The calendar : the 5000-year struggle to align the clock and the heavens - and what happened to the missing ten days

When Mao Zedong declared on 1 October 1949 that China would follow the Gregorian calendar, the entire world agreed what the date was for the very first time. Charting developments in science, religion, superstition and politics across the ages from Ancient Egypt to the flowering of Indian and Islamic civilisations and beyond, this is the first complete history of the attempts to reconcile the heavens with the clock, and of the universal establishment of the calendar. The crucible for the development of astronomy and mathematics, the calendar has always been the measure of how the world is understood and evaluated, and an object of fascination for the greatest scholars. It has existed as long as time itself, but the story of its reckoning is a tale of human will, vanity, experimentation and endeavour: mankind’s history of time. ‘A captivating account of the history of man’s attempt to compute time.’ Independent ‘This fine book will prove to all readers that the establishment of a consistent and useful calendar is one of humanity’s greatest achievements and the embodiment of our cultural history and progress.’ Stephen Jay Gould ‘Deserves to be read by a wide audience.’ The Times History,Science The 5,000-year struggle to align the heavens with the clock and what happened to the missing ten days. Measuring the daily and yearly cycle of the cosmos has never been entirely straightforward.The year 2000 is alternatively the year 2544 (Buddhist), 6236 (Ancient Egyptian), 5761 (Jewish) or simply the year of the Dragon (Chinese). The story of the creation of the Western calendar is a story of emperors and popes, mathematicians and monks, and the growth of scientific calculation to the point where, bizarrely, our measurement of time by atomic pulses is now more acurate than Time itself: the Earth is an elderly lady and slightly eccentric - she loses half a second a century. Days have been invented (Julius Caesar needed an extra 80 days in 46BC), lost (Pope Gregory XIII ditched ten days in 1582) and moved (because Julius Caesar had thirty-one in his month, Augustus determined that he should have the same, so he pinched one from February). The Calendar links politics and religion, astronomy and mathematics, Cleopatra and Stephen Hawking. And it is published as millions of computer users wonder what will happen when, after 31 December 1999, their dates run out... "Measuring the daily and yearly cycle of the cosmos has never been entirely straightforward. The year 2000 is alternatively the year 2544 (Buddhist), 6236 (Ancient Egyptian), 5761 (Jewish) or simply the Year of the Dragon (Chinese). The story of the creation of the Western calendar, which is related in this book, is a story of emperors and popes, mathematicians and monks, and the growth of scientific calculation to the point where, bizarrely, our measurement of time by atomic pulses is now more accurate than time itself: the Earth is an elderly lady and slightly eccentric - she loses half a second a century. Days have been invented (Julius Caesar needed an extra 80 days in 46BC), lost (Pope Gregory XIII ditched ten days in 1582) and moved (because Julius Caesar had 31 in his month, Augustus determined that he should have the same, so he pinched one from February). Published with the world under threat from chaos arising from the expiry of computer dates after 31st December 1999, this study links politics and religion, astronomy and mathematics, and Cleopatra and Stephen Hawking."--Publisher Seven centuries ago a sickly English friar dispatched a strident mis to Rome.