Timeline Belize
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Formerly British Honduras. It is about the size of
Massachusetts. Five distinct cultures co-exist: Garinagu (Garifuna),
Creole, Mestizo, Mayan and Mennonite. The government while promoting
ecotourism is in the process of giving every Belizian 40 acres of
farmland. The Cockscomb area is a 102,000 acre nature preserve.
(WSJ, 5/10/96, p.B-8)(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.T3)
562AD Mayans
from the city of Ah Witz Na conquered Tikal.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.T3)
1660 Bartholomew Sharpe, a
British pirate, turned Belize into a base to harvest logwood.
British buccaneers settled the coast.
(SFC, 11/2/00, p.A12)
c1720 The 1st recorded African
slaves were brought to Belize in the 1720s to help harvest logwood.
(SFC, 11/2/00, p.A12)
1783 Sep 3, Spain, in the
Treaty of Versailles, recognized British rights to cut logwood in
Belize between the Hondo and Belize Rivers.
(HNQ, 7/19/98)(SFC, 11/2/00, p.A12)
1820 Jul 10, Captain Jairus of
the USRC Louisiana captured four pirate ships off Belize.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_31_August_1819)
c1820 The Garinagu, descendants of African slaves
and Caribbean Indians, fled to Belize in the 1820s from the Bay
Islands of Honduras.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.T3)
1832 The Garifuna (Garinagu)
arrived in British Honduras (later Belize). They were descendants of
the Black Caribbeans who were first deported from St Vincent in
1797. This is celebrated every year on Nov 19 as Garifuna Settlement
Day. The holiday was created by Thomas Vincent Ramos, Belizean civil
rights activist, in 1941 and was declared a national holiday in
1977.
(http://tinyurl.com/mqm6euc)(SSFC, 11/3/13, p.P6)
1859 A treaty between Britain
and Guatemala defined the boundaries of Belize.
(SFC, 11/2/00, p.A12)
1862 The Baymen, named after
the Bay of Honduras, sought protection from their Spanish-speaking
neighbors as a British colony, British Honduras.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.T3)
1863 Pres. Lincoln granted a
British agent permission to recruit volunteers for a Belize colony.
(AP, 3/4/11)
1871 Belize was declared a
Crown Colony.
(SFC, 11/2/00, p.A12)
1936 The Mayan city of Caracol
was discovered.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.T3)
1940 Guatemala declared the
1859 treaty void and reasserted its claim to Belize.
(SFC, 11/2/00, p.A12)
1950-1960 Mennonites from Canada emigrated to
Belize in search of religious freedom. Some still speak Low German.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.T3)
1959 Belize and Guatemala
signed a border treaty
(AP, 9/19/02)
1961 Hurricane Hattie destroyed
much of Belize City. The capital was moved inland to Belmopan in
response.
(SFC, 10/8/01, p.B2)
1973 British Honduras legally
changed its name to Belize.
(SFC, 11/2/00, p.A12)
1974 Sep 18, Hurricane Fifi
struck Honduras with 110 mph winds and killed about 8,000. The
hurricane made landfall as a Category 2 storm in Belize on the next
day, and continued through Guatemala and Mexico as a tropical
system. After weakening to a depression, Fifi emerged into the
Pacific Ocean, becoming the first crossover storm since Hurricane
Irene-Olivia in 1971.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Fifi-Orlene)
1981 Sep 21, Belize under
leader George Price (1919-2011) gained independence from Britain and
joined the UN under protests from Guatemala. As head of the centrist
People's United Party, Price served two terms as prime minister,
1981-84 and 1989-1993.
(www.belizenet.com/bzeguat/chap10.html)(AP,
9/19/11)
1989 The Mayan cave site
Chechem Ha was discovered.
(Via, 3-4/99, p.59)
1990 Belize legislation was
drafted to privatize the ship-registry industry and the registration
of off-shore companies. The draft was made by lawyers of Mr.
