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MISC. COUNTRIES, ENTITIES PEOPLES AND PLACES
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Acadia
The former name of a French colony that settled in eastern Canada
around Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Exiles from Acadia later settled
in southern Louisiana.
(AHD, 1971, p.1)
Acadia History:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/lwjones/acadhist.htm
1713 The French colony of Acadia,
now Nova Scotia, was ceded to Great Britain. The Acadians had come from
western France to fish and farm. Those who would not swear allegiance
to the crown were deported. Many of these deportees went to the bayou
country of Louisiana.
(WUD, 1994, p.7)(WSJ, 9/4/96, p.A12)
Aden
The City of Aden draws its vitality from the Port of Aden. The story of
Aden as a trading centre stretches back over 3000 years. Marco Polo and
Ibn Batuta visited it in the 11th and 12th Centuries.
Port of Aden: http://www.portofaden.com/History.htm
1524 Aden became a tributary of
Portugal.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.12)
1937
Apr 1, Aden became a British colony.
(OTD)
1963 Aden (South Yemen) was
amalgamated with the British protectorate to form the Federation of
South Arabia which resulted in rioting.
(www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/yemen.htm)
1964 Jun, It was agreed that the
Federation of South Arabia (Aden-South Yemen) would gain independence
from Britain in 1968.
(www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/yemen.htm)
1967 Nov 28, Yemen gained
independence from Britain. British troops withdrew and the People's
Republic of Yemen was declared with Qahtan ash-Sha'abi as the country's
first President.
(www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/yemen.htm)
1978 Jun 26, There was a coup in
Southern Yemen (formerly Aden). Pres. Salem Rubaye Ali was ousted,
tried and shot. He was succeeded by Ali Nasir Muhammad.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
Akkad
The dynasty of Akkad (later Iraq) consisted of 5 rulers in Mesopotamia
from about 2350BC to 2230.
2334-2279 Sargon I (2371BC-2315BC) founded and ruled
the city-state of Akkad, after he left the city of Kish where he was an
important official. He was the first ruler to maintain a standing army.
His empire lasted less than 200 years.
(http://tinyurl.com/ctv5f)
2320BC Sargon conquered the independent city-states
of Sumer and instituted a central government.
(http://eawc, p.2)
2315BC-2306BC Rimush, son of Sargon, ruled Akkad. He
was assassinated.
(http://tinyurl.com/ctv5f)
2306BC-2291BC Manishtusu, another son of Sargon, took
power over Akkad. He died in a palace revolt.
(http://tinyurl.com/ctv5f)
2300BC Akkadian armies conquered Nagar about this
time.
(MT, summer 2003, p.13)
2291BC-2254BC Naram-Sin ruled Akkad. He defeated a
rebel coalition in Sumer and re-established Akkadian power. He
re-conquered Syria, Lebanon, and the Taurus mountains, destroying
Aleppo and Mari in the process. During his reign the Gutians
sacked the city of Agade and eventually destroyed all of Sumer
(southern Iraq). During his reign Naram-Sin campaigned against the
region of Magan (Oman).
(http://tinyurl.com/ctv5f)
2254BC-2230BC Shar-Kali-Sharri, son of Naram-Sin,
ruled Akkad. He fought to preserve the realm but it disintegrated under
rebellion and invasion.
(http://tinyurl.com/ctv5f)
2230BC-2118BC Gutians, a tribe from the Zagros region
of Iran, gained power in Mesopotamia and Gutian kings dominated the
area.
(http://tinyurl.com/ctv5f)
Alawites
A religious group that broke away
from Shiite Islam in Syria. They number about 1.7 million and comprise
12% of Syria’s population. Hafez Assad is a member of the sect.
(WSJ, 9/5/96, p.A8)
Alderney
http://states.alderney.net/
One of the Channel Islands
Amorites
2100BC Byblos ( Pre-Phoenician city) was burned
to the ground probably by the Amorites.
(NG, Aug., 1974, S.W. Matthews, p.156)
2000-1600BC In Mesopotamia the Old Babylonian period
began after the collapse of Sumer, probably due to an increase in the
salt content of the soil that made farming difficult. Weakened by poor
crops and lack of surplus goods, the Sumerians were conquered by the
Amorites, situated in Babylon. The center of civility shifted north.
The Amorites preserved much of the Sumerian culture but introduced
their own Semitic language, an early ancestor to Hebrew, into the
region.
(http://eawc, p.2)
1500-1200BC The Amorites in the time of Moses came
from northeast Syria.
(MT, Spg. ‘97, p.11)
Andaman Islands
The aboriginal people in these islands off the coast
of India in the Bay of Bengal included the Great Andamanese, Onge,
Jarawa and Sentinelese.
(SSFC, 8/17/03, p.M3
1858 The British colonized the
Andaman Islands home to 10 tribes of the Great Andamanese comprising
some 5,000 people. Most were killed or died of diseases brought by the
colonizers. In 2010 the last speaker of Bo, one of the ten dialects
used by the tribes, died.
(Reuters, 2/6/10)
1942 Mar 23, The Japanese occupied
the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean.
(HN, 3/23/98)
2003 Madhusree Mukerjee authored
"The Land of the Naked People: Encounters With Stone Age Islanders."
(SSFC, 8/17/03, p.M3)
Andorra
A republic in the E. Pyranees
between France and Spain, once under the joint suzerainty of France and
the Spanish Bishop of Urgel. Its size is 191 sq mls. The capital is
Andorra la Vella.
(WUD, 1994, p. )(SFC, 5/17/96, p.A-14)(Hem., 3/97,
p.74)
839 The first official mention of
Andorra was recorded in the records of the cathedral at Seu d’Urgell in
Spain.
(Hem., 3/97, p.74)
1278 The co-principality was
created after long-running ownership disputes between the Bishops of
Seu and the Counts of Foix. They agreed to recognize each other as
co-princes of Andorra.
(Hem., 3/97, p.74)
1939 Sep 25, Andorra and Germany
finally signed an official treaty ending WW I. The 1919 Versailles
Peace Treaty failed to include Andorra.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1993 Andorra ended as a
co-principality and became legally independent. The parliament chamber
had 28 seats, 4 representatives for each of its 7 parishes.
(Hem., 3/97, p.74)(SSFC, 6/24/07, p.G3)
1996 Andorra was still technically
at war with Germany for not having signed the Peace at Westphalia in
1648. Its population stood at about 65,000.
(SFC, 5/17/96, p.A-14)
2007 Sep 1, Life expectancy in
Andorra was reported to be longer than in any other world country,
while the same in Swaziland was reported to be the shortest.
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.14)
2007 Andorra’s population numbered
about 80,000.
(SSFC, 6/24/07, p.G3)
Anguilla
An island in the British West Indies.
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/americas/Anguilla_sm97.gif
Antilles
ABC Islands: Aruba, Bonaire, and
Curacao of the Netherland Antilles are located off of Venezuela. [see
Netherland Antilles]
(Hem., 12/96, p.28)
Barbados is an island in the East
Lesser Antilles in the East West Indies.
(WUD, 1994, p.118)
60 Mil BC The Antilles Islands [of the West Indies]
broke off from the Mesoamerican mainland about 60 million years ago.
The islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico comprise the
Greater Antilles, and a group of smaller islands comprise the Lesser
Antilles.
(Nat. Hist. 3/96, p.15)(WUD, 1994, p.65)
1642 Curacao became a colony of
the Netherlands.
(Econ, 6/19/04, p.72)
1648 The island of St. Martin in
the Lesser Antilles was divided between the French and Dutch. The
southern half went to the Dutch as Sint Maarten, while the northern
half, Saint Martin, became part of the French department of Guadeloupe.
Legend has it that a Dutchman and a Frenchman stood back to back at the
center of the island and paced of their shares. The Dutchman stopped
often to drink beer and was left with the smaller share.
(NH, 10/96, p.60) (SFEC, 2/16/96, p.T6)
1759 Apr 23, British seized
Basse-Terre and Guadeloupe in the Antilies from France.
(AP, 4/23/98)
1759 May 1, British fleet occupied
Guadeloupe, in the West Indies. [see Apr 23]
(MC, 5/1/02)
1795 Aug 25, Curacao slaves
opponents returns to St Christopher.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1804 Jan 31, British vice-admiral
William Bligh (of HMS Bounty infamy) fleet reached Curacao (Antilles).
(MC, 1/31/02)
1804 Feb 26, Vice-Admiral William
Bligh ended the siege of Fort Amsterdam, Willemstad (Curacao, SW
Indies).
(SC, 2/26/02)
1832 Dec 25, Charles Darwin
celebrated Christmas in St. Martin at Cape Receiver.
(MC, 12/25/01)
1914 The discovery of oil in
Venezuela prompted Royal Dutch/Shell to build an oil refinery on
Curacao.
(Econ, 6/19/04, p.72)
1942 Feb 16, German submarines
attacked an Aruba oil refinery and sank the tanker Pedernales.
(MC, 2/16/02)(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.C11)
1969 Jul 8, Thor Heyerdahl and his
crew sailed their reed raft Ra for 8 weeks days from Morocco and
abandoned their trip 1 week shy of Barbados. Heyerdahl sailed across
the Atlantic in his Egyptian reed boat, Ra, and reported on garbage
floating everywhere in the sea.
(V.D.-H.K.p.343)(MC, 7/8/02)
1970 May 17, Thor Heyerdahl
(d.2002), Norwegian anthropologist, left Morocco aboard Ra II, a
papyrus reed boat, and sailed 3,270 nautical miles across the Atlantic
to Barbados in 57 days. [see Jul 12]
(SFC, 4/19/02, p.A2)(MC, 5/17/02)
1970 Jul 12, Thor Heyerdahl
crossed the Atlantic Ocean in "Ra" and docked in Barbados.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1971 Bonaire, Netherland Antilles,
outlawed spearfishing off the island.
(SFEC, 10/6/96,
T8)(www.geographia.com/bonaire/bondiv01.htm)
1996 Jul 7-28, Hurricane Cesar
caused 51 deaths in Caribbean and Central America. The storm hit Costa
Rica, Curacao, Aruba, San Andres and Nicaragua.
(AP, 9/11/04)(www.wunderground.com)
1998 Aug 3, US researchers
announced the discovery of a number of new species on the island of
Navassa, a US territory of 2 sq. miles in the Greater Antilles, 40
miles west of Haiti.
(SFC, 8/4/98, p.A3)
2001 Mar 15, A St. Maarten
registered boat carrying illegal migrants sank near St. Martin and at
least 20 people were killed.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A16)
2001 Mar 24, An Air Caraibes Twin
Otter plane with mostly French tourists from St. Maarten crashed on the
Caribbean island of St. Barthelemy and killed all 19 aboard and one
person in the house.
(WSJ, 3/26/01, p.A1)(AP, 3/24/02)
2003 May 23, The Democratic Party
in the Dutch Caribbean territory of St. Maarten won legislative
elections, winning support for its platform of working with the
regional government before seeking independence from the Netherlands.
(AP, 5/24/03)
2006 Jan 27, Five Caribbean
islands held their last parliamentary elections as members of a unified
Netherlands Antilles. Curacao, St. Maarten, Bonaire, Saba and St.
Eustatius have set a target date of July 1, 2007 for breaking off to
form their own governments.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Nov 2, In St. Maarten 4
French nationals were convicted of beating two gay American tourists in
this Dutch Caribbean island and were sentenced to between six months
and six years in prison.
(AP, 11/2/06)
2007 Sep 3, Hurricane Felix,
having passed the Dutch islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire with
little damage, rapidly strengthened into a dangerous Category 5 storm
and churned toward Central America, where forecasters said it could
arrive as a "potentially catastrophic" storm.
(AP, 9/3/07)(SFC, 9/3/07, p.A17)
Arara
A South American tribe. They used
to cut off the heads of their enemies, skin them, decorate the craniums
with feathers and trinkets, and display them as trophies.
(NH, 6/97, p.14)
Aral Sea
1936 The USSR began using
Vozrozhdeniye Island in the Aral Sea to test deadly germs. In 1988
anthrax from Sverdlovsk was shipped in and buried there.
(SFC, 3/24/03, p.A5)
1950 Between Uzbekistan and
Kazakstan the surface area of the Aral Sea was 67,000 sq. km. and
shrinking
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A18)
1988 Spring, Soviet germ
scientists transferred hundreds of tons of anthrax bacteria into
canisters with bleach and sent them for storage to Vozrozhdeniye Island
(Renaissance Island) in the Aral Sea, shared by Kazakstan and
Uzbekistan. Western estimates had 100-200 tons buried at 5-8 feet. In
2002 Pentagon engineers dug up the site and neutralized the anthrax.
(SFC, 6/2/99, p.A10,11)(SFC, 3/24/03, p.A5)
1991 Vozrozhdeniye Island
(Renaissance Island) in the Aral Sea became the property of Kazakstan
and Uzbekistan.
(SFC, 3/24/03, p.A5)
1997 Between Uzbekistan and
Kazakstan the surface area of the Aral Sea was 30,000 sq. km. and
shrinking
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A18)
2015 Between Uzbekistan and
Kazakstan the surface area of the Aral Sea was projected to be down
to13,000 sq. km..
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A18)
Ascension
British Island in the south Atlantic.
1836 Jul 20, Charles Darwin
climbed Green Hill on Ascension.
(MC, 7/20/02)
Ashanti
1824 The Ashanti tribe in West
Africa defeated the troops under Sir Charles MacCarthy. His polished
skull then became a prized feature of the annual yam festival.
(WSJ, 5/16/96, p.A-12)
Assyrians
1300-612BC The Assyrians, a Semitic people,
established an empire that spread out from Assur in northern
Mesopotamia.
(http://eawc, p.4)
1250BC By this time the Assyrians committed
themselves to conquering the Kassite Empire to the south.
(http://eawc, p.4)
1225BC The Assyrian ruler, Tukulti-Ninurta, captured
Babylon and the region of southern Mesopotamia, but their control did
not last long.
(http://eawc, p.5)
1114-1076 Tiglath-Pileser I ruled the Assyrian empire.
(http://eawc, p.5)
722-705BC Sargon II, king of Assyria. [see 721BC]
(WUD, 1994, p.1269)
721-705BC Sargon II, king of Assyria. [see 722BC]
(AM, 7/01, p.33)
Asturias
842 Mar 20, Alfonso II the Chaste,
king of Asturia (791-842), died. Asturias was a kingdom in NW Spain.
(MC, 3/20/02)(WUD, 1994 p.92)
Avars
626 Aug 7, Battle at
Constantinople: Slavs, Persians and Avars were defeated. Emp. Heraclius
repelled the attacks. The attacks began in 625.
(PCh, 1992, p.60)(MC, 8/7/02)
Aymara
400-500AD The Aymara people lived on the shores of
Lake Titicaca between Bolivia and Peru since the 5th century. Their
ancient capital was Tiahuanaco. Their world is described in “Valley of
the Spirits” (1996) by Alan L. Kolata.
(NH, 8/96, p.14)
Azores
A chain of nine islands, 740
miles off the coast of Portugal, make up the Azores. The 3rd island is
named Terceira.
SFEC, 5/24/98, p.A10)
1493 Feb 18, Columbus landed on
the island of Santa Maria, the southernmost island of the
Portuguese-controlled Azores.
(ON, 8/09, p.3)
1580-1640 The Azores was occupied by Spain and
bullfighting was introduced.
(SFEC, 5/24/98, p.A10)
1891-1975 Domingos Rebelo, artist and sculptor. His
work included “The Emigrants” (1929), the picture of a couple on a quay
at Ponta Delgada, waiting to embark to America.
(WSJ, 8/28/00, p.A25)
1968 May 22, The nuclear-powered
U.S. submarine Scorpion, with 99 men aboard, sank in the Atlantic
Ocean. The remains of the sub were later found on the ocean floor 400
miles southwest of the Azores.
(AP, 5/22/07)
1989 Feb 8, In the Azores 144
people were killed when an American-chartered Boeing 707 filled with
Italian tourists slammed into fog-covered Santa Maria mountain.
(AP, 2/8/99)
1998 A 5.8 earthquake hit the
Azores Islands and killed 10 people and injured about a 100. Some 1000
were left homeless.
(SFC, 7/10/98, p.A18)
1999 Dec 11, In the Azores a SATA
airline ATP turboprop crashed on Sao Jorge island and all 35 people
aboard were killed.
(SFEC, 12/12/99, p.D1)
2003 Mar 16, Pres. Bush met with
PM Tony Blair and Spain’s PM Jose Maria Aznar in the Azores and made it
clear they were ready to go to war with or without UN endorsement. Bush
said “Tomorrow is a moment of truth for the world.”
(SFC, 3/17/03, p.A1)
Aztecs
Speak the Nahuatl language and used a spear thrower called an "Atlatl."
(WSJ, 10/24/95, p.A-1)
Their ritual calendar had a 260-day cycle and used 20 day signs in
combination with the numbers 1-13. Tochtli (rabbit) was the 8th of the
20 signs.
(NH, 4/97, p.24)
An Aztec legend states that the hummingbird god told ancient Aztecs to
build their city at the spot where they find an eagle eating a snake on
a cactus. The site at Lake Texcoco met the requirement and there Mexico
City was found.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.E3)
14th-15th C. A human skull was sculpted out of
shimmering rock crystal.
(NH, 10/96, p.34)
1502 Ahuizotl, ruler of the
Aztecs, was likely cremated on a funeral pyre about this time. In 2007
Mexican archeologists found underground chambers in Mexico City they
believed to contain his remains.
(AP, 8/4/07)
1502 Montezuma Xocoyotl (Montezuma
II), an Aztec prince, inherited the Aztec throne.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.8)(ON, 10/00, p.1)
1500s The Aztecs played
ollamalitzli. The game placed a rubber ball through a stone ring and
the loser was often beheaded.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1517 An Aztec chronicler described
a comet as a “flaming ear of corn.”
(NG, 12/97, p.97)
1519 Nov 8, The Aztec and their
leader, Moctezuma, welcomed Hernando Cortez and his 650 explorers to
their capital at Tenochtitlan. Spanish adventurer Hernando Cortez and
his force of about 300 Spanish soldiers, 18 horses and thousands of
Mexico's native inhabitants who had grown resentful of Aztec rule
marched unmolested into Tenochtitlán, the capital city of the
Aztec empire. The Aztec ruler Montezuma, believing that Cortez could be
the white-skinned deity Quetzalcoatl, whose return had been foretold
for centuries, greeted the arrival of these strange visitors with
courtesy--at least until it became clear that the Spaniards were all
too human and bent on conquest. Cortez and his men, dazzled by the
Aztec riches and horrified by the human sacrifice central to their
religion, began to systematically plunder Tenochtitlán and tear
down the bloody temples. Montezuma's warriors attacked the Spaniards
but with the aid of Indian allies, Spanish reinforcements, superior
weapons and disease, Cortez defeated an empire of approximately 25
million people by August 13, 1521.
(ATC, p.16)(SFC, 9/2/96, p.A3)(HNPD, 11/8/98)
1520 A smallpox epidemic raged in
Vera Cruz, Mexico. The 16th century smallpox epidemic in Mexico and
Central America killed about half of the Aztecs.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.12)(SFEC, 1/30/00, Z1 p.2)
1541 The "Codex Mendoza" was an
Aztec pictorial manuscript of this time. It showed tribute received by
the Aztecs from people like the Mixtec with turquoise shields and
beads. It also showed 3 young people being stoned to death for
drunkenness.
(NH, 4/97, p.24)(Arch, 1/05, p.29)
1999 Gary Jennings, author of
historical novels, died at age 70. His novels included "Aztec," about
the Aztec war with the Spanish conquistadors.
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.E2)
Bactria
An ancient country in west Asia between the Oxus River and the Hindu
Kush Mountains.
(WUD, 1994, p.110)
333BC The Achaemenid King of
Persia, Darius III, died in Bactria. Bessus, the satrap of Bactria had
him murdered.
(AHD, 1971, p.10)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty29.html)
333BC Alexander the Great
(353BC-323BC), married a barbarian (Sogdian) princess, Roxana, the
daughter of the Bactrian chief Oxyartes. Alexander also married the
daughter of Darius, whom he defeated in 333, while staying firmly
attached to his comrade, Hephaistion.
(V.D.-H.K.p.68)(Hem., 2/97, p.116)(WSJ, 5/15/98,
p.W11)
37 Some 20,000 pieces of jewelry
and other objects were buried about this time with a warrior-prince and
5 women in northern Afghanistan. In 1978-79 a team led by Russian
archeologist Viktor Sarianidi discovered their 6 sealed tombs at a site
called Tillya Tepe (hill of gold). The findings became known as the
“Golden Hoard of Bactria.”
(WSJ, 11/19/08, p.D7)
Balkar
Independent Muslim warriors who
live in the Caucasus Mountains between the Black and Caspian seas.
During WW II Stalin shipped most of them to Siberia.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.T2)
1956 The Balkars were allowed to
return home.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.T2)
Bantu
1000 AD By this time the whole of East and Central
Africa was occupied by the Bantu people. Older inhabitants such as the
Hottentots and Bushmen were either absorbed or pushed into less
desirable places such as the Kalahari.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.169)
1000-1300AD Bantu people called
the Shona build the Great Zimbabwe, which means “Houses of Stone.” This
grand city becomes Zimbabwe’s capital and trade center.
(ATC, p.135)
Bashkortostan
http://www.bashedu.ru/bashkortostan/bash_e.htm
Bayaka
Pygmy people from the rain
forests of central Africa.
1996 CD Bayaka: The Extraordinary
Music of the BaBezele Pygmies was produced. It featured an hour of
yodels and songs... with the delicate tone of the mondume. It was
made with a 96-page booklet.
(Hem, 4/96, p.144)
Bedouins
c0AD Some inscriptions in a
pre-Islamic Arabic language called Safaitic show that Bedouins followed
the custom of exiling any person who made trouble with his own tribe to
the territory of another tribe until he solved his problem and appeased
the complaining member.
(MT, Spg. ‘97, p.11)
Berbers
A Muslim people numbering 15
million in Algeria and Morocco.
(WSJ, 9/5/96, p.A8)
Bessarabia
A region in Moldavia northeast of Romania and
southwest of the Dniester River.
(WUD, 1994, p.142)
1812 Russia acquired Bessarabia,
the north eastern part of the original principality of Moldavia, in the
aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War (1806-1812).
(Econ, 1/6/07,
p.43)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessarabia)
1939 Aug 23, German Foreign
Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Commissar for Foreign
Affairs Vyacheslav M. Molotov signed a Treaty of Non-Aggression, the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact freeing Hitler to invade Poland and Stalin to
invade Finland. Secret protocols, made public years later, were added
that assigned Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia to be within the
Soviet sphere of influence. Poland was partitioned along the rivers
Narev, Vistula and San. Germany retained Lithuania enlarged by the
inclusion of Vilnius. Just days after the signing, Germany invaded
Poland, and by the end of September, both powers had claimed sections
of Poland.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A16)(AP, 8/23/97) (HNPD,
8/22/98)(HN, 8/23/98)
1940 Jun 26, The Soviet Union
delivered an ultimatum to Romania and 2 days later occupied Bessarabia
and North Bukovina.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Bessarabia_by_the_Soviet_Union)
Biafra
A secessionist state of southeast Nigeria.
(WUD, 1994, p.144)
1967 May 29, Lt. Col. Emeka Ojukwu
declared the independence of Biafra from Nigeria.
(http://flagspot.net/flags/ng-biaf.html)
1967 Jul 6, The Biafran War
erupted. The war, which lasted more than two years, claimed some
600,000 lives.
(AP, 7/6/97)
1968 Sep 15, The Organization of
African Unity condemned the secession of Biafra.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)
Bismarck Archipelago
A group of islands in the South
Pacific, NE of New Guinea.
(WUD, 1994, p.962)
1700 Feb 27, The Pacific Island of
New Britain was discovered.
(HN, 2/27/98)
1942 Jan 20, There was a Japanese
air raid on Rabaul, New Britain.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1943 Oct 12, The US bombed Rabaul,
New Britain (S. Pacific, Bismarck Archipelago).
(WUD, 1994 p.962)(MC, 10/12/01)
Borneo
See Indonesia.
The island of Borneo, the 3rd
largest in the world, was divided among the sultanate of Brunei,
Indonesia, and the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah, whose capital
is Kota Kinabalu.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, p.T10)
British Guyana
See Guyana
Burgundy
524 Jun 21, Battle at Vezerone:
Burgundy beat France.
(MC, 6/21/02)
1178 Jul 30, Frederick I
(Barbarossa), Holy Roman Emperor, was crowned King of Burgundy
(MC, 7/30/02)
1306 Pierre Dubois, a counselor
for the Duke of Burgundy, called for a European federation.
(Econ, 1/3/04, p.39)
1396 Jul 31, Philip the Good, Duke
of Burgundy, Brabant, Limburg, count, was born.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1454 Feb 17, At a grand feast,
Philip the Good of Burgundy took the "vow of the pheasant," by which he
swore to fight the Turks.
(HN, 2/17/99)
1467 Jun 15, Philip the Good, Duke
of Burgundy, died.
(HT, 6/15/00)
1504 May 5, Anton of Burgundy
(~82), the Great Bastard, knight, died.
(MC, 5/5/02)
Cabinda
Portuguese territory and enclave
of Angola on the west coast of Africa.
(WUD, 1994, p.206)
Canaanites
c1500BC Linguistic evidence shows that the Canaanites
(now more commonly known as the Phoenicians) were non-Jewish Semites
whose language was almost identical with Hebrew.
(MT, Spg. ‘97, p.12)(L.C.-W.P.p.87-89)(WSJ, 4/17/97,
p.A20)
1490-1436BC Tuthmosis III, ruled as Pharaoh of
Egypt. In the 15th cent. BC Thutmose III led his army from Egypt to
Megiddo and outflanked the chariots of the Canaanite forces that had
revolted against him.
(L.C.-W.P.p.87-89)(WSJ, 4/17/97, p.A20)
Cape Verde
Africanet: http://www.africanet.com/countries/capeverde.htm#HISTORY
History: http://users.erols.com/kauberdi/CVHistory.htm
Links: http://users.erols.com/kauberdi/index.html
c1450 The Portuguese brought
slaves to the uninhabited Cape Verde Island.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A8)
1487 Bartolomeo Dias, Portuguese
explorer, set out from Lisbon in August, and sailed south to the Cape
Verde Islands and past Cape Cross. Storms forced him out to sea and
when the winds moderated he continued east but found nothing. He turned
north and then sighted land.
(V.D.-H.K.p.173)
1974 Mario Soares, the foreign
minister of Portugal, helped negotiate a cease-fire that led to
independence.
(SFC, 4/19/00, p.A10)
1975 Jul 5, The Cape Verde Islands
officially became independent after 500 years of Portuguese rule.
(SFC, 8/5/9, p.A8)(AP, 7/5/00)
1992 Singer Cesaria Evora recorded
her album "Miss Perfumado." She was discovered by producer Jose Da
Silva who established her in Paris.
(SFC, 9/13/99, p.)
2006 Dec 21, Cape Verde PM Jose
Maria das Neves said Africa must stop blaming its colonial past for its
problems and instead point the finger at the continent's leaders.
(AFP, 12/21/06)
2007 Feb 8, In Cape Verde 3
Italian women, aged 17-33, were brutally attacked while vacationing,
dragged into the woods, pelted with stones and left for dead at the
bottom of a hole. One woman survived. 3 local men were arrested.
(AP, 2/10/07)
2009 Aug 14, Hillary Clinton ended
her whirlwind seven-nation African trip at Cape Verde, with a tough
love message that Africans must tackle their own problems.
(AFP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 17, Russian media
reported that the Arctic Sea has been found near Cape Verde and that
the ship's 15-man Russian crew has been taken aboard a Russian naval
vessel.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Sep 27, In Venezuela Pres.
Hugo Chavez proposed that South American and African nations unite to
create a cross-continental mining corporation to keep control of their
resources. Chavez made diplomatic inroads in Africa at a summit of
South American and African leaders where he offered Venezuela's help in
oil projects, mining and financial assistance. Venezuela signed
agreements to work together on oil projects with South Africa,
Mauritania, Niger, Sudan and Cape Verde.
(Reuters, 9/27/09)(AP, 9/28/09)
Carpatho-Rusyns
The ethnic group of Andy Warhol’s
parents.
(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-1)
Ceylon: See Sri Lanka
Chagos Islands
A 65-island archipelago in the
Indian Ocean.
1967-1973 The entire population of the Chagos
archipelago, which lies 2,200 miles east of Africa and around 1,000
miles southwest of India, was relocated by this year. Britain leased
Diego Garcia, the main island, to the US and barred anyone from
entering the archipelago except by permit.
(AP, 10/9/03)
1968 The British government
expelled nearly 2,000 inhabitants to make way for a strategic US
military base on Diego Garcia Island.
(SFC, 11/4/00, p.A12)
1971 An immigration order banned
the Ilois islanders from their native lands.
(SFC, 11/4/00, p.A12)
2000 The 1971 immigration ban was
ruled illegal. Some 4,500 exiles living in Mauritius and the Seychelles
had the right to return.
(SFC, 11/4/00, p.A12)
2003 Oct 9, A British judge
ruled that former residents of the Chagos archipelago have no right to
return home or get compensation. Britain had leased Diego Garcia, the
main island, to the US in the late 1960s and barred anyone from
entering the archipelago except by permit.
(AP, 10/9/03)
2007 May 23, The High Court in
London upheld a ruling letting families return to their Indian Ocean
island homes, from where they were forced out 30 years ago to make way
for a US military base. The Court of Appeal backed a High Court
ruling in May last year that allowed the families to return to the
Chagos Islands, except for Diego Garcia, a launchpad for US military
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(AFP, 5/23/07)
2008 Oct 22, The British
government won its appeal to the highest court against previous rulings
allowing displaced Indian Ocean Chagos islanders to return home. The
resettlement of the Chagossians in the 1960s and1970s allowed Britain
to lease the main island, Diego Garcia, to the United States military
for 50 years.
(AFP, 10/22/08)
Chaldeans
1,000BC Chaldians traced their origins to about this
time in Babylon.
(SFC, 9/30/00, p.A12)
614BC The Babylonians
(particularly, the Chaldeans) with the help of the Medes, who occupied
what is today Iran, began a campaign to destroy the Assyrians.
(http://eawc, p.8)
612BC Ninevah (Mesopotamia) fell
to the Babylonians. The Chaldeans, a Semitic people, then ruled the
entire region thereby issuing in the New Babylonian period that lasted
to 539BC.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.174)
546BC The Persians destroyed
Egypt’s alliance with the Chaldeans, Lydia and Sparta by first
capturing Lydia then the Chaldaeans.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
539BC Babylon, under Chaldean rule
since 612BC, fell to the Persians. Cyrus the Persian captured Babylon
after the New Babylonian leader, Belshazaar, failed to read “the
handwriting on the wall.” The Persian Empire under Cyrus lasted to
331BC, when it was conquered by Alexander the Great. Cyrus returned
some of the exiled Jews to Palestine, while other Jews preferred to
stay and establish a 2nd Jewish center, the first being in Jerusalem.
(NG, Aug., 1974, S.W. Matthews, p.174)(http://eawc,
p.8,9)
431 The Assyrians and Chaldeans
broke from what was to become the Roman Catholic Church over a
theological dispute.
(WSJ, 3/12/00, p.A10)
1551 Pope Eugenius IV brought some
of the Middle-Eastern Christians back into the Western Christian fold
when he established the Chaldean rite of the Catholic Church.
(WSJ, 3/12/00, p.A10)
2000 Sep, Hundreds of Chaldeans
sought refuge in the US via immigration through Mexico. Some 120,000
Chaldeans lived in the Detroit area.
(SFC, 9/30/00, p.A10)
Chonos
A tribe of sea-faring nomads who
worked the Chonos Islands off the coast of Chile. They hunted fish and
seals by hurling harpoons from plank canoes.
(SFC, 5/19/96, Zone 1, p.4)
Chuvashia
http://www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland/a_enhet.exe/CHUVASHIA
Cilicia
Cilicia was an ancient country and later a Roman
province in Asia Minor.
(WUD, 1994, p.266)
Cimmerians
700-600BCE A migration of the Cimmerians and
Scythians took place in the seventh century BC. These were nomadic
tribes from the Russian steppes, who made their way round the eastern
end of the Caucasus, burst through into the Moghan plains and the basin
of Lake Urmia, and terrorized Western Asia for several generations,
till they were broken by the power of the Medes and absorbed in the
native population. It was they who made an end of the Kingdom of
Urartu, and the language they brought with them was probably an
Indo-European dialect answering to the basic element in modern Armenian.
(http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce2.htm)
Cocos Islands
1886 The Clunies-Ross family was
granted the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean, about 2,700 kilometers
(1,680 miles) northwest of Perth, by Queen Victoria. Captain John
Clunies-Ross, a Scottish trader, had landed there in 1825.
(AFP, 1/21/08)
1978 Control of the Cocos Islands
was ceded to Australia by a descendent of the Clunies-Ross family,
which settled the Indian Ocean coral atolls in 1827.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.84)
Cofan
A native Indian group of the
Ecuadorian Amazon.
(NH, 5/96, p.8)
Congo-Brazzaville
See Republic of Congo
Cook Islands
c1200 Polynesians settled the 14
Cook Islands that included Rarotonga.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T5)
c1600 Spanish explorers Alvaro de
Mendana and Pedro Fernandez de Quiros visited the Cook Islands but
overlooked Rarotonga, the largest one.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T5)
1722 Apr 5, Dutch explorer Jacob
Roggeveen discovered Easter Island, a Polynesian Island 1400 miles from
the coast of South America. They noted that the island was treeless and
wondered how massive statues were erected. Much of the population was
later wiped out and the island became a possession of Chile. An
indigenous script called rongorongo survived but by 2002 was still not
deciphered. In 2005 Steven Roger Fischer authored “Island at the End of
the World: The Turbulent History of Easter Island.”
{Polynesia, Chile, Netherlands, Explorer}
1773 Captain James Cook found a
group of islands 1800 miles northeast of New Zealand. They became known
as the Cook Islands. "A couple of years ago, the Cook Islands hired a
lawyer from the United States to draft an asset protection statute that
instantly made the islands one of the best places in the world to
protect assets from creditors.
(Hem, 8/95, p.38)
1789 The HMS Bounty made a brief
stop at the Cook Island of Rarotonga before moving on to Pitcairn
Island.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T6)
1791 May 8, Capt. Edward Edwards
set sail from Tahiti in the Pandora with the Bounty mutineers abandoned
by Fletcher Henderson.
(ON, 3/04, p.9)
1821 The London Missionary Society
brought the Book of Common Prayer to Rarotonga.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T7)
1841 The Rarotonga church at
Titikaveka was built of coral blocks.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T7)
1849 The church at Arorangi,
Rarotonga, was built. It has the graveyard of Papeiha, the
Christianized Tahitian missionary who first preached the Gospel to the
islanders.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T7)
1855 The high-steepled church in
Avarua, Rarotonga, was built.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T7)
1901 Jun 11, Cook Islands were
annexed & proclaimed a part of New Zealand.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1928 Robert Dean Frisbie, American
expatriate South Seas writer, stated “I have hunted long for this
sanctuary.”
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T7)
1951-1960 Flying to Tahiti during this time involved
taking off in a flying boat from Fiji with an overnight stop in Samoa
and a refueling stop at Aitutaki Island.
(SSFC, 1/18/04, p.C8)
1964 The ship Yankee ran aground
off the island of Rarotonga after circling the world 7 times.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T6)
1965 Rarotonga of the Cook Islands
was colonized by the British but ruled until this year by New Zealand.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T6)
1971 Australia joined with New
Zealand and 14 independent of self-governing island nations to form the
South Pacific Forum. The name was changed in 2000 to Pacific Islands
Forum. Member states include: Australia, the Cook Islands, the
Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands,
Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon
Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Since 2006, associate members
territories are New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
(Econ, 10/20/07,
p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islands_Forum)
1981 Sir Albert Henry, the first
prime minister of the Cook Islands, died. He had been stripped of his
knighthood by Queen Elizabeth when it was learned that he had used
government funds to pay for charter flights home for expatriate voters
friendly to his party.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T7)
1997 Nov 3, Some 20 people were
missing after a cyclone struck. Typhoon Martin killed at least 5 people.
(WSJ, 11/4/97, p.A1)(SFC,11/8/97, p.A16)
2004 Oct 24, Six men on Pitcairn
Island were convicted of charges ranging from rape to indecent assault
following trials that exposed a culture of sexual abuse. They received
up to 6 years with suspensions pending appeal.
(AP, 10/25/04)(SFC, 10/30/04, p.A2)
2004 Nov 8, Pitcairn Island
selected its 1st female mayor, Brenda Christian, to fill the post until
a Dec 15 election. Former Mayor Steve Christian was among the 6 men
convicted of 5 rape charges.
(SFC, 11/9/04, p.A3)
2006 Oct 30, In London 6 men from
remote Pitcairn Island lost their final appeal against their
convictions for a string of sex attacks dating back 40 years.
(AP, 10/30/06)
Copts
A Christian group in Egypt. They
number about 10 million.
(WSJ, 9/5/96, p.A8)
Corsica
535BC Control of Corsica heralded
the greatest extent of Etruscan influence.
(NG, 6/1988, p.710)
1768 May 15, By the Treaty of
Versailles, France purchased Corsica from Genoa.
(SFC, 12/3/96, p.A1)(HN, 5/15/99)
1769 Aug 15, Napoleon Bonaparte
(d.1821), ruler of France and continental Europe, was born on the
island of Corsica.
(AP, 8/15/97)(WUD, 1994, p.950)(HN, 8/15/98)
1794 Jul 12, British Admiral Lord
Nelson lost his right eye at the siege of Calvi, in Corsica.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1794 Aug 21, France surrendered
the island of Corsica to the British.
(HN, 8/21/98)
1998 Feb 6, In Corsica Claude
Erignac, the French governor, was shot a killed by 2 gunmen. In 2003
French police arrested Yvan Colonna for the murder.
(SFC, 2/7/98, p.A11)(SSFC, 7/6/03, p.A3)
1999 May 4, Prime Minister Jospin
dissolved an antiterrorist squad linked to the firebombing of a
restaurant in Corsica frequented by nationalists.
(WSJ, 5/5/99, p.A1)
2003 Jul 6, Corsicans voted in a
historic referendum to give local officials more say in running the
Mediterranean island, an attempt to end years of attacks by separatists
fighting French rule.
(AP, 7/6/03)
2003 Jul 7, In Corsica explosions
rocked vacation homes owned by mainland French in new nationalist
violence a day after Corsicans rejected a plan designed to set up a
single executive body to run Corsican affairs.
(AP, 7/7/03)
Curacao
ABC Islands: Aruba, Bonaire, and
Curacao of the Netherland Antilles are located off of Venezuela. [see
Netherland Antilles]
(Hem., 12/96, p.28)
Curacao is the largest of the ABC
Islands. Willemstad is the capital.
(Econ, 6/19/04, p.)
1642 Curacao became a colony of
the Netherlands.
(Econ, 6/19/04, p.72)
1795 Aug 25, Curacao slaves
opponents returns to St Christopher.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1804 Jan 31, British vice-admiral
William Bligh (of HMS Bounty infamy) fleet reached Curacao (Antilles).
(MC, 1/31/02)
1804 Feb 26, Vice-Admiral William
Bligh ended the siege of Fort Amsterdam, Willemstad (Curacao, SW
Indies).
(SC, 2/26/02)
1914 The discovery of oil in
Venezuela prompted Royal Dutch/Shell to build an oil refinery on
Curacao.
(Econ, 6/19/04, p.72)
1940 Jul,
Jan Zwartendijk, a Dutch diplomat, and Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese
diplomat, worked together to save some 2,000 thousand Polish Jews, who
had fled to Lithuania by issuing them visas for Japan, China and the
Dutch colonies in South America. Zwartendijk wrote out the so called
Curacao visas, while Sugihara issued the transit visas. The Sugihara
family was later captured by the Russians and placed in a concentration
camp for 1 1/2 years.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A13)(SFC, 9/9/96,
p.A16)(www.remember.org/witness/righteous.html)
1954 The 5 islands of the
Netherlands Antilles were federated. These included Bonaire, Curacao,
St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius.
(Econ, 5/26/07, p.38)
1969 May 30, Refinery workers on
Curacao set fires in Willemstad. Marines from the Netherlands restored
order.
(Econ, 5/26/07, p.38)
1996 Jul 7-28, Hurricane Cesar
caused 51 deaths in Caribbean and Central America. The storm hit Costa
Rica, Curacao, Aruba, San Andres and Nicaragua.
(AP, 9/11/04)(www.wunderground.com)
2002 Aug 31, The justice minister
of the Netherlands Antilles said Colombian assassins are behind a
series of execution-style slayings in Curacao, which has seen drug
seizures soar in recent years. There have been 28 killings since the
beginning of the year.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2004 Apr 5, The governing
coalition of Curacao, a Dutch Caribbean territory, collapsed over
allegations that the justice minister gave favors to a political donor
convicted of corruption.
(AP, 4/6/04)
2006 Jan 27, Five Caribbean
islands held their last parliamentary elections as members of a unified
Netherlands Antilles. Curacao, St. Maarten, Bonaire, Saba and St.
Eustatius have set a target date of July 1, 2007 for breaking off to
form their own governments.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2009 Sep 25, On the Dutch
Caribbean island of Curacao James Hogan (49), a US diplomat, was
reported missing by his wife. On Oct 1 authorities confirmed that DNA
on bloody clothes found along Baya Beach matched with Hogan. Curacao,
the headquarters of the Netherlands Antilles government, lies about 40
miles (65km) off Venezuela's coast.
(AP, 10/2/09)
Curonians
A tribe of people on the eastern
shore of the Baltic Sea west of the Lithuanians.
925 In the Icelandic “Egils-saga”
there is an account of how Thorolf and Egil harried in Curonia about
this time. Details in the life of a Curonian feudal lord are revealed.
(DrEE, 11/23/96, p.3)
1045-1066 King Harold Hardready reigned in Norway.
During this time Snorre Sturleson wrote the “Heimskringla.” In his
Ynglingasaga he said that in 1049 under King Svein and in 1051 under
King Magnus, a special sermon against Curonian pirates was introduced
in the Danish churches.
(DrEE, 11/23/96, p.3)
Cypress
1300BC A Levantine city-state of the era.
(MT, 3/96, p.3)
Dacia
An ancient kingdom and later a
Roman province in southern Europe between the Carpathian Mountains and
the Danube corresponding generally to modern Rumania and adjacent
regions.
(WUD, 1994, p.363)
650 BC These Transylvanian people are first known
from their contacts with the Greeks about this time.
(WSJ, 6/18/97, p.A20)
103-105AD Apolodorus of Damascus built a bridge over
the Danube for Emperor Trajan. It connected the Roman provinces of
Moesia Superior and Dacia (the Yugoslavian and Romanian banks
respectively).
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.26)
105AD Flavius Cerialis, prefect of
Cohort IX of Batavians at Vindolanda in northern England, was
transferred to the Danube to join Trajan’s forces gathering for the
Second Dacian War.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.17)
Dahomey (see Benin)
Djibouti
http://www.africanet.com/countries/djibouti.htm#HISTORY
http://www.arab.net/djibouti/history/djibouti_history.html
Coast of northeast Africa between Eritrea and Somali. Formerly French
Territory of the Afars and Issas, French Somaliland.
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.8)(WUD, 1994, p.420)
Population in 2002 was about 600,000. Chewing qat, a mild stimulant, is
a national pastime.
(SFC, 12/28/02, p.A6)(Econ, 10/8/05, p.58)
1977 Jun 27, Djibouti gained
independence from France.
(SFC, 12/28/02, p.A6)(SC, 6/27/02)
1999 Nov 26, Sudan signed a peace
agreement with the opposition Umma Party in Djibouti to end the 16-year
old civil war.
(SFC, 11/27/99, p.A15)
2000 May 2, Pres. Ismael Omar
Guelleh set up talks in Arta to establish a government for Somalia.
(SFC, 8/14/00, p.A1)
2000 May, the government signed
over the management of the port to Dubai Ports Int’l. for the next 20
years.
(WSJ, 10/16/00, p.C17A)
2000 Aug 13, Over 2,000 Somali
leaders gathered in Djibouti to form a central government with a new
225-member parliament.
(SFC, 8/14/00, p.A1)
2001 The Djibouti government gave
the US military free land, free rein and full secrecy for a forward
base to fight al Qaeda and other terrorists.
(SFC, 12/28/02, p.A6)
2002 A survey of 1,000 women
giving birth at Djibouti's Peltier Hospital concluded that 98 percent
of women had been circumcised, of whom the vast majority had been
infibulated.
(AP, 11/10/04)
2003 Jan 10, Djiboutians chose a
new 65-seat parliament in elections. Parties allied with Pres. Ismael
Omar Guelleh swept Djibouti's first multi-party legislative elections.
The bloc of four parties known as the Union for the Presidential
Majority, or UMP, won 62.7 percent of the vote to 37.3 percent for the
four-party opposition alliance known as the Union for a Democratic
Alternative.
(AP, 1/10/03)(AP, 1/11/03)
2003 Jun 22, In Djibouti an
explosion caused by a bomb dropped from a B-52 killed a U.S. Marine and
wounded eight U.S. service members during a training exercise.
(AP, 6/22/03)(WSJ, 6/24/03, p.A1)
2006 Feb 17, In northern Djibouti
2 US helicopters crashed with 12 crew members. 2 crew members were
rescued.
(Reuters, 2/18/06)
Dutch Guiana (see Surinam)
Eastern Slavonia
An area of northeastern Croatia bordering on Serbia
whose capital is Vukovar. Before the Bosnian war its ethnic population
was relatively balanced.
(SFC, 4/11/97, p.A12)
1991 Serbs captured eastern
Slavonia and most of its 68,000 Croat residents were displaced to other
parts of Croatia.
(SFC, 4/11/97, p.A12)
Etruscans
c600BC The Etruscans, believed to be natives of Asia
Minor, established cities that stretched from northern to central
Italy. They developed the arch and the vault, gladiatorial combat for
entertainment, and the study of animals to predict future events.
(http://eawc, p.8)
484-420BC Herodotus claimed that the Etruscans were
Lydians who had immigrated to Italy from Asia Minor. But modern
scholars believe the Etruscans evolved from an indigenous population of
Iron Age farmers of the Villanovan culture.
(NG, 6/1988, p.710)
484-420BC The Greeks always called the Etruscans the
Tyrrhenians, after the prince Tyrrhenus who, according to Herodotus,
led them to the shores of Etruria.
(NG, 6/1988, p.718)
474BC The Etruscans were routed by
the Greeks of Syracuse in a sea battle off Cumae near Naples.
(NG, 6/1988, p.739)
396BC Sacking of Veio (Etruscan
city), after a ten-year siege, ended the city’s long conflict with
Rome. (NG, 6/1988, p.711)
295BC The Battle of Sentinum.
Etruria was defeated by Rome and the Etruscan decline continued for
more than 200 years. (NG, 6/1988, p.739)
French Equatorial Africa
A federation of French
territories in Central Africa that included Chad, Gabon, Middle Congo
and Ubanga-Shari. Each became autonomous in 1958.
(WUD, 1994, p.567)
1875 Jan 14, Dr. Albert
Schweitzer, French theologian who set up a native hospital in French
Equatorial Africa in 1913, was born.
(HN, 1/14/99)
1910 French Equatorial Africa was
a former administrative grouping of four French territories in west
central Africa. It was first formed by the federation of 3 French
imperial colonies: Gabon, Middle Congo, and Ubangi-Shari-Chad. It
comprised a total area of 969,112 square miles (2,500,000 sq km). Chad
was separated from Ubangi-Shari in 1920 to form a fourth colony.
(www.discoverfrance.net)
1934 French Equatorial Africa was
transformed into a unified territory of France, but in 1946 it was
re-divided into four separate overseas territories.
(www.discoverfrance.net)
1958 Nov 28, The Middle Congo
province of French Equatorial Africa voted to proclaim itself
independent as the Congo Republic (Brazzaville).
(DT internet 11/28/97)
1958 Nov 28, The African nation of
Chad became an autonomous republic within the French community.
(AP, 11/28/97)
French Guiana (French Guyana)
A Dept. of France on the NE coast of South America.
(WUD, 1994, p.567)
1749 Jean Godin, French
geographer, left Peru in an attempt to leave the continent by an
eastern route and became stranded in French Guiana for over 20 years.
In 2004 Robert Whitaker authored “The Mapmaker’s Wife: A True Tale of
Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon.” It was an account of Jean
Godin (d.1792), French mapmaker, and his Peruvian wife.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.81)
1852 France established its penal
colony at Devil’s Island, French Guiana. It was one of 3 islands called
the Iles du Salut (Islands of Salvation). Some 70,000 convicts were
sent there until 1946. The penal colony operated until 1951.
(SSFC, 12/15/02,
p.L5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Guiana)
1895 Jan 5, French Capt. Alfred
Dreyfus, convicted of treason, was publicly stripped of his rank. He
was ultimately vindicated. Dreyfus, a Jew falsely accused of spying for
the Germans, was imprisoned alone on Devil’s Island until 1899.
(AP, 1/5/98)(SSFC, 12/15/02, p.L5)
1899 Sep 19, French Capt. Alfred
Dreyfus won a pardon after a retrial was forced by public opinion. He
was soon released from Devil's Island in French Guiana.
(PCh, 1992,
p.628)(www.spiritus-temporis.com/alfred-dreyfus/)
1953 Aug 22, France closed the
penal colony on Devil's Island.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1968 Kourou, French Guiana,
launched its 1st commercial satellite. A space center opened there in
1970.
(AP, 8/27/02)
1996 Jun, The 1st Ariana 5 test
rocket crashed on launch at Kourou.
(WSJ, 10/22/98, p.B2)
1996 In the capital of Cayenne
high school students demonstrated against French control of the school
system.
(SFEC, 12/1/96, p.T9)
1997 Oct, The 2nd Ariana 5 test
rocket was launched at Kourou and experienced a spin problem.
(WSJ, 10/22/98, p.B2)
1998 Oct 21, The 3rd Ariana 5 test
rocket was launched at Kourou. It successfully simulated the launch of
a mockup satellite.
(WSJ, 10/22/98, p.B2)
2003 Sep 27, Europe's first
mission to the moon blasted off aboard a European Ariane rocket from
French Guiana. The SMART-1 probe made it to within 3,100 miles of the
moon on Nov 15, 2004, and proceeded to move into an elliptical orbit.
The spacecraft ended its mission Sep 3, 2006, when it crashed into the
lunar surface.
(AP, 9/28/03)(SFC, 11/17/04, p.A3)(SSFC, 9/3/06,
p.A5)
2004 Jul 17, An Ariane 5 rocket
took off from French Guyana (Guiana) carrying the heaviest commercial
telecom satellite ever.
