Baker Island

• (obsolete) Baker's Island

Named for Captain Michael Baker (1802-1860) who sold his rights and interests to the island in 1855 to a group that later established the American Guano Company.

Baker Island

1. a US 2.1 km² uninhabited atoll just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean, geographically together with Howland Island part of the Rawaki Islands
   • 1857 June 4, “THE NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES, And the Sympathy of Navy Officers with the Interests of Agriculturists.”, in The National Era, volume XI, number 544, Washington, D. C., page 90, column 7:

     It has been demonstrated that these islands have been often visited by our whale ships, and we confidently predict a vast trade in American guano will be established. The Baker Island guano has been analyzed, and found to be surpassingly rich in phosphates.

   • 1936 May 13, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Executive Order 7368—Placing Certain Islands in the Pacific Ocean Under the Control and Jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior‎^[1], archived from the original on 09 February 2023‎^[2]:

     By virtue of and pursuant to the authority vested in me by the Act of June 25, 1910, Ch. 421, 36 Stat. 847, as amended by the Act of August 24, 1912, ch. 369, 37 Stat. 497, and as President of the United States, it is ordered that Jarvis Island located in the Pacific Ocean approximately in latitude 0°22'30" S. and longitude 160°01' W. from Greenwich; Baker Island located in the Pacific Ocean approximately in latitude 0°13'30" N. and longitude 176°33' W. from Greenwich; and Howland Island located in the Pacific Ocean approximately in latitude 0°49' N. and longitude 176°43' W. from Greenwich, as indicated upon the diagram hereto attached and made a part of this order, be, and they are hereby, reserved, set aside, and placed under the control and jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior for administrative purposes.

   • 1952, “Baker Island”, in Leon E. Seltzer, editor, The Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World‎^[3], Morningside Heights, NY: Columbia University Press, →OCLC, page 145, column 3:

     Baker Island (□ 1), central Pacific, 40 mi. S of Howland Isl., U.S. naval base, near equator, on air route to Australia; 0°13'N 176°31'W; coral, arid. Claimed 1857 by U.S.; later worked for guano by both U.S. and Great Britain; colonized by Americans from Hawaii 1935; placed under Dept. of Interior 1936. In Second World War, captured by Japanese 1942, regained by U.S. 1944. Formerly worked for guano along with Jarvis and Howland isls.

   • 2025 January 1, “New Year's Eve live: World ushers in 2025”, in Deutsche Welle‎^[4], archived from the original on 03 January 2025‎^[5]:

     San Francisco's skyline was lit up by the city's annual firework show on the US West Coast.
     But in the westernmost state of the US, it is still 2024, just.
     Hawaii's clocks will tick over to midnight at the top of the coming hour.
     That's still not (quite) the end of the festivities.
     The islands of American Samoa and Niue in the South Pacific follow another hour later. Strictly speaking, two more US territories, Baker Island and Howland Island follow an hour after that — but both are uninhabited.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Baker Island.