Calendars or adjustment art
- Aberdeenshire (Scotland) 8,000 years ago. Humans built a megalithic monument composed of 12 stones that gathered the positions of the moon throughout the year. So this kind of lunar calendar is the oldest known calendar.
5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia they also used the lunar calendar, which divided the year into 12 cycles, but the Babylonians and Sumerians realized that it did not match the solar year, and every four years, they added a long month to sort of fix the gap.
The first solar calendar was invented by the Egyptians about 3,000 years ago. Egyptian astronomers and mathematicians calculated that the year was 365 days, and so at 12 months of 30 days they were added 5 days to complete the solar year. In addition to the ocean, the Mayans knew that the solar year lasts 365 days, and about 2,000 years ago they drew up very precise calendars, such as those they used in the Roman Republic.
a.C. Until the seventh century, they used a 10-month and 304 day schedule in Rome. Then, a further two months were added and the 355 days began to be used. When Julius Caesar travelled to Egypt, he saw that there they were using a much more precise timetable and, based on it, and adding visas for the first time, he established a more precise timetable that would be used in the West for 15 centuries.
But the Julian calendar had accumulated 10 days of lag by 1582. That is why Pope Gregory XIII commissioned and implemented a more detailed timetable. The physician and astronomer Luigi Lilio elaborated the new calendar and suggested gradually increasing the accumulated gap; instead of adding a single day in each biennium, if we add two, in 40 years the problem was already solved. But by then the pope was already dead and Gregory wanted immediate results. He decided to eat 10 days in a bite; the day after October 4, 1582 was October 15. Thus, the pope obtained at least one confession, known as the Gregorian calendar. But it also caused other problems.
Many European citizens and local authorities did not enthusiastically accept the Pontificia’s decision, as they believed they were being robbed of their time. Consequently, in some countries the new timetable was immediately implemented, but others did not update it until the twentieth century. This caused a series of vicissitudes in historical dates during the years and centuries after. For example, the writers Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare share the official date of death (23 April 1616), although they did not die the same day, and according to the Gregorian calendar of November of the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917.
And it also failed to definitively solve the problem of the mismatch, because the Gregorian year is 26 seconds longer than the astronomical year. This means that in 3323 years the one-day lag is accumulating. Astronomers have planned a far-off solution to correct this small margin: The year 4000 will not be bisiest and the year 8000 will not.
Paris, 1845. Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) ekonomialari eta politikari lapurtarrak Pétition des fabricants de chandelles (Kandelagileen eskaera) satira idatzi zuen. Protekzionismoaren aurkari sutsua, kandelagileek "bere argia salneurri baxuegitan... [+]
Aurtengo neguan INRAPeko (Ikerketa Arkeologiko Prebentiboen Institutu Nazionala) arkeologoek nekropoli berezia aurkitu dute Auxerreko (Frantziako Estatua) erdigune historikoan: haur jaioberrientzako edo hilda jaiotako haurrentzako erromatar garaiko hilerria. K.o. I. eta... [+]
Viena, 1824ko maiatzaren 7a. Ludwig Van Beethovenen (1770-1827) 9. Sinfonia estreinatu zen. Konpositore alemaniarrak bukatu zuen azken sinfonia izan zen, baina, asmoari erreparatuta, lehena izan zela ere esan liteke. Beethovenek 1799 eta 1800 urteetan idatzi zuen 1. sinfonia;... [+]
Born 27 June 1944. The German soldiers carried out a raid on a small town of about 80 inhabitants of Zuberoa. Eight people died on the spot and nineteen were arrested, all civilians, nine of whom would be deported and only two would survive from the concentration camps in which... [+]
In the fall of 1415 the battle of Agrincourt erupted between England and France, one of the most decisive wars of the Hundred Years War. To this end, when Henry V, king of England and lord of Ireland, decided to send his army to France that summer, the soldiers landed on the... [+]
Normandy. 6 June 1944. They started operation Overlord: Thousands of British, American and Canadian soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy to drastically change the course of the Second World War and, therefore, history. Or at least that's what we've been told a few days ago,... [+]
It was founded by R about 6,500 years ago. And recently, the archaeologist at the German Institute of Archaeology, Max Haibt, has created the city's "digital twin," using the technology used in video games.
The team has made a three-dimensional record of the 40 square kilometres... [+]
Mallorca, 1968. The historian Joana María Escartin was born. In 1989 he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and died on 30 May in his hometown, at the age of 56, coinciding with the international day of multiple sclerosis.
He studied at the UIB (Universitat de les Illes... [+]
Two years ago, the Catalan archaeologist Edgard Camarós, two human skulls and Cancer? He found a motif card inside a cardboard box at Cambridge University. Skulls were coming from Giga, from Egypt, and he recently published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, his team has... [+]
Elba basin, 1417. Due to the drought, the level of the river dropped considerably and someone marked the level of the water in a stone, carving a sign: “If you see this stone again, you will cry. The water was at this level in 1417.”
The following sign is 1616: “If you... [+]
Marfa, 1954. At Blackwell Elementary School in this Texas desert village, children were forced to participate in a peculiar ceremony. The teachers distributed pieces of paper to them and asked them to write: “I will not speak Spanish, neither at school nor at rest.” They put... [+]
A few weeks ago Sony launched the video game Rise of the Remaknin, in which experts highlighted the historical position of the game. The game is located in Japan in the middle of the 19th century, near Yokohama, Edo and Kyoto.
Or it was the last years of the era, the bloody... [+]
Egypt, a.C. 1303. Pharaoh Seti I received in a sign the military campaigns carried out in the area of Gaza and Syria. This inscription first referred to the people of Robihwa. The Egyptians called it, while the Assyrians called it Rafihu, the Greeks and the Romans Raphia and the... [+]
Members of the James Cook University and the Research Council of Australia have discovered ceramic fragments from 2,000-3,000 years ago on the island of Jiigurru in northwestern Australia. These are the oldest ceramic remains discovered so far in Australia. The geological study... [+]
Rome, a.C. 443. Censors were elected for the first time. Two centuries later it would be the most important magistrature of the Republic. Every five years, they chose two censors among consular senators.
It was a position of great responsibility: they were primarily responsible... [+]