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 On September 3, 1752, nothing happened in England or America. Nothing happened for the next ten days either as the two nations instituted a major calendar reform.
Measuring time has always been a human preoccupation. There are obvious practical advantages for measuring time in human societies. But beyond that, man is fascinated with measuring time because it gives him the illusion he can control time.
But time is not that easy to control, and calendars can be tricky. Getting dates right is more difficult than it looks.
For 1500 years most of Europe used the calendar credited to Julius Caesar. But the Julian calendar made the year too long by several minutes. That did not seem too much then, but over time it was significant. Every 400 years the calendar was off by three days.
By 1582 the calendar was off by 10 days. This was playing havoc with the Church’s calculation of Easter, and so Pope Gregory XIII got busy fixing the problem. He issued the papal bull Inter gravissimas requiring all Roman Catholic nations to adopt the new adjusted calendar. Many nations did, but there was great social upheaval as the common people believed that the pope had stolen 10 days of their life.
England did not adopt the new calendar at that time. They had recently undergone a Protestant Reformation (of sorts) and did not want to show any deference to Rome.
However, by 1752 the calendar was now off by eleven days and England finally decided to act. They declared that Wednesday, September 2 would be immediately followed by Thursday September 14. This also applied to England’s colonies.
So between September 3 and 13, 1752 nothing happened in England or America. Those dates simply do not exist on the calendar.
This calendar adjustment caused a number of problems. For example, George Washington was actually born on February 11, 1732. But after the calendar adjustment twenty years later, his new birthday became February 22 – although he continued to celebrate his birthday on the 11th for the rest of his life.
Calendars can be tricky.
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