| 100,000,000 B.C. | Rocky core of St. John first laid down on the ocean floor as a result of subterranean volcanic activity producing the same rocks found at Ram Head today. |
| 15,000 B.C. | Glaciers lower the sea level more than 300 feet and St. John became connected to Puerto Rico and the rest of the northern Virgin Islands. What is now underwater ocean shelf, were grasslands, savannas and scrub forest. |
| 5,000 B.C. | Melting of the glaciers results in the separation of the islands. |
| 2,000 B.C. | People from the South American mainland begin a migration to the islands of the Lesser Antilles. |
| 1,000 B.C. | First people arrive on St. John surviving mainly on resources provided by the sea. They establish a village at Salt Pond Bay, collect and prepare seafood at Lameshur, and make stone tools at Grootpan Bay. |
| 500 B.C. | Second wave of immigrants proceed up the island chain arriving on St. John in the first century A.D. The original inhabitants are either killed or assimilated by the newcomers. These new arrivals are the ancestors of the Tainos, the culture that Columbus encountered when he arrived in the Americas. |
| 1000 A.D. | The Taino culture that originated in Hispaniola arrives on St. John. |
| 1000-1492 (approx.) | Tainos live peacefully on St. John, planting yucca, fishing, gathering wild fruit, fabricating ceramic pottery, tools and ceremonial objects. Having little need for great technological advances or to defend themselves from other human beings, their culture concentrates on religious and spiritual development. The Tainos apparently disappear from St. John sometime before 1492. |
| 1493 | Part of Columbus's fleet sails by St. John his second voyage. The island is reported to be uninhabited. |
| 1500-1717 | St. John is sparsely and intermittently inhabited by small groups of Native Americans fleeing persecution, pirates, fugitives of all sorts and colors, fishermen and woodcutters. |
| 1672 | Danes settle St. Thomas. |
| 1684 | English thwart Danish attempts to settle St. John. |
| 1718 | March 23, Erik Bredal, the Governor of St. Thomas, publishes his intent to settle St. John. The next day, March 24, Bredal accompanied by 20 planters, five soldiers and 16 enslaved Africans, sail from St. Thomas and land in Coral Bay. On March 25, Bredal takes formal possession of St. John in the name of the King of Denmark and the Danish West India Company. He raises the Danish Flag and begins construction of a fort.Plantation era begins on St. John. Using the labor of enslaved Africans, the forests are cleared, hillsides are terraced and land planted in sugar, cotton and other tropical products. |
| 1728 | Population: 123 whites, 677 blacks on 87 plantations. |
| 1733 | Population: 208 whites, 1,087 blacks on 109 plantations. St John is the victim of a severe drought, insect plague and devastating hurricane. September 5, merciless slave code imposed. November 23, Africans from the Akwamu Nation, who had been brought to St. John as slaves, revolt against the owners and managers of the St. John plantations. Capturing the fort in Coral Bay, the rebels proceed to take control of most of the island with the exception of Caneel Bay. |
| 1734 | After several unsuccessful attempts to quell rebellion, the Akwamus are finally defeated by specially-trained French troops sent from Martinique. |
| 1739 | Plantation system on St. John returns to the pre-rebellion levels, 208 whites, 1,414 blacks on 109 plantations. |
| 1755 | King Frederick of Denmark buys all the land, slaves, estates, ships, factories and everything else that was owned by the Danish West India Company and brings company rule of St. John and the rest of the Danish West Indies to an end. He issues the Reglement of 1755 in which slave rights were mentioned for the first time. (The document is never published on St. John.) |
| 1766 | St. John and St. Thomas are declared free ports by the Danish Crown. Plans are made to begin the development of a town. The land is divided up into town lots but hoped-for development never materializes and St. John remains primarily rural until the recent growth of tourism. |
| 1773 | Population: 2,330 slaves and 104 whites on 69 plantations, 42 of which are devoted to cotton. |
| 1782 | H.M.S. Santa Monica hits rock and is beached at Round Bay, East End. |
| 1783 | Moravians establish a mission at Emmaus. |
| 1792 | Danes pass law mandating the end the African slave trade in ten years. |
| 1801 | Three month British occupation. |
| 1802 | Law outlawing slave trade goes into effect in the Danish West Indies making Denmark the first European nation to abolish the slave trade. 123,000 slaves had already been brought to the D.W.I. from Africa. (Slave trade continues sporadically until the 1820s, when the law is more rigidly enforced.) |
| 1807-1815 | British reoccupy St. John. |
| 1834 | Emancipation of slaves in the British Virgin Islands offers St. John slaves an excellent escape opportunity to nearby Tortola. |
| 1839 | Danes pass a law requiring slave children to attend school. Classes are taught in English. |
| 1840 | Major escape to the British Virgin Islands by slaves from Leinster Bay and Annaberg is followed a few days later by slave escape from Adrian, Brown Bay and Hermitage. |
