ARGENTIA

village, southeastern Newfoundland, Canada. The village is situated along the west coast of the Avalon Peninsula just to the north of the town of Placentia and overlooks Placentia Bay. Formerly a herring- and salmon-fishing port known as Little Placentia, it was renamed Argentia (derived from argentum, Latin for silver) when silver was discovered in the vicinity. Most of its inhabitants moved to the nearby community of Freshwater in 1941, when Argentia became the site of the first U.S. lend-lease military base acquired from Great Britain. In August 1941 the Atlantic Charter on the sovereign rights of nations was signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt and Sir Winston Churchill aboard warships anchored offshore; a memorial chapel on the base commemorates the event. The village is a coastal-boat terminus, connected by highway and railroad to St. John's, 81 miles (131 km) east-northeast. Pop. (1991) 121.