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Bermuda's History from 1952 to 1999

Significant news events in the final half of the 20th century

By Keith Archibald Forbes (see About Us) at e-mail exclusively for Bermuda Online

When referring to this web file, use "bermuda-online.org/history1952-1999.htm" as your Subject

1952-1999

1952. Last visit to Bermuda of the Canadian Ladyboats "Lady Nelson" and "Lady Rodney." They were sold to an Egyptian shipping company.

1952. Bumping over the old barge bridge became a thing of the past in late 1952 when Kindley AFB's new Long Bird Bridge, built entirely and solely by the US Military at US taxpayers' expense, was officially opened. (Technically, at that time, it was part of what had been since 1941 the leased Kindley Air Force Base of the US Army Air Corps, later the USAF). 

1952. Among the Bermudian members of the Kindley Air Force Base Flying Club was Sidney Stallard. He flew a Piper Cub and used his flying jaunts to take many photos of the Island.

1952. The Bermuda Public Services Union (BPSU) was established. The founding members were all Heads of Government Departments who included: Mr. Ralph Gauntlett, O.B.E., E.D. Collector of Customs; Mr. Martin Godet, Senior Magistrate: and Mr. Donald J. Williams, Inspector of Schools. A statement issued on behalf of the group said, "Recognizing the importance of its Civil Service establishments to the smooth and efficient operation of any country, and being gravely concerned over the fact that it was becoming increasingly difficult to induce qualified young men and women to enter the Civil Service of Bermuda, and what that portends, a number of civil servants met some months ago to consider the situation."

1952. December 6. Cubana's "Estrella de Oriente" ("Star of the East") DC-4 registration CU-T397 from Madrid crashed in Bermuda on its way to Havana, shortly (3 miles) after leaving Bermuda. Many died, including Capt. René Ayala, who commanded the aircraft. A dramatic rescue operation was mounted from Kindley AFB Bermuda to save the passengers of the stricken Cubana Airlines aircraft which took off from the Civil Air Terminal but crashed into the waters of Castle Harbour at the end of the runway at about 4.30 pm. Bermuda had been well prepared for such a rescue operation, due to the previous establishment at Kindley Air Force Base of crash boats imported and operated especially for such an emergency. Two US servicemen on board the 35-foot crash boat that went out to rescue the aircraft's passengers heard faint screams coming from the dark, oil-slicked water. They leapt overboard without lifelines or preservers, in an attempt to rescue the passengers. But despite their heroic efforts, and those of others, in rescuing four people, the balance of the passengers and crew of the stricken aircraft - some thirty seven people in all - perished from wounds incurred in the crash.

Cubana's Estrella de Oriente DC4 before her crash

1953. April. A Bermuda Parliamentary Select Committee on Race Relations was appointed and met to consider the race question. The group consisted of  black and white Members of the Colonial Parliament. They met on an irregular basis  for eight months and reported to the House in late January 1954. Their remit included consideration of occupational opportunities for blacks in government service, institutions subsidized by the government and those in the private sector. They noted segregation in government and aided, non-governmental and unaided organizations, Trade Development Policy toward colored visitors and more. But nothing significant was done. 

1953. Lois Browne-Evans became Bermuda’s first female, black lawyer.

1953. Iridomvrmexhumilis (the Argentine ant) was accidentally introduced to Bermuda, in imported nursery plants.

1953. June 2. Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey, London. Bermuda sent a delegation.

1953. July. Edwin McDavid, the black President of the State Council and Minister of State for British Guiana (later, Guyana), arrived in Bermuda with his wife by accident. The BOAC aircraft carrying him (and his wife) to London to be knighted by the Queen had to make an unscheduled atop in Bermuda, owing to engine trouble. As Bermuda's Inn Keepers Act of 1930 did not allow Jews or Negroes or Catholics to enter a white hotel or  guesthouse, only at the black Imperial Hotel, they were not allowed entry at the St. George Hotel, like other passengers. McDavid and his wife protested this by returning to the airport where they spent the night sleeping on benches in the airport lounge. The same thing had happened a little earlier to the black Speaker of the Barbados House of Assembly, bound for London for the same reason, who also went from Barbados via Bermuda. The six black Members of Bermuda'a Colonial Parliament sent a letter of protest to the Governor, but it did not result in any remedial action.

1953. The Shell Co. of Bermuda purchased a site on East Broadway for the purpose of constructing a modern service station. Holmes, Williams and Purvey (HWP) immediately started negotiating with a view to being appointed as Managers, and with the completion of the station early in 1953 were informed they had been successful. It began HWP's partnership with Shell.

1953. Despite the limited property-based franchise, nine of the black candidates contesting seats in the general election were returned as members of the House of Assembly.

1953. Death in Bermuda at the age of 81 of John J. Bushell, whose Bermuda handbook tourist guide made him a unique local resource.

1953. Bermuda was established as a separate Catholic Church entity, which eventually led to Bermuda becoming its own diocese and to have its own Bishop. Prior to 1953, from 1853, Bermuda was a mission of Halifax, Nova Scotia, the Archdiocese. During those 100 years, the Archdiocese would regularly send down priests and bishops to minister to Catholics on the island.

1953. Members of the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps had their photograph taken (see below) while at Dockyard, with Seeward S. Toddings, Chairman of the Defence Board, present.

Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC), Bermuda's then segregated (white) unit of the local armed forces, at Dockyard with Defence Board Chairman Seward S. Toddings. Photo kindly loaned by his step-daughter Cindy Olden specifically for this Bermuda Online web file as a historical photo.

1953. On November 23, only five months after her glittering Coronation in London, with the world-wide publicity it generated, Bermuda received its first visit - a 24-hour stay - from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, daughter of Britain's and Bermuda's last ever King-Emperor, George VI. Bermuda was her first stop on her 173-day Commonwealth Coronation Tour. The new royal yacht Britannia was not quite ready, so the couple flew to Bermuda on a especially-furnished British Overseas Airways Corporation  (BOAC) Stratocruiser "Canopus." It was the first occasion that a reigning British monarch had ever visited Britain's oldest colony. With her was her Greek-born Consort, His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.  The royal couple were greeted by his Excellency the Governor, Lieutenant General Sir Alexander Hood. With him were local VIPs including Lady Hood, Miss Rosemary Hood, Wing-Commander John Fountain and Wing-Commander E. M. Ware. Later, the Queen and Duke, flanked by Archdeacon John Stow and the Governor, visited St. Peter's Church in St. George's, the oldest Anglican church in the western hemisphere. The steps of the church were lined by Girl Guides and Brownies. The Queen was greeted by Archdeacon John Stow, rector of St. Peter's, and with him climbed the steps and passed through the portals of the church which has been so closely linked with the history of the Colony. [In 1616 St. Peter's served as the first meeting place of the court of general assize, and within its walls the first General Assembly met in August 1620. The first Crown Governor sent to Bermuda, Sir Robert Robinson, had his first proclamation read in St. Peter's in 1687]. Later, the Queen and Duke went on board the Wilhelmina, which cruised among the islands of Great Sound while luncheon was served. When she left Bermuda, it was to the sound of a bagpipe played by Tommy Aitchison, official piper to the Caledonian Society. After their brief one day Bermuda visit they flew to Jamaica, their next stop, where they boarded the steamship Gothic to New Zealand. Britannia, built on Clydebank at a cost of £1.8million – and designed to be converted into a hospital ship in times of war – would take them home from Tobruk, Libya, after the tour. For months beforehand, UK newspaper snippets appeared about the schedule, weather and transport. The tone was solicitous, almost anxious, perhaps understandably. Elizabeth was the fourth monarch on the throne in less than 20 years and had two young children she would have to leave behind for six months. By departure day, November 23, the headlines in the London press had become a blizzard: “Queen off tonight at 8.45, Weather for first stage favorable”, “Final check up on Stratocruiser”, “4,770 miles in 42 hours with day in Bermuda.” A map of the route was printed. Royal Navy ships were stationed all the way across the Atlantic. Hartnell’s the Queen's dressmakers -  delivered the Queen’s dresses to the Palace: the only details released, for fear of copying, were the colors – candy pink, pale rose, blue, yellow and white – and that some dresses were cotton print and others contained up to 100 yards of tulle. At a state dinner held the next day in honor of the Queen, 30 persons were invited, but not one of them was black. This was duly noted by the UK's Daily Herald newspaper as a deliberate slur of the British Commonwealth's millions of blacks. The newspaper blamed Bermuda's Governor.

Royal Visit November 1953. Bottom two photos kindly loaned this author by Cindy Olden (nee Farnsworth), step-daughter of S. A. Toddings, MCP, who is shown greeting the Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh. They were accompanied by Bermuda's Governor and his aide-de-camp. To the far right are members of the Bermuda Government.

1953. December 4. Bermuda hosted her first Summit Conference when United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and French Premier Joseph Laniel. Messrs. Eisenhower and Churchill had visited Bermuda during World War II, but Bermuda had not yet seen any elected leader of France.. Churchill wanted the meeting because he felt French interest in the proposal hampered the cause of the post-war Western Alliance. He sought a united British, American and French accord against the idea. On the day of his arrival, Premier Laniel visited some leading tourist attractions including the Aquarium and Natural Zoo, Crystal Caves and St. Peter's Church. He incurred a slight mishap when he slipped on the coconut matting leading into the caves, but was caught and righted before he fell. But during the same excursion he contracted a chill which turned into a bad cold, as the result of which his Foreign Minister, M. Georges Bidault, substituted for him for the rest of the conference. For a formal dinner at Bermuda's Government house involving the three prominent participants, Churchill introduced a goat into the room, a military mascot; and smoked cigars. Several days later at least one prominent French newspaper, published in Paris, reported Monsieur Laniel as being frigidly not amused with Churchill's preoccupation with the goat, to the extent of inviting it to dinner with world leaders - and sick to his stomach from what he described as the "stench of the British Bulldog's cigars polluting the atmosphere in the after dinner conference." President Eisenhower, Churchill and Laniel spent four days in Bermuda. Their geopolitical discussions centered mostly on relations with the USSR as the post-war Cold War began to intensify. Within hours of the commencement of the conference came an official note from Moscow which requested, in somewhat brusque terms, a 4 Power meeting involving the Russian leader. Also on the agenda agreed by Churchill and Laniel was a speech President Eisenhower delivered to the full Assembly of the United Nations in New York a few days later.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill greeting President Eisenhower at  the USA's Kindley Air Force Base, Bermuda. Also shown are the Consul-General of the USA in Bermuda and the commander of Kindley Air Force Base. Photo kindly loaned the author by Cindy Olden (nee Farnsworth), step-daughter of S. A. Toddings, MCP, then chairman of the Bermuda Defence Forces.

 Prime Minister Churchill and his party, including Anthony Eden (later, a Prime Minister himself) inspecting the Bermuda Militia Artillery (top photo) and Bermuda Rifles (BVRC - bottom photo) on Front Street. Photos kindly loaned this author by Cindy Olden (nee Farnsworth), step-daughter of S. A. Toddings, MCP, (shown in top photo between the corporal and Anthony Eden), then chairman of the Bermuda Defence Forces.

1954. Bermuda Audubon Society formed in response to marsh dumping.

1954. A Coy Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI) landed in Bermuda for their 1-year stay, from the troopship Empire Clyde.  It was reported in the Mid Ocean News, then owned by SS Toddings, Chairman of the Defence Board. It was the last permanent British Army unit in the Bermuda Garrison based at Prospect Camp. See British Army in Bermuda.

1954. Furness Bermuda issued this poster of its New York to Bermuda service.

1954. Wing Commander E. M. "Mo" Ware, Director of Civil Aviation, bought his 1946 Luscombe 8a Silvaire airplane, originally imported by Hugh Watlington in 1952. Ware, with Jim Babineau and Colin Plant, acquired it from Bermuda Air Tours. At one time the Luscombe had been fitted with a wheeled undercarriage from a Tiger Moth, for flights at Kindley Field.

Wing Commander Ware's Bermuda-based aircraft

1954. July 3. In what became known as the "Bermuda Radar Case" in official reports of the United States Air Force, this report involves official radarscope photos of UFOs off Bermuda, taken that day. Project Blue Book "identified" these as a battleship and six accompanying destroyers but the experienced radar operator stated that the radar returns were definitely unidentified and unlike any ship returns he had ever seen. This report is not listed in the Blue Book "Unknowns." There were radar scope photos of a geometric formation of 7 objects traveling SW [10-50 miles, of 6 disc-shaped objects circled larger disc in the center at low altitude. A B-36 flying over the Atlantic near Bermuda reported receiving peculiar radar returns on an APS-23 radar set. The returns consisted of a clear and well defined circular formation containing 7 and at times 8 objects. The returns were first observed by Capt. Charles C. Spahn, R.O. Spahn had 11 years Air Force service and 3,400 hours flying hours and 1,500 hours as a radar observer. Spahn did not think these returns were ships on the surface. He had tracked a couple of ships just hours before the returns showed up. Spahn said that the shape of the individual returns are not common to ships.

1954. Formation of a small society of avid Bermuda-based orchid lovers that in previous years after World War 2 had met informally at each other's slat houses. It later became Bermuda's Orchid Society.

1954. The Auxiliary Bicycles Act 1954 Act was passed by the Bermuda legislature, making it is an offence to drive or ride an auxiliary cycle on a highway if either the rider or any passenger is not wearing protective headgear. Legislation requires protective headgear to comply with British, US or UN standard regulations.

1955. Lieutenant General Sir John (Dane) Woodall (1897 to 1985) became Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda until 1960. In his service biography he was listed as having joined the Royal Artillery 1915 ; World War I 1915-1918; Gallipoli 1915 ; Staff Capt, Royal Artillery, Salonika and Black Sea 1918-1919; Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, Black Sea 1919 ; Staff Capt, Turkey 1919-1922; Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, Turkey 1922-1924; Instructor in Gunnery, Northern Command 1927-1929; Staff Officer, Royal Artillery, Western Command 1932-1934; Brigade Major, Royal Artillery, Malaya 1934-1936; Instructor, RAF Staff College, 1938 ; World War II 1939-1945; General Staff Officer Grade 1, General Headquarters, British Expeditionary Force (BEF) 1939-1940; Brig, General Staff 1940-1943; Regimental Commander, Royal Artillery 1943 ; Senior Air Staff Officer, Army Co-operation Command, RAF 1943-1944; Deputy Director of Staff Duties, War Office 1944-1946; Director of Manpower, War Office 1946-1949; Vice Adjutant General to the Forces 1949-1952; General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland 1952-1955; retired 1955.

1955. Princess Margaret visited Bermuda.

1955. March 8. New York newspapers carried a story of how the Furness Bermuda Line offered the olive branch a day earlier to the 300 seamen, who walked off the luxury liner Queen of Bermuda the previous Saturday, stranding 560 Bermuda-bound vacationers. It had just released the following poster.

1955. A Coy Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI), who arrived in Bermuda in 1954, paraded for HRH Princess Margaret in Hamilton

HRH Princess Margaret inspecting an Honour Guard at Prospect Garrison, Devonshire, during her 1955 visit to Bermuda. It was formed by "A" Company, 1 Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI). She was escorted by Commanding Officer, Major J. A. Marsh, DSO and Garrison Commander Brigadier J. A. M Rice-Evans.

Members of the DCLI  also paraded at Albouy's Point, in front of the moored cruise ship Queen of Bermuda

1955. June. For several years from this one, the 59th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (Hurricane Hunters) were based in Bermuda, at the USAF's Kindley Air Force Base.

1955. June 1. The US Navy's Naval Facility (NAVFAC) Bermuda was commissioned. It was located on the west end of Bermuda in Southampton Parish, adjacent to the island’s scenic south shore. 

1955. From June to June 1958, James Mathews, stationed in Bermuda for three years at the USA's Kindley Air Force Base, was one of the five technicians who set up and operated the Kindley AFB TV station, ZBK-TV, Bermuda's first. They loaded it at the factory in Michigan City, Indiana, trucked it and then flew it to Bermuda via Dover AFB.

1955. On July 4, Independence Day, American servicemen and their families and friends in Bermuda had a special reason to celebrate. ZBK-TV from Kindley, Bermuda's first television station (no longer in existence) signaled a new era of communications. The audience was officially limited to television receivers in on-base quarters and barracks. But a number of Bermudian families who had equipped themselves with TV sets in hopes of 'catching' the programming were not disappointed in their investment. The signal could be picked up easily in St. George's, Tucker's Town and a few isolated spots even as far away as Harrington Sound, in the vicinity of Flatts. Locals acquired a TV set and could easily receive from their hill-top vantage point the TV signal from Kindley - and periodically invited their neighbors and friends around to watch the American shows, then only in black-and-white, of course. Originally, it had been intended to provide Island-wide TV service and the Bermuda Government had given its permission. But it was discovered that it would not be possible, because the TV footage was then provided by the American TV networks, agencies and unions for transmitting to military forces and their dependents only, not for civilian audiences. TV for the US Navy at Southampton and for all of civilian Bermuda took longer to materialize. American TV engineers who arrived at Kindley were faced with the highly technical problem of trying to restrict transmission to the base area. The USA military audience in Bermuda was exceedingly small, limited to television receivers in on-base quarters and barracks. One of the reasons behind the decision to allow TV to the American military was the fact that the 1,500-plus American service families felt they should not be 'deprived' of TV simply because they were residing in Bermuda, when US bases elsewhere in the world all had TV.  The station was one of the last arrivals in Armed Forces Radio and Television Service outlets installed at American military bases overseas.

1955. Death of Dr. Edgar Fitzgerald Gordon, the man who had organized the Bermuda Workers Association in the 1940's as the forerunner of the Bermuda Industrial Union. Many of Bermuda 's blacks wept at his graveside. That they had a better future was in very large part due to his tireless efforts on their behalf over more than two decades.  

1955. August 14. Death in Kenya of Lieutenant Colonel ("Tupper")  Brooke-Smith, King's Shropshire Light Infantry, when on active service against the Mau Mau in Kenya. 1955. A year of tragedy for a family with strong Bermuda connections. He served as GSO-2 (Adjutant) of the Prospect Garrison in Bermuda from 1949-1952. He was the son-in-law of the late Helen Arnell and brother-in-law of local naval and postal history historian and author Dr. Jack Arnell. He was accidentally shot and killed in 1955 by his own troops in a forest near Nairobi, Kenya, during the Mau Mau uprising. His unit had been posted to Kenya after serving in Bermuda. Brooke Smith’s researches in Bermuda led to the erection and inscriptions of the military monuments at the Prospect Garrison burial ground and the installation at the Prospect Officer’s Mess – later, the Police Club – of a plaque recording briefly what principal British Army units had been based in Bermuda. In 1949, according to an account posted by his brother-in-law Jack Arnell, see below, another account says 1950), then-Major  Brooke-Smith was posted to Bermuda as GSO II to the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda. He previously served at Buckingham Palace, London. He was in Bermuda as a staff officer (not in any way attached to the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry posted there later). He had been commissioned into the KSLI on 30th January 1936. He was appointed temporary Lt Col on 28th June 1945 but reverted to his substantive rank of Major shortly afterwards. In Bermuda, he married a Bermudian, Joyce Arnell, the daughter of Mrs. Helen Arnell. (His brother-in-law was the late author and historian Jack Arnell). He relinquished his appointment in Bermuda in 1952 and returned to 1 KSLI. He took over command of the Battalion in Kenya. In 1956 he walked into an ambush that had been set on a track to lure the Mau Mau. It was speculated in the British press in London that he had been made so deeply unhappy as the result of a domestic situation that he wanted to end his life and entered the ambush trap laid by his men that he was supposed to avoid. He was shot in error by a Bren gunner member of his own unit and died instantly. It was recorded as a tragic accident. He was buried in a civilian cemetery in Nairobi, Kenya, at the request of his wife and family instead of being brought back to the UK for burial. His name is shown, belatedly, on the War Memorial at Bishop Sutton, Shropshire and in 2007 was included on the National Armed Forces Memorial in Staffordshire. One son,  Bruce A. Brooke-Smith, lives in Threeburrows, Blackwater, Truro, Cornwall. There was also a daughter, Philippa, who died some years ago.

1955. Formation of the Bermuda Cadets Pipe Band, so-called because it originated in 1955 as "A" Company of the Bermuda Cadet Corps when Captain Henry Hallett was the Company Commander. (Paddy Coyle of the Gordon Highlanders, whose idea it was to start the Bermuda Cadets Pipe Band, was in the detachment of the  Highland Brigade stationed in Bermuda at the time. In his honor, the band wore the Gordon tartan).

1955. The American "Crunch and Des" TV Series - see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047725/ was filmed in Bermuda.

1955. August. St. George’s Cricket Club narrowly beat the West Indies - by seven runs. The visiting West Indies XI was captained by cricket legend Everton Weekes. The St. George’s team were D. Steede, G. Dyer, W. Smith, L. James, S. Paynter, C. Simmons, A. Hall, St. C. Smith, L. Richardson, F. Trott and C. Welch. The West Indies team players were C. DePeiza, G. Sobers, C. Smith, E. Weekes, C. Sampath, S. Oliver, E. H. C. Griffith, B. Hardinge, C. Skeete, A. Hadeed and A. Maroj.

1955. December 22/23. Hamilton Hotel was destroyed by fire. It was built in 1851, during the term of Mayor Henry James Tucker, the cornerstone of the original Hamilton Hotel was built. On completion in 1852 it had 36 rooms. It was the first hotel in Bermuda and pioneered Bermuda's fledgling tourist industry. It was extended and modernized at the beginning of the 20th century. It stood where the City Hall Car Park is now located. It was a landmark in Hamilton for over a century, by then no longer a hotel but headquarters for many Government Departments and sundry agencies. In one of the most spectacular fires ever witnessed in Bermuda it was totally destroyed. It had been Bermuda 's first major hotel and had been funded by the Corporation of Hamilton, after pressure from the mercantile community of the mid-19th century to provide a decent hostelry for tourists. Its construction was marked with initial enthusiasm, then considerable diffidence until the original pioneer of steamship services to Bermuda, Samuel Cunard, had forced the issue by withdrawing his ships from the Bermuda run in protest against the lack of a suitable facility for the clients on board his ships. Over its century of establishment, the Hamilton Hotel was added to on a number of occasions. And it had welcomed many distinguished visitors, plus the crews of Bermuda 's famous cruise-ships of the Furness-Withy Line and the thousands of passengers who had disembarked from those ships. The shell of the hotel was too far gone from the fire to warrant reconstruction. Instead, it was decided by the Corporation of Hamilton that the site would be earmarked for a brand-new City Hall.

Hamilton Hotel begin in 1851, finished in 1852, destroyed by fire 1955

1956. The Technical Institute opened as a replacement for the Dockyard Apprentice Training Scheme. It was the first non-segregated school supported by Government. It was a forerunner of the Bermuda College.

1956. George Sousa was the first Bermudian of Portuguese descent to star in local FA  cup soccer. He captained Bermuda from 1956-1959.

August 1956. "Time Out For Teenagers”  was a weekly live television program that aired on ZBK-TV, Kindley Air Force Base, Bermuda, until August 1957. Host of the program - a presenter in British BBC and Bermuda terminology - was Lee (Tedford) Grantham.  He was joined from time to time as assistant hosts by persons including Barbara Best, John Dudney, Judy Gaddy, Patricia "Trish" McLaughlin, Tucker McClane, Tommy Newkirk, Ellen Ray, Brian Stephenson,  John Stith and Jackie Tightman. Lee was the elder son of Major Dick F. Tedford USAF, from the USA, stationed at Kindley Air Force Base, Bermuda from June 1955 to August 1958 with his family including much younger son Scott. The show was produced mostly by Mary Jane Tedford, wife of Major Tedford and mother of Lee and Scott. Lee also wrote to this author: "I began a radio program on ZBM-2 daily, playing top forty music and went on to have daily and weekly music programs on ZBM-1 as well. They were historic years in the history of Broadcasting in Bermuda and those of us fortunate to be a part of that page in Broadcast history." Lee wrote the late website "Bermuda and Beyond." 

1956. The movie "Bermuda Affair" was filmed in Bermuda. It starred Kim Hunter, Gary Merrill and Ron Randell and was filmed mostly at Darrell's Island during the latter's short-lived time as a movie studio after it closed as a base for flying boats aircraft. One highlight of the movie was a flight by Wing Commander E. M. "Mo" Ware, Director of Civil Aviation, of his Bermuda-based Luscombe aircraft bought in 1954.

1956. Spithead House in Warwick Parish was lived in by British actor, playwright and composer of popular music Sir Noël Peirce Coward (born 16 December 1899, died 26 March 1973) who later went to live in Jamaica.

1957. March 26. Big Two Conference in Bermuda between Prime Minister Harold McMillan and US President Dwight Eisenhower. 

President Eisenhower being greeted by British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan on arrival at Kindley Air Force Base, Bermuda

Also present were Canadian Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent for two days of talks and other British Commonwealth officials. The latter group , with Bermuda's Governor Lt. Gen Sir John Woodall, the Mayor of Hamilton the Wor. E. R. Williams, and Officer Commanding British Troops in Bermuda, Brigadier B. E. Luard. reviewed the island's militia in Hamilton. There were two ships moored prominently alongside Hamilton Harbour that day. One was the Royal Navy frigate HMS Bigbury Bay while the other was the cruise ship Queen of Bermuda.  Photo shows British and Canadian Prime Ministers and officials including Captain Ross Winter, MCP, Commandant of of the Bermuda Reserve Constabulary (BRC) reviewing the BRC in Hamilton. Behind them is the cruise ship Queen of Bermuda. Behind Louis St. Laurent is S. S. Toddings, MCP, Chairman of the Defence Board. Photo kindly loaned by his step-daughter Cindy Farnsworth Toddings. Ed Kelly photo.

1957.  May 16 to 28. The Bermuda Tattoo included the U.S. Marine Band from Washington D.C. It was Bermuda's second such event and held at the British Army's Prospect Garrison parade ground (which later became the National Stadium). The Bermuda Government budgeted £12.935 for it, on a motion passed by the House of Assembly at the request of Mr. S. S. Toddings, MCP, Chairman of the Defence Board. The object was to show the British flag in Bermuda and to provide valuable training and interest for the Local Forces. The Dominion of Canada agreed to assist, by supplying one Naval and four military units and to transport to and from Bermuda at no cost to the colony. Feeding and housing were Bermuda's responsibility.

1957. USAF Thunderbirds visited Bermuda for the first time. The team's pilots were: Maj. Robby Robinson - leader, Captains Bill Bartley and Doug Brenner on the wings, Lt. Bill Pogue - slot, Capt. Bob McIntosh - spare, and Capt. Sam Johnson - solo. 

1957. The old (and original) Watford Island Bridge that lasted for 54 years was rebuilt, with this replacement to last a mere 23 years.

1957. July 29. The Public Library (later, the Bermuda National Library) was transferred to a new extension to the original Par-la-Ville building, in premises owned by the Corporation of Hamilton, where it is today in part, except that the Archives and Youth Library are no longer there. Also as a tenant in the Building, the Bermuda Historical Society moved to this building from East Broadway.

1957. Juanita Furbert (Guishard) became the first black nurse at KEMH, Bermuda.

1957. The Jamestown Exposition celebrated the 350th anniversary of Jamestown.

1957. The movie "Bermuda Cockleshells" - see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050183/ was filmed in Bermuda. It was all about Bermuda Fitted Dinghies. 

1957. December. Prospect Secondary School for Girls was established at a former British Army barracks building.

1957. At Darrell's Island, Bermuda, the black and white and color 5-star film The Admirable Crichton - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Admirable_Crichton_(film) a comedy, was made. The story, from the well-known book, is of an aristocrat and his family who are shipwrecked. Directed by Lewis Gilbert and 94 minutes long, it was produced by Ian Dalrymple and  written by J.M. Barrie (play), Lewis Gilbert (adaptation), Vernon Harris (screenplay). It starred Kenneth More, Diane Cilento, Cecil Parker, Sally Ann Howes, Martita Hunt, Jack Watling, Peter Graves, Gerald Harper, Mercy Haystead, Miranda Connell and Miles Malleson. Music was by Douglas Gamley and Richard Addinsell (waltzes).

1957. The unveiling of a plaque on the monument to Vice Admiral Sir Thomas Harvey KCB, Royal Navy, who died in Bermuda in 1841 and was buried in the Royal Naval Cemetery, Ireland Island South. Captain G E Hunt, DSO DSC RN is on the far right.

1958. New Year's Day. Harvey Conover, successful businessman and renowned yachtsman, sailed with his family into the Bermuda Triangle and was never heard from again.

