Timeline Barbados
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Barbados is an island in the East Lesser Antilles
in the East West Indies. It is a British colony whose capital is
Bridgetown. It is 161 sq. miles with a 1960 population of 231,785.
Those from Barbados call themselves Bajans.
(WUD, 1994, p.118)(SFC, 4/25/98, p.E3)
1627
Barbados was uninhabited as the first English
settlers arrived. Sugarcane fields later began to cover the island,
a 14 x 21 mile stack of coral terraces.
(http://globaledge.msu.edu/countries/Barbados/history/)(NH, 12/96,
p.35)(Econ, 6/16/12, p.91)
1650 St. Nicholas Abbey was
built as a plantation house in the Jacobean style.
(SFEC, 2/15/98, p.T10)
1668 Oct 23, Jews of Barbados
were forbidden to engage in retail trade.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1751 Sep 28, George Washington.
As a young man of 19, George Washington accompanied his sick older
half-brother Lawrence to Barbados in 1751. Lawrence had been advised
that the island’s climate might help restore his ill health. The
brothers left Virginia on September 28 and arrived at Bridgetown,
Barbados, November 3. George, who survived the smallpox while in
Barbados, left Lawrence on December 21 and arrived back in Virginia
on January 28, 1752.
(HNQ, 12/16/99)
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)
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)
1966 Nov 30, The former British
colony of Barbados became independent.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(AP, 11/30/97)
1970 May 17, Thor Heyerdahl
(1914-2002), Norwegian anthropologist, left Morocco aboard Ra II, a
papyrus reed boat, and sailed 3,270 nautical miles across the
Atlantic to Barbados in 57 days [see Jul 12].
(SFC, 4/19/02,
p.A2)(www.spiritus-temporis.com/thor-heyerdahl/)
1970 Jul 12, Thor Heyerdahl,
Norwegian ethnographer, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in "Ra" and
docked in Barbados.
(www.shipsonstamps.org/Topics/html/kontiki.htm)
1970s Barbados established its
financial industry with help from the IMF.
(Econ, 2/24/07, SR p.6)
1984 Jan 15, Police raided the
vacation home of Paul and Linda McCartney (1941-1998) following a
tip. Both were arrested on possession of cannabis.
(http://leftofcentrist.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html)
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)
2000 Sep 11, In Barbados
officials at a conference on AIDS in the Caribbean pledged $120
million to fight the disease.
(SFC, 9/13/00, p.A13)
2002 Oct 4, In Barbados
delegations from Russia, Cuba, South Africa, Colombia and France's
overseas territories abandoned an anti-racism conference that voted
to exclude whites saying they'll have no part in discrimination. The
walkout, on the fourth day of the six-day African and African
Descendants World Conference Against Racism, came after a day of
negotiations failed. Some 200 delegates had voted Wednesday for
whites and Asians to leave the deliberations, saying slavery was too
painful a subject to discuss in front of non-Africans.
(AP, 10/5/02)
2003 May 21, In Barbados PM
Owen Arthur's governing Labor Party won elections in a landslide
victory that secured the party 23 seats in the legislature. The
opposition Democratic Labor Party won seven seats in the 30-seat
Parliament.
(AP, 5/22/03)
2004 Sep 9, Hurricane Ivan grew
into the deadliest of storms overnight, packing winds of 160 mph as
it made a beeline for Jamaica after pummeling Grenada, Barbados and
other islands, causing at least 20 deaths. Police in Grenada battled
looters.
(AP, 9/9/04)(WSJ, 9/9/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/10/04,
p.A1)
2004 Sep 13, In Barbados a
Canadian woman drowned in floodwaters from Hurricane Ivan. At least
372 homes were damaged or destroyed. Most hotels are open, though
some sustained damage. The airport is open. A cruise ship terminal
was damaged but quickly reopened.
(AP, 9/14/04)
2004 Oct 4, Tiger Woods married
Swedish model Elin Nordegren in Barbados.
(AP, 10/5/05)
2005 Mar 30, Inmates of
Barbados' lone prison set fires and battled guards and each other
for a second day, leaving one prisoner dead and eight injured.
(AP, 3/30/05)
2005 Dec 8, In Barbados leaders
of Caribbean nations held a summit to discuss health care
cooperation and cultural exchanges, but a major focus was on Cuba
and its thorny relationship with the United States.
(AP, 12/08/05)
2006 Nov 8, In Barbados the new
Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice, in its first death
penalty ruling, dismissed an appeal by the Barbados government that
sought to restore execution orders for two convicted murderers.
(AP, 11/8/06)
2007 Jan, In Barbados the
George Washington House and Museum was completed following an 8-year
restoration project. The site stood just outside Bridgetown.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, p.G2)
2008 Jan 15, Barbados held
elections. The opposition swept to power, winning at least 20 of the
30 seats in Barbados' legislature. David Thompson led the Democratic
Labor Party back to power and inherited a public debt equal to 88%
of GDP.
(AP, 1/16/08)(Econ, 1/19/08, p.40)
2008 Oct 15, In Barbados 13
Caribbean countries approved a new Economic partnership Agreement
(EPA) with the EU.
(Econ, 10/18/08, p.50)
2010 Sep 3, In Barbados 2 men
burst into a clothing store in downtown Bridgetown and demanded
money before setting the building on fire and killing at least 6
people. On Sep 13 Police said 2 men, Renaldo Anderson Alleyne (21)
and Jamar Bynoe (19), had been arrested and charged with six counts
of murder, aggravated burglary, and arson in the attack. The island
has not executed anyone since 1984. On June 1, 2011, Alleyne pleaded
guilty to six counts of manslaughter. Bynoe faced similar charges
but his case had not yet gone to trial.
(AP, 9/5/10)(AP, 9/13/10)(AP, 6/2/11)
2010 Oct 23, Barbados PM David
Thompson (48) died following a struggle with pancreatic cancer.
Thompson had become PM of the Caribbean nation of 270,000 people in
Jan 2008.
(AP, 10/23/10)
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Subject = Barbados
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