Reforms that impacted our present-day calendar
As discussed in previous texts here on OSR, February has always served as a convenient place for calendar reformers to correct their mistakes and make other tweaks throughout human history.
- In the times of ancient Rome, the calendar had only ten months. Six lasted 30 days each, and four lasted 31 days.
- The year started in March and ended at the end of December. After December, there was a period that simply did not count, i.e. the days were not counted until the arrival of better days and the beginning of March.
It is no wonder that such a calendar underwent a new reform!
- It happened in 45 BC when the calendar began to be made according to the movement of the Sun (solar calendar). First, some days had to be added to align the calendar with natural phenomena. Of course, new days were inserted in February.
- Since the year according to this calendar is shorter than the real year by some 1/4 days, it was decided that every fourth year would be a leap year. The leap day is, of course, added to February.
At that time, many months underwent certain changes, so February also became longer by one day and had 29 days (30 leap years). Since the reform of the calendar was initiated by Julius Caesar, the calendar got its name: Julian calendar.
- A little later, in 44 BC. The Senate decided that the month of Quintilis, in honor of Caesar, should be named Julius (July), and in the 8th year, Sextilis changed its name to Augustus (August), after Caesar’s adopted son and successor, Octavian Augustus.
- A small problem was that the month of August only had 30 days, and July had 31. The whole thing was decided by taking one day from February and adding it to August.
Such a situation has remained until today. Or maybe until some new reform comes along.
While we are on the subject, throughout the course of history in February, these are some events and dates worth mentioning:
- In 1917 (February 23 according to the old calendar, otherwise March 8 according to the new calendar) the February Revolution broke out in Russia, in which the monarchy was overthrown, and the Provisional Government was established. This revolution was just a prelude to the famous October Revolution, after which everything changed.
- 1943 – On February 2, one of the biggest battles of the Second World War, the famous Battle of Stalingrad, ended. The battle began on July 23, 1942, and was fought on an area of 100,000 square km and more than 2 million soldiers with 20,000 guns and mortars, about 2,000 tanks and about 2,000 planes participated in it. In the Battle of Stalingrad, the forces of the Soviet Union managed to defend Stalingrad (now Volgograd) from the German offensive and then inflict the first major defeat on Hitler’s forces in the entire war.
- 1971 – On February 5th of that year, Apollo 14 landed in the Fra Mauro crater area on the Moon with the third manned crew ever to visit our satellite. The members of the mission spent 33 hours and 31 minutes on the surface of the Moon. They picked up 42.9 kg of lunar soil samples, headed home on February 6 and landed on Earth three days later on February 9, 1971.
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