Path: news1.teleport.com!nntp.teleport.com!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!nntp2.giganews.com!news4.giganews.com.POSTED!greg From: greg@apple2.com Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: The starting langwage of the century Organization: II Infinitum References: <386BBA5D.DFD55912@acronet.net> <946721536.7519.1.nnrp-09.9e98250c@news.demon.co.uk> User-Agent: MT-NewsWatcher/3.0 (PPC) X-Face: &@UA7$)=n9C7!qu%-5s},3tR@NEy+B>8PW"^,8?A>%."0{J2c1Yr]NKw';5/( J\r@/{UADjCdE~iRnOEOfbre(/1Y=$TS3Wt7B`a4sz, Lines: 46 NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2000 02:03:43 CST X-Trace: sv2-YEGlJ8eDnbem1Xuo8RTXudmXNzF6NNXV7Yd7s9THZxUNf/fUs6a/Mo7oh1Enu7SPAUsP19qrbIbZDjL!c734iRhWSIJVrAb4gWuxU5RG/Q== X-Complaints-To: abuse@GigaNews.Com X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2000 02:03:45 -0600 Xref: news1.teleport.com alt.folklore.computers:233624 In article , hnsngr@sirius.com (Ron Hunsinger) wrote: >greg@apple2.com wrote: >> There's clearly some convenience of setting AD 1 where it is, >> including establishing it to be during the period where there were >> no leap years to correct the calendar for the extra days introduced >> when leap years were every 3 years rather than every 4. > Julius Ceasar did a hack job on the year BC 46 to undo the damage > done to the calendar by previous pontifices. The first year to follow > his new rules was BC 45, which he made the first leap year. Leap > years were: > > BC 45, 42, 39, 36, 33, 30, 27, 24, 21, 18, 15, 12, 9, > and then a gap until > AD 8, 12, 16, ... > > The correction from every three years to every four didn't happen > until after BC 9, by which time there had been 3 leap years too many. > To compensate, the three years BC 5, BC 1, and AD 4 were made regular > years instead of leap years. Thanks to emporer Augustus, who became the namesake for the month we now call August for this correction (the month formerly named Sextilus). It is interesting to note that if, on a Unix system, you type "cal 2 4" to get a calendar for February, AD 4, you get a month with 29 days and not 28. This is because experts disagree over over what years the gap of no leap years fell (as I said before), though IMO mainly so that AD 4 would be considered a leap year, and consequentially 9 BC not. (There is also dispute whether 45 BC was a leap year.)[1] This dispute affects what day of the week the 1st day of the 1st month of the 1st year AD fell upon: a Saturday or a Sunday. (Remember this the next time someone asks a trivia question on the topic.) [1] For reference, I cite this section of the Calendar FAQ: -- -- --- -- -- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------ -- -- --- --- (Not associated with Quake Clan Deimos, War Machine of Mars)