Heritage · c. 5000 BC
People reached St Vincent 7,000 years ago.
Did you know that Saint Vincent was first settled by Indigenous people from South America around 5000 BC, thousands of years before the Arawaks arrived in about the 3rd century AD and the Kalinago displaced them in the 14th century?
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Heritage · before 200 BC
Arawaks paddled to Canouan in dugouts.
Did you know that Arawak settlers reached the little Grenadine island of Canouan in dug-out canoes some time before 200 BC, bringing plants, animals and farming skills, and lived there for about 1,500 years until Caribs invaded?
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Language · 14th century
The island was named for a rainbow spirit.
Did you know that the Kalinago, who took Saint Vincent in the 14th century, called it Youloumain in honour of Youlouca, the spirit of the rainbows they believed lived on the island?
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Myth or fact · 1498
The 22 January discovery date doesn't fit.
Did you know that the tradition that Columbus found Saint Vincent on 22 January 1498, the feast of Saint Vincent of Saragossa, cannot be right, because he only left Spain on his third voyage that May?
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Heritage · 1511
Spain raided the island but never settled it.
Did you know that after a Spanish royal sanction of 1511 slaving expeditions raided Saint Vincent and drove its Carib inhabitants into the rugged interior, yet Spain never managed to settle the island?
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Heritage · 1635
A shipwreck story explains the Black Caribs.
Did you know that British governor William Young reported in 1795 that Saint Vincent's Black Caribs partly descended from Africans who reached the island after two Spanish slave ships were wrecked nearby in 1635?
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Nature · 1718
La Soufrière's first recorded explosion: 1718.
Did you know that La Soufrière's first recorded explosive eruption came in 1718, the first of five violent eruptions in written history, followed by those of 1812, 1902, 1979 and 2021?
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Heritage · 1719
Barrouallie was the first European colony.
Did you know that Barrouallie, founded by French settlers in 1719 as the first European colony on Saint Vincent and once its capital, sits in a mountain-ringed hollow that has sheltered it from volcanic eruptions?
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Heritage · c. 1722
French settlers founded the City of Arches.
Did you know that Kingstown, the capital nicknamed the City of Arches, was founded by French settlers shortly after 1722, even though Saint Vincent spent 196 years under British rule before independence?
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Heritage · 1748
Europe once declared St Vincent neutral.
Did you know that in 1748 Britain and France agreed to set aside their claims and declared Saint Vincent a neutral island under no European sovereignty, although French settlers kept quietly farming its leeward coast?
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Heritage · 1762
St Vincent fell without a fight in 1762.
Did you know that during the Seven Years' War General Robert Monckton sent detachments from Martinique in early 1762 to Saint Lucia, Grenada and Saint Vincent, and all three islands fell without resistance?
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Firsts · 1763
Its first British governor invented a cannon.
Did you know that Robert Melvill, governor of Saint Vincent and Britain's other ceded islands from 1763 to 1770, had earlier co-invented the carronade, a cast-iron naval cannon that stayed popular for about a century?
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Records · 1765
The Americas' oldest botanic garden.
Did you know that the botanic garden in Kingstown, begun in 1765 when island commissioners were told to set aside six acres, is the oldest botanic garden in the Western Hemisphere?
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Heritage · 1773
The Caribs forced Britain into a treaty.
Did you know that the 1773 treaty ending the First Carib War, which left the Caribs the north of Saint Vincent beyond the Wallilabou and Byera rivers, was Britain's first accord with non-white people in the Caribbean since the 1739 Jamaican Maroon treaty?
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Heritage · 1779
The British surrendered without a real fight.
Did you know that when a French force landed on Saint Vincent in June 1779, aided by Black Caribs, the quarrelling British governor and military commander surrendered without significant resistance and both later faced inquiries?
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Nature · 1793
Bligh delivered breadfruit after the Bounty fiasco.
Did you know that Captain William Bligh, of Bounty mutiny fame, finally delivered Tahitian breadfruit plants to Kingstown on 23 January 1793, and a breadfruit tree in the botanic garden today is a third-generation clone of one?
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Heritage · 14 March 1795
Chatoyer is a hero in three countries.
Did you know that Garifuna chief Joseph Chatoyer, killed at Dorsetshire Hill above Kingstown on 14 March 1795, became Saint Vincent's first National Hero in 2002 and is also honoured as a national hero of Belize and Costa Rica?
