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January

January is the first month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. The first day of the month is known as New Year's Day. It is, on average, the coldest month of the year within most of the Northern Hemisphere (where it is the second month of winter) and the warmest month of the year within most of the Southern Hemisphere (where it is the second month of summer). In the Southern hemisphere, January is the seasonal equivalent of July in the Northern hemisphere and vice versa.

Ancient Roman observances during this month include Cervula and Juvenalia, celebrated January 1, as well as one of three Agonalia, celebrated January 9, and Carmentalia, celebrated January 11. These dates do not correspond to the modern Gregorian calendar.

History

January (in Latin, Ianuarius) is named after Janus, the god of beginnings and transitions in Roman mythology.

Traditionally, the original Roman calendar consisted of 10 months totaling 304 days, winter being considered a month-less period. Around 713 BC, the semi-mythical successor of Romulus, King Numa Pompilius, is supposed to have added the months of January and February, so that the calendar covered a standard lunar year (354 days). Although March was originally the first month in the old Roman calendar, January became the first month of the calendar year either under Numa or under the Decemvirs about 450 BC (Roman writers differ). In contrast, each specific calendar year was identified by the names of the two consuls, who entered office on March 15 until 153 BC, at which point they started entering office on January 1.

Various Christian feast dates were used for the New Year in Europe during the Middle Ages, including March 25 (Feast of the Annunciation) and December 25. However, medieval calendars were still displayed in the Roman fashion with twelve columns from January to December. Beginning in the 16th century, European countries began officially making January 1 the start of the New Year once again—sometimes called Circumcision Style because this was the date of the Feast of the Circumcision, being the seventh day after December 25.

Historical names for January include its original Roman designation, Ianuarius, the Saxon term Wulf-monath (meaning "wolf month") and Charlemagne's designation Wintarmanoth ("winter / cold month"). In Slovene, it is traditionally called prosinec; the name, associated with millet bread and the act of asking for something, was first written in 1466 in the Škofja Loka manuscript.

According to Theodor Mommsen, 1 January became the first day of the year in 600 AUC of the Roman calendar (153 BC), due to disasters in the Lusitanian War. A Lusitanian chief called Punicus invaded the Roman territory, defeated two Roman governors, and killed their troops. The Romans resolved to send a consul to Hispania, and in order to accelerate the dispatch of aid, "they even made the new consuls enter into office two months and a half before the legal time" (March 15).

Symbols

January's birthstone is the garnet, which represents constancy. Its birth flower is the cottage pink Dianthus caryophyllus, galanthus or traditional carnation. The zodiac signs are Capricorn (until January 19) and Aquarius (January 20 onward).

Observances
This list does not necessarily imply either official status or general observance.

Month-long

 * Alzheimer's Awareness Month (Canada)
 * Dry January (United Kingdom)
 * National Codependency Awareness Month (United States)
 * National Mentoring Month (United States)
 * National Healthy Weight Awareness Month (United States)
 * Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month (United States)
 * Stalking Awareness Month (United States)
 * Veganuary

Food months in the United States
This list does not necessarily imply either official status or general observance.
 * Be Kind to Food Servers Month (by proclamation, State of Tennessee)
 * California Dried Plum Digestive Health Month
 * Hot Tea Month
 * National Soup Month
 * Oatmeal Month

Non-Gregorian
All Baha'i, Islamic, and Jewish observances begin at sundown prior to the date listed, and end at sundown on the date in question.
 * List of observances set by the Bahá'í calendar
 * List of observances set by the Chinese calendar
 * List of observances set by the Hebrew calendar
 * List of observances set by the Islamic calendar
 * List of observances set by the Solar Hijri calendar

Moveable
This list does not necessarily imply either official status or general observance. January 2 unless that day is a Sunday, in which case January 3 First Friday Second Saturday Second Monday Friday before third Monday Third Friday Sunday closest to January 22 Third full week of January Last full week of January Third Monday Wednesday of the third full week of January Friday between January 19–25 Last Saturday Last Sunday January 30 or the nearest Sunday Last Monday in January Fourth Monday Monday Closest to January 29
 * See: List of movable Western Christian observances
 * See: List of movable Eastern Christian observances
 * New Year Holiday (Scotland)
 * Children's Day (Bahamas)
 * Children's Day (Thailand)
 * Birthday of Eugenio María de Hostos (Puerto Rico, United States)
 * Coming of Age Day (Japan)
 * Lee–Jackson Day (Virginia, United States, defunct)
 * International Fetish Day
 * National Sanctity of Human Life Day (United States)
 * Hunt for Happiness Week (International observance)
 * National Non-Smoking Week (Canada)
 * National School Choice Week (United States)
 * Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (United States)
 * Idaho Human Rights Day (Idaho, United States)
 * Weedless Wednesday (Canada)
 * Husband's Day (Iceland)
 * National Seed Swap Day (United States)
 * Liberation of Auschwitz Memorial Day (Netherlands)
 * World Leprosy Day
 * Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day
 * Community Manager Appreciation Day (International observance)
 * National Heroes' Day (Cayman Islands)
 * Auckland Anniversary Day

Fixed

 * December 25 – January 5: Twelve Days of Christmas (Western Christianity)
 * December 26 – January 1: Kwanzaa (African Americans)
 * December 31 – January 1, in some cases until January 2: Hogmanay (Scotland)
 * January 1
 * Feast of the Circumcision of Christ
 * Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus (Anglican Communion, Lutheran Church)
 * Feast of Fools (Medieval Europe)
 * Constitution Day (Italy)
 * Dissolution of Czechoslovakia-related observances:
 * Day of the Establishment of the Slovak Republic (Slovakia)
 * Restoration Day of the Independent Czech State (Czech Republic)
 * Euro Day (European Union)
 * Flag Day (Lithuania)
 * Founding Day (Taiwan)
 * Global Family Day
 * Independence Day (Brunei, Cameroon, Haiti, Sudan)
 * International Nepali Dhoti and Nepali Topi Day
 * Jump-up Day (Montserrat, British Overseas Territories)
 * Kalpataru Day (Ramakrishna Movement)
 * National Bloody Mary Day (United States)
 * National Tree Planting Day (Tanzania)
 * New Year's Day
 * Japanese New Year
 * Novy God Day (Russia)
 * Sjoogwachi (Okinawa Islands)
 * Polar Bear Swim Day (Canada and United States)
 * Public Domain Day (multiple countries)
 * Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (Catholic Church)
 * World Day of Peace
 * Triumph of the Revolution (Cuba)
 * January 2
 * Ancestry Day (Haiti)
 * Berchtold's Day (Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and the Alsace)
 * Carnival Day (Saint Kitts and Nevis)
 * Kakizome (Japan)
 * National Creampuff Day (United States)
 * National Science Fiction Day (United States)
 * The second day of New Year (a holiday in Armenia, Kazakhstan, North Macedonia, Mauritius, Montenegro, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, and Ukraine)
 * Nyinlong (Bhutan)
 * Victory of Armed Forces Day (Cuba)
 * January 3
 * Anniversary of the 1966 Coup d’état (Burkina Faso)
 * Nakhatsenendyan toner (Armenia): January 3–5
 * Ministry of Religious Affairs Day (Indonesia)
 * National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day (United States)
 * Tamaseseri Festival (Hakozaki Shrine, Fukuoka, Japan)
 * January 4
 * Day of the Fallen against the Colonial Repression (Angola)
 * Day of the Martyrs (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
 * Hwinukan mukee (Okinawa Islands, Japan)
 * Independence Day (Myanmar)
 * Ogoni Day (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People)
 * World Braille Day
 * January 5
 * National Bird Day (United States)
 * National Whipped Cream Day (United States)
 * Sausage Day (United Kingdom)
 * Strawberry day (Japan)
 * Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day (Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, Australia)
 * Tucindan (Serbia, Montenegro)
 * January 6
 * Armed Forces Day (Iraq)
 * Epiphany or Three Kings' Day (Western Christianity) or Theophany (Eastern Christianity), and its related observances:
 * Befana Day (Italy)
 * Christmas (Armenian Apostolic Church)
 * Christmas Eve (Russia)
 * Christmas Eve (Ukraine)
 * Christmas Eve (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
 * Christmas Eve (North Macedonia)
 * Little Christmas (Ireland)
 * Þrettándinn (Iceland)
 * Three Wise Men Day
 * Pathet Lao Day (Laos)
 * January 7
 * Christmas (Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches using the Julian Calendar, Rastafari)
 * Christmas in Russia
 * Christmas in Ukraine
 * Christmas (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
 * Remembrance Day of the Dead (Armenia)
 * Distaff Day (Medieval Europe)
 * Nanakusa no sekku (Japan)
 * Pioneer's Day (Liberia)
 * Tricolour day (Italy)
 * Victory from Genocide Day (Cambodia)
 * January 8
 * The Eighth (United States) (defunct observance)
 * Typing Day (international observance)
 * January 9
 * Start of Hōonkō (Nishi Honganji) January 9–16 (Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism)
 * Martyrs' Day (Panama)
 * National Cassoulet Day (United States)
 * Non-Resident Indian Day (India)
 * Republic Day (Republika Srpska) (defunct, declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina )
 * St. Stephen's Day (Eastern Orthodox)
 * January 10
 * Fête du Vodoun (Benin)
 * Majority Rule Day (Bahamas)
 * January 11
 * Children's Day (Tunisia)
 * Eugenio María de Hostos Day (Puerto Rico)
 * German Apples Day (Germany)
 * Independence Manifesto Day (Morocco)
 * Kagami biraki (Japan)
 * National Human Trafficking Awareness Day (United States)
 * Republic Day (Albania)
 * January 12
 * Memorial Day (Turkmenistan)
 * Prosecutor General's Day (Russia)
 * National Youth Day (India)
 * Zanzibar Revolution Day (Tanzania)
 * January 13
 * Constitution Day (Mongolia)
 * Democracy Day (Cape Verde)
 * Liberation Day (Togo)
 * Old New Year's Eve (Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Serbia, Montenegro, Republic of Srpska, North Macedonia), and its related observances:
 * Malanka (Ukraine, Russia, Belarus)
 * St. Knut's Day (Sweden and Finland)
 * Stephen Foster Memorial Day (United States)
 * January 14
 * Azhyrnykhua (Abkhazia)
 * Day of Defenders of the Motherland (Uzbekistan)
 * Feast of Divina Pastora (Barquisimeto)
 * Feast of the Ass (Medieval Christianity)
 * Flag Day (Georgia)
 * National Forest Conservation Day (Thailand)
 * Ratification Day (United States)
 * Revolution and Youth Day (Tunisia)
 * Yennayer (Berbers)
 * January 15
 * Arbor Day (Egypt)
 * Armed Forces Day (Nigeria)
 * Indian Army Day (India)
 * John Chilembwe Day (Malawi)
 * Korean Alphabet Day (North Korea)
 * Sagichō at Tsurugaoka Hachimangū (Kamakura, Japan)
 * Teacher's Day (Venezuela)
 * Wikipedia Day (international observance)
 * January 16
 * National Nothing Day
 * National Religious Freedom Day (United States)
 * Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (Coptic Church)
 * Teacher's Day (Myanmar)
 * Teachers' Day (Thailand)
 * Zuuruku Nichi (Okinawa Islands, Japan)
 * Thiruvalluvar Day (Tamil Nadu, India)
 * January 17
 * Hardware Freedom Day (international observance)
 * National Day (Menorca)
 * The opening ceremony of Patras Carnival, celebrated until Clean Monday (Patras)
 * January 18
 * Revolution and Youth Day (Tunisia)
 * Royal Thai Armed Forces Day (Thailand)
 * Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 18–25) (Christianity)
 * January 19
 * Confederate Heroes Day (Texas), and its related observance:
 * Robert E. Lee Day (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi)
 * Lee–Jackson–King Day (Virginia, United States, defunct)
 * Husband's Day (Iceland)
 * Kokborok Day (Tripura, India)
 * National Popcorn Day (United States)
 * Theophany / Epiphany (Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy), and its related observances:
 * Timkat, (on 20th during Leap Year) (Ethiopian Orthodox)
 * Vodici or Baptism of Jesus (North Macedonia)
 * January 20
 * Armed Forces Day (Mali)
 * Cheese Day (United States)
 * Heroes' Day (Cape Verde)
 * Inauguration Day, held every four years in odd-numbered years, except when January 20 falls on a Sunday (United States)
 * Martyrs' Day (Azerbaijan)
 * January 21
 * Babinden (Bulgaria, Serbia)
 * Birthday of Princess Ingrid Alexandra (Norway)
 * Errol Barrow Day (Barbados)
 * Flag Day (Quebec)
 * Grandmother's Day (Poland)
 * Lady of Altagracia Day (Dominican Republic)
 * Lincoln Alexander Day (Canada)
 * National Hug Day (United States)
 * January 22
 * Day of Unity of Ukraine (Ukraine)
 * Grandfather's Day (Poland)
 * National Hot Sauce Day (United States)
 * January 23
 * Bounty Day (Pitcairn Island)
 * Espousals of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Roman Catholic Church)
 * National Pie Day (United States)
 * Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's Jayanti (Orissa, Tripura, and West Bengal, India)
 * World Freedom Day (Taiwan and South Korea)
 * January 24
 * Feast of Our Lady of Peace (Roman Catholic Church), and its related observances:
 * Feria de Alasitas (La Paz)
 * Moebius Syndrome Awareness Day (international observance)
 * National Peanut Butter Day (United States)
 * Unification Day (Romania)
 * January 25
 * 2011 Revolution Day (Egypt)
 * Burns night (Scotland, Scottish community)
 * Dydd Santes Dwynwen (Wales)
 * Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul (Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches, which concludes the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity)
 * National Police Day (Egypt)
 * National Voters' Day (India)
 * Tatiana Day (Russia, Eastern Orthodox)
 * January 26
 * Australia Day (Australia)
 * Duarte Day (Dominican Republic)
 * Engineer's Day (Panama)
 * International Customs Day
 * Liberation Day (Uganda)
 * Republic Day (India)
 * January 27
 * Day of the lifting of the siege of Leningrad (Russia)
 * Liberation of the remaining inmates of Auschwitz-related observances:
 * Holocaust Memorial Day (UK)
 * Holocaust Remembrance Day (Sweden)
 * International Holocaust Remembrance Day
 * Memorial Day (Italy)
 * Memorial Day for the Victims of the Holocaust and Prevention of Crimes against Humanity (Czech Republic)
 * Memorial Day for the Victims of National Socialism (Germany)
 * National Holocaust Memorial Day (Greece)
 * Family Literacy Day (Canada)
 * Feast of Saint Slava (Serbia)
 * National Chocolate Cake Day (United States)
 * Saint Devota's Day (Monaco)
 * January 28
 * Army Day (Armenia)
 * Data Privacy Day (international observance)
 * January 29
 * Kansas Day (Kansas, United States)
 * January 30
 * Day of Azerbaijani customs (Azerbaijan)
 * Day of Saudade (Brazil)
 * Fred Korematsu Day (California, United States)
 * Martyrdom of Mahatma Gandhi-related observances:
 * Martyrs' Day (India)
 * School Day of Non-violence and Peace (Spain)
 * Start of the Season for Nonviolence January 30 – April 4
 * Teacher's Day (Greece)
 * January 31
 * Amartithi (Meherabad, India, followers of Meher Baba)
 * Independence Day (Nauru)
 * Me-Dam-Me-Phi (Ahom people)
 * Street Children's Day (Austria)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: January


