This diagram illustrates the curious fact that a telegram despatched from London may be delivered in New York apparently before the time it was sent off, and why a telegram apparently takes so long to reach Bombay.
COMPARATIVE TIME ALL OVER THE WORLD WHEN NOON AT GREENWICH
THE CALENDAR
The reckoning of time among the ancients was very inaccurate. This was owning to their ignorance of astronomy, and also to changes that were made from time to time for political reasons. The calendar was reformed by Julius Cæsar, 46 B. C., who made the year consist of 3651⁄4 days, adding one day every fourth year. In 1582, the error in the calendar established by him had increased to 10 days; that is, too much time had been reckoned as a year, until the civil year was 10 days behind the solar year. To correct this error, Pope Gregory XIII. decreed that 10 days should be stricken from the calendar, that the day following the 3d day of October, 1582, should be made the 14th, and that henceforth only those centennial years should be leap years which are divisible by 400.
Most Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian Calendar soon after it was established. Great Britain did not adopt it until 1752, when the error amounted to 11 days. By Act of Parliament, the 3d of September was called the [867] 14th. The civil year by the same act was made to commence on the 1st of January, instead of the 25th of March, as was previously the case.
THE COMPARATIVE TIME ZONES OF THE WORLD
Dates reckoned by the Julian calendar are called Old Style (O.S.), and those reckoned by the Gregorian calendar are called New Style (N.S.). The difference now amounts to 12 days.