Howland Island

Howland Island is an uninhabited coral island in the central Pacific Ocean and an unincorporated territory of the United States.

United States Exploring Expedition: A U.S. naval surveying expedition that explored the Pacific and Antarctic regions from 1838 to 1842. Its Pacific surveys recorded Howland Island in the nineteenth century.
Coral atoll: A ring-shaped coral reef or island surrounding a lagoon, formed as a volcanic island subsides. Howland is a low coral island shaped by reef growth rather than volcanic terrain.
Amelia Earhart: An American aviator who became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She aimed to land on Howland during her 1937 attempt to circumnavigate the globe.
1937 disappearance of Amelia Earhart: The disappearance of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan over the Pacific during their 1937 around-the-world flight. Their final known communications placed the search effort near Howland Island.
Guano Islands Act: An 1856 U.S. law allowing citizens to claim unoccupied islands containing guano deposits for the United States. The law provided the basis for the United States to claim Howland Island.
Equator: The imaginary circle around Earth at zero degrees latitude, equidistant from the poles. Howland lies just north of the equator, giving it a hot tropical climate.
Fred Noonan: An American navigator who accompanied Amelia Earhart on her 1937 world-flight attempt. He navigated the flight toward Howland before the aircraft disappeared.
Earhart's last flight: The July 1937 leg of Amelia Earhart's world flight from Lae, New Guinea, toward Howland Island. This flight made the island the intended destination of one of aviation's most famous journeys.
American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project: A 1930s U.S. effort to establish settlements on uninhabited equatorial Pacific islands. The project brought settlers to Howland in 1935 to strengthen the U.S. claim.
Pacific Ocean: The largest ocean on Earth, extending between Asia, Australia, the Americas, and Antarctica. Howland's isolation follows from its position in the vast central Pacific.

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