Timeline Cook Islands
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c1200Â Â Â Polynesians
settled the 14 Cook Islands that included Rarotonga.
   (SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T5)
c1600Â Â Â 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)
1722Â Â Â Â Â Â 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.”
1773Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1789Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1791Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1821Â Â Â Â Â Â The London Missionary
Society brought the Book of Common Prayer to Rarotonga.
   (SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T7)
1841Â Â Â Â Â Â The Rarotonga church at
Titikaveka was built of coral blocks.
   (SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T7)
1849Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1855Â Â Â Â Â Â The high-steepled church
in Avarua, Rarotonga, was built.
   (SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T7)
1901Â Â Â Â Â Â Jun 11, Cook Islands were
annexed & proclaimed a part of New Zealand.
   (SC, 6/11/02)
1928Â Â Â Â Â Â Robert Dean Frisbie,
American expatriate South Seas writer, stated “I have hunted long
for this sanctuary.”
   (SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T7)
1951-1960Â Â Â 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)
1964Â Â Â Â Â Â The ship Yankee ran
aground off the island of Rarotonga after circling the world 7
times.
   (SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T6)
1965Â Â Â Â Â Â Rarotonga of the Cook
Islands was colonized by the British but ruled until this year by
New Zealand.
   (SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T6)
1971Â Â Â Â Â Â 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. In 2011 Guam, the Northern Marianas and American Samoa
became associate members.
   (Econ, 10/20/07,
p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islands_Forum)(Econ.,
2/13/21, p.41)
1981Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1997Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
2004Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
2004Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
2006Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
2012Â Â Â Â Â Â Dec 19, The Cook Islands
designated a 756,000 square mile shark sanctuary.
   (SFC, 12/19/12, p.A5)
2013Â Â Â Â Â Â Apr 5, A data leak was
reported orchestrated this week by a Washington-based group called
the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. It
involved tens of thousands of offshore bank accounts, mainly form
the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands and Singapore, and
named dozens of prominent figures around the world. New details were
being released by the day. The leak allegedly involved records from
10 tax havens.
   (AP, 4/6/13)(SFC, 4/5/13, p.A4)
2013Â Â Â Â Â Â Jul 15, The Cook Islands
fined Luen Thai Fishing Venture $120,000 and revoked its fishing
license for breaking a ban on shark finning.
   (SSFC, 7/21/13, p.A4)
2013Â Â Â Â Â Â Nov 7, China’s Vice
Premier Wang Yang said China will provide a concessionary loan of up
to $1 billion to Pacific island nations to support construction
projects in a part of the world where Beijing and Taiwan compete for
influence. He made the announcement at a forum with Pacific island
nations in Guangzhou at a meeting attended by representatives from
Micronesia, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands,
Tonga, Niue and Fiji.
   (Reuters, 11/8/13)
2019Â Â Â Â Â Â Apr 29, Jacqueline Evans
of the Cook Islands was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize. Her
work led to the conservation and sustainable management of all
763,000 square miles (1.98 million square km) of the Cook Islands'
ocean territory and creation of 15 marine protected areas.
   (AP, 4/29/19)
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