The following is a timeline of the history of London in the 21st century, the capital of England and the United Kingdom.
Timeline London's timeline in the 21st century.
2000 to 2009 2000 1 January: The Millennium Dome opens to the public on the Greenwich Peninsula. 25 February: 8-year-old Victoria Climbié is murdered after she was tortured and neglected by her guardians, her aunt Marie Therese Kouao and Kouao's partner Carl Manning; Brent and Haringey social services departments will be severely criticised for their shortcomings in the case. 8 March: Peckham Library opens; it is awarded the 2000 Stirling Prize. 9 March: The London Eye ferris wheel opens to the public. 22 April: Big Number Change: The STD codes 0171 and 0181 codes are replaced with 020 for the whole London telephone area. 1 May: The May Day riot in central London by anti-capitalist protestors takes place; the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square and the Cenotaph in Whitehall are daubed with graffiti. 4 May: In the 2000 London mayoral election: Ken Livingstone, standing as an independent, becomes the first directly elected Mayor of London. 11 May: Croydon Tramlink opens to public, the first tram network in London since 1952. This becomes part of Transport for London (TfL) in 2008. 12 May: The Tate Modern art museum opens in the former Bankside Power Station. 10 June: Millennium Bridge opens to pedestrians, but is closed after a few days for adaptation due to synchronous lateral excitation. 3 July: The directly elected Greater London Authority is formed with Ken Livingstone as the Mayor of London. Transport for London is created as a functional body of the GLA and takes over the functions of London Regional Transport, the Public Carriage Office, traffic management and London River Services. 20 July: Rioting breaks out in Brixton following the fatal shooting of Derek Bennett, a 29-year-old black man, by armed police in the area. 27 people are arrested, and 3 police officers are injured. 7 November: Millennium Dome raid: The theft of £350 million worth of diamonds from the Millennium Dome is foiled by police. 27 November: Damilola Taylor, a 10-year-old schoolboy originally from Nigeria, is stabbed to death on his way home from school in Peckham. In 2006, at a third trial, two brothers, aged 12 and 13 at the time of the killing, are convicted of manslaughter in the case. ExCeL London exhibition centre opens at Royal Victoria Dock. 2001 4 March: 2001 BBC bombing: A Real Irish Republican Army car bomb explodes outside BBC Television Centre in White City. 3 August: 2001 Ealing bombing: A Real IRA car bomb explodes in Ealing Broadway. 21 September: The torso of a 7-year old Nigerian boy, "Adam", who is believed to be the victim of ritual sacrifice, is found in the Thames. 8 November: The Handel House Museum in Brook Street opens. The Citigroup Centre is completed. The Conservatoire for Dance and Drama, a national higher education institution, is established, the founding affiliates being the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the London Contemporary Dance School. Trinity College of Music moves to part of the Old Royal Naval College premises at Greenwich. 2002 2 January: The Royal National Lifeboat Institution stations inland rescue boats on the Thames in London, at Teddington, Chiswick and Tower. 9 April: The funeral procession of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother ends at Westminster Abbey after her death on 30 March at the age of 101. May: First Idea Store community centre opens in Bow. June: The Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II takes place. July: City Hall, the original headquarters of the Greater London Authority designed by Norman Foster, opens beside the Thames in Southwark. 3 July: A man decapitates a statue of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on display at Guildhall Art Gallery. 1 August: London Metropolitan University is formed by merger of London Guildhall University and the University of North London. 2 September: 8 Canada Square begins to be used by HSBC staff. BedZED (Beddington Zero Energy Development), the country's first large-scale zero energy housing development, of 99 homes in Beddington, designed by Bill Dunster, is completed. The last complete vehicle, a Ford Fiesta, leaves the Ford Dagenham production line. 4 September: A thanksgiving service is held at St Martin-in-the-Fields in memory of the late John Thaw. 2003 5 February: Arrests in the alleged Wood Green ricin plot. 15 February 2003 anti-war protest: More than 2 million people demonstrate against the Iraq War, making it the largest demonstration in British history. 17 February: The Congestion Charge is introduced. 30 March: Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha Sikh Temple opens in Southall. May: Transport for London sets up a Directorate of Traffic Operations to run road traffic management (including London Streets Traffic Control Centre), with some functions being transferred from the Metropolitan Police. 31 May: Post Office Railway carries its last mail. 10 August: The hottest day until 2022 in London is recorded, with 38.1°C (100.6°F) recorded in Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 3 October: Baitul Futuh Mosque, Britain's largest, is inaugurated in Morden. Redevelopment of Trafalgar Square is completed, the management of the central area becomes a responsibility of the Mayor of London, and the feeding of pigeons here is prohibited. The old Wembley Stadium is demolished, and the rubble from it is used to build the hills at Northala Fields in Northolt (Borough of Ealing). 2004 10 February: The London Plan is published. 1 April: The Metropolitan Police takes over policing of The Royal Parks in Greater London from the Royal Parks Constabulary, which is formally dissolved in 2005. 