Kiribati was the first country to enter 2000 during the Year 2000 celebrations.
Kiribati is an island country spread across a wide area of the central Pacific Ocean. Its Line Islands, including Kiritimati, lie in the world’s earliest time zone, UTC+14. That position made the country an early location for the arrival of 1 January 2000, attracting international attention during the global millennium celebrations.
The timing was not simply a matter of geography. In 1995, Kiribati moved the International Date Line around its eastern islands so that the country would share the same calendar date across its territory. The change also gave the Line Islands a distinctive place at the beginning of each new day.
Kiribati is often confused with Samoa or Tonga in discussions of Pacific time zones. Time-zone rules have changed in the region, but Kiribati’s UTC+14 Line Islands remain especially notable for being among the first inhabited places to begin a new calendar day.