This blog post was updated on October 22, 2018.
Samoa, which lies just 20 miles east of the International Date Line, plans to join its neighbors on the western side of the imaginary line by jumping straight from December 29 to December 31 this year.
The move will put its calendar in line with key neighbors like Australia and New Zealand.
Though the change may cause some technical headaches and irritate those with birthdays on December 30, most people won’t notice major differences, according to Rebekah Higgit.
She serves at the curator of the history of science and technology at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
Samoa didn’t always lie on the eastern side of the imaginary line; American businessmen urged a previous move from west to east to accommodate heavy trading between Samoa and San Francisco in 1892.
Source: BBC
Flickr: Aaron Geller
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