dayinhistory

[dayinhistory]

January 10th: The United Nations Meet

Post World War 2, it became known that there needed to be some kind of security to keep those atrocities from happening again. Thus, on January 10th 1946, the First General Assembly of the United Nations was held in London.

But many do not know what the structure of the United Nations is and what in total the group does. Firstly, looking at the Charter of the United Nations from June 26th 1945, the first part reads:

”We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, and for these ends to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples, have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims.”

In plain language, They wanted to make sure everyone is safe, countries and their leaders are held accountable for their actions, and that information and socio-economic wealth is assured for all.

To keep things as fair as possible, there was a president of the assembly, 7 vice presidents, and then the committees. Today, with the growth from 51 Nations to 193, there are now 21 vice presidents. There are 6 committees in total, which has not changed over the years. The committees are:

First committee is in charge of disarmament and International Security

Second committee is in charge of economic and financial issues

Third committee is in charge of Social, humanitarian, and cultural issues

Fourth Committee is in charge of Special Political and Decolonization issues

Fifth Committee is in charge of Administrative and Budgetary issues

Sixth Committee is in charge of legal issues

The charter goes into depth about how disputes need to be met with intervention by the security council, how collective security will take place, and trying to keep the peace among the world. International armed forces do exist and were first used in 1948 to observe cease fires in Kashmir and Palestine.

Looking into this closer, they actually are the source of a lot of humanitarian aid, as well as the reason many things have stopped or started in the stance of making sure the world stays safe. If you’re curious about more of what the UN does, feel free to go to their website and have a look around.

Sources:

Mingst, Karen, and Cecelia M Lynch. “United Nations - Peacekeeping, Peacemaking, and Peace Building.” In Encyclopædia Britannica, December 20, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/topic/United-Nations/Peacekeeping-peacemaking-and-peace-building.

“United Nations: Charter of the United Nations.” The American Journal of International Law 39, no. 3 (1945): 190–229. https://doi.org/10.2307/2213923.

Un.org. “United Nations.” United Nations, 2023. https://www.un.org/en/.

Walter H. C. Laves, and Francis O. Wilcox. “The First Meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations.” The American Journal of International Law 40, no. 2 (1946): 346–73. https://doi.org/10.2307/2193195.

[dayinhistory]

January 9th: Manatee or Mermaid?

Christopher Columbus was sailing near what is today the Dominican Republic, and he saw something in the water. He believes them to be mermaids standing high out of the water; they had faces similar to humans, but were not so beautiful as they are usually depicted.

Well, Columbus, what you saw were manatees, so yeah of course they’re not going to be as beautiful as a mermaid is usually depicted.

Many listening to this podcast most likely know who Christopher Columbus was within the US history books. He’s played as the person who “discovered” the Americas for Europe. Really, he’s the start of a long and terrible reign of terror and the genocide of the Native people.

Within the letter written for the Spanish Treasurer, thus also the monarchs, Columbus tried to frame his supposed discovery as a win for the crown, as he had promised a return on investments if they had paid for him to try and find a different route to India. In his letter, he believed to have landed on islands somewhere to the east of India, and well obviously it’s not.

When kids go to school in the states, at least when I was a child, it was taught that Christopher Columbus was the beginning of a chain of events that brought the United States to fruition, and Columbus day is obviously a thing that was celebrated. In truth, he was a slave trader and a murderer. Before sailing for the Spanish, he sailed under the Portugese flag while engaged in the African slave trade a dozen years before his journey in 1492. Due to gold not being available in excess in his new location, he resummed the slave trade of the Natives. He can be held liable for the murder of Taino persons who failed to procure sufficient gold for himself and his monarchs as well in all honesty, as he’s the reason the “law of tribute” came into place.

In short, Columbus was and is simply a slave trader of the most brutal and sadistic kind.

So yes, it is absolutely okay to laugh at him for thinking manatees were mermaids.

Sources:

Paul, Heike. “Christopher Columbus and the Myth of ‘Discovery.’” In The Myths That Made America: An Introduction to American Studies, 43–88. Transcript Verlag, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wxsdq.5.

Tinker, Tink, and Mark Freeland. “Thief, Slave Trader, Murderer: Christopher Columbus and Caribbean Population Decline.” Wicazo Sa Review 23, no. 1 (2008): 25–50. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30131245.

www.originalsources.com. “Original Sources - the Journal of Columbus,” n.d. https://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=JQGWFCXQNLAH4N8.

