Timeline Bahamas

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Bahamas Vacation Guide

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Emulate: http://www.emulateme.com/bahamas.htm
Map: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/americas/Bahamas.GIF
TravelDocs: http://www.traveldocs.com/bs/index.htm

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Bahamas Tourism Center: 1-800-422-4262
The 760-mile chain of hundreds of islands is off the southeast coast of Florida.
(HNQ, 12/15/98)

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1492        Oct 11, Rodrigo de Triana, a sailor on the Pinta, sighted land (the Bahamas) on the horizon.
    (http://tinyurl.com/774v3)

1492        Oct 12, (Old Style calendar; Oct. 21 New Style), Christopher Columbus sited land, an island of the Bahamas which he named San Salvador, but which was called Guanahani by the local Taino people. Seeking to establish profitable Asian trade routes by sailing west, Columbus seriously underestimated the size of the Earth--never dreaming that two great continents blocked his path to the east. Even after four voyages to America, Columbus believed until the end of his life in 1506 that he had discovered an isolated corner of Asia.
    (NH, 10/96, p.22)(AP, 10/12/97)(HNPD, 10/12/98)(http://tinyurl.com/774v3)

1492        Oct 16, Columbus' fleet anchored at "Fernandina" (Long Island, Bahamas).
    (http://tinyurl.com/774v3)

1492        Oct 17, Columbus sighted the isle of San Salvador (Watling Island, Bahamas).
    (http://tinyurl.com/774v3)

1492        Oct 19, Columbus sighted "Isabela" (Fortune Island, Bahamas).
    (http://tinyurl.com/774v3)

1492        Oct 21, Columbus landed on San Salvador Island (Bahamas-Watling Island).
    (http://tinyurl.com/774v3)

1492        Oct 26, Columbus' fleet anchored on Ragged Island Range, Bahamas.
    (MC, 10/26/01)

1590        Mar 4, Mauritius of Nassau's ship reached Breda, Netherlands.
    (SC, 3/4/02)

1629        Oct 30, King Charles I gave the Bahamas to Sir Robert Heath.
    (MC, 10/30/01)

1771        Mark Catesby had his work: “The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands” printed in London.
    (WSJ, 7/7/98, p.A14)

1776        Mar 3, US commodore Esek Hopkins occupied Nassau, Bahamas.
    (SC, 3/3/02)

1841        Apr 3, From Nassau, Bahamas, a British magistrate wrote that 193 shipwrecked African slaves from the ship Trouvadore were found naked on the shores of the East Caicos Island. The slaves were then quarantined in a jail and given food and clothing. The accident set free the slaves who became ancestors of many later residents of the islands. In 2004 the wreck was found and in 2008 marine archaeologists identified it as the remains of the slave ship.
    (AP, 8/21/04)(AP, 11/26/08)

1919        Chalk’s Ocean Airways was founded to fly tourists and fisherman from Florida to the Bahamas.
    (SFC, 12/20/05, p.A4)

1926        The Bahamanian government transferred designation of Columbus’ landfall to Watling Island.
    (NH, 10/96, p.23)

1940        Aug 18, The Duke of Windsor (1894-1972), was installed as Governor of the Bahamas. He had served as Britain’s King Edward VIII in 1936. Edward continued as governor of the Bahamas to 1945.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VIII)

1953        Lynden Pindling helped found the Progressive Liberal Party in opposition to the white colonial-run United Bahamian Party.
    (SFEC, 8/27/00, p.C10)

1962        Huntington Harford, A&P supermarket heir, persuaded the authorities to rename Hog Island, across the bay from Nassau, to Paradise Island.
    (WSJ, 7/1/98, p.A1)

1965        Feb 24, Beatles began filming "Help" in Bahamas.
    (MC, 2/24/02)

1965        Nov 13, The ship "Yarmouth Castle" burned and sank off Bahamas, killing 89.
    (MC, 11/13/01)

1967        Monroe "Bud" Karmin (e.1999 at 69) won a Pulitzer Prize in journalism for an expose of Mafia dominance in gambling in the Bahamas.
    (SFC, 1/18/99, p.A21)

1967        Lynden Pindling became premier.
    (SFEC, 8/27/00, p.C10)

1968        Charles C.G. Chaplin and James Bohlke co-authored “Fishes of the Bahamas and Adjacent Tropical Waters.”
    (Sm, 2/06, p.42)
1968        The Bahamas elected a socialist leaning president. This led to the end of the Bahamas as a major off-shore tax haven and the rise of the Cayman Islands as a tax haven.
    (SSFC, 7/10/05, p.E3)
1968        John Templeton (1912-2008) American investment analyst, fled to the Bahamas and took British citizenship in order to avoid American taxes.
    (Econ, 7/19/08, p.95)

