Piratical
Dates of Importance
(updated 22 July 2010)
This time line is a work in progress. It
incorporates
events important to piratical history, but also includes important
historical
happenings. Although pirates gave allegiance to no nation, they didn't
work in a void. What happened on land could and did impact what
happened
at sea. Dates dealing with piracy appear in black. Dates dealing with
Scottish history appear in purple, while maritime dates appear in blue.
All other dates appear in green. Dates are divided into centuries
first, then by year, and
if the exact date is known, by month and day within that year.
Special thanks
to Luis for his assistance in
researching
some of these dates.
Special thanks to those who have caught my
errors
and let me know.
May
22 -- National Maritime Day
Before the
1st Century
1340 BCE
Lukkans raid Cyprus.
1220 BCE - 1186 BCE
Sea People plague
Egypt,
Syria, Cyprus, and Crete. Around 1200 they destroy several cities,
including Ugarit. They are defeated in 1186 by Ramses III.
589 BCE
First recorded
incidence
of piracy in the South China Sea.
509 BCE
Roman
Republic founded.
480 BCE
Sea
battle
of Salamis –
first recorded sea battle in history.
332 BCE
Alexander
the Great conquers
Egypt.
331 BCE
Alexander the Great
appoints
Admiral Amphoterus to hunt pirates.
323 BCE
Alexander
the Great dies.
c. 300 BCE
Theophrasus, a Greek scientist,
uses messages in bottles to study the currents of the Mediterranean.
229 BCE
Gaius and Lucius Corancanius, official
envoys
from Rome, request that Queen Teuta restrain her fleet after most
honest
trade grinds to halt because of piratical attacks.
228 BCE
Queen Teuta surrenders to Romans and
agrees to
pay annual tribute and relinquish most of her territorial holdings, but
she retains the right to sail only two unarmed galleys at one time.
192 BCE
Rome conquers the Aetolian League, and
the pirates
relocate to Cilicia.
146 BCE
Rome
conquers Greece.
101 BCE
Rome passes its first anti-piracy law.
86 BCE
Pirate fleet defeats Roman squadron off
Brindisi,
in Southern Italy.
c. 75 BCE
Cilician pirates capture Julius Caesar.
69 BCE
Pirates sack the sacred isle of Delos
where the
roman Empire's main treasury is located.
67 BCE
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, Pompey the Great,
granted
an imperium to enforce Rome’s anti-piracy law. He eradicates
the
pirates in 49 days.
44 BCE
- Julius
Caesar assassinated.
- Resurgence of piracy
in
Mediterranean.
36 BCE
Octavian defeats
Sextus
and crushes the pirates.
Return to timeline menu.
1st Century
2nd Century
330
Constantine
moves to Byzantium
and founds the Byzantine Empire.
3rd Century
441
St.
Patrick makes pilgrimage
to Cruachan Aigle (Eagle Mountain) in Ireland.
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4th Century
5th Century
400
Large fleets of Chinese pirates attack
all ships
they encounter during the summer.
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6th Century
589
First record of a pirate attack in Chinese waters.
7th Century
693
Carthage
falls.
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8th Century
787
Charlemagne
conquers most
of Italy.
793
August 8: Vikings'
first
raid on Britain at Lindisfarne Abbey.
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9th Century
800
- Charlemagne
crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
- Charlemagne organizes
coastal defenses
north of the Seine estuary against pirates.
806
Vikings slay sixty-eight monks on Iona.
811
Korean pirates attack Japan.
813
Korean pirates attack Japan.
834
Oseberg
ship burial in
Norway.
839
Vikings
winter in Ireland
for the first time.
844
Vikings raid Cadiz.
845
Vikings sack
Hamburg and
Paris.
850
Vikings
winter in England
for the first time.
867
Danes
capture York.
885
Viking seige of Paris begins.
870
North
African Muslims capture
the Maltese Islands.
862
Pirates attack boats carrying tax rice
and slaying
people in west of Japan.
893
Korean pirates attack Japan.
894
Korean pirates attack Japan.
896
King
Alfred of Wessex in
England defeats Danes.
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10th Century
c. 900
Gokstad
ship buried.
902
Vikings expelled from Dublin, Ireland.
912
Viking raiders prey on shipping in the
Caspian
Sea.
930
Founding
of Icelandic Althing.
936
First time in
Japanese
history that pirates band together under a strong leader, Fujiwara
Sumitomo.
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11th Century
1002
Aethelred
orders the slaying
of all Danes in England.
1014
April
23: Battle of
Clontarf in Ireland between
forces led by High King Brian Boru and Máel Mórda mac
Murchada, King of
Leinster.
1019
Jurchen pirates attack Tsushima and Iki,
as well
as several places on mainland Japan.
1066
September 28: William
the Conqueror invades England.
1096
First
Crusade begins.
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12th Century
1113
Hospitalers
of St. John
of Jerusalem founded. They eventually become the Knights of Malta.
1114
Chief Priest of Kumano commissioned to
use “warrior
monks” to capture pirates infesting Kii province.
1119
Taira Masamori returns from expedition
with many
pirate heads.
1184
Minamoto
Yoritomo becomes
Japan’s first shogun.
1185
Margaritone of Brindisi, a pirate turned
privateer,
proclaims himself Count of Cephalonia.
1187
October 2: Saladin
captures Jerusalem from the Crusaders.
1194
When
Naples falls to the
Holy Roman Empire, Margaritone of Brindisi is captured and imprisoned
for
the remainder of his life.
1198
The military order known
as the Teutonic Knights of Saint Mary's Hospital of Jerusalem is
founded.
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13th Century
1204
Crusaders
sack Constantinople
during the Fourth Crusade.
1205
Eustace the Monk joins a band of pirates and uses the Channel
Islands as a haven.
1206
Eustace the Monk raids Boulogne. King Philip of France is forced
to pay him protection money.
1212
After allying
himself with Prince Louis of France, Eustace the Monk
attacks
English coastal villages.
1217
Eustace the Monk and his pirates
are captured off Sandwich. The English behead him.
1223
Japanese pirates
attack
Korea’s southern coast.
1227
Authorities on
Kyushu,
Japan execute 90 pirates.
1229
The Holy Roman Emperor
bestows upon the Teutonic Knights of Saint Mary's Hospital of Jerusalem
full sovereignity over Baltic lands.
1241
- William Maurice, a
pirate, is the first
man to be hanged, drawn, and quartered in England.
- Lübeck and
Hamburg
form the Hanseatic
League, a merchant guild, to oversee maritime commerce and protect
against
pirates.
1255-1262
Hanseatic League is
formed
to protect merchants ships from German pirates.
1266
The French draft
the Rules
of Oleron, the first identifiable code pertaining to maritime practices.
1270
Crusaders
of the Eighth
Crusade capture Tunis.
1271
- Eustace the Monk
fights
English fleet
at Dover. His ship is captured, and he is beheaded.
- Khubiliai
Khan becomes the first Yuan
or Mongol emperor of China.
1273
The
crown prince of Korea
weds Khuilai Khan’s daughter.
1274
Kublai
Khan invades Japan.
1278
Giovanni de lo Cavo
seizes
Rhodes and becomes the island’s governor. Rhodes becomes a thriving
haven
for pirates and slavers.
1281
Mongols
again invade Japan.
1291
Crusades
end.
1295
Marco
Polo returns from
China.
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14th Century
1309
Knights
of St. John capture
the island of Rhodes.
1314
June 23-24: Battle of
Bannockburn
between Robert Bruce of Scotland and Edward II of
England. The Bruce wins.
1348
Bubonic
Plague strikes,
1/3 of Europe's population dies.
1350
The wuko mount six large
raids against the Koreans. For the next twenty-five years, they conduct
an average of five such raids.
1358
The
wuko
attack the Shandong peninsula of China.
1368
The Ming
Dynasty begins
in China.
1380
Korean cannon
destroy a
large fleet of wuko at the
mouth of Geum river.
1392
Vitalienbrüder,
or Victual Brothers, sack Bergen, Norway.
1398
Grand Master of the
Teutonic
Order and his knights invade Gotland and expel the Vitalienbrüder
from
the
island.
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15th Century
1401
October: Klaus
Störtebeker
and seventy-one of his men are executed for piracy in Hamburg.
1402
Gödeke Michels
and
eighty pirates are executed.
1405
- China’s
Zheng He sails from China on
the first of seven expeditions for the Ming Dynasty.
- Shogun Ashikaga
Yoshimochi sends 20
pirate leaders to China as an act of goodwill. The Ming Emperor
demonstrates
leniency and returns them to Japan. A stove with a copper steamer
basket
is made. One pirate got into the basket while his comrades stoked the
fire.
This was repeated until all the pirates were scalded to death.
1409
June
26: The Council of Pisa
deposes popes Gregory XII
of Rome and Benedict XIII of Avignon. The council elects Cardinal Peter
Philarghi as pope and he becomes Pope Alexander V.
1415
The wuko take gold and
150 people during a raid on Korea.
1433
Zheng He
sets off on his
last voyage. Afterward China favors isolationism.
1441
The
first African slaves
arrive in Portugal.
1453
May 29: Ottoman
Army captures Constantinople, ending the Byzantine Empire.
1461
February 2: Edward of
York defeats the
Lancastrians in the second battle of St. Albans
during the War of the Roses.
1461
February 17: The House of
York and the
House of Lancaster again fight at St. Albans.
Queen Margaret defeats the Earl of Warwick and frees King Henry VI.
1469
Isabella
of Castile and
Ferdinand of Aragon wed.
1475
The
first edition of Ptolemy’s Geography
is published.
1489
Henry VII and Ferdinand of Aragon sign a treaty that revokes all
letters of reprisal and details the steps necessary for either monarch
to take prior to the issuance of future letters of marque and reprisal.
1492
- Spain expels the Jews from its country.
- The Moors are expelled from Spain.
October 12: Christopher
Columbus reaches
San Salvador (Bahamas).
1493
Christopher Columbus
discovers Tortuga.
