I am retired USAF. I left Japan around noon, flew back to the States. My mother in law asked when did I leave. I looked at the clock on the wall and replied, "In about 20 minutes." I love ttime travel.

Two things that need to be mentioned: 1. When Alaska was transferred from Russia to the US, it didn't go back 1 day, it went forward by 11 days! That's because Russia still used the Julian Calendar at the time, which was 12 days behind the Gregorian Calendar at that time. So at the time of the ceremony, the date moved 11 days forward (12 days from the difference in calendars minus 1 due to the change in the IDL) from October 7, 1867 to October 18, 1867. 2. The setting up of time zones and the IDL were not just the result of shipping schedules, but also train schedules. Until time zones were implemented by the conference mentioned in the video, every settlement had its own time zone, determined by its local solar noon. This meant there were effectively 1440 mini time zones around the world, one for each minute. Before fast travel by trains, instantaneous communication by telegraph, and precision time keeping devices, this didn't matter much since who cared if you lost a minute walking an hour to the nearest town. But with train schedules set to local noon, they were a mess to try to navigate, especially when some train companies set their schedules by their main hub city's local noon (which would often conflict with the stations' local noons, and the schedules of other companies who were based out of different cities with a different local noons). Thus the hourly time zones (and the IDL) were created to put a stop to all chaos and standardize things to a much simpler 24 time zones to keep track of.

Fun fact. When flying Qantas... up until too many Karen's started complaining in the late 90's, most of their pilots deliberately climbed 500ft, then decended 500ft when crossing the Date Line as a joke... calling it a speed bump as they crossed the pacific.

It's also fun to see a UTC +14 when +12 and -12 should theoratically be the maximum and minimum 😅

The fact that these countries deleted weekends and not a business day, must have really sucked for residents.

Yeah that time travel feeling is ridiculous. Every time I visited my home in NYC from Japan, I'd fly 12-14hrs and arrive in NYC at about the same time on the same day that I left Tokyo. It was absolute havoc on my circadian rhythms

It may seem arbitrary and stupid but as goofy as many of these edge cases may seem, it's the only way time zones can work with global trade. Losing 2 days of trade per week with close neighbors is devastating and having a goofy looking line most people never have to think about or look at is a small price to pay for a functioning economy.

deleting a saturday instead of a monday is just evil

I like these super informative videos that aren't just discussing death and destruction. I think a good mix of these two types of videos really works well

Individual timezone lines are a lot weirder, though usually for the same reasons. Like China being all in a single timezone, or Russia stretching some of them a bit. There are also small places like Nepal which have 15-minute offsets.

In 1994 I went to 2 new years parties with 2 separate countdowns. One in Beijing and one in Houston. That was a unique couple of days. I was literally a "time traveler" :)

I love the timing of this video. Just crossed the date line on a ship and I'm experiencing my second Monday, November 6 right now.

Just for the record, "Kiritimati" is pronounced "Christmas." It's actually a direct transliteration of the word "Christmas" in Gilbertese, where "ti" and "si" are the same sound.

China originally had 5 time zones, from 5-10 hours ahead of GMT or GMT +5 -> +10, but then in the 1986 it was decided to make it only one that follows the Beijing Standard time, which is GMT +8. Which means that if you walk from the westernmost point of the country over to Afghanistan at 8am, you will reach the other side at 4:30am.

18:16 I remember at the time the Kiribati government also made a big deal of the tourism potential, for those who wanted to be the very first to celebrate the new millennium. PS, the “ti” is pronounced close to “s”. Kiritimati is the closest you can get in the local language to “Christmas”. Named so because captain Cook visited the island on Christmas eve. The name of the country “Kiribati” is the local rendering of “Gilbert”.

This has to be one of the most fascinating real-life board game scenarios I ever heard of. I'm even more amazed the entire planet decided on the date line to begin with. How were the countries informed of meeting? That's a movie I would actually like to watch.

Today's Fact: In 1977, a plane crashed into a plane carrying the wife of the Yugoslavian ambassador to the United States; both survived the crash, but both had previously been involved in a plane crash in 1972.

Growing up in the Maritimes, we always joked around saying that if the world ended at 8pm, it would end at 8:30pm in Newfoundland. Not sure why the Atlantic time zone got split up like that but I remember that province trying a more extreme time zone change but it did not work so they switched it back.

