Did you know that Franklin has TWO birthdays? His birth certificate says he was born on January 6, 1706. Because it takes just a little more than 365 days for the Earth to rotate around the Sun, calendars eventually shift out of line with the seasons unless adjustments are made (like leap years and leap seconds). In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII instigated a change, alarmed at how far Easter’s date had slipped out of line, but England and the British colonies did not make the shift from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar until 1752. By this time, the calendar was 11 whole days behind “real†astronomical time, so by legal decree, on September 2, 1752, at midnight, it became September 14. Hence Franklin was born on the 6th AND the 17th!
Franklin Trivia