Steel takes you across the full span of recorded history, behind the seismic shifts within politics, religion, and science, and examines the ways in which people and events forged the calendar that we have today. As if the controversy surrounding the question of when the new millennium officially began wasn't lively enough, Steel asserts that all the celebrations have been 4 to 5 years late anyhow-all because a monk in Rome, Dionysius Exiguus, misunderstood Jesus' birth date.
Steel reveals a number of such gaffes throughout history that have affected the Gregorian calendar.
In telling this story, he shows how politicians and the clergy frequently altered the dating of events to suit their beliefs and purposes. In fact, Julius Cesar gets credit for the lengths of the months, as we know them today. An astronomer by trade, Steel points out the date-related conundrums in his field and applies his expertise to reconsider some elements of the calendar. Originally published in hardcover in 2000.