00:00Have you ever wondered which country celebrates the new year first, and which one is last?
00:04The Earth is divided into 24 main time zones, but their lines aren't perfectly straight.
00:09They bend and twist to follow the borders of countries and regions.
00:13And this line is known as the International Date Line,
00:15the place where a new calendar day begins and moves from east to west.
00:19So we need to find the country that's as close to this line as possible.
00:23And that's where it's hiding.
00:24Kiribati, a remote island nation with a population of about 120,000 that you've probably never heard of.
00:30People in villages called Banana, London, Paris, and Poland are the first on Earth to welcome the new year.
00:36And it's because of Kiribati.
00:38The International Date Line looks so strange.
00:41It used to cut through the country, but to make sure the people in the capital and the residents of Banana
00:45could live on the same day, not 24 hours apart, they simply shifted the line by several thousand kilometers.
00:50After Kiribati, New Year arrives in New Zealand, Australia, and Asia,
00:55then rolls west across Europe and Africa, and only hours later, it finally reaches the Americas.
01:01And only when almost the entire world is already living in the new year,
01:05the celebration arrives at the last inhabited place on the planet, American Samoa.
01:10These are U.S. island territories, and what's funny is that just 70 kilometers away,
01:14on the other side of the International Date Line, is the country of Samoa, with a 25-hour time difference.
01:19Some people even use this unique opportunity to celebrate New Year's in Samoa first,
01:24then hop on a boat or a plane, and do it all over again in American Samoa.
01:29And take a look at Baker Island and Howland Island, which are also U.S. territories.
01:33There, the new year arrives even an hour later than in American Samoa,
01:36and since the islands are uninhabited, the only ones celebrating are seabirds.
01:41And where there, the new year arrives from the International Date Line,
01:43the new year arrives at the US, the new year arrives in American Samoa,
01:45and the new year arrives at the International Date Line.
01:46Where did you decide where the new year働 the country from the International Date Line is the top of the International 40th?
Comments