The days that never existed

If someone ever tells you about a great historical event that occurred on October 10th 1582; you can tell them hogwash! The reason is: that date never existed! Neither did October 11th or the 5th, 6th, or 7th for that matter. For centuries western civilization had been using the Julian calendar which originated during Roman times and had been meddled with by various emperors. It had 365 days in a year and did not compensate for the difference in solar time and calendar time of about a quarter of a day a year. In the modern calendar we use a "leap year" when one day is added to every fourth year to correct for the difference. By 1582 the calendar was 10 days off and Easter was going to land on a Sunday in late February if nothing was done and would get progressively worse. Could you imagine Easter in January? Pope Gregory XIII decided to fix the problem, adding leap years and because of how out of whack the equinox was with the Julian calendar he decreed that Thursday, October 4, 1582 would be Friday, October 15, 1582. From then on we have had our modern calendar leap- years and all. The Gregorian calendar was born and October 4th-14th 1582 disappeared forever.