1494
Treaty
of Tordesillas confirms
Pope Alexander VI’s division of the New World between Spain and
Portugal.
1497
John
Cabot discovers Newfoundland.
1498
Vasco da
Gama arrives at
Calicut, India.
Return to timeline menu.
16th Century
1505
The Barbarossa brothers
establish a privateering base at Djerba.
1508
Spanish
settle Puerto Rico.
1509
June
11: Henry VIII of England weds his first wife,
Katherine of Aragon.
1511
Portuguese
conquer Malacca.
1513
- Balboa
discovers the Pacific Ocean.
- Ponce de
León arrives in Florida.
1515
1516
Aruj “Barbarossa”
enters
Algiers. The Bey is slain and Aruj claims the throne.
1518
Aruj “Barbarossa”
dies
during battle against Spanish in Algiers.
1519
- Spanish found Veracruz.
- Ferdinand
Magellan sets sail on his
voyage around the world. It is a journey from which he will not return.
1520
- Spain
invades Tripoli.
- Turgut
Rais joins Kheir ed-Dein's fleet in Algiers.
1522
- The survivors of Magellan’s crew return
to Spain.
- The Order of Saint John is expelled
from Rhodes.
1523
- The Portuguese lose
trading concessions
with China because of the Portuguese Ambassador practices piracy.
- Hizir
Barbarossa expels the Christians
from Rhodes, and the sultan of the Ottoman Empire names Hizir
“Kheir-ed-Din”
(Gift of Allah or Goodness of the Faith).
- The
Council of the Indies
is established to oversee Spain’s territories in the New World.
May:
Jean Fleury, a
French
privateer, and his men capture a Spanish carvel loaded with treasure
from
the New World. This is the first confirmation of the rumors of the vast
wealth to be found in Spain’s colonies. 1524
1525
Henry
VIII of England petitions
the pope to annul his marriage to Katherine of Aragon.
1526
- Armies of the Ottoman Empire invade
Hungary.
- Francis I signs the Treaty of Madrid,
thus renouncing France’s claims to Italy, Burgundy, and Flanders.
- Spain
institutes the flota system to
transport treasures from the New World home.
1527
- Bartolomé
de Las
Casas begins writing History of the Indies.
- The
Spanish capture Jean Fleury after a long sea battle. He is executed.
1529
Fancisco
Pizarro ransoms
King Atahualpa for Incan gold.
c. 1530
Granuaile
(Grace O’Malley)
born.
1530
- The Order
of Saint John arrives in
Malta.
- Kheir ed-din
Barbarossa
captures Algiers
and establishes his base of operations there.
1533
Kheir
ed-Din Barbarossa becomes
the admiral of the Ottoman navy.
1534
- First viceroyalty established in New
Spain and Mexico City becomes capital of Spanish Main.
- The alliance between France and the
Ottoman Empire is formed and will last for 25 years.
1535
- Spain captures Tunis.
- The Viceroyalty of New Spain is created
with headquarters in Mexico City.
- After a
group of pirates, led by a man named Broode, are captured, they are
hanged, drawn, and quartered in England.
1536
- Giovanni Dionigi,
an Italian
fisherman, is captured by Barbary corsairs. He eventually converts to
Islam
and becomes Uluj Ali.
- The English Parliament
passes new legislation dealing with piracy that strengthen and clarify
existing law.
- Huguenot corsairs
plunder Havana.
1538
September 18: Kheir
ed-Din
Barbarossa destroys thirteen galleys and captures an additional
thirty-eight
from the Christian Holy League at Prevesa.
1540
- Spain
forbids ships of other nations
from trading with its Caribbean settlements.
- French corsairs
attack
San Juan, Puerto
Rico.
1541
A Genoese squadron
captures
Turgut Rais. For the next three years, the Barbary corsair works as a
galley
slave until Kheir ed-Din ransoms him.
1543
The
Portuguese introduce
firearms to Japan.
1544
- The Viceroyalty of Peru is established.
- French corsairs attack Santa Marta on the
coast
of Venezuela.
1545
July: Henry VIII’s
greatest
warship, the Mary Rose, sinks in the Solent.
1546
- Kheir
ed-Din “Barbarossa” dies.
- Barbary corsairs capture an Albanian boy,
who
becomes Murat
Rais.
1547
Henry
VIII of England
dies.
1548
Xu Dong executed.
1549
English law extends the death penalty to anyone caught and convicted of
aiding and abetting pirates.
1551
Tripoli
falls.
1552
- Francisco
López de Gomara’s General
History of the Indies is published.
- Turgat Rais and his
corsairs defeat
Admiral Andrea Doria of Italy.
1553
Edward VI of England
dies. His half-sister, Mary -- later known as Bloody Mary -- becomes
Queen of England.
1554
- Yuekong, a monk,
leads 30
Shaolin temple
monks in battle against Japanese pirates. He dies during the fight.
- François le
Clerc,
also known
as Jambe de Bois or Pegleg, sacks Santiago de Cuba.
1555
- Martin Frobisher is
imprisoned in Sao
Jorge for piracy.
- Olaf the Great
publishes
an account
of the female pirate Alfhild in Historia de Gentibus
Septentrionalibus.
July: Jacques de Sores and
his fleet
of three privateers capture Havanna.
1556
- Grancois le Clerc,
aka
Jambe de Bois
or Pie de Palo or Pegleg, attacks Havana.
- Governor Hu Dongxian
of
Zhejiang convinces
wako leader Xu Hai to betray his fellow pirates only to be beheaded by
the governor.
1558
November: Elizabeth
I becomes Queen of England.
1559
Peace declared between
France and Spain, but the treaty doesn’t extend to the Caribbean. “West
of the prime meridian…violence by either party to the other side shall
not be regarded as a contravention of the treaties.”
April: Yu Dayou of Korea
is arrested
for failing to pursue pirates, even though it was his subordinate who
permitted
their escape.
1562
- The French Wars of Religion begin.
- John Hawkins makes his first slave
trading expedition to the New World.
March 1: Catholics
massacre more than 1,000 Hugenots in Vassy, France. This marks the
start
of the French Wars of Religion.
1564
French
Huguenots settle
on land near present-day Jacksonville, Florida.
1565
- During the siege of Malta, Turgut Rais is
killed by shrapnel.
- Mary,
Queen of Scots, weds Lord Henry
Darnley.
1566
The
Dutch rise up against
Spain.
1567
- The Ming
Dynasty lifts its prohibition
of trading overseas.
- Theobald O’Malley, also known as Toby
of the Ships (Tibbot-ne-Long), born.
1568
May: Mary, Queen
of Scots, flees
to England.
1570
Uluj Ali captures a
squadron
of vessels belonging to the Knights of Malta.
February 25: Pope Pius V
excommunicates
Queen Elizabeth for heresy.
1571
The first Manila galleon
departs the Philippines for Acapulco.
October: Battle
of Lepanto in which Papal and Spanish forces crush the Turkish navy.
1572
Francis Drake attacks Nombre de Dios. He is
wounded in the attempt.
Spanish ambassadors condemn Francis Drake’s
attacks as acts
of piracy.
Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.
Dutch sea beggars
capture
Brill and
turn it into a base from which they attack the coastal shipping of
Spain.
1573
July 3: Royal
regulations involving
the laying out of new towns in the Spanish
Main are issued.
1574
- The English lay siege
to
Granauile
O’Malley’s Rockfleet Castle.
- Murat Rais recaptures
Tunis from Spain.
The bey of Algiers proclaims him “Captain of the Sea.”
- Lin Feng, commanding more than 30 junks,
pillages towns in
Phillipines.
- Murat
nominated “Captain of the Sea”
by bey of Algiers, but Suleiman the Magnificent doesn’t ratify this
appointment
until twenty years later.
1575
Barbary corsairs
capture
Miguel de Cervantes. He spends five years as a slave.
1577
- The English capture
Granuaile O’Malley
and imprison her in Dublin Castle.
- Francis Drake begins circumnavigation of
the
world.
November: Elizabeth I's council
orders that whenever supporters of pirates are fined that those monies
be used to compensate victims of piracy.
1578
Gerardus Mercator publishes
his atlas, a word he coined. Subsequent parts appear until 1595, when
he
dies.
March: Granuaile imprisoned in Limerick gaol.
November 7: Granuaile transferred to prison in
Dublin
Castle, but is later released.
1579
March 1: John Drake is the first to spot
the
Spanish treasure ship Cacafuego (aka Nuestra
Señora del la Concepción), which carries a
cargo
worth about 360,000 pesos. Francis Drake's
capture
of her treasure equals $72,000,000 today.
July 23: Francis Drake begins his journey across
the Pacific
Ocean.
September 30: Francis Drake, aboard the Golden
Hind,
lands in Micronesia.
1580
English
innkeeper, William
Bourne writes the first published description of a submarine.
September 26: Local fishermen spot
Drake’s ship,
the Golden Hind, in the Channel as she returns home after
sailing
around the world. Her cargo hold contains silver, gold, jewels, and
cloves
valued at about £600,000.
1581
Elizabeth
I knights Francis
Drake.
James Swift, the English
Admiralty's marshal, compiles a detailed report on piracy.
1582
- Lady Killigrew and
her
servants plunder
the Marie de San Sebastien’s cargo.
- Pope
Gregory XIII introduces the Gregorian
calendar. All Catholic countries advance ten days, but England refuses
to adopt the change.
1585
English government decrees that all
prizes must pass through the Admiralty Court in London.
December 31: Francis Drake and his men
take Santo
Domingo on Hispaniola.
1586
- Sir Richard Bingham,
Governor of Connaught,
Ireland, captures Granuaile O’Malley.
- Uluj Ali dies.
- Murat Rais sacks
Lanzarote in the Canary
Islands and holds the inhabitants for ransom.
March: Drake receives a ransom of 113,000 gold
ducats
after 248 are torched in Cartagena.
June 18: Sir
Francis Drake visits Raleigh’s colony in Virginia and returns them to
England
five weeks later.
