Brass was a British period situation comedytelevision show written by John Stevenson and Julian Roach, starring Timothy West and Caroline Blakiston, about the relationships between a rich family and a poor family in north-west England during the 1930s. Brass was aired from 1983 to 1984 and revived in 1990. Research Brass (TV)
A calendar (named from the Latin calendarium, from calendce, the first day of the month), is a record or marking out of time as systematically divided into years, months, weeks, and days.
The periodical occurrence of certain natural phenomena gave rise to the first division of time, the division into weeks being the only purely arbitrary partition. The year of the ancient Egyptians was based on the changes of the seasons alone, without reference to the lunar month, and contained 365 days divided into twelve months of thirty days each, with five supplementary days at the end of the year.
The Jewish year consisted of lunar months of which they reckoned twelve in the year, intercalating a thirteenth when necessary to maintain the correspondence of the particular months with the regular recurrence of the seasons.
The Greeks in the earliest period also reckoned by lunar and intercalary months, but after one or two changes adopted the plan of Meton and Euctemon, who took account of the fact that in a period of nineteen years, the new moons return upon the same days of the year as before. This period of nineteen years was found, however, to be about six hours too long, and subsequent calculators still failed to make the beginning of the seasons return on the same fixed day of the year. Each month was divided into three decads.
The Romans at first divided the year into ten months, but they early adopted the Greek method of lunar and intercalary months, making the lunar year consist of 354, and afterwards of 355 days, leaving ten or eleven days and a fraction to be supplied by the intercalary division. This arrangement continued until the time of Julius Caesar. The first day of the month was called the calends. In March, May, July, and October the 15th, in other months the 13th, was called the ides. The ninth day before the ides (reckoning inclusive) was called the nones, being therefore either the 7th or the 5th of the month. From the inaccuracy of the Roman method of reckoning the calendar came to represent the vernalequinox nearly two months after the event, and at the request of Julius Caesar, the Greek astronomer Sosigenes with the assistance of Marcus Fabius, contrived the so-called Julian calendar. The chief improvement consisted in restoring the equinox to its proper place by inserting two months between November and December, so that the year 707 (46 BC), called the year of confusion, contained fourteen months.
In the number of days the Greek computation was adopted, which made it 365.25. To dispose of the quarter of a day it was determined to intercalate a day every fourth year between the 23rd and 24th of February. This calendar continued in use among the Romans until the fall of the empire, and throughout Christendom until 1582.
By this time, owing to the cumulative error of eleven minutes, the vernalequinox really took place ten days earlier than its date in the calendar, and accordingly PopeGregory XIII issued a brief abolishing the Julian calendar in all Catholic countries, and introducing in its stead the one now in use, the Gregorian or reformed calendar. In this way began the new style, as opposed to the other or old style. Ten days were to be dropped; every hundredth year, which by the old style was to have been a leap year, was now to be a common year, the fourth excepted; and the length of the solar year was taken to be 365 days, five hours, forty-nine minutes, and twelve seconds, the difference between which and subsequent observations is immaterial. The new calendar was adopted in Spain, Portugal, and France in 1582; in Catholic Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands in 1583; in Poland in 1586; in Hungary in 1587; in ProtestantGermany, Holland, and Denmark in 1700; in Switzerland in 1701; in England in 1752; and in Sweden, 1753.
In the English calendar of 1752, also, the 1st of January was now adopted as the beginning of the legal year, and it was customary for some time to give two dates for the period intervening between 1st January and 25th March, that of the old and that of the new year, as January 1752/3. Russia alone retained the old style, which by 1906 differed twelve days from the new.
In France, during the revolution, a new calendar was introduced by a decree of the rational Convention, on November the 24th, 1793. The time from which the new reckoning was to commence was the autumnal equinox of 1792, which fell upon the 22nd of September, when the first decree of the new republic had been promulgated. The year was made to consist of twelve months of three decades each, and, to complete the full number, five fete days, or sansculotides (in leap years six) were added to the end of the year. The seasons and months were as follows: Autumn; 22nd September to 22nd December Vendimiaire, vintage month; Brumaire, foggy month; Frimaire, sleet month. Winter; 22nd December to 22nd March: Nivose, snowy month; Plumose, rainy month; Ventose, windy month. Spring; 22nd March to 22nd June: Germinal, budmonth; Floreal, flowermonth; Prairial, meadowmonth. Summer; 22nd June to 22nd Sept.: Messidor, harvest month; Thermidor, hot month; Fructidor, fruit month. The common Christian or Gregorian calendar was re-established in France on the 1st of January, 1806, by Napoleon. Research Calendar
Cycle is a term used for every uniformly-returning succession of the same events. On such successions or cycles of years rests all chronology, particularly the calendar. Our common solar year, determined by the periodical return of the sun to the same point in the ecliptic, everybody knows contains fifty-two weeks and one day, and leap-year a day more. Consequently in different years the same day of the year cannot fall upon the same day of the week. And as every fourth year is a leap-year, it will take twenty-eight years (4x7) before the days return to their former order according to the Julian calendar. Such a period is called a solar cycle. The cycle of the moon, or golden number, or Metonic cycle, is a period of nineteen years after which the new and full moons return on the same days of the month. Research Cycle
An epoch, or era, is a fixed point of time, commonly selected on account of some remarkable event by which it has been distinguished, and which is made the beginning or determining point of a particular year from which all other years, whether preceding or ensuing, are computed. In the Christian countries, the creation and the birth of Christ are the most important of the historical epochs. The creation has formed the foundation of various chronologies, the chief of which are: 1. The epoch adopted by Bossuet, Ussher, and other Catholic and Protestant divines, which places the creation in 4004 BC. 2. The Era of Constantinople (adopted by Russia), which places it in 5508 BC. 3. The Era of Antioch, used until 284 AD, placed the creation 5502 BC. 4. The Era of Aexandria, which made the creation 5492 BC. This is also the Abyssinian Era. 5. The Jewish Era, which places the creation in 3760 BC.
