The year Britain skipped eleven days
Updated
In Britain, Wednesday 2 September 1752 was followed by Thursday 14 September. The days of the week ran on as normal; eleven dates simply never happened.
Catching up with Europe
The Gregorian calendar, which fixed the drift in Julius Caesar's leap-year rule, had been introduced in 1582 (see why leap years exist). Britain kept the old Julian calendar, and by 1750 most of Europe had already switched, which made British dates a source of confusion for merchants and diplomats. The change came as a private member's bill in the House of Lords, proposed by Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, on 25 February 1750 by the old reckoning — 8 March 1751 by the new. It became the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750.
Why eleven days
The Julian calendar makes every fourth year a leap year; the Gregorian skips century years not divisible by 400. The two calendars were ten days apart when Gregory's reform began, and 1700 — a leap year in the Julian calendar but not in the Gregorian — added one more. So by 1752 Britain was eleven days behind, and the Act closed the gap in one step: the day after 2 September would be called 14 September, "omitting for that Time only the 11 intermediate nominal Days".
A new New Year's Day
The same Act moved the start of England's legal year. It had begun on 25 March, Lady Day; from now on it would begin on 1 January, and the day after 31 December 1751 became 1 January 1752. That left 1751 a short year, running only from 25 March to 31 December — 282 days. Scotland had already moved its New Year to 1 January in 1600. How 1 January came to be New Year in the first place is in why New Year is on 1 January.
The riots that never were
A popular story says crowds rioted, demanding "Give us our eleven days". Its best-known source is a painting: William Hogarth's An Election Entertainment of 1755, a satirical scene of an election, shows a placard with the slogan lying on the floor. Historians, Robert Poole in particular, have found no contemporary record of any such riot in the riot depositions at the Public Record Office.
Where the change still shows
The UK's personal tax year ends on 5 April: eleven days on from the old quarter day of 25 March, Lady Day.
Sources
- Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 — Wikipedia (text of the Act, 2 and 14 September 1752, year start moved from 25 March, Chesterfield's bill, Scotland 1600, Hogarth, Robert Poole, the 5 April tax year)
- The 282 days of 1751 counted from 25 March to 31 December inclusive; the ten-then-eleven-day gap follows from the two calendars' leap-year rules, sourced in the leap year article