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| | | The Ciboney, Arawak and the Carib Indians first inhabited Jamaica | |
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| | 1492 | The island was not discovered by Europeans until Christopher Columbus first landed in the New World | |
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| | 1509 | The Spanish claim the Island Many of the indigenous Arawak community dies off from exposure to European diseases African slaves shipped from Africa to work on the sugar plantations | |
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| | 1500's | 1500-1600's: The Spanish were harassed by the native Caribs and by pirates and buccaneers who attacked the Spanish galleons which were carrying riches back to Spain. The pirates who operated in the Islands included Blackbeard, Anne Bonny, Henry Morgan, Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake | |
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| | 1655 | Jamaica is seized by the British. | |
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| | 1670 | Treaty of Madrid: Jamaica formally cedes to the British Jamaica became the world's largest sugar exporting nation with the massive use of imported African slave labor. The sugar plantations, worked by African slaves, lead to a slave trading and slave auctions | |
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| | 1692 | The Jamaican capital Port Royal destroyed by an earthquake Spanish Town becomes the new capital. Kingston was founded | |
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| | 1838 | Slavery abolished | |
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| | 1865 | Morant Bay rebellion: Freed slaves are quelled in their rebellion against the British Jamaica becomes a crown colony | |
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| | 1870 | Banana plantations set up as the sugar cane industry declines | |
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| | 1884 | New constitution adopted | |
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| | 1938 | Serious riots and People's National Party (PNP) founded by Norman Manley. | |
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| | 1939 | 1939-1945 WW2 | |
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| | 1945 | August 1945 The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki | |
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| | 1958 - | Jamaica becomes a member of the Federation of the West Indies. | |
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| | 1961 | Jamaican withdrawal from the Federation of the West Indies. | |
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| | 1962 | Jamaican Independence: Jamaica becomes independent within the British Commonwealth Alexander Bustamante elected prime minister. | |
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| | 1972 | Michael Manley becomes prime minister for the PNP | |
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| | 1980 | Edward Seaga becomes prime minister and the US grants the government substantial aid as the country distances itself from Cuba | |
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| | 1988 | Hurricane Gilbert | |
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| | 1989 | Michael Manley returns as prime minister. | |
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| | 1992 | Manley retires and is succeeded as Prime Minister by Percival J Patterson. | |
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| | 1999 | July: The army patrols Kingston following a massive increase in crime. | |
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| | 2004 | September: Hurricane Ivan | |
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| | 2006 | February: Portia Simpson Miller is elected head of PNP March: Portia Simpson Miller becomes Jamaica's first female PM in March. | |
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