Today In History: May 11

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BAHAMAS – On this day in Bahamian history, in 1876 Leon Walton Young was born in Congo Town, Fox Hill. Young was a carpenter, contractor, property developer, businessman, and politician. 

In 1912 he was elected to the House of Assembly as a Member of Parliament for the New Providence Eastern District serving as the representative until 1942. 

As a property developer, one of his best-known projects is an area on the south side of Bernard Road, that later became known as Village Estates. 

Leon Young died on July 30, 1962, after suffering a stroke. He was 86 years old. The L.W. Young Junior High School on Bernard Road was named in his honor.

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Then in 1928, Sir Arthur Alexander Foulkes was born in Matthew Town, Inagua.

In his lifetime Foulkes has been a journalist, editor, politician, and diplomat. He began working as a linotype operator at the Nassau Guardian and then later at the tribune where he was mentored by Etienne Dupuch. He would move up in the organization later becoming a reporter and then news editor.

In 1962 he became the founding editor of the Bahamian times, the official newspaper of the Progressive Liberal Party. In 1967, he was elected to the House of Assembly and served as minister of communications and later tourism. In 1971 he left the PLP with a group of disaffected MPs known as the Dissident Eight. These MPs would later go on to found the Free National Movement.

In 1992, Foulkes became the high commissioner to the United Kingdom. He also served as ambassador to France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, and the European Union. 

Five years later in 1999 he became the first Bahamian Ambassador to China and Cuba. The most recent public office he held was that of governor-general from 2011 to 2014.

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Then in 1996, the ValuJet flight 592 crashed into the Florida Everglades less than eleven minutes after takeoff, the aircraft went into a steep dive after the crew reported smoke in the cockpit and the plane was on fire. Flight 592 subsequently plunged into the Florida Everglades killing five crew members and 105 passengers, among them were Bahamians Lucille and Maxwell Newbold.

Investigators from both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board theorized that a fire in the cargo hold, which most likely destroyed cables running to and from the cockpit, caused the pilots to lose control of the aircraft.

Federal investigators would later determine the fire was caused by a restricted payload carried in the plane’s forward cargo compartment, specifically chemical oxygen generators listed in the plane’s cargo manifest.

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And finally in 2017, Dr. Hubert Alexander Minnis was sworn in as Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

Minnis assumed office after leading the Free National Movement to victory in the May 10th 2017 General Elections. 

He became the fourth prime minister of The Bahamas and the first non-lawyer to hold the position of head of government in the nation.