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Kiribati consists of 33 coral atolls that reach no more than 6
feet above sea level.
(SFC, 6/14/13, p.A8) 1798
Edmund Fanning, an American explorer, 1st charted Tabuaeran coral
atoll (part of the Gilbert Islands). Fanning Island Plantations Ltd.
owned the island through the 1800s and exported coconuts.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.C22)
1892-1937 The Gilbert Islands (Kiribati Islands)
were amalgamated as British possessions.
(WSJ, 1/22/96, p.A-1)
1937 Jul 2, Amelia Earhart and
navigator Fred Noonan left Lae in Papua, New Guinea and disappeared
over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first
round-the-world flight at the equator. The two had set out in
Earhart's twin-engine Lockheed Electra, taking off from Oakland,
Calif., for Miami on May 21. They flew across the Atlantic from
Brazil to Africa, then reached Calcutta on June 17, having made 15
stops thus far. They failed to arrive at their scheduled stop at
Howland Island. Radio operators received messages from Earhart
saying that they had to be close and were circling, searching for
land, but radio contact was lost and the two were never heard from
again. Noonan was alcoholic and had been on a binge the night
before. Radioman Leo Bellarts was the last person to communicate
with Earhart. Errors from the US Coast Guard cutter Itasca were
later identified as contributing to the disappearance.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.A8) (SFC, 5/20/97, p.A12) (AP,
7/2/97) (SFEC, 7/6/97, p.B10) (HNPD, 7/2/99)(SFC, 7/1/00, p.A1,11)
1940 British soldiers found
bones on Gardner Island, later renamed Nikumaroro Island, in
Kiribati that they suspected might be the remains of Amelia Earhart.
A report identifying the remains as those of a male was forwarded to
England but not to America. In 1998 the bones were identified as
belonging to a woman about 5 foot 7, of northern European
extraction.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.A4)
1942 Aug 17, Marine Raiders
attacked Makin Island (Kiribati) in the Gilbert Islands from two
submarines. [see Aug 18]
(HN, 8/17/98)
1942 Aug 18, Carlson's Raiders
landed on Makin (Kiribati) in the Gilbert islands and killed 350
Japanese. [see Aug 17]
(MC, 8/18/02)
1943 Nov 20, US Marines began
landing on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands,
encountering fierce resistance from Japanese forces but emerging
victorious three days later. The US 2nd marine division invaded the
tiny isle of Betio on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilberts. It was the first
seriously opposed landing experienced by the Americans in WWII.
After 3 days 1,027 US Marine and Navy personnel were killed. Of some
4,800 Japanese and Korean laborers on Betio, 146 survived, including
17 Japanese troops. In 2006 John Wukovits authored “One Square Mile
Of Hell.”
(AP,
11/20/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tarawa)(AH, 6/07,
p.72)
1943 Nov 20, US Marine
cinematographer Norman Hatch (1921-2017) began filming much of the
76-hour battle for the island of Tarawa. The film was edited and
made into a 20-minute documentary: “With the Marines at Tarawa.” In
1945 the film received an Academy Award for best short documentary.
(https://archive.org/details/WiththeMarinesatTarawa)(SFC, 4/28/17,
p.D8)
1943 Nov 23, During World War
II US forces seized control of the Tarawa and Makin atolls from the
Japanese. Makin Atoll, part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, was
the first central Pacific island to be reconquered by the Allies.
More than 900 US marines and 30 sailors were killed in the battle
for Tarawa.
(AP, 11/23/97)(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A17)(SFC,
12/16/19, p.A6)
1956 The British administrator
of the Gilbert Islands put a levy on the export of phosphates (bird
manure) used in fertilizer. By 2007 the money set aside had
developed into the Kiribati Revenue Equalization Reserve Fund, a
$250 million investment portfolio that had grown to 9 times the
atoll’s GDP. State-owned investments later developed around the
world and became recognized as sovereign wealth funds.
(Econ, 5/26/07, p.79)
1971 Australia joined with New
Zealand and 14 independent of self-governing island nations to form
the South Pacific Forum. The name was changed in 2000 to Pacific
Islands Forum. Member states include: Australia, the Cook Islands,
the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall
Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa,
the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Since 2006,
associate members territories are New Caledonia and French
Polynesia.
(Econ, 10/20/07,
p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islands_Forum)
1979 Jul 12, The Gilbert
Islands gained independence from Britain and became a nation, the
Archipelago of Kiribati. It is a chain of 35 islands that sprawls
1,860 miles from east to west. Fanning Island was renamed to
Tabuaeran. Kiribati began using the Australia dollar for its
currency.
(www.worldstatesmen.org/Kiribati.htm)(SFC,
7/1/97, p.A9)(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.C22)(Econ, 9/13/14, p.84)
1994 Te Buroro Tito was elected
president of Kiribati.
(WSJ, 1/22/96, p.A-1)
1995 Jan 1, Teburoro Tito, the
incoming president of Kiribati, moved the International Date Line a
thousand miles east around Kiribati to allow all of its 33 atolls to
be line the same time zone. Thus the atoll of Kirimati never
experienced Dec 31, 1994.