1958. January 13. The first local television program went on the air in Bermuda. It was ZBM-TV. ZBM-TV was founded by Bermuda Broadcasting Company as the first local television station in Bermuda. Before then, residents living near Kindley Field at the East End of Bermuda could watch television via unauthorized reception of the also black and white (no color at that time) TV signal on base. Originally, ZBM-TV broadcast on channel 10, but in 1974, Capital Broadcasting Company merged with Bermuda Broadcasting Company and ZBM-TV was moved to channel 9. On that historic-for-Bermuda 1958 January 13 television day Lee L. Tedford (see note in 1955) noted: "I worked with former members of the BBC (from London), CBC (Canadian Broadcasting), ABC and the Bermuda Broadcasting company's Radio Centre staff. Quinton Edness, now retired, was a leading local light (and later became a prominent Cabinet Minister). Non-Bermudian staff at the time (nowadays they must by law all be Bermudian or married to one) included Walt Staskow, Canadian, ZBM overall station manager.  Other Canadians, formerly of the CBC, were Jack Dodge, Dick Varney and Ken Ludwig. The chief engineer of the TV operation was on loan from the BBC. The prime-time director was Holmes from ABC in New York. Other Americans included Cliff Morris (also in the US military in Bermuda, who joined ZBM-2 after his US Navy tour of duty), Ed Hinson, Jay Lloyd and Jack Dodge (now living in Florida) from the US Bermuda bases but  I believe I was the only American doing any on-air announcing. I also wrote a column about TV for the Kindley "Skyliner" for a while.  I attended Whitney Institute, where I met Tim Olander. We played basketball together on the Kindley Hawks."

1958. Eagle Airways first arrived in Bermuda. (See more details in Bermuda Aviation).

Eagle Airways at Civil Air Terminal

Kindly sent and copyrighted by http://www.hmsgangestoterror.org/HMSBermuda.htm

1958. Off Bermuda, the wreck of the 1609 ship "Sea Venture" was discovered by Edmund Downing from Virginia, a direct descendant of George Yeardley who had been the captain of soldiers on the original voyage and later went to Virginia.

1958. Colonial Insurance Company was founded, developed from The Gibbons Company car dealership, as they thought they might as well insure the cars they sold.

1958. July 7. W. L Tucker, MCP for Devonshire, proposed in Bermuda's House of Assembly that the voting system be changed,  to enfranchise more Bermudians in accordance with the 1945 Parliamentary Act that had not yet been implemented.

1958. Eight black legislators, Collingwood Burch, Russel Levi Pearman, W. L. Tucker, Hilton G. Hill, E. T. Richards, Walter Robinson, Arnold Francis and Dr. the Hon. Eustace Cann, formed a delegation to meet Alan Lennox-Boyd, Secretary of State for the Colonies, during his visit to Bermuda. 

1958. Watford Bridge was rebuilt to provide fishing and pleasure boats a shorter trip to and from the West End. 

1958. The movie "Adventures of the Sea Hawk" TV Series - see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051250/ was made in Bermuda.

1958. September 4. The ill-fated Bermudiana Hotel, built in 1924 by Furness Withy with much pomp and ceremony and which then could accommodate about 450 guests, caught fire and smoldered for four days before firemen extinguished the blaze. One of the worst hotel fires in Bermuda’s history began with a small whiff of smoke coming from under the eaves of the top floor of the Bermudiana, on a Thursday afternoon when at that time most businesses in Bermuda were closed on Thursday afternoons.  One of the hotel managers first discovered a small blaze in a room on the sixth floor at 4.30pm. He tried to use a fire extinguisher but it didn’t work. He found another one but that didn’t work much better. Unable to put out the fire, he called the fire brigade around 5pm and hotel staff started knocking on guests’ doors to get them to evacuate. In those days there were no fire sprinklers in the hotel. The fire got into partitions between the walls and travelled from one room to another. At first it appeared to be moving very slowly from the East to the West side of the building. Guests came into the hotel to pack. Tea and sandwiches were served in the lobby and the bar remained open for some time. One guest even swam in the pool while the fire burned. When the bar finally closed to guests, bartenders calmly packed up large boxes of cigarettes. Everyone seemed resigned to the fact that the hotel would burn to the ground, but there was no sense of urgency to leave. Bermudiana General Manager at that time was Carroll Dooley. His daughter Patricia was swimming in the hotel pool.  The Dooley family were then living at the hotel. Bermuda’s fire department at the time was entirely volunteer. Some firemen arrived from the beach dressed in bathing suits. There was no breathing apparatus or protective fire gear or city fire hydrants in those days. Maids wet down towels for the firemen to wrap around their faces. Fire fighting equipment consisted mostly of two cranes, ladders and fire hoses for several hours they struggled to achieve the water pressure needed to put out the fire. The hotel was supposed to have been coated with a fire retardant paint. But it wasn’t. It was a strange fire and it burned very quickly. The fire left one of Hamilton's premiere resorts and a major Hamilton landmark in a shambles. It caused international concern and interest, especially from New York. All manner of things were thrown from the windows of guests’ personal belongings and furniture. A dentist had an office in the building; a dentist’s chair and boxes of false teeth flew out of that window. The lawn of the hotel was compared to a refugee camp, with items scattered and piled everywhere. Some hotel guests, dazed and uncomprehending, were packing into suitcases, carefully folding clothes and clearing drawers while around them hot yellow-stained water was steadily dripping and from a drip, trickling and running through the cracks which appeared in the ceiling. The ceiling would clearly collapse at any moment. The elevators would not work so the guests tried to hurry down the stairs while water erupted from above them. Meanwhile, crowds of people gathered outside. Some of them tried to help by bringing sandwiches and drinks to the firemen. Some men even joined the volunteer fire service in attempting extinguish the fire. Other onlookers were less than helpful. The curious crowd grew so unmanageable that the Bermuda Militia was called in to control it. The scene became Bermuda’s first experience with live, on-the-spot television reporting. The newly established ZBM studios were just across the street from the Bermudiana. One of the journalists stuck a camera out of the window and filmed the inferno. Those lucky enough to have television sets in 1958 were glued to their sets. All of Bermuda had come to a standstill while the hotel burned. One young policeman, Derek Fletcher, left his bride standing at the altar for over an hour while he helped. The hotel burned to the ground. An electrical fault in the air conditioning system was later named as the cause of the blaze. The fire spurned major changes to Bermuda’s firefighting system a professional service was formed for the first time. The hotel had been a haven for visiting college students on their spring breaks. Some of the rooms would have six girls to a room. The management were pretty strict about who stayed where. Guys and girls were housed on different floors. It was rebuilt within a year, some would say it was rebuilt too quickly and was then owned by Englishman Sir Harold Werhner, of Luton Hoo fame. From about 1964 and for a decade or so, it offered special pool memberships to personnel who worked at the American International Company building then situated below the hotel at the junction with Bermudiana and Pitt's Bay Roads. It also offered membership of the Bermudiana Beach Club in Warwick, where guests could swim on a gorgeous beach, change and eat in comfort and luxury. In later years,  the re-built hotel fell into a dilapidated state and was knocked down. In December 1993 the property was sold for $14.5 million and became the site of the Ace and XL insurance buildings.

Bermudiana Hotel destroyed by fire

1958. The Royal Navy Base in Bermuda closed almost completely (except for the small area known as HMS Malabar. After the Second World War, with the primary former threat in the region, the USA, having been an ally in both World Wars, and a continuing ally under NATO, the naval base in Bermuda had diminished rapidly in importance to the Admiralty. The US Coast Guard had operated anti-submarine vessels from a base on White's Island, in Hamilton Harbour, in the Great War. During the Second World War, it had built a US Naval Air Station and a US Army airfield in the Colony under 99-year leases. With little remaining interest in policing the World's waterways, and with the American bases to guard Bermuda in any potential war with the Warsaw Bloc, the Royal Navy sold the land to the local government.

1959. March. There was a potentially serious incident involving an aircraft. The pilot of a USAF F-100 fighter aircraft ejected from his plane after his engines flamed out. But he landed in the Atlantic, only 40 miles from Bermuda. A helicopter from Kindley scooped him out.

1959. Bermuda earned some free publicity with an event that occured in London. The prestigious Odeon, in Leicester Square, long the flagship of the Rank Organization's chain of movie theaters nationwide in Britain, featured the world premiere of the film "The Admirable Crichton."  The famous British actor Kenneth More, who had portrayed so magnificently the war-time exploits of legless hero Group Captain Douglas Bader, RAF - and the lead in countless other movies - was the star of the hilarious comedy. He and Lewis Gilbert had been, respectively, the star and director of Reach for the Sky, before they journeyed to Bermuda to film The Admirable Crichton. Also playing parts in the movie were the well-known British character actor Cecil Parker and the actresses Diane Cilento (who later became the wife of the film-star Sean Connery) and Sally Ann Howes.

1959. April. The Bermudiana Hotel reopened its doors as a newly rebuilt hotel after earlier having been set on on fire by an arsonist and burnt to the ground. It was rebuilt by Sir Harold Werhner.

Bermudiana Hotel rebuilt 1959

1959. In Portsmouth, England, Bermuda celebrated the 350th anniversary of its founding in 1609.

1959. March. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, arrived by himself for a 2-day visit relating to the 350th anniversary.

1959. June. A black people's boycott resulted in abolition of segregation in Bermuda hotels and theaters and restaurants. It was organized by "A Progressive Group" to coincide with the 350^th anniversary of the founding of Bermuda. Most Bermudians, black and white, recognized the 1959 Theatre Boycott for exactly what it was, a turning point in Bermudian affairs, a genuine watershed event, an exercise in selfless heroism. It ignited flares which erupted spectacularly and illuminated the whole shoddy scene that was segregated Bermuda. It stripped naked at last to the public  the everyday indignities, injustices and inequities upon which Bermudian society was then built. It exposed as both preposterous and pernicious the myth this was a racially harmonious little society, a myth perpetuated by those responsible for marketing the image of a cheery, genteel Bermuda to well-heeled vacationers. The boycott organized by the Progressive Group entirely discredited the advertising-driven lies believed by wealthy Americans and also a fair few Bermudians, not all of them white that this was an island where blacks not only knew their place but would do nothing to jeopardize it by engaging in any radical tomfoolery. It also demonstrated the foundations of the racial caste system in Bermuda. It was the beginning of the end of segregated theatres and restaurants and hotels. Not just blacks were victims, Catholics too in some case. Until then, segregation in public places had been a sop to visiting Easterners who, at the time, were only used to encountering blacks in restaurants if they happened to be serving in them. Other miscarriages of justice had occured in everything from housing to education to social mobility. Racial boundaries circumscribed the lives and opportunities of blacks from cradle to grave and caused considerably more distress than seating arrangements in cinemas. But in the 1950s, the cinema was still the primary source of public entertainment. Thousands of Bermudians and visitors went to the movies every week. The segregated seating, blacks downstairs, white upstairs, vividly literalized old social divisions. So the cinemas became not only the most highly visible target for the Progressive Group's action, a boycott also provided an opportunity for blacks to demonstrate their growing economic clout by disrupting the revenues of a largely white-owned concern. It was a rigidly hierarchical society and while whites may have been the dominant racial group, not all whites were in dominant positions. Far from it. Most were marginalized and filled low-status, low-skilled service positions, disadvantaged in their own way if not actually discriminated against. Interestingly, the USA had already seen major changes for the betterment of blacks. World War 2 and the major role played in the liberation of Europe by black soldiers from the modern slavery of the Nazis had forced black and white Americans alike to contemplate the proscriptions on freedom at home. The emergence of an educated, articulate and increasingly prosperous black middle class during the post-war boom made it increasingly difficult to avoid change. In 1948 President Harry Truman integrated the US armed forces. In 1957 President Eisenhower sent Federal troops into Arkansas to enforce the integration of public schools. The modern Civil Rights era was underway. Yet Bermuda had remained stubbornly resistant to change. The Theatre Boycott ended segregation in public places in a matter of days. More importantly for the island's long-term well-being, it also prompted a decade-long debate on the future direction and character of Bermuda. Members of a generation of forward-looking, liberal-minded whites emerged along with some older power brokers who, for pragmatic rather than idealistic reasons, recognized the old order had to be dismantled. Partnering with the Progressive Group and its supporters, they went on to introduce in trial-and-error but largely peaceful fashion a social system that more broadly conformed to the hopes and expectations of the majority of Bermudians. The Theatre Boycott was the catalyst for profound and irreversible change in the racial power dynamics in this community. It also prompted a radical reorganization of Bermuda's political system and economic pecking order.

1959. Formation of the Bermuda Police Pipe Band. It proudly wore the Prince Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") tartan. Composed at first largely of members of the Bermuda Police and Prison Services, and other local enthusiasts, including some formerly in the Bermuda Cadets Pipe Band, they were soon performing at the Police Passing Out and ceremonial parades. 

1959. American billionaire Daniel Ludwig purchased the Hamilton Princess hotel with plans to make it a luxury hotel. It had come out of World War 2 in a slightly dilapidated condition, having been used from 1940 to 1944 by British censors. 

1959. Members of the St. Mary's Church Guild with a passion for flowers and gardening sought to further their interest by applying for membership in the Garden Club of Bermuda. Their applications were not accepted, presumably because they were all 'coloured' women. The Warwick ladies decided they would form their own club. The name 'Hibiscus' was chosen because of the popular flower that adds its beauty to hedges and roadside foliage especially in the spring and summer. The first meeting was at the residence of Mrs. Ruth Simons at Cedar Hill. The 11 people present were Mrs. Simons, who was elected president, Miss Julia Lightbourn and Mesdames Ruth Wainwright, Edna Conyers, Laura Bean, Mildred Smith, Faith Steed, Victor Scott, Horace Davis and Louise Wilson. Also at that meeting was Reginald Ming, Government's first Heritage officer, who according to an excerpt from the minutes of the meeting gave the ladies helpful suggestions and promised to use his office to get them affiliated with an outstanding club in England. At that inaugural meeting Mrs. Simons served her guests cake and champagne. Tea and cake was served at their regular monthly meetings. The Hibiscus Club is not restricted to growing hibiscus, but is interested in all types of plants and vegetation and all forms of floricultures, gardening and landscaping.

1959. A longshoreman's strike in Bermuda crippled imports.

1960. The Committee for Universal Adult Suffrage (CUAS), spearheaded by Roosevelt Brown and others, was organized with the dual objective of extending the franchise for all adults twenty-one years and over and of abolishing the property requirement for voting. The group was so successful in raising public sensitivity to these contentious issues that Government accepted in principle the concept that universal suffrage should be implemented.

1960. At Bermuda's US Kindley Air Force Base, there was a shooting at Air Police headquarters, then manned by the 1604th Air Police Squadron. One of the USAF Air Police members shot several people and killed a couple. The case was handled by the USAF. He was brought back to Bermuda and had trail, was sentenced to 33 years at Leavenworth, Ks.

1960. February 11. City Hall, in the heart of Hamilton, opened on this day, was designed by Bermudian architect Will Onions, best remembered for domestic residences. In addition to housing the Corporation of Hamilton, it became the home of the City Hall Theatre, the Bermuda Society of Arts and Bermuda National Gallery. 

1960. Prince Andrew was born, the third youngest of four children of the Queen and Prince Philip.

1960. August. Non-Mariners Race began by Society of Non-Mariners in Hamilton, Bermuda by amateur non-sailors deliberately launching non-seaworthy and distinctly non-nautical home-made floating in often hilarious un-seaworthy crafts of any type and design as a joke against the well-established and prim sailing clubs of Bermuda and their 1960s sailing correctness. They were not solely men, single women were instigators too, driven by the maleness-only of the more established sailors. Nor were the majority drunk, they were sober, just mischievous, boat-less themselves. Their unorthodox "vessels" were cranked by hand or by pedals or by the wind and were often accompanied by raucous noises, providing much amusement to many residents and visitors at the annual event which became hugely popular. (After one such event had a zany entry almost collide with a cruise ship entering Hamilton Harbor, the Society of Non-Mariners, as the organizers subsequently became, the event was switched to the less-busy but picturesque Mangrove May in Somerset, Sandys Parish, hosted by the Sandys Boat Club. The event now includes family frolics, youngsters jumping off "boats", mock boat battles, some ingenious unorganized surprises. A fun day for residents and visitors.)

1960. Construction of the NASA tracking station in Bermuda was completed, after work began on it in 1959. The NASA station, now deserted but still with its signs, is at the end of Mercury Road on Cooper's  Island, on the southeast tip of the former base, (adjacent to what is now Clearwater Park). Many airmen and locals were employed to help complete the construction on time. Bermuda became part of the NASA worldwide tracking network and initially it's primary responsibility was computer monitoring and along with Cape Canaveral could abort a mission on the downrange before going into orbit. The Atlantic Ocean abort landing area was between Bermuda and the Canary Islands. The seven Mercury astronauts, Shepherd, Grisssom, Glenn, Carpenter, Cooper, Slayton and Schirra were frequent visitors to NASA Bermuda in 1960 & 1961.

1960. September to September 1961. HMS Rothesay was based Royal Navy Dockyard at Island Island. Crew enjoyed periodic station leave at the-then un-used former British Army camp near Horseshoe Beach, in between patrols covering the whole of North and South America. They enjoyed the hospitality of the local people. One crew member spent a few days with a local family over Christmas 1960 (when then was a brief appearance of snow, usually unheard of in Bermuda) and attended Mass with them on Christmas Eve.

1961. Because of the vision of Sir Gilbert Cooper, a former Mayor of Hamilton, the Bermuda Society of Arts found a permanent home in City Hall, Hamilton.

1961-62. HMS Londonderry was based at the Royal Navy Dockyard at Island Island during her first commission and the ships company have very many happy memories of Bermuda and the hospitality that was afforded them whilst there.

1961. January. In Ottawa, the Cabinet Defence Committee approved the establishment of a High Frequency Direction Finding (HFDF) installation in Bermuda. This was as a direct result of the continued Canadian presence in Bermuda. This decision was noted by the Canadian Cabinet at a meeting in February 1961. 

1961. US President John F. Kennedy and Prime Minister Harold McMillan conferred in Bermuda.

1961. The American Society of Bermuda was formed by a small group headed by author and writer Col F Van Wyck Mason. It had the encouragement of the American Consulate, which believed that it would be beneficial for United States citizens in Bermuda to get together from time to time. It's objectives were to celebrate certain American national holidays in keeping with the traditions and spirit of the occasion; foster a spirit of friendship, cooperation and mutual understanding and interest among citizens of the United States and Bermudians; promote and foster harmonious relations between United States citizens living in Bermuda and Bermudians; provide aid and comfort to visiting citizens of the United States when aid is requested or necessary;  cooperate with the American Consulate in the dissemination of information on legislation or other matters of concern or interest to the membership; and sponsor charitable activities to raise funds to be donated to organisations both within and outside Bermuda. Activities included celebrating the following national holidays with social gatherings: President’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day.

1961. March. After The USA and and the United Kingdom formally agreed to open a US Space Tracking station in Bermuda, NASA opened its Cooper's Island base. It cost the USA $5 million to build. For fiscal and diplomatic reasons, local workers were used as much as possible to build the station, and NASA employed 60 contractors and 20 Bermudians to operate it. Located on a 77-acre rock-coral shelf just off of Saint David's Island on the northern shores, the main station was an eastward extension of Kindley Air Force Base and managed by the US Air Force. Its use dated back to a World War II agreement between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill. A smaller site was in Town Hill on the main island. I It was part of the NASA Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network at more than 24 locations across five continents. It was used for 37 years as a tracking and communications facility for various space programmes, including the Mercury and Apollo missions and space shuttle flights because of its key geographical position in relation to launch trajectories for space vehicles blasting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The NASA Bermuda station manager was Bill Way, who helped set it up and played a key role in space exploration by tracking shuttle missions. His team's job included monitoring shuttles every 90 minutes as they came around the earth, and receiving scientific data transmitted by units left on the moon following lunar missions. Arriving in Bermuda from California with childhood sweetheart Margie and deciding never to leave, Mr. Way had seven children, two of whom died in tragic circumstances. He had a lifelong interest in science and engineering. He was involved in Apollo programmes. When they were little he would tell his children the stories about them and the children would get to meet the astronauts. He was also well-known on the local tennis circuit for his dedication to the Bermuda Lawn Tennis Association. Bermuda was one of NASA's first stations built on foreign soil and was also one of the most critical. With the exception of Cape Canaveral, it was the most complex and important of the 15 Mercury Space Flight Network (MSFN) ground stations. The Mercury Atlas flight path was almost directly over the island, which enabled a brief but essential 25-second window to track and make decisions about its status as it ascended into orbit. The vital determination to abort or continue a flight was known as "Go/No Go". During the launch of an Atlas rocket- an Air Force Intercontinental Ballistic Missile used to launch the Mercury astronauts and the NASA's early large satellites, a decision to continue or abort had to be made in only a 30- to 120-second window after the rocket's main engine had cut off. The failure rate of the Atlas booster in those early days was very high - about 50 percent - so aborted missions were common. The Bermuda station was established to keep an eye on every Cape Canaveral launch and the first critical phases of the flight downrange, making it a key station during the launch phase of any mission. The control centre at Bermuda provided reliable communications and controls in the event that it became necessary to make abort decisions. Many mathematical and trajectory experts believed such a "short arc" solution would be impossible, but data analysis, some of it generated by the Bermuda tracking station, determined that, even with such a small timeframe, a spacecraft could be turned around and its retrorockets fired so that it could reenter in the Atlantic recovery area before reaching its point of impact on the African coast. During Project Mercury, NASA's first man-in-space programme, the network was not well-centralized and communication was done by sometimes-unreliable teletype, so flight controllers were dispatched to most of the primary tracking stations in order to maintain immediate contact with the spacecraft from the ground. Astronauts also acted as capsule communicators (known as Capcoms) at various sites. Donald K. (Deke) Slayton, head of Flight Crew Operations at Houston's Manned Spacecraft Center, was said to have assigned astronauts to Bermuda (as well as sites in Hawaii, California, and Australia) as Capcoms to give them some much-needed rest and relaxation in beautiful places. Later, in 1963, to prepare for sending astronauts into space, an ocean floor cable capable of carrying 2,000 bits-per-second of digital information was laid to connect the new station on Bermuda with Cape Canaveral. This link continued to serve the Bermuda Station well into the Space Shuttle era. The Bermuda station was overhauled in preparation for the lunar landing programme. As it had been on Mercury and Gemini, Bermuda would be an essential station immediately after launch. As the first station to electronically see the rocket, operators could observe most of the second and third stage burns at high elevation angles. Bermuda monitored the ascent of the Saturn V into orbit and provided the critical "Go/No Go" data to Mission Control for flight continuation or a decision to abort the mission. In March 1965, a request was submitted for a $1.6 million consolidation and upgrade to the MSFN facility on Bermuda so it could meet the combined requirements for projects Gemini and Apollo. All of the various telemetry facilities scattered around in pre-fabricated metal structures and trailers on Town Hill and Cooper's Island were to be consolidated. The original facilities also were corroded by years of sea salt and moisture. An air conditioned, 1,100-square meter Operations Building was built and a 300-square meter Generator Building housed the diesel generator. Next to the USB antenna, a small building contained the hydro-mechanical equipment that pointed the massive antenna. Concrete foundations were dug for the dish and the collimation tower. Extensive cabling was installed, and a microwave terminal was relocated. 30 percent more maintenance and administration staff was added as well as 26 additional technicians as the site was ramped up to support Gemini and Apollo missions. When the Cooper's Island upgrade was completed, NASA dismantled the Town Hill telemetry site. Shuttle flights on easterly trajectories went all the way into orbit on their backs. In November 1997, Columbia, the Shuttle program's 88th flight, was the first to roll the entire stack from its usual belly-up to a belly-down position in a 40-second maneuver six minutes after liftoff. Known as a Roll-to-Heads-Up (RTHU) maneuver, it's performed prior to main engine cutoff so that communication with the contemporary space-based Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) can be established some two and a half minutes sooner. Such a maneuver previously had been used only if Mission Control declared an emergency landing due to a failed main engine or the loss of cabin pressure during the crew's ascent into orbit. This innovation meant that the Bermuda station was no longer necessary for the success of NASA launches. The decision to close the site was ultimately a financial one, as it saved NASA $5 million a year; coincidently the same amount required to build the station in 1961. With Bermuda closed, Merritt Island/Ponce de Leon became the only source of tracking data for the first seven minutes of each Space Shuttle launch. The phase-out of the Bermuda station in 1997 signaled the end of the era of the worldwide network of spaceflight tracking stations. Bermuda had supported every human spaceflight that NASA had flown, making the critical "Go/No-Go" call on 118 missions.

1961. Universal, but not equal, suffrage was achieved. It was not equal because landowners receive a plus vote.

1961. The enactment of the Restaurant Act in Bermuda created parity between black and white diners.

1961. November 29. Enos the NASA chimp splashed down in the North Atlantic not far from Bermuda, after having been partly trained here. He pioneered the space launches from the USA. Enos was considered the most intelligent of all of the trained chimps, which is why he was chosen for the mission. Unlike Ham,  his elder "brother." Enos was not cuddly and friendly. He fought mightily against the veterinarians and operant conditioning, and was quick to bite so he was kept on tethers when not in training. While he was highly skilled at his tasks when he did them, early on he might complete his tasks only to turn on his trainers as soon as he was done. Enos was once locked in a metal box for a week, living in his own waste, in an effort to break him. It worked. Enos' mission was to attempt three orbits of the Earth for the Mercury-Atlas 2 mission. About five hours before the November 29, 1961 launch, the specially constructed primate couch in which Enos was secured was inserted in the spacecraft. He was relaxed during countdown, and all of his bodily functions were normal. Then, a series of delays began, leading some in the control center to joke that Enos was sabotaging the mission because he had talked to Ham and did not want to go into space. When the rocket was finally launched, Enos fared well, withstanding a peak of 6.8 g's during booster-engine acceleration and 7.6 g's with the rush of the sustainer engine. The Atlas rocket delivered 367,000 pounds of thrust, nearly five times what human astronauts Shepard and Grissom had experienced; Enos was unfazed. At his press conference in Washington, President Kennedy got a round of laughter when he said, "This chimpanzee who is flying in space took off at 10:08. He reports that everything is perfect and working well." During the second orbit, the lever for the motor skills test malfunctioned and Enos was shocked rather than rewarded for each correct answer. Nevertheless, he kept pulling the levers, continuing to perform his required operations as he was trained to do, despite the repeated shocks. His suit overheated and the automatic attitude controls malfunctioned, so the capsule repeatedly rolled forty-five degrees before the thrusters would correct it. Luckily for Enos, given his shocking predicament, mission control decided to end his flight. Three hours and 21 minutes after liftoff - 181 minutes of which he was weightless - Enos re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and landed in the Atlantic, south of Bermuda. Enos and his spacecraft were hauled aboard the Stormes an hour and 15 minutes after landing. Engineers scrutinizing the capsule found that it had held up well. So had Enos, though he'd ripped through the belly panel of his restraint suit, removing or damaging most of the biomedical sensors from his body, including those that were inserted under his skin. He also ripped out a urinary catheter while he waited in the capsule for pick-up. But once aboard the Stormes, he ate two oranges and two apples, his first fresh food since he'd been placed on a low-residue pellet diet. The destroyer dropped the chimpanzee astronaut at the Kindley Air Force Base hospital in Bermuda. The chimp was walked in the corridors and appeared to be in good shape apart from mysteriously high blood pressure, which Woolf speculates arose from Enos stuffing down his rage at his two years of mistreatment at the hands of humans. But, at least for a brief time, Enos was hailed as a hero by NASA and the press. His composure at a press conference surprised reporters. Unlike Ham, Enos was unperturbed by the noise and flashing bulbs, perhaps because of all he'd already endured. On December 1, Enos was sent from Bermuda to Cape Canaveral for another round of physicals, and a week later he departed for his home station at Holloman, set for retirement. Thanks to Enos, mission managers concluded that a human could withstand space travel. An astronaut riding in the MA-5 spacecraft could have made the necessary corrections in flight to complete the three-orbit mission normally. On the date of Enos' flight, it was announced that Lt. Col. John Glenn would make the first manned orbital mission on February 20, 1962. Glenn orbited the earth in the Friendship 7 and became a huge celebrity. In his speech to Congress, he said he was humbled when the president's daughter, Caroline Kennedy, met him and her first question was "Where's the monkey?"

