Timeline Maldives
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History: http://www.maldivesroyalfamily.com/maldives_romero_history.shtml
A republic of
a
500-mile chain of islands about 400 miles south of India and about
300
miles southwest of Sri Lanka. It has a population of 278,000. The
people are Sunni Muslims. Only 200 of the republic’s 1,192 coral
islands are inhabited.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.T14)(AP, 11/11/03)
Male, the capital of the Maldives, lies 3 feet above sea level.
(SSFC, 1/2/05, p.A10)
1153
A wandering Arab holy man converted the king of
the Buddhist Maldive islanders.
(WSJ, 7/22/96, p.A12)
1552 Jan 14, Maldive King Siri
Dhrikusa Loka (Hassan IX) was baptized in Cochin, India.
(www.maldivesroyalfamily.com/maldives_romero_history.shtml)
1600-1700 Grass mats called kunai were made on the
island of Gadu and sent by the Maldivian sultan as part of an annual
tribute to the kingdom of Sri Lanka. The “Fine Mat Industry of the
Suvadiva Atoll” by Andrew Forbes was publ. by the British Museum.
(WSJ, 7/22/96, p.A12)
1887 The Maldives became a
protectorate of Great Britain.
(www.pjsymes.com.au/articles/Maldives(article).htm)
1932 The Maldives adopted its
1st constitution.
(www.pjsymes.com.au/articles/Maldives(article).htm)
1947 Aug 12, The People’s
Majlis passed Bill No. 2/66 on the Maldivian monetary system. The
committee consisted of Government Ministers and Members of the
People’s Majlis.
(www.maldivesroyalfamily.com/index.html)
1953 The Maldives, formerly a
Sultanate, was declared a republic. The Sultanate was restored after
15 months.
(www.pjsymes.com.au/articles/Maldives(article).htm)
1957 Ibrahim Nasir (31) became
prime minister of the Maldives, a British protectorate.
(AP, 11/23/08)
1959-1962 The government of Maldives was
challenged by a local secessionist movement in the southern atolls
that benefited economically from the British presence on Gan. This
group cut ties with the Maldives government and formed an
independent state with Abdulla Afif Didi as president. The
short-lived state, called the United Suvadivan Republic, had a
combined population of 20,000 inhabitants scattered in the atolls
then named Suvadiva.
(www.findmaldives.com/Maldives-Independence.html)
1965 Jul 26, Republic of
Maldives gained independence from Britain.
(www.findmaldives.com/Maldives-Independence.html)
1968 Nov 11, The Maldives
became a republic for a 2nd time with Ibrahim Naseer (Nasir) as
President.
(www.pjsymes.com.au/articles/Maldives(article).htm)(Econ, 12/23/06,
p.54)(AP, 11/11/08)
1978 Ibrahim Nasir
Rannabandeyri Kilegefan (1926-2008) relinquished the position of the
President of the Maldives Republic. He was accused of ruling the
country as a dictator and fled amid public resentment and unproven
allegations of corruption in handling public funds. For the first
time in recorded Maldive history, the head of state of the Maldives
ceased to be either a King-sultan (Queen-sultana) or a descendant of
a King-sultan.
(www.maldivesroyalfamily.com/maldives_commonwealth.shtml)(AP,
11/23/08)
1978 Maumoon Abdul Gayoom
became president of the Maldives.
(WSJ, 1/3/05, p.A7)
1982 The Maldives applied for
and was granted membership in the British Commonwealth of Nations.
(www.maldivesroyalfamily.com/maldives_commonwealth.shtml)
1985 The South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was founded in Dhaka,
Bangladesh, with the aim of promoting economic cooperation and
alleviating poverty in South Asia. Members included Bangladesh,
Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
(AP, 11/13/05)
1997 Jun 24, Maldives Pres.
Abdul Gayoom said that the survival of the island nation was
dependent on halting the process of global warming.
