Diomede Islands
Big Diomede sits 2.4 kilometers from Little Diomide in the Bering Strait, yet they exist on different days. The International Date Line cuts directly between them, creating a 21-hour time difference during winter months and 20 hours during summer. Residents of Big Diomede wake up to see their neighbors on Little Diomede still living yesterday. This geographic quirk makes one island Tomorrow Island while the other remains Yesterday Island. The physical distance is small enough for an ice bridge to form naturally each winter, but the temporal gap feels like centuries.
Danish navigator Vitus Bering sighted these rocky islands on August 16th according to the old calendar used by Russia at that time. Modern calendars mark this discovery as the 27th of August 1728. The timing was no accident since the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Saint Diomedes on exactly that date. Bering named both islands after the Greek martyr because he saw them on his feast day. A geodesist named Mikhail Gvozdev later calculated precise coordinates for the pair in 1732. Earlier explorer Semyon Dezhnev had reported seeing two islands with bone lip ornaments back in 1648, though historians cannot confirm if those were the same landmasses.
During the Cold War years from 1948 onward, a military base operated on Big Diomede under Soviet control. The narrow strait between the islands became known as the Ice Curtain, marking the boundary between the United States and the Soviet Union. An 1867 treaty finalized the Alaska Purchase and used these islands to define where one nation ended and another began. The border runs equidistantly between Krusenstern Island and Ratmanov Island before heading north into the Arctic Ocean. Soldiers stationed on Big Diomede watched their American counterparts across just 2.4 kilometers of water while remaining on opposite sides of history.
The Soviet government established a military base on Big Diomede in 1948 and subsequently relocated all indigenous people to mainland Russia. Today only military units inhabit Big Diomede, leaving it empty of civilian residents. Little Diomede maintains an Inupiat population that numbered 170 people at the start of the 21st century. By the 2010 census, that number had declined to 115 individuals living entirely within the village site called Diomede. This village contains a school, post office, and store despite its remote location. Some residents earn income through ivory carving when weather allows commercial air contact via the US Essential Air Service.
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Common questions
How far apart are Big Diomede and Little Diomede in the Bering Strait?
Big Diomede sits 2.4 kilometers from Little Diomide in the Bering Strait, yet they exist on different days.
When did Danish navigator Vitus Bering sight the islands now called Diomede Islands?
Danish navigator Vitus Bering sighted these rocky islands on August 16th according to the old calendar used by Russia at that time. Modern calendars mark this discovery as the 27th of August 1728.
Why does a military base operate on Big Diomede today?
The Soviet government established a military base on Big Diomede in 1948 and subsequently relocated all indigenous people to mainland Russia. Today only military units inhabit Big Diomede, leaving it empty of civilian residents.
What is the population count for Little Diomede during the 2010 census?
By the 2010 census, that number had declined to 115 individuals living entirely within the village site called Diomede.
Who swam between the two Diomede Islands in 1987 during Cold War tensions?
Lynne Cox swam from one island to the other in 1987, bridging the gap during the height of Cold War tensions.