The Great Calendar Riot of 1752: When Changing Calendars Nearly Broke Britain

In September 1752, Britain went to bed on September 2nd and woke up on September 14th. Eleven days had simply vanished from the calendar overnight. The reason? Britain was finally adopting the Gregorian calendar that most of Europe had been using for 170 years, and those eleven days needed to be eliminated to sync up with the solar year.

The public reaction was allegedly chaos. According to popular accounts, riots broke out across England with angry mobs demanding "Give us our eleven days back!" People believed their lives had been literally shortened by eleven days. Workers feared losing eleven days of wages. Landlords and tenants fought over whether rent should be adjusted. Some believed they'd lost eleven days closer to death, or that the ...