[Info-vax] Why is starting epoch 17 Nov 1858?

[Phillip Helbig undress to reply]

In article <s2d7va$1g5b$1 at gioia.aioe.org>, Tom Wade
<nospam at void.blackhole.mx> writes: 

> > If it were up to me, I would have used whatever date the Gregorian 
> > calendar first went into effect somewhere, so that earlier dates, in 
> > fact all valid Gregorian calendar dates, could be represented. But, of 
> > course, it wasn't up to me.
> > 
> > (somewhere = some Catholic country/ies, probably Italy. The Protestant 
> > countries were quite reluctant to implement such popery at first.)
> 
> It may seem quaint that a sensible measuring reform could generate the 
> kind of hysterical opposition that the Gregorian Calendar did, 
> particularly in Britain. They held out for 170 years against what was 
> perceived as a foreign attempt to foist something alien on them.

Which is why they still use imperial units instead of the metric system.

> The same irrational not-invented-here resistance can be seen today in 
> the US by those opposing the adoption of the Metric System, despite the 
> fact that is far more logical and easier to use.

The USA is even more recalcitrant here.