Timeline Jamaica
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Britannica: http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/6/0,5716,127866+1,00.html
CIA Factbook: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/jm.html
Facts: http://caribbean-connection.com/jamaica/history.html
Fantasyisle: http://www.fantasyisle.com/history.htm
Important dates: http://lynx.dac.neu.edu/o/oshows/date.html
Island Connos. http://www.islandconnoisseur.com/jamaica/history.htm
Links on Jamaica: http://www.nlj.org.jm/docs/jamdir.html
Water Hist. http://www.nwcjamaica.com/docs/history.htm
WDR: http://travel.dk.com/wdr/JM/mJM_Intr.htm
Jamaica is an island of the Greater Antilles. It is the third largest island in the Caribbean and has 120 rivers.
(Hem., 12/96, p.30)(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A10)
1494 May 5, During his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus first sighted Jamaica and commented on the daily rains. Columbus landed on the island of Jamaica, which he names Santa Gloria.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.183)(AP, 5/5/97)(HN, 5/5/98)
1494 May 13, Columbus found the natives on Jamaica hostile and left for Cuba.
(http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/v2.htm)
1494 Aug 20, Columbus returned to Hispaniola. He had confirmed that Jamaica was an island and failed to find a mainland.
(http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/v2.htm)
1502 May 11-1504 Nov 7, Columbus reached the coast of Honduras on his 4th voyage and passed south to Panama. He returned after suffering a shipwreck at Jamaica.
(EWH, 1968, p.390)
1503 Jun 25, Christopher Columbus beached his sinking ships in St. Anne’s Bay, Jamaica, and spent a year shipwrecked and marooned there before returning to Spain.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.8)(http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/v4.htm)
1504 Jun 29, Diego Mendez, one of Columbus's captains, returned to Jamaica with a small caravel and rescued the Columbus expedition. Mendez had managed to take a canoe from Jamaica to Hispaniola where he chartered the rescue ship.
(http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/v4.htm)
1655 May 10, Jamaica was captured by English.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1692 Jun 7, An earthquake struck Jamaica. It rearranged the geology, splitting the rocks, turning mountains to lakes, and engulfed two-thirds of Port Royal. On that day and subsequently, five thousand of the inhabitants died.
(www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n12/mant01_.html)
1692 Jun 24, Kingston, Jamaica, was founded.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1720 Oct, A government sloop, commissioned by the governor of Jamaica to capture pirates, attacked and captured the pirate ship of Captain Calico Jack Rackham.
(ON, 12/01, p.12)
1720 Nov 20, Pirates Mary Read, Anne Bonny (b.~1700) and Captain Calico Jack Rackham were tried by an admiralty court in Jamaica. Rackham was found guilty and hanged the next day. Read and Bonny were also found guilty and sentenced to hang but pleaded pregnancy. Their sentences were commuted until they gave birth. Bonny was later pardoned but Read died in prison on Apr 28, 1721. Bonny, an Irish American pirate, had plied her trade in the Caribbean and died around 1782.
(ON, 12/01, p.12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Bonny)
1792 The British St. George’s Bay Company transported a 2nd group of settlers to Freetown. This included 1,196 Blacks from Nova Scotia, 500 Jamaicans and dozens of rebellious slaves from other colonies.
(MT, summer 2003, p.8)
1831 Dec 28, Samuel Sharp (1801-1832) led a slave uprising that was put down at great cost by the British. The Rebellion lasted for eight days and resulted in the death of around 186 Africans and 14 white planters or overseers. The white vengeance convicted over 750 rebel slaves, of which 138 were sentenced to death.
(Econ, 2/24/07, p.73)(http://tinyurl.com/3cu2ds)
1832 May 23, Samuel Sharp was hanged in Jamaica for leading a slave rebellion. He is survived by his immortal declaration: "I would rather die upon yonder gallows than live in slavery."
(Econ, 2/24/07, p.73)(http://tinyurl.com/3cu2ds)
1833 Annie Palmer, a "white witch," was murdered in her bed. She had reportedly murdered 3 husbands and various lovers and slaves. She was later said to haunt Rose Hall.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, p.T7)
1834 Aug 1, The British Emancipation Act began. This ended slavery in the West Indies and all Caribbean holdings. Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire. Some 35,000 salves were freed in the Cape Colony.
(NH, 7/98, p.29)(HN, 8/1/98)(EWH, 4th ed, p.885)
1864 Jamaican law banned sex relations between men.
(SFC, 8/30/14, p.A2)
1881 May 14, Mary Seacole (b.1805), Jamaican nurse, died. She is best known for her efforts in the Crimean War during the 1850s. She borrowed money to make the 4,000-mile (about 6500 km) journey by herself and distinguished herself treating battlefield wounded, often nursing wounded soldiers from both sides while under fire.
(AP, 4/19/10)
1883 J.A. Rogers, writer, was born in Jamaica. He later moved to the US and then Europe and authored the 3-volume work “Sex and Race."
(SSFC, 6/16/02, p.M2)
1887 Aug 17, Marcus [Garvey] Garvy (d.1940), Black Nationalist and Jamaican leader who promoted the departure of African-Americans back Africa, was born. In 1914, after two years of study in London, Garvey formed the Universal Negro Improvement and Conservation Association (U.N.I.A.) in Jamaica, a group that worked for black emigration to Africa and promoted racial pride, education and black business activity. In 1916 Garvey went to New York and began organizing U.N.I.A. branches in America from 1916-1925. At his height of popularity, Garvey had several million followers. He advocated racial separation and emigration of American Negroes to Africa. He was deported in 1925. The organization waned in the 1920s with Garvey’s arrest and conviction and imprisonment on mail fraud charges. He was the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. He also founded the Black Star Line, a steamship company owned and operated by blacks to link black communities around the world. Marcus Garvey died in London on June 10, 1940.
(AHD, p.544)(Civilization, July-Aug, 1995, p. 36)(WSJ, 2/7/96, p.A-12)(HN, 8/17/98)(HNQ, 6/18/99)
1889 Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia opened a branch in Jamaica.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.50)
1908 Archie Lindo (d.1990), Jamaican playwright, was born.
(http://tinyurl.com/389252)
1930 Nov 2, Haile Selassie was crowned emperor of Ethiopia. His coronation was taken as a sign b y Jamaicans, who became known as Rastafarians, from the term Ras Tafari, a title held by Selassie.
(AP, 11/2/97)(SFC, 12/4/00, p.A12)
1930s Jamaica's first radio station began operating in the late 1930s.
(SFC, 12/10/99, p.AA8)
1933 Nicholas Shoumatoff captured a couple of small butterflies that were later used to describe a new subspecies: Thecla celida shoumatoffi, or Shoumatoff’s hairstreak.
(Nat. Hist. 3/96, p.11)
1940 Jun 10, Marcus Garvey (b.1887), Jamaica-born US black leader (Back to Africa Movement), died in London. In 1964 his remains were transferred to Jamaica, where he was proclaimed Jamaica’s first national hero. In 2008 Colin Grant authored “Negro With a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Garvey)(SSFC, 5/11/08, Books p.5)
1945 Feb 6, Bob Marley (d.1981), reggae superstar, was born in Jamaica. He is best remembered for his songs "Buffalo Soldier" and "Fire on the Mountain."
(HN, 2/6/99)(SFC, 12/14/04, p.E10)
1945 Mar 1, Burning Spear [Winston Rodney], Jamaican reggae singer, was born.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1948 Jun 2, Jamaican-born track star Herb McKenley set a new world record for the 400 yard dash.
(HN, 6/2/00)
1951 Aug 17, Hurricane winds drove 6 ships ashore at Kingston, Jamaica.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1958 Jan 3, The British created the West Indies Federation with Lord Hailes as governor general. The federation lasted to 1962. It included Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago and the Windward and Leeward Islands.
(HN, 1/3/99)(WUD, 1994, p.1623)
1959 Jul 4, Cayman Islands separated from Jamaica, made a crown colony.
(Maggio)
1959 A 2nd state radio station was formed.
(SFC, 12/10/99, p.AA8)
1959 Clement Dodd (d.2004), began producing records on his own label.
(Econ, 5/22/04, p.80)
1960-1966 The Ska era of music in Jamaica. The musicians included guitarist Ernest Ranglin, saxophonist Tommy McCook and trombonist Don Drummond.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, DB p.38)
1960s The radio show "Teen-age Dance Party" helped push local music genres like reggae and ska.
(SFC, 12/10/99, p.AA8)
1961 May 3, A British Colonial Office telegram stated the general guidance for keeping papers out of the hands of newly elected independent governments. Items should be disposed of if they "might embarrass members of the police, military forces, public servants or others eg police informers; might compromise sources of intelligence" -- or might be used "unethically" by incoming ministers. Under "Operation Legacy", officials in Kenya, Uganda, Malaysia, Tanzania, Jamaica and other former colonial territories were briefed on how to dispose of documents that "might embarrass Her Majesty's government." This was only made public in 2013.
(AFP, 11/29/13)
1962 Feb 9, An agreement was signed to make Jamaica an independent nation within the British Commonwealth later in the year.
(AP, 2/9/02)
1962 May 31, The West Indies Federation, made up of Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, and the Leeward and Windward Islands, broke up after 4 years following Jamaica’s passage of a referendum to end the alliance.
(Econ, 6/2/12, p.47)
1962 Aug 6, Jamaica became an independent dominion within the British Commonwealth.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(AP, 8/6/97)
1963 Clement Dodd opened his record studio at 13 Brentford Road, Kingston, Jamaica, and soon began recording Bob Marley and the Wailers.
(Econ, 5/22/04, p.80)
1964 The ska group Skatalites formed with Rolando Alphonso on tenor sax.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A25)
1964 Leicester Hemingway, brother of Ernest Hemingway, put together floating platforms off the west coast of Jamaica and called it the Republic of New Atlantis. He hoped to create a marine research society and help protect Jamaican fishing.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.84)
1966 Apr 21, Emperor Haile Selassie (Ethiopia) visited Kingston, Jamaica.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1967 Frederic Cassidy (d.2000 at 92), lexicographer, wrote the “Dictionary of Jamaican English." He spent much of the rest of his life cataloging American folk idioms for the 5-volume “Dictionary of American Regional English."
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A21)
1968 Dec, The pop song "Israelites" by Desmond Dekker (1941-2006), Jamaican singer, was released in Jamaica and soon became a worldwide hit. Dekker brought the sound of Jamaican ska music to the world.
(SFC, 5/27/06, p.B5)
1969 Don Drummond, trombonist, died in an insane asylum where he was incarcerated for the murder of his girlfriend.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, DB p.38)
1971 Jamaica began protecting crocodiles by law. By 2013 a growing taste for crocodile meat and even eggs had conservationists worried that the reptiles might be wiped from the wild altogether.
(AP, 10/6/13)
1972 Mar 2, In Jamaica Michael Manley (1924-1997, Socialist and champion of the nonaligned movement, was sworn in as prime minister.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A21)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Manley)
1975 Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia, died. He has a religion named after him and is worshipped as the savior. Selassie was born of royal blood and originally named Ras Tafari, and is regarded as the savior by a religious sect originating in Jamaica whose members are called Rastafarians. Crowned emperor in 1930 under the title Haile Selassie I (meaning “Power of the Trinity"), he was by tradition a descendant of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. He reigned as emperor of Ethiopia until 1974.
(HNQ, 2/4/00)
1976 Michael Manley was elected for a 2nd term as prime minister.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A21)
1976 John Issa, businessman, founded the SuperClubs Int’l. Ltd.
(WSJ, 7/25/97, p.B1)
1979 Gas price riots resulted when the government increased gas prices.
(SFC, 4/22/99, p.D12)
1980 May 20, A fire in nursing home in Kingston, Jamaica, killed some 153 old women.
(http://www.jnht.com/disndat/eventide.php)
1980 Nov 1, Conservative Edward Seaga (b.1930) began serving as PM of Jamaica. He defeated Michael Manley as Jamaica was nearly bankrupt, and became a close ally of US Pres. Reagan. Seaga served as PM for the Labor Party until 1989.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A21)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Seaga)
1981 May 11, Bob Marley (b.1945), Jamaican reggae artist, died of brain cancer in Miami.
(AP, 5/11/97)(SFEC, 2/14/99, p.T7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Marley)
1984 May 8, The album "Legend," the greatest hits by Bob Marley (1945-1981) and the Wailers, was released. It became the best-selling reggae record of all time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_(album))
1985 Gas price riots resulted when the government increased gas prices.
(SFC, 4/22/99, p.D12)
1988 Sep 12, Hurricane Gilbert, called the storm of the century, smashed into the Gulf coast. It slammed into Jamaica with torrential rains and winds of 145 mph, killing 45 people and causing damage estimated at up to $1 billion. It also devastated the Yucatan peninsula and left 225 people dead. The storm hit the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, Cayman Islands and Mexico before striking Texas.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.181)(AP, 9/12/97)(SFC, 10/10/97, p.A15)
1989 Feb 10, In Jamaica Michael Manley (1924-1997) re-emerged and trounced Seaga in national elections. He dropped his anti-imperialist rhetoric and espoused capitalism, private investment and good relations with the US. He began an economic overhaul program.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A21)(WSJ, 4/29/97, p.A19)(http://tinyurl.com/fx5ps)
1992 Feb 23 In Jamaica Lester Coke (aka Jim Brown), head of the infamous Shower Posse, died in a mysterious prison cell fire.
