In Scotland, the modern New Year's date was changed to 1 January 1600 by order of the King's Privy Council on 17 December 1599. Despite the unification of the Scottish and English royal crowns with the accession of Kings James VI and I in 1603, and even the unification of the kingdoms themselves in 1707, England continued to use 25 March until Parliament passed the New Style Calendar Act of 1750. This law moved the whole of Great Britain to use the Gregorian calendar and at the same time moved the civil new year to January 1 (as in Scotland). It came into force on September 3 (old style or September 14, new style) 1752.
According to Easter-style dating, the new year began on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter), or sometimes on Good Friday. The word was used throughout Europe, but especially in France, from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries. The disadvantage of this system was that, since Easter was a movable holiday, the same date could occur twice a year; these two events were distinguished as "before Easter" and "after Easter".
In Nativity style or Nativity style dating, the new year began on December 25th. The term was used in Germany and England until the eleventh century, and in Spain from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries.
The Southern Equinox (usually September 22) was "New Year's Day" according to the French Republican calendar, which was used from 1793 to 1805. It was primidi Vendémiaire, the first day of the first month.
Due to the division of the globe into time zones, the new year gradually spreads across the globe as the start of the day marks the beginning of the New Year. The first time zone to usher in the New Year, west of the International Date Line, is located in the Line Islands of Kiribati and has a time zone 14 hours ahead of UTC. All other time zones are 1-25 hours behind, most of them to the previous day (December 31); at American Samoa and Midway it is still 11 p.m. on December 30th. These are one of the last populated places where the New Year is celebrated. However, the uninhabited remote US territories of Howland Island and Baker Island are designated as being within the time zone 12 hours behind UTC and are the last places on earth to celebrate January 1st. These small coral islands are located approximately halfway between Hawaii and Australia, approximately 1,000 miles west of the Line Islands. This is because the International Date Line is a collection of local time zones that cross the Pacific Ocean, allowing each region to remain most closely connected in time to the nearest, largest, or most convenient political and economic regions with which each is associated. By the time the new year arrives on Howland Island, it is 2am on January 2 in the Linear Islands of Kiribati.