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Heritage · 1797
Half the exiles died on tiny Baliceaux.
Did you know that after the Second Carib War the British shipped about 5,000 Garifuna to the undeveloped islet of Baliceaux, where more than half died of starvation and disease before survivors were taken to Roatán off Honduras?
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Heritage · 1806
Fort Charlotte's guns point inland.
Did you know that Fort Charlotte, finished in 1806 on a hill 601 feet above Kingstown and named after King George III's wife, was built with its cannon pointing inland, guarding against Carib unrest and slave rebellion?
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Culture · 30 April 1812
Turner painted St Vincent's 1812 eruption.
Did you know that the eruption of La Soufrière on 30 April 1812 was the subject of a famous painting by J. M. W. Turner, now owned by the Victoria Gallery & Museum at the University of Liverpool?
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Science · 1826
A Kingstown naturalist described velvet worms first.
Did you know that Kingstown-born naturalist Lansdown Guilding published in 1826 the first scientific description of a velvet worm, a creature he took for an unusual slug and named Peripatus?
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Society · 1845
Madeirans came to work the estates.
Did you know that after emancipation left plantations short of labour, Portuguese Catholic settlers began arriving from Madeira in 1845, with around 2,100 recorded arrivals between 1845 and 1850?
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Society · 1 June 1861
The Travancore brought the first Indians.
Did you know that the first ship of Indian indentured workers, the Travancore, left Madras with 258 South Indians and anchored at Edinboro on the western edge of Kingstown harbour on 1 June 1861?
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Myth or fact · 1875
Bequia's 'aboriginal' whaling is contested.
Did you know that Bequia's humpback hunt, allowed as aboriginal whaling, was introduced by Yankee whalers, and Monaco's whaling commissioner argued that a hunt started by a settler's family as recently as 1875 should not qualify?
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Heritage · after 1887
A Nigerian king was exiled here.
Did you know that King Jaja of Opobo, a palm-oil trader in today's Nigeria, was seized by the British in 1887 and exiled first to London and later to Saint Vincent and Barbados?
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Economy · 1900-1965
Vincentian arrowroot once coated copy paper.
Did you know that arrowroot, first a food and medicine of the Carib and Garifuna, became a major Vincentian export between 1900 and 1965, and its starch was once widely used in early carbonless copy paper?
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Nature · 6 May 1902
St Vincent's eruption came hours before Pelée.
Did you know that La Soufrière's eruption of 6 May 1902 killed 1,680 people just hours before Mount Pelée on Martinique erupted and killed 29,000, an island-hopping disaster that left 4,000 Vincentians homeless?
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Heritage · 1902-1907
The 1902 eruption struck the Carib heartland.
Did you know that the death zone of the 1902 eruption lay mainly in Kalinago country in the island's north, destroying the last large remnant of Carib culture, and that the crater lake had re-formed by 1907?
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Culture · 1930s
Kingstown's cathedral mixes five styles.
Did you know that Kingstown's Catholic Assumption Cathedral, begun in stages from 1823 and finished in the 1930s, blends Moorish, Romanesque, Byzantine, Venetian and Flemish styles in striking contrast to the rest of the city?
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Society · October 1935
Riots in 1935 spurred labour politics.
Did you know that in October 1935 rioting broke out in Kingstown and at Camden Park, part of the wave of labour unrest that swept the British West Indies between 1934 and 1939?
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Firsts · 1945
The first PM fought in the Canadian Army.
Did you know that Milton Cato, who led Saint Vincent to independence as its first Prime Minister, joined the First Canadian Army in 1945 and saw active service in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany?
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Society · 1951
A party called the Eighth Army of Liberation.
Did you know that in 1951, the year universal adult suffrage arrived, future Chief Minister Ebenezer Joshua won his assembly seat as a member of a party called the Eighth Army of Liberation?
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Economy · 1958
Mustique sold for just £45,000.
Did you know that the whole island of Mustique was bought in 1958 for £45,000 by Colin Tennant, who first planned to farm sea island cotton, beef and mutton before turning it into an exclusive hideaway?
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Culture · c. 1960
A princess's only home was on Mustique.
Did you know that Princess Margaret accepted a plot on Mustique from Colin Tennant as a wedding present, and the villa she built there, Les Jolies Eaux, was the only property she ever owned?
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Culture · 1967
The anthem was sung 12 years before independence.
