Talk:Clipperton Island

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Clipperton Island has been listed as one of the Geography and places good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
May 23, 2023	Peer review	Reviewed
June 14, 2023	Good article nominee	Listed
A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on June 29, 2025. The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that the dispute between France and Mexico over Clipperton Island* was settled by King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy?*
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Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 22:42, 20 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

(

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Article history

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U.S. Navy weather station on Clipperton Island

... that during World War II the U.S. Navy sparked a diplomatic incident with France by setting up a weather station (pictured) on Clipperton Island? Source: "However, after the French government was notified about the weather station, relations on this matter deteriorated rapidly with the French government sending a formal note of protest in defense of French sovereignty" Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, Europe, Volume IV Page 789 Circling the Earth United States Plans for a Postwar Overseas Military Base System, 1942-1948 Allies of a kind : the United States, Britain, and the war against Japan, 1941-1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt, Papers as President: Map Room Papers, 1941-1945
- ALT1: ... that President Roosevelt received mail shortly after a stop at Clipperton Island from a biplane launched from the rigid airship USS Macon? Source: "On 19 July 1934, soon after the stop at Clipperton, the rigid airship USS Macon rendezvoused with the Houston, and one of the Macon's Curtiss F9C biplanes delivered mail to president" Kite Balloons to Airships the Navy's Lighter-than-Air Experience Page 33 Naval History and Heritage Command
- ALT2: ... that NASA spent a month on Clipperton Island setting up radar equipment to monitor Ariane flight V88 only for the rocket to disintegrate 37 seconds after launch? Source: "After spending a month on Clipperton setting up and calibrating radar equipment to monitor Ariane flight V88, the mission ended in disappointment when the rocket disintegrated 37 seconds after launch due to a software bug" Space News Roundup
- ALT3: ... that the dispute between France and Mexico over Clipperton Island was settled by King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy? Source: "In 1931, Victor Emmanuel III issued his arbitral decision in the 'Clipperton Island Case', declaring Clipperton a French possession" American Journal of International Law Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal
- Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/PBS Appalachia Virginia
- Comment: Can add additional hooks and find media if needed.

Improved to Good Article status by Dr vulpes (talk) and Tcr25 (talk). Nominated by Dr vulpes (talk) at 21:34, 17 June 2023 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/Clipperton Island; consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page.[reply]

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

Image: Image is freely licensed, used in the article, and clear at 100px.
Freely licensed: Used in article: Clear at 100px:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: @Dr vulpes: Good article. Onegreatjoke (talk) 00:55, 18 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Naval invasion of 1944

So .. the US navy invaded this territory owned by France in 1944. whitheout the agreement of Free France . The only government remaining and legitimately accepted by the USSR and the British Empire .

what is the legality of that incident 🤔 37.171.176.202 (talk) 19:32, 1 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

As the article notes, it caused a minor diplomatic incident. As an unpopulated island, the Free French and Vichy France would both have possible claims to the territory. The invasion in and of itself wasn't as much of an problem as that it was done without the knowledge of De Gaulle, leading to concerns that the U.S. laying claim to the island. —Carter (Tcr25) (talk) 20:12, 1 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Raymond Fenard had been alerted to the construction of the weather station in 1944. A French officer was taken to the island in March 1945. And six months later the US left the island. By October of that year everyone was pretty chill about the whole thing and it appears that a large part of the issues that were raised were done by the French military and not it's civilian government. There were more important things going on in 1944 for France than a weather station on Clipperton. In addition to having to rebuild France after the war a majority of it's navy had been seized or destroyed to prevent Germany from taking hold of it. In 1940 France had the fourth largest navy in the world, this was not true by 1944.

This isn't nationalist chest thumping this period of history is amazing and looking at the effects that the war had on the European allies vs the United States gives insight into the harsh conditions the Europeans faced and the work that was put into rebuilding Europe after the war. It also shows the shift in power from the European powers to the start of the cold war and the USA and USSR start to work to establish spheres of influence.

This was much longer than I expected I just had a lot of fun working on this article and translating spanish and french sources on the topic. I wish I could go to the archives in Paris to translate some of the materials from this time, at this rate I should enroll in a masters program because I've done such a deep dive on this topic! If you ever get a chance I've been looking for the weather data the French government collected at Clipperton and would love to put it in the article but my French is really bad so I've never been able to find it. The American weather data is also really hard to find, but at least there's an excuse seeing that it's 80 years old at this point. Dr vulpes (Talk) 02:07, 2 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]