(WSJ, 7/19/04, p.A1)
2009 May 14, A French rocket
carrying the largest space telescope ever was launched into space on a
mission that European scientists hope will help unravel the mystery of
the universe's creation. The Ariane-5 rocket was loaded with the
Herschel space telescope and the Planck spacecraft, carrying a payload
of 5.3 tons (4.81 metric tons) when it launched from the city of Kourou
near the jungles of French Guiana.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2010 Jan 10, Voters in French
Guiana overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to give local government more
autonomy while remaining a part of France. 70% voted "no," with 48%
turnout.
(AP, 1/10/10)
French Polynesia
A South Pacific territory of
France. A group of 5 archipelagos, included are the Society Islands,
the Marquesas, the Tuamotu Archipelago (which is also called the Low
Archipelago or the Paumotu Archipelago) and other scattered groups.
Formerly French Oceania. Also Bora Bora, Tahiti and Maupiti.
(WUD, 1994, p.567,1522)(SFC,11/27/97, p.B5)(SFEC,
1/18/98, p.T1)
1767 The English found their way
to Tahiti.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.T12)
1769 A transit of Venus took
place. It was timed in Tahiti by the party of James Cook
(Econ, 5/29/04, p.79)
1777 Dec 8, Captain Cook left the
Society Islands (French Polynesia).
(MC, 12/8/01)
1789 Sep, Fletcher Henderson left
Tahiti with the Bounty with a light crew. 16 men were left abandoned.
(ON, 3/04, p.9)
1791 May 8, Capt. Edward Edwards
set sail from Tahiti in the Pandora with the Bounty mutineers abandoned
by Fletcher Henderson.
(ON, 3/04, p.9)
1880 Jun 29, France annexed Tahiti.
(HN, 6/29/98)
1835 Nov 15, HMS Beagle and
Charles Darwin reached Tahiti.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1880 The French colonized
Polynesia.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.T12)
1891 Apr 1, Paul Gauguin
(1848-1903), French painter, abandoned his wife and 5 children and left
Marseille for Tahiti.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.T12)(MC, 4/1/02)(SSFC, 5/11/03,
p.C7)
1891 Jun 9, Painter Paul Gauguin
arrived in Papeete, Tahiti.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1896 Paul Gauguin made his
sculpture “Tahitian Girl.”
(SFEM, 11/24/96, p.62)
1901 Paul Gauguin left Tahiti for
the Marquesas and arrived at Hiva Oa.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, p.T1,6)
1905 Feb 8, A cyclone hit Tahiti
and adjacent islands killing some 10,000 people.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1970 Feb 20, Cheyenne Brando
(d.1995), daughter of Marlon, was born in Papeete, Tahiti.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyenne_Brando)
1971 Australia joined with New
Zealand and 14 independent of self-governing island nations to form the
South Pacific Forum. The name was changed in 2000 to Pacific Islands
Forum. Member states include: Australia, the Cook Islands, the
Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands,
Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon
Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Since 2006, associate members
territories are New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
(Econ, 10/20/07,
p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islands_Forum)
1972 David McTaggart (d.2001), one
of the founders of Greenpeace Int’l., sailed his small boat into the
French nuclear-testing site at Mururoa atoll in the South Pacific.
(SFC, 3/24/01, p.A22)(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.A31)
1977 Francis Sanford (1912-1996)
helped write a statute in the French National Assembly that provided
autonomy in daily affairs to the territory.
(SFC, 12/23/96, p.A16)
1977 Roman Polanski, film
director, was accused of drugging and raping a 13-year-old model at the
home of Jack Nicholson. He pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual
intercourse with a minor and left the country on bail to film
"Hurricane" in Tahiti, and then fled to Paris.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.E3)
1978 Oct 9, Jacques Brel, Belgian
cabaret singer, died at 49. He was buried at Atuona on the Marquesas
Island of Hiva Oa.
(MC, 10/9/01)(SSFC, 10/11/03, p.C9)
1984 The French granted Polynesia
internal autonomy.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.T12)
1990 Jul 4, France performed
nuclear test at Muruora Island.
(www.seismo.ethz.ch/bsv/nuclear_explosions/undergr/france.html)
2002 Sep 12, Tahitian authorities
found a 55-foot catamaran, the Hakuna Matata, that belonged to former
NBA star Bison Dele (b.1969 as Brian Carson Williams). His brother,
Kevin Williams (Miles Dabord) was seen docking the catamaran on July 16
in Taravao, Tahiti. Williams met his girlfriend on July 8 in Papeete
and described a scuffle that left 3 people dead. He was last seen Sept.
5 in Phoenix, when he tried to pick up an order for $500,000 in
American Double Eagle coins using his brother’s passport. A comatose
Williams was arrested Sep 19 at a San Diego hospital and died Sep 27.
(SFC, 9/14/02, p.A15)(SFC, 9/17/02, p.A1)(SFC,
9/19/02, p.A7)(SFC, 9/20/02, p.A1)(SFC, 9/21/02, p.A1)(SFC, 9/28/02,
p.A5)
2004 May, In Tahiti the Union for
Democracy coalition of Oscar Temaru won elections with a 1-seat
majority, dislodging Gaston Flosse from a long incumbency.
(Econ, 11/13/04, p.48)
2004 Oct 9, In Tahiti a defection
led to new elections that ousted the government of Oscar Temaru in
favor of Gaston Flosse by 1 seat. Temaru refused to leave the
presidential premises.
(Econ, 11/13/04, p.48)
2007 Aug 8, Researchers from the
University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill reported that coral
coverage in the Indo-Pacific, an area stretching from Indonesia's
Sumatra island to French Polynesia, had dropped 20 percent in the past
two decades. They said the decline was driven by climate change,
disease and coastal development.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 9, A small airplane
plunged into the sea moments after taking off from the French
Polynesian resort island of Moorea, apparently killing all 20 people
aboard in the territory's worst-ever plane crash.
(AP, 8/10/07)
Friesland (Frisia)
Friesland is currently the
northernmost province of the Netherlands. Its population is 600,000,
and the capital is Leeuwarden.
1-100AD A Teutonic tribe known as the Frisians (or
Friesians) settled in what is now the Netherlands in the first century
A.D.
(HNQ, 3/5/00)
600-700 In the seventh century the Frisians clashed
with the Franks and resisted Christianity, but succumbed to Frankish
rule and accepted Christianity a century later. Citizens of the
Netherlands’s province of Friesland are still called Frisians and the
Frisian language is still spoken there.
(HNQ, 3/5/00)
754 Jun 5, Friezen murdered bishop
Boniface [Winfrid], English saint, archbishop of Dokkum, and over 50
companions.
(MC, 6/5/02)
988 May 6, Dirk II, West Frisian
count of Holland, died.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1345 The Frisian victory over the
Dutch on the beach at Warns was their last before the Dutch took over.
(WSJ, 5/13/98, p.A20)
1512 Nov 16, Jemme Herjuwsma,
Fries rebel, was beheaded.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1512 Nov 17, Kempo Roeper, Frisian
rebel, was quartered.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1538 Feb 26, Worp van Thabor,
Frisian abbot of Thabor (Chronicon Frisiae), died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1549 May 27, Lijsbeth Dirksdr,
Friesian Anabaptist, drowned.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1555 May 25, Gemma Frisius (46),
Frisian geographer, astronomer, died.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1579 Mar 23, Friesland joined the
Union of Utrecht.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1888 Apr 16, Drentse and Friese
peat cutters went on strike.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1912 Nov 25, Johannes D. De Jong,
Frisian poet and photographer (Kar £t twa), was born.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1998 Ernst Langhout, a
singer-songwriter, increased his sales when he began singing in his
native Frisian language.
(WSJ, 5/13/98, p.A20)
Galapagos Islands
The volcanic archipelago has 13
big islands, 6 small ones and 107 islets and rocks.
(SFEC, 11/19/00, p.T8)
1535 Mar 10, Bishop Tomas de
Berlanga discovered the Galapagos Islands.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1790s Floreana Island began
serving as a mail drop for whalers and seal hunters.
(SFEC, 11/19/00, p.T8)
1813 Apr, Captain David Porter of
the U.S. Navy sailed the USS Essex into the Galapagos Archipelago after
a six month journey around Cape Horn, eager to find a way to help his
country in their powder-keg relations with Great Britain. Capt. Porter
made his first landfall at a place called Post Office Bay, on Charles
Island, and raided the barrel there that served as the informal but
effective communications link between whaling ships and the outside
world. The primitive post box, a barrel system of drop-off and pick-up,
had been established some 20 years earlier, but its efficiency had
become well-known. Inside of half a year, Capt. Porter and the Essex
had captured 12 British whalers and devastated the whale British
industry in the Pacific, forcing a reallocation of Royal Navy ships to
a distant region far from the “home front” in North America.
(Terraquest,
http://www.terraquest.com/assignment/assignment.html)
1835 Sep 15, HMS Beagle and
Charles Darwin reached the Galapagos Islands, a scattering of 19 small
islands and scores of islets.
(SFC, 12/4/94, p. T-5)(MC, 9/15/01)
1835 Sep 17, Charles Darwin landed
on Chatham in the Galapagos archipelago.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1835 Sep 23, HMS Beagle sailed to
Charles Island in the Galapagos archipelago.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1835 Oct 8, HMS Beagle and Charles
Darwin reached James Island, Galapagos archipelago.
(MC, 10/8/01)
1835 Oct 20, HMS Beagle left the
Galapagos Archipelago and sailed to Tahiti.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1964 Nathan W. Cohen (d.1997 at
78) organized the Galapagos Int’l. Scientific Expedition. 65 scientists
spent 2 months of research there and dedicated the Darwin Research
Station there.
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A22)
1977 Robert Ballard and John B.
Corliss dived 9,000 feet into the Galapagos Rift Zone and found
previously unknown creatures thriving on bacteria from that depended on
sulfur from volcanic vents.
(SFC, 7/31/98, p.A3,13)
1998 Sep 15, The Cerro Azul
volcano on Isabela Island began erupting and threatened turtle colonies.
(SFC, 9/18/98, p.D8)
Gandhara
~100-200AD A report from London on 6/27/96 said that
the British Library had acquired Buddhist texts that date back as early
as the 2nd cent AD. The texts were believed to be part of the canon of
the Sarvastivadin sect, which dominated Gandhara, now north Pakistan
and east Afghanistan.
(SFC, 6/27/96, p.A12)
Garifuna
Legend held that indigenous Arawak-speaking peoples
of Northern Brazil arrived on the island of St. Vincent long before the
Europeans. They later took in ship wrecked Africans.
(SFC, 7/25/07, p.E1)
1793 The British took over the
island of St. Vincent and a series of wars ensued against the black
Caribs.
(SFC, 7/25/07, p.E2)
1795 The British won a battle
against the local Garifuna on St. Vincent.
(SFEC, 5/4/97, p.T11)
1797 Some 5,000 black Carib
Indians, also known as Garifuna or Garinagu, were exiled from St.
Vincent Island to Roatan Island off of Honduras. The Garifuna
defined themselves not by country or territory but by language and
culture.
(SFEC, 5/4/97, p.T11)(SFC, 4/27/98, p.A6)
1998 It was reported that over
100,000 Garifuna, perhaps 50% of their entire people, had migrated to
the US, mostly to Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.
(SFC, 4/27/98, p.A6)
2001 UNESCO proclaimed the
Garifuna language, music and dance Masterpieces of the Oral and
Intangible heritage of Humanity.
(SFC, 7/25/07, p.E2)
Gilbert and Ellice Islands
A widely scattered island group
in the central Pacific under British control. They included Christmas
Island under Australia.
(WUD, 1994, p.597,263)
1942 Feb 1, Planes of the U.S.
Pacific fleet attacked Japanese bases in the Marshall and Gilbert
Islands.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1942 Aug 17, Marine Raiders
attacked Makin Island in the Gilbert Islands from two submarines.
(HN, 8/17/98)
1942 Aug 19, 19 US Marines died
during a commando raid on Makin atoll in the Gilbert Islands. The raid
was 2,000 miles behind enemy lines and 9 Marines were left behind. The
1943 movie, “Gung Ho,” was based on the raid and starred Randolph
Scott as Lt. Col. Evans Carlson, leader of the raid. In 2001 the bodies
of 13 Marines, who died on Makin, were reburied at Arlington National
Cemetery.
(SFC, 12/26/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/18/01, p.A3)
1943 Nov 20, US Marines began
landing on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands, encountering
fierce resistance from Japanese forces but emerging victorious three
days later. The US 2nd marine division invaded the tiny isle of Betio
on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilberts. It was the first seriously opposed
landing experienced by the Americans in WWII. After 3 days 1,027 US
Marine and Navy personnel were killed. Of some 4,800 Japanese and
Korean laborers on Betio, 146 survived, including 17 Japanese troops.
In 2006 John Wukovits authored “One Square Mile Of Hell.”
(AP,
11/20/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tarawa)(AH, 6/07, p.72)
1943 Nov 22, US troops landed on
Abemada, Gilbert Island.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1943 Nov 23, During World War II,
U.S. forces seized control of the Tarawa and Makin atolls from the
Japanese. [part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands] Makin Atoll was the
first central Pacific island to be reconquered by the Allies.
(AP, 11/23/97)(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A17)
1957 May 15, The 1st British
hydrogen bomb destroyed Christmas Island in South Pacific. The 200 -
300 kilotons yield was less than expected.
(www.atomicarchive.com/Timeline/Time1950.shtml)
1962 Apr 25,
Operation Dominic began with a test blast on Christmas Island. The
operation was a series of 105 nuclear test explosions conducted in 1962
and 1963 by the United States. Those conducted in the Pacific are
sometimes called Dominic I. The blasts in Nevada are known as Dominic
II.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Operation_Dominic_I_and_II)
1962 May 25, US performed fizzled
nuclear test at Christmas Island. The Tanana blast was part of
Operation Dominic.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Operation_Dominic_I_and_II)
1999 Mar 27, On Christmas Island
the crazy ant, Anoplolepis gracilipes, was reported to be decimating
the local crab population. The ant was introduced by west African
traders about 50 years earlier.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.C1)
Gitskan
1993 The Delgamuukw Decision gave
the Gitskan Indians of British Columbia unextinguished but
non-exclusive rights to their traditional territory, 58,000 sq. miles
near Smithers, BC. The Indians appealed and argued that their rights
were absolute and exclusive.
(G&M, 2/2/96, p.A-2)
1994 The Gitskan and the BC
government agreed to try to reach a negotiated settlement over their
differences.
(G&M, 2/2/96, p.A-2)
1996 Feb. The BC government
abandoned land-claims negotiations with the Gitskan Indians.
(G&M, 2/2/96, p.A-2)
Gold Coast
Former British territory in West
Africa that became part of Ghana
(WUD, 1994 p.607)
1954 Jun 15, The Convention
People’s Party, led by Kwame Nkrumah, won the Gold Coast elections
(later part of Ghana).
(HT, 6/15/00)
Guadeloupe
1493 Nov 4, Christopher Columbus
discovered Guadeloupe during his second expedition.
(HN, 11/4/98)
1635 Jun 28, The French colony of
Guadeloupe was established in the Caribbean.
(HN, 6/28/98)
1648 The island of St. Martin in
the Lesser Antilles was divided between the French and Dutch. The
southern half went to the Dutch as Sint Maarten, while the northern
half, Saint Martin, became part of the French department of Guadeloupe.
Legend has it that a Dutchman and a Frenchman stood back to back at the
center of the island and paced of their shares. The Dutchman stopped
often to drink beer and was left with the smaller share.
(NH, 10/96, p.60) (SFEC, 2/16/96, p.T6)
1739 Dec 25, Chevalier de
Saint-Georges (d.1799) was born on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.
He was the first African American musician to achieve international
renown as a classical composer, violinist and conductor.
(http://ChevalierDeSaintGeorges.Homestead.com/Page1.html)
1759 Apr 23, British seized
Basse-Terre and Guadeloupe in the Antilies from France.
(HN, 4/23/99)
1759 May 1, British fleet occupied
Guadeloupe, in the West Indies. [see Apr 23]
(MC, 5/1/02)
1804 Jul 21, Victor Schoelcher,
abolished French slavery, was born in Guadeloupe.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1976 Jul 8, A volcano erupted on
Guadeloupe and frightened the capital, Basse-Terre. A phreatic eruption
of the Soufriere volcano cracked open the summit dome
(www.ipgp.jussieu.fr/~beaudu/soufriere/smithsonian76.html#sean_0109)
2003 Dec 7, Voters on the French
Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique rejected reforms to
their legislatures that opponents had criticized as a step toward
independence from France.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2004 Mar 28, Guadeloupe's leader
conceded defeat in regional elections that pushed her conservative
party out of power for the first time in 12 years, a loss seen as
public backlash toward moves to win greater autonomy from Paris.
(AP, 3/29/04)
2005 Nov 25, In Guadeloupe youths
set up flaming tire barricades and threw rocks at police in clashes
sparked by a motorcycle crash at a police checkpoint.
(AP, 11/25/05)
2005 Guadeloupe’s population was
420,000. The unemployment rate was 39%.
(AP, 11/26/05)
2006 Sep 30, André
Schwarz-Bart (b.1928), French novelist of Polish-Jewish origins, died
in Guadeloupe. His books included the novel “The Last of the Just”
(1960), based on the Jewish teaching that the fate of the world lies
with 36 just men.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Schwarz-Bart)(WSJ, 12/9/06, p.P12)
2006 Nov 2, In St. Maarten 4
French nationals were convicted of beating two gay American tourists on
Guadelupe and were sentenced to between six months and six years in
prison.
(AP, 11/2/06)
2009 Feb 16, On the French island
of Guadeloupe police detained about 50 people after coming under a
barrage of stones as they tried to take down barricades. On Martinique
as many as 10,000 demonstrators marched through the narrow streets of
the capital to protest spiraling food prices and denounce the business
elite.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Guadeloupe rioters
manning barricades fatally shot Jacques Bino, tax agent and union
member, in a housing project in Pointe-a-Pitre, as he returned home
from protests. This was the first death in unrest that has convulsed
France's Caribbean islands for weeks.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 19, France bowed to
demands for wage increases in Guadeloupe in the hope of ending a
month-long strike that has plunged the French Caribbean island into
rioting.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 27, Unions in Guadeloupe
scored a victory in getting a deal to raise some workers' salaries, but
said they will not end a general strike now concluding its sixth week.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Mar 4, Union leaders on the
French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe agreed to suspend a 44-day-old
general strike as most of their demands continue to be met.
(AP, 3/4/09)
Guam
A 210 square mile island of the
Marianas.
See Marianas (Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands).
Haida
A native tribe of the northwest coast of the
American continent.
(NH, 3/97, p.42)
Hatti
1300BC A middle-east empire of this time.
(MT, 3/96, p.3)
Hispaniola
An island in the West Indies
comprising Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
(WUD, 1994, p.673)
1496 Mar 10, Christopher Columbus
concluded his second visit to the Western Hemisphere as he left
Hispaniola for Spain.
(AP, 3/10/98)
1515 By this year the Taino
Indians were practically annihilated in clashes with the Spanish.
(SFC, 3/29/97, p.A10)
Hmong
The Hmong are one of 54 ethnic
groups in Viet Nam.
(SFEM, 6/9/96, p.9)
2300BC The Hmong people lived on the central plains
of China. They gradually moved to the mountains of Indochina and Burma
and then to Laos and Thailand.
(SFC, 6/9/96, DB p.2)
1950s The Hmong had no written
language until Christian missionaries began to show them increased
attention.
(MT, Sum. ‘98, p.7)
1960s The CIA recruited these
tribal people, farmers from the highlands of Laos, to help fight the
Viet Cong.
(SFC, 5/26/96, p.C-8)
1975-1980 A third of the Hmong people were killed
when the US withdrew from Laos.
(SFC, 6/9/96, DB p.2)
1992 The Hmong began living at the
Tham Krabok Buddhist monastery after monk traveled into the mountains
to free 2,000 Hmong from opium addiction.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A10)
1995 Thailand announced that it
would close all of its refugee camps. This would force the 4,500 Hmong
remaining in those camps to either go to the US or return to Laos.
(SFC, 5/26/96, p.C-8)
1996 May 26, About 3,000 Hmong
from refugee camps in Thailand are expected to arrive to the San
Joaquin Valley in California where 65,000 are already living.
(SFC, 5/26/96, p.C-8)
1996 Jun, Dia Cha wrote “Dia’s
Story Cloth: The Hmong People’s Journey to Freedom.”
(SFC, 6/9/96, DB p.2)
1997 Jun, In this year 25,000
Hmong lived in Laos, 18,000 in Thailand and 140,000 in the US with some
48,500 in the San Joaquin Valley of Calif. A clan of 15,000 lived at
the Tham Krabok Buddhist monastery north of Bangkok.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A8)
1997 Anne Fadiman wrote “The
Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American
Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures.” It was about the Hmong in
Merced, Ca.
(SFEC,12/14/97, BR p.4)
Hottentots
1905 Oct 29, Hottentot chief
Hendrik Witbooi was fatally injured.
(MC, 10/29/01)
Huastecs
A native Mexican tribe that lived
north of the Aztecs. Their fertility goddess was named Tlazolteotl, and
was adopted by the Aztecs.
(NH, 4/97, p.25)
Huns
434-453 Attila the Hun was known in western Europe as
the "Scourge of God." Attila was the king of the Huns from 434 to 453
and one of the greatest of the barbarian rulers to assail the Roman
Empire.
(HNQ, 12/19/98)
451AD Jun 20, Roman and Barbarian
warriors halted Attila’s army at the Catalaunian Plains in eastern
France. Attila the Hun was defeated by a combined Roman and Visigothic
army. The Huns moved south into Italy but were defeated again.
(V.D.-H.K.p.88) (HN, 6/20/98)
451 Apr 7, Attila's Huns plundered
Metz.
(MC, 4/7/02)
452AD Jun 8, Italy was invaded by
Attila the Hun.
(HN, 6/8/98)
452AD Attila the Hun died.
(V.D.-H.K.p.88)
Igbo
At Ebo landing on St. Simons
Island off the coast of Georgia, it is rumored that the ghosts of Igbo
tribesman captured in West Africa and transported there to become
plantation slaves still roam the shores.
(SFC, 4/28/96, p.T-7)
Inuit
1948 James Houston, Canadian
author, flew into the Arctic Circle and spent 14 years with Inuit
people. In 1996 he published “Confessions of an Igloo Dweller, Memories
of the Old Arctic.”
(SFC, 9/1/96, BR p.4)
1995 Oct. These people of
Northern Quebec have about 4,300 eligible voters to voice their opinion
on whether to remain a part of Canada.
(WSJ, 10/26/95, p.A-16)
1999 April 1, In recognition of
Inuit land claims, a huge chunk of the Canadian Northwest Territories'
Central Keewatin and Baffin Region will become Nunavut Territory.
(CAM, Nov.Dec. '95, p.28)
Isle of Man
Known in its Celtic language of Manx as Ellan Vannin. The island in the
middle of the Irish Sea is 220 sq. miles with a population of 70,000.
It is not part of the United Kingdom but the queen of England is the
feudal Lord of Man.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.T3)
979 The Isle of Man parliament,
the Tynwald Court, was established.
(SSFC, 8/13/06, p.G5)
1907 On the Isle of Man the
motorbike race for the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, was started.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.T13)
1973 Aug 3, A flash fire killed 51
at amusement park on the Isle of Man, UK.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1974 Ned Mandrell, the last native
speaker of Manx, died. The Goidelic language, similar to Irish and
Scots Gaelic, was once spoken on the Isle of Man.
(Econ, 10/25/08,
p.72)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manx_language)
Jersey
An island 14 miles off the coast of France. Its
capital is St Heliare.
(Econ, 2/24/07, p.)
1600-1603 Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) governed
Jersey, a British Channel Island.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.59)
1940 The German occupiers of
Jersey set a maximum tax rate of 20%. The low tax rate later attracted
the bank deposits of British expatriates.
(Econ, 2/24/07, SR p.5)
1969 Oct 1, The Channel Islands of
Guernsey & Jersey begin issuing their own postage stamps.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_postage_in_Great_Britain)
1986 On the Channel Island of
Jersey the Haut de la Garenne children's home closed down.
(Econ, 3/1/08, p.58)
2008 Feb 23, Police on the Channel
Island of Jersey found a child's buried remains at Haut de la Garenne,
a former children's home. They soon widened their search for bodies to
six more sites in and around the home.
(AFP, 2/25/08)(Econ, 3/1/08, p.58)
2009 Sep 21, Gordon Wateridge
(78), a carer at the former Haut de la Garenne children’s home during
the 1970s on the Channel island of Jersey, was jailed for two years for
sexually assaulting teenage girls there.
(AFP, 9/21/09)
2009 The population of Britain’s
Channel Island of Jersey was about 92,000, with 13,000 people employed
in financial services.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.59)
Jurchens
c1000 A group of Asian people
neighboring to China.
(NH, 9/97, p.14)
Kaliningrad, aka Koenigsberg, Königsberg
1712 King Frederick I of Prussia
presented his amber room, made as a gift by German artisans in 1701, to
Peter the Great [1716]. Catherine the Great later added four marble
panels from Florence, that were inlaid with precious stones. It was
moved to Konigsberg in 1945 and then lost during WW II. One of the
marble panels turned up in Bremen in 1997.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A16)(SFC, 4/30/98, p.E6)(WSJ,
1/20/00, p.A20)
1716 Prussian King Friedrich
Wilhelm I gave the Czar of Russia an elaborately carved amber chamber.
