PLAYED IN DAILY #3
Kiritimati
Coast and island · Line Islands, Kiribati
THE STORY
One of the world's largest atolls by land area
Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is an atoll in the northern Line Islands and one of the world's largest atolls by land area, with about 312 km² of land. It makes up over 70% of Kiribati's land area. In the UTC+14 time zone, it is one of the first inhabited places on Earth to see each New Year.
Source: Wikipedia ↗Visited by Cook, later a nuclear test site
Polynesians used the atoll between about 1250 and 1450 AD, and James Cook visited on Christmas Eve 1777. Britain used it as the main base for its first hydrogen bomb tests and in 1957 detonated an H-bomb over its south-eastern tip; the US made 22 nuclear detonations over the island in 1962. Islanders were usually not evacuated during the tests.
Source: Wikipedia ↗