| 1898 | August 22 | King Malietoa Laupepa dies. Chief Justice William Chambers, an American, assumes executive power as head of the Supervisory Committee imposed by the British, American and German consuls. |
| November 12 | Malietoa Laupepa's long-time rival, deposed King Mataafa, returned from exile in the Marshall Islands aboard a German warship is elected to the throne by the Samoan chiefs. |
| December 31 | Chief Justice Chambers by virtue of the right assigned to him under the Berlin Convention of 1889 rejects the election of Mataafa as king and chooses Malietoa Tanu, the late king's son, instead. The leading Germans in the Islands, Doctor Raffel, President of the Apia Municipal Council, and Doctor Rose, the German Consul, favor Mataafa while the British and Americans support Malietoa Tanu. |
| 1899 | January 4 | Mataafa's forces attack Malietoa Tanu's camp. Apia is thrown into chaos with fighting in the streets, looting, and burning buildings. Mataafa and his Samoan and German supporters gain the upper hand. A provisional Government headed by Doctor Raffel is appointed. |
| March 13 | The USS Philadelphia under Rear Admiral Kautz arrives in Apia joining a German and two British warships in the harbor. Admiral Kautz declares Malietoa Tanu the rightful King under the three power treaty which Germany was now rejecting, Mataafa and his supporters rebels and that the Americans and British will use force to put down the rebellion. British and American warships arrive in Apia. |
| March 15 | American and British warships shell Apia, accidentally hitting the German Consulate and coastal villages loyal to Mataafa. British and American troops take control of coastal roads but are unable to defeat the enemy in the interior. |
| April 1 | American and British forces land near Apia: 20 marines and 36 sailors from the USS Philadelphia and 62 Royal Marines and sailors from the HMS Tauranga under the command of Lieutenant Freeman RN and Lieutenant Philip Lansdale USN. They march on the German plantation at Vailele east of Apia intending to disperse a large force of Mataafa's warriors. Just outside the plantation some 800 warriors ambush them. Lieutenant Freeman is killed almost immediately by snipers hidden in the palm and banana trees. A Colt machinegun from the Philadelphia jams and Lieutenant Lansdale's thighbone ish shattered by a bullet as he attempts to fix it. Allied troops begin to retreat. Ensign John Monaghan USN tries to rally the men but the situation is hopeless. Monaghan then moves to protect the fallen Lieutentant Lansdale. Lansdale orders Monaghan to flee but Monaghan just shakes his head and aims his revolver at the oncoming Samoans. This was the last time the two were seen alive. |
| April 4 | The three Powers agree to send out a joint Commission of three members, which successfully restores tranquillity. Malietoa Tanu resigns and the administration is placed in the hands of the Consuls. |
| May 13 | A Joint Commission appointed by Great Britain, Germany and the United States arrives in Apia, "to exercise supreme authority in the islands and prepare a strong and stable government for the future." |
| June 10 | The American, British and German representatives establish a Provisional Government of Consuls with Doctor Wilhelm Heinrich Solf as Executive Director. |
| November 14 | The Joint Commission meets aboard the USS Badger in Apia Harbor and signs an agreement awarding the United States control of Tutuila, Aunu’u, Manu’a and 4 other small islands and atolls in eastern Samoa. The islands east of 171° west longitude are awarded to Germany. Great Britain withdraws its claims in Samoa in return for a free hand in Tonga and the Solomon Islands. |
| 1900 | February 16 | The United States Senate ratifies the treaty dividing control of Samoa between Germany and the United States. |
| February 17 | Commander Benjamin Franklin Tilley is appointed Commandant, U.S. Naval Station Tutuila. |
| February 19 | President McKinley places American Samoa under control of the Navy Department. |
| March 1 | Germany annexes the Samoan islands west of 171° west longitude. Kaiser Wilhelm II becomes Tupu Sili o Samoa (paramount king of Samoa). Governor Wilhelm Heinrich Solf reads the Kaiser’s proclamation taking the islands under his protection and hoists the Imperial flag of the consulate at Apia to the strains of Heil Kaiser, Dir and a salute from SMS Cormoran and the USS Abarenda. |
| March 12 | Commander Tilley and Luther Wood Osborn, the American Consul General in Apia, meet with Tui Manu'a Elisara and other chiefs on Ta'u. After the evening session of the fono, “opens with prayers and singing" Tuimanu'a hands Tilley "a letter, accepting gracefully for himself, the chiefs, and the people the sovereignty and protection of the United States of America, for the island[s] of Manua.” |
