[3][4] Thousands of years ago, the island was settled by a people who built stone structures all over Tinian called taga.

[5] Tinian, together with Saipan, was possibly first sighted by Europeans of the Spanish expedition of Ferdinand Magellan when it made landfall in the southern Marianas on March 6, 1521.

[6] It was likely sighted next by Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa in 1522 on board the Spanish ship Trinidad, in an attempt to reach Panama after the death of Magellan.

Gonzalo de Vigo deserted in the Maugs from the Trinidad and in the next four years, living with the Chamorros, visited thirteen main islands in the Marianas and possibly Tinian among them.

The first clear evidence of European arrival was by the Manila galleon Santa Margarita commanded by Juan Martínez de Guillistegui, that wrecked in the southeast of Saipan in February 1600 and whose survivors stayed for two years till 250 were rescued by the Santo Tomas and the Jesus María.

From 1670, it became a port of call for Spanish and occasional English, Dutch, and French ships as a supply station for food and water.

[citation needed] The native population, estimated at 40,000 at the time of the Spanish arrival, shrank to less than 1400 due to European-introduced diseases and conflicts over land.

[citation needed] In 1914, during World War I, the island was captured by Japan, which was awarded formal control in 1918 by the League of Nations as part of the South Seas Mandate.

Initial efforts to settle the island met with difficulties, including an infestation of scale insects, followed by a severe drought in 1919.

Efforts were resumed under the aegis of the Nanyo Kohatsu Kabushiki Kaisha in 1926, with new settlers from Okinawa as well as Fukushima and Yamagata Prefectures, and the introduction of coffee and cotton as cash crops in addition to sugar, and the construction of a Katsuobushi processing plant.

[10] Tinian is approximately 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometres) from mainland Japan and was suitable as a staging base for continuous heavy bomber attacks on the Japanese Islands.

A large square area between West and North Fields, used primarily for the location of the base hospitals and otherwise left undeveloped, was called Central Park.

[13] From here seven squadrons of the 58th Bombardment Wing flew combat and reconnaissance missions throughout Southeast Asia and finally into the Japanese home islands, as part of the bombing of Japan.

[9] North Field was the departure point of the 509th Composite Group specialized Silverplate nuclear weapons delivery B-29 bombers Enola Gay and Bockscar, which respectively carried the two atomic bombs named Little Boy and Fat Man, that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[15] After the end of World War II, Tinian became part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, controlled by the United States.

[16][verification needed] The military presence began to be replaced by tourism in the 1990s, but still plays an important role in the local economy.

[citation needed] On November 4, 1986, the Northern Marianas, including Tinian, became a part of the United States, and the people there became US Citizens.

[27] In late 2023, it was reported that the US House and Senate approved $79 million for Tinian's Divert Airfield in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024.

The municipal seat and main village of the island of Tinian is San Jose, situated on the southwest coast.

[30] There is a variety of flora and fauna; the Tinian monarch is the island's only endemic bird species and is threatened by habitat loss.

[36] Tinian Airport (TIQ) is small and serviced by Star Marianas Air, which operates daily scheduled flights to Saipan.

The ferry boat service that operated twice daily between Tinian and Saipan ran at a loss estimated to be US$1 million a year and has since ceased.

[citation needed] The local government is the Municipality of Tinian and Aguiguan, which also includes the uninhabited island Aguijan.

The municipal seat and main village of the island of Tinian is San Jose, situated on the southwest coast.

The site is one of seven locations on Tinian on the National Register of Historic Places listings in the Northern Mariana Islands.