(www.islandmix.com/backchat/f6/jamaicans-rope-131061/)
1992 Mar 28, Prime Minister Michael Manley stepped down from office. He was succeeded by P.J. Patterson.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A21)
1993 The ska music style was featured in the 4-disk set “Tougher Than Tough: The Story of Jamaican Music" on the Mango label.
(SFC,11/11/97, p.A17)
1993 The Blue Mountains John Crow National park was established.
(SFC, 9/1/96, T5)
1994 Nov 16, The UN Law of the Sea, ratified in 1993, took effect. Arvid Pardo (d.1999 at 85), Maltese delegate to the UN, proposed in 1967 that the bounty of the sea should be considered "the common heritage of mankind" and asked that some of the sea's wealth be used to bankroll a fund to help close the gap between rich and poor nations. The International Seabed Authority came into existence as the law took effect. The first Secretary-General of the Authority, Satya Nandan (Fiji) was elected in March 1996, and the Authority became fully operational as an autonomous international organization in June 1996, when it took over the premises and facilities in Kingston, Jamaica. The UN Law of the Sea treaty, which extended internationally recognized territorial waters to 200 miles offshore, came into force one year after the sixtieth state, Guyana, signed it.
(http://tinyurl.com/2wsq9p)(SFC, 7/19/99, p.A22)
1994 Jamaica's government privatized its sugar factories. [see 1998]
(Econ, 8/30/03, p.26)
1994 In Jamaica Michael Llewellyn was shot in the back when he tried to escape a beating by police at his house. His right leg was amputated below the knee as a result, and he was left unable use the remaining leg. In 2010 he was awarded $230,000 in compensation.
(AP, 4/30/10)
1994-1995 Jamaica’s government stepped in to bailout its banks. The bailout eventually cost roughly 40% of GDP. This money was borrowed from international lenders.
(Econ, 7/21/12, p.31)(http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/Jamaica+4109.twl)
1997 Jan 30, It was reported that NAFTA has had devastating effects on the economy. Garment exports were down 7% and 7,000 jobs were lost.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A10)
1997 Mar 6, Former Prime Minister Michael Manley (b.Dec 10, 1924) died.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A21)
1997 Aug 20, Prison guards walked off their jobs after a commissioner suggested that guards and prisoners use condoms to prevent AIDS. Anti-gay violence broke out and within a week 16 inmates were killed and 20 injured at Kingston’s Gen’l. Penitentiary and St. Catherine District Prison.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.A4)
1997 Dec 18 , In Parliamentary elections 2-term Prime Minister P.J. Patterson took a big lead over Edward Seaga. The People’s National Party won an absolute majority in the 60-seat parliament.
(WSJ, 12/19/97, p.A1)(SFC,12/19/97, p.B3)
1997 Jamaica’s population was about 2.3 million.
(Hem., 12/96, p.30)(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A10)
1998 May, The government raised fines for harassing tourists 100 times to $2,700 for first offenders along with night courts to handle officers appearances.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.T8)
1998 Jul, Jamaica withdrew from the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Court on Human Rights.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.A10)
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)
1998 Oct 22-1998 Nov 9, Hurricane Mitch was one of the Caribbean's deadliest storms ever causing at least at least 9,000 deaths in Central America. The storm hit Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Jamaica, and Costa Rica. Later reports put the death toll in Honduras to 6,076. In Nicaragua the deaths reached 4,000, in Guatemala it was157, and in El Salvador it was 222. The storm parked over Honduras and rain poured for 6 days straight. Aid of $66 mil was ordered from the US, $8 mil from the EU, $11.6 mil from Spain along with pledges from other countries and private organizations.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.A9)(SFC, 11/6/98, p.A14)(AP, 9/11/04)(www.wunderground.com)
1998 Nov 20, Rolando Alphonso, tenor saxophonist for the ska group Skatalites, died at age 67. He was an original member of the group that was formed in 1964.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A25)
1998 The Jamaican government took back the sugar factories privatized in 1994 for three American cents.
(Econ, 8/30/03, p.26)
1999 Apr 16, The government announced $100 million in new taxes that included a 30% increase in gas prices.
(SFC, 4/22/99, p.D12)
1999 Apr 21, In Jamaica at least 6 people were killed and 2 dozen injured in Kingston during protests against new tax increases.
(SFC, 4/22/99, p.D12)(WSJ, 4/22/99, A1)
1999 Apr 22, Prime Minister Patterson met with members of a committee to seek alternatives to the heavy tax increases.
(SFC, 4/23/99, p.D3)
1999 May 18, Augustus Pablo (Horace Swaby), a reggae producer, died at age 46 in Kingston. His work included "East of the River Nile" and "Java (1972)."
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.D6)
1999 Jun 2, Junior Braithwaite (49), one of three survivors of the Wailers, was shot and killed in Kingston by unidentified gunmen.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A22)
1999 Jul 1, Singer Dennis Brown, known as the Crown Prince of reggae, died at age 42. His songs included "Here I Come" and "How Could I Leave You."
(SFC, 7/2/99, p.D6)(SFEC, 7/18/99, p.A19)
1999 Jul 6, Michael Wallace, musician in the reggae group Third World, was shot dead in a suspected robbery. Some 22 murders were reported in this one week and 486 murders since the start of the year.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.D5)
1999 cJul 9, Vivian Blake, alleged leader of the Shower Posse, was extradited to Miami. His gang was blamed for 1,400 murders in several US states during the 1980s.
(SFC, 7/14/99, p.C10)
1999 Jul 14, In Jamaica troops were deployed in Kingston to control gang violence. Some 500 people had been murdered since the start of the year.
(WSJ, 7/15/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 18, Joe Higgs, reggae singer, died in Los Angeles at age 59. He was called the "father of reggae music," fostered the career of Bob Marley. His first 1970s solo album was called "Life of Contradiction."
(SFC, 12/23/99, p.A27)
2000 Mar, Drought left crops wilted and water level at the Hermitage Dam was less than half.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A8)
2000 Sep 1, Business leaders met with the prime minister to insist on action TO reduce the high crime rate.
(SFEC, 9/10/00, p.T15)
2000 Oct 27, Winston Grennan, Jamaican drummer, died in Nantucket, Mass., at age 56. He developed the “one drop" reggae rhythm.
(SFC, 11/7/00, p.A20)
2000 Police killed 140 people in this year. The 5.4 per 100,000 rate was one of the highest in the world.
(SFC, 4/11/01, p.C3)
2001 Mar 14, Seven men were killed by police in a Kingston suburb during an alleged shootout. 3 of the dead were under 18. In 2003 five police officers were charged with murder in the deaths of the 7 young men.
(SFC, 4/11/01, p.C3)(AP, 11/12/03)
2001 Jul 7, A police crackdown began in the Tivoli Gardens of Kingston following 2 months of fighting between gangs that killed 37 people. The murder rate for the country had reached 530 for the half year.
(SFC, 7/11/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 9, In Jamaica PM Patterson ordered the army deployed across the island to restore calm following 3 days of violence that killed at least 28 people.
(SFC, 7/10/01, p.A7)(SFC, 7/11/01, p.A8)(SFC, 7/27/01, p.D6)
2001 Aug 16, A government commission recommended that marijuana, aka ganja, be legalized for personal use by adults.
(SFC, 8/18/01, p.E1)
2001 In Jamaica some 1300 people were killed this year.
(SFC, 10/16/02, p.A17)
2002 Sep 29, Hurricane Lili killed 3 people in Jamaica and headed for Cuba.
(AP, 10/1/02)
2002 Oct 15, In Jamaica 3 people were shot dead outside Kingston.
(SFC, 10/16/02, p.A17)
2002 Oct 16, In Jamaica Prime Minister P.J. Patterson's party became the country's first leader elected to three straight terms. Jamaicans turned out in large numbers to vote despite pelting rains and concerns of violence in an election they hoped would revive a sagging economy and ease spiraling crime.
(AP, 10/17/02)
2002 Nov 17, In Jamaica gunmen opened fire outside a busy street market in a rare daylight attack in Kingston, killing five people and injuring three.
(AP, 11/17/02)
2003 Aug 29, Excel Motors, a fledgling Jamaican automaker, exported the Caribbean island's first locally manufactured car to the Bahamas. The two-door Island Cruiser, one of 22 built this year at the company's plant in western Jamaica, sold for $11,500.
(AP, 8/30/03)
2003 Oct 23, A 3-day dominos tournament began at the Ocho Rios resort in Jamaica.
(SFC, 10/24/03, p.D3)
2003 Oct 25, Thousands of Jamaicans rioted near Montego Bay's airport, burning buses and blocking roads to protest the killings of two elderly men by police in an alleged shootout.
(AP, 10/26/03)(Econ, 11/1/03, p.35)
2004 Feb 13, In Jamaica hundreds of people rioted in Kingston, attacking a police station and setting cars ablaze after a policeman allegedly shot and wounded a high-school student.
(AP, 2/13/04)
2004 May 4, Clement Dodd (Sir Coxsone), father of reggae music, died in Jamaica at age 72.
(Econ, 5/22/04, p.80)
2004 Mar 15, Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide left his temporary exile in Africa and flew to Jamaica despite opposition to his presence in the Caribbean.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Jul 5, Hugh Shearer (81), a prime minister (1967-1972) in the early stages of Jamaica's independence, died. Shearer had succeeded Donald Sangster, who died in office.
(AP, 7/5/04)
2004 Sep 11, Hurricane Ivan lashed Jamaica with monstrous waves, driving rain and winds nearing 155 mph, killing at least 15 people. Total deaths from the hurricane reached 65.
(AP, 9/11/04)(SFC, 9/13/04, p.A3)
2004 Sep 12, Hurricane Ivan skirted Grand Cayman with winds near 155 mph as it churned toward Cuba. The storm has been blamed for 56 deaths across the Caribbean so far, including 34 in Grenada and 11 in Jamaica.
(AP, 9/12/04)
2004 Sep 13, In Jamaica at least 15 people were killed from Hurricane Ivan. Hotels and restaurants in northwestern Negril were particularly hard-hit by battering waves.
(AP, 9/14/04)
2004 Oct, The center of Kingston, Jamaica, was shut down by gangland violence for 3 days. Jamaican police counted 85 gangs, up from 35 in 1994.
(Econ, 11/6/04, p.42)
2004 Nov, Human Rights Watch released a report, “Hated to Death," on homophobia, violence and AIDS in Jamaica.
(Econ, 11/27/04, p.42)
2005 Jan 1, Jamaica's embattled police commissioner Francis Forbes resigned following record number of homicides in 2004. The island nation of 2.6 million people, reported a record 1,145 homicides for 2004, compared with 975 the year before.
(AP, 1/2/05)
2005 Mar, Jamaica brought in Mark Shields, a top policeman from London’s Scotland Yard, to help re-organize police services and stem rising murder rates.
(Econ, 8/13/05, p.32)
2005 Jun 14, In Athens, Greece, Asafa Powell of Jamaica, broke the world 100-meter dash record with a time of 9.77 seconds.
(WSJ, 6/15/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 9, Murders in Jamaica reached 1,028, up 25% from 2004.
(Econ, 8/13/05, p.32)
2005 Sep 6, Nine countries: Antigua, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Dominica, Suriname, St. Kitts, St. Vincent and the Dominican Republic, signed oil deals with Venezuela in Jamaica. Cuba and Jamaica had previously signed. Chavez urged Caribbean governments to consider Cuba-style socialism as an alternative to capitalism.
(AP, 9/11/05)
2005 Sep 6, In Jamaica opposition-led protests left one person dead.
(WSJ, 9/8/05, p.A1)
2005 Oct 19, Hurricane Wilma swirled into the most intense Atlantic storm ever recorded, a Category 5 monster whose 175 mph winds and heavy rains were blamed for killing at least 11 people in Haiti and one in Jamaica as it bore down on Central America.