1587
- Elizabeth I pardons Granuaile and her
family.
- Spanish
establish garrison and colony
in St. Augustine, Florida.
- Thomas Cavendish captures a 700-ton Manila
galleon.
1587
February: Mary,
Queen of Scots, is beheaded in England.
August 18: Virginia Dare
is the first
child of Europeans born in North America.
August 27: Governor
White sails for
England. He is the last to see the colonists of
Roanoke alive.
1588
Mariner’s
Mirror,
the first English sea atlas, is published.
May 19: Spain's
Invincible Armada sets sail.
1588
July 19: Captain Thomas
Fleming, wanted
for piracy, is the first to spot the Spanish
Armada and sails to warn the English fleet.
1589
Volume
one of Richard Hakluyt’s Principal
Navigations appears in print. The two other volumes are published
in
1599 and 1600.
1590
April: Queen
Elizabeth’s spymaster,
Sir Francis Walsingham, dies.
August 15: Governor
White returns to
Roanoke, but all he finds are the remains of
the fort and “Croatoan” and “Cro” etched into two trees. Roanoke will
eventually
become known as “The Lost Colony.”
1591
Japan’s
Separation Edict
separates the samurai class from the rest of society.
1592
Sir Richard Bingham seizes all of
Granuaile O’Malley’s
ships anchored in Clew Bay.
1593
June: Granuaile opens correspondence with
Elizabeth
I, Queen of England.
July: Granuaile meets with Queen
Elizabeth in private.
1594
Uluj Ali
becomes admiral
of the Ottoman Empire’s navy.
1595
- Sir John Hawkins dies from fever off
the coast of Puerto Rico.
- John Davis invents the backstaff.
1596
January 28: Sir Francis
Drake dies from
fever and "the bludie flix" (dysentery). They
bury him at sea off of Nombre de Dios.
1597
Jean Fleury hanged
for
piracy.
1598
The
French Wars of Religion
end.
Return to timeline menu.
17th
Century
1600
- Eighty-nine cases of
men
arrested as
pirates are heard in England.
- The English
East India Company receives a charter from Elizabeth I to be "The
Company of Merchats of London Trading into the East Indies."
1601
January 17: William
Parker
and his fellow pirates sack Portobello.
1602
The VOC
(Dutch East India
Company) is founded.
1603
- The Council
of the Indies commands
Governor Antonio Osorio of Hispaniola to evacuate isolated settlements
of Banda del Norte to curb smuggling.
- James I of England knights Tibbot-ne-Long,
Granuaile’s son.
- Granuaile dies (circa 1603).
March 24: Elizabeth
I of England dies. James VII of Scotland becomes James I of England.
1604
- The signing of the Treaty of
London ends hostilities between England and Spain.
- James
VI enacts “A Proclamation to represse all
Piracies and Depredations upon the Sea,” which revoked all letters of
marque,
and “A Proclamation for revocation of Mariners from forreine Services.”
- John
Ward uses Sale on the Barbary Coast for his base of operations.
1605
John Ward arrives
in Tunis.
November: Robert
Catesby and other Catholic Englishmen
attempt to blow up Parliament and kill King James I. One of the
conspirators is
Guy Fawkes, and the event becomes known as the
Gunpowder Plot.
December: John Davis
becomes the
first Englishman to be killed by the Japanese after his ship fights
with
wako.
1606
William Shakespeare writes Macbeth.
1607
Colony
of Jamestown is
founded.
1608
- Sir
Henry Mainwaring purchases a small
chaser and becomes a pirate.
- Simon
Danseker ambushes a Spanish grain convoy off the coast of Valencia,
capturing the sons of two Viceroys.
1609
- England
establishes a colony on Bermuda.
- Peter Easton (also
spelled Eaton) arrives
in Grace Harbor, Newfoundland with a fleet of five pirate ships.Peter
Easton
(also spelled Eaton) arrives in Grace Harbor, Newfoundland with a fleet
of five pirate ships.
- A True and Certaine
Report of the Beginning, Proceedings, Overthrowes, and now Present
Estate
of Captaine Ward and Dantseker is published in London. It concerns
the renegadoes John Ward and Simon Simonson, aka Danseker.
- The
Dutch VOC establishes an operation at Batavia to trade with Persia,
India, China, and Japan.
- Traveling under a safe conduct pass, the
Barbary Corsair Danseker visits King Henry IV of France.
January 8: James I of England
announces a general “Proclamation against Pirats.”
October: Andrew Barker, a sailor captured by John Ward and
held for ransom in Tunis, publishes A
True and Certaine Report of the Beginning, Proceedings, Overthrowes,
and now present Estate of Captaine Ward.
December 29: 18 pirates
hanged
at Execution Dock, Wapping.
1610
May 14: Henry IV of France is assasinated.
1646
Zheng Zhilong
surrenders to Qing dynasty and is arrested.
1648
- Treaty of Munster gives Dutch commercial
trading right in
the West Indies, so they officially withdraw from privateering.
- Thirty
Years’ War ends.
- Thomas
Gage publishes A New Survey
of the West-India’s.
1649
Charles
I of England is
beheaded.
1651
England
passes first Trade
and Navigation Act that impacts America.
1654
- Oliver
Cromwell sends fleet with army
of 7,000 to Caribbean to capture Hispaniola.
- The Anglo-Spanish War begins.
- The English attempt to establish a settlement
at St. Augustine's Bay, Madagascar, but a poor harvest and poor
relations with the Malagasy cause it to fail.
1655
English
capture Jamaica.
1655
April 4: The English fleet defeats the
Barbary
Corsairs at the Battle of Postage Farina, Tunis.
1656
January: Christopher
Myngs arrives in Port Royal.
1658
- Governor d’Oyley adopts policy that
encourages
buccaneers
to use Port Royal as a base in exchange for protection against the
Spanish.
- The
Anglo-Spanish War ends.
- Zheng Cheng-Gong (Koxinga) leads a pirate
fleet
up the Yangtze
River to attack Nanking.
1659
Christopher Myngs leads expedition of
privateers
that attacks Campeche, Coro, Cumana, and Puerto Cabello.
1660
- Oliver Cromwell dies.
- Charles II restored to English throne.
- Christopher Myngs is arrested on charges
of embezzlement and sent back to England.
1661
- Qing emperor executes
Zheng Zhilong
(Nicholas Iquan).
- King Philip IV of
Spain’s
army invades
Portugal.
- Zheng Cheng-Gong
(Koxinga) lands on
Formosa and lays siege to the Dutch Fort Zeelandia.
July: The
Council of Jamaica grants licenses to more than forty new taverns, grog
shops, and punch houses.
1662
- Zheng
Cheng-Gong (Koxinga) drives the Dutch VOC from Taiwan.
- English pirates sack
Santiago de Cuba
over a two-week period.
- Privateer fleet under command of
Christopher
Myngs of the
Royal Navy destroys Santiago de Cuba.
- (circa) Port Royal becomes a thriving pirate
haven.
February 1: The
Dutch surrender Formosa to Zheng Cheng-Gong (Koxinga).
1663
- The English King's
edict
to Governor
Sir Thomas Modyford of Jamaica forbids buccaneers from further acts of
violence against Spain.
- Zhou Yu and Li Rong
lead
pirate uprising
in Canton, China.
1664
- Zhou Yu and Li Rong lead pirate uprising in
Canton, China.
- France’s
West India Company assumes
administrative control of Tortuga.
June 11: Sir Thomas
Modyford arrives
in Jamaica to assume governorship.
1665
The Great Plague breaks out in London.
1666
- L’Olonnais captures Maracaibo.
- Alexandre Exquemelin arrives in the
Caribbean
as an indentured
servant.
- Great Fire
of London sweeps through
436 acres and destroys more than 13,000 houses.
- London
Gazette begins publication.
It remains in print today.
January: Edward Mansvelt, aka Mansfield, elected
“admiral”
by his men.
March 4: Jamaica's Governor Sir Thomas
Modyford
declares war on Spain and issues letters of marques to privateers.
May 26: Privateer Captain Edward Mansfield
recaptures
the island of Pimienta.
June 11-14: Four Days
Battle, one of the
longest naval engagements in history, takes
place.
August 5: A
Dutch sharpshooter kills Christopher Myngs, an English naval commander
and buccaneer, at the Battle of North Foreland.
1667
- Spanish capture
Edward
Mansfield and
take him to Havana and execute him.
- Governor d'Ogeron of
Tortuga gives L'Olonnais a letter of marque. In the fall, he sacks
Maracaibo and Gibraltar.
- War breaks
out between Spain and France.
- King Louis
XIV of France invades the
Spanish Netherlands, uniting the Dutch, England, Spain, and Germany
against
him.
1668
- Modyford commissions
Henry Morgan as
admiral to defend Jamaica against a Spanish invasion.
- Henry Morgan raids
Porto
Bello, nets
240,000 pesos to be shared amongst 500 men.
- Henry Morgan captures
Maracaibo.
- Dariens slaughter
L'Olonnais.
May 29: John Davis captures
St. Augustine.
1669
January: Henry
Morgan’s
flagship, Oxford, is destroyed when the ship’s powder magazine
explodes.
March: Henry Morgan
attacks Maracaibo
and Gibraltar.
April 9: Council
of War of the Indies, Madrid, declares that Jamaica must be retaken.
May 27: Morgan’s
buccaneers return
to Port Royal, with the equivalent of $14,000,000 in plunder.
June 24: Peace between
England and
Spain proclaimed in streets of Port Royal.
December:
Bartholomew Sharp, William Dampier, and other pirates attack Porto
Bello. They garner more than 36,000 pieces of eight.
1670
January 3:
Portuguese Manoel
Rivero Pardal receives privateering commission from Governor of
Cartagena.
He attacks the Cayman Islands and captures an English privateer.
July: England
and Spain sign Treaty of Madrid.
October: Royal orders arrive in Cartagena
authorizing
the issuance of privateers against the English.
