As happens frequently here, I noticed an interesting phrase deposited by a search engine in my web traffic logs. The gist of the query — from an unknown but curious user — seemed straightforward enough. Could someone celebrate a birthday twice by crossing the International Date Line?
Yes, it’s absolutely possible. There must be any number of flights leaving Asia or Australia every single day that cross that imaginary line. Many then arrive at their destination the “previous” day. Take any of those and someone could experience a birthday twice. It would be a lot cheaper than chartering a boat and doing the same thing. Either way, both should be feasible.
Returning from Australia a number of years ago, I recall distinctly arriving at Honolulu, Hawaii late at night. It was probably 11:00 pm or thereabouts. I then saw my watch switch to the date I’d left Sydney all over again before I went to bed. It wasn’t my birthday but it was the same basic effect.
Come to think of it, that’s not much different than the Impossible 5K, the race that ends before it begins. We can have all kinds of fun with time changes and time zone differences.
Reminiscing
This query reminded me of a true story from a long time ago. Think back to the hoopla around the switch from the year 1999 to 2000. Today Y2K seems so quaint and distant. Nonetheless, it was a big concern to those of us in the information technology business as the deadline approached. This story will sound like one of those apocryphal Intertubes stories of dubious origin that happened to a cousin of your friend’s sister. You have a right to be skeptical. However, an organization I managed at the time had actual responsibility for this project. I can assure you it happened. It’s about the coolest thing imaginable to a geo-geek and I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned it before.
We were responsible for upgrading telecommunications switches known as Private Branch Exchanges (“PBX“) with new software that would roll into the year 2000 without failure. I’ll let the historians decide whether Y2K was much ado about nothing or an effort where everyone pulled together to avert a crisis. At the time it certainly seemed like a big deal. We spent several hundred thousand dollars upgrading our switches throughout the United States.
This was completed through the personal efforts our numerous field offices. The office based in in Honolulu covered Hawaii and the Pacific territories including Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. They had to complete and test all of their software patches prior to Y2K. We also decided to babysit the switches through midnight just to make sure everything worked. Dozens of our people sat in computer equipment rooms while the rest of you were partying like it was 1999.
Here’s the geeky part. Our technician from the Hawaii field office began the final countdown in Hagåtña, Guam on December 31, 1999. She sat with the equipment through midnight, to January 1, 2000, and did not encounter any Y2K issues. Next, she hopped a return flight to Honolulu, turning back the clock and landing in Hawaii on December 31, 1999. She entered the Honolulu office, went to the equipment room and sat through midnight a second time, once again experiencing January 1, 2000. She was working so it wasn’t like she was popping bottles of champagne. Even so, there can’t be more than a handful of people on the planet who experienced Y2K twice.
Well, I thought it was cool, anyway.
Anyone Can Replicate This
People can still follow this the same path today, albeit without the really great date change. Guam is ten hours past Universal Time (UTC+10). Hawaii recognizes UTC-10. Thus, a clock in Guam is twenty hours ahead of a clock in Hawaii. Continental Airlines offers a direct flight between the two, covering about 3,800 miles in 7.5 hours. Today the flight leaves GUM (what a great airport code) at 6:30 am and arrives at HNL at 5:55 pm the previous day. That’s plenty of birthday partying time!
Maybe another trip like that will be necessary again when UNIX runs out of time in 2038. I really hope I’m retired by then.
Leave a Reply