1923: The father of bikini and bead mas Edmund Hart is born. One of T&T’s greatest actors Errol Jones is born
1924: Ken Morris T&T’s great copper-smith is born. Errol John (one of T&T’s greatest international actors and playwrights is born
1925: The goat races begin in Tobago as a working-class alternative to horse racing. First general elections. Arthur Andrew Cipriani- champion of the barefooted man’ wins seat on City Council.
1927: Jason Griffith, father of Sailor Mas is born in Belmont. Ramdeen “John Agitation” Ramjattan the grandmaster of Caribbean comedy is born. Horace James the father of local TV- ‘Play of the Month’,’ No Boundaries’, etc- is born
1928: Carnival genius Cito, Velasquez born on Frederick Street
1930: 2 time Tony award winner (and voice of Sebastian the Crab in Little Mermaid and actor in James Bond, Annie, and Eddie Murphy’s Boomerang) Geoffrey Holder is born. Godfather of local history Michael Anthony is Born
1931: Opening of Piarco airport. Anthony Williams one of the greatest inventors in pan and music in the 20th century is born – creator of the “spider-web” pan and creator of the “fourths and fifths” Pan, the international standard for tenors
1932: Nobel Prize winner V.S Naipaul is born. One of our greatest painters Isaiah Boodhoo is born
1933: Expatriate Portuguese businessman Eduard Sa Gomes sends calypsonians Atilla The Hun and The Roaring Lion to New York to record for the American Record Company, starting the Golden Age of Kaiso
1934: When attempting to fly from Trinidad to Tobago for the first time in
1934: Mikey Cipriani crashes in the Northern Range of Trinidad and dies.
1935: Port-of-Spain hunger march. Our currency is changed from Pounds to T&T Dollars. Commonwealth Literary Award winner and writer of ‘The Dragon Can’t Dance’ Earl Lovelace is born in Toco
1936: The first man to amplify pan and one its greatest inventors Bertie Marshall is born
1937: Tubal Uriah ‘Buzz’ Butler sparks Caribbean-wide labour riots which forces colonial authorities to reform Caribbean society for the better, beginning the Independence movement. The large ‘Bermudez’ biscuit tin is adopted by Port of Spain gangs as a musical instrument and the invention of pan evolves.
1938: Victor “Toti” Wilson of the Calvary Tamboo Bamboo Band plays a paint pan that had four notes tuned to the chimes of the clock at Queen’s Royal College.
1939: Mikey Cipriani’s former air mechanic Frank St. Hilaire becomes a pilot and decides to try the Tobago trip again and succeeds, he drops a wreath over the valley where Cipriani crashed and lands at Shirvan Park in Tobago conquering the Tobago air route. World War II breaks out! Elder Master Artist, Poet, and Philosopher LeRoy Clarke is born. The first black film director in England Horace Ové is born in Belmont. The first 2 steelbands emerge from the gangs of Port of Spain – Alexander’s Ragtime Band and Hellyard.
1940: Chutney music is establishing itself within temples, wedding houses, and cane fields in the Indo-Caribbean.
