Caroline Island is the easternmost of the uninhabited coral atolls which comprise the southern Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean. First sighted by Europeans in 1606 and claimed by the United Kingdom in 1868, it has been part of the Republic of Kiribati since the island nation's independence in 1979. Despite guano mining, copra (coconut meat) harvesting, and human habitation in the 19th and 20th centuries, Caroline Island has remained relatively unspoiled compared to other tropical islands. It is home to one of the world's largest populations of the coconut crab and is an important breeding site for seabirds, most notably the sooty tern. The atoll is known for its role in celebrations surrounding the arrival of the year 2000. A 1995 realignment of the International Date Line made Caroline Island the easternmost land west of the Date Line and therefore one of the first points of land on Earth to see sunrise in the year 2000.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Island
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1870:
Franco-Prussian War: Prussian forces captured Napoleon III at the Battle of Sedan, which led to the collapse of the Second French Empire within days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sedan
1957:
South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm began an official visit to Australia, the first by a foreign incumbent head of state to the country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngo_Dinh_Diem_presidential_visit_to_Australia
1985:
Hurricane Elena, an unpredictable and damaging tropical cyclone that affected eastern and central portions of the United States Gulf Coast, made landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi, as a Category 3 major hurricane. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Elena
1992:
An earthquake registering 7.7 Mw off the coast of Nicaragua became the first tsunami earthquake to be captured on modern broadband seismic networks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Nicaragua_earthquake
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
tar with the same brush: (transitive, figuratively) To characterize (someone or something) using the same undesirable attribute, especially unjustly. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tar_with_the_same_brush
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
I wanted to have a voice, and it was okay if I wasn't going to be so famous or so rich. And this the one thing I learned: How do you recognize what's your true dream and what is the dream that you are dreaming for other people to love you? … The difference is very easy to understand. If you enjoy the process, it's your dream. … If you are enduring the process, just desperate for the result, it's somebody else's dream. --Salma Hayek https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Salma_Hayek
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