1969        The Bahamas legalized casino gambling, however Bahamians and foreigners living in the country were banned from gambling.
    (Econ, 1/26/13, p.36)

1971        Robert Lee Vesco (1935-2007) fled the US to avoid charges of bilking mutual fund investors of $224 million. In 1972 the SEC charged him and others in a civil lawsuit, but Vesco had fled to the Bahamas and then to Costa Rica where he established a close friendship with Pres. Jose Figueres, plowing some 11 million into the country.
    (SFC, 8/21/96, p.A8)(SFC, 5/3/08, p.A6)

1973        Jul 10, The Bahamas became independent after three centuries of British colonial rule.
    (AP, 7/10/97)

1977        In the Bahamas the People-to-People program was established about this time to help visitors experience a more personal side of the island and its inhabitants.
    (SFEC, 1/18/98, p.T8,9)

1979        Aug 20, Diana Nyad succeeded in her 3rd attempt to swim from the Bahamas to Florida.
    (AP, 8/20/99)(http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/bion1/nyad1.html)

1986        The Bahamas banned fishing on its coral reefs.
    (Econ, 1/7/06, p.72)

1992        Aug 21, In the Bahamas PM Lynden Pindling (1930-2000), in office since 1973, retired from office and was succeeded by Hubert Ingraham. There were allegations that Pindling had taken bribes from Colombian drug lords. Ingraham continued in office to 2002 and again from 2007-2012.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynden_Pindling)(SFC, 5/3/02, p.A10)(AFP, 5/8/12)

1992        Aug 24, Hurricane Andrew smashed into Florida, causing record damage; 55 deaths in Florida, Louisiana and the Bahamas were blamed on the storm.
    (AP, 8/24/97)

1998        Apr 13, Some 300 angry protestors faced 180 lesbian passengers on the cruise ship SS Seabreeze chartered by Olivia Cruises and Resorts.
    (SFEC, 4/19/98, p.A26)

1998        Jul 18, Lori Fogleman, an American school teacher vacationing in the Bahamas, was murdered about this time along with Joanne Clarke, 24, from Oxfordshire. In 2002 Tennel McIntosh was found guilty of manslaughter.
    (AP, 6/13/02)

1998        Dec, The new $750 million Atlantis resort was scheduled to be completed on paradise Island. It was developed under Solomon Kerzner, chairman of Sun Int’l. Hotels.
    (WSJ, 7/1/98, p.A1)

1998        Sep 24, The death toll from Hurricane Georges was 1 in the Bahamas.
    (SFC, 9/25/98, p.A16)(WSJ, 9/28/98, p.A1)(SFC, 10/3/98, p.A11)

1999        Sep 15, Extensive damaged from Hurricane Floyd was reported in the Bahamas on the islands of Abaco, Eleuthera, Cat and San Salvador.
    (SFC, 9/16/99, p.A1,15)

2000        Mar 16, About a dozen whales became stranded on 2 Bahama beaches one day after a US Navy exercise propagated loud noises through the waters of the region. 5 of the whales died. In 2001 testing confirmed that Navy sonar caused the whales to beach themselves.
    (SFC, 3/22/00, p.A9)(WSJ, 12/21/01, p.A1)

2000        Aug 26, Lynden Pindling, former prime minister (1967-1992), died at age 70. He was known as the “Black Moses.”
    (SFEC, 8/27/00, p.C10)

2001        Aug 25, In the Bahamas 9 people were killed when a small plane crashed. R&B singer and actress Aaliyah (Aaliyeh, 22) was among the dead.
    (SSFC, 8/26/01, p.A16)(SFC, 8/27/01, p.A16)

2001        Aug 29, The government estimated that 30-60 thousand Haitians were living in the Bahamas illegally.
    (SFC, 8/29/01, p.A8)

2001        Sep 4, In the Bahamas a fire destroyed Bay Street businesses in Nassau’s Straw Market.
    (WSJ, 9/6/01, p.A1)

2001        Nov 5, Hurricane Michelle swept past the Bahamas with 85 mph winds, flooding houses and cutting power.
    (AP, 11/5/02)

2002        May 2, In the Bahamas the opposition Liberal Progressive Party won Parliamentary elections with 23 seats in the 40-seat legislature. Perry Christie (b.1944) led the party to victory and served as prime minister to 2007.
    (SFC, 5/3/02, p.A10)(AP, 5/8/12)(http://tinyurl.com/7crjgun)   

