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Timeline Marshall Islands (The Republic of the Marshall Islands)

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Lying in Micronesia the group is composed of 31 coral atolls in the Ratak and Ralik island chains. Some 63,000 people are scattered over 180 sq. miles of land. Some 1,225 islets clustered into 20 coral atolls strewn across 750,000 square miles make up the Marshall Islands.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A1)(SFC, 3/8/99, p.A12)
1914-1919 The Islands were occupied by the Japanese during WW I.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)

1939-1945 The islands were captured by US forces during WW II.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)

1940s-1950s The US conducted 67 above ground nuclear and thermonuclear tests in the Marshall Islands.
(SFC, 12/7/99, p.A10)

1942 Feb 1, Planes of the U.S. Pacific fleet attacked Japanese bases in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands.
(HN, 2/1/99)

1943 Dec 8, U.S. carriers sank two cruisers and down 72 planes in the Marshall Islands.
(HN, 12/8/98)

1944 Jan 31, During World War II, U.S. forces under Vice Adm. Spruance began invading Kwajalein Atoll and other parts of the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
(AP, 1/31/98)(HN, 1/31/99)

1944 Feb 1, U.S. Army troops invaded two Kwajalein Islands in the Pacific. [see Jan 31]
(HN, 2/1/99)

1944 Feb 17, U.S forces landed on Eniwetok atoll in the South Pacific Marshall Islands. Battle of Eniwetok Atoll began. US victory on Feb 22.
(HN, 2/17/99)(MC, 2/17/02)

1944 Feb 20, US took Eniwetok Island.
(MC, 2/20/02)

1944 Oct 28, The first B-29 Superfortress bomber mission flew from the airfields in the Mariana Islands in a strike against the Japanese base at Turk [Truk].
(HN, 10/28/98)

1945-1986 The Marshall Islands were ruled by the US as part of a UN trusteeship.
(SFC, 12/7/99, p.A10)

1946-1958 The US conducted 67 nuclear test blasts at the Bikini and Eniwetok atolls over this period. The tests in the northern Marshall Islands released radioactive iodine said to be 150 times worse than the contamination from Chernobyl in 1986. A Nuclear Claims Tribunal was later set up by the government of the US and the Marshall Islands to compensate those displaced or suffering health problems due to the tests. The 150 million dollars the US provided for paying settlements ran out in 2005. The US State Department said there is no obligation to pay more.
(SFC, 3/8/99, p.A16)(Econ, 1/12/08, p.38)(AFP, 12/12/08)

1952 Nov 1, The United States exploded the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Ivy Mike," in a test at Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands. The element einsteinium was discovered in the debris of the 1st hydrogen bomb test. In 2002 Greg Herken authored "Brotherhood of the Bomb: the Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence and Edward Teller."
(AP, 11/1/07)(NH, 7/02, p.35)(SSFC, 10/12/02, p.M1)

1954 Mar 1, The Bravo hydrogen bomb test exploded across Bikini atoll (Marshall Islands) with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima bombs. A Nuclear Claims Tribunal, established in 1986, later awarded Bikini and Enewetak 500 million dollars but only a fraction of the amount was received. A Nov 30, 2004, deadline limited further suits.
(AP, 10/17/04)(www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/peopleevents/pandeAMEX51.html)
1954 Mar 1, The No. 5 Fukuryu-maru was trolling for tuna off the Bikini atoll in the Pacific during the Bravo hydrogen bomb test. 11 crew members died in the half-century since the exposure, at least six of them from liver cancer. Between 1946 and 1958, the United States conducted 66 nuclear tests at Bikini as part of "Operation Crossroads."
(AP, 2/28/04)

1954 Mar 26, The U.S. set off the second H-bomb blast in four weeks in the Marshall Islands at Bikini Island. The 15-megaton device was 750 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The blast contaminated the neighboring island of Rongelap and nearly 100 people on the island and other downwind atolls.
(HN, 3/25/98)(SFC, 12/7/99, p.A10)(SS, 3/26/02)

1958 Apr 28, The United States conducted the first of 35 nuclear test explosions in the Pacific Proving Ground as part of Operation Hardtack I.
(AP, 4/28/08)(http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Hardtack1.html)

1971 Australia joined with New Zealand and 14 independent of self-governing island nations to form the South Pacific Forum. The name was changed in 2000 to Pacific Islands Forum. Member states include: Australia, the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Since 2006, associate members territories are New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
(Econ, 10/20/07, p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islands_Forum)

1972 Amata Kabua (1928-1996) founded and led the Political Movement for the Marshall Islands Separation from Micronesia.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)

1978 The Marshallese voted for independence from other districts of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)(www.unicover.com/OPUBA565.HTM)