| April 17 | The Deed of Cession, drafted by Secretary of Native Affairs Edwin W. Gurr, is signed by the chiefs of Tutuila, American Samoa. |
| April 28 | Commander Tilley issues Regulation No. 3 An Ordinance to Prohibit the Supply of Intoxicating Liquors to Natives. |
| June 13 | Commander Tilley organizes the Fita-Fita Guard aka The Barefoot Navy. The initial complement of 58 Samoan recruits is trained by Marine Sergeant Jones. |
| 1901 | September 16 | Governor Solf issues a decree ending the Samoan custom of fa'atafea (banishment of wrongdoers) in German Samoa. |
| November 12 | A court martial acquits the Governor of American Samoa Benjamin Franklin Tilley for being, "in a state of intoxication, [lying] down amongst a number of native Samoans, both male and female," and for "[comporting] himself in a familiar and undignified manner with said natives” aboard USS Abarenda, en route from Apia to Pago Pago on May 15, 1901. |
| 1903 | March 28 | The first group of Chinese laborers arrives in Apia, German Samoa. Their term of service is three years, at the rate of ten Deutsche Marks per month. They work ten hours a day, six days a week, with holidays on major Chinese celebrations. |
| During the Year | Value of German Samoa’s copra exports falls by 300,000 marks despite a 10% increase in production. The decision of the American administration on Tutuila to buy copra from the natives and sell it directly to the San Francisco market rather than going through German middlemen is blamed for the drop in revenue. |
| 1905 | January | The council of indigenous tribal chiefs, headed by Mataafa, frees two imprisoned chiefs without consulting the German administration. The chiefs are re-incarcerated at the demand of the Deputy Governor Doctor Schultz. |
| April | The first transport of Chinese contract laborers, numbering 500, arrives in Apia. |
| August 4 | Mount Matavanu erupts on Savai’i’s northwest coast destroying nearly all of the Lealatele district and much of Saleaula. The inhabitants are relocated to Leauvaa and Salamumu respectively. |
| August 14 | German Samoa’s Governor, Wilhelm Solf, replaces the Tumua and Pule with a new council called the Fono a Faipule. October 20 |
| | American Samoa’s first Fono (legislature) is elected. October |
| | Planters meet in Apia to discuss measure to curb a rat infestation that is causing severe crop damage. |
| December 6 | The Governor of American Samoa bans the custom of Auosoga. The regulation defines “auosoga” as the willful damage or destruction of trees or property or any public indecent conduct upon the death of a person of rank or during the ceremony known as the lagi. |
| 1906 | | German settlers begin planting India rubber trees in Samoa. |
| | Telephone exchange established in Apia attracts 30 subscribers. |
| 1907 | January 7 | The Governor of American Samoa issues a regulation stating that, "The game of cricket and other games, when played between persons of one village against persons of another village, or between the people of one country against any other country, are prohibited, unless the written permission of the governor be first obtained, enabling such game to be played." Violators are subject to fines up to $15, or a prison term, "with or without hard labor" not to exceed 60 days. |
| August 14-15 | The tribal chieftans’ assembly (Fono) of German Samoa passes a resolution in favor of prohibiting future sale or lease of land by Samoans to Europeans. Governor Solf addresses the assembly on the need for Samoans to overcome the tendency towards laziness and decrees that future land sales shall be conducted in the presence of government experts and not without their approval. |
| During the Year | The Savai’I’ volcano continues to erupt. Releases of volcanic gas cause considerable crop damage. Governor Solf permits Chinese contract laborers to extend their stays in Samoa provided they exhibit proper behavior. |
| 1908 | May | American novelist Jack London arrives in Apia on a cruise aboard his yacht Snark. London delivers a lecture on the virtues of socialism before departing. |
| 1909 | April 19 | Governor Solf deports Lauaki Namulau'ulu Mamoe and 71 members of the "Mau a Pule" (the Savai'i Mau movement) from German Samoa to Saipan in the Mariana Islands. |
| August 31 | Johanna Solf, wife of German Samoa’s governor, gives birth to the couple’s first child, a daughter whom they name So'oa'emalelagi "One who has fallen from heaven”. |
| November 2 | Navy surgeon P. S. Rossiter discovers the first case of hookworm in American Samoa. Subsequent investigation reveals that 85% of the native population is infested with the parasites. |
| 1910 | | German doctors report 4 cases of leprosy and 2 cases of tuberculosis in Samoa. |
| | The first sighting of the rhinoceros beetle is made near the courthouse in Apia. The pest is thought to have arrived in German Samoa in a shipment of rubber stamps imported from Ceylon. Rhinoceros beetle damage threatens the copra harvest. |
| 1911 | September 10 | Mount Matavanu on the northwest coast of Savai’i ’ returns to dormancy after six years of sporadic eruptions. December 19 |
| | Erich Schultz-Ewerth succeeds Wilhelm Solf as Governor of German Samoa. |
| 1912 | October 24 | President Taft commissions Commander William Crose as “Governor of American Samoa”. Prior to this the territory’s governors had been commissioned as “Governor of Tutuila”. During the Year |
| | German Samoa’s budget is financed without subsidy from the mother country. The Governor of German Samoa abolishes the position of recognized High Chief following the death of Alii Sili Mataafa. |
| | German Samoa bans the native custom of burying the dead near their homes and establishes community cemeteries. |
| | Chinese restrictions on hiring indentured labor threaten the economic vitality of German Samoa’s cocoa and rubber plantations. 1913 |
| | The German administration a wireless telegraphy station is established in Apia. |
| 1914 | August 5 | Governor Schultz-Ewerth meets with members of the administration to discuss war strategy. He decides not to resist an invasion as the loyalty of Samoans to German interests is considered doubtful. |
| | The Government of German Samoa ships 100,000 marks (mostly in silver) to the Deutsche Handels und Plantagens Gesellschafts (DHPG) Pago Pago office in the neutral American islands. |
| August 6 | New Zealand's Governor General, the Earl of Liverpool, receives a telegram from London urging him to seize German Samoa and take control of the radio station there. Liverpool replies immediately, agreeing to capture German Samoa. |
| | The German steamer Staatssekretär Solf arrives in Pago Pago, American Samoa seeking refuge from possible capture by the British. She remains in Pago Pago, flying the German flag, until the United States declares war on Germany and seizes her. |
| August 12 | The German steamer Elsass leaves German Samoa and joins the Solf in internment in neutral American Samoa. |
| August 20 | The German radio station in Apia ceases transmissions. |
| August 27 | The New Zealand Expeditionary Force, consisting of the battlecruiser HMAS Australia, light cruisers HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Sydney, the French armored cruiser Montcalm, the New Zealand Squadron's light cruisers HMNZS Psyche, HMSNZ Philomel and HMNZS Pyramus, and the Union Steamship Company vessels Moeraki and Monowai, departs Fiji on the final leg of its voyage to German Samoa. |
| August 28 | Governor Erich Schultz-Ewerth orders the Apia radio station destroyed to keep it out of British hands. The Governor then leaves town to attend a conference of orators and chiefs as well as to avoid the indignity of surrendering the colony. |
| August 29 | The New Zealand Expeditionary Force lands unopposed and occupies German Samoa with 1,473 men. Acting Governor S.N. Rimberg surrenders after several delays. |
| August 30 | Chinese indentured laborers leave the plantations and gather in front of the Apia courthouse after learning of the New Zealand landings. Their mood is sullen. Samoan Police undertake their first assignment for the new authorities and set about clearing Beach Road of the Chinese, using clubs. |
| August 31 | New Zealand’s administrator, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Logan, raises the New Zealand flag over the Governor's official residence, Vailima (the former home of Robert Louis Stevenson), HMNZS Psyche provides a 21-gun salute |
| September 1 | Lieutenant Colonel Logan informs an assembly of Samoans that his government will be similar to the German administration for the time being. |
| September 11 | The New Zealand Expeditionary Force departs for New Zealand with a group of German prisoners, including Governor Erich Schultz-Ewerth. |
| September 14 | The German battleships SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau under command of Admiral von Spee, sail into Apia Harbor, hoping to trap the New Zealand Expeditionary Force’s escort squadron. A small schooner is the only ship in the harbor so von Spee sails along the coast to Mulifanua, where he converses with a German planter before sailing away to the Falkland Islands. |
| November 6 | Lieutenant Colonel Logan orders a complete halt to postal service between Samoa and Germany. The last consignment of mail that reaches Samoa is burnt in sight of the German residents. |
