Timeline of Port Louis

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Port Louis on the island of Mauritius.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Prior to 20th century

• 1721 - French in power on Isle de France; Noord-Wester Haven (harbor) renamed "Port Louis."[1]
• 1729 - Hôtel du Gouvernement built.[2]
• 1735 - Development of Port Louis begins (approximate date).[3]
• 1749 - Le Réduit (fort) built near Port Louis at Moka.
• 1772 - Bagne Prison built.[4]
• 1782 - Dyot Canal construction begins.^(de)
• 1790 - Thomas Enouf becomes mayor.[3]
• 1794 - Town renamed “Port de La Montagne.”[3]
• 1795 - Town renamed “Port Nord-Ouest.”[3]
• 1803 - Town renamed “Port Napoléon.”[3]
• 1805 - Mosque constructed.[1]
• 1810
  • British in power.[3]
  • Town renamed "Port Louis" again.[3]
  • Population: 24,000.[1]
• 1812 - Champ de Mars Racecourse opens.[5]
• 1816 - Fire.[2]
• 1838 - Citadel (Fort Adelaïde) built.[6]
• 1847 - Roman Catholic Diocese of Port-Louis established.[7]
• 1849 - Development of Aapravasi Ghat immigration depot begins.[6]
• 1850
  • February: Municipal election held.[8]
  • March: Louis Léchelle becomes mayor.[9]
• 1852 - Mosquée des Arabes established.
• 1864 - North line railway begins operating.
• 1866 - Municipal government headquartered in the Hôtel d’Europe building.[8]
• 1867 - Malaria outbreak.
• 1870 - General Post Office built.[4]
• 1869 - Port Louis economy affected by opening of Suez Canal in Egypt.[1]
• 1887 - Revue historique et littéraire de l'Ile Maurice begins publication.
• 1892 - 29 April: 1892 Mauritius cyclone occurs.[10]
• 1897 - 22 June: Statue of British queen Victoria unveiled.[10]

20th century

• 1904 - 8-9 June: Flood.[10]
• 1907 - Population: 30,899.[11]
• 1910 - Government House rebuilt.[2]
• 1919 - Population: 40,106 metro.[12]
• 1933 - Catholic St. Louis Cathedral rebuilt.
• 1942 - Airport established in Plaine Magnien, 48 km from Port Louis.
• 1951 - Fort Adelaide (La Citadelle) murders and hanging
• 1952 - Population: 84,539.[13]
• 1953 - Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute founded in nearby Réduit.[6]
• 1959 - Eddy J. Changkye becomes mayor.
• 1963 - L'Express newspaper begins publication.[14]
• 1964 - Population: 126,550 (estimate).[15]
• 1965 - University of Mauritius established in nearby Réduit.[6]
• 1966
  • City Hall built.
  • Photography museum founded.
• 1967 - City economy affected by temporary closure of Suez Canal during war in Egypt.[6]
• 1968 - Mauritian independence.[5]
• 1969 - Six administrative wards created.[3]
• 1975 - Suez Canal reopens in Egypt.[6]
• 1979 - August: Sugar industry labor strike.[16]
• 1984 - Population: 135,200 (estimate).[17]
• 1989 - Stock Exchange of Mauritius headquartered in city.[18]
• 1992
  • Mauritius Telecom headquartered in city.[14]
  • City becomes part of independent Republic of Mauritius.[5]
• 1993
  • October: Meeting of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie held in city.
  • Meeting of the Association Internationale des Maires Francophones held in city.
• 1995 - Mauritius Postal Museum opens
• 1996 - Caudan Waterfront in business.[5]
• 2000
  • AS Port-Louis 2000 (football club) formed.
  • Population: 144,303 metro.[6]

21st century

• 2002 - Statue of Basdeo Bissoondoyal unveiled.
• 2006 - Bank of Mauritius Tower built.[19]
• 2007 - Appleby Mauritius in business.
• 2008 - Musée de l'immigration chinoise (museum) opens.
• 2010 - Population: 128,483 city; 148,416 metro.[5]
• 2013 - March-April: Flood.[18]
• 2017 - Daniel Eric Clive Laurent becomes mayor.[20]
• 2017 - Heritage building (circa 1791) "La School" (Edith Cavell Street) was demolished. [21]
• 2018 - Population: 147,448 (estimate).[22]

