National

Today in History: May 9

BAHAMAS – Two men hanged, a BEC controversy and a fatal hotel stay. See what events took place on this day in history.

Published

2 years ago

May 9, 2023

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – On this day in Bahamian history, in 1832 – the statue of Christopher Columbus that once stood at the front of government house at the bottom of Mount Fitzwillam arrived in New Providence.

Columbus made landfall in The Bahamas on October 12th, 1492 on the island of San Salvador where he met the Lucayans.

Last October, government officials confirmed the statue was removed and will remain in storage until the government and stakeholders determine what to do with it.

Then in 1961, the death sentences of Alvin Table and Billy Sees by hanging was carried out at what was then Fox Hill prison in Nassau.

Table and Sees were two Americans who were found guilty of the murder of Angus Boatwright in April 1961.

The historical society noted they would be the first white men to be executed by hanging in the colony since 1719.

Fast forward to 2012, when then Prime Minister Perry Christie made his first cabinet appointment.

Philip Davis was sworn in as the then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Works and Urban Development.

May 9th 2013, the union representing line staff at BEC, now BPL, reportedly filed a lawsuit against management in the supreme court. Suing for breach of its industrial agreement.

Then Chairman Leslie Miller hit back saying if the cash-strapped utility company had to dish out any more money people would have to be fired and urged union leaders to be responsible.

Then finally on this day in 2022, three tourists who were found dead in their Sandals Emerald Bay Villa on Exuma three days before, were identified as Tennessee couple Michael and Robbie Phillips and Florida resident Vincent Paul Chiarella.

A toxicology report later confirmed the deaths as carbon monoxide related.