[dayinhistory]

January 8th: Crazy Horse's Last Battle

Crazy Horse was an Oglala Lakota warrior, namely one of the tribes war chiefs, that fought valiantly against Colonel Custer and others in the fight to keep the land that belonged to them.

Crazy Horse was originally known as “Curly Hair” and “His Horse on Sight,” but eventually was given the name Crazy Horse from his father for his bravery in battle.

He is most known for his battle in 1876 with ally Sitting Bull against Colonel Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, or what many call “Custer’s Last Stand.” According to accounts of his movements in this battle, Crazy Horse was rushing north to gather warriors from various camps that stretched along the valley, then crossing the river to the north west of the battle field and swinging back east to stop any further northern movement by Custer before sweeping down to overwhelm the troops. Or this is what is believed to have happened. There are several different accounts of the battle that have at least a dozen different stories about where he came from, what he did, why he wasn’t there at the beginning of the battle, so on and so forth. No matter what though, he’s considered a vital force in trapping Custer and seen as the “tactician par excellence” for his foresight and planning that brought victory.

This battle lead to the American public to want revenge for him and his soldiers losing their lives in that battle. As a result, the US Army launched a winter campaign, led by General Nelson Miles, against the tribes remaining in the Northern Plains. On January 8th, 1877, Miles found Crazy Horse’s camp along the Montana’s Tongue River. He had his soliders open fire, driving the Native Americans from their tents out into a raging blizzard. Crazy Horse and his camp managed to regroup and return fire, but with most of their ammunition gone, they were in a bind. Managing to hold of the soldiers long enough for the women and children to escape, the group fled through the blizzard.

He realized that Miles and the well-equipped troops would eventually hunt him and his camp down to destroy them. Even though he was against the movement into reservations, he ended up deciding to lead a little over 1000 Natives to the Red Cloud reservation near Fort Robinson and surrendered, with the terms that the land allowed to them would be that of what was outlined by his Uncle in the past so it was to include the land that had the families graves. This battle in the blizzard was his last fight before he was eventually killed by soldiers later when he refused to enter a jail cell, according to the spoken history passed down by his family.

Sources

“Crazy Horse.” Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, January 1, 2018, 1; https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.wichita.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=funk&AN=cr238000&site=ehost-live.

Editors, History com. “Crazy Horse Fights Last Battle.” HISTORY, n.d. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/crazy-horse-fights-last-battle.

Michno, Gregory F. “Crazy Horse, Custer, and the Sweep to the North.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 43, no. 3 (1993): 42–53. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4519597.

The Edward Clown Family, and William B. Matson. 2016. Crazy Horse : The Lakota Warrior’s Life & Legacy. Vol. Digital edition 1.0. Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith. https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.wichita.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1335953&site=ehost-live.

[dayinhistory]

January 7th: Galileo and the Moons of Jupiter

Galileo Galilei first observed the moons of Jupiter on January 7th, 1610. Originally believing them to be three stars near Jupiter, he continued to observe them for the following week. The first night it showed the stars had moved the wrong way. On the 13th, a fourth one appeared. After a few more weeks, it was observed that the stars never left the vicinity of Jupiter and appeared to be carried along with the planet, changing their position with respect to each other and Jupiter. He then determined that the bodies were not stars, but were actually moons, similar to our own moon that he had been previously studying.

He continued on to publish his observations in Sidereus Nuncius in March 1610. “I should disclose and publish to the world the occasion of discovering and observing four Planets, never seen from the beginning of the world up to our own times, their positions, and the observations made during the last tow months about their movements and their changes of magnitude” he wrote.

Galileo originally called Jupiter’s moons the “Medicean planets” after the Medici family, as he wished to gain favor with the family so he could leave his professorship in Padua for a position at the court in Florence.

Galileo was a Copernican, meaning he supported the astronomical theories of Nicolaus Copernicus, who created the heliocentric model with the sun at the center of the solar system around 1543. He at first was rather timid about this fact, but after his discovery about the moons of Jupiter, he posed that the moons would be a good example to support the at the time theory.

The discoveries did not prove the Copernican cosmology, but “they provided a psychological framework for thinking about the cosmos in new terms.” With his discoveries and flattery of calling the Jovian moons the “Medicean planets,” it did indeed land him the coveted post at the court.

