Passage of the British Calendar Act
- When
- 1750–1751
- Where
- House of Lords; Parliament of Great Britain
- Episodes
- 2
The Parliament of Great Britain passed the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, receiving royal assent on 22 May 1751. This legislation mandated the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, requiring the omission of eleven days in September 1752 and shifting the legal start of the year to 1 January.
Episodes
- Bill Introduction
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, introduced the calendar reform bill in the House of Lords.
- Royal Assent
The Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 received royal assent, formally enacting the calendar reform.
Background and detail
Legislative Process. The reform was introduced as a private member's bill in the House of Lords on 25 February 1750 (Old Style) by Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield. Although the act is legally dated 1750 due to the parliamentary session start, royal assent was not granted until 22 May 1751, resolving the discrepancy between the statute's title and its enactment date.
Calendar Mechanics. The act corrected the divergence between the Julian and Gregorian calendars by ordering that Wednesday, 2 September 1752, be followed immediately by Thursday, 14 September 1752. It also established that centennial years would only be leap years if divisible by 400, aligning Britain's calendar with the rest of Western Christendom.
People involved
- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield · Proposer of the private member's bill
- Parliament of Great Britain · Legislative body passing the act
Sources
- Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-17
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.