APIA, Samoa — The tiny South Pacific nation of Samoa will jump forward in time today as it crosses westward over the international dateline to align itself with its other 21st-century trading partners throughout the region.
At the stroke of midnight tonight, time in Samoa will leap forward to Dec. 31 — New Year’s Eve. For Samoa’s 186,000 citizens, Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, will simply never exist.
The jump back to the future comes 119 years after some U.S. traders persuaded local Samoan authorities to align their islands’ time with nearby U.S.-controlled American Samoa and the U.S. to assist their trading with California.
But the time zone has proved problematic in recent years, putting Samoa nearly a full day behind neighboring Australia and New Zealand, increasingly important trading partners.
