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Friday 29th March
Anguilla Facts
Anguilla belongs to group of islands known as the Leeward Islands. Other islands in the group include Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, the British Virgin Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands.

The highest point in Anguilla is Crocus Hill (65 m).

Early inhabitants of Anguilla were from the South American mainland.

Amerindian people called the island Malliouhana, the sea serpent, because of its long, thin shape.

The island of Anguilla is sixteen miles long and three miles wide.

Anguilla is the word for eel in both Spanish and Italian.

Christopher Columbus, a navigator in the service of Spain, sighted Anguilla in 1493.

Fountain Cavern is a ceremonial site of the early inhabitants of Anguilla. A stalagmite in the cave is carved in the likeness of the god of the Arawak people.

Big Springs is another Amerindian ceremonial site which has a smaller stalagmite carving and a large petroglyph.

Anguilla became a British Colony in 1650.

In 1656 the British settlement in Anguilla was destroyed by Amerindian people from a neighbouring island.

The French took Anguilla from the British in 1666 but the island was returned to Britain the following year.

The English and the French fought over Anguilla for over one hundred and fifty years.

In 1825 the British annexed Anguilla to the Colony of St. Kitts and Nevis.

The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act (1807) prohibited the slave trade within the British Empire. (Slaves in the British colonies did not gain their freedom until the 1830s. The 1833 Abolition of Slavery Act began the process leading to emancipation).

Between 1958 and 1962 Anguilla and St. Kitts and Nevis were members of the Federation of the West Indies.

In 1967, dissatisfied with Anguilla's union with the St Kitts based administration, Anguillans forcefully expelled the Kittitian police authorities.

In 1971 Anguilla came under direct British rule.

Anguilla's association with St Kitts and Nevis was formally ended in 1980 and Anguilla became an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom.

The Head of State of Anguilla is the British monarch, represented by a Governor.

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