The world ushered in 2019 with a host of spectacular fireworks shows as midnight swept over the globe from east to west.
Celebrations were already underway on the Pacific Ocean island of Samoa at noon on Dec. 31, Kyiv time, while on American Samoa, 100 kilometers to the east but on the other side of the international date line, the fireworks didn’t start to go off until nearly a day later, at 1 p.m. Kyiv time on Jan. 1.
The coming of the New Year was marked at 11 p.m. Kyiv time in Moscow, Russia, and in the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine — the Crimean peninsula and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts that have been under Moscow’s control since 2014.
The last places to see in the New Year, at 2 p.m. Kyiv time on Jan. 1, were the Howland and Baker islands, part of the United States Minor Outlaying Islands territory, in the North Pacific Ocean. They likely had a quiet New Year — both are uninhabited coral atolls and nature reserves.
