Google highlights the 434th anniversary of the Gregorian calendar with new Doodle

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Google is celebrating the 434th anniversary of the creation of the Gregorian calendar with a new Doodle.

Users who visit Google's homepage Tuesday will see artwork depicting paper calendar sheets for the dates of Oct. 3rd and 4th, written in roman numerals, between the spelling of Google.

As the internet giant explains, the Gregorian Calendar was created in 1582 in order to realign the Julian calendar previously created by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. as it was 10 days behind the seasons of the year.

"Easter began falling later in the spring than it should have and eventually would have drifted into summer. The calendar creep was the result of the solar year (the time it takes Earth to make one revolution around the sun) being around 11 minutes shy of the full Julian calendar," Google writes in their history lesson.

"Pope Gregory saved the day (and season) by appointing a commission to solve the problem."

"It took five years, but eventually the group, led by physician Aloysius Lilius and astronomer Christopher Clavius, proposed eliminating three leap years every 400 years to keep the calendar on track. To transition to the Gregorian calendar, ten days were declared officially non-existent, with the day after October 4, 1582 declared October 15th."

Now, as Google notes, the Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar system in the world.