(AP, 10/19/05)
2006 Feb 25, In Jamaica Portia Simpson Miller, a Cabinet minister was positioned to become Jamaica's next prime minister and first female head of government, after narrowly beating a former Rastafarian in internal elections to head the country's ruling party.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Mar 30, In Jamaica Portia Simpson Miller (60) became Jamaica's prime minister and first female head of government.
(Econ, 3/25/06, p.42)(AP, 3/30/06)
2006 Apr, Jamaican police arrested botanist George Proctor at the capital's airport as he was about to board a plane to the United States. Prosecutors later said Proctor had given a co-conspirator $90,000 to kill 4 women. In 2010 Proctor (89) was sentenced to four years in prison for conspiring to kill his wife and three other women who lived in the couple's home. The wife and the three women, whose identities and relationship to the couple have never been released by authorities, were not harmed.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2006 May 25, Desmond Dekker (b.1941), Jamaican singer, died. He brought the sound of Jamaican ska music to the world with songs such as "Israelites" (1969).
(AP, 5/26/06)(SFC, 5/27/06, p.B5)
2006 Jun 9, In Jamaica PM Portia Simpson Miller and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, the first women to be elected heads of state in Jamaica and Chile, met in Kingston and said they will remove visa restrictions on travel between Chile and Jamaica and work toward establishing air links to improve trade.
(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Aug 26, Tropical Storm Ernesto strengthened over the Caribbean as it headed toward Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, threatening to become the first hurricane of the 2006 Atlantic season.
(AP, 8/26/06)
2006 Oct 28, In Jamaica Trevor Berbick (51), the last boxer to fight the legendary Muhammad Ali, was found dead in a churchyard near his home in Norwich. On Nov 3 police charged two men, one a nephew of Berbick, with murdering the former world heavyweight boxing champion. In 2007 a jury found Harold Berbick (21) guilty of murder and Kenton Gordon (19) guilty of manslaughter in the killing of the former boxer.
(AP, 11/4/06)(AP, 12/21/07)
2006 Oct 31, A leading researcher said large species of coral that form underwater reefs and create rich habitat for marine life are disappearing from around the U.S. Virgin Islands, Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean.
(AP, 11/1/06)
2006 Jamaica reported some 25 killings per week this year.
(Econ, 9/8/07, p.42)
2006 Dec 5, Jamaica reported 15 cases of malaria in the Kingston area, the first in 15 years.
(WSJ, 12/6/06, p.A1)
2007 Jan 7, In Jamaica the Accompong Maroons, descendants of freed African slaves, vowed to fight any plans for bauxite mining in the forested region where they have lived in semiautonomy for centuries. Sydney Peddie, the group's leader, said opening up the territory to mining would breach a treaty signed between the Maroons and the British in 1739, which gave the group nearly 25,000 acres in Cockpit Country, an inhospitable terrain of rocky cliffs and limestone towers.
(AP, 1/8/07)
2007 Mar 18, In Jamaica Bob Woolmer (58), Pakistan cricket coach, was found dead in his hotel room, hours after Pakistan was upset by Ireland and eliminated from advancing at the Cricket World Cup. A pathologist report found Woolmer's death was due to "asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation." An inquest into Woolmer's death ended with the Jamaican jury unable to reach a ruling.
(AP, 3/21/07)(AP, 3/23/07)(AP, 3/18/08)
2007 Apr 28, The 7-week, 1st Cricket World Cup ended with Australia defeating Sri Lanka.
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.48)
2007 May 13, A Jamaican newspaper reported that Scotland Yard investigators have concluded that Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer died of natural causes and was not strangled as local police have said.
(AP, 5/13/07)
2007 May 25, Abdullah el-Faisal, a Muslim cleric named by the British government as a key influence on one of four men who carried out the deadly London transport bombings in 2005, was deported to Jamaica after being released from prison.
(AP, 5/26/07)
2007 Aug 18, Hurricane Dean barreled across the eastern Caribbean and took aim at Hispaniola, Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, with forecasters saying it could turn into a monster Category 5 storm within 72 hours. Dean claimed at least six lives as it began sweeping past the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 19, Jamaicans headed inland and tourists fled the country as Hurricane Dean headed for a direct hit on the island. Dean hit Jamaica as a Category 4 storm.
(AP, 8/19/07)(WSJ, 8/20/07, p.A1)
2007 Sep 3, Jamaica's main opposition won a narrow election victory, according to preliminary results, but Portia Simpson Miller, the country's first female prime minister, said the race was too close to call and the ruling party would not concede defeat.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 6, Jamaica's electoral office confirmed the Labor Party's victory in a close election, sealing its return to power after 18 years in opposition. The center right JLP won 50.1% of the popular vote and 32 of 60 seats in parliament.
(AP, 9/7/07)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.42)
2007 Sep 11, In Jamaica Bruce Golding was sworn in as the new prime minister and pledged a tougher approach to crime. He said he wants to resume executions, provide officers with better forensic training and equipment, deploy more police to trouble spots and modernize a backlogged judicial system. Killings in 2005 placed Jamaica, with a population of about 2.8 million, among the most violent nations in the world.
(AP, 9/12/07)
2008 Jun 27, In Jamaica two gunmen murdered Douggie Chambers, chairman of the Jamaica urban Transit Company. The former accountant and fraud investigator had just finished redundancy terms for 485 workers.
(Econ, 7/5/08, p.47)
2008 Jul 1, In Kingston, Jamaica, 39 young American missionaries, from the Georgia-based Adventures in Missions, were robbed by two gunmen who broke into a Salvation Army school for the blind where they were volunteering.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Aug 16, Carol Huynh, whose parents fled communist Vietnam in the 1970s, won Canada's first gold of the Olympics in the women's 48 kg freestyle wrestling. Usain Bolt of Jamaica was crowned the world's fastest man when he raced to victory in the Olympic men's 100 meters final in a world record time of 9.69 sec.
(AP, 8/16/08)(AFP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 24, The Beijing Olympics, played out against a background of political intrigue and featuring 16 days of compelling and controversial action, drew to a spectacular close. China's haul of 51 gold medals was the largest since the Soviet Union won 55 in Seoul in 1988. The US won 36 gold medals and Russia came in 3rd with 23. Jamaica ended up with 11 medals including 6 gold. Cuba took home 24 medals, but only 2 gold.
(AP, 8/24/08)(Econ, 8/30/08, p.38)
2008 Aug 28, Tropical Storm Gustav bore down on Jamaica after leaving 67 people dead on Hispaniola, including 59 in Haiti and 8 in the Dominican Republic.
(SFC, 8/29/08, p.A2)
2008 Aug 29, Tropical Storm Gustav drenched Jamaica, killing at least 4 people, and rolled over the Cayman Islands with fierce winds that tore down trees and power lines, setting off alarm from Cuba to New Orleans, and at gas pumps across the US.
(AP, 8/29/08)(AP, 8/30/08)(SFC, 8/30/08, p.A3)
2008 Dec 10, Police in Jamaica said armed gangs wrestling for control of 2 communities near the capital have forced over 200 people from their homes.
(SFC, 12/11/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 28, In Jamaica Vincent Ford (68), songwriter, died. He is credited with composing the Bob Marley reggae classic "No Woman, No Cry" (1974).
(AP, 12/31/08)
2008 Jamaica’s population was about 2.8 million.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, Jamaican police said a gunman shot a woman (55) in her one-room wooden shack and then set it ablaze, leaving her 3 grandchildren to perish alongside her in the fire.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Feb 21, Jamaican regulators said they are forbidding all explicit references to sex and violence over the airwaves. The announcement followed a Feb. 6 ban that specifically targeted dancehall tunes and videos depicting "daggering," a dance style popular among Jamaican youth that features pelvic grinding simulating sex.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Apr 6, The US Federal Reserve said it will supply new lines of credit worth up to $287 billion to the central banks of Japan, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and EU.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 19, In Jamaica Stephen Fray (20) forced his way though Montego Bay airport security and hijacked a Canadian jet, holding six crew members hostage. He fired his father's licensed .38-caliber revolver into the air, stole money from some of the 167 passengers aboard and demanded to be flown off the island. After 6 hours police and soldiers stormed the aircraft and captured Fray. On October 8 Fray was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
(AP, 4/20/09)(AP, 10/9/09)
2009 Jun 21, It was reported that handguns, rifles and bullets enter Jamaica from the US stoking one of the world's highest murder rates.
(AP, 6/21/09)
2009 Aug 20, Usain Bolt of Jamaica set a world record of 19.19 seconds in the 200 meters at the world championships in Berlin, adding to the gold he won in the 100.
(AP, 8/20/09)
2009 Aug, Jamaica’s government received an extradition request for Christopher "Dudus" Coke (40). By late October it had only responded with requests for more information about the gun and drug trafficking charges against the reputed gang leader. Coke, the alleged leader of the "Shower Posse" gang, is charged in the US Southern District of New York with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana and conspiracy to illegally traffic in firearms.
(AP, 10/29/09)
2009 Sep 9, In Jamaica John A. Terry (65), Britain’s honorary consul in Montego Bay, was found strangled in bed with a note denouncing him as a homosexual.
(Econ, 9/19/09, p.49)(AP, 10/3/09)
2009 Sep, A US cable, revealed in 2010, said the Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie told a US Embassy officer that his administration had collaborated for years with local drug baron Christopher “Dudus" Coke to fight crime.
(SFC, 12/23/10, p.A5)
2009 Dec 22, American Airlines Flight 331 carrying 154 people skidded across a Jamaican runway in heavy rain, bouncing across the tarmac and injuring more than 40 people before it stopped just short of the Caribbean Sea.
(AP, 12/23/09)(SFC, 12/24/09, p.A2)
2009 Jamaica recorded 1,672 murders, its highest number on record.
(Econ, 3/13/10, p.40)
2010 Jan 5, Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican-born radical Muslim cleric, was stuck in Kenya despite attempts to deport him because other nations are refusing to allow him to transit through their countries. He has called for Americans, Hindus and Jews to be killed. The British government has said he was a key influence on July 7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 21, In Kenya radical Muslim cleric Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal was flown out of the country enroute to Jamaica. El-Faisal once served four years in a British jail for inciting murder and stirring racial hatred by urging followers to kill Americans, Hindus and Jews.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 May 2, In Jamaica a sleeping 5-year-old boy died after his throat was slashed. Police soon charged Jermaine Gushman (34) with the murder saying he may have done it to get back at the boy's father.
(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 Mar 7, Jamaica said plans to open a music museum next year that officials say will feature rare pieces from the island's music history, such as the sole album that the late reggae star Bob Marley produced before he gained international fame.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Jamaica Vivian Blake (53), founder of a cocaine-smuggling gang blamed for about 1,400 slayings, died of illnesses at hospital a year after returning to his native island following a prison term in the United States. In 2003 Blake's son, Duane Blake, authored "The Shower Posse: The Most Notorious Jamaican Crime Organization."
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 May 2, In Jamaica a sleeping 5-year-old boy died after his throat was slashed. Police soon charged Jermaine Gushman (34) with the murder saying he may have done it to get back at the boy's father.
(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 11, In Jamaica the gunbattle began when unknown assailants shot at a patrol car in Waterford, near the capital of Kingston. Bystander Josephine Brown (45), the mother of 5 children, was hit and killed when police returned fire.
(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 17, Jamaica's PM Bruce Golding said he will allow Christopher "Dudus" Coke, a reputed drug kingpin, to be extradited to the US, ending a nine-month fight with Washington but raising fears of a violent backlash from the suspect's supporters.
(AP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 23, In Jamaica masked men defending a reputed drug lord sought by the United States torched a police station and traded gunfire with security forces in a patchwork of barricaded slums in Kingston.
(AP, 5/23/10)
2010 May 24, In Jamaica more than 1,000 police and soldiers assaulted a public housing complex occupied by heavily armed gangsters defending Christopher "Dudus" Coke, an alleged drug lord wanted by the US. 2 police officers were killed and at least six wounded since the previous night, and at least one Jamaican soldier was shot dead during today's fighting at Tivoli Gardens.
(AP, 5/25/10)
2010 May 26, Jamaican security forces claimed a tenuous hold over the slum stronghold of a gang leader sought by the US, but only after battles that killed at least 44 civilians.
(AP, 5/26/10)
2010 May 27, Jamaican security forces kicked down doors and arrested dozens of people in a bullet-pocked slum, and said the death toll from four days of fighting sparked by the search for a reputed drug lord has risen to 73.
