Spring forward, fall back.
Twice a year, much of the country issues a collective grumble when the time comes to adjust the clocks.
That modern hassle pales in comparison to 1752, when 11 days vanished into thin air.
People in the entire British Empire went to bed on Sept. 2 and woke up, presumably refreshed and a bit peckish, on Sept. 14.
In 1750, the British Parliament passed “An Act for regulating the Commencement of the Year, and for correcting the Calendar now in use,” titled the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750. The legislation was set to take effect two years later.
Halifax had been founded three years before the date change. (Thomas Jefferys/Archives of Nova Scotia)
For many, it was an overdue change. At the time Britain was still using the Julian calendar, while most of Western Europe had adopted the Gregorian calendar introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582.
As historian Robin Eagles notes on The History of Parliament website, by 1752 “Britain was out of step with the continent by eleven days.” The discrepancy was “further complicated by the use of 25 March rather than 1 January in England as the beginning of the year.”
Under the provisions of the act, the 11 days were dropped after Sept. 2, 1752. The next day became Sept. 14.
The shift was especially confusing in the Maritimes, where the Acadians had already been using the Gregorian calendar for generations. The French had adopted the calendar in December 1582, so when the British in Nova Scotia made the switch in 1752, they were simply catching up to a system the French-speaking population already followed.
Gov. Edward Cornwallis and the Acadians were at loggerheads at the time of the calendar change. (Sir Joshua Reynolds/Art Gallery of Nova Scotia)
The Acadians likely spent little time dwelling on the shift. They were already locked in a confrontation with Gov. Edward Cornwallis over their refusal to swear an unconditional oath of allegiance to the British Crown — a standoff that culminated in their forced expulsion just three years later.
To alleviate concerns across the empire, the British government explicitly declared that removing the 11 days did not allow anyone to collect rent or interest early.
Despite accounts of widespread “calendar riots” in England with people demanding their 11 days back, most historians regard this as an urban myth.
The first edition of the Halifax Gazette in March 1752 noted the upcoming change in passing, but never followed up on it. (Nova Scotia Archives)
The calendar change is reflected in a date jump in periodicals and colonial records, but otherwise caused no widespread disruption.
But further adjustments may be needed in the long run. At the time, Benjamin Franklin noted in Poor Richard’s Almanack that even the Gregorian calendar would need fine tuning eventually.
“Here is still an Excess of one Hour, twenty Minutes, in four Centuries; which in 72 Centuries will amount to a whole Day.“
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