Evening star., 1936-02-16
February 10, 1896

thirty-o one and thirty days each, except for
February Ordinarily February would have
twenty-nine days. This would make, then,
just 365 days in the year
Since in this scheme of reckoning the year
would be short one-quarter day, in four years
it would be one whole day behind. To correct
this he would add an extra day to February,
making it have thirty days every fourth year.
In juggling the odd and even months, he gave
the seventh month thirty-one days and named
it after himself - Julius We translate this
into the English July"
Affairs of the calendar went along very
satisfactorily until Augustus took the throne.
He decided to change the Latin name of the
eighth month, which had been Sextilis to
his own name. Augustus And he purloined
day off February i'll order that Augustus
august should have thirty-one days, the
same as Julius July.
Thus February was shorn of two DAYS.
Hence it since has been condemned to twenty
eight days except on leap year.
While the twelve-month calendar con-
structed under julius Caesar was the best yet,
it subsequently developed that the Julian
leap year was bit too long to even things up.
BY the middle of the sixteenth century spring
came on March IL instead of March 81.
Pope Gregory XIII took it upon himself to
remedy matters; so in the year 1882 he de-
creed ten days should be dropped from the
calendar - October S of that year was de-
creed to be October Is. He also declared that
leap year should be forgotten once each four
hundred years That is why 1900 was not
leap year. but 1000 will be one.
This Gregorian calendar does not make
things quite right. but the error is so small
that it will not accumulate to as much as a
day in three thousand years.
While the Catholic countries generally
adopted Pope Gregorys improvement. Prot
estant Europe did not agree to it until the
beginning of the eighteenth century. Great
Britain and North America did not make
the change until 1852
The last country to adopt the new style
was Greece, which went modern in 1928
That very same year. committee was ap-
pointed by the League of Nations to con-
slider the reform of our present calendar and
the fixing of Easter. The committee con-
sidered and compared 1875 plans. In 1881 the
League held another calendar conference.
From this international discussion the plan
for perpetual calendar of twelve months
divided into equal quarters emerged as one
offering the greatest promise for early adop-
ton. This calendar would give us a year of
1854 days, divided into equal quarters of
ninety one days each, and an extra day at the
end of the year to be called Year End Day."
On this equal-quarters plan every three
months would be alike The first month
would have thirty one days and the remaining
two months of each quarter thirty days The
first of each quarter would start on Sunday.
The Fourth of July would always fall on Mon
day. School programs and academic schedules
would be more constant. Corporations making
financial reports would find income and earn
ings for each quarter based on the same num-
Der of working days.
This equal-quarters plan is sometimes
called the World Calendar 1t is not likely
to be adopted until all the principal nations
agree upon it, but this may happen sooner,
perhaps. than you think. The League of Ma
tons stands ready to call another calendar
conference whenever two or three govern
ments request it. Mexico has already gone on
record. What country will act next9
right. 1885, United Newspapers Magazine Corporation