(SFC, 6/25/97, p.A2)
1997 The Maldives adopted a new
constitution, which enshrined Pres. Gayoom as head of state,
government, judiciary and the security forces.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.54)
1999 Dec 3, In the Maldives a
helicopter crashed enroute to Male and killed all 10 people onboard.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A14)
2003 Sep 19, In the Maldives
unrest erupted at the Maafushi prison after a young man named Evan
Naseem was tortured to death. Police opened fire and 3 people were
killed. Violent riots followed as did a state of emergency.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.54)
2003 Sep 21, The leader of the
Maldives appealed for calm after two days of rioting killed 3 people
and sent shock waves through this tiny Indian Ocean island nation.
(AP, 9/21/03)
2003 Nov 11, Maldives Pres.
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom (65) was sworn in for a record sixth term,
becoming the longest-serving head of state in Asia.
(AP, 11/11/03)
2004 Mar 17, The Maldives ferry
Enamaa was carrying far more than its capacity of up to 100 when a
wave overturned it. At least 18 people were killed. More than 50
others were missing.
(AP, 3/18/04)
2004 Dec 26, The world's most
powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that
slammed into villages and seaside resorts across southern and
southeast Asia. The initial estimated death toll of 9,000 soon rose
to some 230,000 people in 14 countries. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake
was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2
temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964. The epicenter was
located 155 miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh
province on Sumatra, and six miles under the seabed of the Indian
Ocean. In Indonesia at least 166,320 people were killed.
Bangladesh reported 2 killed; India: at least 9,691 deaths:
thousands were missing and possibly dead in India's remote Andaman
and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia: At least 101,318 people were killed
on Sumatra island and small islands off its coast. Kenya reported 1
killed. Malaysia: At least 68 people, including an unknown number of
foreign tourists, were dead. Myanmar: At least 90 people were
killed. Sri Lanka: At least 30,680 were killed in government and
rebel controlled areas. The Maldives, an archipelago of 1,190
low-lying coral islands and a tiny population of 280,000, at least
82 people were killed and missing. At least 42 islands were
flattened in the low-lying atoll nation. Somalia: At least 298 were
killed. Tanzania: At least 10 killed. Thailand: The confirmed death
toll for Thailand reached 5,322, but many suspected Myanmar migrants
were not counted.
(SFC, 12/28/04, p.A1)(AP, 12/30/04)(SSFC, 1/2/05,
p.A12)(AP, 1/7/05)(Econ, 1/22/05, p.41)(AP, 12/25/09)
2004 Dec 26, In the Maldives at
least 117 people were killed and missing, among them two British
tourists. At least 42 islands were flattened in the low-lying atoll
nation.
(SSFC, 1/2/05, p.A10)
2005 Jan 2, Some 1,500 people
inhabited the artificial Maldive island of Hulhumale. Some $60
million had already been spent on its creation and completion was
expected in 2040.
(SSFC, 1/2/05, p.A10)
2005 Jan 22, Maldivians cast
votes to elect a parliament, three weeks after the election was
postponed because of the Indian Ocean tsunami. Police arrested 20
opposition backers.
(AP, 1/22/05)(WSJ, 1/24/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 2, The Maldives
ushered in a new political era when parliament voted to allow
parties to form for the first time in the remote Indian Ocean
archipelago, a move that ended centuries of autocratic rule. The law
passed in July.
(Reuters, 6/2/05)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.55)
2005 Nov 12, In Dhaka,
Bangladesh, a 2-day summit aimed to alleviate poverty and boost
trade and cooperation among Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives,
Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Leaders called for greater
cooperation within the region to deal with the aftermath of
disasters like the Kashmir earthquake and last year's devastating
tsunami.
(AFP, 11/12/05)
2005 An estimated 80,000
people lived in the Maldives on less than 1.2 square miles.
(SSFC, 1/2/05, p.A10)
2006 The population of the
Maldives numbered about 300,000. Some 100,000 were packed into the 2
square kilometers of the capital, Male, the most densely populated
town in the world.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.53)
2007 Aug 19, President Maumoon
Abdul Gayoom won an overwhelming victory in a referendum on the
Maldives' future form of government, a poll seen as an informal vote
of confidence in his three-decade rule of the tiny Indian Ocean
nation.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Sep 29, A bomb exploded at
the entrance to a recreation park in the Maldives, wounding at least
12 foreign tourists.
