94 Fun Facts About Grenada

Grenada is nicknamed the 'Island of Spice' chiefly for producing which spice, shown on its flag?

Nutmeg was Grenada's chief export crop when Hurricane Ivan struck in 2004; the storm wrecked most of the crop and crippled the island's biggest farm export.

What is the capital of Grenada?

St. George's began as the French town of Fort Royal; it was given its present name when Britain took over the island in the 1760s.

In 1974 Grenada became Britain's first associated state to gain what?

Independence came on 7 February 1974, with Eric Gairy as the first prime minister; the other five associated states followed between 1978 and 1983.

The 1979 coup that overthrew Eric Gairy was carried out by which Marxist-Leninist group?

The New JEWEL Movement seized power on 13 March 1979 while Eric Gairy was abroad, installing the People's Revolutionary Government in a nearly bloodless coup.

Who led Grenada's revolutionary government from 1979 until his execution in October 1983?

Maurice Bishop, a London-trained lawyer, was shot by his own army in October 1983; in 2009 Grenada renamed its main airport, begun under his government, in his memory.

The 1983 US-led invasion of Grenada was code-named what?

Operation Urgent Fury began at dawn on 25 October 1983, with US Army Rangers parachuting onto the unfinished Point Salines airstrip in the south of the island.

Reagan cited workers from which country building a 10,000-foot airstrip on Grenada as a particular worry?

Cuba had sent hundreds of construction workers to build the Point Salines runway; Reagan warned in March 1983 that it could serve Soviet and Cuban military aircraft.

The 25 October anniversary of the 1983 invasion is now a national holiday in Grenada called what?

Thanksgiving Day in Grenada has nothing to do with harvests or pilgrims: the 25 October holiday gives thanks for the 1983 US-led intervention that ended military rule.

Sprinter Kirani James won Grenada's first Olympic gold at London 2012 in which event?

Kirani James, 19, pulled clear off the final bend in London to win the 400 metres from another teenager, Luguelin Santos, giving Grenada a medal at its eighth Summer Games.

Hurricane Ivan in 2004 damaged or destroyed roughly what share of Grenada's homes?

90% of Grenada's homes were damaged or destroyed when Ivan struck in September 2004; the prime minister declared a national disaster, and the bill came to more than the island's yearly output.

Which is the larger of Grenada's two smaller inhabited islands?

Carriacou, about 13 square miles, is the largest of the Grenadines; its villagers still build wooden boats by hand and turn each launch into a celebration.

Columbus sighted Grenada in 1498 on his third voyage and is credited with naming it what?

La Concepción is the name Columbus is credited with giving the island when he sighted it in 1498; it never caught on, and the island was later renamed, most likely after the Spanish city of Granada.

Which east-coast Grenadian town, also known as La Baye, was named after a British prime minister of the 1760s?

Grenville honours a British prime minister of the same name, in office from 1763 to 1765, just as Britain was taking over Grenada; locals still use the older French name, La Baye.

The expedition that founded Grenada's first lasting European settlement around 1650 set out from which island?

Martinique's governor, Jacques Dyel du Parquet, led the settlers himself; within a few years they were at war with the island's Kalinago, who were all but wiped out.

Grenada was ceded by France to Britain in 1763 under an agreement signed in which city?

The 1763 Treaty of Paris handed Grenada to Britain; France recaptured the island in 1779 during the American War of Independence but returned it in 1783.

The 1795-96 revolt against British rule on Grenada, by rebels favouring a return to France, was led by whom?

Julien Fédon, a mixed-race planter from the Belvidere estate, led the 1795–96 uprising with backing from Revolutionary France; the British crushed it in June 1796 and Fédon vanished.

Which starchy fruit, brought from the Pacific in the 1790s, is the main ingredient of Grenada's national dish?

Breadfruit fills the pot; William Bligh's first attempt to fetch the trees from Tahiti ended in the mutiny on the Bounty, so he sailed again and landed them in the Caribbean in the 1790s.

Sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor opened the world's first what off Grenada's west coast in 2006?

The underwater sculpture park in Molinere Bay holds concrete figures, among them a ring of children holding hands, that corals and sponges are slowly turning into reef.

The active underwater volcano off Grenada's north coast is called what?

