20th Century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1901 | Colombian Geographer Francisco Javier Vergara y Velasco publishes the first complete cartographic charts of the country, the Atlas completo de geografía colombiana (1906–1910), through which he won the Charles Manoir price of the Paris Geographical Society. | |
| Manuelita became the first Colombian sugar mill to move from mule to steam powered mills | ||
| 23 February | Battle of Aguadulce | |
| 1902 | 24 October | The peace treaty that ends the thousand days war is signed on the Neerlandia plantation |
| 1903 | Panama remained as a province of Colombia until this year, when – with backing from the United States in exchange for allowing the US to build the Panama Canal – it became independent (Separation of Panama from Colombia) | |
| 22 January | The United States and the Republic of Colombia sign the Hay-Herran Treaty | |
| 26 October | The United States Navy patrol gunboat USS Nashville blocks Colombian attempts to suppress the Panamanian separatist movement | |
| 1904 | 16 June | Date of death of Manuel Uribe Ángel, known for his great contributions to the advances of the practice of medicine in Colombia and the Antioquia Department. He also served as President of the then Sovereign State of Antioquia |
| 7 August | Rafael Reyes is president of Colombia | |
| 11 October | Creation of Postobón soft drinks company | |
| 1910 | Colombian astronomer Julio Garavito Armero discovers the crater on the Moon's far side which is named after him (Garavito crater). | |
| 7 August | Carlos Eugenio Restrepo is president of Colombia | |
| 1914 | 7 August | José Vicente Concha is president of Colombia |
| 1915 | 9 May | Indigenous nasa leader Quintín Lame is arrested for attempting the creation of an indigenous independent republic |
| 1918 | Marco Fidel Suarez is president of Colombia | |
| 1926 | Miguel Abadia Mendez is president of Colombia | |
| 1927 | The Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia is created | |
| 1928 | 6 December | The Banana massacre, in Spanish, Matanza de las bananeras or Masacre de las bananeras: A massacre of workers for the United Fruit Company that occurred in the town of Ciénaga near Santa Marta |
| 1930 | Enrique Olaya Herrera is president of Colombia | |
| 1932 | 1 September | The Colombia-Peru War |
| 1934 | Alfonso López Pumarejo is president of Colombia | |
| First census in Colombia. Population:8.700.000 | ||
| 1935 | 24 June | Argentine singer Carlos Gardel dies in a plane crash in Medellín |
| 1938 | Eduardo Santos Montejo is president of Colombia | |
| 1942 | Alfonso López Pumarejo is president of Colombia for a second time | |
| 1945 | 29 April | Date of death of impressionist painter Andrés de Santa Maria |
| Alberto Lleras Camargo is president of Colombia | ||
| 1946 | Mariano Ospina Pérez is president of Colombia | |
| 1948 | 9 April | Murder of politician Jorge Eliécer Gaitán. Bogotazo riots. Starts the bipartisan violence ("La Violencia") |
| 1950 | Laureano Gómez Castro is president of Colombia | |
| 1953 | 13 June | Gustavo Rojas Pinilla seized power by means of a coup d'état |
| 1954 | 3 August | President Rojas Pinilla government gives women the right to vote |
| Rojas Pinilla introduced the Television in Colombia | ||
| 1955 | Rojas Pinilla ordered a military offensive against rearmed peasants triggering a confrontation known as the "Guerra de Villarrica" (War of Villarrica) which took place in the central town of Villarrica in Tolima Department. | |
| 1956 | 24 June | the Liberal Party headed by Alberto Lleras Camargo and the Conservative Party headed by Laureano Gómez signed an accord on 24 June 1956 to begin the National Front (Colombia). |
| 1958 | Dr. Jorge Reynolds Pompo is credited with having helped in the design of the first successful internal pacemaker | |
| 1960 | Creation of the first Natural protected area in Colombia, the Cueva de los Guacharos National park | |
| 1961 | 28 October | Hurricane Hattie moves over San Andrés island with winds of 80 mph (130 km/h), causing 1 death, 15 injuries, and $300,000 in damage (1961 USD, $2.1 million 2008 USD). |
| 1962 | Guillermo León Valencia is president of Colombia | |
| 25 July | Luz Marina Zuluaga wins Miss Universe beauty contest | |
| 1964 | The refractive surgery keratomileusis was developed by Ignacio Barraquer in Bogotá. | |
| May | Marquetalia Republic is overrun by the Colombian army (during what was termed "Operation Marquetalia") | |