| December 5 | Captain Tottenham of the New Zealand occupation force proclaims a ban on the production, sale, and purchase of liquor except for medicinal purposes. The Samoans remain unperturbed. They still prefer kava but the Europeans are stunned by the abrupt halt in Apia’s vibrant social life. December 24 |
| | Hundreds of drunken New Zealanders loot German stores in Apia and steal anything that looks drinkable. Afterwards about forty of them showed up at the Administrator’s residence and urged him to go home to New Zealand and tend his sheep. |
| 1915 | May 13 | Lieutenant Colonel Logan declares, "Loafing" to be a crime punishable by a fine not to exceed 30 shillings. |
| June 5 | American Samoa's Governor ends prohibition on the sale of liquor. |
| 1916 | August 29 | The United States Congress appropriates funds for construction of a radio station at the Tutuila Naval Station. |
| 1917 | January 30 | Lieutenant Colonel Robert Logan, the New Zealand Administrator of Western Samoa, issues a proclamation forbidding Chinese laborers from entering Samoan houses and forbidding the Samoans from allowing them to do so. Punishment for violations is set as a "fine not exceeding £5, or by imprisonment with labor not exceeding six weeks." |
| February 5 | Lieutenant Colonel Logan declares that anyone found in the vicinity of the internment camp in Sogi, Apia (where many Mau members were incarcerated) would be guilty of a "war crime." |
| April 7 | The United States declares war on Germany. The U.S. Navy seizes the German ships Staatssekretär Solf and Elsass, interned in Pago Pago Harbor. |
| April 18 | The 42 officers and ratings of the German ships seized in Pago Pago are taken to Hawaii. |
| June 15 | The German steamer SS Staats-sekretär Solf is recommissioned as the USS Samoa following an overhaul at the Pago Pago naval station. |
| June 26 | A powerful earthquake shakes Samoa. The first tremor is felt at 6:23 p.m. buildings shake violently; iron roofs rattle; ornaments, glasses and crockery topple from shelves and the ground rocks. The German built observatory at Mulinu’u registers the quake at 8.3 on the Richter scale. September 29 |
| | Four men arrive in Pago Pago, American Samoa in an open boat and report their schooner destroyed by Count Felix von Luckner’s German raider SMS Seeadler. |
| 1918 | January 10 | The Governor General of New Zealand telegraphs the Administrator of Western Samoa requesting him to provide evidence, "that the natives of Samoa appreciate, and desire to remain under, British rule." |
| February 11 | New Zealand’s Governor-General informs the British Secretary of State for the Colonies that, "The high chiefs and chiefs [of Western Samoa] are practically unanimous in wishing to remain under British rule.” |
| November 3 | Spanish influenza is reported aboard SS Sonoma, which has docked in Pago Pago. The ship is quarantined and the cargo fumigated. American Samoa is one of the few places on the globe spared the effects of the pandemic. |
| November 7 | The SS Talune arrives in Apia Harbor from Auckland. The ship’s captain informs the port medical officer that one elderly passenger was sick back in New Zealand and a couple of young Samoans had complained of headaches the day before but everyone seems fine today. The doctor questions the passengers then gives the Talune a clean bill of health. The ensuing epidemic kills 7,542 people in Western Samoa. November 20 |
| | Western Samoa's Administrator, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Logan spurns an offer from the Governor of American Samoa to send volunteer medical personnel to Western Samoa to assist with the treatment of influenza victims. |
| November 28 | Western Samoa's Administrator, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Logan, orders all wireless communication with American Samoa cut. Logan is angered by American Samoa's quarantine of all ships. |
| 1919 | April 10 | The German silver coinage which was shipped to the Pago Pago office of Deutsche Handels und Plantagens Gesellschaft at the beginning of World War I is discovered buried in the rear of a building formerly owned by the DHPG by the Sheriff of American Samoa. |
| June 14 | Mau leader O.F. Nelson writing in the Samoa Times, says that New Zealand accepts a task beyond its capabilities in attempting to administer Western Samoa. He cites the mishandling of the influenza epidemic and the proclamation banning the importation of liquor as evidence. |
| June 21 | A New Zealand Royal Commission arrives in Apia to investigate the influenza pandemic. |
| June 28 | Treaty of Versailles terminates German rights in Samoa granted under the Convention of 1899. |