December: Henry Morgan sets sail for the isthmus
of Panama
with 1,200 men.
1671
- Mary
Carleton, the most famous of Port
Royal’s prostitutes, arrives in Jamaica.
- Treaty of
Madrid, declaring peace between
Spain and England, is published in Jamaica.
- Sir Thomas Lynch,
Governor of Jamaica,
threatens legal action against buccaneers who continue to attack
Spanish
colonies and ships.
January
15: Sir
Thomas Lynch receives commission as Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica.
18: Henry Morgan sacks Panama.
February 24: Morgan and the privateers leave Panama
after
four-week occupation.
July 1: Sir Thomas
Lynch arrives in
Jamaica.
August: Sir
Thomas Lynch arrests Governor Modyford and sends him to England.
1672
April 4: Henry
Morgan is
arrested in Jamaica and sent to London to answer charges of piracy.
1673
Massachusetts
enacts severe
law against piracy.
1674
- Captain George Cusack
imprisoned in
Marshalsea prison prior to his trial on charges of piracy.
- Tortuga no longer a
main
pirate port.
1675
Henry Morgan returns to
Jamaica with knighthood and commission as Lieutenant-Governor.
June 24: King Philip's
War in North
America begins when Native Peoples massacre
colonists at Swansea, Plymouth colony.
1676
The Duke of York, who eventually
succeeds his brother Charles II as King of England, openly converts to
Catholicism.
1678
- Coxton and La Sonda
attack Portobello.
- Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin’s De
Americaensche Zee-Rovers
is published in Amsterdam.
June: Michel de
Grammont,
“Le Chevalier,” captures San Carlos fortification guarding the entrance
of the Lake of Maracaibo.
September: Michel de
Grammont, “Le
Chevalier,” captures Trujillo.
1679
April: William
Dampier
arrives in Port Royal, Jamaica. he eventually joins a group of
buccaneers under the leadership of Bartholomew Sharp.
June 22: The Duke of Monmouth
defeats Scottish Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge.
December: Buccaneers –
including
William Dampier, Bartholomew Sharp, Basil Ringrose, John Coxon, and
Richard
Sawkins – attack Porto Bello, netting 36,000 pieces of eight.
1681
Jamaica passes an
anti-piracy
law.
April 17: William Dampier,
Lionel
Wafer, and 42 other privateers depart Captain Sharp’s crew and begin
their
trek across the Isthmus of Darien.
July: Bartholomew Sharpe
captures El
Santo Rosario off Cape Pasado, Ecuador and seizes silver and gems,
as well as the more precious derrotero, a book of secret
Spanish
maps of the west coast of South America.
Winter: 400 French and
English buccaneers
set up a base on Anclote Key.
1682
On his return to
Barbados,
Bartholomew Sharp is arrested for piracy and sent to London for trial,
but escapes prosecution because of the Spanish charts he plundered.
July: Laurens de Graaf
captures
30-gun Francesca off Puerto Rico that carries the annual wages for
soldiers
in Havanna. 100 men share 120,000 pesos.
1683
May: Michael de
Grammont
and Laurens de Graaf join forces to attack Vera Cruz.
October: Sir
Henry Morgan removed from the Council of Jamaica and public service
after
a dispute with Governor Lynch.
1684
- Basil Ringrose
returns to
the West
Indies and resumes his career of piracy under Charles Swan.
- Massachusetts enacts
another severe
law against piracy.
1685
- Sir Henry Morgan
settles
libel suit
pertaining to the English translation of The Buccaneers of America.
- France and Spain sign
the
Treaty of
Ratisborn (Regensburg), which ends the issuing of letters of marque at
a whim.
- Louis XIV of France
appoints buccaneer Bertrand d'Ogeron Royal Governor of Tortuga and
Saint Dominigue.
July 6: De Graaf attacks Vera
Cruz
and holds town for 3 months, but most of valuables secreted away by
Spaniards.
September: Michel de
Grammont, “Le
Chevalier,” and Laurens de Graaf join forces and attack Campeche,
Mexico.
1686
- Basil Ringrose killed
in
attack on
Santiago.
- William Dampier sails
across the Pacific
Ocean from coastal Mexico to the East Indies.
August: Hurricane scatters Michel de
Grammont’s
fleet; he’s presumed lost at sea.
1687
- King James I issues a
pardon
to pirates.
- Isaac
Newton publishes Philosophia Naturalis Principia
Mathematica.
- William
Phips' divers locate the wreck of the Nuestra
Señora de la Concepción, a ship carrying at least
100 tons of silver, that sank in 1641.
1688
- Robert Searles
attacks
St. Augustine
and frees imprisoned surgeon John Woodward.
- The War of
the League of Augsburg (also
known as the War of the Grand Alliance) begins. France is at war
against
England, Spain, and the Netherlands.
January: King
James II issues
an edict entitled “A Royal Proclamation for the more effectual reducing
and
suppressing of Pirates and Privateers in America.”
August 25:
Sir Henry Morgan dies. He is
given state funeral with a series of 21-gun
salutes.
December:
James II of England flees to
France.
1689
- Combined fleet of
French
naval vessels
and buccaneers attack Cartagena.
- The War of
the Grand Alliance begins.
February:
The English Parliament offers
the throne to William and Mary.
March: Henry Every appears
in the historical record as a midshipman aboard HMS Rupert.
April 11: William and Mary
are crowned King and Queen of England by the Bishop of London.
May: William III and
Mary II of England
declare
war on France.
1690
Lionel Wafer's New
Voyage
and Description of the Isthmus of Panama is published.
February 2: Robert
Culliford
steals the Blessed William and goes on the account.
July 17: Adam Baldridge
arrives
at Island of St. Marie in Madagascar. He builds a fort and begins
trading with the pirates.
1691
- Adam Baldridge builds
his
mansion on
Ile Sainte Marie and begins trading with the pirates.
- William
Dampier returns to England
after an absence of twelve years.
- Edward
Davis, John Hinson, and Lionel Wafer are
arrested on charges of piracy in Virginia.
January:
Adam Baldridge arrives on
St. Mary’s
Island in Madagascar.
May: William
Kidd marries Sarah Bradley Cox Oort in New York City.
1692
February: The exiled James
II issues privateering commissions against British shipping.
June 7: Earthquake,
followed by a
tidal wave, strikes Jamaica and part of Port
Royal slides into the sea. More than 2,000 people die.
July: In reaction to
James’ privateering
commissions, the Privy Council proposes to treat captured rebel seamen
as criminals.
August: Benjamin Fletcher
becomes Governor of New York, and is later names Governor of
Pennsylvania as
well.
September: An Act for the Restraining and Punishing of
Privateers and Pirates is passed.
1693
- Nicholas
Trott becomes Governor of
the Bahamas.
- King William III opts
to
break with
tradition and decides to try crews of rebel men-of-war not as prisoners
of war, but as pirates and traitors.
April:
Thomas Tew and the Amity arrive in Rhode Island after
capturing a ship in the Red Sea
that garnered each pirate £1,200.
July: Thomas Tew
captures
a warship, laden with treasure, belonging to the Indian Mughal Alamgir
I.
October 19: Thomas Tew
arrives at
Madagascar aboard Amity.
December 23: Thomas Tew
departs
from Island of St. Marie for America.
1694
February: The
English try
twelve privateers, sailing under commissions of the exiled King James
II,
for piracy and treason.
April: Thomas Tew returns
to Newport,
Rhode Island.
May 7: Henry Every leads a
mutiny,
seizes the Charles II, and becomes a pirate.
November: Governor
Benjamin Fletcher
of New York sells Thomas Tew a privateer’s commission for £300,
and
he returns to Madagascar.
1695
- Heyday of Madagascar
as a
pirate haven.
It will continue to be so for four years.
- Adventure Galley built.
- Henry Every takes the Ganj-i-sawai
near
the Red Sea,
netting each member of his crew £1,000.
- René Duguay-Trouin meets King Louis
XIV
of France
after capturing three English East Indiamen.
January 26: William Kidd granted royal commission.
March: Admiral Bernard Jean-Louis de Saint Jean,
the Baron
of Pointis, arrives at Petit Goâve to assume command of a
combined
force of French naval personnel and buccaneers to attack Cartagena.
May
English
attack de Graaf’s base at Port-de-Paix,
ransack the town, and take his wife and daughters hostage.
2: The French navy and Caribbean buccaneers
capture Cartagena.
30: After the French garrison
withdraws,
the buccaneers pillage Cartagena. Each man received 1,000 pieces of
eight.
June
- Thomas
Tew encounters Henry Every in the Red
Sea.
- Thomas Tew is killed during a battle at sea.
August 19: The governor
of Maryland
appoints the colony’s first wreckmaster for Somerset
County.
December
William
Kidd receives a letter of marque
to attack the French.
11:
Amity arrives in Madagascar
after death of Thomas Tew.
1696
- Robert Culliford
sails
from Madagascar
to plunder ships in the Indian Ocean.
- Nicholas Trott
replaced
as Governor
of the Bahamas because of his dealings with pirates.
- William Kidd receives
a
letter of marque
to hunt pirates.
July
17: A proclamation for the arrest of Henry Every is issued by the Lords
Justices.
October 19: Six members of Henry Every's crew are indicted on charges
of piracy. One of the witnesses for the defence during the trial was
William Dampier. They are exonerated, but later retried on charges of
mutiny and theft of the Charles II and found guilty.
November
6:
The captured members of Every's crew are once again brought into court
and charged with piracy.
15: Edward Forsyth,
William Mays, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparks –
crewmembers of
Henry Every – are hanged at Execution Dock having been convicted of
mutiny.
1697
- William Dampier's A
New Voyage Aoround
the World is published.
- Saint Domingue buccaneers raid Cartagena.
- Under the
Treaty of Ryswick, Spain
cedes the western third of Hispaniola to France.
- First references to a
black flag recorded
in reports of privateering actions.
January 28: William Kidd,
aboard the Adventure
Galley, arrives in Madagascar.
