October!

Lovely Paphos sunset!

Hello Everyone 

It’s October 1st. I can’t believe it either! Where did 2021 go? What have we achieved? 

October! An interesting month, particularly the origin. 'Octo' meaning 8, it was originally the eighth month of the year with November (Nov)  nine and December (Dec) ten. In 46 BC, Roman times, the New Year started in March. Julius Caesar, as Emperor of Rome, reorganised the calendar and made it start in January. He kept the old names apart from the seventh month which he named July after himself. The calendar became known as the Julian calendar. When Augustus was Emperor, he felt that he was as important as Julius and named August after himself.

Later, on 4th October 1582 Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian calendar. He realised that the Julian calendar worked on the theory that a year lasted for 365 days and 6 hours, thus  Julius Caesar had introduced a leap year every four years. In reality, a year was only 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 46 seconds. As a result of this miscalculation, the world was more than a week out of place, so to correct it, in 1582 the day after October 4th was October 15th! Well, you have heard the saying, 'every second counts'!

Some other events in October throughout the years:

1853  The Crimean War began.

1889  The Moulin Rouge opened in Paris.

1536  William Tyndale, the man who wrote the English Bible, was executed.

1769  Captain Cook discovered New Zealand.

1085  St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice was consecrated.

1899  The Boer War began.

1915  Edith Cavell was executed by a firing squad.

1492  Columbus saw his first land in discovering the New World; he called it San Salvador.

1822  Brazil gained independence from Portugal.

1775  The US navy was founded.

1792  President Washington lay the foundation cornerstone of the White House.

1793  Marie Antoinette was executed.

1707  The First Parliament of Great Britain.

You can't say my blogs are not informative or educational!

Happy October!

Have a great week,  Lady M