| 1920 | May 1 | The New Zealand Parliament passes a bill authorizing the government to establish a civil administration in Western Samoa. |
| June 13 | The steamer Main arrives in Apia to pick up German nationals for repatriation. Four Germans decide to remain in Samoa. One hundred ninety, including seventy-two children, decide to leave. All deportees are issued 800 marks; 500 marks in rapidly depreciating paper and 300 in coin. |
| August 25 | His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales visits Western Samoa aboard HMS Renown. |
| November 3 | The Governor of American Samoa, Commander Warren Jay Terhune, commits suicide with a pistol in the bathroom of Government House. |
| November 5 | A Naval Court of Inquiry, presided over by Captain Waldo Evans, arrives on board the USS Kansas to investigate the Governor’s dealings with the Mau Movement in American Samoa. They are informed of the Governor’s suicide and Captain Evans is appointed to succeed him a few days later. December 17 |
| | The League of Nations ratifies New Zealand’s mandate over Western Samoa. |
| 1921 | February 22 | Western Samoa's Administrator, Colonel Robert Ward Tate expresses his opinion of the Mau Movement in a letter to the Governor of American Samoa. The New Zealander declares, "This idea of equal rights for white and browns is responsible for much of the unrest. It is too strong meat for them and their attempts to apply the idea are ludicrous at some times---pitiful at all times. They would like to govern the country themselves, and their only notion is the autocratic rule of chiefs.” |
| July 1 | Governor Evans informs the Navy Department that he has undertaken constructive and sympathetic measures to redress the grievances of the Mau and that the movement no longer presents a problem in American Samoa. |
| 1922 | July 4 | The new Governor of American Samoa, Captain Pollock, recited the Declaration of Independence at July 4th celebration and has a Samoan translation published in the territorial newsletter. The New Zealand administration in Western Samoa expresses concern. |
| 1924 | January 1 | The Governor of American Samoa issues a regulation banning the Samoan customs known as lau'ava and aitagi (death feast) practiced in the Manu'a islands. |
| 1925 | August 11 | Margaret Mead arrives in American Samoa aboard SS Sonoma to begin the fieldwork for her doctoral dissertation in anthropology at Columbia University. |
| 1926 | May 24 | New Zealand's Governor General, Sir Charles Fergusson and Lady Fergusson visit American Samoa on Victoria Day. |
| 1927 | March 8 | The Governor of American Samoa declares that, “ In view of the fact that so much time has been wasted since the beginning of this year in cricket games between villages (some of which were played without authority), no permission will be granted for malagas until further orders.” March 19 |
| | An Apia citizen’s committee forms the Samoa League which becomes known as the Mau (Samoan for opinion or protest). May 26 |
| | The first issue of Western Samoa Mau movement’s newpaper, The New Zealand Samoa Guardian, is published. |
| June 11 | New Zealand External Affairs Minister William Nosworthy meets with the leaders of the Western Samoan Mau movement. Afterwards Nosworthy branded the European and half caste members of the movement’s leadership as self-seeking intriguers and called their conduct, “nothing less than criminal.” |
| June 15 | Western Samoa's Administrator, Sir George Richardson, issue a proclamation ordering the Mau to disband. |
| June 17 | The Samoa Times reports that New Zealand's Minister of External Affairs has recommended amendment of the Samoa Act of 1920 to allowed deportation of disaffected Europeans and half castes. |
| July 23 | Prime Minister Coates tells the New Zealand Parliament that, "the Samoans are a backward people" with a weakness for politics, are "susceptible to agitation and rumor”, during a second reading of the Samoa Amendment Bill. |
| September 12 | The New Zealand Government appoints a Royal Commission to investigate complaints against Sir George Richardson's administration of Western Samoa. |
| December 21 | New Zealand's Governor-General, Sir Charles Fergusson, signs an Order-in-Council giving Western Samoa's Administrator the power to deport Mau leaders Olaf Frederick Nelson, Edwin William Gurr and Alfred Smyth. |
| 1928 | January 13 | Western Samoan Mau leader Olaf Frederick Nelson i deported to exile in New Zealand. |
| January 21 | The Mau impose a boycott on all European and half caste owned stores in Apia, including O.F. Nelson and Company. |
