Heritage · c. 1630 BC
Shell tools hint at visitors 3,600 years ago.
Did you know that the earliest hint of people on Barbados is a handful of conch-lip shell adzes found with shells radiocarbon-dated to about 1630 BC, more than three thousand years before the English arrived?
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Heritage · 4th–7th centuries AD
Pottery farmers paddled in from South America.
Did you know that the first lasting settlers of Barbados were the Saladoid-Barrancoid people, pottery-making farmers who paddled from mainland South America and settled the island between about the 4th and 7th centuries AD?
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Language · c. 13th century
Old name: 'red land with white teeth'.
Did you know that Barbados's pre-colonial name is recorded as Ichirouganaim, which has been translated as "red land with white teeth" or "redstone island with teeth outside", a probable reference to the reefs ringing the island?
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Geography · by 1511
Spanish raids emptied the island.
Did you know that Barbados first appeared on a Spanish map in 1511, and that Spanish slave raids in the early 1500s are thought to have driven off or carried away its Indigenous people, leaving it empty?
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Nature · 1532–1536
The Portuguese left only pigs behind.
Did you know that the only lasting trace the Portuguese left on Barbados after claiming it in the 1530s was a population of wild hogs, released so passing ships could stop for fresh meat?
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Myth or fact · 1536
Nobody knows who the 'bearded ones' were.
Did you know that nobody is sure why Portuguese navigator Pedro A. Campos named the island Os Barbados, "the bearded ones": the bearded fig's hanging roots, bearded Kalinago, and reef sea-foam are all suggested?
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Heritage · 14 May 1625
A storm-blown ship claimed it for England.
Did you know that the English claim to Barbados began by accident, when John Powell's ship Olive Blossom, blown off course on its way from South America, landed on 14 May 1625 and took the island for King James I?
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Heritage · 17 February 1627
Holetown was first called Jamestown.
Did you know that Holetown, where the first permanent English settlers landed on 17 February 1627, was originally named Jamestown after King James I, and the landing is still celebrated by the annual Holetown Festival?
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Heritage · 1628
Bridgetown was once called Indian Bridge.
Did you know that Bridgetown was first known as Indian Bridge, because English settlers in 1628 found a primitive bridge built by Indigenous people across the swamp of the Careenage, one of the few traces they left?
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Records · 26 June 1639
One of the oldest parliaments in the Americas.
Did you know that the Parliament of Barbados, whose House of Assembly first met in June 1639, is the third-oldest legislature in the Americas, younger only than the Virginia General Assembly and the Bermuda House of Assembly?
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Language · 1651
Rum was first called 'Kill-Divil' here.
Did you know that one of the earliest known uses of the word for rum comes from a 1651 account of Barbados, which called the island's cane spirit "Rumbullion, alias Kill-Divil", a hot, hellish and terrible liquor?
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Society · 17 January 1652
A peace charter was signed in a tavern.
Did you know that the Charter of Barbados, which ended the island's royalist stand against Cromwell's Commonwealth in 1652, is thought to have been signed at the Mermaid's Inn in the fishing town of Oistins?
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Heritage · 1654
One of the Americas' oldest synagogues.
Did you know that Bridgetown's Nidhe Israel Synagogue, founded in 1654, is one of the oldest synagogues in the Americas, although the present building dates from 1833, after the 1831 hurricane ruined the first one?
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Society · 1661
Barbados wrote the template for slave laws.
Did you know that the Barbados Slave Code of 1661, the first comprehensive legal code of slavery in the English colonies, became the model for slave laws in Jamaica, Carolina, Georgia and Antigua?
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Heritage · 1670
Barbadians helped found the Carolinas.
Did you know that the Province of Carolina, founded in 1670, was settled largely by planters and smallholders squeezed off Barbados, which is why Carolina is sometimes called "the colony of a colony"?
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Records · 1703
The world's oldest rum company is Bajan.
Did you know that Mount Gay, whose earliest confirmed deed dates from 1703, claims to be the world's oldest remaining rum company, still distilling in the parish of Saint Lucy?
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Society · 1710
A church society branded enslaved people.
