Why 46 BC Was The Longest Year Ever

Many countries held onto the Julian calendar for as long as they could but slowly even the non-Catholic countries began to follow suit. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Poland, and the Catholic states of Germany were initially the only ones who adopted the new calendar. Within 100 years, in the 1600s, the Netherlands and the Protestant regions of Germany switched over.

According to Historic UK, when the British Empire enacted the change in 1752, while many people once more thought that their lives had been shortened, the change was overall accepted. The myth of the British rioting may have been started by the 1755 William Hogarth painting "An Election Entertainment," for the calendar question was a hot topic in the election campaign of 1754 between the Tories and the Whigs. Since they were part of the British Empire, the American Colonies also switched over in 1752, which is why George Washington has two official birthdays.

According to Seeker, the British Empire wasn't even the last one to switch over, despite being almost 200 years late. The Russian Empire didn't reform their calendar to the Gregorian until 1918, which is why the Bolshevik Revolution that occurred in November is called the October Revolution. According to Atlas Obscura, the last country to get on board was Greece, who skipped ahead 12 days in March 1924 to catch up.

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