evidence: Thumbnail profile: Wake Island / Wake Atoll Wake Island is a coral atoll composed of three small islands (i.e. Wake, Wilkes and Peale) surrounding a central lagoon. Isolated in the North Pacific Ocean, it is about 3,700 km west of Honolulu, Hawaii and 2,400 km east of Guam. Located west of the International Date Line, Wake is one day ahead of the 50 US states. This US territory is administered by the Department of the Interior and managed by the US Air Force and US Army. The largest island (Wake) and centre of activity on the atoll features a 3,000 m runway, especially for military aircraft. In October 1568, Álvaro de Mendaña de Neyra, a Spanish explorer, discovered "a low barren island" which was eventually named after Captain William Wake, master of the British trading schooner, Prince William Henry. Just over a century later, Wake Island was annexed by the United States. In 1935, Pan American Airways built a small village nicknamed ‘PAAville’ to service flights on its U.S.-China route. This first settlement, which relied upon the U.S. mainland for food and water, remained in operation until the first Japanese air raid in World War II.