Diego Garcia is a tropical, footprint-shaped coral atoll located south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean.

Diego Garcia lies in the Chagos Archipelago at the southernmost tip of the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge –&# 32 ; a vast submarine range in the Indian Ocean, topped by a long chain of coral reefs, atolls, and islands comprising Lakshadweep, Maldives, and the Chagos Archipelago.

The US Navy operates Naval Support Facility ( NSF ) Diego Garcia, a large naval ship and submarine support base, military air base, communications and space-tracking facility, and an anchorage for pre-positioned military supplies for regional operations aboard Military Sealift Command ships in the lagoon.

Today, the exiled Chagossians are still fighting to return to their homeland, claiming that the forced expulsion and dispossession was illegal ( see Depopulation of Diego Garcia ).

Portuguese explorers may have been the first Europeans to discover the island of Diego Garcia.

The first map which identifies and names " Los Chagos " ( in about the right position ) is that of Pierre Desceliers ( Dieppe 1550 ), although Diego Garcia is not named.

The first map to delineate the island under its present name, Diego Garcia, is the World Map of Edward Wright ( London 1599 ), possibly as a result of misreading Dio ( or simply " D .") as Diego, and Gratia as Garcia.

Diego Garcia and the rest of the Chagos islands were uninhabited until the late 18th century.

In 1778 the French Governor of Mauritius granted Monsieur Dupuit de la Faye the island of Diego Garcia, and there is evidence of temporary French visits to collect coconuts and fish.

Several Frenchmen living in " a dozen huts " abandoned Diego Garcia when the British East India Company attempted to establish a settlement there in April 1786.

Following the departure of the British, the French colony of Mauritius began marooning lepers on Diego Garcia, and in 1793 the French established a coconut plantation using slave labour, which also exported cordage made from coconut fiber, and sea cucumbers, known as a delicacy in the orient.

Diego Garcia became a colony of the United Kingdom after the Napoleonic wars as part of the Treaty of Paris ( 1814 ), and from 1814 – 1965 it was administered from Mauritius.

On Diego Garcia, the main plantations were located at East Point, the main settlement on the eastern rim of the atoll ; Minni Minni, north of East Point ; and Pointe Marianne, on the western rim, all located on the lagoon side of the atoll rim.

From 1881 through 1888 Diego Garcia was the location of two coaling stations for steam ships crossing the Indian Ocean.

Barachois Maurice, Diego Garcia

In the early 1960s, the UK was withdrawing its military presence from the Indian Ocean area, not including the base at RAF Gan to the north of Diego Garcia in the Maldives ( which remained open until 1976 ), and agreed to permit the US to establish a Naval Communication Station on one of its island territories there.

The US requested an unpopulated island belonging to the UK to avoid political difficulties with newly-independent countries, and ultimately the UK and US agreed that Diego Garcia was a suitable location.

A paved road in Diego Garcia in the eastern restricted zone, home to the former plantations

To accomplish the UK / US mutual defense strategy, in November 1965, the UK purchased the Chagos Archipelago, which includes Diego Garcia, from the then self-governing colony of Mauritius for £ 3 million to create the British Indian Ocean Territory ( BIOT ), with the intent of ultimately closing the plantations to provide the uninhabited British territory from which the US would conduct its military activities in the region.

In March 1971, US Naval construction battalions ( Seabees ) arrived on Diego Garcia to begin the construction of the Communications Station and an airfield.

To satisfy the terms of an agreement between the UK and the US for an uninhabited island, the plantation on Diego Garcia was closed in October of that year.

In the early 1970s, setbacks to US military capabilities in the region including the fall of Saigon, victory of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the closure of the Peshawar Air Station listening post in Pakistan and Kagnew Station in Ethiopia, the Mayaguez incident, and the build-up of Soviet Naval presence in Aden and a Soviet Air Base at Berbera, Somalia, caused the US to request, and the UK to approve, permission to build a fleet anchorage and enlarged airfield on Diego Garcia, and the Seabees doubled the number of workers constructing these facilities.

Finally, at Ye Olde Gasse Filling Station on Avocado Avenue, they learned that their man, having paused to get oil for his car, had asked about the route to San Diego.

she was already considering putting in rebellious requests for duty at San Diego, Bremerton, the Great Lakes, Pensacola -- any place the Navy had a hospital -- with a threat to resign her commission if the request were not granted.

if Tommy sat long enough, she would be sure to see all the young officers she had met in San Diego and Long Beach.

Although by this time Diego de Almagro had already acquired sufficient wealth in the conquest of Peru and was living a luxurious life in Cuzco, the prospect of conquering the lands further south was very attractive to him.

By 1534 the Spanish crown had determined to split the region in two parallel lines, forming the governorship of " Nueva Castilla " ( from the 1 ° to the 14 ° latitude, close to Pisco ), and that of " Nueva Toledo " ( from the 14 ° to the 25 ° latitude, in Taltal, Chile ), assigning the first to Francisco Pizarro and the second to Diego de Almagro.

Throughout their recorded history, the plantations of the Chagos Archipelago had a population of approximately 1, 000 individuals, about two-thirds of whom lived on Diego Garcia.

In June 2004, the British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw stated that US authorities had repeatedly assured him that no detainees had passed in transit through Diego Garcia or were disembarked there .< ref > In October 2007 the all-party Foreign Affairs Committee of the British Parliament announced that it would launch an investigation of continued allegations of a prison camp on Diego Garcia, which it claimed were twice confirmed by comments made by Retired US Army General Barry McCaffrey.

On July 31, 2008, an unnamed former White House official alleged that the US had imprisoned and interrogated at least one suspect on Diego Garcia during 2002 and possibly 2003.

He had accompanied as canon Diego de Acebo, Bishop of Osma on a diplomatic mission to Denmark, to arrange the marriage between the son of King Alfonso VIII of Castile and a niece of King Valdemar II of Denmark.

As time passed, Prior Diego sanctioned the building of a monastery for girls whose parents had sent them to the care of the Albigensians because their families were too poor to fulfill their basic needs.

His father, Diego Laínez, was a courtier, bureaucrat, and cavalryman who had fought in several battles.

Freestyle had a recognizable following in California, particularly in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, and San Diego.

There were also five teams which the Texans had never beaten: the Baltimore Ravens ( 0-5 in regular season, 0-1 in playoffs ), Minnesota Vikings ( 0-2 ), New York Jets ( 0-5 ), Philadelphia Eagles ( 0-3 ) and San Diego Chargers ( 0-4 ).

These meetings have grown in both participation and scope a great deal since the early 1990s ; it had a maximum attendance of 2, 810 at the December 2000 IETF held in San Diego, CA.

The coastal Diegueño ( Kumeyaay people ) of San Diego and Cahuilla Indians of Palm Springs had words for jaguar and the cats persisted there until about 1860.

While in San Diego, witnesses told the FBI he and Hazmi had a close relationship with Anwar Al Awlaki, an imam who served as their spiritual advisor.

Authorities say the two regularly attended the Masjid Ar-Ribat al-Islami mosque Awlaki led in San Diego, and Awlaki had many closed-door meetings with them, which led investigators to believe Awlaki knew about the 9 / 11 attacks in advance.

After leaving Juilliard, he had a three-year internship with the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego in the late 1970s before a stint in 1980 at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

By December 5, three months after leaving Los Angeles, Carson had brought Kearny's men to within of their destination San Diego.

All the coastal cities were back under Mexican control except San Diego, where the Mexicans had Stockton pinned down and under siege.