Adoption of the Gregorian calendar for secular use occurred in Eastern Orthodox countries as late as the 20th century and some religious groups in some of these countries still use the "old style" (O.S.) Julian calendar for ecclesiastical purposes. The Kingdom of Bulgaria changed from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar during the First World War on 31 March 1916, where the next day was 14 April 1916. The Ottoman Empire's Rumi calendar, used for fiscal purposes, was realigned from a Julian to a Gregorian starting on 16 February/ 1 March 1917. The beginning of the year was reset to 1 January starting in 1918.
Adoption of the Gregorian calendar this system is still in use in Taiwan where the ROC government retains control. Upon its foundation in 1949, the People's Republic of China continued to use the Gregorian calendar with numbered months, but abolished the ROC Era System and adopted Western numbered years. Japan, Korea, and China started using the Gregorian calendar on 1 January 1873, 1896, and 1912, respectively. They had used lunisolar calendars previously. None of them used the Julian calendar; the Old Style and New Style dates in these countries usually mean the older lunisolar dates and the newer Gregorian calendar dates respectively. In these countries,