Timeline of Guam
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One of the Marianas, a
group of 15 islands in the Pacific, E. of the Philippines formerly
mandated to Japan and now under US trusteeship. Saipan is part
of
the Marianas.
(WUD, 1994, p.876, 1261)
The commonwealth is exempt from American labor, immigration and
customs
laws.
(SFC, 8/10/99, p.A3)
1521
March 6, Magellan made landfall at the island of
Guam in the Marianas.
(HN, 3/6/98)(V.D.-H.K.p.177-178)
1668 The Spaniards established
a permanent settlement on Guam. They forced the Chamorros to convert
to Catholicism. Under Spanish rule the Chamorro numbers were reduced
to some 2,000.
(SFEC, 3/7/99,Z1 p.4)
1720 The Spanish quashed
Chamorro resistance and forcibly evacuated to Guam all Chamorros on
Saipan and the other Northern Marianas.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, Z1 p.4)
1810 A typhoon devastated the
Caroline Islands, 500 miles south of the Marianas. The survivors
sailed to Guam but only half survived. Spanish authorities sent the
Carolinians to Saipan and Tinian to manage the Spanish cattle herds.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, Z1 p.4)
1880s The Spanish began to
allow the Chamorros to return from Guam to the Northern Marianas.
Successive Spanish, German, Japanese and American rulers favored the
Chamorros over the traditionalist semi-nude Carolinians.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, Z1 p.4)
1898 Jun 20, During the
Spanish-American War on the way to the Philippines to fight the
Spanish, the U.S. Navy cruiser Charleston seized the island of Guam.
(AP, 6/20/98)(HN, 6/20/98)
1898 Jun 21, Guam became a US
territory. [see Jun 20, Jul 21]
(MC, 6/21/02)
1898 Aug 12, Fighting in the
Spanish-American War came to an end. The peace protocol ending the
Spanish-American War was signed Dec 10 after three months and 22
days of hostilities. 460 US soldiers died in battle. The US paid
Spain $20 million to vacate Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico and the
Philippines. Over the next 3 years US casualties in the Philippines
war totaled over 4,000.
(AP, 8/12/97)(WSJ, 2/23/98, p.A20)(HN,
8/12/00)(SSFC, 3/30/03, p.D1)(WSJ, 7/2/03, p.B1)
1898 Dec 10, The United States
and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish-American
War. This ceded Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam to the United
States. The US Senate ratified the treaty February 6, 1899. The US
military governed Puerto Rico from October 1898 until May 1900, when
the US Congress instituted a civil government. The civil government
underwent many changes until a Constitutional Assembly formed in
1950 and established a Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, which was
proclaimed on July 25, 1952. [see Aug 12]
(AP, 12/10/97)(HN, 12/10/98)(HNQ, 7/28/01)
1898 Guam became a US naval
base after the Spanish-American War.
(WSJ, 2/20/97, p.A20)
1903 Jul 3, The first cable
across the Pacific Ocean was spliced between Honolulu, Midway, Guam
and Manila. [see Jul 4]
(HN, 7/3/98)
1903 Jul 4, Pacific Cable (SF,
Hawaii, Guam, Philippines) opened, and Pres. Teddy Roosevelt sent a
message. [see Jul 3]
(Maggio, 98)
1941 Dec 10, Japanese troops
invaded the Filipino island of Luzon and overran Guam.
(WUD, 1944, p.1683)(HN, 12/10/98)(MC, 12/10/01)
1941 Dec 18, Defended by 610
fighting men, the American-held island of Guam fell to more than
5,000 Japanese invaders in a three-hour battle.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1944 Feb 25, U.S. forces
destroyed 135 planes in Marianas and Guam.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1944 Jun 11, U.C. carrier-based
planes attacked Japanese airfields on Guam, Rota, Saipan and Tinian
islands, preparing for the invasion of Saipan.
(HN, 6/11/99)
1944 Jul 20, US invaded
Japanese occupied Guam. Japanese aircraft carrier Hijo was sunk by
US air attack.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1944 Jul 21, US Army and Marine
forces landed on Guam in the Marianas during WW II.
(AP, 7/21/97)(HN, 7/21/98)
1944 Jul 26, There was a
Japanese suicide attack on US lines in Guam.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1944 Jul 27, U.S. troops
completed the liberation of Guam.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1944 Aug 10, During World War
II, American forces overcame Japanese resistance on Guam.
(AP, 8/10/97)
1944 The Japanese forced the
indigenous people into slave labor.
(SFEC, 3/7/99,Z1 p.4)
c1946 The brown tree snake,
Boiga irregularis, arrived on Guam shortly after WW II and began to
feed on the native bird population. By 1998 an estimated 9 of 11
native birds were eliminated.
(SFC, 7/25/98, p.A8)(WSJ, 7/1/99, p.B1)
1947-1978 The US governed the Northern Marianas
Islands as a UN Trust Territory. The natives largely abandoned
fishing and Spam and Budweiser became staples.
(SFEC, 3/7/99,Z1 p.4)
1949 Pres. Truman appointed
Carlton Skinner (d.2004) as the 1st civilian governor of Guam.
Skinner established the island‘s 1st university and wrote a
constitution.
(SSFC, 8/29/04, p.B7)
1969 Jul 25, The Nixon Doctrine
was put forth in a press conference in Guam. He stated that the US
henceforth expected its Asian allies to take care of their own
military defense.
