Kiribati became the first country to enter the year 2000.
The Pacific island nation reached the new millennium first because its Line Islands, including Kiritimati, observe UTC+14, the world’s furthest-forward standard time zone. At midnight there, January 1, 2000 had begun while much of the world was still on December 31, 1999.
Kiribati’s position resulted partly from a 1994 adjustment to its international date-line arrangement. Before that change, the country’s islands lay on different sides of the date line, making it difficult for the nation to share one calendar date. The alteration placed the Line Islands on the same side of the date line as the rest of Kiribati.
The milestone was widely publicized during global millennium celebrations. Kiritimati is also called Christmas Island, but it is not the same place as Australia’s Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. The first country to enter a new year can depend on time-zone rules and date-line arrangements, so this fact is specifically about the year 2000.