Washington Birthday the 11th or 22nd?
George Washington's birthday is the 11th of February, Old Style (OS) calendar and is the 22nd of February on the New Style calendar.
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GW was 20 years old while coming through Winchester VA on the way to do his surveys, when the Calendar lost 11 days.
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1752 was a big year for Winchester VA.
April 20, 1752, The House of Burgesses, made the town name of Winchester official.
September 14, 1752
in Winchester VA and the worldwide British Empire had an Unusual Yesterday.
That Yesterday date?
September 2, 1752.
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This Calendar change was passed in 1750 by an Act of Parliament in London for the whole Empire.
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As a side note, the Virginia House of Burgesses was not in session either in 1750 when that act was passed, nor was it in session when that Act went into effect in 1752
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1752 Poor Richard’s Almanack:
Ben Franklin explains the loss of 11 days out of September 1752.
Kind Reader,
Since the King and Parliament have thought fit to alter our Year, by taking eleven Days out of September, 1752, and directing us to begin our Account for the future on the First of January, some Account of the Changes the Year hath heretofore undergone, and the Reasons of them, may a little gratify thy Curiosity.
Hence as the Tropical Year is 365 Days, 5 Hours, 49 Minutes; the Civil Year is 365 Days. And hence also, as it is necessary to keep Pace with the Heavens, it is required that every fourth Year consist of 366 Days, which would for ever keep the Year exactly right, if the odd Hours of each Year were precisely.
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Source:
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Most almanacs were sold locally, but the “improved” Poor Richard for 1748 was the first to be issued in three versions tailored to New England, the Middle Colonies, and the South.
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This copy is the Southern version, with information on courts in Virginia and the Carolinas — see source http://www.librarycompany.org/BFWriter/poor.htm
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We adopted the Gregorian Calendar
This was brought to you by the
Gregorian Calendar: Named for Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced the fix of advancing the calendar 10 days in October 1582.
England took a long time before it adopted the Gregorian Calendar.
England and Wales passed the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 changing from the Julian to Gregorian calendar over a two year period in two steps.
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The term Julian date causes confusion, especially since we use the Gregorian Calendar.
“Julian Date” in common parlance refers to the day-of-year number on our calendars..
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The Gregorian Calendar has an error of about one day per 3,030 years.
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The Julian Calendar has an error of 1 day in 128 years.
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Table found in this link:
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We’re NOT DONE Yet
But two different years
for the birth year?
George Washington’s BIRTHDAY is February 11, 1731, OLD STYLE.
His birth year in OLD STYLE is 1731
because the new year before 1751 was March 25.
NEW STYLE ?
George Washington’s birthday is February 22, 1732.
A 16 year old George Washington wrote this date:
– Fryday the 11th. of March 1747/8. Confusing?
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That’s because the new year
started on March 25 in England.
Other nations switched to January 1
long before England did.
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[Picture from Emerson’s Magazine and Putnam’s Monthly, 1857. vol.5. page 561]
Dates showing Double Year
The months of January, February, and part of March before 1752 would cause confusion on what year it was.
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To avoid confusion colonial records used both official and common year.
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A typical example is “5 Feb 1750/51”
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After March 25 you would not see the double year date.
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From link
In England, January 1 was celebrated as the New Year festival, but from the 12th century to 1752 the year in England began on March 25 (Lady Day).
So, for example, the Parliamentary record notes the execution of Charles I as occurring on January 30, 1648, (as the year did not end until March 24), although modern histories adjust the start of the year to January 1 and record the execution as occurring in 1649.
The official beginning of the year changed to January 1 in 1752.
And all of this is because why?
The motions of the universe keep changing just a little bit.
The Atomic Clock
Everyone who grew up with short wave radio has run into this sound.
The Atomic Clock will add one more second.
LEAP SECOND ADDED
As midnight approaches, the official atomic clocks that keep Universal Coordinated Time will mark the time as 23h 59m 59s, followed by the leap second 23h 59m 60s.
Jan 1. 2017 will continue as usual, beginning with 0h 0m 0s.
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