2002        Jun 13, A jury on Thursday found Tennel McIntosh guilty of manslaughter in the slaying of Lori Fogleman in 1998, an American school teacher who had been vacationing in the Bahamas.
    (AP, 6/13/02)

2003        Oct 29, In the Bahamas Cordell Farrington (35), a hardware store stock clerk, was charged with five counts of murder in connection with the disappearance of four boys and a young man on Grand Bahama Island.
    (AP, 10/29/03)

2004        Sep 2, Hurricane Frances raged through the sparsely populated southeastern Bahamas.
    (AP, 9/2/04)

2004        Sep 4, Hurricane Frances ripped apart roofs, shattered windows and flooded neighborhoods as it raged through the Bahamas leaving 2 people dead.
    (AP, 9/5/04)

2004        Sep 25, Hurricane Jeanne lashed the Bahamas with violent winds and torrential rains, making a direct hit on Abaco island and threatening the country's second-largest city, Freeport.
    (AP, 9/25/04)

2004        Nov 24, Arthur Hailey (b.1920), author of the 1968 novel “Airport,” died in the Bahamas.
    (SFC, 11/26/04, p.B3)

2006        Jan 13, In the Bahamas the Compleat Angler Hotel on North Bimini Island was destroyed by fire. The hotel's owner Julian Brown helped the guests escape before disappearing in the flames to fight the fire. The hotel claimed to be a one-time writing headquarters for Ernest Hemingway and advertised room No. 1 as the place where Hemingway worked on "To Have and Have Not."
    (AP, 1/13/06)

2006        Mar 9, The Bahamas Court of Appeals ruled that Atain Takitota (41), a Japanese amnesiac who was kept in a Bahamas prison and an immigration center for eight years without being charged, was held unlawfully. He was awarded $500,000 "for the loss of eight years and two months" of his life.
    (AP, 3/11/06)

2006        Sep 10, Daniel Smith (20), the son of Anna Nicole Smith (38) died suddenly in the Bahamas, three days after the former Playboy Playmate gave birth to a girl.
    (Reuters, 9/11/06)

2007        Apr 10, A court in the Bahamas announced that DNA tests proved Larry Birkhead, the former boyfriend of Anna Nicole Smith, is the father of her infant daughter.
    (AP, 4/11/07)

2007        May 2, A former prime minister led his opposition party to victory in the Bahamas, returning to power in elections dominated by questions about the direction of the tourism-driven economy. Hubert Ingraham's Free National Movement won 23 seats in the 41-seat legislature, while PM Perry Christie's Progressive Liberal Party claimed the other 18.
    (AP, 5/3/07)

2007        Nov 26, The Bahamas ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, bringing to 141 the number of nations that have done so. The treaty, which bans all nuclear explosions, will not enter into force until it has been ratified by all 44 states listed in an annex, that participated in a 1996 disarmament conference and had nuclear power or research reactors at the time. 34 of those countries have ratified the pact. The holdouts include the United States, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.
    (AP, 11/27/07)

2008        Apr 20, The US Coast Guard recovered the bodies of 20 migrants, 19 Haitians and one Honduran, from the sea near the Bahamas after their boat apparently capsized.
    (AP, 4/21/08)

2008        May 19, Huntington Hartford (b.1911), the deep-pocketed A&P grocery heir who burned through most of a $100 million fortune in a series of fruitless business and cultural endeavors before his life unraveled, died at his home in Lyford Cay, Nassau, in the Bahamas.
    (AP, 5/19/08)

2008        Sep 4, Tropical Storm Hanna roared along the edge of the Bahamas ahead of a possible hurricane hit on the Carolinas, leaving behind at least 137 dead in Haiti.
    (AP, 9/4/08)

2008        Sep 7, Hurricane Ike damaged most of the homes on Grand Turk island as it roared onto the Bahamas, raked Haiti's flooded cities with rain and threatened the Florida Keys on its way to Cuba as a ferocious Category 4 storm.
    (AP, 9/7/08)

2008        Dec 30, The Bahamas' foreign affairs minister said China will help build a national sports stadium. Construction will start early next year in the capital of Nassau. China will send the Bahamas a $7.3 million grant as well as Chinese construction workers who will build the stadium.
    (AP, 12/31/08)