Ashcroft’s BHI Corp., the largest company in Belize.
(WSJ, 9/19/96, p.A14)
1991 Guatemala recognized the
independence of Belize and established full diplomatic relations.
(SFC, 11/2/00, p.A12)
1993 The Terra Nova Medical
Reserve was established as the world’s 1st ethno-biomedical forest
reserve in western Belize. It was the brainchild of Rosita Arvigo of
Chicago.
(AM, 7/01, p.2,34)
1996 Don Elijio, a Mopan Maya
h’men (doctor-priest), died at age 103.
(AM, 7/01, p.35)
1997 The population of
Belize was about 230,000.
(WSJ, 5/10/96, p.B-8)
1998 Oct 5, It was reported
that Orange Walk, a town of 14,000, was overrun by crack cocaine
addicts known as “sprungheads.”
(SFC, 10/5/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 9, The body of
Sherilee Nichols (13) was found along Western Highway with 40 stab
wounds and evidence of rape.
(SFC, 9/23/99, p.A13)
1998 Oct 27, Hurricane Mitch
cut through the western Caribbean, pummeling coastal Honduras and
Belize; the storm caused several thousand deaths in Central America
in the days that followed.
(AP, 10/27/99)
1998 Nov 8, The body of
Samantha Gordon (15) was found floating naked in the sea.
(SFC, 9/23/99, p.A13)
1998 Said Musa took office as
prime minister of Belize.
(Econ, 8/28/04, p.31)
1999 Mar 24, The body of Jackie
Malic (12) was found along Western Highway with her hand cut off.
About the same time the body of Becky Gilharry (13) was found dead
on the grounds of the Santa Rita Mayan ruin in Corozal.
(SFC, 9/23/99, p.A13)
1999 Apr, The body of Jay
Blades (9) was found.
(SFC, 9/23/99, p.A13)
1999 Jun 22, A skull and bones
identified as the remains of Erica Wills (9) was found behind a
quarry.
(SFC, 9/23/99, p.A13)
1999 Jun, In Orange Walk the
body of Karen Cruz (10) was found with signs of rape at a stadium
near her home.
(SFC, 9/23/99, p.A13)
1999 Belize troops killed 2
Guatemalan civilians in a disputed border area.
(SFC, 11/2/00, p.A12)
2000 May 30, Three crew members
of the Maria Estela skiff, enroute from Guatemala to Belize, killed
at least 5 people and threw survivors overboard into the Gulf of
Honduras. 3 of 10 passengers survived.
(SFC, 6/2/00, p.A15)
2000 Guatemala officials
claimed that the British mistakenly awarded to Belize some 4,739
square miles of Guatemalan territory.
(SFC, 11/2/00, p.A12)
2001 Aug 2, Belize agreed to
conserve 23,000 acres in exchange for the cancellation of a US debt
that included $1.4 million in debt relief and $10 million savings in
interest payments over 26 years.
(SFC, 8/3/01, p.D3)
2001 Oct 9, Hurricane Iris hit
Belize with 140 mph winds. 17 members of a Virginia diving club and
2 local sailors were confirmed dead with 3 missing. Winds nearing
200 mph left 20 people dead.
(WSJ, 10/10/01, p.A1)(SFC, 10/10/01, p.A17)(SFC,
10/11/01, p.A21)
2002 Sep 17, The foreign
secretaries of Belize and Guatemala announced a proposed border
settlement in their countries. The proposal retains the border
between the two countries established in a 1959 treaty, which
Guatemala has rejected, and suggests a series of measures aimed at
sharing resources.
(AP, 9/19/02)
2004 Aug, It was reported that
the Belize state pension fund had shelled out over $3 million to
cover debt guarantees to a company owned by a former government
minister. Half the cabinet resigned and demanded the resignation of
finance minister Ralph Fonseca. PM Musa took over the finance
portfolio, brought the rebel ministers back in and gave Fonseca new
responsibilities.
