Caroline Island
isle of CarolineThe Millennium Island
The name Caroline Island was changed to Milennium Island to commemorate its unparalleled location in view of the year 2000's comeback. The Caroline Island is considered to be the first area to see the sundown on the first of the new millenium. Although few people on the island lived, it was the place where the first festivities took place in 2000.
This lonely island was first discovered in 1606 by Europeans, who took it over in 1868. Carolina, the name of the island, was given on 16 December 1795 by a seaman named William Robert in honour of Sir Stephen's daugther, although the name was formally altered to Caroline.
The other old name is Thornton Island, Clark Island and Independent Island. The island is currently governed by the Republic of Kiribati and gained autonomy in 1979. It covers 24 sq km and is only 20 ft above the surface. It enjoys a temperature of 82° Fahrenheit on mean and gets 1,500 mm of precipitation per year.
Caroline's name change to Millennium Island was launched by the Kiribati administration on 23 December 1994. It should start by modifying the Date Line so that the timezone eliminates the disorder created by the different regions of the land in two different dates.
Teburoro Tito led the 620-mile International Date Line adaptation, which was due to enter into force in January 1995. This adaptation changed the island era to the Asiatic side and made the island the first country on earth to experience the sun rise on 1 January 2000 at 5:43 a.m. there.
For the first time, this capacity to call the island a Millenium Island in the next thousand years has been enshrined in law by the state. After the transition was complete, there were demonstrations from other Pacific countries who were ready to take great pride in heralding the New Year. This were the Chatham Islands of New Zealand and Tonga Island.
However, this did not stop the Kiribati authorities from organising the millenium launch ceremonies, which made the land an important tourist area. Notwithstanding the fact that the island is 930 leagues from the closest city of Kiribati and 3,200 leagues from North America.
Until 1999 the last preparations for the new millennium and the official renaming of the island were made. Kiribati's President arrived with a mission of civil servants and other visitors from all over the world. Local performers and journalists from the 600 mile distant city of Tarawa were also present.
Although the tan could have been seen 35 min ago in other places like Victor Bay, Millennium Island is proud to be the first place to record the look.