Calendar Confusion

According to Bob Fulton’s article “Our First Olympics,” (July/August) our athletes discovered that the games were scheduled to begin on April 6, 1896, twelve days earlier than they had supposed because Greece still observed the Julian calendar. Since that calendar lagged behind the Gregorian, our athletes would have had more time, not less, had they forgotten that Greece observed a different calendar. What must have happened, for Mr. Fulton’s story to make any sense, was that the athletes were given a date according to the Gregorian calendar, which they mistakenly assumed must be a Julian calendar date since the games were in Greece. Maybe a little knowledge was a dangerous thing.

Spencer Ervin Philadelphia, Pa.