1961. A silver charm of Somerset Bridge, Bermuda, was issued, in time for the annual Christmas gift-giving season.

1961. December 21-22.  The beginning of another Summit Conference in Bermuda, at a time of heightened world tension further soured by the erection of the infamous Berlin Wall. It was a two-day event between British Prime Minister Mr. Harold Macmillan and new President of the United States John F. Kennedy (who had been inaugurated only 11 months earlier). The meeting had nearly been cancelled, owing to a massive stroke suffered by President Kennedy's father, Joseph Kennedy, the pre-war pro-German US Ambassador to Britain. From Bermuda, President Kennedy telephoned his father at the family estate in West Palm Beach, Florida, several times to inquire about his condition - and was ready to fly off at a moment's notice had his father's health deteriorated. When President Kennedy arrived at the USA's Kindley Air Force Base in Bermuda on his silver and orange painted military Boeing 707, he issued this comment, directed at Prime Minister Macmillan, the British delegation - and Bermuda: "I want to express my great pleasure at having an opportunity to talk to you again and to visit you on your territory which has been the scene of most important meetings beneficial to both our countries." What Kennedy didn't mention in his remarks was that he knew Bermuda better than Mr. Macmillan! In the 1950's, he had visited Bermuda for a number of carefree short vacations while serving as a Massachusetts Senator. The measured but warm reply, as also reported worldwide, to that message from the elderly but distinguished Prime Minister Macmillan to the young, vibrant and enormously popular President Kennedy, was just as friendly: "Mr. President, it is a very great pleasure to welcome you here on British soil where, as you say, other meetings have taken place between Presidents and Prime Ministers engaged in the task which occupies us now - the strengthening of our friendship to preserve the peace of the world." Still remembered today is the motorcade the two men, the Governor and their delegations took from the Civil Air Terminal to Government House, along the North Shore Road. At every junction, parked cars were spilling out their occupants to wave and take photographs. Near Flatts, children held up signs and offered broad smiles of welcome, including one group whose sign welcomed the President on behalf of Bermuda's American residents. At Government Gate leading up to the Governor's residence, a number of children were also assembled. Over a crackling cedar log fire, the two world leaders discussed at Government House, among other things, the war which was then raging in the newly-liberated territory of the Belgian Congo, which brought forth the ill-fated African patriot Patrice Lumumba who had sought Western help in the civil war tearing his country apart; the crisis of the world escalated further by the erection of the Berlin Wall, completed just days before the conference; and testing of nuclear weaponry, with its acceptable and unacceptable sites and timings. The two leaders made the decision to renew atmospheric nuclear tests, with a joint statement issued from Bermuda that read: " It is now necessary as a matter of prudent planning for the future, that pending the final decision preparations should be made for atmospheric testing to maintain the effectiveness of the deterrent." In a lighter moment during the Summit Conference, President Kennedy initiated some variety into what had by them become an established custom for all world leaders and other very important people who had visited Government House. Because of his well-known and much-publicized bad back, the lingering after-effect of an injury incurred while on his much written about PT-109 boat war-time duty in the Pacific, and the less well-known fact that he was suffering from Addison's Disease, a thyroid condition, he elected to plant his tree - a canary date palm - less painfully than the customary use of a spade dug into earth. He used merely a pair of scissors to snip a ribbon on the tree that Government House gardeners planted for him. With his unfailing good manners employed so as not to put his distinguished American guest in a bad light, Mr. Macmillan elected to do the same thing with his tree.Included in President Kennedy's entourage were his Press Secretary, Pierre Salinger, later a well-known private-sector broadcaster and author; The President's personal private secretary, Evelyn Lincoln; and Mr. Salinger's assistant Sue Vogelsinger, who wrote for United Press International an amusing story about Kennedy's Bermuda visit. As she recounted it, at Government House, Miss Lincoln put into Mr. Kennedy's hands the package she had helped to prepare as his gift to Governor Sir Julian Gascoigne. Mr. Kennedy was persistent in asking what it was and was told it was an autographed picture of the President in a silver frame. Mr. Kennedy laughed and asked if there wasn't anything better, as he personally would not want to be on the receiving end of such a mundane gift. At which point the Governor entered the room and Mr. Kennedy offered the gift, saying that if Sir Julian didn't care for the picture, he could always take it out and use the frame.

President John F. Kennedy meeting with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in Bermuda, December  21-22, 1961. Top and bottom photos also show Governor Sir Julian Gascoigne. Photos kindly permitted for Bermuda Online (BOL) publication by J F. Kennedy Library 1995.

1962. January. From the NASA Space Tracking station in Bermuda, part of Kindley US Air Force Base, began the first of a multi-year series of firing weather reconnaissance rockets into the air over the island and beyond. See http://www.astronautix.com/sites/kindley.htm. 

1962. In January and again in August, Princess Margaret visited Bermuda.

1962. Unrestricted access to Britain by Bermudians came to an end with the passage through the British House of Parliament at Westminster of the Commonwealth Immigration Act. It aroused quite a lot of anti-British feeling among some locals - as it does even today. But it is not always known and appreciated that long before that legislation came into effect, Bermuda had been controlling, quite rigidly, with legislation of its own, the importation of British and other citizens.

1962. A second local commercial radio station organization, Capital Broadcasting Company Limited, using the call letters ZFB, began operating at 910 kHz AM. 

1962. FM broadcasting was introduced in Bermuda, with commercial radio stations ZBM-FM on 89.1 MHz and in 1971, ZFB-FM at 94.9 MHz.

1962. Some years after the British Army left Bermuda, the lands at Montpelier were planted as an arboretum.

1962. April. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, arrived by himself for a brief Bermuda visit.

1962. First forward planning measures for Bermuda, with the Dwyer Report and its "The Next 20 years." 

1962. George Sousa was the first Bermudian of Portuguese descent to become present of a local golf club, the Belmont.

1962. HMS Bermuda was taken out of service as a Royal Navy warship. See http://www.hmsgangestoterror.org/HMSBermuda.htm. She was the Royal Navy warship named after Bermuda This last HMS Bermuda was a light cruiser of the Colony Class, launched in 1941, decommissioned in 1962. HMS Bermuda (No. 8) was built by John Brown & Company at Clydebank, laid down in November 1938 and commissioned on August 21, 1942. Originally, the ship had 12 six-inch guns, anti-aircraft pieces and six torpedo tubes. During the war, she served in the Mediterranean, the North Atlantic and Arctic and finally in the Pacific theatre. In later years, the vessel was a part of NATO until taken out of service. Some silver objects given to HMS Bermuda by the island are now at the Bermuda Maritime Museum. She visited Bermuda 3 times: 1958, Jul 1959, and Feb 1962. 

HMS Bermuda, taken out of service 1962

1962. Fred Reiss, who is credited with coining the term "captive," formed a management company in Bermuda, International Risk Management Limited ("IRM"). With the help and support of individuals in the local banking, accounting and legal professions, he persuaded many of his corporate clients to form captives, to free themselves from an insurance market which was perceived to be unresponsive to their needs. Reiss showed his clients how to use the captive mechanism to capture some of the profits from their insurance expenditures. By domiciling the captive in Bermuda, those profits could accumulate free of income tax and, therefore, accelerate the growth of capital in the company. Over time, the captive would be able to retain a larger share of its parent’s risk and, through prudent use of reinsurance, create flexibility and stability in the insurance-buying process in what was a cyclical business. Understandably, this concept was not popular with either traditional insurers or brokers, who viewed it as a movement which would cut them out of a significant portion of business. Consequently, Reiss found it difficult to get broad acceptance of his ideas. The slow rate of captive development continued throughout much of the decade until, disturbed by instability in the Bahamas, several oil companies decided to move their captives to Bermuda. These large multinational corporations were clients of America’s multinational insurance organizations, the most prominent of which were AIG, INA and AFIA. The latter two were later merged into CIGNA, whose general business was, itself, recently merged into ACE. Through their networks of agencies around the world, they provided facilities to allow the captives to reinsure their parent-related business and even provided management services to some of the captives.

1962. The movie "That Touch of Mink" that starred Cary Grant and Doris Day was filmed partly in Bermuda. See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056575/. But they were wrong when they said that only Bermuda has pink peaches (Scotland and the Bahamas have them also).

1962. ZFB began broadcasting in Bermuda.

1962. The Bermuda Ballet Association was formed by Madame Patricia Gray, MBE with the support of Madame Ana Roje.

1962. Fame Magazine began publication in Bermuda.

1963. January 1. the Royal Canadian Navy signed a lease to obtain 11 acres of land at Daniel's Head, Sandy's Parish to build a Canadian Naval Radio Station for communications and anti-submarine purposes. It lasted until 1993. It was the only Canadian military base established on non-Canadian soil in the Western Hemisphere. The original lease was for 21 years at a cost of £6000 per annum. It was the beginning of the Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Bermuda. Negotiations had been ongoing for a considerable length of time for a Memo of Understanding on the formal Visiting Forces Agreement between the Bermudian and Canadian governments to finalize the Resolution of Property Acquisition. and Provision of Services and Utilities to support the proposed station. It too was finally signed in January 1963. Delays had been encountered because of Bermudian demands of right of way and defining the status of the Canadian Forces residing on the Island. Canadian demands for Duty Free privileges were reinforced by the US and British Forces status but still had to be ratified by the Home Government in London. On April 24, 1963, the advance party, sans dependants, arrived on site, commanded by Lt (N) Michael A. Ruymer, comprising CPO W.R. Harkness, LS C.A. MacDonald and Leading Storesman Tom Key. They began the task of finding, accounting for and storing the first-fitting material which was pre-shipped and stored in the Bermuda Crown Lands warehouse at Ireland Island. A Communications Technician was later sent to augment the station for the duration of the cryptographic installation phase. All station personnel were rationed and quartered at the US Naval Operations Base, by then known as the US Naval Annex, approximately 3 miles away. Canadian personnel were still not receiving Foreign Service Pay nor duty-free privileges because the Memo of Understanding still had not been approved by the Government in London. The personnel were also not allowed to have their dependants with them. (The ratification of the Visiting Forces Agreement in March 1964 made living in Bermuda a whole lot easier).

1963. Lois Browne-Evans, Bermuda’s first female, black lawyer, who qualified as such in 1953, having previously joined it, announced her intention to seek political office as a candidate for the Progressive Labour Party.

1963. 10th February. The Progressive Labour Party was formed by Wilfred Allen, Edward DeJean, Hugh Richardson,  Walter Robinson, Dilton Cann, Austin Wilson and Peter Smith. Its purpose was to form a political party to either take over the government of Bermuda or directly address inequities in Bermuda which included its colonial relationship with Britain. In May, it contested its first General Election, with six of its nine candidates elected. They were Arnold Francis; Dorothy Thompson; Russell Dismont; Walter Robinson; Lois Browne-Evans (first elected black woman member of the Bermuda Parliament and a first-generation Bermudian with West Indian roots) and Cecil Clarke. 

1963. The sites of Forts Victoria and Albert in St. George's were given over to a hotel concession and the adjacent military lands to the west became a golf course.

1963. The Parliamentary Election Act was passed, giving every adult twenty-five years of age and above the right to vote. Universal adult suffrage was declared. This piece of legislation also incorporated the Watlington Amendment, extending the landowners which possessed ratable property anywhere in Bermuda a send or "plus" vote in the constituencies in which they lived. Parishes were retained as electoral districts, but were now divided into two constituencies - i.e. there were 18 in total, each of which returned two Members to the House of Assembly.

1963. Emperor Haillie Selassie of Ethiopia visited Bermuda, with his granddaughter, Princess Ruth Desta. Greeting him at the Civil Air Terminal were Sir Edward Richards, Colonel J. C. Astwood, Sir James Pearman, W. W. Davidson, Sir John Summerfield, American Consul General George Renchard, Sir John Cox, Acting Colonial Secretary Edward Smith, Chief Justice Sir Myles Abbott, Bishop Armstrong, Governor General Sir Julian Gascoigne and Lady Gascoigne.

1963. Modern, high-speed, land-based P-3 Orion aircraft replaced the seaplanes at the US Naval Operating Station, Bermuda.

1963. Casemates Prison was established at the former Royal Navy Casemates Barracks in Bermuda. 

1963. At the Hamilton Princess Hotel, the Adam Lounge (later, the Fairmont Gold Lounge) was named after the Johnson Brothers who had an 18th century architectural style called ‘Adam.’ They were renowned for their ceilings. There were no more than ten rooms in the world that have a ceiling in this design. Everything was hand made and hand placed. It was very elegantly set with a nice long carpet throughout. The carpet was made by the same company that made the carpet for the Queen’s Coronation at Westminster Abbey.

1963. August 9. Hurricane Arlene scored a direct-hit, winds to 90 mph, much damage to vegetation. She had been threatening the Island for almost a week before she came ashore. In her wake she left hundreds of boats, homes and vast areas of vegetation destroyed or damaged. It was the first time in a decade that a hurricane had not veered its course away from the Island.

1963. November. The US Coast Guard detachment in Bermuda transferred from the U.S. Naval Station to Kindley Air Force Base, Bermuda, because greater range could be gotten from its HU-16 Albatross aircraft by land takeoffs rather than water takeoffs.

1964. April 7.14-acre Chelston, one of the most magnificent beachfront estates in the world, built at Grape Bay, Bermuda from 1939 for California oil baron Dobbs, was formally conveyed to the US Government and became the official residence of the US Consul General in Bermuda and his principal staff. In addition to the 10,000 square foot main house, accommodation included three, three-bedroom guest cottages; a two-bedroom staff cottage, as well as a pool house, and a charming beach pavilion, gated entry, a near Olympic-size zero-edge pool, a croquet lawn, acres of rolling lawns for myriad recreational pursuits, and the pink sands of Grape Bay Beach among the many amenities. Guests of the US Consul General later included, over a 30 year period, US President George Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle, Senator John Kerry, Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, General Colin Powell, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, actor Michael Douglas, and model/actress Brooke Shields. 

1964. June 29. Two United States Air Force aircraft  stationed at Kindley Air Force Base (KAFB), Bermuda, collided at sea of Bermuda during a NASA mission from Kindley AFB. 17 US  servicemen died. They took off between 11:05 and 11:10 am local time. The first aircraft in the air was a HC-97G (serial number 522773), assigned to the 55th Air Rescue Squadron (55 ARS) at Kindley with 12 crewmen. The other aircraft was a HC-54D (serial number 4272590) assigned to the 57th Air Rescue Squadron (57 ARS) at Lajes Air Force Base in the Azores with 12 crewmen. The mission was for the aircraft to conduct an aerial photography mission to support the NASA Gemini program. It was necessary for the specially-trained para-rescue personnel (jumpers) to exit the aircraft, jump into the waters and install a flotation collar on the Gemini capsule. The planned mission was to have one aircraft with jumpers, while the other photographed the activities. The designated drop zone was about two to four miles south of Bermuda and about four to six miles from Kindley. Both aircraft arrived at the drop zone and because of the clouds, decided to fly the mission at 1,700 feet (below the clouds). Aboard each aircraft were photographers and para-rescue men. On the sea below, there were about three boats, one of which included a photographer, who filmed the aircraft’s operations. During the first run, the HC-97G took photos and the HC-54D was slightly forward and above, began deploying para-rescuemen. Right-hand patterns were flown, and photos were shot with the sun behind the cameras and at an angle that would not reveal any land surfaces. After a few passes over the drop area with all four para-rescuemen being deployed from the HC-54D, the aircraft changed positions. This placed the HC-54D slightly ahead and above and to the left of the HC-97G. After flying one dry run, and again in a right-hand pattern, two para-rescuemen deployed (jumped) from the HC-97G. Seconds later, the two aircraft collided. The HC-54D suddenly banked to the right, colliding with the HC-97G, hitting the wing or midsection of the HC-97G and sheering both its wing and the tail section, and both aircraft immediately plunged towards the water. A total of 17 Air Force personnel were killed. There were 7 survivors, all who jumped prior to the collision. Only five of the 17 killed had remains recovered.

A more personal account and consequence is as follows: Two USAF aircraft, an HC-97 and a C-54 were flying near Bermuda. The HC-97 was assigned to Kindley Air Force Base in Bermuda and the crew included Technical Sergeant (E-6) Lowell (Micky) W. Belter, who was assigned around January 1964, with his family, to the 55th Air Rescue Squadron based at KAFB. He was a radio operator. His aircraft was assigned to NASA to train for the recovery of Gemini spacecraft as the last few Mercury flights had overshot the aircraft carriers by about 90 miles, and NASA was considering reassigning that mission to the US Air Force from the US Navy. The aircraft flew in formation over Castle Harbour and then moved about two miles south of Castle Island.  One plane had parachutists to practice jumping into the sea, while the other aircraft was taking pictures.  They were flying about 1,000 feet above sea level. The first jumpers left the plane, and the C-54 banked to offset the lost weight.  The HC-97, with more powerful engines, did not bank, and the two aircraft collided.  This created such a huge fireball that it was seen by many people on the beaches along Tucker's Town and John Smith's Bay. There were 12 men aboard each plane, for a total of 24.  19 of those personnel were killed, and the five who survived where parachutists who had either just jumped or were about to.  Rescue craft were only able to recover nine bodies (not including Mickey Belter). Astronaut Scott Carpenter, who was over at the Navy base working on SeaLab, attempted to recover remains, but the two mile depth prevented these efforts. About two weeks later, the family of the late Mickey Belter left Bermuda on a USAF transport, to return to the USA. The next year, the Gemini program began, and was able to accurately land almost next to the aircraft carriers. Thereafter, the USAF never implemented the mission of recovering Gemini spacecraft.

1964. The term "Bermuda Triangle" was first popularized, thanks to an article that appeared in Argosy Magazine by Vincent Gaddis.

1964. Prince Edward was born, the youngest child of the Queen and Prince Philip. They were congratulated by the Bermuda Government.

1964. April. Her Royal Highness the Queen Mother visited Bermuda.

1964. August. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, arrived by himself for a brief visit.

1964. September 10. Death in Bermuda of artist Emil Antoine Verpilleux, whose large panoramic landscapes of Bermuda painted in the 1930s, for many years housed in an upper part of the St. George's Town Hall, made him well-known locally. He was born in London on March 3, 1888. His parents were Belgian and probably for that reason, his artistic studies took place in France and at the Académie des Beaux Arts in Antwerp, Belgium. He is believed to have been the first artist to have a woodcut hung in the Royal Academy, London. Today, he is considered one of the finest colored woodcut printmakers in Britain in the first half of the 20th century. Verpilleux served in the First World War  and until 1922 as an army officer, attaining the rank of captain. During his war experience he also managed to paint numerous war subjects, especially those of the Royal Flying Corps. Today, many of these paintings are in the collection of the Royal Air Force Museum. Verpilleux moved to Bermuda either in 1927 or early 1930s, mostly as a portrait painter but also did landscapes and was a woodcut printmaker. In 1949/50 he collaborated with ceramicist Andre Bohemelec to produce a series of dioramas, depicting scenes of early Bermuda history. These were, for many years, on exhibit in a special gallery in Fort St Catherine. During the early 1950s Verpilleux was active in establishing the Bermuda Society of Arts and served as president of the society from 1952 to 1956. 

1964. November. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, arrived by himself for another brief visit.

1964. The United Bermuda Party (UBP), composed of twenty six former independent parliamentarians, was established under the leadership of Mr. Henry "Jack" Tucker (later Sir Henry Tucker) and assumed control of legislative affairs in the House of Assembly.

1964. Central Planning Authority was formed.

1964. Keep Bermuda Beautiful was founded.

1964. Bermuda Sun weekly newspaper was founded.

1964. The Hamilton Princess Hotel re-opened, after being bought in 1959 by American billionaire Daniel Ludwig with plans to make it a luxury hotel. It reopened with new rooms and facilities after a $9.5 million investment. Little of the original building from the 1880s remained although some parts dated back to the 1930s and 1940s.

1964. World premiere debut of this classic movie (see below) by Bermudian Arthur Rankin. It became the longest-running Christmas holiday special in world television history. The classic has entertained millions of families since then, with the world-renowned musical score from Johnny Marks and the voice talent of legendary performer Burl Ives (Sam the Snowman). It recounts the tale of a shy, young reindeer whose Christmas spirit is dampened because his shiny red nose made him the laughing stock of all Christmas town. Frustrated by their inability to fit in, Rudolph and his friend Hermey, the Elf who wants to be a dentist, set out on their own. However, they soon find themselves pursued by the Abominable Snowmonster. They flee to the island of Misfit Toys in the Arctic wilderness where Yukon Cornelius, a prospector they meet along the way, comes to their rescue. Returning to Christmastown, they learn that bad weather may cause Christmas to be canceled. But Rudolph's headlight--his illuminated nose--saves Christmas by serving as a beacon to guide Santa's sleigh.

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer TV classic 1964

• 1965. February 2.  The BELCO strike occured, with many repercussions. The local military and Bermuda Reserve Constabulary were embodied. The Bermuda Industrial Union was the main cause. It claimed management would go to any lengths not to recognize the rights of workers. Four persons were jailed, one found not guilty, several were made redundant, 14 were fined.
• 1965. The Bermuda Regiment was formed by the amalgamation of the white Bermuda Rifles and the black Bermuda Militia.
• 1965. The Canima. formerly an Irish ship's tender, sailed to Bermuda to replace the Chauncey M Depew. She was the last vessel to carry the on-board telegraph system and, along with her Irish-built sister ship the Cill Airne, she was said to be Europe’s last rivet-built ship.
• 1965. HMS Bermuda, see http://www.hmsgangestoterror.org/HMSBermuda.htm, the Royal Navy warship named after Bermuda, was scrapped. This last HMS Bermuda was a light cruiser of the Colony Class, launched in 1941, decommissioned in 1962. HMS Bermuda (No. 8) was built by John Brown & Company at Clydebank, laid down in November 1938 and commissioned on August 21, 1942. Originally, the ship had 12 six-inch guns, anti-aircraft pieces and six torpedo tubes. During the war, she served in the Mediterranean, the North Atlantic and Arctic and finally in the Pacific theatre. In later years, the vessel was a part of NATO, but was taken out of service in 1962. Some silver objects given to HMS Bermuda by the island are now at the Bermuda Maritime Museum. She visited Bermuda 3 times: 1958, Jul 1959, and Feb 1962. 

HMS Bermuda, scrapped 1965

• 1965. November 23. Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon arrived in Bermuda on a British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) VC-10 jet, for a 6-hour whirlwind visit. They came after a vacation in the USA, while en route back to London. It was the Princess's second visit in 10 years, this time mostly to present the Colours of the newly-formed and de-segregated Bermuda Regiment at the National Stadium, Devonshire. 8,000 Bermudians and residents watched. She was given a diamond and platinum brooch, in the colours of the regiment. She and Lord Snowdon also toured the city of Hamilton where they were greeted by mayor Gilbert Cooper and met artist Bill Harrington who created the oil painting of the city given to them in honour of their visit. At Dellwood School, prefects observed Mr. A. E. Nicholl, chairman of the school's board, planting a prize hibiscus to commemorate the visit to Bermuda of the princess. Also present were head boy John Adams and head girl Mary Young.

Princess Margaret presented the Colours to the newly-formed Bermuda Regiment. Photo kindly loaned the author by Cindy Farnsworth Toddings, step-daughter of S. A. Toddings, MCP, then chairman of the Bermuda Defence Forces, shown front left. From center, going right, are Governor Lord Martonmere, Princess Margaret, Lady Martonmere, the Earl of Snowdon, Ruth Tucker, Cynthia Toddings.

• 1965. Mrs. Ruth Seaton James became the Registrar General. This made her the first black and woman to head a government department.
• 1965. Howard Academy had government funding withdrawn and was closed. Government also withdrew funding for racially segregated schools.
• 1965. First Development and Planning Act for "orderly and progressive development of land and to preserve and improve the amenities thereof..." 
• 1965. October 3. Pope Paul VI stopped off briefly in Bermuda on his way to address the UN General Assembly in New York.
• 1966. April 16. Promoter Eddie DeMello of Bermuda first discovered The Merrymen of Barbados and brought them to Bermuda for an open-air concert at the Tennis Stadium, as well as gigs at the US military base and the Coral Island Club in Flatts. "I was travelling through Antigua, and they were playing at a big nightclub. They weren't really well known then, but I said, 'This is the type of act that would really, really go well in Bermuda', so I sat and talked with them, we worked things out, and I brought them up here in 1966," Mr. DeMello remembered. They became hugely popular in Bermuda from then on.
• 1966. Strike action was taken by the BIU against Bermuda Electric Light Company Limited over union representation. It resulted in unprecedented civil disorder. A State of Emergency was called. There were riots, strikes, malicious damage and Molotov Cocktails thrown. Some policeman were badly injured.
• 1966. The "plus" vote was abolished and the voting age for every Bermudian (by birth or grant) was lowered to twenty-one (later changed to 18 in 1989). All British subjects satisfying the age requirement and having lived on the island for at least three years were also given the vote, a concession which was later rescinded. In addition, Pembroke Parish because of its large population, was split into four districts with each returning two elected representatives, a change which effectively increased the House of Assembly sears from thirty-six to forty, by 1966 legislation. It had been 36 since 1691.
• 1966. Representatives of the United Bermuda Party and the Progressive Labour Party, the Legislative Council and independent House of Assembly members, attended a Constitutional Conference in London, as a result of which Bermuda's first written Constitution was drawn up and approved.
• 1966. Qantas, the Australian airline, opened another around-the-world route. This was named the Fiesta route and was from Sydney to London via Tahiti, Mexico City, and Bermuda.
• 1966. The movie "Let's Kill Uncle" - see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060626/ was filmed in Bermuda.
• 1966. Pompano Beach Club opened as the Island's first fishing club that allowed visitors using the fishing lodge to go out for a spot of deep sea fishing and return to enjoy their freshly caught fish in the club's small dining room. Over the years the club grew with additional buildings and by the early 1960s it had developed into a small hotel. Tom Lamb Jr. and his wife Jean were co-founders, bought it outright in 1957 and ran the business until the early 1980s when Mr. Lamb passed away. The couple's daughter Aimee and her soon-to-be husband David Southworth took over in 1982 and were joined four years later by the youngest of the Lamb sons, Larry. Since 1989 Larry and his older brother Tom Lamb III have been the joint management team. The continuity maintained by having one family run the resort and the loyalty of long-serving staff and repeat-visit guests have been the greatest strengths of the hotel, which has since expanded. 
• 1966. The United States Air Force Base in Bermuda, Kindley Air Force Base, ended being a Military Air Transport Service (MATS) base - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Air_Transport_Service when that entity was discontinued. Instead, it became a Military Airlift Command base - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Airlift_Command

Photo kindly sent by John Cook, who was based at KAFB from 1956-1960.

• 1966. When Ruth James was appointed Registrar General, she became the first black woman to head a Bermuda Government Department.
• 1966. The Queen of Bermuda cruise ship made her final weekly call at Bermuda. She had more luxury about her than many transatlantic liners. The service was impeccable and the food top-notch. She was also an immaculate ship. She was first class in every way. She was very, very popular on the 6-day cruise run between New York and Bermuda. In fact, the Bermuda run was a 'gold mine' for her British owners. The 22,500-ton Queen of Bermuda was one of the great liners of the 1930's. She was completed in 1933 at the Vickers-Armstrong Yard at Barrow-in-Furness and, together with her near-sister, Monarch of Bermuda of 1931, added great luxury to the Bermuda cruise trade. Along with splendid public rooms, a large main restaurant, an indoor pool and spa-cious sports and sunning decks, she boasted a great novelty for that era: every cabin had a private bathroom. The fares in the 1930's began at $50, the ideal honeymoon cruise or, as their owners, Furness Bermuda Line dubbed them, the honeymoon ships.. They sailed in regular tandem up to that fateful summer of 1939 when war started in Europe and they were called to more urgent, far less glamorous duties. In August 1939 she went to war. The 19-knot vessel survived the war, returned to the Bermuda run in February 1949 and sailed on it until, when deep into maritime old age, she was sold for scrap in Scotland in late 1966
• 1967. April 27. Bermuda Floral Pageant. The 17th annual, since the first postwar Pageant was staged in 1950.

1967 Bermuda Floral Pageant

• 1967. The Ocean Monarch, sister ship to the Queen of Bermuda but built much later, in 1951, left the Bermuda-New York route. She was sold to Bulgaria and renamed Varna.
• 1967. After the departures of the Queen of Bermuda and Ocean Monarch, the Cunard Line took over the Bermuda Government New York-Bermuda contract for a few years with its Franconia, and the Greek Line joined in with its similarly-sized Olympia.
• 1967. In London, the UK Parliament approved Bermuda's new Constitution.
• 1967. The Hotel Keepers’ Protection Act became law.
• 1967. The Bermuda Post Office issued these stamps:

• 1967. Renovation of Fort Hamilton was completed, after 3 years work. It had fallen into a terrible state of disrepair in the 1960s. It was in dreadful condition. It was used as a local dump. The moat was blocked with vegetation and trash. Inside the Corporation of Hamilton used it as a storage area for building materials. There was an old fire truck up there. It was quite a job. Corporation staff moved the guns from what had been Fort Langton, later the bus depot on the North Shore. They had to locate the canons in the moat. They were partially buried and overgrown. It was a tremendous job getting them out. They weighed many tons. They had to get a big crane. 
• 1967. Land Tax became a property tax charged on all developed land throughout Bermuda with some exceptions. The tax is charged under the authority of the Land Tax Act 1967 and the Land Valuation and Tax Act 1967.
• 1967. The James Bond movie "You Only Live Twice" - see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062512/ was filmed, a part of it in Bermuda. 