2009        Jan 23, Authorities in the Bahamas charged an island lawmaker and detained two other people in an alleged plot to extort money from actor John Travolta after the death of his son. Sen. Pleasant Bridgewater, an attorney from Grand Bahama, was arrested a day earlier and charged with abetment to extort and conspiracy to extort.
    (AP, 1/23/09)

2009        Jan 24, Bahamas Sen. Pleasant Bridgewater, accused of trying to extort money from actor John Travolta after his son's death, resigned and vowed to prove her innocence.
    (AP, 1/24/09)

2009        Jan 26, A Bahamas paramedic was charged in an alleged scheme to extort $25 million from John Travolta after his chronically ill son died of a seizure at the family's vacation home.
    (AP, 1/27/09)

2009        May 29, The nonbinding New York Declaration, an agreement between the signatory flag states which condemns acts of piracy and armed robbery against vessels and seafarers, was originally tabled by The Bahamas, the Republic of Liberia, the Republic of Marshall Islands and the Republic of Panama, four nations that account for more than half of global shipping.
    (www.unmultimedia.org/tv/unifeed/d/13476.html)

2009        Aug 23, In the Bahamas Stefania Fernandez (18), Miss Venezuela, was the fairest of them all once again, winning the 2009 Miss Universe crown for the second year straight and the sixth time since the pageant's creation.
    (AP, 8/24/09)

2009        Sep 1, In the Bahamas an amended fisheries laws took effect to give full protection to all sea turtles found in the Atlantic archipelago's waters by banning the harvest, possession, purchase and sale of the endangered reptiles, including their eggs.
    (AP, 8/30/09)

2009        Sep 23, Sidney Cambridge (45) of Nassau, a prominent Bahamian lawyer, was indicted on US federal corruption charges in a case that allegedly involves a South Florida politician and nearly $1 million in laundered money. Also charged in the case was Broward County Commissioner and Vice Mayor Josephus Eggelletion, who was suspended pending the outcome of the case.
    (AP, 9/24/09)

2009        Oct 21, In the Bahamas the trial of two people accused of trying to extort John Travolta following the death of his son there ended in a mistrial after a lawmaker suggested the still-deliberating jury had acquitted one of the defendants.
    (AP, 10/22/09)

2009        Dec 17, In the Bahamas 2 US pilots were the only people aboard the small jet when it crashed in an unpopulated area of Great Inagua shortly after taking off from the Dominican Republic en route to Miami. The Jet Falcon was owned by a trust for which the San Francisco, California-based Wells Fargo company acts as trustee.
    (AP, 12/19/09)

2010        Mar 29, In the Bahamas a tornado touched down during a fierce thunderstorm and toppled a port crane, killing three people and injuring at least four.
    (AP, 3/29/10)

2010        May 12, In the Bahamas Clive Tomlinson, a Jamaican, was killed. On May 14 authorities charged Daniel Andres Ayo (27) and Luis Mendez (39), two tourists from Florida, with the killing during what police say was a drug deal gone bad.
    (AP, 5/15/10)

2010        Jun 12, In the Bahamas J. Wallace Tutt III, a South Florida interior designer whose elegant creations were popular with movie stars, models and fashion icons, was found dead in a grassy area of the island known as "The Narrows."
    (AP, 6/13/10)

2010        Jul 4, In the Bahamas fugitive Colton Harris-Moore (19), dubbed the "Barefoot Bandit," crash landed a stolen plane on Great Abaco Island, and eluded police. Harris-Moore, who grew up in the woods of Washington state's Camano Island, has been on the run since escaping from a halfway house more than two years ago. Colton Harris-Moore was arrested on July 11 in northern Eleuthera. He pleaded guilty on July 13 and was deported to face US charges. On June 17,2011, Colton pleaded guilty to 7 charges carrying a prison term of up to 6½ years. On Dec 16 Harris-Moore was sentenced to over 7½Â  years in prison. On Jan 27, 2012, a US district judge sentenced him to 6½ years in prison, to run concurrent with the December ruling. 
    (AP, 7/9/10)(AP, 7/11/10)(AP, 7/13/10)(SFC, 6/18/11, p.A6)(SFC, 12/17/11, p.A7)(SFC, 1/27/12, p.A7)

2010        Oct 5, In the Bahamas a twin-engine Cessna 402 carrying a pilot and at least eight passengers crashed into Lake Killarney near the international airport in, Nassau, after one of its engines caught fire. Officials soon found the body of a 9th victim from the crash of what may have been an illegal charter flight to a cultural festival. They said a 10th passenger may missing as well.
    (AP, 10/9/10)