| 1965 | 7 January | The National Liberation Army (Colombia) (ELN) guerrilla is created |
| 1966 | Carlos Lleras Restrepo is president of Colombia | |
| 1970 | Misael Pastrana Borrero is president of Colombia | |
| 1972 | Discovery of Ciudad Perdida archaeological place | |
| 1974 | Alfonso López Michelsen is president of Colombia | |
| The Black Tuna Gang, a Miami-based Colombian marijuana-trafficking group was responsible for bringing in over 500 tons of marijuana over a 16-month period in the mid-1970s ("the marijuana bonanza"). | ||
| 1976 | December | Starts the development of Cerrejón Coal mine. It is the largest mining operation in Colombia and among the largest open-pit coal mines in the world |
| 1978 | Julio César Turbay Ayala is president of Colombia | |
| 1980 | 27 February | Dominican embassy siege |
| June | Serial killer Pedro López a.k.a. Monster of the Andes confessed to over 300 murders | |
| 1981 | Homosexuality in Colombia is declared legal by the national government | |
| 1982 | Belisario Betancur is elected president of Colombia | |
| Paramilitary group "Muerte a Secuestradores" (MAS) is formed | ||
| Antioquian entrepreneur Felix Correa and his bank FURATENA get convicted for financial fraud causing a collapse in the national financial system | ||
| 1 September | Mother Teresa visits Colombia | |
| 22 October | Gabriel García Márquez win the Nobel Prize in literature | |
| 26 October (formalized on 5 november) | Colombia resigns as host for 1986 Soccer World Cup due to scarcity of public resources | |
| 1983 | Pablo Escobar attends Colombian congress sessions as backup of congressman Jairo Ortega | |
| President Betancur announces Colombia has signed in the Non-Aligned Movement | ||
| Businessman Roberto Soto steals 13.5 million dollars from the national budget with the help of a teleprinter machine | ||
| General Prosecutor Carlos Jimenez declares that MAS group have underground relations of support with the National Army | ||
| Guerrilla leader Manuel Marulanda announces to the press that the FARC guerrilla has grown to 28 main divisions, causing international concern | ||
| 1983 Guerrilla leader Jaime Bateman Cayon a.k.a. "El Flaco" dies in a plane crash near the Gulf of Urabá while traveling from Santa Marta to Panama | ||
| Jumbo 747 airplane of Avianca airllines, in flight from Bogotá, crashes in Mejorana del campo, near Barajas airport in Madrid, Spain. 189 passengers die, including Art critic Marta Traba | ||
| 31 March | Popayán is partially destroyed by an earthquake during the traditional celebrations of Holy week | |
| 1984 | Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla is shot to death by teenager hitmen hired by the Medellín Cartel. One of the hitmen, Byron de Jesus Velasquez, is captured | |
| President Betancur achieves a ceasefire with 80% of guerrilla forces in the country. In the case of FARC, this would be linked to the creation of the political movement Patriotic Union (Colombia) UP during the next year. | ||
| Dissident guerrilla 19th of April Movement (M-19) attacks Florencia, Caquetá. Over 100 civilians dead | ||
| 10 March | Tranquilandia, a large cocaine processing laboratory located in the jungles of Caquetá, constructed for the Medellín Cartel is destroyed by units of the Colombian National Police, assisted by the DEA | |
| 1985 | The Gorgona Island prison is dissolved and the island is declared National park | |
| 10 January | Elkin Lucena performed the fist successful In vitro fertilization, that allowed the birth of the first Latin American test tube baby (Carolina Mendez). | |
| 23 May | Guerrilla leader Antonio Navarro is victim of a bomb that nearly killed him, and loses one leg | |
| July | Colombian cyclist Luis Herrera wins the Vuelta a España, first South American to win a Grand Tour | |
| 16 September | Ceroxylon quindiuense is declared as the National tree by the national government | |
| 6 November | M19 guerrilla attacks the supreme court in the Palace of Justice siege. The president of the Supreme Court of Colombia and many magistrates, employees and bystanders get killed. Over 100 fatal victims and undetermined number of missing persons. The army is accused of forced disappearance of civilians | |
| 13 November | In the worst natural disaster in the history of Colombia, Armero city in Tolima Department is destroyed due to a flood created by the eruption of Nevado del Ruiz volcano (Armero tragedy). Over 20.000 dead. Countless homes destroyed. | |