In exchange, he received his wish: 55 very tall Russian soldiers.
German troops dismantled it in 1941 and took it to Koenigsburg where it
disappeared. In 1979 the Soviet government initiated a reconstruction,
which was unveiled in 2003. [see 1701, 1712]
(AP, 5/13/03)
1941 The amber room in St.
Petersburg was dismantled by German officers and shipped to Konigsberg
for safekeeping. The Allied bombing in 1945 was thought to have
destroyed the work.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A16)
1945 Jan 30, Nazi SS guards shot
down an estimated 4,000 Jewish prisoners on the Baltic coast at
Palmnicken, Kaliningrad. The town was later renamed by the Russians to
Yantarny. Some 7,000 prisoners had been marched 25 miles from
Koenigsberg to a vacant lock factory at Palmnicken where they were
mowed down with machine guns. The prisoners had been vacated from a
network of 30 camps that made up Poland's Stutthoff concentration camp.
90% of the Jews were women from Lithuania and Hungary.
(SFC, 1/31/00, p.C1)
1945 The Red Army took
Koenigsberg, dynamited the city and killed or expelled the German
population. They renamed it Kaliningrad after Mikhail Kalinin, the
Soviet figurehead president.
(Econ, 11/22/03, p.7S)
2001 Jan 4, It was reported that
Russia had moved nuclear warheads into storage areas at its Kaliningrad
naval base over the past year. Russia called the charges a dangerous
joke.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A8)(SFC, 1/5/01, p.A20)
2002 Jul 10, In the Russian Baltic
enclave of Kaliningrad a man was killed when a sign with an offensive
slogan exploded as he tried to remove it from a park.
(AP, 7/10/02)
Kalmykia
1993 Residents of the Kalmykia
Region elected Kirsan Ilyumzhinov after her promised every citizen $100
if he won.
(SFC, 9/24/97, p.A10)
1994 The single independent
newspaper of Kalmykia, Sovyetskaya Kalmykia, was shut down
(SFC, 9/24/97, p.A12)
1998 Jun 8, Larisa Yudina (53), an
independent journalist in Kalmykia, was found dead in a pond with a
fractured skull and multiple stab wounds. She had pursued
investigations of corruption of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the president of
Kalmykia. The murder was called a political killing. Two aides of
Ilyumzhinov were later arrested by the police and confessed to the
killing.
(SFC, 6/13/98, p.A10)(SFC, 6/17/98, p.C2)
1998 Sep, Kalmykia hosted the 33rd
Chess Olympiad in its newly built $30 million Chess city. Although some
players refused to go over a 1000 showed up. The semi-autonomous
republic of Russia had a population of 320,000 and is located on the
Caspian Sea. Its capital was Elista and its president was Kirsan
Ilyumzhinov
(WSJ, 10/7/98, p.A1)
2002 Oct 20, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov,
incumbent president of the Russian region of Kalmykia since 1993, led
all vote-getters in a re-election bid. Ilyumzhinov, a millionaire and
president of the international chess federation FIDE, led the field of
11 candidates with 47.6 percent of the vote.
(AP, 10/21/02)
Karelia
3.0-1.9 Billion BP The Saamo-Karelian structural zone
in the north-east of the Baltic shield evolved in this time and
contains highly metamorphosed rocks and granites.
(DD-EVTT, p.144)
1937-1938 Several hundred Americans were arrested in
Karelia, near the Finnish border during the Stalin purges. Several
thousand Americans and Canadians had moved there to help develop the
Soviet timber industry.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, BR p.7)(SFC, 7/17/97,
p.A10)(SFEC,11/9/97, p.A12)
Kassites
1600BC The Kassites, a non-Semitic people, conquered
most of Mesopotamia with the help of light chariot warfare.
(http://eawc, p.3)
1595BC The Hittites captured Babylon and retreated.
They left the city open to Kassite domination which lasted about 300
years. The Kassites maintained the Sumerian/Babylonian culture without
innovations of their own.
(http://eawc, p.4)
1250BC By this time the Assyrians committed
themselves to conquering the Kassite Empire to the south.
(http://eawc, p.4)
Khazaria
1395 Tamerlane burnt Astrakhan to
the ground. Astrakhan is situated in the Volga Delta, a fertile area
that formerly contained the capitals of Khazaria and the Golden Horde.
Astrakhan itself was first mentioned by travelers in the early 13th
century as Xacitarxan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrakhan)
1500-1600 The Kalmyk people, descendants from the
Golden Horde of Genghis Khan, settled in the lowlands between the Volga
and Don rivers (Khazaria) with their livestock.
(SFC, 9/24/97, p.A12)
Khitans
c1000 A group of Asian people
neighboring to China.
(NH, 9/97, p.14)
Kiribati
1798 Edmund Fanning, an American
explorer, 1st charted Tabuaeran coral atoll (part of the Gilbert
Islands). Fanning Island Plantations Ltd. owned the island through the
1800s and exported coconuts.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.C22)
1892-1937 The Gilbert Islands (Kiribati Islands)
were amalgamated as British possessions.
(WSJ, 1/22/96, p.A-1)
1940 British soldiers found bones
on Gardner Island, later renamed Nikumaroro Island, in Kiribati that
they suspected might be the remains of Amelia Earhart. A report
identifying the remains as those of a male was forwarded to England but
not to America. In 1998 the bones were identified as belonging to a
woman about 5 foot 7, of northern European extraction.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.A4)
1942 Aug 17, Marine Raiders
attacked Makin Island (Kiribati) in the Gilbert Islands from two
submarines. [see Aug 18]
(HN, 8/17/98)
1942 Aug 18, Carlson's Raiders
landed on Makin (Kiribati) in the Gilbert islands and killed 350
Japanese. [see Aug 17]
(MC, 8/18/02)
1956 The British administrator of
the Gilbert Islands put a levy on the export of phosphates (bird
manure) used in fertilizer. By 2007 the money set aside had developed
into the Kiribati Revenue Equalization Reserve Fund, a $250 million
investment portfolio that had grown to 9 times the atoll’s GDP.
State-owned investments later developed around the world and became
recognized as sovereign wealth funds.
(Econ, 5/26/07, p.79)
1971 Australia joined with New
Zealand and 14 independent of self-governing island nations to form the
South Pacific Forum. The name was changed in 2000 to Pacific Islands
Forum. Member states include: Australia, the Cook Islands, the
Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands,
Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon
Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Since 2006, associate members
territories are New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
(Econ, 10/20/07,
p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islands_Forum)
1979 Jul 12, The Gilbert Islands
gained independence from Britain and became a nation, the Archipelago
of Kiribati. It is a chain of 35 islands that sprawls 1,860 miles from
east to west. Fanning Island was renamed to Tabuaeran.
(www.worldstatesmen.org/Kiribati.htm)(SFC, 7/1/97,
p.A9)(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.C22)
1994 Te Buroro Tito was elected
president of Kiribati.
(WSJ, 1/22/96, p.A-1)
1995 Jan 1, Teburoro Tito, the
incoming president of Kiribati, moved the International Date Line a
thousand miles east around Kiribati to allow all of its 33 atolls to be
line the same time zone. Thus the atoll of Kirimati never experienced
Dec 31, 1994.
(SSFC, 12/17/06, p.G5)
1996 Kiribati moved a section of
the date line so that its boundaries would all share the same day.
(WSJ, 1/22/96, p.A-1)
1999 Mar 6, It was reported that
state of emergency had been declared after a prolonged drought nearly
exhausted the underground fresh water supply of the 81,000 inhabitants.
(SFC, 3/6/99, p.A8)
1999 Jun 18, Kiribati reported
that the islands of Tebua Tarawa and Abanuea were swallowed by the
Pacific Ocean.
(SFC, 6/18/99, p.A14)
2001 Jul, Kiribati joined the
United Nations. The population was 94,149.
(SFC, 11/17/01, p.A13)
2003 Nov 29, China said it broke
diplomatic relations with Kiribati after the tiny Pacific island nation
opened ties with rival Taiwan.
(AP, 11/29/03)
2006 Mar 28, President Anote Tong
of the Republic of Kiribati announced the formation of the world's
third-largest marine reserve at the 8th UN conference on the Convention
on Biological Diversity under way this week in Brazil.
(Reuters, 3/28/06)
2007 Kiribati decided to turn half
of its waters in the uninhabited Phoenix Islands into a
160,000-square-mile-reserve.
(SFC, 4/11/09, p.A3)
Kiwayu
One of the spice islands off the
coast of Kenya. The other is Lamu.
(USA Today, 5/14/96, p.6D)
Koguryo
37BCE-448CE The Koguryo kingdom straddled what is now North Korea and
part of South Korea and the northeastern Chinese region of Manchuria.
It spread Buddhism throughout the region.
(AP, 2/1/04)
Kongo
1400s Kongo’s king, the
Mani-Kongo, ruled six provinces and about two million people. The
capital of the Kongo is Mbanza, built on a fertile plateau 100 miles
east of the coast and 50 miles south of the Congo River in southwest
Africa.
(ATC, p.150)
1482 Captain Diego Cao sailed
south along the African coast and landed at the mouth of the Zaire
(Congo) River. He left four servants and took four Africans hostage
back to his king, John, in Portugal. This was the first European
encounter with the vast kingdom of the Kongo.
(ATC, p.149)
Kosovo (see Serbia)
A province of Serbia, capital is
Pristina, with a population of nearly 2 million people who are mostly
Albanian Muslims. The province was granted independent status by Tito.
1989 Milosevic of Serbia revoked
the independent status of Kosovo.
(WSJ, 8/5/96, p.A13)
Kuban
1932-1933 Stalin imposed terror and famine on the
Ukraine, Kuban and Kazakhstan that was carried out be Lazar Kaganovich.
(WSJ, 2/14/96, p.A-15)
Kurile Islands
A chain of island in the
northwest Pacific between Hokaido and the Kamchatka Peninsula.
(SFC, 1/19/99, p.A8)
1875 Russia recognized Japan's
control over the 4 southernmost Kurile Islands.
(SFC, 1/19/99, p.A8)
1998 Nov, Prime Minister Keizo
Obuchi of Japan in a summit with Pres. Yeltsin agreed to give Russia
close to $1 billion with $100 earmarked for the Kuriles.
(SFC, 1/19/99, p.A8)
Kush
1500BC By this time the kingdom of Kush was
established south of Egypt. The Kushites were dark-complexioned
Negroids.
(http://eawc, p.4)
Ladakh
A country west of Bhutan that was
absorbed into British India during colonial times.
(WSJ, 3/6/97, p.A1)
1820 Sep, William Moorcroft, East
India Co. head of 5,000 acre horse farm at Pusa, India, arrived in
Ladakh, while enroute to Bukhara, Uzbekistan, to trade for horses. He
spent 2 years here before continuing his journey.
(ON, 1/02, p.5)
Lamu
One of the spice islands off the
coast of Kenya. The other is Kiwayu. It has the feel of a medieval
Arabic trading village.
(USA Today, 5/14/96, p.6D)
Leeward Islands
A group of islands in the North Lesser Antilles of
the West Indies extending from Puerto Rico SE to Martinique. A former
British colony in the E West Indies consisting of Antigua, Barbuda, St.
Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, Montserrat, and the British Virgin Islands.
(WUD, 1994, p.817)
1493 Nov 11, Columbus discovered
Saba, North Leeward Islands.
(WUD, 1994 p.1257)(MC, 11/11/01)
1958-1962 The West Indies Federation was comprised of
British territorial islands in the West Indies that included Barbados,
Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago, along with the Windward and Leeward Island
colonies.
(WUD, 1994, p.1623)
1997 Jun 18, It was reported that
Japan was paying 5 Caribbean nations extensive aid and investment in
order to gain support to block protections for endangered species.
Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Dominica were
all reported to have been bribed.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A8)
2006 Jun 16, The Int’l. Whaling
Commission met in St. Kitts.
(Econ, 6/17/06, p.15)
2008 The population of St. Kitts
stood at about 40,000.
(Econ, 2/2/08, p.46)
Liguria
1797 A republic in NW Italy that
was set up by Napoleon.
(WUD, 1994, p.830)
1805 Liguria was incorporated into
France.
(WUD, 1994, p.830)
1814 The Kingdom of Sardinia was
united with the Kingdom of Liguria.
(WUD, 1994, p.830)
1849 Mar 23, Battle of Novara
(King Charles Albert of Sardinia vs. Italian republic). Austria’s Gen.
Radetzky (83) crushed the Piedmontese forces. Charles Albert abdicated
and was succeeded by his son, Victor Emmanuel II, who reigned until
1861.
(PCh, 1992, p.449)(SS, 3/23/02)
Lombardy
A region and former kingdom of
northern Italy initially settled by an ancient Germanic tribe.
(WUD, 1994, p.843)
1524 Chevalier Bayard, commander
of French forces in Lombardy, was killed and the French were driven out.
(TL-MB, p.12)
Lord Howe Island
450 miles east of Sidney Australia.
www.compuserve.com.au/lordhowe/island.htm
1833 The first settlers came to
Lord Howe Island.
(SFEM, 3/12/00, p.69)
1875 All land on Lord Howe was
declared Crown Land. No ownership was allowed but leases were granted
in perpetuity.
(SFEM, 3/12/00, p.69)
1982 UNESCO declared Lord Howe
Island a World Heritage Site.
(SFEM, 3/12/00, p.69)
Lusitania
In Roman times the area of
Portugal was a Roman province named Lusitania.
(WUD, 1994, p.854)
Lycia
540BC The population of Xanthos in
Lycia (later Turkey) committed mass suicide rather than face slavery
under invading armies.
(SFEC, 1/17/99, p.T5)
Lydia
2,000BC The Hittites lived around what is now
Cappadocia, Turkey. They mixed with the already-settled Hatti and were
followed by the Lydians, Phrygians, Byzantines, Romans and Greeks.
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.T14)
585BC May 25, The first known
prediction of a solar eclipse was made [by Thales]. A historically
registered eclipse occurred during the savage war between the Lydians
and the Medians. The event caused both sides to stop military action
and sign for peace. The date of the eclipse coincides with the
date in Oppolzer’s tables published in 1887.
(SCTS, p.27)(HN, 5/25/98)
585BC May 28, A solar eclipse,
predicted by Thales of Miletus, interrupted a battle [a Persian-Lydian
battle] outside of Sardis in western Turkey between the Medes and
Lydians. The battle ended in a draw. [see May 25]
(HN, 5/28/98)(HN, 5/28/99)
560-546BC The rule of Croesus. The first coins were
produced in Lydia under the rule of Croesus. It was a kingdom in
western Turkey. Croesus made a treaty with the Spartans and attacked
Persia and was defeated.
(SFEC, 1/19/96, Parade p.5)(WUD, 1994, p.345)(WSJ,
11/11/99, p.A24)
546BC The Persians destroyed
Egypt’s alliance with the Chaldeans, Lydia and Sparta by first
capturing Lydia then the Chaldaeans.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
484-420BC Herodotus claimed that the Etruscans were
Lydians who had immigrated to Italy from Asia Minor. But modern
scholars believe the Etruscans evolved from an indigenous population of
Iron Age farmers of the Villanovan culture.
(NG, 6/1988, p.710)
Macao
1834 Jul 15, Lord Napier of
England arrived at Macao, China as the first chief superintendent of
trade.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1849 Aug 22, The Portuguese
governor of Macao, China, was assassinated because of his anti-Chinese
policies.
(HN, 8/22/98)
1866 Nov 12, Sun Yat-Sen (d.1925),
Chinese statesman and revolutionary leader, was born (trad) to a
Christian peasant near Macao. He attended an Anglican grammar school in
Hawaii, and went on to graduate from Hong Kong School of Medicine in
1892.
(HFA, '96, p.18)(AP, 6/22/97)(HNQ, 6/3/98)
1987 Apr 13, Portugal signed an
agreement to return Macau to China in 1999.
(MC, 4/13/02)
Malta
1798 Jun 11, Napoleon Bonaparte
took the island of Malta.
(HN, 6/11/98)
1940 Jun 11, The Italian Air Force
bombed the British fortress at Malta in the Mediterranean.
(HN, 6/11/98)
1942 Apr 15, George VI awarded the
George Cross to the citizens of Malta.
(HN, 4/15/98)
1945 Feb 2, President Roosevelt
and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill departed Malta for the
Yalta summit with Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
(AP, 2/2/97)
Maoris
1350 Maori ancestors arrived at
New Zealand on seven legendary canoes from Hawaiki, the mother-island
of the east Polynesians.
(NG, Aug., 1974, C. McCarry, p.196)
Maronites
A group of people in Lebanon.
They number about 1.3 million. Their declining numbers and civil war
ended a long time political and economic dominance.
(WSJ, 9/5/96, p.A8)
Marquesas Islands
Ten rugged French Polynesian
islands 3,500 from the US coast. Of the 12 islands of the Marquesan
archipelago, only 6 were inhabited in 2000.
(WSJ, 4/6/00, p.A20)
1596 The Marquesas Islands were
visited by a Spanish ship.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, p.T5)
1774 Captain Cook dropped anchor
at the islands.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, p.T6)
1791 The Islands were officially
discovered. Over a 30 year period western diseases ravaged the populace
and only about 2,000 of 100,000 people survived.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, p.T6)
1842 France claimed the Marquesas
Islands.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, p.T6)
1898 Missionaries forbade the
natives to tattoo their bodies.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, p.T6)
1901 Paul Gauguin left Tahiti for
the Marquesas and arrived at Hiva Oa.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, p.T1,6)
1903 May 8, Paul Gauguin (b.1848),
French born painter, died at his home on the Marquesas Islands. He was
buried at Atuona on Hiva Oa Island.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, p.T6)(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.C9)
1978 Oct 9, Jacques Brel, Belgian
cabaret singer, died at 49. He was buried at Atuona on the Marquesas
Island of Hiva Oa.
(MC, 10/9/01)(SSFC, 10/11/03, p.C9)
1999 Dec 28, Many tourists showed
up for the 5th of the Marquesas Arts Festivals. The Aranui cargo
ship made stops at the Marquesas.
(WSJ, 4/6/00, p.A20)
2002 Survivor 4 was filmed on Nuku
Hiva, the largest of the 12 Marquesa Islands.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.C9)
Martinique
1502 Columbus landed in Martinique
and named the island.
(SSFC, 2/2/03, p.M4)
1731 The ship Diligent left a
Breton port to pick up some 250 slaves for Martinique. 1st Lt. Robert
Durand kept a diary that turned up in 1984. In 2002 Robert Harms
authored “The Diligent.”
(WSJ, 2/26/02, p.A22)
1762 Feb 5, Martinique, a major
French base in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, surrendered to
the British.
(HN, 2/5/99)
1776 Sep 6, A hurricane hit
Martinique; 100 French & Dutch ships sank and 600 died.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1790 Jun 9, Civil war broke out in
Martinique.
(HN 6/9/98)
1806 Mar, Frederic Tudor arrived
in the brigantine Favorite at a Martinique port with 130 toms of New
England ice. An anticipated icehouse and his partners were nowhere to
be found, so Tudor peddled the ice directly from the ship and convinced
a local restaurateur to sell the previously unknown dessert, ice
cream. Despite his efforts, Tudor lost $4,000 on the venture, the
first of several setbacks throughout his rocky business career.
(HNQ, 1/6/01)
1851 Mt. Pelee volcano on the
French Island of Martinique erupted. It left the city of St. Pierre
unscathed.
(NH, 10/02, p.76)
1889 Aug 24, Auguste Neal, a
convicted murderer, was executed in Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, becoming
the first person and only person to be executed by guillotine in North
America. The device was specially shipped from Martinique for the
execution.
(SSFC, 11/16/08, p.E5)
1902 May 8, Mt. Pelee volcano, on
the French Island of Martinique in the east W. Indies, blew its top and
wiped out the town of St. Pierre. A pyroclastic flow killed 29-40
thousand people. In 1972 Jacques Petitjean Roget published a detailed
report on the event. In 2002 Alwyn Scarth authored “La Catastrophe.”
(SFC, 8/13/01, p.A4)(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A14)(NH, 10/02,
p.76)
1961 Dec 12, Frantz Fanon
(b.1925), Martinique-born writer, psychiatrist, and revolutionary died
in Washington, DC. He foretold of Third World liberation struggles. In
2008 John Edgar Wideman authored his novel “Fanon” based on Fanon’s
life.
(SSFC, 10/5/03, p.M2)(WSJ, 2/15/08,
p.W2)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/fanon.htm)
1983 The Martinique film “Sugar
Cane Alley” was directed by Euzhan Palcy. It was set in 1931 and was
about an orphan boy whose grandmother is determined to get him an
education.
(SFEC, 4/9/00, DB p.46)
2003 John Edgar Wideman authored
“The Island,” a history and travel journal of Martinique as part of the
National Geographic Directions series.
(SSFC, 2/2/03, p.Mr)
2003 Dec 7, Voters on the French
Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique rejected reforms to
their legislatures that opponents had criticized as a step toward
independence from France.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2005 Jun 13, In Martinique Patrick
Mariello showed up at a police station to say he had set his
ex-girlfriend's car on fire. The charred body of the 28-year-old was
found near the car. In 2008 Mariello (32) Mariello testified that he
was upset his ex-girlfriend never told him she had an affair with his
best friend. He was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
(AP, 5/17/08)
2005 Oct 9, It was reported that
dengue fever was causing concerns in Malaysia and Martinique. Malaysia
reported 71 deaths so far this year from over 27,000 cases. Martinique
reported almost 1,000 cases a week since mid-September.
(SSFC, 10/9/05, p.D2)
2007 Aug 17, Hurricane Dean tore
through the eastern Caribbean islands of St. Lucia and Martinique,
ripping roofs from buildings, downing trees and knocking out power. 100
mph winds ruined the entire banana harvest on St. Lucia and Martinique
and battered the banana industry in Dominica.
(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Sep 14, In Martinique health
officials declared a dengue epidemic following the report of over 1,000
suspected cases in the last month.
(SFC, 9/17/07, p.A3)
2008 Apr 17,
Aime Cesaire (b.1913), a Martinique poet honored throughout the
French-speaking world and a crusader for West Indian rights, died.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2009 Feb 16, On the French island
of Guadeloupe police detained about 50 people after coming under a
barrage of stones as they tried to take down barricades. On Martinique
as many as 10,000 demonstrators marched through the narrow streets of
the capital to protest spiraling food prices and denounce the business
elite.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 17, Business leaders in
Martinique agreed to a 20 percent price cut on most supermarket
products, despite initial refusal.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 25, In Martinique vandals
burned cars and looted stores overnight, as violence spread to a second
French Caribbean island in protests over high prices, low pay and
alleged neglect by officials in Paris.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Mar 14, In Martinique
thousands of demonstrators marched and sand in the streets after
officials signed an agreement ending a monthlong strike on the French
Caribbean island.
(AP, 3/14/09)
2009 Jun 26, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy said that Martinique is free to hold a referendum on
greater political autonomy but made clear the island would always
belong to France.
(AP, 6/26/09)
2010 Jan 10, Voters in Martinique
overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to give local government more
autonomy while remaining a part of France. Election officials said 80%
of voters rejected the plan, with 55% participation. An estimated
50,000 people were unemployed on Martinique, home to some 400,000
inhabitants.
(AP, 1/10/10)
Mauretania
49BC Mauretania (now northern
Morocco and Algeria) became a client kingdom of Rome.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.22)
40AD Mauretania was divided into
the provinces of Tingitana and Caesariensis.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.22)
439AD The Vandals took Carthage
and quickly conquered all the coastal lands of Algeria and Tunisia.
Egypt and the Libyan coast remained in Roman hands.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.168)
c439 In Mauretania (now northern
Morocco and Algeria) Roman rule ceased in the mid 5th century when
barbarian incursions forced the legions to withdraw.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.)
1961 Oct 27, Outer Mongolia and
Mauritania become the 102nd and 103rd members of UN.
(MC, 10/27/01)
Media
An ancient country in W. Asia,
south of the Caspian Sea, that now corresponds with NW Iran. Its
capital was Ecbatana.
(WUD, 1994, p.890)
3,0000BCE Urartu existed in eastern Anatolia starting
about his time until it was defeated and destroyed by the Medes.
(http://www.atmg.org/ArmenianFAQ.html#q6)
700-600BCE A migration of the Cimmerians and
Scythians took place in the seventh century BC. These were nomadic
tribes from the Russian steppes, who made their way round the eastern
end of the Caucasus, burst through into the Moghan plains and the basin
of Lake Urmia, and terrorized Western Asia for several generations,
till they were broken by the power of the Medes and absorbed in the
native population. It was they who made an end of the Kingdom of
Urartu, and the language they brought with them was probably an
Indo-European dialect answering to the basic element in modern Armenian.
(http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce2.htm)
614BC The Babylonians
(particularly, the Chaldeans) with the help of the Medes, who occupied
what is today Iran, began a campaign to destroy the Assyrians.
(http://eawc, p.8)
585BC May 25, The first known
prediction of a solar eclipse was made [by Thales]. A historically
registered eclipse occurred during the savage war between the Lydians
and the Medians. The event caused both sides to stop military action
and sign for peace. The date of the eclipse coincides with the
date in Oppolzer’s tables published in 1887.
(SCTS, p.27)(HN, 5/25/98)
MENA
1995 Middle East / North Africa
economic region. It represents a proposed trading
block that stretches from Morocco to Oman.
