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Based on the IDL, and if territories are included, Wake Island is the easternmost point of the United States.
The Spanish discovered the uninhabitated island in 1568. The British visited it in 1796 and named it after Captain William WakeWilliam Wake ( 1657- 1737), English archbishop, was born in Blandford Forum, Dorset, on January 26 1657, and educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He took orders, and in 1682 went to Paris as chaplain to the ambassador Richard Graham, Viscount Preston (1648-. It was annexed by the United States on January 17January 17 is the 17th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 348 days remaining (349 in leap years) Events 1562 Huguenots were recognized under the Edict of St. 1773 Captain James Cook becomes the first explorer to cross the Antarctic Circl, 1899Events January events January 1 End of Spanish rule in Cuba. January 1 Queens and Staten Island merge with New York City. January 3 The first known use of the word " automobile", in an editorial in the New York Times''. January 6 Lord Curzon becomes a vic. In 1935Events January January 1 Italian colonies of Tripoli and Kyrenaika are joined together as Libya January 7 World War II: Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French foreign minister Pierre Laval conclude agreement in which each power undertakes not to oppo, Wake became a commercial air base on the route to AsiaThe continent of Asia is defined by subtracting Europe and Africa from the great land mass of Africa-Eurasia. The boundaries are vague, especially between Asia and Europe: Asia and Africa meet somewhere near the Suez Canal. The boundary between Asia and E.
In January 19411941 is also the title of a Steven Spielberg movie made in 1979 see 1941 (film). Events January January 6 Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address. January 10 Lend-Lease is introduced into the United St, the United States NavyThe United States Navy USN is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. Navy consists of slightly fewer than 300 ships and over 4,000 operational aircraft. It has over a half million men and women on active or ready re constructed a military base on the atoll. On August 19, the first permanent military garrison, elements of the 1st Marine Defense Battalion were stationed on the island. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Wake Island and the garrison repulsed the first Japanese landing attempt (one of only two times in World War II that an amphibious assault was unsuccessful) and sunk the first Japanese naval ship in World War II.
The second siege on the United States Wake garrison continued without resupply and Wake fell to the Japanese Special Landing Force on December 23, 1941 (the same day that General Douglas MacArthur begins withdrawal from Manila to Bataan). Henry Talmage Elrod was awarded the United States Medal of Honor posthumously for his action on the Island. The Japanese captured the men remaining on the island (of whom the majority were civilian contractors employed with Morrison-Knudsen Company). The story of the men was memorialized in the 1942 war movie, Wake Island. A special military decoration, the Wake Island Device was also created to honor those who had fought in the defense of the island.
On February 24, 1942, USS Enterprise attacked the Japanese garrison on Wake Island. The United States forces bombed the island from 1942 until Japan's surrender in 1945. On July 8, 1943, B-24 Liberators in transit from Midway Island bombed the Japanese garrison on Wake Island. George H. W. Bush also conducted his first mission as an aviator over Wake Island. Afterwards, Wake was occasionally raided, but never attacked en masse.
On October 7 1943, carrier planes from USS Yorktown conducted an extremely successful raid. Fearing an imminent invasion, Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara ordered the execution of the 98 American laborers who had been left on the island. They were taken to the northern end of the island, blindfolded, and machine-gunned. For his crimes, Sakaibara and his subordinate, Lieutenant-Commander Tachibana were sentenced to death. (Tachibana's sentence was later commutted to life in prison)
On September 4, 1945, the remaining Japanese garrison surrendered to a detachement of the United States Marine Corps. In a brief ceremony, the handover of Wake was officially conducted.
Subsequently the island was used for strategic defense and operations during the Cold War. It was administered by the United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command (formerly known as the United States Army Space and Strategic Defense Command).