India, Sept. 2 -- Nearly 300 years ago, on this day, Britain and its colonies experienced a bizarre loss of time when they skipped 11 days overnight. The country, along with its colonies, including India, went to sleep on September 2 and woke up on September 14 in the year 1752.

How did this happen? Did a whole bloc of nations go into a deep slumber for 11 days? Well, no, that would be very spooky.

As bizarre as it sounds, the reason behind the loss of 11 days was deceptively ordinary. Britain jumped 11 days ahead due to a change in the system of calculating days, weeks and months in a year.

In 1752, Britain decided to implement the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 and switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, which is followed ...