To A New Day Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pacific Ocean

The International Date Line runs between the Earth's South and North Poles. The line passes through the Pacific Ocean, which is further divided into the North Pacific Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean by the equator.

The Mariana Trench, located near the Mariana Islands and Guam in the western Pacific Ocean, is the world's deepest oceanic trench. Its maximum known depth is reported to be approximately 11 kilometers (6.8 miles).

Etymologically speaking, the name of the ocean was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. He called the ocean "mar pacífico", which means "peaceful sea" in both Portuguese and Spanish.

Answer: The 180th meridian

As the name implies, the 180th meridian, also known as antimeridian, is located 180 degrees to both east and west of a pre-defined prime meridian.

Except for a few zigzags that occur around the US, Russia, and Pacific Island nations, the International Date Line follows the 180th meridian.

Answer: Greenwich meridian

The International Meridian Conference, held in 1884 in Washington D.C., USA, was organized at the behest of the 21st president of the USA, Chester A. Arthur. The conference was attended by 41 delegates from 26 countries.

Though the conference made an important recommendation of employing the Greenwich meridian as the international reference for zero degrees longitude, the participants refused to define the International Date Line. They decided that the adopted Greenwich Mean Time "shall not interfere with the use of local or standard time where desirable".

Answer: Russia and USA

The island of Big Diomede, also known as Tomorrow Island or Ratmanov Island, belongs to Russia. On the other hand, the island of Little Diomede, also known as Yesterday Island or Krusenstern Island, belongs to the US.

Though the two islands are only 3.8 kilometers (2.4 miles) apart, Big Diomede is almost one day (21 hours to be exact) ahead of Little Diomede.

Answer: Fiji

Taveuni is Fiji's third largest island, after Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. The island is located on the 180th meridian - this longitude is not to be confused with the International Date Line, which is located entirely east of Fiji, to ensure that the entire island nation adopts the same time zone.

Answer: Samoa

Samoa omitted the entire calendar day of 30 December 2011 (Friday) by changing its time zone from UTC-11 to UTC+13. The decision was made to facilitate business and trading with Australia and New Zealand.

In 1892, the Samoan Islands, consisting of Samoa and American Samoa, decided to stay on the east side of the International Date Line. The islands achieved this by repeating 4 July 1892 (Monday).

Answer: Kiribati

The Republic of Kiribati straddles both the equator and the 180th meridian, making it the only nation in the world to have lands in all four quadrants on Earth. Kiribati's lands include Banaba, Gilbert Islands, Phoenix Islands, and Line Islands.

Prior to the adjustment in 1994, the western half of the nation was one day ahead of the eastern half, which caused economic inconvenience. The adjustment resulted in a noticeable eastward deviation in the otherwise straight International Date Line.

Answer: Ferdinand Magellan

Antonio Pigafetta was Ferdinand Magellan's faithful assistant during the Magellan expedition. The trip departed from Spain on 20 September 1519, and returned to Spain on 6 September 1522. Of the initial five ships and 270 men, only one ship and 30 men completed the circumnavigation.

Pigafetta noted, "...They were answered that to the Portuguese it was Thursday, at which they were much amazed, for to us it was Wednesday, and we knew not how we had fallen into error. For every day I, being always in health, had written down each day without any intermission. But, as we were told since, there had been no mistake, for we had always made our voyage westward and had returned to the same place of departure as the sun, wherefore the long voyage had brought the gain of twenty-four hours, as is clearly seen."

Answer: Around the World in Eighty Days

The novel "Around the World in Eighty Days", penned by Jules Verne, was first published in 1872. The novel tells the adventure of Phileas Fogg and his valet Passerpartout circumnavigating the world in 80 days. To win the £20,000 wager, they needed to return to London in 80 days, namely, by 21 December 1872 (Saturday), at 8.45pm. They eventually reached London on 20 December 1872 (Friday), at 8.50pm, and won the wager. However, Fogg initially thought that he had lost the wager, thinking that they reached London on 21 December 1872 (Saturday).

Jules Verne explained, "In journeying eastward he [Fogg] had gone towards the sun, and the days therefore diminished for him as many times four minutes as he crossed degrees in this direction. There are three hundred and sixty degrees on the circumference of the earth; and these three hundred and sixty degrees, multiplied by four minutes, gives precisely twenty-four hours - that is, the day unconsciously gained. In other words, while Phileas Fogg, going eastward, saw the sun pass the meridian eighty times, his friends in London only saw it pass the meridian seventy-nine times."

Answer: Friday

The time on Pitcairn Island had been incorrect since the mutineers settled there in 1789. In 1814, the time was amended and Thursday changed his name to Friday.

The name "Friday October Christian" was printed on the 5 cents Pitcairn Island stamp that featured Friday's portrait. The stamp was from the series "Early Pitcairners", released on 7 March 1994.

In the novel "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe, Crusoe met a man on Friday, and named him after the day.