[1] Roughly equidistant between North America and Asia, Midway is the only island in the Hawaiian Archipelago that is not part of the state of Hawaii.

Aircraft based at the then-named Henderson Field on Eastern Island joined with United States Navy ships and planes in an attack on a Japanese battle group that sank four carriers and one heavy cruiser and defended the atoll from invasion.

[2] Visiting the atoll is possible only for business reasons, which includes permanent and temporary staff, contractors, and volunteers, as the tourism program has been suspended due to budget cutbacks.

As its name suggests, Midway is roughly equidistant between North America and Asia and lies almost halfway around the world longitudinally from Greenwich, England.

The atoll, which has a small population (approximately 60 in 2014,[13] but no indigenous inhabitants), is designated an insular area under the authority of the United States Department of the Interior.

As of 2004,[update] Henderson Field airfield at Midway Atoll, with its one active runway (rwy 06/24, around 8,000 ft (2,400 m) long) has been designated as an emergency diversion airport for aircraft flying under ETOPS rules.

[21] On August 28, 1867, Captain William Reynolds of USS Lackawanna formally took possession of the atoll for the United States;[22] the name changed to "Midway" some time after this.

The first attempt at settlement was in 1870 when the Pacific Mail Steamship Company started a project of blasting and dredging a ship channel through the reef to the lagoon using money put up by the United States Congress.

The purpose was to establish a mid-ocean coaling station to avoid the high taxes imposed at ports controlled by the Kingdom of Hawai'i.

[23] On January 20, 1903, the United States Navy opened a radio station in response to complaints from cable company workers about Japanese squatters and poachers.

The M-130s island-hopped from San Francisco to the Republic of China, providing the fastest and most luxurious route to the Far East and bringing tourists to Midway until 1941.

With Midway on the route between Honolulu and Wake Island, the flying boats landed in the atoll and pulled up to a float offshore in the lagoon.

The military importance of the location of Midway in the Pacific included its use as a convenient refueling stop on transpacific flights and for Navy ships.

[27] On February 14, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8682 to create naval defense areas in the central Pacific territories.

Only U.S. government ships and aircraft were permitted to enter the naval defense areas at Midway Atoll unless authorized by the Secretary of the Navy.

[27] A Pan-Am flying clipper stopped at Midway and evacuated passengers and Pan-American employees from Wake island, which had also been attacked earlier that day.

The clipper was on its usual passenger route to Guam when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened; it then made a return journey going from Wake to Midway, Honolulu, and back to the USA.

During the Cold War, the U.S. established a shore terminal, in which output of the array at sea was processed and displayed utilizing the Low-Frequency Analyzer and Recorder (LOFAR), of the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS), Naval Facility (NAVFAC) Midway Island, to track Soviet submarines.

With the war in Vietnam over and with the introduction of reconnaissance satellites and nuclear submarines, Midway's significance to U.S. national security was diminished.

[37] It was reported that a 1.5 m (4.9 ft) -tall wave completely submerged the atoll's reef inlets and Spit Island, killing more than 110,000 nesting seabirds at the National Wildlife Refuge.

[39] A U.S. Geological Survey study found that the Midway Atoll, Laysan, and Pacific islands like them could become inundated and unfit to live on during the 21st century, due to increased storm waves and rising sea levels.

[8] On October 31, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 13022, which transferred the jurisdiction and control of the atoll to the United States Department of the Interior.

The so-called Gooney monument was carved from a 30-foot (9.1 m) mahogany log as a personal project by a U.S. Navy dental officer stationed on the island.

[53] Midway Atoll forms part of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands Important Bird Area (IBA), designated as such by BirdLife International because of its seabirds and endemic landbirds.

The critically endangered Hawaiian monk seals raise their pups on the beaches, relying on the atoll's reef fish, squid, octopus, and crustaceans.

Starting in 1869 with the project to blast the reefs and create a port on Sand Island, the environment of Midway Atoll has experienced profound changes.

[58] Midway Atoll, in common with all the Hawaiian Islands, receives substantial amounts of marine debris from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

[63] Recent results suggest that oceanic plastic develops a chemical olfactory signature that is normally used by seabirds to locate food items.

An example of this occurring was in 2011, where Delta Air Lines Flight 277, a Boeing 747-400 traveling from Honolulu to Osaka made an emergency landing at Henderson Field due to a cracked windshield.

The US National Wildlife Refuge employees working on the atoll assisted the landing and cared for the nearly 380 passengers and crew for eight hours until a backup plane arrived.