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1st
1944
Alexander Bustamante may not be able to vote in the
first General Election being held under the new Constitution
which he campaigned so fervently for. He has neglected to
legally change his name from Clarke.
1980
Edward Seaga is sworn in as Jamaica's fifth Prime
Minister.
1994
The Gleaner newspaper appoints it's first woman
Editor-in-Chief, Wyvolyn Gager.
2nd
1942 The new boys' preparatory school,
Campion
Hall, is opened on Old Hope Rd. It will be run
under the supervision of the priests of the Society of
Jesus.
1957
Names of 1400 children who have won "Free Places"
to high and secondary schools under the new Common
Entrance exam are published.
1971
Trevor Rhone's "Smile Orange" opens at the Barn
Theatre.
3rd
1960 Construction starts at Tom Redcam Avenue for the
Little Theatre.
4th
1944 Mary Morris Knibb announces her candidacy as a
legislator in the upcoming General Elections. If elected,
she will be the first woman legislator in Jamaica. The
elections will be the first in which all women over 21 will
be eligible to vote. Previously women had to prove literacy
and be over 25.
1947
Alexander Bustamante is elected the new Mayor of Kingston.
1980
Sir Kenneth Blackburne, who had served as the first Governor
General of independent Jamaica, dies in the U. K. at the age of
75.
1981
Bob Marley is baptised Berhane Selassie in the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church in Miami.
5th
1940 American President Roosevelt arrives in Jamaica to view
the sites acquired by the US government at Portland Bight in
Clarendon where US Naval and Air bases will be built. The
location will be known as Vernam Field.
1963
A Rape Bill is enacted which provides a minimum sentence of
10 years and a maximum of life, as well as flogging, for
the crime if committed with a weapon or during the
commission of housebreaking or burglary.
7th
1909 A record 78.5 inches of rainfall in three days has been
measured at Silver Hill in St Andrew.
1963
Miss Jamaica, Carol Joan Crawford, wins the Miss World
title. She is the first Jamaican (and first West Indian) to do
so.
8th
1941 Beverley Lois Anderson (Beverly Manley ) is born.
1965
Dr George Locke, Jamaican surgeon and graduate of the
University College of the West Indies, takes part in an
historical operation in Cleveland, Ohio. The team of doctors
transplant a live brain from one dog to another in an effort
to open the way for treatment of certain brain diseases.
9th
1966 The inaugural meeting of the Family Planning Advisory
Committee takes place at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital.
Chairman is Dr Leslie Williams.
11th
1935 P.H. Huffstead; watchmaker, born and trained in
Jamaica; and now working for the New York Rapid Transit
Company, invents a clock which tells accurate time in nine
cities simultaneously. One of the cities is, of course,
Kingston. This clock will be installed in New York's Grand
Central Station.
1957
A new Constitution is proclaimed by Governor Sir Hugh Foote
and Internal Self-Government comes into being. Under the
new system, a Council of Ministers will be presided over by
a Premier rather than the Governor presiding over a Chief
Minister and members of the legislature. Premier-Designate
is Norman Manley.
12th
1909 A hurricane passing to the east of the Island has
caused unprecedented flooding over the past 8 days with
rainfall as much as 103 inches falling in Farm Hill, St
Thomas. Constant Spring records 44.61 inches and Hope,
49.09.
1960
Construction begins on the first cottage in the new tourist
resort of Negril.
14th
1965 The first hotel in Negril, The Sundowner, is declared
open.
15th
1945 The first batch of 150 Jamaicans who served with the
RAF during WWII, arrive home on the hospital ship, Lady
Nelson.
1964
Marcus Garvey's body, which has been returned home, is
buried with great ceremony at the George VI Memorial Park,
soon to be renamed National Heroes Park.
17th
1720
John Rackham, "Calico Jack", and his crew are
tried and condemned to death for piracy. The two women,
Mary Reade and Anne Bonney, are sentence instead to
imprisonment as they both claim to be pregnant.
1939
Radio station VP5 PZ is officially inaugurated by Governor Sir
Arthur Richards. The station, which has been donated by ham
operator John Girvan, will be on air from 5:00 to 7:00pm
nightly to keep people informed of War news, food prices
and hurricane warnings.
1967
Attorney-at-Law, PJ Patterson is sworn in as a Senator to
succeed Viv Blake, who has retired.
18th
1720 John Rackham, "Calico Jack", is executed at
Gallows Point, Port Royal and his body is left to the
elements on Deadman's Cay (now Rackham Cay). The bodies of
three of his men, executed
with him, are left at Plumb Point, Bush Cay and Gun Cay.
21st
1845 The first train in Jamaica makes it's first trip from
Kingston to Spanish Town on the first railway built
outside of Europe and North America, with the Governor and other dignitaries on
board. The driver is fined four shillings for exceeding the
speed limit of 20 mph.
1956
Councillor William S. Vernon becomes the first Mayor of
Montego Bay.
23rd
1982
Asafa Powell is born in Spanish Town, the youngest
child of two Ministers of Religion.
26th
1904 The first photograph to appear in a Jamaican newspaper
appears in The Gleaner in an ad for JA McNeish
& Co.
27th
1942 A proclamation declaring any bauxite worked in Jamaica
is to become the property of the Crown and be disposed of
as the Governor sees fit confirms the rumour that bauxite
has been discovered in Jamaica.
28th
1800 An iron bridge destined to span the Rio Cobre near
Spanish Town is loaded on the ship "Ellison". Once
erected, it will be the first of it's type in the Americas.
29th
1939 A German flag sent from Berlin for the local consul
is confiscated and delivered to the Custodian of Enemy
Property. The not yet appointed consul, Theo Devers, has been
interned at Up Park Camp as an enemy alien.
1944
One hundred and thirty candidates are nominated to contest
the first General Elections under Universal Adult Suffrage
giving all Jamaicans over 21 the right to vote. Twenty-nine
will represent the
Jamaica Labour Party, nineteen the
People's National Party
and nine the Jamaica Democratic
Party. The rest will run as independents.
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