Lyman Cutlar shoots Charles Griffin's pig on San Juan Island touching off "the Pig War"

By 1859, the islands off Vancouver had attracted both British and American settlers. An altercation over the death of a pig saw a sixty man U.S. Army occupation of the main island in July, commanded by Captain George Picket. In response, Royal Marines were landed on another part of the island. Tensions were high for a time but were reduced as cooler heads prevailed. The so-called "Pig War" had no other casualties than the pig and the islands settled down to several decades of shared sovereignty. Eventually Britain ceded the San Juan Islands to the United States and retained the neighboring Gulf Islands. (By John Osborne)