1942: Kitchener leaves Arima for Port-of-Spain and joins the Roving Brigade changing the face of Calypso

1943: The father of Chutney Sundar Popo is born in Monkey Town, Barrackpore. The first “melody pan”- with eight musical notes- is made. Credited to Winston “Spree Simon”

1944: Rum and Coca-Cola by the Andrews Sisters, a cover of a Lord Invader’s song, became an American hit leading to a groundbreaking lawsuit by Invader for intellectual theft which he wins. Kitchener composes the first “pan calypso” (“The Beat of the Steelband”). The Caribbean’s first ‘modern’ literary voice- Wayne Brown is born- columnist, poet and fiction writer, teacher and mentor to numerous Caribbean writers. Multiple Grammy-award winning Trini percussionist, songwriter and producer Ralph MacDonald was born in Harlem. Hollywood actor and Scouting for Talent winner Sullivan Walker is born

1945: War in Europe ends and Steelbands appear in the streets for the first time. Beryl McBurnie leaves the United States in 1945 at the height of her popularity in New York to become a dance instructor with the Trinidad and Tobago government’s Education Department and changes the face of culture in T&T

1946: Everyone wins the right to vote and political parties began to develop. First elections under universal adult suffrage are held. Calypsonian Houdini’s 1939 “He Had It Coming,” is covered by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan as “Stone Cold Dead in the Market” and shoots to the top of the R&B charts in the States, where it remains for five weeks, crossing over to #7 on the pop charts. A wave of Calypso songs and movies begin sweeping the States and Calypso is touted as the new popular music after Jazz…

1947: Wenzell Brown noted: “Duke boxes account for a large proportion of sales of calypso records in America, for you’ll find at least one of the Trinidadian records in almost any of the 450,000 juke boxes scattered across the States”. Kitchener leaves Trinidad stays in Aruba and Jamaica changing the culture of both islands

1948: Trinidad wins first Olympic medal- silver in weight lifing by Rodney Wilkes. KItchener moves to England changing the culture of black Britain. Beryl Mc Bernie establishes the first permanent folk-dance company and theatre in Trinidad. Her first show is “Bele” at her newly opened Little Carib Theatre in Woodbrook which will nurture hundreds of talents, International singer and activist Paul Robeson lays the cornerstone of the building during a tour of the Caribbean

1950: Trinidad and Tobago takes a great political step forward when elected members are awarded a majority of the seats in the Legislative Council. The first steelband organization, the National Association of T&T Steelbandmen, was formed. Grammy award winning and multi-platinum artist Billy Ocean is born. Ocean becomes the biggest black recording star in Britain, sells over 30 million records, hits number one in the USA, Australia, Germany, Holland, and the UK.

1951: A group of the eleven leading panmen called the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra (TASPO) are selected to perform at the Festival of Britain held at Southbank, London. This is the first steelband tour: In 15 years urban gangs had evolved into inventors and cultural entrepreneurs… One of our greatest athletes Mc Donald Bailey holds the record as fastest man in the world with Jesse Owens for the next 5 years.

1952: Young university radical, Eric Williams, returns to Trinidad as Deputy Chairman of the Caribbean Commission. He expresses concern that the Commission is not serious about development of the region.

1953 The great Calypsonian of the modern Age David Rudder is born in Belmont. Trini Dai Ailen is named principal of the Beijing Dancing School when it is opened. She is involved in the creation and leading performance of the first ballet in China: Dove of Peace.

1955 T&T’s greatest architect Roger Turton is born in Pointe-a-Pierre

1956 Eric Williams leaves the Commission and forms the People’s National Movement which wins the elections; Williams becomes Chief Minister, taking over the duties of the Governor. The Mighty Sparrow enters the stage with the massive international hit Jean and Dinah. The first million selling/platinum album in the world is ‘Calypso’ by Harry Belafonte- which beats out Elvis Presley for the honors. However ‘pop music’ wins out over Calypso to be the popular music of the USA

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.