Sources:

Baalke, Ron. “Discovery of the Galilean Satellites.” www2.jpl.nasa.gov. Accessed January 7, 2024. https://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/ganymede/discovery.html#:~:text=Galileo%20first%20observed%20the%20moons.

Cox, Lauren. “Who Invented the Telescope?” Space.com, December 21, 2017. https://www.space.com/21950-who-invented-the-telescope.html.

GINGERICH, OWEN. “Galileo, the Impact of the Telescope, and the Birth of Modern Astronomy.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 155, no. 2 (2011): 134–41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23056830.

[dayinhistory]

January 6th: Joan of Arc is born

Joan of Arc in the modern world is used as many things; a heretic, a saint, a feminist icon. Many question whether the things that happened under her command were true, and if they even happened.

Joan was an illiterate fifteenth century peasant girl who at the age of seventeen, was the liberation of France from the English in the 1420s. She was eventually tried by the church as a heretic and then burned at the stake. That’s the basis of the story.

But that’s really not the whole thing. Over time, she’s been warped into an image of various kinds for use by varying ideologies. So we will start from the beginning.

Based on testimony that was recorded during her trial in 1431, Joan had little to no schooling. She primarily cared for sheep and cattle and if not that then was inside with various house duties. When she was 12, or as she put it in her 13th year, she started to hear voices. She claimed that the voice was sent from god, and for the time the voices pushed her to be a good child.

Then it got interesting. They moved on to go to Charles VII and lead his armies to victory. And shockingly so, she did. In the clothing thrown aside by a servant, she somehow convinced the governor of the area to give her a small guard and made the 11 day trip to the king. Somehow making it, she was able to tell through Charles disguise he had worn to try and trick her I guess, and then moved on with troops to Orleans to aid the group there. Apparently at the battle, she ripped an arrow out of her shoulder and continued in the fight to bring victory to France. After that, the path to the Cathedral of Rheims was….easy.

After a long campaign of successful battles, she did end up losing and was captured by the Burgundians, who sold her to the English. The King made no attempt to help her. The English, unsure of what to do with her, turned her over to a church court in hopes to have her burned as a witch. Which, they did do eventually after a long trial.

This is all amazing, but there are still many doubts and controversy among historians, theologians, and psychologists about her mission and frankly her history as well. Specifically around the number and dates of her visits to Caucouleurs, Chinon, and Poitiers, how she was able to win confidence of the dauphin at their first meeting, and several other aspects of her story.

It wasn’t until the 1920’s that she became a saint, and eventually a symbol for standing against tyrannical powers during and after World War 1.

Sources:

Frank, John P. “The Trial of Joan of Arc.” Litigation 23, no. 2 (1997): 51–69. http://www.jstor.org/stable/29759909.

Lanhers, Yvonne. “St. Joan of Arc - Character and Importance.” In Encyclopædia Britannica, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Joan-of-Arc/Character-and-importance.

Peters, Julie Stone. “Joan of Arc Internationale.” Proceedings of the Annual Meeting (American Society of International Law) 91 (1997): 120–26. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25659110.

Taylor, Larissa Juliet. “JOAN OF ARC, THE CHURCH, AND THE PAPACY, 1429-1920.” The Catholic Historical Review 98, no. 2 (2012): 217–40. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23240136.

Tiefenbrun, Susan. Review of Why the Medieval Trial of Joan of Arc Is of Particular Interest Today, by Daniel Hobbins. Journal of Law and Religion 21, no. 2 (2006): 469–73. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30040603.

[dayinhistory]

January 5th: Pope Clement VII Says No

Henry the VIII should be a name that most recognize, thanks to him being the reason that England split from the church and him having six wives. (Thank you Broadway musical SIX for being entertaining as well as a good look into history in a fun way.) But what event caused the split, or is at least attributed by many to cause the split? Well, Pope Clement VII specifically forbidding Henry from divorcing his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

From an American stand point, Henry is played out to be a horrible man who is more worried about getting an heir to the throne, and blaming his wives for not helping him with that, thus going out and trying to find a woman who will give birth to a “legitimate” heir. I’m going to say this first, I still don’t think he’s a good guy….he just doesn’t seem to be as terrible as the American education system plays him out to be based on the research I’ve done for this episode. I could be totally wrong though.