Did you know that the national anthem Saint Vincent, Land So Beautiful, which calls the island by its old name Hairoun, was first performed in 1967 and only adopted as the anthem at independence in 1979?
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Heritage · 27 October 1969
Statehood and independence share a birthday.
Did you know that Saint Vincent became an associated state with full control of its internal affairs on 27 October 1969, exactly ten years to the day before it gained full independence?
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Society · 7 April 1972
One independent MP broke a 6-6 tie.
Did you know that the 1972 general election ended in a six-all tie between the two main parties, leaving the sole independent, James Mitchell, to form a government with the People's Political Party?
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Nature · 13 April 1979
Warnings meant no one died in 1979.
Did you know that when La Soufrière erupted on 13 April 1979 nobody was killed, because advance warning let thousands evacuate to nearby beaches, though its ash plume reached Barbados about 160 kilometres away?
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Heritage · 27 October 1979
Last of the Windward Islands to go independent.
Did you know that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, independent on 27 October 1979, was the last of the Windward Islands to leave British rule, just six months after a major eruption of La Soufrière?
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Heritage · December 1979
Union Island rebelled weeks after independence.
Did you know that barely six weeks after independence, Lennox 'Bumba' Charles led a brief rebellion on Union Island in December 1979, inspired by Grenada's revolution and alleging neglect by the central government?
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Society · 15 August 1981
One of Taiwan's few diplomatic partners.
Did you know that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines established diplomatic relations with Taiwan on 15 August 1981, when Prime Minister Milton Cato visited Taiwan and signed a communiqué with Premier Sun Yun-suan?
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Sport · 4 February 1981
Arnos Vale's debut ended in a two-run thriller.
Did you know that the first international match at Kingstown's Arnos Vale ground, a one-day international on 4 February 1981, ended with the West Indies beating England by just two runs?
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Culture · 1985
The flag's diamonds spell a V.
Did you know that the flag adopted in 1985 replaced a breadfruit leaf and coat of arms with three green diamonds forming a V, earning it the nickname The Gems after the islands' title Gems of the Antilles?
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Sport · 1992-1995
Its football team has an 11-0 symmetry.
Did you know that the national football team's record win and record defeat share the same scoreline, a 0-11 loss to Mexico in 1992 and an 11-0 victory over Montserrat in May 1995?
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Sport · 1997
A Canouan boy became an NBA lottery pick.
Did you know that basketball centre Adonal Foyle, born on tiny Canouan and adopted at 15 by two Colgate University professors, was the eighth overall pick of the 1997 NBA draft and played ten seasons for Golden State?
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Culture · 2001
A St Vincent-born culture became world heritage.
Did you know that in 2001 UNESCO proclaimed the language, dance and music of the Garifuna, a people born on Saint Vincent, a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in Central America?
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Culture · 2003
Lyttle's global hit cost EC$1,500 to record.
Did you know that soca singer Kevin Lyttle recorded Turn Me On in Saint Vincent with savings of EC$1,500, and the remixed single went on to reach number two in the UK and number four on the Billboard Hot 100?
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Culture · 2002-2003
Wallilabou Bay played Port Royal on film.
Did you know that Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, filmed partly in Saint Vincent in 2002-03, used Wallilabou Bay as Port Royal harbour and Petit Tabac in the Tobago Cays as Rum-runner's Isle?
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Firsts · 25 November 2009
Voters kept the monarchy in 2009.
Did you know that the 2009 referendum on a republican constitution, the first of its kind in any Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States member, won only 43.13 per cent, far short of the two-thirds it needed?
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Records · 14 February 2017
The airport was the country's biggest project.
Did you know that Argyle International Airport, opened on 14 February 2017 after work by Vincentians and Cubans nicknamed the Chatoyer-Che Contingent, was the largest capital project in the country's history at an estimated EC$700 million?
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Records · 7 June 2019
Smallest nation ever on the Security Council.
Did you know that when Saint Vincent and the Grenadines won its seat on 7 June 2019 for the 2020-21 term, it became the smallest country ever elected to the United Nations Security Council?
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Nature · 9 April 2021
A slow dome turned into an explosion.
Did you know that La Soufrière, which has erupted 23 times in the last 4,000 years, grew a new lava dome from 27 December 2020 before exploding on 9 April 2021, forcing about 16,000 people to evacuate?
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Society · 2023
Pentecostals now outnumber Anglicans.
