For some historical context, losing one day is minor (as long as your birthday isn't 28 December) as compared to the 11 days that were 'lost' in the transition from Julian to Gregorian calendars.
And lest you think that's an historical artifact (to be fair, they didn't worry about sysadmins in Renaissance Rome circa 1582) many Orthodox / Eastern European countries like Russia, Greece, and Turkey made that change in the 1920s [1].
And yes, that's why Russia's October Revolution took place in November, 1917.
I was on a recent trans-Pacific flight where they announced after landing that one of the flight attendants had completely skipped over her birthday (we crossed the IDL at about midnight) so we gave her a round of applause for sacrificing her birthday in the name of duty.
I cross the IDL semi-frequently and it always depresses me. It depresses me when I completely skip a day going west, and it depresses me when I fly back the other way and have to live through the same day twice.
And lest you think that's an historical artifact (to be fair, they didn't worry about sysadmins in Renaissance Rome circa 1582) many Orthodox / Eastern European countries like Russia, Greece, and Turkey made that change in the 1920s [1].
And yes, that's why Russia's October Revolution took place in November, 1917.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar#Timeline