Pope Gregory XIII decrees the Euro

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In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII decreed (after consultation with the 'Christian princes') that the day following Thursday October 4th 1582 would henceforth be known as Friday, October 15th 1582. What we now know as the 'Gregorian calendar' -- and use to this day -- was born.

Here's how long it took the various countries to adopt the Gregorian calendar:

1582: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, France, Luxembourg.
1583: Catholic parts of Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands.
1587: Hungary.
1699-1701: The rest of the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.
1752: Britain and its American colony.
1753: Sweden.
1873: Japan.
1875: Egypt.
1912-19: Eastern Europe.
1927: Turkey.
1917: The Soviet Union.

Britain held out 170 years before adopting the Gregorian calendar. If it follows the same pattern with the Euro it will adopt the currency in 2172. Or will it adopt the dollar first? Place your bets here!

― Momus (Momus), Thursday, 13 February 2003 12:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Or make wry observations on papal bull, memes, international agreements, standardisation, astrology, astronomy, or the relationship between religion and science. (Do not spend more than 20 minutes on your answer.)

― Momus (Momus), Thursday, 13 February 2003 12:27 (twenty-two years ago)

giver us back our 11 days!!

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 13 February 2003 12:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Bastards.

― Lara (Lara), Thursday, 13 February 2003 12:29 (twenty-two years ago)

haha, mark has included interest.

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 13 February 2003 12:36 (twenty-two years ago)

(Actually I should have said 'Do not spend more than 11.23 minutes in the mean tropical year or 10.94 minutes in the vernal equinox year on your answer.')

― Momus (Momus), Thursday, 13 February 2003 12:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Hahahaha, you're brilliant, aren't you?

― Vic (Vic), Thursday, 13 February 2003 12:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Or maybe I just envy your baby envy, whatever.

― Vic (Vic), Thursday, 13 February 2003 13:02 (twenty-two years ago)

A complete history of baby envy parts msgid=3304981 to msgid=3285775

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Thursday, 13 February 2003 13:06 (twenty-two years ago)

But what about standardisation? Europe had it under the Romans (even a lingua franca which, oddly enough, was not French but Latin), then split into tribal regions, then got a bit standardised again with the help of Pope Gregory, and then romantic nationalism ruined everything for a while, and then Jacques Delors et al brought the possibility of unity and standardisation back. So what now? Are the splits we've recently seen (between the pro and anti-American Europes the general direction of Europe, or is unification something completely inevitable? And does that mean eventual confrontation with the US? And if so, who will win?

― Momus (Momus), Thursday, 13 February 2003 13:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Tell me all this now.

― Momus (Momus), Thursday, 13 February 2003 13:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Everyone should speak Volapük.

― Sam (chirombo), Thursday, 13 February 2003 14:00 (twenty-two years ago)

There's a guy who works in dispatch who says that he invented the euro and that the Italian Mafia are on his tail. I'm looking forward to telling him about this thread and then running away.

― Lara (Lara), Thursday, 13 February 2003 14:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Um, actually the official calendar in Japan is still the traditional Japanese one - hence this year is Heisei 15.

― toraneko (toraneko), Thursday, 13 February 2003 14:05 (twenty-two years ago)

mason & dixon own this thread

also

http://www.island-of-freedom.com/KANT.GIF

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 13 February 2003 14:05 (twenty-two years ago)

John Hurt?

― Lara (Lara), Thursday, 13 February 2003 14:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Kant. Hanle y has issues with his head IIRC.

― RickyT (RickyT), Thursday, 13 February 2003 14:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Gregorian correction, yeah, great and all that BUT currently causing me no end of grief. Whoever decided that all dates on a certain PDA operating system should be measured in microseconds from 00:00:00 1st Jan 0AD needs a slap. Not only does it mean that the baseline is a non existent date, but also that I keep having to factor in 11 day intervals into conversion calculations. Grrrr.

― RickyT (RickyT), Thursday, 13 February 2003 14:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't think Europe will ever be wholly unified, and it may have been politically united in Roman times, but not culturally. Do you ever see France, Germany and the UK all agreeing on something for a long period of time ? The US does not have to worry about a confrontation with Europe, but with China. Oh, and since you brought it up, the differences would be between the tropical zodiac and the sidereal, nota "vernal equinox"; the length of a year is always 365 days and a quarter, no matter where you are on Earth. Where are you, anyway?

― Vic (Vic), Thursday, 13 February 2003 14:16 (twenty-two years ago)

take it y2k rickyT

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 13 February 2003 14:18 (twenty-two years ago)

The original calendar was just one day . It was called Crustday. A year was a day. But then they decided to have Crustday and Jiontday. But you see, there were the Orange Generals of the misty tropics. THEY DONT COUNT! When will someone design a FINITE CALANDeR!

― Mike Hanle y (mike), Thursday, 13 February 2003 15:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I remember being bothered about unequal lengths of months and so I decided to design a new calendar of my own. There would be five months of 73 days each in a year and 74 in a leap year. Rather than find new names for my five newly created months, I decided to just call them A, B, C, D & E. The leap day every four years would be right in the middle of month C and kids could learn how the new system worked by holding up their hand. The tall middle finger could represent month C with its extra day in the middle. They could also use the rhyme:

The months are lettered A to E
The sum of days in each is 73
Except in leap years, when there'll be
74 days in month C

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 13 February 2003 16:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Brilliant, Mark H! I hereby declare you pope and charge you with the destruction of that foul fiend, the anti-Calendar incarnate, Hanle y.

― Momus (Momus), Thursday, 13 February 2003 20:41 (twenty-two years ago)

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