Back to the Mainly The Georgians calendar
On 2 September 1752, the inhabitants of Great Britain went to bed, slept for about 8 hours and woke up on the morning of 14 September 1752. Good trick you might think, especially if you are trying to avoid something unpleasant.
The reason for the sudden loss of eleven days dated back to 1582. The Pope at that time, Gregory XIII, had decided that those countries under his religious control should make a correction to the Julian calendar everyone in Europe was using. This calendar had been around since 45BC having been started by Julius Caesar, hence its name. It said that a year is 365 days and 6 hours long. Not a bad guess from old Julius but a year is actually 365 days 5 hours and 49 minutes long. A year, of course, is the time it takes our little planet, Earth, to go completely round the sun.
Now 11 minutes may not seem much but after about 1,500 years everything was actually about 10 days out. So Gregory said let's all skip some days and catch up. Spain, Italy, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Luxembourg, Poland and Lithuania said yes straight away Mr Pope while Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary and Prussia followed within 50 years.
Britain didn't, which made it a bit strange when putting dates on things. By 1750 it had all got too confusing and so Parliament approved a Calendar (New Style) Act. The Act said that “In and throughout all his Majesty’s dominions and countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, belonging or subject to the crown of Great Britain, the second day of September in the said year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two inclusive; and that the natural day next immediately following the said second day of September shall be called, reckoned, and accounted to be the fourteenth day of September, omitting for that time only the eleven intermediate nominal days of the common calendar.” Usual clarity by Parliament there.
The simple result was that we were now in tune with most of Europe although some countries held out even longer. Russia didn’t change over until 1918. Greece refused to switch until 1923. By then they had to miss 13 days. There were a few people who protested and wanted their days back but, overall, the change went smoothly. However, no one, in 1752 was born on 3 September or any date until the 14 September. Good quiz question me thinks.
One other date related fact. Your parents may have told you that the tax year in Britain starts on the unlikely date of 6th April, rather than 1st January. The official start of the year on the Julian calendar used to be Lady Day (25th March), and this was also the official start of the tax year. However the introduction of the new calendar and the loss of the eleven days in 1752 meant this date was changed to 5th April in 1753, to avoid losing 11 days of tax revenue. Another change was made to the date in 1800, as this would have been a leap year in the Julian calendar but not in the new Gregorian calendar. So again the tax year was extended and the date changed to 6th April where it remains to this day.
However, there is one other problem or is there? Let's assume you were born on the 24th July after the change. Your star sign would have been Leo but if we hadn't
lost 11 days then you would have been born on 13th July and your star sign would have been Cancer. We only moved the days not the stars. Are all our star signs now wrong?
Something, me thinks, for you to try to find out.
Forward to 1756AD