(AP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 28, In Kingston, Jamaica, the Coronation Market was gutted in an early morning blaze. It stood next to the bullet-pocked complex of Tivoli Gardens, where security forces have conducted a slum raid that left scores of people dead in gun battles since May 24.
(AP, 5/28/10)
2010 Jun 1, PM Bruce Golding said Jamaica will launch a sustained assault on gangs that control poor communities across the island and fuel one of the world's highest murder rates.
(AP, 6/2/10)
2010 Jun 22, In Jamaica reputed drug baron Christopher "Dudus" Coke (42) sought out a preacher's advice and tried to turn himself in to US marshals. He was caught by police at a highway checkpoint before he could get there. 73 people were killed in the process of catching Coke. He was later extradited to the US. On Dec 8, 2011, PM Andrew Holness said a US surveillance plane helped monitor the deadly raid.
(AP, 6/23/10)(Econ, 6/4/11, p.46)(AP, 12/9/11)
2010 Jul 10, In Jamaica Sugar Minott (b.1956), a smooth-voiced singer and producer who helped to popularize reggae music, died.
(AP, 7/11/10)
2010 Aug 12, In Jamaica police shot and killed Cedric Murray, otherwise called ‘Doggie’, an senior member of the Montego Bay-based Stone Crusher gang, near the border of Clarendon and Manchester. He was on Jamaica’s ‘Most Wanted List’ for the past five years.
(www.jamaicasmostwanted.com/2008/05/03/cedric-murray/)(Econ, 9/11/10, p.48)
2010 Sep 22, In Jamaica a top court ruled that Shahine Robinson, a lawmaker allied to PM Bruce Golding, is ineligible to sit in parliament because she also holds US citizenship.
(AP, 9/22/10)
2010 Sep 27, In Jamaica hundreds of medical technicians, nurse's aides and other support staff at major public hospitals went on strike to demand pay raises and allowances they say haven't been paid by the government.
(AP, 9/27/10)
2010 Sep 29, Jamaica was hit by Tropical Storm Nicole causing flooding and mudslides that left at least 5 people dead and 14 missing.
(SFC, 9/30/10, p.A2)(AP, 9/30/10)
2010 Oct 15, In Jamaica a bus plunged over a cliff on the island's north coast, killing a teenage girl and injuring 39 people. The bus driver fled after the accident.
(AP, 10/16/10)
2010 Dec 4, In Jamaica an oil spill was discovered in Kingston Harbor. Authorities were still investigating a Nov 22 spill in the capital's harbor, the 7th-largest natural harbor in the world.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 9, Jamaican police discovered a body buried in a shallow grave at a construction site outside the capital. The remains were identified as those of Esmond Morris (32), who had not been seen since Dec 6. He had a gunshot wound in the back of the head. 2 more bodies were found the next day and police said they expected to find more.
(AP, 12/11/10)
2011 Jan 7, A Jamaica coast guard tried to stop a Honduran fishing boat in lobster- and conch-rich waters, fatally shooting the captain and wounding two crew members. Honduras' navy commander soon charged that the fishermen were unjustifiably attacked.
(AP, 1/12/11)
2011 Mar 10, In Jamaica gunmen brazenly shot up a police station in Spanish Town just outside Kingston. Intelligence indicated the gun attack was in retaliation for the deaths of three alleged members of the Klansman gang by security forces last weekend.
(AP, 3/11/11)
2011 Mar 11, In Jamaica gunmen invaded Spanish Town Hospital and robbed staff of money, phones and jewelry. There were no immediate reports of any injuries.
(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 23, In Jamaica an independent investigator for the parliament called for the creation of a special agency to fight corruption, asserting official graft has reached "systemic" levels in the Caribbean country.
(AP, 3/24/11)
2011 Apr 4, In Jamaica PM Bruce Golding's party reinforced its narrow parliamentary majority by winning a by-election called after a governing party lawmaker acknowledged he held US citizenship in violation of constitutional rules. The win re-established a 32-28 parliamentary majority for Labor.
(AP, 4/5/11)
2011 Apr, In Jamaica Chan Tesha Miller, the reputed Clansman leader, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted of robbery, assault and weapons possession.
(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Jul 5, Jamaica said it has shuttered all citrus nurseries in an attempt to check the spread of bacteria causing the incurable “citrus greening" disease. The bacteria has hobbled citrus production in parts of China and infested millions of trees in Florida and Brazil.
(SFC, 7/6/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul 20, In Jamaica a mother and daughter were beheaded by attackers who invaded their home in Spanish Town, a gritty area outside Kingston, near where a wanted 18-year-old gang member was found with his head chopped off earlier this week. On August 2 police said three suspects had been arrested and investigators sought six more.
(AP, 7/21/11)(AP, 8/2/11)
2011 Sep 25, Jamaica's governing party announced that PM Bruce Golding (63) will step down as leader in the coming weeks, possibly averting a rebellion from ruling party members that could have led to his ouster.
(AP, 9/25/11)
2011 Oct 18, Jamaica’s PM Bruce Golding (63) announced that Andrew Holness (39), the youthful education minister, has received the unanimous endorsement of ruling party lawmakers to become the Caribbean island's next leader.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 28, In central Jamaica an 8-year-old girl’s throat was slashed and her mother seriously wounded in an attack at their home. Officers looked to speak with the girl's father.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, Jamaica’s Transport Minister Mike Henry issued a statement announcing he is resigning due to "ongoing attacks" on the management of a five-year initiative launched in 2010 to upgrade rutted roadways. Allegations that a $400 million road project has been mismanaged led to his resignation.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Dec 9, Jamaican authorities said 217 of 362 police officers, who took voluntary lie-detector tests this year, failed. Officials denied re-enlistment to 62 officers this year. An additional 34 have been charged with corruption and seven dismissed for failing the test.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 21, Jamaican investigators found the severed head and bullet-riddled body of Navardo Hodges of the Clansman gang, a man they believe was a high-ranking member of a notorious drug-and-extortion gang known for beheading victims.
(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 29, Jamaica held parliamentary elections. The candidate of the ruling center-right Jamaica Labor Party, Andrew Holness (39), was the youngest prime minister in Jamaica's history. The top opposition candidate, Portia Simpson Miller (66) has been a stalwart of the People's National Party since the 1970s. Voters threw out the ruling party and delivered a landslide triumph to the opposition People's National Party (PNP), whose campaign energetically tapped voter disillusionment especially among the numerous struggling poor.
(AP, 12/29/11)
2011 A Florida court sentenced David Smith of Jamaica to 30 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to 23 counts of wire fraud and money laundering. He was earlier sentenced to 6 ˝ years in the Turks and Caicos Islands, where his assets were frozen.
(AFP, 5/25/12)
2012 Jan 3, In Jamaica final results gave Portia Simpson Miller's opposition People's National Party (PNP) a two-to-one margin in Parliament.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Feb 7, In Jamaica roughly 2,000 firearms were melted down in a blazing furnace as part of an effort designed to combat gun trafficking and corruption while reducing violent crime.
(AP, 2/7/12)
2012 Feb 10, In Jamaica Wilmot Perkins (80), a veteran journalist considered the island's "godfather of talk radio," died. He worked for more than 50 years in radio, launching his first program "What's your Grouse?" on RJR 94FM in 1960. He quit a couple years later to become a farmer but returned to radio in the 1970s, ultimately launching a show called "Perkins On Line" on Hot102 FM.
(AP, 2/11/12)
2012 Feb 21, Jamaica’s National Security Minister Peter Bunting said Jamaica is developing a new policy to battle crime as gang violence drives the homicide rate higher. He said 165 killings have been reported by police so far in 2012, compared to 135 slayings during the corresponding period last year on the Caribbean island of 2.8 million people.
(AP, 2/21/12)
2012 Mar 5, In Jamaica a 13-year-old girl, two elderly men and three others were killed during reported shootouts between police and gunmen. Residents of the Denham Town slum in West Kingston blame officers for the killings and the gritty area was put under curfew amid an ongoing security operation to seize illegal guns and fugitives.
(AP, 3/8/12)
2012 Mar 27, In Jamaica some 60 protesters who gathered outside the security ministry in a rare street demonstration to demand an end to police shootings. A March 16 raid in the poor Cassava Piece neighborhood Diane Gordon, a mother of two, was fatally shot in the head on the street as she returned from a child's wake. Police said Gordon was killed during a shootout between officers and gunmen, but residents deny there were gunmen in the area. There have been roughly 50 police killings in Jamaica so far this year, nearly 30 of them in March.
(AP, 3/27/12)
2012 Apr 19, Jamaica announced a new government task force to fight proliferating lottery scams that mainly target elderly Americans.
(SFC, 4/20/12, p.A2)
2012 Jun 8, In NYC Christopher “Dudus" Coke of Jamaica was sentenced to 23 years in prison for drug trafficking.
(SFC, 6/9/12, p.A5)
2012 Jul 21, Jamaican police torched nearly 15,000 pounds of marijuana seized in raids on trafficking operations, most of which was found this year.
(SFC, 7/23/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 6, Jamaica celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence from Britain.
(SFC, 8/7/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 24, Hurricane Sandy crossed over Jamaica. An elderly man was killed by a boulder that crashed into his clapboard house. Sandy killed 51 people in Haiti. At least 65 people were left dead as Sandy left the Caribbean.
(AP, 10/25/12)(AP, 10/26/12)(AP, 10/28/12)
2012 Dec, After years of meticulous translation from the original Greek, the Bible Society released in Jamaica print and audio CD versions of the first patois translation of the New Testament, or "Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment."
(AP, 12/7/12)0
2013 Jan 15, Jamaica’s top mining official said his country may be able to benefit from newly found deposits of rare-earth elements that are key ingredients for smartphones, computers and numerous other high-tech goods.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Mar 14, Jamaican officials said that they are hopeful new legislation will finally result in a stream of convictions and lengthy sentences for fraudsters behind a multimillion-dollar lottery scam that has swindled mostly elderly Americans out of their retirement savings for years.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 21, Jamaica’s Senate passed a bill calling for tougher prosecution of those involved in multimillion-dollar lottery scams that mostly have targeted elderly Americans. It was soon passed by the House of Representatives and the governor general was expected soon to sign it.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Jul 22, In Jamaica Dwayne Jones (16) was beaten, stabbed, shot and run over by a car when he showed up at a street party dressed as a woman. He had confided to a friend that he was attending a "straight" party as a girl for the first time in his life.
(AP, 8/11/13)
2013 Sep, In Jamaica Police Superintendent Steve McGreggor took over leadership of the tough West Kingston police division. He said that culture is changing and vowed to erase every painted image paying respect to gangsters.
(AP, 10/17/13)
2013 Oct 16, A boat with more than dozen people, including Jamaicans and Haitians, capsized off the coast of South Florida. 4 women died and 11 people were taken into custody. On May 15 Bahamian national Naaman Davis pleaded guilty in Miami federal court to charges of smuggling. He was paid to drive the migrant-filled boat and was drinking rum and smoking crack-cocaine the night it capsized.
(SFC, 10/16/13, p.A7)(AP, 5/16/14)
2013 Dec 10, In Jamaica the Caribbean Community Reparations Commission identified eight nations that should work with regional governments to address slavery reparations. Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden were added to a list that already included Britain, France and the Netherlands.
(SFC, 12/11/13, p.A2)
2014 Feb 13, Jamaica authorities arrested a police officer and two others accused of transporting 23 pounds (10 kg) of marijuana.
(AP, 2/14/14)
2014 Feb 14, In Jamaica Leroy Russell, a dancehall deejay, was charged in a multimillion-dollar lottery scam.
(AP, 2/15/14)
2014 Mar 2, Jamaican police said they have seized over 2,100 pounds (952 kg) of marijuana and arrested a suspect in a 2-day operation at a container terminal in Kingston.
(AP, 3/2/14)
2014 Apr 25, Police in Jamaica arrested 20 people suspected of involvement in a multimillion-dollar lottery scam.
(AP, 4/26/14)
2014 May 30, Jamaica's government said it is launching a $5 million welfare-to-work program that is expected to benefit some 2,000 people. The program will be implemented in the next two years. The island of 2.9 million people suffered a 16 percent unemployment rate with nearly 17 percent of the population below the poverty line.
(AP, 5/31/14)
2014 Jun, Jamaica’s government said it plans to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.
(Econ, 6/28/14, p.14)
2014 Jul 20, Jamaica’s environment minister, Robert Pickersgill, said a severe drought is worsening and that water supplies are already well below normal. Temporary shutoffs in Kingston were taking place daily.
