Daily AncestorDay of the week calculator
Enter any date and get the weekday it fell on, which helps you date records that say "died Sabbath last" or "married on Thursday" and check whether a written date can be right.
Old newspapers, diaries, and church books often name the day of the week instead of the date: "died on Sabbath last," "buried Tuesday," "married Thursday evening." To turn those into calendar dates, or to check that a date and a weekday agree, you need to know which day of the week a given date fell on.
This calculator gives the weekday for any date on the modern Gregorian calendar. For colonial dates written before September 1752, convert the date first, as explained below.
How to use it
- Enter the day, month, and year.
- Read the day of the week.
- For a British colonial date before September 14, 1752, run the Julian to Gregorian converter first and enter the New Style date here.
- When a record gives only a weekday, try the dates in the week before the record was written until the weekday matches.
Worked examples
April 14, 1865
April 14, 1865 was a Friday.
The evening President Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre. A family letter that mentions "the dreadful news of Friday night" fits this date.
February 22, 1732 (Washington's birth, New Style)
February 22, 1732 was a Friday.
This is the converted date. It is the right one to use for the weekday.
February 11, 1732 (Washington's Old Style day and month, not converted)
February 11, 1732 was a Monday.
Wrong for this purpose. The calculator reads every date as Gregorian, so an Old Style date gives a weekday 11 days out of step. Convert first.
September 14, 1752
September 14, 1752 was a Thursday.
The first New Style day in the British colonies. The day before, by the old calendar, was Wednesday, September 2.
Using weekdays to date a record
A notice dated Monday, May 7, that says a man "died on Sabbath last" points to Sunday, May 6, or possibly the Sunday before, depending on how the writer counted. Run a few candidate dates through the calculator and pick the one that matches the weekday. Then check the result against a burial register or a death certificate if one exists.
Weekdays are also a quick test of a transcription. If an abstract says a wedding took place on Sunday, December 3, and the calculator says December 3 that year was a Wednesday, one of the two is wrong. Misread digits are the usual cause, and the weekday can tell you which date the writer meant.
Old words for days
In most Christian records the Sabbath or the Lord's Day means Sunday; in Jewish records the Sabbath is Saturday. Quakers avoided the pagan names of days and months and used numbers instead, so First Day is Sunday and Seventh Day is Saturday. Newspapers also used "inst." for this month and "ult." for last month, so "the 3d ult." in a June paper means May 3.
Dates before 1752
The calculator uses the Gregorian calendar for every year, even years before it was used. That is correct for dates written in the New Style, but British colonial records before September 1752 used the Julian calendar, which was 11 days behind by then (10 days before March 1700). Enter an Old Style date as written and the weekday will be off.
The fix is simple: convert the Old Style date to New Style with the Julian to Gregorian converter, then enter the converted date here. Watch the year too, because dates from January 1 to March 24 belonged to the previous year under the old reckoning.
Questions people ask
What day of the week was I born on?
Enter your birth date in the calculator above. It works for any date on the modern calendar.
What does "died Sabbath last" mean in an old newspaper?
Usually the most recent Sunday before the paper's date, though some writers meant the Sunday a week earlier. Use the calculator to find the candidate Sundays, then check them against a burial or church record.
Why is the weekday wrong for a colonial date?
Before September 1752 the British colonies used the Julian calendar. Convert the date to New Style first, then look up the weekday.
What day of the week was July 4, 1776?
A Thursday. The colonies were on the Gregorian calendar by then, so no conversion is needed.
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Day of the week calculator." Tools. https://dailyancestor.com/tools/day-of-week-calculator. Last checked 2026-10-15.