(WSJ, 10/27/95, p.A-1)
Mercosur
A South American Common market.
(WSJ, 2/14/97, p.A9)
1991 Brazil implemented a
common external tariff with its Mercosur partners, Argentina, Uruguay,
and Paraguay.
(USA Today, OW, 4/22/96, p.5)
1994 The Mercosur Customs Union
was created among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
(WSJ, 12/20/95, p.A-10)
1996 Bolivia joined Mercosur, the
Southern Cone Common Market, as an associated member.
(WSJ, 2/14/97, p.A9)
Midianites
c1200BC The father-in-law of Moses was a Midianite.
(MT, Spg. ‘97, p.11)
Midway Islands
1867 Aug 28, The US occupied the
Midway Islands in Pacific.
(SFEC, 3/29/98, Z1 p.8)(MC, 8/28/01)
1899 Jan 17, US took possession of
Wake Island in Pacific.
(MC, 1/17/02)
1903 Jul 3, The first cable across
the Pacific Ocean was spliced between Honolulu, Midway, Guam and
Manila. Teddy Roosevelt placed the atoll of Midway Island under Navy
supervision. The Commercial Pacific Cable Co. (later AT&T) set
cable across the Pacific via Midway Island and the first around the
world message was sent. The message took 9 minutes to circle the globe.
(SFEC, 7/20/97, p.T5)(HN, 7/3/98)
1906 The Commercial Pacific Cable
Co. (later AT&T) planted ironwood trees on Midway Island after
setting cable across the Pacific.
(SFEC, 7/20/97, p.T5)
1934 A hotel was built on Midway
Island to service the Pan Am Clipper.
(SFEC, 7/20/97, p.T5)
1935 Mar 27, The steamer North
Haven departed San Francisco with 2 prefabricated hotels and other
supplies to establish bases on Wake and Guam Islands in the Marianas to
support Pan Am flights.
(SFEM, 2/13/00, p.32)
1941 Dec 14, U.S. Marines made a
stand in battle for Wake Island.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1941 Dec 23, US Marines and Navy
defenders on Wake Island capitulated to a second Japanese invasion. In
1995 Brig. Gen. John F. Kinney co-wrote “Wake Island Pilot: A World War
II Memoir.”
(AP, 12/23/97)(HN, 12/23/00)(SFC, 7/11/06, p.B5)
1942 May 2, Admiral Chester J.
Nimitz, convinced that the Japanese would attack Midway Island, visited
the island to review its readiness.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1942 Jun 2, The American aircraft
carriers Enterprise, Hornet and Yorktown moved into their battle
positions for the Battle of Midway.
(HN, 6/2/99)
1969 Jun 8, Pres. Nixon held a
clandestine meeting with South Vietnam Pres. Thieu at Midway Island in
an effort to end the war.
(SFEC, 7/20/97,
p.T5)(http://nixon.archives.gov/virtuallibrary/gallery.php)
Minaro
A people who speak Tibetan and
live on the Dansar plain, a high plateau between India and Pakistan.
They still preserve some stone-age customs.
(SFC, 11/25/96, p.A3)
Mixtec
An indigenous Indian people from
the area around Oaxaca, Mexico. Every March 1 they observe the Viko
Ndute, or Festival of Water, wherein they serve food and drink to the
Earth so that she will produce.
(SFC, 5/6/96, p.A-11)
1000AD The Mixtecs took over the area around Monte
Alban in the now Mexican state of Oaxaca.
(SFC, 5/5/96, p.T-8)
Minoans
2200-1600 The Minoans built Akrotiri. The town had
2-3 story houses with toilets and had a central drainage system.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.T6)
2000-1600BC The Middle Minoan period. Middle Minoan I
finds polychrome decoration in pottery with elaborate geometrical
patterns; we also discover interesting attempts to picture natural
forms, such as goats and beetles. There then follows some great
catastrophe. Middle Minoan II includes the period of the great palace
of Phaestos and the first palace of Knossos. This period also includes
the magnificent polychrome pottery called Kamares ware. Another
catastrophe occurs. The second great palace of Knossos was built and
begins the Middle Minoan III. It was distinguished by an intense
realism in art, speaking clearly of a rapid deterioration in taste.
Pictographic writing was clearly developed, with a hieratic or cursive
script derived from it, adapted for writing with pen and ink.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.17)
2000-1500BC The Minoan civilization, named after the
Cretan ruler Minos, reached its height with central power in Knossos on
the isle of Crete. The culture was apparently more female-oriented and
peaceful than others of the time.
(http://eawc, p.2)
1700BC Knossos was first destroyed by an earthquake.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A8)
c1520 The volcanic island of
Thera, later known as Santorini, blew up. [[see 1645BC, 1500BC, 1470BC
and 1400-1300 for alternate dates]
1500 The explosion of Thira
(Santorini) released energy equal to 200,000 H-bombs. [see 1645BC and
1470BC]
(NH, 5/96, p.3)
1500BC Akrotiri on Santorini was flooded and covered
by pumice and volcanic ash. The 30,000 inhabitants probably had
advanced warning because no skeletons have been found.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.T6)
1470BC The volcano Thera, or Santorini, erupted in
the Mediterranean. It may correspond to the ninth plague of Egypt
recorded in Exodus as the “darkness over Egypt.” [see 1645BC and 1500BC
for alternate date]
(NOHY, 3/90, p.129)
c1450BC The eruption of the volcano on Santorini
Island triggered earthquakes and tidal waves that may have destroyed
most of the Minoan cities and palaces. [see 1470BC]
(SFEC, 8/17/97, p.T11)
1899 Sir Arthur Evans discovered
the center of Minoan civilization on the island of Crete. He erected a
house overlooking the excavations and named it Villa Ariadne after the
daughter of King Minos. As he unearthed a mound at Knossos he rebuilt
parts of a 3,500 year-old palace in modernist style. In 2009 Cathy Gere
authored “Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism.”
(WSJ, 6/26/98, p.W9)(WSJ, 2/8/02, p.AW9)(Econ,
5/16/09, p.91)
Moldavia
Bessarabia is a region in
Moldavia.
(WUD, 1994, p.)
1546 The Turks occupied Moldavia.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.17)
1546-1568 Alexandru Lapuseanu, ruler of Moldavia,
outlawed divorce and imposed the death penalty on anyone who started
such legal proceedings.
(SFC, 6/2/96, Zone 1p.2)
1723 Dimitrie Cantemir (b.1673),
2-time Prince of Moldavia (1693 & 1710-1711), died near Kharkov,
Ukraine. He was born in what is now Romania and became a prolific man
of letters with talents as a philosopher, historian, composer,
musicologist, linguist, ethnographer, and geographer. Between 1687 and
1710 he lived in forced exile in Istanbul, where he learned Turkish and
studied the history of the Ottoman Empire at the Patriarchate's Greek
Academy, where he also composed music.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimitrie_Cantemir)(Econ, 9/15/07, p.104)
1939 Aug 23, German Foreign
Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Commissar for Foreign
Affairs Vyacheslav M. Molotov signed a Treaty of Non-Aggression, the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Secret protocols, made public years later,
were added that assigned Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia (a
region in Moldavia) to be within the Soviet sphere of influence. Poland
was partitioned along the rivers Narev, Vistula and San. Germany
retained Lithuania enlarged by the inclusion of Vilnius. Just days
after the signing, Germany invaded Poland, and by the end of September,
both powers had claimed sections of Poland. World War II and Hitler's
invasion of the Soviet Union were just around the corner.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A16)(DrEE, 9/28/96, p.3)(DrEE,
10/26/96, p.4)(AP, 8/23/97)(HNPD, 8/22/98)
1991 Aug 27, Moldavia declared
independence from USSR.
(MC, 8/28/01)
Molucca Islands (Spice Islands)
31,000BC In the northern Moluccas humans were
visiting the coastal caves of Golo and Wetef on Gebe Island at this
time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.21)
1512 Portuguese explorers
discovered the Celebes and found nutmeg trees in the Moluccas. This
began an 84-year monopoly of the nutmeg and mace trades.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.10)
1942 Feb 9, Japanese troops landed
near Makassar, South Celebes.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1975 Dec 14, Six South Moluccan
extremists surrendered after holding 23 hostages for 12 days on a train
near the Dutch town of Beilen.
(AP, 12/14/00)
1977 Jun 11, A 20-day hostage
drama in the Netherlands ended as Dutch marines stormed a train and a
school held by South Moluccan extremists. Six gunmen and two hostages
on the train were killed.
(AP, 6/11/97)
1999 Dec 2-4, In Indonesia 3-days
of violence in the Maluku Islands (Moluccas) left 31 people dead.
Violence that began a year ago had left 700 dead.
(SFC, 12/6/99, p.A14)
2000 Jun 19, In Indonesia
sectarian fighting killed as many as 161 people in the Maluku Islands,
also known as the Moluccas or Spice Islands. Thousands of Muslims
attacked Christians in the village of Duma.
(WSJ, 6/20/00, p.A1)(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A13)
Montserrat
Travel Docs: http://www.traveldocs.com/ms/index.htm
A 39 sq. mile island in the
Caribbean central Leeward Islands in the E. West Indies,
whose capital is Plymouth. [It
also refers to a mountain in NE Spain, NW of Barcelona and the site of
the Montserrat Monastery.]
(SFC, 8/23/97, p.A12)
1493 Columbus named Montserrat
after the monastery near Barcelona. He did not bother to land on the
island.
(NH, Jul, p.20)
1632 The British colonized
Montserrat. Irish Catholics, who fled religious persecution or had
served out their time as indentured servants in the British West
Indies, began settling in Montserrat.
(NH, Jul, p.20)(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.F2)
1768 Mar 17, A failed slave
uprising took place on Montserrat on St. Patrick’s Day.
(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.F2)
1960 Montserrat was established as
a British colony.
(WUD, 1994, p.928)
1995 Jul, A volcano reawakened in
southern Montserrat and threatened the 12,000 people on the 7 by 11
mile island. Officials evacuated 5,000 people from the southern end
after the volcano began spewing ash and rock.
(SFC, 4/4/96, p.A-9)
1996 May 18 During the week a
series of eruption from the volcano in the Soufriere Hills sent a plume
of ash and rock soaring 3,000 feet..
(SFC, 5/18/96, p.A-9)
1996 Sep 17, The Soufriere Hills
volcano erupted for 48 minutes.
(SFEC, 10/6/96, T11)
1997 Jun 25, The Soufriere Hills
volcano spewed rock and hot ash and killed 6 people while 17 were
reported missing.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A12)
1997 Aug 4, Superheated rock from
the Soufriere Hills volcano flowed into the abandoned capital of
Plymouth.
(SFC, 8/5/97, p.A9)
1997 Aug 22, On Montserrat
voluntary evacuation of the islanders was begun. Two-thirds of the
12,000 inhabitants fled the island. It was expected that much of the
island would not be habitable for 20 years after the eruptions ceased.
(SFC, 8/23/97, p.A12)
1999 Jul, The Soufriere Hills
volcano exploded.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A8)
2003 Jul 15, Montserrat's governor
declared the Caribbean island a disaster zone, days after a volcanic
eruption spewed clouds of rock and ash over the British territory.
(AP, 7/16/03)
Moravia
A region in the East Czech
Republic. A former province of Austria. Moravians formed a Christian
denomination that descended from the Bohemian Brethren that held
that the Scriptures are the only rule of faith and practice. Moravian
is also a dialect of Czech spoken in Moravia.
(WUD, 1994, p.930)
1528 Jacob Hutter (d.1536),
Anabaptist evangelist from South Tyrol, founded a "community of love,"
whose members shared everything. They settled in Moravia due to the
religious tolerance there.
(TL-MB, 1988,
p.13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_Hutter)
1592-1670 The Moravian prelate Jan Komensky wrote in
Latin and German and was offered the presidency of Harvard.
(WSJ, 11/18/96, p.A10)
1772 Dec 22, A Moravian missionary
constructed the 1st schoolhouse west of Allegheny.
(MC, 12/22/01)
1774 Dec 18, Empress Maria Theresa
expelled Jews from Prague, Bohemia and Moravia.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1906 Apr 28, Kurt Gödel
(d.1978), Austrian mathematician, was born in the Moravian city of
Brno. Godel later developed his incompleteness theorem showing that
within any logical system, no matter how rigidly structured, there are
always questions that cannot be answered with certainty, contradictions
that may be discovered, and errors that may lurk.
(V.D.-H.K.p.340)(SFC, 6/14/05, p.D2)
Mycenae
1300 A Levantine city-state.
(MT, 3/96, p.3)
Nauru
CIA Factbook: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/nr.html
A Pacific island republic of
about 8 square miles near the equator and west of the Gilbert Islands.
The population in 2003 was about 12,000.
(WUD, 1994, p.953)(WSJ, 5/16/03, p.A4)
1968 Nauru gained independence
from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)
1971 Australia joined with New
Zealand and 14 independent of self-governing island nations to form the
South Pacific Forum. The name was changed in 2000 to Pacific Islands
Forum. Member states include: Australia, the Cook Islands, the
Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands,
Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon
Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Since 2006, associate members
territories are New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
(Econ, 10/20/07,
p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islands_Forum)
1998 Nov 15, Nauru registered to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There remained 3 years worth of
phosphate to be mined on the island which grappled with 3 major crises:
rising water from world-wide global warming, a 3rd year of draught, and
a $100 million investment fund that was put into the Asian real-estate
market.
(WSJ, 11/16/98, p.B7C)
1998 Transpacific Development
signed an exclusive "confidential agreement" with Nauru to establish an
investment program for foreign investors to become investors in the
economy and citizens of the Republic of Nauru.
(WSJ, 5/16/03, p.A4)
2001 Aug 31, Ministers of New
Zealand and Nauru announced that they would take the Afghanistan asylum
seekers stranded in Australian waters.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A6)
2002 US Sec. of State Colin Powell
sent a letter to Nauru condemning the sale of passports.
(WSJ, 5/16/03, p.A4)
2003 Mar 9, Nauru's Pres.
Bernard Dowiyogo (57), known as a pragmatic leader of the
environmentally devastated South Pacific island, died in Washington DC.
He signed an executive order as he lay dying, at the behest of US
officials, ending the Nauru offshore banking system and its
economic-citizenship program.
(AP, 3/10/03)(WSJ, 5/16/03, p.A4)
2008 Jan 8, Nauru’s foreign
minister said Australia's plans to close a much-criticized detention
center for asylum seekers on Nauru will devastate its economy.
(AFP, 1/8/08)
2008 Feb 8, Australia's widely
criticized "Pacific Solution" policy of holding asylum seekers on
remote islands ended when the last detainees flew out of Nauru to live
in Australia.
(AFP, 2/8/08)
2009 Dec 15, The tiny Pacific
island of Nauru recognized the rebel Black Sea region of Abkhazia,
throwing its weight behind a Russian drive to win international
recognition for Georgia's breakaway territories.
(Reuters, 12/15/09)
Navarre
A former kingdom in SW France and
Northern Spain.
(WUD, 1994, p.953)
1540 Ruffs as accordion-style
collars was a fashion brought to Europe from India and popularized by
the queen of Navarre.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R40)
Netherlands Antilles
The Netherlands Antilles, previously known as the Netherlands West
Indies or Dutch Antilles/West Indies, is part of the Lesser Antilles
and consists of two groups of islands in the Caribbean Sea:
Curaçao and Bonaire, just off the Venezuelan coast, and Sint
Eustatius, Saba and Sint Maarten, located southeast of the Virgin
Islands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_Antilles)
The Dutch island of Bonaire is 50 miles off the coast of Venezuela. It
has a lush band of reef surrounding the island. The capital is
Kralendijk. The Dutch side of St. Martin, called St. Maarten, is part
of the Netherland Antilles.
(SFEC, 10/6/96, T8)(SFEC, 2/16/96, p.T6)
Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao of the Netherland Antilles are located off
of Venezuela. ABC Islands.
(Hem., 12/96, p.28)
1648 The island of St. Martin in
the Lesser Antilles was divided between the French and Dutch. The
southern half went to the Dutch as Sint Maarten, while the northern
half, Saint Martin, became part of the French department of Guadeloupe.
Legend has it that a Dutchman and a Frenchman stood back to back at the
center of the island and paced of their shares. The Dutchman stopped
often to drink beer and was left with the smaller share.
(NH, 10/96, p.60) (SFEC, 2/16/96, p.T6)
1793 The courthouse at the St.
Maarten Dutch capital of Philipsburg was built.
(SFEC, 2/16/96, p.T7)
1795 Aug 25, Curacao slaves
opponents returned to St Christopher.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1804 Jan 31, British vice-admiral
William Bligh (of HMS Bounty infamy) fleet reached Curacao (Antilles).
(MC, 1/31/02)
1832 Dec 25, Charles Darwin
celebrated Christmas in St. Martin at Cape Receiver.
(MC, 12/25/01)
1937 Mar 1, Governor Wouters
inaugurated a radio station on the Dutch Antilles.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1942 Feb 16, German submarines
attacked an Aruba oil refinery and sank the tanker Pedernales.
(MC, 2/16/02)(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.C11)
1952 May 29, A 2nd Round
Conference between Dutch Antilles and Suriname ended.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1960s Turtles became legally
protected in the mid 60s.
(SFEC, 10/6/96, T8)
1971 Bonaire, Netherland Antilles,
outlawed spearfishing off the island.
(SFEC, 10/6/96,
T8)(www.geographia.com/bonaire/bondiv01.htm)
1979 A Marine Park was legislated
to protect everything living or dead from the high tide mark to a depth
of 200 feet.
(SFEC, 10/6/96, T8)
1984 The Hilma Hooker, a 235 ton
freighter, sank off the coast.
(SFEC, 10/6/96, T8)
1992 The Marine Park established
an annual $10 park entrance fee to make it self-supporting.
(SFEC, 10/6/96, T8)
2002 Aug 31, The justice minister
of the Netherlands Antilles said Colombian assassins are behind a
series of execution-style slayings in Curacao, which has seen drug
seizures soar in recent years. There have been 28 killings since the
beginning of the year.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2003 May 23, The Democratic Party
in the Dutch Caribbean territory of St. Maarten won legislative
elections, winning support for its platform of working with the
regional government before seeking independence from the Netherlands.
(AP, 5/24/03)
2006 Jan 27, Five Caribbean
islands held their last parliamentary elections as members of a unified
Netherlands Antilles. Curacao, St. Maarten, Bonaire, Saba and St.
Eustatius have set a target date of July 1, 2007 for breaking off to
form their own governments.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Nov 2, In St. Maarten 4
French nationals were convicted of beating two gay American tourists on
Guadelupe and were sentenced to between six months and six years in
prison.
(AP, 11/2/06)
2007 Jul 20, On the Caribbean
island of St. Maarten Georgia state athletes Randy Newton and Bryan
Kilgore were killed. Michael Registe was later accused of the murders
and faced extradition.
(SSFC, 7/19/09, p.A6)
2009 Jan 19, Some 25 people, most
of them Haitians, were aboard an overloaded boat that was illegally
traveling the 100-mile (160-kilometer) passage from the Dutch territory
of St. Maarten to the British Virgin Islands. They were apparently
island-hopping in hopes of eventually reaching US shores when the boat
hit a reef, pitching passengers into the ocean. 13 migrants were
rescued by a passing fishing boat. In September 4 men, two Sri Lankans
and two residents of St. Kitts, were convicted and sentenced to prison
terms ranging up to 2 1/2 years for organizing the doomed sea voyage
from St. Maarten.
(AP, 1/21/09)(AP, 9/22/09)
2009 Sep 25, On the Dutch
Caribbean island of Curacao James Hogan (49), a US diplomat, was
reported missing by his wife. On Oct 1 authorities confirmed that DNA
on bloody clothes found along Baya Beach matched with Hogan. Curacao,
the headquarters of the Netherlands Antilles government, lies about 40
miles (65km) off Venezuela's coast.
(AP, 10/2/09)
2009 Nov 2, The Netherlands
Antilles launched an amnesty program that would provide residence and
working papers for thousands of illegal immigrants. An estimated 70,000
immigrants lived in the 5 Dutch islands without valid papers or work
permits.
(SFC, 11/5/09, p.A2)
New Caledonia
An island in the S. Pacific about
800 miles east of Australia. This and other smaller islands
became and territory of France and was used as a penal colony. The
capital is Noumea.
(WUD, 1994, p.962)
1853 The island of New Caledonia
was made a French possession. It served as a penal colony for four
decades after 1864. Agitation for independence during the 1980s and
early 1990s has dissipated.
(www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/nc.html)
1971 Australia joined with New
Zealand and 14 independent of self-governing island nations to form the
South Pacific Forum. The name was changed in 2000 to Pacific Islands
Forum. Member states include: Australia, the Cook Islands, the
Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands,
Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon
Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Since 2006, associate members
territories are New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
(Econ, 10/20/07,
p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islands_Forum)
1997 Dec, In New Caledonia an
outbreak of dengue fever began.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, p.T14)
1998 Apr 21, French and New
Caledonian rival factions agreed to hold a referendum on whether the
territory should move to independence. The territory holds about 30% of
the world’s nickel reserves.
(SFC, 4/22/98, p.A9)
1998 Dec. A referendum for a
2-year transition to independence was to be voted upon.
(SFC, 4/22/98, p.A9)
New Guinea see Papua
Nieu
A Polynesian island.
1971 Australia joined with New
Zealand and 14 independent of self-governing island nations to form the
South Pacific Forum. The name was changed in 2000 to Pacific Islands
Forum. Member states include: Australia, the Cook Islands, the
Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands,
Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon
Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Since 2006, associate members
territories are New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
(Econ, 10/20/07,
p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islands_Forum)
1997 Nov, Nieu began to register
internet domain web sites with its country-code letters .nu after
Tonga’s success.
(WSJ, 12/8/97, p.B21E)
1998 Nov 15, Nauru and Niue
registered to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (WSJ, 11/16/98, p.B7C)
Norfolk Island
A 3 by 5 mile volcanic outcrop
halfway between New Caledonia and New Zealand.
www.australia.com
1774 Captain Cook discovered
Norfolk Island and dubbed it "paradise" in his log. The British later
turned it into a penal colony and resettled the inhabitants of Pitcairn
island there in 1856.
(SFEM, 3/12/00, p.66)
1856 Jun 8, The British resettled
194 people from Pitcairn Island onto Norfolk Island.
(SFEM, 3/12/00, p.66)
2002 Mar 31, On Norfolk Island
Glenn McNeill (24) of New Zealand hit Janelle Patton (29) with his car
and later stabbed her "just to make sure she was dead." McNeill was
arrested in 2006 based on DNA evidence. In 2007 McNeill told police he
had been smoking cannabis when he hit Patton.
(AFP, 2/7/07)
Numidia
see Algeria
Nung
A people that originated in
China’s Guangxi province bordering on Vietnam. They were first
recruited by the French to fight Ho Chi Minh’s Communist guerrillas
during the first Indochina War. After the French defeat at Dien Bien
Phu they moved south and settled around Binh Thuan
province.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A10)
1964 American Green Beret units in
Vietnam formed several all-Nung units.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A10)
1973 Many of the Nung joined the
South Vietnamese army after American ground forces were withdrawn.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A10)
1990-91 The Nung made their way to Hong Kong as boat
people.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A10)
Nyasaland [see Malawi]
Orange
A small principality of western Europe
1564 Dec 31, Willem of Orange
demanded freedom of conscience and religion.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1577 Sep 23, William of Orange
made his triumphant entry into Brussels, Belgium.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1585 Elizabeth extended her
protection to The Netherlands against Spain to avenge the murder of
William of Orange.
(TL-MB, p.24)
1650 Nov 4, William III, Prince of
Orange and King of England, was born. [see Nov 14]
(HN, 11/4/98)
1660-1731 Daniel Defoe, English novelist and
political journalist. He was born as Daniel Foe and became a successful
merchant in woolen goods. For a time he was jailed due to his debts. He
became a supporter of William of Orange and wrote over 500 publications
on his behalf. Some regard him as the father of modern journalism.
Among other works he wrote "Robinson Crusoe," "Moll Flanders," "General
Histories of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates,"
"A Tour of the Whole Island of Great Britain," and “Journal of
the Plague Year.” In 1999 Richard West published "Daniel Defoe: The
Life and Strange Surprising Adventures."
(WUD, 1994, p.379)(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A12)
1667 Jun 18, The Dutch fleet
sailed up the Thames and threatened London. They burned 3 ships and
captured the English flagship in what came to be called the Glorious
Revolution, in which William of Orange replaced James Stuart.
(HN, 6/18/98)(WSJ, 3/14/00, p.A28)
1677 Nov 4, William and Mary were
married in England. William of Orange married his cousin Mary (daughter
to James, Duke of York and the same James II who fled in 1688).
(HN, 11/4/98)(HNQ, 12/28/00)
1688 Dec 10, King James II fled
London as "Glorious Revolution" replaced him with King William (of
Orange) and Queen Mary. [see Dec 11]
(MC, 12/10/01)
1688 Dec 11, James II abdicated
the throne because of William of Orange landing in England.
(HN, 12/11/98)
Ostrogoths
493 Mar 3, Ostrogothen King
Theodorik the Great beat Odoacer.
(SC, 3/3/02)
526 Aug 30, Theodorik the Great
(72), King of Ostrogoths, died of dysentery. He was succeeded by his
grandson Athalaric (10), who reigned until 534 with his mother
Amalasuntha as regent.
(PC, 1992, p.54)
535 Apr 30, Amalaswintha, queen of
Ostrogothen, was murdered.
(MC, 4/30/02)
Palau
1944 Mar 30, The U.S. fleet
attacked Palau, near the Philippines.
(HN, 3/30/98)
1971 Australia joined with New
Zealand and 14 independent of self-governing island nations to form the
South Pacific Forum. The name was changed in 2000 to Pacific Islands
Forum. Member states include: Australia, the Cook Islands, the
Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands,
Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon
Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Since 2006, associate members
territories are New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
(Econ, 10/20/07,
p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islands_Forum)
1994 Palau became an independent
nation.
(WSJ, 7/31/97, p.A1)
2007 Aug 7, Administers in Vienna
said that the mid-Pacific nation of Palau has ratified the
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, bringing to 139 the number of
countries that have fully endorsed the pact. The treaty, which bans all
nuclear explosions, will not enter into force until it has been
ratified by 44 states listed in an annex that participated in a 1996
disarmament conference and have nuclear power or research reactors.
Only 34 of the 44 countries have both signed and ratified the pact. The
holdouts are China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel,
Pakistan, North Korea and the United States.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2009 Jun 10, Palau agreed to
accept 17 Chinese Muslims who have languished in legal limbo at
Guantanamo Bay. President Johnson Toribiong said the decision of Palau,
one of a handful of countries that does not recognize China and
maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan, was "a humanitarian
gesture" intended to help the detainees restart their lives.
(AP, 6/10/09)
2009 Sep 9, Lawyers said 3 Chinese
Muslims detained at Guantanamo Bay formally accepted an offer to take
up new lives in the Pacific island nation of Palau and could be moved
there as early as next month.
(AP, 9/10/09)
2009 Sep 25, Palau announced to
the UN General Assembly that it is creating a shark and ray sanctuary
over some 240,000 square miles around its coastline. Palau had just one
boat to patrol the protected waters. Some 20,000 people populated the
190-square mile archipelago.
(SFC, 9/25/09, p.A6)
2009 Nov 1, In Palau 6 Chinese
Muslims, ethnic Uighers, newly released from Guantanamo Bay, traded
life behind bars for rooms with ocean view in the tiny Pacific nation,
which agreed to a US request to resettle them.
(AP, 11/1/09)
Palmyra Atoll
A cluster of coral islets 1,052
miles south of Hawaii.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A9)
1802 An American captain of the
ship Palmyra blew ashore and named the atoll Palmyra after his ship.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A9)
1862 Two New Zealanders, who
married Hawaiian women, obtained a deed to Palmyra Atoll from King
Kamehameha V.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A9)
1898 Palmyra was excluded from the
annexation of Hawaii to the US.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A9)
1922 A family of Honolulu roofing
contractors, the Fullard-Leos, purchased Palmyra for $70,000.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A9)
1938 A feud began between the
Fullard-Leos and the US Navy, which built an airstrip on Palmyra and
used it as a base during WW II.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A9)
2000 May, The Nature Conservancy
agreed to buy Palmyra Atoll for use as a nature preserve
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A9)
Olmec
1200-400BC The Olmecs built impressive cities and
established trade routes throughout Mesoamerica, that included
settlements at La Venta and Tres Zapotes.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, p.T12)
1400-400BC The earliest known civilization of
Mesoamerica. It profoundly influenced the subsequent civilizations of
the Maya and Aztec. They inhabited the Gulf Coast region of what is now
Mexico and Central America. Objects of their culture are being
exhibited at Princeton Univ. and will move to Houston in April.
(WSJ, 1/16/96, p. A-16)
1200-300BC The Olmec people ruled southern Mexico and
northern Central America.
(WSJ, 7/2/96, p.A12)
Palau
A former US trust territory of 8 inhabited islands.
1944 Mar 30, The U.S. fleet
attacked Palau, near the Philippines.
(HN, 3/30/98)
1994 Palau became an independent
nation.
(WSJ, 7/31/97, p.A1)
Parthia
An ancient country in west Asia
southeast of the Caspian Sea.
(WUD, 1994, p.1051)
250BC A finely burnished red
pottery was introduced by the Parthians into northern Oman.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.53)
226AD The Iranians conquered the
Parthians.
(WUD, 1994, p.1051)
Phoenicians
c1500BC Linguistic evidence shows that the Canaanites
(now more commonly known as the Phoenicians) were non-Jewish Semites
whose language was almost identical with Hebrew.
(MT, Spg. ‘97, p.12)(L.C.-W.P.p.87-89)(WSJ, 4/17/97,
p.A20)
900BC-700BC In 2008 archeologists found pottery
in Tyre, Lebanon, that was used by Phoenicians during this period.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Oct 30, Scientists reported
that 1 in 17 men living on the coasts of North Africa and southern
europe may have a Phoenician direct male line ancestor. Evidence was
based on Y-chromosomes collected in Cyprus, Malta, Morocco, the West
Bank, Syria and Tunisia.
(SFC, 10/31/08, p.A14)
Philistines
Called the Peleset by the Egyptians, the Philistines ruled over a five
city-state federation known as the Pentapolis. They ruled as a military
aristocracy over a predominately Canaanite population. The five
capitals were Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath and Ekron.
(HNQ, 5/6/99)
Phrygia
An ancient country in central and
NW Asia Minor, later Turkey.
(WUD, 1994, p.1086)
The classic myth of Cybele,
goddess of fertility, and her love for the young mortal, Atys, formed
the basis for the 18th century opera by Lully and Quinault. The myth
was set in Phrygia. According to classical myths, priests of the cult
of Cybele were required to perform self-castration.
(PNM, 1/25/98, p.5)
2,000BC The Hittites lived around what is now
Cappadocia, Turkey. They mixed with the already-settled Hatti and were
followed by the Lydians, Phrygians, Byzantines, Romans and Greeks.
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.T14)
738-696 King Midas ruled over this period according
to Eusebios.
(AM, 7/01, p.33)
c700BC Nomadic Kimmerians attacked Phrygia. Strabo
later reported that Midas committed suicide at the time of the
Kimmerian invasion.
(AM, 7/01, p.33)
c700BC A Phrygian king, possibly Midas, ruled into
his 60s and was buried in what came to be called the Tumulus Midas
Mound at Gordion (later central Turkey). Midas was linked with the
worship of the goddess Matar.
(AM, 7/01, p.27)
301 BC The generals of Alexander the Great fought the
Battle of Ipsus in Phrygia that resulted in the division of the Greek
Empire into 4 divisions ruled by Seleucus, Lysimachus, Cassander and
Ptolemy. Greek cities revolted against Macedonian rule but to no avail.
(http://eawc, p.13)
156CE Montanus of Phrygia (central
Asia Minor) pronounced himself to be the incarnation of the Holy Spirit
and that the New Jerusalem was about to come crashing down and land in
Phrygia. His followers were called Montanists.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.34)
Picts
They drank a heather ale and
fought the Romans in Scotland.
(Hem., 8/96, p.113)
Pitcairn Island
Part of the Cook Islands
1790 Fletcher Christian and the
mutineers of the HMS Bounty settled at Pitcairn Island.
(WUD, 1994, p.1097)(SFC, 6/12/97, p.A14)
1808 The American whaling ship
Topaz found one of the bounty mutineers living on Pitcairn Island among
many women and children. The other men had all died mostly in conflict
over the Tahitian women.
(ON, 3/04, p.11)
1856 Jun 8, The British resettled
194 people from Pitcairn Island onto Norfolk Island.
(SFEM, 3/12/00, p.66)
2004 Oct 24, Six men on Pitcairn
Island were convicted of charges ranging from rape to indecent assault
following trials that exposed a culture of sexual abuse.
(AP, 10/25/04)
2006 Oct 30, In London 6 men from
remote Pitcairn Island lost their final appeal against their
convictions for a string of sex attacks dating back 40 years.
(AP, 10/30/06)
Polynesia
One of 3 principal divisions of
Oceania, comprising those island groups in the Pacific lying E. of
Melanesia and Micronesia and extending from the Hawaiian Islands S. to
New Zealand.
(WUD, 1994, p.1115)
1905 Feb 8, A cyclone hit Tahiti
and adjacent islands killing some 10,000 people.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1947 Aug 7, The balsa wood
raft Kon-Tiki, which had carried a six-man crew 4,300 miles across the
Pacific Ocean, crashed into a reef in a Polynesian archipelago. [see
Apr 28]
(AP, 8/7/97)
Pontus
80sBC Mithridates, ruler of Pontus
in the north of Asia Minor, made war on Rome and overran much of Asia
Minor and parts of Greece. The Athenians joined Mithridates and was
consequently besieged by the Roman Gen’l. Sulla.
(WSJ, 12/26/97, p.A7)
Puntland
1998 Abdulahhi Yusuf (Yussuf) was
elected by elders in Puntland. Yusuf was later challenged by Jama Ali
Jama.
(SSFC, 1/6/02, p.A7)
2001 Nov 25, Ethiopia sent troops
into the northeastern Somali region of Puntland to help Col. Abdullahi
Yussuf (Yusuf) regain power. Yussuf was overthrown Aug 26 after his
3-year term ended. On Nov 21 Yussuf launched an attack on Garoweh, the
capital of Puntland and said it was to crush Islamic terrorists.
(SFC, 11/26/01, p.A11)(WSJ, 11/28/01, p.A10)
2005 Aug 31, Some 200 Somalis and
Ethiopians left Somalia's semiautonomous Puntland region in two boats.
Smugglers making the illegal crossing from Somalia to Yemen forced
passengers into the Red Sea at gunpoint 10 miles from the Yemeni
coastline, leaving at least 57 dead and about 100 missing.
(AP, 9/5/05)
2006 Nov 20, Gen. Addeh Museh, the
president of the semiautonomous region of Puntland, said he will rule
according to Islamic law, a surprising move in a relatively stable area
that has resisted the spread of Islamic militants who control most of
southern Somalia.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2008 Oct 29, In northern Somalia 5
suicide car bombs attacks killed 28 people in Hargeisa, the capital of
Somaliland, and in Bosasso, Puntland. Somali authorities arrested
Cleric Sheik Mohamed Ismail in connection with the attacks.
(AP, 10/30/08)(SFC, 10/30/08, p.A4)
2009 Nov 11, In Somalia gunmen in
Bossaso killed High Court Judge Mohamed Abdi Aware, a top judge who had
sentenced many pirates and human traffickers to long jail terms. 3 men
were arrested the next day over the killing. Puntland legislator
Ibrahim Ilmi Warsame was also shot dead as he sat in a restaurant with
friends.
(AP, 11/12/09)
Quebec
Lucien Bouchard, a separatist
leader, sought the job of Premier of the Province.
(WSJ, 11/22/95, p.A-1,7)
Rangiroa
The largest atoll in the
Polynesian chain of atolls called the Tuamotu Islands near Tahiti. It
means “extended sky” and the entire island of Tahiti would fit inside
its central lagoon, whose entry pass has astonishing snorkeling.
(USA Today, 5/14/96, p.6D)
Reunion
A French island in the Indian Ocean.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, Z1 p.8)
http://www.africanet.com/africanet/country/reunion/home.htm
1999 Jul, The Piton de la
Fournaise (Fiery Peak) volcano erupted.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A8)
2007 Apr 2, Piton de la Fournaise
(French: "Peak of the Furnace"), a shield volcano on the eastern side
of Reunion island (a French territory) in the Indian Ocean, began an
11-day eruption. Hundreds of deep water fish were found dead following
the eruptions.
(SFC, 4/14/07,
p.B6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piton_de_la_Fournaise)
2007 May 12, Waves reaching 36
feet high thrashed France's Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, leaving
two fishermen missing and flooding homes and hotels.
(AP, 5/13/07)
2008 Mar 28, Mohamed Bacar, the
rebel leader of the Comoros island of Anjouan, arrived in Reunion to an
uncertain future, two days after his ouster by Comoran and African
Union forces.
(AP, 3/28/08)
2009 Mar 5, Protests spread from
two French possessions in the Caribbean to the island of Reunion in the
Indian Ocean, where about 15,000 people demonstrated in different
cities against high prices.
(AP, 3/5/09)
Ruthenia
A former province in East
Slovakia whose people speak a dialect of Ukrainian. The Ruthenians are
a group of people spread out over the Carpathian Mountains of Poland,
Ukraine, Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary. The rare metallic element
ruthenium was named after the region where it was discovered.
(NH, 12/96, p.71)
1596 Ruthenian members of an
Orthodox religious group entered into communion with the Roman Catholic
Church and became the Uniate Church of the Little Russians.
(WUD, 1994, p.1256)
1997 About 140,000 Ruthenians
currently live in Slovakia.
(NH, 12/96, p.71)
Saarland
1925 Jan 10, France-Saarland
formed.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1935 Mar 7, Saar was incorporated
into Germany.
(MC, 3/7/02)
Saba
A volcanic spec in the Netherland
Antilles. It has a marine park and four tiny villages.
(USA Today, 5/14/96, p.6D)
1493 Nov 11, Columbus discovered
Saba, North Leeward Islands.
(WUD, 1994 p.1257)(MC, 11/11/01)
Saint-Pierre et Miquelon
1889 Aug 24, Auguste Neal, a
convicted murderer, was executed in Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, becoming
the first and only person to be executed by guillotine in North
America. The device was specially shipped from Martinique for the
execution.
(SSFC, 11/16/08, p.E5)
Saipan
1999 Jan 13, Lawyers filed suit
against major garment retailers for inhumane working conditions for
thousands of Asian women on Saipan, a US commonwealth island.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.A1)
2002 Mar 2, Gap Inc. was reported
in opposition to a proposed $8.75 settlement on conditions in the
garment industry of Saipan.
(SFC, 3/2/02, p.B1)
2002 Sep 26, Gap Inc, 6 other US
firms and 23 local manufacturers settled a class-action lawsuit over
alleged sweatshop abuses on Saipan. The deal created a $20 million fund
for back wages and a monitoring system.
(SFC, 9/27/02, p.A1)
Sakhalin Island
The island belongs to Russia and
is just northwest of the Japanese Islands.
(WSJ, 5/16/96, p.A-11)
1974 Since 1974 the Japanese have
been exploring energy deposits here.
(WSJ, 5/16/96, p.A-11)
1996 May 16, Three consortia
formed in the past decade are poised to begin drilling here. Estimates
say the potential is for 2 billion barrels of oil and trillions of
cubic feet of natural gas.
(WSJ, 5/16/96, p.A-11)
Samnites
600-290BCE The Samnites, an Oscan-speaking people,
controlled the area of south central Italy during this period.
(AM, 3/04, p.36)
Sanjak
A province of Yugoslavia between
Serbia and Bosnia northwest of Kosova. It has 350,000 people of whom
most are Muslim. It was historically part of the Ottoman Empire
19th cent Late, Sanjak was occupied by
Austro-Hungarian troops.
(WSJ, 8/5/96, p.A13)
1996 Aug 5, The Muslim National
Council of Sanjak desired recognition as an autonomous region within
the Yugoslav federation.
(WSJ, 8/5/96, p.A13)
San Marino
A small republic in East Italy and the oldest independent country in
Europe. It measures 24 square miles with some 26,000 inhabitants.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.C4)(WSJ, 1/16/06, p.A1)
301 San Marino traced its roots to
this time and later claimed to be the world’s oldest republic.
(WSJ, 1/16/06, p.A1)
1849 Jul 31, Garibaldi asked San
Marino for asylum from Austrian forces. San Marino brokered for
Garibaldi’s surrender to Austrian forces. Garibaldi and his wife
escaped, and made their way to Ravenna. Anita Garibaldi died enroute.
Garibaldi managed to reach safety in the Kingdom of Sardinia.
(ON, 10/06, p.7)
1978 Jul 17, In San Marino a
Communist-Socialist coalition became Western Europe’s only communist
led government.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
2004 Dec 19, Renata Tebaldi (82),
opera singer, died in San Marino.
(AP, 12/19/05)
2005 Jun, San Marino set up a
central bank with supervisory powers.
(Econ, 3/10/07, p.74)
2006 Sep, San Marino approved new
regulations on fund management.
(Econ, 3/10/07, p.74)
Sark Island
One of the Channel Islands between Britain and
France. The island of Brecqhou is governed by Sark.
1565 Sark, one of the Channel
Islands, was colonized. The hereditary ruler of Sark was granted the 5
square miles of land by Queen Elizabeth I.
(SFC, 11/26/99, p.B8)(Econ, 7/14/07, p.60)
1993 The British brothers David
and Frederick Barclay paid $3.5 million for the Brecqhou, and Channel
Island considered as part of the fiefdom of Sark.
(WSJ, 10/11/05, p.A1)
1999 The Chief Pleas, 52 unelected
rulers of Sark, voted to change the law governing the transfer of
property to permit women to inherit land.
(SFC, 11/26/99, p.B8)
2006 Mar 8, Legislators of Sark, a
tiny self-governing island in the English Channel, voted to swap its
feudal government for democracy. After around 450 years of rule almost
exclusively by landowners, the smallest independent state in the
British commonwealth will allow each of the 600 residents to stand for
election.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2007 Jul 4, Sark ended its feudal
era as the Chief Pleas agreed to limit land owners to 12 seats and
raised commoners’ share to 16 seats.
(Econ, 7/14/07, p.60)
2008 Apr 10, The West's last
remaining feudal system came to an end after the Privy Council endorsed
a vote by locals on the tiny Channel Island of Sark to change the way
they are governed.
(Reuters, 4/10/08)
2008 Dec 10, Sark, the English
Channel Island that let only landowners vote for 450 years, held the
first parliamentary election in its history.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 12, Sir David Barclay and
his twin brother, Sir Frederick Barclay, abruptly closed their
businesses on the Channel Island of Sark and shut off the flow of
investment after their candidates for the island's first elected
parliament were largely rejected by voters. Only two of the nine
candidates backed by the brothers won seats in the legislature. Nine of
the 12 candidates they had denounced as "dangerous to Sark's future"
were elected.
(AP, 12/12/08)
Sarmatians
600-200BC A nomadic tribe that occupied a homeland
that stretched from Russia’s Don and Volga rivers east to the Ural
mountain foothills. The held a sun-worshipping belief system and buried
useful objects with their dead for the journey in the unknown afterlife.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A5)
400BC By this time the Sarmatians
were occupying outposts of the Roman empire in the Balkans.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A5)
100-0BC A Roman fortified citadel was built about
this time in Moldova. It may have protected a town occupied by a
late-era Sarmatian king.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A5)
Saulteaux
A native American Indian tribe.
In Saskatchewan, Canada, a new system is being tried on Indian prison
inmates. The Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge is being used as a culture based
court and prison program for native peoples.
(SFC, 5/14/96, A-10)
Savoy
Region in southeast France
adjacent to the Swiss-Italian border.
(WUD, 1994 p.1272)
1323 Oct 16, Amadeus V the Great,
count of Flanders and Savoy, died at 74.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1683 Sep 12, A combined Austrian
and Polish army defeated the Ottoman Turks at Kahlenberg and lifted the
siege on Vienna, Austria. Prince Eugene of Savoy helped repel an
invasion of Vienna, Austria, by Turkish forces. Marco d'Aviano, sent by
Pope Innocent XI to unite the outnumbered Christian troops, spurred
them to victory. The Turks left behind sacks of coffee which the
Christians found too bitter, so they sweetened it with honey and milk
and named the drink cappuccino after the Capuchin order of monks to
which d'Aviano belonged. An Austrian baker created a crescent-shaped
roll, the Kipfel, to celebrate the victory. Empress Maria Theresa later
took it to France where it became the croissant. In 2006 John Stoye
authored “The Siege of Vienna.”
(Hem., Dec. '95, p.69)(WSJ, 3/27/96, p.A-16)(HN,
9/12/98)(SFEC, 2/6/00, p.A1)(Reuters, 4/28/03)(WSJ, 6/3/03, p.D5) (WSJ,
12/6/06, p.D12)
1720 Sardinia was handed over to
Piedmont's Savoy Kingdom.
(SFEC, 1/30/00, p.T5)
1743 Sep 13, England, Austria
& Savoye-Sardinia signed the Treaty of Worms.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1860 Savoy was ceded to France.
(WUD, 1994 p.1272)
Saxony
919 May 12, Duke Henry of Saxon
became King Henry I of Eastern Europe.
(MC, 5/12/02)
991 Aug 11, Danes under Olaf
Tryggvesson killed Ealdorman Brihtnoth and defeated the Saxons at
Maldon.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1016 Oct 18, Danes defeated the
Saxons at Battle of Assandun (Ashingdon).
(MC, 10/18/01)
1066 Oct 14, King Harold and his
Anglo-Saxon army locked into a massive shield wall and faced Duke
William, William the Conqueror, and his mounted knights near the town
of Hastings, Battle of Hastings. Duke William planned a three point
attack plan that included a)heavy archery b)attack by foot soldiers
c)attack by mounted knights at any weak point of defense. The bloody
battle gave the name Sen Lac Hill to the battle site. The Normans won
out after Harold was killed by a fluke arrow.
(TLC, Battles That Changed the World, 6/25/95)(AP,
10/14/97)
1066 Edith Svanneshals was the
beautiful mistress of the ill-starred Harold Godwinsson, king of the
Anglo-Saxons and loser at Hastings. No picture of her exists, but her
last name means "swan's throat."
(EHC, 5/12/98)
1316-1390 Albert of Saxony (aka Albertuccio or little
Al), German Scholastic philosopher and physicist.
(NH, 5/97, p.59)
1370 Apr 11, Frederick I the
Warlike, elector of Saxony, was born.
(HN, 4/11/98)
1500s Holland and Saxony began to
protect the rights of inventors to their creations.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1521 Apr 17, Under the protection
of Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony, Luther first appeared before
Charles V and the Imperial Diet. Martin Luther was excommunicated from
the Roman Catholic Church.
(NH, 9/96, p.18)(HN, 4/17/98)
1526 Feb 27, Saxony and Hesse
formed the League of Gotha, a league of Protestant princes.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1554 Mar 3, Johan Frederik de
Greatmoedige (50), ruler of Saxon (1532-47), died.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1588 A volume of funeral orations
for Duke August of Saxony and his wife was published.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.93)
1632 Apr 15, Swedish and Saxon
army beat Earl Tilly.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1638 Mar 3, Duke Bernard van
Saksen-Weimar occupied Rheinfelden.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1670 May 12, August II (d.1733),
the Strong One, King of Poland (355 children) and elector of Saxony,
was born.
(MC, 5/12/02)(SSFC, 4/25/04, p.D12)
1700 Feb 22, Augustus II
with the help of the Saxon army attacked Swedish controlled Riga. This
began the Northern War (1700-1721).
(LHC, 2/22/03)
1709 Augustus the Strong, King of
Poland and Elector of Saxony, had ordered alchemist Johann Friedrich
Bottger to re-create the formula for oriental porcelain. Bottger was
imprisoned and joined physicist Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus in a
search for the formula. Tschirnhaus died but Bottger discovered the
formula in this year. within 2 years a factory was established in
Meissen’s Albrechtsburg and Meissenware became Europe’s first
hard-paste porcelain.
(Hem, 6/96, p.111)(SSFC, 4/25/04, p.D12)
1745 Jun 4, Frederick the Great of
Prussia defeated the Austrians & Saxons.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1756-1763 The Seven Years War. France and Great
Britain clashed both in Europe and in North America. In 2000 "Crucible
of War" by Fred Anderson was published. France, Russia, Austria,
Saxony, Sweden and Spain stood against Britain, Prussia and Hanover.
Britain financed Prussia to block France in Europe while her manpower
was occupied in America.
(V.D.-H.K.p.223)(SFC, 7/7/96, BR p.7)(WSJ, 2/10/00,
p.A16)
1797 May 18, Frederik Augustus II,
King of Saxon (1836-54), was born.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1865 May 25, Frederick Augustus
III, King of Saxon (1904-18), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
Scythians
A tribe that roamed the
Black Sea area at the time of the Greeks. They drank mare's milk,
seemed lawless, had no polis, but were able to defeat the Persians.
They are described in a book by Neal Ascherson: “Black Sea.” In the
Gluck opera “Iphigenie en Tauride,” savage Scythian captors force
Iphigenie and her followers to perform human sacrifice.
(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-8)(WSJ, 10/22/97, p.A20)
Scythian tombs lie near
Chersonesos, now on the edge of Sevastopol.
(SFC,12/19/97, p.F6)
800-300BCE The Scythians dominated the vast lands
stretching from Siberia to the Black Sea. Those who roamed what later
became Kazakstan and southern Siberia were known as the Saka.
(AM, 5/01, p.32)
700-600BCE A migration of the Cimmerians and
Scythians took place in the seventh century BC. These were nomadic
tribes from the Russian steppes, who made their way round the eastern
end of the Caucasus, burst through into the Moghan plains and the basin
of Lake Urmia, and terrorized Western Asia for several generations,
till they were broken by the power of the Medes and absorbed in the
native population. It was they who made an end of the Kingdom of
Urartu, and the language they brought with them was probably an
Indo-European dialect answering to the basic element in modern Armenian.
(http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/bryce2.htm)
600-500BC The nomadic Scythians bordered the
Hallstatt Culture in the East. They introduced to the Celts the custom
of wearing trousers.
(NGM, 5/77)
521-486 The Persians under Darius fought the
Scythians in a series of battles.
