Gilbert and Ellice Islands French captain Louis Duperrey was the first to map the whole Gilbert Islands archipelago. He commanded "La Coquille" on its circumnavigation of the earth (1822–1825). Funafuti atoll was named Ellice's Island after Edward Ellice, a British politician and merchant, by Captain Arent de Peyster, who sighted the islands in 1819 sailing on the ship "Rebecca". Ellice owned the cargo of the ship. The name Ellice was applied to all nine islands, of what is now Tuvalu, after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay. The Gilbert and Ellice Islands were formerly designated an ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code "GE"
1978 Pacific hurricane season 1978 Pacific hurricane season The 1978 Pacific hurricane season officially began May 15, 1978, in the eastern Pacific, June 1, 1978, in the central Pacific, and officially ended on November 30, 1978. These dates conventionally delimit the period of time when tropical cyclones form in the eastern north Pacific Ocean. Activity this year was slightly above-average, with eighteen named storms forming. Five of those were tropical storms, thirteen were hurricanes, and six were major hurricanes that reached Category 3 or higher on the Saffir–Simpson scale. In the Central Pacific, a tropical depression and a major hurricane formed. Also, this season