As we all know, Leap Year extends the calendar by one day in order to have it stay coordinated with the seasonal year. By 1582, by decree of Pope Gregory XIII, all Catholic countries had switched over to the Gregorian calendar, which uses February 29 to stretch out the Leap Year.
All countries, that is, except Sweden.
By 1700, the Swedish Empire (which included Finland at the time) had yet to start using the Gregorian calendar. That year they finally decided to jump on the bandwagon, but how were they going to catch up with the rest of the world, who had been using the calendar for nearly 130 years? Their decision was to omit leap days for the next 40 years as a way to synchronize with the rest of Gregorian world. They did skip over the leap day for 1700; but, when the Great Northern War began later that year, they got distracted and forgot to omit the Leap Days in 1704 and 1708. In order to avoid more mistakes, the Empire reinstated the Julian calendar in 1712. However, for the restoration to actually work, they had to add an extra day—the one they had skipped in 1700—making 1712 the only year in recorded history to have a February 30th.
It wasn’t until 1753 that the Swedish Empire finally changed back to the Gregorian calendar. They did so by removing 11 calendar days from the year.
As we all know, Leap Year extends the calendar by one day in order to have it stay coordinated with the seasonal year. By 1582, by decree of Pope Gregory XIII, all Catholic countries had switched over to the Gregorian calendar, which uses February 29 to stretch out the Leap Year.
All countries, that is, except Sweden.
By 1700, the Swedish Empire (which included Finland at the time) had yet to start using the Gregorian calendar. That year they finally decided to jump on the bandwagon, but how were they going to catch up with the rest of the world, who had been using the calendar for nearly 130 years? Their decision was to omit leap days for the next 40 years as a way to synchronize with the rest of Gregorian world. They did skip over the leap day for 1700; but, when the Great Northern War began later that year, they got distracted and forgot to omit the Leap Days in 1704 and 1708. In order to avoid more mistakes, the Empire reinstated the Julian calendar in 1712. However, for the restoration to actually work, they had to add an extra day—the one they had skipped in 1700—making 1712 the only year in recorded history to have a February 30th.
It wasn’t until 1753 that the Swedish Empire finally changed back to the Gregorian calendar. They did so by removing 11 calendar days from the year.
Find more interesting facts on our website:
http://www.idiotsguides.com/static/di...