(Internet)
1970s In the late 70s
Washington signed a covenant whereby Saipan became the capital of
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The 34,000
permanent residents became US citizens but could not in US
presidential elections. The CNMI was allowed to set its own tax,
immigration and labor policies.
(WSJ, 2/20/97, p.A20)
1972 Jan 24, In Guam
Shoichi Yokoi (d.1997 at 82), a WWII Japanese soldier, was found by
hunters near the Talofofo River. He had survived since 1944 in
adherence to his army code of never surrendering. Yokoi returned to
Japan as a national hero: "It is with much embarrassment that I
return."
(SFC, 9/23/97,
p.A19)(http://ns.gov.gu/scrollapplet/sergeant.html)
1975 In local elections 78.8%
of the residents approved a covenant under which the Northern
Marianas would become a US Commonwealth.
(SFEC, 3/7/99,Z1 p.4)
1990 Guam passed a law that
prohibited nearly all abortion procedures. In 1992 The U.S. Supreme
Court sustained women's basic right to abortion, voting 6-3 against
reviving the Guam law.
(AP, 11/30/97)
1994 Guam began to use Jack
Russell terriers to check outgoing cargo for brown tree snakes.
(SFC, 7/25/98, p.A8)
1995 May, A Kmart store opened
on Guam.
(WSJ, 7/12/99, p.A17)
1997 Jun 10, It was reported
that Gov. Froilan Tenorio and Rep. Heinz Hofschneider had proposed a
Parental Choice Scholarship Program that would be implemented in the
fall. Every student would get a $1500 scholarship for the school of
their choice.
(WSJ, 6/10/97, p.A16)
1997 Aug 6, Korean Air Flight
801 from Seoul, a Boeing 747-300 jumbo jet, crashed into a hillside
a short distance from Guam’s Agana International Airport killing 228
with 26 survivors. A programming glitch in the ground radar system
was later identified as a contributing factor but not the cause.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Flight_801)(WSJ, 4/8/99,
p.A1)(AP, 8/6/98)(WSJ, 11/13/01, p.A14)
1999 Dec 12, On Guam a
referendum was scheduled to choose independence, US statehood or
free association status.
(SFC, 11/24/98, p.A14)
1999 On Guam a new strategy to
control the brown tree snakes used aspirin, toxic to the snakes,
inserted into frozen baby mice.
(WSJ, 7/1/99, p.B1)
2001 Mar 23, It was reported
that 22 Guam teenagers had committed suicide over the past 26
months. Members of a secretive club called Prestigious Angels
promised to kill themselves if their friends would follow.
(SFC, 3/23/01, p.D6)
2002 Dec 8, Typhoon Pongsona
hit Guam with wind gusts of more than 180 mph. The U.S. territory
was declared a federal disaster area.
(AP, 12/11/02)
2003 Aug 8, A US federal judge
ruled that some 264,000 square miles of submerged lands in the
Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth, belong to the United
States.
(AP, 8/8/03)
2004 Mar 31, Air America Radio
went live in 3 of largest US markets with a left-leaning,
round-the-clock, talk format featuring Al Franken and Janeane
Garofalo. Air America was conceived by Anita and Sheldon Drobny of
Chicago. The idea was purchased by Guam entrepreneurs Evan M. Cohen
and Rex Sorensen, who resigned May 5.
(SFC, 3/31/04, p.C1)(WSJ, 6/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 20, Former Guam Gov.
Carl Gutierrez (1995-2003) was acquitted on charges he used
government workers and public money to build and improve his
cliffside ranch.
(AP, 7/21/04)
2005 Jan 7, The nuclear
submarine USS San Francisco ran aground 350 miles off the Pacific
Ocean territory of Guam, injuring about 20 crew members. One died
the next day.
(AP, 1/8/05)(AP, 1/9/05)
2005 Feb 15, The Guam-based
Citizens Security Bank (CSB) ended credit card and other services to
the Bank of Marshall Islands. Residents of the Marshall Islands will
be unable to use their credit cards after the central Pacific
nation's leading bank was cut off from a US partner by the
anti-terrorist Patriot Act.
(AFP, 2/10/05)
2005 Guam’s population was
about 170,000.
(SSFC, 10/2/05, p.C3)
2006 Jun 20, One of the largest
US military exercises in decades got underway off Guam island in the
western Pacific.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2008 Feb 23, A B-2 stealth
bomber crashed on take-off from the Pacific island of Guam, the
first such incident involving the futuristic craft. Both pilots on
board ejected safely as the 1.2-billion-dollar radar-evading plane
went down at Andersen airbase.
(AFP, 2/23/08)
2008 May 4, Democrat Barack
Obama beat rival Hillary Clinton by just 7 votes in Guam's
nominating contest after record numbers of residents voted in the
tiny US territory's primary.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 Jul 21, A US B-52 bomber
that was due to fly in a Liberation Day parade in the US territory
of Guam crashed into the Pacific Ocean soon after take-off. All of
the bomber's six-man crew were killed.
(AFP, 7/21/08)(AP, 7/23/08)
2009 Feb 17, In Japan US
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned North Korea against
following through on a threatened missile launch, saying it would
damage its prospects for improved relations with the United States
and the world. Clinton also signed an agreement with Japan that will
move 8,000 Marines off the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to
the US territory of Guam.
(AP, 2/17/09)
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