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.

The last thing I remember is a bar in San Diego '' --

Acapulco ’ s most historic building is the San Diego Fort, located east of the main square and originally built in 1616 to protect the city from pirate attacks.

The Dolores Olmedo House is located in the traditional downtown of Acapulco and is noted for the murals by Diego Rivera that adorn it.

However, the title of discoverer of Chile is usually assigned to Diego de Almagro.

Its highest mountain is Diego de Ocampo, close to Santiago, with 1, 249 m. There are several small plains between this range and the Atlantic Ocean.

It is unclear whether Diego Garcia is included in the MPA.

Diego Garcia is the largest and only inhabited island in the British Indian Ocean Territory, an Overseas territory of the United Kingdom, and, usually abbreviated as " BIOT ".

Rather, the administration is represented in the Territory by the Officer commanding British Forces on Diego Garcia, the " Brit Rep ".

Of major concern to the BIOT Government is the relationship with the US military forces resident on Diego Garcia.

* First, the island nation of Mauritius claims the Chagos Archipelago ( which is coterminous with the BIOT ), including Diego Garcia.

Diego Garcia is rumoured to have been one of the locations of the CIA's black sites.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is one of the " high-value detainees " suspected to have been held in Diego Garcia.

Diego Garcia is the largest land mass in the Chagos Archipelago ( which includes Peros Banhos, the Salomon Islands, the Three Brothers, the Egmont Islands and the Great Chagos Bank ), being an atoll occupying approximately, of which is dry land.

Diego Garcia is frequently subject to earthquakes caused by tectonic plate movement along the Carlsberg Ridge located just to the west of the island.

Diego Garcia is the above-water rim of a coral atoll composed of Holocene coral rubble and sand to the depth of about 36 metres ( 120 ft ), overlaying Pleistocene limestone deposited at the then-sea level on top of a seamount rising approximately 1, 800 metres ( 6, 000 ft ) from the floor of the Indian Ocean.

Diego Garcia is of sufficient width to minimise tidal fluctuations in the aquifer, and the rainfall ( in excess of 102. 5 inches / 260 cm per year on average ) is sufficient in amount and periodicity for the fresh water to form a series of convex, fresh-water, Ghyben-Herzberg lenses floating on the heavier salt water in the saturated sediments.

Diego Garcia is at minimum risk from tropical cyclones due to its proximity to the equator where the coriolis parameter required to organize circulation of the upper atmosphere is minimal.

The purse seine fishery primarily operates in the Pacific Ocean, in the historic tuna grounds of the San Diego tuna fleet in the eastern Pacific, and in the islands of the western Pacific, where many US tuna canneries relocated in the 1980s ; but significant purse-seine catches are also made in the Indian Ocean and in the tropical Atlantic Ocean, especially in the Gulf of Guinea by French and Spanish vessels.

Located 30 minutes north of San Diego in Encinitas, California, San Diego Botanic Garden features numerous exhibits, including rare bamboo groves, desert gardens, a tropical rainforest, California native plants, Mediterranean climate landscapes, succulent gardens, an herb garden, firesafe landscaping, a subtropical fruit garden, and native coastal sage natural areas.

In December 2004, a tsunami generated near Indonesia caused minor shoreline erosion on Barton Point ( the northeast point of the atoll of Diego Garcia ).

The United Kingdom and United States maintain a military base on Diego Garcia atoll in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Since 1971, only the atoll of Diego Garcia is inhabited, and only by military and civilian contracted personnel.

Mauritius sought to regain sovereignty, lost just before independence in 1968, over the Chagos Archipelago ( 1, 931 kilometers to the northeast ) which includes the Diego Garcia atoll, all of which comprise the British Indian Ocean Territory ( BIOT ).

Since 1971, only the atoll of Diego Garcia is inhabited only by some 3, 000 UK and US military and civilian contracted personnel.

Despite openings into the lagoon being permanently closed by anti-submarine nets, the German U-boat U-183 torpedoed the tanker British Loyalty in March 1944 ( she had been previously torpedoed and sunk at Diego Suarez ); it was an impressive long-range shot from outside the atoll through a gap in the anti-torpedo nets.

Despite openings into the lagoon being permanently closed by anti-submarine nets, the German U-boat U-183 torpedoed the tanker British Loyalty in March 1944 ( she had been previously torpedoed and sunk at Diego Suarez ); it was an impressive long-range shot from outside the atoll through a gap in the anti-torpedo nets.

The closest land is the Northernmost part of Diego Garcia atoll, Middle Island, 41 km to the South.

The Diego Garcia depopulation controversy pertains to the expulsion of the indigenous inhabitants of the island of Diego Garcia and the other islands of the British Indian Ocean Territory ( BIOT ) by the United Kingdom, beginning in 1968 and concluding on 27 April 1973 with the evacuation of Peros Banhos atoll.

In addition, from 1820-1840 the atoll of Diego Garcia in the Chagos became the staging post for slave ships trading between Sumatra, the Seychelles, and the French island of Bourbon, adding a population of Malay slaves into the Chagos gene pool.

* Diego Garcia, an atoll in the Indian Ocean used as a major military base by the United States