Timeline Antigua & Barbuda

Timeline Antigua and Barbuda

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Map: Antigua and Barbuda: www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/caribb/ag.htm

1493        Nov 10, Christopher Columbus discovered Antigua during his second expedition.
    (HN, 11/10/98)

1493        Nov 12, Christopher Columbus discovered the island of Redonda during his second expedition. It was about 34 miles WSW of Antigua.
    (www.redonda.org/redonda.html#1869)

1865        Matthew Dowdy Shiell, a sea-trader, landed on an uninhabited part of Redonda Island, part of Antigua and Barbuda, and declared it his kingdom. Title passed out of the Shiell family in 1947.
    (Econ, 12/24/05, p.85)(www.redonda.org/redonda.html#1869)

1949        May 25, Jamaica Kincaid, author (Annie John, Lucy), was born in Antigua as Elaine P. Richardson.
    (HN, 5/25/01)(SC, 5/25/02)

1951        The Antigua Labor Party (ALP) gained power. Vere Bird began dominating local politics and continued to do so, except for one 5-year year, until 1994, when his son took over the family firm.
    (Econ, 12/4/04, p.38)(Econ, 2/28/09, p.42)

1977        Antigua dropped its income tax.
    (Econ, 12/4/04, p.38)

1981        Nov 1, Antigua and Barbuda gained independence from Britain.
    (http://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Antigua/antigua-barbuda.html)

1985-1987    John Fitzgerald, an admitted money-launderer, deposited some $7 million into 2 banks. In 1993 he pleaded guilty to money laundering.
    (WSJ, 11/2/98, p.A27)

1994        Lester Bird, head of the Antigua Labor Party, was elected after his father, PM Vere Bird, retired.
    (SFC, 3/11/99, p.A11)

1994        The Swiss-American Bank and the Swiss-American national Bank turned over drug money from John Fitzgerald to the government of Antigua.
    (WSJ, 11/2/98, p.A30)

1998        Sep 15-Oct 1, Hurricane Georges caused 602 deaths in the Caribbean and four in the United States. The storm hit the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Antigua, Guadeloupe, St. Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla and British and U.S. Virgin Islands before striking Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida.
    (AP, 9/11/04)(www.wunderground.com)

1998        Sep 22, Hurricane Georges hit the Dominican Republic and at least 12 people were killed. Three people were killed in St. Kitts, 2 in Antigua and 4 in Puerto Rico.
    (SFC, 9/23/98, p.A10)

1999        Mar 9, The Antigua Labor Party won the elections and Prime Minister Lester Bird extended his rule for another 5 years.
    (SFC, 3/11/99, p.A11)

1999        Mar, The US Treasury Dept. issued an advisory to US banks to scrutinize all financial transactions into or out of Antigua for money laundering. Antigua had recently adopted new money-laundering prevention measures but they were not considered sufficiently strong by the US.
    (WSJ, 4/27/99, p.A19)

1999        R. Allen Stanford, a Texas developer and int’l. banker, became a citizen of Antigua. His financial dealings included major loans to the government.
    (WSJ, 3/5/02, p.A1)(Econ, 12/4/04, p.38)

2004        Mar 24, Antigua PM Lester Bird (66) conceded defeat to labor activist Baldwin Spencer in general elections marked by corruption charges, ending a family dynasty that has dominated Antigua and Barbuda for more than half a century. Spencer soon found the coffers empty.
    (AP, 3/24/04)(Econ, 12/4/04, p.38)

2004        Aug 23, Antigua and Barbuda's prime minister and American officials signed an agreement extending the lease of the U.S. Air Force base in the Caribbean country until 2008.
    (AP, 8/23/04)

2004        Sep 9, Hurricane Ivan grew into the deadliest of storms overnight, packing winds of 160 mph as it made a beeline for Jamaica after pummeling Grenada, Barbados and other islands, causing at least 20 deaths. Police in Grenada battled looters.
    (AP, 9/9/04)(WSJ, 9/9/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/10/04, p.A1)

2004        Nov 30, The Antigua budget proposed by Errol Cort included an income tax for the highest 25% of the tax payers, a 5% sales tax, higher pensions, free schools meals and civil service salary cuts of 20%.
    (Econ, 12/4/04, p.38)

2004        Antigua owed some $85 million, over 10% of its GDP, to companies of financier R. Allen Stanford.
    (Econ, 2/28/09, p.42)

