History
The central Pacific Republic of Kiribati introduced a change of date for its eastern half on 1 January 1995, from time zones −11 and −10 to +13 and +14. Before this, the country was divided by the date line, and the time zone UTC+14 did not exist. This meant that the date line in effect moved eastwards to go around this country.
As a British colony, Kiribati was centered in the Gilbert Islands, just west of the old date line. Upon independence in 1979, the new republic acquired the Phoenix and Line Islands from the United States and the country found itself straddling the date line. Government offices on opposite sides of the line could only communicate by radio or telephone on the four days of the week when both sides experienced weekdays simultaneously. A consequence of this time zone revision was that Kiribati, by virtue of its easternmost territory, the Line Islands, including the inhabited Kiritimati island, started the year 2000 on its territory before any other country on earth, a feature which the Kiribati government capitalized upon as a potential tourist draw.
Tonga - IANA time zone database zone name Pacific/Tongatapu - used UTC+14 for daylight saving time from 1999 to 2002, and therefore celebrated new year 2000 at the same time as the Line Islands in Kiribati.
At the end of 29 December 2011 (UTC-10), Samoa advanced its standard time from UTC-11 to UTC+13 (and its daylight saving time from UTC-10 to UTC+14), essentially moving the international date line to the other side of the country. Following Samoa's decision, Tokelau also advanced its standard time (used without daylight saving time), from UTC-11 to UTC+13.
Read more about this topic: UTC+14:00
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