Kiribati was the first country to enter the year 2000 on New Year's Eve.
The Pacific island nation reached the new year first because its Line Islands, including Kiritimati, used UTC+14, the world’s furthest-ahead civil time zone. As a result, midnight arrived there before it arrived in other countries during the global transition from 1999 to 2000.
Kiribati’s position was partly the result of a 1994 time-zone change. The country shifted the International Date Line around its eastern islands so that its widely scattered territory could share the same calendar date. Before that change, the islands could be separated by a day on the calendar.
The millennium wording caused debate because some people regarded 2001 as the start of the third millennium, counting from year 1 rather than year 0. Nevertheless, the public celebration was widely called the Millennium New Year, and Kiribati was the first country to reach 2000.