(CMR) Jamaica celebrates 59 years of independence today, August 6. Although the celebration will not take on its usual format of a grand gala due to the coronavirus, there are expected to be several activities online.
The country's celebration started early Friday with hundreds celebrating the women's 4 by 100 team winning gold in the 2020 Olympics in Toyko, Japan.
As the Jamaicans here in the Cayman Islands join the celebrations back home, here are some interesting things to know about Jamaica.
-In 1962, Jamaica was the first Caribbean country to gain independence from the United Kingdom. However, Jamaica chose to remain a member of the Commonwealth.; therefore, Queen Elizabeth II is still head of state.
-In 1988, Jamaica was the first tropical country to send a bobsledding team to the Winter Olympics (Bobsledding – a winter sport in which teams of two or four teammates make timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sled. The timed runs are combined to calculate the final score.)
-In 1997, Jamaica made history by becoming the first English-speaking Caribbean country to qualify for the World Cup.
-Jamaican Clive Campbell – better known as DJ Kool Herc – is credited with founding hip-hop music. Google commemorated the 44th Anniversary of the “Birth of Hip Hop” with a Doodle on their home page in 2017.
-Chocolate milk was first created in Jamaica by Irish physician Hans Sloane during the late 1700s and is generally served cold.
-Jamaica is home to over 200 species of exotic orchids, 73 of which are indigenous.
-Ian Fleming, who created the fictional spy James Bond lived in Jamaica. Fleming wrote more than a dozen novels and short stories featuring Agent 007 whilst living in Jamaica.
-Jamaica is the birthplace of Rastafarianism, a religious movement adopted by groups around the world that worships the former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie as the “God of the Black race.”
-Jamaica was the first Caribbean country to have its own website. It was created in 1994.
-Jamaica is one of two countries that does not have red, white, or blue in its flag..”
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