Friday Fun Fact

*interestingfacts.com

In 1892, Samoa had two July 4s in a row

The international date line, established in 1884, lies smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, far removed from the coasts of any major continent. That’s a convenient location for the marker officially designating where “today” ends and “tomorrow” begins. But even though the date line might look like it’s in the middle of nowhere, this imaginary boundary has caused a few temporal oddities over the years. 

Take, for example, Samoa. In 1892, in a move to strengthen ties to the U.S., the island nation decided to move to the eastern side of the line, essentially moving back in time. (Countries bisected by the date line can choose which side to be on.) Because this change was officially implemented on July 4, the Pacific archipelago then experienced the same day twice.

But that wasn’t the end of Samoa’s journey. Fast-forward to 2011, and Samoa decided to strengthen ties with its other, now-more-important trading partners, Australia and New Zealand, by moving back to the western side of the date line. This means Samoa never experienced December 30, 2011; when the clock struck midnight on December 29, Samoan calendars flipped over to December 31. Today, Samoa is still on the western side of the international date line, but when its very close neighbor American Samoa — a U.S. territory only about 135 miles away — was asked to join them, they declined, and stuck with the U.S. on the eastern side. That makes American Samoa the very last inhabited place in the U.S. to enter a new year.