Timeline
Barbados
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Barbados is an island in
the East Lesser Antilles in the East West Indies. It is a British
colony whose capital is Bridgetown. It is 161 sq. miles with a 1960
population of 231,785. Those from Barbados call themselves Bajans.
(WUD, 1994, p.118)(SFC, 4/25/98, p.E3)
1600s
Sugarcane fields began to cover the island, a 14 x
21 mile stack of coral terraces.
(NH, 12/96, p.35)
1650 St. Nicholas Abbey was built
as a plantation house in the Jacobean style.
(SFEC, 2/15/98, p.T10)
1668 Oct 23, Jews of Barbados were
forbidden to engage in retail trade.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1751 Sep 28, George Washington. As
a young man of 19, George Washington accompanied his sick older
half-brother Lawrence to Barbados in 1751. Lawrence had been advised
that the island’s climate might help restore his ill health. The
brothers left Virginia on September 28 and arrived at Bridgetown,
Barbados, November 3. George, who survived the smallpox while in
Barbados, left Lawrence on December 21 and arrived back in Virginia on
January 28, 1752.
(HNQ, 12/16/99)
1966 Nov 30, The former British
colony of Barbados became independent.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(AP, 11/30/97)
1970 May 17, Thor Heyerdahl
(1914-2002), 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)(www.spiritus-temporis.com/thor-heyerdahl/)
1970 Jul 12, Thor Heyerdahl,
Norwegian ethnographer, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in "Ra" and docked
in Barbados.
(www.shipsonstamps.org/Topics/html/kontiki.htm)
1970s Barbados established its
financial industry with help from the IMF.
(Econ, 2/24/07, SR p.6)
1984 Jan 15, Police raided the
vacation home of Paul and Linda McCartney (1941-1998) following a tip.
Both were arrested on possession of cannabis.
(http://leftofcentrist.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html)
1998 Jul 2, Barbados, Trinidad and
Tobago, Guyana and Jamaica reported plans to establish the Caribbean
Court of Justice in 1999 and planned to change their constitutions to
free themselves of the British Privy Council. The effort was pushed to
establish the death penalty.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.A10)
2000 Sep 11, In Barbados officials
at a conference on AIDS in the Caribbean pledged $120 million to fight
the disease.
(SFC, 9/13/00, p.A13)
2002 Oct 4, In Barbados
delegations from Russia, Cuba, South Africa, Colombia and France's
overseas territories abandoned an anti-racism conference that voted to
exclude whites saying they'll have no part in discrimination. The
walkout, on the fourth day of the six-day African and African
Descendants World Conference Against Racism, came after a day of
negotiations failed. Some 200 delegates had voted Wednesday for whites
and Asians to leave the deliberations, saying slavery was too painful a
subject to discuss in front of non-Africans.
(AP, 10/5/02)
2003 May 21, In Barbados PM Owen
Arthur's governing Labor Party won elections in a landslide victory
that secured the party 23 seats in the legislature. The opposition
Democratic Labor Party won seven seats in the 30-seat Parliament.
(AP, 5/22/03)
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 Sep 13, In Barbados a
Canadian woman drowned in floodwaters from Hurricane Ivan. At least 372
homes were damaged or destroyed. Most hotels are open, though some
sustained damage. The airport is open. A cruise ship terminal was
damaged but quickly reopened.
(AP, 9/14/04)
2004 Oct 4, Tiger Woods married
Swedish model Elin Nordegren in Barbados.
(AP, 10/5/05)
2005 Mar 30, Inmates of Barbados'
lone prison set fires and battled guards and each other for a second
day, leaving one prisoner dead and eight injured.
(AP, 3/30/05)
2005 Dec 8, In Barbados leaders of
Caribbean nations held a summit to discuss health care cooperation and
cultural exchanges, but a major focus was on Cuba and its thorny
relationship with the United States.
(AP, 12/08/05)
2006 Nov 8, In Barbados the new
Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice, in its first death penalty
ruling, dismissed an appeal by the Barbados government that sought to
restore execution orders for two convicted murderers.
(AP, 11/8/06)
2007 Jan, In Barbados the George
Washington House and Museum was completed following an 8-year
restoration project. The site stood just outside Bridgetown.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, p.G2)
2008 Jan 15, Barbados held
elections. The opposition swept to power, winning at least 20 of the 30
seats in Barbados' legislature. David Thompson led the Democratic Labor
Party back to power and inherited a public debt equal to 88% of GDP.
(AP, 1/16/08)(Econ, 1/19/08, p.40)
2008 Oct 15, In Barbados 13
Caribbean countries approved a new Economic partnership Agreement (EPA)
with the EU.
(Econ, 10/18/08, p.50)
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Subject = Barbados
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