The international date line, established in 1884, lies smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, far removed from the coasts of any major continent. But even though the date line may appear to be in the middle of nowhere, this imaginary boundary has caused temporal oddities for some Pacific nations over the years. 

Take, for example, the country of Samoa, which the international date line runs right through. Countries bisected by the date line can choose which side to be on, and in 1892, in a move meant to strengthen ties to the U.S., the island nation decided to move to the time zone on the eastern side of the line. Because this change was officially implemented on July 4, the Pacific archipelago technically experienced the same day twice.

American Samoa is the only inhabited U.S. territory located south of the equator.

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The U.S. is the third-largest country in the world by total area, and all that land is located in the Northern Hemisphere — except for the 76-square-mile island territory of American Samoa, situated 14 degrees south of the equator.

But that wasn’t the end of Samoa’s strange journey through time. Fast-forward to 2011, when the country decided to strengthen ties with two other important trade partners, Australia and New Zealand, by moving back to the western side of the date line. That year, Samoa never experienced December 30, 2011; when the clock struck midnight on December 29, Samoan calendars flipped over to December 31. 

Today, Samoa is still on the western side of the international date line, but when its close neighbor American Samoa — a U.S. territory only about 135 miles away — was asked to do the same, it declined, choosing to stick with the U.S. on the eastern side. That makes American Samoa the very last inhabited U.S. territory to enter each new year.

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For the most part, the world’s largest navies are held by the nations you’d expect, with the United States, China, and Russia all at the top of the list. For a brief time in 1989, however, the sixth-largest naval fleet was controlled not by a country but by a company: Pepsi. 

This wasn’t because the soft drink manufacturer was bent on global domination — rather, it had to do with its unique status as the first American product to be manufactured and sold in the Soviet Union, starting in 1972. Because the ruble had no value outside the USSR and couldn’t be exchanged for other currencies, however, a barter system was instituted whereby PepsiCo instead received Stolichnaya vodka, which it then sold in the U.S. and other markets.

Pepsi is the bestselling soda in the world.

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That title belongs to Coca-Cola, which is sold in about 200 countries around the world.

This mutually beneficial arrangement came to an end in 1989, when Pepsi received a much different form of payment: millions of dollars’ worth of warships (17 submarines, a frigate, a cruiser, and a destroyer). Though the company quickly sold the vessels — all of which were either decommissioned or in disrepair — to a Norwegian shipbreaker for scrap metal without ever actually taking possession of the ships, Pepsi technically owned a larger naval fleet than the likes of Spain and Australia for a very brief moment in time. Pepsi’s special relationship with the Soviet Union dissolved along with the USSR itself in 1991.

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Nearly 25 years after Ulysses S. Grant’s death, a peculiar story hit the pages of the Washington Evening Star. Within the paper’s Sunday edition one day in 1908, retired police officer William H. West recounted how he had caught the 18th president speeding through the streets of Washington, D.C. — and decided the only appropriate course of action was to proceed with an arrest. 

The U.S. government has at times set the maximum speed limit on highways.

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President Nixon signed the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act in 1974, dropping highway speed limits to 55 mph. At the time, OPEC’s 1973 fuel embargo had created an energy crisis; Nixon’s move tried to reduce fuel use by cutting down on speeding. The law was repealed in 1995.

West’s tale hearkened back to 1872, during a particularly bad bout of traffic issues, when complaints of speeding carriages were on the rise. West had been out investigating a collision when he witnessed Grant — then the sitting president — careening his horse-drawn carriage down the road. The officer flagged down the carriage, issued a warning, and sent Grant on his way. But Grant, who had a reputation for high-tailing horse rides, couldn’t resist the need to speed. West caught him the very next day once again tearing through the city. Feeling he had no other option, the officer placed the president under arrest. At the police department, Grant was required to put $20 (about $490 in today’s money) toward his bond before being released.

Historian John F. Marszalek, who oversaw Grant’s presidential collection at Mississippi State University, says the situation blew over pretty quickly. Grant’s arrest wasn’t the first time he had been cited for speeding. It also wasn’t a political quagmire for either party. At the time, West — a formerly enslaved Civil War veteran who became one of just two Black police officers in Washington, D.C., immediately after the war — was commended for his actions in trying to make the city streets safer. And Grant owned up to his mistake — though he did choose to skip his court appearance scheduled for the following day, which meant he forfeited his $20. He didn’t face any further consequences, however.

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