Time period * * * Event
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A.D.
300: Polynesians reach the Marquesas Islands
800: Polynesians reach the Society Islands.
1521: Magellan sights the Pukapuka Atoll in the Tuamotus.
1595: The explorer Mendaña from Spain visits the Marquesas Islands.
1722: Dutch explorer Roggeveen sights Bora Bora.
1767: English explorer Samuel Wallis lands on Tahiti.
1768: French explorer Bougainville stops at Tahiti.
1769: Captain Cook arrives on Tahiti and observes the transit of Venus.
1774: Priests from Spain spend a year on Tahti.
1788: The HMS BOUNTY arrives on Tahiti.
1797: First Protestant missionaries arrive in Tahiti-Polynesia.
1803: King Pomare II flees Tahiti for Moorea.
1812: Pomare's subjects are converted to Protestantism.
1827: The 50-year reign of Queen Pomare IV begins.
1834: French Catholic missionaries arrive on the island of Mangareva.
1836: French Catholic priests are expelled from Tahiti by the Polynesians.
1838: France sends a gunboat to Tahiti and demands compensation for the expulsion.
1842: France declares Tahiti and the Marquesas as a protectorate.
1842: Herman Melville visits Tahiti-Polynesia.
1843: The capitol city of Papeete is founded.
1844: Mormon missionaries arrive on Tubuai in the Austral Islands.
1844-1847: Tahitian War of Independence.
1847: Queen Pomare accepts the French protectorate status.
1880: France changes the status from protectorate to colony.
1884: A great fire burns most of the city of Papeete.
1887: France annexes the Leeward Islands.
1888: Robert Louis Stevenson visits Tahiti.
1891: Paul Gauguin arrives on Tahiti.
1903: Paul Gauguin dies on the island of Hiva Oa in the Marquesas.
1914: German cruisers shell Papeete during World War I.
1918: An influenza epidemic kills about 20% of the polynesian population.
1942: The United States establishes a military base on the island of Bora Bora during WWII.
1945: Tahitians become French citizens.
1958: Tahitian independence leader Pouvanaa a Oopa is arrested by the French.
1958: France changes the status from colony to overseas territory.
1961: The international airport at Faa'a opens.
1962: France discontinues nuclear testing in Algeria, North Africa.
1963: France moves its nuclear testing facility to the Tuamotus Islands.
1966: The first atmospheric nuclear test explosion occurs.
1974: France discontinues atmospheric testing and moves testing underground.
1977: France grants partial internal autonomy to French Polynesia.
1984: Increased internal autonomy is granted.
1987: The Université française du Pacifique is established.
1992: French President Mitterrand suspends nuclear testing.
1995: French President Chirac resumes underground nuclear testing.
1996: France concludes nuclear testing and begins closing the testing facilities in the Tuamotus.
Information obtained from the Tahiti/Polynesia Handbook by David Stanley.