Where Did the Days Go? The Day Britain Slept for 11 Days

The Ultimate Case of Time Travel (or Just Bad Math?)

If you woke up feeling like you lost an entire week of productivity, don't worry—Britain once lost nearly two!

On September 14, 1752, citizens of Great Britain and the American colonies woke up to discover they had just experienced the quickest nap in human history. The previous day hadn’t been September 13th, or even September 4th—it had been September 2nd!

How to Lose 11 Days Without Blinking

• The Culprit: The outdated Julian calendar, introduced back in 45 BC by Julius Caesar, was slightly off. It miscalculated the solar year by about 11 minutes per year.
• The Catch-Up: By 1752, the calendar was drifting hopelessly out of sync with the seasons. To fix it, Parliament decided to adopt the Gregorian calendar (Encyclopædia Britannica).
• The Big Skip: To get back in rhythm, officials simply deleted 11 entire days from history. Brits went to bed on Wednesday, September 2, and awoke on Thursday, September 14.

Legend has it that rioters even took to the streets shouting, "Give us our eleven days!" worried they had been cheated out of life expectancy and wages (though historians suspect most people just enjoyed the extra snooze).

Happy September 14th—be sure to check your watch, just in case Parliament decides to steal next week too!