1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
Federal News Network presents a daily update of important moments in the history of the U.S. government.
On Dec. 31, 1999, the U.S., in accordance with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, officially handed over control of the Panama Canal, putting the strategic waterway into Panamanian hands for the first time. Crowds of Panamanians celebrated the transfer of the 50-mile canal, which links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and officially opened when the SS Arcon sailed through on Aug. 15, 1914. Since then, over 922,000 ships have used the canal. The desire for a shortcut from the Atlantic to the Pacific originated with explorers in the early 1500s. But U.S. interest in building a canal was sparked with the expansion of the American West and the California gold rush in 1848. In 1880 a French company started digging a canal across the Isthmus of Panama and sold its project rights to the U.S. in 1902. In 1903, Panama declared its independence from Colombia in a U.S.-backed revolution and the U.S. and Panama signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, in which the U.S. agreed to pay Panama a perpetual lease on land for the canal. In 1977, responding to nearly 20 years of Panamanian protest, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Panama’s General Omar Torrijos signed two new treaties that replaced the original 1903 agreement and called for a transfer of canal control in 1999.
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