2011        Mar 2, In the Bahamas a fire destroyed a shantytown, leaving nearly 700 people homeless, most of them Haitian migrants.
    (AP, 3/3/11)

2011        Apr 27, In the Bahamas more than 100 people were left homeless after a fire wrecked a crowded shantytown on Abaco Island filled mostly with Haitian migrants.
    (AP, 4/29/11)

2011        Jul 5, The Bahamas banned commercial fishing of sharks, awarding protection to the more than 40 species circling the island chain that touts itself as the shark diving capital of the world. The ban applies to an estimated 243,000 square miles (630,000 square km) of water surrounding the archipelago.
    (AP, 7/6/11)

2011        Aug 24, Hurricane Irene roared across the Bahamas archipelago, pummeling the country's smaller, less-populated islands. Property damage appeared likely to be extensive on Acklins and Crooked islands, in the southern part of the chain. PM Hubert Ingraham said the country was bracing for extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure.
    (AP, 8/25/11)

2012        Feb 25, Bahamas’ PM Hubert Ingraham took part in the opening of the national stadium in Nassau. It was designed and paid for by China, and built mostly by migrant Chinese laborers.
    (Econ, 3/10/12, p.49)

2012        Mar 25, Four people died when their small plane crashed shortly after taking off from a tiny airport in the Bahamas en route to Florida.
    (AP, 3/26/12)

2012        May 7, Former Bahamian PM Perry Christie led the main opposition party to victory, ousting the ruling party in elections dominated by unhappiness over rising crime and joblessness. PM Hubert Ingraham, who was seeking a 2nd consecutive term, conceded defeat.
    (AP, 5/8/12)

2012        Jun 11, Bahamas police said 7 of 28 people have been rescued from a boat that sank while carrying migrants to Florida. The boat had departed from Abaco island a day earlier.
    (SFC, 6/12/12, p.A2)

2012        Oct 26, Hurricane Sandy raged through the Bahamas after leaving 29 people dead across the Caribbean.
    (AP, 10/26/12)

2013        Mar 10, Bahamas’ environmental minister said offshore oil exploration will be allowed.
    (AP, 3/10/13)

2013        Nov 25, A sailboat passing through the southern Bahamas islands with about 150 Haitian migrants on board capsized after running aground, killing up to 30 people and leaving the rest clinging to the vessel for hours.
    (AP, 11/27/13)

2014        Feb 9, Bahamas’ military said it has taken 40 Dominican fishermen into custody on suspicion of poaching in Bahamian waters.
    (AP, 2/9/14)

2014        Apr 6, Officials in the Bahamas said the charred corpses of 3 men and one women were found under burning tires on the uninhabited Anguilla Cay. Investigators said the people may have been Haitian migrants.
    (SFC, 4/7/14, p.A2)

2014        Apr 11, Police in the Bahamas said they have discovered 75,000 marijuana plants with an estimated value of $7.5 million in a rural area on eastern Grand Bahama island.
    (AP, 4/12/14)

2014        Nov 1, The Bahamas government introduced new immigration rules.
    (AP, 11/27/14)

2014        Nov 9, A Lear 36 Executive Jet crashed on approach to the island of Grand Bahama killing all 9 people on board, including a prominent Christian minister and his wife.
    (AP, 11/10/14)

2014        Nov 26, The Bahamas government, working to reduce the population in a detention center, sent two planeloads of migrants to Haiti. New immigration rules took effect Nov 1.
    (AP, 11/27/14)

2015        Jan 1, In the Bahamas a new 7.5 percent tax value-added went into effect only for businesses whose profits exceed $100,000 a year.
    (AP, 1/3/15)

2015        Oct 2, Hurricane Joaquin ripped off roofs, uprooted trees and unleashed heavy flooding as the Category 4 storm hurled torrents of rain across the eastern and central Bahamas.
    (AP, 10/2/15)(SFC, 10/3/15, p.A2)(AP, 10/5/15)

2016        Banks in the Bahamas had assets of $223 billion, 26 times the national GDP.
    (Econ, 9/10/16, p.63)

2017        Sep 8, Hurricane Irma menaced Cuba and the Bahamas as it drove toward Florida after lashing the Caribbean with devastating winds and torrential rain The death toll from Irma increased to 20 with four more deaths reported in the British Virgin Islands. The other lives lost include nine on the French Caribbean islands of St. Martin and St. Barts, four in the US Virgin Islands, and one each on the islands of Anguilla, Barbuda and the Dutch side of St. Martin.
    (Reuters, 9/8/17)(AP, 9/8/17)

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