Anyway, the basic story goes that Henry was concerned by his failure to produce a legitimate heir, and wanted to find a way to end his marriage in a manner consistent with his faith. Doing so was extremely important for political reasons as if he had violated Catholic doctrine, he risked disgrace and condemnation by the pope. It’s actually been recorded that Henry was a fairly devout Catholic; he had believed his marriage was against the biblical injunction forbidding marriage with a brothers widow.

That didn’t exactly go as planned; Clement said no in a letter on January 5th, 1531. Though Clement most likely would have done so if it weren’t for the fact that Clement was scared of Charles V, current Holy Roman Emperor. How does Charles play into this? Well….Catherine was his aunt, and Charles had strong feelings of familial honor and barred any concession to Henry’s Wishes. Due to Charles role into the issue, and with Clement being former literal prisoner in 1527-28 of Charles, he never dared resist him in any form after.

Henry’s attempt to break his marriage legally were pretty much doomed from the start unfortunately. Which, as we all know, did not exactly stop him from continuing on. Though he did not want to due to the fact he knew it would lead to excommunication, and meaning supporting Martin Luther who he despised, he decided to send Catherine off and marry Anne Boleyn.

Though he was separated from the Catholic Church and the Church of England now took it’s place, Henry prided himself on his learnings and gave much time and thought into the new religious structure. With the exception of a pope in the system, he didn’t give up on many of the main tenets of which he grew up with.

Sources:

Michael de Ferdinandy. “Charles v | Biography, Reign, Abdication, & Facts.” In Encyclopædia Britannica, February 20, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-V-Holy-Roman-emperor. Morrill, John S, and Geoffrey R Elton. “Henry VIII | Biography, Wives, & Facts.” In Encyclopædia Britannica, August 17, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-VIII-king-of-England.

[dayinhistory]

January 4th: The Birth of Braille

Before the invention of braille, the way that many blind people who could afford an education read was via raised roman letter script made of lead or wood. If that was unavailable…well tough luck I guess. This is when the child which braille is named after, Louis Braille, comes into play.

Louis was born in 1809 near Paris, and was blinded at 3 years old. After receiving some education in the village school, he was admitted to the National Institute for the Young Blind in Paris at the age of 10. During that year, a French artillery officer, Charles Barbien de la Serre, brought forward a system of raised dots and dashes which he had invented to enable soldiers to communicate while on night operations. Louis, who worked on this system, produced a system of reading using six raised dots based in mathematical variation to express letters, punctuation, and mathematical signs.

Since it’s invention, the system has been revised to an extent, but has basically remained the same as when it was first introduced by 16 year old Louis. He even later added to the system a way to cover musical notation. Braille writers became a tool used commonly to enable blind people to communicate via the written word. Though this did not become something common while Louis was alive. He died in 1851, and it was not in general use until 9 years later.

Accourding the the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts in 1952, it wasn’t until 2 years later that his system was “officially appraised an approved as the best means invented of helping the blind to read and write.” As time went on, the new system made it’s way around the world, and by the time in 1952, several countries had taken the system and were using it to benefit society.

According to the British Medical Journal published in August of 1975, the Royal National Institute for the Blind in London prints 100,000 books, 395,000 newspapers, and 130,000 magazines a year in braille. This is a monumental change in the way of support for those who have low to no vision capabilities.

Personally, I believe the invention of braille was a wonderful thing, and I find it absolutely amazing that Louis came up with the main basis for it by the age of 16.

Sources:

Barlow, Vernon. “THE CENTENARY of LOUIS BRAILLE,” September 5, 1952.

“Braille Anniversary.” The British Medical Journal 3, no. 5979 (1975): 339–40. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20474018..

[dayinhistory]

January 3rd: The Path to Modern Japan

January 3rd of 1868, the Tokugawa shogunate met it’s final demise as Mutsuhito Meiji took the throne as the new Emperor of Japan in the imperial capital of Kyoto. Thus, what is now know as the Meiji Restoration began.

The start of the Meiji Restoration was not to say an easy one, as a brief civil war took place post Emperor Meiji taking control. The last shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, who was effectively no longer in power by late 1867, attempted to gain control again, but the attempt ultimately lead to his surrender to imperial forces in June of 1869. For the most part, the coup d’état within the capital city doesn’t seem to be heavily discussed; many sources brush over the fact that it was a coup or referred to it as a “relatively tranquil coup” in the case of an article by James Huffman, a history professor at Wittenberg University.

