In autumn 1582 Catholic Europe jumped from 4 to 15 October, while Yermak’s Cossacks were marching on the capital of the Khanate of Sibir.
Russia adopted the new calendar only in 1918.
The events
- Gregorian calendar1582 · Rome. In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII introduced a new calendar: Thursday 4 October was followed directly by Friday 15 October. Protestant countries adopted it gradually, and Russia only in 1918.
- Yermak's conquest of Sibir1582 · Isker. Yermak's Cossack band defeated Khan Kuchum and took his capital Isker. This began Russia's annexation of Siberia; by 1639 Russian explorers had reached the Pacific Ocean.
More amazing facts
- 1556 · 1584 Ivan the Terrible, the Mughal emperor Akbar and Elizabeth I were contemporaries: from 1558 to 1584 all three reigned at the same time.
- 1564 In 1564 Ivan Fyodorov printed the Apostol in Moscow, and Shakespeare was born in England.
- 1565 · 1572 Ivan the Terrible's Oprichnina (1565–1572) and France's St Bartholomew's Day massacre (1572) were bloody purges of the same decade.
- 1598 · 1605 While False Dmitry I ruled in Moscow (1605–1606), the first part of Don Quixote came out in Madrid.
- 1600 · 1601 Some scientists think the 1600 eruption of Peru's Huaynaputina caused the cooling behind Russia's Great Famine of 1601–1603, which helped spark the Time of Troubles.
- 1605 · 1616 Cervantes and Shakespeare died in April 1616 on nearly the same calendar date — but Spain used the Gregorian calendar and England did not, so over a week really separates them.