(AM, 5/01, p.33)
519BC Darius of Persia attacked the Scythians east
of the Caspian Sea and a few years later conquered the Indus Valley.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
513BC Darius, after subduing
eastern Thrace and the Getae, crossed the Danube River into European
Scythia, but the Scythian nomads devastated the country as they
retreated from him, and he was forced, for lack of supplies, to abandon
the campaign.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
486-465BC Xerxes I ruled over Persia from India to
the lands below the Caspian and Black seas, to the east coast of the
Mediterranean including Egypt and Thrace. Its great cities Sardis,
Ninevah, Babylon, and Susa were joined by the Royal Road. East of Susa
was Persopolis, a vast religious monument. To the north of Persia were
the Scythians. [2nd source says 485-465]
(V.D.-H.K.p.49)(http://eawc, p.11)
c480BCE Herodotus said marijuana was cultivated in
Scythia and Thrace, where inhabitants intoxicated themselves by
breathing the vapors given off when the plant was roasted on white-hot
stones.
(WSJ, 2/8/05, p.D7)
450BC Herodotus journeyed to the
Scythian lands north of the Black Sea and heard tales of women who were
fierce killers of men. He named these women “Amazons,” from a Greek
word meaning without one breast. Legend had it that one breast was
removed in order to carry quivers of arrows more conveniently.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A1,5)
400-300BC The Greek writer Ephorus referred to the
Celts, Scythians, Persians and Libyans as the four great barbarian
peoples in the known world.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.11)
c556AD Dionysius Exiguus, Scythian monk, died. He
devised the current system of reckoning the Christian era.
(WUD, 1994, p.405)
Sealand
1968 Roy Bates, retired British
army major, landed on the island of Sealand, a WW II military fortress
6 miles off the coast of England, and declared it a sovereign nation,
the Principality of Sealand.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.A4)
2000 Jun 5, Computer rebels
planned to launch a data haven, an independent colony in cyberspace,
based on the island of Sealand, a WW II military fortress 6 miles off
the coast of England. Their Havenco Co. was incorporated in Anguilla.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.A4)
Seborga
The 5-square mile principality is located in
northwest Italy, twenty minutes from the Mediterranean north of
Bordighera.
(SFEC, 3/30/97, p.T1)
954 The Count of Ventimiglia ceded
Seborga to the monks who elected their abbot as sovereign prince.
(SFEC, 3/30/97, p.T5)
1118 Seborga became the provenance
of nine Knight Templars returning from the crusades.
(SFEC, 3/30/97, p.T7)
1729 Seborga was consolidated by
sale within the Principality of Piedmont.
(SFEC, 3/30/97, p.T7)
1995 Aug 20, A plebiscite declared
the independence of Seborga by a vote of 304 to 4. Giorgio Carbone was
elected as Prince-for-Life Georgio I.
(SFEC, 3/30/97, p.T6)
Shetland Islands
Sikkim
A state in NE India between Nepal
and Bhutan 2,745 sq km. The capital is Gangtok.
(WUD, 1994, p.1326)
1644 The beginning of a 330 year
dynasty.
(WSJ, 3/6/97, p.A1)
1974 Sikkim lost its Buddhist
ruler and was annexed by India. This ended a 330 year dynasty.
(WSJ, 3/6/97, p.A1)
Silesia
Region in Central Europe between
Czechoslovakia, Germany and Poland.
(WUD, 1994 p.1326)
1267 Feb 9, Synod of Breslau
ordered Jews of Silesia to wear special caps.
(MC, 2/9/02)
Sogdiana
Sogdiana was a province of
ancient Persia between the Oxus and Jaxartes Rivers, later known as
Uzbekistan. The extinct Iranian language of Sogdiana was spoken.
(WUD, 1994, p.1264,1353)
355[356]BC Birth of Alexander the Great (d.323BC).
Alexander III married a barbarian princess, Roxana, the daughter of the
Bactrian chief Oxyartes. Alexander also married the daughter of Darius,
whom he defeated in 333, and a Sogdian princess while staying firmly
attached to his comrade, Hephaistion.
(V.D.-H.K.p.68)(Hem., 2/97, p.116)(WSJ, 5/15/98,
p.W11)
Songhai
1464 Under the guidance of Sunni
Ali, the Songhai begin conquering their neighbors and expand their
kingdom. Goa becomes the capital of the Songhai empire. When Sunni Ali
died rule was passed to his son, a non-Muslim.
(ATC, p.121)
~1490s Muslims of the Songhai Empire in West Africa
supported Askia Muhammad-mad, who overthrew Sunni Ali’s son, and
declared Islam the state religion. Songhai grew and expanded to become
the greatest trade empire of West Africa.
(ATC, p.121)
c1580 The Songhai controlled West
Africa’s wealthiest empire.
(ATC, p.122 )
North Ossetia
1992 A bloody conflict took place
between Ingushetia and North Ossetia that left hundreds dead and forced
30,000 Ingush to flee their homes.
(SFC, 3/20/99, p.A3)
1999 Mar 19, In Russia at least 56
people were killed in an explosion in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia, at an
outdoor bazaar. This was 2 days following a blast in neighboring
Ingushetia that destroyed 2 homes. The Federal Security Service put the
death toll at 63 with 104 injured.
(SFC, 3/20/99, p.A3)(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A20)(AP,
3/19/02)
1999 Sep 28, In Chechnya 8 people
were killed when a schoolhouse was bombed on the 6th day of Russian air
attacks. Some 60,000 people had reportedly fled to the neighboring
regions of Ingushetia, Dagestan, North Ossetia and Stavropol.
(SFC, 9/29/99, p.A12)
2000 Jul 9, A bomb attack at a
food market in Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia left 5 people dead. Another
bomb in a department store at the port of Rostov-on-Don on the Black
Sea left 2 people dead.
(SFC, 7/10/00, p.A9)
2002 Sep 20, In southern Russia a
collapsing glacier triggered an avalanche of ice and mud, burying the
village of Nizhny Karmadon in the southern republic of North Ossetia,
and killing as many as 100 people.
(AP, 9/21/02)
2004 Sep 1, In Beslan, Russia,
more than a dozen militants wearing suicide-bomb belts seized a school
in North Ossetia, a region bordering Chechnya, taking hostage some 300
people, half of them children. They threatening to blow up the building
if police storm it and at least eight people were killed.
(AP, 9/1/04)(SFC, 9/2/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 2, In Beslan, Russia,
camouflage-clad commandos carried crying babies away from a school
where gunmen holding hundreds of hostages freed at least 26 women and
children.
(AP, 9/2/04)
2004 Sep 3, Commandos stormed a
school in southern Russia and battled Chechen separatist rebels holding
hundreds of hostages, as crying children, some naked and covered in
blood, fled through explosions and gunfire. Over 330 people, including
155 children, were killed in the violence that ended a hostage standoff
with militants in Beslan, Russia. 31 of 32 hostage takers were killed.
6 Chechens and 4 Ingush were identified among the hostage takers. In
2006 a woman died from her injuries in Beslan bringing the total deaths
to 334.
(SFC, 9/4/04, p.A1)(SFC, 9/7/04, p.A3)(WSJ, 9/10/04,
p.A1)(AP, 12/9/07)
2005 Nov 29, A panel in North
Ossetia investigating last year's bloody school hostage siege in the
southern Russian town of Beslan blamed the authorities for botching the
rescue efforts and urged them to punish the culprits.
(AP, 11/29/05)
2006 Feb 13, In North Ossetia 6
women whose relatives were victims of the 2004 Beslan school hostage
seizure were on hunger strike for a fifth day, protesting what they say
are efforts by authorities to prematurely end the trial of the only
alleged remaining attacker.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Sep 11, In southern Russia a
military helicopter crashed on the outskirts of Vladikavkaz, the
provincial capital of the republic of North Ossetia, killing at least
10 servicemen and injuring another four.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 A Georgian undercover agent
made contact with a Russian seller of uranium in North Ossetia. The
seller was arrested when they met in Tbilisi with 3.5 ounces of
enriched uranium, which made it weapons grade material.
(SFC, 1/25/07, p.A18)
2007 Nov 22, A passenger bus
caught fire and exploded in southern Russia, killing at least five
people and wounding 12. Investigators in North Ossetia said terrorism
was the likely cause.
(AP, 11/23/07)
2008 Nov 6, An suspected suicide
explosion hit a minibus unloading passengers in Vladikavkaz, the
capital of Russia's North Ossetia province, killing 12 people.
(AP, 11/6/08)(Reuters, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 26, In North Ossetia
Vitaly Karayev, the mayor of Vladikavkaz, was shot and killed in the
latest violence to hit a region. The next day An obscure Islamic group
claimed responsibility for the assassination of a mayor in Russia's
troubled North Caucasus, saying he had sanctioned persecution of
Islamic women.
(AP, 11/26/08)(AP, 11/27/08)
Southern Africa Development Committee
A 12-member regional group.
(SFC, 2/10/97, p.A8)
Spratly Islands
A group of 60-200 reefs and
islets in the South China Sea that are claimed in whole or in part by
China, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.
(SFC, 9/20/96, p.A16)(SFC, 1/16/99, p.A11)
1999 Jan 15, China asserted its
sovereignty over the potentially oil-rich Spratly Islands and rejected
a Philippine proposal to discuss the disputed islands.
(SFC, 1/16/99, p.A11)
St. Helena
1806 Oct 17, Napoleon Bonaparte
arrived at the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic, where he had
been banished by the Allies. [Napoleon did not go to St. Helena until
1815]
(HN, 10/17/98)
1815 Mar 20, Napoleon Bonaparte
entered Paris, beginning his "Hundred Days" rule. He had escaped from
his imprisonment on the island of Elba off the coast of Tuscany. He
gathered his veterans and marched on Paris. At Waterloo, Belgium, he
met the Duke of Wellington, commander of the allied anti-French forces
and was resoundingly defeated. Napoleon was then imprisoned on the
island of St. Helena in the south Atlantic. In 1997 Gregor Dallas
published: “The Final Act: The Roads to Waterloo.” The book includes a
good account of the Congress of Vienna.
(AP, 3/20/97)(V.D.-H.K.p.232)(SFEC,11/2/97, Par
p.10) (HN, 3/20/98)
1815 Aug 8, Napoleon Bonaparte set
sail for St. Helena, in the South Atlantic, to spend the remainder of
his days in exile.
(AP, 8/8/97)
1815 Oct 17, Napoleon arrived in
St. Helena.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1821 May 5, Napoleon Bonaparte
died in exile on the island of St. Helena. They poisoned him by putting
arsenic in his food. Napoleon died by slow poisoning at the hands of
his companion Charles Tristan de Montholon on the island of St. Helena.
Scottish pathologist Dr. Hamilton Smith later used Napoleon’s hair to
determine that arsenic had been administered about 40 times from
1820-1821.
(V.D.-H.K.p.232)(AP, 5/5/97)(SFEC, 1/18/98, BR
p.9)(SFEC, 8/16/98, Z1 p.8)
St. Kilda, Scotland
An island more than 100 miles
west of the Scottish Highlands. It was inhabited for more than a 1000
years by a hardy race of Scots.
1930 The island was evacuated.
Only the birds stayed behind: puffins, gannets, fulmars, guillemots,
kittiwakes, razorbills, gulls, and great skuas. The Soay sheep also
remained, a type that was kept by Bronze-age farmers.
(WSJ, 9/11/96, p.A20)
St. Lucia
Islands in the Lesser Antilles. St. Lucia's capital
is Castries. It changed hands between England and France 14 times. One
of the Windward Islands.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, p.T8)(SFC, 3/22/99, p.A8)(NH, 3/05,
p.64)
1967 Mar 1, St. Lucia became a
West Indies associated state with John Compton as Premier. It gained
full independence on Feb 22, 1979.
(www.stlucia1979.com/page3.htm)
1974 Peter Bird and Derek King
rowed 4,300 miles for 106 days east-to-west across the Atlantic from
Gibraltar to the Caribbean island of Santa Lucia. The wrote of their
trip in: "Small Boat Against the Sea." In 1996 he was lost at sea
during an attempted crossing of the Pacific.
(SFC, 6/6/96, C1)
1979 Feb 22, St. Lucia gained full
independence from Britain and Sir John Compton became the first prime
minister.
(PCh, 1992, p.1072)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(SFC, 3/22/99,
p.A10)
1979 Sir Arthur Lewis, an
economist from St. Lucia, won the Nobel Prize in Economics.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.90)
1997 Jun 18, It was reported that
Japan was paying 5 Caribbean nations extensive aid and investment in
order to gain support to block protections for endangered species.
Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Dominica were
all reported to have been bribed.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A8)
2000 Dec 31, In St. Lucia machete
wielding men stormed the Castries Cathedral, hacked at worshipers and
set them ablaze. One nun was killed and 12 people injured. Two suspects
identified themselves as Rastafarian foes of corruption in the Catholic
Church.
(SFC, 1/1/01, p.A12)
2004 Sep 13, In St. Lucia dozens
of homes were damaged from Hurricane Ivan. The government estimates
$2.5 million in damage to homes and infrastructure, plus $3.7 million
in damage to the banana industry, with 30 percent of the crop destroyed.
(AP, 9/14/04)
2006 Mar 7, St. Lucia expected to
open an aerial tramway across 1,200 acres of northern rain forest and
mountains.
(SSFC, 2/19/06, p.F2)
2007 Jan 9, St. Lucian lawmakers
made history in the Caribbean island when they selected two women to
lead Parliament.
(AP, 1/9/07)
2007 May 1, China lashed out at
the Caribbean nation of St. Lucia for restoring diplomatic relations
with Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing claims as Chinese
territory.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 Aug 17, Hurricane Dean tore
through the eastern Caribbean islands of St. Lucia and Martinique,
ripping roofs from buildings, downing trees and knocking out power. 100
mph winds ruined the entire banana harvest on St. Lucia and Martinique
and battered the banana industry in Dominica.
(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/18/07)
2008 Jan 15, Singing
schoolchildren welcomed Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian to St. Lucia
for his first visit since the small Caribbean island shifted diplomatic
ties to Taipei instead of rival China.
(AP, 1/16/08)
St. Martin
See Netherland Antilles
Sulawesi
An Indonesian island west of
Borneo, famed for its indigenous cultural life with a Dutch colonial
overlay.
(USA Today, 5/14/96, p.6D)
The Toadja of Sulawesi use
ancestral bones for talismans.
(NH, 6/97, p.14)
Sunda Islands
The Greater Sundas are in the
Malay Archipelago and include Borneo, Sumatra, Java and the Celebes.
The lesser Sundas extend east
from Java to Timor. The 75-sq. ml. Komodo Island is part of the Lesser
Sundas and home of the Komodo dragon. A sultan from Bima on Sumbawa
Island first sent prisoners and families to Komodo about a century ago.
(WSJ, 6/6/96, p.A12)
1815 April, Mount Tambora,
Indonesia, in the Java Sea erupted. One-third of the 13,000 foot
mountain was blasted into the air. 100,000 people were killed and the
whole planet was shrouded in a debris of sulfuric droplets. Mt. Tambora
on Sumbawa Island erupted.
(NOHY, Weiner, 3/90, p.41)(WUD, 1994, p.1423)
1942 Mar 1, Japanese troops
landed on Java in the Pacific.
(HN, 3/1/98)
Tahiti
See French Polynesia, Cook Islands
1789 Sep, Fletcher Henderson left
Tahiti with the Bounty with a light crew. 16 men were left abandoned.
(ON, 3/04, p.9)
1880 Jun 29, France annexed Tahiti.
(HN, 6/29/98)
Taino Indians
Native Indians of Hispaniola
which now includes Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
(WUD, 1994, p.673)
1515 By this year the Taino
Indians were practically annihilated in clashes with the Spanish.
(SFC, 3/29/97, p.A10)
Tanguts
c1000 A group of Asian people
neighboring to China.
(NH, 9/97, p.14)
Tarahumara
An Indian tribe inhabiting the
Copper Canyon region in northwestern Mexico. They number about 45,000.
(SFC, 5/19/96, T-1)
Tasmania
41000BC The skull of a giant kangaroo dating to this
time was found in a cave in the thick rainforest of the rugged
northwest of Tasmania in 2000. Scientists used the skull to argue that
that man likely hunted to death the giant kangaroo and other very large
animals on the southern island of Tasmania.
(AP, 8/12/08)
38,000BCE-1996 Scientists in Australia said that they
found a shrub in Tasmania that began growing 40,000 years ago. Dubbed
"King’s Holly," the plant clones itself and now covers 2 secluded river
gullies in the remote southwest.
(SFC, 10/26/96, p.A17)
1642 Nov 24, Abel Janszoon Tasman
(d.1659) discovered Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania).
(MC, 11/24/01)
1659 Oct 10, Able Janszoon Tasman,
navigator, died at about 56. He discovered Tasmania.
(WUD, 1994 p.1455)(MC, 10/10/01)
1804 Oct 9, Hobart, Tasmania, was
founded.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1804 Soldiers fired on an
aboriginal hunting party on Tasmania and killed some 50 people. Some
were salted down and sent to Sydney as anthropological curiosities.
(WSJ, 8/2100, p.A1)
1830-1877 Some 12,500 convicts were locked in
Tasmania during this period.
(SSFC, 1/23/05, p.E6)
1836 Feb 17, HMS Beagle and
Charles Darwin left Tasmania.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1856 Australia's Van Dieman's
Island was renamed Tasmania.
(Econ, 1/17/04, p.37)
1941 Tasmania enacted a law to
protect the Tasmanian devil.
(SSFC, 1/23/05, p.E6)
1979 John Chapman and John Siseman
published their 1st edition of “Cradle Mountain Lake St. Clair,” a
hiking guide of Tasmania’s Overland Track.
(www.john.chapman.name/pub-cr.html)
1996 Apr 28, A lone gunman, Martin
Bryant, killed 35 tourists visiting a colonial prison on the Australian
island of Tasmania. He was later sentenced to 35 life terms in prison.
(WSJ, 4/29/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 11/22/96, p.A22)
1997 The Tasmanian parliament
repealed its anti-gay laws.
(SSFC, 1/23/05, p.E6)
2002 Dec 20, Grote Reber
(90), a pioneer of radio astronomy died in Tasmania. He followed up
Karl Jansky's 1933 announcement of the discovery of radio waves from
space and in his spare time in 1937 built a 30-foot antenna dish, the
1st radio telescope, in his back yard in Wheaton, Ill., and managed to
pick up signals two years later.
(AP, 12/25/02)
2003 Jim Bacon, head of the Labor
Party government of Tasmania, appointed Richard Butler, former UN arms
inspector, as governor.
(Econ, 1/17/04, p.37)
2004 Nicholas Shakespeare authored
“In Tasmania,” a look at characters in the last 200 years of Tasmania.
(Econ, 11/27/04, p.86)
2005 Jun 22, It was reported that
bee keepers in Tasmania were in conflict with loggers due to the loss
of leatherwood trees.
(WSJ, 6/22/05, p.A1)
2006 Nicholas Shakespeare authored
“In Tasmania,” an account of his life there since 1999.
(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.P8)
2006 Oct 18, Australia’s Tasmania
state unveiled an historic five million dollar (3.8 million dollars US)
compensation package for Aborigines forcibly taken from their families
as children.
(AFP, 10/18/06)
Thrace
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/9659/welcome.htm
The Thracians lived in what is now Bulgaria and parts of modern Greece,
Romania, Macedonia, and Turkey between 4,000 B.C. and the 8th century
A.D., when they were assimilated by the invading Slavs.
(AP, 7/16/07)
According to Herodotus the Thracians worshipped Artemis, Dionysus,
Ares, and Hermes.
(SFEM, 8/9/98, p.45)
5000BC The Thracian village of Nebet Tepe, later
Plovdid, Bulgaria, dated to about this time. It was redeveloped by the
Macedonians, Romans, Byzantines, Bulgars and Turks.
(SSFC, 7/16/06, p.G4)
4000BC Skilled goldsmiths [proto-Thracians] lived in
the area of Varna on the Black Sea [later Bulgaria].
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T3)(SFEC, 8/2/98, DB p.22)
2100BC-2000BC Some 15,000 tiny Golden rings,
estimated at 4,100 to 4,200 years old, were found in 2005 near Dabene,
Bulgaria. They were attributed to proto-Thracians, ancestors of the
Thracians, who lived in the area until they were assimilated by
invading Slavs in the 8th century.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.A2)
513BC Darius, after subduing
eastern Thrace and the Getae, crossed the Danube River into European
Scythia, but the Scythian nomads devastated the country as they
retreated from him, and he was forced, for lack of supplies, to abandon
the campaign.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty27.html)
486-465BC Xerxes I ruled over Persia from India to
the lands below the Caspian and Black seas, to the east coast of the
Mediterranean including Egypt and Thrace. Its great cities Sardis,
Ninevah, Babylon, and Susa were joined by the Royal Road. East of Susa
was Persopolis, a vast religious monument. To the north of Persia were
the Scythians. [2nd source says 485-465]
(V.D.-H.K.p.49)(http://eawc, p.11)
c480BC Herodotus said marijuana was cultivated in
Scythia and Thrace, where inhabitants intoxicated themselves by
breathing the vapors given off when the plant was roasted on white-hot
stones.
(WSJ, 2/8/05, p.D7)
400BC In 2007 a 2,400-year-old
golden mask that once belonged to a Thracian king was unearthed in a
timber-lined tomb in southeastern Bulgaria.
(AP, 7/17/07)
279BC The Celts plundered the
shrine at Delphi and then retreated north to Thrace. The Thracians
later routed the intruders.
(NGM, 5/77)
457 Feb 7, A Thracian officer by
the name of Leo was proclaimed as emperor of the East by the army
general, Aspar, on the death of the Emperor Marcian.
(HN, 2/7/99)
700-800 Invading Slavs assimilated the Thracians in
the area of modern Bulgaria and parts of Greece, Romania, Macedonia and
Turkey.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.A2)
1913 Jun 24, Greece and Serbia
annulled their alliance with Bulgaria following border disputes over
Macedonia and Thrace.
(HN, 6/24/98)
Tocharians
c1000BC An Indo-European group of people moved east
to live in what later became Xinjiang province of western China. They
left well-preserved Caucasian mummies of this age and 1,300 year old
texts written in an unknown Indo European tongue. Some evidence showed
that they had come from the steppes north of the Black and Caspian seas
as the area filled with Iranian immigrants. They settled in the Tarim
Basin on the edges of the Taklimakan Desert. They area has also been
named Inner Asia, Chinese Turkestan and East Turkestan. The Uighers of
Xinjiang sometimes show physical features that reflects Tocharian blood.
(SFC, 2/27/98, p.A2)
Transjordan
See Jordan
1923 May 25, Britain recognized
Transjordan with Abdullah as its leader.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1946 Mar 22, The British mandate
in Transjordan came to an end. Britain signed a treaty granting
independence to Jordan.
(AP, 3/22/97)(HN, 3/22/97)
1946 May 25, Transjordan (now
Jordan) became a kingdom as it proclaimed its new monarch, King
Abdullah Ibn Ul-Hussein.
(AP, 5/25/97)
1948 May 15, Hours after declaring
its independence, the new state of Israel was attacked by Transjordan,
Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. The first president of the State of
Israel, Chaim Weizmann, took office with the founding of the nation.
David Ben-Gurion was Israel’s first prime minister. Weizmann, born in
Russia in 1874, taught chemistry in England and as a leading Zionist
influenced Britain’s Balfour Declaration of 1917 favoring a Jewish
homeland in Palestine. Weizmann settled in Palestine in 1934 and
served as president of Israel from 1948 until his death in 1952.
(AP, 5/15/97)(HNQ, 6/19/99)
1948 May 24, Ariel Sharon, then
called Arik Scheinerman, was wounded at the battle of Latrun while
securing Jerusalem for Jews in the 1st Arab-Israeli War.
(WSJ, 10/13/00, p.A15)(Econ, 12/16/06,
p.85)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrun)
1948-1968 The old city of East Jerusalem was under
Jordanian control. Transjordan was given to a client Arab family, the
Hashenites (led by King Hussein’s grandfather), and was run out of
Mecca by the Saudis.
(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A14)
Transdniestria
A region between the Ukraine and
Moldova the size of Rhode Island with 750,000 people. The capital is
Tiraspol.
(WSJ, 7/8/97, p.A1,8)(Econ, 8/21/04, p.41)
1924 The Bolsheviks formed the
Moldovan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) as a basis for
later taking over a chunk of Romania.
(WSJ, 7/8/97, p.A1,8)(http://tinyurl.com/b7m4b)
1939-1945 During WW II the Germans and Ukrainians
used Transdniestria as a killing field to purge Europe of some 150,000
Jews.
(SSFC, 2/12/06, p.E2)
1944 The Soviet army re-conquered
Bessarabia. Only then were the two parts of present-day Moldova joined
together to form the Moldavian SSR. At the same time, about one-third
of Bessarabia, including its entire Black Sea coastline, was
incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR. The Transdniester region, having
long been part of the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union,
remained more Russified and Sovietized than Right-Bank Moldavia.
(http://tinyurl.com/b7m4b)
1987 Igor Smirnov, a metal worker
from Kamchatka, moved to Tiraspol as a factory manager and worked his
way into power.
(Econ, 8/21/04, p.41)
1990 Sep, Under the specter of a
rising Greater Romania, Transdniestria declared its independence.
(www.aliciapatterson.org/APF1803/Meier_Foster/Meier_Foster.html)
1992 Russian reactionaries fought
against the Soviet breakup and repulsed Moldova’s bid to hold on to
Transdniestria. A civil war with Moldova left up to 700 people dead.
(WSJ, 7/8/97, p.A1,8)(Econ, 1/29/05, p.52)(SSFC,
2/12/06, p.E2)
1992 Andrei Ivantoc, a member of
the Popular Moldovan Front, was arrested by separatist
authorities of Trans-Dniester. A year later he and the three
others were sentenced on charges of committing terrorist acts against
citizens of Trans-Dniester. The Popular Moldovan Front called for the
reunification of Moldova with neighboring Romania. The group's members
were seen as martyrs by some in Moldova and Romania for their
opposition to the separatists. Ivantoc was released in 2007.