There are several theories behind what sparked the want, bordering need, to change Japan’s structure from the feudal system that had taken hold for the past 700 odd years. One of the most common one is the interaction and threat of western powers prowling the waters around them. According Yasuzo Horie in the Kyoto University Economic Review, the “advanced capitalistic countries, which had already been revolutionized democratically,” had a large effect on the change in the country as the progress towards a currency lead economy was ineffectual and laid conditions for a democratic revolution. He continues to say that, even though others disagree with him, that the Meiji Restoration was bound to have elements of a democratic revolution for this reason.

That being said, there were several reforms that were brought on within the period that do have democratic tones to them, and don’t seem to line up with the standard imperial ideas most hold. The goals of the new government were heavily expressed in the Charter Oath in April of 1868; these included the introduction of a western parliamentary constitution.

One of the first things that happened was the movement of the capital from Kyoto to Edo, which was renamed to Tokyo. By 1871, the domains were officially abolished and replaced by a prefecture system, all feudal class privileges were abolished, and a national army was formed. There continued to be monetary and tax system reforms, as well as education. The First Ministry of Education was established in 1871 to develop a national system, which led to Gakusei, or Education System Order, in 1872. By 1885, a cabinet system was formed, and 1886 the work on the constitution began. In 1889, the Meiji Constitution was officially announced as a gift from the emperor to the people.

Political reform wasn’t the only thing that took place. The economy still did depend primarily agriculture during the time, but the industrialization of the nation was a large goal of the government. The first railroad was build ing 1872 and by 1890 more than 2250 KM of rail lines were laid. All Major cities were linked by telegraph lines by 1880. There was a large push of Western Science, Technology, and even clothing and architecture.

Without the Meiji Restoration, would we have what is now modern day Japan? Who knows; I’m looking forward to learning more about this era in the future.

Sources:

Britannica. “Meiji Restoration.” In Encyclopædia Britannica, September 27, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/event/Meiji-Restoration. Horie, Yasuzo. “The Economic Significance of the Meiji Restoration.” Kyoto University Economic Review 12, no. 2 (December 1937): 63–81. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43217295. Society, Japan. “The Meiji Restoration Era, 1868-1889.” Japan Society, June 11, 2021. https://japansociety.org/news/the-meiji-restoration-era-1868-1889/. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Charter Oath | Japanese History | Britannica.” In Encyclopædia Britannica, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/event/Charter-Oath.

[dayinhistory]

January 2nd: Maria Callas Walks off Stage

Standing on the stage in front of the President of Italy and most of Rome’s high society, Maria Callas walks off of stage after the first act of Bellini’s Norma. The crowd, waiting for her to come back, eventually booed and chastised her for not returning during the second act. The management ended the night by telling some 3,000 patrons that the opening show would be moved to that next Saturday and the show that night would not go on. Callas would later tell reporters that she was pressured to go on that night and had thought that she should not, but did anyway.

Now, an Opera Singer walking off stage during a performance, even one as big as this, may not seem like a major thing in history; but the singer is attributed with being the reason for the resurgence of 19th Century Operatic works during her time. She was very popular during the 50’s and 50’s and 60’s, and quite frankly still now as many opera fans still adore her. She also appeals to many aspects of the entertainment world, specifically with Angelina Jolie’s portrayal and “responsibility to Maria’s life and legacy” within a forthcoming biopic.

Her walking off after act one hit newspapers in the states the next day, The New York Times reporting several different articles about the reception of her leaving the show after the first act. According to an article written by Paul Hofmann for the paper, hundreds of protestors had gathered in front of Callas hotel and “policemen swinging truncheons charged the crowd repeatedly before order was restored.” Hofmann also reported that supposedly the singer had scene a doctor that night and had taken some quinine, which is an anti-malarial medication.

With the travel of performing all over the world, it would make sense that Callas was possibly exposed to an area that may have malaria carrying mosquitos. But it she was still ill during rehearsals and before the performance, why would she let herself go on and take the role?

This supposedly wasn’t the first time that she had caused some form of major drama though that the media felt the need to report on what seems to be regularly. There were reports of her breaking contracts with opera companies, an article specifically on Jan 28th 1958, not even a month after her debacle in Rome, reports that she was reprimanded for a breaking of contract that the American Guild of Musical Artists ruled was not completely justified.

