Timeline Marshall Islands (The Republic of the
Marshall Islands)
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Lying in Micronesia the group is
composed of 31
coral atolls in the Ratak and Ralik island chains. Some 63,000 people
are
scattered over 180 sq. miles of land. Some 1,225 islets clustered into
20 coral atolls strewn across 750,000 square miles make up the Marshall
Islands.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A1)(SFC, 3/8/99, p.A12)
1914-1919 The Islands were occupied
by the Japanese during WW I.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)
1939-1945 The islands were captured by US forces
during WW II.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)
1940s-1950s The US conducted 67 above ground nuclear
and thermonuclear tests in the Marshall Islands.
(SFC, 12/7/99, p.A10)
1942 Feb 1, Planes of the U.S.
Pacific fleet attacked Japanese bases in the Marshall and Gilbert
Islands.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1943 Dec 8, U.S. carriers sank two
cruisers and down 72 planes in the Marshall Islands.
(HN, 12/8/98)
1944 Jan 31, During World War II,
U.S. forces under Vice Adm. Spruance began invading Kwajalein Atoll and
other parts of the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
(AP, 1/31/98)(HN, 1/31/99)
1944 Feb 1, U.S. Army troops
invaded two Kwajalein Islands in the Pacific. [see Jan 31]
(HN, 2/1/99)
1944 Feb 17, U.S forces landed on
Eniwetok atoll in the South Pacific Marshall Islands. Battle of
Eniwetok Atoll began. US victory on Feb 22.
(HN, 2/17/99)(MC, 2/17/02)
1944 Feb 20, US took Eniwetok
Island.
(MC, 2/20/02)
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)
1945-1986 The Marshall Islands were ruled by the
US as part of a UN trusteeship.
(SFC, 12/7/99, p.A10)
1946-1958 The US conducted 67 nuclear test blasts at
the Bikini and Eniwetok atolls over this period. The tests in the
northern Marshall Islands released radioactive iodine said to be 150
times worse than the contamination from Chernobyl in 1986. A Nuclear
Claims Tribunal was later set up by the government of the US and the
Marshall Islands to compensate those displaced or suffering health
problems due to the tests. The 150 million dollars the US provided for
paying settlements ran out in 2005. The US State Department said there
is no obligation to pay more.
(SFC, 3/8/99, p.A16)(Econ, 1/12/08, p.38)(AFP,
12/12/08)
1952 Nov 1, The United
States exploded the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Ivy Mike," in a
test at Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands. The element einsteinium was
discovered in the debris of the 1st hydrogen bomb test. In 2002 Greg
Herken authored "Brotherhood of the Bomb: the Tangled Lives and
Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence and Edward Teller."
(AP, 11/1/07)(NH, 7/02, p.35)(SSFC, 10/12/02, p.M1)
1954 Mar 1, The Bravo hydrogen
bomb test exploded across Bikini atoll (Marshall Islands) with the
force of 1,000 Hiroshima bombs. A Nuclear Claims Tribunal, established
in 1986, later awarded Bikini and Enewetak 500 million dollars but only
a fraction of the amount was received. A Nov 30, 2004, deadline limited
further suits.
(AP,
10/17/04)(www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/peopleevents/pandeAMEX51.html)
1954 Mar 1, The No. 5 Fukuryu-maru
was trolling for tuna off the Bikini atoll in the Pacific during the
Bravo hydrogen bomb test. 11 crew members died in the half-century
since the exposure, at least six of them from liver cancer. Between
1946 and 1958, the United States conducted 66 nuclear tests at Bikini
as part of "Operation Crossroads."
(AP, 2/28/04)
1954 Mar 26, The U.S. set off the
second H-bomb blast in four weeks in the Marshall Islands at Bikini
Island. The 15-megaton device was 750 times more powerful than the
atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The blast contaminated the
neighboring island of Rongelap and nearly 100 people on the island and
other downwind atolls.
(HN, 3/25/98)(SFC, 12/7/99, p.A10)(SS, 3/26/02)
1958 Apr 28, The United States
conducted the first of 35 nuclear test explosions in the Pacific
Proving Ground as part of Operation Hardtack I.
(AP,
4/28/08)(http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Hardtack1.html)
1971 Australia joined with New
Zealand and 14 independent of self-governing island nations to form the
South Pacific Forum. The name was changed in 2000 to Pacific Islands
Forum. Member states include: Australia, the Cook Islands, the
Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands,
Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon
Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Since 2006, associate members
territories are New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
(Econ, 10/20/07,
p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islands_Forum)
1972 Amata Kabua (1928-1996)
founded and led the Political Movement for the Marshall Islands
Separation from Micronesia.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)
1978 The Marshallese voted for
independence from other districts of the Trust Territory of the Pacific
Islands.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)(www.unicover.com/OPUBA565.HTM)
1978 Doctors ordered a 2nd
evacuation from Bikini due to high radiation.
