Science · c. 3760–3525 BC
Charcoal hints at Grenada's first humans.
Did you know that the earliest possible sign of people on Grenada is not a tool but a layer of charcoal and vanishing tree pollen dated to around 3760–3525 BC, evidence still debated because lightning or volcanoes could explain it?
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Heritage · AD 300
A 1,300-year-old village is eroding away.
Did you know that the village beside Leapers' Hill at Sauteurs Bay was occupied continuously from about AD 300 until the French conquest, and since 2017 coastal erosion has been washing away parts of its ancient burial ground?
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Culture · c. AD 700
One boulder holds 60-plus ancient carvings.
Did you know that a single boulder in a ravine of the St. Patrick River at Mt. Rich carries more than 60 Amerindian petroglyphs, carved from roughly AD 700 and first noted as "hieroglyphical characters" in 1833?
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Language · c. 500–1000
Carriacou means 'land of reefs'.
Did you know that Carriacou takes its name from the Kalinago word Kayryouacou, usually translated as "the land of reefs", given by Amerindian settlers who reached the island sometime between AD 500 and 1000?
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Myth or fact · c. 1250
Grenada's 'Caribs' were the older people.
Did you know that on Grenada the old labels were probably reversed: the people the French called Caribs descended from the island's earliest villagers, while the Galibis of the south-east were newcomers from the mainland around AD 1250?
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Language · 1498
Columbus named Grenada but never landed.
Did you know that Christopher Columbus never landed on Grenada, sighting it from a distance in 1498 and naming it La Concepción, a name that was never actually used by anyone afterwards?
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Language · by the 1520s
The Grenadines are the 'little Granadas'.
Did you know that by the 1520s Spanish sailors called the island La Granada after the newly conquered Spanish city, which made the smaller islands to its north Los Granadillos, the little Granadas, today's Grenadines?
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Heritage · 16th century
Spain claimed Grenada but never settled.
Did you know that although Spain claimed Grenada after 1498, there is no record of any Spanish attempt to settle it, and Indigenous resistance kept the island uncolonised for nearly 150 years after Columbus passed?
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Firsts · 1609
England's 1609 colony failed within months.
Did you know that in 1609, just two years after Jamestown, 208 English colonists tried to settle Grenada, but the venture collapsed within months and the survivors were shipped home to England by December?
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Heritage · 1649
A gift exchange became a 'sale'.
Did you know that when 203 Frenchmen from Martinique landed in March 1649, the gifts swapped with chief Kaïrouane were treated by the French as a purchase of land, a reading his people clearly did not share?
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Heritage · 1650 or 1651
Sauteurs is named after the 'jumpers'.
Did you know that the northern town of Sauteurs, French for "jumpers", is named after Kalinago people who leapt from a cliff, now Leapers' Hill, in 1650 or 1651 rather than surrender to French attackers?
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Economy · 1650–1657
Grenada was bought and resold like property.
Did you know that in 1650 Jacques du Parquet bought Grenada, Martinique and St. Lucia together for about £1,160, then in 1657 sold Grenada alone to the Comte de Sérillac for about £1,890?
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Language · shortly after 1700
Petite Martinique's village honours Madame Pierre.
Did you know that Petite Martinique is thought to owe its name to a French settler, Mr Pierre from Martinique, who believed its shape resembled his home island, and that its main village, Madame Pierre, is named after his wife?
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Heritage · 1705–1710
One fort, three names, one tragedy.
Did you know that Fort George in St. George's was built by the French as Fort Royal between 1705 and 1710, was renamed Fort Rupert during the revolution, and became the site of Maurice Bishop's execution in 1983?
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Myth or fact · 1720
A famous pirate refitted at Carriacou.
Did you know that in September 1720 the pirate Bartholomew Roberts careened and repaired his captured ship at Carriacou before renaming it the Royal Fortune, the name he gave to a series of his flagships?
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Heritage · 1762
Britain took Grenada without firing a shot.