Kick 'em Jenny lies about 8 km north of Grenada, right under an inter-island shipping route, so vessels are kept out of an exclusion zone around it.

Grenada's most famous beach, three kilometres long in the south-west, is called what?

Grand Anse is a 3 km sweep of white sand just south of the capital; during the 1983 invasion, American students stranded at a campus there were flown out by helicopter.

Which of these Caribbean countries shares Grenada's currency, the East Caribbean dollar?

Saint Lucia is one of eight economies using the East Caribbean dollar; Barbados and Guyana both belonged to the currency union once, but each left to issue a dollar of its own.

As of 2025, who is Grenada's head of state?

King Charles III has been Grenada's head of state since September 2022; even the Marxist revolutionaries who seized power in 1979 never abolished the monarchy.

Grenada is the southernmost of which island chain?

Grenada is the southernmost of the Windward Islands, so called because sailing ships arriving on the trade winds met them upwind of the Leeward Islands to the north.

In 1983 Reagan called Grenada's long new runway suspicious because the island lacked even what?

An air force was his point: 'Grenada doesn't even have an air force,' he said on television; Grenada's government answered that the runway was for tourist jets.

Which crop, grown in Grenada since the early 1700s, is still one of the island's leading exports?

Cocoa arrived in the early 18th century and, as the big sugar estates collapsed, suited small plots, helping to create a class of land-owning farmers who still grow it.

The island's only endemic bird species is what kind of bird?

The Grenada dove, a shy ground-dwelling dove found nowhere else, is the national bird; its last strongholds are dry forest at Mount Hartman and Perseverance.

Grenada's carnival, held in August, is known as what?

Spice Mas, Grenada's carnival, peaks in August with J'ouvert morning, when oil-covered Jab Jab devils lead the parade through the streets.

After slavery ended in Grenada in 1834, what system bound the freed to estates until 1838?

Apprenticeship relabelled the enslaved as 'apprentices' bound to their former owners; it was meant to last until 1840 but was scrapped two years early, on 1 August 1838.

Roughly how many people lived in Grenada in 2024?

115,000 or so people lived in Grenada in 2024, a third of them around the capital; the total grows only slowly because so many Grenadians emigrate.

Which Grenadian prime minister governed from 1995 to 2008 and returned to power in 2013?

Keith Mitchell lost the 2008 election after 13 years in office, then stormed back in 2013 by winning every seat in parliament; he is Grenada's longest-serving prime minister.

As an 'Associated State' from 1967, Grenada left Britain in charge of what?

Defence and diplomacy stayed with London under the 1967 deal, while Grenada won full control of its own internal affairs, down to the power to rewrite its constitution.

Which deputy prime minister led the October 1983 coup against Grenada's revolutionary leader?

Bernard Coard, the deputy prime minister, led the hardline faction that put the prime minister under house arrest in mid-October 1983; within a week the leader was dead.

Grenada's four-day curfew after the 19 October 1983 killings threatened what for anyone leaving home?

To be shot on sight was the military council's warning to curfew-breakers; days later Reagan cited the 'shoot-to-kill curfew' when he explained the invasion to Americans.

Which neighbouring country governs most of the small islands lying between it and Grenada?

Saint Vincent governs about 32 of the islands and cays, as its full name, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, advertises; only the southern third of the chain belongs to Grenada.

The failed 1609 attempt to settle Grenada, abandoned within months, was made by which nation?

England's 1609 colony was abandoned within months and its survivors shipped home, though why it failed is not known for certain; Europeans did not settle Grenada for good for another 40 years.

Hurricane Emily, which struck Grenada in July 2005, later peaked at what strength?

Category 5 was Emily's peak, days after it crossed northern Grenada as a minimal hurricane on 14 July 2005, killing one person and tearing at roofs still under repair after Ivan.

Grenada-born Jean Augustine became the first Black woman elected to which country's parliament, in 1993?

Canada's House of Commons seated her for a Toronto district; two years later her motion made February Black History Month across the country.

Which calypso star, crowned Calypso Monarch eight times in Trinidad, was born in Grenada in 1935?

Mighty Sparrow, born Slinger Francisco in the fishing village of Grand Roy, was taken to Trinidad as a baby; both islands like to claim the man often called the Calypso King of the World.

