September 28th in History

SEPTEMBER 28, 1066
William the Conqueror and his fleet of around 600 ships landed at Pevensey, Sussex, beginning the Norman conquest of England.

SEPTEMBER 28, 1928
Scottish biologist and pharmacologist Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin when he noticed a bacteria-killing mould growing in his laboratory.
28 Sep 1965 music The Rolling Stones played the first of two nights at the Capitol Theatre, Cardiff, Wales. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿During the 1960s The Capitol Theatre saw all the major acts of the era performing here including The Beatles and The Kinks..

Also a cinema where I saw ‘The Spy who Loved Me’ when a student.
Now long gone and the site of a shopping centre.

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ninalanyon · 61-69, T

According to Wikipedia the Battle of Hastings was on the 14th. Who is using which calendar?

22Michelle · 70-79, T

The Norman landing was on 28th September. The battle 14th October.

ninalanyon · 61-69, T

@22Michelle Oops, didn't notice the month!

But the question remains, which calendar is being used? Neither Wikipedia nor @TheSirfurryanimalWales specify whether the dates refer to the Julian or Gregorian calendar.

Or to put it another way would William have called the date of the landing 28th September or not? If yes then that's a different day of the year than the day we now call 28th September.

22Michelle · 70-79, T

@ninalanyon Found it. 14th October is Julian calendar, so 6 days later using Gregorian. Apparently there is some dispute about the actual landing date.

ninalanyon · 61-69, T

@22Michelle I've never understood why the calendar has to be so complicated. Why doesn't it just reset to day zero, or one, of the year at the winter solstice or perhaps the vernal equinox? Why mix in the phases of the moon and days of the week?

22Michelle · 70-79, T

@ninalanyon That would require a total reset of the calendars, and what chance there would be worldwide agreement? Between religions, the "we are the world" USA, we'd just end up with an even more complicated calendar/s.

ElwoodBlues · M

@ninalanyon It's useful for scientific purposes to calculate the number of days or hours between events that can be separated by years. The Gregorian calendar does that quite well. As for 7 days per week, that's a worldwide cultural convention that would be hard to get rid of.

Years ago my wife & I visited Italy, and it was fun to spot the occasional inscriptions that said things like "built in the year 18 of the Fascist era." It was a measure of their insanity that they thought they could re-start the numbering of years.