2005        Sep 6, Nine countries: Antigua, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Dominica, Suriname, St. Kitts, St. Vincent and the Dominican Republic, signed oil deals with Venezuela in Jamaica. Cuba and Jamaica had previously signed. Chavez urged Caribbean governments to consider Cuba-style socialism as an alternative to capitalism.
    (AP, 9/11/05)

2005        Oct 28, Hazelyn Francis (66), the president of the Antigua and Barbuda senate, was raped during an assault in her home.
    (AP, 10/31/05)

2006        Antigua knighted financier R. Allen Stanford, who served as a free-handed lender to the government. Stanford had arrived in the late 1980s after authorities in Montserrat closed his offshore bank.
    (Econ, 2/28/09, p.42)

2006        The population of Antigua was around 75,000.
    (Econ, 8/5/06, p.30)

2007        Jan 3, Mike Perham (14), a British teenager, became the youngest person to sail solo across the Atlantic Ocean, reaching the Caribbean island of Antigua after a six-week voyage. Perham was trailed by his father in another boat.
    (AP, 1/3/07)

2008        Jul 27, In Antigua newlyweds Benjamin and Catherine Mullany, both 31, were attacked inside their cottage at the Cocos Hotel resort in the island's southwest. Both were shot in the head. Catherine was killed. A comatose Benjamin was flown back to Britain where he was pronounced dead on August 3. On August 18 a 20-year old man and 17-year-old male were taken to a magistrate court in St. John's and were charged with murder, robbery and receiving stolen goods. The trial of Avie Howell and Kaniel Martin began June 1, 2011.
    (AP, 8/2/08)(AP, 8/4/08)(AP, 8/19/08)(AP, 6/2/11)

2009        Feb 18, In Antigua panicky depositors were turned away from Stanford International Bank and some of its Latin American affiliates, unable to withdraw their money after US regulators accused Texas financier R. Allen Stanford of perpetrating an $8 billion fraud against his companies' investors.
    (AP, 2/19/09)

2009        Mar 12, Antiguan voters, worried by the fallout from an alleged $8 billion fraud scheme involving R. Allen Stanford, decided between the ruling party and the one that welcomed the Texas financier to the Caribbean nation nearly two decades ago. Preliminary results indicated that Antigua's ruling party will stay in power, but with a narrower margin in parliament.
    (AP, 3/12/09)(AP, 3/13/09)

2009        May 15, A court-appointed liquidator reported that the Antigua offshore Stanford International Bank, at the center of an alleged Ponzi scheme by a wealthy Texas businessman, had a $6 billion shortfall between assets and liabilities, confirming fears that investors will likely get little of their money back.
    (AP, 5/15/09)

2009        Jun 25, Antigua's former chief financial regulator surrendered to face US charges that he aided an alleged $7 billion swindle by Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford.
    (AP, 6/25/09)

2009        Aug 4, Antigua's highest mountain, Boggy Peak, officially became "Mount Obama" as the small Caribbean nation celebrated the American president on his birthday and saluted him as a symbol of black achievement.
    (AP, 8/4/09)(SFC, 8/5/09, p.A2)

2009        Sep 7, Six American tourists in Antigua were charged with assault and malicious damage after refusing to pay a cab fare on Sep 4 they thought was excessive and later scuffling with police officers. They were released on $5,000 bail each. Their Carnival Cruise Lines ship left without them. On Oct 3 five New York tourists pleaded guilty to fighting with plainclothes police officers after disputing the $100 cab fare. Prosecutors dropped charges against a sixth tourist.
    (AP, 9/8/09)(AP, 10/3/09)

2009        The population of Antigua & Barbuda was around 85,000.
    (Econ, 2/28/09, p.42)

2010        Jan 19, Nina Nilssen (29), a graduate student at San Francisco State Univ., was stabed to death during a port call in Antigua. On Jan 29 Suspect Tishara Daniel (24) was arrested and confessed to fatal stabbing of Nina Nilssen.
    (SFC, 1/25/10, p.A1)(AP, 1/31/10)

2010        Mar 31, In Antigua a judge ruled Wednesday that PM Baldwin Spencer and two other lawmakers were improperly elected last year, a decision potentially threatening the governing party's narrow hold on power in this Caribbean country. Earlier this month, Spencer's government announced that the International Monetary Fund agreed to lend the country $124 million over three years.
    (AP, 3/31/10)

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