Two Bering Strait Islands Are Only Two Miles Apart But Are Separated by 21 Hours in International Time

In a mercurial episode of Half as Interesting, Sam from Wendover called attention to a pair of islands that sit between the United States and Russia within the Bering Strait. The smaller of the two islands, Little Diomede is a sparsely populated Alaskan (U.S.) Island, while Big Diomede is a Siberian (Russia) island that’s solely populated by a military base. While these two islands are only two miles apart from each other, they are 21 hours apart due to the placement around the international timeline. What’s interesting is that each island is the same distance away from their respective country capitals.

Not only is Little Diomede 2 miles from the Russian Big Diomede and 25 miles from the Russian mainland, it’s also almost exactly as far from Big Diomede to Moscow as it is to DC. …not only are these two islands two miles apart in two different countries but also that they are 21 hours apart in time. When it’s noon on a Thursday in the American Little Diomede it’s 9 a.m. on Friday on Big Diomede