(AP, 6/2/07)
1992-1994 Russia's Alexander Lebed commanded troops
in Moldova’s break-away region of Transdniestria, where ethnic conflict
rose between the Moldovan government and Slav separatists. He ended the
bloodshed there.
(SFC, 10/18/96, A18)
1996 Dec, Mr. Igor Smirnov was
re-elected as president of Transdniestra in elections viewed as a
charade.
(WSJ, 7/8/97, p.A1,8)
1997 A report on Transdniestria
described it as a haven for arms smugglers, money launderers and
outlaws on the lam.
(WSJ, 7/8/97, p.A1,8)
2003 Dec 8, Russian military
documents confirmed that dozens of rockets outfitted with dirty bombs
appeared to be missing from the military airport at Tiraspol, the
capital of Transdniestria.
(SFC, 12/9/03, p.A13)(Econ, 7/2/05, p.46)
2003 Dec 27, Russia removed all
Soviet-built anti-aircraft missiles from its vast arms depots in a
Moldova province to prevent them from falling into the hands of
terrorists. The missiles were flown from Transdniestria Province to
Moscow.
(AP, 12/29/03)
2003 Moldova Pres. Voronin
rejected a deal on Transdniestra that would have left Russian troops on
Moldovan soil for at least 15 years while giving the breakaway region
wide autonomy.
(WSJ, 3/4/05, p.A13)
2004 Dec, Moldovan Foreign
Minister Andrei Stratan called 1,500 Russian troops in Transdniestra a
“military occupation.”
(WSJ, 3/4/05, p.A13)
2006 Jul 6, In Moldova an
explosion ripped apart a small bus in Tiraspol, capital of the
separatist region of Trans-Dniester, killing eight people and injuring
46.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2008 Aug 25, Russia's parliament
voted unanimously to urge the president to recognize the independence
of Georgia's two breakaway regions, a move likely to stoke further
tensions between Moscow and the small Caucasus nation's Western allies.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned ex-Soviet Moldova against
repeating Georgia's mistake of trying to use force to seize back
control of Transdniestria, a pro-Moscow breakaway region.
(AP, 8/25/08)(Reuters, 8/25/08)
Transvaal
1883 Apr 16, Paul Kruger was
chosen president of Transvaal.
(MC, 4/16/02)
Tripoli
Tripoli was a Barbary State of
North Africa and then a province of Turkey before it became part of
Libya.
(WUD, 1994, p.1516)
1289 Apr 29, Qala'un, the Sultan
of Egypt, captured Tripoli.
(HN, 4/29/98)
1798 Nov 4, Congress agreed to pay
a yearly tribute to Tripoli, considering it the only way to protect
U.S. shipping.
(HN, 11/4/98)
1801 Jun 10, The North African
state of Tripoli declared war on the United States in a dispute over
safe passage of merchant vessels through the Mediterranean. Tripoli
declared war on the U.S. for refusing to pay tribute.
(AP, 6/10/97)(HN, 6/10/98)
1804 Feb 16, Lt. Stephen Decatur
attacked the Tripoli pirates who burned the USS Philadelphia. Captain
Stephen Decatur, commanding the USS United States, had dismasted the
35-gun Macedonian off the Canary Islands and, after spending two weeks
restoring the prize to sailing condition, brought her back to New York
after a return voyage of nearly 4,000 miles.
(AP, 2/16/98)(HN, 2/16/98)
1805 Apr 27, A force led by U.S.
Marines captured the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli.
(AP, 4/27/97)
1805 Jun 4, Tripoli was forced to
conclude peace with U.S. after conflict over tribute.
(HN, 6/4/98)
Tristan da Cunha
A group of 3 volcanic islands in the S. Pacific belonging to Great
Britain
(WUD, 1994 p.1516)
1816 Aug 14, Great Britain annexed
Tristan da Cunha.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1961 Oct 1, A believed extinct
volcano erupted in Tristan da Cunha.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1961 Oct 9, Volcano eruptions
continued on Tristan de Cunha in the South Atlantic. [see Oct 1]
(MC, 10/9/01)
2008 The population of Tristan da
Cunha, the most remote settlement in the world, stood at 269. Access to
the outside world required a 6-7 day ocean voyage.
(Econ, 6/7/08, TQ p.28)
Troy
2500BCE Troy II, the second oldest discernible
settlement on the site of the mound of Hissarlik in northwest Turkey, a
good 1200 years before the estimated date of the Trojan War.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.49)
2450BCE The Troy treasure discovered by Heinrich
Schliemann in 1873 was dated to a Bronze Age Troy of about this time.
(SFC, 4/16/96, p.A-9)
1700-1250 Troy VI, the bronze age settlement of the
site of the Trojan War. The inhabitants probably spoke Luvian, an
Indo-European language related to Hittite.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.49-50)
1250-1000BCE Troy VIIa, another discernible era on
the site of the Trojan War. Evidence shows that Troy V was destroyed by
fire and that Troy VI saw the establishment of an entirely new
principality. An earthquake hit the thriving city of 5-6 thousand
people, but after the crisis, the same people returned and repaired the
city. The renovated Troy VIIa lasted some seventy years and was then
destroyed by a conflagration.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.49-50)
1225-1175 Earthquakes during this period toppled some
city-states and centers of trade and scholarship in the Middle East.
Jericho, Jerusalem, Knossos and Troy were all hit.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A8)(SSFC, 12/17/00, p.A19)
1200BCE Homer’s Troy dates to around this time.
(SFC, 4/16/96, p.A-9)
1184 BCE Jun 11, Greeks finally captured Troy. [see
1150BCE]
(SC, 6/11/02)
1150BCE Troy fell. Estimated date for the beginning
of the Aeneid. [see 1275-1240BCE]
(V.D.-H.K.p.60)
c1000BCE Troy at Hissarlik in northwest Turkey was
destroyed by fire and abandoned.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.50)
Tuaregs
Berber nomads of the Sahara. They
are camel breeders, desert guides, toll collectors, bandits and
opportunists.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, BR p.5)
Tuva
A republic of the Russian Federation whose capital is Kyzyl. It
is just north of Mongolia. It has about 300,000 people, a quarter of
whom are nomads. Tuva is about the size of North Dakota.
(WSJ, 4/1/06, p.A5)
1921-1944 The Soviets allowed Tuva to call itself
independent. Tuvan stamps are issued by Moscow in odds shapes and they
became collector's items.
(WSJ, 4/1/06, p.A5)
1944 The Soviet Union annexed Tuva
and closed the region to the outside world.
(WSJ, 4/1/06, p.A5)
1993 The Constitution begins by
declaring Tuva's right to secede from the Russian Federation.
(WSJ, 11/29/95, p.A-1,4)
1995 The Russian Republic of Tuva
is noted for its considerable natural resources of gold, mercury,
lead-zinc, nickel-cobalt, and coal reserves. There are also 8000 rivers
and streams for potential hydro-electric power.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-19)
1995 The American club Friends of
Tuva helped to take Paul Pena, a blind blues musician and self-taught
throat-singer, to Tuva for a singing contest. The trip was later
chronicled in the 1999 film, Genghis Blues.
(WSJ, 4/1/06, p.A5)
1996 The Tuvan ensemble,
Huun-Huur-Tu, toured the US and demonstrated their art of throat
singing.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, DB p.9)
1999 The film "Genghis Blues"
premiered at Sundance. It won the audience award for best documentary.
It was directed by Roko and Adrian Belic and was about Paul Pena
(1950-2005), a blind bluesman, who journeyed to Tuva in 1995 to compete
in a throat-singing competition.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, DB p.35)(SFC, 10/4/05, p.B5)
2006 Theodore Levin authored
“Where Rivers and Mountains Sing,” a look at the music of Tuva and how
throat-singing has infiltrated popular culture around the world.
(WSJ, 4/1/06, p.A5)
Tuvalu
1971 Australia joined with New
Zealand and 14 independent of self-governing island nations to form the
South Pacific Forum. The name was changed in 2000 to Pacific Islands
Forum. Member states include: Australia, the Cook Islands, the
Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands,
Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon
Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Since 2006, associate members
territories are New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
(Econ, 10/20/07,
p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islands_Forum)
Uighurs (Uygurs)
The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous
Region of China comprises one-sixth of China in area. The Uighurs of
the region are Turkic-speaking descendants of the Huns.
(SFC, 1/18/00, p.A8)
2,000BC For as many as 4,000 years, the salty sand of
the Taklimakan Desert in China held well-preserved mummies wearing
colorful robes, boots, stockings and hats. The people were Caucasian
not Asian. The bodies have been exhumed from the Tarim Basin of
Xinjiang province since the late 1970s.
(SFC, 5/6/96, p.C-1)(NG, 3/96)
356-323BC The Uighur people have a myth that
Alexander the Great during his conquests ordered his 11 doctors to
create a remedy for all sick people and that as a result pilaf was
invented.
(SFC, 8/14/96, zz-1 p.2)
800-900 The Uygur, a Turkic people, fled the
Mongolian steppe and settled in Xinjiang.
(NG, Feb, 04, p.12)
1000-1100 From Kashgar, China, Mahmud of Kashgar
recorded a similar story but substituted tutmach (noodles) for pilaf.
(SFC, 8/14/96, zz-1 p.2)
1933 The short-lived Republic of
East Turkestan was proclaimed in Kashgar.
(SFC, 1/18/00, p.A8,9)
1944 The short-lived Republic of
East Turkestan was proclaimed to exist in Ili in northern Kashgar.
(SFC, 1/18/00, p.A8,9)
1944-1949 The Uighers held the free Republic of East
Turkestan until Chinese Communists seized power.
(USAT, 2/11/97, p.5A)
1980 A mummy titled the “Beauty of
Kiruran,” was found in the Taklimakan Desert in China. The Uighurs have
been the majority population of this area for centuries and speak a
Turkic language.
(SFC, 5/6/96, p.C-1)
1997 Feb 5-6, The Uighers rioted
in the province of Xinjiang and reports of deaths varied from 4-300.
The fighting was said to have begun after the public execution of 30
young Muslims. Residents said Muslims attacked and killed ethnic
Chinese before police quashed the revolt.
(USAT, 2/11/97, p.5A) (USAT, 2/12/97, p.8A) (WSJ,
2/11/96, p.A1)
1997 Feb 25, In Urumqi, capital of
Xinjiang province, Muslim Uigher separatists set bombs that killed 2
and wounded 27.
(SFC, 2/26/97, p.A8)
2004 Apr, Uighurs met at a
conference in Germany to unite behind Erkin Alptekin, son of a pre-1949
president of independent Xinjiang.
(Econ, 8/28/04, p.38)
2008 Apr 10, In China a police
spokesman said authorities have detained 45 East Turkestan "terrorist"
suspects (Uighurs), and foiled plots to carry out suicide bomb attacks
and kidnap athletes to disrupt the Beijing Olympics.
(Reuters, 4/10/08)
United Arab Republic (UAR)
1219 Nov 5, The port of Damietta
(in the Nile delta of Egypt) fell to the Crusaders after a siege.
(WUD, 1994, p.365)(HN, 11/5/98)
1958 Feb 1, Syria and Egypt formed
the United Arab Republic. Most Syrians resented the merger, which was
led by the radical Baath (Arab Socialist Resurrection) party.
(WUD, 1994, p.1555)(HNQ, 6/5/98)
1961 Syria withdrew from the UAR
following a coup.
(WUD, 1994, p.1555)(HNQ, 6/5/98)
1961-1971 UAR was the official name of Egypt over
this period.
(WUD, 1994, p.1555)
Vandals
406 Dec 31, Godagisel, king of the
Vandals, died in battle as some 80,000 Vandals attacked over the Rhine
at Mainz.
(MC, 12/31/01)
439 The Vandals took Carthage and
quickly conquered all the coastal lands of Algeria and Tunisia. Egypt
and the Libyan coast remained in Roman hands.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.168)
523 May 6, Thrasamunde, king of
Vandals (496-523), died.
(MC,
5/6/02)(http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15268b.htm)
Vanuatu
A South Pacific nation of over 80 islands formerly known as the New
Hebrides.
(SSFC, 12/18/05, p.F8)
The capital is Port-Vila.
(Sm, 2/06, p.72)
1000BC A cemetery containing the remains of 25 Lapita
people in Teouma, Vanuatu, dated to about this time.
(Arch, 1/06, p.11)
1774 Jul 17, Capt Cook arrived at
New Hebrides (Vanuatu).
(MC, 7/17/02)(Sm, 2/06, p.73)
1938-1939 John Frum, a ghostly American, promised in
the late 1930s to bring planeloads of cargo from the US to Tanna Island
in Vanuatu. Natives of Tanna, in a classic example of a “cargo cult,”
later celebrated Feb 15 as John Frum Day.
(Sm, 2/06, p.75)
1971 Australia joined with New
Zealand and 14 independent of self-governing island nations to form the
South Pacific Forum. The name was changed in 2000 to Pacific Islands
Forum. Member states include: Australia, the Cook Islands, the
Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands,
Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon
Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Since 2006, associate members
territories are New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
(Econ, 10/20/07,
p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islands_Forum)
1980 Jul 30, The Pacific island of
Vanuatu gained independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97,
p.A9)(www.worldstatesmen.org/Vanuatu.html)
1996 Sep 30, Parliament passed a
vote of no confidence in prime Minister Maxime Carlot.
(SFC, 10/1/96, p.A14)
1999 Nov 27, In Vanuatu a tsunami
generated by a 7.1 earthquake killed 8 people on Pentecost Island. 2
people were missing and thousands feared injured and homeless. The
quake was centered 54 miles north of the capital Port Vila.
(SFC, 11/27/99, p.A15)(SFEC, 11/28/99, p.A12)
2004 Nov 10, The Pacific island of
Vanuatu withdrew a Nov 3 communique signed in Taipei to establish ties
with Taiwan, handing Beijing a diplomatic victory over its arch rival.
(AP, 11/11/04)
2005 Dec 8, An erupting volcano on
the remote South Pacific island of Vanuatu burst into spectacular life
shooting steam and toxic gases 9,845 feet into the sky.
(AP, 12/08/05)
2006 Jul 11, The tiny nation of
Vanuatu, one of the "happy isles of Oceania," has topped a new index,
the UK-based New Economics Foundation (NEF), that measures quality of
life against environmental impact, with industrial countries, perhaps
unsurprisingly, faring badly.
(Reuters, 7/11/06)
Vikings
700-800 Vikings began arriving to the Orkney Islands.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T3)
793 Jun 8, Vikings raided the
Northumbrian coast in England. Corfe served as a center of West Saxon
resistance to Viking invaders.
(HN, 6/8/98)
795 Vikings first raided Ireland.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.T8)
800-900 In France monks moved inland from the Loire
valley to escape the depredations of the Vikings and revived the making
of Chablis wine with Chardonnay grapes.
(SFC, 7/16/97, Z1 p.4)
800-900 The Vikings brought ponies to Iceland.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A9)
802 Vikings stage their 1st raid
of Iona (Scotland).
(AM, 7/01, p.50)
804 Vikings returned to Iona and
killed 68 of the monastic community.
(AM, 7/01, p.50)
840 Vikings settled in Ireland.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.T8)
842 Vikings attacked the Irish
monastery at Clonmacnoise from bases in Ireland.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.T8)
c853 The Baltic shoreline
Curonians repulsed Danish Viking attempts at subjugation. King Olaf led
Swedish Vikings in retaliation and overcame the towns of Seeburg and
Apuole (Apulia).
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/anskar.html#lifeans
(TB-Com, 10/11/00)
874 Vikings from Norway began to
survey Iceland. The monks withdrew to Ireland. The 40,000-square-mile
island situated 500 miles northwest of Scotland was first settled by
Norwegians.
(NH, 6/96, p.53)(HNQ, 4/28/00)
995-1030 Olaf Haraldsson, aka Saint Olaf, the patron
saint of Norway. He was king from 1016-1029. He and a crew of Vikings
attacked London and pulled down the London Bridge with ropes. This is
remembered in the nursery rhyme “London Bridge is falling down...”
(WUD, 1994, p.1002)(SFC, 8/23/97, p.E3)
Volcano Islands
Iwo Jima is one of the 2 Volcano
Islands in the North Pacific, south of Japan.
1944 Jul 4, The Japanese made
their first kamikaze (god wind) attack on a US fleet near Iwo Jima.
There is little evidence that these hits were more than accidental
collisions or last-minute decisions by pilots in doomed aircraft, of
the kind likely to happen in intense sea-air battles [see Oct 21].
(Maggio)(WSJ, 9/10/02,
p.D8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze)
1944 Dec 8, The U.S. conducted the
longest most effective air raid of the Pacific island of Iwo Jima.
(HN, 12/8/98)
1945 Feb 19, About 60,000 [75,000]
US marines went ashore at Iwo Jima, an 8-sq. mile island of rock,
volcanic ash and black sand. During World War II, some 30,000 U.S.
Marines landed on Iwo Jima, where they began a month-long battle to
seize control of the island from Japanese forces. The 36-day battle
took the lives of 7,000 Americans and about 20,000 of 22,000 Japanese
defenders.
(SFC, 6/19/96, p.A20)(HN, 2/19/98)(AP, 2/19/98)(SFC,
9/21/00, p.C6)
1945 Feb 23, During World War II,
U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima captured Mount Suribachi, where they raised
the American flag. The carnage on the 8-sq.-mile island continued for
another 31 days.
(AP, 2/23/98)(SFC, 9/21/00, p.C6)
1945 Mar 16, During World War II,
the island of Iwo Jima in the Pacific Ocean was declared secured by the
Allies. The U.S. defeated Japan at Iwo Jima. Small pockets of Japanese
resistance still exist.
(AP, 3/16/97)(HN, 3/16/99)
1945 Mar 26, Japanese resistance
ended on Iwo Jima.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1945 Mar 27, Iwo Jima was
occupied, after 22,000 Japanese and 6,000 US killed.
(MC, 3/27/02)
Wake Island
See Midway Island
1898 Jul 4, A US flag was hoisted
over Wake Island during the Spanish-American War.
(Maggio, 98)
1899 Jan 17, US took possession of
Wake Island in Pacific.
(MC, 1/17/02)
1941 Dec 11, A Japanese invasion
fleet attacked Wake Island, which was defended by 439 US marines, 75
sailors and 6 soldiers. The defenders sank 4 Japanese ships, damaged 8
and destroyed a submarine.
(SFC, 12/12/01, p.A2)
1941 Dec 23, During World War II,
U.S. Marines and Navy defenders on Wake Island capitulated to a second
Japanese invasion.
(AP, 12/23/97)(HN, 12/23/00)
1943 Oct 7, Approximately 100 U.S.
prisoners of war remaining on Wake Island were executed by the Japanese.
(HN, 10/7/98)
1945 Sep 4, US regained possession
of Wake Island from Japan. The American flag was raised on Wake Island
after surrender ceremonies there.
(HN, 9/4/98)(MC, 9/4/01)
1950 Oct 15, President Harry
Truman met with General Douglas MacArthur at Wake Island to discuss
U.N. progress in the Korean War.
(HN, 10/15/98)
Wallachia
A former principality in SE
Europe, north of the Danube.
(WUD, 1994, p.1606)
1400-1500 In Romania Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad the
Impaler, the son of Vlad Dracul (Vlad the Dragon), was a 15th century
gruesome Wallachian nobleman. Dracula means son of the dragon. He
punished disobedient subjects and “unchaste” women by impaling them on
sharpened logs, often dining amid the victims as they died. The family
name changed to Kretzulesco and grew in stature with members upgraded
to princes and princesses.
(WSJ, 10/30/97, p.A20)
1861 Wallachia united with
Moldavia to form Rumania whose capital is Bucharest.
(WUD, 1994, p.1606)
Wallis and Futuna Islands
1842 The French declared a
protectorate over the Wallis and Futuna Islands. They had been
discovered by the Dutch and the British in the 17th and 18th centuries.
In 1959, the inhabitants of the islands voted to become a French
overseas territory.
(www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/wf.html)
1959 Lavalua Tomasi Kulimoetoke
(41) became king of Wallis and Futuna Islands. The 2 Pacific islands
between Hawaii and New Zealand, are about 2,800 miles southwest of
Honolulu. The islands have a total area about 1 1/2 times the size of
Washington D.C. and a population of about 15,000.
(AP, 9/23/05)
1961 Jul, A French law guaranteed
populations in France's overseas territories free exercise of their
religion and respect for their beliefs and customs as long as they are
not contrary to general principles of law.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Reformers on Wallis and
Futuna Islands sought to put a new king in place.
(AP, 9/23/05)
West Indies
An archipelago in the North Atlantic between North
and South America comprising the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles,
and the Bahamas.
1629 Oct 13, Dutch West Indies Co.
granted religious freedom in West Indies.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1780 A deadly hurricane hit the
Windward and Leeward Islands and 20-22,000 people were killed.
(SFC, 11/30/98, p.A2)
1793 Dec 23, Thomas Jefferson
warned of slave revolts in West Indies.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1833 Aug 23, The British
Parliament ordered the abolition of slavery in its colonies by Aug 1,
1834. This would free some 700,000 slaves, including those in the West
Indies. The Imperial Emancipation Act also allowed blacks to enjoy
greater equality under the law in Canada as opposed to the US.
(V.D.-H.K.p.276)(MT, 3/96, p.14)(PC, 1992,
p.412)(AH, 10/02, p.54)
1834 Aug 1, In the West Indies
slaves were emancipated.
(NH, 7/98, p.29)
1958 Jan 3, The British created
the West Indies Federation with Lord Hailes as governor general. The
federation lasted to 1962. It included Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad,
Tobago and the Windward and Leeward Islands.
(HN, 1/3/99)(WUD, 1994, p.1623)
1958-1962 The West Indies Federation was comprised of
British territorial islands in the West Indies that included Barbados,
Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago, along with the Windward and Leeward Island
colonies.
(WUD, 1994, p.1623)
1967-1981 The group of territorial islands in the
West Indies in association with the United Kingdom. The original
members included Antigua, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla,
St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and adjacent islands. All the member islands
became independent except Anguilla.
(WUD, 1994, p.1623)
1975 Jun 21, The West Indies,
captained by Clive Lloyd won the first World Cup Cricket series,
beating Australia by 17 runs at Lords.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Cricket_World_Cup)
1992 Oct 8, West Indian poet Derek
Walcott was named winner of the Nobel Prize in literature.
(AP, 10/8/97)
West Irian
1963 The western part of the
island of New Guinea became a province of Indonesia. It was formerly a
Dutch territory called West New Guinea, Dutch New Guinea or Netherlands
New Guinea.
(WUD, 1994, p.1623)
World Trade Organization
1994 Founded as the successor to
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, a relatively weak regulator
of int’l. trade. Under the system a complaint is referred to a panel of
experts who debate it and render a decision. The losing nation must
then change its practices or offer compensation to the injured nations.
Members who refuse to comply can be subjected to trade retaliation,
such as tariffs to their exports.
(SFC, 10/17/96, A9)
1996 Oct 16, The EU began its
campaign against the US Helms-Burton Act by asking the WTO to set up a
panel to resolve differences over the law.
(SFC, 10/17/96, A9)
Yanomani
A native tribe of the Amazon forest of Venezuela and
Brazil. Some 22,000 Yanomani live in about 300 villages spread over
70,000 sq. miles.
(NH, 3/97, p.44)(SFC, 11/16/00, p.A19)
c1947 The first contact with
outsiders occurred.
(NH, 3/97, p.46)
1967 At least 30 Indians died from
a measles epidemic that hit Yanomani villages at least one year before
researchers administered the Edmonston B vaccine.
(SFC, 11/16/00, p.A19)
1968 In Venezuela researchers,
Napoleon Chagnon and James V. Neel, reportedly inoculated thousands of
Yanomami Indians with a measles vaccine. In 2000 the controversial book
“Darkness in El Dorado” Patrick Tierney blamed the researchers
for a major epidemic that killed hundreds of Indians. [see 1967]
(SFC, 11/10/00, p.A4)
1970s-1998 Brazilian Gold miners worked in the
Yanomani reservation near Venezuela and introduced disease that cut the
Indian population by more than half.
(WSJ, 1/15/98, p.A1)
1996 “Spirit of the Rainforest: A
Yanamama Shaman’s Story” by Mark A. Ritchie was published.
(NH, 3/97, p.67)
1997 Nov, The Brazilian government
began to force gold miners to leave the Yanomani Indian reservation
where the population was much reduced by disease.
(WSJ, 1/15/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 17, It was reported that
a 3-month-old fire was raging out of control in the state of Roraima,
home of the Yanomani Indians.
(SFC, 3/17/98, p.B2)
Yoruba
A West African people who speak
the Kwa language. Yorubaland was a former kingdom in West Africa, now a
region of southwest Nigeria.
(WUD, 1994, p.1656)
1875?-1958 Yoruba sculptor Olowe. He carved a lintel
in a sacrifice motif of grisly elegance: birds plucking the eyes from
human faces.
(SFEC, 12/1/96, BR p.4)
Zaire
See Congo
Zanzibar see Tanzania
Zapotecs
1000AD The Zapotecs founded and ruled the
archeological site of Monte Alban in the Mexican state of Oaxaca for
more than a millennium until about this time when the Mixtecs took over.
(SFC, 5/5/96, p.T-8)
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