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CONTENTS
January February March April May June July August September October November December
How did diff erent cu ltures aroun d the world come up with way s to organ ize d ays i nto months and years ? The most comm on approach es were a lu nar c alendar , based on the app roximately 30- day cycle of the mo on, and a s olar ca lendar t hat use s one cy cle of Eart hs rotat ion aroun d the su na litt le bit more than 365 day s. A global calendar The vast m ajority of coun tries ar ound the world now us e the sa me sola r ca lendar i n every day l ife. T his c alenda r is cal led t he Gregorian calen dar . However , many religious and trad itional festival s are worked out usi ng a lunar c alendar , which is why celebrat ions such as Diwal i, E aste r, Ramadan, and Ro sh Hashanah do not fa ll o n the sam e days each year . The cal endar we use today had its origins in ancient R ome. I n 46 bce , Julius Caesa r orde red the creation of a more accur ate calenda r that refle cted th e solar ye ar . This n ew calendar , which came into effe ct on Ja nuary 1, bce , was mad e up of 365 da ys, with an e xtra day added every fourt h year (0 .25 days for each y ear) . The Ju lian calendar becam e widely used thr oughout the Roman Empire, which stretched across Europ e and in to Nort h Africa , an d part s of Asi a. This A ztec Sun stone serve d an unknown p urpose, but shows the symbo ls for the mont hs as well as o ther period s of tim e in the Mesoam erican c alendar . Julius Caes ar added a mon th named af ter himse lf to the Julian calenda r, the month we know toda y as J uly.
INTRODUCTI ON
Gregory s ref orm s By the 1 6t h centur y , the di ffe rence be twe en an actua l sola r yea r an d the Ju lian cale ndar had drif ted by ab out 1 days. This h appened becau se the l engt h of a ye ar i s not ex actly 365.25 days it s c loser to 365.2 4 d ays. The Ro man Ca tholic p ope, G regory XIII , introdu ced the Gr egorian calen dar in Among other adjust ments, t en day s were c ut from the c alendar to brin g the da te ba ck in to line w ith a sola r yea r. So in 1 2, t he day aft er Thursd ay, Octobe r 4, wa s Fr iday, Octobe r 15 . Over th e next couple of cent uries, most nations usi ng the Julia n ca lendar c onvert ed to the Gr egorian system, though Ru ssia a nd Greece d idnt switch until the 20t h centur y . The dif fe rence be twe en the d ates of the J ulian and Gre gorian c alendar s mean s that a day may hav e had o ne date in one country , and a date ten or more days later i n an other . For the purpose s of thi s book, we hav e given the dat es that were being used in the re levant c ountry at the t ime whet her that was the J ulian or Gregorian calen dar . Forg otten histo ries Keeping track of diff erent c alendar s can be an iss ue, bu t is not the onl y problem facing a day-by-d ay hi story . T r aditional ly, hist ory has been writt en by those in power , so the sto ries of people from mar ginalize d group s are not well doc umented. However , in re cent ye ars, there has been an enthu siastic i nteres t in reclaim ing t hese los t his tories, bringin g the stories o f women, Black people, and o ther groups t o a wide r aud ience. W e ha ve in cluded as many of these sto ries in thi s book as we can . Februar y was not originall y a leap day the Jul ian ca lendar added the e xtra da y afte r Fe bruary . Black His tory Month highlights the stories of Black p eople throughout hi story , such as civil r ights activist Soj ourner T ru th. Ada Lovel ace Day was set up in 200 9 to celebrate the achieve ments of this comp uting pionee r, and all wome n in ST EM (Sc ience, T ec hnology , Engineerin g, and Mat hematics) caree rs.
January Julian calendar In an cient Ro me, a ne w cal endar nam ed aft er ruler Julius Caesa r ca me in to use. In th is ca lendar , the lengt h of a yea r beca me the numb er of da ys we k now today 365, increa sing t o 366 ev ery fourt h year . BCE Also on this d ay 1801 Itali an astr onomer Giuseppe P ia zzi spott ed the dwa rf planet Ce res the big gest object ever disc overed i n the as teroid be lt. 1863 US president A braha m Lincoln issued the Emanci pation Proclamat ion dur ing the US Civil W ar, freeing millio ns of ensla ved pe ople. 1892 Ellis Isl and Im migrat ion Stati on in New Y or k Harbor start ed proces sing Europe an immigran ts. The fi rst was Irish teenager Ann ie Moore . The Euro With the ne w Euro currency e ntering c irculation , 12 coun tries in the Eur opean Unio n (EU) replaced their national currencies with Euro ba nknotes and coin s. 2002 Cuban Revo lution Nearly six yea rs of civil war betwe en the Cu ban government and comm unist rebels came to an end. Re volutionar y le ader Fidel Ca stro ove rth rew pre sident Fulg encio Bat ista, who fled t o the Domi nican Re public at dawn. C astro s eized power and rema ined in ch arge of Cuba for 49 y ears until 1959 Born this day 1894 Satyen dra Nath Bose , mathematician and physicist from Britis h-occ upied India. German-bo rn US physi cist Alb ert Einstein was a friend of Bose, a nd built on Boses theories i n some of h is own work .
