Happy New Year!

As of the stroke of midnight on 1/1/11, Estonia became a member of the Euro zone. Keeping consistent with the #1 theme, they're the first former Soviet bloc country to do so. With a population of only 1.34M (wouldn't it have been ironic if their population was 1.11M?), Estonia is one of the least-populated countries in Europe to join the European Union.

Its currency, the Estonian Kroon was converted at its fixed rate of 15.6466 Kroons to the Euro. Some of its neighbors, such as Lithuania and Latvia, also hope to join the Euro zone soon, but who knows now that there is so much turmoil.