| February 13 | Western Samoa Administrator Sir George Richardson telegraphs Wellington requesting that three warships be sent to Samoa immediately and secretly. Richardson declares that the Mau are in a, "defiant and dangerous" mood. |
| February 21 | HMNZS Dunedin and HMNZS Diomede sail into Apia Harbor and drop anchor in the main channel. The squadron commander, Commodore Swabey, goes ashore to meet Western Samoa's Administrator, Major General Sir George Richardson. Swabey observes that "the law is not quite functioning," but that the streets "are quite orderly and the Mau respectful." |
| February 24 | A detachment of Royal Marines and Naval officers from the cruisers HMNZS Dunedin and HMNZS Diomede lands at the Customs and Tivoli wharves in Apia. They surround a crowd of 400 Mau members and place them under arrest. The Mau make no attempt to resist and are taken to Vaimea Jail which is too small to hold them. |
| March 21 | New Zealand's Minister of External Affairs, relieves Sir George Richardson of his duties as Administrator of Western Samoa and orders him home on the next ship. |
| 1929 | June 17 | The Chief of Western Samoa’s police force issues an order that, "all European police on duty will carry loaded revolvers and ten spare rounds of ball cartridges in addition to baton and handcuffs. All men off duty will at all times carry batons, out of sight, and have their revolvers where they can be quickly and readily got at.” August 6 |
| | The cruiser Emden anchors off Apia in first official German visit to Western Samoa since 1914. Two hundred local residents, mostly Germans and part-German afakasis, go aboard to visit. |
| December 28 | Black Saturday: Mau leader Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III is killed by New Zealand Army sniper during a demonstration. |
| 1930 | January 12 | HMNZS Dunedin sails into Apia Harbor with a detachment of Royal Marines and a seaplane aboard. Western Samoa's Administrator requested the forces to hunt down Mau members who are hiding in the bush. |
| January 13 | The Administrator of Western Samoa declares the Mau a seditious organization. |
| February 18 | Commodore Geoffrey Blake of HMNZS Dunedin tells the Auckland Star, "It has been said---and it is true within certain limits---that the Samoan is very childlike and can be easily led. On the other hand, at the present moment he is in the position of a sulky and insubordinate child who had deliberately disobeyed his father, as the Administrator is generally termed, and no peaceful persuasion will induce him to submit. There is no alternative therefore, but to treat him roughly.” |
| February 19 | New Zealand Defense Minister John Cobbe arrives in Apia to discuss the status of Colonel Allen's administration and his dealings with the Mau. Cobbe declares himself, “shocked” by Allen’s belligerent attitude. |
| March 10 | Defense Minister John Cobbe tells the New Zealand cabinet that, "I am of the opinion that had the Mau movement been handled by the Administration in Tutuila, it could have been used for the advancement of Samoa and might have become a power for good." |
| March 12 | HMNZS Dunedin sails for Auckland with sixty-one men on the sick list and the seaplane ruined beyond repair. Captain Spicer and the marines remain behind to ensure that the Mau do not rise again. |
| 1931 | April 21 | Western Samoa's Chief Judge, John Luxford, finds O.F. Nelson & Co., Ltd. guilty of 28 charges of "aiding and abetting" the Mau. He levies a fine of £200 for each charge, for a total of £5,600, and adds this comment: "I know of nothing more deserving of censure and condemnation than actions of a European or European corporation deliberately encouraging members of a somewhat unsophisticated native race to break the law." |
| 1932 | October 19 | Australia's Pacific Islands Monthly publishes an editorial declaring that the intransigence and racism of Western Samoa's New Zealand Administration is sustaining the Mau. The Monthly opines that, "Important powers were placed in the hands of men who might have successfully governed African niggers, but who had absolutely no knowledge or understanding of the high Polynesian natives.” without noticing apparently noticing the hypocrisy of its own languages. |
| November 22 | New Zealand's Administrator of Western Samoa, Brigadier General Herbert Ernest Hart, hosts a dance in honor of the Governor of American Samoa. No Samoans are invited, nor are any officials married to Samoans. |
| 1933 | March 3 | Western Samoa's Chief Judge, John Luxford, finds Mau leader O.F. Nelson guilty of sedition, and sentences him to eight months in jail and ten years in exile. |
| May 16 | Mau leader Olaf Frederick Nelson returns to Western Samoa from exile in New Zealand. |
