March 31 – Transfer Day on U.S. Virgin Islands

Posted on March 31, 2014

It's getting close to a century since the U.S. Virgin Islands were transferred from Denmark to the United States on this date in 1917.

Of course, before the Virgin Islands were sold to the U.S., they weren't called “the U.S. Virgin Islands”!

I don't know what the original peoples (the Arawaks and Caribs) called their island homes, but when Christopher Columbus discovered this group of medium-to-small islands, he named them Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Virgenes, or “Saint Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins.” That's definitely too long a name – I think we can all agree about that! – and so the name was quickly shortened to just “the Virgins.” When various European nations colonized the New World, the islands were settled by three groups: Britain colonized the easternmost islands; Spain colonized the westernmost islands, the ones closest to its larger island colony, Puerto Rico; and Denmark colonized the middle group.

Today, the British Virgin Islands are still overseas territories of Great Britain, and the Spanish Virgin Islands are still part of Puerto Rico – although, after 400 years of Spanish rule, Puerto Rico is now an unincorporated territory of the United States. The Danish islands, often referred to as the Danish West Indies, were sold to the United States for $25 million in gold.

Here are some of the larger U.S. Virgin Islands:

Saint Croix

Saint Thomas

Saint John

Water Island

Did you know...?

• The U.S. dollar is the official currency on the British Virgin Islands as well as on the U.S. and Spanish Virgin Islands.

• In Britain, cars are driven on the left-hand side of the road, and steering wheels are on the right-hand side. In the U.S., cars are driven on the right-hand side of the road, and steering wheels are on the left-hand side. This means that drivers in both countries are closest to oncoming traffic – which I think is a very good thing!
  
  But on both the British and U.S. Virgin Islands, cars are driven on the left-hand side of the road, but steering wheels are on the left-hand side. I wonder why on earth this is a good idea? So drivers from everywhere else will be confused?

Also on this date:

Author/ editor Andrew Lang's birthday

Freedom Day in Malta 

Cesar Chavez Day

Chemist Robert Bunsen's birthday 

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

• March holidays 
• March birthdays 
• Historical anniversaries in March

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

• April holidays   
• April birthdays 
• Historical anniversaries in April

October 21 – Hurricane Thanksgiving in the Virgin Islands

Posted on October 21, 2013

A tradition of celebrating the end of the hurricane season in the U.S. Virgin Islands started even before there was a U.S.!

Back in 1726, when Denmark ruled the island of St. Thomas (now part of the U.S. Virgin Islands), a Christian pastor named Philip Dietrichs led a special church service to give thanks that his community had not been destroyed in a hurricane that year. The idea took hold and became a tradition that is kept even now, on all three islands.

A hurricane is a giant storm...

I bet you already know that hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones are all the same thing: a large tropical storm. The word cyclone is perhaps most descriptive, because these tropical storms are rotating like a bicycle's wheel rotates...

And you probably also know that hurricanes/cyclones start over tropical oceans and often gain strength as they travel across the ocean, picking up more and more water from the evaporating sea, but lose strength when they hit land and can no longer grow.

You probably know that hurricanes are named men's and women's names arranged alphabetically (so that Hurricane Charlie, say, would be the next one after Hurricane Betty). Lists of names are arranged ahead of time and are used as necessary—but when any hurricane is memorably huge and destructive, such as Katrina or Sandy, that name is retired and a new K or S (or whatever) name is put in its place.

Hurricanes Hugo in 1989 and Marilyn in 1995 were direct hits on the U.S. Virgin Islands and caused severe damage. Of course, other storms have passed since then but have paled in comparison...

Learn more about hurricanes from this earlier post. 

Learn more about the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

This map shows St. Croix, one of the three U.S. Virgin
Islands. The other two, St. Thomas and St. John, are nearby.

Also on this date:

G4G Day

Antilles Day (?)

Reptile Awareness Day

Plan Ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

• October holidays
• October birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in October
  

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

• November holidays
• November birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in November
  

November 13, 2009

Harvest Festival – US Virgin Islands

There are more than 60 islands in the Virgin Islands archipelago—which means a chain of islands that has formed from volcanic action, often from an ocean plate moving over a hot spot under the earth's crust. The eastern portion of the chain makes up the British Virgin Islands, but the four westernmost islands (along with nearby tiny islands) are unincorporated territory of the United States. The four main islands are St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John, and the much smaller Water Island.

Originally inhabited by Arawak, Carib, and Ciboney Indians, these islands were “discovered” and named by Christopher Columbus. All the natives died from disease and murder, and the islands were repopulated by European sugar plantation owners and African slaves. Today the islands are largely populated by Afro-Carribean descendants of slaves.

Residents of the US Virgin Islands are US citizens; they can vote in primary presidential elections, but not in the actual presidential elections; they have a representative in the House of Representatives, and he or she can vote in committee but cannot participate in floor votes.

The major language of both British and US Virgin Islands is English. Cars drive on the left side of the road on both sets of islands, like Britain, but steering wheels are on the left side of cars, like the US. Also, the US dollar is the currency used in both British and US Virgin Islands.

The combined area of all the US Virgin Islands is about twice the size of Washington, D.C.

How to Build an Island Chain

To demonstrate how an island chain forms, peel an orange carefully, making sure that there are several large pieces of peel. On the peeled orange, make a single dot with red food coloring. Then use one of the large pieces of peel to demonstrate the Atlantic plate moving slowly in one continuous direction. As it moves over the hot spot, a volcano forms above that hot spot; mark the peel with a small circle to represent a volcano (perhaps using a permanent marker), and then continue to move the peel in the same direction and continue marking volcanoes. Eventually, there is a chain of volcanic islands.



Make a Volcano

This is the age-old vinegar/baking soda experiment. If you've never done it, it is lots of fun!

There are all kinds of volcano activities at geology.com.