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Johnny Unitas

John Constantine Unitas (May 7, 1933 – September 11, 2002) was an American football quarterback who played 18 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily with the Baltimore Colts. Following a career that spanned from 1956 to 1973, he has been listed as one of the greatest NFL players of all time.

Unitas played college football for the Louisville Cardinals. He set many NFL records and was named Most Valuable Player three times in 1959, 1964, and 1967, in addition to receiving 10 Pro Bowl and five first-team All-Pro honors. He helped lead the Colts to four championship titles; three in the pre-merger era in 1958, 1959, and 1968, and one in the Super Bowl era in Super Bowl V. His first championship victory is regarded as one of the league's greatest games and is credited with helping popularize the NFL. Between 1956 and 1960, he set the record for most consecutive games with a touchdown pass at 47, which held for 52 years.

Nicknamed "Johnny U" and "the Golden Arm", Unitas was considered the prototype of the modern era marquee quarterback. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979.

Early life
John Constantine Unitas was born in Pittsburgh in 1933 to Francis J. Unitas and Helen Superfisky, both of Lithuanian descent; his surname was a result of a phonetic transliteration of a common Lithuanian last name Jonaitis. He grew up in the Mount Washington neighborhood in a Roman Catholic upbringing. When Unitas was five years old, his father died of cardiovascular renal disease complicated by pneumonia, leaving the young boy to be raised by his mother, who worked two jobs to support the family. At St. Justin's High School in Pittsburgh, Unitas played halfback and quarterback.

College career
In his younger years, Unitas dreamed about being part of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team, but when he tried out for the team, coach Frank Leahy said that he was just too skinny and he would "get murdered" if he was put on the field.

Instead, he attended the University of Louisville. In his four-year career as a Louisville Cardinal, Unitas completed 245 passes for 3,139 yards and 27 touchdowns. Reportedly, the 6ft 1in Unitas weighed 145 lb on his first day of practice. His first start was in the fifth game of the 1951 season against St. Bonaventure, where he threw 11 consecutive passes and three touchdowns to give the Cardinals a 21–19 lead. Louisville ended up losing the game 22–21 on a disputed field goal, but found a new starting quarterback. Unitas completed 12 of 19 passes for 240 yards and four touchdowns in a 35–28 victory over Houston. The team finished the season 5–5 overall and 4–1 with Unitas starting. He completed 46 of 99 passes for 602 yards and nine touchdowns (44).

By the 1952 season, the university had decided to de-emphasize sports. The new president at Louisville, Dr. Philip Grant Davidson, reduced the amount of athletic aid and tightened academic standards for athletes. As a result, 15 returning players could not meet the new standards and lost their scholarships. Unitas maintained his by taking on a new elective: square dancing. In 1952, coach Frank Camp switched the team to two-way football. Unitas not only played safety or linebacker on defense and quarterback on offense, but also returned kicks and punts on special teams. The Cardinals won their first game against Wayne State, and then Florida State in the second game. Unitas completed 16 of 21 passes for 198 yards and three touchdowns. It was said that Unitas put on such a show at the Florida State game that he threw a pass under his legs for 15 yards. The rest of the season was a struggle for the Cardinals, who finished 3–5. Unitas completed 106 of 198 passes for 1,540 yards and 12 touchdowns.

The team won their first game in 1953, against Murray State, and lost the rest for a record of 1–7. One of the most memorable games of the season came in a 59–6 loss against Tennessee. Unitas completed 9 out of 19 passes for 73 yards, rushed 9 times for 52 yards, returned six kickoffs for 85 yards, punted once for three yards, and had 86 percent of the team's tackles. The only touchdown the team scored was in the fourth quarter when Unitas made a fake pitch to the running back and ran the ball 23 yards for a touchdown. Unitas was hurt later in the fourth quarter while trying to run the ball. On his way off the field, he received a standing ovation. When he got to the locker room he was so tired that his jersey and shoulder pads had to be cut off because he could not lift his arms. Louisville ended the season with a 20–13 loss to Eastern Kentucky. Unitas completed 49 of 95 passes for 470 yards and three touchdowns.

Unitas was elected captain for the 1954 season, but due to an early injury did not see much playing time. His first start was the third game of the season, against Florida State. Of the 34-man team, 21 were freshmen. The 1954 Cardinals went 3–6, with their last win at home against Morehead State. Unitas was slowed by so many injuries his senior year his 527 passing yards ended second to Jim Houser's 560.

Pittsburgh Steelers
After his collegiate career, the Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL drafted Unitas in the ninth round. However, he was released before the season began as the odd man out among four quarterbacks trying to fill three spots. Steelers' head coach Walt Kiesling had made up his mind about Unitas; he thought he was not smart enough to quarterback an NFL team, and he was not given any snaps in practice with the Steelers. Among those edging out Unitas was Ted Marchibroda, future longtime NFL head coach. Out of pro football, Unitas—by this time married—worked in construction in Pittsburgh to support his family. On the weekends, he played quarterback, safety and punter on a local semi-professional team called the Bloomfield Rams for $6 a game.

Baltimore Colts
In 1956, Unitas joined the Baltimore Colts of the NFL under legendary coach Weeb Ewbank, after being asked at the last minute to join Bloomfield Rams lineman Jim Deglau, a Croatian steelworker with a life much like Unitas, at the latter's scheduled Colts tryout. The pair borrowed money from friends to pay for the gas to make the trip. Deglau later told a reporter after Unitas's death, "[His] uncle told him not to come. [He] was worried that if he came down and the Colts passed on him, it would look bad (to other NFL teams)." The Colts signed Unitas, much to the chagrin of the Cleveland Browns, who had hoped to claim the former Steeler quarterback.