Did you know that Britain captured Grenada from France on 4 March 1762, during the Seven Years' War, without a single shot being fired, and the island was formally ceded by the Treaty of Paris in 1763?
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Heritage · 1771 and 1775
Two fires turned St. George's to stone.
Did you know that St. George's, then built entirely of wood, burned to the ground in 1771 and again in 1775, after which it was sensibly rebuilt in stone and brick, giving the capital its present look?
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Heritage · 1779
France retook Grenada for four years.
Did you know that France briefly won Grenada back in July 1779 when the Comte d'Estaing stormed Hospital Hill above St. George's, and then defeated a British relief fleet at sea two days later?
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Heritage · 1795
Rebels executed Grenada's British governor.
Did you know that during Fédon's Rebellion the insurgents captured Governor Ninian Home, and in April 1795, after a failed British assault on their mountain camp, executed him and most of the roughly 50 hostages held there?
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Myth or fact · 1796
Fédon vanished, leaving only a compass.
Did you know that Julien Fédon was never captured after his rebellion was crushed in June 1796, and the only clue to his fate is an upturned boat with a compass pointing towards Trinidad?
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Heritage · 1803
A rebel hid for eight years.
Did you know that Fédon's deputy Philip evaded the British for eight years after the rebellion before he was found on Petite Martinique in March 1803 and hanged in St. George's market place days later?
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Society · 1669–1808
About 127,600 Africans were shipped to Grenada.
Did you know that according to the Voyages slave-trade database about 127,600 enslaved Africans were carried to Grenada between 1669 and 1808 by French and British traders?
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Society · 1834–1838
Freedom came four years after abolition.
Did you know that although British slavery was abolished on Grenada in 1834, the last enslaved people on the island were not actually freed until 1838, when the apprenticeship system ended?
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Economy · 1843
The Spice Isle's nutmeg arrived in 1843.
Did you know that nutmeg, the spice now on Grenada's flag, only arrived in 1843, when a merchant ship stopped at the island on its way to England from the East Indies?
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Society · 1857
1 May marks Indians' arrival in Grenada.
Did you know that Grenada's first Indian indentured labourers arrived aboard the Maidstone on 1 May 1857, which is why the country has observed 1 May as Indian Arrival Day since 2009?
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Science · 1870
Astronomers chased an eclipse to Carriacou.
Did you know that in 1870 the Jesuit astronomer Stephen Joseph Perry led a British government expedition to Carriacou to observe a solar eclipse from the island?
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Society · 1925
In 1925 only 4 percent could vote.
Did you know that when Grenadians first won the right to elect members of their Legislative Council in 1925, they chose only 5 of its 15 seats, and the property franchise let just the wealthiest 4 percent vote?
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Nature · 1939
A hidden volcano revealed itself in 1939.
Did you know that the submarine volcano Kick 'em Jenny was unknown until July 1939, when it broke the sea surface, threw a steam cloud 275 m high and sent tsunamis as far as Barbados?
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Society · 1951
Strike fires lit up the sky.
Did you know that so many buildings were set ablaze during the 1951 general strike led by Eric Gairy that Grenadians still remember the unrest as the "Sky Red" days?
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Culture · 1961
A shipwreck left Grenada a bronze Christ.
Did you know that after the Italian liner Bianca C. caught fire off St. George's in October 1961 and fishermen rushed to rescue some 700 people aboard, Costa Line thanked Grenada with a bronze Christ of the Abyss statue?
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Firsts · 1968
Grenada had the Commonwealth's first woman governor.
Did you know that Dame Hilda Bynoe, a doctor born in Crochu, became Governor of Grenada in 1968, the first woman governor anywhere in the Commonwealth and the first Grenadian to hold the post?
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Firsts · 1970
Grenada won Miss World on debut.
Did you know that Grenada won Miss World in 1970 in its very first appearance, when Jennifer Hosten became the first Black Miss World, amid accusations because Premier Eric Gairy sat on the judging panel?
