The History Machine v.1.00 : January 1996 Programmed by Harry E. Collier ================================================================= Have you ever let your mind wander and wondered what it would be like to be in this locale at some time in the past . . . Picture yourself in the crowd outside the Banqueting Hall at the Palace of Westminster. The silent people stand in thousands far off. The steady beat of a tattoo and the pawing of a horses hoof are the only sounds to break this strange, eerie silence. Soldiers, horse and foot, there heads bent against the drizzle from a mournful sky, surround the black scaffold, on which stand two masked headsmen beside the block. There, head held high, stands Charles Stuart, Bishop Juxon in silent prayer by his side. It is Tuesday the 30th January 1649 and England is about to lose another King . . . Or maybe you would just like to know on what day Aunt Nellie was born. Well this is not a time machine, but it can take you back to any year you choose, it will tell you whether it was a leap year, which English monarch reigned and for how many years, whom he or she married, the dynasty and any other earth-shattering events that took place that month. You can journey into the future, but of course the historical events table will be blank, this is only an Amiga! Historical notes range from 43 AD up until the present. You will notice that in the early days mostly English historical events are mentioned, but as time goes by with more modern communication systems, world events take more prominence. If you think that the early historical data seems sparse in some areas, you are right, it is, but going back to the early Medieval period is fraught with uncertainty, you are delving into the mists of time, when our knowledge of events are rather vague. Some early historical data is preceded by an asterisk, this indicates that the exact date of the event in question is not known. For more data, just have a browse through the Second World War; a little history lesson on its own! The History Machine appears to be accurate, I have checked most dates that I am able. History books tell us that William the Conqueror died on Thursday, 9th September, 1087; check! Edward I died on Friday, 7th July, 1307; check! Pepys diary states, for example: 1668. 20th December. Lords Day; check! And I personally remember that World War II commenced on a Sunday! I rest my case. ================================================================= The program is simplicity itself to operate. All you do is type the year you would like to go to, press enter, type the month and press enter. Once you're into the Main screen, the N and M keys retreat or advance a month, the T and Y keys retreat or advance a year. With the judicious use of these keys you can quickly jump to any date required. When you've finished, press any other key except the S and Q keys, and you're back to the Start screen. From the Main screen, the Q key quits the program altogether, the S key takes you to the Search screen, where you may search forwards from the date of entry through the historical events list, to Abort a search, just press the A key. Searching takes time, so if you want to know when Marilyn Monroe was born, its best to start in the present century! The search is case sensitive. Just a little tip. When using the search facility in the early years, when entries in the events list can be rather sparse, pressing S (for search) followed by e (most used letter of alphabet) and Enter usually brings up the next entry. ================================================================= The figures in parentheses after the name of the monarch are the number of years they were on the throne. I have allowed Her Majesty the Queen to reign until the year 2026 (in the program only, I hasten to add), this will be her centennial year. As I cannot foresee the future, I think this is the best solution to the problem. I have not included Lady Jane Grey, who was proclaimed Queen after the death of adolescent Edward VI. She was but sixteen and only reigned for 14 days. But 'Bloody' Mary wanted the throne and took it. Lady Jane Grey was beheaded in 1558. Talking of short reigns, some of the others didn't fare too well, Edwy (955) lasted 3 years; Hardicanute (1040) 2 years; Edward VI (1547) 6 years; Mary (1542) only reigned for 5 years. * * * * Just a short note about leap years, some people think that every four years there's a leap year with February having an extra day and that's all there is to it. Well it's a bit more complicated than that: In the beginning, the civil calendars of all European countries had been borrowed from that of Rome. At the time of Julius Caesar, the civil equinox differed from the astronomical by three months, so that the winter months were carried back into autumn and the autumnal into summer. So Julius Caesar abolished the use of the lunar year and the intercalary month, and regulated the civil year entirely by the sun. He fixed the mean length of the year at 365¼ days, and decreed that every fourth year should have 366 days, the other years having 365. The Julian method of intercalation is the most convenient that could be adopted, yet, as it supposes the year too long by 11 minutes 14 seconds, the real error amounts to a day in 128 years. In order to restore the equinox to its former place, Pope Gregory XIII (died 1585) directed that ten days be suppressed in the calendar; and as the error of the Julian calculation was now found to amount to three days in 400 years, he ordered the intercalations to be omitted on all the centenary years excepting those which are multiples of 400. So the rule to apply now is as follows: Every year the number of which is divisible by four is a leap year, excepting the last year of each century, which is a leap year only when the number of the century is divisible by 4; but 4,000, and its multiples, 8,000, 12,000, 16,000, etc. are common years. Thus the uniformity of the intercalation, by continuing to depend on the number four, is preserved, and by the last correction the beginning of the year would not vary more than a day from its present place in two hundred centuries. I don't think the Amiga will be around then so we have nothing to worry about! In Great Britain the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 was passed for the adoption of the new style in all public and legal transactions. The difference of the two styles, which then amounted to eleven days, was removed by ordering the day following the 2nd September 1752 (which see) to be accounted the 14th of that month, much to the consternation of the populace. Just think about it! Christmas came early that year, if you had a birthday between the 3rd and 13th of September, you didn't celebrate it that year. In the Act of 1750, they also abolished the dual calendar system in use before this date. The civil year began on March 25th (Old New Year's Day), while the historical year began on January 1st. Thus the civil date March 24th, 1653, was the same as the historical date March 24th. 1654; and a date in that portion of the year was written as March 24th, 165¾, the lower figure showing the historical year. A good example of this can be seen in Samuel Pepys diary (1660-1669). ----------------------------------------------------------------- THANK YOU FOR READING THIS DOCUMENT FILE ENDS