B-52G Stratofortress dropping
Mk 82 bombs on the island in 1984.
Spanish explorer Bernardo de la Torre, commanding the
carrack , was the first
European to chart Farallon de Medinilla, which he sighted in late September or early October 1543 during a failed attempt to find a northern route east from the
Spanish Philippines to the
Viceroyalty of New Spain (now
Mexico). The island was uninhabited at the time, but later
archaeological investigations found blackened caves and
pottery fragments indicating prior habitation by the
Chamorros. From the 16th century,
Spain governed the island as part of the
Spanish East Indies.
Louis de Freycinet visited the island in 1819, and it eventually was named for Don Jose de Medinilla y Pifieda, the
Spanish Governor of the Marianas from 1812 to 1822. In 1899, Spain sold Farallón de Medinilla along with the rest of the
Mariana Islands (except
Guam, which was a possession of the
United States) to the
German Empire under the terms of the
German–Spanish Treaty. The formalities of cession of the Marianas took place on
Saipan on November 17, 1899. Germany administered Farallon de Medinilla as part of
German New Guinea until
World War I (1914–1918), when the
Empire of Japan took control of the Marianas in 1914. Japan subsequently administered the island as part of the
South Seas Mandate. Following the end of
World War II in 1945, the island came under the control of the
United Nations and was administered on its behalf by the United States as part of the
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. In 1978, the island became part of the
Northern Islands Municipality of the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, which in turn became an
unincorporated territory and
commonwealth of the United States in 1986. In 1968, residents in the area of
Naftan Rock, located off
Aguijan near
Tinian, asked the
United States armed forces to cease using Naftan Rock for bombing practice and to use Farallon de Medinilla instead. Accordingly, bombing practice moved to Farallon de Medinilla in October 1971. In a 2002 lawsuit, the
Center for Biological Diversity charged the
United States Navy with destroying wildlife habitat on the island. A subsequent court ruling ordered the
United States Department of Defense to cease bombing exercises on Farallon de Medinilla until they came into compliance with the
Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Scientists and environmentalists have pointed out the negative impact of military activities on local fauna and flora, including both terrestrial and marine species. These include resident
birds such as
Micronesian megapodes,
migratory birds such as
boobies,
terns, and
frigatebirds, and
cetaceans such as
humpback whales and
false killer whales. ==Geography==