Timeline Mariana Islands
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Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI)
A group of 15 islands in the Pacific, E. of the
Philippines
formerly mandated to Japan and now under US trusteeship.
Saipan
is
part of the Marianas.
(WUD, 1994, p.876, 1261)
A US protectorate in the Pacific. Its capital is Saipan. The
Chamorros
and Carolinians make up the indigenous population.
(WSJ, 6/10/97, p.A16)
The commonwealth is exempt from American labor, immigration
and
customs laws.
(SFC, 8/10/99, p.A3)
1521 March 6,
Magellan made landfall at the island of Guam in the Marianas.
(HN, 3/6/98)(V.D.-H.K.p.177-178)
1521 Apr 26, Magellan was
killed in a fight with natives on Mactan Island. Magellan named the
Mariana Islands Islas de los Ladrones (Islands of Thieves), and was
killed by natives on Cebu. Juan Sebastian Elcano, Magellan’s second
in command, returned to Spain with 18 men and one ship, the
Vittorio, laden with spices. His coat of arms was augmented in
reward with the inscription Primus circumdisti me: “You were the
first to encircle me.” Some 50,000 Chamorro people populated the
islands.
(V.D.-H.K.p.177-178)(SFEC,11/10/96,Z1p.2)(TL-MB,
p.12)(SFEC, 3/7/99,Z1 p.4)
1668 The Spaniards established
a permanent settlement on Guam. They forced the Chamorros to convert
to Catholicism. Under Spanish rule the Chamorro numbers were reduced
to some 2,000.
(SFEC, 3/7/99,Z1 p.4)
1720 The Spanish quashed
Chamorro resistance and forcibly evacuated to Guam all Chamorros on
Saipan and the other Northern Marianas.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, Z1 p.4)
1810 A typhoon devastated the
Caroline Islands, 500 miles south of the Marianas. The survivors
sailed to Guam but only half survived. Spanish authorities sent the
Carolinians to Saipan and Tinian to manage the Spanish cattle herds.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, Z1 p.4)
1880s The Spanish began to
allow the Chamorros to return from Guam to the Northern Marianas.
Successive Spanish, German, Japanese and American rulers favored the
Chamorros over the traditionalist semi-nude Carolinians.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, Z1 p.4)
1898 Jun 20, During the
Spanish-American War on the way to the Philippines to fight the
Spanish, the U.S. Navy cruiser Charleston seized the island of Guam.
(AP, 6/20/98)(HN, 6/20/98)
1898 Jun 21, Guam became a US
territory. [see Jun 20, Jul 21]
(MC, 6/21/02)
1898 Aug 12, The peace protocol
ending the Spanish-American War was signed after three months and 22
days of hostilities. 460 US soldiers died in battle. The US paid
Spain $20 million to vacate Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico and the
Philippines. Over the next 3 years US casualties in the Philippines
war totaled over 4,000. [see Dec 10]
(AP, 8/12/97)(WSJ, 2/23/98, p.A20)(HN,
8/12/00)(SSFC, 3/30/03, p.D1)(WSJ, 7/2/03, p.B1)
1898 Dec 10, The United States
and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish-American
War. This ceded Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam to the United
States. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty February 6, 1899. [see
Aug 12]
(AP, 12/10/97)(HN, 12/10/98)(HNQ, 7/28/01)(MC,
12/10/01)
1898 Guam became a US naval
base after the Spanish-American War.
(WSJ, 2/20/97, p.A20)
1903 Jul 3, The first cable
across the Pacific Ocean was spliced between Honolulu, Midway, Guam
and Manila. [see Jul 4]
(HN, 7/3/98)
1903 Jul 4, Pacific Cable (SF,
Hawaii, Guam, Philippines) opened, and Pres. Teddy Roosevelt sent a
message. [see Jul 3]
(Maggio, 98)
1941 Dec 10, Japanese troops
invaded the Filipino island of Luzon and overran Guam.
