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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)
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)
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)