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Below is a list of the Islands' major historical dates.
After reading through it you will wonder why the Turks and Caicos Islands are so 'undiscovered'!

750 - l500 AD - Evidence of Lucayan ceremonial and trading centre activities on Grand Turk and Middle Caicos.
1300's - Pottery shards and bead-making remnants in a Lucayan village discovered on Grand Turk in 1989.
1492 - Christopher Columbus lands at Guanahani Beach,Grand Turk. He finds a settlement of Lucayan Indians.
I512 - Ponce de Leon passes by the Turks Islands on his way to Bimini.
1563 - First English visitor, Captain John Hawkins, stops to pick up salt.
1641 - "Nuestra Senora" sunk north of Puerto Plata. An estimated 1000 shipwrecks surround the Turks & Caicos Islands.
1668 - Salt making industry begins.
1670's - Bermuda freely enjoyed raking salt from the Islands.
1687 - Treasure of gemstones, gold and silver in excess of $600,000 is recovered from the Silver Shoals by Sir
William Phipps.
1706 - Turks Islands captured by the French and Spanish.
1710 - Turks Islands recaptured by Bermuda.
1718 - Anne Bonny and Mary Read capture Spanish treasure ship and settle on Parrot Cay.
1720's - Francoise l'Olonnois used French Cay as his pirate base.
1725 - Grand Turk is seasonally occupied by 1000 men raking salt, fishing for turtle and wreck diving.
1776 - Bermudan sloops ignore Royal Navy blockade and ship salt to Washington's army.
1777 - Inflation rampant in America, salt was selling for $40 per bushel.
1781 - First permanent settlement on Grand Turk.
1783 - French seize Grand Turk. Horatio Nelson tries unsuccessfully to capture Grand Turk. Islands are restored to Britain by the Treaty of Versailles.
1789 - Loyalist refugees begin to arrive in the Caicos Islands.
1792 - Grand Turk becomes Port of Entry and Customs arc set up here instead of in Nassau.
1799 - Britain decides in favour of Bahaman rule for the TCI. Bermudan residents resist Bahamian rule.
1812 - War in America led to suspension of trade and famine in the Islands.
1813 - Hurricane forced loyalists to other British Islands and Canada, a few took their slaves to Grand Turk.
1834 - All British Colony slaves are granted freedom.
1834 - 1840 - Harriet family home, the White House, built on Salt Cay.
1840 - The home of the Islands Salt Overseer built on Grand Turk, later to become the Governors guest house, and finally the Turks Head Hotel.
1842 - Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. serves Caribbean mail and uses Grand Turk as a coaling station.
1845 - First newspaper published, "Turks Island Gazette & Commercial Reporter".
1846 - 1883 - Turks Island Whaling Co. is formed and harpoons first whale off East Ambergis Cay.
1848 - 1873 - Queen Victoria grants a royal charter. The TCI become an independent colony.
1850 - English Captain Delaney recovers $130,000 in pirate treasure from a cave at Sand Cay.
1852 - Grand Turk lighthouse erected.
1857 - "Waterloo", built in 1815, was acquired for the Governors residence.
1866 - "The Great Bahama Hurricane" devastates the TCI and the entire Bahaman chain.
1873 - Due to Civil War, salt exports drop to $0.04 per bushel.
1874 - TCI annexed to Jamaica who provided medical and technical assistance and grants following the hurricanes.
1898 - First telegraph cable, Bermuda to Grand Turk to Jamaica. First fire engine.
1911 - Theodore DeBooy of the Heye Museum of American Indians, visited and collected archaeological specimens.
1930 - Revival of the salt industry. Tax on salt accounts for 25% of Bahamas revenue.
1941 - "Bahama Passage" starring Madeline Carrol and Sterling Hayden filmed at Salt Cay.
1943 - 3,900,000 conch meats exported overseas.
1948 - First commercial flight to TCI.
1950 - US missile tracking station established on Grand Turk. First movie shown.
1958 - Schemes to revive South Caicos salt industry failed.
1959 - Hurricane Donna devastates all agriculture.
1962 - Jamaica becomes independent but TCI wishes to remain a British Crown Colony.
1962 - John Glenn splashed down just a mile or two off the coast of Grand Turk, and spent his first couple of days on the Island after his space flight.
1966 - Development begins on Providenciales. The first car arrives.
1968 - Airport opens on Providenciales.
1978 - Burt Webber discovers millions in treasure on the Silver Shoals.
1980 - Treasure hunting company located remains of 16th century ship on the Molasses Reef.
1991 - Turks and Caicos National Museum opens on Grand Turk.
1995 - Dr. William F. Keegan an Associate Curator of Anthropology at the Florida Museum of Natural History starts a major study of the Tainos people and culture.