Caroline Island was renamed Millennium Island after becoming one of the first places to enter the year 2000.
Caroline Island is part of the Line Islands of Kiribati in the central Pacific Ocean. Its position near the International Date Line made it a prominent symbol of the millennium celebrations. Kiribati moved the date line around its island group in 1995, aligning its territory so that the country could be among the first to experience each new calendar day.
The island was officially renamed Millennium Island in 1999, ahead of the 2000 celebrations. It is uninhabited and has no permanent infrastructure, so the event was symbolic rather than a large urban festival.
It is often confused with Christmas Island, also known as Kiritimati, which is another Kiribati island and one of the world's earliest inhabited places to enter a new day. Caroline Island is the island specifically associated with the Millennium Island name.