Farallon de Medinilla , also known as No'os, is a small uninhabited island in the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It is located north of Saipan and is the smallest island in the archipelago (not counting the Zealandia Bank). Politically, it is part of the Northern Islands Municipality. History Europeans first charted Farallon de Medinilla in late September or early October 1543 by Spanish explorer Bernardo de la Torre commanding the carrack during a failed attempt to find a northern route east from the Philippines to Mexico. Uninhabited at the time, later archaeological investigations have found blackened caves and pottery fragments indicating prior habitation by the Chamorros. The island was visited by Louis de Freycinet in 1819; it was named for Don Jose de Medinilla y Pifieda, the Spanish Governor of the Marianas from 1812-1822. Spain ceded Farallón de Medinilla to Germany through the German–Spanish Treaty (1899), together with the rest of the Mariana Islands (except Guam). The formalities of cession were carried out on November 17, 1899, in Saipan, for all the Northern Mariana Islands. Following the sale of the Northern Marianas by Spain to the German Empire in 1899, Farallon de Medinilla was administered as part of German New Guinea. During World War I, the island came under the control of the Empire of Japan and was subsequently administered as part of the South Seas Mandate. Following World War II, the island came under the control of the United States and was administered as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Since 1978, the island has been part of the Northern Islands Municipality of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. For years, the U.S. Navy has used Farallon de Medinilla for military and bombing exercises. In a 2002 lawsuit, the Center for Biological Diversity charged the Navy with destroying wildlife habitat on the island. A subsequent court ruling ordered the U.S. Defense Department to cease bombing exercises on Farallon de Medinilla until they came in compliance with the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Negative impacts of military activities on local fauna and flora, including terrestrial and oceanic species, have been pointed out. These include such as Micronesian megapodes, migratory birds and cetaceans such as boobies, terns, frigatebirds, humpback whales and false killer whales. Geography Farallon de Medinilla is roughly wedge-shaped, with a length of and a width of to the south, expanding to in