(SFC, 7/22/14, p.A20)
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Subject = Jamaica
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Britannica: http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/6/0,5716,127866+1,00.html
CIA Factbook: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/jm.html
Facts: http://caribbean-connection.com/jamaica/history.html
Fantasyisle: http://www.fantasyisle.com/history.htm
Important dates: http://lynx.dac.neu.edu/o/oshows/date.html
Island Connos. http://www.islandconnoisseur.com/jamaica/history.htm
Links on Jamaica: http://www.nlj.org.jm/docs/jamdir.html
Water Hist. http://www.nwcjamaica.com/docs/history.htm
WDR: http://travel.dk.com/wdr/JM/mJM_Intr.htm
Jamaica is an island of the Greater Antilles. It is the third largest island in the Caribbean and has 120 rivers.
(Hem., 12/96, p.30)(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A10)
1494 May 5, During his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus first sighted Jamaica and commented on the daily rains. Columbus landed on the island of Jamaica, which he names Santa Gloria.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.183)(AP, 5/5/97)(HN, 5/5/98)
1494 May 13, Columbus found the natives on Jamaica hostile and left for Cuba.
(http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/v2.htm)
1494 Aug 20, Columbus returned to Hispaniola. He had confirmed that Jamaica was an island and failed to find a mainland.
(http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/v2.htm)
1502 May 11-1504 Nov 7, Columbus reached the coast of Honduras on his 4th voyage and passed south to Panama. He returned after suffering a shipwreck at Jamaica.
(EWH, 1968, p.390)
1503 Jun 25, Christopher Columbus beached his sinking ships in St. Anne’s Bay, Jamaica, and spent a year shipwrecked and marooned there before returning to Spain.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.8)(http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/v4.htm)
1504 Jun 29, Diego Mendez, one of Columbus's captains, returned to Jamaica with a small caravel and rescued the Columbus expedition. Mendez had managed to take a canoe from Jamaica to Hispaniola where he chartered the rescue ship.
(http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/v4.htm)
1655 May 10, Jamaica was captured by English.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1692 Jun 7, An earthquake struck Jamaica. It rearranged the geology, splitting the rocks, turning mountains to lakes, and engulfed two-thirds of Port Royal. On that day and subsequently, five thousand of the inhabitants died.
(www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n12/mant01_.html)
1692 Jun 24, Kingston, Jamaica, was founded.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1720 Oct, A government sloop, commissioned by the governor of Jamaica to capture pirates, attacked and captured the pirate ship of Captain Calico Jack Rackham.
(ON, 12/01, p.12)
1720 Nov 20, Pirates Mary Read, Anne Bonny (b.~1700) and Captain Calico Jack Rackham were tried by an admiralty court in Jamaica. Rackham was found guilty and hanged the next day. Read and Bonny were also found guilty and sentenced to hang but pleaded pregnancy. Their sentences were commuted until they gave birth. Bonny was later pardoned but Read died in prison on Apr 28, 1721. Bonny, an Irish American pirate, had plied her trade in the Caribbean and died around 1782.
(ON, 12/01, p.12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Bonny)
1792 The British St. George’s Bay Company transported a 2nd group of settlers to Freetown. This included 1,196 Blacks from Nova Scotia, 500 Jamaicans and dozens of rebellious slaves from other colonies.
(MT, summer 2003, p.8)
1831 Dec 28, Samuel Sharp (1801-1832) led a slave uprising that was put down at great cost by the British. The Rebellion lasted for eight days and resulted in the death of around 186 Africans and 14 white planters or overseers. The white vengeance convicted over 750 rebel slaves, of which 138 were sentenced to death.
(Econ, 2/24/07, p.73)(http://tinyurl.com/3cu2ds)
1832 May 23, Samuel Sharp was hanged in Jamaica for leading a slave rebellion. He is survived by his immortal declaration: "I would rather die upon yonder gallows than live in slavery."
(Econ, 2/24/07, p.73)(http://tinyurl.com/3cu2ds)
1833 Annie Palmer, a "white witch," was murdered in her bed. She had reportedly murdered 3 husbands and various lovers and slaves. She was later said to haunt Rose Hall.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, p.T7)
1834 Aug 1, The British Emancipation Act began. This ended slavery in the West Indies and all Caribbean holdings. Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire. Some 35,000 salves were freed in the Cape Colony.
(NH, 7/98, p.29)(HN, 8/1/98)(EWH, 4th ed, p.885)
1864 Jamaican law banned sex relations between men.
(SFC, 8/30/14, p.A2)
1881 May 14, Mary Seacole (b.1805), Jamaican nurse, died. She is best known for her efforts in the Crimean War during the 1850s. She borrowed money to make the 4,000-mile (about 6500 km) journey by herself and distinguished herself treating battlefield wounded, often nursing wounded soldiers from both sides while under fire.
(AP, 4/19/10)
1883 J.A. Rogers, writer, was born in Jamaica. He later moved to the US and then Europe and authored the 3-volume work “Sex and Race."
(SSFC, 6/16/02, p.M2)
1887 Aug 17, Marcus [Garvey] Garvy (d.1940), Black Nationalist and Jamaican leader who promoted the departure of African-Americans back Africa, was born. In 1914, after two years of study in London, Garvey formed the Universal Negro Improvement and Conservation Association (U.N.I.A.) in Jamaica, a group that worked for black emigration to Africa and promoted racial pride, education and black business activity. In 1916 Garvey went to New York and began organizing U.N.I.A. branches in America from 1916-1925. At his height of popularity, Garvey had several million followers. He advocated racial separation and emigration of American Negroes to Africa. He was deported in 1925. The organization waned in the 1920s with Garvey’s arrest and conviction and imprisonment on mail fraud charges. He was the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. He also founded the Black Star Line, a steamship company owned and operated by blacks to link black communities around the world. Marcus Garvey died in London on June 10, 1940.
(AHD, p.544)(Civilization, July-Aug, 1995, p. 36)(WSJ, 2/7/96, p.A-12)(HN, 8/17/98)(HNQ, 6/18/99)
1889 Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia opened a branch in Jamaica.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.50)
1908 Archie Lindo (d.1990), Jamaican playwright, was born.
(http://tinyurl.com/389252)
1930 Nov 2, Haile Selassie was crowned emperor of Ethiopia. His coronation was taken as a sign b y Jamaicans, who became known as Rastafarians, from the term Ras Tafari, a title held by Selassie.
(AP, 11/2/97)(SFC, 12/4/00, p.A12)
1930s Jamaica's first radio station began operating in the late 1930s.
(SFC, 12/10/99, p.AA8)
1933 Nicholas Shoumatoff captured a couple of small butterflies that were later used to describe a new subspecies: Thecla celida shoumatoffi, or Shoumatoff’s hairstreak.
(Nat. Hist. 3/96, p.11)
1940 Jun 10, Marcus Garvey (b.1887), Jamaica-born US black leader (Back to Africa Movement), died in London. In 1964 his remains were transferred to Jamaica, where he was proclaimed Jamaica’s first national hero. In 2008 Colin Grant authored “Negro With a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Garvey)(SSFC, 5/11/08, Books p.5)
1945 Feb 6, Bob Marley (d.1981), reggae superstar, was born in Jamaica. He is best remembered for his songs "Buffalo Soldier" and "Fire on the Mountain."
(HN, 2/6/99)(SFC, 12/14/04, p.E10)
1945 Mar 1, Burning Spear [Winston Rodney], Jamaican reggae singer, was born.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1948 Jun 2, Jamaican-born track star Herb McKenley set a new world record for the 400 yard dash.
(HN, 6/2/00)
1951 Aug 17, Hurricane winds drove 6 ships ashore at Kingston, Jamaica.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1958 Jan 3, The British created the West Indies Federation with Lord Hailes as governor general. The federation lasted to 1962. It included Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago and the Windward and Leeward Islands.
(HN, 1/3/99)(WUD, 1994, p.1623)
1959 Jul 4, Cayman Islands separated from Jamaica, made a crown colony.
(Maggio)
1959 A 2nd state radio station was formed.
(SFC, 12/10/99, p.AA8)
1959 Clement Dodd (d.2004), began producing records on his own label.
(Econ, 5/22/04, p.80)
1960-1966 The Ska era of music in Jamaica. The musicians included guitarist Ernest Ranglin, saxophonist Tommy McCook and trombonist Don Drummond.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, DB p.38)
1960s The radio show "Teen-age Dance Party" helped push local music genres like reggae and ska.
(SFC, 12/10/99, p.AA8)
1961 May 3, A British Colonial Office telegram stated the general guidance for keeping papers out of the hands of newly elected independent governments. Items should be disposed of if they "might embarrass members of the police, military forces, public servants or others eg police informers; might compromise sources of intelligence" -- or might be used "unethically" by incoming ministers. Under "Operation Legacy", officials in Kenya, Uganda, Malaysia, Tanzania, Jamaica and other former colonial territories were briefed on how to dispose of documents that "might embarrass Her Majesty's government." This was only made public in 2013.
(AFP, 11/29/13)
1962 Feb 9, An agreement was signed to make Jamaica an independent nation within the British Commonwealth later in the year.
(AP, 2/9/02)
1962 May 31, The West Indies Federation, made up of Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, and the Leeward and Windward Islands, broke up after 4 years following Jamaica’s passage of a referendum to end the alliance.
(Econ, 6/2/12, p.47)
1962 Aug 6, Jamaica became an independent dominion within the British Commonwealth.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(AP, 8/6/97)
1963 Clement Dodd opened his record studio at 13 Brentford Road, Kingston, Jamaica, and soon began recording Bob Marley and the Wailers.
(Econ, 5/22/04, p.80)
1964 The ska group Skatalites formed with Rolando Alphonso on tenor sax.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A25)
1964 Leicester Hemingway, brother of Ernest Hemingway, put together floating platforms off the west coast of Jamaica and called it the Republic of New Atlantis. He hoped to create a marine research society and help protect Jamaican fishing.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.84)
1966 Apr 21, Emperor Haile Selassie (Ethiopia) visited Kingston, Jamaica.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1967 Frederic Cassidy (d.2000 at 92), lexicographer, wrote the “Dictionary of Jamaican English." He spent much of the rest of his life cataloging American folk idioms for the 5-volume “Dictionary of American Regional English."
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A21)
1968 Dec, The pop song "Israelites" by Desmond Dekker (1941-2006), Jamaican singer, was released in Jamaica and soon became a worldwide hit. Dekker brought the sound of Jamaican ska music to the world.
(SFC, 5/27/06, p.B5)
1969 Don Drummond, trombonist, died in an insane asylum where he was incarcerated for the murder of his girlfriend.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, DB p.38)
1971 Jamaica began protecting crocodiles by law. By 2013 a growing taste for crocodile meat and even eggs had conservationists worried that the reptiles might be wiped from the wild altogether.
(AP, 10/6/13)
1972 Mar 2, In Jamaica Michael Manley (1924-1997, Socialist and champion of the nonaligned movement, was sworn in as prime minister.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A21)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Manley)
1975 Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia, died. He has a religion named after him and is worshipped as the savior. Selassie was born of royal blood and originally named Ras Tafari, and is regarded as the savior by a religious sect originating in Jamaica whose members are called Rastafarians. Crowned emperor in 1930 under the title Haile Selassie I (meaning “Power of the Trinity"), he was by tradition a descendant of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. He reigned as emperor of Ethiopia until 1974.
(HNQ, 2/4/00)
1976 Michael Manley was elected for a 2nd term as prime minister.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A21)
1976 John Issa, businessman, founded the SuperClubs Int’l. Ltd.
(WSJ, 7/25/97, p.B1)
1979 Gas price riots resulted when the government increased gas prices.
(SFC, 4/22/99, p.D12)
1980 May 20, A fire in nursing home in Kingston, Jamaica, killed some 153 old women.
(http://www.jnht.com/disndat/eventide.php)
1980 Nov 1, Conservative Edward Seaga (b.1930) began serving as PM of Jamaica. He defeated Michael Manley as Jamaica was nearly bankrupt, and became a close ally of US Pres. Reagan. Seaga served as PM for the Labor Party until 1989.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A21)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Seaga)
1981 May 11, Bob Marley (b.1945), Jamaican reggae artist, died of brain cancer in Miami.
(AP, 5/11/97)(SFEC, 2/14/99, p.T7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Marley)
1984 May 8, The album "Legend," the greatest hits by Bob Marley (1945-1981) and the Wailers, was released. It became the best-selling reggae record of all time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_(album))
1985 Gas price riots resulted when the government increased gas prices.
(SFC, 4/22/99, p.D12)
1988 Sep 12, Hurricane Gilbert, called the storm of the century, smashed into the Gulf coast. It slammed into Jamaica with torrential rains and winds of 145 mph, killing 45 people and causing damage estimated at up to $1 billion. It also devastated the Yucatan peninsula and left 225 people dead. The storm hit the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, Cayman Islands and Mexico before striking Texas.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.181)(AP, 9/12/97)(SFC, 10/10/97, p.A15)
1989 Feb 10, In Jamaica Michael Manley (1924-1997) re-emerged and trounced Seaga in national elections. He dropped his anti-imperialist rhetoric and espoused capitalism, private investment and good relations with the US. He began an economic overhaul program.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A21)(WSJ, 4/29/97, p.A19)(http://tinyurl.com/fx5ps)
1992 Feb 23 In Jamaica Lester Coke (aka Jim Brown), head of the infamous Shower Posse, died in a mysterious prison cell fire.
