Bermuda
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1505
Juan de Bermudez of Spain first reported on the
island of Bermuda.
(SFC, 5/2/98, p.E4)(http://tinyurl.com/y3jr4z)
1609 Jul 25, Admiral William
Somers, head of a 7-ship fleet enroute to Virginia, spied land after
being blown off course and soon drove his ship, the Sea Venture, onto
the reefs of Bermuda. William Strachey (1572-1621), was also aboard the
Sea Venture and later sent a letter to England that described the
event. The letter is thought by many to have been the inspiration for
Shakespeare’s "Tempest." Strachey became secretary of the colony at
Jamestown, Virginia, after his arrival there on May 23, 1610. In 2009
Hobson Woodward authored: A Brave Vessel: The True Tale of the
Castaways Who Rescued Jamestown and Inspired Shakespeare’s “The
Tempest.”
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.29)(SFC, 8/18/09,
p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Venture)
1680 Bermuda became
self-governing, though still a British colony.
(Econ, 11/11/06, p.46)
1918 Mar 6, US naval boat
"Cyclops" disappeared in "Bermuda Triangle."
(MC, 3/6/02)
1930 Jun 11, William Beebe, of the
New York Zoological Society, in a diving chamber called a bathysphere,
dived to a record-setting depth of 1,426 feet off the coast of Bermuda.
(HN, 6/11/98)
1934 William Beebe and inventor
Otis Barton descended more than a half a mile into the ocean off
Bermuda in the 4,500 lb. bathysphere.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, BR p.4)(PacDis, Winter ’97, p.42)
1951 Jan 8, A cahow, thought
extinct since 1615, was rediscovered in Bermuda. David Wingate (15)
helped 2 scientists discover the cahow, aka Bermuda petrel, a nocturnal
seabird thought to have been extinct since the 17th century. Wingate
proceeded to make a life time goal of saving the bird from extinction.
(WSJ, 12/19/00, p.A1)(MC, 1/8/02)
1957 Mar 21, US President
Eisenhower and British PM Harold Macmillan began a four-day conference
in Bermuda.
(AP, 3/21/07)
1961 Dec 21, JFK & British PM
MacMillan met in Bermuda.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1986 Oct 3, The Soviet nuclear
submarine K-219 suffered an explosion and fire in a missile tube
northeast of Bermuda; the vessel sank three days later.
(AP, 10/4/06)
1990 Nov 13, Secretary of State
James A. Baker III told reporters in Hamilton, Bermuda, the Persian
Gulf crisis threatened world recession and the loss of American jobs.
Members of Congress demanded a larger role in US Gulf policy following
President Bush’s decision to send more US troops to the region.
(AP, 11/13/00)
1995 Aug 18, Premier John Swan of
Bermuda promised to resign after voters rejected a vote for
independence from Britain with 76% voice.
(WSJ, 8/18/95, p.A1)
1996 Rebecca Middleton (17) of
Ontario, Canada, died after being raped, tortured and stabbed on a
beach in Bermuda. A suspect, Kirk Orlando Mundy, was allowed to strike
a plea bargain deal with police in which he admitted to being an
accessory after the fact and was sentenced to five years. The case
against the other suspect, Justis Raham Smith, collapsed after a judge
in Bermuda said there was insufficient evidence.
(Reuters, 4/1/06)
1997 Jul, Tyco Corp. under CEO
Dennis Kozlowski merged with ADT Ltd., a Bermuda corporation, and began
relocating employees to headquarters in Boca Raton, Flo.
(WSJ, 4/5/04, p.A8)
1998 In Bermuda the Progressive
Labor Party took power, promising a better deal for blacks.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2000 Mar 23, A 776-foot Greek
cargo ship, Leader L, sank in the Atlantic 400 miles off of Bermuda. 31
Filipino crew members were forced into life boats. 13 men were rescued
with Canadian Sea King helicopters. 6 bodies were found and 12 were
presumed dead as the ship pulled down one life raft.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.D3)(SFC, 3/25/00, p.A12)(WSJ,
3/27/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 27, Some 288 migrant
Haitians were rescued from Flamingo Cay in the Bermuda Islands after
their boat ran aground. 2-14 of the migrants died of exposure and
dehydration while awaiting rescue.
