August 14, 1945
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Japan surrenders ending World War II
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Japan surrendered and later signed the formal surrender document on September 2, 1945. The ceremony was performed in Tokyo Bay, Japan, aboard the battleship USS Missouri. World War II officially ended. Consequently, flight activity on Eastern Island began to slow down and a gradual airbase shift to Sand Island took place.
October 7, 1945
Troop and facilities demobilization began on Midway. With a population of 15,000 men at the height of the war, the atoll was placed in "caretaker status," requiring less than 300 men stationed there for Sand Island base maintenance and potential air and sea rescues. Unused buildings were boarded up. Eastern Island facilities were abandoned soon thereafter.
August 13, 1946
The first child was born on Midway. Richard Thor Holmes was born to Mrs. Elaine D. Holmes and Lt. Col. M.D. Holmes, USMC, the Commanding Officer of the Marine Barracks, Midway "Island."
May 29, 1947
Nellie Ganci became the first child to graduate elementary school at the George Cannon School on Midway. Pan American Airways resumed flights to "the Orient" via Midway that same year.
June 6, 1950
Midway Naval Air Station was deactivated. Twenty Pan Am employees, plus a few Pacific Commercial Cable Company workers, remained to "guard the islands’ deserted buildings."
June 25, 1950
North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations Security Council condemned the invasion. The US still had many troops in the region due to the occupation of Japan following World War II. In order to "contain Communism," the Battle of Osan (South Korea) became the first engagement between US forces and the North Koreans.
September 1950
Seemingly overnight, Midway was reactivated in support of Korean War airlift operations as an aircraft refueling and servicing base. Oil, airplane fuel and other provisions were stockpiled at Midway to keep its generators and facilities functioning, and buildings were reopened and remodeled. An office building was renovated as a 62-bed "air evacuation holding ward hospital." As the "war" progressed, thousands of troops on ships and planes stopped at Midway for refueling and emergency repairs.
November 4, 1952
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Flooding on Midway following the 1952 tsunami
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A Pacific-wide tsunami caused by a magnitude 8.2 earthquake off the Kamchatka Peninsula inundated Midway with 3 feet of water. Streets and buildings were flooded. Albatrosses and most other seabirds were not seriously affected as the breeding season had barely started. (Midway’s 1952 bird population was substantially less than it is today.) At the time, damage estimates to the populated Hawaiian Islands reached $1,000,000. There was no loss of human life in Hawaii.
December 31, 1952
The Pacific Commercial Cable Company ceased operations on Midway and turned over all its buildings and equipment to the US Navy.
July 27, 1953
The Korean War armistice was signed. The demilitarized zone (DMZ) is still monitored by US troops to this day.
September 1954
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Mister Roberts film poster
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John Ford, who at the request of the US Navy had filmed documentary footage during the Battle of Midway, returned to Sand Island for the filming of Mister Roberts. The light cargo ship USS Hewell sailed from Honolulu and moored at the naval base to double for the fictional USS Reluctant. Many of the film’s exteriors were shot aboard the Hewell and off Midway’s harbor.
1957
The Cold War brought renewed interest and major construction to Midway with a $40,000,000 building program for the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line antennas, other infrastructure and runway extensions. Construction work employed over a thousand men. The channel between Eastern and Sand Islands was deepened to allow the largest US tankers to enter.
May 1958
The Hawaiian Dredging Company completed a new hangar, school, chapel, housing and barracks on Sand Island. Midway’s population grew, maintaining a populace of about 2,800 working on DEW Line programs. On Eastern Island, 100 or fewer people were stationed with the Naval Security Group with their own barracks, mess hall and recreation facilities. Systems installed on Eastern Island by 1960 included a "missile impact location system" and other radar devices.
July 1958
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Lockheed WV-2
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Midway became the refueling and jumping off point for squadrons of 3,000-mile-long round-the-clock patrols of Super Constellation Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star airplanes. Their objective was to extend early warning coverage from land-based antenna arrays and radar picket ships to detect surprise Soviet bomber and missile attacks. The flights continued through 1965.
Warning Stars were nicknamed "Willie Victors" by naval aircrews, based on a slang version of the phonetic alphabet and the naval version of the aircraft's pre-1962 designation of WV-1, WV-2 or WV-3.
[Collisions between albatrosses and military aircraft initiated the US Navy's "Bird Abatement Program," which killed more than 54,000 adult albatrosses and destroyed countless eggs between 1954 and 1964.]
