Timeline Gambia
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Africanet: http://www.africanet.com/africanet/country/gambia/currency.htm
Camara: http://home3.inet.tele.dk/mcamara/gam.html
CIA Factbook: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ga.html
Dinar: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Country_Specific/Gambia.html
Government page: http://www.gambia.com/
Lonely Planet: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/dest/afr/gam.htm
Timeline: http://www.vdiest.nl/gambia.htm
Gambia is on the west coast of Africa, south of
Senegal.
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.8)
1455 Some
Portuguese had come to The Gambia following the expeditions promoted by
Prince Henry. They had introduced groundnuts, tie main cash crop of
today, cotton, and some tropical fruits from Brazil. Their number,
however, was never large and they were soon absorbed by intermarriage.
(www.africanculture.dk/gambia/history.htm)
1588 The British started trading
with the Gambians.
(http://www.nationbynation.com/Gambia/history2.html)
1651 Oct 26, Courlander Gambia was
established as a Latvian colony.
(http://www.vdiest.nl/gambia.htm)
1661 Mar 19, English occupied St.
Andrew Island and other Courlander possessions in Gambia. They renamed
the island James Island with administration by the Royal Adventurers in
Africa Company.
(http://www.vdiest.nl/gambia.htm)
1765 May 25, The Gambia was made a
part of the British colony of SeneGambia with its headquarters at St.
Louis.
(http://www.vdiest.nl/gambia.htm)
1807 Slave trading was abolished
and James Island was used to check and stop the illicit traffic in
slaves.
(http://www.africanculture.dk/gambia/history.htm)
1816 Captain Alexander Grant
obtained the sandy bank of Banjul Island by a treaty from the Chief of
Kombo and built the planned city of Bathurst, now renamed Banjul.
(www.nationbynation.com/Gambia/history2.html)
1818 Bathurst already had a
civilian population of 700 by 1818, the year that civil government was
begun.
(http://www.nationbynation.com/Gambia/history2.html)
1821 Oct 17, The Gambia became
administered as a crown colony from Sierra Leone. Since then Banjul
(Bathurst) has been its capital.
(http://www.vdiest.nl/gambia.htm)
1965 Feb 18, Gambia gained
independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(www.vdiest.nl/gambia.htm)
1970 Apr, The country became a
republic and a constitution was enacted.
(SFC, 8/10/96, p.A9)
1975 May 25, ECOWAS Treaty1 was
signed. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was
formed in Nigeria with 15 members that included: Benin, Burkina Faso,
Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau,
Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
(www.sec.ecowas.int/sitecedeao/english/achievements.htm)
1977 Apr 16, Alex Haley
(1921-1992) arrived in Juffure, Gambia. He authored “Roots” in 1976.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1981 Jul 30, Senegalese troops
aborted an attempt to overthrow the government of Gambia by a
paramilitary field force. Pres. Jawara was restored to power.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9n%C3%A9gambia_Confederation)
1994 Jul 23, Gambian soldiers
proclaimed a military government in Dakar, Senegal.
(AP, 7/23/97)
1994 Jul, Yahya Jammeh seized
power in Gambia and suspended the 1970 constitution.
(SFC, 8/10/96, p.A9)
1995 Gambia’s president, Captain
Yahya Jammeh, defended the Nigerian government in the hanging of Ken
Saro-Wiwa.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)
1996 Aug 9, Gambia voters approved
a new constitution that gave army ruler Yahya Jammeh the mandate to
hold elections.
(SFC, 8/10/96, p.A9)
1996 Sep 27, Jammeh defeated 3
civilian rivals in national elections. Observers said that the
elections were severely flawed. Jammeh’s government had outlawed
opposition parties, muzzled the press, forbade meetings between rival
candidates and foreign diplomats, and used soldiers to attack
opposition rallies.
(SFC, 9/28/96, p.A11)
1999 Jan 4, In Sierra Leone
Nigerian troops repelled a rebel attack on Freetown's airport. Gambia
and Mali agreed to send troops to join the Nigerian forces.
(WSJ, 1/5/99, p.A1)
2000 Apr 10, In Gambia police
fired on a student demonstration in Banjul and at least 9 people were
killed. The Gambia Students Union was denied a permit to march against
the recent death of a high school student allegedly tortured by
security members, and the reported rape of a 13-year-old girl by a
police officer.
(SFC, 4/11/00, p.D4)
2000 Apr 11, In Gambia students
set fire to government buildings across the country to protest the
killing of 12 people at a demonstration.
(SFC, 4/12/00, p.A17)
2001 Apr 26, It was reported that
a new malaria vaccine, developed by GlaxoSmithKline, would be given to
children in Gambia in clinical trials funded by a charity associated
with Bill Gates.
(WSJ, 4/25/01, p.B4)
2002 Sep 26, Over 760 passengers
and crew were believed to have perished when the crowded MS Joola, a
state-run Senegalese ferry, heaved to its side shortly before midnight
in a fierce storm off the coast of Gambia. There were only 62 known
survivors. The toll was later raised to nearly 1,000 dead.