See also

• Port Louis history
• List of mayors of Port Louis
• List of heritage sites in Port Louis
• List of governors of Isle de France (Mauritius) 1735-1810, seated at Le Réduit, Moka, near Port Louis
• List of governors of British Mauritius, 1810-1968, seated at Moka near Port Louis
• Timeline of Mauritius history (in French)

References

1. Nave 2005.
2. "L'hôtel du gouvernement: sur les traces des élus", Lexpress.mu (in French), 24 April 2017
3. "History of the City". Mccpl.mu. City Council of Port Louis. Archived from the original on 23 September 2017.
4. Satyendra Peerthum (25 August 2008), "Port Louis: Home to half of our national heritage", Lexpress.mu. Part 2, 1 September 2008
5. Cybriwsky 2013.
6. "Port Louis". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
7. "Chronology of Catholic Dioceses: Mauritius". Norway: Roman Catholic Diocese of Oslo. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
8. "Il y a 150 ans, P.-Louis perdait son 1er maire", Lexpress.mu (in French), 24 April 2006
9. "Municipality of Port Louis: List of mayors and deputy-mayors from 1850". Mauritius Almanac and Colonial Register. 1874.
10. Benjamin Vincent (1910), "Mauritius", Haydn's Dictionary of Dates (25th ed.), London: Ward, Lock & Co.
11. Blue Book for the Colony of Mauritius: 1907. Port Louis. 1908. OCLC 18922692 – via HathiTrust.
12. "British Empire: Mauritius". Statesman's Year-Book. London: Macmillan and Co. 1921.
13. "Population of capital city and cities of 100,000 or more inhabitants". Demographic Yearbook 1955. New York: Statistical Office of the United Nations. pp. 171–184.
14. "Mauritius: Directory". Africa South of the Sahara 2004. Regional Surveys of the World. Europa Publications. 2004. ISBN 1857431839.
15. "Population of capital cities and cities of 100,000 and more inhabitants". Demographic Yearbook 1965. New York: Statistical Office of the United Nations. 1966. pp. 140–161.
16. "Mauritius". Political Chronology of Africa. Political Chronologies of the World. Europa Publications. 2001. ISBN 0203409957.
17. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Statistical Office (1987). "Population of capital cities and cities of 100,000 and more inhabitants". 1985 Demographic Yearbook. New York. pp. 247–289.
18. "Mauritius profile: Timeline". BBC News. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
19. "Mauritius: Port Louis". Emporis.com. Hamburg: Emporis GmbH. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
20. "Élections, Municipalité de Port-Louis: Daniel Laurent élu lord-maire", Lemauricien.com (in French), 28 June 2017
21. "Port Louis Batiment du 17eme siecle. Demolition de La School: La grogne continue". Retrieved 2017-07-05.
22. "Table 8 - Population of capital cities and cities of 100,000 or more inhabitants", Demographic Yearbook – 2018, United Nations

This article incorporates information from the French Wikipedia and German Wikipedia.

Bibliography

in English

• A. Sinnot (October 1820). "Description of Port Louis, in the Isle of France". Gentleman's Magazine. London.
• James Backhouse (1844). A Narrative of a Visit to the Mauritius and South Africa. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co. (Includes description of Port Louis)
• Ari Nave (2005). "Port Louis, Mauritius". In Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates (ed.). Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-517055-9.
• Roman A. Cybriwsky (2013). "Port Louis". Capital Cities around the World: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-61069-248-9.

in French

• Eugène Gallois (1908). "Port-Louis". La France dans l'Océan Indien (in French). Paris.

External links

• "Port Louis, Mauritius". BlackPast.org. US.
• "(Port Louis)". AfricaBib.org. (Bibliography)
• "(Port Louis)". Internet Library Sub-Saharan Africa. Germany: Frankfurt University Library. (Bibliography)
• "(Port Louis)" – via Digital Public Library of America. (Images, etc.)

Images

• 
  Port Louis railway station (photo circa 1880s-1890s)
• 
  Aftermath of cyclone, 1892
• 
  Unveiling of queen Victoria statue, 1897
• 
  Government House, built 1729, rebuilt in 1910 (photo 2015)
• 
  Basdeo Bissoondoyal statue, erected in 2002