Wikipedia:Today's featured article/September 2, 2022
Caroline Island is the easternmost of the uninhabited coral atolls which comprise the southern Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean. First sighted by Europeans in 1606 and claimed by the United Kingdom in 1868, it has been part of the Republic of Kiribati since the island nation's independence in 1979. Despite guano mining, copra (coconut meat) harvesting, and human habitation in the 19th and 20th centuries, Caroline Island has remained relatively unspoiled compared to other tropical islands. It is home to one of the world's largest populations of the coconut crab and is an important breeding site for seabirds, most notably the sooty tern. The atoll is known for its role in celebrations surrounding the arrival of the year 2000. A 1995 realignment of the International Date Line made Caroline Island the easternmost land west of the Date Line and therefore one of the first points of land on Earth to see sunrise in the year 2000. (Full article...)