Type: International Date Line Issues
Continent: Asia (Little Diomede Island is often considered North America due to political reasons)
Location
-North Asia (North America); Bering Islands
-Big Diomede Island is under Russian, whereas Little Diomede Island is under the United States
Often recalled as the bridge between the eastern and westernmost edges of the world, the Diomede Islands are a group of two islands in the Bering Sea between Russia and Alaska. These two islands are in the middle between Russian Chukotka and American Alaska. Although the two islands are only 4 km apart, due to political borders going through two islands, the International Date Line is straightly going between the islands dividing into two hemispheres, meaning that Russian Big Diomede Island is nearly one day in front of American Little Diomede Island.
This island, located far east of most of the Russian population centers, was first discovered by a Russian explorer, Semyon Dezhnev, in 1648. These islands reappeared in history during the Alaskan Purchase of the United States. While dividing Russia and Alaska, Russia decided to use the islands as the divisor since they are roughly located middle of the Bering Sea, which also led those islands to be divided into two, Russia in the west and the United States in the east. This decision led two twins to be separated and ruled by governments in the opposite of the world, although being only 3.8 km apart in approximate, one in Moscow and the other in Washington D.C.
Due to how close the two nations get, this bares exciting facts. Theoretically, when the water between two island freeze, which usually happens that way, it is possible that a person can walk from the United States to Russian Federation or vice versa, which sounds very awkward. So, although these two twins were separated and raised by totally different parents, these little islands will remain their closest neighbours and the only ones to see each other forever, one yesterday and the other tomorrow.
