Today in History: December 14

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On December 14th, 2018, then health Minister Dr. Duane Sands confirmed another person died of swine flu.

The 35-year-old woman was the second victim of the H1n1 virus in The Bahamas at that time.

He declined to release the details, including the woman’s nationality or whether she was in Nassau, saying the public shouldn’t be worried.

The three years later, on this day, the Davis administration announced the elimination of the COVID health travel visas for returning Bahamians and Residents.

Hundreds were stuck abroad during the global pandemic for failing to produce COVID tests.

In world history on this day in 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and four companions became the first men to reach the South Pole.

In 1918, women in Britain voted for the first time in a general election and were allowed to stand as candidates.

On December 14th, 2000, Cuban President Fidel Castro met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Havana.

The meeting saw pledges by Russians for oil exploration aid. The meetings and promises were seen as an act of defiance to the United States, which has enforced an embargo on the Communist country for 52 years.

A British police inquiry ruled in 2006 that Princess Diana was not the victim of a murder plot when she died in a car accident in 1997.

Finally in 2008, in a now infamous unannounced farewell visit by U.S. President George W. Bush to Baghdad, an Iraqi reporter called President Bush a “dog” and threw his shoes at him.

Bush, who was set to leave office weeks after, was seen ducking as the shoe makes it over the podium.