In 1955, the British Empire made its final territorial expansion by claiming a tiny island
In a final act of imperial expansion in 1955, the British Royal Navy used a helicopter to annex a remote, uninhabitable rock in the Atlantic to prevent foreign surveillance.
The British Empire reached its final frontier on a tiny, wave-battered granite islet known as Rockall. Located 230 miles west of Scotland, the rock is only 100 feet wide, yet it became the center of a Cold War drama. Fearing the Soviet Union would use the rock to monitor missile tests, the UK sent a team by helicopter to cement a brass plaque and raise the Union Flag.
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