A Brief History of the Calendar

by David Harper, Ph.D., F.R.A.S.

A Brief History of the Calendar was originally written at the request of Kernow Plusfile Ltd., a publisher of diaries and personal organisers, based near Cambridge, England. It appears in their range of diaries for the year 2000.

A version of this history is also available in PDF format (185kb).

Please feel free to contact the author if you have a question or comment.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Squaring the Circle
  3. Ancient Egypt
  4. Rome and the Julian Calendar
  5. The Week
  6. In the Year of Our Lord
  7. On the Third Day
  8. Gregorian Reform
  9. Old Style, New Style
  10. The Age of Reason
  11. The Crescent Moon
  12. The Hebrew Calendar
  13. The World Calendar
  14. Towards the New Millennium
  15. 2000? or 2001?
  16. Epilogue
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