Samoa moved west across the International Date Line in 2011, skipping December 30 in the process.
At the end of 2011, Samoa changed from a side of the date line that placed it nearly a day behind Australia and New Zealand to a side that placed it ahead of them. After Thursday, December 29, the country observed Saturday, December 31. December 30 was omitted from Samoa’s civil calendar.
The change was made to improve business and travel links with major partners in the Asia-Pacific region. It is often described as Samoa “losing a day,” but no physical time vanished; the government changed the country’s legal time-zone relationship to the date line. American Samoa, a separate territory, remained on the other side, creating a striking nearby date difference.