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Culture · 1974
Seven stars for seven parishes.
Did you know that Grenada's flag was designed by Anthony C. George of Soubise and first hoisted at midnight on 7 February 1974, its seven stars standing for the six parishes plus Carriacou and Petite Martinique?
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Myth or fact · 1978
Grenada's prime minister lobbied the UN about UFOs.
Did you know that on 27 November 1978 Prime Minister Eric Gairy led a delegation including scientists and an astronaut to address the United Nations on the subject of UFOs?
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Heritage · 1979
Gairy was abroad discussing UFOs when ousted.
Did you know that Eric Gairy was in New York for further UN talks on UFOs when Maurice Bishop's New Jewel Movement overthrew him in a largely bloodless coup on 13 March 1979?
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Culture · 1979–1983
The revolution named its press after Fédon.
Did you know that Maurice Bishop's revolutionary government named its national publishing house Fedon Publishers, after Julien Fédon, the rebel leader of 1795 who had become a folk hero for Grenadian nationalists?
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Records · 1983
The Queen's own island was invaded unasked.
Did you know that the US-led invasion of Grenada in October 1983 went ahead without consulting the island's head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, and Margaret Thatcher learned for certain it was coming only three hours beforehand?
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Science · 1983
A student's ham radio broke the news.
Did you know that on the first day of the 1983 invasion the main independent news leaving Grenada came from a St. George's University student's ham radio, and troops took three days to find all the school's campuses?
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Records · 1983
The UN deplored the invasion 108 to 9.
Did you know that the UN General Assembly voted 108 to 9 in November 1983 to "deeply deplore" the invasion of Grenada as a flagrant violation of international law, with 27 countries abstaining?
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Heritage · 1983
Rangers parachuted onto the disputed runway.
Did you know that the unfinished Point Salines runway, which Ronald Reagan cited as a possible Soviet military stopover, was where more than 500 US Rangers parachuted in at dawn on 25 October 1983?
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Firsts · 1984
The invasion runway became the airport.
Did you know that Point Salines International Airport, finished with $19 million of American aid, received its first commercial passenger plane on 28 October 1984, a year after the invasion launched from its runway?
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Sport · 1984
Grenada's Olympic debut came in 1984.
Did you know that Grenada competed at the Olympic Games for the first time at Los Angeles in 1984, less than a year after the invasion, and has taken part in every Summer Games since?
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Society · 1984
Gairy's comeback won a single seat.
Did you know that Eric Gairy returned from exile to contest the 1984 election claiming to be a changed man, but his party won only one seat despite taking 36 percent of the vote?
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Records · 1999
Three clean sweeps of parliament.
Did you know that Keith Mitchell's New National Party won every one of the 15 seats in the House of Representatives in 1999, a clean sweep it would repeat in 2013 and 2018?
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Economy · 1999
Chocolate sailed to Europe by brigantine.
Did you know that the Grenada Chocolate Company, founded in 1999 by American Mott Green with Edmond Brown and Doug Browne, shipped tens of thousands of bars to Europe in 2012 aboard the sail-powered Dutch brigantine Tres Hombres?
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Science · 2003
Volcanic bubbles could sink a ship.
Did you know that a submersible survey in 2003 found an active crater on Kick 'em Jenny bubbling hot and cold gas, and that such gas can lower water density enough to make ships sink, so a marine exclusion zone surrounds it?
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Nature · 2004
Ivan freed 150 prisoners mid-storm.
Did you know that Hurricane Ivan damaged about 90 percent of Grenada's houses in September 2004, and the storm wrecked a 17th-century prison so badly that around 150 inmates escaped at its height?
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Firsts · 2006
The world's first underwater sculpture park.
Did you know that the world's first underwater sculpture park opened in Molinere Bay in May 2006, with figures by British sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor cast from local people and designed to grow coral?
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Sport · 2012
Olympic gold earned Grenada a half-holiday.
