It differs by a day (or almost a day). That is, according to different sides The clock line shows approximately the same time of day (a difference of one to three hours is possible due to time zone shifts), however, on the western side of the line the date is shifted one day ahead relative to the eastern one. This can be expressed another way as follows: if on the date line in at the moment midnight, then on the opposite Greenwich meridian 0 at this moment it is noon, while to the east of the date line the day has begun, and to the west of it the same day is already ending.

The date line roughly corresponds to the 180° meridian, which runs mainly along the ocean, but in some places it deviates significantly from it. There is no international agreement regarding the date line; local time is determined by states on their territory and adjacent territorial waters, not in international waters.

The date line does not run across land anywhere except Antarctica, although there are cases where it is drawn between closely spaced islands, such as the Diomede Islands, which are only 4 km apart. The northern part of the date line begins in the Arctic Ocean, goes around the eastern territories of the Russian Federation from the east, enters the Pacific Ocean through the Bering Strait, to the south it passes to the western side of the 180° meridian, leaving the Aleutian Islands to the east, after which it again enters the 180 meridian °. The line then follows the Pacific Ocean all the way to Antarctica, experiencing another major deviation to the east in Oceania (Kiribati, etc.).

Regarding this section, it should be noted that a ship traveling in the Pacific Ocean may well ignore the time of the nearby islands of Oceania (if it does not call at their ports) and carry out date translations on the 180° meridian.

After crossing the date line from east to west, you need to increase the calendar number by one, and after crossing it from west to east, on the contrary, decrease it by one. Changing dates should only be done when using, in one form or another, local time. Misunderstanding of this circumstance leads to “paradoxes” regarding going around the Earth’s pole in a circle or flying around the Earth in orbit.

Lost day

Purchased day

A large eastward deviation of the line in the equatorial region arose in 1995, when the Kiribati government decided to allocate the Line Islands to a new time zone (UTC +14). As a result, the Line Islands have the same time as Hawaii, but a day ahead, and the inhabitants of these islands are the first in the world to celebrate the new day.

In 2011, the Samoan authorities decided to move again to the western side of the international date line. The reason for this was the established close economic ties Samoa with Australia, New Zealand and other countries of the Asia-Pacific region, with which the time diverged by almost a day. For the transition, December 30, 2011 was skipped and after December 29, December 31 came immediately. A similar transition occurred in Tokelau, a dependent territory under the administration of New Zealand, since the administrative authorities of Tokelau are located in the capital of Samoa, the city of Apia.

