Little_Diomede_Island

Little Diomede Island or Yesterday Island (Inupiaq: Iŋaliq, formerly known as Krusenstern Island, Russian: остров Крузенштерна, romanized: ostrov Kruzenshterna) is an island of Alaska, United States. It is the smaller of the two Diomede Islands located in the middle of the Bering Strait between the Alaska mainland and Siberia.
Little Diomede's neighboring island, Big Diomede, is about 2.33 miles (3.75 kilometers) to the west, but Big Diomede is part of Russia and west of the International Date Line. Unlike its larger Russian neighbor, Little Diomede retains a permanent native population. As of 2021, Little Diomede had a population of 82, down from its recorded peak of 178 in 1990. The entirety of the island is in the City of Diomede (named Iŋaliq as well). The island is not part of any organized borough, so some services are provided directly by the state. For census purposes, it is included in the Nome Census Area.
During the Cold War, the section of the border between the U.S. and the USSR separating Big and Little Diomede became known as the "Ice Curtain". In August 1987, however, Lynne Cox swam from Little Diomede to Big Diomede (approx. 2.2 miles (3.5 km)) and was congratulated jointly by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan.