl she disapproved of. Jailing him for eight years, the judge said he showed "astonishing audacity". A trial in November heard how police swapped the delivery Randhawa had ordered with a dummy package.

Thanks to the BBC for the above information.  Picture: National Crime Agency.

11 January 2018 - The twelfth meeting of the India-UK Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) took place in London on Thursday, 11 January 2018. The Indian delegation was led by Shri Suresh Prabhu, Honourable Minister of Commerce and Industry, and the UK side was led by the Rt. Honourable Dr. Liam Fox MP, Secretary of State for International Trade.

No less than 26 agreements were announced as a result of the meeting, including an agreement to set up a new UK-India Tech Alliance to promote collaboration on building future skills in new technologies, and a commitment by the two countries to continue their worldleading research relationship. The UK also agreed to set up a fast-track mechanism to identify and resolve specific issues faced by Indian companies already in the UK or looking to establish operations here7 .

 10 January 1995 - Andy  Cole suddenly sold in a shock deal to Manchester United for a deal worth £7 million – £6 million cash plus £1 million-rated Keith Gillespie going in the opposite direction, setting a new record for the most expensive British transfer.

9 January 2015 -Abu Hamza, the former head of London's Finsbury Park mosque who preached Islamic terrorism, is sentenced to life in prison by a US court.

8 January 2021 - UK Covid deaths reach daily high of 1,325 – the highest level since the pandemic began in March 2020. The previous highest record was 1,241 in April 2020. 

7 January 2009 - Tulay Goren, 15, from Woodford Green in north London, was killed  in January 1999 for running away from home to live with her boyfriend. He was a fellow Turkish Kurd twice her age whom her family disapproved of because he was from a different branch of Islam. Her father, Mehmet Goren, was jailed for life with a minimum sentence of 22 years in December 2009 for killing the schoolgirl after kidnapping, drugging and tying her up. Her remains, which police believe were buried in the family garden temporarily, have never been recovered.

With thanks to the Guardian for the above information.

 6 January 2011 - Former British Heavyweight Champion, Gary Mason dies after being hit by a van in Sandy Lane South,Wallington, South London whilst cycling. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

5 January 2007 - Umran Javed, a British Muslim, found guilty at the Old Bailey, London, of inciting racial hatred at a London rally in February 2006 protesting against the publication of a cartoon in a Danish newspaper depicting Muhammad.

4 January 2018 - The Voice Newspaper, Britain's longest serving Black Newspaper enters its 36th year since it started publishing in 1982.  

3 January 2016 - Islamic State militants release a video that depicts the killing of five men who it says were spying for Britain, and also threatened attacks in the UK. The main figure in the video was subsequently believed to be Siddhartha Dhar, a British radical Islamist

2 January 1992 - Navid Sadiq (15) , Southwark, South London is shot during robbery on off-licence where he worked. On hearing that he had caused injury, attacker said 'Good. I hope they die. My name is Conroy, good English name that. What am I going to get for doing a couple of Pakis? I am Anglo Saxon'. Joseph Conroy given two life sentences for murder and attempted murder in October 1992.

1st January 1969 Learie Nicholas Constantine, international cricketer, former member of the BBC Board of Governors and leading civil rights activist becomes the first black person to join the House of Lords when he is invested as Baron Constantine, of Maraval and Nelson.

See Hall of Fame for Biography. 

1 January 2004 - Blue Plaque unveiled for Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901 – 19 May 1989), best known as C. L. R. James, who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was an Afro-Trinidadian historian, journalist, socialist theorist and essayist. His works are influential in various theoretical, social, and historiographical contexts. See Hall of Fame for Full Biography

31 December 1999 - Sheldon Anton Bobb (21) , Lewisham, south-east London, found suffering from head injuries outside his home; dies in Lewisham hospital of shock and haemorrhaging. Racist attack not ruled out by police.

30 December 2012 - A year-long festival to commemorate Samuel Coleridge-Taylor ended with the unveiling of a blue plaque at 6 St Leonards Road, the house where he died on September 1 1912. See Hall of Fame Section section for full biography 

29 December 2009 -Akmal Shaikh (5 April 1956 – 29 December 2009)  a Pakistani-British businessman who was convicted is executed in China for drug trafficking. The trial and execution attracted significant media attention in the UK. He was the first EU National in 50 years to receive such a fate. Prime Minister Gordon Brown informs the Chinese Governments revulsion at the act.