• 1967. December 2. Five crewmembers died and others survived a terrible ordeal with the yacht Ramona ran aground at North Rock. Four of the dead were St. Lucians.
• 1968. Lois Browne-Evans was Bermuda's first female barrister, Bermuda's first female Attorney General, and the first woman to become Opposition Leader in a British Commonwealth country when she became leader of the PLP. She served as leader until 1972 and again from 1976 to 1985.
• 1968. March. Princess Margaret visited Bermuda.
• 1968. The Clayhouse Inn became a prime nightspot on the Island, attracting visitors from overseas and revellers from across Bermuda. It hosted an array of international and local talent under the management of concert promoter Choy Aming. Jazz musicians, drag queens, dancers, singers, DJs and other entertainers played to the crowds, while the venue also proved a launching pad for many local bands. It also played for laughs, hosting 'Not the Um Um' shows, and was an assembly point for Mr. Aming's colorful carnival dancers in the Bermuda Day parades. In January 2002 however, fire broke out in the apartments above, signaling the demise of the popular nightspot. Seven people including a two-year-old baby girl had to be rescued by firefighters from their balconies.
• 1968. Riots on April 25 and 26. Floral Pageant Riot. A State of Emergency was called. Black Beret Cadre-led waves on insurrection and rioting followed, that lasted until 1972. They led to an investigation of the underlying causes by a Commission chaired by the Rt. Hon. Sir Hugh Wooding.
• 1968 Wooding Commission Report. Appointed by the UK. The Governor declared a state of emergency and a Royal Navy frigate was sent to the Island to maintain the peace. The Commission highlighted that many of the black youths involved were resentful of the predominantly white and expatriate Police force which, many felt, picked on young black men. The underlying causes of the violence were deemed to be racial conflict; limited scope for employment of black Bermudians in a ‘white economy’; the artificiality of the Bermudian society with its emphasis on holiday living and easy money; the heavy dependency upon alcohol and the increasing prevalence of drug use. Although in the years prior to 1968, a series of progressive laws were swiftly introduced, undoing centuries of enforced racism, with racial segregation dismantled, universal suffrage finally gained and a move made to integrate all of Bermuda’s schools,  the commission concluded that for many young blacks the changes were too few and were taking too long to really make a difference in Bermuda’s divided society. A frustrated population of young blacks were set to blaze in anger with even the smallest spark of racial injustice, the commission concluded. Those behind the 1968 riots were almost exclusively teenagers, the commissioners wrote. Racial tensions emanated from the deep historical divides between the races. The Wooding Commission “found that virtually everything in Bermudian society was viewed in racial terms”. Race defined all facets of society: relationships between the Police and blacks, the banning of “black” publications, the disputes between political parties and the attitudes of all Bermudians. The Wooding Commission saw a need for a “a new and true understanding, a deep conviction of the essentiality of building a single community, providing common opportunities for all and an unyielding commitment to promoting the democratic values of equality and fraternity in a society that is free in every respect”. The commission put forward a long list of suggestions for the UBP Government of the day to achieve this objective, including: Bermudianisation of local schools, by reducing the proportion of expatriate teachers (which, at that time, had reached 40 percent ). “Government,” the commissioners wrote, “should give urgent attention to the long neglected need for low-cost housing.” The Police Service, which formed a major concern for the commissioners, needed an extensive overhaul to make it more useful in meeting the needs of the society. Court Street, the commissioners wrote, needed a recreational centre for the area youth. “Effective control of the premises should remain with youths of the area,” the commissioners wrote, though Government should advise on its management and fund it.
• 1968. May 21. USS Scorpion, a Skipjack-class nuclear submarine, sank in the Bermuda region, 500 miles southwest of the Azores.

• 1968. June 7. Bermuda took its historic step into responsible government at midnight when the nearly 300 -year-old unwritten constitution came to an end, and Bermuda's new written Constitution went into force the next day. The implementation of a written Constitution shifted most of the responsibility for the internal governance of Bermuda from the Governor to the elected representatives of the people and appointed members of the Legislature - i.e. the members of Parliament, a bicameral institution consisting of an elected House of Assembly (the Lower House) and an appointed Legislative Council (the Upper House). The constitution, the result of a lengthy debate in London, meant a Bermuda more controlled by Bermudians. The functions of Government once the responsibility of a series of Boards, were taken over by an Executive Council of 12 ministers (now known as the Cabinet) who were responsible directly to the local House of Assembly and not to the Governor. 

• 1968. June 8. Bermuda's new written Constitution came into effect, as a document 96 pages long. It is not like other constitutions which cover all nationals and non-nationals. The Bermuda one covers Bermudians and their spouses only, not the 25 percent who are not and probably will never be unless they marry a Bermudian, or are born to parents one of whom must be a Bermudian. Non-Bermudians married to Bermudians should be aware they are not protected by the Constitution against work permit cessation or conviction of a serious crime and also under the latter have no human right to a family life in Bermuda, unlike under European law where the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) may offer protection.

• 1968. June 14.  An historic first General Election to be held with the new constitutional framework took place, the first under full universal adult suffrage and the first under a party system. A total of 107 candidates contested 40 seats in the House of Assembly. The United Bermuda Party (UBP) had 39 candidates, the Progressive Labour Party (PLP) 38, the Bermuda Democratic Party (BDP) fielded 21, and there were nine Independents. The UBP won thirty seats and the PLP won ten. Sir Henry Tucker, leader of the UBP, was appointed Bermuda's first Government Leader. The General Election effectively took Bermuda from a representative to responsible form of Government and transferred most of the Governor's former executive function to the Executive Council, which was now headed by the person commanding the support of the majority of the elected Members of the House of Assembly. That individual, referred to as the Government Leader (a designation which in later years was changed to Premier) chose the other Members of the Executive Council (subsequently called Ministers) from party representatives within the Legislature. Thus, the Council (known today as the Cabinet) assumed responsibility for the administration of the internal affairs of Bermuda, while the Governor, in a truncated role, retained, interalia, control of external affairs, defence, internal security and the Police, matters on which he was and still is, constitutionally obliged to consult with the Government of the day.

• 1968. The Bermuda Government and United Kingdom Government negotiated an entrustment deal that allowed Bermuda's leaders to negotiate with other countries on certain matters without asking for permission from Britain on every occasion. It became a working symbol of Bermuda's senior status with the government of the United Kingdom and a mechanism that helped Bermuda take its place as a responsible member of the international community. It was an essential tool of modern Bermuda. Intrinsic to the exercise of the general entrustment is the trust the United Kingdom has in Bermuda to negotiate arrangements that ultimately require its signature. The papers show that Bermuda was given power to: Negotiate and conclude trade agreements with other countries; Arrange or allow visits of up to 30 days for trade or commercial purposes by representatives or residents of Bermuda to any other country; Negotiate and conclude agreements of purely local concern with any independent member of the Commonwealth or the US or such other authorities that the Bermuda Government may request and the UK Government approve; Negotiate and conclude agreements for technical assistance or of a cultural or scientific nature with any independent member of the Commonwealth or the US or such other authorities that the Bermuda Government may request and the UK Government approve; and Negotiate and conclude agreements with other countries, whether bilateral or multilateral, relating to emigration from Bermuda to those countries and to emigrant labour schemes. The agreement says it is necessary for the Bermuda Government to inform the UK of any such negotiations and keep it informed of progress.

• 1968. Bermuda had a papal visit by Pope Paul VI. He stopped on these shores briefly following a trip to Bogota, Columbia.

• 1968. Department of Planning, DAB, established.

• 1968. October. Bermuda Regiment soldiers went on their first overseas exercise. A 28-man group spent four weeks in Jamaica with 'A' Company of the York and Lancaster Regiment, part of the British regular army, who were there for an introduction to jungle training. The training time was spent working in the rough terrain presented by the thickly forested hills around Berriedale, in Portland. The soldiers lived in a tented camp at Folly Point, just outside Port Antonio, where, during the rainy season in an area that receives more than 100 inches of rain a year, the tented camp soon became a muddy swamp where it was said that only strong discipline and a stronger sense of humor kept the soldiers going. Of this pioneering group of men on the exercise, known by the British Army as Exercise Sane, three went on to make Bermuda Regimental and Bermuda national history; and one went on to high rank in the Church. Lieutenant Eugene Raynor became the first black Commanding Officer of the Bermuda Regiment from 1980 to 1984; Private Alvin Daniels became Captain Alvin Daniels and later the first Bermudian Aide-de-Camp to a Governor from 1973 to 1975, and Sergeant Larry Burchall became the first Bermudian Regimental Sergeant Major from 1978 to 1980. Going on to high rank in the Church was Corporal Calvin 'Skippy' Ball now Bishop Calvin J P Ball, Church of God (Washington State). Coming from Bermuda and working with the platoon was Company Sergeant Major Alan 'Boopsie' Burrows, a Bermuda Regiment pacesetter and trail-breaker in his own right and British Warrant Officer John Selby who later became a red-jacketed pensioner at Royal Chelsea Hospital, but who in October 1968 was on attachment to the Bermuda Regiment as the its Regimental Sergeant Major. Other Bermuda Regiment members in Jamaica were Gerald Bean, Edward Burchall, Allan Caines, Oliver K Darrell, John Deshields, Harold Dowling, Dennis Hassell, Glenn Ingham, J Looby, David Patterson, David Rowntree, Russell Seymour, Averylon Simons, William Todd, Peter Wilson, Creswell Williams.

• 1969. When man walked on the moon for the first time, the NASA station on Cooper's Island, Bermuda, played a key role.
• 1969. A group of scientists released a colony of gibbons on Hall's Island in Harrington Sound (and followed up on their progress in 1973). The scientists were studying the way the apes swing through trees and also monitored whether they were at play or rest via radios strapped to their backs.
• 1969. The Canadian Naval Radio Station Bermuda was officially changed in name to Canadian Forces Station Bermuda. It was one of the first Canadian stations to be manned by the "new-look" unified Canadian Forces Personnel.
  1969. Bermuda National Trust founded.
• 1969. Bermuda's first Black Power conference was held. It brought activists from across the world to Bermuda's shores. The event was organized by the late civil rights campaigner Roosevelt Brown.
• 1969. Race Relations Act was enacted.
• 1969 October.  For a United Press International Conference in Bermuda, delegates included US Attorney General John Mitchell, Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller, Walter Cronkite. They arrived at Kindley and were met by USAF personnel. Britain sent British Ambassador to the USA, Mr. John Freeman.
• 1970. March. Princess Margaret visited Bermuda.
• 1970. July. Bermuda's bowlers including HattieAnn Morrisette became household names in Bermuda when against all odds they defeated bowlers from 20 Western Hemisphere nations in the 8th Annual Invitational Tournament of the Americas in Miami.
• 1970. Prince Charles visited Bermuda, to open the 350th session of Parliament.
• 1970. Easter Sunday night. There was extensive restoration done after a mysterious fire, by an arsonist.
• 1970. Race Relations Council was appointed.
• 1970. The Heydon Trust chapel in Sandys Parish was converted to its present prayerful status, from a modest but picturesque 19th century farm laborer's cottage that appears to have been built much earlier.
• 1970. October. Racial riots resulted in countless acts of arson, strikes and malicious damage. A State of Emergency was called.
• 1970. Bermuda's first decimal currency, in dollars and cents, replaced the old British-style currency and the Bermuda dollar was pegged to the US dollar, at par.
• 1970. The United States Air Force handed over its base at Kindley Air Force Base to the US Navy. It became the US Naval Air Station, Bermuda
• 1970. Captain Horace Gibbons was the first Bermudian to become director of the Bermuda Regiment Band.
• 1971. January. Brenton Roberts was appointed the island's first Organizer of Community Development (OCD). For many years thereafter, Roberts and his staff directed and coordinated the islands sports from east – west providing facilities, sporting events, summer day camps and after school program’s and much more. The first of three locations was above the Spot Restaurant on Burnaby Street for approximately the first 10 years. His staff consisted of Tom Smith, Sports Advisor, Reggie Ming, Youth Advisor and Roselyn Smith, secretary to Mr. Roberts and the Minister of Sport, Mr. Lancelot Swan. During the early 1970′s they broke ground on Bernard Park Softball Diamond, which attracted all walk’s of life, the Rubber Tree, in Warwick which provided a multi – surface complex for netball including various other sports and the former Coney Island race track which provided some the islands best motocross riders. 
• 1971. Senator Edward  Kennedy began one of his most significant connection to Bermuda with his relationship with former United Bermuda Party MP John Stubbs. Sen. Kennedy recruited Dr. Stubbs, a surgeon who was familiar with both the UK and US health systems, to spearhead a fact-finding tour of Britain on behalf of the Senate Health subcommittee, which was looking to drastically improve healthcare in the States. The pair struck up a friendship which lasted many years.

Senator Edward Kennedy with Dr. John and Mrs. Stubbs

• 1971. Sir Edward (ET) Trenton Richards became the first Black leader of the UBP and Bermuda's first Premier.
• 1971. The year began with a major social development - integration in all Bermuda's public schools. From that moment on, there were no longer any 'black' or white schools, but premises infused with the Technicolor of real people. Unfortunately for Bermuda and its artistic community, however, one singularly talented man did not live long enough to savor the winds of change. Venerated Bermudian artist Charles Lloyd Tucker died suddenly in January, after suffering a massive heart attack. Bermudians black and white expressed their sorrow to his widow, Theresa.
• 1971. April 1. The Health Insurance Act of 1970 came into affect on this date a year later, making health insurance plans compulsory for all Bermuda businesses.
• 1971. Flagship Cruises took over the Bermuda Government New York-Bermuda contract from the Cunard Line  with its Franconia, and the Greek Line with its similarly-sized Olympia and replaced them with the purpose-built specifically for Bermuda Sea Venture and Island Venture for the route. When these two ships were sold to Princess Cruises in 1974, the Sea Venture became the Pacific Princess, better known as the "Love Boat."
• 1971. Initial formation of the Bermuda Stock Exchange.
• 1971 to 1984. Champion racehorse breeder John Silvertand (who died in 2007) began to live in Bermuda and married a Bermudian with whom he had two daughters. He was the breeder of Afleet Alex who almost managed to win the fabled Triple Crown in 2005. The horse was third in the first leg – the Kentucky Derby – but won both the second and third legs, the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.
• 1971. Bermuda Building Code began, with application and planning regulations.
• 1971. A study on the Bermuda environment by Dr. Idwell Hughes showed significant loss of arable land.
• 1971. Judge John Keogh of Norwalk, CT, of the New England District of Kiwanis International, visited Bermuda and persuaded locals to become Kiwanis, with the first of what became three local clubs formed.
• 1971. Freeman Fox study on highway and public transportation.
• 1972. Fisheries Act extended Bermuda's jurisdiction to 12 miles and required statistics on each species of fish caught commercially. It required commercial fishermen to be licensed.
• 1972. The Bermuda College was established by the amalgamation of the Sixth Form Centre, Technical Institute and Hotel College. 
• 1972. March. The Bermuda Track and Field Association Half-Marathon was first held on this rainy day, making it a number of years older than any other Island road race except the 102-year-old May 24 Bermuda Day Half-Marathon. German holidaymaker Gerd Mielke was the winner of the inaugural race, beating a field of less than 20 runners in a time of one hour 26 minutes and 23 seconds.
• 1972. Cavendish Hall School, in Devonshire Parish, was acquired by Saltus Grammar School as its Preparatory department. 
• 1972. Bacardi International, the largest privately held spirits company in the world, established its worldwide headquarters in Bermuda. With operations and offices around the globe, with more than 200 brands and labels operating in more than 100 countries. It went on to build a magnificent office off Pitt's Bay Road, Pembroke. 
• 1972. September 9. Assassination in Bermuda at his home, Bleak House, Devonshire, of Police Commissioner George Duckett, 45 years old, from England - in a planned and premeditated cold blooded murder, after disabling a security light outside the Commissioner's kitchen door – luring him outside and directly into the line of fire. His wife and daughter were intended to be victims too, but his wife escaped by car to call the police. His daughter Marcia was shot at five times, with one shot hitting her, but not seriously. A State of Emergency was called and Scotland Yard detectives were summoned. Confessed murderer Erskine Durrant (Buck) Burrows also attempted to slaughter Duckett's family when he began to spray bullets through the kitchen window, as the declassified Scotland Yard murder log of the investigation has revealed. Burrows fired one shot into the Commissioner's back with his small caliber .22 revolver – a shot that tore through both of Duckett's lungs, his heart and aorta. Duckett managed to stumble back into his house and close the door behind him before collapsing and dying, hemorrhaging blood from his mouth and his nose. Scotland Yard Detective Chief Superintendent William Wright noted the above in his first full report on the Duckett killing, submitted to then Bermuda Police Commissioner L.M. (Nobby) Clark on February 11, 1973. "From the direction of two of the bullets, which struck a metal tray during flight, it would appear as though the assassin was either trying to hit Mr. Duckett again as he lay on the floor or else was firing at Mrs. Duckett, who was at her husband's side. "The remaining three bullets, however, were deliberately fired in the direction of Mrs. Duckett and her daughter Marcia as they stood in the archway of the kitchen whilst she was attempting to telephone for assistance. Two of the bullets struck the wood paneling whilst the third one struck Marcia in the chest." It was later discovered the killer had cut the telephone wires leading to the house as well as disabling the Police radio in the Commissioner's official car parked outside Bleak House. Detective Chief Superintendent Wright and fellow Scotland Yard murder investigator Detective Sergeant Basil Haddrell arrived in Bermuda on September 11 and worked with the Bermuda Police on the Duckett killing and a series of subsequent violent crimes that rocked Bermuda's placidity in the early 1970s. In the shocking and bizarre resolution to the Commissioner's murder, Police Headquarters' trusty and one-time Duckett confidante Erskine (Buck) Burrows was arrested and charged with killing the Commissioner in 1973 following a politically-motivated murder and robbery spree that left five people dead including then Governor Sir Richard Sharples. Burrows had frequently worked as a handyman for the Commissioner at Bleak House, knew his habits and the lay-out of the house and property. Following the murder, Burrows had actually been detailed by newly-appointed Commissioner Clark to clean up the blood-stained Bleak House kitchen where Duckett died. Burrrows also attended the Commissioner's September 14 burial at the Military Cemetery in Prospect which overlooks Bleak House. Veteran officers remember him standing by the Police Vault for some 20 minutes, head bowed, paying his respects to the man he murdered. Members of the small militant wing of the Black Beret Cadre (BBC), revolutionaries inspired by the Black Power movement in the US, had met and recruited Burrows when he spent a short stint at the old Casemates prison in the early 1970s for a series of break-ins he almost certainly did not commit. It is believed Burrows' hatred for the rogue police officers who had beaten a false confession out of him for the break-ins resulted in him drifting into the Cadre's orbit. The Cadre's extremists recognized Burrows' value to them as a spy and agent provocateur at Police Headquarters once he was released from prison – Duckett, aware Burrows had likely been framed, had offered him his position back. Later, the Cadre focused his anti-authoritarian rage and moulded him into a once-removed assassin using indoctrination techniques that were standard in counter-culture para-military cells at the time (for instance, playing on Burrows' ego by always referring to him as "Commander-in-Chief of all Anti-Colonial Forces in Bermuda"). Burrows' grief over the Duckett killing (he considered the Commissioner a friend and something of a father figure) is believed to have led to his conversion to Christianity following his arrest. He provided a written confession to prosecutors during his Supreme Court trial for killing the Police Commissioner in 1975. "I, Erskine Durrant Burrows, being of sound mind and body, wish to reveal and make known the following truths," he wrote. "First of all, I wish to reveal the truth that I, Erskine Durrant Burrows, was the person who shot and killed Mr. George Duckett at his home Bleak House on the night as stated by the prosecution. I shot him in the back. I am also the person who fired other bullets through the kitchen window, one of which wounded his daughter, Marcia Duckett. I wish to state again that what I have written and revealed is all true: it is the truth. I wish to reveal also that I cut the telephone wires beforehand. I also cut the wires to Mr. Duckett's car radio beforehand. I came on foot and left on foot. I was alone. No one else was with me. Finally I wish to reveal that I have made all the revelations of my own free will. No one has forced or pressured me into doing so. I also add my signature willingly and of my own free will. Signed: Erskine Durrant Burrows." He also admitted his role in the March 1973 murders of Governor Sir Richard Sharples and his Aide-De-Camp Captain Hugh Sayers and was convicted of murdering supermarket executives Victor Rego and Mark Doe during the armed robbery of the Shopping Centre on Victoria Street in April, 1973. At the time of his arrest Burrows was described by then-Governor Sir Edwin Leather as "this tragic young man", saying he and, to a lesser degree, career criminal Larry Tacklyn (tried for collaborating with Burrows in the Government House and Supermarket killings) were puppets manipulated by hard-core elements within the militant Black Beret Cadre. "What I am convinced happened is that, at that moment of time, and probably quite accidentally, the small ring of BBC leaders still meeting together . . . suddenly realized that fate had put a new weapon in their hands in the form of these easily impressed and not very bright young criminals," said Sir Edwin. "They played on them, influenced them, almost certainly inspired some of the violent acts that followed and very probably planned them." 
• 1972. A Bermuda Regiment Volunteer Reserves team erected a Bailey Bridge on the Causeway in double quick time to ease traffic snarl-ups while essential maintenance work took place on Longbird Bridge. 30 members of the Volunteer Reserve unit took just two days to complete the bridge-building task which had been expected to take much longer. In October, 1972, Major Brendan Hollis was reported as saying: "The Royal Engineers judged it would take 60 men five days to complete the bridge; we have done it with 30 men in two days." Lt. Col. Michael Darling, commanding officer of the Bermuda Regiment at the time, said: "The enthusiasm of these men was really terrific. They were none of them youngsters, but they proved their worth today." 
• 1972-74, when the Southampton Princess was built as Bermuda's biggest hotel, almost 100% of the construction materials came from Canada.
• 1973. February 15. Opening date of large new hotel in St. George's, the Holiday Inn (later, Loews's Inn, later Club Med). It had a sad history and was finally demolished in 2008 in hope of having a new hotel. Present in 1973 were personalities including the Premier, Minister of Tourism and MCPs including Sir Dudley Spurling.

Holiday Inn, Bermuda, opened February 15, 1973

• 1973. Prince Charles arrived without pomp and ceremony as a Sub Lieutenant aboard HMS Minerva. He stayed for 4 days and attended a number of social functions but is main duties were on the warship.
• 1973. The Executive Council was renamed Cabinet.
• 1973. When the United Kingdom formally entered the European Union this year, Bermuda, as a British colony, was not included in EU citizenship and other laws and provisions.
• 1973. City of Hamilton Plan.
• 1973. Double assassination in Bermuda, on March 10, of Bermuda Governor Sir Richard Sharples and his aide Captain Hugh Sayers, at Government House while walking a dog. They were buried in the graveyard at St. Peter's Church in St. George's. A State of Emergency was called and Scotland Yard detectives were summoned. Later, the killer was tried and executed. The execution caused mass riots, strikes, malicious damage and injuries to policemen. (Much later, the family came to live in Bermuda, for UK tax avoidance purposes).
• 1973. Old Devonshire Church was damaged by an explosion on Easter Sunday.
• 1973. November. Hamilton's container dock # 8, and an extension of container dock # 7, were officially opened. 
• 1973. November. The Bermuda Government gave a tentative go-ahead for plans to create a national lottery and asked the Lottery Committee to draw up details. The Committee's report indicated strong support from residents and visitors. The Committee planned to use the money raised by the Lottery to finance a major sports complex, possibly at Shelly Bay, and other recreational facilities. But this never came to anything. 
• 1974. Princess Cruises bought Flagship Cruises Bermuda Government New York-Bermuda contract and the latter's purpose-built specifically for Bermuda Sea Venture and Island Venture. The Sea Venture became the Pacific Princess, better known as the "Love Boat."
• 1974. February. A US Navy tug freed the grain ship "Mount Julie" from a reef in Bermuda's main shipping channel.
• 1974. Sir Henry Vesey voiced his views on international insurance expansion in Bermuda. For the first 35 years of its existence, the Bermuda insurance market pinned its colors to the property and catastrophe sector. But when Bermuda began to move beyond the captive market it had pioneered in the 1960s, one of the early questions it faced was whether to admit life, and annuity business. A hard decision, rather than a vague policy ruling, was required from the Bermuda government when the Harvard University medical malpractice program applied to operate its captive business from Bermuda. Sir Henry Vesey, who had been chairman of the Bermuda Trade Development Board in 1969, famously said: "What we want to avoid is overexpansion," and Harvard was duly turned down. The program went to the Cayman Islands and led to that jurisdiction becoming, over the years, Bermuda's only meaningful offshore competitor in the insurance industry.
• 1974. The Bermuda Bar Act 1974 - see http://www.bermudabar.org/images/Bermuda%20Bar%20Act%201974.pdf  was legislated.

• 1974. "The Bermuda Triangle" first became a household term, through the publication of The Bermuda Triangle book by Charles Berlitz. Bermuda gave its name to this mysterious stretch of water largely as a result of the still unexplained disappearances of ships and planes both military and civilian including the airliners Star Tiger and Star Ariel in 1948 and 1949. It is said that when Miami, one of its other points, was asked if it wanted the Miami Triangle, it promptly and pointedly said no. When Puerto Rico, another point, was asked, it too immediately declined . When Bermuda was approached it did not reply, so got the name by default.

• 1974. The Legislative Council approved regulations allowing American civilians employed at the US bases in Bermuda to have the same on-base customs privileges as members of US Armed Forces.
• 1974. The USA and Bermuda established the first commercial pre-clearance agreement whereby passengers leaving Bermuda by air for the USA could be pre-cleared in Bermuda by US Immigration and Customs authorities, instead of having to line up for a long time on arrival in the USA, as do Europeans and others.

• 1974. The Bermuda College began, created by the Parliament of Bermuda through the passage of the Bermuda College Act in 1974. Under this Act, a Board of twelve Governors had the responsibility for the direction and management of the College. The members of the Board are appointed annually by the Minister of Education. The Chief Education Officer of the Ministry of Education and the Chairman of the National Training Board are ex officio members of the Board. This provision for the governance of Bermuda's only post-secondary educational institution was patterned after similar governing Acts of state-funded universities in the USA and Canada. The College began with the amalgamation of three flourishing institutions: the Bermuda Hotel and Catering College established in 1965, the Bermuda Technical Institute (1956) and the Academic Sixth Form Centre (1967) Some of these institutions had even earlier antecedents. They had provided opportunities for education and training in the main areas needed by Bermuda in its developing economy.

• 1974. Development and Planning Act had far wider visions than the 1965 Act.
• 1974. Which Way Bermuda? Exhibition at City Hall. 
• 1974. Second Bermuda Development Plan, with 53% zoned as an Environmental Conservation area with reserves for future development.
• 1974. With the enactment of the Bermuda Archives Act 1974 the Bermuda Archives department of the Bermuda Government was officially established.
• 1975. In Bermuda rugby, the Bermuda Athletic Association (BAA) split into two clubs, the Mariners and Renegade Mariners. 
• 1975. W. David Kingery was a member of the Beverly Yacht Club, on the Board of Governors of the Blue Water Sailing Club, and interested in doing a single-handed race from England to Newport. To qualify for the race, David chose to do a single-handed voyage to Bermuda and on this trip was struck with the concept of organizing a race to Bermuda for cruising yachts and family sailors. Having successfully completed the Bermuda trip, he discussed his idea with Dickie Bird of the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club and then with Leo Fallon, Commodore of the Blue Water Sailing Club, and with various members of the Beverly Yacht Club. Support was promised from all three clubs; two years later, the 1977 and subsequent every-other-year Marion-Bermuda Cruising Yacht Race began with supporting clubs at each end and an additional staff of enthusiastic volunteers from the Blue Water Sailing Club.
• 1975. Meals on Wheels began in Bermuda and has been delivering healthy meals to the elderly and the infirm since then.
• 1975. American foulbrood Paenibacillus larvae was first detected in Bermuda, to the consternation of local beekeepers. As a direct result, an annual inspection programme was initiated by the Department of Agriculture & Fisheries (DAF).
• 1975. Fred McMurray starred in the movie Beyond the Bermuda Triangle, a made-for-television drama. A retired businessman's obsession with the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle increased when his lover and her friends become its next victims.
• 1975: March. Margery Wade, 34, was sexually assaulted inside her Hamilton apartment and killed with a blow to the head from a wooden plank. Her body was found on March 5, still inside the apartment on Laffan Street. Miss Wade was a schoolteacher from England who taught at the Berkeley Institute.
• 1975. Decline in grouper and snapper catch noted.
• 1975. February 16. Second visit to Bermuda (first was in 1953) of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Duke of Edinburgh. She was greeted by Governor Sir Edwin Leather. One of the events she attended was the Speaker's Dinner, hosted by the Hon. Sir Dudley Spurling.

• 1975. August 14. Bermuda issued s set of stamps to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the 14 August 1775 Bermuda Gunpowder Plot.

• 1975. October. Princess Margaret visited Bermuda twice, once on a private visit a week earlier.. One of her functions was to attend the 10th anniversary dinner at the Elbow Beach Surf Club of the Bermuda Regiment.
• 1975. The United Bermuda Party Black Caucus was formed.
• 1976. July 3. Third visit to Bermuda (first was in 1953, second in 1975) of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Duke of Edinburgh. This time, it was purely a 4.5 hour stopover.
• 1976. Tall Ships in Bermuda. In a spectacular showing never before seen in Bermuda in such numbers, 18 Tall Ships from the 14 principal nations of the maritime world congregated in Bermuda as a prelude to their USA Bicentennial celebration in Newport, Rhode Island and New York. Square-rigs filled the sky as the Tall Ships vied for position at the starting line of St. David's Head for their race to New York. Suddenly, what had been a serene 19th century parlor painting turned to glorious chaos. More than half the fleet bunched up at the windward end of the starting line, as this picture to the right shows. There, amid a washday mass of windblown sails and a seemingly impenetrable thicket of masts, the ships both great and small crossed bowsprits, tacked slow-motion through each other's courses, underwent innumerable harrowing near-collisions. Crewmen cursed, spectators shrieked, Bermudian onlookers in the police boat and other small vessels gaped in wide-eyed surprise and shock. The grand green-sailed Libertad of Argentina, all 345 feet of her, glided inexorably through the thickest of the fray, just missing several competitors. Then she and the Spanish Juan Sebastian de Elcano (see below) came together in a bizarre, very gradual crash. Elcano lost 60 feet off the top of her 180-foot foremast and was forced to quit the race, sails tattered and rigging tangled and her skipper furious. Libertad had her mainsail ripped, her mizzen torn, but she went on. In the next exuberant minutes at least five other boats were also in collisions—three tall ships and two of the 70-plus smaller vessels also in the race.By nightfall the melee was far behind and the fleet was stretched over miles of ocean. A day out, the wind died, the sea turned to a glassy calm, the race came to a dead stop. After four windless days, the race was declared over, the Gorch Fock of West Germany was named the winner (though a protest was filed) and the fleet headed for Newport under power. After a week there the tall ships would head toward another memorable scene: New York on the Fourth of July. They were to parade through the Harbor and up the Hudson River, with five million people expected to watch.