The Greeks computed their time by periods of four years, called Olympiads, from the occurrence every fourth year of the Olympic games. The first Olympiad, being the year in which Coroebus was victor in the Olympic games, was in the year 776 BC.
The Romans dated from the supposed era of the foundation of their city (Ab Urbe Condita, A.U.C.), the 21st of April, in the third year of the sixth Olympiad, or 753 BC (according to some authorities 752 BC).
The Christian Era, or mode of computing from the birth of Christ as a starting-point, was first introduced in the 6th century, and was generally adopted by the year 1000. This event is believed to have taken place earlier, perhaps by four years, than the received date.
The Julian epoch, based on the coincidence of the solar, lunar, and indictional periods, is fixed at 4713 BC, and is the only epoch established on an astronomical basis.
The Mohammedan Era, or Hejira, commences on the 16th of July, 622, and the years are computed by lunar months.
The Chinese traditionally reckoned their time by cycles of 60 years. Instead of numbering them as we do, they traditionally gave a different name to every year in the cycle. Research Epoch
The Wildlife Trusts partnership is a royal society for nature conservation, comprising a network of 47 independent British wildlife charities and more than 100 urban wildlife groups, patroned by the Prince of Wales, which cares for more than 2400 nature reserves, covering an area of 76200 hectares in the British Isles ranging from remote islands off the Scottish coast to restored industrial sites in the heart of London. The Wildlife Trusts' President is Professor David Bellamy, and Vice Presidents are Sir David Attenborough, Professor Chris Baines (who is also President of the Urban Wildlife Partnership), Sir John Burnett, Professor GL Lucas, Professor David MacDonald, Julian Pettifer, Sir James Swaffield, Professor Robert Worcester and Dame Miriam Rothschild. Research Wildlife Trusts
The Alemanni were a confederacy of several German tribes which, at the commencement of the third century lived near the Roman territory, and came then and subsequently into conflict with the imperial troops. Caracallci first fought with them in 213, but did not conquer them; Severus was likewise unsuccessful. About 250 they began to cross the Rhine westwards, and in 255 they overran Gaul along with the Franks. In 259 a body of them was defeated in Italy at Milan, and in the following year they were driven out of Gaul by Postumus. But the Alemanni did not desist from their incursions, notwithstanding the numerous defeats they suffered at the hands of the Roman troops. In the fourth century they crossed the Rhine and ravaged Gaul, but were severely defeated by the Emperor Julian and driven back. Subsequently they occupied a considerable territory on both sides of the Rhine; but at last Clovis broke their power in 496 and deprived them of a large portion of their possessions. Part of their territory was latterly formed into a duchy called Alemannia or Swabia, this name being derived from Suevi or Swabians, the name which they gave themselves. It is from the Alemanni that the French have derived their names for Germans and Germany in general, namely, Allemands and Allemagne, though strictly speaking only the modern Swabians and northern Swiss are the proper descendants of that ancient race. Research Alemanni
Caesar was a title, originally a surname of the Julian family at Rome, which, after being dignified in the person of the dictator Caius Julius Caesar, was adopted by the successive Roman emperors, and latterly came to be applied to the heir-presumptive to the throne. The title was perpetuated in the Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire, and in the Czar of the Russian emperors. Research Caesar
Flavius Eutropius was a Roman historian. He lived around the 4th century and was also secretary to the emperor Julian. His abridgment of the history of Rome (Breviarium Historias Romanae) is written in a perspicuous style. Research Eutropius
In Roman history, a gens was a clan or stock embracing several families united together by a common name and certain religious rites; as, the Fabian gens, all having Pabius as part of their personal name; the Julian gens, all named Julius; the Cornelian gens, etc. Research Gens
Gregory XIII (Ugo Buoncompagno) was a pope. He was born in 1502 at Bologna and died in 1585. he was created a cardinal in 1565 and chosen successor of Pius V in the popedom in 1572. He permitted the Cardinal of Lorraine to make a public thanksgiving for the massacre of St Bartholomew, encouraged plots against Queen Elizabeth I, and incited Philip II to attack her. His foreign policy cost him a lot of money for subsidies to excite enemies to the Turks and heretics, and his financial expedients to fill his exchequer ruined the trade and disturbed the peace of his own dominions. He did much to encourage education, his expenditure for this purpose exceeding two million Roman crowns, out of which many colleges at Rome were endowed. He reformed the Juliancalendar. Research Gregory XIII
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Abbreviations
Research Brass (TV)
