Footnote: October 15, 1582

October 15, 1582 was the first day of the Gregorian calendar, which is still in use today. The Julian calendar (in use before that) was 11 minutes and 14 seconds longer than the solar year. This difference accumulated and in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII issued a decree that 10 days should be dropped from the calendar, in order to restore the vernal equinox to March 21, the same day as in A.D. 325, the year of the First Council of Nicea.

Thus, the day immediately following October 4, 1582 was October 15, 1582.

(From what I understand, some people of the day thought that those in power were trying to steal ten days of their lives). The Gregorian calendar also corrected for the discrepancy in the Julian calendar by stating that years evenly divisible by 100 would not be leap years unless also evenly divisible by 400. Thus, A.D. 1700 and A.D. 1800 were not leap years, but A.D. 2000 (the LAST year of THIS millenium) is a leap year. The Gregorian calendar also set the start of the New Year to January 1. (Many took March 25 as the start of the new year, though no absolute standard existed). The Gregorian calendar was not adopted in Britain (or its colonies) until 1752. (Because of the delay, eleven days had to be removed from British calendars, so September 2, 1752 was followed by September 14, 1752).

David Thompson
October 15, 1999 (417th Anniversary of the Gregorian Calendar)