NormalDate 1.2 released

[Sven Axelsson]

Duncan Booth <duncan at NOSPAMrcp.co.uk> wrote in 
news:Xns91CF5F8D7A318duncanrcpcouk at 127.0.0.1:

> sjmachin at lexicon.net (John Machin) wrote in 
> news:c76ff6fc.0203111907.12122c8b at posting.google.com:
> 
>> There's even a story that the date of
>> introduction in Sweden varied by parish!
> 
> Dont forget that Sweden even had a 30th February one year!
> 

Yes, the story is really strange. Sweden decided to make a gradual change 
from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. By dropping every leap year 
from 1700 through 1740 the eleven superfluous days would be omitted and 
from 1 Mar 1740 they would be in sync with the Gregorian calendar. (But 
in the meantime they would be in sync with nobody!) 

So 1700 (which should have been a leap year in the Julian calendar) was 
not a leap year in Sweden. However, by mistake 1704 and 1708 became leap 
years. This left Sweden out of synchronisation with both the Julian and 
the Gregorian world, so they decided to go back to the Julian calendar. 
In order to do this, they inserted an extra day in 1712, making that year 
a double leap year! So in 1712, February had 30 days in Sweden. 

Later, in 1753, Sweden changed to the Gregorian calendar by dropping 11 
days like everyone else.


-- 
Sven Axelsson, Bok & webb
sven.NO.axelsson at bokochSPAMwebb.se