Panama Canal Timeline of Events

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Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6 million Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System tons in 2008...

Timeline of Events

1880

1.1.1880

Ferdinand de Lesseps begins French construction of the Panama Canal.

1900

2.5.1900

The United States and the United Kingdom sign a treaty for the Panama Canal

1902

6.28.1902

The U.S. Congress passes the Spooner Act, authorizing President Theodore Roosevelt to acquire rights from Colombia for the Panama Canal.

8.1.1902

The United States buys the rights to the Panama Canal from France.

1903

3.14.1903

The Hay-Herran Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian Senate would later reject the treaty.

1904

5.4.1904

Construction begins by the United States on the Panama Canal.

1906

11.9.1906

Theodore Roosevelt is the first sitting President of the United States to make an official trip outside the country. He did so to inspect progress on the Panama Canal.

1909

8.24.1909

Workers start pouring concrete for the Panama Canal.

1913

10.10.1913

President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike thus ending construction on the Panama Canal.

1914

8.15.1914

The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship Ancon.

1977

9.7.1977

The Torrijos-Carter Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal are signed. The United States agrees to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century.

1979

10.1.1979

The United States returns sovereignty of the Panama canal to Panama.

1999

12.31.1999

The United States Government hands control of the Panama Canal (as well all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone) to Panama. This act complied with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties.