[I created a new subject line because I think we've veered far enough 
away from David Colander's original request for help on his calendar 
project. I trust you agree that the issue of correctly dating events 
falls within the purview of the history of economics and merits 
discussion on this list, even if only a subset of our members are 
interested in this topic.  HB]



Can anyone explain *why* the difference in days between the Julian 
and Gregorian?

I had always thought that the Gregorian was 'more accurate' because 
it used leap years with more precision -- every year divisible by 4 
is a leap year, except for those divisible by 100, which are not leap 
years (unless they are divisible by 400, in which case they are leap 
years)  Whew!

So what does the Julian calendar do to be different, and to fall behind?

(I assume that the Julian calendar does leap years on every year 
divisible by four, and so falls behind by roughly a day every century 
[except for those centuries, like 1600 and 2000, that are divisible 
by 400 and thus *are* leap years].)

I hope someone can be both more elegant and more accurate.

Peter G. Stillman