(WUD, 1944, p.1683)(HN, 12/10/98)(MC, 12/10/01)
1941 Dec 18, Defended by 610
fighting men, the American-held island of Guam fell to more than
5,000 Japanese invaders in a three-hour battle.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1944 Feb 17, US began night
bombing of Truk in the Marianas Islands.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1944 Feb 23, American bombers
struck the Marianas Islands bases, only 1,300 miles from Tokyo.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1944 Feb 25, U.S. forces
destroyed 135 planes in Marianas and Guam.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1944 Jun 11, U.C. carrier-based
planes attacked Japanese airfields on Guam, Rota, Saipan and Tinian
islands, preparing for the invasion of Saipan.
(HN, 6/11/99)
1944 Jun 19, The Battle of the
Philippine Sea (Battle of the Marianas), called the "Marianas Turkey
Shoot," began when Japanese naval forces attacked the stronger U.S.
naval forces. 280 Japanese planes were shot down by U.S. carrier-
based planes and anti-aircraft fire from U.S. ships. Americans shoot
down 220 Japanese planes while only losing 20.
(BEP, 1994)(DT, 6/19/97)(HN, 6/19/98)
1944 Jun 19, “Ace of Aces”
David McCampbell (1910-1996) and the Fabled 15 challenged 80
Japanese carrier based aircraft bearing down on an American fleet.
He shot down 7 Zeroes and the group routed the enemy fliers at the
Battle of the Marianas.
(SFC, 7/3/96, p.C4)
1944 Jul 7, There was a heavy
Japanese counter offensive on Saipan.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1944 Jul 8, Japanese kamikaze
attacked US lines at Saipan.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1944 Jul 9, During World War
Two, American forces secured Saipan as the last Japanese defenses
fell.
(AP, 7/9/00)
1944 Jul 20, US invaded
Japanese occupied Guam. Japanese aircraft carrier Hijo was sunk by
US air attack.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1944 Jul 21, US Army and Marine
forces landed on Guam in the Marianas during WW II.
(AP, 7/21/97)(HN, 7/21/98)
1944 Jul 26, There was a
Japanese suicide attack on US lines in Guam.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1944 Jul 27, U.S. troops
completed the liberation of Guam.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1944 Jul, Guy Gabaldon
(1926-2006), US Marine private, talked some 800 Japanese soldiers
into surrendering and following him back to his US camp. In 1990
Gabaldon authored the memoir “Saipan: Suicide Island.” The story
became part of the 1960 film “Hell to Eternity.”
(SFC, 9/8/06, p.B9)
1944 Aug 8, U.S. forces
completed the capture of the Marianas Islands.
(HN, 8/8/98)
1944 Aug 10, During World War
II, American forces overcame Japanese resistance on Guam.
(AP, 8/10/97)
1944 Oct 28, The first B-29
Superfortress bomber mission flew from the airfields in the Mariana
Islands in a strike against the Japanese base at Turk [Truk].
(HN, 10/28/98)
1944 Nov 24, US bombers based
on Saipan attacked Tokyo in the first raid against the Japanese
capital by land-based planes. American B-29's flying from Saipan
bombed Tokyo.
(AP, 11/24/05)(HN, 11/24/98)
1944 In “Operation Hailstone”
US carrier-based pilots dropped 400 tons of bombs on the Truk Lagoon
and 94 tons on airfields at Chook Island.
(SFC, 6/19/00, p.A10)
1944 The Japanese forced the
indigenous people into slave labor.
(SFEC, 3/7/99,Z1 p.4)
1944 Hundreds of natives died
during the US invasion of the Northern Marianas. 5,000 American
troops and 40,000 Japanese also died.
(SFEC, 3/7/99,Z1 p.4)
1944 The fighting on Peleliu,
5-sq. miles, killed 1,252 Americans and 10,900 Japanese.
(SFC, 6/19/00, p.A10)
1945 Saipan and some nearby
islands began to be administered by the US on behalf of the United
Nations after WW II.
(WSJ, 2/20/97, p.A20)
c1946 The brown tree snake,
Boiga irregularis, arrived on Guam shortly after WW II and began to
feed on the native bird population. By 1998 an estimated 9 of 11
native birds were eliminated.
(SFC, 7/25/98, p.A8)(WSJ, 7/1/99, p.B1)
1947-1978 The US governed the Northern Marianas
Islands as a UN Trust Territory. The natives largely abandoned
fishing and Spam and Budweiser became staples.
