Timeline of French Guiana

Chronology

6 events spanning the history of French Guiana. BCE/CE dating.

1. 1749

   Jean Godin, French geographer became stranded in French Guiana.

   Jean Godin, French geographer, left Quito, part of the Viceroyalty of Peru (later Ecuador), in an attempt to reach France to settle his family estate. He traveled by an eastern route across South America and became stranded in French Guiana for over 20 years. In 2004 Robert Whitaker authored “The Mapmaker’s Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon.” It was an account of Jean Godin (d.1792), French mapmaker, and his wife, Isabel Godin. They managed to reunite in 1770.

2. 1894

   A French spy discovered an unsigned note in a wastebasket describing secret tests.

   A French spy, working as a cleaning woman at the office of the German military attache in Paris, discovered an unsigned note in a wastebasket describing secret tests of new French artillery guns. French intelligence soon accused Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, the only Jewish officer who had access to the secret information. It later was found that the note had been written by Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy.

3. 1895

   French Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, convicted of treason,

   French Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, convicted of treason, was publicly stripped of his rank. He was ultimately vindicated. Dreyfus, a Jew falsely accused of spying for the Germans, was imprisoned alone on Devil’s Island.

4. 1899

   French Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, convicted of treason,

   French Capt. Alfred Dreyfus won a pardon after a retrial was forced by public opinion. He was soon released from Devil’s Island in French Guiana.

5. 2003

   Europe’s first mission to the moon blasted off from French Guiana.

   Europe’s first mission to the moon blasted off aboard a European Ariane rocket from French Guiana. The SMART-1 probe made it to within 3,100 miles of the moon on Nov 15, 2004, and proceeded to move into an elliptical orbit. The spacecraft ended its mission Sep 3, 2006, when it crashed into the lunar surface.

6. 2009

   A French rocket carrying the largest space telescope ever was launched into space.

   A French rocket carrying the largest space telescope ever was launched into space on a mission that European scientists hope will help unravel the mystery of the universe’s creation. The Ariane-5 rocket was loaded with the Herschel space telescope and the Planck spacecraft, carrying a payload of 5.3 tons (4.81 metric tons) when it launched from the city of Kourou near the jungles of French Guiana.