Time in the Marshall Islands, an island country consisting of over 29 coral atolls, is given by Marshall Islands Time (MHT; UTC+12:00).Marshall Islands Time (MHT). WorldData.info. Retrieved 25 April 2021. The Marshall Islands does not have an associated daylight saving time.Marshall Islands at The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Retrieved 24 April 2021.
It is located near the equator, slightly west of the International Date Line.Maps of the Marshall Islands. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
History
When Spanish explorers originally established routes across the Pacific, they traveled westward from the Americas (primarily New Spain, or Mexico). Because they did not adjust their logbooks for the lost day that occurs when sailing west, the territories they colonized—including the Philippines, the Caroline Islands, the Marianas, Guam, Palau, and the Marshall Islands—wound up observing a calendar day that was synchronized with the Americas rather than neighboring Asia.
As a result, a massive western "dogleg" or bulge existed in the early, unofficial maps of the International Date Line, positioning all these islands technically to the east of the date line relative to their absolute geography.
By the early 19th century, Mexico had gained independence from Spain (1821), drastically cutting down the traditional trade galleons from Acapulco. The Captaincy General of the Philippines shifted its economic focus entirely toward nearby Asian markets like Imperial China and the Dutch East Indies. Being an entire day behind its immediate neighbors caused severe business disruptions and scheduling chaos for merchant ships.
The Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines, Narciso Clavería y Zaldúa, with the backing of the Archbishop of Manila, decreed a calendar advancement. To advance the calendar by exactly 24 hours or one day, Claveria ordered that Tuesday, 31 December 1844 should be removed from the calendar. The year 1844 was made into a year with only 365 days, running from Monday, 1 January 1844 to Monday, 30 December 1844, ending the Marshall Islands on the western hemisphere calendar. The day after Monday, 30 December 1844 thus became Wednesday, 1 January 1845, when the entire archipelago was transferred to eastern hemisphere, or in other words, the whole archipelago was moved to the west side of the IDL. This effectively shifted the International Date Line from being west to running east of them, properly anchoring the archipelago within the Asian and Western Pacific dates.
Interestingly, because the International Date Line was not formally codified at an international conference until 1884, it took global cartographers and European publishers decades to notice the change. Many international maps mistakenly continued to draw the old western bulge well into the 1890s.
However, from c. 1945 until 20 August 1993, the Kwajalein Atoll of the Marshall Islands formerly observed UTC-12:00, which made communicating and trading with the other atolls observing UTC+12:00 a day ahead highly problematic. Due to this, the Kwajalein Atoll advanced 24 hours to the Eastern Hemisphere side of the International Date Line by skipping 21 August 1993.
IANA time zone database The IANA time zone database gives the Marshall Islands two zones:Australasia (2020 edition) at the tz database. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Retrieved 20 May 2021. c.c.* coordinates* TZ* Comments UTC offset DST
References
External links Marshall Island Time (MHT) at TimeAndDate.com Current time in Majuro, Marshall Islands at Time.is