Did you know that when Kirani James won Grenada's first Olympic medal, gold in the 400 m in London on 6 August 2012, the prime minister announced a half-day holiday to a crowd in James's hometown of Gouyave?
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Records · 2012
Smallest nation to win Olympic gold.
Did you know that Grenada's 2012 Olympic gold made it the smallest country ever to win a Summer Olympic gold medal, a record that stood until Bermuda's triumph in 2021?
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Records · 2021
First man with all three 400 m medals.
Did you know that Kirani James's bronze at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 made him the first man to win gold, silver and bronze in the Olympic 400 metres?
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Nature · 2024
Beryl flattened Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
Did you know that Hurricane Beryl struck Carriacou on 1 July 2024 with 140 mph winds, the strongest storm ever to hit the island, and up to 95 percent of homes on Petite Martinique were destroyed or made uninhabitable?
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Sport · 2024
Two Paris bronzes in field events.
Did you know that Grenada won two bronze medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Lindon Victor in the decathlon on 3 August and Anderson Peters in the javelin on 8 August, both in field events?
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Culture · 2024
Carnival kings duel with Julius Caesar.
Did you know that Carriacou's Shakespeare Mas, in which costumed "kings" duel by reciting Julius Caesar and a wrong line earns a lash on a padded headpiece, was added to UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2024?
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Sport · 2025
Peters struck silver again in Tokyo.
Did you know that Anderson Peters added a javelin silver at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on 18 September, his third world medal and Grenada's only medal of those championships?
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Culture ·
A nutmeg sits on the national flag.
Did you know that Grenada's flag carries a nutmeg on its green hoist triangle because the country is the world's second-largest nutmeg producer after Indonesia, which also earned it the nickname "Isle of Spice"?
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Myth or fact ·
A mermaid supposedly haunts the crater lake.
Did you know that Grand Etang, a crater lake 530 m up in Grenada's mountains and shown on the national coat of arms, is said in local folklore to hide a mermaid who lures men to a watery grave?
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Nature ·
Grenada's monkeys came from West Africa.
Did you know that Grenada's mona monkeys are not native to the Americas at all, but West African primates that were carried to the island aboard slave ships in the 18th century?
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Nature ·
The national bird is critically endangered.
Did you know that Grenada's national bird, the Grenada dove, lives nowhere else on Earth and ranks among the most critically endangered doves in the world, with past estimates of fewer than 100 left in the wild?
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Language ·
French patois still lingers on Grenada.
Did you know that more than two centuries after French rule ended, some Grenadians still speak a French-based patois, Kéyòl-La-Gwinad, whose everyday expressions include bondjé, from the French bon Dieu, meaning "Good God!"?
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Culture ·
Drum songs preserve African family lines.
Did you know that the Nation songs of Carriacou's Big Drum dance let islanders trace their ancestry to specific African peoples such as the Cromanti, Igbo, Kongo, Hausa and Mandinka, even though the lyrics are no longer understood?
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Culture ·
The national dish is packed, not stirred.
Did you know that Grenada's national dish, oil down, is not stirred but "packed", with breadfruit and salted meat layered at the bottom of the pot and callaloo and dumplings on top, then cooked until the coconut milk is absorbed?
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Geography ·
The highest peak is a sleeping volcano.
Did you know that Grenada's highest point, Mount Saint Catherine at 840 m, is the youngest of the island's five volcanoes and the only one still considered "live" because of its hot springs and fumaroles?
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Nature ·
An extinct giant rat was found in 2021.
Did you know that bones from the Pearls site revealed an extinct giant rice rat, Megalomys camerhogne, described only in 2021, that probably survived until European contact before black rats and mongooses arrived?
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Heritage ·
Scottish boatbuilders' descendants on Carriacou.
Did you know that the village of Windward on Carriacou keeps alive a traditional wooden boatbuilding culture and is home to the island's descendants of Scottish and Irish settlers?
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