Collision between this vessel and Libertad off Bermuda, 1976

• 1976. In London,  an internal Scotland Yard memorandum was prepared for the Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police summarizing his Murder Squad's involvement in the politically-motivated assassinations and associated crimes of violence that shook Bermuda in 1972/73. It read as follows: Following the murder of (Police Commissioner George) Duckett on September 9, 1972, the (acting) Governor and Commander-In-Chief of Bermuda (Ian Kinnear) requested the assistance of officers from the Murder Squad, New Scotland Yard. In consequence Detective Chief Superintendent William Wright and Detective Chief Inspector Basil Haddrell (then Detective Sergeant First Class) travelled to Bermuda to lead the investigations. These officers were still engaged in their investigations when on March 10, 1973 the (recently arrived) Governor and Commander-in-Chief Sir Richard Sharples and his Aide-de-Camp Captain Hugh Sayers were murdered in Government House, Bermuda. As there was a definite link between these murders and that of Commissioner of Police Mr. Duckett, Mr. Wright and Detective Chief Inspector Haddrell were deputed to lead the investigations into all three murders. To assist them a further 11 officers were sent from New Scotland Yard (at various times). During the course of the ensuing investigations, two further murders were perpetrated on April 6, 1973 when Mr. Victor Rego and Mr. Mark Doe were found shot at their supermarket in Victoria Street, Hamilton, Bermuda. The hands and feet of both victims had been tied by rope prior to their murders and a total of $21,000 stolen from the premises. At this stage it was clear all five murders were closely linked and, in some cases, the same weapon had been used. Investigations clearly indicated the murders were perpetrated by members of an illegal and militant black organisation known as the "Black Beret Cadre". This group was affiliated to the "Black Panther Organisation" of the USA and their aims were to end British colonialism in Bermuda and to seize control and power from the white population by removing High Officials from office by any means possible. The earlier activities of the organisation proving futile, they resorted to murder. A "Death List" was published within the organisation bearing the names of nine Senior Officials to be removed, including the Commissioner of Police and the Governor and Commander-in-Chief. Whilst Mr. Rego and Mr. Doe were not included on the "Death List", enquiries revealed they were murdered in the course of a "Fund Raising Mission" conducted by members of the Black Beret Cadre. The object of the mission was to take money from members of the white population for use in the purchase of arms and ammunition by which they might further their cause. Following the series of murders, members of the Black Beret Cadre organisation perpetrated further serious offences, including one attempted murder (of a black Bermudian taxi driver), two armed robberies, one attempted armed robbery and five incidents where revolvers and shotguns were fired at the windows of occupied buildings. Three of these shooting incidents were directed at residences occupied by members of the white community and two at the headquarters complex of the Bermuda Police, the first at the office occupied by the Murder Squad Investigation Team when five rounds from a .38 revolver were fired at the office windows and one other when a shotgun and revolver were fired at the windows of the Single Men's Quarters. Fortunately no person was injured by these acts of terrorism but the possibility of further attacks occurring and proving fatal could not be ignored. It became clear that the Black Beret Cadre had infiltrated members into Police Headquarters, and so were aware of the offices and accommodation used by the Murder Squad team. In consequence, firearms were made available to Metropolitan Police Officers (serving in Bermuda) to carry at their discretion. The mental and physical stresses experienced in dealing with acts of terrorism in a foreign land added to the strain of investigating five murders at one time were enormous, and the eventual success of these enquiries must present a true reflection of the courage, character and ability of the officers concerned. As a result of extensive enquiries, evidence was adduced to prove Erskine Durrant Burrows was one of the persons responsible for the two armed robberies and the five shooting incidents previously mentioned. At the time of his arrest, Burrows was employed as a janitor at Police Headquarters, Bermuda and was so able to communicate valuable information of police activities to his co-conspirators in the Black Beret Cadre. He was arrested on October 19, 1973 and was eventually convicted of all charges, receiving a total sentence of 25 years imprisonment. Whilst at this stage it was also apparent Erskine Durrant Burrows and another Cadre member, Larry Winfield Tacklyn, were responsible for the five murders under investigation, insufficient evidence was available to justify their prosecution for same. The murder enquiries continued and gradually more evidence was adduced. Following the results of the Coroners Inquests held in 1975, a Voluntary Bill of Indictment was granted indicting Burrows on five counts of murder and Tacklyn on four counts of murder (he was not charged in connection with the Police Commissioner's assassination). Both defendants were arraigned at the Supreme Court of Bermuda and three trials ensued. At the conclusion of the trials, Burrows was found "Guilty" on all five counts of murder and Tacklyn "Guilty" on two counts of murder (he was acquitted of participating in the Government House killings). Much of the success resulting from these difficult, dangerous, arduous and protracted investigations directly emanated from the thorough and exhaustive efforts of the Metropolitan Police personnel during the initial stages. The importance of correct documentation and thorough investigating was highlighted during the trials some four years (after the various crimes were committed), and their expertise and training of the local members of the Murder Team proved invaluable throughout the duration of the investigation. In fear of reprisals, virtually no public support was afforded the investigators but, despite this, the officers refused to be intimidated or diverted from their duty, and continued to work in a most professional and admirable manner. Bermuda's current transformation from political terrorism to peace and tranquility must be a reflection of the efficiency and ability of these officers.

• 1976. Two men, Borrows and Tacklyn, after being found guilty of the assassinations of the Police Commissioner, Governor and his ADC, were sentenced to death.
• 1976. Fame Magazine ceased publication.
• 1976. Boxer Clarence Hill won a bronze Olympic medal for Bermuda, the first of any Olympic medal.
• 1976. Lord Yehudi Menuhin was in Bermuda to perform in the Bermuda Festival. While here, his visit to the string group at Warwick Academy sparked his interest and out of it grew his idea to establish a string quartet in Bermuda that would provide instruction in stringed instruments to all of Bermuda's school children. To take his dream to fruition, the Menuhin Foundation was created.
• 1976. August. Sean O'Connell swam solo round-the-island for the Bermuda Physically Handicapped Association (BPHA) and raised thousands of dollars for it.
• 1977. February. Sir John (Jack) Sharpe, who had earlier replaced Sir Edward Richards as leader of the United Bermuda Party, was popular with the electorate but was eventually forced to quit after pressure from his own party members. Seven members of his Government, including members of the Black Caucus, resigned and accused him of bringing the party to a state of "political bankruptcy."
• 1977. First Bermuda chapter of  Ikebana International, the Japanese art of flower arranging, was formed by Kitten Ellison.
• 1977. The Shelly Bay Plaza at Shelly Bay in Hamilton Parish fell victim to an arsonist and was burned to the ground but within a year was rebuilt and back in operation. 
• 1977. June 17. The mystery thriller action adventure movie "The Deep" see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075925/ by Peter Benchley (who also wrote "Jaws") was released. Robert Shaw sang the praises of Bermuda-bottled and blended rum. Set in Bermuda, it also starred Jacqueline Bissett; Nick Nolte; Louis Gossett Jr; Eli Wallach; Dick Anthony Williams; Earl Maynard; Bob Minor; Bermudian Teddy Tucker; Robert Tessier and Lee McClain. A pair of young vacationers on a romantic stay in Bermuda are involved in a dangerous conflict with treasure hunters when they discover a way into a deadly wreck, a WW2 freighter, in Bermuda waters. Near it, they find an ampule of morphine, one of tens of thousands still aboard the wrecked ship. Their discovery leads them to a Haitian drug dealer, Cloche (Louis Gossett), and an old treasure hunter, Romer Treece (Robert Shaw). With Cloche in pursuit, Gail, David and Treece try to recover the sunken treasure. While The Deep was set in Bermuda and the Island featured extensively both above and below the surface, much of the wreck-diving footage was shot on the shipwreck of the RMS Rhone in the British Virgin Islands, while the shark feeding frenzy was actually filmed off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia!

• 1977. Possible political independence for Bermuda from the UK was first reviewed comprehensively in a Green Paper, followed by a White Paper stating Government's view Bermuda was not yet ready.
• 1977. A new yacht race was devised between members of the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club in Bermuda and the Beverly Yacht Club on the coast of Massachusetts at the town of Marion. It became the every-other-year‘Marion-Bermuda Cruising Yacht Race’ and attracts upwards of 80 boats for its biennial sail from Buzzards Bay to St. David’s Head.
• 1977. Arrival of new Governor Sir Peter Ramsbotham, said to be an architect of modern Bermuda. He not only helped to reduce the racial inequalities of the island but built its foundations as an international business jurisdiction. Faced with some of the most turbulent times in Bermuda's history, he quelled the riots of 1977 and went on to pioneer lasting social change through the Pitt Commission and its findings. As Governor from 1977 to his retirement in 1980, Sir Peter's is said to have viewed Bermuda's people as his favourite quality of the Island. He worked diligently to bring together people of all backgrounds and outlooks on life towards healing the divisions between the races. Sir Peter governed during a very turbulent and difficult period in Bermuda's history. He worked assiduously with his wife Lady (Frances) Ramsbotham, touching all aspects of the community. Sir Peter made his wife's dream of opening a home for the physically-handicapped a reality when he helped to attract funding for 'Summerhaven' in Smith's. The couple's own daughter was disabled after a riding accident in the 1970s. Educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford, he joined the Foreign Service in 1950 after serving in the Intelligence Corps of MI5 during the Second World War. In 1945 he was Mentioned in Dispatches. Sir Peter was appointed British Ambassador to Iran in 1971 and then British Ambassador to the US in 1974. In Washington he enjoyed a close relationship with President Jimmy Carter. His appointment to Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda was not an easy posting. Shortly after his arrival riots erupted in an outburst of anger at racial injustices and the hanging of Erskine Durrant (Buck) Burrows and Larry Tacklyn. Burrows, 33, was executed for the murders of Police Commissioner George Duckett on September 9, 1972, Governor Sir Richard Sharples and his Aide-de-Camp (ADC) Captain Hugh Sayers on March 10, 1973, and supermarket owner Victor Rego and his bookkeeper Mark Doe a month later. Tacklyn, 26, was executed for the supermarket double-murder, which took place during an armed robbery. Despite a petition for clemency by 6,000 people, they were sentenced to death and hanged on December 2, 1977. The verdict sparked three days of rioting and Sir Peter took the decision to call in British troops. The Army restored peace to the streets but not the underlying roots of discontent. In a bid to ascertain the causes, Sir Peter called for an inquiry and the Pitt Commission was established. He died in 2010 at the age of 90.

Governor Sir Peter Ramsbotham

• 1977. July 23. Bermuda II was signed as a Bilateral Air Transport Agreement between the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States, as a renegotiation of the original 1946 Bermuda agreement. It came about after, in July 1976, Edmund Dell, the then new UK Secretary of State for Trade, renounced the original Bermuda air services agreement of 1946 and initiated bilateral negotiations with his US counterparts on a new air services agreement, which resulted in the Bermuda II treaty of 1977. More details can be seen at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermuda_II. 
• 1977. Sargasso Seafoods projects began.
• 1977. The concept of visiting not one but two Bermuda ports first started with the Cunard Princess cruise ship.
• 1977. December 1-4. Mass demonstrations protested the sentences of death imposed and thousands of Bermudians petitioned to stop them. The Government, in a last-minute session of the Court of Appeals dismissed the final appeal on behalf of the two men on the night of December and refused to have a last-minute debate on capital punishment. As the two condemned men walked from their cell at Casemates to a holding cell beside the newly constructed gallows the prison went wild. Waiting in a tiny execution chamber was the visiting British hangman and his assistant from Trinidad, since Bermuda had no executioners. The two were old friends: they had performed the same task often enough in the Caribbean. At 4 a.m. on the morning of Friday, December 2, 1977 Burrows, self-styled 'former Commander in Chief of all anti-colonialist forces in the Islands of Bermuda' was hanged. Tacklyn went to meet the hangmen at 4.40 a.m. Some miles away a rumor was rumbling, the hangman was a guest on the top floor of the Southampton Princess. This prompted a hotel worker to jump on an elevator and douse the top floor's carpets with gasoline. Fire swept through the Southampton Princess and three tourists staying there were trapped and killed by the flames.  Revenge race riots erupted from the hanging of Buck Burrows and Larry Tacklyn at Casemates Prison. Burrows was convicted of the murders of the former Governor and his ADC in 1973, Police Commissioner Duckett in 1972 and of the Shopping Centre robbery and murder. Tacklyn was hung for the deaths of two Shopping Centre persons. A prolonged State of Emergency was declared, police stations were attacked, many police injuries occured and publicity overseas for Bermuda was frightful. Five hundred youths took over the Court Street Area, setting fire to the Gosling’s Warehouse and attacking shops in the area. Petrol bombs were thrown throughout the Island and Police responded with tear gas. Millions of dollars in malicious damage was caused by the rioters. The Bermuda Regiment was called up. For the second time, the Governor was forced to declare a state of emergency and request British military assistance. The frustrations of hundreds and anger with Bermuda's perceived racial inequalities were vented. Hundreds of black men aged 16-60 took to the streets within minutes. White people walking on Court Street were attacked and badly injured by the angry mobs. The crowd smashed windows at the Supreme Court and House of Assembly, overturned cars and set fires. Parliament and Victoria streets were a sea of glass after the crowd marched through smashing everything in its way. Molotov cocktails were flying. There was a glow from all the buildings and people running around in masks. Some of the businesses targeted and set alight were Bristol Cellars and Bermuda Air Conditioning. n the course of the day, Gosling Brothers warehouse, Piggly Wiggly supermarket in Shelly Bay and Sunshine Company were gutted. At the Transport Control Department a bus was rammed into the building. On Sunday, December 4 a squad of 250 British troops arrived, some from the jungles of Belize, with orders to shoot to kill, and the streets of Hamilton were finally quiet. British Governors of Bermuda were advised to stop having aides from overseas and instead to have local ones. It is how the tradition started in the Bermuda Regiment. Burrows and Tacklyn were the last to receive the death penalty in Bermuda.
• 1978. January 27. The made-for-'TV movie "The Bermuda Depths" - see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077223/ was first telecast. It was smash hit in the USA. It starred Burl Ives, Leigh McCloskey, Carl Weathers and Connie Selleca. The plot gets under way when scientists arrive in the Bermuda Triangle to investigate underwater disturbances. This activity seems to be tied in with reported sightings of the ghost of a drowned girl. Pursuing their investigation, the scientists run afoul of a giant sea turtle. The film was a rare live-action effort from the Canadian cartoon firm of Rankin-Bass. 

• 1978. In February, the first traffic lights in Hamilton, Bermuda were switched on.
• 1978. The movie "The Bermuda Triangle" - see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078417/?ref_=sr_1 was released to a world audience.
• 1978. Chuck Feeney came to Bermuda, as the founder of the Bermuda-based General Atlantic Group and Atlantic Philanthropies charitable institute, reported to be one of the wealthiest people in the world. A New Jersey native, he needed to be a resident on the island for a year. With the help of local banker Cummings Zuill he bought a large villa and that summer moved his entire family here.
• 1978. A commission headed by Lord Pitt of Hampstead, known as the Pitt Commission Report, was ordered by the UK and convened to look into the December 1977 civil disturbance. It was released after the five-person bipartisan team interviewed scores of people over a six-week period before going abroad for two weeks to write the report. Members included Alex Scott and the late Irving Pearman. It recommended a raft of policies aimed at improving opportunities. It wrote that while the hangings of Tacklyn and Burrows were the immediate cause of the riots, there were many underlying issues which were "tangled together and derive much of their influence from the way they interact." It outlined issues within Bermuda and made recommendations on how to improve society and the economy for the benefit of all Bermudians. The Progressive Labour Party took on a dynamic role as the Opposition in giving many young people a political voice. Many involved in the riots, said “we needed to shake up the Government”. With many black Bermudians perceiving unequal opportunities, they felt that “rioting, though regrettable, can be a legitimate mode of protest”. The commissioners wrote: “Civil disorder in Bermuda during the last 13 years has functioned as a kind of extra-parliamentary political action.” A crisis in national identity was hitting the core of Bermuda’s black male, the commissioners wrote. Whereas his father viewed growing up in a small society and viewed himself as a subject of King George V, “a young black man today grows up in an international society oriented towards North America; his political conceptions are influenced by racial identifications in the United States, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and elsewhere.” Bermuda’s economic advances, the commissioners wrote, contributed to weaknesses in a young black man’s sense of identity. Expectations of educational performance were nourished that many young people could not meet. This was more “acute for black males than for white males or for females”, they wrote. “It can easily cause young men to feel that in others’ eyes they are failures, with the result that they seek other ways of shaping a sense of identity that will salvage their self-respect.” In 1977, the commissioners quoted the Bermuda Association of Social Workers on so-called disadvantaged youth: "their experience needs to be legitimated. They don’t see themselves as a problem. They say ‘We want you to recognize us for what we are, as as Bermudians.” Young black males, the commissioners said, were struggling with an identity “partially from the absence of a feeling of belonging to a distinctive national unit and partly a relative lack of success in what is now a very competitive society”. In their report on the disturbances of 1977, the Pitt Commission recommended that Bermuda seek Independence. National, or more specifically racial, unity would be attained only with a sovereign Bermuda, they said. Additionally, the Pitt Commission suggested that Bermuda introduce a more equitable tax system, which, if necessary, may include an income tax. “There is also an urgent need for programmes aimed at increasing the spread of Bermuda’s wealth,” the commission said. In the family, the commission said that several Bermudians that “discipline in the family and society has declined drastically dramatically in recent years.” They called for more fathers and male role models to become involved in the lives of young men. “Boys have no image or sense of direction when going to school. It is really a complete moral decay for young men in Bermuda unless the parents and few dedicated teachers are able to give them a sense of perspective,” a witness told the commission. “Lacking job motivation and experiencing job-related frustration, some male Bermudians, particularly young black males,” they wrote, may vent their frustrations through “anti-social behavior”. It concluded that the Island's parliamentary process did not properly represent Bermuda's citizens. It added that Bermuda needed to ensure that economic prosperity did not hinder society and cause sectors to loose a sense of identity. It found found that the underlying causes lay in the inequality of opportunity between the races. There is a strong belief that there is inequality of economic opportunities, concentration of economic power in Front Street, lack of support for small black businesses and lack of job training, lack of low income accommodation, decline in discipline, the single parent households, deficiencies in social welfare programmes and education and criminal justice systems. We devote more attention to the contributory causes than to the immediate causes because the latter are relatively simple, and so long as the sense of frustration was acute, a variety of factors could have served to precipitate disorder. We are led to emphasise with underlying popular impatience with what is seen as insufficiently equal opportunity. The identification of race with privilege sharpens this feeling but does not create it. The disturbances happened to be directed against the present Government but in the future disappointment with a different government could be expressed in a similar fashion." The importance of plans relating to child development and of their being supplemented by a programme of compulsory education for children of primary school age. The provision of a second chance to obtain a qualification. The importance of sharing the wealth and opportunities provided by Bermudas two main businesses: tourism and international business; we hope that the propose investigation of monopolies will extend to all forms of economic activity and will not be limited to the retail trade. The importance of substantially reducing immigration and assisting the promotion of Bermudians. We repeat our belief that in the long run it will prove essential to regulate the transmission of inherited wealth. Economic progress has also contributed to these weaknesses in the sense of identity, for it has nourished expectations of educational performance that many young people cannot meet. Bermudians should not set standards for themselves that are so high that they produce a class of casualties.
• 1978. British UK nationals resident in Bermuda but not Bermudians who had previously been allowed to vote were told this would be the last time that non-Bermudians would automatically be allowed to vote. After this year, to be allowed to vote they had to be Bermudians by birth or status.
• 1978. All employees and management of Bermuda's Bank of N. T. Butterfield and Son Ltd were allocated common shares in the bank at no cost to them. with the number in direct proportion to their salaries. The shares were then worth $15 each.
• 1978. As the insurance industry started to grow, Bermudians realized that it needed to be regulated properly and in 1978 the Insurance Act was passed by Parliament. Following this, the Insurance Advisory Committee (IAC) was established, made up of people representing insurance companies, legal firms and Government regulatory agencies such as the Bermuda Monetary Authority.
• 1978. On Boxing Day, the 528 foot ship Mari Boeing ran aground on Bermuda's reefs. Damage caused to the reef was huge, over 100 acres, and can still be seen.
• 1979. A Constitutional Conference was held at Warwick Camp attended by the UBP, PLP and Foreign & Commonwealth Office officials. Among other significant events, the Legislative Council or Upper House ended, having been in place since 1888 and in its place came the Senate or Upper House. 
• 1979. Miss Bermuda, Gina Swainson, 21 years old, from Wellington Hill, St. George's, won the Miss World contest at London's Royal Albert Hall. She put Bermuda on the world beauty queen map. Later, she moved to England.

Gina Swainson, Miss World 1979

• 1979. In March, Piggly Wiggly Limited was purchased from Fernance Perry by Mr. Alvin Ferreira who at the time owned the Modern Mart grocery store on the South Shore Road in Paget and a number of cycle rental companies. In 1981, the name of the four stores were changed to the MarketPlace stores while Modern Mart continued to trade under it's own name. In September of 1987 the company further expanded with the acquisition of the A-1 Grocery Stores, the A-1 in Paget and the A-1 in Smith's. In August 1993, Mr. Alvin Ferreira unfortunately passed away at the age of 50, His wife Pamela took over ownership of the group of companies, which have continued to grow. 
• 1979. The BBC documentary movie "Life on Earth" - see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135095/ was filmed partly in Bermuda. 
• 1980. February.  The ship Arcadian Victory ran aground on Bermuda's reefs. 
• 1980. June 11. Former Beatle John Lennon arrived in Bermuda from Rhode Island aboard his 43-foot yacht Megan Jaye after a remarkable journey during which he steered it to safety amid a tropical storm. He kept a log of the voyage. It represented an important moment in Lennon's life.  It marked an end of the former Beatle's 10-year writing block and led to his final solo album, Double Fantasy. Lennon, whose father and grandfather were sailors, had always dreamed of making an Atlantic crossing. When a visit to an oracle in South Africa suggested that the safest voyage would be in a south-westerly direction, Lennon decided to charter the 44ft schooner Megan Jaye and make for Bermuda. Just hours after leaving Newport, Rhode Island, the vessel found itself in the middle of a ferocious tropical storm and, one by one, members of the crew fell ill. At one point during the five-day trip Lennon took charge of the yacht after the other crew members fell ill, and famously took the helm during a tempestuous storm. When the final crew member, the ship's cook, also succumbed, Lennon lashed himself to the wheel and steered the vessel to safety. Upon landing in Bermuda eight days later, he described how he had regained his courage 15 minutes into the tempest and began reciting old sea-shanties recalled from his childhood. He likened the cathartic experience to performing on stage. "At first you panic, and then you're ready to throw up your guts but once you get out there and start doing your stuff you forget your fears and you get high on your performance," he said. The musician later recounted in an interview: “So there I was at the wheel. The wind and sea lashing out at me, wave after wave. At first I was terrified, but Capt’n Hank was at my side, so I felt relatively safe, ‘cause I knew he wouldn’t let me do anything stupid. But after a while he (Capt’n Hank) wasn’t feeling too well and he retreated to the cabin below. “Once I accepted the reality of the situation something greater than me took over and all of a sudden I lost my fear. I actually began to enjoy the experience, and I started to sing and shout old sea shanties in the face of the storm, screaming at the thundering sky." Freed from his writer's block by the experience, he stayed in Bermuda for two months, rented a home at Knapton Hill and later in Fairylands and was joined by his 3 year old son Sean. began writing songs for and completed his final album Double Fantasy just weeks before his murder in December 1980. He found inspiration for the title after coming across Double Fantasy freesia in the Botanical Gardens. (The log, on which Lennon wrote the words "Dear Megan, there is no place like no where" includes a doodle of him sporting a beard and was sold for more than £20,000 in London in 2006).
• 1980. June and July. John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono stayed in Bermuda, rented a house in Fairylands, wrote some new songs and named what tragically became his final solo album ‘Double Fantasy’ after the Bermuda-grown Double Fantasy freesia flower he stated he viewed in the Botanical Gardens. But there is some doubt about this as it was the wrong season for the flower during his visit, double fantasy freesias were once grown only in Holland and are so rare now they can't be seen. It is possible that what Lennon saw was instead a Double Fantasy hibiscus. Initially, the album did not receive a rapturous welcome, was largely ignored. But he died less than six months later, assassinated in New York on December 8, 1980 by a deranged American, there was a huge rush locally for all his songs and recordings from that album. They were: (Just Like) Starting Over, Lennon; Kiss Kiss Kiss, Ono; Cleanup Time, Lennon; Give Me Something, Ono; I'm Losing You, Lennon; I'm Moving On, Ono; Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy), Lennon; Watching the Wheels, Lennon; Yes, I'm Your Angel, Ono; Woman, Lennon; Beautiful Boys, Ono; Dear Yoko, Lennon; Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him, Ono; Hard Times Are Over, Ono. (Later, the album was enlarged).

John Lennon and Yoko Ono

• 1980. The made-for-TV movie "The Ivory Ape"  see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080938/  was made entirely in Bermuda, written and produced by Bermudian film and television producer Arthur Rankin Jr. The lead character was Jack Palance. Palance specialized in playing villains during his five-decade Hollywood career which began in the early 1950s with Attila the Hun. He spent several weeks in Bermuda cast against type as the hero in this movie. It aired on prime time on the ABC television network. The film featured such local performers as Grace Rawlins, Charles Jeffers, Marlene B. Landy, Jane Bainbridge, John Lough and George Rushe in supporting roles. Palance starred in the film as Bermuda-based big game hunter Marc Kazarian. The plot focuses on a hunt for a rare albino gorilla, recently captured in Africa, which escapes from a freighter bound for New York that's forced to dock on the island during a storm. In a nod to the classic Empire State Building climax of 1931's King Kong, the albino ape is finally tracked to the steeple of Holy Trinity Church, Harrington Sound. The gorilla is killed by a trigger-happy Bermudian before Palance's Kazarian character - who has turned his back on his former career as a hunter can save the animal, a female which has just given birth.
• 1980. The movie "Hopscotch"  - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopscotch_(movie) was filmed partly in Bermuda.  In the movie, a central character flies to Bermuda. 
• 1980. Legislative Council was changed to the Senate.
• 1980. The Human Rights Act came into effect in Bermuda, for Bermudians. It does not give the same Human Rights to non-Bermudians, unlike other Human Rights Acts overseas.
• 1980. The National Dance Foundation of Bermuda was founded. A registered charity, it was dedicated to the development of exceptional local dancers and choreographers. The performing arm is the National Dance Theatre of Bermuda.
• 1980. Concerns for loss of open space cause widespread environmental activism. 
• 1980. Steep decline in group and snapper fish cause concern.
• 1980. Environment Conservation plans and areas began.
• 1980. Fisheries Act amendment restricts entry into commercial fishing.
• 1980. Decline in reef fish from pots becomes evident.
• 1980. December. Butler Francis Fitzsimmons, 62, was let go after 16 years service at Government House and faced eviction from the cottage he enjoyed there.
• 1981. East Broadway Local Plan.
• 1981. April.  Bermuda's first General Strike began. Non-medical staff at KEMH strike and other workers joined in sympathy. The strike organized by government's unionized workers dragged along until May 5, affecting most services at different times and affected the enjoyment of many Bermuda tourists.

• 1981. DeFontes Broadcasting Company began as the St. George's Broadcasting Company Limited, another commercial radio station. It operated initially as an AM facility on 1450 kHz using the call sign VSB-1. Later, the same company introduced further AM facilities at 1160 and 1280 - and the FM Mix 106.1 facilities heard now.
• 1981. Penny Bean became Bermuda's first black Commissioner of Police.
• 1981. The Bermuda Government established the Public Service Superannuation Fund. 
• 1981-83. Island-wide open space and arable land survey.
• 1982. Moratorium on sub-division of land.
• 1982. The present - and third - Watford Bridge was built, minus the Island. It claimed to be one of the most successful tributes to the use of galvanizing in civil engineering and was supposed to have a design life of 120 years.

