Friday, December 21, 2007

10-10-1582

Quick quiz, folks.

Who can tell me what happened on October 10, 1582 in Rome?

Hint #1: Shakespeare and Cervantes died on the same day. Though it was obviously not this day.

Update: Congratulations to all of you who got it right, and complete boo to those of you who did not. It turns out that Oct. 10, 1582 did not exist, along with about 10 other days. This was caused by a switch from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian one. Because of this, certain areas of the world went from Thursday, October 4 directly to Friday, October 15.

The crazy thing is that this didn't happen everywhere. England, for example, did not recognize this switch. This means that, though both Shakespeare (who lived in England) and Cervantes (who lived in Spain) died on April 23, 1616, one actually died about 10 days earlier!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I believe the correct answer is, "No, no I can't."

Anonymous said...

Um...Ceasar was killed, "Et tu, Brute?" Kay:)

Sara Bishop said...

nothing, that day doesnt exist there. :-)

Sara Bishop said...

and kay, it makes me very sad to see that you think Caesar was killed in 1582.

Anonymous said...

That is definately a "Do not pass go. Do not collect $200." situation...and I thought forgetting about day-light savings time was bad, how funny would that be to wake up and think you slept through all those days?

Anonymous said...

so when did england and spain finally match up their dates, I mean, I'm assuming they're not still ten days apart. Kay

PS: Sara, by now you shouldn't be surprised by my complete lack of history knowledge:)

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