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Archiver > TMG > 2000-03 > 0951957064


From: "Hugh Wilding" <>
Subject: Re: TMG-L: verifying a date 1665/66 or 1666/67
Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 00:31:04 -0000


OK so I know that I'm going to sound an old pedant but...

>From the many messages on this thread, there is still confusion about
Julian/Gregorian and New Style/Old Style. The first relates to the
calendar: the second to the start of the year. The two are not synonymous
although there is overlap because the year is a component of the calendar
and because both these dating issues were addressed in Britain at the same
time i.e. in 1752, the calendar in use was changed from Julian to Gregorian
and the official start of the year was changed from 25 March (Old Style) to
1 January (New Style). Other countries which changed from Julian to
Gregorian did not necessarily need to change the start of the year e.g.
Scotland (by 1752 a part of Great Britain) also changed in that year from
the Julian to Gregorian Calendar but did not need to change from Old Style
to New Style year starts because 1 January had been the *official* New
Year's Day in Scotland since 1600.

With all due respect to the Royal Historical Society, I do think Mike
Spathky's article "Old Style and New Style dates and the change to the
Gregorian Calendar" is the better authority - read it at
<http://www.genfair.com/dates.htm>;. If Norb Bankert was sitting down in
England or one of its North American colonies on that Saturday, he would
write the date as 19 January 1666/7 (Julian plus OS/NS). If Norb was
sitting in Edinburgh, then the date would be 19 January 1667 (pure Julian).
If he was sitting in Paris, it would be 29 January 1667 (pure Gregorian).

Hugh Wilding
Berkshire, England
<>

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