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 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.

The largest population clusters of North America ( the Boston – Washington, San Francisco-San Diego, Chicago – Pittsburgh, and Quebec City – Windsor Corridors ) are all thousands of kilometers away from Alberta.

Following the fall of the Shah of Iran and the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979 – 1980, the West became concerned with ensuring the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, and the US received permission for a $ 400 million expansion of the military facilities on Diego Garcia consisting of two parallel runways, expansive parking aprons for heavy bombers, 20 new anchorages in the lagoon, a deep water pier, port facilities for the largest naval vessels in the US or British fleet, aircraft hangars, maintenance buildings and an air terminal, a fuel storage area, and billeting and messing facilities for thousands of sailors and support personnel.

The official insisted that the establishment of a marine park — the world's largest — would in no way impinge on USG use of the BIOT, including Diego Garcia, for military purposes.

The largest population of Guatemalans is in Los Angeles, but there are also established Guatemalan communities in Dallas, Houston, Miami, New York City, San Diego, San Francisco area, and Washington, DC.

It is one of the largest tourist attractions in San Diego County.

Within Southern California are two major cities, Los Angeles and San Diego, as well as three of the country's largest metropolitan areas.

Imperial Beach is located in San Diego County, the fifth most-populous county in the United States and part of the San Diego Metropolitan Area, the 17th largest metropolitan area in the United States with over 3 million people.

It is also part of the San Diego – Tijuana metropolitan area, the largest bi-national metropolitan area shared between the United States and Mexico with over 5 million people.

Along with more than 10 other fires burning in San Diego County at the same time, the Witch-Poomacha fire helped cause the largest mandatory evacuations in U. S. history, with over 500, 000 people displaced as of October 24.

Ultimately the Witch Creek burned 197, 990 acres ( 801 km2 ) and forced the evacuation of an estimated 1, 000, 000 people in the San Diego metropolitan area, the largest evacuation in California history.

* San Diego Country Estates, the largest community in, and sharing its name with, the Estates.

Gillespie Field, the oldest and largest of eight commercial aviation airports operated by San Diego County, is located on Santee's southern border with the city of El Cajon.

Vista has a Hispanic / Latin American plurality ( largest ethnic group ) community, a common thing in much of San Diego County and communities facing the Mexican border.

The largest event for cosplayers outside Asia is the annual San Diego Comic-Con.

The Camarin of the Immaculate in the church of San Diego is considered by historians to be the last Baroque building in the world ; it links the Baroque and Neoclassical styles ; it is the largest of the fewer than ten of these type of structures built in the whole continent.

San Diego Bay was considered too shallow for the largest ships, so the battleships anchored in San Pedro Bay on August 9, 1919.

The San Pedro municipality has twenty two communities outside the city ; the largest of which are Almoloya, San Cosme Tezintla, Acuexcomac, San Cristóbal Tepontla, San Agustín Calvario, Zacapechpan, San Matías Cocoyotla, San Diego Cuachayotla, and San Francisco Cuapa.

San Diego is the largest metropolitan area of the United States that serves as neither a hub nor a secondary hub for any airline ; however, the airport is a focus city for Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines.

San Diego State University ( SDSU ), founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, is the largest and oldest higher education facility in San Diego County, and the third-oldest university in the California State University system.

The San Diego Zoo also has the largest number of koalas outside of Australia.