| 14 December | Cardiologist Alberto Villegas performed the first heart transplant in Latin America to Antonio Yepes. | |
| 1986 | Virgilio Barco is elected president of Colombia | |
| El Espectador newspaper director, Guillermo Cano is shot to death by hitmen | ||
| Guerrilla leader Javier Delgado kills 150 fellow guerrilleros of the Ricardo Franco Group, in the Tacueyó massacre, because he suspected them to be infiltrated | ||
| 3 July | Pope John Paul II visits Bogotá and the remains of Armero tragedy | |
| 9 August | Miguel "Happy" Lora wins the world boxing championship in the bantamweight division | |
| 4 December | Campo Elías Delgado Morales, a Vietnam War veteran kills 28 persons (including his mother) and leaves 15 injured, in the Pozzetto restaurant massacre, presumably due to mental illness. The events are depicted in the 2006 movie Satanás (film) | |
| 1987 | Guerrilla groups attack a military convoy in Caqueta breaking the 1984 truce. 42 soldiers dead and 27 injured | |
| Colombian Navy ship ARC Caldas sails in waters of Atlantic ocean in dispute with Venezuela creating a serious diplomatic incident | ||
| 4 February | Drug dealer Carlos Lehder is captured in a farm near Medellín at 6:20 a.m. The same day at 5:20 p.m he is extradited and sent in a DEA turbocommander airplane to USA | |
| 11 October | UP leaders Jaime Pardo Leal and Hector Abad are killed in La Mesa, Cundinamarca. Eventually this movement would be lose more than 3000 of their members due to violence | |
| 1988 | Paramilitary groups commit massacres in Saiza, Mejor Esquina and Segovia, Antioquia | |
| General Prosecutor Carlos Mauro Hoyos is killed by hitmen | ||
| The first election of city majors for popular vote | ||
| Politicians Álvaro Gómez Hurtado and Andrés Pastrana are kidnapped by narcotrafficking related groups | ||
| collapse of Stock market due to incarceration of financial managers Juan Ricardo Escobar and Guillermo Uribe Holguin | ||
| Massacre of Trujillo, 107 victims. On 19 December 2006 Henry Loaiza-Ceballos was accused by Colombian authorities of being responsible for the massacre | ||
| First Iberoamerican Theater Festival in Bogotá. 100.000 people attend to the closing act in Plaza de Bolívar | ||
| 21 March | Colombian Painter Dario Morales dies in Paris | |
| June | Serial killer Daniel Barbosa a.k.a. the Beast Of The Andes confessed 72 murders | |
| 18 August | Luis Carlos Galán, Politician and candidate to presidency is killed by hitmen in Soacha during a public speech | |
| 1989 | Drug dealer Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha is killed in a military operation | |
| First reports of the presence of Coffee borer beetle in Colombian coffee crops | ||
| 27 November | Avianca Flight 203 airplane HK1803 explodes in the air with 107 people on board, few minutes after leaving El Dorado International Airport as a result of a bomb planted by the Medellín Cartel. No survivors | |
| 6 December | 7:30 a.m. The Security Administration Department building (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad DAS) and an important part of the commercial area of Paloquemao district in Bogotá are destroyed by a bomb, in what is considered the worst terrorist attack in Colombian history | |
| 1990 | M19 Guerrilla leader Carlos Pizarro Leongómez is killed by hitmen when he was a presidential candidate | |
| César Gaviria is elected President of Colombia | ||
| El Tiempo newspaper director Francisco Santos is kidnapped | ||
| 20 Emberá indigenous people are killed in the Caloto, Cauca massacre due to land ownership disagreements with local landlords | ||
| 22 March | UP leader politician Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa is killed by hitmen | |
| 1991 | Rafael Pardo is the first civilian to be designated as minister of defense | |
| Minister of economy Rudolph Hommes announced the new aperture politic for international trade inspirited in the Russian perestroika and the creation of the National bank for international trade Bancomex | ||
| Starts the first concessions for mobile telephony | ||
| January | Journalist Diana Turbay is killed while kept kidnapped in a farm near Sabaneta | |
| January | Drug dealers Fabio, Juan David and Jorge Luis Ochoa Vázquez (The Ochoa brothers) and Pablo Escobar surrender themselves to the authorities | |
| 17 February | Opening of the national assembly for reform to the 1886 national constitution (Constituent Assembly of Colombia) | |