28 April: The landmark Swiss Re office building ("The Gherkin") at 30 St Mary Axe in the City, designed by Norman Foster, opens. May: BBC Media Village opens in White City. 11 May: The University of the Arts London is formed from the London Institute. July: The London Stock Exchange moves to Paternoster Square. September: The Daniel Gonzalez spree killings take place. October: The South London gangs Ghetto Boys and Peckham Boys have a shootout outside the Urban Music Awards in the Barbican Centre. 10 November: Temple Bar reinstalled in central London at Paternoster Square. Pride London is established. 2005 31 May: The Millennium Dome is renamed as the O2 Arena. 6 July: The successful London bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics is announced. 7 July 2005 London bombings: 56 people are killed in 4 suicide bombings on London Transport, the first Islamist terrorist attack in the UK. 21 July 2005 London bombings: 4 further attempted bombings on London Transport, without casualties. 22 July: Jean Charles de Menezes, mistaken for a terrorist suspect, is shot dead by Metropolitan Police officers on a train at Stockwell tube station. Summer: Guinness closes its Park Royal brewery. 5 November: A special £2 coin is released to mark the 400th anniversary of the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. 9 December: Last AEC Routemaster buses in regular service in London are withdrawn. The Cathedral of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God and Holy Royal Martyrs (Russian Orthodox Diocese of Great Britain and Ireland) in Chiswick is fully consecrated. 2006 20 January: A whale is discovered swimming in the Thames in London. 25 September: Young's Ram Brewery in Wandsworth closes. By October: The Daily Telegraph moves its offices from Canada Place in Canary Wharf (Docklands) to Victoria Plaza near Victoria station in central London. 1 November: The former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko is poisoned at the Millennium Hotel, Mayfair by Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun with Polonium-210. He is taken to Barnet Hospital, London before being moved to University College Hospital for intensive care, where he dies on 23 November. 7 December: The London Tornado of 2006 strikes in Kensal Rise. Donnybrook Quarter of the East End is completed by Peter Barber Architects. Barkers of Kensington is closed down by its owners, House of Fraser. 2007 9 March: The rebuilt Wembley Stadium opens. 29 June: 2007 London car bombs: 2 car bombs are uncovered and defused in central London. 11 November: The London Overground rail franchise begins operation of North London line. This also takes over the East London line in 2010 as well as the Lea Valley lines and the Romford–Upminster line in 2015. 2008 16 January: The Rose Theatre, Kingston, opens. 28 March: Heathrow Terminal 5 opens at the airport. April: The Willis Building opens in the City. 4 May: 2008 London mayoral election: Boris Johnson (Conservative) defeats Ken Livingstone to become Mayor of London. 29 September: Children and staff are evacuated after a fire breaks out at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital following a gas cylinder explosion in the cardiac wing. 30 October: Westfield London shopping centre opens in White City. 2009 10 January: The DLR's London City Airport branch begins operation. 2 February: The February 2009 United Kingdom snowstorm hits London, and Transport for London suspends all London buses. March: King's Health Partners is formed as an academic health science centre. 1–2 April: The 2009 G20 London summit protests take place, with the 2009 G20 London summit being held at ExCeL London on 2 April. 3 July: Lakanal House fire: A fire in a 14-storey block of flats in Camberwell (Borough of Southwark) causes 6 fatalities. 17 September: The Brixton pound local currency is launched. 12 October: The Evening Standard becomes a free newspaper in central London. 9 November: Transport for London officially opens its new Surface Transport and Traffic Operations Centre (STTOC) at Palestra, Blackfriars Road to bringing together London Streets Traffic Control Centre (LSTCC), London Buses Command and Control Centre (CentreComm), and the Metropolitan Police Traffic Operation Control Centre (MetroComm). The first No Trousers Tube Ride takes place in London.
2010 to 2019 2010 April: HM Prison Isis completed as a young offenders' institution adjacent to HMP Belmarsh in Thamesmead. June: The Strata ("The Razor"), a 148-metre, 43-storey, 408-flat skyscraper at Elephant and Castle in Southwark, that incorporates wind turbines into its structure, is completed. 30 July: The Barclays Cycle Hire scheme is launched by Boris Johnson, Mayor of London. September: Evelyn Grace Academy, a school in Brixton designed by Zaha Hadid, opens. It is awarded the 2011 Stirling Prize. 2011 January: The Heron Tower (110 Bishopsgate) is completed. 26 March: The 2011 London anti-cuts protest takes place. 27 March: United Kingdom Census 2011. 22.1% of the London population (1,730,000) have a tongue other than English as their first language, with Polish being the most widely spoken. Statistics also show that the city becomes the 2nd most densely populated city in the UK after Portsmouth in Hampshire. 29 April: The Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton takes place at Westminster Abbey. 29 May: The parish church of St John Baptist in Croydon is raised to the honorific status of Croydon Minster. 4 August: Death of Mark Duggan, shot by the police in Tottenham Hale, triggers the 2011 England riots. 13 September: Westfield Stratford City shopping mall opens at Stratford. 15 October: Occupy London begins. 13 December: Trains on the Circle line (London Underground) cease to run in a complete circle, with trains running between Edgware Road station and Hammersmith Tube station. The Georgian Orthodox Cathedral Church of the Nativity of Our Lord is established in the former Agapemonite Ark of the Covenant, which was later known as the Church of the Good Shepherd, in Upper Clapton. Still Water, a giant bronze sculpture of a horse's head, is installed permanently at Hyde Park Corner. 2012