Reference meridians

Excerpt characterizing the Date Line

Prince Andrei's regiment was in reserves, which until the second hour stood behind Semenovsky inactive, under heavy artillery fire. In the second hour, the regiment, which had already lost more than two hundred people, was moved forward to a trampled oat field, to that gap between Semenovsky and the Kurgan battery, where thousands of people were killed that day and on which, in the second hour of the day, intensely concentrated fire was directed from several hundred enemy guns.
Without leaving this place and without firing a single charge, the regiment lost another third of its people here. In front and especially with right side, in the persistent smoke, the cannons boomed and from the mysterious area of ​​smoke that covered the entire area ahead, without ceasing, with a hissing quick whistle, cannonballs and slowly whistling grenades flew out. Sometimes, as if giving rest, a quarter of an hour passed, during which all the cannonballs and grenades flew over, but sometimes within a minute several people were torn out of the regiment, and the dead were constantly dragged away and the wounded were carried away.
With each new blow, fewer and fewer chances of life remained for those who had not yet been killed. The regiment stood in battalion columns at a distance of three hundred paces, but despite this, all the people of the regiment were under the influence of the same mood. All the people of the regiment were equally silent and gloomy. Rarely was a conversation heard between the rows, but this conversation fell silent every time a blow was heard and a cry: “Stretcher!” Most of the time, the people of the regiment, by order of their superiors, sat on the ground. Some, having taken off their shako, carefully unraveled and reassembled the assemblies; who used dry clay, spreading it in his palms, and polished his bayonet; who kneaded the belt and tightened the buckle of the sling; who carefully straightened and refolded the hems and changed his shoes. Some built houses from Kalmyk arable land or wove wickerwork from stubble straw. Everyone seemed quite immersed in these activities. When people were wounded and killed, when the stretchers were being pulled, when ours were returning, when large masses of enemies were visible through the smoke, no one paid any attention to these circumstances. When the artillery and cavalry passed forward, the movements of our infantry were visible, approving remarks were heard from all sides. But the events that deserved the most attention were completely extraneous events that had nothing to do with the battle. It was as if the attention of these morally tormented people rested on these ordinary, everyday events. An artillery battery passed in front of the regiment's front. In one of the artillery boxes, the tie-down line came into place. “Hey, the tie-down!.. Straighten it! It will fall... Eh, they can’t see it!.. - they shouted equally from the ranks throughout the entire regiment. Another time general attention turned to a small brown dog with a firmly raised tail, which, God knows where it came from, ran out in front of the ranks at an anxious trot and suddenly squealed from a cannonball that struck close and, with its tail between its legs, rushed to the side. Cackling and squeals were heard throughout the regiment. But this kind of entertainment lasted for minutes, and people had been standing for more than eight hours without food and without anything to do under the persistent horror of death, and their pale and frowning faces became increasingly pale and frowning.
Prince Andrei, just like all the people of the regiment, frowning and pale, walked back and forth across the meadow near the oat field from one boundary to another, with his hands behind him and his head down. There was nothing for him to do or order. Everything happened by itself. The dead were dragged behind the front, the wounded were carried, the ranks closed. If the soldiers ran away, they immediately returned hastily. At first, Prince Andrei, considering it his duty to arouse the courage of the soldiers and show them an example, walked along the ranks; but then he became convinced that he had nothing and nothing to teach them. All the strength of his soul, just like that of every soldier, was unconsciously directed to restrain himself from contemplating the horror of the situation in which they were. He walked through the meadow, dragging his feet, scratching the grass and observing the dust that covered his boots; either he walked with long strides, trying to follow the tracks left by the mowers across the meadow, then he, counting his steps, made calculations on how many times he must walk from boundary to boundary to make a mile, then he purged the wormwood flowers growing on the boundary, and I rubbed these flowers in my palms and sniffed the fragrant, bitter, strong smell. From all yesterday's work of thought there was nothing left. He didn't think about anything. He listened with tired ears to the same sounds, distinguishing the whistling of flights from the roar of shots, looked at the closer faces of the people of the 1st battalion and waited. “Here she is... this one is coming to us again! - he thought, listening to the approaching whistle of something from the closed area of ​​​​smoke. - One, another! More! Got it... He stopped and looked at the rows. “No, it was postponed. But this one hit.” And he began to walk again, trying to do big steps to reach the boundary in sixteen steps.
Whistle and blow! Five steps away from him, the dry ground exploded and the cannonball disappeared. An involuntary chill ran down his spine. He looked again at the rows. A lot of people probably vomited; a large crowd gathered at the 2nd battalion.
“Mr. Adjutant,” he shouted, “order that there is no crowd.” - The adjutant, having carried out the order, approached Prince Andrei. From the other side, the battalion commander rode up on horseback.
- Be careful! - a frightened cry of a soldier was heard, and, like a bird whistling in rapid flight, crouching on the ground, two steps from Prince Andrei, next to the battalion commander’s horse, a grenade quietly plopped down. The horse was the first, without asking whether it was good or bad to express fear, snorted, reared up, almost toppling the major, and galloped away to the side. The horror of the horse was communicated to people.
- Get down! - shouted the voice of the adjutant, who lay down on the ground. Prince Andrei stood indecisive. The grenade, like a top, smoking, spun between him and the lying adjutant, on the edge of the arable land and meadow, near a wormwood bush.

