Howland and Baker Islands - at The Corner of The World

At The Corner of The World

Based on nautical time, the Howland and Baker islands are the last part of the U.S. to bring in the New Year, being the only territory of the U.S. in UTC-12. They are 24 hours behind the Wake Island Time Zone.

The area is also in the equatorial band above which satellites can remain in geosynchronous earth orbit, and NSS-9 is above. In 1964, Syncom 3 was positioned on the International Date Line at the equator, a point 210 nautical miles (240 mi; 390 km) from Howland, and 22,236 miles (35,785 km) into space. Syncom 3 was the first geostationary satellite, and was used to convey live TV coverage of the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

Read more about this topic:  Howland And Baker Islands

Famous quotes containing the words the world, corner and/or world:

    “I suppose that Paderewski can play superbly, if not quite at his best, while his thoughts wander to the other end of the world, or possibly busy themselves with a computation of the receipts as he gazes out across the auditorium. I know a great actor, a master technician, can let his thoughts play truant from the scene ...”
    —Minnie Maddern Fiske (1865–1932)

    “Knighterrantry is a most chuckleheaded trade, and it is tedious hard work, too, but I begin to see that there is money in it, after all, if you have luck. Not that I would ever engage in it, as a business, for I wouldn’t. No sound and legitimate business can be established on a basis of speculation. A successful whirl in the knighterrantry line—now what is it when you blow away the nonsense and come down to the cold facts? It’s just a corner in pork, that’s all.”
    —Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)

    “The world doesn’t make any heroes anymore.”
    —Graham Greene (1904–1991)