1882: 2 British Warships were stationed in the harbor, troops and volunteers on full alert for Carnival

1884: The Muharram/Hosay Riots – where Hosay celebrants resisted a ban on Hosay processions. Muslims, Hindus, Africans and East Indians unite against the colonial powers who fear Hosay’s power to unite the masses.

1889: Union of Trinidad and Tobago. J.J. Thomas authored “Froudacity,” an attack on the racist writings about the West Indies by English historian J. Anthony Froude.

1895: Business section of Port of Spain destroyed by fire.

1903: Water riots in Port of Spain: Red House destroyed.

1909: First petroleum company, Trinidad Oilfields Limited, registered. Birds of Paradise released on Little Tobago.

1910:  Winifred Atwell is born- she becomes T&T’s most successful musician, a boogie woogie and ragtime pianist who enjoyed great popularity in Britain and internationally from the 1950s with a series of hits, the first black artist in the UK to sell a million records. Millions of copies of her sheet music sold

1911: Trinidad’s first cinemas, the London Electric Theater, opens in Port of Spain. The mother of T&T’s visual arts Sybil Atteck is born

1912: The first calypso recordings is made by Lovey’s String Band five years before the first jazz recordings, making Trinidad one of the oldest recording industries in the world.

1913: First airplane flight in Trinidad; pilot crashes to his death.

1914: Railway reaches Rio Claro. World War I breaks out. Julian Whiterose becomes the first calypsonian on record.

1915: Trinidadian dance legend Beryl McBurnie born

1916: the woman who would become the Mother of Dance in China Dai Ailian is born in Trinidad

1917: The recruitment of East Indian indentured laborers is stopped

1919: anti-colonial insurrections and general strikes

1920:  Hazel Scott, singer, pianist and first black woman to have her own show on US TV is born in Trinidad. John Newel Lewis one of T&T’s most influential architects is born in Britain. Kitchener is born in Arima,

1793: British retake Tobago.

1797: British conquest of Trinidad; Picton becomes first British governor.

1805: Spanish (and French) naval power broken at Trafalgar: British possessions in West Indies secure.

1806: Chinese indentures come in, but most of them die out.

1807: British Parliament unilaterally declares the abolition of the Transatlantic slave trade.

1808: Great Fire razes Port of Spain.

1813: Our first great artist Michel Jean Cazabon born

1816: Demobilized Africans who served in the British army during the American War of 1812 were settled in the Company villages in Moruga, Hardbargain and New Grant. Each “Merikin” soldier head of household was granted 16 acres.

1817: Governor Woodford purchases the abandoned Paradise sugar estate and nearby Hollandais Estate to establish a new Government House and lays out most of Paradise estate as Queen’s Park Savannah

1833: Slave Emancipation Act passed in the British Parliament.

1834: Emancipation of slaves. They become ‘apprentices’. They are told they must work six years more before they complete apprenticeship and receive true freedom. On August 1st the jubilant Africans celebrated “Canne Brulee” the beginnings of Jouvert and Carnival…

1837: Dagga leads unsuccessful mutiny of First West India Regiment at St. Joseph. He is executed. Royal Mail Line opens first steamship service between England and the West Indies.

1838: Apprenticeship ends early and formal, total abolition of slavery in the British West Indies begins.

1845: First East Indian Indentured labourers arrive in Trinidad. Between 1845 and 1917 143,000 Indians came to Trinidad. Less than one in four return to India.

1849: Governor Lord Harris divides Trinidad into counties and wards.

1851: First regular decennial census. Lord Harris introduces a system of public schools, a piped water supply for Port of Spain, and an inland postal service, and he establishes the Public Library.

1854: Cholera, which had reached Jamaica in 1851 strikes Trinidad, with high mortality.

1857: Establishment of the Queen’s Collegiate School, forerunner of Queen’s Royal Collage.

1863: St. Mary’s College established.

1867: Trinidad’s first oilwell drilled at Aripero by Captain Walter Darwent- one of the oldest in the world