The world, centered on Kiritimati

Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Kiribati — population around 7,400, largest coral atoll on Earth by land area, and almost nobody outside the Pacific has heard of it. In 1995, Kiribati redrew the International Date Line so this entire country would share one date instead of being split across two — making Kiritimati the first inhabited place on the planet to greet each new day. That bulge, swinging the line out to almost 150°W to wrap around Kiribati's Line and Phoenix Islands, is drawn on the map above.

The Date Line's course through open water isn't fixed by any international treaty, so sources vary slightly on its exact path — this follows its commonly published route, including the Kiribati bulge and the smaller deviations near the Bering Strait and Samoa.