Editing Midway Atoll (section)

==Location==
As its name suggests, Midway is roughly equidistant between North America and Asia and lies almost halfway around the world longitudinally from [[Greenwich]], England. It is near the northwestern end of the Hawaiian archipelago, {{convert|1310|mi|km}} northwest of [[Honolulu]], Hawaii, and about one-third of the way from Honolulu to [[Tokyo]], Japan. Unlike the rest of the [[Northwestern Hawaiian Islands]], Midway is not part of the State of Hawaii due to the [[Hawaiian Organic Act]] of 1900 that formally annexed Hawaii to the United States as a territory, which defined Hawaii as "the islands acquired by the United States of America under an Act of Congress entitled 'Joint resolution to provide for annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States,'" referring to the [[Newlands Resolution]] of 1898. While it could be argued that Midway became part of Hawaii when Captain N.C. Brooks of the sealing ship ''Gambia'' sighted it in 1859, it was assumed at the time that Midway was independently acquired by the United States when [[Captain (United States Navy)|Captain]] [[William Reynolds (naval officer)|William Reynolds]] of {{USS|Lackawanna|1862|6}} visited in 1867, and thus not part of the Hawaii Territory.

In defining which islands the state of Hawaii would inherit from the Territory, the [[Hawaii Admission Act]] of 1959 clarified the question, specifically excluding Midway (along with [[Palmyra Island]], [[Johnston Island]], and [[Kingman Reef]]) from the jurisdiction of the state.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lowenthal |first=Ben |date=2018-08-10 |title=The State of Aloha |language=en-US |work=The Maui News |location=Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii |url=https://www.mauinews.com/opinion/columns/2018/08/the-state-of-aloha-50/ |access-date=2021-09-05 |archive-date=June 4, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220604034457/https://www.mauinews.com/opinion/columns/2018/08/the-state-of-aloha-50/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Midway Atoll is approximately {{cvt|140|nmi|km mi|sigfig=2}} east of the [[International Date Line]], about {{cvt|2800|nmi|km mi|sigfig=2}} west of [[San Francisco]], and {{cvt|2200|nmi|km mi|sigfig=2}} east of Tokyo.