Rum in History- November

November Through The Years

1504-  Christopher Columbus returns from a final voyage to the Western Hemisphere, landing at Sanlucar on November 7th, too ill after a nine week voyage from Hispaniola to pay his respects to the dying Isabella.

1636-  The Dutch introduce sugarcane from Brazil into Barbados, where English settlers had been cultivating cotton, ginger, indigo and tobacco for export.  Soon after sugar becomes the chief crop of Barbados and of all the Caribbean Islands.

1641-  The first sugar factory in the English New World is established in Barbados, with equipment supplied on credit by Dutch investors.

1718-  Infamous pirate of the seas Blackbeard is killed on November 22nd off the coast of North Carolina by Lieutenant Robert Naynard.

1787-  Sugar is produced from sugar beet, marking the beginning of a fierce competition against sugarcane.

1818-  Angostura Bitters are invented at Angostura, Venezuela, by German physician Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert.  He brews his elixir from gentian root, rum, and other ingredients as a stomach tonic to overcome tropical ailments.

1823-  Bourbon whiskey distilling increases in Kentucky.  Aging in charred oak barrels, however, does not begin until 1860.

1966- Barbados gains its independence (November 30th).

1978- Dominica gains its independence, 465 years after its discovery by Columbus (November 3rd).

1981-  Antigua and Barbuda gain their independence (November 1st).