HOW SAMOA SKIPPED A DAY By Margaret Franklin The Pacific Island of Samoa will be the first country in the world to welcome the New Year, rather than one of the last, as it used to be. It achieved this, by switching to the other side of the International Date Line, five years ago. Samoa and nearby Tokelau ‘moved’ across the date line at midnight on Thursday December 29th, 2011, skipping the Friday altogether and going instantly to Saturday the 31st. In reality of course, the islands didn’t actually move. Instead, cartographers when updating their maps, will re-drew the International date line with Samoa and Tokelau on the Australian side. These islands lie near the date line that runs through the Pacific Ocean, and both sets of islands decided to realign themselves this year from the America side of the line to the Asia side. The change removed Friday 30 December 2011 from their calendar. Any residents of those islands born on December 30th would have had to celebrate their birthday either on December 29th or 31st! The Samoan islands were on the Asian side of the international date line until 1892, when American traders persuaded them to adopt the American date. This brought them three hours behind California, instead of four hours ahead of Japan. To do this, they had to repeat the date of Monday 4th July 1892, in a sort of ‘groundhog day’ experience, celebrating American Independence day twice that year! Almost 120 years later, Samoa reversed the process and lost a day to make up for the one they gained in 1892. They did this because Australia and New Zealand had become the major trading partners of Samoa, while Tokelau is a territory of New Zealand. Being 21 hours behind Sydney made business difficult, as their weekends didn’t coincide. When it was Friday in Samoa, it was Saturday in Australia, with most businesses closed for the weekend. Then when businesses reopened on Monday in Australia, it was Sunday in Samoa. Samoa is located approximately halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii and has a population of 180,000 people. The smaller island of American Samoa remains on the American side of the date line, which now passes between the two Samoas. The International Date Line is an imaginary line on the surface of the Earth, that separates two consecutive calendar days. For part of its length, it follows the 180 degree meridian of longitude which goes from north pole to south pole, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. However, it deviates from this line of longitude in several places to accommodate the needs of various countries. Immediately to the left of the International Date Line the date is always one day ahead of the date (or day) immediately to the right of the line. So crossing in an easterly direction over the International Date Line results in one day, or 24 hours, being subtracted, so that the traveller repeats the date on the other side of the line. Travelling west across the International Date Line results in a day being added, so that the calendar date jumps ahead by one day. The line is necessary in order to have an agreed boundary on the globe where the calendar date advances in the westbound direction.
The International Date Line was established in 1884, following the International Meridian Conference which was held in Washington in October of that year. The conference was held at the request of President Chester A. Arthur, who was President of the United States of America at the time. The main purpose of the conference was to determine the Prime Meridian for the world. This meant that all countries had to agree on a common zero of Longitude, both for the purpose of denoting location coordinates on the globe and also to provide for a standard of time reckoning. The conference was attended by 41 delegates, representing 25 nations. Ireland didn’t have a delegate, as it was part of the UK at that time. The countries represented, in alphabetical order, were as follows: Austria-Hungary , Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Guatemala, Hawaii, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Paraguay, Russia, Salvador, San Domingo, Spain, Sweden-Norway, Switzerland, Ottoman Empire, United States and Venezuela The conference passed a number of resolutions, the most important of which was the decision to adopt, as the world’s Prime Meridian, the line going through the centre of the transit instrument in the Observatory at Greenwich, near London. This medidian was assigned a value of zero degrees of Longitude and from this meridian, longitude was to be counted in two directions up to 180 degrees. East longitude was assigned a plus value and west longitude a minus. The 180 degree line of longitude then became the international date line. Presumably this was considered the most convenient place to have it, as it does not pass through major centres of population. San Domingo, which is now the Dominican Republic, voted against the resolution, while France and Brazil abstained. The French did not adopt the Greenwich meridian until 1911. The meridian conference did not specify the exact route of the dateline. It ‘zig-zags’ as it crosses land or groups of islands. It bends east to give Siberia the same date as the rest of Russia, and bends west to bring Hawaii into line with the rest of the US There is no international authority that decrees the fate of countries that are near the International Date Line. Each country may decide for itself and inform the rest of the world. In April 2011, a Samoan official contacted the cartographers at Collins Bartholomew, informing them of their intention to make the change and asking them to update their maps accordingly. Rudyard Kipling, in his Barrack-room ballads, 1892, stated: "Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet." This would be so if the earth were flat. But in fact they do meet, at the International Date line! But whichever side of there International you may be on, have a Happy New Year 2017!