| 1841 | St. John population reaches its (pre-modern day) high point of 2,555. |
| 1844 | Mary Point School completed. |
| 1846 | Population: 2450, 1790 slaves, 660 free (including whites). |
| 1848 | July 3, emancipation of slaves in the Danish West Indies. July 4, news reaches St. John. July 5, police placard posted in Cruz Bay prohibiting the "freed" from leaving the island. July 10, police placard posted in Cruz Bay compelling the freed to sign labor contracts with their former owners. |
| 1849 | Labor Act forces freed slaves to stay on plantations. |
| 1854 | Cholera epidemic kills 218. |
| 1855 | Population declines to 1,715. |
| 1856 | Two more cholera epidemics ravage population. |
| 1859 | Moravians stop baptizing children born out of wedlock. |
| 1862 | East End School constructed. |
| 1867 | Devastating hurricane followed by earthquake severely damages estates and crops, effectively ending the plantation system and discouraging U.S. plans to purchase the islands. |
| 1868 | 205 voters unanimously support a U.S. purchase of the islands. |
| 1868 | U.S. rejects purchase of St. Thomas and St. John from Denmark for $7.5 million. |
| 1878 | Carolina Plantation in Coral Bay acquired by William Henry Marsh. |
| 1878 | Mary Thomas (Queen Mary) leads rebellion of disgruntled workers on St. Croix. |
| 1879 | Labor Act amended to allow contract negotiation. |
| 1880 | Widow George rents rooms by the night at in her house at Newfound Bay. Population declines to 994. |
| 1900 | Population 925. |
| 1902 | Denmark rejects U. S. offer to buy St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix for $5 million. |
| 1907 | J.P. Jorgenson writes the Short Guide to St. Thomas and St. Jan, a travel guide written in English. |
| 1917 | March 31, official transfer of Danish West Indies to U.S. for $25,000,000. Virgin Islands are put in charge of U.S. Navy. |
| 1918 | Reef Bay factory closing ends sugar production. |
| 1921 | United States Virgin Island flag designed and approved by U.S. Navy brass is adopted. |
| 1927 | Virgin Islanders granted American citizenship. |
| 1929 | Erva and Paul Boulon Sr. buy Trunk Bay and 100 additional acres of land for $2,500. |
| 1930 | Population of St. John is 756. First automobile arrives on St. John. St. Thomas Daily News founded. Navy rule ends. Average wage in Virgin Islands is 40 cents a day. |
| 1931 | First civilian governor, Dr. Paul M. Pearson. |
| 1936 | First Organic Act passed by U.S. Congress giving political power to the local Virgin Islands government. |
| 1936 | Danish West India Company opens Caneel Bay resort. |
| 1939 | St. John mentioned by Harold Huber of National Park Service in N.P.S. report as possible park. The onset of World War II caused the plan to be shelved. |
| 1946 | First black governor, William H. Hastie. |
| 1946 | Robert and Nancy Gibney come to St. John on Honeymoon. |
| 1948 | First jeep brought to the island on a sloop from St. Thomas. |
| 1950 | St. John population declines to 746. Robert and Nancy Gibney buy property at Hawksnest, now called Gibney Beach. |
| 1953 | Fourteen Jeeps registered on St. John; Island administrator proposes "limiting the number and size of vehicles on the island (annual report of the administrator 1953). |
| 1954 | Laurance Rockefeller begins acquiring land on St. John. Revised Organic Act passed giving more power to the people and government Virgin Islands. |
| 1956 | Virgin Islands National Park opens with 5,000-acre gift of Jackson Hole Preserve. Caneel Bay Plantation reopens. Twenty-four-hour electrical service inaugurated. Fifty-three Jeeps, 31 trucks, five station wagons (annual report of the administrator 1956). |
| 1957 | Gibneys sell a parcel of beachfront land to J. Robert Oppenheimer, "the Father of the Atomic Bomb." |
| 1959 | Virgin Islands National Park acquires Trunk Bay from the Boulon family. |
| 1962 | 5,560 acres of submerged lands are transferred to the jurisdiction of the National Park. First commercial jet lands in St. Thomas (Pan Am). |
| 1966 | Pan Am begins direct flights to U.S. mainland. |
| 1967 | Antilles Airboats begin seaplane service with flights to St. John. |
| 1969 | Project Tektite in Great Lameshur Bay (Underwater Habitat). |
| 1971 | Melvin Evans first black Virgin Islander to be elected governor. |
| 1971 | Virgin Islands are the first U.S. state or territory to observe Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday as a legal holiday. |
| 1978 | Mongoose Junction opens. |
| 1989 | Hurricane Hugo (September). |
| 1990 | Population of St. John 3,504. |
| 1994 | 1,200,000 visitors to St. John National Park. |
| 1995 | Hurricane Marilyn (September) ten killed in Virgin Islands, $1.5 billion in damages. Seaplane service to St. John is discontinued due to damages sustained and subsequent announcement by the National Park Service saying they will no longer allow use of seaplane ramp. |
| 1997 | Dr. Donna Christian Green first woman to be elected Virgin Islands delegate to U.S. Congress. |
| 2000 | Population of St. John 4,197. Cruz Bay 2,743, central district 746, Coral Bay 649, East End 59. |
| 2002 | St. John gets its own phonebook. |
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