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This article lists events from the year 2000 in The Bahamas .
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The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and 88% of its population. The archipelagic country consists of more than 3,000 islands, cays, and islets in the Atlantic Ocean, and is located north of Cuba and northwest of the island of Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos Islands, southeast of the U.S. state of Florida, and east of the Florida Keys. The capital is Nassau on the island of New Providence. The Royal Bahamas Defence Force describes The Bahamas' territory as encompassing 470,000 km2 (180,000 sq mi) of ocean space.
The economy of the Bahamas is dependent upon tourism and offshore banking. The Bahamas is the richest country in the West Indies and is ranked 14th in North America for nominal GDP. It is a stable, developing nation in the Lucayan Archipelago, with a population of 391,232 (2016). Steady growth in tourism receipts and a boom in construction of new hotels, resorts, and residences had led to solid GDP growth for many years. The slowdown in the Economy of the United States and the September 11 attacks held back growth in these sectors from 2001 to 2003.
Nassau is the capital and largest city of The Bahamas. It is located on the island of New Providence, which had a population of 246,329 in 2010, or just over 70% of the entire population of The Bahamas. As of April 2023, the preliminary results of the 2022 census of The Bahamas reported a population of 296,522 for New Providence, 74.26% of the country's population. Nassau is commonly defined as a primate city, dwarfing all other towns in the country. It is the centre of commerce, education, law, administration, and media of the country.
The earliest arrival of people in the islands now known as The Bahamas was in the first millennium AD. The first inhabitants of the islands were the Lucayans, an Arawakan language-speaking Taino people, who arrived between about 500 and 800 AD from other islands of the Caribbean.
Eleuthera refers both to a single island in the archipelagic state of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and to its associated group of smaller islands. Eleuthera forms a part of the Great Bahama Bank. The island of Eleuthera incorporates the smaller Harbour Island. "Eleuthera" derives from the feminine form of the Greek adjective ἐλεύθερος (eleútheros), meaning "free". Known in the 17th century as Cigateo, it lies 80 km east of Nassau. It is long and thin—180 km long and in places little more than 1.6 km wide. At its narrowest point, the Glass Window Bridge, which has been called the narrowest place on earth, Eleuthera stands 30 feet wide. Its eastern side faces the Atlantic Ocean and its western side faces the Great Bahama Bank. The topography of the island varies from wide rolling pink sand beaches to large outcrops of ancient coral reefs and the highest elevation point is 200 feet. The population is approximately 11,000 and the principal economy of the island is tourism.
Lynden Pindling International Airport, formerly known as Nassau International Airport, is the largest airport in the Bahamas and the largest international gateway into the country. It is a hub for Bahamasair, Western Air, and Pineapple Air. The airport is located in western New Providence island near the capital city of Nassau. The airport is named after Lynden Pindling, the first prime minister of the Bahamas.
The Cayman Islands national cricket team is the team that represents the British overseas territory of the Cayman Islands in international cricket. The team is organised by the Cayman Islands Cricket Association, which has been an associate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) since 2002, having previously been an affiliate member since 1997.
Viktor Kožený is a fugitive financier.
Margaritaville at Sea Paradise is a cruise ship owned by Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line and operating for Margaritaville at Sea. The ship was built in 1991 in Italy for Costa Cruises as Costa Classica. In 2000, a planned lengthening and refit was cancelled at the last moment. She was renamed Costa neoClassica in 2014, then left Costa fleet in 2018 when sold to Bahamas Paradise as Grand Classica. Since May 2022, the ship has been sailing as Margaritaville at Sea Paradise, after the cruise line announced a partnership with Margaritaville Resorts & Hotels.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the Bahamas have limited legal protections. While same-sex sexual activity is legal in the Bahamas, there are no laws that address discrimination or harassment on the account of sexual orientation or gender identity, nor does it recognize same sex unions in any form, whether it be marriage or partnerships. Households headed by same-sex couples are also not eligible for any of the same rights given to opposite-sex married couples.
Peter J. Nygård is a Finnish-Canadian businessman and former fashion executive. In 1967, he founded Nygård International, a Winnipeg-based company that initially was a sportswear manufacturer before producing women's apparel. He was rated the 70th richest Canadian by Canadian Business Magazine in 2009, with a net worth of CA$817 million, while in 2017 his net worth was estimated to be CA$900 million.
The Bahamas national cricket team is the team that represents The Bahamas in international cricket. The team is organised by the Bahamas Cricket Association (BCA), which became an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1987 and an associate member in 2017. The national team is first recorded as playing in 1983, but did not feature in an international tournament until 2001, when it played in the inaugural Americas Affiliates Championship. Since then, the Bahamas have regularly participated in ICC Americas tournaments, as well as on one occasion in a World Cricket League event. The team was also invited to the 2006 and 2008 Stanford 20/20 tournaments, where matches had full Twenty20 status.
David Mitchell was a Bahamian murderer who killed two German tourists in the Bahamas and was executed as a result. His is the most recent execution to be performed by the Bahamas.
The Bahamas has a strong bilateral relationship with the United Kingdom, represented by a High Commissioner in London. The Bahamas also associates closely with other nations of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
Capital punishment in the Bahamas is a legal punishment, and is conducted by hanging at Fox Hill Prison. The last execution in the country was on January 6, 2000. As of August 2012, only one convict, Mario Flowers, was under the sentence of death. Flowers' death sentence was commuted in 2016. Since independence from Britain, it has carried out more than a dozen executions.
Cannabis in the Bahamas is illegal.
Sir Cornelius Alvin Smith is a Bahamian politician and diplomat, who served as the 11th Governor-General of the Bahamas from 2019 to 2023.
The COVID-19 pandemic in the Bahamas was a part of the COVID-19 pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The outbreak was identified in Wuhan, Hubei, China, in December 2019, declared to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020, and recognised as a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020. It was confirmed to have reached the Bahamas on 15 March 2020 with the announcement of the first case.
Fox Hill Prison is the only prison in the Bahamas. Located in Nassau, the capital, it is operated by the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services. Fox Hill Prison has minimum, medium, and maximum security facilities for male prisoners. It also has one block for female prisoners, as well as a medical block.
Media related to 2000 in the Bahamas at Wikimedia Commons