Today in History...

In England, the United Reformed Church was created today in 1972 by the merging of the Presbyterian and Congregational Churches. It had taken 40 years of talks, despite the fact that there were no differences left between them at all, and – after four decades of decline – not much in the way of members either.

Today in 1582 became 15 October under the Gregorian calendar (decreed by Pope Gregory XIII) in Catholic Europe, as the calendar had got out of step with reality. As it was a Catholic innovation, it took Protestant countries a further two centuries to update their calendars.

Bet you didn't know that!