(www.islandmix.com/backchat/f6/jamaicans-rope-131061/)
1992 Mar 28, Prime Minister Michael Manley stepped down from office. He was succeeded by P.J. Patterson.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A21)
1993 The ska music style was featured in the 4-disk set “Tougher Than Tough: The Story of Jamaican Music" on the Mango label.
(SFC,11/11/97, p.A17)
1993 The Blue Mountains John Crow National park was established.
(SFC, 9/1/96, T5)
1994 Nov 16, The UN Law of the Sea, ratified in 1993, took effect. Arvid Pardo (d.1999 at 85), Maltese delegate to the UN, proposed in 1967 that the bounty of the sea should be considered "the common heritage of mankind" and asked that some of the sea's wealth be used to bankroll a fund to help close the gap between rich and poor nations. The International Seabed Authority came into existence as the law took effect. The first Secretary-General of the Authority, Satya Nandan (Fiji) was elected in March 1996, and the Authority became fully operational as an autonomous international organization in June 1996, when it took over the premises and facilities in Kingston, Jamaica. The UN Law of the Sea treaty, which extended internationally recognized territorial waters to 200 miles offshore, came into force one year after the sixtieth state, Guyana, signed it.
(http://tinyurl.com/2wsq9p)(SFC, 7/19/99, p.A22)
1994 Jamaica's government privatized its sugar factories. [see 1998]
(Econ, 8/30/03, p.26)
1994 In Jamaica Michael Llewellyn was shot in the back when he tried to escape a beating by police at his house. His right leg was amputated below the knee as a result, and he was left unable use the remaining leg. In 2010 he was awarded $230,000 in compensation.
(AP, 4/30/10)
1994-1995 Jamaica’s government stepped in to bailout its banks. The bailout eventually cost roughly 40% of GDP. This money was borrowed from international lenders.
(Econ, 7/21/12, p.31)(http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/Jamaica+4109.twl)
1997 Jan 30, It was reported that NAFTA has had devastating effects on the economy. Garment exports were down 7% and 7,000 jobs were lost.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A10)
1997 Mar 6, Former Prime Minister Michael Manley (b.Dec 10, 1924) died.
(SFC, 3/8/96, p.A21)
1997 Aug 20, Prison guards walked off their jobs after a commissioner suggested that guards and prisoners use condoms to prevent AIDS. Anti-gay violence broke out and within a week 16 inmates were killed and 20 injured at Kingston’s Gen’l. Penitentiary and St. Catherine District Prison.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.A4)
1997 Dec 18 , In Parliamentary elections 2-term Prime Minister P.J. Patterson took a big lead over Edward Seaga. The People’s National Party won an absolute majority in the 60-seat parliament.
(WSJ, 12/19/97, p.A1)(SFC,12/19/97, p.B3)
1997 Jamaica’s population was about 2.3 million.
(Hem., 12/96, p.30)(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A10)
1998 May, The government raised fines for harassing tourists 100 times to $2,700 for first offenders along with night courts to handle officers appearances.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.T8)
1998 Jul, Jamaica withdrew from the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Court on Human Rights.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.A10)
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)
1998 Oct 22-1998 Nov 9, Hurricane Mitch was one of the Caribbean's deadliest storms ever causing at least at least 9,000 deaths in Central America. The storm hit Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Jamaica, and Costa Rica. Later reports put the death toll in Honduras to 6,076. In Nicaragua the deaths reached 4,000, in Guatemala it was157, and in El Salvador it was 222. The storm parked over Honduras and rain poured for 6 days straight. Aid of $66 mil was ordered from the US, $8 mil from the EU, $11.6 mil from Spain along with pledges from other countries and private organizations.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.A9)(SFC, 11/6/98, p.A14)(AP, 9/11/04)(www.wunderground.com)
1998 Nov 20, Rolando Alphonso, tenor saxophonist for the ska group Skatalites, died at age 67. He was an original member of the group that was formed in 1964.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A25)
1998 The Jamaican government took back the sugar factories privatized in 1994 for three American cents.
(Econ, 8/30/03, p.26)
1999 Apr 16, The government announced $100 million in new taxes that included a 30% increase in gas prices.
(SFC, 4/22/99, p.D12)
1999 Apr 21, In Jamaica at least 6 people were killed and 2 dozen injured in Kingston during protests against new tax increases.
(SFC, 4/22/99, p.D12)(WSJ, 4/22/99, A1)
1999 Apr 22, Prime Minister Patterson met with members of a committee to seek alternatives to the heavy tax increases.
(SFC, 4/23/99, p.D3)
1999 May 18, Augustus Pablo (Horace Swaby), a reggae producer, died at age 46 in Kingston. His work included "East of the River Nile" and "Java (1972)."
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.D6)
1999 Jun 2, Junior Braithwaite (49), one of three survivors of the Wailers, was shot and killed in Kingston by unidentified gunmen.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A22)
1999 Jul 1, Singer Dennis Brown, known as the Crown Prince of reggae, died at age 42. His songs included "Here I Come" and "How Could I Leave You."
(SFC, 7/2/99, p.D6)(SFEC, 7/18/99, p.A19)
1999 Jul 6, Michael Wallace, musician in the reggae group Third World, was shot dead in a suspected robbery. Some 22 murders were reported in this one week and 486 murders since the start of the year.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.D5)
1999 cJul 9, Vivian Blake, alleged leader of the Shower Posse, was extradited to Miami. His gang was blamed for 1,400 murders in several US states during the 1980s.
(SFC, 7/14/99, p.C10)
1999 Jul 14, In Jamaica troops were deployed in Kingston to control gang violence. Some 500 people had been murdered since the start of the year.
(WSJ, 7/15/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 18, Joe Higgs, reggae singer, died in Los Angeles at age 59. He was called the "father of reggae music," fostered the career of Bob Marley. His first 1970s solo album was called "Life of Contradiction."
(SFC, 12/23/99, p.A27)
2000 Mar, Drought left crops wilted and water level at the Hermitage Dam was less than half.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A8)
2000 Sep 1, Business leaders met with the prime minister to insist on action TO reduce the high crime rate.
(SFEC, 9/10/00, p.T15)
2000 Oct 27, Winston Grennan, Jamaican drummer, died in Nantucket, Mass., at age 56. He developed the “one drop" reggae rhythm.
(SFC, 11/7/00, p.A20)
2000 Police killed 140 people in this year. The 5.4 per 100,000 rate was one of the highest in the world.
(SFC, 4/11/01, p.C3)
2001 Mar 14, Seven men were killed by police in a Kingston suburb during an alleged shootout. 3 of the dead were under 18. In 2003 five police officers were charged with murder in the deaths of the 7 young men.
(SFC, 4/11/01, p.C3)(AP, 11/12/03)
2001 Jul 7, A police crackdown began in the Tivoli Gardens of Kingston following 2 months of fighting between gangs that killed 37 people. The murder rate for the country had reached 530 for the half year.
(SFC, 7/11/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 9, In Jamaica PM Patterson ordered the army deployed across the island to restore calm following 3 days of violence that killed at least 28 people.
(SFC, 7/10/01, p.A7)(SFC, 7/11/01, p.A8)(SFC, 7/27/01, p.D6)
2001 Aug 16, A government commission recommended that marijuana, aka ganja, be legalized for personal use by adults.
(SFC, 8/18/01, p.E1)
2001 In Jamaica some 1300 people were killed this year.
(SFC, 10/16/02, p.A17)
2002 Sep 29, Hurricane Lili killed 3 people in Jamaica and headed for Cuba.
(AP, 10/1/02)
2002 Oct 15, In Jamaica 3 people were shot dead outside Kingston.
(SFC, 10/16/02, p.A17)
2002 Oct 16, In Jamaica Prime Minister P.J. Patterson's party became the country's first leader elected to three straight terms. Jamaicans turned out in large numbers to vote despite pelting rains and concerns of violence in an election they hoped would revive a sagging economy and ease spiraling crime.
(AP, 10/17/02)
2002 Nov 17, In Jamaica gunmen opened fire outside a busy street market in a rare daylight attack in Kingston, killing five people and injuring three.
(AP, 11/17/02)
2003 Aug 29, Excel Motors, a fledgling Jamaican automaker, exported the Caribbean island's first locally manufactured car to the Bahamas. The two-door Island Cruiser, one of 22 built this year at the company's plant in western Jamaica, sold for $11,500.
(AP, 8/30/03)
2003 Oct 23, A 3-day dominos tournament began at the Ocho Rios resort in Jamaica.
(SFC, 10/24/03, p.D3)
2003 Oct 25, Thousands of Jamaicans rioted near Montego Bay's airport, burning buses and blocking roads to protest the killings of two elderly men by police in an alleged shootout.
(AP, 10/26/03)(Econ, 11/1/03, p.35)
2004 Feb 13, In Jamaica hundreds of people rioted in Kingston, attacking a police station and setting cars ablaze after a policeman allegedly shot and wounded a high-school student.
(AP, 2/13/04)
2004 May 4, Clement Dodd (Sir Coxsone), father of reggae music, died in Jamaica at age 72.
(Econ, 5/22/04, p.80)
2004 Mar 15, Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide left his temporary exile in Africa and flew to Jamaica despite opposition to his presence in the Caribbean.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Jul 5, Hugh Shearer (81), a prime minister (1967-1972) in the early stages of Jamaica's independence, died. Shearer had succeeded Donald Sangster, who died in office.
(AP, 7/5/04)
2004 Sep 11, Hurricane Ivan lashed Jamaica with monstrous waves, driving rain and winds nearing 155 mph, killing at least 15 people. Total deaths from the hurricane reached 65.
(AP, 9/11/04)(SFC, 9/13/04, p.A3)
2004 Sep 12, Hurricane Ivan skirted Grand Cayman with winds near 155 mph as it churned toward Cuba. The storm has been blamed for 56 deaths across the Caribbean so far, including 34 in Grenada and 11 in Jamaica.
(AP, 9/12/04)
2004 Sep 13, In Jamaica at least 15 people were killed from Hurricane Ivan. Hotels and restaurants in northwestern Negril were particularly hard-hit by battering waves.
(AP, 9/14/04)
2004 Oct, The center of Kingston, Jamaica, was shut down by gangland violence for 3 days. Jamaican police counted 85 gangs, up from 35 in 1994.
(Econ, 11/6/04, p.42)
2004 Nov, Human Rights Watch released a report, “Hated to Death," on homophobia, violence and AIDS in Jamaica.
(Econ, 11/27/04, p.42)
2005 Jan 1, Jamaica's embattled police commissioner Francis Forbes resigned following record number of homicides in 2004. The island nation of 2.6 million people, reported a record 1,145 homicides for 2004, compared with 975 the year before.
(AP, 1/2/05)
2005 Mar, Jamaica brought in Mark Shields, a top policeman from London’s Scotland Yard, to help re-organize police services and stem rising murder rates.
(Econ, 8/13/05, p.32)
2005 Jun 14, In Athens, Greece, Asafa Powell of Jamaica, broke the world 100-meter dash record with a time of 9.77 seconds.
(WSJ, 6/15/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 9, Murders in Jamaica reached 1,028, up 25% from 2004.
(Econ, 8/13/05, p.32)
2005 Sep 6, Nine countries: Antigua, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Dominica, Suriname, St. Kitts, St. Vincent and the Dominican Republic, signed oil deals with Venezuela in Jamaica. Cuba and Jamaica had previously signed. Chavez urged Caribbean governments to consider Cuba-style socialism as an alternative to capitalism.
(AP, 9/11/05)
2005 Sep 6, In Jamaica opposition-led protests left one person dead.
(WSJ, 9/8/05, p.A1)
2005 Oct 19, Hurricane Wilma swirled into the most intense Atlantic storm ever recorded, a Category 5 monster whose 175 mph winds and heavy rains were blamed for killing at least 11 people in Haiti and one in Jamaica as it bore down on Central America.
