Samoa moved west of the International Date Line in 2011, skipping December 30 before New Year’s Eve.
At the end of December 29, 2011, Samoa advanced its clocks and calendar by 24 hours. The next day was December 31, so December 30 did not occur in Samoa that year. The change shifted the country from the American side of the date line to the Asian side.
The decision was driven largely by economic and business connections. Before the change, Samoa was almost a full calendar day behind major trading partners such as Australia and New Zealand, making ordinary weekday transactions difficult. Afterward, Samoa shared the same working week as those partners.
The move is often confused with Kiribati’s date-line changes, which placed parts of that country among the first inhabited areas to enter a new calendar day. Samoa’s 2011 change was a separate national time-zone decision.