A BUNCH OF KEY DATES
600 BC Bananas are first grown in Asia, possibly Malaysia. Alexander the Great enjoyed them in India in 327 BC . They are widely grown in Africa; the name comes from the Arabic word banan (finger).
1400s Spanish explorers bring bananas to the Caribbean. Cultivated in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, they're used as a cheap food for African slaves.
1800s Bananas are grown as far north as southern Florida, but not widely eaten in United States until this time.
1870 Cape Cod seaman Lorenzo Dow Baker brings a load of bananas from Jamaica to New Jersey. They quickly become popular as an exotic fruit.
1899 Baker forms United Fruit Co. The first refrigerated boat is launched in 1903.
1905 Enough bananas are imported to supply an average of 40 bananas a year for every person in the United States.
1928 Banana workers in Colombia strike and are massacred ; the event is later fictionalized by Gabriel García Márquez in "One Hundred Years of Solitude."
1930s Bananas and coffee make up 75 percent of Central America's exports.
1944 "Chiquita Banana" cartoon, based on Latin film star Carmen Miranda, becomes symbol for United Fruit.
1950 Poet Pablo Neruda's "La United Fruit Co." tells of exploitation of Latin America by banana companies.
1966-1971 Andy Warhol silk - screens bananas; Donovan sings "Mellow Yellow "; Woody Allen's film "Bananas" is a hit.
1990s Popular low-carb diets such as the Zone discourage bananas as too caloric.
2004-2007 As happened with coffee, bananas are sold under Fair Trade standards that require a living wage to growers. More pounds of bananas are sold than any other produce; they're among the best selling of all groceries.
