Kiribati moved across the International Date Line in 1994, making New Year's celebrations arrive earlier there.
Kiribati is an island country spread across a large area of the central Pacific. Before the change, its eastern Phoenix and Line Islands were on different calendar dates from the Gilbert Islands, where the capital was located. The government altered the time-zone arrangement so the country would share the same calendar day across its territory.
The change took effect around the beginning of 1995, after the International Date Line was shifted east of the Line Islands. It did not move the internationally agreed line everywhere; it changed Kiribati's chosen time zones. The result made Kiribati's Line Islands among the first inhabited places to enter a new calendar year, a distinction often highlighted in New Year's coverage.