In 2011, which was Grenada's largest religious denomination, at about a third of the population?

Roman Catholic worshippers were about 36% in 2011, the largest single church even after two centuries of British rule; Anglicans, the colonial establishment, were under a tenth.

Which Grenadian novelist wrote Angel (1987), set around the island's revolution?

Merle Collins worked for Grenada's revolutionary government, left for England after it collapsed in 1983 and there began Angel, her first novel, published in 1987.

Before 1984, Grenada's main airport was at which site on the east coast?

Pearls Airport on the east coast served Grenada from 1943 until the international airport at Point Salines opened in October 1984; its short runway could not take jets.

Which political newcomer became Grenada's prime minister after the June 2022 election?

Dickon Mitchell, a lawyer who had never held office, had led his party for only eight months when it won 9 of 15 seats in June 2022, denying the incumbent a sixth term.

Which Category 4 hurricane devastated Grenada's northern dependency islands on 1 July 2024?

Beryl came ashore on the smaller islands at Category 4, knocking out power to almost the whole country, and within a day became the earliest Category 5 Atlantic hurricane on record.

What do the seven gold stars on Grenada's flag represent?

Parishes: the stars count Grenada's six parishes plus its smaller-island dependency as a seventh, and officially also stand for the hopes and ideals on which the nation was founded.

Grand Etang, a lake high in Grenada's mountains, occupies what kind of geological feature?

Grand Etang fills one of the volcanic craters left by extinct vents; the island's rich soil and mountainous interior also betray its fiery origin.

Grenada's two bronze medals at the 2024 Olympics came in which two events?

Javelin and decathlon brought Grenada two bronzes in Paris, its first Olympic medals won by anyone other than Kirani James, who had taken one at each of the three previous Games.

By 108 votes to 9, which body condemned the 1983 invasion of Grenada?

The UN General Assembly passed the motion days after an American veto killed a similar Security Council text; asked about the vote, Reagan said it 'didn't upset my breakfast at all'.

Which American civil rights leader's mother, Louise, was born in Grenada?

Malcolm X's mother, Louise Langdon, grew up in the Grenadian village of La Digue and emigrated to Montreal, where she joined Marcus Garvey's movement and met his father.

Which introduced primate is common in Grenada's forests?

The mona monkey, a West African species, reached Grenada aboard slave ships in the 18th century and has lived wild in its forests ever since.

Grenada's 1979–83 revolutionary leader was born in 1944 on which island, home to a refinery?

Aruba: his father had gone there to work at an oil refinery, as did Eric Gairy, the man he would one day overthrow; the family went home in 1950.

Eric Gairy was addressing the UN on what subject when he was overthrown in March 1979?

UFOs were Gairy's cause at the UN: he had left for New York to press for flying saucers to be put on the world body's agenda when his opponents seized power at home.

Grenada's Jennifer Hosten won which pageant in London in 1970 as protesters threw flour bombs?

Miss World 1970 crowned Hosten, who is celebrated as its first Black winner; the result drew cries of a fix because Grenada's premier, Eric Gairy, sat on the judging panel.

Gairy's private militia that terrorised his opponents in the 1970s was known as what?

The Mongoose Gang beat and killed Gairy's opponents; in January 1974 its victims included the father of the man who would overthrow him five years later.

Which army general chaired the military council that seized Grenada after the killings of 19 October 1983?

General Hudson Austin, the army commander, ruled for only six days before the invasion; sentenced to death in 1986, he had the sentence commuted and walked free in 2008.

US troops flew into Grenada in 1983 from Grantley Adams airport on which island?

Barbados was the staging post: its prime minister, Tom Adams, son of the man the airport is named after, rallied Caribbean support for the invasion, and a Barbadian brigadier led the regional troops.

The Americans whose safety Reagan cited for invading Grenada in 1983 were mostly on the island to study what?

Medicine: hundreds of Americans attended an offshore medical school on the island, and Reagan said he feared they would be harmed or taken hostage, as US diplomats had been in Iran.

The 1983 invasion of Grenada was the largest US military action since which war?

