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.

Beginning with his opposition to action in Borneo in 1965, he has contested almost every British action-arguing against action in Aden, the depopulation of Diego Garcia, the Falklands War ( especially the sinking of the General Belgrano ), the Gulf War, and action in Kosovo and Iraq, saying, " I will resist a war with every sinew in my body ".

In May 2006, the UK High Court ruled in favour of the Chagossians in their battle to prove they were illegally removed by the UK government during the depopulation of Diego Garcia, paving the way for a return to their homeland.

Advocates of the Chagossians ( see links below ) claim that the number of Chagossian residents on Diego Garcia was deliberately under-counted in order to play down the scale of the proposed depopulation.

Three years before the depopulation plan was concocted, the British Governor of Mauritius, Sir Robert Scott, is said to have estimated the permanent population of Diego Garcia at 1, 700.

Three reasons in favor of the original name " Guadalupe " include the fact that Juan Diego and Juan Bernardino would have had to be familiar with the " g " and " d " sounds to pronounce their baptismal names, there is no evidence to show that the Virgin was called anything else before Becerra Tanco's proposal, and the number of documents written by contemporary Spaniards and Franciscan Friars arguing for the name of the Virgin to be changed to " Tepeaca " or " Tepeaquilla ," which indicate that indeed the original name was " Guadalupe " and not a native name otherwise there would have been no controversy.

On August 30, 1953, Cantinflas began performing his theatrical work Yo Colón (" I, Columbus ") in the Teatro de los Insurgentes, the same theatre that had earlier been embroiled in a controversy over a Diego Rivera mural incorporating Cantinflas and the Virgin of Guadalupe.

His re-election campaign saw controversy with a last minute write-in candidate, Donna Frye, a member of the San Diego City Council, who likely received more votes than either Murphy or Roberts.

In the Molinist controversy between Dominicans and Jesuits Lemos was given the responsibility, along with Diego Álvarez, of representing the Dominican Order in debates before Pope Clement VIII and Paul V. He was editor of the Acta omnium congregationum ac disputationum, etc.

In July 2002, Sanders was appointed to the board of the American Red Cross San Diego / Imperial Counties Chapter after the previous CEO was fired in the aftermath of controversy concerning a wildfire in Alpine, CA.

He authorised expulsion of Chagossians from the Chagos Archipelago and allowed building of the United States military base at Diego Garcia.

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

The forced expulsion and dispossession of the Chagossians was for the purpose of establishing a United States air and naval base on Diego Garcia, with a population of between 3, 000 to 5, 000 U. S. soldiers and support staff, as well as a few troops from the United Kingdom.

Given the closeness of Diego Rivera to the people involved, and the fact that the painting is said to slightly predate the murder, some consider it to be evidence of Vidali's and Rivera's involvement in Mella's assassination, also related to Rivera's subsequent expulsion from the Mexican Communist Party.

One of the best known of the Alta California missions ( and one of the few missions to have actually been founded twice — others being Mission San Gabriel Arcángel and Mission La Purísima Concepción )— the site was originally consecrated on October 30, 1775, by Father Fermín Lasuén, but was quickly abandoned due to unrest among the indigenous population in San Diego.

Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin or Juan Diego ( July 12, 1474 – May 30, 1548 ) was, according to Mexican Catholic tradition, an indigenous Mexican who reported a Marian apparition, Our Lady of Guadalupe, in 1531.

According to Sánchez ' account Juan Diego and his wife had lived in celibacy for their entire lives ; this would be extraordinary since he lived the first 47 years of his life according to pre-Columbian indigenous customs that only prescribed celibacy for the highest priesthood.

The house contains a selection of Kahlo ’ s personal art collection and a large collection of pre-Hispanic artifacts, Mexican folk art ( mostly indigenous inspired jewelry and clothes which she wore ) and works by José María Velasco, Paul Klee and Diego Rivera.

Diego de Landa's famous Relación de las cosas de Yucatán contains much of the Spanish explanatory text of this encyclopedia without however, employing any of the actual indigenous texts ( Tozzer 1941 ).

The area houses the Basílica de Guadalupe, the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the foot of Tepeyac Hill, where Roman Catholics believe the Virgin Mary appeared to the indigenous Mexican Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin in 1531.

In 1672, Pedro Calungsod, a teenage indigenous Visayan catechist and Diego Luis de San Vitores, a Spanish friar, were both martyred in Guam during their mission to preach Christianity to the Chamorro people.

Cumaná was the first settlement founded by Europeans in mainland America, in 1501 by Franciscan friars, but due to successful attacks by the indigenous people ( such as the Cumanagoto people ), it had to be refounded several times, until Diego Hernández de Serpa's foundation in 1569.

Captain Melchor Rodriguez Mazariegos accompanied by Fray Diego de Rivas and 6 more missionaries together with 50 Spanish soldiers left Huehuetenango for San Mateo Ixtatán, managing to recruit 200 indigenous Maya warriors on the way ; from Santa Eulalia, San Juan Solomá and San Mateo itself.

The Sycuan band are a Kumeyaay tribe, one of the four ethnic groups indigenous to San Diego County.