| 1992 | The Office of the Attorney General of Colombia is created, with Gustavo de Greiff designated as the first Attorney General | |
| Noemí Sanín is the new minister of foreign affairs. She is the first women to be designed as a minister in Colombia | ||
| The collapse of the national electricity generation system causes massive power blackouts all over the country with an average of 18 hours/day without electricity from March 1992 to April 1993 | ||
| Fernando Botero presents a collection of 31 sculptures in an outdoors exhibition in the Champs-Élysées in Paris | ||
| 20 July | Pablo Escobar escapes from the Cathedral Prison | |
| 15 November | Villatina Massacre | |
| 1993 | Massive celebration of the winning of Colombian soccer team in a play against Argentine team in Buenos Aires with final score 5–0. Riots all over the country. | |
| The national government achieves commercial treaties with Venezuela, Mexico and Ecuador | ||
| 14 January | Galeras volcano eruption killed nine people, including six scientists who had descended into the volcano's crater to sample gases. | |
| November | Bomb explodes on 15th Avenue of Bogotá, near the intersection with 93rd Street (in front of Centro 93 mall). 10 people die, over 100 injured | |
| 2 December | Pablo Escobar dies in combats with the police | |
| 1994 | Ernesto Samper is elected president of Colombia | |
| 8000 Process scandal of Cali Cartel narcotrafficking money investment in the Samper electoral campaign starts with the public broadcasting of tapes from telephonic conversations among Minister Alberto Giraldo and drug dealers Gilberto and Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela | ||
| Former president César Gaviria is designated as OEA general secretary | ||
| A team of 10 people steals 24.075.000.000 pesos from the Republic Bank in Valledupar in the biggest bank robbery in the Colombian history | ||
| Paez river flood in Cauca department kills hundreds of people and destroys villages in a length of 40 km | ||
| 11 February | CONVIVIR (Spanish for to coexist) program of cooperative neighbourhood watch groups is created by a decree of Colombia's Ministry of Defense | |
| 20 May | Manuel Elkin Patarroyo received the Prince of Asturias Awards by his technical and scientific research in the development of syntetic malaria vaccine | |
| 2 July | Due to the poor performance of the national soccer team in the USA soccer World Cup, an angry soccer aficionado shot to death soccer player Andrés Escobar | |
| 1995 | 76-year-old conservative politician Álvaro Gómez Hurtado is murdered by hitmen | |
| January | Plane crash in Marialabaja, Bolívar Department. 52 dead, only survivor 9years old girl Erika Delgado | |
| February | Luciano Pavarotti gives a concert in Bogotá | |
| 9 June | Drug dealers Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela (The Rodriguez Brothers) are captured in a police operation | |
| 30 November | Start operations of rapid transit rail system Metro de Medellín | |
| December | Plane crash near Cali airport. American Airlines plane with 152 occupants. 9 survivors | |
| 1996 | Antioquia governor Álvaro Uribe orders the capture of the German citizens Werner and Michela Mauss, suspected of being FARC collaborators | |
| March of protest of 90.000 cocaleros (coca leaf illegal farmers) from Guaviare Department and Putumayo Department ended with 12 cocaleros dead. Army soldiers accused of brutality | ||
| Guerrilla attack to the military base "Las Delicias" in Putumayo. 29 soldiers dead, 20 injured, 60 kidnapped | ||
| 26 June | La Gabarra Massacre | |
| 24 July | Hurricane Cesar moves westward across the southern Caribbean and crosses over extreme northern Colombia and the San Andres archipelago. Cesar kills 11 people in Colombia due to flooding and mudslides. | |
| November | Aterciopelados band ranks number 1 in the MTV network, becoming the most successful Colombian rock band | |
| 1997 | "Miti-Miti" corruption scandal, involving Ministrer of communications Saulo Arboleda and minister of mining and energy Rodrigo Villamizar accused of obtaining illegal profit of 100 fm radio concessions | |
| April | Salvatore Mancuso and Carlos Castaño conformed what they called the "Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia" (AUC) United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia | |
| 15 April | Drug dealer Phanor Arizabaleta-Arzayus, member of the Cali Cartel is captured at a road checkpoint | |
| 15 July | Mapiripán Massacre | |