(SFEC, 3/7/99,Z1 p.4)
1949 Pres. Truman appointed
Carlton Skinner (d.2004) as the 1st civilian governor of Guam.
Skinner established the island‘s 1st university and wrote a
constitution.
(SSFC, 8/29/04, p.B7)
1960 Jan 23, Bathysphere
"Trieste" reached bottom of Pacific at 10,900 m. Jacques Piccard and
Don Walsh descended for 20 minutes in the bathyscaph Trieste into
the Mariana Trench, a 1,500 mile gash in the Earth’s crust east of
the Philippines with a depth of 37,000 feet below sea level, nearly
7 miles.
(SFC, 10/29/96, p.A11)(SFEC, 11/17/96, BR
p.4)(MC, 1/23/02)
1969 Jul 25, The Nixon Doctrine
was put forth in a press conference in Guam. He stated that the US
henceforth expected its Asian allies to take care of their own
military defense.
(Internet)
1975 Feb 15, In local elections
78.8% of the residents approved a covenant under which the Northern
Marianas would become a US Commonwealth. In 1976 the US Congress
approved a covenant whereby Saipan became the capital of the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The 34,000 permanent
residents became US citizens but could not vote in US presidential
elections. The CNMI was allowed to set its own tax, immigration and
labor policies. A new government and constitution went into effect
in 1978.
(SFEC, 3/7/99,Z1
p.4)(http://macmeekin.com/Library/NMIchron/1971.htm)(WSJ, 2/20/97,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Mariana_Islands)
1980s Tourism and apparel
manufacturing became huge industries on Saipan. Foreign contract
workers began to outnumber the locals.
(SFEC, 3/7/99,Z1 p.4)
1986 The Chamorros and
Carolinians of the Northern Marianas were given US citizenship.
(SFEC, 3/7/99,Z1 p.4)
1990 Guam passed a law that
prohibited nearly all abortion procedures. In 1992 The U.S. Supreme
Court sustained women's basic right to abortion, voting 6-3 against
reviving the Guam law.
(AP, 11/30/97)
1994 Guam began to use Jack
Russell terriers to check outgoing cargo for brown tree snakes.
(SFC, 7/25/98, p.A8)
1995 May, A Kmart store opened
on Guam.
(WSJ, 7/12/99, p.A17)
1995 May, Larry Lee Hillblom,
co-founder and majority shareholder of DHL Corp., disappeared into
the Pacific Ocean in his World War II vintage seaplane. He was
conservatively valued at 500 million and willed most of his estate
to a charitable trust for medical research. $240 million was set
aside for medical research at UCSF. He named the Bank of Saipan as
executor but left behind a number of illegitimate children in the
Philippines and the Mariana Islands who are laying claim to his
estate. In 1998 4 children won $90 million settlements each. Later
it was learned that many of his personal effects in Saipan were
buried to avoid DNA tests for paternity confirmation.
(WSJ, 5/15/96, p.A-1,8)(SFEC, 1/11/98,
p.A1)(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A1)
1997 Jun 10, It was reported
that Gov. Froilan Tenorio and Rep. Heinz Hofschneider had proposed a
Parental Choice Scholarship Program that would be implemented in the
fall. Every student would get a $1500 scholarship for the school of
their choice.
(WSJ, 6/10/97, p.A16)
1997 Aug 6, Korean Air Flight
801 from Seoul crashed into a hillside a short distance from Guam’s
Agana International Airport. There were 29 survivors and 254 people
killed. The Boeing 747-300 jumbo jet crashed just a few miles away
from the Guam airport. A programming glitch in the ground radar
system was later identified as a contributing factor but not the
cause. The Korean Air crash in Guam killed 228.
(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A3)(WSJ, 4/8/99, p.A1)(AP,
8/6/98)(WSJ, 11/13/01, p.A14)
1999 Jan, Class-actions law
suits were filed against American corporations for sweatshop working
conditions in Saipan.
(SFC, 8/10/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar, Recession in Japan
and South Korea caused a drop in tourism and sweatshop conditions on
Saipan caused many large apparel corporations to cancel their
contracts.
