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9.12.3.1.2
Historical Background
The idea of a blank day to adjust the lengths of the week and year is attributable to the Italian Abbe Marco Mastrofini, who published his proposal in booklet form in A.D. 1834.
Around the end of the 19th century, large business interests were increasingly interested in standardizing certain aspects of time as they related to commercial affairs, particularly those concerned with transportation. The first major impetus in this direction followed the construction of railroads in North America. Sandford Fleming, in the course of constructing Canadian railroads, found that different cities kept (quite properly) different times, depending upon their longitude, which was inconvenient for the railroad. These evils were detailed in May 1870 to the Governor-General of Canada, who passed the matter to London. Other governments were involved in the question, and an International Conference was held in Washington. In due course, Standard Time was adopted in 1883 to produce the desired simplification of the train schedules.
(continued)
Table 9.35
Common Year (365 days)Leap year (366 days)
Gregorian DateWorld Cal. DateGregorian DateWorld Cal. Date
->JUL 01JUN 30<-->JUL 31JUL 30
JUL 02JUL 01<-->AUG 01JUL 31<-
 . . .  . . . AUG 02AUG 01<-
->JUL 31JUL 30 . . .  . . .
->AUG 01JUL 31<-->AUG 31AUG 30<-
AUG 02AUG 01<-->SEP 01SEP 01<-
 . . .  . . .  . . .  . . .
->AUG 31AUG 30<-->SEP 30SEP 30<-
->SEP 01SEP 01<-->OCT 01OCT 01<-
 . . .  . . .  . . .  . . .
->SEP 30SEP 30<-->OCT 31OCT 31<-
->OCT 01OCT 01<-->NOV 01NOV 01<-
 . . .  . . .  . . .  . . .
->OCT 31OCT 31<-->NOV 30NOV 30<-
->NOV 01NOV 01<-->DEC 01DEC 01<-
 . . .  . . .  . . .  . . .
->NOV 30NOV 30<-DEC 30DEC 30<-
->DEC 01DEC 01<-->DEC 31DAY Y
 . . .  . . .
DEC 30DEC 30<-
->DEC 31DAY Y

 
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