March 1959
Midway's first TV station, KEIK-TV, began broadcasting. The STAR (simplified television and radio) one-man operated station was the first of its kind in the world.
June 3, 1959
Douglas Carson and Howard Sakahara became the first students to graduate from Midway’s George Cannon High School.
July 4, 1959
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| 49-star US flag
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The new 49-star flag (with Alaska admitted to the Union on January 3, 1959) was raised over Midway for the first time. Midway residents celebrated its 1859 discovery centennial.
August 21, 1959
Hawaii became the 50th US state. Politically, since Midway was already claimed by the US, it did not become part of the State of Hawaii and remained a US territory.
[Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean is a United States unorganized, unincorporated insular area administered by the US Navy (Executive Order 199-A on January 20, 1903). The Secretary of the Navy designated the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC) to act as its administrative authority.
Today, Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge is owned and administered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) as established by Executive Order 13022 of 1996.
A passport is required to enter the United States from Midway (including US citizens).]
June 1960
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| Undersea Sound Surveillance System
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The first Midway Fish and Wildlife Conservation Management Program was implemented.
1965
With the use of "spy" satellites for Soviet surveillance, Warning Star flights from Midway halted. The Sand Island population was reduced to 1,700 to maintain the antenna array. US combat units were deployed to Vietnam. Some 58,220 US service men died in the conflict. The bodies of many casualties were repatriated to the US mainland through Midway during the "war."
January 13, 1969
Naval Facility Midway (NAVFAC) was commissioned to support the Navy's Undersea Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) using hydrophones and other devices to track Soviet submarines.
June 8, 1969
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Presidents Nguyen Van Thieu and Richard M. Nixon
meeting on Midway
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US President Richard Nixon and South Vietnam President Nguyen Van Thieu conducted secret meetings on Sand Island in the Midway House—the Commanding Officer’s residence. Midway was chosen as a location that was easy to control and away from potential anti-war protest action if held on the US mainland. As many as 4,000 personnel and dependents were stationed there at the height of the Cold and Vietnam Wars.
July 1970
Eastern Island was vacated of all personnel and designated a wildlife habitat.
October 1978
Naval Air Station Midway was redesignated a Naval Air Facility and dependents begin to depart. With the conflict in Vietnam over, and the introduction of spy satellites and nuclear submarines, Midway's significance to national security was diminished.
March 1982
Base Services, Inc. was awarded the first Base Operating Support (BOS) contract and assumed all operations and maintenance of the Midway facility.
September 30, 1983
Naval Facility Midway (NAVFAC) was decommissioned after 14 years of service in support of the Navy's Undersea Sound Surveillance System Program (SOSUS).
November 23, 1985
Pan American B747 "China Clipper II" visited Midway to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first China Clipper flight.
April 22, 1988
Midway was designated as an Overlay National Wildlife Refuge. This designation created a dual purpose use between the US Navy and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
April 25, 1991
Undersea transpacific cable services were terminated. A new Satellite Earth Station was activated for telephone and data communications.
September 30, 1993
Naval Air Facility Midway was "operationally closed" and the Navy initiated plans for environmental cleanup of the Island. In 2011 environmental mitigation from ecological hazards dating as far back as World War II still requires millions of dollars in federal funding to complete this work.
August 1995
The Battle of Midway Memorial was erected and dedicated on Sand Island.
1996
Midway Phoenix Corporation (of Cartersville, Georgia) entered a cooperative agreement with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to open Midway Atoll for public visitation. Wildlife watching, fishing, scuba diving and military history tours were featured in its ambitious tourism offering. In addition, Midway Phoenix would provide electric power, maintain buildings, service the airport and runways, and fuel planes and ships from time to time. Midway Phoenix invested millions of dollars into upgrading "Charlie Barracks" into hotel rooms, renovated offices, repaved roads, and constructed the Captain Brooks beach pavilion (bar) and Clipper House restaurant/dining room.
August 1996
Midway opened for first public visitation.
October 31, 1996
President William J. (Bill) Clinton signed Executive Order 13022 transferring jurisdiction of Midway Atoll from the US Navy to the Department of the Interior. The US Fish and Wildlife Service was given jurisdiction of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge to "maintain and restore its natural biological diversity, provide conservation and management of the wildlife and habitats within refuge boundaries, provide opportunities for scientific research and environmental education, maintain the Island's historical significance, and provide compatible wildlife-oriented activities to the visiting public."