(AP, 9/29/07)
2008 Jan 8, Maumoon Abdul
Gayoom (70), the Maldives president, survived an assassination
attempt when boy scout Mohammed Jaisham Ibrahim (15) grabbed the
knife of an attacker who jumped out of a crowd of people greeting
the president.
(AP, 1/9/08)(AP, 1/10/08)
2008 Aug 2, In Sri Lanka a
two-day summit of leaders of the 15th South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation (SAARC), opened amid extraordinary security.
Leaders of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, The Maldives,
Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka attended the summit. Government troops
captured rebel-held Vellankulam village in Mannar, the last rebel
stronghold in the area. Fresh fighting between Sri Lankan troops and
Tamil Tiger separatists killed 14 rebels and two soldiers across the
embattled northern region.
(AP, 8/2/08)(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 7, Maldives President
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom signed and adopted a new constitution that
allows multiparty elections and other democratic reforms after
decades of authoritarian rule.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Oct 8, Maldives islanders
in the cramped city of Male and scores of far-flung atolls began
voting in the first democratic presidential election in their tiny
nation's history.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 9, Poll results in the
Maldives indicated President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom to be headed for a
runoff against Mohamed Nasheed , a former political prisoner who
leads the main opposition.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 28, Voters turned out
in strength to choose the Maldives' first democratically-elected
president in a run-off between Asia's longest serving leader and a
former political prisoner. Nasheed won 54% of the vote to Gayoom's
46%, according to provisional results from the nation's elections
commission.
(AP, 10/28/08)(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Nov 11, Mohamed Nasheed
took the oath of office as the Maldives' first democratically
elected president. He now leads the flattest nation on Earth, with
an average height of 2.3 meters (7 feet) above sea level, and one
considered particularly vulnerable to the perils of global climate
change and rising sea levels.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 22, Ibrahim Nasir
(b.1926), who led the Maldives' independence movement from the
British and became the island nation's first president, died in
Singapore.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 The population of the
Maldives stood at about 370,000 people.
(Econ, 11/1/08, p.52)
2009 Oct 17, Members of the
Maldives' Cabinet donned scuba gear and used hand signals at an
underwater meeting staged to highlight the threat of global warming
to the lowest-lying nation on earth.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2010 May 20, In the Maldives 15
representatives of the Afghan government met with 7 Taliban members
for talks, which would continue over the weekend. A Taliban
statement the next day said those at the talks claiming to be from
the Taliban are no longer active members and have "surrendered" to
President Hamid Karzai's government.
(SFC, 5/21/10, p.A2)(AP, 5/21/10)
2010 Jun 29, The Maldivian
cabinet resigned en masse after a threat by the opposition to bring
a vote of no confidence in parliament against every minister. Pres.
Mohammed Nasheed remained in office.
(AFP, 6/29/10)
2010 The 42-member Alliance of
Small Island States called on the industrial nations in 1997 to cut
emissions 20% from 1990 levels by this time.
(SFC, 6/25/97, p.A2)
2011 May 1, Maldives police
used tear gas and batons to break up a protest demanding that
President Mohamad Nasheed step down. Dozens of people were injured
and many were arrested.
(AP, 5/1/11)
2011 Nov 24, The UN human
rights chief urged the Maldives to end the "degrading" practice of
flogging women found to have had sex outside marriage. The country
of 300,000 people forbids practicing religions other than Islam.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Dec 30, The Maldives
government said it has decided to close massage parlors and spas,
following an opposition-led religious protest last week calling for
their closure. Sunni Islam is the official religion in the Maldives
and practicing any other faith is forbidden.
(AP, 12/30/11)
2040 The artificial Maldives
island of Hulhumale was expected to be completed with a population
of around 150,000.
(SSFC, 1/2/05, p.A10)
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