Upon some more digging, there was an article from the New York Times on November 4th, 1956, that she been performing and finished the performance “despite a slight throat ailment,” on a performance of Norma at the Met. I find it odd myself that there is two reports of her being sick during the same role.

I could most likely go on for some time about the turbulent life of hers simply based on the database of New York Times articles I’ve located during her active career. There are a few lawsuits listed, some contracts ending, apparently Londoners being furious with here, and so much more.

References:

“CALLAS REPRIMANDED: Musical Artists Guild Scores Her on Breaking Pact,” January 28, 1958.

Hofmann, Paul. “Rome Crowds Denounce Callas; Physicians Say Her Voice Failed: Rome,” January 3, 1958.

“MARIA CALLAS AILING: Singer Continues in Role of Norma at ‘Met,’” November 4, 1956.

[dayinhistory]

January 1st: Julius Caesar did not Ruin the Calendar

Imagine you live in 1582 under the reign of the Pope. You go to bed on Thursday October 4th, and when you awaken, it is now Friday October 15th. This is what happened with the reform of the Julian Calendar into the Gregorian Calendar that is used today.

There are several myths that circulate around the history of our current calendar, an almost completely Roman invention.

The most famous myth is that the romans originally used a 10-month calendar, but Julius and Augustus Caesar wanted months named after them so they added July and August, thus messing up the order.

Firstly, Julius Ceasar actually fixed an incredibly broken and bureaucratic system of the time. Secondly, the year used to begin in march, thus the September, October, November and December months not lining up with the corresponding numbers was just a side effect of fixing the calendar.

Lets start first with how the original calendar came to be, before the Julian Calendar.

Originally, the Roman calendar was based on an older lunar calendar. The first day of each month, or “Kalends,” took place on the new moons, the “Nones” with waxing half moons, and the “Ides” to full moons. The Dates were written as a countdown to each of these. The calendar year was 10 moons long, and the remaining days of winter occurred without being assigned a month name.

After that, came the Calendar of Romulus, which was a solar calendar. The year was approximately 304 days long. Instead of relying on the moon phases, the Kalends, Nones, and Ides were placed on the 1st, 7th, and 15th of each month. This calendar also did not include the winter months, which made the length of the year a confusing and troublesome thing to figure out.

Next, came the calendar of Numa, which then threw in Ianuarius, Februarius, and Intercalaris, as well as changed the length of the months that already existed. This year came out to 355 days, and still stayed out of sync with the seasons. Though unlike today’s calendar, the months corresponding with January and February were at the end of the year, rather than at the beginning.

After the implementation of the calendar of Numa, there were “The years of confusion.” They were called this as state priests would regularly extend the year, as they could to originally keep the months in line with the seasons. Instead of keeping the months inline with the seasons however, they would regularly extend the months to keep a magistrate they wanted in power in place, or shorten the months to get rid of one they wanted gone.

Julius wished to changed this and fix the issue, thus the calendar reform became a topic. Julius Ceasar didn’t come up with the idea himself though. He had spent 48-46 BC in Egypt, and was very aware of their fixed-length calendar. He studied the information with his crew back in Rome, and they devised a plan.

Moving January and February to the begining of the year, making a leap year every 4th year, and arranging the lengths of the months differently, the Julian calendar was born.

Originally, the months went

Martius

Aprilis

Maius

Lunius

Quintilis

Sextilis

Octobris

Septembris

Novembris

Decembris

Ianuarius

Februarius

Intercalaris

Under the new calendar, the months changed in order and a few in name. Quintilis was renamed in 44BC to honor Julius because it was the month of his birth. Sextilis was renamed Augustus to honor Caesar Augustus because of several of the most significant events in his rise to power. The ending outcome of the months came to be:

Ianuarius

Februarius

Martius

Aprilis

Maius

Iunius

Iulius

Augustus

September

October

November

December

Why was the Julian Calendar reformed to become today’s Gregorian Calendar though? Well……you’ll find out on October 15th haha.

Reference List

Coolman, Robert. “Keeping Time: Months and the Modern Calendar.” LiveScience, May 16, 2014. https://www.livescience.com/45650-calendar-history.html.

Gilmour, Peter. 2001. “Odds & Ends.” U.S. Catholic 66 (10): 6. https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.wichita.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=5247638&site=ehost-live.