• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Zippy Facts Logo

Zippy Facts

Interesting Random Facts

  • Animals
  • Culture
  • Firsts
  • Food
  • Geography
  • Health
  • History
  • Inventions
  • Language
  • Mythology
  • Odds
  • People
  • Religion
  • Science
  • Space
  • Universe
  • World
You are here: Home / Universe / When Did the World Lose Ten Days?

When Did the World Lose Ten Days?

June 12, 2020 by Karen Hill

In 46 B.C., Roman ruler Julius Caesar put a new calendar into effect, which came to be known as the Julian Calendar. The Romans thought that the year was 365.5 days long, so they made an ordinary year 365 days and added an extra day every fourth year, or leap year.

But by the year 730 A.D., it was known that the year was actually 11 minutes shorter than the Romans of Julius Caesar’s time thought it was. This mistake made the calendar wrong by 11 minutes each year, or one day wrong in every 128 years. By 1582, the calendar was ten days out of line with the seasons.

So in that year, Pope Gregory XIII ordered a new calendar placed into effect, which we now call the Gregorian Calendar. To keep the calendar in line with the seasons, it was decided that the first year of each century would be a leap year only when that year could be divided by 400. Therefore, 1200 and 1600 were leap years, but 1800 and 1900 were not. This change eliminated the 11-minute-per-year error in the calendar.

To bring the calendar immediately back into line with the seasons, Gregory ordered that ten days be dropped from the year 1582. People who went to bed on the night of Oct. 5 of that year woke up on Oct.15!

Some branches of the Eastern or Orthodox churches still figure their holidays according to the Julian Calendar, which is now 13 days different from ours!

Related Facts

  • Top 25 Inventions That Changed the World
  • Why Do Orthodox and Catholic Churches Celebrate Holy Days On Different Dates?
  • History of Subways
  • How did January get its name and Where does the word “January” come from?
  • Which Explorers First Explored the Continents of the World?
  • Top 25 Inventions That Changed Our Lives Forever

Filed Under: Universe

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « Do Continents Move?
Next Post: Were You Living in the Year 1402 and Will You be Alive in 5744? »

Footer

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Categories

Accomplishments Animals Culture Firsts Food Geography Health History Inventions Language Mythology Odds People Religion Science Space Universe World Your Body

About

Zippy Facts empowers the world by serving educational content that is accessible to everyone.

A tribute to growing up, zippyfacts.com showcases interesting and unusual facts about the world.

Our mission is to use technology to facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing.

Copyright © 2020 Zippy Facts

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy