Friday, 30 December 2011 existed. Just not in Samoa.

Documented account

Thursday. Saturday. Nothing to see here.

For much of the twentieth century, Samoa sat on the eastern side of the International Date Line.

That placed it on the same calendar side as the Americas.

Geographically, however, some of Samoa's most important modern economic relationships were with Australia and New Zealand.

That created a practical inconvenience.

When businesses in Samoa began their Friday, Australia and New Zealand were already moving into Saturday. When those countries returned to work on Monday, Samoa was still finishing Sunday.

The working week overlapped by only four days.

The Samoan government decided that geography could be improved administratively.

Parliament passed the International Date Line Act 2011, changing Samoa's standard time and effectively moving the country to the western side of the Date Line. The law took effect at midnight on Thursday, 29 December 2011.

Ordinarily, the minute after 11:59 p.m. Thursday would have been:

Friday, 30 December.

In Samoa it became:

Saturday, 31 December.

An entire civil-calendar date disappeared.

Contemporary reports described bells, sirens and celebrations as the country made its 24-hour jump.

The skipped Friday was not simply a symbolic gesture.

A country cannot remove a working day without producing some fairly specific legal questions.

What happens if a legal deadline falls on December 30?

What happens to one day's loan interest?

And perhaps most importantly:

Do employees still get paid for a Friday the government has decided will not occur?

The legislation answered all three.

Deadlines falling on the lost day were shifted according to statutory rules.

Interest calculated daily was not to accrue for the missing date.

And employees who normally would have worked on the lost day were legally entitled to the pay and allowances they would have earned. Employers who failed to pay could face penalties.

Samoa therefore achieved something unusual even by the standards of calendar reform:

It eliminated Friday while protecting Friday's paycheque.

The reason was commercial rather than philosophical. Moving west of the Date Line placed Samoa's business week much closer to Australia and New Zealand.

The country had not altered the Earth's rotation.

It had simply decided which side of midnight it preferred to conduct business on.

Why WTF?

Samoa improved its working week by removing one of the days from it.

Historical verdict

Samoa solved a time-zone problem by cancelling Friday and paying everyone for it anyway.

Evidence status

Calendar changeVerified
DateVerified
Friday 30 December skipped locallyVerified
Move associated with Australia/New Zealand business alignmentVerified
International Date Line Act 2011Verified
Employees protected for lost day's payVerified
Daily interest excluded for lost dayVerified
Samoa literally removed 30 December everywhere in the worldFalse

Sources

Primary / Legal

Government of Samoa — International Date Line Act 2011

Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute — consolidated text of the Act

Original language: English

Contemporary / Independent

ABC News Australia — contemporary report of Samoa skipping Friday

ABC AM archive — reporting immediately before the transition, including the government's rationale and planned midnight changeover

Original language: English
SamoaInternational Date LineTime ZoneCalendarGovernmentDecember 30Pacific2011