(AP, 9/28/02)(SFC, 9/28/02, p.A1)(SSFC, 9/29/02,
p.A18)(WSJ, 9/30/02, p.A1)
2003 Sep, Pres. Jammeh Yahya named
Maimuma Taal-Ndure (34) as director general of Gambia’s Civil Aviation
Authority (CAA).
(WSJ, 12/24/07, p.A8)
2004 Feb 17, The Gambian president
announced the discovery of "large quantities" of oil in his tiny West
African nation, saying the offshore find would eliminate poverty and
hunger.
(AP, 2/17/04)
2004 Aug, Following efforts by
Maimuma Taal-Ndure, Gambia’s director of aviation, Britain removed
Gambia from a blacklist allowing Gambian planes to again land in the UK.
(WSJ, 12/24/07, p.A8)
2004 Dec, Deyda Hydara, a reporter
for Gambian daily The Point, was shot and killed by unidentified
gunmen. The slaying has never been solved.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2005 Sep 21, Pilots of a chartered
jet carrying 289 Gambian soccer fans faked the need for an emergency
landing in Peru so passengers could watch their nation's team play a
key match.
(AP, 9/22/05)
2006 Jan 13, Maimuma Taal-Ndure,
Gambia’s director of aviation, was arraigned on charges of economic
crime, mostly related to the improvement of Banjul Airport. Taal-Ndure
had resisted efforts transfer aviation agency funds to another
government agency. Her case was dismissed following a trial that
stretched over 18 months.
(WSJ, 12/24/07, p.A8)
2006 Mar, Gambia police closed the
leading opposition paper, The Independent, after it published an
article that incorrectly named a former interior minister among 23
people arrested for plotting a coup attempt. The paper printed a
front-page retraction the next day, but the story ran up against a
harsh new law that mandates prison sentences of at least six months for
printing falsehoods. Daba Marena, director general of Gambia’s National
Intelligence Agency, was arrested for allegedly taking part in a coup
attempt. Amnesty Int’l. later said he may have been “extra-judicially
executed.”
(AP, 7/31/06)(WSJ, 12/24/07, p.A8)
2006 Jul 1, In Gambia a summit of
more than 50 African leaders opened with the aim of pursuing regional
integration, but conflicts in Darfur and Somalia are inevitably topping
the agenda. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on Africa to forge
closer ties with Latin America to combat what he called a threat of
U.S. hegemony.
(AFP, 7/1/06)(Reuters, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 2, Africa's leaders
meeting in Gambia agreed to send troops to Somalia to support regional
efforts at calming the chaotic east African state.
(Reuters, 7/2/06)
2006 Sep 22, Voters in Gambia went
to the polls in a presidential election widely expected to hand
incumbent strongman Yahya Jammeh a third elected term.
(AP, 9/22/06)
2006 Sep 23, Gambian President
Yahya Jammeh easily won a third term and called for a concerted effort
to develop the country socially and economically.
(AP, 9/23/06)
2006 Dec 13, The parliament of
Gambia, one of the world's poorest countries, passed a law to give
former presidents free foreign holidays, cars and personal staff for
life after they leave office. 60% of Gambia’s people live on less than
$1 (50 pence) a day.
(AP, 12/13/06)
2007 Feb 22, Gambia expelled
Fadzai Gwaradzimba, the UN chief representative in the country, after
she expressed doubts over President Yahya Jammeh's claims to cure AIDS.
Jammeh had claimed to have mystical powers and herbs to treat HIV/AIDS
and asthma within three days.
(www.aegis.com/news/afp/2007/AF070285.html)(Econ,
4/28/07, p.54)
2007 Oct 6, Gambia arrested 2
senior Amnesty International officials on suspicion of spying. Tania
Bernath, Amnesty International's deputy director for Africa and an
advocacy officer Ameen Ayobele, were arrested in the eastern town of
Basse after they visited an opposition politician who has been held in
detention for more than a year. Yaya Dath, a journalist with the
country's privately-owned daily Foroyaa, who was traveling with the
London-based Bernath, a British-American national and Ayobele, a
Nigerian, was also arrested. All 3 were released on bail on Oct 8.
(AFP, 10/8/07)(AFP, 10/8/07)
2008 May 15, Gambia’s Pres. Yahya
Jammeh ordered homosexuals to leave the country and in a televised
speech threatened to cut off the head of anyone discovered to be gay.
(SFC, 6/3/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 1, In Liberia at least
eight people suffocated at an overcrowded stadium during a soccer match
between Liberia and Gambia.
(www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/02/2263028.htm)
2008 Aug 12, Security forces in
Gambia arrested Rear Adm. Bubo Na Tchuto, the suspected leader of an
alleged plot to topple the government in nearby Guinea-Bissau.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2009 Mar 18, Amnesty international
said authorities in Gambia have rounded up about 1,000 people and
forced them to drink hallucinogens in a witch-hunting campaign.
Authorities began inviting "witch doctors," who combat witches, to come
from nearby Guinea soon after the death earlier this year of President
Yahya Jammeh’s aunt.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Jun 15, In Gambia seven
journalists were detained after criticizing the nation's president, who
has ruled the tiny country since a 1994 coup.
(AP, 6/17/09)
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