 |
|
|
Dateline
- 12,000 B.C. Earliest record of human inhabitants in Panama.
- 100 B.C.-0 Pre-Columbian groups set up a trade network with neighbors and practice metallurgy.
- 1501 The Spanish explorer Rodrigo de Bastidas sails past the Panamanian coast.
- 1513 Vasco Núñez de Balboa is the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the New World.
- 1519 Panama City is founded by Pedro Arias de Avila on a muddy swamp on the Pacific Coast.
- Mid-1500s to late 1800s Portobelo's trade fairs are among the largest and most opulent in the world.
- 1671 Welsh buccaneer Henry Morgan sacks and burns Panama City.
- 1821 On September 15, Panama, along with the rest of Central America, gains independence from Spain.
- 1855 A U.S. group of investors builds the Panama Railway; from 1848 to 1869 tens of thousands of forty-niners cross the isthmus.
- 1893 The French canal attempt collapses in disgrace.
- 1903 Panama wins independence from Colombia, with U.S. backing.
- 1914 The Panama Canal, one of the engineering wonders of the world, is completed.
- 1941 Women are given the right to vote.
- 1964 Anti-U.S. sentiment reaches a high point with student protests ("Los Mártires") that end with two dozen dead.
- 1966 Altos de Campana becomes Panama's first national park.
- 1968 National Guard General Omar Torrijos overthrows Arnulfo Arias, a three-time presidential winner who'd served only 11 days of his term.
- 1977 Torrijos and Jimmy Carter sign a treaty to hand over the Panama Canal on December 31, 1999.
- 1981 Omar Torrijos dies in a plane crash, and National Guard Colonel Manuel Noriega begins reign of terror and drug-running in Panama.
- 1989 The U.S. invades Panama, known in the States as Operation Just Cause. Noriega is captured and flown to the U.S., where he is tried and convicted on drug charges.
- 1999 The U.S. hands over the canal to Panama and shuts down its military bases. Mireya Moscoso is the first female elected president.
- 2004 Martín Torrijos, the son of Omar Torrijos, becomes Panama's youngest president ever.
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without
notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before
planning your trip.
|
|
|
