T2L3

• The Calendar Riots

  1752
• The eleven days referred to here are the 'lost' 11 days of September 1752, skipped when Britain changed over from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar
• Julian calendar

  Calendar used in Britain and her Empire before 1752, had an inbuilt error of 1 day every 128 years due to a miscalculation of the solar year by 11 minutes

  
• Gregorian calendar


  Solar calendar, based on a 365-day year divided into 12 months, with a leap year every 4 years adding an extra day to February

  
• Julius Caesar, creator of the Julian calendar


  46 BC
• Pope Gregory XIII, creator of the Gregorian calendar


  February 1582
• First countries to adopt the Gregorian calendar in 1582


  • France
  • Italy
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Spain
• Turkey officially switched to the Gregorian calendar


  January 1st, 1927
• A misinterpretation of a painting by William Hogarth in 1755 arisen rioters (demos) demanding "Give us our eleven days"
• The changing of the calendar was indeed one of the issues debated in the election campaign of 1754 between the Whigs and the Tories
• Many people mistakenly believed that their lives would be shortened by 11 days due to the calendar change
• People were also unhappy and suspicious at the moving of saint's days and holy days, including the date of Easter
• Most historians now believe that these protests never happened
• Benefits

  • William Willett wagered that he could dance non-stop for 12 days and 12 nights, starting on the evening of September 2nd 1752 and stopping on September 14th by the new calendar in the book 'Murders Myths and Monuments of North Staffordshire' by W.M. Jamieson