Falkland Islands Association - Britain did not expel an Argentine population in January 1833 when Britain re-asserted its sovereignty in the Falklands. But no piece of Argentine propaganda has been more successful than its falsehood that Britain expelled an “Argentine population”.
Falklands Day is the celebration of the first sighting of the Falkland Islands by John Davis in 1592, and is commemorated on 14 August. It was once seen as the National Day of the Falklands but has largely been replaced by Liberation Day which commemorates the end of the Falklands War.
When the seat of government of the fledgling British colony in the Falkland Islands was moved from Port Louis to Stanley, in 1845, under the direction of Governor Moody, one of the first buildings to be constructed in what became known as the Government Dockyard, was a large store. This shingle clad, two story building, known as the Old Central Store still exists and is thought to be possibly the earliest large construction in the whole of the Southern Cone of South America.
Falkland Islands Day was celebrated last Wednesday 14 August with a reception at Government House in Stanley hosted by Governor Nigel Haywood. The date marks the first recorded sighting of the Falklands on 14 August 1592 by English explorer John Davis who captaining the 120-ton vessel ‘Desire’ in that month was blown by a storm into ‘certaine Isles never before discovered’. Davis account was published in 1600 in London by Richard Hakluyt.
By John Fowler - According to the Argentine view of things, the Falkland Islands are Las Islas Malvinas and the capital city is not Stanley, which was founded in 1844, but Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, which did not really begin to be a town till 1881 with the establishment of a penal colony there.
By John Fowler - This is the sixth of a series of extended political articles written exclusively for the Penguin News web site by Deputy Editor John Fowler. John is a former Superintendent of Education and a former Manager of the Falkland Islands Tourist Board.