Unitas made his NFL debut with an inauspicious "mop-up" appearance against Detroit, going 0–2 with one interception. Two weeks later, starting quarterback George Shaw suffered a broken leg against the Chicago Bears. In his first serious action, Unitas's initial pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown. Then he botched a hand-off on his next play, resulting in a fumble recovered by the Bears. Unitas rebounded quickly from that 58–27 loss, leading the Colts to an upset of Green Bay and their first win over Cleveland. He threw nine touchdown passes that year, including one in the season finale that started his record 47-game streak. His 55.6-percent completion mark was a rookie record.

In 1957, his first season as the Colts full-time starter at quarterback, Unitas finished first in the NFL in passing yards (2,550) and touchdown passes (24) as he helped lead the Colts to a 7–5 record, the first winning record in franchise history. At season's end, Unitas received the Jim Thorpe Trophy as the NFL's Most Valuable Player by the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA).

1958: "The Greatest Game Ever Played"
Unitas continued his prowess in 1958 passing for 2,007 yards and 19 touchdowns as the Colts won the Western Conference title. The Colts won the NFL championship under his leadership on December 28, 1958, by defeating the New York Giants 23–17 in sudden death overtime on a touchdown by fullback Alan Ameche. It was the first overtime game in NFL history, and is often referred to as the "greatest game ever played". The game, nationally televised by NBC, has been credited for sparking the rise in popularity of professional football during the 1960s.

1959 MVP season
In 1959, Unitas was named the NFL's MVP by the Associated Press (AP) for the first time, as well as United Press International's player of the year, after leading the NFL in passing yards (2,899), touchdown passes (32), and completions (193). He then led the Colts to a repeat championship, sparking a fourth quarter comeback to beat the Giants again 31–16 in the title game.

With the Colts fresh off back-to-back championships, Unitas was lauded by rookie head coach of the Green Bay Packers, Vince Lombardi, who said of the 26-year-old signal caller: "Without him, they're just ordinary. With him, they're great. He's the best quarterback I've ever seen."

Beginning of the 1960s
As the 1960s began, the Colts' fortunes (and win totals) declined. Injuries to key players such as Alan Ameche, Raymond Berry, and Lenny Moore were a contributing factor. Unitas's streak of 47 straight games with at least one touchdown pass ended against the Los Angeles Rams in week 11 of the 1960 season. In spite of this, he topped the 3,000-yard passing mark for the first time and led the league in touchdown passes for the fourth consecutive season.

After three middle-of-the-pack seasons, Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom fired Weeb Ewbank and replaced him with Don Shula, who at the time was the youngest head coach in NFL history (33 years of age when he was hired). The Colts finished 8–6 in Shula's first season at the helm, good enough for only third place in the NFL's Western Conference, but they did end the season on a strong note by winning their final three games. The season was very successful for Unitas personally, as he led the NFL in passing yards with a career-best total of 3,481 and also led in completions with 237.

1964 MVP season
In the 1964 season the Colts returned to the top of the Western Conference. After dropping their season opener to the Minnesota Vikings, the Colts ran off 10 straight victories to finish with a 12–2 record. The season was one of Unitas's best as he finished with 2,824 yards passing, a league-best 9.26 yards per pass attempt, 19 touchdown passes and only 6 interceptions. He was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player by the AP and UPI for a second time. However, the season ended on a disappointing note for the Colts, as they were upset by the Cleveland Browns in the 1964 NFL Championship Game, losing 27–0.

Unitas resumed his torrid passing in 1965, throwing for 2,530 yards, 23 touchdowns and finishing with a league-high and career-best 97.1 passer rating. But he was lost for the balance of the season due to a knee injury in a week 12 loss to the Bears. Backup quarterback Gary Cuozzo also suffered a season-ending injury the following week, and running back Tom Matte filled in as the emergency quarterback for the regular season finale and in a playoff loss to the Packers. The Colts and Packers finished in a tie for first place in the Western Conference, and a one-game playoff was played in Green Bay to decide who would be the conference representative in the 1965 NFL Championship Game. The Colts lost in overtime 13–10 due in large part to a game-tying field goal by Don Chandler that many say was incorrectly ruled good.

Unitas, healthy once more, threw for 2,748 yards and 22 touchdowns in 1966 in a return to Pro Bowl form. However, he posted a league-high 24 interceptions.

1967 MVP season
After once again finishing second in the Western Conference in 1966, the Colts rebounded to finish 11–1–2 in 1967 tying the Los Angeles Rams for the NFL's best record. In winning his third MVP award from the AP and UPI in 1967 (and his second from the NEA), Unitas had a league-high 58.5 completion percentage and passed for 3,428 yards and 20 touchdowns. He openly complained about having tennis elbow and he threw eight interceptions and only three touchdown passes in the final five games. Once again, the season ended in loss for the Colts, as they were shut out of the newly instituted four-team NFL playoff after losing the divisional tiebreaker to the Rams, a 34–10 rout in the regular season finale.

Super Bowls and final Colt years
In the final game of the 1968 preseason, the muscles in Unitas's arm were torn when he was hit by a member of the Dallas Cowboys defense. Unitas wrote in his autobiography that he felt his arm was initially injured by the use of the "night ball" that the NFL was testing for better TV visibility during night games. In a post-game interview the previous year, he noted having constant pain in his elbow for several years prior. He would spend most of the season sitting on the bench. The Colts still marched to a league-best 13–1 record behind backup quarterback and ultimate 1968 NFL MVP Earl Morrall. Although he was injured through most of the season, Unitas came off the bench to play in Super Bowl III, the famous game where Joe Namath guaranteed a New York Jets win despite conventional wisdom. Unitas's insertion was a desperation move in an attempt to retrieve dominance of the NFL over the upstart AFL. Although the Colts won an NFL Championship in 1968, they lost the Super Bowl to the AFL Champion New York Jets, thus becoming the first-ever NFL champions that were not also deemed world champions. Unitas helped put together the Colts' only score, a touchdown late in the game. Unitas also drove the Colts into scoring position following the touchdown and successful onside kick, but head coach Don Shula eschewed a field goal attempt, which (if successful) would have cut the Jets' lead to 16–10. Despite not playing until late in the third quarter, he still finished the game with more passing yards than the team's starter, Earl Morrall.

After an off-season of rehabilitation on his elbow, Unitas rebounded in 1969, passing for 2,342 yards and 12 touchdowns with 20 interceptions. But the Colts finished with a disappointing 8–5–1 record and missed the playoffs.

In 1970, the NFL and AFL had merged into one league, and the Colts moved to the new American Football Conference, along with the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers. He threw for 2,213 yards and 14 touchdowns while leading the Colts to an 11–2–1 season. In their first rematch with the Jets, Unitas and Namath threw a combined nine interceptions in a 29–22 Colts win. Namath threw 62 passes and broke his hand on the final play of the game, ending his season.

Unitas threw for 390 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions in AFC playoff victories over the Cincinnati Bengals and the Oakland Raiders. In Super Bowl V against the Dallas Cowboys, he was knocked out of the game with a rib injury in the second quarter, soon after throwing a 75-yard touchdown pass (setting a then-Super Bowl record) to John Mackey. However, he had also thrown two interceptions before his departure from the game. Earl Morrall came in to lead the team to a last-second, 16–13 victory.

In 1971, Unitas split playing time with Morrall, throwing only three touchdown passes. He started both playoff games, a win over the Cleveland Browns that sent the Colts to the AFC Championship game against the Miami Dolphins, which they lost by a score of 21–0. Unitas threw three interceptions in the game, one of which was returned for a touchdown by safety Dick Anderson.

The 1972 season saw the Colts declining. After losing the season opener, Unitas was involved in the second and final regular season head-to-head meeting with "Broadway" Joe Namath. The first was in 1970 (won by the Colts, 29–22). The last meeting took place on September 24, 1972, at Memorial Stadium. He threw for 376 yards and three touchdowns, but Namath upstaged him again, bombing the Colts for 496 yards and six touchdowns in a 44–34 Jets victory – their first over Baltimore since the 1970 merger. After losing four of their first five games, the Colts fired head coach Don McCafferty, and benched Unitas.

One of the more memorable moments in football history came on Unitas's last game in a Colts uniform at Memorial Stadium, in a game against the Buffalo Bills. He was not the starter for this game, but the Colts were blowing the Bills out by a score of 28–0 behind Marty Domres; Unitas entered the game due to the fans chanting, "We want Unitas!!!", and a plan devised by head coach John Sandusky to convince Unitas that the starting quarterback was injured. Unitas came onto the field and threw two passes, one of which was a long touchdown to wide receiver Eddie Hinton which would be his last pass as a Colt. The Colts won the game by a score of 35–7.

San Diego and records
Unitas was traded from the Colts to the San Diego Chargers on January 20, 1973, in a transaction that originally had future considerations returning to Baltimore. The deal's only obstacle was the personal services contract he had signed with the Colts in 1970 which would have kept him employed within the organization on an annual salary of $30,000 over ten years once his career as an active player ended. The pact had been signed when the ballclub was owned by Carroll Rosenbloom who subsequently acquired the Los Angeles Rams on July 13, 1972, in a franchise swap with Robert Irsay. The deal was completed when the Chargers purchased that contract. Eager to sever all ties with the Colts, Unitas signed a new two-year contract with the Chargers on June 8, 1973. He succeeded John Hadl who had requested and was granted a trade to the Rams.

Unitas started the season with a 38–0 loss to the Washington Redskins. He threw for just 55 yards and 3 interceptions and was sacked 8 times. His final victory as a starter came against the Buffalo Bills in Week 2. Unitas was 10–18 for 175 yards, two touchdown passes, and no interceptions in a 34–7 Chargers rout.

Unitas threw two first-half interceptions, passed for only 19 yards, and went 2-for-9 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was then replaced by rookie quarterback and future Hall of Famer Dan Fouts. After posting a 1–3 record as a starter, Unitas retired in the preseason of 1974.

Unitas finished his 18 NFL seasons with 2,830 completions in 5,186 attempts for 40,239 yards and 290 touchdowns, with 253 interceptions. He also rushed for 1,777 yards and 13 touchdowns. Plagued by arm trouble in his later seasons, he threw more interceptions (64) than touchdowns (38) in 1968–1973. After averaging 215.8 yards per game in his first 12 seasons, his production fell to 124.4 in his final six. His passer rating plummeted from 82.9 to 60.4 for the same periods. Even so, Unitas set many passing records during his career. He was the first quarterback to throw for more than 40,000 yards, despite playing during an era when NFL teams played shorter seasons of 12 or 14 games (as opposed to today's 17-game seasons) and prior to modern passing-friendly rules implemented in 1978. His 32 touchdown passes in 1959 were a record at the time, making Unitas the first quarterback to hit the 30 touchdown mark in a season. His 47-game consecutive touchdown streak between 1956 and 1960 was a record considered by many to be unbreakable. The streak stood for 52 years before being broken by New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees in a game against the San Diego Chargers on October 7, 2012.

Post-playing years
After his playing days were finished, Unitas settled in Baltimore where he raised his family while also pursuing a career in broadcasting, doing color commentary for NFL games on CBS in the 1970s. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979. After Robert Irsay moved the Colts franchise to Indianapolis in 1984, a move known to this day in Baltimore as "Bob Irsay's Midnight Ride," he was so outraged that he cut all ties to the relocated team (though his No. 19 jersey is still retired by the Colts), declaring himself strictly a Baltimore Colt for the remainder of his life. Some other prominent old-time Colts followed his lead, although many attended the 1975 team's reunion at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis in 2009. A total of 39 Colts players from that 1975 team attended said reunion in Indianapolis, including Bert Jones and Lydell Mitchell. Unitas asked the Pro Football Hall of Fame on numerous occasions (including on Roy Firestone's film Up Close) to remove his display unless it was listed as belonging to the Baltimore Colts. The Hall of Fame has never complied with the request. Unitas donated his Colts memorabilia to the Babe Ruth Museum in Baltimore. They were on display at the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards until its closure in 2015.

Unitas was inducted into the American Football Association's Semi Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987.

Unitas actively lobbied for another NFL team to come to Baltimore. After the football organization that made up the original Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore in 1996 and established the Baltimore Ravens, he and some of the other old-time Colts attended the Ravens' first game ever against the Raiders on Opening Day at Memorial Stadium. He was frequently seen on the Ravens' sidelines at home games (most prominently in 1998 when the now-Indianapolis Colts played the Ravens in Baltimore) and received a thunderous ovation every time he was pictured on each of the huge widescreens at M&T Bank Stadium. He was often seen on the 30-yard line on the Ravens side. When the NFL celebrated its first 50 years, Unitas was voted the league's best player. Retired Bears quarterback Sid Luckman said of Unitas, "He was better than me, better than Sammy Baugh, better than anyone."

Regular season

 * In 1957, Unitas was named MVP by the Newspaper Enterprise Association.

Personal life
On November 20, 1954, Unitas, at age 21, married his high school sweetheart Dorothy Hoelle. They lived in Towson, Maryland and had five children before divorcing. Unitas's second wife was Sandra Lemon, whom he married on June 26, 1972. They had three children, lived in Baldwin, and remained married until his death.

Towson University, where Unitas was a major fund-raiser and which his children attended, named its football and lacrosse complex Johnny Unitas Stadium in recognition of both his football career and service to the university.

Toward the end of his life, Unitas brought media attention to the many permanent physical disabilities that he and his fellow players suffered during their careers before heavy padding and other safety features became popular. Unitas himself lost almost total use of his right hand, with the middle finger and thumb noticeably disfigured from being repeatedly broken during games. Unitas lived most of the final years of his life severely hobbled. Due to an elbow injury suffered during his playing career, he had only very limited use of his right hand, and could not perform any physical activity more strenuous than golf due to his artificial knees.

In 1991, Unitas and his wife filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11. Their court filings showed that the couple owed creditors as much as $3.2 million but had assets of about $1.4 million. His financial problems arose in part from a business venture in which he and two partners took out loans to buy National Circuits Inc., a maker of printed circuit boards, and the firm subsequently failed.

On September 11, 2002, Unitas died from a heart attack while exercising at the Kernan Physical Therapy Center (now The University of Maryland Rehabilitation & Orthopaedic Institute) in Baltimore. His funeral was held at Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore. Unitas was buried at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens in Timonium, Maryland.

Between his death and October 4, 2002, 56,934 people signed an online petition urging the Baltimore Ravens to rename the Ravens' home stadium (owned by the State of Maryland) after Unitas. These requests were unsuccessful since the lucrative naming rights had already been leased by the Ravens to Buffalo-based M&T Bank. However, on October 20, 2002, the Ravens dedicated the front area of the stadium's main entrance as Unitas Plaza and unveiled a statue of Unitas as the centerpiece of the plaza.

Legacy

 * Unitas held the record for most Pro Bowl appearances (10) by a quarterback until Brett Favre broke his record in 2009.
 * Unitas set the original standard for most wins as a starting quarterback with 118 regular season victories (since surpassed by multiple quarterbacks).
 * Unitas was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979.
 * Unitas is 11th in all-time number of regular season games won by an NFL starting quarterback with 118 wins.
 * Unitas is 16th in all-time percentage of regular season games won by an NFL starting quarterback with a percentage of 64.5.
 * 1987 American Football Association Semi Pro Hall of Fame
 * Unitas's no. 16 is the first number retired by the football program at the University of Louisville.
 * Unitas Tower, a dormitory at the University of Louisville, is named for Johnny Unitas.
 * A statue of Unitas sits in the north end zone of Cardinal Stadium at the University of Louisville. It is a tradition for each Cardinal player to touch the statue as he enters the field.
 * Since 1987, the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award has been awarded to the top senior quarterback of the current year in college football. The award is presented annually in Louisville.
 * In 1999, he was ranked No. 5 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, behind only Joe Montana among quarterbacks.
 * In 2004, The Sporting News ranked Unitas No. 1 among the NFL's 50 Greatest Quarterbacks, with Joe Montana at No. 2.
 * In 1999, ESPN's Sportscentury: 50 Greatest Athletes of the 20th Century ranked Unitas No. 32.
 * Just before his death, Johnny Unitas became the community liaison for athletics in Towson, Maryland. The football stadium at Towson University was renamed Johnny Unitas Stadium in 2002. Unitas died less than a week after throwing his last pass in the grand opening of the stadium.
 * Set the record for consecutive games with at least one touchdown pass at 47 games. This record was surpassed by Drew Brees in 2012.
 * Set the record for consecutive games with at least two touchdown passes at 12 games. This record was surpassed by Don Meredith, Peyton Manning (twice), Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Philip Rivers, and Patrick Mahomes.
 * Set the record for most consecutive games with at least a 120 passer rating (4); this record was later matched by Kurt Warner
 * For the game following his death, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning asked to wear a pair of black cleats as a tribute to Johnny's signature black boots. The league denied his request and threatened Manning with a US$25,000 fine; Manning decided not to wear them. Despite the threatened fine, Chris Redman, a Louisville alum like Unitas, and then quarterback of the Baltimore Ravens, decided to pay homage by wearing the signature cleats during a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
 * In 2013, a movie project was announced by The Baltimore Sun called Unitas We Stand, which will feature Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco as Unitas during the 1958 NFL Championship.
 * 19th Street in Ocean City, Maryland, is named "Johnny Unitas Way" in his honor.
 * Johnny Unitas Stadium on the campus of Towson University in Towson, Maryland, home of the Towson Tigers football and Towson Tigers men's lacrosse teams is named in his honor.
 * Unitas was posthumously inducted into the National Lithuanian American Hall of Fame on August 24, 2013.
 * Readers of NFL.com voted Unitas the Greatest Quarterback of All Time in 2014. Unitas scored 72 percent of the vote over Joe Montana, after the two quarterbacks were the final ones remaining out of a bracket of players over the history of the NFL.
 * Unitas was featured twice on The Simpsons, first in the episode "Homie the Clown", in which Unitas (voiced by himself) encourages the usage of the Krusty Moustache Removal System in a non-stop infomercial. In "Mother Simpson", Homer's father admires Unitas' short hair in contrast to Joe Namath's controversial sideburns, calling it "a haircut you could set your watch to".
 * Unitas is referenced in the 1991 movie Point Break. One of the characters in the movie said "They got me babysitting some quarterback punk, named Johnny Unitas or something", when they get a new partner.
 * Unitas is referenced in a 1992 episode of the Nickelodeon television show The Adventures of Pete & Pete titled "Space, Geeks and Johnny Unitas."

title: Johnny Unitas


text:
John Jacob Astor

John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob Astor; July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848) was a German-born American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul, and investor. Astor made his fortune mainly in a fur trade monopoly, by exporting opium into China, and by investing in real estate in or around New York City. He was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States.

Born in Germany, Astor immigrated to England as a teenager and worked as a musical instrument manufacturer. He moved to the United States after the American Revolutionary War. Seeing the expansion of population to the west, Astor entered the fur trade and built a monopoly, managing a business empire that extended to the Great Lakes region and Canada, and later expanded into the American West and Pacific coast. Following a decline in demand due to changing European tastes, he got out of the fur trade in 1830, diversifying by investing in New York City real estate. Astor was highly wealthy and became a prominent patron of the arts. In proportion to GDP, he was one of the richest people in modern history.

Early life
Johann Jakob Astor was born in 1763 in Walldorf, a town near Heidelberg in the Electoral Palatinate, which is in the present-day German state of Baden-Württemberg. He was the youngest son of Johann Jacob Astor and Maria Magdalena vom Berg. His three older brothers were George, Henry, and Melchior. In his childhood, Johann worked in his father's butcher shop and as a dairy salesman. In 1779, at the age of 16, he moved to London to join his brother George in working for an uncle's piano and flute manufacturer, Astor & Broadwood. While there, he learned English and anglicized his name to John Jacob Astor.

Migration to the United States
In November 1783, just after the end of the American Revolutionary War, Astor boarded a ship for the United States, arriving in Baltimore around March of the following year. There, he rented a room from Sarah Cox Todd, a widow, and began a flirtation with his landlady's daughter, also named Sarah Cox Todd. The young couple married in 1785. His intent had been to join his brother Henry, who had established a butcher shop in New York City. A chance meeting with a fur trader on his voyage had inspired him to join the North American fur trade as well. After working at his brother's shop for a time, Astor began to purchase raw hides from Native Americans, prepare them himself, and resell them in London and elsewhere at great profit. He opened his own fur goods shop in New York in the late 1780s and also served as the New York agent of his uncle's musical instrument business.

Fortune from fur trade
Astor took advantage of the 1794 Jay Treaty between Great Britain and the United States, which opened new markets in Canada and the Great Lakes region. In London, Astor at once made a contract with the North West Company, which from Montreal rivaled the trade interests of the Hudson's Bay Company, then based in London.

Astor imported furs from Montreal to New York and shipped them to Europe. By 1800, he had amassed over a quarter of a million dollars (the equivalent of 229 million dollars in 2024 ) and had become one of the leading figures in the fur trade. His agents worked throughout the western areas and were ruthless in competition. In 1800, following the example of the Empress of China, the first American trading vessel to China, Astor traded mostly opium, but also, furs, teas, and sandalwood at the port of Canton in China, and greatly benefited from it.

The U.S. Embargo Act of 1807 disrupted Astor's import/export business because it closed off trade with Canada. With the permission of President Thomas Jefferson, Astor established the American Fur Company on April 6, 1808. He later formed subsidiaries: the Pacific Fur Company, and the Southwest Fur Company (in which Canadians had a part), in order to control fur trading in the Great Lakes areas and Columbia River region. His Columbia River trading post at Fort Astoria (established in April 1811) was the first United States community on the Pacific coast. He financed the overland Astor Expedition in 1810–1812 to reach the outpost. Members of the expedition were to discover South Pass, through which hundreds of thousands of settlers on the Oregon, Mormon, and California Trails used to later pass through the Rocky Mountains.

Astor's fur trading ventures were disrupted during the War of 1812, when the British captured his trading posts. In 1816, he joined the opium smuggling trade. His American Fur Company purchased ten tons of Ottoman-produced opium, and shipped the contraband to Canton onboard the packet ship Macedonian. Astor later left the Chinese opium trade and sold opium solely in Britain.

Astor's business rebounded in 1817 after the U.S. Congress passed a protectionist law that barred foreign fur traders from U.S. territories. The American Fur Company came to dominate trading in the area around the Great Lakes, absorbing competitors in a monopoly. Astor had a townhouse at 233 Broadway in Manhattan and a country estate, Hellgate, in Northern New York City.

In 1822, Astor established the Robert Stuart House on Mackinac Island in Michigan as headquarters for the reorganized American Fur Company, making the island a metropolis of the fur trade. Washington Irving described this at length, based on contemporary documents, diaries, etc., in his travelogue Astoria. Astor's commercial connections extended over the entire globe, and his ships were found in every sea. He and Sarah moved to a townhouse on Prince Street in Manhattan, New York.

Real estate and retirement
Astor began buying land in New York City in 1799 and acquired sizable holdings along the waterfront. After the start of the 19th century, flush with China trade profits, he became more systematic, ambitious, and calculating by investing in New York real estate. In 1803, he bought a 70-acre farm on which he built the Astor Mansion at Hellgate. The property ran west of Broadway to the Hudson River between 42nd and 46th streets. That same year, and the following year, he bought considerable holdings from the disgraced Aaron Burr. In the 1830s, Astor foresaw that the next big boom would be the build-up of New York, which would soon emerge as one of the world's greatest cities. Astor sold his interests in the American Fur Company, as well as all his other ventures, and used the money to buy and develop large tracts of Manhattan real estate. Astor correctly predicted the city's rapid growth northward on Manhattan Island, and he purchased more and more land beyond the then-existing city limits. Astor rarely built on his land, but leased it to others for rent and their use. After retiring from his business, Astor spent the rest of his life as a patron of culture. He supported the ornithologist John James Audubon in his studies, artwork, and travels, and the presidential campaign of Henry Clay.

Marriage and family
On September 19, 1785, Astor married Sarah Cox Todd (April 9, 1762 – August 3, 1842). Her parents were Scottish immigrants Adam Todd and Sarah Cox. Although she brought him a dowry of only $300, she possessed a frugal mind and a business judgment that he declared better than that of most merchants. She assisted him in the practical details of his business, and managed Astor's affairs when he was away from New York.

They had eight children:

 * Magdalena Astor (1788–1832), who married first Adrian Benjamin Bentzon in 1807, secondly John Bristed in 1820. She was the mother of Charles Astor Bristed.
 * Sarah Todd Astor (1790–1790), who was stillborn.
 * John Jacob Astor Jr. (1791–1869), sickly and mentally unstable.
 * William Backhouse Astor Sr. (1792–1875), who married Margaret Alida Rebecca Armstrong, daughter of Senator John Armstrong Jr., in 1818.
 * Dorothea Astor (1795–1874), who married Walter Langdon. They owned the Langdon Estate Gatehouse.
 * Henry Astor II (1797–1799), who died as a child.
 * Eliza Astor (1801–1838), married Vincent Rumpff
 * Unnamed son (1802–1802), who died within a few days of his birth.

Fraternal organizations
Astor belonged to the Freemasons, a fraternal order, and served as Master of Holland Lodge #8, New York City in 1788. Later he served as Grand Treasurer for the Grand Lodge of New York. He was president of the German Society of the City of New York from 1837 to 1841.

Legacy
At the time of his death in 1848, Astor was the wealthiest person in the United States, leaving an estate estimated to be worth at least $20 million, or 0.9% of estimated US GDP at the time, which is equivalent to $ million in 2020. By comparison, the fortune of Jeff Bezos was worth approximately $200 billion in 2020, similar to Astor at approximately 0.9% of US GDP.

In his will, Astor bequeathed $400,000 to build the Astor Library for the New York public, which was later consolidated with other libraries to form the New York Public Library. He also left $50,000 for a poorhouse and orphanage in his German hometown of Walldorf. The Astorhaus is now operated as a museum honoring Astor. It is a renowned and popular fest hall for marriages. Astor donated gifts totaling $20,000 to the German Society of the City of New York, during his term as president, from 1837 until 1841.

Astor left the bulk of his fortune to his second son William, because his eldest son, John Jr., was sickly and mentally unstable. Astor left enough money to care for John Jr. for the rest of his life. William continued building the family fortune, and was an ancestor of John Jacob Astor III, John Jacob Astor IV, and John Jacob Astor VI.

Astor is buried in Trinity Church Cemetery in Manhattan. Many members of his family had joined its congregation, but Astor remained a member of the local German Reformed congregation to his death. In the short story Bartleby, the Scrivener, Herman Melville used Astor as a symbol of men who made the earliest fortunes in New York.

The pair of marble lions that sit by the entrance of the New York Public Library Main Branch at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street were originally named Leo Astor and Leo Lenox, after Astor and James Lenox, who founded the library from his own collection. Next, they were called Lord Astor and Lady Lenox (both lions are males). Mayor Fiorello La Guardia renamed them "Patience" and "Fortitude" during the Great Depression.

The neighborhood of Astoria in Queens, New York City, is named after Astor.

The one-block Astor Place street in Manhattan, New York City, was named after Astor, soon after his death.

The coastal town of Astoria, Oregon, is named after Astor, as well as an elementary school named in his honor. The background to the founding of this town is described in Washington Irving's Astoria, a book whose writing was financed by Astor.

The historic neighborhood of Astor Park in Green Bay, Wisconsin, is named after Astor. In 1835, John Jacob Astor founded the Town of Astor in Wisconsin. After the Town of Astor was united with the Town of Navarino to form the Borough of Green Bay, one neighborhood was named after him.

In 1908, when the association football club FC Astoria Walldorf was formed in Astor's birthplace in Germany, the group added "Astoria" to its name in his, and the family's, honor.

Books

 * Brands, H. W. Masters of Enterprise: Giants of American Business from John Jacob Astor and J. P. Morgan to Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey (1999).
 * Ebeling, Herbert C.; Horn, W. O. Johann Jacob Astor – Ein Lebensbild aus dem Volke, für das Volk und seine Jugend (in German). Walldorf: Astor-Stiftung (2004).
 * Emmerich, Alexander. John Jacob Astor and the First Great American Fortune (2013).
 * excerpt
 * Waldrup, Carole Chandler. More Colonial Women: 25 Pioneers of Early America. McFarland, 2004
 * excerpt
 * Waldrup, Carole Chandler. More Colonial Women: 25 Pioneers of Early America. McFarland, 2004
 * Waldrup, Carole Chandler. More Colonial Women: 25 Pioneers of Early America. McFarland, 2004
 * Waldrup, Carole Chandler. More Colonial Women: 25 Pioneers of Early America. McFarland, 2004

Articles

 * Youngman, Anna. "The Fortune of John Jacob Astor," Journal of Political Economy,
 * Part 1: vol. 16, no. 6 (June 1908), pp. 345–368
 * Part 2: vol. 16, no. 7 (July 1908), pp. 436–441
 * Part 3: vol. 16, no. 8 (Oct. 1908), pp. 514–530
 * Part 3: vol. 16, no. 8 (Oct. 1908), pp. 514–530

title: John Jacob Astor


text:
Talk:John F. Kennedy

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 8 April 2024
John Freaky Kennedy Johnfreakykennedy (talk) 12:27, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate.  (talk | contribs) 12:33, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
 * This is an acceptable and very good edit 208.118.175.250 (talk) 13:12, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 18 April 2024
to edit where it says that jfk is the youngest president he was the second youngest my a few months. Doomer100m (talk) 15:44, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: Roosevelt was the youngest to serve as president, but he was sworn in after McKinley's assassination and was not elected until 3 years later. Kennedy was the youngest elected, which is what the article currently says. Jamedeus (talk) 18:10, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

Editing the Health section
There is an awkwardness in this section regarding the three physicians who treated Kennedy.

George Burkley is first identified as Kennedy's "physician" but later as the President's "primary White House physician." I think the more detailed description of Burkley should come first (as should always be the case but sadly is often not, as I've seen in many other articles).

The really needed change is in regard to Burkley's determination that Jacobson and Travell were providing "medically inappropriate" treatments. It says in the article that Jacobson's involvement in treating the President was unknown to the other two doctors. In that case, how could Burkley have made a diagnosis regarding Jacobson's treatment, if he didn't know Jacobson was treating Kennedy?

It must be that Jacobson's involvement eventually came to the attention of Burkley and Travell, or at least to Burkley's attention. If so, simply inserting the phrase "at first" in the fourth paragraph, where Jacobson is first mentioned and his involvement is described as unknown to the other two doctors, could resolve the problem. Rontrigger (talk) 20:56, 18 May 2024 (UTC)

"Material" misspelled
Misspelled material as "materiel", in the third paragraph of "Cuban Missile Crisis", under "Presidency (1961-1963)". Please correct.

"On October 22, after privately informing the cabinet and leading members of Congress about the situation, Kennedy announced the naval blockade on national television and warned that U.S. forces would seize "offensive weapons and associated materiel" that Soviet vessels might attempt to deliver to Cuba." DarthScrub (talk) 15:34, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
 * See materiel. EEng 17:12, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
 * You learn something new everyday. Thank you. DarthScrub (talk) 12:23, 3 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:John F. Kennedy


text:
Julian calendar

The Julian calendar is a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year (without exception). The Julian calendar is still used as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts of Oriental Orthodoxy as well as by the Amazigh people (also known as the Berbers).

The Julian calendar was proposed in 46 BC by (and takes its name from) Julius Caesar, as a reform of the earlier Roman calendar, which was largely a lunisolar one. It took effect on 1 January 45 BC, by his edict. Caesar's calendar became the predominant calendar in the Roman Empire and subsequently most of the Western world for more than 1,600 years, until 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII promulgated a revised calendar.

The Julian calendar has two types of years: a normal year of 365 days and a leap year of 366 days. They follow a simple cycle of three normal years and one leap year, giving an average year that is 365.25 days long. That is more than the actual solar year value of approximately 365.2422 days (the current value, which varies), which means the Julian calendar gains one day every 129 years. In other words, the Julian calendar gains 3.1 days every 400 years.

Gregory's calendar reform modified the Julian rule, to reduce the average length of the calendar year from 365.25 days to 365.2425 days and thus corrected the Julian calendar's drift against the solar year: the Gregorian calendar gains just 0.1 day over 400 years. For any given event during the years from 1901 through 2099, its date according to the Julian calendar is 13 days behind its corresponding Gregorian date (for instance Julian 1 January falls on Gregorian 14 January). Most Catholic countries adopted the new calendar immediately; Protestant countries did so slowly in the course of the following two centuries or so; most Orthodox countries retain the Julian calendar for religious purposes but adopted the Gregorian as their civil calendar in the early part of the twentieth century.

Motivation
The ordinary year in the previous Roman calendar consisted of 12 months, for a total of 355 days. In addition, a 27- or 28-day intercalary month, the Mensis Intercalaris, was sometimes inserted between February and March. This intercalary month was formed by inserting 22 or 23 days after the first 23 days of February; the last five days of February, which counted down toward the start of March, became the last five days of Intercalaris. The net effect was to add 22 or 23 days to the year, forming an intercalary year of 377 or 378 days. Some say the mensis intercalaris always had 27 days and began on either the first or the second day after the Terminalia (23 February).

If managed correctly this system could have allowed the Roman year to stay roughly aligned to a tropical year. However, since the pontifices were often politicians, and because a Roman magistrate's term of office corresponded with a calendar year, this power was prone to abuse: a pontifex could lengthen a year in which he or one of his political allies was in office, or refuse to lengthen one in which his opponents were in power.

Caesar's reform was intended to solve this problem permanently, by creating a calendar that remained aligned to the sun without any human intervention. This proved useful very soon after the new calendar came into effect. Varro used it in 37 BC to fix calendar dates for the start of the four seasons, which would have been impossible only 8 years earlier. A century later, when Pliny dated the winter solstice to 25 December because the sun entered the 8th degree of Capricorn on that date, this stability had become an ordinary fact of life.

Context of the reform
Although the approximation of $365 1/4$ days for the tropical year had been known for a long time, ancient solar calendars had used less precise periods, resulting in gradual misalignment of the calendar with the seasons.

The octaeteris, a cycle of eight lunar years popularised by Cleostratus (and also commonly attributed to Eudoxus) which was used in some early Greek calendars, notably in Athens, is 1.53 days longer than eight mean Julian years. The length of nineteen years in the cycle of Meton was 6,940 days, six hours longer than the mean Julian year. The mean Julian year was the basis of the 76-year cycle devised by Callippus (a student under Eudoxus) to improve the Metonic cycle.

In Persia (Iran) after the reform in the Persian calendar by introduction of the Persian Zoroastrian (i. e. Young Avestan) calendar in 503 BC and afterwards, the first day of the year (1 Farvardin=Nowruz) slipped against the vernal equinox at the rate of approximately one day every four years.

Likewise in the Egyptian calendar, a fixed year of 365 days was in use, drifting by one day against the sun in four years. An unsuccessful attempt to add an extra day every fourth year was made in 238 BC (Decree of Canopus). Caesar probably experienced this "wandering" or "vague" calendar in that country. He landed in the Nile delta in October 48 BC and soon became embroiled in the Ptolemaic dynastic war, especially after Cleopatra managed to be "introduced" to him in Alexandria.

Caesar imposed a peace, and a banquet was held to celebrate the event. Lucan depicted Caesar talking to a wise man called Acoreus during the feast, stating his intention to create a calendar more perfect than that of Eudoxus (Eudoxus was popularly credited with having determined the length of the year to be $365 1/4$ days). But the war soon resumed and Caesar was attacked by the Egyptian army for several months until he achieved victory. He then enjoyed a long cruise on the Nile with Cleopatra before leaving the country in June 47 BC.

Caesar returned to Rome in 46 BC and, according to Plutarch, called in the best philosophers and mathematicians of his time to solve the problem of the calendar. Pliny says that Caesar was aided in his reform by the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria who is generally considered the principal designer of the reform. Sosigenes may also have been the author of the astronomical almanac published by Caesar to facilitate the reform. Eventually, it was decided to establish a calendar that would be a combination between the old Roman months, the fixed length of the Egyptian calendar, and the $365 1/4$ days of Greek astronomy. According to Macrobius, Caesar was assisted in this by a certain Marcus Flavius.

Adoption of the Julian calendar
Caesar's reform only applied to the Roman calendar. However, in the following decades many of the local civic and provincial calendars of the empire and neighbouring client kingdoms were aligned to the Julian calendar by transforming them into calendars with years of 365 days with an extra day intercalated every four years. The reformed calendars typically retained many features of the unreformed calendars. In many cases, the New Year was not on 1 January, the leap day was not on the traditional bissextile day, the old month names were retained, the lengths of the reformed months did not match the lengths of Julian months, and, even if they did, their first days did not match the first day of the corresponding Julian month. Nevertheless, since the reformed calendars had fixed relationships to each other and to the Julian calendar, the process of converting dates between them became quite straightforward, through the use of conversion tables known as "hemerologia".

The three most important of these calendars are the Alexandrian calendar and the Ancient Macedonian calendar─which had two forms: the Syro-Macedonian and the 'Asian' calendars. Other reformed calendars are known from Cappadocia, Cyprus and the cities of (Roman) Syria and Palestine. Unreformed calendars continued to be used in Gaul (the Coligny calendar), Greece, Macedon, the Balkans and parts of Palestine, most notably in Judea.

The Asian calendar was an adaptation of the Ancient Macedonian calendar used in the Roman province of Asia and, with minor variations, in nearby cities and provinces. It is known in detail through the survival of decrees promulgating it issued in 8BC by the proconsul Paullus Fabius Maximus. It renamed the first month Dios as Kaisar, and arranged the months such that each month started on the ninth day before the kalends of the corresponding Roman month; thus the year began on 23 September, Augustus's birthday.

Realignment of the year

The first step of the reform was to realign the start of the calendar year (1 January) to the tropical year by making 46 BC 445 days long, compensating for the intercalations which had been missed during Caesar's pontificate. This year had already been extended from 355 to 378 days by the insertion of a regular intercalary month in February. When Caesar decreed the reform, probably shortly after his return from the African campaign in late Quintilis (July), he added 67 more days by inserting two extraordinary intercalary months between November and December.

These months are called Intercalaris Prior and Intercalaris Posterior in letters of Cicero written at the time; there is no basis for the statement sometimes seen that they were called "Undecimber" and "Duodecimber", terms that arose in the 18th century over a millennium after the Roman Empire's collapse. Their individual lengths are unknown, as is the position of the Nones and Ides within them.

Because 46 BC was the last of a series of irregular years, this extra-long year was, and is, referred to as the "last year of confusion". The new calendar began operation after the realignment had been completed, in 45 BC. William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities: Year of Julius Caesar, following Ideler, interprets Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.14.13 (Latin) to mean that Caesar decreed that the first day of the new calendar began with the new moon which fell on the night of 1/2 January 45 BC.

The new moon was on 2 January 45 BC (in the Proleptic Julian calendar) at 00:21 UTC, according to IMCCE (a branch of the Paris Observatory): Phases of the moon (between −4000 and +2500). This is in agreement with the historical moon phase tables by Fred Espenak in which the new moon was on 2 January 45 BC at 00:43 UTC. Espenek's table assumes that the first Julian year of 45 BC was a leap year. If the first year of 45 BC was not a leap year, there would be a day offset, and the new moon would have been on 1 January 45 BC at 00:43 UTC.

Espnek's historical moon phase tables also indicate that there was a new moon on 1 March 45 BC at 08:39 UTC (Kalends of March), quarter moon on 8 March 45 BC at 09:00 UTC (a day after Nones of March), and full moon on 15 March 45 BC at 07:19 UTC (Ides of March). Espenak's tables of the phases of the moon are based on computational procedures described in Astronomical Algorithms by Jean Meeus (Willmann-Bell, Inc., Richmond, 1998).

More recent studies of the Macrobius manuscripts have shown that the word on which Idler's supposition is based, which was read as lunam, should be read as linam, meaning that Macrobius was simply stating that Caesar published an edict giving the revised calendar – see e.g., p.99 in the translation of Macrobius by P. Davies.

Smith gives no source or justification for his other speculation that Caesar originally intended to commence the year precisely with the winter solstice.

Months
The Julian months were formed by adding ten days to a regular pre-Julian Roman year of 355 days, creating a regular Julian year of 365 days. Two extra days were added to January, Sextilis (August) and December, and one extra day was added to April, June, September, and November. February was not changed in ordinary years, and so continued to be the traditional 28 days. Thus, the ordinary (i.e., non-leap year) lengths of all of the months were set by the Julian calendar to the same values they still hold today.

The Julian reform did not change the method used to account days of the month in the pre-Julian calendar, based on the Kalends, Nones and Ides, nor did it change the positions of these three dates within the months. Macrobius states that the extra days were added immediately before the last day of each month to avoid disturbing the position of the established religious ceremonies relative to the Nones and Ides of the month.

The inserted days were all initially characterised as dies fasti (F – see Roman calendar). The character of a few festival days was changed. In the early Julio-Claudian period a large number of festivals were decreed to celebrate events of dynastic importance, which caused the character of the associated dates to be changed to NP. However, this practice was discontinued around the reign of Claudius, and the practice of characterising days fell into disuse around the end of the first century AD: the Antonine jurist Gaius speaks of dies nefasti as a thing of the past.

Intercalation
The old intercalary month was abolished. The new leap day was dated as ante diem bis sextum Kalendas Martias ('the sixth doubled day before the Kalends of March'), usually abbreviated as ''a.d. bis VI Kal. Mart.''; hence it is called in English the bissextile day. The year in which it occurred was termed annus bissextus, in English the bissextile year.

There is debate about the exact position of the bissextile day in the early Julian calendar. The earliest direct evidence is a statement of the 2nd century jurist Celsus, who states that there were two-halves of a 48-hour day, and that the intercalated day was the "posterior" half. An inscription from AD 168 states that ''a.d. V Kal. Mart.'' was the day after the bissextile day. The 19th century chronologist Ideler argued that Celsus used the term "posterior" in a technical fashion to refer to the earlier of the two days, which requires the inscription to refer to the whole 48-hour day as the bissextile. Some later historians share this view. Others, following Mommsen, take the view that Celsus was using the ordinary Latin (and English) meaning of "posterior". A third view is that neither half of the 48-hour "bis sextum" was originally formally designated as intercalated, but that the need to do so arose as the concept of a 48-hour day became obsolete.