May 28: Joseph Dawson, convicted of piracy during the trial of the
captured members of Every's crew, receives a pardon.
1698
- A blanket royal
pardon is
issued for
all pirates except William Kidd.
- William Kidd burns the Adventure Galley
at Madagascar. Two months later, he sails for home aboard the Quedah Merchant.
- First proposal for radical solution to the
problem of the
pirates in Madagascar proposed to the Board of Trade by Adam Baldridge,
a former pirate who traded with these pirates.
- Robert Culliford surrenders. He is tried
and
convicted of
piracy, but pardoned.
January: William Kidd
captures the Quedah
Merchant.
April
2: Governor Fletcher is called home in
disgrace. Richard Coote, First Lord Bellomont, becomes Governor of New
York.
Summer: Natives of St.
Mary's and Madagascar riseup against the pirates, kill some of them,
and destroy the community.
September: Robert
Culliford captures
the Great Mohammed, a treasure ship belonging to the Mughal.
1699
- The Piracy Act allows
officials in
all British ports to seize, prosecute, and execute pirates.
- Isaac
Newton becomes Master of the
Royal Mint.
- William
Dampier sets out to explore
Australia for the British Admiralty.
- William
Dampier’s Voyages and Descriptions
is published.
- William
Mason retires from piracy, having
amassed a fortune of more than £30,000.
January: William
Mace, who had sailed with Thomas Tew, is elected captain of the pirate
ship Charming May.
July 6: Captain
William Kidd
is arrested at the home of Lord Bellomont.
Return to timeline menu.
18th Century
1700
- One pound
of tea costs more than two
weeks’ wages for labourer.
- Felipe V,
King Louis XIV’s grandson,
becomes King of Spain.
- Navy Captains Littleton and Passenger send
over
100 pirates
to London from Madagascar and Chesapeake Bay for trial.
March: William Kidd arrives
in London
to be tried for piracy.
July 8: First recorded reference to
Jolly Roger
when
Emanuel Wynne
flew one decorated with skull, crossed bones, and an hourglass.
1701
- War of the Spanish Succession, also
known as Queen Anne's War, begins.
- Dampier’s
ship, HMS Roebuck,
founders in storm off Ascension Island.
- Charles
II of Spain
dies, and Louis XIV of France
installs his grandson on the Spanish throne, precipitating the War of
the
Spanish Succession, also known as Queen Anne’s War.
March: Lord Bellomont dies.
May
- 8: William Kidd is
tried
and convicted
of murder and piracy.
- 23: Captain William
Kidd
hangs twice
at Execution Dock, London.
1702
Fire
destroys Port Royal.
1703
French and Spanish forces
destroy Nassau.
June: Portugal
joins the Grand Alliance against the French.
1704
- Alexander Selkirk is
marooned on Juan
Fernandez Island.
- John
Campbell begins publishing the Boston
News-Letter, America's first newspaper. Over the years this
newspaper
carries many accounts of piracy. Its run lasts until 1776.
May 24: Lieutenant Governor
Thomas
Povey issues general warrant for arrest of John Quelch.
June
19: Trial against
John
Quelch for piracy, robbery, and murder opens in Boston.
30: Quelch and those of his
crew
convicted hang for piracy. One of the men, Miller, had also been a
member of Every's crew when they captured the Gang-i-Sawai.
July: Thomas Green, commander
of the
English merchantman Worcester, arrested for piracy in the
Indian
Ocean. Although there is no solid evidence for the charges, Scotland
convicts
and executes him.
1705
- Governor of
Massachusetts
charges Rhode Island with consorting with pirates.
- The British East India Company
institutes a convoy system.
1707
- William
Dampier completes his second
circumnavigation of the world.
- Marquis of Carmarthen
publishes Reasons
for Reducing the Pirates at Madagascar.
- Scotland
and England are united as
one country under the Act of Union.
1708
- The English Prize Act
withdraws the
required 1/5 share of plunder due the treasury.
- Accompanying Woodes
Rogers, William
Dampier sets off on his third circumnavigation of the world. This
voyage lasts
until 1711.
August 1: Woodes Rogers’
expedition
to capture a Manila galleon departs from Britain.
1709
The Life and Adnvetures of Captain
John Avery, a fictional account of Henry Every's exploits,
is published.
January: Alexander
Selkirk
is rescued by Woodes Rogers after spending four years and four months
marooned
on Juan Fernandez Islands.
February 13: Alexander
Selkirk departs
Juan Fernandez Island with Woodes Rogers’ expedition.
December: Woodes Rogers
attacks
the Nuestra Señora del la Encarnacion Diesngaño,
a
Manila treasure galleon with an estimated value of 1,600,000 pieces of
eight.
1711
October 14: Woodes
Rogers’
expedition returns home after circumnavigating the world and capturing
a Manila galleon.
1712
- Kanhoji Angria
captures
the East India
Company’s Governor of Bombay’s private yacht.
- Woodes Rogers
publishes
his account
of his voyage around the world, which began in 1708 and ended in 1711.
- A play, loosely based
on a story about Henry Every, opens on Drury Lane, England.
August 28: Powerful
hurricane strikes Jamaica.
1713
- The War of the Spanish Succession ends.
- The British
pass an act authorizing
customs officers and justices of the peace to rescue distressed vessels.
April: The
Treaty of Utrecht ends the War of the Spanish Succession between
England
and France. Spain to lose Portugal and her territories in the
Netherlands.
France continues to fight her other enemies until the following year.
1714
Parliament
offers £20,000
prize to anyone who can figure out how to calculate longitude.
March: Woodes
Rogers visits
Madagascar.
1715
Samuel Bellamy goes
on
the account.
June 30: A
hurricane sinks the Spanish treasure fleet off the coast of Florida.
July: Annual Plate
Fleet encounters
hurricane near Sebastian, Florida. Ten out
of the eleven ships are lost. The lost treasure is valued at
£1,572,000.
November
- Pirates attack the
salvage camp, netting
60,000 pieces of eight.
- Benjamin Hornigold
arrives in New Providence.
Before long, this Bahamian island is a pirate haven.
1716
- Charles Vane becomes
a
pirate.
- Benjamin Hornigold
and
his men capture
a sloop. They decide to keep it, and Blackbeard becomes captain of his
first pirate vessel.
- The first
lighthouse is erected at
Cape Henlopen. It’s constructed of wood and burns whale oil.
- Samuel Bellamy and
Olivier le Vasseur,
also known as La Buse (The Buzzard) team up.
May: Benjamin Hornigold
refuses to
attack English ships and is deposed in favour of Samuel Bellamy.
1717
- Stede Bonnet becomes
a
pirate.
- Olivier le Vasseur (La
Buse)
sails in consort with Christopher Moody.
- Benjamin Hornigold is
the ringleader of the pirates on New Providence.
February: Samuel Bellamy
captures the Whydah.
April 26: Northeasterly
gale drives
Samuel Bellamy’s Whydah onto the shoals of Nantucket. About 146
pirates die, including Bellamy and John King, the youngest known pirate.
August 27: Puritan
minister, Cotton
Mather, delivers a sermon entitled Instructions to the Living, from
the Conditions of the Dead two months before the survivors of
Bellamy’s
crew are tried for piracy.
September
Stede Bonnet
encounters
a Spanish man-of-war, is badly wounded in the battle, but escapes.
5: King George issues a
proclamation
"for Suppressing of Pyrates."
October: Those pirates who
survived
the wrecking of Bellamy’s Whydah are tried in Boston.
November
- 15: Six members of
Samuel
Bellamy’s
crew are hanged at Boston.
- 17: Blackbeard
captures
the French
slaver Concorde off St. Vincent and renames her Queen
Anne’s
Revenge.
- 28: Blackbeard
attacks
Guadeloupe.
December: A copy of the
King’s Grace
arrives in New Providence. Two hundred nine pirates accept the King’s
Grace,
including Benjamin Hornigold and Henry Jennings.
1718
- Twenty-two pirates
tried
at Bombay.
- Edward England accepts
a royal pardon from Woodes Rogers, but within a year, he returns to
pirating.
January 6: King George
issues commission
to Woodes Rogers to rid the Bahamas of pirates and names him Governor
of
the colony.
February: Benjamin Hornigold accepts the King’s
pardon. He ventually becomes a pirate hunter.
March: Blackbeard
convinces Stede
Bonnet to join him.
May
- Blackbeard blockades
Charles Town Harbor.
- Stede Bonnet sails to
Bath Town to
acquire a king’s pardon from Governor Eden.
June: Blackbeard
intentionally grounds
the Queen Anne's Revenge in Beaufort Inlet.
July
- Charles Vane voices
opposition to Woodes
Rogers coming to New Providence in the Bahamas as Governor.
- Governor Eden of North
Carolina pardons Blackbeard, who spends much of his time in Bath Town
or at Ocracoke Island.
- 26: Governor Woodes
Rogers arrives
in New Providence to rid the colony of pirates.
August
- Charles Vane and Christopher Condent flee
New
Providence,
refusing to accept the King’s Grace.
- Under the leadership of Charles Vane,
pirates
blockade the
port of Charleston, South Carolina.
- 30: King George’s proclamation that
Jennings,
Carnegie, Ashworth,
Wills, and others are pirates arrives in the Caribbean.
September
- Howel Davis leads mutiny aboard the Buck
and
goes on the
account
- 5: Last day for
pirates
to surrender
and receive a full pardon for all crimes.
- 27: Colonel William
Rhett
captures
Stede Bonnet at Cape Fear.
October
- Charles Vane visits
Blackbeard at Ocracoke.
- Governor Alexander Spotswood secretly meets
with Captains
Brand and Gordon to plan an attack to rid the Americas of Blackbeard.
- 3: Stede Bonnet and the other captured
pirates
arrive in
Charles Town, South Carolina.
- 24: Stede Bonnet and David Heriot escape.
- 28: Trials of pirates captured from Edward
Thatch’s and Stede
Bonnet’s crews begin at Charleston, South Carolina.
November
- Pirates oust Charles Vane as captain, and
Calico Jack Rackham
is elected captain in his place.
- 5: Colonel Rhett kills Heriot and
recaptures
Bonnet. They
return to Charles Town.
- 7: Twenty-nine of Bonnet’s crew are
convicted
of piracy.
- 8: Twenty-two pirates
are
hanged at
White Point near Charleston, South Carolina. William Rhett recaptures
Stede
Bonnet.
- 10: Stede Bonnet stands trial for piracy.
After
two days,
he is convicted.
- 12: Trials of pirates captured from Edward
Thatch’s and Stede
Bonnet’s crews end at Charleston, South Carolina. Stede Bonnet is found
guilty of piracy.
- 17: Lt. Maynard and
his
men set sail
on their mission to capture Blackbeard.
- 22: Blackbeard killed
in
battle with
Lieutenant Maynard.
December: Britain
and France declare war on Spain in what becomes known as the War of the
Quadruple Alliance.
1719
- Charles Vane hangs.
- Benjamin Hornigold’s
ship
vanishes
and entire crew is presumed lost.
- Daniel Defoe
publishes
Robinson Crusoe,
which is based on Alexander Selkirk’s tale.
- Anne Bonny meets
Calico
Jack Rackham
in New Providence.
- Woodes Rogers, Governor
of the Bahamas, uncovers a plot to kill him.
January 3: Lt. Maynard returns to Hampton Roads,
Virginia
with Blackbeard’s head hanging from the Adventure’s bowsprit.
February
- The war
between Britain and Spain ends.
- 13: George Shelvocke, aboard the Speedwell, sets off on a three-year
privateering adventure that takes him around the world. Commander of
the expedition, aboard the Success,
is Captain John Clipperton, who once sailed with William Dampier.
- 17: Richard Worley is hanged for piracy.
- A hurricane strikes the Bahamas Channel and
Benjamin Hornigold and his crew founders. No one survives.
March 12: Fifteen members of Blackbeard’s crew
stand trial
in Williamsburg, Virginia. One is found not guilty. Of the others, all
but one, Israel Hands, are executed for piracy.
April 1: Thomas Cocklyn
captures
slave ship captained by William Snelgrave at mouth of Sierre Leone
River.
May: Woodes Rogers grants
Calico
Jack Rackham a pardon.
June 6: Bartholomew Roberts becomes a pirate
after Howel
Davis captures the slaver he works on.
July: Bartholomew Roberts
captures
the Marquis del Campo and renames her Royal Rover.
September 5: Last day for
pirates
to submit themselves to a representative of the British Crown to gain a
pardon for all acts of piracy committed prior to 5 January 1718.
November: Charles Vane is
imprisoned
in Jamaica.
1720
- Calico Jack Rackham
captures a Dutch
ship. One of the crew, Mark Read (Mary Read), signs his articles of
agreement.
- Anne Bonny and Jack
Rackham fall in
love and seek an annulment of Anne’s marriage to James Bonny.
- Christopher Condent
captures an Arabian vessel near Bombay, India that nets the crew
£150,000 in treasure.
February:
- The War of
the Quadruple Alliance ends.
- 24: A
Spanish invasion fleet is sighted off Nassau, but the attack is
thwarted.
March 22: Charles Vane is
convicted
of piracy and hanged at Gallows Point, Jamaica. The
War of the Quadruple Alliance ends.
June 21: Bartholomew
Roberts arrives
in Trepassey, Newfoundland
July
- Bartholomew Roberts
captures a French
fishing vessel and renames her the first Royal Fortune.
- Edward England
attacks
the East Indiaman Cassandra.
Captain James McRae escapes and later describes the attack.
August 22: Jack Rackham, Anne
Bonny,
Mary Read, and six others steal a sloop William and go on the
account.
October 22: Calico Jack
Rackham,
Mary Read, Anne Bonny, and others captured.
November
- 16: Calico Jack
Rackham
and the male
members of his crew are tried and convicted of piracy at St. Jago de la
Bega.
- 17: Calico Jack
Rackham
and his mates
are hanged at Gallows Point.
- 28: Anne Bonny and
Mary
Read tried
and convicted of piracy. Although sentenced to hang, they plead their
bellies
and their executions are stayed until after the births of their
children.
1721
- Robert Baldwin
publishes The
Tryals
of Captain John Rackham and Other Pirates in Jamaica.
- William Kennedy captured in London.
- Fiery Dragon catches fire and sinks
at
Madagascar.
- John Taylor marooned on islet off
Madagascar.
- HMS Winchelsea captures and hangs
150
pirates off
Guinea.
- George Lowther leads
a
mutiny and goes
on the account.
- George Lowther and
Edward
Low meet
in Cayman Islands and join together to hunt.
- Woodes Rogers returns
to
England and
is arrested for not paying his debts.
- Pirates remove Edward
England from
the captaincy and maroon him with three others on Mauritius.
- British warships
destroy
pirate havens
at Madagascar, while the French destroy pirate bases in Maritius and La
Réunion.
March
- 22: Charles Vane is
tried
for piracy
in Jamaica.
- 29: Charles Vane is
hanged at Gallows
Point, Port Royal.
April
- Thomas Anstis and
others
of Bartholomew
Roberts’ men desert and strike out on their own as pirates.
- Thomas Anstis
captures
John Phillips,
a carpenter. He eventually escapes and returns to Newfoundland.
- 28: Mary Read dies in
prison, possibly
from fever. She's buried in St. Catherine's Cemetery.
May
- Woodes Rogers leaves
Nassau for England. One month later a new governor, George Phenney, is
appointed.
July
- 3: William Kennedy
convicted of piracy
and sentenced to hang.
- 21: William Kennedy
executed at Execution
Dock, Wapping, as is Howell Davis.
August:
- Bartholomew Roberts
acquires
the Onslow and renames her the third Royal Fortune.
- Shelvocke arrives off
the coast of California.
November: Shelvocke arrives off
the coast of China.
1722
January
- Bartholomew Roberts
in
Whydah, West
Africa.
- 13: Bartholomew
Roberts
leaves Whydah
one day before Captain Ogle arrives.
February 10: Bartholomew
Roberts killed
during battle with the British Royal Navy.
March
- 28: Survivors of
Bartholomew Roberts’
crew are tried for piracy at Cape Coast Castle, Africa.
- 31: First followers
of
Bartholomew
Roberts’ convicted. 14 found guilty, 6 immediately hanged.
April 20: Final pirate trial
for followers
of Bartholomew Roberts tried at Cape Coast Castle. Fifty-four of
Bartholomew
Roberts’ men are sentenced to hang, while thirty-seven others are
sentenced
to work as indentured servants. Seventy-four others are acquitted.
Fifty-two
black pirates are sold into slavery.
May
- 6: Pirate surgeon
George
Wilson dies.
- 28: George Lowther
and
Edward Low part
company.
July: Edward Low plunders
thirteen
vessels near Marblehead.
August
- 1: George Shelvocke returns from his round-the-world,
privateering adventure.
- 28: Hurricane
strikes Port
Royal five days after 19 pirates arrive. More than 40 ships sink in
harbour.
One third of town destroyed.
1723
Pirates kill their
captain,
Thomas Anstis.
April: Captain Fenn and
other pirates
captured at Tobago.
July:
- Charles Harris and 25
pirates hang
in Newport, Rhode Island.
- 10: Captain Peter
Solgard, HMS Greyhound,
engages Edward Low’s Ranger, but Low escapes capture.
- 19: Twenty-six of
Edward
Low’s comrades
are hanged for piracy in Newport, Rhode Island.
August 29: John Phillips and
four others
seize schooner off Newfoundland and go on the account.
November: 11 pirates from
George
Lowther’s crew hang on St. Kitts.
1724
Ned Low disappears
after
a year of bloody pirate attacks, or the French hang him on Martinique
after his crew forces him off their ship and a French vessel captures
him.
April 15: John Phillips,
who decides
to return to the sweet trade, captures the Squirrel. Aboard that
merchant
ship is John Fillmore, the great-grandfather of Millard Fillmore (13th
President of the United States), and with the help of others, Fillmore
retakes the ship. Phillips is thrown overboard.
May
- 12: John Phillips'
crew
arrested and
tried for piracy.
- 24: Captain Johnson' A
General
History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates
is published.
- 27: William Fly leads
successful mutiny
aboard the Elizabeth, in which Captain Green and his mate are thrown
overboard,
and becomes a pirate.
July
- 3: Forced men take
back
their vessel
and take William Fly and others prisoner. Fly and two other pirates
will
hang in Boston, Massachusetts.
- 10: Benjamin Colman,
a
Presbyterian
minister, delivers a sermon at the request of two convicted pirates in
Boston. They are members of William Fly’s crew.
November 3: John Gow and
several mates
aboard the Caroline mutiny and go on the account.
1728
February: John Gow and his
fellow
pirates are captured and imprisoned in Marshalsea Prison in London.
May 26: Gow and the other
pirates
are brought to trial for piracy.
June 11: Gow and six
others are
hanged for piracy.
October 18: Woodes
Rogers is appointed
to his second term as Governor of the Bahamas.
1729
Kanhoji Angria dies.
August 25: Woodes Rogers arrive in Nassau to begin his second term as
Governor of the Bahamas.
1730
French authorities
apprehend
and execute Olivier La Buse on Réunion Island.
1732
Woodes
Rogers dies in Nassau.
1734
Captain William
Snelgrave's A
New Account of Some Parts of Guinea and the Slave Trade is
published.
It includes his experiences as a pirate captive.
1740
War of the Austrian Succession,
also known as the War of Jenkins' Ear, begins.
Grog -- a mixture of rum,
tea or water, and lime juice -- is served aboard Royal Navy vessels for
the first time.
June 7: Alexander
Spotswood dies of
fever in Annapolis, Maryland.
1745
September 21: Battle of
Prestonpans, near
Edinburgh. Jacobite Army routes Hanoverian
Army in 10 minutes.
