Date with History: September 14

The day Britain invented to fix its calendar, and Napoleon's Moscow burning around him.

One paperback for one calendar date: what happened on September 14, and who was born on it.

What happened on September 14

1752: Britain Skips Eleven Days

When Britain and its colonies abandoned the Julian calendar, Parliament simply declared that September 2, 1752, would be followed by September 14, erasing September 3 through 13 from existence. Rent, contracts and birthdays all had to be renegotiated, and legend has it crowds demanded their eleven days back. The British tax year still starts on April 6 because of the adjustment.

1812: Napoleon Enters a Burning Moscow

The Grande Armee finally reached the Russian capital and found it largely abandoned. Fires broke out within hours and three-quarters of the city burned. Napoleon waited five weeks in the ruins for a surrender that never came before starting the winter retreat that destroyed his army; of 600,000 men who invaded Russia, fewer than 100,000 came back.

Famous birthdays on September 14

1265 — Dante Alighieri
Wrote the Divine Comedy in Italian rather than Latin, and died on this same date in 1321 in exile.

1849 — Ivan Pavlov
Nobel laureate in digestion who noticed his dogs salivating early and founded modern learning theory.

Nearby dates

September 13 · September 15 · All September dates

Part of Date with History, a 366-book collection with one book for every date of the year. 5″×8″ paperback, cream paper.

Historical selections are editorially researched. This is a date-specific book, not a personalized or custom-made product.