Kiribati became the first country to enter 2000 during the Millennium New Year's Eve celebrations.
The Pacific nation includes the Line Islands, whose time zone was moved to UTC+14 in 1995. That adjustment placed the islands on the western, or earlier-calendar, side of the International Date Line, allowing Kiribati to be among the first inhabited places to reach a new date.
The Millennium celebrations drew worldwide attention to Kiribati's Caroline Island, which was renamed Millennium Island in 1999 for promotional purposes. The island itself is uninhabited, so the symbolic “first” was tied to the country's territory rather than a large urban countdown.
Kiribati's position is often confused with Samoa or Tonga because all are Pacific island states near the date line. Which place enters first depends on the date-line arrangement and time-zone rules in force at the relevant date.