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N0KFQ > TODAY 01.01.16 17:12l 54 Lines 2323 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 80431_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Jan 1
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<N9PMO<NS2B<N0KFQ
Sent: 160101/1505Z 80431@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
45 B.C.
New Year's Day
In 45 B.C., New Year's Day is celebrated on January 1 for the
first time in history as the Julian calendar takes effect.
Soon after becoming Roman dictator, Julius Caesar decided that
the traditional Roman calendar was in dire need of reform.
Introduced around the seventh century B.C., the Roman calendar
attempted to follow the lunar cycle but frequently fell out of
phase with the seasons and had to be corrected. In addition, the
pontifices, the Roman body charged with overseeing the calendar,
often abused its authority by adding days to extend political
terms or interfere with elections.
In designing his new calendar, Caesar enlisted the aid of
Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, who advised him to do away
with the lunar cycle entirely and follow the solar year, as did
the Egyptians. The year was calculated to be 365 and 1/4 days,
and Caesar added 67 days to 45 B.C., making 46 B.C. begin on
January 1, rather than in March. He also decreed that every four
years a day be added to February, thus theoretically keeping his
calendar from falling out of step. Shortly before his
assassination in 44 B.C., he changed the name of the month
Quintilis to Julius (July) after himself. Later, the month of
Sextilis was renamed Augustus (August) after his successor.
Celebration of New Year's Day in January fell out of practice
during the Middle Ages, and even those who strictly adhered to
the Julian calendar did not observe the New Year exactly on
January 1. The reason for the latter was that Caesar and
Sosigenes failed to calculate the correct value for the solar
year as 365.242199 days, not 365.25 days. Thus, an
11-minute-a-year error added seven days by the year 1000, and 10
days by the mid-15th century.
The Roman church became aware of this problem, and in the 1570s
Pope Gregory XIII commissioned Jesuit astronomer Christopher
Clavius to come up with a new calendar. In 1582, the Gregorian
calendar was implemented, omitting 10 days for that year and
establishing the new rule that only one of every four centennial
years should be a leap year. Since then, people around the world
have gathered en masse on January 1 to celebrate the precise
arrival of the New Year.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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