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The island became a dependency of Saint Helena in 1922 atter it transferred from the control of the Admiralty.
It is home to Wideawake Field , built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, as a refueling and staging station for aircraft flying between the Americas and Africa. Wideawake is also used by the RAF as a bridge to the Falkland Islands. The United States also maintains missile tracking sites on the island. The island served as a refueling station for the British Royal Navy during the Falklands War.
In 1982 when ArgentineArgentina is a Spanish-speaking country in southern South America, situated between the Andes in the west and the southern Atlantic Ocean in the east. It is bordered by Paraguay and Bolivia in the north, Brazil and Uruguay in the northeast and Chile in th forces invaded the Falklands, Ascension Island proved essential to British forces in their efforts to retake the islands from Argentina. Wideawake airfield became the busiest airport in the world as the RAF flew in supplies to aid the Task Force. A squadron of RAF HarrierSee also BAE Sea Harrier The Hawker Siddeley Harrier and the AV-8A are the first generation of the Harrier series, a successful close-support and reconnaissance fighter aircraft with V/STOL capabilities. The Harrier continues to serve today as the Harriers was based on the island to repel any possible Argentine attack. VulcanThe Avro Vulcan was a British built jet engined, delta-winged subsonic bomber, once part of the RAF's V bomber force. Design and prototypes Design work began at A. Roe in 1947 under Roy Chadwick, the Ministry of Defence specification required a bomber wit bombers of the RAF flew a series of long-range bombing attacks from Ascension Island, against the Falkland Islands ( operation Black BuckDuring the Falklands War, Operations Black Buck 1 to Black Buck 6 were a series of six extremely long-range bombing attacks by British Vulcan bombers on Argentine positions in the Falkland Islands. The missions flew from the British air base on Ascension).
The BBC World ServiceThe BBC World Service is one of the most widely recognised international broadcasters of radio programming, transmitting in 43 languages to around 150 million people throughout the world. The English service broadcasts 24 hours a day. Unlike the BBC's mai broadcasts its programmes to AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. 30,244,050 km2 (11,677,240 mi2) including the islands, it covers 20. 3% of the total land area on Earth, and with over 800 million human inhabitants it accounts for ar from the island. The British telecommunications company Cable & WirelessCable and Wireless is a British telecommunications company. In the mid-1980s United Kingdom it was the first company to offer an alternative telephone service to British Telecom, later offering cable TV, although this was sold to NTL in 2000. Historically also maintains a presence on the island, both are sources of revenue for Ascension.
There is no native population in Ascension Island.
It is famous as a nesting site for Atlantic sea turtleCaretta Lepidochelys Chelonia Eretmochelys Natator Dermochelys Sea turtles are large, ocean-dwelling turtles. There are seven species of sea turtle, all endangered: Family Cheloniidae Subfamily Carettinae Genus Caretta Caretta caretta Loggerhead Sea Turtls.
It is likely the island was named after the day of its discovery.