Short answers, pulled from the story.
Captain N.C. Brooks of the sealing ship Gambia spotted the atoll on the 5th of July 1859. He claimed the land for the United States under the Guano Islands Act of 1856, although no guano was ever mined there.
Midway Atoll serves as the breeding ground for 67 to 70 percent of the world's Laysan albatross population. The island also hosts 34 to 39 percent of the global black-footed albatross population.
The Battle of Midway occurred on the 4th of June 1942 and resulted in the sinking of four Japanese fleet aircraft carriers and one heavy cruiser. This decisive victory is widely considered the turning point of the Pacific campaign in World War II.
The island was designated as the Battle of Midway National Memorial on the 13th of September 2000. This designation followed the transfer of jurisdiction to the United States Department of the Interior in 1996.
Approximately 20 tons of marine debris wash up on the beaches every year, with 90 percent of the material being plastic. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that at least 5 tons of plastic washes up every week.
The Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on the 11th of March 2011 sent a wave 10 feet tall across the atoll. This event completely submerged the reef inlets and Spit Island, killing more than 110,000 nesting seabirds.