, image_name = Bigdiomecropped.jpg , image_caption = Big Diomede seen from its nearest neighbor,

Little Diomede Little Diomede Island or “Yesterday Isle” ( ik, Iŋaliq, formerly known as Krusenstern Island,

, map_caption = , locator_map_size = , nickname = , location = Bering Strait , coordinates = , archipelago =

Diomede Islands The Diomede Islands (; russian: острова́ Диоми́да, translit=ostrová Diomída), also known in Russia as Gvozdev Islands (russian: острова́ Гво́здева, translit=ostrová Gvozdjeva), consist of two rocky, mesa-like i ...

, total_islands = , major_islands = , area_km2 = 29 , length_km = , width_km = , highest_mount = , elevation_m = 477.3168 , population = 0 (permanent inhabitants) , population_as_of = , density_km2 = , ethnic_groups =

Iñupiat The Iñupiat (or Inupiat, Iñupiaq or Inupiaq;) are a group of Alaska Natives, whose traditional territory roughly spans northeast from Norton Sound on the Bering Sea to the northernmost part of the Canada–United States border. Their current ...

(formerly) , country =

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, additional_info = , timezone1 =

Kamchatka Time Kamchatka Time or Petropavlovsk Time (PETT; russian: камчатское время, ''kamchatskoye vremya''), also known as Anadyr Time (ANAT), is a time zone in Russia, named after the Kamchatka Peninsula. It is 12 hours ahead of UTC ( U ...

–

UTC+12 UTC+12:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +12:00. As standard time (year-round) ''Principal cities: Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Mata Utu, Majuro, Yaren, Funafuti, South Tarawa on Tarawa'' North Asia *Russia – Kamchatka Time ...

Big Diomede Island (russian: Остров Ратманова, ostrov Ratmanova; Ratmanov Island, ckt, Имэлин; ; or Tomorrow Island, due to the International Date Line) is the western island of the two

in the middle of the Bering Strait. The island is a part of the

Chukotsky District Chukotsky District (russian: Чуко́тский райо́н, ''Čukótskiy rayón''; Chukchi: , ''Čukotkakèn rajon'') is an administrativeLaw #33-OZ and municipalLaw #47-OZ district (raion), one of the six in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russ ...

of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of Russia. The border separating Russia and the United States runs north–south between the Diomede Islands.

Geography

Big Diomede Island is located about southeast of

Cape Dezhnev Cape Dezhnyov or Cape Dezhnev (; ), formerly known as East Cape or Cape Vostochny, is a cape that forms the easternmost mainland point of Asia. It is located on the Chukchi Peninsula in the very sparsely populated Chukotka Autonomous Okrug o ...

on the

Chukchi Peninsula The Chukchi Peninsula (also Chukotka Peninsula or Chukotski Peninsula; russian: Чуко́тский полуо́стров, ''Chukotskiy poluostrov'', short form russian: Чуко́тка, ''Chukotka''), at about 66° N 172° W, is the eastern ...

and is Russia's easternmost point according to the International Date Line (if measuring by longtitude, it is the Westernmost point of Russia). The coordinates are . The rocky

tuya A tuya is a flat-topped, steep-sided volcano formed when lava erupts through a thick glacier or ice sheet. They are rare worldwide, being confined to regions which were covered by glaciers and had active volcanism during the same period. As lava ...

-type island has an area of about The International Date Line is about east of the island. The highest point of the island is at 65°46'24.64" N, 169°04'06.61" W where the elevation reaches . There is a small settlement on the north coast at . There is a helipad at .

History

The island was originally inhabited by

. The First Alaskans Institute says: "The people of the

Diomede Diomede (; Ancient Greek: Διομήδη ''Diomēdē'') is the name of four women in Greek mythology: * Diomede, daughter of Xuthus. She married Deioneus, king of Phocis, and was the mother of Cephalus, Actor, Aenetus, Phylacus and Asterodia. ...

and King Islands are Inupiat ... The first European to reach the islands was the Russian explorer

Semyon Dezhnyov Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnyov ( rus, Семён Ива́нович Дежнёв, p=sʲɪˈmʲɵn ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ dʲɪˈʐnʲɵf; sometimes spelled Dezhnyov; c. 1605 – 1673) was a Russian explorer of Siberia and the first European to sail through t ...

in 1648.

