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 started to make the change from the Julian calendar and towards the Gregorian calendar in 1700, but it was decided to make the (then 11-day) adjustment gradually by excluding the leap days (29 February) from each of 11 successive leap years, 1700 to 1740. Meanwhile, the Swedish calendar would be out of step with both the Julian calendar and the Gregorian calendar for 40 years; also, the difference would not be constant but would change every four years. This system had potential for confusion when working out the dates of Swedish events in this 40-year period. To add to the