The International Date Line is an imaginary line in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that splits one day of the calendar with another. The International Date Line is good for practical purposes, but it is based on another imaginary line, the Prime Meridian.
The Prime Meridian and the International Date Line are on opposite sides of the globe. Both of these lines were determined and standardized in the International Meridian Conference in 1884. Prime Meridian became 0 degrees longitude and the opposite was the 180 degrees longitude or the 180th meridian. The International Date Line is mostly based off the 180th because most of the line passes through open water except for a small part of Russia and some Pacific Islands, but if you look at a map you can clearly see that the International Date Line doesn't even follow the 180th meridian from the North pole to the South pole. It angles off into other directions and makes weird shapes and finally meets at the South pole. It is hardly a line.
The reason the International Date Line is an oddly shaped line is because of politics, economics, and some other stuff nations like to argue about. Even though a small tip of Russia passes over the 180th meridian into the west part, it is on the east side of the International Date Line instead of the west, the same is said about the US State of Alaska, with the most west part of the state being put on the west side of the International Date Line. these situations make sense, because who wants to live in the same country as another person, but your one day ahead and their one day behind, that would just be confusing and cause some unnecessary problems.
Some countries have changed their position on what side of the International Date Line they were on. For some time when the Philippines was under Spanish control, the island nation was on the west side of the International Date Line, so that Spanish America and the Philippines would be on the same date, around the 1840s the Philippines switched to the east side of the International Date Line, so that the country could be on the same date as China and the Dutch East Indies, which in all honesty makes a lot more sense, considering the distance between Central America and the Philippines.
The most recent change to the what side the a country was of the International Date Line was on December 30th 2011, when Samoa skipped the 30th and jumped to the 31st by crossing over to the east side of the International Date Line. Samoa, 121 years ago was originally on the east side of the date line, but the King at the time was convinced by U.S. traders to switch, because trade would be easier between the two nations and making Samoa have the same date as American Samoa. The change was brought along because over the years the nearby countries Australia and New Zealand have become closer trade partners with Samoa, compared to the US, and a large number of Samoans live in Australia and New Zealand.
There are probably more examples of situations like these, but these are just a few. If anything can be learned from the International Date Line it is that no matter what rules are made there are always exceptions.
The Philippines-http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/idl/idl_philippines.htm
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