Heritage · c. 3000 BC
Archaic foragers arrived around 3000 BC.
Did you know that the first people known on Saint Kitts and Nevis were pre-ceramic Archaic hunter-gatherers who arrived around 3000 BC, apparently island-hopping down the archipelago from the direction of Florida rather than up from South America?
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Nature · c. 600 BC
Nevis's first villages sat behind a reef.
Did you know that Amerindians had settled the eastern coastal plain of Nevis by around 600 BC, drawn by easy fresh water and a rich fringing coral reef that later, after forest clearance, became up to 80 per cent inactive?
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Heritage · c. 100 BC
Venezuelan migrants brought the first pottery.
Did you know that around 100 BC the Saladoid people, potters and farmers who had migrated north from the Orinoco River region of present-day Venezuela, brought the first agriculture and ceramics to Saint Kitts and Nevis?
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Language · c. 1300
Kalinago names survive on maps today.
Did you know that the Kalinago, who reached the islands around 1300, called Saint Kitts Liamuiga, meaning fertile land, and Nevis Oualie, meaning land of beautiful waters, names still used for a volcano and a beach today?
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Myth or fact · 1493
Saint Kitts may have borrowed Saba's name.
Did you know that recent studies suggest Columbus actually named Saint Kitts Sant Yago in 1493, and that the name San Cristóbal, from which Saint Kitts derives, was originally given to neighbouring Saba?
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Economy · 1603
A Roanoke search began with Nevis timber.
Did you know that in 1603 the English captain Bartholomew Gilbert spent two weeks on Nevis cutting 20 tons of lignum vitae wood before sailing on to Virginia to search for survivors of the lost Roanoke colony?
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Science · 1607
Jamestown's founders bathed in Nevis springs.
Did you know that Captain John Smith stopped on Nevis for five days in 1607 on the voyage that founded Jamestown, Virginia, and recorded the island's hot springs as curing skin ailments and ill health?
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Firsts · 1624
Saint Kitts was England's first Caribbean colony.
Did you know that the settlement Thomas Warner founded on Saint Kitts in January 1624 is considered the oldest English settlement in the West Indies, earning the island its title Mother Colony of the West Indies?
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Heritage · 1626
A place name recalls a 1626 massacre.
Did you know that Bloody Point on Saint Kitts takes its name from the 1626 massacre in which English and French settlers killed an estimated 2,000 Kalinago, reportedly acting on slim intelligence of a planned uprising?
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Geography · 1627
One island, two empires, four quarters.
Did you know that a treaty of May 1627 split Saint Kitts into four parts, with the English holding the middle and the French holding both ends, so the two rival colonies shared one small island for decades?
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Records · 1651–1665
The Knights of Malta once owned Saint Kitts.
Did you know that from 1651 to 1665 the Knights Hospitaller of Malta were proprietors of French Saint Kitts, making it part of the only overseas colonial venture of the crusading order?
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Heritage · 1671
Nevis was once capital of the Leewards.
Did you know that when the Leeward Islands were separated from Barbados in 1671, Nevis became the seat of the colony, earning the nickname Queen of the Caribees until the capital moved to Antigua in 1698?
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Economy · 1675–1730
Nevis was a hub of the slave trade.
Did you know that between 1675 and 1730 Nevis served as the Royal African Company's headquarters for the Leeward Islands slave trade, with roughly 6,000 to 7,000 enslaved Africans passing through every year?
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Heritage · 1679
Nevis has a 17th-century Jewish cemetery.
Did you know that the Jewish cemetery in Charlestown, Nevis, holds gravestones dating from 1679, inscribed in Hebrew, English and Portuguese, and that a synagogue stood on the island by around 1684?
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Heritage · 1689–1690
Brimstone Hill began as a siege trick.
Did you know that French troops first mounted cannon on Brimstone Hill in 1689 to capture the English Fort Charles, and the English used the same trick to retake it a year later before fortifying the hill?
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Myth or fact · 1680s–1690
Nevis's sunken town may be a myth.