• 1982. Establishment of West End Development Corporation as a government quango, formed to redevelop the former Royal Navy Dockyard). P. O. Box 415, Somerset, Mangrove Bay MA BX. Phone (441) 234-1709. Fax 234-3411. E-mail marketing@wedco.bm. Dockyard. The mandate was to manage and develop 214 acres of Government-owned land in the West End, including Watford Island, Boaz Island, Ireland Island South and North, the small islands forming the Crawl off Ireland South and the North and South basins and breakwaters, in all comprising 1.6 % of Bermuda's land mass. Revenue is generated from residential and commercial tenants plus berthing fees from the commercial and cruise ship docks. Mega cruise ships now dock near there. Recent work carried out by Wedco at Dockyard includes the installation of a reverse osmosis plant, the relocation of the marina and the development of ten residential units. Future planned developments include the Victualling Yard, Casemates, the South Basin and the Parsonage. It was initially the island's only self-sustaining quango.

• 1982. On February 16,  His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, eldest son of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and his bride, Diana, Princess of Wales, stopped off in Bermuda in their royal aircraft as part of their honeymoon trip to the Eleutheran Islands of the Bahamas. They were escorted around the original capital of St. George's by the Premier, the Hon. John W. Swan and the Acting Governor. The tour was arranged by the Special Branch of the Bermuda Police Force, after a special request from Prince Charles. Due to their high profile, the Royal visitors had several unobtrusive Special Branch members guarding them. To mark the Royal Wedding, the Bermuda Monetary Authority issued its seventh commemorative coin set, the "Royal Wedding, Prince of Wale and Lady Diana Spencer" issue, comprising a $250 piece in 690 pie fort, 790 proof and 217 uncirculated pieces; and a $1 coin in 16,296 proof and 65,004 copper-nickel pieces.

• 1982. Ben and Jerry - the famous American ice-cream makers - visited Bermuda to launch Bailey's Ice Cream.
• 1983. Bermuda's Historic Articles (Export Control) Act 1983 was enacted.
• 1983. January. The huge oil tanker Tifoso ran aground on Bermuda's reefs. She was nearly empty.
• 1883. Second-biggest lobster ever caught in Bermuda weighed 15 lbs and had an arm span of five feet eight and a half inches.
• 1983. September. The 595-foot grain carrier Sealuck ran aground on Bermuda's reefs.
• 1983. November. The fully-laden supertanker Aquila Azteca, nearly 1,000 feet in length, ran aground on Bermuda's reefs. A major disaster was narrowly averted.
• 1983. Third Bermuda Development Plan. 39% of Bermuda carries some form of open space or environmental protection zoning. Development areas are more site-specific and first residential standards apply.
• 1983. Desalinization plant arrives. Regulation of water lens begins.
• 1983. Plans are developed for regulated development of Somerset Village, Pitts Bay and Rosemont Avenue, Flatt's Village and Blue Hole Hill.
• 1983. Housing Action program is issued in response to housing shortage.
• 1983. 17th October. A British Airways Concorde flew from Bermuda to Orlando, Florida. in 1 hour and 36 minutes.

  

  When British Airways and Air France commenced SST Concorde services in 1976 - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde_SST - to their major routes, including in BA's case to the Caribbean, Bermuda was not then and never became one of the destinations included. Bermuda's runway was easily long enough but may have been deliberate policy on the part of BA not to fly the world's most expensive-to-operate supersonic aircraft which carried only a relatively small number of passengers when compared to much more expansive aircraft on the London-Bermuda direct route which was BA's single most profitable route by far. But it is known that BA charter or regular flights stopped off in Bermuda on several occasions during Concorde's commercial lifespan (that lasted until 2003), including when the Queen flew to and from the Caribbean on her Jubilee tour.

• 1983. November 2. A disabled Victor III-class nuclear-powered attack submarine surfaces in the Atlantic between Bermuda and South Carolina. Soviet ships towed it to Cuba for repairs. 
• 1984. Local Plan for City of Hamilton.
• 1984. April. At its headquarter building in Devonshire Parish, Cable & Wireless built a huge satellite dish, with satellite technology the forefront of communications at the time. It enabled C&W to communicate via 200 other facilities around the world.
• 1984. Demolition of historic Fort Langton, once a major fort for the British Army in Bermuda  and its gate (the gate was later rebuilt at the National Museum). The fort was demolished and the site became the headquarters of the public transportation Bus Depot.
• 1984-85. The Marriott Corporation from the USA began to renovate and add on to the Castle Harbour Hotel in Bermuda.
• 1984. West End Development Plan.
• 1984. Later one of the more popular wrecks in Bermuda, The Hermes, a 265-foot former US Navy freighter, built in 1943, was deliberately scuttled off Warwick Long Bay.
• 1984. October. The Desmond Hale Fountain statue of Admiral Sir George Somers in St. George's, Bermuda,  was officially unveiled by Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret.
• 1984. At Dockyard, in the Old Cooperage building - building # 28 - (originally built by the Royal Navy in 1831 for navy storage), the Bermuda Arts Centre was formally opened by Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret.  It is the creative workshop of local (Bermudian and resident foreign) artisans and artists, open 7 days a week. It was established in 1983 by the West End Development Corporation, a Bermuda Government quango, when Christopher Astwood, then WEDCO chairman, was keen to include the arts in the redevelopment of the Dockyard area. Workshops are also offered both artists and visitors, to upgrade skills and introduce new techniques. Crafts and handicrafts are also included.
• 1984. November 14. Death in Bermuda of Lt. Colonel John Anthony Marsh DSO, OBE who died suddenly at his home in Devonshire, aged 64. He was survived by his wife Priscilla and son Simon. In his early life in England he was an Under-Officer in the OTC and achieved the King’s Hundred at Bisley. On leaving school he joined the Artist’s Rifles as a private and at the outbreak of war was commissioned into the DCLI. In 1942 he was posted to 1DCLI but, arriving in Egypt just after the disastrous Battle of Bir-el-Harmat, found no battalion to join. He therefore applied for transfer to the SAS and was accepted. He served with 1SAS in North Africa and was probably the first British Officer to enter Tripoli when it was captured, leading a patrol in from the west as the main forces approached from the east. 1SAS went on to fight in Italy and was at Termoli on 5th October 1943 that, still as a junior officer, he won an outstanding DSO. Soon after the Normandy Landings he was parachuted in behind enemy lines to help organize the Maquis and he continued behind the lines in Belgium, Holland, Germany and finally Norway. He was twice Mentioned in Dispatches. He won medals galore. After the war he was a Staff Captain at Taunton, before joining 1DCLI in Cyprus, serving with them in Cyprus and Somaliland. After a further staff appointment in Tripoli he returned to England as Training Major of 21SAS, now affiliated to the Artist’s Rifles. In 1954 he rejoined 1DCLI in the West Indies. He took over ‘A’ Company DCLI in Bermuda and was responsible, not only for a number of very high powered guards of honour to world statesmen, but for the organisation of Tattoos which are still remembered on the island. He was so impressed by the kindness and hospitality of all he met there that after a tour as Adjutant and Training Major of 4/5 DCLI in 1957, he retired in 1958 and returned to Bermuda to work for the Trade Development Board. Six months later he was commissioned into the Bermuda Militia Artillery which he commanded until the amalgamation of the island forces when he commanded the Bermuda Regiment. On retirement he was awarded the OBE. Always a keen sailor, he coordinated the first Tall Ships Race in 1964 and ran the press office for the biennial Newport-Bermuda Ocean Yacht race.

Lt. Colonel Marsh, British Army hero who commanded the British Army and Bermuda Regiment in Bermuda and was also a Bermuda tourism pioneer.

• 1985. Fisheries Amendment restricts pot fishing and limits size of pots.
• 1985. May 15. Sinking at Bermuda of the Hermes. She was built in Pennsylvania in 1943 and operated by the U.S. Navy, the 165 feet long and 254 tons, she was bound for the Cape Verde Islands when she experienced engine trouble near Bermuda. Hermes was eventually abandoned by her crew because repairs were estimated to cost more than the ship was worth. After an anticipated sale did not materialize, the Bermuda government awarded the ship to the Bermuda Divers Association for creation of an artificial reef. The vessel was thoroughly cleaned and made dive safe prior to her final voyage. She lies one mile offshore at Horseshoe Bay, upright in 80 feet of water with her mast pointing toward the surface. Divers can examine her engines, galley, cargo hold, pilothouse, deck winch and propeller.
• 1985. Summer. A small band of botanical enthusiasts under the leadership of Dr. Roberta Dow of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, fondly termed “Ag and Fish”, gathered in the building named Horticultural Hall in the Bermuda Botanical Gardens. The purpose of that meeting was to see if there was enough public interest in the botanical sciences to form an association. It was unanimously agreed upon that day to form the Bermuda Botanical Society (BBS). With 30 members, a constitution was written at a meeting on 23 September 1985, and the first general meeting was held on 25 November 1985. The Mission of the Bermuda Botanical Society remains today to encourage and support the botanical sciences within the community and promote the further development of the Botanical Gardens and Arboretum. On 4 December 1987 the young society was registered as a permanent charity under the 1978 Charities Act.
• 1985. Bermuda issued the following set of Parish postage stamps: 

• 1985. ACE was formed by a group of 34 US companies to provide third-party liability coverage to protect them against the risk of lawsuits. They were unable to buy this type of coverage elsewhere because of the very large awards being handed out by the US legal system - people slipping on supermarket floors; suing fast-food restaurants for their coffee being too hot, etc.

• 1985. The St. George's Club, Bermuda, was completed, on the grounds of the old St. George's Hotel, as a time share resort.

• 1986. January. A British Airways Concorde flew from London to Bermuda for the first time, after having been in service since 1976. The flight took just 53 minutes to cover the same distance the Cavalier flying boat did in 1936 over 20 hours.
• 1986. January 10. Death in Bermuda of Sir Henry Tucker at the age of 82. Sir Henry, a wealthy and influential businessman, was leader of the British colony's internal self-government from its inception in 1968 until 1971. His ancestors were among the first British settlers of Bermuda in the 17th century and included Daniel Tucker, an early colonial governor of the island. Henry James Tucker was born in Bermuda on March 14, 1903. He worked for banks and stock brokerages in New York from 1924 to 1934 before joining the Bank of Bermuda, of which he became general manager in 1938. After more than 20 years in the Bermuda House of Assembly, he formed the United Bermuda Party, a moderate, multiracial group, in 1964. As its leader, he became head of the colony's executive council in 1968 after the island's first elections under universal adult suffrage. He resigned in 1971, citing his age, and was knighted a year later. Survivors include a son, Robert, who lives in Virginia, and a daughter, Judy Benney, of Texas.
• 1986. Development Applications Board established.
• 1986. Bermuda National Parks Act set aside 74 protected areas for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations and established a commission to oversea its management. Total area was 710 acres or 5 percent of Bermuda.
• 1986. Professor Richard Gould of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, along with Earth watch and the Bermuda Maritime Museum, began a three year project that researched the HMS Vixen wreck in Bermuda waters. A gunboat, she displaced 1,230 tons and was built by Lungley Shipyard, Deptford, England, in 1864, and launched in 1867. According to Professor Gould of Brown, she was the first twin-screwed vessel of the Royal Navy. Vixen's iron hull was completely clad in teak wood. This design was made in an effort to overcome problems that iron hulled ships were having with marine organisms. The teak also produced extra drag on the ship, therefore, resulting in the Vixen being the slowest ironclad vessel in the Royal Navy. Another very interesting aspect of this ship is that she was built with a ram type bow. Her heavily supported bow protruded forward almost nine feet under the water line. Unfortunately, after sea trials, the Vixen and her sister ship, Viper, were considered too slow as well as un-seaworthy. They were withdrawn from service in 1887 and towed to Bermuda in 1888 as coast defense ships. By1895, Vixen had been allocated as a floating dormitory to house Dockyard laborers. In 1896,after removal of her engines and machinery, she was scuttled to block a narrow channel off Daniel's Head. This scuttling was done to prevent possible attacks by torpedo boats on Dockyard.
• 1986. October 6. Sinking of Soviet submarine K-219 600 miles from Bermuda, reason for which may never be known. The Yankee-class ballistic missile vessel, laden with 16 nuclear warheads and 200 tons of radioactive plutonium, plunged 18,000 feet beneath the waves after an explosion on board, in one of its missile tubes, three days earlier. The Soviet Union claimed at the time that the explosion and a subsequent fire – which killed four crew members – was due to a collision with a US submarine. But the US Navy categorically denied that and the submarine’s captain, Igor Britanov, later told an interviewer: “There was no collision.” No one alive knows exactly what occurred onboard the 10,000 ton, 425ft long submarine, which had 113 men onboard. A book published in 1997, Hostile Waters, hinted at a collision between the American submarine USS Augusta and K-219 over her missile compartment as the cause of the explosion. Author Peter Huchthausen, a former US Navy officer and ex-naval attaché, also detailed the bravery of the Russian crew, from Capt. Britanov, who he said refused to comply with orders to keep his men onboard the ship before it sank, to Sergei Preminin, the 21-year-old engineer seaman who lost his life after manually shutting down the submarine’s reactors and averting a potentially huge disaster. Three others died on board and many more of the crew suffered permanent injury. Preminin received a posthumous award in his home country for his bravery and was named a Hero of the Russian Federation in 1997.

• 1986. The NASA Challenger shuttle disaster which claimed the lives of seven astronauts when it blew up shortly after take-off, was watched with sadness in Bermuda by the manager and staff at the NASA Tracking Station, Cooper's Island.. Mr. Way and his colleagues had been at the NASA station waiting for the spacecraft to 'come over the hill' only to witness what they initially thought was the rocket boosters coming off early. They later realised it was in fact an explosion.

• 1986. XL Capital was formed, based on the same principles as ACE. This was the beginning of the next stage of Bermuda's development as an insurance centre.

• 1987.  The Bermuda Government engaged Von Roll Ltd. of Switzerland to design, procure and install at Tynes Bay in Devonshire the incinerator's mechanical and electrical plant. 
• 1987. The Bermuda Post Office introduced these stamps to commemorate the 50th anniversary of airmail service to Bermuda:

• 1987.Pembroke Dump Plan was published. It showed a wide-sweeping public park of trails, playgrounds and an amphitheatre. The plan was painstakingly put together by a group of Harvard University landscape architects who visited Bermuda, consulted with the neighbourhoods and publicly displayed their work for input. On the first page of the 30-plus-page document the authors wrote: "Pembroke Dump, currently an eyesore and a nuisance in the heart of Bermuda's most densely populated residential area, has the potential to become a delightful and attractive parkland." The opening of the Tynes Bay Incinerator was supposed to eliminate the need for the Pembroke Dump, paving the way for the new park. But sometime between the opening of Tynes Bay and groundbreaking on the park, someone decided the former landfill should be used to handle horticultural waste. The Pembroke Marsh Redevelopment Committee, formed in 1983, facilitated the work of the Harvard group in 1985 and 1986. By November 1989, Cabinet officially approved a $10m plan to build the park. But it was never done.
• 1987. April. The Bermuda Craft Market opened in the Cooperage building in Dockyard as a retail venue specifically designed to showcase locally-made crafts such as cedar work and jewellery. The ambience was that of a rustic marketplace, with wooden barrels and other bric-a-brac dotted among the merchandise displays. Artists and artisans were on hand to sell their goods, and some also demonstrated their craft. Ideally located to catch the tourist trade, the Centre was also popular with resident shoppers in search of locally made goods. It was run entirely as a co-operative, with each crafter renting their their stall, and thrived.
• 1987. Probably due to publicity from Professor Gould's activity in 1986, an official Vixen postage stamp was issued, and the site was classified as a protected wreck. This means that nothing can be removed from the wreck, and a permit is needed to explore the Vixen while on SCUBA although no permit is needed to snorkel the site. Today, the Vixen is a popular site for glass bottom boats. Her bow protrudes above the water line, and her hull is almost completely intact.
• 1987. August. End of Prospect Secondary School for Girls, established in  December 1957 at a former British Army barracks building.
• 1987. Hurricane Emily hit Bermuda and caused widespread damage.
• 1988-1992. Sir Desmond Langley became Governor of Bermuda. His family were wife Lady (Flick) Joan Langley, son Harry, daughter Charlotte and grandchildren, Oliver and Edward. Born in London in 1930, Sir Desmond was the son of the late Colonel Henry Langley, OBE and he was educated at Eton and the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the Life Guards in 1949. He had a distinguished army career that took him to Germany, Aden, Egypt, Cyprus, Malaya, as well as Northern Ireland. He served as an Assistant Secretary in the Chiefs of Staff Secretariat in the Ministry of Defence from 1971 to 1972 and in 1979 he became Brigadier General Staff in Headquarters United Kingdom Land Forces. He is a 1978 graduate of the Royal College of Defence Studies and commanded the Life Guards from 1969 to 1971, the Household Cavalry, from 1972 to 1975, Fourth Guards Armoured Brigade from 1976 to 1977 and the London District and the Household Division from 1979 to 1983. His last military appointment was Administrator of Sovereign Base Areas and Commander of the British Forces Cyprus. He retired in 1986 with the rank of Major General. He was made an MBE in 1967 and a KCVO in 1983.
• 1988. December 19. Mr L. N. (Dickie) Tucker, founder of the Bermuda Sailors’ Home and the Guild of Holy Compassion, died suddenly at his home, Valhalla, Paget, aged 86. He had recently complained of heart problems. Mr Tucker was remembered not only for his unselfish life but for his salty wit and unassuming manner. 
• 1988. Caroldey Douglas became the first Bermudian beekeeper to bottle her honey to be sold as souvenirs to tourists. The initial response was excellent and this has continued with several of the large resort hotels serving local honey on their breakfast tables. In the same year, Randolph Furbert opened the first commercial-scale extracting facility in Bermuda at Chartwell Apiaries in Bailey's Bay.
• 1988. Bermuda 2000 Exhibition reveals public's deep concern for the environment.
• 1988. Cecil Dismont was elected as first black mayor of the City of Hamilton.
• 1988. Bermuda and USA sign the US-Bermuda tax treaty in Washington DC, shortly after Premier Sir John Swan met with President Ronald Reagan. It began the international business boom for Bermuda that continues to this day. It was signed because of the presence of the 1968 entrustment deal between Bermuda and the United Kingdom. It was an arrangement hugely favorable to Bermuda. Provisions included that return for very small concessions, all US corporations that wanted to hold their conventions in Bermuda had their expenses born by American taxpayers.
• 1988. The much-liked Canima, party boat, built in Ireland and brought to Bermuda in the mid-1960s to serve as a tender, a fixture for partying US tourists in Bermuda, but was sold, eventually getting bought by North American investors.
• 1989. Sharp decline in reef fish noted.
• 1989.  Bermudians (by birth or grant) age to vote in Parliamentary elections and bye-elections was lowered to from 21 to 18.
• 1989. March. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, arrived by himself for a brief visit.
• 1989. On June 1. US Airways began US-Bermuda air service
• 1989. South African Thabo Mbeki, then in exile in Tanzania (later President) visited Bermuda  for secret talks with South African political opponents.
• 1989. Death, at his home in Paget, Bermuda, at the age of 93, of Sir William Stephenson. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stephenson and photo, right. It was he who in 1940, after the Hamilton Princess Hotel was closed for the duration of Word War 2 by order of the British Government and instead became the HQ of British Atlantic and North American postal censorship activity, arrived in Bermuda to take command of intense intelligence operations for the British Government in Bermuda, much to the annoyance of some anti-British, pro-German Americans whose ships and aircraft were subject to scrutiny. The censors used basement rooms in the hotel and depended greatly on British Intelligence reports. It led to the post-war publication of The Princess Spies by CIA Officer Thomas F. Troy who died in 2008. It was an article, not book. The operation at the Princess Hotel, near Hamilton, Bermuda was essentially the filter through which all correspondence in the Western hemisphere was inspected. To the average person during World War Two, censorship during times of war was a routine activity. It didn't generate much interest. And that's exactly how British Intelligence authorities wanted it to look because behind the walls of 13 rooms within the hotel, top secret sleuthing, a la James Bond, was taking place. Even the majority of the "examiners" didn't know what went on behind closed doors. Under the leadership of British Intelligence officer William Stephenson, a Canadian some say was one of the real-life inspirations for the literary and movie super-spy James Bond, the co-ordination of the secret "offensive" censorship took place in the 1940s.Troy says espionage experts used technologically-advanced techniques to break into letters and packages in order to produce and plant "forgeries useful in propaganda and blackmail operations." The group of experts could obtain the contents of any package leaving no trace of their tampering. Using innovative techniques for the time they could even extract a letter from an envelope without cutting, steaming or replacing it with a forged replica. Their work proved to be so useful to the combined efforts of the war that Sir William called the censorship initiative "a political weapon of very special importance . . . credit to all concerned." The hotel has many other fascinating connections to the legacy of James Bond and to victory of the Allied Forces in World War two.  It housed twelve hundred secret agents, experts, scientists and linguist in the former Adam Lounge, dubbed Room 99, from 1940 to 1945. It was chosen because of because of its strategic geographic location. Working out of a two-storey wooden building plus what became the Gazebo Lounge and the Adam Lounge, (the Gold Lounge today), the men intercepted all postal, telegraph and radio traffic between the Western Hemisphere and Europe. Flying boats to Darrell's island would drop off packages which were delivered by launch to the Princess dock. The mail was sorted in the present-day Gazebo Lounge area before being sent over to the Adam Lounge to check all the details. The parcels were then searched by the Imperial Censorship staff for microdot messages that could have been sent by German spies. The men would decode the secret correspondence, extract the letters from the tightly sealed envelopes and put them back without anyone knowing. They were led by Senior Representative of British Intelligence, Sir William Stephenson or code name "Intrepid", who helped to trap German spies and agents in the US. The Canadian and his team thus helped uniquely to frustrate the operations of Hitler. Sir William retired in 1964 and moved into a suite at The Princess with his wife. They eventually left there to go to their own Paget home. The hotel was re-opened after 1945 by the British Government with the nickname, "Bletchley in the Tropics" after Bletchley Park, the name of the English country house where Britain's spymasters had their HQ and  where the "Enigma" code was broken. Stephenson reported directly to Bletchley Park.
• 1989. Hurricane Emily causes widespread damage to homes, utilities, boats and vegetation.
• 1990. Fish pot ban.
• 1990. Princess Margaret opened the new Cruise Ship Terminal on the North Arm of Dockyard, Ireland Island.
• 1990. US President George Bush and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher conferred in Bermuda.

Bush-Thatcher visit 1990

• 1990. Clarence (Nicky) Saunders won Bermuda's first gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand.
• 1990. Lieutenant Commander Ian Stranack, Royal Navy, wrote the book "The Andrew and the Onions." It described the history up to that time of the Royal Navy in Bermuda, once Bermuda's biggest employer.
• 1990. Bermudiana Hotel, the second one (the first was destroyed by fire in 1955) was demolished, to make way for a multinational insurance company.

• 1990. One prominent visitor at a Ziggy Marley concert at BAA in Bermuda in 1990 was US Senator Edward Kennedy of MA. He was one of many  VIPs to have sampled the house drink at the Swizzle Inn in Bailey's Bay as one of the attractions of a Bermuda visit. He would go sailing in Bermuda's waters. In the 1960s his former wife Joan was college queen at Horseshoe Bay.

• 1990. The Motor Insurers’ Fund was set up at the initiative of local insurance companies who agreed with the Bermuda Government to establish a method of compensation for people injured by uninsured drivers or untraced drivers in “hit and run” cases. All drivers who buy motor insurance in Bermuda pay a surcharge of $5 per bike and $10 per car. However, the maximum payout the fund can make is $250,000.
• 1990. The first referendum held in Bermuda was on capital punishment, when 78.4 percent favored retention of the death penalty. 
• 1990. November 13. US Secretary of State James Baker and Canada's External Affairs Minister Joe Clark met in Bermuda to discuss deployment of Canadian troops to the Persian Gulf.
• 1990. In December, leading British born, American naturalized humorist Sir Bob Hope was in Bermuda with his wife and entourage. He came to film his NBC television 1990 Christmas Special on the NBC network. He made many perceptive jokes about Bermuda. He, his wife Dolores, actresses Loni Anderson and Dixie Carter, associates and production crew occupied forty rooms at the Belmont Manor Hotel (now closed) during their five day stay.
• 1991. January. At Fort Cunningham, Paget Island, St. George's Parish, an archeological expedition headed by Professor Richard Gould of Brown University discovered a quantity of  British Army cannon, including  5 huge Rifled Muzzle Loaders (RMLs), weighing over 38 tons each.
• 1991. After a delay of three years due to environmental concerns, approval was given to restart the Tynes Bay incinerator project first approved in 1987.  A Ministry project team faced the challenges of coordinating the design and the considerable task of bringing together the multi-national workforce to construct the $70 million facility on this small, isolated, mid-Atlantic island.
• 1991. March. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, arrived by himself for a brief visit.
• 1991. Second arable land survey.
• 1991. September 27. Death and later burial in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, from pancreatic cancer, of Bermuda-born Oona O'Neill Chaplin, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oona_O'Neill, born at Spithead, Harbour Road, Paget Parish on May 13, 1926. Her parents, then living at Spithead, were Americans the playwright Eugene O'Neill (born in USA October 16, 1888, died November 27, 1953) and Agnes Boulton. Her only sibling was brother was her brother Shane (born 1919 in USA). Later, she became close to Peter Arno (cartoonist), Orson Welles (actor and film director) and J. D. Salinger (novelist). On June 16, 1943 she married British-born actor Charlie Chaplin, which caused her to be disowned by her father. With Chaplin she had a good marriage despite the age difference and had a number of children, five daughters (Geraldine Chaplin, born July 31, 1944; Josephine Ronet, born March 28, 1949; Victoria Thieree, born May 19, 1951; Jane, born May 23, 1957; Annette, born December 3, 1959) and three sons (Michael, born March 7, 1946; Eugene, born August 23, 1953; and Christopher, born July 6, 1962).

Oona and Charlie Chaplin with two of their children

• 1991. June. Michael Jackson, singer and entertainer, visited Bermuda by private jet. He paid a much publicized visit to the Island with child actor Macaulay Culkin and another friend, staying for several nights at the Hamilton Princess Hotel. Places they visited included  Jack 'n' Jill's Toy Shop where they stocked up on a great quantity of squirt guns, water balloons and other toys. When word got out that both Michael Jackson and Macaulay Culkin were staying at the hotel, fans and guests began to gather under Michael's sixth floor penthouse window. That was when the three began playfully lobbing water balloons off the balcony at the people standing below. In a thoughtful gesture, when he checked out of The Fairmont Hamilton Princess,  Jackson asked staff there to assist him in donating all the toys he had bought at Jack 'n' Jill's to one of our local children's charities. Long serving Princess Hotel employee Victoria Smith remembered accidentally bumping into singer Michael Jackson as he once used the back stairs in an attempt to flee the press. 

