This is one of those 'myths' that has been circulating around since about 1860 or so. The answer is a flat NO!!

The original version of this story dates from the 1800's when an un-named astronomer was quoted as having discovered a missing 23hour 20 minute time period during some 'calculation'. With the advent of computers, this story was upgraded in the 1960's to a 'NASA Computer Scientist' doing an ephemeris of the planets in the solar system. The basic idea is completely preposterous because, as the Urban Legends web site points out so well, you cannot uncover a interfering event with a mathematical model based on things behaving the same way back then as they do right now vis a vis celestial mechanics. If the information is not built-in to the equations at the start of the calculation, an unexpected interfering event cannot be uncovered by such a procedure.

There are many other 'urban legends' out there including the one that Carl Sagan ever said 'billions and billions' during his Cosmos series. We tend to believe things that sound plausible, and since virtually no one except scientists understand astronomy, in a country where the average person does not understand why we have seasons, it is easy to see how farfetched ideas can take root so easily!!