As a Filipino, I now know where the concept of "Filipino time" comes from. Thank you, RealLifeLore.

Absolutely no chance of me coming into work on that Monday after they stole my Saturday away from me😂

I honestly think that this video was a breath of fresh air after all the geopolitical videos on this channel.

1:54 The Line Islands (Kiribati) are *_an entire 24 hours ahead_* of Hawaii, not behind. 6:54 Really, Greenwhich? 22:00 Assuming a Mon-Fri working week, they had *_four_* common business days per week, not just three: Mon-Thu in Samoa, i.e. Tue-Fri in Australia. 23:29 American Samoa is *_20+ hours behind_* Sydney and its neighbouring independent Samoa, not ahead.

22:00 The difference between Samoa and New Zealand was 2 business days every week, but they still had a 4 day overlap, not three. Monday to Friday and Tuesday to Saturday overlap by Tuesday through Friday. The statement in the video is the same as saying that while the Samoans were still working on Friday; The New Zealanders were off enjoying their weekend, and by the time that the Samoans were at Church on Sunday, the New Zealanders were already at work, missing out on two of their days off aligning, leaving them with no shared weekends.

The US military reacted to Kwajalein Atoll being moved across the date line by changing the workweek to be Tuesday through Saturday, in order to align with the workweek at headquarters in the US. The weekend in Kwaj is now Sunday and Monday.

the worst part about being a nebula supporter is seeing your favorite channels upload and then realizing you saw the video like a week before

At 2:50, Kiritimati should be pronounced more like 'Kirismas'. In the local language (Gilbertese, ti is pronounced like s. This is the same reason the country is spelled Kiribati but pronounced 'Kiribas'. Kiritimati is also called Christmas Island (no not that one) because Kiritimati is how you would say Christmas in Gilbertese. On a similar note, Kiribati is how you say Gilbert in Gilbertese (no points for guessing which country the Gilbert Islands are in)

I love these lines on maps topics! Please keep it up!

Random story: A now-deceased relative of mine used to tell about how in Christmas of 1944 back in WWII his ship was near the international date line. They were allowed to sail such that they had Christmas 2 days in a row.

Man, if you think it's hard to handle daylight savings time, losing an entire day while your territory hops over the international date line must be a trip.

My question is why didn’t Kiribati move the date line to the west? Since the majority of their islands are east of the true date line, you’d think it would be much less confusing that way

Thanks for making this video! Was discussing the existence of the IDL just a few days ago with my younger brother after having flown back to the U.S. from Tokyo. Funny how a single line can be so enigmatic to the human mind yet intuitive on paper.

Thanks for all your hard work putting these videos together, entertaining and informative.

0:30 and this is why Superman is able to travel backwards in time

I actually missed these types of videos from him. Especially when he used Toyota Corollas as a unit of measurement.

Thanks for this! We had a discussion on the dinner table about the possibility of shifting back and forth in time by just moving some kilometers to the right or left in the pacific and this video explains this in great detail. Keep up the good work!

Fun fact: Kiritimati Island in Kiribati (UTC +14) is pronounced differently than posted here. The ti diphthong is an s sound in Gilbertese making it sound close to the English word Christmas (it's colonial name, Christmas Island).

The ante meridian was chosen as the location for the international dateline simply because it doesn't pass through much land. The important part is that we have a date line, but the location doesn't matter for any reasons other than politics and convenience. You could put the date line anywhere on Earth and the date calculations would still work just fine. The only mathematical criteria it needs to satisfy are: The line needs to be entirely on the Earth's surface (not through the center of the Earth or in outer space), the line must terminate at each of the poles, and the line can't contain any loops (must not cross any point more than once). You could actually allow loops in the line if you don't mind making the math more complicated. That would be an interesting thing for @standupmaths to explore.

All the other timezone segments zig-zag all over the place as well. It just reflects the borders of nations or states. Pretty standard stuff.

Noted: if you want to time travel, just cross the International date line. It is mechanically and indefinitely set to either +1 day (going west) or -1 day (going east).

The dateline being in the middle of the Pacific is a good idea because it has the lowest human impact. A vast ocean with some very small and sparse islands is better than putting it in an area that is densely populated

Can't believe RLL missed the even more bonkers Alaska fact, that it changed calendars as well, so jumped ahead 12 days while repeating the day of the week.