Grenada was the largest US military operation since the Vietnam War; Reagan told the Medal of Honor Society that December that 'our days of weakness are over'.

Which world leader objected to the 1983 invasion of Grenada after learning of it only hours beforehand?

Margaret Thatcher, whose country shared a queen with Grenada, sent Reagan a late-night protest that changed nothing; he phoned her while the fighting was still going on to apologise.

Which group called the Grenada 17 the 'last of the Cold War prisoners'?

Amnesty International argued in 2003 that the 17, convicted over the 1983 killing of the prime minister, deserved a fair new trial; the last of them walked free in September 2009.

T. A. Marryshow of Grenada campaigned for decades for which cause, won in 1958?

A Caribbean federation was his life's cause, earning him the title Father of Federation; he died in October 1958, months after it was born, and it broke up in 1962.

Grenada's 1951 general strike, when so many buildings burned, became known by what name?

The 'Sky Red' days were named for the blazing estates; the governor shipped strike leader Eric Gairy off the main island, crowds rioted, and Britain called in the Royal Navy.

Which party swept all 15 seats in Grenada's House of Representatives in 1999, 2013 and 2018?

The New National Party took every seat three times, leaving parliament without a single elected opposition member; the losers in 2013 and 2018 were the National Democratic Congress.

As of 2025, which body is Grenada's final court of appeal?

The UK Privy Council in London still has the last word: Grenadians voted in 2016 and again in 2018 against handing final appeals to the Caribbean Court of Justice.

Grenada joined ALBA in 2014, an alliance built around Cuba and which other country?

Venezuela's Hugo Chávez launched ALBA with Cuba in 2004 as a left-wing alternative to a US-backed free-trade area; Grenada signed up ten years later.

Grenada-born soldier Johnson Beharry received which British medal in 2005 for saving comrades under fire in Iraq?

The Victoria Cross went to Beharry for twice driving his crew out of ambushes, the second time despite severe head wounds; he was the first living soldier to receive it since 1969.

Whose privateers briefly seized Grenada in 1675 before its colonial rulers retook it?

Dutch privateers seized Grenada in 1675 but held it only briefly before a warship retook the island for France, which had put it under its West India Company in 1664.

Which Grenadian town stands beside the cliff where Kalinago are said to have leapt to their deaths in the 1650s?

Sauteurs is French for 'jumpers': after an ambush by colonists, the last Kalinago in the area are said to have thrown themselves off the cliff now called Leapers' Hill.

Grenada's total land area is about twice that of which American city?

Washington, D.C., is roughly half the size of Grenada's 344 or so square kilometres; the main island is just 34 km long and 19 km across, so nowhere on it is far from the sea.

Which island lies about 100 miles south of Grenada?

Trinidad sits on South America's continental shelf, only a few miles off the mainland, so the next landfall south of Grenada is very nearly the continent itself.

Grenada's 1 May commemoration marks the 1857 arrival of the ship Maidstone, carrying indentured labourers from where?

India supplied indentured workers to Grenada's estates from 1857 into the 1880s; most never sailed home, and 1 May is now marked as Indian Arrival Day.

Which Grenadian distillery has crushed cane with a waterwheel since 1785?

River Antoine Rum Distillery in the island's north-east has crushed cane with a water-driven wheel since 1785, and is said to be the Caribbean's oldest working water-powered distillery.

Which British sports star's father comes from a Grenadian family?

Lewis Hamilton's father, Anthony, whose family came to Britain from Grenada, bought him his first go-kart and steered his racing career as his manager for years.

Which 1986 film ends with US Marines storming Grenada?

Heartbreak Ridge has Clint Eastwood drilling misfit Marines for the invasion; its title recalls a Korean War battle, and a Marine who fought in Grenada called its account totally inaccurate.

Which liner caught fire and sank off Grenada's capital in October 1961?

The Bianca C. caught fire after an engine-room explosion on 22 October 1961; a British frigate tried to tow the burning hulk clear, but it sank and is now the region's largest shipwreck.

The bronze statue that an Italian shipping line gave Grenada, after islanders rescued the passengers of its burning liner, depicts whom?

Christ of the Deep, cast from the same mould as a famous underwater statue near Genoa, stands on the capital's waterfront; Costa Line sent it in thanks for the rescue of about 700 people.