| November 16 | Police raid the home of Olaf Frederick Nelson's in Tua'efu and seize documentation, which Administrator Herbert Hart claims to contain, “a good indication of the activities and intentions of the Mau, showing steady and regular progress in a definitive attempt towards control and government of the territory.” |
| November 23 | Mau leader Olaf Frederick Nelson is arrested and charged with sedition. |
| 1934 | January 15 | Alfred Matthes, a German planter in Western Samoa, is authorized to establish a branch of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) by NSDAP District Leader E.W. Bohle. |
| February 1 | The German cruiser Karlsruhe arrives in Apia to begin a 5 day goodwill visit. |
| March 28 | Exiled Mau leader Olaf Nelson is moved from Christchurch's Paparua Prison to Wellington Prison, and was released the next day on a £500 bond. His sedition conviction is upheld, but the prison sentence is reduced to time served. His ten-year banishment from Samoa remains in effect. |
| 1936 | April 8 | New Zealand's newly elected Prime Minister, Michael Joseph Savage of the Labour Party, terminates Mau leader Olaf Nelson's exile, saying that, "We believe that the return of Mr. Nelson will be taken as evidence of our intention to secure the cooperation of all sections of the Samoan people.” |
| May 20 | Alfred Matthes and Gerhard Stoeicht---German residents of Western Samoa---leave Apia for Germany as Samoa's representatives to the Nazi Party's World Congress in Hamburg, Germany. |
| June 24 | Western Samoa's Acting Administrator, Alfred Clarke Turnbull, revokes the order declaring the Mau to be a seditious organization. |
| July 22 | Mau leader Olaf Frederick Nelson returns from exile. 15,000 people turn out to welcome his arrival aboard the SS Maui Pomare. |
| 1937 | January 20 | Alfred Matthes and Gerhard Stoeicht, founders of Western Samoa's National Socialist German Workers' Party, return to Apia from the Nazi Party's World Congress in Hamburg, Germany. |
| March 24 | Pan American World Airways' Samoan Clipper, a Sikorsky S-42B flying boat piloted by Captain Ed Musick, lands in Pago Pago Harbor on the first leg of her maiden flight from Honolulu, Hawaii to Auckland, New Zealand. |
| 1938 | January 11 | Pan American World Airways' Samoan Clipper explodes northwest of Tutuila shortly after taking off from Pago Pago Harbor. No survivors are found. |
| January 16 | Paul Hessmann arrives from Germany to open a German school at Vaimea, Western Samoa. The school is supported by subscriptions from local Germans. |
| December 11 | The newly appointed German Consul to New Zealand, Ernst Ramm, arrives in Apia for a visit. Ramm is met by Mr. F.M. Jahnke a representative of the Concordia Club Party which is composed of both Germans and part-German afakasi. |
| 1940 | December 20 | The U.S. Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Stark, directs the Governor of American Samoa to make suggestions for formation of, “a Native Insular Force” to be trained by the Marine Corps and employed in Samoa as lookouts and beach guards. 1941 |
| January 9 | A U.S. Navy board chaired by Lieutenant Commander N.W. Sears prepares a joint plan for the defense of Samoa. The defenses include four 6-inch guns, six 3-inch guns and fourteen 50-caliber antiaircraft guns. Provisions are also made for patrol vessels, coast watchers and mine warfare. |
| March 15 | The U.S. Marine Corps' 7th Defense Battalion arrives in Pago Pago. |
| June 21 | Antisubmarine nets are hung across the entrance to Pago Pago Harbor. |
| July 10 | The First Samoan Battalion of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves is organized. All recruits are enlisted as privates and paid 70 cents a day. |
| July 30 | An investigation of possible fifth columnists on Tutuila concludes that three of eight and one of three Japanese investigated might be considered dangerous to the security of the islands. One American was investigated and cleared of suspicion. |
| 1942 | January 5 | The U.S. Navy begins mining the approaches to Pago Pago Harbor. |
| January 11 | A Japanese submarine surfaces off the coast of Tutuila and fires its deck gun at the U.S. Naval Station for about ten minutes. Commander Edwin Robinson is wounded in the knee by a piece of shrapnel and a member of the Fita Fita Guard received minor injuries. The fire was not returned in the only Japanese attack on Samoa during World War II. |
