Sir Neville Ashenheim cutting the ribbon to declare open the new downtown Kingston offices of Air Jamaica in March 1967. Behind him are the Hon. G. Arthur Brown (left) chairman of Air Jamaica Ltd., and Guillermo Machado, general manager of the airline. - FILE
TOURISM
February 17, 1964: The Shaw Park Hotel in St. Ann was rated as "the best hotel in Ocho Rios" by The Diplomat, a major magazine published in Washington D.C., and widely read by U.S. Government officials and diplomats in the USA.
INDUSTRY
February 18, 2006: Enid Edwards, the first manager of the Beach View Hotel in Montego Bay, St. James, died. Since she retired she became famous for her wedding cake decorations. In addition, she baked a special Christmas pudding which she exported to England and the United States of America.
LAW AND ORDER
February 19, 1943: The police revealed that shopkeepers in St. Thomas were paying "a weekly toll to persons in order to be allowed to operate their businesses and for protection against robbery." Enforcers from Kingston were said to be brought to the parish to warn shopkeepers who resisted that "fire could destroy their businesses, or their families and themselves physically hurt."
BANKING
February 20, 1961: James Edwards of Savanna-la-Mar in Westmoreland lost all his savings to rats. For years he saved his pennies and other coins in a thread bag and when it reached a value of ten shillings he went to a shop and changed them into a paper note. Believing he had about £80 saved and finding a lot of land which was being sold at that price, he opened the box with his notes, only to find the money shredded by the rodents.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
February 21, 1964: Jamaica became the 83rd member-country of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank when the Ambassador to Washington, Neville Ashenheim, signed the articles of agreement with both financial institutions.
REAL ESTATE
February 22, 1956: Canadian multimillionaire Garfield Weston bought the beach property, Frenchman's Cove in Portland to construct what he described as "the most luxurious hotel in the world, and where guests will be petted and pampered from arrival to departure."
INDUSTRY
February 23, 1942: Hubert Tai Ten Quee, solicitor and member of the firm Caribbean Products, became the first member of the Chinese community in Jamaica to be elected to the special council of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce. He was elected by an overwhelming majority.
- Compiled by Hartley Neita
