History - Puerto Rico - page 464

Immigration from Puerto Rico to the US peaks as an estimated 75,000 Puerto Ricans
move to New York City. Almost one in 10 New Yorker residents are from Puerto
Rico.
1967
Puerto Rico holds first plebiscite on the issue of Puerto Rican statehood, but votes
overwhelmingly to remain a commonwealth; the independence parties gain only 1%
of the votes
1970
Marisol Maralet becomes the first Puerto Rican to win the title of Miss Universe.
Over the next 40 years, four more Puerto Ricans win the title, the most of any coun-
try in the contest's history.
1978
Two independence supporters are shot by police posing as revolutionary sympath-
izers in the Central Mountains; the incident exposes deep political fissures and gov-
ernment corruption.
1985
A mudslide following Tropical Storm Isabel kills 129 people in the hills near Ponce,
making it the island's worst natural disaster in a century.
1990
In an island-wide vote, Puerto Ricans declare Spanish to be the only official lan-
guage. This is reversed three years later, when the official languages are again Eng-
lish and Spanish.
1999
Major protests break out on the island of Vieques against the US Navy, following the
killing of islander David Sane Rodríguez during military target practice.
2000
Puerto Ricans elect ex San Juan mayor Sila Maria Calderón of the Popular Demo-
cratic Party as the first woman governor of the commonwealth.
2003
After four years of protests and 60 years of occupation, the US Navy pulls out of
Vieques; the former military land is promptly designated a US Fish and Wildlife
Refuge.