Did you know that the legend of Jamestown, Nevis's first capital, sinking beneath the sea in a 1680 or 1690 tsunami is doubted by University of Southampton archaeologists, who found no evidence of such a wave?
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Firsts · 1706
Nevisian captives were Louisiana's first Africans.
Did you know that during the 1706 French invasion of Nevis about 1,000 poorly armed enslaved people held off the attackers, and six Nevisians carried away became the first people of African descent recorded in Louisiana?
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Language · 1727
Britain's capital kept a French name.
Did you know that after the Treaty of Utrecht gave all of Saint Kitts to Britain in 1713, the French-founded town of Basseterre, whose name means low land, became the island's capital in 1727?
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Heritage · 1755 or 1757
Hamilton's birthplace now hosts a parliament.
Did you know that Hamilton House in Charlestown, the restored birthplace of Alexander Hamilton, born on Nevis in 1755 or 1757, now houses the Museum of Nevis History downstairs and the Nevis Island Assembly upstairs?
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Culture · 1764
A Virgilian poem about Kittitian sugar.
Did you know that the Scottish doctor James Grainger, who managed sugar estates on Saint Kitts, published The Sugar Cane in 1764, a poem in the style of Virgil's Georgics about planting cane and the diseases of enslaved workers?
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Firsts · 1778
The Caribbean's first hotel opened on Nevis.
Did you know that John Huggins's Bath Hotel, opened on Nevis in 1778 over a volcanic hot spring, is described as the first hotel in the Caribbean and drew guests such as Nelson and the future King William IV?
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Records · 1782
The 'Gibraltar of the Caribbean' fell once.
Did you know that by 1780 Brimstone Hill was considered so impregnable it was called the Gibraltar of the Caribbean, yet a French army of thousands forced its garrison to surrender after a month-long siege in 1782?
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Heritage · 1783
A Bristol bridge honours an enslaved Nevisian.
Did you know that Pero's Bridge in Bristol, England, is named after Pero Jones, an enslaved man brought from Nevis in 1783 by the sugar merchant John Pinney?
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Society · 11 March 1787
A future king gave away Nelson's bride.
Did you know that Horatio Nelson married the Nevis-born widow Frances Nisbet at Montpelier estate on 11 March 1787, and that Prince William Henry, the future King William IV, gave the bride away?
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Firsts · 9 February 1799
The US Navy's first win was off Nevis.
Did you know that the US Navy's first victory over an enemy warship happened off Nevis on 9 February 1799, when USS Constellation captured the French frigate L'Insurgente and brought her into Saint Kitts?
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Firsts · 1824
Nevis's first church open to the enslaved.
Did you know that the Cottle Church on Nevis, opened on 5 May 1824 and built for the lawyer Thomas Cottle by people he enslaved, was the island's first church where enslaved people could worship alongside everyone else?
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Society · 1 August 1834
Emancipation came with four years' 'apprenticeship'.
Did you know that 19,780 enslaved people were freed on Saint Kitts and 8,815 on Nevis in 1834, but they then had to work for former owners as 'apprentices' for four more years?
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Economy · 1835
Slave-owner compensation was repaid in 2015.
Did you know that the £15 million loan Britain raised in 1835 to compensate slave owners in colonies such as Saint Kitts and Nevis was not fully repaid until 2015, almost two centuries later?
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Science · 6 May 1851
An ice-machine pioneer was probably Nevis-born.
Did you know that the physician John Gorrie, usually said to have been born on Nevis although some sources name Charleston, South Carolina, was granted US Patent No. 8080 for an ice-making machine on 6 May 1851?
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Culture · 1867
Basseterre has its own Piccadilly Circus.
Did you know that most of central Basseterre was rebuilt after the great fire of 1867, and its roundabout, The Circus, was modelled on London's Piccadilly Circus, with a fountain added in 1883?
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Society · 1899
No hospital needed, said the administrator.
Did you know that when Nevis's only hospital was wrecked by the 1899 hurricane, the British administrator refused to rebuild it, arguing that deaths had not risen noticeably while Nevisians were without one?