(SFEC, 3/7/99,Z1 p.4)
1999 Aug 9, Four large apparel
corporations settled out of court in a suit to end sweatshop labor
in Saipan. Nordstrom, J. Crew, Cutter & Buck and Gymboree agreed
to pay $1.25 million to reimburse workers for recruitment fees and
to set up a program to monitor island contractors.
(SFC, 8/10/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 6, Five clothing
designers agreed to settle a class action suit over working
conditions in Saipan. They included Ralph Lauren, Philips-Van
Heusen, Bryland L.P., Karan Int'l., and Dress Barn.
(SFC, 10/7/99, p.A3)
1999 Dec 12, On Guam a
referendum was scheduled to choose independence, US statehood or
free association status.
(SFC, 11/24/98, p.A14)
1999 On Guam a new strategy to
control the brown tree snakes used aspirin, toxic to the snakes,
inserted into frozen baby mice.
(WSJ, 7/1/99, p.B1)
2001 Mar 23, It was reported
that 22 Guam teenagers had committed suicide over the past 26
months. Members of a secretive club called Prestigious Angels
promised to kill themselves if their friends would follow.
(SFC, 3/23/01, p.D6)
2001-2004 US Sen. Conrad Burns, a Montana
Republican, received some $150,000 in donations from Jack Abramoff,
his firms and his clients during this period. On May 23, 2001 Burns
voted against a bill favorable to Abramoff’s clients in the Northern
Mariana Islands. The bill would have phased out a non-resident
contract worker program benefiting benefiting the Mariana’s garment
industry.
(SFC, 12/7/05, p.A6)
2002 Dec 8, Typhoon Pongsona
hit Guam with wind gusts of more than 180 mph. The U.S. territory
was declared a federal disaster area.
(AP, 12/11/02)
2003 Aug 8, A US federal judge
ruled that some 264,000 square miles of submerged lands in the
Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth, belong to the United
States.
(AP, 8/8/03)
2004 Mar 31, Air America Radio
went live in 3 of largest US markets with a left-leaning,
round-the-clock, talk format featuring Al Franken and Janeane
Garofalo. Air America was conceived by Anita and Sheldon Drobny of
Chicago. The idea was purchased by Guam entrepreneurs Evan M. Cohen
and Rex Sorensen, who resigned May 5.
(SFC, 3/31/04, p.C1)(WSJ, 6/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 20, Former Guam Gov.
Carl Gutierrez (1995-2003) was acquitted on charges he used
government workers and public money to build and improve his
cliffside ranch.
(AP, 7/21/04)
2005 Jan 7, The nuclear
submarine USS San Francisco ran aground 350 miles off the Pacific
Ocean territory of Guam, injuring about 20 crew members. One died
the next day.
(AP, 1/8/05)(AP, 1/9/05)
2005 Feb 15, The Guam-based
Citizens Security Bank (CSB) ended credit card and other services to
the Bank of Marshall Islands. Residents of the Marshall Islands will
be unable to use their credit cards after the central Pacific
nation's leading bank was cut off from a US partner by the
anti-terrorist Patriot Act.
(AFP, 2/10/05)
2005 Oct 29, The US and Japan
agreed to step up military cooperation and substantially reduce the
number of Marines on the strategically important southern island of
Okinawa. The US will move 7,000 US Marines from Japan's Okinawa
prefecture to Guam.
(AP, 10/29/05)(AFP, 10/29/05)
2009 Jan 6, Pres. Bush
designated parts of 3 Pacific island chains as national monuments to
protect them from oil and gas extraction and commercial fishing. The
areas totaled some 195,274 square miles and included the Mariana
Trench as well as waters and coral surrounding 3 islands in the
Northern Mariana Islands, Rose Atoll in American Samoa and 7 islands
along the equator in the central Pacific Ocean.
(SFC, 1/6/09, p.A4)
2009 Nov 20, In the Northern
Mariana Islands a gunman went on a rampage on the Pacific resort
island of Saipan, killing 4 people and wounding six others before
fatally shooting himself. Li Zhongren (42), a Chinese citizen, was
believed to have been employed at the shooting range and left notes
indicating personal financial problems and frustrations.
(AP, 11/20/09)(SFC, 11/23/09, p.A2)
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