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.

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.

Though a losing season, this was a 26-game improvement over 2004, and sufficient for second place in a woefully weak NL West, five games behind the San Diego Padres.

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.

For example in southern California, during winter heating is not necessary in Los Angeles and San Diego if the insulation is sufficient to take into account the colder night temperatures.

The remnants of Diana also dropped light rainfall in San Diego County, California, with the city of San Diego receiving only a trace of rain, Vista reporting 0. 09 in ( 2 mm ), Del Mar had 0. 08 in ( 2 mm ), and Oceanside measuring 0. 3 in ( 8 mm ).

San Diego recorded of rain, the first measurable precipitation in 164 days ; this tied the record for the longest duration without rainfall at the station, previously set in 1915 and 1924.

Depending on the amount of rainfall in San Diego County, Lake Hodges's water level fluctuates significantly.

Moisture from the remnants of Isis extended into the southwestern United States, resulting in light rainfall, dozens of traffic accidents, and power outages for thousands of residents in San Diego County.