The Kanton Atoll (Canton), Abariringa, "Mary Island", "Mary Balcout's Island" or "Swallow Island" is the largest and northernmost of the Phoenix Islands. This coral group which belongs to Kiribati is its sole inhabited island. They are located approximately 1,600 miles (2,600 km) southwest of Hawaii.

The coral reef encloses a lagoon extending 7 miles by 3 miles (11 km by 5 km). The earliest reported visits to the island were in August 1824 by two British whaling ships. Then the atoll was named "Mary Ballcout's Island" after the ship owner's wife. The atoll's current name was given in 1854, when the British whaling ship "Canton" ran aground there.

Britain claimed Canton in 1889 for use as a transpacific cable station. In the 1930s the atoll gained importance as a transpacific air stop. An agreement in 1939 placed Canton and Enderbury Atoll 32 miles (51 km) southeast under joint US - British control so that airplanes of both countries could use them.

During WWII Canton served as a strategic air base. After the war, British, American, and Australian airlines resumed using Canton, but, after the advent of long-range jet aircraft, the airfield was used only as an emergency stop. The US used the atoll as a tracking station for antiballistic missiles beginning in 1970. This tracking station is no longer on the island.

In 1979, when the Phoenix Islands became a part of independent Kiribati, the spelling was changed to Kanton. Total land area 3.5 square miles (9 sq km).

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