1746
April 16: Jacobite
Army defeated at
Culloden, Scotland during the Rising of 1745.
Last Jacobite attempt to restore the Royal House of Stuart to the
British
throne.
1748
The
signing of the Treaty
of Aix-la-Chapelle brings to an end the War of Austrian Succession
between
England, France, and Spain.
1749
Chaloner
Ogle, the man
who took down Bartholomew Roberts and his pirates, becomes
Commander-in-Chief
of the British Navy.
1750
Robert
Maynard dies in
England.
1752
England
adopts Gregorian
calendar.
1756
May 15: Seven Years
War (French and
Indian War) begins when England declares war
on France.
1758
June 12: Siege
of Louisbourg (Nova Scotia) begins.
1763
- Seven Years’ War ends.
- Florida cedes much of its North American
territory to Britain, while Spain cedes East and West Florida in Treaty
of Paris.
1765
Cheng I (Ching Yih)
is
born to a piratical Chinese family.
1768
Fredrick af
Chapman, a
Swedish naval architect, publishes Architectura Navalis Mercatoria.
1770
March 5: Boston
Massacre.
1772
June 9: The HMS Gaspee runs
aground in
Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island.
1773
Boston Tea Party
1775
American Revolution begins.
December: John
Paul Jones receives an officer’s commission in the Continental Navy.
1776
March: The British evacuate
Boston, Massachusetts.
April: Continental Congress begins issuing
privateering
commissions.
September 7: Turtle,
an American submersible, attempts to put a time bomb on the hull of
Admiral
Richard Howe's flagship, HMS Eagle. First submarine attack.
December
- 6: British
troops seal off Narragansett Bay, severing Providence, Rhode Island’s
access
to the Atlantic Ocean.
- 25: George
Washington and his army cross the Delaware.
- 26: The
Continental Army wins its firts major victory against the British Army
at Trenton, New Jersey.
1777
The Continental Army winters
at Valley Forge.
March: The British
Parliament legitimizes
privateering.
1778
The British Royal Navy
begins to sheath the hulls of ships with copper.
February 6: The United States and
France sign a treaty of alliance.
1780
July: Individual states cease issuing
privateering
commissions.
October 2: Major John Andre is hanged as a spy.
1781
Cornwallis
surrenders to
Washington at Yorktown.
1783
Spain reclaims Florida.
Spring: American
Revolution ends.
1784
Dutch
invade Riau.
1786
British
establish settlement
at Penang.
1789
The Order of Saint John departs the
Maltese Islands.
July 14: Storming of the Bastille
in Paris, France. The French Revolution begins.
October 8: Rachel
Ward is hanged in Boston for murder.
1792
- The French Revolution begins.
- John Paul Jones dies in France.
1794
March 27: George Washington
signs the Naval Armament Act that establishes the U.S. Navy because of
"depredations committed by the Algerine corsairs on the commerce of the
United States." He also authorizes
the construction of six naval frigates.
1795
British
establish settlement
at Malacca.
1798
Quasi-War
begins between
the United States and France.
1798
June 12: Malta
surrenders to Napoleon.
Return to timeline menu.
19th Century
1800
After a
two-year siege,
the British defeat the French and occupy the Maltese Islands.
1801
- Zheng Yi marries
prostitute, who becomes
known as Zheng Yi Sao (Cheng I Sao).
- Quasi-War
ends.
- President Thomas
Jefferson sends the
U.S. Navy to blockade Tripoli.
1803
October 31: USS Philadelphia
runs aground in Tripoli harbour and Daniel Porter, among other naval
personnel,
are captured.
1804
Zheng Yi (Cheng I)
blockades
Macao.
February 16: Lieutenant
Stephen
Decatur and a handful of volunteers sail into Tripoli harbor and blow
up
the captured USS Philadelphia.
1804
February 16: Lt.
Stephen Decatur leads a daring mission into Tripoli harbor to destroy
the captured American frigate Philadelphia.
April : Zheng Yi
(Cheng
I) blockades the port of Macao for two months.
1805
Zheng Yi (Cheng I)
and
seven other leading pirates sign confederation pact to impose law and
order
over unruly Chinese pirates. He divides this force into six fleets,
each
known by the color of the flag it flies.
October 21: Naval fleets
of France
and Spain battle the British fleet at the
Battle of Trafalgar. The British win, but Lord Horatio Nelson dies
aboard
HMS Victory. He's buried at St. Paul's Cathedral
in London the following January.
1806
Cai Qian’s pirates
defeated
by Qing army and local militia in China, but he escapes.
1807
- Zheng Yi dies during
storm at sea.
His widow, Zheng Yi Sao, and Zhang Bao assume command of Chinese pirate
confederation.
- The Chinese pirate
confederation’s
Red Flag Fleet numbers 300 junks and 20,000 to 40,000 men.
- Britain
abolishes slavery.
1808
- United States bans the importation
of slaves.
- France invades Spain.
1809
The Chinese pirate
confederation
ends.
April: Governor-General
Bai Ling
institutes ancient strategy known as “extermination and appeasement”
(military
campaigns plus amnesty and rewards) to pirates who surrender in China.
September
- 13: Ned Jordan and
others
take control
of the Three Sisters and become pirates.
- 21: September
- Zheng Yi Sao (Cheng I
Sao) captures
seven British seamen, inclusing Richard Glasspole, who later writes of
his experiences during his captivity.
October: Cai Qian dies during
battle
with Chinese imperial navy.
November 24: Ned Jordan
hangs.
1810
Jean Laffite
becomes leader
of the Baratarians.
February: The Chinese
government
offers pirates amnesty.
April: Zheng Yi Sao and
Zhang Bao,
with over 17,000 pirates, surrender.
June 18: United
States declares war on Britain
October 13: Britain
declares war on the
United States.
1812
August 19: USS Constitution
destroys HMS Guerriere during a
fifteen-minute
battle. When British shot “bounced” of the Constitution’s hull,
she earned the nickname “Old Ironsides.”
1813
John Barss, Jr.,
commander
of the privateer Liverpool Packet, captured.
June 1: HMS Shannon
defeats
USS Chesapeake.
November 24: Governor
William Claiborne
of Louisiana issues a proclamation offering a $500 reward for the
capture
of Jean Laffite. Laffite counters with a $1000 bounty for the
governor's
deliverance to Laffite at Bartaria.
1814
Lord Byron’s poem, "The Corsair,"
published.
April: Napoleon
Bonaparte abdicates.
September
- U.S. Navy attacks Barataria, ending its
days as
Jean Laffite’s
base of operations.
- 3: HMS Sophie
arrives at Barataria
with a solicitation for Laffite's help during the taking of New Orleans.
October: Privateer Chasseur of Baltimore
returns
to New York after capturing 18 ships during her first cruise.
December 24: Treaty of
Ghent signed in
Belgium, ending the War of 1812.
1815
January 8: Jean Laffite and the
Baratarians help
the Americans defeat the British at the Battle of New Orleans --
neither
side is aware that the war is over.
February 6: President
James Madison
grants full pardons to Jean Laffite and his men for their assitance in
Battle of New Orleans.
March 2: The United States
declares
war on Algiers because of the Barbary Corsairs attacks on American
ships.
June 17: USS Constellation engages in battle
with and defeats a corsair frigate, whose legendary captain, Haimdou
Rais, died in the engagement.
June 18: Duke
of Wellington defeats Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo.
1817
Jean Laffite
returns to
piracy and moves his base of operations to Galveston.
1819
British
establish settlement
at Singapore.
1820
- The U.S. Navy evicts
Laffite from Galveston.
- Whale ship Essex
is rammed by
a whale.
- The United States and
Royal
Navies
begin to eradicate piracy in the Caribbean.
- Fifty-two attacks of
piracy
in the
Florida Straits are reported.
1821
- The American navy forces Jean Laffite and his men are
forced to set fire to Galveston and abandon this headquarters.
- Pierre Laffite dies
from
fever and
wounds.
- President Monroe
establishes anti-piracy
squadron.
- Mexico gains
independence from Spain.
October
- USS Enterprise
captures 4 pirate
ships off Cuba.
- The USS Enterprise
captures
Charles Gibbs.
1822
“Mosquito Fleet” in
operation
and Commodore David Porter begins cruising Caribbean waters and the
Gulf
of Mexico in search of pirates.
First recorded account of pirates forcing captives to walk the plank:
The crew of the Emanuel make
William Smith, master of the Blessing
walk the plank.
November: During a battle
with the
Cuban pirate named Domingo, the captain of the USS Alligator is
killed.
1823
The Mosquito Fleet
begins patrolling the Caribbean with the intent to eradicate the
pirates. The ships are based in Key West.
February: Ten
pirates,
captured by HMS Tyne, are hanged at Kingston’s Port Royal Point.
April
- Commodore David
Porter
defeats Cuban
pirate known as Diabolito.
- 20: Gaceta de
Colombia
publishes
an account of Jean Laffite's death on February 5 during a sea battle in
the Gulf of Honduras.
December: President
James Monroe announces the Monroe Doctrine.
1826
Peru and Chile
become independent
states.
1827
Benito de Soto
leads a
mutiny aboard an Argentinean slaver and goes on the account.
1828
The U.S.
erects a lighthouse
on Smith Island at Cape Charles, the entrance to Chesapeake Bay.
1829
Lloyds of London
removes
the special tariff for ships sailing to and from the Caribbean.
1830
French conquer
Algiers,
thus ending more than two centuries of state-sponsored piracy.
November 24: Charles Gibbs
and others
kill the captain and first mate of the Vineyard and go on the account.
1831
April 22: Charles
Gibbs
executed for mutiny, murder, and piracy on Ellis Island.
1832
February 21: Benito de Soto attacks the Morning
Star. Several crewmembers are killed, the women passengers are
raped,
and
the survivors are locked in the ship’s hold before the pirates set fire
to the ship. The crew escapes and the survivors are rescued by a
British
merchantman. Benito de Soto would later be captured and hanged as a
pirate.
