Timeline Turks and Caicos Islands
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Some 40 low-lying islands 575 miles southeast of Miami and due north
of the
Dominican Republic.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, p.T4)
The Turks and Caicos islands produced salt for Britain and a flag
design that featured a big pile of salt was sent to London. There a
royal mapmaker, thinking that the islands were part of some new
possession in the Canadian Arctic, turned the salt piles into
igloos.
This remained as a colonial symbol for about a century.
(SSFC, 12/18/05, p.F4)
1512
Ponce de Leon stepped ashore on the Turks and
Caicos Islands.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, p.T4)
1600s Pirates Anne Bonny and
Mary Read plundered the region.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, p.T4)
1841 Apr 3, From Nassau,
Bahamas, a British magistrate wrote that 193 shipwrecked African
slaves from the ship Trouvadore were found naked on the shores of
the East Caicos Island. The slaves were then quarantined in a jail
and given food and clothing. The accident set free the slaves who
became ancestors of many later residents of the islands. In 2004 the
wreck was found and in 2008 marine archaeologists identified it as
the remains of the slave ship.
(AP, 8/21/04)(AP, 11/26/08)
1852 A new lighthouse was built
at the tip of Grand Turk island, at the bottom of the Bahamas chain,
as the area thrived from the salt trade.
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.G6)
1986 The constitution of the
Turks and Caicos Islands was suspended following an inquiry into
arson and alleged corruption.
(Econ, 8/22/09, p.34)
1998 Jun 9, Some 30 Haitians
drowned when police in the British Turks and Caicos Islands fired on
a boat jammed with about 100 refugees.
(WSJ, 6/10/98, p.A1)
2003 Apr 24, In the Turks and
Caicos Islands the governing party narrowly held on to power in
elections, giving Chief Minister Derek Taylor an unprecedented third
term.
(AP, 4/25/03)
2003 Aug 7, An opposition party
in the Turks and Caicos, a British territory, won legislative
elections and will return to power after eight years out of office.
(AP, 8/8/03)
2003-2009 The gross domestic product of the Turks
and Caicos Islands, a U.K. territory of 22,000 people, more than
doubled during this period to $750 million, largely through a
resort-building boom under Premier Michael Misick.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2007 May 4, A boat loaded with
Haitian migrants capsized while being towed by a police boat from
the Turks and Caicos Islands. 78 of some 160 people survived.
Haitian migrants later claimed a Turks and Caicos naval vessel
rammed their crowded sailboat twice before it capsized.
(AP, 5/4/07)(SFC, 5/5/07, p.A8)(AP, 5/8/07)
2008 Apr, The Nikki Beach
Resort & Spa opened In the Turks and Caicos Islands. In 2009 the
exclusive resort that catered to celebrities and offered personal
butlers and a pillow menu closed after less than two years of
operation.
(AP, 9/12/09)
2008 Sep 6, Hurricane Ike
barreled toward the Turks and Caicos as a powerful Category 3 storm,
prompting an exodus of tourists and locals from the normally idyllic
Atlantic island chain.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 7, In Haiti at least
58 people died as Ike's winds and rain swept the impoverished
Caribbean nation. Officials also found three more bodies from a
previous storm, raising Haiti's death toll from four tropical storms
in less than a month to 319. A Dominican man was crushed by a
falling tree. Ike damaged most of the homes on Grand Turk island as
it roared onto the Bahamas and threatened the Florida Keys on its
way to Cuba as a ferocious Category 4 storm.
(AP, 9/7/08)(AP, 9/8/08)
2008 Dec 15, A plane from the
Dominican Rep. went missing near the Turks and Caicos Islands that
reportedly had 11 people on board.
(AP, 12/16/08)
2009 Feb 13, Turks and Caicos
Islands jet-setting PM Michael Misick said he will step down as
leader the at the end of March, citing a lack of support for his
scandal-plagued government. Premier Misick reportedly paid himself
more than Britain’s Gordon Brown for running the territory of 36,000
people.
(AP, 2/14/09)(Econ, 2/21/09, p.42)
2009 Mar 23, Michael Misick,
the jet-setting premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands, resigned, a
week earlier than expected, following an investigation that found
"clear signs" of corruption in the eight-island British dependency.
His successor as premier, Galmo Williams, won a 3-way fight to lead
the ruling Progressive National Party at a convention in early
March.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Aug 14, Britain removed
Michael Misick, the elected premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands
as well as the cabinet and assembly due to systemic corruption. The
constitution was suspended for 2 years and the population of 38,000
would be run for the next 2 years by a governor representing Queen
Elizabeth.
(Econ, 8/22/09, p.34)
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Subject = Turks and Caicos
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