June 1991 - Michael Jackson leaving Bermuda

• 1991. November. Bermudian musician Lance Hayward died in New York, after a long fight with cancer. His obituary was published in The New York Times.
• 1991. US President George Bush and British Prime Minister John Major conferred in Bermuda.
• 1991. The Centre on Philanthropy was created by a group of volunteers led by Cummings Zuill to encourage an attitude of giving, promote volunteerism, and to document charitable behaviors and issues in Bermuda.
• 1991. December. Austrian financier and billionaire Wolfgang Flottl, who has a number of exempted companies in Bermuda,  bought Castle Point in Tucker's Town, one of Bermuda's most luxurious properties, 8 acres surrounded by water on three sides. He acquired it from American Dr. Henry Clay Frick
• 1992. In Bermuda, the Sea Venture's contents from 1609 were recovered and fully documented.
• 1992. March 15. The Bermuda National Gallery (BNG) opened to much acclaim and soon settled in at City Hall. Jay Bluck’s passion for art and the establishment of the BNG as a national art museum was key. As a member of the steering committee, it was his drive which led to John Kaufmann’s concept for a gallery in the east wing of City Hall becoming reality. The original spur that set the wheels in motion for a National Gallery was the donation to the people of Bermuda of what is now known as The Watlington Collection. In his will, the late Hereward Watlington specified that his gift was predicated on the paintings being housed in a proper gallery with world-class storage facilities, including climate, light and temperature control, and which would also make possible the exhibition of valuable works of art from international galleries of similar quality. Built by Cooper & Gardner, the museum has five exhibition spaces, one of which, the Ondaatje Wing, opened on April 16, 1992 — one month and one day after the BNG, thanks to a successful appeal for an “angel” to finance the conversion, which came in the form of (now Sir) Christopher Ondaatje, who has subsequently opened other gallery spaces in his name in London and Toronto. Mrs. Gorham, who has been on the steering committee since 1986, became a full-time staffer in 1991. Chris Wineinger was hired as the first administrator, to oversee the Gallery’s capital campaign. From inception, volunteers have been an invaluable, and indeed the more than 100 of their ranks are an indispensable part of the Gallery’s function. From inception the BNG, has striven to fulfill its original mission, which is to promote, benefit and advance the visual arts in Bermuda through the creation of a collection of significant artworks, both from Bermuda and worldwide, as well as creating a facility in which such works can be cared for, researched and interpreted for the public.
• 1992. Decision taken to restructure public school system — including the building of a new senior secondary “mega school” at Prospect on the site of the old Devonshire Academy.
• 1992. Activist Sheelagh Cooper founded the Coalition for the Protection of Children to lobby for changes in legislation and to intervene in family crisis situations.
• 1992. Bermuda Plan promotes open space conservation in a high quality environment.
• 1992. September 30. The US Navy's Naval Facility (NAVFAC) Bermuda was decommissioned. It dated from June 1, 1955, making it the oldest continuously operating U.S. command at the time of its decommissioning. NAVFAC was located on the west end of Bermuda in Southampton Parish, adjacent to the island’s very scenic south shore. NAVFAC experienced numerous composition and equipment upgrades during its long operational tenure. In September, 1987, NAVFAC Bermuda weathered Hurricane Emily, with no loss of operational capability. NAVFAC Bermuda had fifteen officers, 155 enlisted personnel, 2 foreign national civilians and one resident contractor. 
• 1992. April. German visitor and teacher Antje Herkommer, 27, was raped and strangled by a prisoner on unsupervised work release.
• 1992. December 31. In the list of Bermudians recognized in the Queen's New Year's Honours List,  the Hon. Quinton Edness, an MP since 1968 and a long-serving senior member of the Cabinet, becomes a CBE in the annual roll-call of honours. Retired Police Commissioner Mr. Clive Donald becomes an OBE and Bermuda Football Association president Mr. Charles Marshall is made an MBE. Among others honoured are World Cup soccer coach Mr. Gary Darrell and broadcaster Mr. David Lopes. Mr. Edness is the 61-year-old member for Warwick West. A South Shore, Warwick resident, he has held his present position since 1988 after a succession of Cabinet posts. A former radio announcer for Bermuda Broadcasting Company, he is now a director of the station. Mr. Edness and his wife Vicki, from Australia, have one daughter, Stacey. He is a keen golfer. Mr. Donald, 55, joined the Bermuda Police in 1959. He was posted to CID in 1965 and promoted to chief inspector in 1973. He became a superintendent in 1979 and Deputy Commissioner in 1981. He became Commissioner in 1990 and retired in May this year. Mr. Donald has represented the Island in cricket, soccer and squash. Mr. Marshall, FA president for just over a year, has been involved with soccer in Bermuda for more than 20 years. A qualified international FIFA referee, he has refereed matches in the US, Canada, Central America, Israel and Haiti. In 1986 he was appointed to the Senate. He resigned his seat in 1990. Police Supt. Andrew Bermingham, 51, head of the Special Branch, is awarded the Queen's Police Medal. He has been responsible for providing personal security to President George Bush, Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major and many members of the Royal Family. Former chief inspector Mr. Roger Sherratt is awarded the Colonial Police Medal. He served in the Bermuda force for 28 years, the last 10 of them as head of the community-media relations department. In 1992 he retired from the Police and became secretary to the Corporation of Hamilton. The following receive the Queen's Certificate and Badge of Honour: Former national soccer coach Mr. Darrell, this year led Bermuda to its most successful World Cup run ever. A star player for Devonshire Colts between 1968 and 1972, he went on to serve as their coach before moving to Dandy Town. He became national coach in 1988. Mrs. Linda DeSilva was a teacher at Port Royal School from 1952 to her retirement in 1987. Mr. Erskine Doars, bandmaster of the North Village Band, has had a musical career spanning more than 50 years. Former soldier Mr. Gerald Fubler, whose "family'' of 33 boys help form Paget Youth Group, is honoured as an "unsung hero'' for his work with youngsters. Mr. David Lopes, one of BBC's earliest announcers, is the first voice many Bermudians hear when they wake. He was a major populariser of Country music on the Island. Mr. George Ogden, is honoured for being "almost entirely responsible for the beautification of the City of Hamilton for more than a quarter of a century''. Former teacher Mrs. Clara Phillips is honoured for her work as a secretary with the Police. Mr. Kenneth Simmons is honoured for his sporting, community and religious work.
• 1993. Mid-March. The special research submarine "Alvin" conducted certification and engineering dives off Bermuda. Two subsequent dives for the Royal Ontario Museum and the Bermuda Zoological Society sought to catalog biodiversity and biota zonation on the flanks of the island pedestal and nearby seamounts. Also completed was a seismic studies cruise to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, but mechanical/electrical problems with Alvin’s new pressure-tolerant motor controllers resulted in a radically shortened dive program. Repairs were effected during a maintenance period in Bermuda in April, after which the sub successfully completed three dive series back at the ridge, including work at a newly-discovered vent field south of the Azores. One of those who visited Bermuda for the events and broadcast news events  was CBS anchor Walter Cronkite.
• 1993. Death of journalist Marian Robb, before she was able to finish her manuscript commissioned by the Corporation of Hamilton.
• 1993. June. Premier Sir John Swan met US president Bill Clinton in the White House.
• 1993. The Register of Bermudians came into effect. To create the Register officials used that year’s Parliamentary Registry. So if you weren’t a registered voter in 1993, or were born after 1993, or your name changed after marriage post-1993, then your name will not be on the Register of Bermudians.
• 1993. RG Magazine began publishing.
• 1993. Scottish composer Iain Hamilton wrote the work "The Bermudas." It premiered on 7th November at the Anglican Cathedral.
• 1993. November 26. Bermuda stands apart from the British Dependent Territories it met with in London this week, Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan said yesterday. Many Caribbean countries were tied to Britain for financial aid, but Bermuda's priorities were different, Sir John told The Royal Gazette. "Bermuda's in a unique position,'' he said. "It has this insurance business, and it has this tourist business. It has a strong infrastructure built up, and doesn't have problems of aid and support.'' With the exception of the Cayman Islands, other British Dependent Territories that attended "need financial support and therefore need to have a different focus. Once they become Independent, they can't expect to get aid from Britain anymore.'' Bermuda's focus was maintaining its present standards through stability and growth, said Sir John, who returned to the Island yesterday. While Bermuda was not reliant on Great Britain for financial support, the Premier said there was no telling whether the Island would move closer to Independence during this term of the Government. "I don't know,'' said Sir John, who has publicly supported Bermudian Independence in the past. "It really is a question of the will of the people.'' Independence was not a major topic at the Conference of British Dependent Territories, partly held to discuss interdependence and regional cooperation. But there was some talk about what Britain's position would be regarding the remaining Dependent Territories once Hong Kong returned to the Chinese in 1997. The remaining Dependent Territories would all have fewer than 200,000 people, Sir John said. At the Conference, there was a broad discussion about how the territories would be affected by world changes, and how partnerships could be formed to alleviate the impact, the Premier said. With the North American Free Trade Agreement area emerging as a major trading block, there were questions about relations with that trading zone versus the European Community. "You cannot expect to get full support out of NAFTA, and turn around and get the same benefits out of the European community,'' Sir John said. While the Conference was "remarkably'' successful, it also left more questions asked than answered, he said. Because the British Dependent Territories faced different problems than the Dutch or French, it emerged that the British territories needed to hold a meeting of their own. Among issues that could be discussed was "what are the best arrangements that can be made in terms of strengthening our relationship with the European community.'' The possibility of a meeting was being discussed when Sir John left early in order to return in time for today's House of Assembly session.
• 1993. December. The Canadian Forces Station Bermuda ended. (Later (December 1995) The Bermuda Government published a postage stamp to honor both this former base and those of Britain and the USA. The one relating to the former Canadian Forces Station has the following description for this BD$1 stamp on the liner details of the First Day Cover issued with this issue. "The Royal Canadian Navy leased some fourteen acres of former British Admiralty lands at Daniel's Head towards the western end of Bermuda in 1963. The installation was established as a signals intelligence unit to support the Canadian Forces and to aid in search and rescue operations.  Due to changes in international relations and with increased fiscal constraints, the Canadian Government closed the site."

  

  Closure of Canadian Military Base in Bermuda

   

• 1993. December. The one-time Bermudiana Hotel property, once the site of a gorgeous 1924-built hotel by Furness Withy, destroyed by fire on September 4, 1958 and rebuilt a year later, still in operation in 1990 but in a sad state by 1993 was sold for $14.5 million and became the site of the Ace and XL insurance buildings.
• 1994. Internet (Bermuda) Ltd offered the first public Internet service in Bermuda.
• 1994. January. Plan for $55 million, 200,000-square-foot school at Prospect  (see 1992) unveiled by UBP Education Minister Clarence Terceira.
• 1994. January 27. The issue of new stamps this week commemorating the British Furness Withy shipping company is a reminder of the critical role it played in Bermuda's fledgling tourism industry between the two World Wars. Furness Withy not only brought the first significant numbers of tourists to the Island aboard its ships, it also built some of the most important hotels. The company's contribution to the Country can also be measured against the steady decline of the agricultural industry which began after World War One. Furness Withy moved aggressively into the Bermuda market in 1919 when it bought the Quebec Steamship Company which had been bringing both cargo and passengers to Bermuda since 1873. Soon after, Furness Withy launched an ambitious hotel building programme that began with the construction of the Bermudiana Hotel in 1920. That project was followed by the St. George's Hotel, the Mid Ocean Club and finally the Castle Harbour Hotel, built during the depths of recession. But it was Furness Withy's ships, which sailed as members of the Furness Bermuda Line, that identified the company so closely with the Island and its residents. With the 1919 purchase of the Quebec Steamship Company, Furness acquired the 11,000 ton passenger liner Bermudian which it promptly refitted and converted from coal to oil fuel. The vessel was re-named Fort Hamilton and sailed from New York to Bermuda for the first time on December 18, 1919. Also in 1919, Furness purchased two 14,000 ton ships and, after conversion to oil, renamed them Fort Victoria and Fort St. George. In 1923, Furness withdrew the Fort Hamilton , though it continued with its two other ships through to 1928 when they were joined by the 28,750-ton Bermuda. Bermuda's success prompted Furness to build the even bigger Monarch of Bermuda at 28,000 tons, which first sailed to Bermuda in 1931. Furness's Bermuda history included two shipping disasters. The first occurred on December 18, 1929 when Fort Victoria was rammed by the Algonquin while leaving New York in dense fog. She sank in three-and-a-half hours without loss of life. The second disaster struck the company on June 17, 1931 when fire broke out on the Bermuda while she was tied up alongside Front Street. While undergoing repairs in Belfast, a second fire destroyed the vessel. The loss left Furness with only two ships, the now inadequate Fort St. George and the chartered Veendam which was taken on following the loss of Fort Victoria. Before the Monarch of Bermuda began regular sailings, Furness chartered the Franconia from Cunard Line which first sailed in 1931. The ship was later replaced by her sister ship, the Carinthia. The Monarch sailed in November, 1931 and her success led the company to build the Queen of Bermuda . These two ships anchored the line's New York Bermuda business until the outbreak of the Second World War and becoming the company's best known vessels. The war took the two ships out of business. The Monarch served as a troop transporter for the entire war while the Queen first did duty as an armed cruiser and later as a transporter. In 1949, following a complete refit, the Queen of Bermuda returned to the New York-Bermuda service. In the same year and during a refit, the Monarch of Bermuda was severely damaged by fire and never returned to local service. To pick up the slack, Furness operated the Fort Amherst and Fort Townshend between Halifax, New York and Bermuda. Increasing competition from air travel led Furness Withy to not replace the Monarch of Bermuda with a similar-size vessel. Instead, the company built the smaller Ocean Monarch . She sailed for the first time in May, 1951, an event that coincided with the withdrawal of Fort Amherst and Fort Townshend. In the early 1960s, air travel competition intensified and finally forced Furness Withy to withdraw from the New York-Bermuda service. The Ocean Monarch's last sail from the Island took place in September, 1966. Two months later, the Queen of Bermuda left on her final voyage, ending the company's 47-year partnership with the Island. The information for the article was drawn from the Bermuda Post Office's history of the company.
• 1994. Half way up the stair well of Sessions House leading to the Chambers that houses the Members of Parliament, flanked by ancient pieces of Westminster Palace statutory presented to the Bermuda Government in 1930, one can see the 1994 artist Sam Morse-Brown portrait of Mrs. Aitken unveiled to mark the 50th Anniversary of the political emancipation of Bermudian women.
• 1994. March. The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh again visited Bermuda, on a major 2 day tour.

• 1994. The Commission for Unity and Racial Equality (CURE) Act came into force.

• 1994. English Bermuda-based nurse raped by two men. The evidence showed the woman was picked up by men on motorcycles and attacked on a dark and secluded road. "She was saying take me home and I took it to mean, she wanted sex," one defendant said. The other one said "she wasn't fighting hard enough ...she didn't do enough to stop us." An "acquittal option instruction" was presented by the judge to the jury, which took an hour with its not-guilty verdict.

• 1994. Brian Simmons, 29, was murdered, found at Pembroke Dump on October 9 with his throat slashed. The discovery was made near his Curving Avenue home.

• 1994. Incinerator at Tynes Bay opens. See http://rossgo.com/Tynes%20Bay/Incinerator.html. The Ministry of Public Works hoped it would only need one stream, with a second stream held in reserve; it was intended for each stream to be repaired while the other was in use. However, following a huge increase in the amount of municipal solid waste, both streams were required constantly.
• 1994. Casemates Prison in Bermuda, opened in 1963 from the former Casemates Barracks, was closed for good.
• 1994. Internet Bermuda Limited (as IBL) was the first company to bring Internet to the island.
• 1994. December 31. 12 Islanders are recognised in the Queen's New Year's Honours List. Dr. Marjorie Bean, an influential figure in local education circles for more than three decades, will become a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Dame Marjorie had earlier been made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Also cited were Mr. Richard Masters Gorham, who was made a Knight Bachelor, and Mrs. Gloria McPhee, who became an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Mrs. Joan Margaret Williams and Mr. Ward Young were both made Members of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Rounding out the List with awards of the Queen's Certificate and Badge of Honour were businessman and top sports official Mr. John Richard Kane, civil servant Mrs. Janet Marlene Lambert, philanthropist Mrs. Valerie Harnett Masters, teacher and musician Mrs. Edna Louise Thomas, philanthropist Mrs. Elizabeth Anne Parker, engineer and linguist Mr. Stanley Walenciak and music director Mr. Alan Bernard Tucker. Dame Marjorie, who was also the first Bermudian woman to be appointed to the Island's former Legislative Council, began her career in education as English and geography mistress at the Berkeley Institute. In 1948, she became the first black person to be appointed to an administrative position in the Department of Education when she took on the job of Supervisor of Schools. An alumna of Wilberforce University in Ohio, the Columbia University Teachers College in New York and the Institute of Education at the University of London, Dame Marjorie was made an MBE "in recognition of the significant contribution she made to education in Bermuda.'' She was also awarded the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977. Sir Richard Gorham is a leading Bermudian fundraiser who has worked on behalf of numerous individuals and groups. Among those that have benefitted from his financial and organisational talents are the Bermuda War Veterans Association, the New Testament Church of God, the English Speaking Union, the Adult Education School, the Royal Artillery Association and Bermuda College. In 1983, Sir Richard also created the Bermuda Charities and Community Services Fund, which provides immediate assistance to those who need financial, medical or educational aid. The Fund has an annual financial donation rate of approximately $26,000. Mrs. McPhee, a former Minister of Education and a former Minister of Health and Social Services, has been at the centre of community and political life in Bermuda since 1968, when she was first elected as an MP. Since then, she has served on the Board of Health, the Census Board and the Board of Education and has advanced a number of children's causes. Mrs. McPhee was also the first Bermudian woman to become a Cabinet Minister. English-born Mrs. Williams, who was a home economics teacher before being selected as Government's first protocol officer in 1981, has co-ordinated a number of visits to the Island by presidents, prime ministers and several members of the Royal Family. Mr. Young, meanwhile, has been a leading member of Bermuda's business community for more than two decades. He has also worked tirelessly on behalf of the United Bermuda Party and numerous sports bodies.
• 1995. February 10. Bermuda welcomed the crews of two French Navy warships. The submarine Psyche will come up for air in local waters this morning and head for Dockyard for refuelling. Commanded by Lt. Cmdr. LeSpace Mentec, she will remain in Bermuda until next Tuesday. But she will not be open to visitors. However, the light transport ship Francis Garnier , which will also arrive in Bermuda waters today, will be open for public tours from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. She is due to leave on Monday. The ship last visited Bermuda in 1978. Although both visits are routine, it will be the last visit of a French warship to HMS Malabar before it closes at the end of next month. "It is sad to note the closing of HMS Malabar, because they have been an enormous help over the years in receiving ships of the French Navy,'' said Honorary France Consul Mr. William Frith. "Their services have been of great value and they will be sadly missed.'' Mr. Frith said close to 50 French ships had visited the UK base since he became Honorary Consul in 1961.
• 1995. March. After years of only part-time Royal Navy activity in Bermuda following the closure of the Royal Navy Dockyard in Bermuda generations earlier, the senior Royal Navy officer in Bermuda, officially known as Senior Naval Officer West Indies and (NATO) Island Commander, Bermuda, announced the imminent closure of HMS Malabar, Bermuda. The last portion of the once-great western Atlantic station of the Royal Navy, of which Bermuda had been the central base from 1795, with the great bulk of it already long closed, was to be closed forever, given the nature of modern warfare and the supremacy of the military forces of the United States of America in that ocean. All Royal Navy personnel in Bermuda had left. HMS Malabar was so-called from the successor, built in Bermuda, of a Royal Navy ship built from teak in India. 
• 1995. March. The US Naval Air Base and US Naval Annex also closed after press attention from Sam Donaldson of ABC News. They could no longer be justified after the end of the Cold War. They were closed at the same time as many other US military bases in the USA and beyond. The Bermuda Government took possession of all former military bases. Also closed was the Roger B. Chaffee High School - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_B._Chaffee - which had succeeded the older Kindley Air Force Base High School in 1970. 
• 1995. April 1. HMS Malabar, a Bermuda-based Royal Navy supply base, officially closed in Bermuda, following the announcement a month earlier. After the closure of the dockyard in 1958, and the disposal of most Admiralty land holdings in Bermuda, a small part of the base, which included the wharf of the South Yard, had been maintained as a supply base under this name following the end of the Cold War. The closure of HMS Malabar marked the end of 285 years of permanent Royal Naval presence in Bermuda. Commander Robin Bawtree, OBE, was the last Resident Naval Officer Bermuda. His duties included supervision of the Royal Navy's 28 acres of Bermuda holdings. They were left in a pristine condition, including the dockyard with the buildings and facilities all in working order. Prior to taking over the property, The Bermuda Government's quango the West End Development Corporation (Wedco) said it planned to turn The Cottage, the former home of the Commanding Officer, Royal Navy, Bermuda, into a guest villa, with a sports/spa facility and commercial offices suggested for the other buildings. Wedco said at that time that it would make no “rash decisions,” but hoped development could occur quickly because of the good shape of the buildings. (But Wedco allowed them to deteriorate). 
• 1995. The Bermuda II air agreement was revised yet again. Although Bermuda II was much less restrictive than the original Bermuda agreement it replaced, it was still widely regarded as a highly restrictive agreement that contrasts with the principle of "Open skies" against the background of continuing liberalisation of the legal framework governing the air transport industry in various parts of the world. Broadly speaking, only a combined four airlines from the US and UK are allowed to operate flights between London Heathrow and the US. The two British carriers are currently British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. The American carriers were American Airlines and United Airlines. The US also approved Continental to fly to London Heathrow but the British do not recognize this route authority and, consequently, this service is not in operation. However, the British have not obstructed Continental's codeshare agreement with Virgin Atlantic, which places Continental flight numbers in addition to its own on some Heathrow flights. Air India, El Al, Iran Air and Kuwait Airways were permitted to continue exercising their so-called "fifth freedom" traffic rights from Heathrow to JFK, which they had already enjoyed under the original Bermuda agreement. (Both El Al and Iran Air no longer exercise these rights. The former has decided that it makes better economic sense for it to fly non-stop between Tel Aviv and New York. The latter's US traffic rights were withdrawn in the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.) Similarly, Air New Zealand was allowed to continue using its fifth freedom rights between London and Los Angeles.
• 1995. Colin Coxall, 55, of the UK was appointed Police Commissioner. He was charged with the task of overhauling the Bermuda Police Service amid spiraling crime. The former Commissioner, whose appointment led to the then PLP Opposition launching a petition in a bid to block him getting the job, boasted an impressive CV on arrival in Bermuda. The law graduate had been Acting Commissioner of City of London Police. Before then senior roles included Deputy Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, former head of Scotland Yard drugs squad and advising the Home Secretary on drugs policy. When he touched down in Bermuda, Mr. Coxall set about root and branch reform of what sources said was a service in an “appalling state, from top to bottom”. Manpower, training, forensics, intelligence gathering, promotions, complaint handling and press relations, the condition of buildings, and reservist training all came under the spotlight as crime and drug-related offences continued to rise. He was appointed after a recommendation by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Dependent Territories Police Forces Lionel Grundy in 1994. That report was never made public, but it is understood it contained damning criticism of the way the force was run. Mr. Coxall’s urgent review of the force saw 120 changes highlighted. And the former Commissioner gave himself three years to carry them out. One source compared the task of reforming and running the 500-man force at the same time as like operating a sea tanker “while trying to mend the engine at same time.” Never accepted in some circles because he was non-Bermudian and occupying one of the Island’s most important posts, he did not complete his three-year tenure. Despite almost slashing crime in half and serving time on dealers before training his sights on major suppliers, he quit in 1997 – five months before his contract was up – amid a blaze of controversy triggered by the major drugs clampdown, Operation Cleansweep. Already unpopular with the PLP, he ruffled feathers with the ruling UBP when a Cabinet Minister’s name emerged during Cleansweep investigations, although no action was taken through lack of evidence. Criticised by some for what they perceived as not getting on with senior officers and for failing to promote enough black officers, he has never returned to the Island.
• 1995. A referendum on the issue of independence for Bermuda. only the second time in Bermuda a referendum was held, was defeated by a 75 percent margin. But it was flawed as the PLP instructed its members to boycott the referendum. Most did as they were told. After the result, long-term then-Premier Sir John Swan, who strongly supported the pro-Independence platform, resigned after having been outvoted. Interestingly, only he in British history has ever to date had the courage and integrity to resign, as he did, when he lost. In other referendum votes held in the UK to date, leading politicians who campaigned for a yes vote and lost did not resign. 
• 1995. 4th December. The Bermuda Government issued six postage stamps on Military Bases formerly in Bermuda. They are shown below:

• 1995. December 30. 10 Bermudians were recognised in the Queen's New Year's Honours List. Others were awarded the Queen's Certificate and Badge of Honour.  Mr. Henry Hayward has been Mayor of St. George's -- Bermuda's ancient seat of Government -- since 1988. He was first elected to the Corporation of St. George's as a Common Councillor in 1967 and has also served as an Alderman. Since 1988 he has served as Chairman of the St. George's Preservation Society and, in 1994, he became a member of the Marketing Committee of the Bermuda Hotel Association. Mr. Hayward is also well-known as president off William E. Meyer & Co. Born in St. George's on June 15, 1935, Mr. Hayward was educated at Mount St. Agnes Academy and Saltus Grammar School. He joined Meyer & Co in June 1951 as a ship's runner, moving from Manager in 1962 to Vice President and Manager in 1965, then to Vice President and General Manager in 1974 and finally, in 1975, to his present post. A director of many companies, including Stevedoring Services Ltd and Bank of Butterfield Executor & Trust Company, Mr. Hayward served as a member of the Board of Planning from 1973 to 1980; Chairman of the Junior Training School from 1981 to 1984; a member of the Bermuda Hospitals' Board from 1981 to 1985; and a member of the Public Vehicles Licensing Board from 1981 to 1984. Mr. Hayward was a member of the House of Assembly for St. George's North in 1980, serving as Government Whip from 1982 to 1985. Mrs. Swan, mother of former Premier of Bermuda Sir John Swan, has been actively involved in the community for more than 50 years. A widow, she owned and operated The Woodlawn Supermarket in Somerset for more than 10 years. She has been a member of the Royal Commonwealth Society in Bermuda since 1980. And, after serving as President of the Sandys Chapter of the International Order of Daughters of the Empire in 1992, Mrs. Swan became National President of the organisation in 1994. She is now in her second term as Bermuda National President. Having worked as a teacher in Bermuda in the 1930s, Mrs. Swan went on to serve on the Governing Board of the now-defunct Howard Academy -- a secondary school for black students which closed in the early 1960s -- and the Governing Board of Addiction Services. For some 15 years, Mrs. Swan was a member of the Parish Council in Southampton, where she lives. A staunch member of the Anglican Church in Bermuda, Mrs. Swan has been on the Diocesan Selection Committee, and served as a Church Warden at St. Anne's Anglican Church in Southampton. In addition, she was one of the earliest members of Bermuda's Senior Islanders Club and has been a member of the club's Social Committee for several years. Mrs. Swan, now approaching her 80th birthday, is currently a volunteer driver for the Red Cross. A former Chairman of the Bermuda Business and Professional Women's Association, she is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Golden Hour Club. In 1965, she was honoured by Beech-Nut Baby Foods and, in 1994, she received an award from St. Anne's Anglican Church for her dedicated service. Major Brangman, aged 43, was promoted to the post of Quartermaster on June 1, 1985. He joined the Regiment on February 20, 1976, and following the traditional Recruit Camp, he transferred to the Medical Section where he remained for three years. Then he transferred to the Quartermaster's Department as Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant. On September 1, 1981, he was promoted to Warrant Officer, Class Two, and four years later attained the ranks of Captain and Quartermaster. On September 20, 1991, he was promoted to his rank of Major in the Regiment. Major Brangman serves as the Deputy Commandant of The Bermuda Cadet Corps and helped set up the Regimental senior citizens' tea party. Mrs. Davidson recently stepped down as General Manager of the Bermuda Festival. In her post, she was responsible for overseeing many activities -- the securing of venues, booking of accommodation, and acting as a liaison with various artists taking part in the annual event. Although officially retired from the post, Mrs. Davidson agreed to stay on to help her successor, Mrs. Toni Davis, become familiar with organising the festival. Mrs. Davidson and her husband, Roger, live in Paget. Miss Frith has been involved for several years in the Meals on Wheels programme, which operates out of St. Paul's Christian Education Centre in Paget. A Paget resident, Miss Frith is responsible for helping to coordinate the project. In addition to her church and community-related work, Miss Frith has acted as Secretary to the Bermuda Bible Conference organisation. Mrs. Leitner, another Paget resident, has been Personal Secretary to the Chief Justice since 1973. She is on pre-retirement leave. She began her career in public service in 1968 in the Attorney General's Chambers where she was secretary to Attorney General Sir John Summerfield. When the Attorney General became Chief Justice in 1973, Mrs. Leitner accompanied him to The Supreme Court, remaining in that post until her retirement. Mrs. Leitner was also the Assistant Law Librarian for The Supreme Court, helping to maintain court records and textbooks, periodicals and law journals. Mrs. Yearwood, who lives in Hamilton Parish, spent 22 years as Magistrates' Court Office Manager. She began her career in public service as Registry Superintendent at the old Colonial Secretariat, now The Cabinet Building, later progressing to the Planning Department. A member of the First Church of God in Angle Street, Hamilton, Mrs. Yearwood is also on the Friendship Bible Coffee Group. Mr. Swan was Bermuda's Outstanding Male Athlete in 1972 and 1973. A former student of The Central School (now The Victor Scott Primary School) and The Berkeley Institute, Mr. Swan acquired a Certificate in Education from St. Luke's College in England. He went on to graduate with a Bachelor of Physical Education degree from University of Alberta, Canada, and got a Master of Arts degree in the same subject. Mr. Swan represented Bermuda at the Central American and Caribbean Championships in Jamaica (1971) and Venezuela (1973). He won a silver medal at the Venezuela championships. Mr. Swan also took part in the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1974, and in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in 1978. As a coach, Mr. Swan has helped many young Bermudians in track and field events. In 1972, he served as Assistant Coach for Bermuda's CARIFTA Games team in Barbados and eight years later became the Island's National Track and Field Coach. He helped prepare such athletes as William Trott, Michael Watson, Brian Wellman and Clarance (Nicky) Saunders. In 1989, Mr. Swan earned the International Amateur Athletics Federation Coaching Diploma. And in the same year he became Vice President of the North America, Central America and Caribbean Track and Field Coaches Association. Mr. Swan, who lives in Warwick, was the Outstanding Male Athlete at the Canada West Universities Athletic Association Track and Field Championships between 1977 and 1979. He took first place medals in the long and triple jumps and in the 4 x 100 relay. Mr. Tuzo started making kites when he was five. Often hailed Bermuda's Kite King, he has continued this local tradition for 55 years. In 1990, former US President George Bush and ex-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher tried their hands at flying his kites at Government House. Mr. Tuzo achieved a new world kite flying record on April 24, 1972 -- holding a kite aloft for 49 hours and 40 minutes. He subsequently broke his own record the next year, keeping a kite flying for 61 hours and 25 minutes. Mr. Woolridge has been driving a taxi for some 48 years, and is understood to be the second oldest cabbie in Bermuda. A story-teller and sportsman, Mr. Woolridge has taken many visitors on tours around the Island, from Somerset to St. George's. Known as a natty dresser, Mr. Woolridge lives with his wife, Lucille, in Smith's Parish.

• 1996. March. Premier David Saul met Mr. Clinton in the Oval Office. The visit was arranged to discuss issues related to the closure of the US military bases in Bermuda in 1995, among other things.