April 3, 1997
Secretary of the Navy John Dalton presented the "key to Midway" (in the shape of a Laysan albatross) to Interior Assistant Secretary Bonnie Cohen. In his speech, Secretary Dalton celebrated trading "guns for goonies" on Midway Island.
June 30, 1997
The last US Navy personnel stationed on Midway Island departed.
April 29, 1998
Aloha Airlines began weekly tourist flights via a Boeing 737 to Midway. Services ended in early 2002.
June 4, 1999
Navy Admiral Jay L. Johnson declared June 4, 1942 (The Battle of Midway) as one of the two most significant dates in naval history stating, "This date will henceforth be celebrated annually as the centerpiece of our heritage."
September 13, 2000
Lands and waters of Midway Atoll NWR were additionally designated as the Battle of Midway National Memorial.
January 2002
Midway was closed to visitors due to a cooperative agreement dispute between Midway Phoenix Corporation and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
March 6, 2002
Midway Phoenix Corporation and the Fish and Wildlife Service jointly agreed to terminate their contract. Each organization cited cooperation issues.
May 1, 2002
GeoEngineers Inc. took over as a temporary cooperator to maintain continuity of facility operations on Sand Island.
June 4–7, 2002
World War II veterans commemorated the 60th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway while visiting Sand Island.
February 2003
As much as 100,000 gallons of JP-5 jet fuel were spilled from a corroded pipeline at the Midway fuel farm. Officials from the US Coast Guard, US Fish and Wildlife Service, GeoEngineers Inc. and Pacific Environmental Corporation collaborated to oversee the cleanup project.
May 7, 2003
A contract was awarded to Chugach Alaska Corporation (one of thirteen Alaska Native Regional Corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971) to provide operations and maintenance services at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
June 15, 2006
President George W. Bush established the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument—the single largest conservation area created in US history, and the largest protected marine area in the world. It was renamed Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in 2007. The Marine National Monument includes Midway Atoll NWR and the Battle of Midway National Memorial.
March 1, 2007
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| First Lady Laura Bush on Midway
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First Lady Laura Bush visited Midway in recognition of the newly-designated Marine National Monument. She stayed at Midway House, the former commanding officer’s residence and current home of the refuge manager.
January 2008
After a six-year lapse, tourism reopened on Midway.
January 3, 2010
The world’s oldest documented Laysan albatross, "Wisdom," was observed incubating an egg in her nesting location behind "Bravo Barracks." At least 60 years of age, the bird and her mate had successfully fledged a chick in 2009. (And again in 2011.)
January 2011
The first-ever hatching of a rare short-tailed albatross took place on Eastern Island after a four-year courtship of its two pioneering parents. Short-tailed albatrosses generally nest on Japan’s Torishima Island.
March 11, 2011
Following a massive earthquake in Japan, Midway’s islands were partially washed over by four successive tsunami waves—the tallest being 4.9 feet. There were no human casualties and no damage to buildings, but old seawalls suffered extensive damage. Due to the quake’s timing at the height of the breeding season, an estimated 110,000 Laysan and black-footed albatross chicks were killed in low-lying areas. As many as 2,000 adult albatrosses were also killed, as well as countless Bonin petrels that drowned in their underground burrows. Introduced and endangered Laysan ducks suffered substantial losses on Eastern Island which was overwashed by the tsunami wave that covered the island by sixty percent.
June 15, 2011
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Short-tailed albatross chick being fed
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The last day the first fledgling endangered short-tailed albatross was seen on Eastern Island. The chick hatched from its egg in January 2011 and grew to fledging size through June. It was banded on June 8 and apparently headed to sea sometime between the afternoons of June 15 and 17, unseen by FWS observers. Just prior to that time the bird was seen strengthening its wings while wandering from its nest area to the shoreline as the instinct to fly and paddle out to sea became stronger.
June 16, 2011
A Delta Airlines Boeing 747 jumbo jet with 380 passengers and crew made an emergency landing on the atoll's airfield after a "sudden and serious" crack developed in the plane's windscreen. Delta Flight 277 was en route from Honolulu to Osaka, Japan, at the time of the incident. The plane struck two albatrosses on its approach but suffered only minor damage to a flap. The passengers were later transferred to another Delta jet.