To be honest I think that this is a fair comment Accordingly and as this is a much debated article I would like to propose this revised opening paragraph The terms Old Style or O S and New Style or N S are used in English language historical studies to indicate that the dating system used in the source material is one or other of the historic methods for determining the day on which the year starts In the Old Style dating the year began on 25 March whereas in the New Style it began on 1 January Death warrant of Charles I web page of the UK National Archives A demonstration of New Style meaning Julian calendar with a start of year adjustment Additionally more so in other parts of the world the terms are used to indicate the change from the historic calendar for example the Julian calendar in Europe and the Americas to the modern Gregorian calendar The October November Revolution Britannica encyclopaedia A demonstration of New Style meaning the Gregorian calendar Stockton J R Date Miscellany I The Old and New Styles The terms Old Style and New Style are now commonly used for both the Start of Year and Leap Year Gregorian calendar changes England Wales both in 1752 Scotland 1600 1752 I believe that properly and historically the Styles really refer only to the Start of Year change from March 25th to January 1 and that the Leap Year change should be described as the change from Julian to Gregorian Spathaky Mike Old Style New Style dates and the change to the Gregorian calendar increasingly parish registers in addition to a new year heading after 24th March showing for example 1733 had another heading at the end of the following December indicating 1733 4 This showed where the New Style 1734 started even though the Old Style 1733 continued until 24th March We as historians have no excuse for creating ambiguity and must keep to the notation described above in one of its forms It is no good writing simply 20th January 1745 for a reader is left wondering whether we have used the Old or the New Style reckoning The date should either be written 20th January 1745 O S if indeed it was Old Style or as 20th January 1745 6 The hyphen 1745 6 is best avoided as it can be interpreted as indicating a period of time References are unchanged from current version Comments