1978 Doctors ordered a 2nd evacuation from Bikini due to high radiation.
(SFC, 12/7/99, p.A12)

1979 May 1, The people of the Marshall Islands ratified their own constitution and the constitutional government came into being. In recognition of the evolving political status of the Marshall Islands, the US recognized the constitution of the Marshall Islands and the establishment of the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Mr. Amata Kabua (1928-1996) became the first president.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amata_Kabua)(www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/26551.htm)

1979 Jul, Imata Kabua led a protest against US operations in the Marshall Islands.
(SFC, 3/8/99, p.A16)

1983 The Marshall Islands received $183.7 million for the 1946-1958 US nuclear tests near Bikini.
(AP, 2/28/04)

1986 Oct 21, The US, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands formed a Compact of Free Association (CFA). Tens of millions in economic benefits along with security and defense of the islands was exchanged for the right to deny access to third countries. The US paid $270 million in compensation to nuclear victims under the 1st phase of the CFA (1986-2001), insisting that was a full and final arrangement.
(SFC, 3/8/99, p.A16)(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A12)(Econ, 1/12/08, p.38)

1986 The Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia were granted independence.
(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A12)

1991 Sep 17, The U.N. General Assembly opened its 46th session, welcoming new members Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North and South Korea, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia.
(AP, 9/17/01)

1996 Dec 19, Pres. Amata Kabua died.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.A24)

1998 Jul 17, Rising seawater was attacking the coastline of the islands.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A1)

1999 Jan 31, Phillip Muller, the foreign minister, said his government would seek a rent increase from the US for the use of the Kwajalein Atoll, the only place where the US was able to test long range components of its missile defense program.
(SFC, 3/8/99, p.A16)(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A12)

2001 Dec 3, A test US anti-missile launched from Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands successfully hit a dummy warhead from Vandenberg Air Base in California, 4,800 miles away.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A4)

2001 A 15 year lease by the US for Kwajalein Atoll was due to expire.
(SFC, 3/8/99, p.A12)

2001 US payments under the Compact of Free Association were scheduled to end.
(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A12)

2003 The Marshall Islands renegotiated its Compact of Free Association (CFA) with the US. America insisted on a separate agreement giving it continued access to its $4 billion missile defense site on Kwajalein until at least 2066 for $15 million a year, rising to $18 million after 2014.
(Econ, 1/12/08, p.37)

2005 Feb 15, The Guam-based Citizens Security Bank (CSB) ended credit card and other services to the Bank of Marshall Islands. Residents of the Marshall Islands will be unable to use their credit cards after the central Pacific nation's leading bank was cut off from a US partner by the anti-terrorist Patriot Act.
(AFP, 2/10/05)

2007 Mar 20, The second flight of Space Exploration Technologies' (SpaceX) low-cost Falcon 1 rocket reached 200 miles altitude but did not make it to orbit due to the premature shutdown of its second-stage Kestrel engine. SpaceX launched the two-stage Falcon 1 rocket from its Omelek Island launch site in the Marshall Islands, but the rocket failed to reach its intended 425-mile (685-kilometer) orbit due to a roll control glitch.
(http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon/f2/)

2007 Sep 13, In the Marshall Islands legislation was introduced aiming to open up the communications sector by removing the telecom agency's exclusive rights. This was likely to become an issue ahead of national elections in November.
(AFP, 9/16/07)

2008 Jan 7, Voters in the Marshall Islands ditched the pro-American administration led by Kessai Note and elected a government backed by disgruntled chiefs and senators from the nuclear-affected atolls.
(Econ, 1/12/08, p.37)

2008 Dec 25, The Marshall Islands declared a state of emergency after severe flooding, that occurred from Dec. 9 to Dec. 15, forced more than 600 people from their homes.
(AP, 12/26/08)

2008 About 62,000 inhabited the Marshall Islands.
(AP, 12/26/08)

2009 May 29, The nonbinding New York Declaration, an agreement between the signatory flag states which condemns acts of piracy and armed robbery against vessels and seafarers, was originally tabled by The Bahamas, the Republic of Liberia, the Republic of Marshall Islands and the Republic of Panama, four nations that account for more than half of global shipping.
(www.unmultimedia.org/tv/unifeed/d/13476.html)

2009 Oct 8, Former Marshall Islands president and powerful traditional chief Imata Kabua said he was challenging the treaty negotiated between the Marshall Islands government and the US covering the years after 2016 when the current lease for the missile base expires. The Compact of Free Association between the two countries approved in 2003 provides the US with use of the Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll until 2066.
(AFP, 10/9/09)

2009 Oct 26, In the Marshall Islands traditional chief Jurelang Zedkaia was elected president by a slender 17-15 margin, replacing Litokwa Tomeing who was ousted in a no-confidence vote last week.
(AP, 10/26/09)

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