12:18 The Alaska handover was on Friday 6th October, followed by Friday 18th October. Alaska switched from Julian to Gregorian Calendars at the same time.

We didnt change to driving on the left hand side, its always been that way down here (Aus, NZ). As British Colonies we, just by default, drove on the left. Enjoyed the video, thanks for explaining.

This was a very well done informative vid. thank you. This helped explain things that I feel like I can give a brief explanation of now.

I'd love to see a video on the transition from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian! Great video!

Flat earthers not gonna like this

I love random knowledge like this. I remember I used to wonder if there was anything notable/interesting about the point(s) where the equator and Prime Meridian/International Dateline intersect and/or if there were any other interesting intersections of latitude and longitude around the globe.

Interesting and informative. Excellent stimulated & live photography. Enabling viewers to better understand what the orator was describing.

Every time I flew to China I almost always just skipped sleeping the 1st night due to the Jet lag. I also noticed how much less time (around 3 hours) the flight back to Seattle took due to the earths rotation.

I imagine that switching which lanes people drive in Samoa was a nightmare. It wouldn’t work with existing vehicles because they’d all now have massive blind spots, and you’d of course have to update all the signage.

In a couple weeks I will be flying from the Cook Islands to Marshall Islands. I will be crossing the date line 3 times in one journey (& same on the return). Rarotonga- Auckland (+1day), Auckland- Honolulu (-1 day), Honolulu- Majuro (+1 day). Had to double/triple check departure times & arrival times.

As always,amazing video.This weird time zone had me really confused.

I've always thought it was a nice bit of luck how the prime meridian was in almost exactly the spot to make the date line make the most sense

The most amazing thing is how the ante-meridian got established by chance through mostly water. As complex as it is to accommodate islands, just think how much of a mess it would have to be if it actually went through mostly land, with actual countries with changing borders under it most of the way. At least now there can be long straight segments that are easy to maintain politically, since most people don't care what day it is in the middle of an ocean.

Great historical and factual summary… 👍

It's refreshing to see something that isn't "Why X is smaller than Y". I think you've done those to death recently.

It's spelled "antimeridian", not "ante meridian". Ante = before. Anti = opposing, i.e. antimeridian - the opposite side to the prime meridian. You may have confused it with "ante meridiem", Latin for "before midday" (AM).

2:02 Correction: Should be ahead, not behind.

One thing about time zones is that time is still relative inside of the zone. For example, Montgomery, AL and Amarillo, TX are both in the Central time zone, but sunrise and sunset happen an hour later in Texas than in Alabama. For the longest time, cities (especially out west in America) just set their clocks to by noon when the sun is the highest in the sky, but that made scheduling trains kind of hard to do! Train lines are what forced the American cities to be more in sync with the time zone. China, instead of having like 5 different time zones, has one for the entire country. Someone on the east side could be having lunch while the sun is rising on the west side of the country. I've heard that makes planning stuff... difficult.

*Finally RLL is back with 🌎Geography vids!* 😍

I see it in the comments; we miss these types of videos! 😢. I love ALL your content, but truly got hooked on your older style vids answering questions we never thought to ask

Thanks for the reminder of a bucket list item. I must go stand between the GMT line and sculpture.

I needed this 💯

The arrows at 4:11 are wrong. They are both pointing west. If you wanted it to be correct they should point in different directions. As you said one west and one east.

Thank you for working hard and educating everyone. I am sure you did your best!

The dates and times for those LA/Tokyo flights sounded very precise.

Fun fact: am currently living in eastern timezone, but am over 100 miles west of Chicago. It's kinda crazy having the sun set as late as 11pm

i cant get over the picture of the first map with the western hemisphere in the east and the eastern hemisphere in the west

Is the direction the earth spins just a matter of perspective? Because if you stand on the north pole, it'll be one way, but on the south pole, the opposite way.

I loved it when I went to Canada from Australia and we arrived into Vancouver before we had even left Sydney. Losing a day coming back however sucked and required careful planning on when to leave to make sure we didn't get back a day later than we needed too.

As someone who works on ships (merchant marine) I know this only too well... It broke my excel spreadsheets and hade to code this in, ie one time we had two Jun 1sts and going east miss a whole day. On ships we always try to make this an advantage like have two Sundays or one less week day. I know people who missed their birthday. You notice it more on ships rather than flying.