(SFC, 12/7/99, p.A12)
1979 May 1, The people of the
Marshall Islands ratified their own constitution and the constitutional
government came into being. In recognition of the evolving political
status of the Marshall Islands, the US recognized the constitution of
the Marshall Islands and the establishment of the Government of the
Republic of the Marshall Islands. Mr. Amata Kabua (1928-1996)
became the first president.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amata_Kabua)(www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/26551.htm)
1979 Jul, Imata Kabua led a
protest against US operations in the Marshall Islands.
(SFC, 3/8/99, p.A16)
1983 The Marshall Islands received
$183.7 million for the 1946-1958 US nuclear tests near Bikini.
(AP, 2/28/04)
1986 Oct 21, The US, Micronesia
and the Marshall Islands formed a Compact of Free Association (CFA).
Tens of millions in economic benefits along with security and defense
of the islands was exchanged for the right to deny access to third
countries. The US paid $270 million in compensation to nuclear victims
under the 1st phase of the CFA (1986-2001), insisting that was a full
and final arrangement.
(SFC, 3/8/99, p.A16)(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A12)(Econ,
1/12/08, p.38)
1986 The Marshall Islands and the
Federated States of Micronesia were granted independence.
(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A12)
1991 Sep 17, The U.N. General
Assembly opened its 46th session, welcoming new members Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania, North and South Korea, the Marshall Islands and
Micronesia.
(AP, 9/17/01)
1996 Dec 19, Pres. Amata Kabua
died.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)
1998 Jul 17, Rising seawater was
attacking the coastline of the islands.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A1)
1999 Jan 31, Phillip Muller, the
foreign minister, said his government would seek a rent increase from
the US for the use of the Kwajalein Atoll, the only place where the US
was able to test long range components of its missile defense program.
(SFC, 3/8/99, p.A16)(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A12)
2001 Dec 3, A test US anti-missile
launched from Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands successfully hit
a dummy warhead from Vandenberg Air Base in California, 4,800 miles
away.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A4)
2001 A 15 year lease by the US for
Kwajalein Atoll was due to expire.
(SFC, 3/8/99, p.A12)
2001 US payments under the Compact
of Free Association were scheduled to end.
(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A12)
2003 The Marshall Islands
renegotiated its Compact of Free Association (CFA) with the US. America
insisted on a separate agreement giving it continued access to its $4
billion missile defense site on Kwajalein until at least 2066 for $15
million a year, rising to $18 million after 2014.
(Econ, 1/12/08, p.37)
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)
2007 Mar 20, The second flight of
Space Exploration Technologies' (SpaceX) low-cost Falcon 1 rocket
reached 200 miles altitude but did not make it to orbit due to the
premature shutdown of its second-stage Kestrel engine. SpaceX launched
the two-stage Falcon 1 rocket from its Omelek Island launch site in the
Marshall Islands, but the rocket failed to reach its intended 425-mile
(685-kilometer) orbit due to a roll control glitch.
(http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon/f2/)
2007 Sep 13, In the Marshall
Islands legislation was introduced aiming to open up the communications
sector by removing the telecom agency's exclusive rights. This was
likely to become an issue ahead of national elections in November.
(AFP, 9/16/07)
2008 Jan 7, Voters in the Marshall
Islands ditched the pro-American administration led by Kessai Note and
elected a government backed by disgruntled chiefs and senators from the
nuclear-affected atolls.
(Econ, 1/12/08, p.37)
2008 Dec 25, The Marshall Islands
declared a state of emergency after severe flooding, that occurred from
Dec. 9 to Dec. 15, forced more than 600 people from their homes.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 About 62,000 inhabited the
Marshall Islands.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2009 May 29, The nonbinding New
York Declaration, an agreement between the signatory flag states which
condemns acts of piracy and armed robbery against vessels and
seafarers, was originally tabled by The Bahamas, the Republic of
Liberia, the Republic of Marshall Islands and the Republic of Panama,
four nations that account for more than half of global shipping.
(www.unmultimedia.org/tv/unifeed/d/13476.html)
2009 Oct 8, Former Marshall
Islands president and powerful traditional chief Imata Kabua said he
was challenging the treaty negotiated between the Marshall Islands
government and the US covering the years after 2016 when the current
lease for the missile base expires. The Compact of Free Association
between the two countries approved in 2003 provides the US with use of
the Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll until 2066.
(AFP, 10/9/09)
2009 Oct 26, In the Marshall
Islands traditional chief Jurelang Zedkaia was elected president by a
slender 17-15 margin, replacing Litokwa Tomeing who was ousted in a
no-confidence vote last week.
(AP, 10/26/09)
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Subject = Marshall Islands
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