:Big Diomede Island

File:Diomede Islands Bering Sea Jul 2006.jpg: Big Diomede is the right landmass|alt=Two black landmasses in the water in the sunset]]

Big Diomede Island is located about {{convert|45|km}} southeast of Cape Dezhnev on the Chukchi Peninsula and is Russia's easternmost point by direction of travel. It is west of the International Date Line, although in the western hemisphere by longitude. The coordinates are {{Coord|65|46|52|N|169|03|25|W|region:RU_type:isle_source:GNS-enwiki|display=inline,title}}. The rocky tuya-type island has an area of about {{convert|29|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}}{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=207616 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326134750/http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=207616 |archivedate=2009-03-26 |title=Diomede Islands |encyclopedia=Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia |year=2006 |publisher=World Almanac Education Group}} The International Date Line is about {{convert|1.3|km}}{{Cite web|url=http://wikimapia.org/|title=Wikimapia - Let's describe the whole world!|website=wikimapia.org}} east of the island. The highest point of the island is Krysha peak standing {{convert|505|m}} tall. There is a weather station on the north coast at {{Coord|65|48|50|N|169|02|5|W|region:RU_type:city(1)|display=inline}}. There is a helipad at {{Coord|65|48|36|N|169|01|46|W|region:RU_type:airport|display=inline}}.

The island was originally inhabited by Iñupiat. The First Alaskans Institute says: "The people of the Diomede and King Islands are Inupiat".[https://web.archive.org/web/20110721223948/http://www.firstalaskans.org/index.cfm?section=census-information-center&page=Regional-Fact-Sheets&viewpost=2&ContentId=599 Bering Straits], First Alaskans Institute, Regional Fact Sheets

The first European to reach the islands was the Russian explorer Semyon Dezhnyov in 1648. Vitus Bering landed on the Diomede Islands on August 16, 1728, the day on which the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of the martyr St. Diomede.{{Cite web|url=http://www.russia.com/islands/diomede-islands/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080920223833/http://www.russia.com/islands/diomede-islands/|url-status=dead|title=Russia.com|archivedate=September 20, 2008}}

In 1732, the Russian geodesist Mikhail Gvozdev plotted the island's map.

In 1867, during the Alaska Purchase, the new border between the nations was drawn between the Big Diomede and Little Diomede islands.

During World War II, Big Diomede became a military base, and remained so for some time into the Cold War.{{cite web |url=http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ak/state/diomede.html |title=Diomede – Inalik, Alaska |publisher=Usgennet.org |accessdate=2012-03-24 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120424100037/http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ak/state/diomede.html |archivedate=2012-04-24 }}

After World War II, the native population was forced off Big Diomede Island to the mainland in order to avoid contacts across the border. They first moved to the Yupik village of Naukan{{cite news |last1=D'Oro |first1=Rachel |title=Alaskan Inupiat village seeks reunion with relatives from Russian island |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/alaskan-inupiat-village-seeks-reunion-with-relatives-from-russian-island-1.3194997 |access-date=12 February 2024 |work=CBC News |agency=Associated Press |date=Aug 18, 2015}} That village was evicted between 1954 and 1958, so residents were relocated elsewhere. In 2015, an attempt was made to reunite people from the two islands.{{cite news |last1=Grueskin |first1=Zoe |title=Profile: After 70 Years, A Diomede Family Reunion |url=https://knom.org/2017/08/09/profile-after-70-years-a-diomede-family-reunion/ |work=KNOM Radio Mission |date=9 August 2017 |language=en}}

Today, unlike Alaska's neighboring Little Diomede Island, it has no permanent native population, but it is the site of a Russian weather station and a base of Border Service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation troops (FSB).[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/164172/Diomede-Islands Diomede Islands,] britannica.com{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/maps/@65.8137394,-169.0366311,372m/data=!3m1!1e3 |title=Google Maps |publisher=Google Maps |accessdate=2012-03-24}}

During the Cold War, the section of the border between the U.S. and the USSR separating Big and Little Diomede became known as the "Ice Curtain". On 7 August 1987, however, Lynne Cox, an American long-distance swimmer, swam from Little Diomede to Big Diomede (approximately {{convert|2.2|mi|km|order=flip|abbr=on|disp=or}}) in ice-cold waters. She was congratulated jointly by Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan four months later at the signing of the INF Missile Treaty at the White House, when Gorbachev made a toast. He and President Reagan lifted their glasses and Gorbachev said: "Last summer it took one brave American by the name of Lynne Cox just two hours to swim from one of our countries to the other. We saw on television how sincere and friendly the meeting was between our people and the Americans when she stepped onto the Soviet shore. She proved by her courage how close to each other our peoples live".{{cite book |last=Cox |first=Lynne |title=Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-distance Swimmer |location= |publisher=Knopf |year=2004 |isbn=0-375-41507-6 |page=275 }}

On 13 June 1971 a Lisunov Li-2 belonging to the Soviet Border Troops crashed in the centre of the island. All crew members were injured but survived and the green hull remains at {{Coord|65.7783|-169.0666|display=inline}}.

Eleven species of birds including such as puffins and guillemots2016. [http://www.ottsworld.com/blogs/bird-watching-arctic-russia/ Bird Watching in the Russian Arctic] have been found on Big Diomede. The island, along with its surrounding waters, has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because of its significant seabird colonies, including those of horned puffins, and of parakeet, least and crested auklets.{{cite web |url= https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/16591 |title=Ratmanova Island|author= |date=2024|website= BirdLife Data Zone|publisher= BirdLife International|access-date= 2024-10-20}} In 1976 a rufous hummingbird was identified on the island.{{cite book|last1=Newfield|first1=Nancy L.|last2=Nielsen|first2=Barbara|title=Hummingbird Gardens: Attracting Nature's Jewels to Your Backyard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rh2N3Wob7y4C&pg=PA53|year=1996|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=1-881527-87-5|pages=53–}} This finding, unique so far in Russia, was very likely due to a dispersed specimen.

For mammals, pinnipeds (e.g. ringed and bearded seals, walrusesHughes P.. 2016. [https://howtospendit.ft.com/travel/119271-arctic-thrill-an-expedition-through-the-northwest-passage Arctic thrill: an expedition through the Northwest Passage]. How to spend it - Financial Times. Retrieved on March 01, 2017) and cetaceans (e.g. gray and rarer bowhead whales) inhabit the waters around the island.Jarvenpa R.. Brumbach J. H.. 2006. Circumpolar Lives and Livelihood: A Comparative Ethnoarchaeology of Gender and Subsistence. pp.239. University of Nebraska Press. Retrieved on March 01, 2017

• List of islands of Russia

{{reflist}}

{{Chukchi Sea Islands}}

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Category:Islands of the Chukchi Sea

Category:Islands of the Bering Sea

Category:Islands of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug

Category:Populated places of Arctic Russia

Category:Former populated places in Russia

Category:Important Bird Areas of Russia

Category:Important Bird Areas of Arctic islands

Category:Bering Strait

Category:Diomede Islands