Sweden's Calendar Chaos: A Year of Confusion
Sweden attempted an extraordinarily impractical solution to calendar reform in 1700. Rather than jumping straight from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar by dropping eleven days, as most European nations did, the Swedish government decided to eliminate the discrepancy gradually by skipping all leap years between 1700 and 1740. They successfully skipped the 1700 leap day, then promptly forgot the plan and observed normal leap years in 1704 and 1708. By 1712, Sweden was using a calendar that matched neither the Julian nor the Gregorian system, confusing international trade and diplomacy. To get back in sync with the Julian calendar, Sweden added a unique February 30, 1712, a date that exists in no other calendar anywhere. The country finally adopted the Gregorian calendar properly in 1753, dropping eleven days at once by jumping from February 17 directly to March 1. The forty-year detour had accomplished nothing.
March 1, 1700
326 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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