There is no doubt that the bissextile day eventually became the earlier of the two days for most purposes. In 238 Censorinus stated that it was inserted after the Terminalia (23 February) and was followed by the last five days of February, i.e., a.d. VI, V, IV, III and prid. Kal. Mart. (which would be 24 to 28 February in a common year and the 25th to 29th in a leap year). Hence he regarded the bissextum as the first half of the doubled day. All later writers, including Macrobius about 430, Bede in 725, and other medieval computists (calculators of Easter) followed this rule, as does the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. However, Celsus' definition continued to be used for legal purposes. It was incorporated into Justinian's Digest, and in the English Statute De Anno et Die Bissextili of 1236, which was not formally repealed until 1879.

The effect of the bissextile day on the nundinal cycle is not discussed in the sources. According to Dio Cassius, a leap day was inserted in 41 BC to ensure that the first market day of 40 BC did not fall on 1 January, which implies that the old 8-day cycle was not immediately affected by the Julian reform. However, he also reports that in AD 44, and on some previous occasions, the market day was changed to avoid a conflict with a religious festival. This may indicate that a single nundinal letter was assigned to both halves of the 48-hour bissextile day by this time, so that the Regifugium and the market day might fall on the same date but on different days. In any case, the 8-day nundinal cycle began to be displaced by the 7-day week in the first century AD, and dominical letters began to appear alongside nundinal letters in the fasti.

Year length; leap years
The Julian calendar has two types of year: "normal" years of 365 days and "leap" years of 366 days. There is a simple cycle of three "normal" years followed by a leap year and this pattern repeats forever without exception. The Julian year is, therefore, on average 365.25 days long. Consequently, the Julian year drifts over time with respect to the tropical (solar) year (365.24217 days).

Although Greek astronomers had known, at least since Hipparchus, a century before the Julian reform, that the tropical year was slightly shorter than 365.25 days, the calendar did not compensate for this difference. As a result, the calendar year gains about three days every four centuries compared to observed equinox times and the seasons. This discrepancy was largely corrected by the Gregorian reform of 1582. The Gregorian calendar has the same months and month lengths as the Julian calendar, but, in the Gregorian calendar, year numbers evenly divisible by 100 are not leap years, except that those evenly divisible by 400 remain leap years (even then, the Gregorian calendar diverges from astronomical observations by one day in 3,030 years).

Leap year error
Although the new calendar was much simpler than the pre-Julian calendar, the pontifices initially added a leap day every three years, instead of every four. There are accounts of this in Solinus, Pliny, Ammianus, Suetonius, and Censorinus.

Macrobius gives the following account of the introduction of the Julian calendar: "Caesar's regulation of the civil year to accord with his revised measurement was proclaimed publicly by edict, and the arrangement might have continued to stand had not the correction itself of the calendar led the priests to introduce a new error of their own; for they proceeded to insert the intercalary day, which represented the four quarter-days, at the beginning of each fourth year instead of at its end, although the intercalation ought to have been made at the end of each fourth year and before the beginning of the fifth.

This error continued for thirty-six years by which time twelve intercalary days had been inserted instead of the number actually due, namely nine. But when this error was at length recognised, it too was corrected, by an order of Augustus, that twelve years should be allowed to pass without an intercalary day, since the sequence of twelve such years would account for the three days which, in the course of thirty-six years, had been introduced by the premature actions of the priests." So, according to Macrobius,
 * 1) the year was considered to begin after the Terminalia (23 February),
 * 2) the calendar was operated correctly from its introduction on 1 January 45 BC until the beginning of the fourth year (February 42 BC) at which point the priests inserted the first intercalation,
 * 3) Caesar's intention was to make the first intercalation at the beginning of the fifth year (February 41 BC),
 * 4) the priests made a further eleven intercalations after 42 BC at three-year intervals so that the twelfth intercalation fell in 9 BC,
 * 5) had Caesar's intention been followed there would have been intercalations every four years after 41 BC, so that the ninth intercalation would have been in 9 BC,
 * 6) after 9 BC, there were twelve years without leap years, so that the leap days Caesar would have had in 5 BC, 1 BC and AD 4 were omitted and
 * 7) after AD 4 the calendar was operated as Caesar intended, so that the next leap year was AD 8 and then leap years followed every fourth year thereafter.

Some people have had different ideas as to how the leap years went. The above scheme is that of Scaliger (1583) in the table below. He established that the Augustan reform was instituted in 8 BC. The table below shows for each reconstruction the implied proleptic Julian date for the first day of Caesar's reformed calendar and the first Julian date on which the Roman calendar date matches the Julian calendar after the completion of Augustus' reform.

By the systems of Scaliger, Ideler and Bünting, the leap years prior to the suspension happen to be BC years that are divisible by 3, just as, after leap year resumption, they are the AD years divisible by 4.

Pierre Brind'Amour argued that "only one day was intercalated between 1/1/45 and 1/1/40 (disregarding a momentary 'fiddling' in December of 41) to avoid the nundinum falling on Kal. Ian."

Alexander Jones says that the correct Julian calendar was in use in Egypt in 24 BC, implying that the first day of the reform in both Egypt and Rome, 1 January 45 BC, was the Julian date 1 January if 45 BC was a leap year and 2 January if it was not. This necessitates fourteen leap days up to and including AD 8 if 45 BC was a leap year and thirteen if it was not. In 1999, a papyrus was discovered which gives the dates of astronomical phenomena in 24 BC in both the Egyptian and Roman calendars. From 30 August 26 BC (Julian), Egypt had two calendars: the old Egyptian in which every year had 365 days and the new Alexandrian in which every fourth year had 366 days. Up to 28 August 22 BC (Julian) the date in both calendars was the same. The dates in the Alexandrian and Julian calendars are in one-to-one correspondence except for the period from 29 August in the year preceding a Julian leap year to the following 24 February. From a comparison of the astronomical data with the Egyptian and Roman dates, Alexander Jones concluded that the Egyptian astronomers (as opposed to travellers from Rome) used the correct Julian calendar.

Due to the confusion about this period, we cannot be sure exactly what day (e.g. Julian day number) any particular Roman date refers to before March of 8 BC, except for those used in Egypt in 24BC which are secured by astronomy.

An inscription has been discovered which orders a new calendar to be used in the Province of Asia to replace the previous Greek lunar calendar. According to one translation

"Intercalation shall commence on the day after 14 Peritius [a.d. IX Kal. Feb, which would have been 15 Peritius] as it is currently constituted in the third year following promulgation of the decree. Xanthicus shall have 32 days in this intercalary year."

This is historically correct. It was decreed by the proconsul that the first day of the year in the new calendar shall be Augustus' birthday, a.d. IX Kal. Oct. Every month begins on the ninth day before the kalends. The date of introduction, the day after 14 Peritius, was 1 Dystrus, the next month. The month after that was Xanthicus. Thus Xanthicus began on a.d. IX Kal. Mart., and normally contained 31 days. In leap year, however, it contained an extra "Sebaste day", the Roman leap day, and thus had 32 days. From the lunar nature of the old calendar we can fix the starting date of the new one as 24 January, a.d. IX Kal. Feb 5 BC in the Julian calendar, which was a leap year. Thus from inception the dates of the reformed Asian calendar are in one-to-one correspondence with the Julian.

Another translation of this inscription is

"Intercalation shall commence on the day after the fourteenth day in the current month of Peritius [a.d. IX Kal. Feb], occurring every third year. Xanthicus shall have 32 days in this intercalary year."

This would move the starting date back three years to 8 BC, and from the lunar synchronism back to 26 January (Julian). But since the corresponding Roman date in the inscription is 24 January, this must be according to the incorrect calendar which in 8 BC Augustus had ordered to be corrected by the omission of leap days. As the authors of the previous paper point out, with the correct four-year cycle being used in Egypt and the three-year cycle abolished in Rome, it is unlikely that Augustus would have ordered the three-year cycle to be introduced in Asia.

Month names
The Julian reform did not immediately cause the names of any months to be changed. The old intercalary month was abolished and replaced with a single intercalary day at the same point (i.e., five days before the end of February).

Roman
The Romans later renamed months after Julius Caesar and Augustus, renaming Quintilis as "Iulius" (July) in 44 BC and Sextilis as "Augustus" (August) in 8 BC. Quintilis was renamed to honour Caesar because it was the month of his birth. According to a senatus consultum quoted by Macrobius, Sextilis was renamed to honour Augustus because several of the most significant events in his rise to power, culminating in the fall of Alexandria, occurred in that month.

Other months were renamed by other emperors, but apparently none of the later changes survived their deaths. In AD 37, Caligula renamed September as "Germanicus" after his father; in AD 65, Nero renamed April as "Neroneus", May as "Claudius" and June as "Germanicus"; and in AD 84 Domitian renamed September as "Germanicus" and October as "Domitianus". Commodus was unique in renaming all twelve months after his own adopted names (January to December): "Amazonius", "Invictus", "Felix", "Pius", "Lucius", "Aelius", "Aurelius", "Commodus", "Augustus", "Herculeus", "Romanus", and "Exsuperatorius". The emperor Tacitus is said to have ordered that September, the month of his birth and accession, be renamed after him, but the story is doubtful since he did not become emperor before November 275. Similar honorific month names were implemented in many of the provincial calendars that were aligned to the Julian calendar.

Other name changes were proposed but were never implemented. Tiberius rejected a senatorial proposal to rename September as "Tiberius" and October as "Livius", after his mother Livia. Antoninus Pius rejected a senatorial decree renaming September as "Antoninus" and November as "Faustina", after his empress.

Charlemagne
Much more lasting than the ephemeral month names of the post-Augustan Roman emperors were the Old High German names introduced by Charlemagne. According to his biographer, Charlemagne renamed all of the months agriculturally into German. These names were used until the 15th century, over 700 years after his rule, and continued, with some modifications, to see some use as "traditional" month names until the late 18th century. The names (January to December) were: Wintarmanoth ("winter month"), Hornung, Lentzinmanoth ("spring month", "Lent month"), Ostarmanoth ("Easter month"), Wonnemanoth ("joy-month", a corruption of Winnimanoth "pasture-month"), Brachmanoth ("fallow-month"), Heuuimanoth ("hay month"), Aranmanoth ("reaping month"), Witumanoth ("wood month"), Windumemanoth ("vintage month"), Herbistmanoth ("harvest month"), and Heilagmanoth ("holy month").

