The islands are best known for being the home of the descendants of the Bounty mutineers and the Tahitians who accompanied them, an event retold in numerous books and films. Ducie Island atoll land area: 0.7 km² (total area: 3.9 km²), Henderson Island uplifted coral island 37.3 km², Oeno Island Atoll 0.65 km² (total area: 16.65 km²) and Pitcairn Island volcanic island 4.6 km². Pitcairn Islands island group 43.25 km² includes reef flat and lagoon of the atolls. Capital: Adamstown.

• There is considerable evidence of old occupation of the island by Polynesians; but the place was uninhabited when discovered by Europeans (Great Britain, in 1767). Occupied by mutineers from HMS Bounty. Contact with outsiders re-established 1808, by British authorities 1814.
• Fletcher Christian...............................23 Jan 1790 - 03 Oct 1793
• Fletcher Christian mutinied against its captain, Lieutenant William Bligh on 28 Apr 1789. Bligh escaped by open-boat journey to Coupang. Besides Thursday October (Born 1790), Fletcher Christian also had a younger son named Charles Christian (Born 1792) and a daughter Mary Ann Christian (Born 1793) from Mauatua 'Isabella'.
• Edward "Ned" Young...............................03 Oct 1793 - 25 Dec 1800
• Young was asleep during the mutiny, and did not wake until after it was over. Thus, he neither participated in the mutiny nor was able to fight against it or join Bligh and others who left the ship in a long boat. Young was the only crew member to sleep through this ordeal. However, he soon announced that he fully supported Christian and the mutineers, and that he would never attempt to return to England. After several years of living peacefully on the island, the Tahitian men grew tired of being treated badly, and not having as much access to the women as their white counterparts. Tension was also added by the pressure put on the colony by increasing alcoholism, after a small distillery was built by the mutineers. In October 1793, a war broke out between the mutineers and the four surviving Tahitian men who sailed with them. Five of the mutineers, including Christian, and all of the Tahitian men were killed. Young slept through most of this battle as well, and was protected by the Tahitian women, who largely supported the mutineers. Young did help to hunt down and kill Neho, one of the Tahitian men. The other three surviving mutineers were Matthew Quintal, William McCoy and John Adams. Young was accepted as the leader of the island, and Adams became his friend and deputy, though some sources seem to indicate that the two men had an equal amount of power. They gained much more respect than McCoy and Quintal, who became alcoholics. McCoy fell off a cliff, possibly as suicide, and Quintal afterwards became even more alcoholic and threatened to kill the entire community. Adams and Young killed Quintal to prevent this from happening, making themselves the only two surviving mutineers. Meanwhile they had established fruit plantations and had multitudes of children by their Tahitian wives. In 1799 Young began to suffer from asthma. At about the same time, he converted to Christianity. Adams and the other islanders also converted, and Young taught Adams and several of the children to read and write. Young's health became progressively worse and eventually he died of asthma, but Adams continued his work of educating the women and children, taking control over leadership of the island, and lived to see the island rediscovered by American and British ships.
• John Adams.......................................25 Dec 1800 - 05 Mar 1829
  He was the last survivor of the Bounty mutineers who settled on Pitcairn Island in January 1790, the year after the mutiny. His real name was John Adams; He used the name Alexander Smith until he was discovered in 1808 by Captain Mayhew Folger of the ship Topaz. His children used the surname "Adams". The American sailing ship Topaz was the first to rediscover Pitcairn in 1808. John Adams was eventually granted amnesty for the mutiny. On 17 December 1825 Adams was married to Teio, or 'Mary', Teio had already born Adams only son, George Adams in 1804. The main settlement and capital of Pitcairn, Adamstown, is named for John Adams. The death of John Adams led to a power vacuum. An important leader was Thursday October Christian, the first child born on the island. In the ensuing period, the islanders tried to relocate to Tahiti, until the arrival of Joshua Hill.
• No overall government............................05 Mar 1829 - 07 Mar 1831
• Island uninhabited (people transferred to Tahiti).....07 Mar - 03 Sep 1831
• No overall government............................03 Sep 1831 - Oct 1832
• Joshua Hill.........................................Oct 1832 - 1838
• He was an American adventurer. In 1832 he arrived on Pitcairn Island which was first inhabited in the 1790s by British mutineers from the HMS Bounty and some Tahitians who joined them. The descendants of the mutineers had recently migrated to Tahiti following the death of the last mutineer, John Adams, but had recently returned. Hill, taking advantage of the instability, was able to be elected President of the island. He served in that position until 1838. His rule became increasingly tyrannical, and he began imprisoning many of the island's inhabitants. He was deposed and driven off the island in 1838, and the descendants of the original inhabitants took control of the island again.
• Great Britain....................................29 Nov 1838 - 03 May 1856
• Island uninhabited (people to Norfolk Islands)...03 May 1856 - 17 Jan 1859
• Great Britain....................................17 Jan 1859 - date
  • Administered from Fiji.............................1952 - 1970
  • Administered from New Zealand......................1970 - date