1 February 13-16: Queen Elizabeth ll visits Jamaica in her capacity as Queen of Jamaica. This was her fourth of six visits to date.

2 August 7 to 14: Jamaica made its entry into the first IAAF World Championships, which was held in Helsinki, Finland. The team won gold in the men’s 400m, silver in the women’s 200m and bronze in the women’s 4x100m relay. Bert Cameron became the first ever 400m World Champion.

3 August 17: Controversial dub poet Mikey Smith was stoned to death by an angry mob after he aggressively disrupted a political meeting.

4 October 16: Bronze statues of National Heroes Sam Sharpe and Paul Bogle were unveiled at Sam Sharpe Square in Montego Bay. Done by Jamaican sculptor Kay Sullivan, the monument depicts Sharpe and Bogle preaching to three seated slaves.

5 December 15: General elections was held two years before being due. The election was boycotted by the main opposition party (then the People’s National Party) which resulted in a voter turnout of 2.7 per cent the lowest recorded in history. From this election the Jamaica Labour Party won all 60 seats in the House of Representatives.

6 Courtney Walsh was selected as a member of the Jamaica youth cricket team where he contributed towards the team’s victory.

7 Cathy Levy was crowned Miss Jamaica World and placed fourth at Miss World. She went on to do extremely well in dance on local and international stages.

8 Then Prime Minister Edward Seaga received the Inter-American Man of the Year Development Award from the Pan American Development Foundation for his various contributions to development.

9 Louise Bennett was given the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of the West Indies.

10 The National Gallery of Jamaica was moved from Devon House to the Roy West Building on the Kingston Waterfront.