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Both the US and the Kingdom of Hawaii annexed Johnston Atoll in 1858, but it was the US that mined the guano deposits until the late 1880s. The US Navy took over the atoll in 1934, and subsequently the US Air Force assumed control in 1948. The site was used for high altitude nuclear tests in the 1950s and 1960s, and until late in 2000 the atoll was maintained as a storage and disposal site for chemical weapons. Munitions destruction is now complete. Cleanup and closure of the facility is progressing, with completion anticipated in 2004.
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Country
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Surface Area: 2.8 square km
Population: no indigenous inhabitants
Located in: Oceania, atoll in the North Pacific Ocean 717 NM (1328 km) southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii
Head of State: George W. BUSH
Prime Minister: administered from Honolulu, HI, by Pacific Air Forces, Hickam AFB, and the Fish and Wildlife Service of the US Department of the Interior as part of the National Wildlife Refuge system
Independent since: unincorporated territory of the US
Flag (image): 
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