| January 17 | Admiral Nimitz appoints Brigadier General Henry L. Larsen, USMC, Military Governor and Island Commander of Tutuila. The Governor of American Samoa, Captain Laurence Wild, USN, is senior to Larsen in position, but junior to him in rank. Nimitz clarifies the situation with a telegram to Larsen, "...YOU ARE APPOINTED MILITARY GOVERNOR OF AMERICAN SAMOA ... YOU ARE AUTHORIZED AND EMPOWERED TO EXERCISE EXCLUSIVE AUTHORITY AND JURISDICTION OVER AMERICAN SAMOA INCLUDING THE ENTIRE CONTROL OF THE GOVERNMENT THEREOF. GOVERNOR OF AMERICAN SAMOA HERETOFORE APPOINTED OR HIS SUCCESSOR SHALL CONTINUE TO EXECUTE AND FULFILL DUTIES OF THE OFFICE OF GOVERNOR OF AMERICAN SAMOA ACCORDING TO LAW BUT WILL IN ALL RESPECTS AND PARTICULARS BE SUBJECT YOUR ORDERS AND DIRECTIONS...” |
| January 23 | An American carrier taskforce under command of Admiral William F. Halsey and Matson Line ships carrying the 2nd Marine Brigade arrive in Pago Pago. |
| January 25 | General Larsen orders 5 Germans, 1 Japanese and 1 naturalized American citizen of Swedish birth to be taken into custody and sent to the mainland for internment. |
| March 7 | General Larsen orders 4 resident enemy aliens (three Japanese and one German) in American Samoa released from custody and kept under observation. |
| March 13 | Japanese Imperial Army Headquarters approves plans for an offensive aimed at New Caledonia, Fiji and Samoa. |
| March 14 | Western Samoa's Administrator, Alfred Clarke Turnbull, informs General Larsen that New Zealand's Prime Minister has directed him to give the Americans full and free use of all land and other facilities for all war purposes. |
| March 17 | American forces occupy the island of 'Upolu in Western Samoa. |
| March 20 | General Larsen and Lieutenant Colonel F.L. Hunt of the New Zealand Army sign an agreement providing for the occupation of Western Samoa by American forces. |
| April 6 | Utah Construction Company completes the first runway of the Tafuna Air Base. |
| April 28 | The Samoan Area Defense Force is established on Tutuila under the command of General Charles Price. Price later opposes a Marine Corps proposal to send Negro Marines to Samoa . The general warns of the danger of contact between Blacks and the “primitively romantic” Polynesian women. Mixture of the Polynesian with the white race and the Chinese has produced desirable results, says Price, but, “the Union of Blacks and Polynesians has to be guarded against." |
| July 1 | The commandant of the U.S. Naval Station Tutuila recommends that the tour of duty for all personnel on Tutuila be reduced from 18 to 12 months, because "the climate is bad for most Caucasians," and "because of the danger of filariasis." |
| July 11 | Japanese Army Imperial General Headquarters cancels the proposed offensive to capture of New Caledonia, Fiji and Samoa. |
| July 29 | The SS Lurline, a Matson Liner converted to troop transport, survives an attack by a Japanese submarine 24 miles northeast of Tutuila. |
| August 27 | The first group of sailors and marines wounded on Guadalcanal arrives at the Navy's Mobile Hospital No. 3 at Mapusaga, Tutuila. |
| August 29 | Marines wounded on Tulagi in the British Solomon Islands arrive at the Naval Hospital at Mapusaga, American Samoa. |
| November 26 | Captain Edward V. Rickenbacker, America's leading ace in World War I is released from the U.S. Navy's Mobile Hospital No. 3 in Mapusaga. Rickenbacker and his companions spent 22 days in a raft after their plane went down, on a flight to Australia. |
| December 9 | The U.S. Marine Corps' 1st Replacement Battalion arrives on Tutuila from New River, North Carolina for jungle training. |
| 1943 | July 29 | The U.S. Navy’s malaria control officer for the South Pacific reports that filariasis is as high as 50 to 70 per cent in some of the units on Tutuila though none are reported at the Naval Station. Until this time it was thought that Caucasians were immune to the disease as no cases had been contracted by them during the the Navy’s previous four decades in the islands. August 24 |
| | Eleanor Roosevelt inspects the Fita Fita Guard and Band, and the First Samoan Battalion of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve at the U.S. Naval Station Tutuila |
| September 30 | The U.S. Marine Corps airstrip at Leone is completed. Turbulent air currents force abandonment of the strip after only two planes took off and landed. |
| 1944 | | A German court convicts Johanna Solf, widow of former German Samoa Governor Wilhelm Heinrich Solf, and her daughter Countess Ballenstrem-Solf of helping Jews escape to England. They are incarcerated at Berlin's Moabit Prison, and later at Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. |
| 1945 | January 1 | Submarine detection gear removed from Pago Pago Harbor. |
| 1946 | July 29 | New Zealand announces that captured German records list 12 Nazi Party members in Samoa. |
| December 13 | Western Samoa becomes a United Nations Trust Territory administered by New Zealand. |
| 1951 | | Administration of American Samoa is transferred from the Navy to the Interior Department. |