(Econ, 8/28/04, p.31)
2005 Jan 21, In Belize a 2-day
strike ended to protest a lawmakers vote to approve tax hikes
opposed by a majority of the country's 250,000 people. Some 500
protesters clashed with police in front of Belize's House of
Representatives.
(AP, 1/22/05)
2005 Mar 3, The seven Central
American nations (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama) agreed to create a rapid-response
force to combat drug trafficking, terrorism and other regional
threats.
(AP, 3/3/05)
2005 Apr 15, Belize
Telecommunications Limited (BTL) suffered an apparent act of
sabotage which left the entire country without any phone, Internet
or fax services. Unfortunately, BTL was unable to restore its
services for the entire weekend, leaving Belize completely stranded.
(www.sanpedrosun.net/old/05-161.html)(Econ,
4/30/05, p.34)
2005 Sep 6, Nine countries:
Antigua, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Dominica, Suriname, St. Kitts, St.
Vincent and the Dominican Republic, signed oil deals with Venezuela
in Jamaica. Cuba and Jamaica had previously signed. Chavez urged
Caribbean governments to consider Cuba-style socialism as an
alternative to capitalism.
(AP, 9/11/05)
2005 Oct 24, Abigail Brinkman
(28), of Columbus, Ind., died and three companions spent three days
floating in the stormy Caribbean off Belize after their weekend
diving trip went awry.
(AP, 10/26/05)
2005 Nov 13, In Belize Julia
Armstrong Minard (20), daughter of the late Lawrence Minard, a
former managing editor of Forbes magazine and founding editor of
Forbes Global magazine, was found dead in the Mayan town of Indian
Creek. Police on Nov 17 charged Agripo Ical (19) with killing
Minard.
(AP, 11/17/05)
2005 Nov 20, Tropical Storm
Gamma weakened into a tropical depression after it deluged the
Central American coast, killing 14 people in Honduras and Belize. 2
US newlyweds were among the dead in Belize.
(AP, 11/20/05)(WSJ, 11/22/05, p.A1)
2006 Jul 11, Central American
presidents agreed on a plan to ease border controls and install a
common customs system on the way to negotiating an eventual
free-trade agreement with the EU. The agreement signed by Panama,
Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Belize
would allow residents to cross borders without passports or visas.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2008 Jan 19, Andy Palacio (47),
Belize musician, died in Belize City. His 2007 album “Watina” was
acclaimed as one of the best world music releases of the year.
(SFC, 1/22/08, p.B5)
2008 Feb 7, Belize's opposition
United Democratic Party won a landslide victory in general
elections, ending PM Said Musa's 10 years in office. UDP leader Dean
Barrow was to be sworn in as the country's first black prime
minister the next day.
(AP, 2/8/08)(Econ, 2/16/08, p.44)
2008 May 31, Tropical Storm
Arthur the first named storm of the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season,
kicked up surf when it made landfall at the Belize-Mexico border and
headed west.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 3, Belize PM Dean
Barrow declared a disaster area in southern Stann Creek Valley as
flash flooding carried away houses and ripped a child from his
father's grasp. Falling trees killed two people in Honduras, raising
the death toll from Central America's twin tropical storms this week
to at least nine.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2009 May 28, In Belize and
Honduras a magnitude 7.1 earthquake collapsed more than two dozen
homes, killing at least 6 people and injuring 40 others as terrified
people ran into the streets in towns across much of Central America.
(AP, 5/28/09)
2009 Aug 25, In Belize PM Dean
Barrow rushed thru the nationalization of Belize Telemedia, the
country’s dominant telecommunications company, and appointed a new
board of directors. This was seen locally as an escalation in
Barrow’s long standing dispute with Michael Ashcroft, a British peer
with interests in Belize Bank. In 2011 Belize’s Court of appeal
ruled that the nationalization was unconstitutional.
