American actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
Credit: © Featureflash Photo Agency/Shutterstock

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature AAPI pioneers in a variety of areas.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been many things: a professional football player, a professional wrestler, a skyscraper-investigating FBI agent, a shape-shifting demi-god, and even the tooth fairy. By excelling in a variety of roles—both in real life and in film—Johnson has inspired many people throughout the world.

Dwayne Douglas Johnson was born on May 2, 1972, in Hayward, California. His father was the Canadian professional wrestler Rocky Johnson, and his grandfather was the Samoan wrestler Peter Maivia. The family moved frequently as Dwayne was growing up, because of his father’s career. Dwayne played football for the University of Miami and graduated in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree. He briefly played for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League before leaving to pursue a career in wrestling.

Beginning in 1996, Johnson gained fame wrestling under the name Rocky Maivia in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF; now known as World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.). Soon after, he began using the nickname “The Rock.” He became one of the most famous wrestlers in the organization. Johnson’s matches served as main attractions at such large wrestling events as WrestleMania and SummerSlam. Johnson co-wrote the memoir The Rock Says… (2000) with Joe Layden.

Johnson began his motion picture acting career with a minor role in the adventure film The Mummy Returns (2001) and a starring role in the related fantasy film The Scorpion King (2002). He has starred in many other action films, including The Rundown (2003), Walking Tall (2004), Doom (2005), and Skyscraper (2018). Johnson has appeared in several of the automotive action films in the “Fast & Furious” series, beginning with Fast Five (2011). His other notable movies include the disaster film San Andreas (2015); the family comedies The Game Plan (2007) and Tooth Fairy (2010); and the adventure comedies Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019). The muscular Johnson often plays brawny characters that can be by turns intimidating and likable. Johnson has provided his voice for video games and animations. For example, he voiced the character Maui in the animated movie Moana (2016).

Dec. 30, 2011

Samoa is going back to the future this weekend, as it fast-forwards from Thursday, December 29, to Saturday, December 31, without pausing for Friday, December 30. The country’s time traveling comes 119 years after it rewound the calendar by celebrating July 4, 1892, twice. Samoa, one of a number of independent nations of the Pacific Islands, will now be the first country to ring in the new year, instead of the last.

Until midnight on Dec. 29, 2011, Samoa was located on the eastern side of the international date line. This imaginary line, which generally follows the 180th meridian, marks the spot on Earth’s surface where each new calendar day begins. The date just to the west of the international date line is one day later than the date just to the east of the line. The line veers from the 180th meridian in some places to keep countries, such as Kiribati, or islands, such as Fiji, in the same time zone. No international body is responsible for determining a country’s time zone, so Samoa was free to switch.

The international date line runs down the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It follows the 180th meridian most of the way, but zigzags in several places to avoid having two different calendar dates on the same day in a country. Samoa is located just to the northeast of Fiji. World Book map

Samoan officials said the move was made chiefly to link the island nation more closely to Australia, New Zealand, and other major trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region. Commerce was the chief reason Samoa switched time zones in 1892, moving from west to east of the international date line so it would be on the same side as the United States. Samoa made that change on July 4, marking America’s Independence Day twice in honor of the United States. Modern Samoan officials also cited family life as a reason for the latest move. Many native Samoans live in Australia and New Zealand.

Additional World Book articles

• American Samoa
• Fleming, Sir Sandford
• Greenwich meridian
• Longitude
• Samoa Islands