Chamorro Time Zone

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UTC+10 highlighted on a world map. Timezones2008 UTC+10.png
UTC+10 highlighted on a world map.

The Chamorro Time Zone, [1] formerly the Guam Time Zone, is a United States time zone which observes standard time ten hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC+10:00). The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 150th meridian east of the Greenwich Observatory.

Contents

The zone includes the U.S. territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, where the Chamorro people are the original inhabitants. Since Daylight Saving Time (DST) is not observed anywhere in this zone, the time is always known as Chamorro Standard Time (ChST).

The zone is two hours behind Wake Island Time Zone and 15 hours ahead of North American Eastern Time Zone. As of March 19, 2024 it is the easternmost (farthest ahead) time zone shown on the U.S. government's time.gov webpage. Although Wake, Howland and Baker Islands are U.S. territories in more easterly time zones (that are not shown), they are uninhabited.

Chamorro Standard Time shares the same time as Australian Eastern Standard Time. The State of Queensland also does not observe DST, so the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam and Queensland are on the same time year round.

Populated areas and major cities

History

Until Monday, December 30, 1844, Guam and Mariana Islands belonged to Captaincy General of the Philippines, which had the date of the western hemisphere on their island, placing them on the eastern side of the International Date Line (IDL). On Wednesday, January 1, 1845, they switched to the date of the eastern hemisphere on the western side of the IDL, skipping the entire calendar day of Tuesday, December 31, 1844.[ citation needed ]

Before time zones were introduced, every place used local observation of the sun to set its clocks, which meant that every location used a different local mean time based on its longitude. For example, Hagåtña, the capital of Guam at the time, at longitude 144°45′E, had a local time equivalent to GMT-14:21 under the date of the western hemisphere and GMT+09:39 under the eastern hemisphere.[ citation needed ]

In 1901, "Guam Standard Time" was established within the United States as GMT+10:00.[ citation needed ]

The U.S. Congress formally created Chamorro Standard Time by federal Public Law 106-564 on December 23, 2000. Previously, Guam Standard Time existed per territorial Public Law 5-25 (1959). [2] This statute is still on the territorial law books, although it is preempted by the federal law.[ citation needed ]

The Northern Mariana Islands, as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, were not part of any American time zone prior to becoming a U.S. Commonwealth on January 1, 1978. Being directly north of Guam, however, they observed the same time.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chamorro people</span> Indigenous people of the Mariana Islands

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Time in Australia</span> Time zones in Australia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">UTC+00:00</span> Identifier for the UTC +0 offset

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samoa Time Zone</span> Pacific time zone legislated for US terriritories

The Samoa Time Zone or Samoa Standard Time (SST) observes standard time by subtracting eleven hours from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC-11:00). The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 165th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wake Island Time Zone</span> Time zone

The Wake Island Time Zone observes standard time by adding twelve hours to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC+12:00). The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 180th degree meridian east of the Greenwich Observatory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daylight saving time in the United States</span> Practice of setting the clock forward by one hour in the United states

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of Guam</span> Overview of and topical guide to Guam

Guam The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Guam:

Time in Palau is given by Palau Time. Palau does not have an associated daylight saving time.

References

  1. "Chamorro" per 15 U.S.C.   § 263 as amended and 49 CFR 71.14 (text, PDF).
  2. Guam Code Annotated, Title 1, Section 1010.(text, PDF).

Sources