This is probably a noticeable exaggeration, although, of course, what influenced the adoption of certain decisions almost 150 years ago is simply impossible to say now. In any case, in 1884, a special international commission decided that on the surface of the Earth it was necessary to draw a conditional line in the direction from north to south, upon crossing which travelers should add or subtract one day on their calendar. This line is called the International Date Line or simply the International Date Line. On both sides of this line, the time differs by exactly one day or 24 hours. Let's say with east side On this line it is June 24, and on the western line it is already June 25, although the time of day on the clocks on both sides of the line is the same. For people living near this line, this situation is quite inconvenient. For this reason, the International Date Line was drawn so that it passed through the territory Pacific Ocean. Naturally, in Antarctica it was carried out overland. The International Date Line runs approximately along the same meridian. This is the 180th meridian of both eastern and western longitude. The position of the 180 meridian is associated with determining the position of the prime meridian. It was asked simultaneously with the International Date Line in the same year and at almost the same international conference.

The prime meridian is a certain conventional line that is mentally drawn from pole to pole, that is, from north to south or, if you like, vice versa, from south to north. Without such a line it is impossible to build geographical maps, determine the location of objects and much more. Another of the most ancient navigators - the Phoenicians - already understood the need to have an initial reference line to determine the longitude of the point where their ships were located. As you know, the Phoenicians swam in the waters Mediterranean Sea. This sea, if you look at the map, stretches in the East-West direction. It was at that time that the terms longitude (to determine the location of a ship on the East-West line) and latitude (to determine the North-South direction) appeared. Even then, a certain reference point for the longitude of a place was used, which was similar to the choice of the prime meridian. However, all determinations of the position of geographical points in those days were of a rather random nature. For a more strict definition of the concept of the Prime Meridian, it was necessary to create a map of the entire world known at that time. This was done by the great geographer Ptolemy, who lived in Alexandria in the 2nd century BC. It was Ptolemy who described the geography of the entire world, known by that time to our ancestors. Ptolemy was the first to draw the Prime Meridian. He led it not through Alexandria, which would have been natural, but on the westernmost border of the then-known region globe. Ptolemy's Prime Meridian, the first Prime Meridian in human history, was located west of the west coast of Africa. He passed through a lighthouse located on the small island of Ferro. This island is part of the Canary archipelago. Now the lighthouse of this island is a tourist attraction.

Many centuries have passed since the time of Ptolemy. During this time, the art of constructing geographical maps arose. At the same time, in different times Throughout history, different geographers have drawn the prime meridian in different ways. There was a period when, during the era of great geographical discoveries and after it, each country made its own choice of the prime meridian. For example, during the great French Revolution, the Jacobins in 1794 decided to draw this meridian through the Bastille. By the end of the 19th century, the inconvenience of arbitrarily choosing the position of the prime meridian began to be felt especially acutely. There was a need to create a uniform system of geographic coordinates. For this purpose, a special international meridional commission was created. There was such a thing in the history of mankind! And so on November 1, 1884, this commission decided that the prime meridian should pass through the Greenwich (or Greenwich) Observatory, located on the outskirts of London. This determined the choice of the 1800 meridian, that is, the International Date Line. Greenwich Observatory was opened on June 22, 1675 under King Charles II. It ceased to exist on October 31, 1967. Where this observatory was, on the grounds of St. Anne's College, a line was drawn that separates the Western and Eastern Hemispheres. If desired, in this place tourists stand with one foot in one hemisphere and the other in the other, and take pictures.

It is often said that the choice of the prime meridian was due to the fact that English geographical maps were the most widespread in the world at that time. This probably actually played a significant role in the selection process. However, no less important was the fact, we have already mentioned this, that the 180th and zero meridians pass through sparsely populated areas. The choice of the Greenwich meridian as the prime meridian ensured this requirement. Since then, the position of the Date Line has practically not changed, but has only been slightly adjusted. This line in the north runs between the two islands of Big and Little Diomede. The first of them is also called Ratmanov Island. The distance between the islands is 4 km. The first island is Russia. It belongs to the Eastern Hemisphere. The second island is already the USA. It is located in the Western Hemisphere. The clocks on these islands show the same time. However, the days on these islands are different. The calendar counting of days on the American island lags behind the counting of days on Ratmanov Island by one day. Next, the Date Line goes to the South-West, skirting the Commander Islands. Far to the south it passes close to the east coast of Australia. Ratmanov Island, if we don’t talk about Antarctica, remains as a result the easternmost part of the land. The date line determines the count of days, that is, it is connected with the calendar. If you open a world atlas or look at a globe, you can see that the 180th meridian passes west of the Hawaiian Islands. The International Date Line does not always coincide with the meridian. It passes through land and zigzags across the Pacific Ocean. Since her position is established by general consent, but not fixed international treaty, it can be shifted at the whim of one country or another. For example, in 1995, Kiribati demanded that the international date line, which previously ran between the islands it occupies, go completely around them to the east. Therefore on modern maps all the islands of Kiribati are located on one side of this line, and the dates coincide throughout the entire state.

