Where does America's day truly begin? Where does it end? (America = U.S.A.)?

Question

Where is the 1st place the sun rises, and 1st place that it sets? What is it if all the territories, etc. are included, or if it just includes the 50 states, and/or only the 48 continental states?

Answer 1

Depends on the time of year. Its a difficult question to qualify. Much of Alaska is north of the Arctic Circle so the sun does not set below the horizon all day long in summer and does not rise above the horizon all day long in winter. You can figure how you want to account for that anomaly.

Otherwise, to find the first place that it rises and the first place that it sets you only need to find the U.S. location furthest east relative to the international dateline. Notice that the dataline is not exactly the same as eastern and western hemisphere so the most easterly point by longitude is not the eastern most point relative to the dateline.

You can find those locations at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_points_of_the_United_States

State furthest east is Maine.
State or territory furthest east relative to the dateline is Wake Island.

It's hard to tell from your question if you are also looking for the last place that the sun sets. If so, you can find it at the wikipedia site linked above by looking at the westernmost locations relative to the dateline.

Also, you will find a nautical daylight chart interesting to see where the sun is rising and setting each day. There is a small one at:

http://www.time.gov/timezone.cgi?Pacific/d/-8/java

Answer 2

I'm looking at a globe. Including all the territories, it looks like the day begins at Wake Island in the Pacific, 12 or 13 degrees west of the Date Line, and ends at Attu, in the Aleutians. Attu is just east of Wake (considering longitude only), and is actually about 172 longitude because of a political shift in the Date Line.

If you include the 50 states, it would be the eastern tip of Maine, near Calais, for the sun rising, and Attu again, for the setting (because the Aleutians are part of Alaska).

Some might say Kure Atoll or Midway Island for the sun setting. They're close to 180 longitude (as is Adak, in the Aleutians), but because of the jog in the Date Line, Attu is the better answer.

For the Continental 48, Calais, Maine, is one answer; and the other would be Cape Mendocino in Northern California.

Answer 3

Where Americas Day Begins

Answer 4

Guam is where the sun rises first over America

Answer 5

CPI,

First are the Islands of Hawaii
Last is eastern seaboard.