Gilbert and Ellice Islands Gilbert and Ellice Islands The Gilbert and Ellice Islands were a British protectorate from 1892 and colony from 1916 until 1 January 1976, when the islands were divided into two colonies which became independent nations shortly after. A referendum was held in December 1974 to determine whether the Gilbert Islands and Ellice Islands should each have their own administration. As a consequence of the referendum, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony ceased to exist on 1 January 1976 and the separate countries of Kiribati and Tuvalu came into existence. The Gilbert Islands (formerly "Kingsmill Islands") are a chain of sixteen
.co (second-level domain) .co (second-level domain) In a number of countries, .co is used as a second-level domain to mean "commercial" and domain registrants register second-level domains of the form .co.xx, where xx is the country code top level domain (e.g., .co.uk in the U.K. and .co.jp in Japan). Some of the countries using .co as a second-level domain include: Barbados (.bb), Cook Islands (.ck), Costa Rica (.cr), India (.in), Indonesia (.id), Israel (.il), Japan (.jp), New Zealand (.nz), South Africa (.za), South Korea (.kr), Thailand (.th) and the United Kingdom (.uk). .co is also a country top-level domain corresponding to Colombia. Its