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Records · 1912–1926
A sugar railway became a tourist line.
Did you know that the St. Kitts Scenic Railway runs on 762 mm narrow-gauge track first laid between 1912 and 1926 to haul cane to Basseterre's sugar factory, and is marketed, somewhat misleadingly, as the Last Railway in the West Indies?
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Society · 1916
Theodore Roosevelt toured Saint Kitts in 1916.
Did you know that former US President Theodore Roosevelt and his wife Edith visited Saint Kitts in 1916, in an era when the population of Saint Kitts fell by 43 per cent between 1900 and 1929?
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Society · January 1935
Kittitian cane cutters sparked a regional revolt.
Did you know that a sugar strike on Saint Kitts in January 1935 turned into a general strike of agricultural labourers and is counted among the first sparks of the British West Indian labour unrest of 1934–1939?
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Society · 1940
The first Premier started at the sugar factory.
Did you know that Robert Bradshaw, later the first Premier, began as a 16-year-old apprentice at the Saint Kitts Sugar Factory and left it in 1940 after a strike to become a clerk of the trades union?
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Science · 1954
Nevis got electric power in 1954.
Did you know that electricity first reached Nevis only in 1954, almost sixty years after a telephone system had been installed on Saint Kitts in 1896?
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Society · 1958–1962
A Kittitian ran the West Indies' finances.
Did you know that the Kittitian labour leader Robert Bradshaw served as finance minister of the entire West Indies Federation between 1958 and 1962, while Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla was one of its provinces?
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Records · March 1969
London bobbies helped end Anguilla's revolt.
Did you know that to end Anguilla's breakaway from Saint Kitts, Britain sent 300 paratroopers and 22 London Metropolitan Police officers to the island in March 1969, in a bloodless landing known as Operation Sheepskin?
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Records · 1 August 1970
An overloaded ferry sank in The Narrows.
Did you know that the ferry Christena, licensed for 155 passengers, was carrying about 320 when it sank in The Narrows on 1 August 1970, leaving 233 dead and only 91 survivors?
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Culture · 1974
Culturama was founded to save folklore.
Did you know that Nevis's Culturama festival was organised in 1974 by islanders worried that their folk traditions were vanishing, and it still features masquerade dancers and Moko Jumbie stilt-walkers each Emancipation weekend?
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Records · 18 August 1977
Nevis voted 99.7% to leave in 1977.
Did you know that in an unofficial 1977 referendum organised by the Nevis Reformation Party, 99.7 per cent of Nevisian voters backed separation from Saint Kitts, but the national government declared the result invalid?
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Heritage · 19 September 1983
A student's design beat 257 rivals.
Did you know that the flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis was designed by student Edrice Lewis, chosen from 258 entries, and first hoisted one minute after midnight on 19 September 1983, independence day?
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Culture · 1983
The anthem was written overnight.
Did you know that the national anthem O Land of Beauty! was composed by trumpeter Kenrick Georges in about four hours, starting at 2 a.m. on the competition's final day in 1983, and beat 44 other entries?
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Economy · 1984
The world's oldest passport-for-investment scheme.
Did you know that Saint Kitts and Nevis's Citizenship by Investment programme, launched in 1984, is the oldest such programme still running in the world?
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Records · 10 August 1998
Nevis fell just short of secession.
Did you know that the 1983 constitution gives Nevis the right to secede if two-thirds of voters agree, and in the 1998 referendum 62 per cent voted yes, just short of the threshold?
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Sport · 2003
A national day honours a sprinter.
Did you know that Kim Collins became Saint Kitts and Nevis's first world champion by winning the 100 metres in Paris in 2003, and the government declared 25 August Kim Collins Day?
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Economy · 2005
Sugar ended after 365 years.
Did you know that Saint Kitts closed its state sugar industry in 2005 after 365 years of near-monoculture, citing huge losses and planned European Union cuts to sugar prices?
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Sport · 2007
The smallest-ever World Cup host.
