Why does "cal 9 1752" produce incorrect results?

[Bob Goudreau]

In article <1990Nov27.170041.28341 at watdragon.waterloo.edu>, psmielke at lotus.uwaterloo.ca (Peter Mielke) writes:
> 
> > I believe there was a date change sometime, where the civilised
> > world lost a fortnight to allow the 'old calendar' to become the
> > 'new calendar' which would be in sync with the seasons ...
> 
> It was more than a fortnight, and it took the governments white a bit
		     ^^^^^^^^^
> of explaining tothe general populous that they were not being ripped
> off 2 weeks of their life (i'm not quite sure if it came to riots in
      ^^^^^^^
> the streets)

Begging your pardon, but a fortnight *is* two weeks.

In any case, the British Empire's conversion to the Gregorian
calendar in 1752 was implemented by having September 2nd be
followed directly by September 14th.  This is a loss of eleven
days, not "more than a fortnight".  But you're correct about the
unrest in the general populace.

Time and date keeping was much more parochial and provincial several
centuries ago compared to the present.  Not only did each town
reckon its own (solar-based) time of day (standard "time zones" did
not appear until introduced by American railroads in the late 1800s),
but it was also common for neighboring countries to use completely
different calendars.  Britain lagged most of continental Europe in
finally converting to the Gregorian system, but note that Russia did
not convert until after its revolution in 1917!  That's how the
so-called "October Revolution" ended up with its anniversary in
November.

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