• 1996. May 24. Clearwater Beach and Park, Cooper's Island, off St. David's Island, now a 36 acre public park site, was re-opened to the public after 54 years as a US military reserve. It has pebbles in places, unlike most other Bermuda beaches. There are also nature trails, playground equipment and views of some outer islands reserved for wildlife. 

Clearwater Beach

• 1996. The Bermuda Land Development Corporation (BLDC) came into being as a limited company tasked with developing and managing the former base lands at Southside, Morgan's Point, Daniel's Head and Tudor Hill. It has responsibility for more than 720 acres: five percent of the Island's land mass. BLDC's goal is to become financially self-sufficient.

• 1996. The Rt. Rev. Ewen Ratteray became Bishop of Bermuda. He had begin his religious journey began with his baptism by Bishop Arthur Heber Browne. As a teenager he came under the influence of Canon William Manning, who encouraged him to become a server. He promptly joined a group of servers that included former Hamilton Mayor, Lawson Mapp, Martin Brewer, Walter Carlington and Henry Ming. It was in the Cathedral that  he was confirmed at the age of 16. Due to the influence of the Canon, who later became a Bishop in South Africa, he went away to Codrington College in Barbados to study for the priesthood. After many years working in the North of England, he returned to Bermuda as Rector of Pembroke in 1980. In 1994 he became Archdeacon of Bermuda in the Cathedral, and two years later was consecrated as the Bishop of the Diocese by the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
• 1996. The Bermuda Education Act 1996 enacted required that only three categories of schools can operate in the Bermuda Education system. The first is an aided school, which has all or a part of its property vested in a body of trustees or board of governors and is partially maintained by public funding or, since 1965 and the desegregation of schools, has received a grant-in-aid out of public funds. The second is a maintained school, has the whole of its property belonging to the Government and is fully maintained by public funds. The third is a private school, not maintained by public funds and has not, since 1965 and the desegregation of schools, received any capital grant-in-aid out of public funds. The private school sector consists of 6 traditional private schools, two of which are religious schools, and the remaining four are secular with one of these being a single gender school and another a Montessori school. Also, within the private sector there are a number of home schools which must be registered with the government and receive minimal government regulation. The only boys’ school opened its doors to girls in the 1990s and in 1996, one of the maintained public schools became a private school. Prior to 1965, the Bermuda school system was racially segregated and when the desegregation of schools was enacted in 1965, two of the formally maintained "white" schools and both single-sex schools opted to become private schools. The rest became part of the public school system and were either aided or maintained.
• 1996. July 3. Canadian tourist Rebecca Middleton, 17 years old,  was brutally stabbed and cut 35 times, beaten, tortured, raped, sodomized and murdered at Ferry Reach  in Bermuda. Dr. Keith Cunningham and Dr. James Johnston completed an autopsy. Both discovered anal and vaginal trauma, along with some 35 cuts, five of which were fatal. It was the worst, most brutal and savage murder ever committed on a woman anywhere in the world. News of it was flashed around the world. A notoriously botched murder case. Her presumed killers were controversially absolved of murder.  The original police investigation was criticized as horribly inadequate and prosecution decisions were condemned as inept when one man was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge and the other was acquitted on a questionable ruling by the trial judge. There have been far too many such rulings in Bermuda on despicable offenses against women.   

• 1996. Summer. 35-year-old Billy Way, son of NASA Tracking Station on Cooper's Island manager Mr. Way, Bermuda's number one tennis player who won a bronze medal in the 1993 CAC Games in Mexico, was hit by a taxi as he crossed one of Manhattan's busiest roads, Madison Avenue and died. Billy's old university friend John F. Kennedy Jr. attended the funeral. That came 16 years after Mr. Way's daughter Kathleen died aged 20 from injuries received in a car crash in Somerset.  

• 1996. August. After a period of illness that saw Progressive Labour Party (PLP) Deputy Leader Jennifer Smith assume the role of Acting Leader from 3rd April, Leader Mr. L. Frederick Wade died. The Party's constitution called for a new leader to be elected at a Special Delegates Conference one week following the untimely death and Ms. Jennifer Smith was the victor in a three-way race, against Mr. C. Eugene Cox and Mr. W. Alexander Scott. Mr. Scott was elected Deputy Leader. After eleven years under the leadership of the late Mr. L. Frederick Wade, the PLP had a new leader - the fifth.

• 1996. The 100th anniversary of the formation of the Bermuda Militia Artillery (now amalgamated into the Bermuda Regiment) was celebrated.
• 1997. February. A German patient who broke earlier his neck in a mental hospital in Bermuda commenced proceedings against the Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB) for damages. Thomas Hofer, 47, was rendered quadriplegic by the accident at St Brendan’s now renamed the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute in February 1994. Mr Hofer, a former chef, allegedly fell off a bed and hit his chin on the floor while being treated at St Brendan’s for a paranoid psychiatric condition. According to court papers filed by his lawyer, he was not diagnosed with a broken neck until the day afterwards. Mr Hofer was flown home to his native Bavaria in April 1994 and is now in the care of the German state. He first issued proceedings against BHB for negligence and damages. The claim included costs for ongoing care and was expected to exceed $5 million.
• 1997. February 15. Uproar erupted yesterday after a bill allowing foreign ownership of the Bermudiana site passed in under 42 seconds -- without debate. Several Government MPs, surprised by the swift passage of the private bill in the House of Assembly, reacted furiously. At least two -- John Barritt and Tim Smith -- admitted they had been unaware of Parliamentary rules on debating private legislation. "I'm ashamed and embarrassed at what occurred in Parliament,'' said Minister of Technology and Information Mr. Barritt. The ex-Government Whip feared MPs wanting to speak on the Bermudiana Site Rehabilitation Act 1996 had been victims of a "clever Parliamentary maneuver. ''A bill of such magnitude should certainly have been debated. It seems incredible it should go through when only about half the MPs were present.'' He added: "We thought we would be invited by the House Speaker to talk on the bill, but that didn't happen. And I accept now the Speaker does not have to do so with private bills.'' United Bermuda Party Government backbencher and former Deputy Speaker Tim Smith directed an accusing finger at the Opposition Progressive Labour Party. He said PLP MP Reginald Burrows, who introduced the bill in the House of Assembly, should have launched a debate. "The silence was deafening if not duplicitous,'' he declared, while pointing out he would have supported the bill. His father, Anthony Smith, runs Villa Development Company which had been interested in building on the Bermudiana site. But the company's multi-million-dollar office and restaurant scheme was thrown out by planners. Opposition Leader Jennifer Smith yesterday defended the passage of the legislation. "I am amazed that a former Government Whip and former Deputy Speaker who have been elected since 1993 do not yet know how private bills get debated in the House.'' She said she was astonished the two MPs should consider themselves hard done by having missed out on the opportunity of speaking. Ms Smith, whose party backed the bill, said the Opposition position had been clear from the start. "If Government had spoken on it we would have spoken.'' The Bermudiana bill allows ACE Ltd and Exel Ltd to bypass the 60/40 ownership rule -- which requires that 60 percent of a company be Bermudian owned -- and take over the select Hamilton site off Pitt's Bay Road. ACE Ltd and Exel Ltd had agreed to buy the property from Argus Insurance and develop the site for their new offices, if the bill passed and planning permission was given. The hotel could now be demolished by March or April with offices for the two firms being phased in over five years. The ACE and Exel deal is opposed by the Bermuda Financial Centre Ltd which wanted to raise cash to develop the property for offices, shops and a hotel. It claims the land should be kept in Bermudian hands and still hopes to launch a rival bid despite struggling to raise the necessary cash. The United Bermuda Party had declared a whip for yesterday's vote. This compelled MPs to toe the party line and back the legislation. Premier David Saul, however, said the whip decision was a formality after the issue was thrashed out at a marathon caucus meeting. The House of Assembly was about half-full when Opposition House Leader Reginald Burrows introduced the bill for its second and third readings. Several MPs said they were absent because they believed the debate would last several hours. After the bill passed without objections, Mr. Smith tried to protest in the motion to adjourn -- a period when MPs can speak on virtually any subject. But House Speaker Ernest DeCouto ruled him out of order, saying the private bill had already been passed. He later pointed out to MPs that Parliamentary rules for private bills and public ones were different. With a private bill, any MP wishing to debate had to ask the Speaker to move the bill be "committed to the House. '' Mr. DeCouto pointed to the Rules of the House relating to private bills. "It just went through. I think Mr. Burrows thought the passage of the bill was a fait accompli given that both parties were meant to be supporting it.'' Last night Mr. Smith said he had listened to a tape-recording of proceedings. "I timed it. I'm stunned that the bill went through in less than 42 seconds.'' 
• 1997. May. Pamela Felicity Gordon, JP, MP, United Bermuda Party, daughter of late Dr. E. F. Gordon who founded the Bermuda Industrial Union, became the first female Premier of Bermuda after the resignation as Premier and as a Member of Parliament of Dr. David Saul, then MP for Devonshire South. 
• 1997. May 15. Sunk on purpose off Bermuda was the Xing Da, the one-time Chinese illegal immigrant smuggling ship. The 221 feet long Xing Da was carrying Chinese immigrants to be smuggled into the United States. There were 83 Chinese nationals some as young as 14, none older than mid-30s.  Crewed by suspected members of the Chinese mafia known as the Triad, it had arranged to meet a smaller ship 145 miles off Bermuda for the immigrants to be transferred and taken into the United States. They had paid $20,000 to $40,000 each to the Triad's smuggling ring to escape their homeland. Instead, what they found was the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Marines. US Immigration and Naturalization (INS), as well as Coast Guard, knew about the Xing Da's activities even before she left port in China in June 1996. Smuggling was nothing new to the Xing Da. Going back as far as the Vietnam War, she smuggled everything from contraband to weapons for the North Vietnamese Army. The Xing Da was the 11th Chinese vessel to be intercepted with this form of cargo in course of five years. Towed into Bermuda while still under guard on October 8, 1996, the Xing Da's passengers were off-loaded and transferred to the US Marine base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for extradition back to their homeland. Those involved in the smuggling operation were arrested. After being towed into Bermuda, broken down beyond repair and destined for a water grave, the Bermudan Government negotiated for possession of this ship. The Xing Da was towed past the seaward edge of Bermuda's northwest facing barrier reef and sent to the bottom where she was successfully placed on the ocean bed below 104 feet of water. Other than the removal of trash, fuel, waste and all her bulkhead doors, the Xing Da was left fully intact with all superstructure, deck machinery and booms as they were when she was captured. She went  to her watery grave 105 feet down off Eastern Blue Cut, about six miles off Dockyard.
• 1997. An embargo on imported milk was introduced through the 1997 Importation of Milk (Prohibition) Act 1997.
• 1997. October. The Bermuda Equestrian Centre, or National Equestrian Centre as it is sometimes called, was established, about 1.5 miles into Vesey Street, off Middle Road. It was Bermuda's first-ever Special Development Order.
• 1997. South African former President F. W de Klerk visited and laid a wreath at the Boer War cemetery.
• 1997. September. CedarBridge Academy at Prospect, planned since 1992, opens with, according to the Wachiira Report, “significant functional and construction problems.”
• 1997. The Code of Practice for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Promotion of Equality of Opportunity in Employment was produced.
• 1997. The Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute was opened, with exhibits including those of the history of underwater exploration, marine life at different depths and Bermuda's shipwrecks. Underwater crafts, including Charles William Beebe's bathysphere, are on display. One room houses a superb seashell collection.
• 1997. The movie and US TV series "Wild on the Bermuda Triangle" - see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0979230/fullcredits - filmed partly in Bermuda, was released. 
• 1997. The Bermuda International Film Festival (BIFF) was launched to advance the love of independent film from around the world in Bermuda and to encourage and inspire young Bermudians to capture their very special narrative through a camera lens. It has welcomed numerous celebrities and stars of the film world over the years, including Michael Douglas, Earl Cameron, Willem Defoe and Richard Dreyfuss. While there are more than 1,000 film festivals worldwide, only 62 are Academy Award qualifying festivals and BIFF is one for the Short Film (Live Action) Oscar.
• 1998. June 30. Nearly six hundred Bermudians and residents converged on the campus of the Bermuda College to brainstorm and recommend solutions for uprooting racism in Bermuda. These persons were divided into three racial categories, “Blacks”, “Whites”, and “Others.” After an intensive brainstorming session, all participants convened in the college gymnasium to hear extensive reports from splinter groups. Under the general direction of a Steering Committee, these reports were reduced to strategies by a volunteer Implementation Committee. Seven sub-committees were formed from this Implementation Committee: Economics, Spirituality/Religious Beliefs, Education, Legislation, Political, Social and Personal Responsibility. In addition to these, ‘Media’ and ‘General’ categories for action were created to accommodate other strategies and comments. Members of the Implementation and Steering Committees met on a regular basis to review the “raw data”. They later produced the sentiments of those original participants as ‘strategies’ and ‘recommendations.’ Thus began what later became known as Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda (CURB).
• 1998. Bermuda National Pension Scheme Act 1998 was enacted, for implementation in 2000.
• 1998. Internet Bermuda Limited (IBL) and Bermuda Systems Limited (BSL) merged and formed Logic Communications Limited (Logic) to bring together the best of Internet access and hardware support to the Bermuda market. Since its creation, Logic has brought a world of changes to the technology landscape of Bermuda. 
• 1998. A landmark survey of the Bermuda's snails, by Drs. Rudiger Bieler and John Slapcinsky, revealed very sparse numbers of our endemic snail island-wide. Only 30 years earlier it was described as common everywhere.
• 1998. July 16. An increase in the number of cruise ship passengers has put extra strain on the transport system. Extra buses have been put on from the West End to cope with the demand when cruise ships are moored at Dockyard, making life difficult for locals who board the vehicles at stops past Boaz Island. The situation was worse when schoolchildren were also trying to get on the buses, but it is still a concern to transport officials. And this summer the Horizon has taken over from the Meridian at Dockyard, increasing the total possible number of passengers from 1,100 to 1,600. The ferry system also comes under pressure at certain times of day, but those passengers who do not want to go to Hamilton by boat and don't wish to hire a scooter, look to the buses to get to the beaches. Dan Simmons, assistant director of the Public Transportation Board, said there wasn't enough lift from Dockyard. Extra buses had been put on to satisfy demand and supervisors were stationed in the West End to order more vehicles if numbers warranted it. Most people want to go to the beaches and you can't get to the beaches via the ferry. If we have a very busy service from Dockyard, with people going to Hamilton or the beaches, then that means local people have a challenge getting on.'' Mr. Simmons said the problem only occurred with the buses travelling from the West End east. Passengers heading back to the Horizon tended to drift back in small numbers, not en masse. The Horizon visits each week from New York, staying at Dockyard between Tuesday and Thursday, when it switches to Hamilton.
• 1998. July 20. Archaeologists are digging up hundreds of years of history in a groundbreaking project to excavate one of Bermuda's oldest forts. The expert team from William and Mary College in Virginia have already unearthed the 17th Century ramparts of Smith's Fort on Governor's Island, St. George's. Now they are hoping to scratch the surface of some old ruined foundations, dating back to the American War of Independence. It is already thought to be the first time this century that so much of the fort has been exposed to the open. And the archaeologists are hoping to plough deep enough underground to find more relics and artifacts from the early 1600s. Smith's was one of Bermuda's first ten forts, built between 1612 and 1622. The team of six graduate students and a professor believe the fort could be a treasure trove like King's Castle on Castle Island, where the same team found 19 pieces of old Bermuda hogge money in a two-year dig. Project leaders working on Smith's Fort have been given the go-ahead to dig at Smith's Fort by the National Parks Commission and the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Museum curator and archaeologist Dr. Ed Harris said: "This team has been working on various sites in Bermuda since 1993. They are conducting an archaeological research project into the first 10 forts of Bermuda. Previous work at the King's Castle revealed completely unknown defensive features. And it was there that we also found the spectacular collection of 19 pieces of hogge money.'' The excavation team, who operate from the Sea Scout building at nearby Convict Bay, is being led by Norwegian expert Professor Norman Barka. His project on Governor's Island is expected to last up to six weeks. One of the researchers is a Bermudian student home for the summer -- and several volunteers are also expected to help with the dig. "Smith's Fort is a two-period fort,'' added Dr. Harris. "The original fort was started in late 1612 and the front, seaward part of the fort -- which is a gun battery -- survived. The rear portion, which was a small building with two towers, was demolished at the time of the American Revolutionary War. We are hoping to find the remains of that underneath parts of the later works, behind the ramparts. Those ramparts are already standing quite proud and it would have been quite some time since they were last seen.'' He said the excavation. which began on Monday, was being done by hand-digging. It's typical archaeological spadework. It's working with trowels. It's probably only about two feet down to the bedrock but if we unearth something remarkable like we did at Castle Island, we will obviously dig deeper.'' Any relics dug up would be put on public show in St. George's before a permanent home was found for them. The hogge money, eventually to be displayed at the Maritime Museum, is still being exhibited at the Bermuda Monetary Authority in Hamilton.
• 1998. August. Sudden death of Leon C. (Jimmy) Williams, PLP MP for St. George's North. This left the PLP looking for a replacement candidate for the constituency three months before the General Election had to be called. Selected to take his place was Delaey Robinson, the son of labour activist and guesthouse owner Trew Robinson and former House of Assembly candidate and Secretary to the Corporation of St. George's, Ernest Robinson.
• 1998. October 11. "64 people attended a brief but poignant ceremony at the war memorial in Church Stretton, Shropshire for the purpose of witnessing the addition of Lieutenant Colonel Cuthbert Brooke-Smith’s name to the list of those who gave their lives for their country during two world wars. This event was only possible because of the efforts of Cuthbert’s brother Louis, who also served with the Regiment, who had campaigned, with many others, tirelessly for this act of restitution to be achieved. After a short service of commemoration, his son Bruce, read an address and finished with these words. "In the Gospel of St John, chapter 15, verse 13, Jesus said". "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." Cuthbert Brooke-Smith, along with countless thousands of others – some of whom are already commemorated on this war memorial – literally laid down their lives for their friends. It is right and fitting that we add his name to theirs this day.’ List of those attending: Capt Louis & Mrs Jill Brooke-Smith (KSLI), Philippa Goodall, Bruce & Barbara Brooke-Smith & son Jonathan, Charles Brooke-Smith (GR), Guy & Margaret Brooke-Smith, Dianna Mason, Paul & Angela Spearing, David & Rosie Brooke-Smith, Col Tim Beath (KSLI), Maj Mike Benson (KSLI), Lt Col Christopher Booth (CO 5LI), Mr Michael Charlesworth OBE, Mr & Mrs Tom Coebill (KSLI), Lt Col & Mrs George Delme-Murray (KSLI),Mr & Mrs Eddie Edwards (KSLI), Capt Dennis Egan (KSLI), Lt Col & Mrs Dick Evans (KSLI), Brig & Mrs Neil Fletcher (KSLI), Mr & Mrs Harry Gandon (KSLI), Lt Col & Mrs Brian Goss (KSLI), Lt Col & Mrs David Grover (KSLI), Air Cdre & Mrs Basil Hamilton (Local RBL Chairman), Mr & Mrs Philip Harvey (Local PCC), Mr Anthony Hector (KSLI), Lt Col & Mrs Tom Hill (KSLI), Mr Bob Jones (KSLI), Mr Derek Jones (KSLI), Brig Percy Jones (KSLI), C Sgt Steve Jones (Bugle Major 5LI), Ex Bugle Major & Mrs Bernard Laidler (KSLI), Brig Brian Lowe (KSLI), Maj & Mrs Bob Maslen-Jones (KSLI), Revd Nick Monk (KSLI), Lt Col & Mrs Richard Osborne (KSLI), Mr George Reckless (KSLI), Mr & Mrs Tony Richardson (Local RBL Secretary), Lt Col & Mrs John Roberts (KSLI), Rev Preb & Mrs Michael Steadman (Vicar of Church Stretton), Mrs Percy Tarbuck (Local RBL President), Capt & Mrs James Whitehead (KSLI), Mr Ken Williams (KSLI), Maj Jeremy York (KSLI)." The above highlighted comments relate to the death in 1955 of Lieutenant Colonel Cuthbert Brooke-Smith, KSLI, who had served as ADC to the Governor of Bermuda in 1950, had married a Bermudian, Joyce Arnell, daughter of Mrs. Helen Arnell and her late husband. Joyce was the brother of Jack Arnell. See last part of British Army in Bermuda. 
• 1998. November 9, the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) won the General Election in Bermuda under the premiership of The Honorable Ms. Jennifer M Smith, JP, MP. She became the first black elected woman Premier of Bermuda. PLP candidates were C Eugene Cox, Terry Lister - Sandys South; Walter Lister, Dennis Lister - Sandys North; Michael Scott -Southampton West; Reginald Burrows, Stanley Lowe - Southampton East; Dr. Ewart Brown, Elvin James - Warwick West; W. Alex Scott, Dale Butler - Warwick East; L. Milton Scott - Paget East; George Scott - Paget West; Lois Browne-Evans, Paula Cox - Devonshire North; Danny Farias - Devonshire South; Patrice Parris - Smith's North; David Burch - Smith's South; Renee Webbe, Derrick Burgess - Hamilton East; Randy Horton, Arthur Hodgson - Hamilton West; Carvel Van Putten - Pembroke West; Neletha Butterfield, Wayne Perinchief - Pembroke West Central; Ottiwell Simmons, Nelson Bascome - Pembroke East; Stanley Morton, David Allen - Pembroke East Central; Jennifer Smith, Delaey Robinson - St. George's North; Wilbur Lowe, Arthur Pitcher - St. George's South. After 35 years, the United Bermuda Party, then under Pamela Gordon, was defeated. Stanley Lowe, PLP, JP, MP became first black Speaker of the House of Assembly. This day ushered in an array of “firsts” in Bermuda’s 30 years history of party politics. With the victory, dramatic changes occurred. The PLP appointed the Island’s first political Attorney General in the person of Dame Lois Browne-Evans who was the first ever woman to hold this office, thus becoming the Island’s 41st Attorney General. She was also Bermuda’s first female lawyer having been called to the Bermuda Bar in December 1953. With the introduction of a political Attorney-General as provided for under the Constitution, criminal prosecutions were taken out of the responsibility of the now political Attorney-General. Bermuda had a new officer known as the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). He/She now conducts all criminal matters. This has resulted in two separate and distinct offices. The Attorney-General however remains the superintendent of the DPP and is also Bermuda’s Minister of Justice. 
• 1998. The movie Escape from Dino Island - see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0154458/ was made in Bermuda, mostly on Alpha Island.
• 1999. Open Spaces forums.
• 1999. February. Destination Villages, Sandys, was created via  the second-ever Special Development Order (SDO). Destination Villages of the USA opened the $13.5 million Daniel's Head Village cottage tent resort, with 135 units. It was owned by Americans Stanley Selengut and Lew Geyser. (But it since closed and reopened under a new name, Nine Beaches, also with new owners.  There are many beaches, one public, 9 hotel owned, hence the name).
• 1999. February. Berkeley Institute, Pembroke, was another SDO.
• 1999. April. Elbow Beach Club Belmont Property, Warwick was yet another SDO
• 1999. April 2. Chelston, the official residence of the U.S. Consul General in Bermuda, was announced in the USA as for sale at an asking price of $15 million. The 14-acre property was given to the U.S. government in 1964 by the heirs of an American oil magnate, Carbon Petroleum Dubbs. Mr. Dubbs built Chelston in 1941 and lived there until his death in 1962. Chelston has a 10,000-square-foot main house with four bedrooms and several guest cottages. With prime beach frontage at Grape Bay, Paget Parish, the estate is 200 feet above sea level, with views of the ocean and the nearby city of Hamilton, Bermuda's capital.  Acting Consul General Bruce Berton said the State Department decided to put Chelston on the market in the hopes that it could use money from the sale to reinvest in new embassies or upgrade existing ones. "We felt we didn't need 14 acres of property to represent our interests here," Mr. Berton says. Robert Farmer, who served five years as the consul general in Bermuda, left the post last month. Mr. Farmer's successor is Larry Owen, a Michigan businessman and Democratic fund-raiser.
• 1999. June 14. Attorney General Lois Browne Evans received one of the highest commendations available to a woman in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. She became known as the Hon. Dame Lois Browne Evans DBE JP MP after the announcement was made this weekend, joining ten other Bermudians who have been honoured. Former Commissioner of Police Lennett Edwards will receive the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and broadcaster Ira Philip became a Member of the British Empire (MBE). Dame Lois decided to accept the honour -- which PLP members have traditionally rejected -- after consulting with her children and husband. Previously, after turning down a CBE, she commented that she would rather an independent Bermuda had its own "people awards'', but age and the first ever PLP Government had changed her mind. "I was so surprised because I didn't know my name had been submitted. I feel that the Premier had something to do with it,'' she said yesterday. "I am flattered and glad to have the opportunity. I discussed it with my children who all said `you must take it'. "I am extremely happy about it and my family are also.'' Bermuda's first female barrister and first black Bermudian woman to win a seat in the House of Assembly, she was also the first female Leader of the Opposition in the Commonwealth. Dame Lois became Minister of Legislative Affairs following the PLP's November 9 election victory, and subsequently became the first political Attorney General in modern politics. The Devonshire North MP said she would be attending the investiture. Mrs. Browne Evans said she expected she would be accompanied by her children in London, after they were unable to attend her swearing in as Legislative Affairs Minister following the November General Election. Lennett Edwards was awarded his OBE following 35 years service to the Police, including three years as Commissioner. After joining in 1961, he rose through the ranks to become Deputy Commissioner in 1990 and achieved the top post two years later, before ill health forced his retirement. Ira Philip MBE has been involved with the communications industry for over 50 years. A former chairman of the PLP, he sat in the Senate and on the Board of Education. He has been involved in both the print and broadcast media, has trained many young broadcasters and was editor of the now defunct Bermuda Recorder. Recipients of the Queen's Certificate and Badge of Honour were End to End charity walk organisers Eugene Carmichael and Valerie Dill, also a leading community worker. Mrs. Beatrice Ann Hayward, a volunteer at the St. George's Parish Rest Home, renowned musician Wendell (Shine) Hayward, architect John Hollis Kaufmann, retired lawyer William Robert Kempe, youth worker Cromwell Mujahid Ameen Shakir and Bermuda Aquarium principal curator Richard Winchell all received the Queen's Certificate and Badge of Honour.
• 1999. Bermuda Biological Station Ground Water study and Bio Diversity study, Aquarium.
• 1999. Parliamentarian Terry Lister, then Minister of Development and Opportunity, after making a visit to the Pentagon outside Washington DC, described the US officials he had spoken to as "people who kill for a living." He added there was no moral leadership in the USA.
• 1999. The Commission for Unity and Racial Equality Act 1994 was amended to allow CURE to collect specific data for the monitoring process.
• 1999. September. Arizona-based consultants Comgate Telemanagement completed a report for the Ministry of Health on Bermuda's 38 towers that transmit cellular, microwave and satellite signals. It identified those not in compliance with FCC levels for workers and the general public.
• 1999. October 8. The Director of Bermuda College's Education Centre last night called for all sections of the community to go "out into the trenches'' to help tackle the Island's illiteracy problems. Gina Tucker said the whole Island had to pull together to ensure children can read properly. Speaking at the "Focus on Literacy Seminar'' at Bermuda College the day after Government statistics confirmed Bermudian children fall far behind their US counterparts when it comes to reading, she said it was time to "rally the whole village.'' Dr. Tucker referred to the 1984 US Commission on Reading which pointed the way to improving literacy rates. Nothing had changed in the past 15 years despite all the lessons that should have been learned, she said. "When Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in 1959 he rounded up people who could read and sent them into the trenches to tackle the nation's chronic illiteracy problems. We are not Communists so we can't literally round people up, but if today's news articles (on literacy problems) don't cut deep and people don't say we must start rounding people up and sending them into the trenches to cut through this, I don't know what will. It is essential that parents talk to their pre-school children in an adult way to improve their language base." Dr. Tucker said people would say parents are struggling to put food on the table or keep a roof over their families' heads so they could not be expected to spend time reading to their children. But she argued: "That is the scenario we have. If in these first three years we don't attempt language development, what do we expect to happen by grade five? That foundation isn't there. We have to take a no-fault approach. We don't have time to waste blaming anyone anymore. Let's stop saying it's the teachers' or the parents' fault. It's our fault because we let it happen. We all have to take responsibility for it. We need an inclusive, comprehensive strategy that is systematic and spirited, one which has like Castro's people going out to the trenches for real because we have a community out there. We have to rally the whole village. We have to hit the problem from many angles. If we focus on education alone we will be in intervention mode, always trying to fix it. We need to begin to pull all our resources -- education, social services, other Ministries, community projects, community schools and reading clinics -- and bit by bit keep chipping away.''
• 1999. October. The Consumer Protection Act 1999 was enacted, with businesses having a 2-year period before it came into effect.
• 1999: November 17. Glen Wolffe, 43, was found dead in his Heathcote Hill, Sandy's, home. His body is thought to have been lying for several days before the crime was uncovered. Days later Police raided Studio 55 on Reid Street during an event known as Gay Night. Mr. Wolffe was openly homosexual. Revelers in the club believe Police were looking for a murderer when they came inside, but no arrests were made.
• 1999. December. The death penalty was abolished in Bermuda.