September 20: Pedro
Gilbert attacks
the American brig Mexican. The pirates torture the master until he
reveals
where he hid $2,000 before locking the prisoners in the ship and
setting
it afire. One seaman escaped and freed the others.
1833
Benito de Soto and
his
crew are hanged in Cadiz.
1834
November: Pedro
Gilbert
and eleven others are tried in Boston on charges of piracy. Two are
acquitted,
six receive prison sentences, while Gilbert and the others are
sentenced
to death.
1835
June 11: Pedro
Gibert hangs.
1836
- British adopt
anti-piracy
suppressions
measures around Singapore.
- Edward Lloyd publishes History
of
the Pirates, making mention for the first time of Charlotte de
Berry.
February 23: Santa Anna
lays seige to the
Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.
April 21: Sam Houston
and fellow
Texans defeat Santa Anna at San Jacinto.
1837
Charles Ellms
publishes The
Pirates Own Book.
1839
The
First Opium War begins.
1841
British
occupy Hong Kong.
1842
The
First Opium War ends.
China cedes Hong Kong to the British in the Treaty of Nanjing.
1843
Shap-'ng-Tsai establishes a smuggling and pirate base at Tien
Pai.
1844
July 30: Saladin
pirates hang.
1845
Chui App joins
Shap’n’gtzai’s pirate
fleet and soon becomes his lieutenant.
The White Rajah of
Sarawak,
James Brooke,
attacks the main enclave of Indonesian pirates.
Texas joins the United States.
1849
California gold rush.
Japanese Lord Asakawa Kanae, daimyo of Hizen, orders the
compilation of a biography on Koxinga.
September: British navy
destroys
Chinese pirates led by Shap-'ng-Tsai.
December: Shap-'ng-Tsai
accepts a pardon and becomes an officer in the Imperial Chinese Navy.
1857
Chinese pirates
along coast
of Vietnam kidnap seaman Edward Brown.
1861
A joint force of
Royal
Navy and Dutch warships sent to eradicate piracy in the Malay
Archipelago.
1862
August 24: Captain
Raphael Semmes sets
sail aboard on the CSS Alabama to become
the most successful and notorious of the commerce raiders during the
American
Civil War.
1863
The
Track of Fire; or,
A Cruise with the Pirate Semmes, a dime novel about the infamous
commerce
raider of the Confederacy, is published.
1864
August 15: Burning of
Atlanta and
beginning of General William Tecumseh Sherman's
March to the Sea.
November 29: Sand
Creek Massacre. At least 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho noncombatants die.
1865
The United States abolishes
slavery.
December 15: US Marines
arrest Raphael
Semmes for illegally escaping Union custody after
surrendering the CSS Alabama, but four months later the prosecutor
drops all charges and Semmes is released.
1867
Canadian
provinces take
steps to become a nation and severe some ties with Britain.
1869
Suez
Canal opens.
1876
June 25: Battle of
Little Big Horn
between Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse against
Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh Cavalry.
1877
August 30: Raphael
Semmes dies.
1878
February 18: Billy the
Kid's mentor, an
English rancher named John Tunstall, is murdered,
which ignites the bitter and bloody Lincoln County War.
1880
Gokstad
ship discovered
on Norwegian farm.
1883
Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure
Island
published.
1889
P. Christian’s Historie des Pirates
published.
Return to timeline menu.
20th Century
1904
- J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and Wendy
produced on stage.
- Oseberg
ship excavated in Norway.
1905
January 22: Czarist
troops fire on a
peaceful group of workers on their way to the
Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia.
1909
Alice Huyler Ramsey of New Jersey is
the first woman
to drive across the United States.
1910
French passes found
that
Captain Kidd claimed would prove his innocence.
1911
Winston
Churchill becomes First Lord of the Admiralty.
1912
April 14-15: Titanic
hits an iceberg and sinks.
1916
April 24: IRA launches
Easter
Rebellion in an attempt to oust the British from Ireland.
1917
July 17: British royal
family changes their name. Instead of being the House and Family of
Hanover,
they become the House and Family of Windsor.
1918
July 16: Bolsheviks
execute Tsar Nicholas and his family in Yekaterinburg.
October 8: Corporal
Alvin C. York
almost single-handedly kills 25 German soldiers
and captures 132 in the Argonne Forest in France during World War I.
November 11: At 11:00
World War I ends.
1921
December 6: Irish
Free State declared.
1922
- Lai Choi San (aka Lai
Sho
Sz'en) is
born into a pirate family and will succeed her father on his death to
command
12 ships. She reigns until 1939.
- Rafael Sabatini’s Captain
Blood
is published.
1926
- League of Nation’s Committee of Experts
for the
Progressive Codification of International Law publishes Draft
Provisions
for the Suppression of Piracy.
- Forty pirates, disguised as passangers, hijack
the Sunning on her way to
Canton, China.
1929
June
8: Margaret Bondfield becomes
Britain’s first
female cabinet member.
1934
May 23: Police officers ambush Bonnie Parker
and Clyde Barrow as they drive along a Louisiana road.
1935
Errol Flynn stars in Captain Blood.
1938
November 9: Kristallnacht.
1941
December
7: Japanese
warplanes attack
Pearl Harbor.
8: Franklin
D. Roosevelt declares war on Japan, bringing the United States into
World
War II.
1945
May 8: Victory in
Europe Day.
1949
April: Mao Zedong's liberation army crosses
the Yangtze and occupy Nanking, China.
May: Chiang Kai-shek establishes
his government on Taiwan.
25:
Shanghai falls to Mao Zedong.
1950
June 25: North Korea's army
crosses the 38th parallel to start the Korean War.
1959
January 1: Fidel
Casto seizes power in Cuba.
1960
America's first televised
presidential debate pitting Senator John F. Kennedy against President
Richard M. Nixon.
1973
October 6: Yom Kippur
War begins.
1974
Malta
gains its independence.
1976
The Great Train Robbery
in England takes place.
1981
Nigeria’s coast
declared
world’s most dangerous.
1982
United Nations
Convention
on Law of the Sea of 1982. It extends nations’ territorial waters from
three miles to twelve miles.
1984
Barry Clifford
discovers
the wreck of the Whydah off Cape Cod.
1985
The ICC begins recording pirate attacks.
September 1: Robert Ballard and
Jean-Louis Michel discover the wreck of the Titanic.
1987
September: Max
Guérout, a marine
archaeologist and retired captain of the French
navy, announces that the remains of the commerce raider CSS Alabama
were discovered nearly three years earlier by a minesweeper.
1989
June
4: The Chinese army kills
protesters in Tiananmen
Square.
1991
- The International Chamber of Commerce begins reporting
instances
of pirate attacks.
- President Siad
Barre's socialst government falls and anarchy rules in Somalia.
1995
March: UN peace-keeping
forces withdraw from Somalia after three years of attempting to restore
order.
Summer: Ol'Chumbucket and Cap'n Slappy invented a new holiday -- Talk
Like a Pirate Day -- to be celecrated annually on 19 September.
December: Sir Peter Blake is killed by pirates in Brazil.
1996
June: Divers discover what they believe
is Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge
off
Beaufort, North Carolina.
1998
- Manila Declaration on the Prevention and
Control
of Transnational
Crime
- Work Program to Implement the ASEAN Plan of
Action to Combat
Transnational Crime
- Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful
Acts
Against the
Safety of Maritime Navigation (also known as SUA or the “Rome
Convention”)
September 27: The freight Tenyu and her crew of fifteen
disappear after leavving Kualatanjung.
November: Pirates, dressed as Chinese officials,
seize Cheung
Son near Hong Kong and throw crew overboard.
1999
June: Indonesian pirates hijack the Siam
Xanxai.
November: Pirates seize MV Alondra Rainbow.
Eventually
captured by Indian warship
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21st
Century
2002
June: Indonesian fishermen rescue crew of
oil
tanker from Thai waters after pirates forced them overboard.
September 19: John Baur and Mark Summers, with
the aid of columnist David Barry, establish International Talk Like a
Pirate Day.
December: International Ship and Port Facility
Security
Code approved.
2003
- IMB reports that pirate attacks on ships
triple
over previous decade.
- Walt Disney presents Pirates of the Caribbean, starring
Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow.
February
- Mumbai Sessions Court sentences pirates
involved in MV Alondra
Rainbow attack to seven years imprisonment and fine.
- 18: Chinese court in Shantou sentences ten
pirates to imprisonment
for hijacking Siam Xanxai in June 1999.
2004
June: Tri-annual Conference on Piracy and
Maritime
Terrorism in Kuala Lumpur
September: Workshop on Maritime Security,
Maritime Terrorism
and Piracy in Asia
2005
New wave of pirate attacks in coastal
waters
of Somalia after two-year lull.
March: Malaysia announces it will establish
24-hour radar
system to monitor security in the Straits of Malacca and have the
Maritime
Enforcement Agency in place by end of 2005.
April
- Singapore, Japan, Laos, and Cambodia sign
the
Regional Co-operational
Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia.
- 18: Mumbai High Court overrules Sessions
Court
and acquitts
pirates involved in MV Alondra Rainbow attack.
June 27: Somali pirates attack the MV Semlow,
a ship
carrying food to tsunami victims.
November: Somali pirates attack cruise ship, but
the vessel
escapes.
2006
One hundred eighty-eight pirate attacks
involve
taking the taking of hostages. Another seventy-seven attacks resulted
in
the kidnapping of crew members.
2008
October: The UN Security Council
passes a resolution for the deployment of naval vessels and miliary
aricraft oof Somalia. The regional government in Puntland endorses it.
November: Somali pirates seize an oil tanker, the Sirius Star, 500 miles off the
coast of East Africa.
2009
April: Somali pirates attack the US ship,
Maersk Alabama,
and take the captain hostage. He is eventually rescued after Navy Seals
kill three of the pirates. The fourth is taken into custody and brought
to the United States to be tried for piracy.
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Pirates
and Privateers