Calendars 00:39 Jul 10, 2018
The Gregorian calendar was introduced in Spain (and other Catholic countries) in October 1582: ten days were deleted; 4 October was followed by 15 October. But in Protestant and Orthodox countries it was not adopted until much later. Britain saw it as a sinister Catholic plot and continued with the Julian calendar until 1752. So for 170 years dates in Spain and Britain were 10 days apart (11 days from 1700). This means that although Cervantes and Shakespeare both died on 23 April 1616, a coincidence that has always fascinated people, they did not in fact die on the same day, because their dates of death correspond to different calendars: Shakespeare died ten days after Cervantes. |