Did you know that the 2023 census found Pentecostals, at 26.4 per cent, to be the largest denomination, while Anglicans fell to 10.5 per cent and people with no religion nearly doubled to 14 per cent?
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Nature · 1 July 2024
Beryl battered the southern Grenadines.
Did you know that Hurricane Beryl in July 2024 damaged 80 to 90 per cent of dwellings on Canouan, Mayreau and Union Island and killed eight people in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines?
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Sport · August 2024
Fourth place is the best Olympic result.
Did you know that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has never won an Olympic medal, and its best result came when Shafiqua Maloney finished fourth in the women's 800 metres final at the Paris 2024 Games?
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Records · 27 November 2025
A 14-1 landslide ended the Gonsalves era.
Did you know that in the 27 November 2025 election Godwin Friday's NDP won 14 of 15 seats, ending Ralph Gonsalves's nearly 25 years as prime minister and leaving Gonsalves as his party's only MP?
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Society · 28 November 2025
Two prime ministers came from little Bequia.
Did you know that Godwin Friday, sworn in on 28 November 2025 as the fifth prime minister, was born on Bequia, the same island of about 5,300 people that produced long-serving prime minister James Mitchell?
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Society · 6 January 2026
A former Labour MP became governor-general.
Did you know that on 6 January 2026, under the new NDP government, former Labour MP and lawyer Stanley John succeeded Dame Susan Dougan, the first woman to hold the post, as governor-general?
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Nature ·
The national bird lives on one island.
Did you know that the national bird, the Saint Vincent amazon or Amazona guildingii, is a large multi-coloured parrot found only in the forested mountains of Saint Vincent and is listed as Vulnerable and on CITES Appendix I?
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Nature ·
A warbler alone in its own genus.
Did you know that the whistling warbler, found only on Saint Vincent, is the sole species in its genus Catharopeza, and is threatened by deforestation and the volcanic activity of La Soufrière?
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Geography ·
The highest peak holds a crater lake.
Did you know that La Soufrière, at about 1,234 metres the highest point in the country, is the island's youngest and northernmost volcano and a stratovolcano that cradles a crater lake hikers can reach through rainforest?
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Geography ·
Black sand here, white sand there.
Did you know that more than 95 per cent of the beaches on mainland Saint Vincent are of black volcanic sand, while most beaches in the Grenadines are white, and the dark sand was long used to build roads?
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Geography ·
32 islands and cays, only nine inhabited.
Did you know that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is made up of 32 islands and cays, of which only nine are inhabited, including Bequia, Mustique, Canouan, Union Island, Mayreau, Petit St Vincent and Palm Island?
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Nature ·
Five cays ringed by a horseshoe reef.
Did you know that the Tobago Cays marine park protects five small islets, Petit Rameau, Petit Bateau, Baradal, Petit Tabac and Jamesby, inside a 4-kilometre Horseshoe Reef where green turtles graze seagrass?
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Language ·
Vincentians say 'aks' for 'ask'.
Did you know that Vincentian Creole, the everyday language of most Vincentians, avoids hard word endings, so 'ask' becomes 'aks' and 'desk' becomes 'dess', and it mixes English with Kalinago, Garifuna, African and Iberian elements?
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Culture ·
The national dish began with Bligh's breadfruit.
Did you know that the national dish of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is roasted breadfruit served with fried jackfish, made from a tree that was brought to the island by Captain Bligh in 1793?
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Nature ·
Bequia may take four humpbacks a year.
Did you know that under International Whaling Commission rules the people of Bequia may catch up to four humpback whales a year, using only hand-thrown harpoons from small open sailboats, though the limit is rarely met?
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Economy ·
Millionaire's Island and Billionaire's Island.
Did you know that the Grenadines contain both a Millionaire's Island, Mustique, owned by a company belonging to its homeowners, and a Billionaire's Island, Canouan, an exclusive retreat for the very rich?
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Heritage ·
A rock carving with a thirteen-ray halo.
Did you know that Carib inhabitants of the Barrouallie area left a petroglyph showing a stylised head ringed by a halo of thirteen rays, now a well-known local landmark on Saint Vincent's leeward coast?
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Language ·
Bequia means 'island of the clouds'.
Did you know that the name Bequia, the largest island of the Grenadines, is said to mean island of the clouds in the language of the ancient Arawak, and that locals pronounce it Bek-way?
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