Wake Island (Marshallese: Ānen Kio, lit. 'island of the kio flower'; also known as Wake Atoll) is a coral atoll in the Micronesia subregion of the northwestern Pacific Ocean. The atoll is composed of three islets and a reef surrounding a lagoon. The nearest inhabited island is Utirik Atoll in the Marshall Islands, located 592 miles (953 kilometers) to the southeast. The United States administers Wake Island as an unorganized and unincorporated territory, and it is one of the nine insular areas that comprise the United States Minor Outlying Islands. The Marshall Islands also claim Wake Island.
Wake Island was probably discovered by prehistoric Austronesian mariners before Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira made the first recorded discovery in 1568. European and American ships visited the atoll in the 19th century, before the United States claimed the atoll in 1899. The island had little development until 1935, when Pan American Airways constructed an airfield and hotel to serve as a waypoint for trans-Pacific flying boats. Japan seized the island at the outset of World War II in December 1941; it remained under Japanese occupation until the end of the war in September 1945. (Full article...)