Did you know that by hosting 2007 Cricket World Cup matches at Warner Park, Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis became the smallest country ever to host a World Cup event?
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Sport · July 2024
Saint Kitts' first Test cricketer debuted in 2024.
Did you know that when Mikyle Louis debuted against England at Lord's in July 2024, he became the first West Indies Test cricketer from the island of Saint Kitts, all earlier ones having come from Nevis?
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Economy · February 2026
A twelve-year US warning was lifted.
Did you know that in February 2026 the US Treasury's FinCEN rescinded its 2014 advisory warning that Saint Kitts and Nevis passports sold through its investment programme had been abused for illicit finance?
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Society · 24–27 February 2026
Basseterre hosted CARICOM's 50th summit.
Did you know that Saint Kitts and Nevis hosted the milestone 50th Regular Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government from 24 to 27 February 2026, chaired by Prime Minister Terrance Drew?
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Science · 31 May 2026
Nevis joined a space life-sciences experiment.
Did you know that Nevis took part in what was reported as the first space life-sciences experiment from the Caribbean, launched from Esrange in Sweden on 31 May 2026 to study how altered gravity affects human immune cells?
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Nature ·
The islands' monkeys came on slave ships.
Did you know that the green vervet monkeys found all over Saint Kitts and Nevis are not native but descend from West African monkeys brought on slave ships in the late 17th century, and today live in troops on Nevis Peak?
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Geography ·
The Leewards' highest peak is a volcano.
Did you know that Mount Liamuiga, at 1,156 metres, is the highest point not only of Saint Kitts and Nevis but of all the British Leeward Islands, and its last verified eruptions occurred about 1,800 years ago?
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Geography ·
Five parishes meet on one summit.
Did you know that all five parishes of Nevis meet at the 985-metre summit of Nevis Peak, a potentially active volcano whose cloud-wrapped top is usually hidden from view?
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Geography ·
The two islands are a swim apart.
Did you know that Saint Kitts and Nevis are separated by The Narrows, a strait only about three kilometres wide at its narrowest, across which a 4.1-kilometre competitive swim has been held regularly since 2002?
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Records ·
The Americas' smallest sovereign state.
Did you know that, with 261 square kilometres and only about 50,000 people, Saint Kitts and Nevis is the smallest sovereign state in the Western Hemisphere by both area and population, and the world's smallest sovereign federation?
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Myth or fact ·
Nevis is named after a Roman snow miracle.
Did you know that the name Nevis comes from the Spanish Nuestra Señora de las Nieves, Our Lady of the Snows, recalling a 4th-century summer snowfall miracle in Rome, probably prompted by the white clouds that wreathe Nevis Peak rather than real snow?
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Language ·
'Kitts' is short for Christopher.
Did you know that the name Saint Kitts comes from Kit, a common 17th-century nickname for Christopher, which is why the country's laws and diplomatic papers still use the formal name Saint Christopher and Nevis?
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Language ·
In Kittitian Creole, plurals take 'dem'.
Did you know that in Saint Kitts Creole, nouns are made plural by adding the word dem, so 'the girls' becomes 'de gyul dem', and adjectives are intensified by repeating them, as in 'bad bad'?
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Culture ·
The national dish is four foods in one.
Did you know that the national dish of Saint Kitts and Nevis is usually given as a single plate of stewed saltfish, spicy plantains, coconut dumplings and seasoned breadfruit, while goat water stew is perhaps its best-known dish?
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Nature ·
The national flower is named after a governor.
Did you know that the national flower, the flamboyant or royal poinciana, owes its name to Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy, the 17th-century French governor of Saint Kitts?
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Heritage ·
Three hands hold the national torch.
Did you know that the national motto, Country Above Self, appears on a coat of arms whose torch is held by three hands, one African, one European and one Indian, supported by two brown pelicans, the national bird?
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Nature ·
The fortress hill rose from the sea.
Did you know that Brimstone Hill is actually a volcanic dome on the flank of Mount Liamuiga that dragged limestone up from the seabed as it formed, about 44,400 years ago?
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