(SSFC, 12/17/06, p.G5)
1996 Kiribati moved a section
of the date line so that its boundaries would all share the same
day.
(WSJ, 1/22/96, p.A-1)
1997 In Kiribati the El Nino
weather system caused heavy rains and flooding on Kiritimati
(Christmas Island).
(Econ, 3/12/15, p.38)
1999 Mar 6, It was reported
that state of emergency had been declared after a prolonged drought
nearly exhausted the underground fresh water supply of the 81,000
inhabitants.
(SFC, 3/6/99, p.A8)
1999 Jun 18, Kiribati reported
that the islands of Tebua Tarawa and Abanuea were swallowed by the
Pacific Ocean.
(SFC, 6/18/99, p.A14)
2001 Jul, Kiribati joined the
United Nations. The population was 94,149.
(SFC, 11/17/01, p.A13)
2003 Nov 29, China said it
broke diplomatic relations with Kiribati after the tiny Pacific
island nation opened ties with rival Taiwan.
(AP, 11/29/03)
2006 Mar 28, President Anote
Tong of the Republic of Kiribati announced the formation of the
world's third-largest marine reserve at the 8th UN conference on the
Convention on Biological Diversity under way this week in Brazil.
(Reuters, 3/28/06)
2007 Kiribati decided to turn
half of its waters in the uninhabited Phoenix Islands into a
160,000-square-mile-reserve.
(SFC, 4/11/09, p.A3)
2010 Aug 2, UNESCO added 6
sites located in Brazil, China, Mexico, France's Reunion Island and
the South Pacific nation of Kiribati to World Heritage status.
(AP, 8/2/10)
2012 Mar 9, Kiribati President
Anote Tong said that his Cabinet this week endorsed a plan to buy
nearly 6,000 acres on Fiji's main island, Viti Levu. He said the
fertile land, being sold by a church group for about $9.6 million,
could provide an insurance policy for Kiribati's entire population
of 103,000, though he hopes it will never be necessary for everyone
to leave.
(AP, 3/9/12)
2013 May, Kiribati Pres. Anote
Tong acknowledged that commercial fishing was still taking place in
97% of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area because no agreement has
been reached with Conservation Int’l. on payment for lost fishing
revenues. The 158,000 square mile preserved was created in 2008.
(SFC, 6/14/13, p.A8)
2013 The population of Kiribati
was about 103,248.
(SFC, 6/14/13, p.A8)
2014 Sep 20, Kiribati President
Anote Tong ended a Greenpeace-organized tour of glaciers in Norway's
Svalbard Archipelago, a trip he said left a deep impression that he
would share with world leaders at a UN climate summit next week in
New York.
(AP, 9/20/14)
2014 Kiribati President Anote
Tong used nearly $7m of government money to buy 6,000 acres in Fiji.
(Econ, 3/12/15, p.38)
2015 Mar 14, Residents in
Vanuatu hunkered in emergency shelters for a second straight night
after venturing out to find their homes damaged or blown away by
Cyclone Pam. 24 people were later confirmed killed with 3,300 left
homeless and nearly half the 300,000 population impacted. The
cyclone had already caused damage to other Pacific islands,
including Kiribati and the Solomon Islands.
(AP, 3/14/15)(SFC, 3/16/15, p.A2)(Reuters,
3/17/15)(CSM, 3/18/15)(AFP, 5/18/19)
2015 Aug 13, President Anote
Tong of the low-lying Pacific island nation of Kiribati called for a
global moratorium on new coal mines to slow global warming and a
creeping rise in world sea levels.
(Reuters, 8/13/15)
2016 Mar 9, Kiribati opposition
candidate Taaneti Mamau won the presidential election.
(Econ, 3/12/16, p.38)
2016 Nov 18, The island nation
of Kiribati established a large shark sanctuary that will help
ensure the creatures are protected across much of the central
Pacific. Palau established the first shark sanctuary in the region
in 2009, and has been followed by the Marshall Islands, French
Polynesia and other nations.
(AP, 11/19/16)
2016 The population of Kiribati
was about 111,000.
(Econ, 3/12/16, p.38)
2018 Jan 20, A 17-meter (56
foot) ferry with 50 people on board was reported missing two days
after it departed Nonouti Island on a 250 km (155 mile) trip to
Betio in Kiribati. On Jan. 28 seven survivors from the ferry were
found adrift in a dinghy by a New Zealand search plane.
(Reuters, 1/28/18)
2018 Nov 20, Interpol's general
assembly, meeting in Dubai, voted against allowing Kosovo to join
the international police agency. The bids of Pacific island nations
Kiribati and Vanuatu were approved by delegates, but Kosovo did not
secure the required two-thirds majority.
(AFP, 11/20/18)
2018 The population of Kiribati
was about 108,000.
(SFC, 1/29/18, p.A4)
2019 Sep 20, Kiribati severed
ties with Taiwan, switching its diplomatic allegiance to China in
the second such defection in a week.
(The Telegraph, 9/20/19)