(SFC, 4/28/00, p.D4)(SFC, 4/29/00, p.A12)
2002 Oct 29, In Bermuda some 6,000
children stayed home from school as teachers continued to strike to
demand salaries on par with government officials.
(AP, 10/29/02)
2003 Jul 27, In Bermuda Premier
Jennifer Smith stepped down after retaining her seat by just eight
votes and watching her governing party narrowly win elections in the
British territory. Members of the center-left Progressive Labor
Party endorsed Alex Scott (63) to replace her.
(AP, 7/28/03)
2003 Sep 5, Hurricane Fabian
slammed into Bermuda killing 4 people. [see Sep 6]
(AP, 9/5/08)
2003 Sep 6, Fabian, the most
powerful hurricane to hit Bermuda in 50 years pushed away from the
British territory after deadly winds split trees and swept trucks off
roads. Four people were missing and feared dead.
(AP, 9/6/03)
2003 Sep 29, Dennis Kozlowski, CEO
of Tyco Int'l., and financial chief Mark Swartz went on trial on
charges that they stole over $600 million from their Bermuda-based
conglomerate.
(WSJ, 2/4/04, p.C2)
2003 Dec 18, Charles Berlitz (90),
linguist and author, died in Florida. His books included "The Bermuda
Triangle" (1974), and "Native Tongues," a compendium of language
history.
(SFC, 1/5/04, p.B5)
2004 Jun 1, The US Dept. of
Homeland Security awarded a contract, valued as much as a $10 billion,
to a group of companies led by a unit of Accenture Ltd., a
Bermuda-based business consultancy.
(WSJ, 6/2/04, p.A1)
2004 Jun 20, Bermuda-based Bacardi
Limited agreed to purchase Grey Goose vodka, distilled and bottled in
France, from Sidney Frank Importing Co. for roughly $2 billion.
(AP, 6/21/04)
2006 Sep 10, Florence intensified
into the second hurricane of the Atlantic season as it headed for
Bermuda, where residents installed storm shutters and hauled their
yachts onto beaches.
(AP, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 12, Hurricane Florence
headed toward north Atlantic shipping lanes after blowing out windows,
peeling away roofs and knocking out power to thousands in Bermuda.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 28, It was reported that
Merck saved some $1.5 billion in US taxes by transferring patents and
income to an offshore holding in Bermuda called Project Ryland from
1993-2003. In 2006 the IRS challenged the transactions.
(WSJ, 9/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 11, At this time about
35% of Bermuda’s population was white.
(Econ, 11/11/06, p.46)
2007 Feb 24, Bermuda was cited as
the world’s richest country with a GDP per person estimated at $70,000.
(Econ, 2/24/07, SR p.4)
2007 Dec 18, Bermuda's ruling
party won a third term in general elections shadowed by racial
resentment and allegations of corruption. Premier Ewart Brown's
Progressive Labor Party won 22 seats compared with 14 seats for the
United Bermuda Party.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Blacks comprised about 60% of
Bermuda's 62,000 people.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2008 Jul 15, Tropical Storm Bertha
headed back out over open ocean and away from the US mainland after it
battered Bermuda, knocking out electricity to thousands on the Atlantic
tourist island. Bertha entered its 13th day becoming the longest-lived
July tropical storm in history.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2009 Jun 11, Four Guantanamo
detainees, Uighurs from predominantly Muslim western China, were
transferred to Bermuda, marking an unexpected new chapter in their
odyssey.
(AP, 6/11/09)
2009 Aug 20, Drug developer Warner
Chilcott, which focuses on women's healthcare and dermatology,
completed its move to Ireland from Bermuda.
(AP, 8/21/09)
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Subject = Bermuda
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