Re: Date Trivia Question

In article <36954d7d.109434177_at_news.erols.com>,   cathexis_at_erols.com wrote:
> Greetings ng,
> The date datatype is supposed to be valid from 1/1/4712 B.C.
> until 12/31/4712 A.D. Does antbody know why this particular range was
> chosen? Just curious.
>
> Cathexis_at_erols.com
>

That starting day is the starting day for the Julian calendar. A friend sent the follow to me, I don't know the source, looks like an encyclopedia entry.

Julian Date

The number of days since noon on January 1, -4712, i.e., January 1, 4713 BC (Seidelmann 1992). It was proposed by J. J. Scaliger in 1583, so the name for this system derived from Julius Scaliger, not Julius Caesar. Scaliger defined Day One was as a day when three calendrical cycles converged. The first cycle was the 28 year period over which the Julian calendar repeats days of the week (the so-called Solar Number). After 28 years, all the dates fall on the same days of the week, so one need only buy 28 calendars. (Note that since the Gregorian calendar was adopted the calendar now takes 400 years to repeat.) The second was the 19 year Golden Number cycle over which phases of the moon almost land on the same dates of the year. The third cycle was the 15 year ancient Roman tax cycle (the so-called Indiction). Scaliger picked January 1, 4712 BC on the Julian Calendar as Day One. The three cycles coincide every 7980 years (Tøndering).

Howard Parks
1 Peter 4:10

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