(AP, 10/19/05)
2006 Feb 25, In Jamaica Portia Simpson Miller, a Cabinet minister was positioned to become Jamaica's next prime minister and first female head of government, after narrowly beating a former Rastafarian in internal elections to head the country's ruling party.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Mar 30, In Jamaica Portia Simpson Miller (60) became Jamaica's prime minister and first female head of government.
(Econ, 3/25/06, p.42)(AP, 3/30/06)
2006 Apr, Jamaican police arrested botanist George Proctor at the capital's airport as he was about to board a plane to the United States. Prosecutors later said Proctor had given a co-conspirator $90,000 to kill 4 women. In 2010 Proctor (89) was sentenced to four years in prison for conspiring to kill his wife and three other women who lived in the couple's home. The wife and the three women, whose identities and relationship to the couple have never been released by authorities, were not harmed.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2006 May 25, Desmond Dekker (b.1941), Jamaican singer, died. He brought the sound of Jamaican ska music to the world with songs such as "Israelites" (1969).
(AP, 5/26/06)(SFC, 5/27/06, p.B5)
2006 Jun 9, In Jamaica PM Portia Simpson Miller and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, the first women to be elected heads of state in Jamaica and Chile, met in Kingston and said they will remove visa restrictions on travel between Chile and Jamaica and work toward establishing air links to improve trade.
(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Aug 26, Tropical Storm Ernesto strengthened over the Caribbean as it headed toward Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, threatening to become the first hurricane of the 2006 Atlantic season.
(AP, 8/26/06)
2006 Oct 28, In Jamaica Trevor Berbick (51), the last boxer to fight the legendary Muhammad Ali, was found dead in a churchyard near his home in Norwich. On Nov 3 police charged two men, one a nephew of Berbick, with murdering the former world heavyweight boxing champion. In 2007 a jury found Harold Berbick (21) guilty of murder and Kenton Gordon (19) guilty of manslaughter in the killing of the former boxer.
(AP, 11/4/06)(AP, 12/21/07)
2006 Oct 31, A leading researcher said large species of coral that form underwater reefs and create rich habitat for marine life are disappearing from around the U.S. Virgin Islands, Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean.
(AP, 11/1/06)
2006 Jamaica reported some 25 killings per week this year.
(Econ, 9/8/07, p.42)
2006 Dec 5, Jamaica reported 15 cases of malaria in the Kingston area, the first in 15 years.
(WSJ, 12/6/06, p.A1)
2007 Jan 7, In Jamaica the Accompong Maroons, descendants of freed African slaves, vowed to fight any plans for bauxite mining in the forested region where they have lived in semiautonomy for centuries. Sydney Peddie, the group's leader, said opening up the territory to mining would breach a treaty signed between the Maroons and the British in 1739, which gave the group nearly 25,000 acres in Cockpit Country, an inhospitable terrain of rocky cliffs and limestone towers.
(AP, 1/8/07)
2007 Mar 18, In Jamaica Bob Woolmer (58), Pakistan cricket coach, was found dead in his hotel room, hours after Pakistan was upset by Ireland and eliminated from advancing at the Cricket World Cup. A pathologist report found Woolmer's death was due to "asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation." An inquest into Woolmer's death ended with the Jamaican jury unable to reach a ruling.
(AP, 3/21/07)(AP, 3/23/07)(AP, 3/18/08)
2007 Apr 28, The 7-week, 1st Cricket World Cup ended with Australia defeating Sri Lanka.
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.48)
2007 May 13, A Jamaican newspaper reported that Scotland Yard investigators have concluded that Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer died of natural causes and was not strangled as local police have said.
(AP, 5/13/07)
2007 May 25, Abdullah el-Faisal, a Muslim cleric named by the British government as a key influence on one of four men who carried out the deadly London transport bombings in 2005, was deported to Jamaica after being released from prison.
(AP, 5/26/07)
2007 Aug 18, Hurricane Dean barreled across the eastern Caribbean and took aim at Hispaniola, Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, with forecasters saying it could turn into a monster Category 5 storm within 72 hours. Dean claimed at least six lives as it began sweeping past the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 19, Jamaicans headed inland and tourists fled the country as Hurricane Dean headed for a direct hit on the island. Dean hit Jamaica as a Category 4 storm.
(AP, 8/19/07)(WSJ, 8/20/07, p.A1)
2007 Sep 3, Jamaica's main opposition won a narrow election victory, according to preliminary results, but Portia Simpson Miller, the country's first female prime minister, said the race was too close to call and the ruling party would not concede defeat.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 6, Jamaica's electoral office confirmed the Labor Party's victory in a close election, sealing its return to power after 18 years in opposition. The center right JLP won 50.1% of the popular vote and 32 of 60 seats in parliament.
(AP, 9/7/07)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.42)
2007 Sep 11, In Jamaica Bruce Golding was sworn in as the new prime minister and pledged a tougher approach to crime. He said he wants to resume executions, provide officers with better forensic training and equipment, deploy more police to trouble spots and modernize a backlogged judicial system. Killings in 2005 placed Jamaica, with a population of about 2.8 million, among the most violent nations in the world.
(AP, 9/12/07)
2008 Jun 27, In Jamaica two gunmen murdered Douggie Chambers, chairman of the Jamaica urban Transit Company. The former accountant and fraud investigator had just finished redundancy terms for 485 workers.
(Econ, 7/5/08, p.47)
2008 Jul 1, In Kingston, Jamaica, 39 young American missionaries, from the Georgia-based Adventures in Missions, were robbed by two gunmen who broke into a Salvation Army school for the blind where they were volunteering.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Aug 16, Carol Huynh, whose parents fled communist Vietnam in the 1970s, won Canada's first gold of the Olympics in the women's 48 kg freestyle wrestling. Usain Bolt of Jamaica was crowned the world's fastest man when he raced to victory in the Olympic men's 100 meters final in a world record time of 9.69 sec.
(AP, 8/16/08)(AFP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 24, The Beijing Olympics, played out against a background of political intrigue and featuring 16 days of compelling and controversial action, drew to a spectacular close. China's haul of 51 gold medals was the largest since the Soviet Union won 55 in Seoul in 1988. The US won 36 gold medals and Russia came in 3rd with 23. Jamaica ended up with 11 medals including 6 gold. Cuba took home 24 medals, but only 2 gold.
(AP, 8/24/08)(Econ, 8/30/08, p.38)
2008 Aug 28, Tropical Storm Gustav bore down on Jamaica after leaving 67 people dead on Hispaniola, including 59 in Haiti and 8 in the Dominican Republic.
(SFC, 8/29/08, p.A2)
2008 Aug 29, Tropical Storm Gustav drenched Jamaica, killing at least 4 people, and rolled over the Cayman Islands with fierce winds that tore down trees and power lines, setting off alarm from Cuba to New Orleans, and at gas pumps across the US.
(AP, 8/29/08)(AP, 8/30/08)(SFC, 8/30/08, p.A3)
2008 Dec 10, Police in Jamaica said armed gangs wrestling for control of 2 communities near the capital have forced over 200 people from their homes.
(SFC, 12/11/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 28, In Jamaica Vincent Ford (68), songwriter, died. He is credited with composing the Bob Marley reggae classic "No Woman, No Cry" (1974).
(AP, 12/31/08)
2008 Jamaica’s population was about 2.8 million.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, Jamaican police said a gunman shot a woman (55) in her one-room wooden shack and then set it ablaze, leaving her 3 grandchildren to perish alongside her in the fire.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Feb 21, Jamaican regulators said they are forbidding all explicit references to sex and violence over the airwaves. The announcement followed a Feb. 6 ban that specifically targeted dancehall tunes and videos depicting "daggering," a dance style popular among Jamaican youth that features pelvic grinding simulating sex.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Apr 6, The US Federal Reserve said it will supply new lines of credit worth up to $287 billion to the central banks of Japan, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and EU.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 19, In Jamaica Stephen Fray (20) forced his way though Montego Bay airport security and hijacked a Canadian jet, holding six crew members hostage. He fired his father's licensed .38-caliber revolver into the air, stole money from some of the 167 passengers aboard and demanded to be flown off the island. After 6 hours police and soldiers stormed the aircraft and captured Fray. On October 8 Fray was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
(AP, 4/20/09)(AP, 10/9/09)
2009 Jun 21, It was reported that handguns, rifles and bullets enter Jamaica from the US stoking one of the world's highest murder rates.
(AP, 6/21/09)
2009 Aug 20, Usain Bolt of Jamaica set a world record of 19.19 seconds in the 200 meters at the world championships in Berlin, adding to the gold he won in the 100.
(AP, 8/20/09)
2009 Aug, Jamaica’s government received an extradition request for Christopher "Dudus" Coke (40). By late October it had only responded with requests for more information about the gun and drug trafficking charges against the reputed gang leader. Coke, the alleged leader of the "Shower Posse" gang, is charged in the US Southern District of New York with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana and conspiracy to illegally traffic in firearms.
(AP, 10/29/09)
2009 Sep 9, In Jamaica John A. Terry (65), Britain’s honorary consul in Montego Bay, was found strangled in bed with a note denouncing him as a homosexual.
(Econ, 9/19/09, p.49)(AP, 10/3/09)
2009 Sep, A US cable, revealed in 2010, said the Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie told a US Embassy officer that his administration had collaborated for years with local drug baron Christopher “Dudus" Coke to fight crime.
(SFC, 12/23/10, p.A5)
2009 Dec 22, American Airlines Flight 331 carrying 154 people skidded across a Jamaican runway in heavy rain, bouncing across the tarmac and injuring more than 40 people before it stopped just short of the Caribbean Sea.
(AP, 12/23/09)(SFC, 12/24/09, p.A2)
2009 Jamaica recorded 1,672 murders, its highest number on record.
(Econ, 3/13/10, p.40)
2010 Jan 5, Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican-born radical Muslim cleric, was stuck in Kenya despite attempts to deport him because other nations are refusing to allow him to transit through their countries. He has called for Americans, Hindus and Jews to be killed. The British government has said he was a key influence on July 7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 21, In Kenya radical Muslim cleric Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal was flown out of the country enroute to Jamaica. El-Faisal once served four years in a British jail for inciting murder and stirring racial hatred by urging followers to kill Americans, Hindus and Jews.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 May 2, In Jamaica a sleeping 5-year-old boy died after his throat was slashed. Police soon charged Jermaine Gushman (34) with the murder saying he may have done it to get back at the boy's father.
(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 Mar 7, Jamaica said plans to open a music museum next year that officials say will feature rare pieces from the island's music history, such as the sole album that the late reggae star Bob Marley produced before he gained international fame.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Jamaica Vivian Blake (53), founder of a cocaine-smuggling gang blamed for about 1,400 slayings, died of illnesses at hospital a year after returning to his native island following a prison term in the United States. In 2003 Blake's son, Duane Blake, authored "The Shower Posse: The Most Notorious Jamaican Crime Organization."
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 May 2, In Jamaica a sleeping 5-year-old boy died after his throat was slashed. Police soon charged Jermaine Gushman (34) with the murder saying he may have done it to get back at the boy's father.
(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 11, In Jamaica the gunbattle began when unknown assailants shot at a patrol car in Waterford, near the capital of Kingston. Bystander Josephine Brown (45), the mother of 5 children, was hit and killed when police returned fire.
(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 17, Jamaica's PM Bruce Golding said he will allow Christopher "Dudus" Coke, a reputed drug kingpin, to be extradited to the US, ending a nine-month fight with Washington but raising fears of a violent backlash from the suspect's supporters.
(AP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 23, In Jamaica masked men defending a reputed drug lord sought by the United States torched a police station and traded gunfire with security forces in a patchwork of barricaded slums in Kingston.
(AP, 5/23/10)
2010 May 24, In Jamaica more than 1,000 police and soldiers assaulted a public housing complex occupied by heavily armed gangsters defending Christopher "Dudus" Coke, an alleged drug lord wanted by the US. 2 police officers were killed and at least six wounded since the previous night, and at least one Jamaican soldier was shot dead during today's fighting at Tivoli Gardens.
(AP, 5/25/10)
2010 May 26, Jamaican security forces claimed a tenuous hold over the slum stronghold of a gang leader sought by the US, but only after battles that killed at least 44 civilians.
(AP, 5/26/10)
2010 May 27, Jamaican security forces kicked down doors and arrested dozens of people in a bullet-pocked slum, and said the death toll from four days of fighting sparked by the search for a reputed drug lord has risen to 73.