When going around the Earth along the meridian, this time changes to 24 hours. Our planet Earth rotates in the direction from west to east. As a result, the Sun illuminates first the eastern parts of the Earth, and then the western ones. We can say that time in the more eastern parts of the Earth is ahead of time in its more western parts. While on the Greenwich meridian, that is, simply in London, it will be noon, that is, 12 noon, near the Date Line, say on Ratmanov Island, it will be almost midnight and, accordingly, a new day will begin. And that means a new year.

Date line is a conventional line on the surface of the globe that delimits places that at the same time have calendar dates that differ by one day; passes for the most part along the 180th meridian. In places located directly on both sides of the date line, the hours and minutes are the same, and the calendar dates differ by one day.

At every point on the globe there is a new calendar date ( calendar date) starts at midnight. And since in different places On our planet, midnight comes at different times; in some places the new calendar date comes earlier, and in others later. This situation, especially when traveling around the world, previously often led to misunderstandings, expressed in the “loss” or “gain” of an entire day. Thus, the sailors of the flotilla of Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480-1521), returning in 1522 from a trip around the world to Spain from the east and stopping in Santiago Bay, discovered a discrepancy of one day between their count of days (which they carefully kept in the ship's log) and the account kept by local residents, and they had to bring church repentance for violating the dates of religious holidays.

The secret of such a “loss” is that they committed trip around the world from east to west - in the direction opposite to the rotation of the Earth around its axis. When returning to their starting point, the travelers spent one day less on the road (that is, they saw one less sunrise) than the days that had passed at their starting point. If you travel around the world from west to east, then for travelers one day will pass more than at the starting point.

The Greenwich meridian, whose longitude is 180°, or 12 hours, is the boundary on Earth between the western and eastern hemispheres. If from the Greenwich meridian one ship goes east and the other goes west, then on the first of them, when crossing the meridian with a longitude of 180°, the time will be 12 hours ahead of Greenwich, and on the second - 12 hours behind Greenwich. To avoid confusion in the dates of the month, by international agreement, a date line was established, which for the most part runs along the meridian with a longitude of 180 ° (12 hours). This is where the new calendar date (day of the month) begins first.

The crew of a ship crossing the date line from west to east must count the same day twice so as not to gain a day, and vice versa, when crossing this line from east to west, it is necessary to skip one day so as not to lose a day . The problem of mathematician Ya. I. Perelman is devoted to this temporary “phenomenon”: “How many Fridays are there in February?” For the crew of a ship sailing, for example, between Chukotka and Alaska, in February leap year there may be ten Fridays if it passes the international date line every time at midnight from Friday to Saturday from west to east. Or maybe not a single Friday, if the ship passes this line every time at midnight from Thursday to Friday from east to west. The date line can be considered one of the symbols of relativity.

Which countries welcome you first? New Year and a new day? These are the Kingdom of Tonga, the Republic of Kiribati, and the New Zealand possession of Chatham Island.

Let's talk about this in more detail.

Time zone map.

Time zone map.

On the far left and right parts The map is marked with a Dateline (or (otherwise) International Date Line).

It is crossed (at the bottom of the map, not far from Australia) by the Republic of Kiribati. Kiribati, due to its extent, is located simultaneously in three time zones in relation to Greenwich Time, namely in the zones: plus 12, plus 13, plus 14, and therefore cannot be considered a country that is entirely the first to celebrate the New Year and the new day. Only that part of Kiribati, which is located in the time zones: plus 13 and plus 14, celebrates the New Year and the new day first in the world.

