For one year , more than two centuries ago , September 3 - 13 did n’t exist in the British Empire . Overnight , citizen were send from Wednesday , September 2 , 1752 to Thursday , September 14 .
The loss of 11 days was knowing . Britain implement theGregorian calendarin place of the pre - existing Julian calendar , the main timeline used worldwide after Julius Caesar introduced it in 45 BCE . And so as to decently transition , the empire require to move forrader in the month .
TheJulian calendar was designed around the assumptionthat each year is 365 days and six hr long . The result : every four years an excess mean solar day was added to February — much like the leap years we know now . However , this format resulted in an meanwhile of just about 18 hours each century . As time passed , theJulian calendar became increasingly inaccurate , and the Catholic Church was peculiarly uneasy with Easter gradually moving farther and farther off from the spring equinox .
The Gregorian calendar attempts to correct this lapse and more intimately align the calendar year with the solar yr , the distance of clock time it takes the Earth to complete one orbit around the sun . to do this , the qualification for a leap twelvemonth became more complicated . The calendar organisation call for that there can only be an spare day in year that aredivisible by four . If the year could also be equally divided by 100 , it was not a jump yr unless it could also be evenly divided by 400 . For case , 1900 would have previously been a leap twelvemonth , but it no longer was since it did n’t assemble the updated guidelines . Another noteworthy change is that the New Year , which antecedently began on March 25 in Britain , moved to January 1 .
Some report claim the change did n’t go over swimmingly . Citizens reportedly took to the street , riot and demanding , “ Give us our 11 days . ” This caption is reinforced by version ofWilliam Hogarth ’s 1755 painting titled " An Election Entertainment”that depicts Whig campaigner at a tap house dinner party and a stolen banner that read " Give us our Eleven Days . ” However , Historic U.K. reportsthat historians now believe stories of the riots are exaggerated and the protest are simply an urban myth .
It is also believed that manyProtestant countries pushed back on take over the Gregorian calendarbecause it was strongly support by the Catholic Church . The Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582 and Catholic country like Spain , Italy , and Portugal put into position that same year . However , Protestant Germany held out until 1700 and England , of class , waited until 1752 .
Whether or not the English citizens were unhappy with the loss of 11 days , one occupier of the 13 Colonies , which was part of the British Empire at the time , reportedly did n’t mind . Benjamin Franklin praise the switch , penning , “ It is pleasant for an old man to be able to go to bed on September 2 , and not have to get up until September 14 . "
