Today in History, December 28: 1867 –

The United States annexes it’s first territory outside of the continental US, two tiny specs of coral land halfway to Asia in the Pacific, first known as the Brook Islands for the man who discovered them, later renamed Midway Atoll.

The Navy attempted unsuccessfully to build a coaling station on the island, and later the Commercial Pacific Cable Company used the island as a link for telegraph lines across the world’s largest ocean.

In 1903 President T. Roosevelt stationed 21 US Marines there to ward off poachers. In the 1930’s Pan American Airways began using Midway as one of the stations for its now romantically famous island hopping China Clipper. And of course the “Goony Bird” filled islands became known to most of us for it’s part during the Battle of Midway during WWII.