22:00 wouldn't it be one day monday->tuesday tuesday->wednesday wednesday->thursday thursday->friday

The Earth doesn't rotate "counterclockwise." As a 3-dimensional sphere, the direction of rotation depends on your vantage point. When looking from a vantage point above the north pole, the rotation indeed appears counterclockwise. However, when looking from a point above the south pole, the rotation appears clockwise.

4:12 Just a quick heads-up... the graphic shows going west for both adding and subtracting time.

That is fascinating! Thanks!

Good Guy Samoa, sets up the date line shift to not only make it a 4 day work week but also compensate the people for the day that got skipped.

Love this! In other words, time and date are just societal concepts (that help or hinder depending on perspective) ☺️

it's a calendar day difference not necessarily 24hrs different, for example PST is 13.5hrs behind ACST but its Thursday there and Friday in ACST only 13.5hrs behind but 1 calendar day ago it's not where time jumps 24hrs, its where the time zones line up perfectly for a calendar day difference BTW, yes some neighboring time zones my jump 24hrs but not all along the line

On Dec 24, 2005 my wife and I left San Francisco, CA. We landed in Manila, Philippines on Dec 26, 2005. It was a year without a Christmas.

based on my luck with tinder i'm pretty sure the international dateline is carefully drawn to exclude me too

I flew to Asia from the east coast with an overnight layover in CA. It took 3 calendar days to arrive lol Actual flight time was around 23 hours. On the flight back I arrived the same date that I left.

At 7:54 you showed 2 pictures of an international conference. But those are pictures of the Berlin Conference that set the rules up for the scramble of Africa.

@reallifelore @2:00 I believe you mean to say these islands are 24 hours ahead of Hawaii. Not behind.

Ideally the international date line would be in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean where there are significantly fewer islands.

Body shaming the international dateline. Smh. I thought we all grew out of bullying

What really screws with my head is: to have there be 3 days simultaneously occurring the middle time zone doesn't need to be at noon, but instead needs to be between 10-11am.

This will be a perfect video to watch on New Year's Eve.

I had no idea. I travel for a living and just assumed that it was 11pm somewhere and that it was midnight and the next day just a time zone away. In the US it’s Friday morning on the east coast and Thursday night on the west coast, three time zones. I just assumed there were 21 more and ….. I’m gonna try and have this make sense …. Thanks!

The line islands mentioned at 2:03 would be 24 hours AHEAD of Hawaii, not behind. Also, Pago Pago is pronounced "pango pango".

22:10 - Unless I'm missing something (and i very well may be, its nearly midnight), based on the shift that Friday in Samoa was Saturday in Australia, and Monday in Australia was Sunday in Samoa, then based on a 5 day work week that's still only missing one day - each side misses one day, and they overlap for four - From Monday on Samoa, which is Tuesday in Australia, to Thursday in Samoa which is Friday in Australia. M-th, and T-F, for a four day week, not three.

This is a really well-produced and interesting video! One minor comment, though: The 180-th meridian is called the antimeridian (i.e., opposite the prime meridian), which you misspelled as antemeridian, which would mean before the meridian and is not a word.

I genuinely wonder why Kiribati didn't just shift the line to the west of the Gilbert Islands instead of all the way east of the Line Islands. It would be substantially less awkward and confusing

The biggest time difference I’ve ever had was flying from LA to Auckland/Sydney. We left late at night on June 20th and arrived in Auckland on June 22. An entire calendar day basically gone from my life. It was weird. Then again, on the return flight from Sydney to LA we repeated that day…but the drastic difference hit me hard the day after I got back 😂

i love your videos. so informative and i really hope that all your information is true because i believe it 😅

This is totally a sequel to the "These Are the World's Strangest Time Zones" video that you did a while back, and I like it.

A long time ago I worked on one of the major datetime libraries. I still have nightmares from all the exclusions and special cases that need to be handled. There are plenty `# Here be dragons` comments in it for a good reason...

Are there any discrepancies in where different countries don't recognize the shift?

Wow great video. Thanks!

2:50 i wonder if in the intersection of wednesday thursday and friday theres a little structure so you can run around "time travelling" to different days like imagine taking a few steps and suddenly youve gone back two days

It's an art how you can expand what should be a two minute video into over 10x that and also emphasize all your words to make everything sound so interesting 😂😂