Wait… What Happened to October 5–14, 1582?

Imagine flipping your calendar and seeing that after October 4, the next day is October 15.

What happened to the days in between? Did they vanish into thin air?

Well, in a way, they did!

The Problem with the Old Calendar

Long ago, people used the Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar. It calculated a year as 365.25 days, adding a leap day every four years. But here’s the twist: a real year is about 365.2425 days.

That tiny difference of 11 minutes each year added up over centuries, causing the calendar to drift away from the actual seasons.

A Clever Fix

To solve this, Pope Gregory XIII introduced a new system in 1582, called the Gregorian calendar. To realign the calendar with the seasons, they decided to skip 10 days.

So, in countries that adopted the change, Thursday, October 4, 1582, was immediately followed by Friday, October 15, 1582.

Those missing days were simply removed from the calendar!

Not Everyone Switched at Once

While countries like Italy, Spain, and Portugal adopted the new calendar in 1582, others took their time. For example, Britain and its colonies didn’t switch until 1752, and Russia waited until 1918.

This meant that for a while, different countries were using different calendars!

🕵️‍♀️ Fun Fact

Some people were so confused by the change that they thought their lives were shortened by 10 days!

There were even protests in some places because of the missing days.

Summary:

• What happened? In 1582, 10 days were skipped to fix calendar drift.
• Why? The old calendar miscalculated the year’s length, causing dates to shift over time.
• How? Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar, skipping 10 days to realign dates with the seasons.
• Did everyone accept it? Nope! Different countries adopted it at different times, leading to some confusion.

Isn’t it fascinating how a small error in calculation led to 10 days disappearing from history?!

Sources:

• Gregorian calendar – Kiddle Encyclopedia – A kid-friendly explanation of the Gregorian calendar and its history.
• Why were 10 days skipped in 1582? – Timeanddate.com – Detailed explanation of the calendar reform and which countries adopted it when.