Vitus Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering (baptised 5 August 1681 – 19 December 1741),All dates are here given in the Julian calendar, which was in use throughout Russia at the time. also known as Ivan Ivanovich Bering, was a Danish cartographer and explorer in ...

landed on the Diomede Islands on August 16, 1728, the day on which the

Russian Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

celebrates the memory of the martyr St. Diomede. In 1732, the Russian

geodesist Geodesy ( ) is the Earth science of accurately measuring and understanding Earth's figure (geometric shape and size), orientation in space, and gravity. The field also incorporates studies of how these properties change over time and equival ...

Mikhail Gvozdev Mikhail Spiridonovich Gvozdev (russian: Михаи́л Спиридо́нович Гво́здев; – after 1759) was a Russian military geodesist and a commander of the expedition to northern Alaska in 1732, when the Alaskan shore was sight ...

plotted the island's map. In 1867, during the

Alaska Purchase The Alaska Purchase (russian: Продажа Аляски, Prodazha Alyaski, Sale of Alaska) was the United States' acquisition of Alaska from the Russian Empire. Alaska was formally transferred to the United States on October 18, 1867, through a ...

, the new border between the nations was drawn between the Big Diomede and

Little Diomede Little Diomede Island or “Yesterday Isle” ( ik, Iŋaliq, formerly known as Krusenstern Island,

islands.

20th century

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Big Diomede became a military base, and remained so for some time into the Cold War. After World War II, the native population was forced off Big Diomede Island to the mainland in order to avoid contacts across the border. Today, unlike Alaska's neighboring

Little Diomede Island Little Diomede Island or “Yesterday Isle” ( ik, Iŋaliq, formerly known as Krusenstern Island,

, it has no permanent native population, but it is the site of a Russian weather station and a base of

Border Service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation The Border Service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (PS FSB Rossii) (russian: Пограничная служба Федеральной службы безопасности Российской Федерации (� ...

troops (FSB). During the Cold War, the section of the border between the U.S. and the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

separating Big and Little Diomede became known as the " Ice Curtain". On 7 August 1987, however,

Lynne Cox Lynne Cox (born 2 January 1957) is an American long-distance open-water swimmer, writer and speaker. She is best known for being the first person to swim between the United States and the Soviet Union, in the Bering Strait, a feat which has been ...

, an American long-distance swimmer, swam from Little Diomede to Big Diomede (approximately ) in ice-cold waters. She was congratulated jointly by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan four months later at the signing of the INF Missile Treaty at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

, when Gorbachev made a toast. He and President Reagan lifted their glasses and Gorbachev said: "Last summer it took one brave American by the name of Lynne Cox just two hours to swim from one of our countries to the other. We saw on television how sincere and friendly the meeting was between our people and the Americans when she stepped onto the Soviet shore. She proved by her courage how close to each other our peoples live".

Lisunov Li-2 crash

There is no airstrip on the island, but being flat on the top, some landings were carried out in order to deliver supplies. On 13 June 1971 a Lisunov Li-2 belonging to the Soviet Border Troops

crashed "Crashed" is the third U.S. rock Single (music), single, (the fifth overall), from the band Daughtry (band), Daughtry's debut album. It was released only to U.S. rock stations on September 5, 2007. Upon its release the song got adds at those stat ...

in the centre of the island. All crew members were injured and the green hull remains at .

Fauna

Eleven species of birds including such as puffins and

guillemot Guillemot is the common name for several species of seabird in the Alcidae or auk family (part of the order Charadriiformes). In British use, the term comprises two genera: '' Uria'' and ''Cepphus''. In North America the ''Uria'' species ...

s have been found on Big Diomede. In 1976 a rufous hummingbird was identified on the island. This finding, unique so far in Russia, was very likely due to a dispersed specimen. For mammals,

pinniped Pinnipeds (pronounced ), commonly known as seals, are a widely range (biology), distributed and diverse clade of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic, mostly marine mammal, marine mammals. They comprise the extant taxon, extant family (biology ...

s (e.g. ringed and bearded seals,

walrus The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the fami ...

es) and cetaceans (e.g.

gray Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

and rarer bowhead whales) inhabit the waters around the island. Jarvenpa R.. Brumbach J. H.. 2006. Circumpolar Lives and Livelihood: A Comparative Ethnoarchaeology of Gender and Subsistence. pp.239.

University of Nebraska Press The University of Nebraska Press, also known as UNP, was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the Unive ...

. Retrieved on March 01, 2017

References