In turn, the Kingdom of Tonga (time zone: plus 13) is the only country world, which is the first to celebrate the New Year and the new day all year round. Tonga does not switch to winter and summer time, as New Zealand does (winter New Zealand time: plus 12, and summer time: plus 13). Thus, in winter, New Zealand cannot boast of being the first country in the world to celebrate the New Year.

However, the New Zealand possession of Chatham Island (with its winter time: plus 12 hours 45 minutes) celebrates the New Year just 15 minutes after Tonga.

Kingdom of Tonga()- this is the only country in the world that is entirely the first to celebrate the New Year and year-round - the new day b.

The Tongan government organ, the Tonga Chronicle newspaper (published from 1964 to 2009), in its issue dated February 20, 1997, described the privilege and right of the Kingdom of Tonga to be called the first country to celebrate the New Year and New Day:

"To late XIX centuries, the world did not have a time zone system. But as the network railways and regular shipping lines expanded, the need to somehow coordinate their schedules became obvious. As a result, the major trading nations began to discuss the introduction of standard time and standard time in 1870 in order to get rid of the chaos in this matter.

These efforts culminated in the Washington International Meridian Conference. 1884., which divided the Earth into 24 standard meridians, 15° apart in longitude, starting west of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. The meridian, located 180° (12 hours ahead of Greenwich) became the basis for the so-called. The Dateline, in which countries to the west of it entered the next day, while countries to the east still remained on the previous day. (The following countries participated in the Washington International Meridian Conference, which developed a system of time zones for the whole world and established the International Date Line: Austria-Hungary, the Brazilian Empire, Venezuela, German Empire, Guatemala, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Spain, Italy, Colombia, Hawaii, Costa Rica, Mexico, Netherlands, Ottoman Empire, Paraguay, Russian Empire, El Salvador, Great Britain, USA, France, Chile, Sweden (in union with Norway), Switzerland and Japan Approx. website).

However, when determining the International Date Line, the conference participants agreed with its deviations from the 180th parallel in order to avoid dividing the day within individual entities, such as New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, Siberia (meaning the Far North of Russia Note..

In the Southern Hemisphere, the International Date Line was drawn north from the South Pole... so as not to separate Chatham Island, now New Zealand. Raoul, Sunday, now New Zealand . site), the Kingdom of Tonga, the Fiji-owned Lau Archipelago, similar to the North and South Islands of New Zealand... Similar deviations in the implementation of the Date Line were agreed upon in the Northern Hemisphere, so as not to separate territories in terms of dates in Eastern Siberia ( I mean the Far North of Russia. Note.

In theory, standard time should never be more than 12 hours ahead or behind Greenwich Time. But the permissible deviation, according to the decisions of the mentioned conference 1884 placed Tonga 13 hours ahead of Greenwich Time. In turn, New Zealand and Fiji found themselves in a zone 12 hours ahead of Greenwich Time, and Western Samoa 11 hours behind Greenwich Time.

But until 1941, Tonga did not adhere to its own local time, which was supposed to be 13 hours ahead of Greenwich Time. Tongan time was then 50 minutes ahead of New Zealand winter time, and accordingly Tongan time was 12 hours and 20 minutes ahead of Greenwich.

When New Zealand adjusted its standard time in the 1940s, Tonga had the choice of either changing its local time to match New Zealand's time; or move to a time 13 hours ahead of Greenwich Time (which would be 50 minutes ahead of New Zealand time).

His Majesty, the future King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, became king in 1965 ., and ruled until 2006. Note site), then known as Crown Prince Tungi, chose in this regard to change Tongan time so that Tonga could be called the land where time begins.

The Legislative Assembly approved this choice. But some of the older, more conservative members of parliament from the outer islands objected: "If at midnight on December 31st we move the clock forward by 40 minutes, as Your Royal Highness wishes, then we will simply lose 40 minutes?"

To which the Crown Prince presented a win-win argument: “But in this case, remember that during the “weekly prayer of the year” (see. Note website) we will be the first people on Earth to perform morning prayer".

Since 1974, when New Zealand began switching to daylight saving time, during the four summer months the country has also been in a zone where its time is 13 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. But Tonga is still the country in the world that is the first to welcome every new day of every week, every month and every year,” the Tongan newspaper proudly noted.

