Arizona weekly citizen., 1892-07-23
THE CORRECT COLUMBUS DAY,

The recent action Of congress chang ing the date for the national pubic school ce' 'ebrauon from October l2th to October Dist Is s step in the direction of scholarly accuracy. and itls remarkable that it should have been so long over looked.
 If there is to ha a national observance of the 400sh anniversary of the d scov- cry of America It should take place on the date which marks the true century point. It Is obviously stupid to wait the recurrence Of date which by req son of arbitrary changes in the methods of reckoning time has lost Its siguif- canoe and does not indicate the true cycle ofyears.
 Every American knows that Colum- bus discovered America on October l2, 1892, and at first thought October 12, 1892, would seem to mark the Tooth an niversary of that event. But it will be remembered that time was then calcu- lated upou a different basis than is now in vogue.
 For many centuries the Julian calen- dar was the accepted authority for ell calculations, although the inaccuracy was unknown. In 1882 reformation took place. The Gregorian calendar was then introduced in Europe. and this cal endar is now csed by all civilized na- tions, with the exception of Russia. which still adheers 10 the Julian method of computing time. When this refor- mstion occurred 1t was found necessary to drop ten days from the calendar and October 1, 15S2, became October l5, 1882. These dropped days were the ac- cumulatiOns of many centuries of reck- oning. The Julian calendar assumed that year contained 365 IT days and as this was II minutes and fl seconds too long, the errCr amounted to 3 days every 400 years. GTegorian calendar correctei this defect by making every centurial year a common year unless divisible by 400, whereas by the Julian calendar every year (centurisl year in- cluded) divisible by was leap year. Thus by the new style of computation the years 150O, I7O0 and 1900 were not leap years.
 As previously stated the reformation took place m 1852, and ten days were suppressed. But as the discovery of America was pre-ious to the year 1900, which by the Gregorign calendar WAS common, there are but nine days to omit. Consequently on October 2I, 1892, the sun will occupy ihe same re- lative position to toe earth as on the 12th of October, 1492, when for the first time Columbus beheld these shoes.
 For tie reason. together with the fact that every preee ient is in favor of adopt ing the "new style of reckoning, we favor the charge.
 The GregOrian calendar was not intro duced into Great Britain unul I751, lg- Dorance and prejudice defeating the change up to that tune. Consequently IL has been peees 7aIy to correct the dates Of our American anniversaries which com mmemOrate events previous to 175L Washington was born February 11th, but by the ''new style" his birth day falls on the 22nd, and that is the day we celebrate. The anniversary of Forefsther's Day, of the founding of the city Of Boston are both observed oD the corrected date. It is fortunate that the Act of Congress of April 9. 1890, naming October 12tb, 1892, as the date for the dedication of the Worlds Fair grounds has been amended by a change of date to October 2lst. The fair will practically be a year late, and the dedicatory exercises will take place on the true anniversary, which is October 21st. Congress has already shown its good sense by placing the po- pular and general celebration of which the public schools are to be the centers on the correct date.