Today In History: August 16

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – On this day in Bahamian history, on the 16th August 1939, the world’s first undersea post office opened in the waters of New Providence, The Bahamas.

The official name was ‘Sea Floor, Nassau, Bahamas’

The Photosphere was so famous that the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, came to The Bahamas, to see it for himself.

The Bahamas must give an historical thank you to John Ernest Williamson, who brought his incredible invention, the Photosphere, to Nassau in February 1914. There was nothing like it in the world and it made The Bahamas famous in the early 20th century.

John Ernest Williamson was born in Liverpool England in 8 December 1881 and died in Nassau, Bahamas on 15 July 1966. Williamson was the inventor of the “photosphere” from which he filmed and photographed underwater. He is credited as being the first person to take an underwater photograph from a submarine. 

He is also credited with opening the world’s first, and probably only, undersea post office, in Nassau, in 1939.

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On this day in Bahamian history in 1981, Leevan Sands was born in Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas.

Sands is a track and field athlete specializing in the long jump and triple jump. He has competed in and won medals at international events including a bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing where he set the national record in the triple jump with a distance of 17.59m.

At the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, he suffered a near career ending injury while competing in the triple jump. However, he recovered and competed four years later at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro where he was also the flag bearer for The Bahamas during the closing ceremonies.

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Also in 2016, another athlete was being praised for her gold medal win at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Shaunae Miller dove to her gold medal finish in the 400 meter race beating American Allyson Felix.

The controversial dive sparked a heated debate on social media as Bahamians clapped back at critics who decried the move.

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In 2019 – an American crew from Philadelphia Gear that was brought in to diagnose why one of three crucial BPL engines was offline continued their work.

The engines had a combined capacity of 60 megawatts represneting 25% of energy demand on New Providence.

The out of service generators resulted in hours long outages every day.

Then CEO Whitney Heastie said the situation was so desperate the crew was engaged without concern for cost.

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In 2020 – The Bahamas recorded a new single-day record of COVID-19 cases. Health officials reported 133 additional cases with 102 of them on New Providence. At the time, there was a total of 1,252 cases nation wide.

This as it was also announced then Opposition Leader Philip Davis and then Senator Dr. Michael Darville were both seeking medical attention out of an abundance of caution. After Davis tested positive for the virus. He was the first MP to report contracting COVID-19.

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And finally in 2022, 51-year-old Craig Johnson was sentenced to 21 years in prison 10 years after stabbing his girlfriend 23 times.

33-year-old Chaka Khan Moss was killed in front of their children and other witnesses, following an argument at a funeral repast on August 22nd, 2009.

Johnson who was out on bail for 7 years took responsibility and pleaded guilty ahead of his trial.