(AP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 28, In Kingston, Jamaica, the Coronation Market was gutted in an early morning blaze. It stood next to the bullet-pocked complex of Tivoli Gardens, where security forces have conducted a slum raid that left scores of people dead in gun battles since May 24.
(AP, 5/28/10)
2010 Jun 1, PM Bruce Golding said Jamaica will launch a sustained assault on gangs that control poor communities across the island and fuel one of the world's highest murder rates.
(AP, 6/2/10)
2010 Jun 22, In Jamaica reputed drug baron Christopher "Dudus" Coke (42) sought out a preacher's advice and tried to turn himself in to US marshals. He was caught by police at a highway checkpoint before he could get there. 73 people were killed in the process of catching Coke. He was later extradited to the US. On Dec 8, 2011, PM Andrew Holness said a US surveillance plane helped monitor the deadly raid.
(AP, 6/23/10)(Econ, 6/4/11, p.46)(AP, 12/9/11)
2010 Jul 10, In Jamaica Sugar Minott (b.1956), a smooth-voiced singer and producer who helped to popularize reggae music, died.
(AP, 7/11/10)
2010 Aug 12, In Jamaica police shot and killed Cedric Murray, otherwise called ‘Doggie’, an senior member of the Montego Bay-based Stone Crusher gang, near the border of Clarendon and Manchester. He was on Jamaica’s ‘Most Wanted List’ for the past five years.
(www.jamaicasmostwanted.com/2008/05/03/cedric-murray/)(Econ, 9/11/10, p.48)
2010 Sep 22, In Jamaica a top court ruled that Shahine Robinson, a lawmaker allied to PM Bruce Golding, is ineligible to sit in parliament because she also holds US citizenship.
(AP, 9/22/10)
2010 Sep 27, In Jamaica hundreds of medical technicians, nurse's aides and other support staff at major public hospitals went on strike to demand pay raises and allowances they say haven't been paid by the government.
(AP, 9/27/10)
2010 Sep 29, Jamaica was hit by Tropical Storm Nicole causing flooding and mudslides that left at least 5 people dead and 14 missing.
(SFC, 9/30/10, p.A2)(AP, 9/30/10)
2010 Oct 15, In Jamaica a bus plunged over a cliff on the island's north coast, killing a teenage girl and injuring 39 people. The bus driver fled after the accident.
(AP, 10/16/10)
2010 Dec 4, In Jamaica an oil spill was discovered in Kingston Harbor. Authorities were still investigating a Nov 22 spill in the capital's harbor, the 7th-largest natural harbor in the world.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 9, Jamaican police discovered a body buried in a shallow grave at a construction site outside the capital. The remains were identified as those of Esmond Morris (32), who had not been seen since Dec 6. He had a gunshot wound in the back of the head. 2 more bodies were found the next day and police said they expected to find more.
(AP, 12/11/10)
2011 Jan 7, A Jamaica coast guard tried to stop a Honduran fishing boat in lobster- and conch-rich waters, fatally shooting the captain and wounding two crew members. Honduras' navy commander soon charged that the fishermen were unjustifiably attacked.
(AP, 1/12/11)
2011 Mar 10, In Jamaica gunmen brazenly shot up a police station in Spanish Town just outside Kingston. Intelligence indicated the gun attack was in retaliation for the deaths of three alleged members of the Klansman gang by security forces last weekend.
(AP, 3/11/11)
2011 Mar 11, In Jamaica gunmen invaded Spanish Town Hospital and robbed staff of money, phones and jewelry. There were no immediate reports of any injuries.
(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 23, In Jamaica an independent investigator for the parliament called for the creation of a special agency to fight corruption, asserting official graft has reached "systemic" levels in the Caribbean country.
(AP, 3/24/11)
2011 Apr 4, In Jamaica PM Bruce Golding's party reinforced its narrow parliamentary majority by winning a by-election called after a governing party lawmaker acknowledged he held US citizenship in violation of constitutional rules. The win re-established a 32-28 parliamentary majority for Labor.
(AP, 4/5/11)
2011 Apr, In Jamaica Chan Tesha Miller, the reputed Clansman leader, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted of robbery, assault and weapons possession.
(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Jul 5, Jamaica said it has shuttered all citrus nurseries in an attempt to check the spread of bacteria causing the incurable “citrus greening" disease. The bacteria has hobbled citrus production in parts of China and infested millions of trees in Florida and Brazil.
(SFC, 7/6/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul 20, In Jamaica a mother and daughter were beheaded by attackers who invaded their home in Spanish Town, a gritty area outside Kingston, near where a wanted 18-year-old gang member was found with his head chopped off earlier this week. On August 2 police said three suspects had been arrested and investigators sought six more.
(AP, 7/21/11)(AP, 8/2/11)
2011 Sep 25, Jamaica's governing party announced that PM Bruce Golding (63) will step down as leader in the coming weeks, possibly averting a rebellion from ruling party members that could have led to his ouster.
(AP, 9/25/11)
2011 Oct 18, Jamaica’s PM Bruce Golding (63) announced that Andrew Holness (39), the youthful education minister, has received the unanimous endorsement of ruling party lawmakers to become the Caribbean island's next leader.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 28, In central Jamaica an 8-year-old girl’s throat was slashed and her mother seriously wounded in an attack at their home. Officers looked to speak with the girl's father.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, Jamaica’s Transport Minister Mike Henry issued a statement announcing he is resigning due to "ongoing attacks" on the management of a five-year initiative launched in 2010 to upgrade rutted roadways. Allegations that a $400 million road project has been mismanaged led to his resignation.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Dec 9, Jamaican authorities said 217 of 362 police officers, who took voluntary lie-detector tests this year, failed. Officials denied re-enlistment to 62 officers this year. An additional 34 have been charged with corruption and seven dismissed for failing the test.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 21, Jamaican investigators found the severed head and bullet-riddled body of Navardo Hodges of the Clansman gang, a man they believe was a high-ranking member of a notorious drug-and-extortion gang known for beheading victims.
(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 29, Jamaica held parliamentary elections. The candidate of the ruling center-right Jamaica Labor Party, Andrew Holness (39), was the youngest prime minister in Jamaica's history. The top opposition candidate, Portia Simpson Miller (66) has been a stalwart of the People's National Party since the 1970s. Voters threw out the ruling party and delivered a landslide triumph to the opposition People's National Party (PNP), whose campaign energetically tapped voter disillusionment especially among the numerous struggling poor.
(AP, 12/29/11)
2011 A Florida court sentenced David Smith of Jamaica to 30 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to 23 counts of wire fraud and money laundering. He was earlier sentenced to 6 ˝ years in the Turks and Caicos Islands, where his assets were frozen.
(AFP, 5/25/12)
2012 Jan 3, In Jamaica final results gave Portia Simpson Miller's opposition People's National Party (PNP) a two-to-one margin in Parliament.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Feb 7, In Jamaica roughly 2,000 firearms were melted down in a blazing furnace as part of an effort designed to combat gun trafficking and corruption while reducing violent crime.
(AP, 2/7/12)
2012 Feb 10, In Jamaica Wilmot Perkins (80), a veteran journalist considered the island's "godfather of talk radio," died. He worked for more than 50 years in radio, launching his first program "What's your Grouse?" on RJR 94FM in 1960. He quit a couple years later to become a farmer but returned to radio in the 1970s, ultimately launching a show called "Perkins On Line" on Hot102 FM.
(AP, 2/11/12)
2012 Feb 21, Jamaica’s National Security Minister Peter Bunting said Jamaica is developing a new policy to battle crime as gang violence drives the homicide rate higher. He said 165 killings have been reported by police so far in 2012, compared to 135 slayings during the corresponding period last year on the Caribbean island of 2.8 million people.
(AP, 2/21/12)
2012 Mar 5, In Jamaica a 13-year-old girl, two elderly men and three others were killed during reported shootouts between police and gunmen. Residents of the Denham Town slum in West Kingston blame officers for the killings and the gritty area was put under curfew amid an ongoing security operation to seize illegal guns and fugitives.
(AP, 3/8/12)
2012 Mar 27, In Jamaica some 60 protesters who gathered outside the security ministry in a rare street demonstration to demand an end to police shootings. A March 16 raid in the poor Cassava Piece neighborhood Diane Gordon, a mother of two, was fatally shot in the head on the street as she returned from a child's wake. Police said Gordon was killed during a shootout between officers and gunmen, but residents deny there were gunmen in the area. There have been roughly 50 police killings in Jamaica so far this year, nearly 30 of them in March.
(AP, 3/27/12)
2012 Apr 19, Jamaica announced a new government task force to fight proliferating lottery scams that mainly target elderly Americans.
(SFC, 4/20/12, p.A2)
2012 Jun 8, In NYC Christopher “Dudus" Coke of Jamaica was sentenced to 23 years in prison for drug trafficking.
(SFC, 6/9/12, p.A5)
2012 Jul 21, Jamaican police torched nearly 15,000 pounds of marijuana seized in raids on trafficking operations, most of which was found this year.
(SFC, 7/23/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 6, Jamaica celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence from Britain.
(SFC, 8/7/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 24, Hurricane Sandy crossed over Jamaica. An elderly man was killed by a boulder that crashed into his clapboard house. Sandy killed 51 people in Haiti. At least 65 people were left dead as Sandy left the Caribbean.
(AP, 10/25/12)(AP, 10/26/12)(AP, 10/28/12)
2012 Dec, After years of meticulous translation from the original Greek, the Bible Society released in Jamaica print and audio CD versions of the first patois translation of the New Testament, or "Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment."
(AP, 12/7/12)0
2013 Jan 15, Jamaica’s top mining official said his country may be able to benefit from newly found deposits of rare-earth elements that are key ingredients for smartphones, computers and numerous other high-tech goods.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Mar 14, Jamaican officials said that they are hopeful new legislation will finally result in a stream of convictions and lengthy sentences for fraudsters behind a multimillion-dollar lottery scam that has swindled mostly elderly Americans out of their retirement savings for years.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 21, Jamaica’s Senate passed a bill calling for tougher prosecution of those involved in multimillion-dollar lottery scams that mostly have targeted elderly Americans. It was soon passed by the House of Representatives and the governor general was expected soon to sign it.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Jul 22, In Jamaica Dwayne Jones (16) was beaten, stabbed, shot and run over by a car when he showed up at a street party dressed as a woman. He had confided to a friend that he was attending a "straight" party as a girl for the first time in his life.
(AP, 8/11/13)
2013 Sep, In Jamaica Police Superintendent Steve McGreggor took over leadership of the tough West Kingston police division. He said that culture is changing and vowed to erase every painted image paying respect to gangsters.
(AP, 10/17/13)
2013 Oct 16, A boat with more than dozen people, including Jamaicans and Haitians, capsized off the coast of South Florida. 4 women died and 11 people were taken into custody. On May 15 Bahamian national Naaman Davis pleaded guilty in Miami federal court to charges of smuggling. He was paid to drive the migrant-filled boat and was drinking rum and smoking crack-cocaine the night it capsized.
(SFC, 10/16/13, p.A7)(AP, 5/16/14)
2013 Dec 10, In Jamaica the Caribbean Community Reparations Commission identified eight nations that should work with regional governments to address slavery reparations. Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden were added to a list that already included Britain, France and the Netherlands.
(SFC, 12/11/13, p.A2)
2014 Feb 13, Jamaica authorities arrested a police officer and two others accused of transporting 23 pounds (10 kg) of marijuana.
(AP, 2/14/14)
2014 Feb 14, In Jamaica Leroy Russell, a dancehall deejay, was charged in a multimillion-dollar lottery scam.
(AP, 2/15/14)
2014 Mar 2, Jamaican police said they have seized over 2,100 pounds (952 kg) of marijuana and arrested a suspect in a 2-day operation at a container terminal in Kingston.
(AP, 3/2/14)
2014 Apr 25, Police in Jamaica arrested 20 people suspected of involvement in a multimillion-dollar lottery scam.
(AP, 4/26/14)
2014 May 30, Jamaica's government said it is launching a $5 million welfare-to-work program that is expected to benefit some 2,000 people. The program will be implemented in the next two years. The island of 2.9 million people suffered a 16 percent unemployment rate with nearly 17 percent of the population below the poverty line.
(AP, 5/31/14)
2014 Jun, Jamaica’s government said it plans to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.
(Econ, 6/28/14, p.14)
2014 Jul 20, Jamaica’s environment minister, Robert Pickersgill, said a severe drought is worsening and that water supplies are already well below normal. Temporary shutoffs in Kingston were taking place daily.
(SFC, 7/22/14, p.A20)
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