Did you know that Christopher Codrington left his Barbados plantations to a Church of England missionary society in 1710, and the society then branded the word "Society" on the chests of the people it enslaved?
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Science · 1750
The grapefruit was first described in Barbados.
Did you know that the grapefruit was first documented in Barbados, where Welsh clergyman Griffith Hughes described a hybrid "forbidden fruit" in his 1750 Natural History of Barbados, later known as the Barbadoes grape fruit?
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Firsts · 2 November – 22 December 1751
George Washington's only trip abroad.
Did you know that Barbados is the only place outside what became the United States that George Washington ever visited, arriving aged 19 in 1751 with his brother Lawrence and catching smallpox there?
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Nature · October 1780
The deadliest Atlantic hurricane hit Barbados.
Did you know that the Great Hurricane of 1780, the deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, killed about 4,500 people on Barbados alone as it swept through the Lesser Antilles?
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Heritage · 22 March 1813
Bridgetown's Nelson beat London's by decades.
Did you know that Bridgetown's bronze statue of Lord Nelson, unveiled on 22 March 1813, was about three decades older than Nelson's Column in London, and its square was called Trafalgar Square first?
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Heritage · 14–16 April 1816
The Emancipation Statue is nicknamed Bussa.
Did you know that Bussa's Rebellion of April 1816, the largest slave revolt in Barbadian history, was led by an African-born ranger on Bayley's Plantation, and Barbadians nicknamed the 1985 Emancipation Statue "Bussa"?
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Society · 9 June 1831
Free men of colour won the vote.
Did you know that on 9 June 1831, three years before slavery was abolished, free people of colour in Barbados won the same voting rights as white men, opening the way for Samuel Jackman Prescod?
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Nature · August 1831
An 1831 storm left the island 'laid waste'.
Did you know that the Barbados hurricane of August 1831, an intense Category 4 storm, killed about 1,500 people and left the island so devastated that the Bridgetown press described Barbados as "laid waste"?
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Society · 1 August 1834
Emancipation came with unpaid 'apprenticeship'.
Did you know that when slavery was abolished in Barbados on 1 August 1834, the formerly enslaved were not immediately free but bound to an "apprenticeship" of unpaid work for their former owners, which was cut short and ended for everyone on 1 August 1838?
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Economy · 1837
The church was paid for freeing slaves.
Did you know that under the Slave Compensation Act 1837 the Church of England's missionary society received £8,823 for the 411 enslaved people on its Codrington estates, while the freed people themselves received nothing?
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Firsts · 6 June 1843
First Afro-Barbadian MP, elected 1843.
Did you know that Samuel Jackman Prescod became the first person of African descent elected to the Barbados Parliament on 6 June 1843, winning a seat in the new constituency of Bridgetown?
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Science · 1854
Cholera killed 20,000 Barbadians in 1854.
Did you know that a cholera epidemic in 1854 killed more than 20,000 Barbadians, one of the worst disasters in the island's history, and the garrison even used Gun Hill as an evacuation station?
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Culture · c. 1863
A 'navy' that only sails on land.
Did you know that the Barbados Landship, a mutual-aid society said to date from about 1863, parades in white naval uniforms with ranks like Lord High Admiral, mimicking Royal Navy manoeuvres to tuk band music?
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Science · 20 October 1881
Barbados once had a 24-mile railway.
Did you know that Barbados once had its own railway, opened in 1881 from Bridgetown towards Belleplaine, with 98 bridges, very tight curves and a notoriously steep incline, before it closed in 1937?
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Myth or fact · 1884
Barbados nearly became part of Canada.
Did you know that in 1884 the influential Barbados Agricultural Society tried to have the island join the Canadian Confederation, sounding out Sir Francis Hincks on whether Canada would admit Barbados?
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Economy · 1904–1914
Barbadians dug the Panama Canal.
Did you know that most of the West Indian labourers who dug the American Panama Canal between 1904 and 1914 came from Barbados, and the "Panama money" they sent home helped transform Barbadian society?
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Sport · 11–16 January 1930
The Caribbean's first Test was in Bridgetown.