| September | Carlos Castaño in a press interview admits responsibility for the Mapiripán Massacre. AUC is listed by the US Department of State as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. | |
| October | Bird (sculpture by Fernando Botero) was destroyed by a terrorist attack in downtown Medellín. About 17 people died. Several body parts remained unidentified. The remains of the sculpture are displayed in San Antonio Square as a memorial for the victims | |
| 1998 | Andrés Pastrana is elected as president of Colombia | |
| Gloria Zea, director of the national Modern Art Museum organizes one of the largest art exhibits in Colombia "Arte y Violencia en Colombia" as a commemoration of 50th anniversary of the start of the bipartisan violence La Violencia | ||
| Fernando Botero donates 100 of his works and 60 pieces of his private art collection (19th and 20th centuries) to the Antioquia Museum | ||
| 20 June | Plan Colombia (Treaty signed with USA for support in War on Drugs) is officially unveiled by President Pastrana | |
| 7 November | President Pastrana granted to the FARC guerrilla a 42,000 km2 (16,200 sq mi) safe haven meant to serve as a confidence building measure, centered around the San Vicente del Caguán settlement | |
| 1999 | Betty la fea soap opera a.k.a. Ugly Betty reach the highest levels of rating and the script is sold to different producers in several countries | |
| 19 January | The 1999 Armenia earthquake devastates Armenia, Colombia. Over 2000 dead, 3000 missing persons and a quarter million people homeless | |
| 14 April | ELN guerrilla kidnap Fokker airplane with 41 occupants in Bolívar department | |
| 22 April | Serial killer Luis Garavito is found guilty of the murder of 138 boys. (The total number of victims according with Garavito confessions off-record is estimated up to 300 boys and an undetermined number of adults) | |
| 30 May | Mass kidnapping of 70 people in La Maria church in Cali | |
| 13 August | Comedian Jaime Garzón is murdered by hitmen | |
| 13 November | Strong waves from Hurricane Lenny affect the Guajira Peninsula of Colombia, flooding 1,200 homes and businesses along the northern coastline. In addition, winds and rains from the hurricane causes severe crop damage in the country. The hurricane kills two in Colombia. (to 16 November) | |
| 29 November | Date of death of Colombian essayist and historian Germán Arciniegas | |
| 2000 | First Olympic gold medal in Colombian history, earned by María Isabel Urrutia in weightlifting | |
| 30 March | A car bomb parked in front of the mayor's office in Cachipay (Cundinamarca Department) detonated, causing injuries to nineteen and deaths to four | |
| 11 April | ELN bombs damage 4 meetinghouses of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church); bridge attack kills 1, injures 20. | |
| 15 May | A woman was killed by a time bomb fastened to her neck by FARC guerrilla; 1 bomb disposal specialist died trying to deactivate the bomb and other 3 were wounded. The 2007 movie PVC-1 is based in this incident | |
| June | The sport of Precolumbian origin; Turmequé or tejo is declared as the National sport by the Colombian congress | |
| 30 August | USA president Bill Clinton and his daughter Chelsea visit Cartagena de Indias | |
| 4 September | A 70 kilograms of R1 explosive bomb exploded in Barrancabermeja's commercial district, injuring four policemen, two security guards and two civilians. The bomb was made of. The intended target was apparently the National Customs and Tax Directorate (DIAN). | |
| October | Macayepo massacre in Montes de María | |
| 15 October | A bomb went off in Cali outside a rehabilitation center in the Obrero neighborhood. Two children were killed and thirty other injured. An explosive device went off in a Christian church in Cali, killing two and injuring fifteen. | |
| 14 November | A guerrilla group gave a homeless man a package that, unbeknownst to him, was filled with explosives. The package exploded as he walked through the banking sector of Cali, killing him and wounding four others. The package reportedly contained 500 grams of ammonium nitrate fuel oil. | |
| 4 December | Politician Fernando Araújo Perdomo is kidnapped by the Farc guerrilla | |
| 18 December | Opening of the mass transportation system Transmilenio in Bogotá |
Read more about this topic: Timeline Of Colombian History
Famous quotes containing the word century:
“Death and vulgarity are the only two facts in the nineteenth century that one cannot explain away.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)