So, the time in Tonga is equal to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT, today also called Coordinated Universal Time UTC) +13 hours.

In addition, Tonga's neighbor and another island country, the Republic of Kiribati, can also be considered the first country to celebrate the New Year and New Day. However, Kiribati, due to its extent, is located simultaneously in three time zones in relation to Greenwich Time, namely in zones +12, +13, +14, and therefore cannot be considered a country that is entirely the first to celebrate the New Year and New Day.

A still frame from the New Year's (2000) broadcast of the American television company ABC, which shows the Dateline (or (otherwise) International Date Line), as well as the three first countries in the world that are the first to celebrate the New Year and the new day: the Kingdom of Tonga ( Time zone: Greenwich Time plus 13); as well as part of the islands of the Republic of Kiribati (namely those belonging to time zones plus 13, plus 14); and besides this, the New Zealand possession is Chatham Island (Chatham, its winter time: plus 12 hours.

A still frame from the New Year's (2000) broadcast of the American television company ABC, which shows the Dateline, or (otherwise) International Date Line, as well as the three first countries in the world that are the first to celebrate the New Year and the new day:

Kingdom of Tonga (Time zone: Greenwich Time plus 13);

as well as part of the islands of the Republic of Kiribati (namely those belonging to time zones plus 13, plus 14);

and besides this, the New Zealand possession is Chatham Island (Chatham, its winter time: plus 12 hours 45 minutes).

Quite close to Tonga is the New Zealand possession of Chatham Island, where the difference with Greenwich time is +12 hours 45 minutes, i.e. 15 minutes less than Tongan. However, in the summer, Chatham switches to summer time and then the difference with Greenwich time is already +13 hours 45 minutes, and therefore 45 minutes more than Tongan time.

In turn, New Zealand has winter time (Greenwich time +12), and summer time (Greenwich time +13). Thus, as noted in the Tonga Chronicle article, in the summer New Zealand we can say that she is also the first to greet a new day. But not New Year, because... Summer time in New Zealand runs from April to September.

A few words about how the New Year is celebrated in Tonga.

The entire first week of the New Year is called Uike Lotu (ie "weekly prayer") in Tonga. On every day of this week, members Protestant churches, to which the largest part of the Tongan population belongs (despite the fact that 15% are Catholics), hold meetings and prayers in the morning and evening, and in between prayers there is a solemn meal.

The Tongan New Year's treat consists of umu baked in a pit oven. used in the Hawaiian Islands) is a traditional Tongan dish called lu pulu, which is beef cooked in taro leaves along with onions and coconut milk. People also eat root vegetables such as taro, and also sweet potatoes, i.e. sweet potato, called in Tonga « kumala» (kumala), and in addition - tapioca (i.e. starchy puree), prepared from the roots of the cassava plant (plants of the euphorbia family), and seafood.

Youth launch fireworks using cannons in the form of a large bamboo tube lying on the ground, such a cannon is called fana pitu .

Video: A Tongan teenager prepares a bamboo fana pitu for the 2010 New Year's fireworks display. Below you can see how this gun fires:

On January 1, people also go to the beach and swim, which is the hottest time of summer in Tonga. The King of Tonga hosts a reception for his high-ranking guests on the night of January 1st.

Video: Tonga, Kiribati and the New Zealand possession of Chatham Island are the first to celebrate the New Year (Here is 2000, and thus, in this case, the new millennium):

The video below is a fragment of a special international television program “Meeting of 2000” (also known as “2000 Today”), which was broadcast throughout the day on December 31, 1999 around the world and was organized in cooperation by 60 television broadcasters different countries, which included as public - British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Polish Television (Telewizja Polska - TVP), Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Spanish Television (Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española - RTVE ) and the Public Broadcasting Service in the USA (Public Broadcasting Service - PBS), and private - American Broadcasting Company in the USA (American Broadcasting Company - ABC), Japanese TV Asahi. Short excerpts from the program were also broadcast in Russia.