Did you know that Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, founded in 1871, hosted the first Test match ever played in the West Indies in January 1930, a drawn game against England?
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Society · 26 July 1937
A deportation sparked the 1937 riots.
Did you know that the 1937 riots were sparked by the deportation of Clement Payne, a Trinidad-born labour organiser with Barbadian parents, and that police shooting during four days of unrest killed 14 people?
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Society · 27 November 1944
Women got the vote three centuries after parliament.
Did you know that Barbadian women first voted in a general election only in November 1944, after reforms of the early 1940s opened the franchise to them and cut the income qualification, with universal adult suffrage following in 1950–1951, three centuries after Parliament first met?
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Nature · 22 September 1955
Hurricane Janet battered Barbados in 1955.
Did you know that Hurricane Janet, which passed just south of Barbados on 22 September 1955, killed dozens of people and caused about $5 million in damage, one of the island's worst modern storms?
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Firsts · 3 January 1958
A Bajan led the West Indies Federation.
Did you know that Barbadian Sir Grantley Adams was Prime Minister of the West Indies Federation, the short-lived union of British Caribbean colonies that lasted from 3 January 1958 to 31 May 1962?
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Records · March 1958
Sobers' 365 stood for 36 years.
Did you know that Garfield Sobers was just 21 when he scored 365 not out against Pakistan at Sabina Park in 1958, a world-record Test innings that stood for 36 years until Brian Lara beat it?
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Sport · 1960–61
Worrell broke cricket's colour bar.
Did you know that Barbadian Frank Worrell became the first Black cricketer to captain the West Indies for a whole series in 1960–61, and after his death he became the first sportsman honoured by a Westminster Abbey memorial service?
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Science · 1962
A space gun still sits at Foul Bay.
Did you know that from 1962 McGill University's Project HARP fired research shells towards space from Foul Bay using a 36-metre gun made from two welded US Navy 16-inch barrels, which still stands there?
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Heritage · 30 November 1966
The flag shows Britannia's trident snapped.
Did you know that the broken trident on Barbados's flag, adopted at independence on 30 November 1966, is Britannia's trident from the colonial badge with its shaft snapped off to show the break with colonial rule?
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Culture · 1974
A slave-era harvest feast became a carnival.
Did you know that Crop Over, the harvest festival that began on Barbados sugar plantations as early as 1687, faded during the Second World War and was revived as a national festival in 1974?
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Nature · 1976
A forgotten cave is now toured by tram.
Did you know that Harrison's Cave, first mentioned in records in 1795, was forgotten for almost 200 years until Ole Sorensen and Tony Mason rediscovered it in 1976, and visitors now explore it by tram?
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Science · 2 November 1977
Concorde G-BOAE is preserved in Barbados.
Did you know that Concorde first visited Barbados on 2 November 1977 to fly Queen Elizabeth II home to London, and that a British Airways Concorde, G-BOAE, is now preserved at Grantley Adams International Airport?
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Sport · 1998
Sobers was a living National Hero.
Did you know that when Barbados created its National Heroes in 1998, cricketer Sir Garfield Sobers was the only living person among them, and the honour carries the title "The Right Excellent"?
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Nature · August 2008
One of the world's smallest snakes is Bajan.
Did you know that the Barbados threadsnake, described in 2008 by Blair Hedges, grows only about 10 cm long, as thin as a spaghetti noodle, and is thought to be one of the smallest snakes in the world?
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Heritage · 25 June 2011
Bridgetown is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Did you know that "Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison" was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 25 June 2011, recognising its colonial street plan, historic buildings and the British military garrison beside it?
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Firsts · 25 May 2018
First female PM won every seat.
Did you know that Mia Mottley became Barbados's first female prime minister on 25 May 2018, the day after her Barbados Labour Party won all 30 seats, the largest majority in Barbadian history?
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Heritage · November 2020
Nelson came down after 207 years.
Did you know that Bridgetown's Nelson statue, standing for 207 years, was taken down in November 2020 after a "Nelson Must Go" petition gathered over 10,000 signatures, and now rests in the Barbados Museum?
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Firsts · 30 November 2021
The first president was a legal pioneer.
