The Day That Never Was

Time zone boundaries are usually set in sparsely populated areas in order to minimize the inconvenience and confusion that would result if people who lived or worked near each other were not operating on the same time of day. For example, in Indiana the boundary separating Eastern and Central time zones runs through the corn fields between the Gary metropolitan area and the mighty metropolis of South Bend. In North Dakota, the boundary line between Central and Mountain time zones is placed in the barren scruff of western North Dakota ranch land, far from any pocket of civilization. The same principle applies with the International Date Line ("IDL"), which is located in the far reaches of the western Pacific Ocean. Hardly anybody lives near the IDL. The IDL zig zags though the Pacific, rather than being drawn as a straight longitudinal line, in order to accommodate Pacific islanders' economic and political preferences. Most of the time it makes little difference to the rest of the world which side of the zig zag any particular Pacific island nation chooses.

When a ship or a plane crosses the IDL traveling from west to east, it finds itself in a day which has already occurred, going from the current time west of the line to an earlier time of the same day on the east side, in effect repeating a day (i.e., an extra day). Conversely, when moving from east to west, a traveler goes from today immediately into tomorrow, in effect losing a day. For example, if a person took off in a plane from Honolulu (which is east of the IDL) at 6:00 a.m. on a Wednesday and ten hours later landed in Melbourne, Australia (west of the IDL), the time in Honolulu would be 4:00 p.m. Wednesday, but it would be 7:a.m. Thursday in Melbourne.

The country of Samoa is situated in the southwestern Pacific, just twenty miles to the east of the IDL. Ever since 1892 the Samoans have elected to align their country with North America and South America. That decision was mostly a result of the Samoans transacting most of their business with the US instead of with Asian nations and Australia. But times have changed. These days, the Samoans find themselves carrying on much more business with the Pacific Rim countries than anywhere else, including the US. Due to the vagaries of the IDL, Samoa is only two hours behind the Pacific time zone in the US, compared to being a whopping twenty-one hours behind most of Australia. If the effect of two day weekends (i.e., non-business days) is taken into account, the Samoans were sometimes losing two or three days in their dealings with their trade partners to their west. As a result of all the foregoing, Asian and Aussie lobbyists finally persuaded the Samoan government to cut tradition and place themselves west of the IDL.

The upshot of the Samoans' decision is that Friday, December 30, 2011 turned out to be the "Day That Never Was" in Samoa. When Samoans went to bed on Thursday night, December 29, and woke up the next morning, it was Saturday, December 31.

I found the story of how a country could eradicate an entire day from its existence to be fascinating. What if we in the US could do that after the fact? What day might we choose? September 11, 2001 immediately comes to mind. Perhaps December 7, 1941, the "date that will live in infamy."

Wiping out an entire day in advance is a luxury only those living near the IDL will ever have the privilege of experiencing. It is something the Samoans can tell their grandchildren about. I hope, for their sake, it was the right move. If it were up to me, I would have preferred to eliminate a Monday instead of a Friday, the best day of the week.