Pope Gregory’s Calendar Reform [Deep Dive] - February 24th, 2026

[00:00] Jonah Klein: From Neural Newscast, this is Deep Dive, exploring the moments that shape today. [00:09] Benjamin Roth: Welcome to Deep Dive. I am Benjamin Roth. [00:14] Benjamin Roth: And I'm Jonah Klein. [00:16] Benjamin Roth: Today is February 24th, 2026. [00:19] Benjamin Roth: And we are diving into a date that fundamentally shifted the way we track time itself. [00:24] Benjamin Roth: That's exactly right. [00:26] Benjamin Roth: If we go all the way back to 1582, Pope Gregory XIII made a move that still dictates our schedules every morning. [00:36] Benjamin Roth: He announced the Gregorian calendar to replace the aging Julian system. [00:42] Benjamin Roth: It was essentially a massive correction for a drift that had been happening for centuries. [00:48] Benjamin Roth: It is wild to think about the world being out of sync for hundreds of years. [00:54] Benjamin Roth: How large was the actual error, Benjamin? [00:56] Benjamin Roth: The Julian calendar was overestimating the solar year by about 11 minutes. [01:02] Benjamin Roth: It sounds like a rounding error, but over 1,500 years, those minutes stacked up to 10 full days. [01:09] Benjamin Roth: The seasons were physically moving away from their dates. [01:12] Benjamin Roth: States. [01:13] Benjamin Roth: Easter was drifting further from the spring equinox, which was the main concern for the [01:18] Benjamin Roth: church at the time. [01:19] Benjamin Roth: Remarkable. [01:20] Benjamin Roth: So the Pope just stepped in and updated the global operating system. [01:24] Benjamin Roth: I read that when they finally implemented it, people went to sleep on October 4th and [01:28] Benjamin Roth: woke up on October 15th. [01:30] Benjamin Roth: They just deleted 10 days of history to get the math right. [01:34] Benjamin Roth: Precisely. [01:35] Benjamin Roth: It took centuries for some countries to adopt it, but today it is the universal standard. [01:41] Benjamin Roth: It shows how much we rely on these invisible, shared structures to keep society functioning. [01:47] Benjamin Roth: And speaking of people who updated the world's operating system, we have to talk about a major birthday today. [01:54] Benjamin Roth: Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955. [01:58] Benjamin Roth: The man who put a computer in every pocket. [02:02] Benjamin Roth: It is hard to overstate his impact, Jonah. [02:04] Benjamin Roth: He didn't just sell electronics. [02:06] Benjamin Roth: He championed a specific philosophy of design [02:09] Benjamin Roth: that prioritized the human experience [02:12] Benjamin Roth: above the raw specs of the hardware. [02:14] Benjamin Roth: Right, and that influence extends so far beyond just the iPhone. [02:19] Benjamin Roth: Think about Pixar and how he helped revolutionize digital animation. [02:23] Benjamin Roth: He had this unique ability to see where technology was going before anyone else felt the need for it. [02:29] Benjamin Roth: He made the future feel like a foregone conclusion. [02:33] Benjamin Roth: He really did treat technology as an art form. [02:36] Benjamin Roth: But Jobs isn't the only one born today who changed how we look at the world. [02:40] Benjamin Roth: Today is also the birthday of philosopher Judith Butler, born in 1956. [02:45] Benjamin Roth: If jobs changed our tools, Butler changed how we understand ourselves. [02:51] Benjamin Roth: Absolutely. Butler's work on gender performativity really shook the foundations of social theory. [02:58] Benjamin Roth: The core idea is that gender isn't something we are, but something we do through repeated actions and behaviors. [03:06] Benjamin Roth: It shifted the conversation from internal essence to external performance. [03:12] Benjamin Roth: That concept has filtered down so deeply into our modern culture, Benjamin. [03:17] Benjamin Roth: Even if people haven't read the academic papers, the way we talk about identity on social media and in pop culture today is heavily influenced by those theories of self-construction. [03:28] Benjamin Roth: It is a very rigorous look at how societal structures shape the individual. [03:33] Benjamin Roth: Now, shifting from the realm of theory to the realm of physical dominance, we have to mention [03:39] Benjamin Roth: Floyd Mayweather Jr., also born on this day in 1977. [03:44] Benjamin Roth: The undefeated champ, 50 and 0. [03:47] Benjamin Roth: Whether people liked his persona or not, the discipline is undeniable. [03:52] Benjamin Roth: To win titles in five different week classes and never lose a professional bout, that is [03:58] Benjamin Roth: a level of mastery that is nearly extinct in modern sports. [04:01] Benjamin Roth: Exactly. It is a different kind of perfectionism. [04:06] Benjamin Roth: Mayweather in the ring, jobs in the design studio, and Butler in the world of philosophy. [04:12] Benjamin Roth: It is an incredibly high-achieving trio for a single calendar day. [04:17] Benjamin Roth: It really is. But we have to move from those heights of achievement to a much more somber moment in history. [04:24] Benjamin Roth: On this day in 1989, a tragedy occurred over the Pacific that ended up changing aviation safety forever. [04:32] Benjamin Roth: You're talking about United Airlines Flight 811? [04:36] Benjamin Roth: It was a Boeing 747 heading out of Honolulu when a cargo door failed. [04:42] Benjamin Roth: The resulting explosive decompression tore a massive hole in the side of the fuselage. [04:47] Benjamin Roth: It is a terrifying story. [04:50] Benjamin Roth: Nine passengers were lost when they were ejected from the aircraft. [04:54] Benjamin Roth: The pilots managed a heroic landing, but the investigation afterward revealed something chilling. [05:00] Benjamin Roth: The locking mechanism on the cargo door was fundamentally flawed and had actually shown signs of failure before. [05:07] Benjamin Roth: That's the grim reality of engineering, Jonah. [05:10] Benjamin Roth: Safety often comes from the lessons learned in disaster. [05:13] Benjamin Roth: Because of Flight 811, cargo doors across the industry were redesigned with mechanical overrides. [05:21] Benjamin Roth: Those nine lives ended up forcing a global change that has likely saved thousands since. [05:27] Benjamin Roth: It brings us back to that theme of structural shifts. [05:31] Benjamin Roth: Whether it is the calendars we use, the phones in our pockets, or the safety latches on a plane, [05:37] Benjamin Roth: February 24th is a day about refining the systems that keep our world running. [05:42] Benjamin Roth: Well said. [05:43] Benjamin Roth: Well said. [05:43] Benjamin Roth: It has been a pleasure exploring these milestones with you. [05:47] Benjamin Roth: For more historical insights, you can visit deepdive.neuralnewscast.com. [05:53] Benjamin Roth: I'm Benjamin Roth. [05:54] Benjamin Roth: And I'm Jonah Klein. [05:56] Benjamin Roth: Deep Dive is AI-assisted, human-reviewed. [05:59] Benjamin Roth: Explore history every day on Neural Newscast. [06:02] Jonah Klein: This has been Deep Dive on Neural Newscast. [06:05] Jonah Klein: Exploring the moments that shape today. [06:07] Jonah Klein: Neural Newscast uses artificial intelligence in content creation, with human editorial review prior to publication. [06:14] Jonah Klein: While we strive for factual, unbiased reporting, AI-assisted content may occasionally contain errors. [06:21] Jonah Klein: Verify critical information with trusted sources. [06:24] Jonah Klein: Learn more at neuralnewscast.com.