The program was a telethon consisting of live broadcasts showing how countries around the world, one after another, celebrated the New Year 2000. Starting with the very first countries where the new day comes: the Kingdom of Tonga and the Republic of Kiribati, as well as the New Zealand possession - Chatham Island.

So, the last minutes 1999 . and meeting 2000 g . to Tonga, Kiribati and Chatham Island.

It first shows the then King of Tonga, Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, addressing his subjects with a speech of welcome, while the subjects pray (as part of the so-called "weekly prayer") and sing religious songs.

At the same time, dancers and singers from the neighboring Republic of Kiribati, who came to Kiribati's and usually uninhabited Caroline Island, officially renamed Millennium Island by the government of this republic in 1999, held a ceremony to welcome the new millennium and year, in presence of the republic's leadership and journalists. Caroline Atoll is the very first territory of Kiribati to celebrate the New Year and New Day. It is also the first territory in the world to receive a new date, because... The atoll lies next to the Dateline, or International Date Line. Until 1995, the atoll was one of the last places on earth to welcome a new day, because... The international date line ran to the east, and thus Kiribati was a country where the new and old days ran simultaneously. Now all three time zones of Kiribati are in the zone of one current day, in other words, at the initiative of the government of Kiribati, the International Date Line was pushed back.

During the broadcast ceremony, Kiribati dancers performed traditional dances mwaie, as well as songs. In addition, a traditional canoe was launched into the water, driven by an old man and a boy with a torch. The launch of the canoe symbolized hope for a new journey - from the past to the future.

The program also showed how the year 2000 was celebrated on the New Zealand property - Chatham Island. There were present both Europeans and representatives of the Maori - the indigenous population of the New Zealand islands, who once inhabited Chatham.

For our video, the broadcast of the television program “Meeting of 2000” (“2000 Today”) was taken from the broadcasts of Polish television (Telewizja Polska - TVP, broadcast on the second TV channel of this broadcaster) and the American Broadcasting Company (ABC (USA). The comments, respectively, were in Polish and English.

This material was prepared based on an article from the former government English-language Tongan newspaper Tonga Chronicle and a note from the Internet community Hubpages (In both cases, the site translated from English), as well as other sources;

We are used to treating time zones purely practically - they are important when traveling and long trips. If you forget about the time zone, you can miss your flight and simply get lost in time. Time zones are counted from Greenwich - the conditional zero line to the “plus” (to the east) and to the “minus” (to the west). But, since the Earth is round, there is a place where time zones converge, where “today” and “tomorrow” meet. This place is called the "Date Line" and it runs through the Pacific Ocean.

You can cross it using the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky - Anchorage flight of Yakutia Airlines. Since you are not flying as usual, through Europe, but “to reverse side”, then you arrive in the USA as if on a day that has already passed. When you fly back to Kamchatka, you “return” to the future.

1. On July 11th at 5 am on a Yakutia airline flight I flew from Novosibirsk to Yakutsk. Began the longest day of my life. After 5 hours, transfer to a flight to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and from there to Alaska.

2. Flights to Anchorage operate every week on Mondays, but only until August 29. This connection to summer is related to the weather - July and August in Kamchatka and Alaska are ideal for tourists.

4. Smooth takeoff from Yakutsk.

6. The fleet of Yakutia Airlines consists of 15 aircraft. On the flight to Anchorage there are 4 comfortable Boeing 737-800. This is the only air route connecting Far East Russia with the former Russian territory, and now the American state of Alaska.

There is low cloud cover in Kamchatka, but during the roll during the landing course a volcano is visible.

7. In general, near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky there are two active volcano- Koryak and Avacha hills.

8. The plane lands in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on the shore of Avacha Bay of the Pacific Ocean. It is the easternmost city in the entire northern hemisphere with a population of more than 100 thousand people.

9. There is a crew change in Kamchatka.

10. The flight to Alaska is late in the evening and everyone on board is asleep. Except me. I'm waiting for that very moment of crossing the border of time zones.

11. Here it is! The phone is at the porthole. At longitude 172 we cross the date change boundary.

12. It would seem that July 11 should have ended, and I should see the dawn of a new day - July 12, but no! This is the dawn of a day already lived - the 11th.