(Econ, 10/24/09,
p.41)(http://tinyurl.com/ykson7t)(Econ, 7/2/11, p.30)
2010 Feb 26, In Belize a
single-engine aircraft crashed. Michael and Jill Casey of Albany,
NY, and their two young children died in the accident on the island
of San Pedro along with former senator and bottling magnate Sir
Barry Bowen as the group headed to a fundraising event hosted by
Bowen. The Caseys taught at a school in northwestern Belize owned by
Bowen.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 May 11, The government of
Belize said it will stop sending appeals cases to the colonial-era
British Privy Council starting June 1. The Trinidad-based Caribbean
Court of Justice will hear all Belize court appeals filed after May
31.
(AP, 5/11/10)
2010 Oct 26, In Belize the body
of Bruce Cullerton, an American who also held Belizean citizenship,
was found. He had been killed by a 30-pound (59 kilogram) jaguar,
that had escaped from its cage last week during Hurricane Richard.
Max, the jaguar, was recaptured and euthanized On Oct 27.
(AP, 10/27/10)
2010 Nov 13, In Belize a small
plane made a bold midnight landing on a highway to drop off cocaine.
Authorities seized 2 tons of cocaine and also detained five officers
thought to have cordoned off a section of the road so the
twin-engine Beechcraft could land. Authorities found 80 bales of
cocaine in a village near the highway.
(AP, 11/17/10)
2011 Jun 22, In Guatemala the
World Bank unveiled a billion-dollar plan to fund security measures
in Central America, amid other hundred-million-dollar pledges from
donors bidding to cut a wave of drug gang-related violence sweeping
the region. The announcement came as leaders of Belize, Costa Rica,
El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama attended the
Central American Security Conference aiming to curb crime fueled by
a spillover from Mexico's war on drug cartels.
(AFP, 6/22/11)
2011 Sep 15, The US White House
added Belize and El Salvador to its list of drug producing and
transit countries, placing for the first time all seven Central
American countries on the list.
(SFC, 9/16/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 19, Belize's founding
father and first prime minister, George Price (92), died just short
of three decades since he led the small Central American nation to
independence.
(AP, 9/20/11)
2011 Nov 9, In Belize Larry
Johnson (68), a retired chiropractor from New Mexico, was killed
during a home invasion at the Iguana Creek Resort he owned, 60 miles
west of Belize City. Police soon detained several people for
questioning.
(AP, 11/14/11)
2012 Nov 11, In Belize Gregory
Viant Faull, an expatriot American from Florida, was found shot dead
at his beach front home in San Pedro Town on Ambergris Caye. Police
said John McAfee (67), founder of the McAfee anti-virus software,
was a person of interst in the case.
(SFC, 11/13/12, p.A1)
2012 Dec 3, Software company
founder John McAfee, wanted for questioning in connection with the
killing of a fellow American ex-pat, said he has left Belize and is
still on the run. He escaped to Guatemala and requested asylum.
(AP, 12/3/12)(SFC, 12/5/12, p.E1)
2012 Dec 5, Guatemala police
arrested software company founder John McAfee for entering the
country illegally, ending his bizarre weekslong journey as a
blogging fugitive claiming to be persecuted by authorities in
Belize.
(AP, 12/6/12)
2012 Dec 12, Guatemala released
John McAfee from a detention center and put him on a plan for Miami.
Authorities in Belize had sought McAfee for questioning about the
November slaying of neighbor Gregory Faull.
(SFC, 12/13/12, p.A7)
2013 May 13, Belize authorities
said a construction company has essentially destroyed the Nohmul
complex, one of the country’s largest Mayan pyramids, with backhoes
and bulldozers to extract crushed rock for a road-building project.
The ceremonial center dated back at least 2,300 years.
(AP, 5/14/13)
2014 Mar 24, The EU approved
sanctions and said it will no longer import any fish caught by
vessels from Cambodia, Belize and Guinea, accusing their governments
of failing to cooperate in fighting illegal fishing.
(AP, 3/24/14)
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