Eastern Europe
The calendar month names used in western and northern Europe, in Byzantium, and by the Amazigh (Berbers), were derived from the Latin names. However, in eastern Europe older seasonal month names continued to be used into the 19th century, and in some cases are still in use, in many languages, including: Belarusian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Finnish, Georgian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Polish, Romanian, Slovene, Ukrainian. When the Ottoman Empire adopted the Julian calendar, in the form of the Rumi calendar, the month names reflected Ottoman tradition.

Year numbering
The principal method used by the Romans to identify a year for dating purposes was to name it after the two consuls who took office in it, the eponymous period in question being the consular year. Beginning in 153 BC, consuls began to take office on 1 January, thus synchronizing the commencement of the consular and calendar years. The calendar year has begun in January and ended in December since about 450 BC according to Ovid or since about 713 BC according to Macrobius and Plutarch (see Roman calendar). Julius Caesar did not change the beginning of either the consular year or the calendar year. In addition to consular years, the Romans sometimes used the regnal year of the emperor, and by the late 4th century documents were also being dated according to the 15-year cycle of the indiction. In 537, Justinian required that henceforth the date must include the name of the emperor and his regnal year, in addition to the indiction and the consul, while also allowing the use of local eras.

In 309 and 310, and from time to time thereafter, no consuls were appointed. When this happened, the consular date was given a count of years since the last consul (called "post-consular" dating). After 541, only the reigning emperor held the consulate, typically for only one year in his reign, and so post-consular dating became the norm. Similar post-consular dates were also known in the west in the early 6th century. The system of consular dating, long obsolete, was formally abolished in the law code of Leo VI, issued in 888.

Only rarely did the Romans number the year from the founding of the city (of Rome), ab urbe condita (AUC). This method was used by Roman historians to determine the number of years from one event to another, not to date a year. Different historians had several different dates for the founding. The Fasti Capitolini, an inscription containing an official list of the consuls which was published by Augustus, used an epoch of 752 BC. The epoch used by Varro, 753 BC, has been adopted by modern historians. Indeed, Renaissance editors often added it to the manuscripts that they published, giving the false impression that the Romans numbered their years. Most modern historians tacitly assume that it began on the day the consuls took office, and ancient documents such as the Fasti Capitolini which use other AUC systems do so in the same way. However, Censorinus, writing in the 3rd century AD, states that, in his time, the AUC year began with the Parilia, celebrated on 21 April, which was regarded as the actual anniversary of the foundation of Rome.

Many local eras, such as the Era of Actium and the Spanish Era, were adopted for the Julian calendar or its local equivalent in the provinces and cities of the Roman Empire. Some of these were used for a considerable time. Perhaps the best known is the Era of Martyrs, sometimes also called Anno Diocletiani (after Diocletian), which was associated with the Alexandrian calendar and often used by the Alexandrian Christians to number their Easters during the 4th and 5th centuries, and continues to be used by the Coptic and Ethiopian churches.

In the eastern Mediterranean, the efforts of Christian chronographers such as Annianus of Alexandria to date the Biblical creation of the world led to the introduction of Anno Mundi eras based on this event. The most important of these was the Etos Kosmou, used throughout the Byzantine world from the 10th century and in Russia until 1700. In the west, the kingdoms succeeding the empire initially used indictions and regnal years, alone or in combination. The chronicler Prosper of Aquitaine, in the fifth century, used an era dated from the Passion of Christ, but this era was not widely adopted. Dionysius Exiguus proposed the system of Anno Domini in 525. This era gradually spread through the western Christian world, once the system was adopted by Bede in the eighth century.

The Julian calendar was also used in some Muslim countries. The Rumi calendar, the Julian calendar used in the later years of the Ottoman Empire, adopted an era derived from the lunar AH year equivalent to AD 1840, i.e., the effective Rumi epoch was AD 585. In recent years, some users of the Berber calendar have adopted an era starting in 950 BC, the approximate date that the Libyan pharaoh Sheshonq I came to power in Egypt.

New Year's Day
The Roman calendar began the year on 1 January, and this remained the start of the year after the Julian reform. However, even after local calendars were aligned to the Julian calendar, they started the new year on different dates. The Alexandrian calendar in Egypt started on 29 August (30 August after an Alexandrian leap year). Several local provincial calendars were aligned to start on the birthday of Augustus, 23 September. The indiction caused the Byzantine year, which used the Julian calendar, to begin on 1 September; this date is still used in the Eastern Orthodox Church for the beginning of the liturgical year. When the Julian calendar was adopted in AD 988 by Vladimir I of Kiev, the year was numbered Anno Mundi 6496, beginning on 1 March, six months after the start of the Byzantine Anno Mundi year with the same number. In 1492 (AM 7000), Ivan III, according to church tradition, realigned the start of the year to 1 September, so that AM 7000 only lasted for six months in Russia, from 1 March to 31 August 1492.

In Anglo-Saxon England, the year most commonly began on 25 December, which, as (approximately) the winter solstice, had marked the start of the year in pagan times, though 25 March (the equinox) is occasionally documented in the 11th century. Sometimes the start of the year was reckoned as 24 September, the start of the so-called "western indiction" introduced by Bede. These practices changed after the Norman conquest. From 1087 to 1155 the English year began on 1 January, and from 1155 to 1751 it began on 25 March. In 1752 it was moved back to 1 January. (See Calendar [New Style] Act 1750).

Even before 1752, 1 January was sometimes treated as the start of the new year – for example by Pepys – while the "year starting 25th March was called the Civil or Legal Year". To reduce misunderstandings on the date, it was not uncommon for a date between 1 January and 24 March to be written as "1661/62". This was to explain to the reader that the year was 1661 counting from March and 1662 counting from January as the start of the year. (For more detail, see Dual dating).

Replacement by the Gregorian calendar
The Julian calendar has been replaced as the civil calendar by the Gregorian calendar in all countries which officially used it. Turkey switched (for fiscal purposes) on 16 February/1 March 1917. Russia changed on 1/14 February 1918. Greece made the change for civil purposes on 16 February/1 March 1923, but the national day (25 March) was to remain on the old calendar. Most Christian denominations in the west and areas evangelised by western churches have made the change to Gregorian for their liturgical calendars to align with the civil calendar.

A calendar similar to the Julian one, the Alexandrian calendar, is the basis for the Ethiopian calendar, which is still the civil calendar of Ethiopia. Egypt converted from the Alexandrian calendar to Gregorian on 1 Thaut 1592/11 September 1875.

During the changeover between calendars and for some time afterwards, dual dating was used in documents and gave the date according to both systems. In contemporary as well as modern texts that describe events during the period of change, it is customary to clarify to which calendar a given date refers by using an O.S. or N.S. suffix (denoting Old Style, Julian or New Style, Gregorian).

Transition history
In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII promulgated the Gregorian calendar. Reform was required because too many leap days were added with respect to the astronomical seasons under the Julian scheme. On average, the astronomical solstices and the equinoxes advance by 10.8 minutes per year against the Julian year. As a result, 21 March (which is the base date for calculating the date of Easter) gradually moved out of alignment with the March equinox. While Hipparchus and presumably Sosigenes were aware of the discrepancy, although not of its correct value, it was evidently felt to be of little importance at the time of the Julian reform (46 BC). However, it accumulated significantly over time: the Julian calendar gained a day every 128 years. By 1582, 21 March was ten days out of alignment with the March equinox, the date where it was reckoned to have been in 325, the year of the Council of Nicaea.

Since the Julian and Gregorian calendars were long used simultaneously, although in different places, calendar dates in the transition period are often ambiguous, unless it is specified which calendar was being used. In some circumstances, double dates might be used, one in each calendar. The notation "Old Style" (O.S.) is sometimes used to indicate a date in the Julian calendar, as opposed to "New Style" (N.S.), which either represents the Julian date with the start of the year as 1 January or a full mapping onto the Gregorian calendar. This notation is used to clarify dates from countries that continued to use the Julian calendar after the Gregorian reform, such as Great Britain, which did not switch to the reformed calendar until 1752, or Russia, which did not switch until 1918 (see Soviet calendar). This is why the Russian Revolution of 7 November 1917 N.S. is known as the October Revolution, because it began on 25 October O.S.

Eastern Orthodox

Although most Eastern Orthodox countries (most of them in eastern or southeastern Europe) had adopted the Gregorian calendar by 1924, their national churches had not. The "Revised Julian calendar" was endorsed by a synod in Constantinople in May 1923, consisting of a solar part which was and will be identical to the Gregorian calendar until the year 2800, and a lunar part which calculated Easter astronomically at Jerusalem. All Eastern Orthodox churches refused to accept the lunar part, so all Orthodox churches continue to celebrate Easter according to the Julian calendar, with the exception of the Finnish Orthodox Church (the Estonian Orthodox Church was also an exception from 1923 to 1945 ).

The Orthodox Churches of Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Montenegro, Poland (from 15 June 2014), North Macedonia, Georgia, and the Greek Old Calendarists and other groups continue to use the Julian calendar, thus they celebrate the Nativity on 25 December Julian (which is 7 January Gregorian until 2100). The Russian Orthodox Church has some parishes in the West that celebrate the Nativity on 25 December Gregorian until 2799.

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine announced in late May 2023 that they would use the Gregorian calendar to celebrate Christmas on December 25, 2023, partly in reflection to Russia's deadly invasion of the country in early 2022.

Date of Easter
Most branches of the Eastern Orthodox Church use the Julian calendar for calculating the date of Easter, upon which the timing of all the other moveable feasts depends. Some such churches have adopted the Revised Julian calendar for the observance of fixed feasts, while such Orthodox churches retain the Julian calendar for all purposes.

Syriac Christianity
The Ancient Assyrian Church of the East, an East Syriac rite that is commonly miscategorised under "eastern Orthodox", uses the Julian calendar, where its participants celebrate Christmas on 7 January Gregorian (which is 25 December Julian). The Assyrian Church of the East, the church it split from in 1968 (the replacement of traditional Julian calendar with Gregorian calendar being among the reasons), uses the Gregorian calendar ever since the year of the schism.

Oriental Orthodox
The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem of Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church uses Julian calendar, while the rest of Armenian Church uses Gregorian calendar. Both celebrate the Nativity as part of the Feast of Theophany according to their respective calendar.

Berbers
The Julian calendar is still used by the Berbers of the Maghreb in the form of the Berber calendar.

Foula
Foula in Shetland, Scotland, a small settlement on a remote island of the archipelago, still celebrates festivities according to the Julian calendar.

General and cited references

 * Bonnie Blackburn and Leofranc Holford-Strevens, The Oxford Companion to the Year, Oxford University Press, reprinted with corrections 2003.

title: Julian calendar