Sweden once had a 30 February.

1712

Its botched switch to the new calendar ended with a return to the old one, and an extra day was added in 1712.

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The event

• 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.

18th century

More amazing facts

• 1709 The brutal winter of 1709, the 'Great Frost', struck all of Europe and wore down Charles XII's Swedish army before Poltava.
• 1709 · 1718 The pirate republic in the Bahamas was ended by the man who rescued the real Robinson Crusoe.
• 1712 · 1853 Britain taxed soap for nearly a century and a half.
• 1712 In the row over who invented calculus, Newton secretly wrote the verdict himself.
• 1712 · 1769 James Watt did not invent the steam engine: Newcomen engines had been pumping mines since 1712.
• 1714 · 1773 The longitude problem that baffled astronomers was solved by a self-taught carpenter.

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