Did you know that Dame Sandra Mason, elected by Parliament on 20 October 2021 and sworn in as the first president on 30 November 2021, had in 2008 become the first woman to sit on the Barbados Court of Appeal?
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Culture · 30 November 2021
Rihanna became a National Hero in 2021.
Did you know that Rihanna was declared a National Hero of Barbados by Prime Minister Mia Mottley during the republic ceremony on 30 November 2021, joining Garfield Sobers as the only living holders of the honour at the time?
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Sport · 29 June 2024
A hurricane stranded India's champions.
Did you know that after India won the T20 World Cup final at Kensington Oval on 29 June 2024, Hurricane Beryl shut down Barbados's airport and stranded the champions on the island for more than two days?
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Firsts · 30 November 2025
The second president once served the Queen.
Did you know that Jeffrey Bostic, a former army lieutenant colonel who had served as equerry to Queen Elizabeth II, became Barbados's second and first male president on 30 November 2025, elected unopposed?
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Records · 11 February 2026
A third straight 30–0 election sweep.
Did you know that in the general election of 11 February 2026 Mia Mottley's Barbados Labour Party won all 30 seats for the third election running, a third consecutive clean sweep, though turnout was only about 42 percent?
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Nature ·
Barbados's monkeys came from West Africa.
Did you know that Barbados's green monkeys are not native but came from West Africa, arriving on slave ships in the late 17th century, and their descendants still roam the island's gullies and forests?
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Culture ·
Cou-cou is stirred with a mini cricket bat.
Did you know that Barbados's national dish, cou-cou and flying fish, is stirred with a cou-cou stick, a flat wooden paddle about 30 cm long shaped like a miniature cricket bat?
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Geography ·
Rain vanishes into the coral rock.
Did you know that about 85 percent of Barbados is coral limestone 24 to 30 metres thick, so most rain soaks straight through into underground channels and aquifers, leaving the island with very few surface streams?
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Geography ·
Barbados sits out in the Atlantic.
Did you know that Barbados is the easternmost island of the Lesser Antilles, lying about 160 km east of the Windward Islands, out in the Atlantic rather than strictly in the Caribbean Sea?
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Geography ·
Barbados has a 'Scotland' without coral.
Did you know that in the Scotland District, overlooked by 340-metre Mount Hillaby, the island's coral cap has worn away to expose much older oceanic sediments, giving Barbados its only real streams and rolling, landslide-prone hills?
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Language ·
Bajan Creole shaped Gullah in Carolina.
Did you know that Bajan Creole's word for "you all", wunna, comes from Igbo unu, and Barbadian emigrants carried Bajan to Carolina, where it influenced the Gullah language of the Lowcountry?
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Culture ·
Pottery hill shaped like Napoleon's head.
Did you know that the potteries of Chalky Mount in Saint Andrew, whose jagged hill profile is nicknamed Napoleon's Head, have worked the area's rich clay deposits since the 19th century as one of Barbados's key cottage industries?
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Culture ·
Barbados is the 'county' of Bimshire.
Did you know that Barbadians affectionately call their island "Bim" or "Bimshire", a nickname recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary and joked about as the forgotten English county after Wiltshire, Hampshire and Berkshire?
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Nature ·
The Barbados cherry is a vitamin C bomb.
Did you know that the Barbados cherry, better known as acerola, is one of the richest natural sources of vitamin C, with roughly 20 times the daily value in a 100-gram serving?
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Heritage ·
The Caribbean's last complete sugar windmill.
Did you know that the Morgan Lewis windmill in Saint Andrew is described as the biggest and only surviving complete sugar windmill in the Caribbean, a reminder of the hundreds that once ground Barbados's cane?
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Nature ·
Barbados sheep grow hair, not wool.
Did you know that the Barbados Blackbelly is a hair sheep that grows no wool, descended from West African sheep that outlasted European wool breeds on the island's coarse pasture and often bearing twins?
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Culture ·
Oistins' fish fry is a modern tradition.
Did you know that the Friday-night Oistins Fish Fry, where locals and tourists "lime" over fried fish, loud music and old-time dancing, grew up only toward the end of the 20th century?
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