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The Gregorian calendar is the most widespread calendar in the world today, adopted by the European powers due to its accuracy and then spread to the rest of the world during the age of imperialism. It was primarily devised by the Italian astronomer Luigi Lilio before being promulgated by Pope Gregory XIII (whom the calendar is named after) on 24 February 1582. It was based on the earlier Julian calendar, which consisted of twelve months varying in length from 28 to 31 days for a combined total of 365 days per common year. Every fourth year according to the Julian calendar was a leap year without exception, which was slightly inaccurate and led to the calendar falling out of sync with the Earth's orbit around the Sun, losing one day every 129 years. The Gregorian calendar solved this problem by eliminating leap days on years which weren't divisible by 400.