What did Grenada's offshore volcano send ashore when it erupted in 1939?

Tsunami waves reached northern Grenada and nearby islands after the eruption burst through the surface in July 1939; until that day nobody had known the volcano was there.

What is the title of Grenada's national anthem?

'Hail Grenada' was the country's second anthem in seven years: in 1974 it replaced a state anthem that had been adopted only in 1967.

Which animal stands beside a corn stalk as a supporter on Grenada's coat of arms?

An armadillo, locally the tatou, was chosen with the national bird to stand for the islands' wildlife; each supporter stands before a food crop, maize on one side and bananas on the other.

Which of Columbus's ships sails at the centre of Grenada's coat of arms?

The Santa María marks Columbus's sighting of Grenada in 1498, though the ship itself never saw the island: it had been wrecked off Hispaniola in 1492.

Grenada's national flower, worn as a garland on the coat of arms, is what?

Bougainvillea frames the crest of the arms; its showy colour comes from papery bracts, which many people mistake for petals, while the true flowers are tiny and white.

The invasion of Grenada began two days after a truck bomb killed 241 US servicemen in which city?

Beirut's Marine barracks were bombed on 23 October 1983; the ships that carried Marines to Grenada had been on their way to Lebanon, and Reagan covered both crises in one televised speech.

Oil down, Grenada's national dish, gets its name from being cooked in which liquid until absorbed?

Coconut milk is the liquid: the pot simmers until the milk is absorbed and only its oil is left at the bottom, which is what the name describes.

The Grenadian fishing town of Gouyave holds a weekly street food festival on which day?

Fish Friday fills Gouyave's streets with seafood stalls every Friday evening; the town also throws a boat-racing party, Fisherman's Birthday, each 29 June.

Which fort above Grenada's capital was the scene of the October 1983 executions?

Fort George had been renamed Fort Rupert by the revolutionaries in honour of their leader's murdered father; in 1983 the leader himself was shot in its courtyard.

Which country paid to rebuild Grenada's National Cricket Stadium after Hurricane Ivan wrecked it in 2004?

China funded the new stadium in time for the 2007 Cricket World Cup, two years after Grenada restored diplomatic ties with Beijing.

After a London 2012 semi-final, Kirani James swapped name bibs with which beaten rival?

Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee sprinter, finished last in the semi-final that James won; instead of celebrating, the Grenadian teenager embraced him and asked to swap bibs.

Which Grenadian beat India's Neeraj Chopra to defend his world title in 2022?

Anderson Peters threw 90.54 m in Eugene in July 2022 to retain the world title he had won in Doha in 2019, beating Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra into silver.

Lindon Victor broke a Grenadian record held by Kurt Felix, who is his what?

Brother: Kurt Felix set Grenada's national record at the 2015 World Championships, and Lindon Victor, his sibling, broke it the following year while still a college athlete in Texas.

Grenada's national football team plays under which nickname?

The Spice Boyz carry Grenada's 'Isle of Spice' tag onto the pitch; they have reached the CONCACAF Gold Cup three times, most recently in 2021, and lost all nine matches there.

Grenada has no Test side of its own, so batsman Devon Smith played Test cricket for which team?

The West Indies side pools players from fifteen Caribbean countries and territories; Smith, a left-handed opener, made his Test debut against Australia in 2003.

Grenada's currency has been pegged since 1976 at 2.70 to one unit of which other currency?

The US dollar has anchored the East Caribbean dollar at 2.70 since July 1976; before that, the region's money had been tied to the British pound.

Which island's prime minister stood beside Reagan as he announced the 1983 invasion of Grenada?

Dominica's prime minister chaired the Caribbean bloc whose appeal the White House cited; two days later Reagan stopped mid-speech to correct his own pronunciation of her island's name.

Callaloo, the leafy green of Grenadian cooking, is the young leaf of which root crop?

Taro, which Grenadians call dasheen, gives callaloo its young leaves, and that is how the plant ends up in the pot of the national dish, oil down.

Grenada's Point Salines airport was finished after the 1983 invasion with $19 million from which country?

The United States paid to finish the very runway its president had called a threat in 1983; the first commercial flight landed in October 1984.